Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan comes stateside after claiming the 2015 Palme d’Or, a prize well-earned for this masterful, seemingly effortless balancing act of ripped-from-the-headlines narrative with slow-burn psychodrama. Though stylistically similar to politically minded social realists, Audiard never betrays individuality in the name of scoring ideological points. The film neither ignores nor tempers the politics inherent […]
Ships in the Night is the project of Alethea Leventhal, an experimental musician who pilots her music into uncharted dark waters. Her gauzy, earnest sonic constructions transcend the dismissive label of goth and place her at the intersection of decades-old new wave and the future of music. A recent show in Germany caused the webzine […]
Sally Rose has all the charisma of a rock ‘n’ roll star paired with the grit and charm of an old-fashioned Southern girl. A woman of various musical incarnations, she brings attitude and solid chops to the bass in her rambunctious swamp-rock outfit, Swagwüf. The group returns after a summer tour to work on a […]
Jeyon Falsini wades through a crowd in front of his club, the Ante Room (at the time, the Main Street Annex), on the night of a big hip-hop show—Project Pat. He starts pointing out the players on the scene. Seems like just about everyone is a party promoter. There’s Streetz Blonko, rapper first, promoter second. […]
For some new readers, poetry feels light years away from reality. It reads like a dense abstraction—the literary equivalent of a modernist painting that makes you tilt your head sideways and wonder what the heck you are missing. But when poet Amie Whittemore first found poetry, the self-described “voracious reader” felt like someone flicked on […]
Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, Once on This Island follows a group of village storytellers as they recount the love story of Ti Moune, a peasant girl, and Daniel, a wealthy man whom she saves from death. The family-friendly summer musical navigates through many obstacles on the pair’s quest […]
Bassist Chris Dammann’s outfit Restroy plays contemporary tunes from the new release Saturn Returns, and duo Rick Parker and Li Daiguo perform a blend of folk-acoustics and electronica influenced by their respective homes, Brooklyn and China. The collaborative event SEE/HEAR invites guests to take in the Second Street Gallery’s exhibitions while listening to improvisational sounds […]
On a warm Monday morning earlier this month, a dozen twentysomethings gather in a bright, high- ceilinged room on the fifth floor of the Masonic Building on West Beverley Street in Staunton. Barefoot, they sit close together on the red carpet, pairs of shoes scattered among water bottles, backpacks, script packets and pieces of stage […]
Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool (XL) Gotta admit I haven’t adored Radiohead so much as I’ve admired them. The group has always written harmonically sophisticated rock music without ever sacrificing the rock aspect. Plus, the band’s albums have always sounded amazing—the relationship Radiohead has with producer Nigel Godrich is on the level of The Beatles […]
Greek comedy Chevalier, from Athina Rachel Tsangari, has the potential to be the quietest artistic revolution in recent cinematic history. Dry as a bone yet laugh-out-loud hilarious, steady in pace yet always keeping the threat of a bloody, outrageous conclusion within reach, Tsangari masterfully elevates a story that would feel right at home in a […]