Culture

Throughout Kool and The Gang’s long history, one tenet of its sound remains constant: It is a band that demands to be danced to.

En route to the newest Art in Place installation, I watch a motorcyclist rip through a crosswalk. An angry truck driver breaks hard and then floors it. A pedestrian stops short and flips him the bird. As I approach Schenks Branch on McIntire Road, the mood changes. Alan Binstock carefully assembles his work, a glass […]

Working through the tides of life’s natural ups and downs can get the better of even the best of us. Some shut off, while other’s go off (see road rage, going postal, and anger management). Enter the ringmasters at Charlottesville Circus Arts, who have a funny way of looking at life’s lemons.

Maybe it’s the 1980s and 1990s nostalgia for vintage video games. Maybe it’s John C. Reilly’s and Sarah Silverman’s terrific performances as Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz. Maybe it’s because so many animated movies lately have been just O.K. (Frankenweenie) or downright mediocre (Brave). But something about Wreck-It Ralph made my cold critic’s heart grow three sizes.

Every James Bond film deserves a grand-scale debut, so pairing Skyfall with the opening of the new Regal Stonefield Stadium 14 seems fitting.

“Camel Flowers” is a private collection of rare tribal Anatolian and Persian animal adornments curated by local business owner, Saul Barodofsky.  While highly decorative, these medallions, head dresses, knee pads and whips were devised to protect against evil, and bring fertility to the nomadic tribes who dressed their camels and horses with them.  The antique tack […]

I don’t remember my first visit to Vinegar Hill Theatre. It was the mid-to-late ’80s, so it was probably a children’s film; a collection of cartoon shorts, or an obscure foreign import.

Want a recipe for experimental, space-age piano rock? Start with a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, stir in masterful key playing that sounds like anything but piano, add a dash of sonic loop-de-loops, and finish with vocals whispered from beyond the ether.

Lincoln never would have been made without the 200 block of East Main Street in Charlottesville. It may sound like gross hyperbole, but it’s true in a very mundane and specific kind of way. Because Erica Arvold—film producer, casting director, and acting advocate—has her office in a building there, and she was responsible for hundreds […]

Wearing your heart on your sleeve can take you pretty far with today’s music audience.