PICK: John and Chris Kelly

Plays together: The Front Porch continues its Save the Music series with an all-in-the-family edition featuring John and Chris Kelly. The father-son team appeared together on John’s recent release In Between, a collection of rock and folk songs that reflect on social justice issues as well as the importance of family bonds. Chris’ six-member, alt-rock […]

The politics of pie: Cuisine from the American Revolution

Some study history through hieroglyphics or bone fragments. Nancy Siegel looks at what we ate, and the political statements food made about the fledgling American nation during the 18th and 19th centuries. Every school child learns about the Boston Tea Party and the dumping of highly taxed tea into Boston Harbor. Not so well known […]

PICK: Food From Our Farms

Rewarding harvest: A salad of autumn lettuces and herbs, Asian pear, toasted pecans, and Surryano ham crisp with nectarine vinaigrette. Empanadas made from Caromont chevre, butternut squash, and heirloom apples. It’s harvest time in the Blue Ridge, and the menu for Food From Our Farms: 2020 Edition features the bounty of the season while honoring […]

PICK: The Life of William Faulkner

Writer’s digest: Notable biographer Carl Rollyson has covered a range of remarkable lives in his work, from Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, and Norman Mailer to Susan Sontag, Sylvia Plath, and Walter Brennan. He completes a two-part bio with The Life of William Faulkner Volume 2: This Alarming Paradox, 1935-1962, and celebrates Faulkner’s birthday with a […]

PICK: Blue Ridge Mountain Maze

Way to unwind: It’s an amazing maze of maize, and it only gets cornier. The Blue Ridge Mountain Maze is five acres of corn stocks that are organized into a new and cornfusing design every fall (this year’s theme is “get outside”). Navigate by day or try a spooky challenge, and take on the night […]

PICK: One Man, Two Guvnors

Lasting laughs: Before he hosted “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and dueted with superstars in his Carpool Karaoke series, Corden was a comedy writer for British television and an award-winning stage actor. He stars as Francis Henshall in National Theatre Live’s HD rebroadcast of One Man, Two Guvnors, a role he reprised on […]