TUNES: Top Ten 2018

As always, there are too many albums I didn’t hear in 2018, but here are 10 favorites in roughly chronological order. Khruangbin Con Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans) This was the runaway crowd pleaser of the winter, spring, and summer. Though they’re from Texas, Khruangbin’s hybridized funk invokes the musical reaction to ’60s soul that […]

Read local: Our annual roundup of Charlottesville-area authors

In 2018, over 50 authors living and working in the Charlottesville area published new books. They built fictional worlds populated by talking animals, anti-terrorist teenage space fighters, and ordinary humans trying to find the truth. They documented last year’s violent white supremacist rally in our city and dug into our history of racism. They redefined […]

About last year: Looking back at 2018 — Arts

By Tami Keaveny and Erin O’Hare In May, before her opening of “Megan Elizabeth Read: Recent Works in Oil,” at McGuffey’s Sarah B. Smith Gallery, Read told us: “You know, if you stare long enough at anyone, you can fall in love with them.” But it was the viewer who became smitten with Read’s hyperrealistic […]

About last year: Looking back at 2018 — Food

Best new creations When it comes to Charlottesville food and drink, there is no such thing as a bad year. In 2018, MarieBette Café & Bakery unleashed its prezzant, a sorcerous pretzel and croissant hybrid, where buttery, delicate pastry gets an addictive umami boost from a dip in lye. Not to be outdone, Albemarle Baking […]

ARTS Pick: Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare’s tragedies are mercilessly disastrous, but Antony and Cleopatra elevates callousness with political intrigue and brutal battles for power. Caught between two war-torn empires, a Roman general (Ralph Fiennes), and the Queen of Egypt (Sophie Okonedo) find love against the odds—then face heavy consequences. Adopting a creative take on history, the classic play takes a new form […]

Hear us out: A never-complete list of local releases from 2018

It’s time for us to take up the sticks and beat this drum again. Here’s our never-complete (but still pretty comprehensive) look at what Charlottesville-area artists released this year. We’ve focused mainly on albums and EPs, but there are dozens of other bands and artists releasing single after single, or playing songs that haven’t been […]

ARTS Pick: Year of the Woman

It’s time to wrap up the year with a little glamour in honor of local ladies who pushed the boundaries on music. Year of the Woman is a concert featuring two stand-out performers from 2018: Erin Lunsford leads Erin & The Wildfire with bold, rock-soul blends from the album Thirst, and ADAR is led by […]

ARTS Pick: Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

The brutal country-rock quartet Sarah Shook & the Disarmers plays with a display of defiance that embodies the outlaw era—and such a biting reputation is not undeserved, but it pays off. The group’s spiteful LP, Years, is full of raw undertones inspired by Shook’s personal life. It received high marks from Rolling Stone as “a […]