Tracey Ullman to address new citizens at Monticello

Monticello has announced that comedienne Tracey Ullman will be the featured speaker at its annual naturalization ceremony on July 4. Those hoping for her dead-on impersonations of Arianna Huffington, David Beckham or Rachel Maddow, or perhaps, more crudely, her version of Suzanne Somers hawking the “Vagisizer” on an infomercial, or Laura Bush anticipating life back […]

Westhaven Afterschool Program closes

The rule for students at the Westhaven Afterschool Program used to be “No homework, no entry.” If Harold Folley can’t find the funds to sustain the program for another year, the rule might become “No entry, no homework” instead. Until recently, elementary school students from Westhaven (pictured), the 126-unit public housing project on Hardy Drive, […]

Cradle to Camera

Dear Ace: I really envy the parents of the next Picasso. Chances are, all they’ve gotta do is let their kid find some paints, a canvas and a brush and she practically trains herself. Me, I’m raising another Federico Fellini, or at the very least a Bertolucci or a Pasolini. So how do you nurture […]

High Violet; The National; 4AD

On their fifth album, Brooklyn’s the National sound more than ever like a band on the cusp of something bigger. Their elegant rock has made them an indie heavyweight, but their polish and calculated drama suggest that the band would be equally suited to stardom on the level of Coldplay or U2. (Even rawer tracks […]

Casteen urges graduates to step out courageously

Save for the 1907 bronze sculpture of Homer at one end of UVA’s original campus and the life-size, marble Thomas Jefferson at the other, the closest thing to a statue at Sunday’s 181st graduation exercises was University President John Casteen, who appeared both timeless and unshakeable before a crowd of thousands of graduates, his wife […]