When Toronto-based photographer Zun Lee received his first camera, he had “zero passion or desire to do the photography stuff.” “I was stressed and traveling all the time for work, so a coworker encouraged me to take up photography as a hobby,” Lee said in a recent interview with C-VILLE. “He sent me a camera, […]
There’s more than one type of music scene in Charlottesville—the kind where you wait months to see an act you’ve been wanting to cross of your bucket list, and the kind you happen upon while sitting outside for dinner on the Downtown Mall. Of course, buskers are like a box of chocolates—you never know what […]
“The thing about working for the encyclopedia is that you’re just surrounded by stories all the time. I never get tired of all the interesting stuff that you come into contact with.” As the managing editor of Encyclopedia Virginia, it’s no surprise that Brendan Wolfe feels this way. Where many would envision dull days of […]
Part modern folklorist, part “Portlandia,” The Decemberists never fail to deliver a fascinating set of intelligent, cathartic indie rock. Front man Colin Meloy defines the band’s stylish, experimental narrative while throwing in enough whimsy to lighten things up and extract a few giggles. The revered act seems to have discovered the secret to engaging the […]
There is far more wrong than right with Disney’s Tomorrowland, but there is one bright, gleaming asset to the film that should be taken into as much consideration as its (many, many) setbacks. It’s been noted that apocalypse fatigue has set in among moviegoers who are beginning to wonder how many times they can witness […]
When you’re the daughter of a well-respected singer-songwriter and blazing a trail with your own talent, it stands to reason that you’d feel some added pressure. Lilly Hiatt shines brightly enough to illuminate the shadow of her Americana rock star dad John, and kicks it up a notch through a blend of punk, indie and […]
Back in the 1980s music scene, the West Coast was all about the glamour of “hair metal,” while the embryonic stages of rap and DIY punk rock were taking shape in New York and Washington, D.C. A new documentary, Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C., examines the movement and takes a look […]
The vibrant color hits you first—long swaths of it—before your brain can synthesize the spectrum as quilts, bright fabrics cut and pieced together in geometric patterns and draped against high walls and room dividers. Then you notice the buzz—the palpable warmth of the gallery’s attendees. Three of the exhibited artists, young men in suit jackets […]
Downbeat Project, a local fusion band with a rainbow of influences, is technically broken up. Last year founder Clarence Green and his “core guys,” Zack Blatter and Gerald Soriano, decided to put things on hold. The band’s third album, begun in 2013, still hadn’t materialized, and to paraphrase Green, life got in the way. But […]
Jack-of-all-trades Philippe Bronchtein crafts rustic, witty Americana as the one-man folk band Hip Hatchet. His years on the road have fueled earnest lyrical examinations of classic folk tropes like hard life lessons and the trials of romantic love. While he currently roots himself firmly in the singer-songwriter tradition, Bronchtein’s style also shows traces of his […]