Movie review: Okja
Bong Joon-ho is back once again with Okja, a parable that goes to stylistic extremes to make an existential argument, broadcasting the film’s central metaphor from the very first scene […]
ARTS Pick: Company
In Company, 35-year-old Robert examines his commitment to bachelorhood through mishaps with married couples and temporary girlfriends. Stephen Sondheim originally targeted his music and lyrics to a 1970s audience, but […]
ARTS Pick: Josh Davis
Josh Davis, the brain behind DJ Shadow, began making original electronic music in 1991, and grew into an influential collaborator in the hip-hop scene (he works with Nas, Danny Brown […]
ARTS Pick: Zen Mother
Zen Mother began in a windowless warehouse in Charlottesville not long before its members, Monika Khot and Adam Wolcott Smith, left town—creating a void in the local indie/experimental music scene—for […]
Own world: The Wild Reeds’ unified harmonic vision
In his essay titled “The Decay of Lying,” published in 1891, Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” The Wild Reeds (in town […]
Les Yeux du Monde features six artists in a radiant summer show
Every sunny morning during the summertime, I wake up and stare at the light-soaked leaves outside my window and feel a rush of joy. At a time when most of […]
Album reviews: Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie, Roger Waters, Cheap Trick, Styx and Ahmad Jamal
Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie (Warner) It’s not fair to criticize Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie for going adult contemporary, since that’s what Fleetwood Mac has been […]
Crossing boundaries: The story of Spoon’s latest sonic adventure
For more than two decades, Spoon has forged a path that embodies consistency. Across nine studio albums, the Austin quartet has dabbled in mainstream success (think “I Turn My Camera […]
ARTS Pick: Pippin
Told by a charismatic troupe of actors, Pippin is the story of a prince who desperately wants to impress his father, King Charles. The Leading Player convinces Pippin to betray […]
Showing up: JMU professor Julio Agustin’s advice for the working actor
For Julio Agustin, an interest in the performing arts began with the piano classes he took in junior high school. “I was always musically inclined,” says the associate professor of […]