With fewer tourists coming through its doors, the visitor center on Route 20 will shut down on October 1. So what does this mean for the 11,000-square-foot building located at the base of Piedmont Virginia Community College? With enrollment up at PVCC, the institution would seem well positioned to use it, and, turns out, it […]
Hey Ace: What happened to that newsstand that used to be on the Downtown Mall? Didn’t that guy who bought it want to turn it into a bar?—Rhea Porter Rhea: Ace is always skeptical when someone wants to buy something with the intention of turning it into a drinking venue. Seems to Ace all those monies […]
“The cowboys and the farmers should be friends.” The idea from the musical Oklahoma seems applicable to the Albemarle and Charlottesville relationship, but… The city cut a deal with the YMCA without clearing the deal and its expensive consequences with the county. The Dogwood Festival, which holds its spring celebration carnival at McIntire, was not […]
During the last decade, Charlottesville went through a much-publicized makeover, as wealthier residents filtered into town to buy tony residences and partake in the array of upscale establishments that cropped up to serve their refined tastes. As the area swelled with wealth, another group of people tagged along in even larger proportions. Read more: What […]
Marlena has been here for a decade and every day she copes with the challenges that come with the language and cultural barriers of her adopted homeland. But though she relies on the help of a translator, Sam Ley, her obstacles here may pale next to what she had to go through to get to […]
Being a classical music fan in the 21st century isn’t so much culturally rewarding as it is a ton of fun. The reasons are like four interconnected movements of a fine symphony: 1) The boundless richness and relevance of great works by great 17th- through 19th-century composers, and the whole world of their lesser-known works […]
John Borden Evans’ current show of recent work at Les Yeux du Monde Gallery is just so John Borden Evans. And I mean that in a nice way. There’s something strangely wonderful, fresh and unabashed about Evans’ work, something he upholds in each subsequent painting, even though his style remains unchanged and his repeated theme […]
This economically priced collection of Big Dipper’s indie works give us even more proof of the wealth of left field music made between punk and Nirvana. Born from the ashes of Volcano Suns and The Embarrassment, Big Dipper crafted albums steeped in the slashing guitars and hoarse panic of a garage punk that they knocked […]
It’s a wonder anyone tries to write historical fiction. You have to bring the past to life without resorting to lectures, stiff dialogue or tedious exposition. To be really good, you also have to avoid clichéd characters and stock situations, while not making the slightest misstep in historical fact. Mark Grisham (brother of Charlottesville author […]