Following curiosity

Feeling stressed? Suffering from pandemic anxiety? Need a staycation?  “Breathe with Me” offers a special respite. Inspired by dadirri, the Aboriginal practice of deep listening, “Breathe With Me,” an installation at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, invites visitors to slow down, attune to nature, and connect with the salubrious qualities […]

New twist at Baggby’s, monsoon of Monsoons

Leni through the lens Local culinary historian Leni Sorensen got some screen time in Netflix’s recent limited series “High On The Hog,” hosted by food writer Stephen Satterfield. The show explores how African American culinary traditions shaped modern American cuisine. In the third episode, “Our Founding Chefs,” Satterfield journeys to Monticello to tell the story […]

Truncated intentions

By Deirdre Crimmins When a documentary falls flat, it can be hard to pinpoint the weak link in its cinematic chain. Is it a boring subject, unengaging speakers, poor editing, or an entirely different set of missteps? The Hidden Life of Trees is not an outright failure, but its shortcomings in direction and assembly add […]

A glass act

Lizzy Trevor became wine director at Tilman’s on the Downtown Mall a year ago, coming to the position by sheer force of will. The oenophile, who recently aced the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s level 2 examination, is completely self-taught and self-driven. She started working at Tilman’s two years ago as a team member and […]

New domaine

Most people think of their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles as their family tree. For award-winning King Family Vineyards winemaker Matthieu Finot, it would be more accurate to call it a family vine. Finot’s relatives own vineyards and make wine in their native country of France. The recent launch of the Domaine Finot label in […]

Reason to believe

At first, making beer was just a hobby for Mark Fulton—when he finished punching the calculator during his day job as an accountant, he’d head home to his lab. Then, in 2010, the amateur beer enthusiast snagged a craft brewing apprenticeship with the American Brewers Guild. He untied his tie, quit his accounting gig, and […]

Water of Life

Sea anemones provide shelter and protection for clownfish; in turn, clownfish keep predators away from the anemones and stir up nutrients nearby. Red-billed oxpeckers eat pesky bugs off of rhinoceros’ backs. Nature is full of examples of symbiosis—two organisms living together in a mutually beneficial way. For a while, Charlottesville had its own example, down […]

Drink C’ville

By Carrie Meslar Bar seats around Charlottesville are filling up again, which means area bartenders are finally able to put pouches and to-go cups behind them and offer patrons in-person crafted cocktails. While making use of the abundance of locally produced spirits and ingredients is not new to our bartending scene, the opportunity to delight […]

PICK: Scuffletown

Orange we lucky: A chance encounter in a music store in Orange, Virginia, was the setting for acoustic duo Scuffletown’s auspicious start. The group’s name comes from a long-lost Orange County town, and for the past quarter century, the duo has traveled the country at large. Their signature blend of roots, jazz, world, and bluegrass […]

PICK: Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Backing it up: The Detroit record label Motown produced more hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and Elvis Presley combined. And much of that success had to do with its backing band, The Funk Brothers. From 1959 to 1972, the group of session musicians provided the distinctive sound for The Temptations, […]