July 2009: Instant Decorator

Shape shade Remember when you were little and you’d make shadow puppets on the wall with your hands?…This project isn’t really like that. But, we’re betting that if the light were bright enough, the silhouettes you create would be like a new piece of art every time you turned on the light. In that way, […]

July 2009: Toolbox

A hammer for every task When it’s hammer time, choose wisely. If you think the concept of using a hammer is pretty easy, well, you’re pretty right. Depending on the task, though, there are specialized hammers on the market that can make your job-at-hand an error-proof breeze. When you just need a household hammer for […]

July 2009: Richard Hewitt and the house-as-collection

Just getting to the house that Richard Hewitt is building for himself and his wife requires some work. The road starts out innocently enough, skirting a Crozet apple orchard, but quickly devolves into a rock-strewn, rutted beast which climbs a steep mountainside to the wooded spot that is Hewitt’s homesite. It’s here that the real […]

Should women call men?

I can’t believe I’m writing an article on this topic and worse, I’m appalled by what I’m about to tell you. Women should let men phone first in early stages of dating. I’m in favor of modern gender roles and relationships but, as a dating coach, I’ve discovered that traditional “courting” norms still apply. They’re […]

Gallery Listings

Galleries Art Upstairs Gallery 112 W. Main St., Suite 3 (in York Place). Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, noon-5pm; Friday, 1-9pm; Sunday, 1-4pm. 923-3900. www.artupstairsgallery.com. Through August 2: “Vislumbres: Watercolor Landscapes,” by Mercedes Lopez. BozArt 211 W. Main St. Wednesday-Thursday, 3-9pm; Friday-Saturday, noon-9pm; Sunday, 1-4pm. 296-3919. www.bozartgallery.com. Through August 2: “Red, White, & Blue,” a collection of […]

The unbearable lightness of Adam Brock

While the lineup for Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand has changed over the years, the band’s current lineup seems the closest to a stable, functional family—perhaps because every member has a second creative outlet. Guitarist Jon Bray, who arrived from the now-deceased Truman Sparks, also makes deadly jungle boogie with Drunk Tigers. Bassist Thomas Dean has […]

Albemarle Ciderworks will update an old-fashioned libation

Albemarle Ciderworks is a close-knit family operation. That’s no more clear than when I emerge from the office on the gently mountainous North Garden property after a conversation with brother and sister Chuck and Charlotte Shelton (which goes nearly two hours and draws to a close on a couple cups of the brut and bright […]

Natural progression

Not every married couple has the good fortune to meet as teenagers, but when Opal Schooley was 15 and Tony Lechmanski was 16, the two were introduced on the Downtown Mall by Opal’s sister. “The day we met he told me he was going to marry me,” said Opal. “I thought he was joking.” At […]