A not-so-new dawn fades [with audio]

A change of speed, a change of style, a change of scene, with no regrets,” Joy Division’s Ian Curtis once sang. The Dawning, Charlottesville’s long-running local goth and industrial dance night, might take those words as a motto, since it will be joining Satellite Ballroom and 214 Community Arts Center in the search for a […]

Go west

There’s a type of dream that certain city folk have. For some, it’s a Canadian backwoods scenario. For others, it’s an Appalachia vibe they’re looking for. For a lot of people, it’s a California escape (Route 1, anyone?) But that quintessential American dream of riding off into the sunset involves a notion of the Wild […]

Grapes, water, sunshine

One of the things I find most fascinating about wine is the disconnect between how it is generally perceived and marketed and how it is actually made.

Hopping along

There’s been a recent media blitz about an apparent global hops crisis. Due to such factors as bad weather in Europe and the decreasing production of U.S. hops thanks to government subsidies for other crops such as corn (particularly with the current focus on making corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel), hops—the ingredient that lends […]

We Ate Here

A $13 hamburger would normally stretch our bank accounts too thin (we are writers, after all), but Hamiltons’ has one topped with cheese, bacon and fresh greens that proved irresistible. To start with, the ground beef was from Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm and was so tender when we bit down that it was like sinking […]

Tick talks

I remember the first time I ever heard about the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference, the annual four-day gathering in Long Beach, California, of the world’s foremost thinkers in the aforementioned areas. It was two years ago, and a friend told me not only that she had gone, but that it was the most amazing […]

We Ate Here

“Delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.” That’s how Mark Twain described a piece of fish he once ate while overlooking Lake Pontchartrain, near New Orleans. And it’s not a bad turn of phrase to apply to the beer called Mandolin out at Blue Mountain Brewery—a golden-colored brew with a pleasing enough taste to […]

No Spoof for you!

The bed was an island in a sea of open wine bottles and sloshing spit buckets crowded into a room in a modernist high rise in Paris. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and outside, tout le Paris seemed to be enjoying the weather. Inside, however, three Virginians were following their dream, a dream that […]

Sex Files: Love hurts

Sex is not much fun when it hurts. About 15 to 20 percent of women in the United States report having pain during intercourse, and yet this problem often makes women feel alone. Unlike a backache or tennis elbow, it’s not something you can easily share with friends or colleagues. It’s not unusual for a […]

Goodbye, Satellite

Feedback first stepped into Satellite Ballroom in February 2002. Plan 9 Music had just moved into the Anderson Brothers Building and a slew of performances were taking place in the adjacent room, then known as the “Outer Space,” to celebrate the new location’s grand opening.