Arts

I saw Dave Chappelle\’s movie Half Baked last weekend (I know, I\’m the last person in town to see it), and Chappelle is very funny, but it got me wondering.

Andy Friedman, painter and visual artist (he’s a cartoonist for The New Yorker), and singer-songwriter, has a strong Charlottesville connection that runs through local folk star Paul Curreri. Curreri says that Friedman was such a serious art student at Pratt, in New York City, that he became disillusioned after a gum eraser battle broke out in a professor-free classroom, and ultimately transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design. Friedman and Curreri were roommates at RISD, and later in Brooklyn, New York.

Man of the YearPG-13, 115 minutesNow Playing at Carmike Cinema 6 It’s always a bit depressing when you can imagine the entire pitch meeting that proceeded the making of a particular Hollywood film. I’m fairly confident the brainstorming session for Man of the Year went something like this: “How about Robin Williams as a wacky […]

Heavy Trash with The SadiesSatellite BallroomThursday, October 5 music You know, maybe you can have too much of a good thing. More than a few times in recent memory, I’ve attended concerts in our newly music-saturated little town, and been sadly disappointed at the lackluster size of the crowd. San Fran popster John Vanderslice drew […]

The DepartedR, 149 minutesNow playing at Seminole SquareCinema FourFamed New York director Martin Scorsese rarely abandons the Big Apple for another zip code. And only once before has he attempted a remake (1991’s juicy Cape Fear). But with the release of his newest film, he’s managed a surprising one-two punch.    The Departed is a remake […]

They call themselves a new kind of record label, and their business plan makes room for old and new technology. Mark Fulton and John Guenin launched the online label Record Theory this past February, distributing CDs for seven bands, most of them local.    Fulton and Guenin both grew up in town and graduated from UVA. […]

Dr. Feelgood: Billy Bob Thornton dispenses the details of deception in School for Scoundrels. School forScoundrelsPG-13, 100 minutesNow playing at CarmikeCinema 6Stephen Potter was a British humorist who penned a series of mock “self-help” books in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Potter’s books on Gamesmanship, Lifemanship and Oneupmanship purported to teach “ploys” for manipulating […]

He may be 68, but the dashing and dynamic Chuck Brown lays down his nonstop go-go jams with more energy than rockers half his age. music True originals in the music scene are few and far between. Maybe that’s why Chuck Brown, the man who pioneered the booty-shaking funk mélange known as go-go, has built […]