Fred Ott, a magnificently mustachioed employee at Thomas Edison’s lab in Menlo Park, was known among his colleagues for his comedic sneezes. On January 7, 1894, Ott sneezed in Edison’s Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, in front of a camera operated by William Heise. Two days later, on January 9, film director […]
The lead-off film at this year’s Virginia Film Festival (Nov. 3-6) is remarkable in its story and its timing. As we look out from our fledgling blue state to the country’s contentious societal landscape, the nasty presidential campaign to be decided on Tuesday and the glaring Supreme Court vacancy, director Jeff Nichols syncs up history […]
Since the late ’90s, instrumental group STS9 has blazed a unique path through musical genres by not defining itself as EDM, jam band or prog rock, but borrowing from those labels to offset the funk, jazz and psychedelia woven into its hip-hop grooves. With The Universe Inside, the group’s first recording in seven years, STS9 […]
First Fridays: November 4 First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Brielle DuFlon enjoys making textured work that she says “stirs our basic responses and impulses,” and her exhibition “We Made You This”—a series of composed collections of curated, […]
Wilco Schmilco (dBpm) Wilco has always been a welcome sight, but I’ve never particularly invested much in Jeff Tweedy and his buds—Wilco’s ninth album, Star Wars, came out last year and I totally missed it. So here’s the 10th, and I’m feeling like a fool and a pushover, because Schmilco’s a total pleasure. Tweedy’s voice […]
Highly regarded guitarist Jackie Greene returned to his own writing and recording after years of gigging in the big leagues with The Black Crowes, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Gov’t Mule—to name a few. Greene, who has been on the road promoting Back to Birth since its release in 2015, says: “I wanted to make a […]
By the 1960s, American artist Mark Rothko had risen to prominence for his color field paintings, which featured two solid rectangles hovering just shy of the picture’s borders. With a small painting, the viewer is acutely aware that he is on the outside, looking in. Music was deeply important to Rothko, and with his color […]
While making his sixth album, Positive Songs for Negative People, British folk-punk rocker Frank Turner thought a lot about debut albums. A debut is a band’s introduction into the world, and Turner says he wanted to “try and make a record that had that young, exciting feel, full of piss and vinegar” that truly captures […]
No one expected a sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher, a somewhat successful yet not terribly memorable franchise starter for Tom Cruise. Even more surprised by the announcement of a sequel, evidently, were the filmmakers and cast, leaving Jack Reacher: Never Go Back as one of the most rushed, slapdash, confusing and arguably unfinished movies with […]
Swinging from New Orleans big band to Appalachian folk is all in an evening’s set list for the Bumper Jacksons. With frontwoman Jess Eliot Myhre jamming on clarinet and her homemade washboard, the group nails traditional numbers from jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Toss in the clever originals […]