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(12/10/20 6:56pm)
It’s 5:30 p.m. in late November, and the window above my desk is pitch black. Will Marsh of Charlottesville-Richmond-based band Gold Connections joins the Zoom room. He’s just as hit by the early darkness as I am, so we joke about that a little. Even over Zoom, I’m daunted by Marsh. One of his songs joins every car ride I take, and I’m worried I’ll sound too enthusiastic — or worse, not enthusiastic enough.
(10/07/20 10:38pm)
I’ve eaten Easter dinner with Will Marsh, the frontman of Gold Connections. I've been saying that more and more, mostly as a brag, and sometimes even as a gesture of animosity, like “no you don’t understand. I know Will Marsh.” In this month, prior to the Nov. 16 self-release of their second EP “Ammunition,” distributed through AWAL, I’m saying it earnestly, followed with a collection of howls on why Gold Connections’ guitar-indie is perhaps the smartest of the time, whether I’d shared mashed potatoes with him or not.
(03/12/20 10:22pm)
They say set and setting are more important than anything. Mostly this is said about experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs, but I’m a firm believer in giving brand new albums the right space to resonate for the highest listening experience possible. I’m obsessed with places and the radical power of a song to propel the meaning of a mundane Walmart trip or CVS run into something totally romantic. I mean, we’re leaving February behind — and some of us only picked up a cold in the dreariness of Valentine season — so why should we drop the emotional facade of an aromantic life? Why not continue to bathe in the romance of eyeing strangers? Our stomachs won’t stop swirling at the notion of a new lover while we’re buying NyQuil just because it’s March — ugh, that CVS cashier really had it going on.
(02/27/20 8:18am)
Cristina Rivera Garza’s writing embodies the experience of fully entering a landscape’s soul. The immersion begins early — on the second page of Rivera Garza’s translated edition of her latest novel “The Taiga Syndrome,” a house is described as “[having] the air of a last refuge,” — and the wilderness doesn’t stay on the boundaries of the page, but sinks through the reader’s body. Rivera Garza’s words spoken in the Rotunda Multipurpose room Feb. 20 captured the sinking presence of the wintery evening.
(11/15/19 2:15pm)
Micheline Aharonian Marcom, professor of creative writing and founder of the New American Story Project, began the Centro de las Americas Fall Symposium last Friday by speaking on how the complex human story is the motivating purpose behind this gathering of researchers, immigration workers, academics, journalists and artists. The event, entitled “From the Mouth of a Shark: Causes and Consequences of the Central American Refugee Crisis,” had bare, resilient stories. Promotions for the event and its name are from a quote that illustrates the theme of understanding migrant conditions — ''No one leaves home unless / home is the mouth of a shark / you only run for the border / when you see the whole city running as well,” from “Home,” by Warsan Shire.
(10/27/19 4:55pm)
Writer Ann Beattie has been churning out novels and short stories since the seventies and possesses a fame large enough to have an adjective inspired by her work — Beattie-esque. Her work helped define the generation of smart, blunt commentary contributors to the late 20th century, with pieces that considered themes of humanity through plots revolving around how people act in deep winter.
(09/26/19 9:23pm)
Álvaro Enrigue was everywhere Sept. 19. More literally, he was at the University Bookstore Mezzanine, where he gave a craft talk — which turned into much more of a swirling, philosophical intervention into the archival work and authorship done by Catholicism at large — and a reading from his forthcoming work, currently titled “Now I Surrender.” The author spoke on his process and his history, and shared his disjointed thoughts — “Pope Francis then eats his fruit loops” being one of them — to students craving inclusion in his unique and vibrant perspective.
(08/26/19 3:28am)
You’ve probably heard Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road,” Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s “Señorita” and Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” — the songs of the summer everyone can’t escape this year. These recent releases may have eluded your summer playlists and Spotify queues. Give them a listen before school starts and fill these last precious days with new discoveries.
(04/23/19 9:49pm)
There is nothing about “Ramy” that turns a viewer away — the show only draws them in by immediately introducing a main character with unspoiled commentary about pushy mothers, the necessity of washing between toes before prayer and the Muslim community on Tinder in the Jersey City area. Ramy is played by Ramy Youssef, a comedian who has been featured on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” who shares many traits with his character. The two biggest similarities are faith — Islam plays a major role in the show — and location, as the show is set in New Jersey where Youssef was born and raised.
(04/04/19 12:17am)
On stage, Alice Clair makes sense. A Nelson County native and a Miller Arts scholar, Clair writes all her music, plays the guitar and the mandolin and does it all as a full-time student. She makes sense making music — her album “Loop”, released February 25, is a tour guide of a young musician’s life as woman and a Virginian but mostly as a person with a story.
(03/18/19 1:29am)
The viral 2014 podcast “Serial” made many audiences aware of the murder of high school senior of Hae Min Lee, but even the most avid followers of the case should watch HBO’s recent release “The Case Against Adnan Syed.’ The docuseries — which released its first episode on Mar. 10 — further contextualizes the landscape of a case that “reeks of reasonable doubt” and that has captivated listeners enough to have downloaded the original podcast more than 175 million times. Even those who have somehow avoided hearing “Serial,” which became popular before podcasts were really a concrete trend, may have at least heard a sample in Bojack Horseman when character Diane’s phone would ring with the now-iconic opening line from the podcast, “My name is Sarah Koenig, and you’re listening to Serial.” That’s how large the influence of this one story became.
(01/31/19 2:16am)
The concept of mixing environmental justice and hip hop doesn’t necessarily strike as a likely marriage, but that isn’t how Vanessa Moses, fourth-year College student and head of Black Leaders for Environmental Sustainability, sees it. At an event hosted by U.Va. Sustainability and Nine Pillars Hip Hop Cultural Festival Jan. 25, Moses reckoned that Martin Luther King Jr. assisted in approaching environmental issues and the growing fight with climate change because of his continuous promotion of thinking in a new way.
(11/08/18 7:40pm)
“This is North, South, East, and Western... ” calls M.I.A. in her song “Borders” from her 2016 album “AIM,” with a taunting kind of assurance. She’s summarizing her constant influence as an immigrant artist to return to her “backhomeness,” a term she uses in the documentary “MATANGI / M.I.A. / MAYA,” titled for the names she goes by, each one encapsulating the Sri Lankan musician’s multi-dimensioned lifestyle as a refugee, immigrant, activist and international pop star.
(10/18/18 1:14am)
A little more than two years ago, University student Uzo Njoku enrolled in an introductory drawing class while pursuing a major in Statistics. It was a life of success that her parents had in mind for their daughter, and while she did find the analytical work enjoyable, it was in that secretive drawing class that Njoku discovered an irresistible passion for creating works of art.
(09/18/18 4:09am)
The Apartment Kyle has no central air conditioning system, or at least it felt that way with 40-odd concert divers who risked the pits of their cuffed shirts for ice-cold IPA and the charming, echoey sounds of Kate Bollinger and Inning. On one of the walls in the living room that served as the stage, a rose-tinted television played clips from the “Simpsons,” “Adventure Time” and other cartoons. Although marketed as a “stripped down set,” nothing about the musicians was amateur, except for the upside-down pot and big keratin container used by the drummer of Inning that probably came from the apartment’s kitchen.
(08/28/18 12:33am)
On rock phenomenon Mitski’s Spotify page, right above her fifth studio album “Be the Cowboy,” there is a message to her listeners — “dance if ur lonesome <3.” Like Mitski, it’s honest, short and modern — yet inviting, suggestive and profoundly vulnerable. It’s an admittance to the undeniable reality of her own music. She’s aware of her audience who, like herself, might remedy loneliness by reveling in an album that’s as danceable as it is cryable.
(04/16/18 4:23am)
Fourth-year Grace Patrice Anyetei-Anum stood before her seven photographs grinning ear to ear, perhaps stopping to pause between loud, meaningful moments of congratulations and embrace from friends, family and a few of the subjects of her portraits.
(04/05/18 5:13am)
If you’re ever curious about what silk might sound like, or what happens when you draw out music to its simplest form, attend a Cigarettes After Sex concert.
(03/19/18 3:49am)
A black female rapper from Chicago performed at the University’s Student Activities Building for the Spring concert last Thursday night under a flickering disco ball and a shifting spectrum of lights. Her name?
(03/15/18 5:00am)
Adrianne Lenker held the room from the moment she stepped onto the stage to the last moments of her goodbyes to the audience. An experience of religious magnitude was created in The Southern Cafe and Music Hall last Saturday night. She spoke with a sermon-like dignity about death, caring for each other and creating a lasting hope between her breath-heavy songs that shocked the crowds’ faces. Their admiration was captured in the way they leaned in chairs that could’ve been pews, eyes fixed on Lenker — the preacher of powerful, noteworthy folk with glittery lyrics that could have been poems.