Foo Fighters Sonic Highways/RCA Records At this point in its storied career the Foo Fighters have carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want, and Sonic Highways is the proof. It’s a concept record—each of the album’s eight songs is inspired by and recorded in a different American city—that doesn’t feel self-serving because it […]
Less than a week before opening night, Miller Murray Susen, the director and author of Four County Players’ holiday adaptation of Little Women, has one priority: to keep things calm. “I’ve never directed a full-length play and been in charge of adding in all the tech stuff,” said Susen. “I seriously don’t have a great […]
While functionally little more than a cliffhanger setup for the trilogy-and-a-half’s presumably action-packed finale, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 boasts the least likely plot in a PG-13 blockbuster in recent memory. And though, as with most young adult fiction, the central conflict boils down to which of two competing romantic interests the lead character […]
In 1980 a group of children living in a government housing project in Washington, D.C. formed the Junk Yard Band after witnessing the performances of go-go groups in the neighborhood. They used makeshift instruments, banging on pots, pans, hubcaps and buckets and the JYB gained popularity as the go-go scene blew up. The group signed […]
More than once, my father has mentioned a desire to trace our family tree. I only understand this practice in abstract terms though. The closest concrete example I know of such a family tree comes not from any genetic kinship but rather attempts by friends to detail the shared ancestry of musicians in local bands. […]
Avoiding categorization has become a music biz cliché but The Revivalists’ refusal to commit to a single genre has played in the group’s favor. The New Orleans-based rock band has been welcomed by funk, soul and jam band communities with open arms, and the inability to pigeonhole its sound has diversified its fan base while allowing […]
Venture into the American Midwest as UVA Drama presents The Rimers of Eldritch. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson peels back the motives behind a Missouri murder and assault, uncovering the murky morality of a small town in 1966. Director Doug Grissom’s production takes a haunting look into the Bible Belt during one of the most […]
Feed your intellect and a person in need at Thieving Magpie’s good-WILL-cville production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The Bard’s classic romantic comedy follows shipwrecked and separated twins Viola and Sebastian along a roller coaster of mistaken identities and proclamations of love. The holiday opener benefits the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, ReadyKids, Sexual Assault Resource […]
Think of all the reasons you loved (or grew to love) the first Dumb and Dumber. It was goofy, gross, immature, idiotic and proud of it. Now take each of those qualities and tack on “in a bad way” and you’ve just described its sequel. Arriving 20 years later, yet still feeling undercooked, and with […]
For many artists the act of creation is inspired not by the need for intellectual exercise or profound exploration as much as the need to scratch an itch that simply won’t quit. Cate West Zahl, whose work appears alongside her father’s in the “Father/Daughter Art Show” presented by New City Arts, explained self-expression this way: […]