Charlottesville transplant and UVA alumni Lee Clay Johnson’s debut novel, Nitro Mountain, was released to raves from both critics and peers. Kirkus Reviews called it “Appalachian noir at its darkest and most deranged.” Novelist David Gates, a former Guggenheim fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist, introduced it at a reading as “appallingly funny,” saying it’s “the […]
Local abstract artist Aimee McDavitt lives with chronic illness, though it is rarely the subject of her art. “My experience has emphasized the importance of learning to seek, create and enjoy happiness within the confines of my situation,” she says. McDavitt’s acrylic works reflect free experimentation of several techniques—drips, drops, swirling, crinkling and color layering—to […]
Paul Simon Stranger to Stranger (Concord) Paul Simon was once called “one of rock’s great lightweights,” though I’d offer “one of lightweight rock’s greats” instead. While Simon has never shown interest in proper rocking, he’s imbued pop songs with short-story richness while keeping them catchy, allowing you to sing along with lines like “the poor […]
Former “Seinfeld” writer Pat Hazell stars in The Wonder Bread Years, a fast-paced production that rides the line between stand-up and theater. The nationally touring one-man show is steeped in nostalgia from Eskimo Pies and lawn darts to kids at the dinner table and sitting in the back of a Country Squire station wagon. It’s […]
Joe Walsh started his career in bars and clubs as a solo act before James Gang showcased his guitar chops on a national level with “Funk #49.” In 1975, Walsh joined the Eagles, where he helped transform the rock music scene with the release of Hotel California, his first album with the band. Walsh says […]
A key element of the Bourne franchise’s endurance is the thrill of watching amnesiac super-spy Jason Bourne run headfirst into his past with nothing more than his skills and a belief there is an answer somewhere in the darkness. The Bourne Ultimatum—the third film in what we can now safely say should have remained a trilogy—ended […]
Back in May, a sandwich board adorned with a painted skeleton key advertising the Cville Escape Room popped up on the Downtown Mall, between the Main Street Arena and Violet Crown Cinema. Intrigued, a couple of friends and I book three slots in the fortune teller’s Secret room. Passing by the sandwich board we climb […]
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 […]