Cultural preview
Everyday objects: Fitts elevates the mundane
Published on May 8th, 2003
0 comments Once or twice a year, it seems, Michael Fitts finds an opportunity to show his work, and that’s a good thing. The painter knows his way around sheet metal, does minimalism like a bug collector, and...
Being green: It's easy at UVA Museum
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments It’s spring. Luminous shades of green are everywhere. This Sunday they are especially prominent at the University of Virginia Art Museum where the Young Friends of the Museum are sponsoring the...
LSDelighted! 63 Crayons spread their love
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments Sure, sure, we all know it’s what’s inside that counts. But first impressions usually determine if one person ever gets close enough to another to see any insides at all, making first impressions...
More imagining: This unity has double meaning
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments UVA professor Farzaneh Milani welcomes each new group of undergrads to her course on women’s studies with the same exercise – she tells them to take out a sheet of paper and free associate. “...
Wear green: Ireland conference has it all
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments The Irish Empire is coming to Charlottesville. Or at least that’s the way Andrew Wyndham, Project Director of the upcoming Re-Imagining Ireland conference and festival, looks at it-– jokingly, of...
Don't look back: Greek myth, Italian style
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments Christoph Willibald Gluck was a typical overachiever, you might say. He wrote Orpheus and Eurydice, one of the best-known operas of the 18th century, twice in Italian in 1762 and then again in...
Fitting in: Cornell's boxes invite interaction
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments Here’s a word of misadvice for the young artist: Actually try to create a body of work that– without show or bluster– quietly runs counter to the prevailing school.  But be aware...
Facing the future: Hospice helps kids cope with loss
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments Childhood should be a magical time, a time when a child’s growing awareness of the world is met with a state of awe and wonder that adults sometimes envy. When a young person is confronted with the...
Rock is dead: Long live hip-hop
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments About a week ago, I couldn’t sleep, so I began a long Socrates-style dialog with my better half (of my mind; I call him Pepe) about whether hip-hop is the future of music. For one evening, at least,...
Mean minxes: Girls' aggression isn't a joke
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments One teenage girl to another: “No offense, but you’re dressed really slutty today.”  We call it catty, we call it mean. We characterize it as friendly sniping and expect the offending teen to...
Favorite sons: Native plants personalize gardens
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments If your knowledge of local flora begins and ends with the dogwood, then the Virginia Native Plant Society has something to teach you. Actually, the local Jefferson Chapter of the VNPS will be doing...
Gimme two: Shepard duo wraps up season
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments Regarded as one of the country’s foremost playwrights, Sam Shepard integrates wild humor, grotesque satire, mythology, and spare language to create a subversive pop art vision of America. Shepard has...
Intertidal: Dye's art of the hot zone
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments Photographer Victoria Dye had occasion to spend a couple weeks at Washington’s Olympic National Park and had the presence of mind to bring along a camera. Olympic National is a beautiful place, or so...
Dear Mom: More chances to save the earth
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments Anybody remember Earth Day? Demonstrations against the war in Vietnam occupied the news on April 22, 1970, when Senator Gaylord Nelson’s national environmental protest took place. He wanted "to shake...
Metal for pedals: Bands jam for bike odyssey
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments If I were to be told that a person was planning to ride her bicycle from Maine to Florida in 30 days or less, my mind would instantly suggest a number of reasons, of varying probability. Lost love...
Omnia Gaelia... Two nations, finally together
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments The Protestant Reformation played hob with Europe, sundering ancient ties across the continent. The medieval culture of the Gaels was one victim: Scotland embraced Protestantism while Ireland...
Tiptoe through: Local gardens-- glimpses of glory
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments Pooped-out from planting perennials? Not sure how to add shape and variety to your backyard, or enhance the curb appeal out by the mailbox? Tired of the same old shrubs, year after year after year?...
Act better: Summer classes improve form
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments As the temperatures warm up a bit and the end of the academic year looms on the horizon, planning activities for the fast-approaching summer may be on your to-do list. If you have youngsters in the...
Un-common: Two artists little connection
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments The human body in art has been around probably as long as art. This is just a guess, but a pretty safe one. Whoever might have been around to record something like that has been dead a long time, and...
Luck of roaring... Noise welcomes Chinese New Year
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments In ancient times, so the Chinese say, a terrible monster descended from the mountains on the first day of the New Year, destroying villages and crops before returning to its lair. Desperate for...
Luck of roaring... Noise welcomes Chinese New Year
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments In ancient times, so the Chinese say, a terrible monster descended from the mountains on the first day of the New Year, destroying villages and crops before returning to its lair. Desperate for...
Luck of roaring... Noise welcomes Chinese New Year
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments In ancient times, so the Chinese say, a terrible monster descended from the mountains on the first day of the New Year, destroying villages and crops before returning to its lair. Desperate for...
Softer side
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments When my girlfriend, a confirmed musical softy and lover of mush, calls singer/songwriter Dar Williams “good, but really girly at times,” that’s really saying something. And after listening to...
Two studies: Towns surmount man made woes
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments In 1995, the 134 residents of Bayview, an impoverished African-American community on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, learned that a maximum-security prison was slated for construction in the middle of...
It's magic! Staunton turns back the clock
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments Spring is just blossoming with festivals, I know. So little time, right? But here’s a festival that just might entice you to take the entire weekend off-– or at least a full Saturday. It requires...
Experimentation: Big Love takes big risks
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments Inspired by Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women— widely considered the oldest play in Western culture– Charles Mee’s Big Love follows 50 sisters who flee their planned, arranged marriages to 50...
What's it mean? Theology and art at Mudhouse
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments Delmon Brown Hall IV may not be trying to distract viewers with his loopy running commentary, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he did. The artist paints as a highly personal form of spiritual...
GPS basics: I was lost, but now I'm found
Published on Apr 3rd, 2003
0 comments Spring break is right around the corner, and I can hear the moaning already: “Where can we go, Mom? What can we do?” When they get to a certain age, kids seem like lost souls wandering aimlessly...
Where's everybody? MACRoCk clears the town
Published on Apr 3rd, 2003
0 comments If I were you, I’d get a new haircut, learn more about the world, and lose the SUV. But I’d also take a holiday from our little ‘burg for the weekend, and make my way to Harrisonburg’s MACRoCk, the...
What's funny? Should war be parodied?
Published on Apr 3rd, 2003
0 comments It was just a matter of hours, once the tanks started rolling across the Kuwaiti border, before the late-night wise guys began lampooning Operation Iraqi Freedom.The green goggled reality of war from...