And a good afternoon to you.
- Bystanders at Cheap Trick’s Friday night show at the Jefferson Theater reported that the band was giving away its latest CD, called The Latest. It wants you to want it. Nuff said.
- A very nice surprise at the Tea Bazaar on Friday night came in the form of Eternal Summers, a drum and guitar duo from Roanoake, who played a concise and gratifying set. Charlottesville’s own Drunk Tigers later took the stage, sans bassist, and proved that even if they’re not the most fun band in town—though they might be—they certainly have the most fun on stage. Just as winter sets in, seems that Virginia is beginning to cash in on the summer love that’s making the blog rounds.
- Some shiny happy news for two local artists this weekend. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts awarded $8,000 professional fellowships to filmmaker and UVA professor Kevin Everson, whose feature Erie showed at the Virginia Film Festival in November; and Janet Grahame, a mixed-media visual artist, who specializes in printmaking and is based at McGuffey Art Center. Christopher Oliver, a PhD candidate at UVA, won a $6,000 student grant for art history. Congratulations—and spend wisely, folks.
- The flow of local Best Of 2009 lists staunches to a trickle as January comes to an end. But two lists from last week are worth noting. First, WTJU’s esteemed jazz team posted their best of 2009 list last week here. (Scroll down for that.) For those of us who don’t know much about jazz (aside from the fact that it’s sometimes grating, sometimes soothing and often involves horns) the list is a convenient foray into modern jazz—much of which doesn’t fit into those criteria listed above. Mentioned among the lists are locals Robert Jospe, Jay Pun and Morwenna Lasko, and Corey Harris. Shout if I’ve missed another local. Also worth looking at is James Ford’s, of the infamous Nailgun blog, best of ’09 list, which includes some other tasty treats that may lie outside your frame of reference.
