This just happened to me on my way home from work. 10 minutes ago.

I was reading a play by this German romanticist playwright and listened to Albert Ayler on my IPod, in short being my pretentious self, as this toothless construction worker starts talking to me. He was sweating beer, or at least I smelled something that I felt had to be beer, and looked pretty shaken by heat, work and what must have been a tough life.

I thought he had asked me if the trolley had come by yet. So I took out my earphones and politely asked him to repeat his question. In fact he had wondered if I was reading poetry. Now, I get that a lot. People ask me what I read, I tell them its something German and then they tell me all about their feelings about Germany, their ancestors, their food preference and how Germany makes good beer but plays lousy soccer these days (in fact they did today…bummer). So my initial reaction was a sigh and I answered that I was not reading poetry but a play by Schiller. To my surprise he said he didn’t like Schiller much but he was a fan of Brecht and Rilke. I cannot imagine there are many construction workers in Charlottesville that even know that these guys are poets, let alone know how to pronounce their names. I was impressed, but still didn’t feel like sitting next to him on the bus.

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Popularity: 36% [?]

There are two important threads which run through the heart of Mark Kemp’s cultural memoir Dixie Lullaby:  A Story of Music, Race, and New Beginnings in a New South.  The first thread deals with the feelings and experiences from Kemp’s own coming-of-age at a time in the rural South that saw the desegregation of public life but no immediate end to the attitudes and feelings still held by many southern whites concerning race.

To this end, there are themes of self-discovery, self-destruction, and self-loathing as a whole generation of young people in the South began to reject the traditional segregated views of their parents.  Kemp, and others like him, would set off in search of a voice that could make sense of the contradictions around them while at the same time expressing a world view more in line with their own.

The second important thread in Kemp’s book deals with where that voice was found and how that voice would be begin to give rise to a healing process across the South.  For many young, white southerners who began to hit their teenage years in the early 70’s, that voice would be found in the transformative power of rock n roll.

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Popularity: 27% [?]

We’ve got a couple of “field” parties on the schedule of weekend happenings.  Our first party is for a “field” and our second party is in one.  It will all make sense soon enough.

Kick off your weeknd on Friday, May 30 as the Field School of Charlottesville holds their 2nd annual Music Benefit and Auction at Saxx Jazz and Blues Club in the heart of Belmont.  Doors open at 6pm and they’ve got a pretty cool line-up.  Scheduled to perform are the Field School Boys Choir, Darrell Rose (of Afrikan Drum Festival fame), local food critic and rock n roller Ned Oldham, Sam Wilson, Jim Waive, Charlie Bell, and others.  Sounds pretty cool.

Then you can wrap up your weekend on Sunday, June 1 by playing in the field at Dorrier Park in Scottsville as the town kicks off its 10th season of Rhythm on the River with performances by Sons of Bill and the Hackensaw Boys.  Did I mention that it’s free?  Show time is 6pm.  For more details, check out our Rhythm on the River post here.

For the rest of your weekend events… »Read More

Popularity: 72% [?]

Mildred Pierce, a local zine of “commentary on music, literature, art” is having a release party at The Bridge PAI on Saturday. This third issue promises to feature poetry, prose, illustrations, and a “humongous art insert”.  There are supposed to be live performances , food and bevvies, and a puppet show by local artist Sean Samoheyl, who was one of the artists that participated in the first Artini.

Saturday, May 31 at 8 pm @ 205 Monticello Road

Popularity: 72% [?]

This is sort of an offshoot from our cvilleMUSE Mix Tape series (which if you haven’t been following along, has been a real blast!  Check em out!).  Byard, one of our faithful MUSE readers, suggested this little idea in the midst of our last Mix Tape.  So we’re going to give it a shot.

Instead of creating a mix of songs, let’s see if we can create a mix of poems.  The rules are still the same.  I’ll start with a YouTube posting to kick things off and then you guys chime in with your own poems.  We’ll post on a first come, first serve basis.  Again please try and include a video URL with your suggested poem.  We’ll take the first 10 poems submitted.  I don’t know if this is going to work or not, but here goes… »Read More

Popularity: 72% [?]

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The Veil by Taylor Harris (Hypocrite Press) 

For many students today, Poe Alley is simply a well-traveled route on the way to class or back home to their dorms.  For tourists it is just one of countless opportunities to stop and take a snapshot of the beauty of UVA’s well-manicured grounds.  But for Taylor Harris, the author of the recently published essay The Veil, the sights, sounds, and feel of Poe Alley represents something that is not so apparent to the naked eye.

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Popularity: 44% [?]

Up until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Hypocrite Press.  But as someone much wiser than I once said:  “It’s always better late, than never”.  As it turns out the small, independent press has been around in Charlottesville for well over fifteen years.  Founded in 1991, Hypocrite Press states as its mission statement:

…to promote awareness of, and a healthy critical stance toward, the underground subculture of downtown Charlottesville by printing and distributing the works of young local authors who choose to write about their lives in Charlottesville.

To date, Hypocrite Press lists eleven books currently available in print through Lulu, the online retailer and print on demand self-publishing website.  Many of Hypocrite’s early works including The Noble Salvage:  A Song of the South, Laughing Friends Deride, and Fandango depict the Boho-scene of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall in the early to mid 1990’s and serve as important historical and cultural snapshots into the lives of Charlottesville’s twenty-somethings before the “boom” of the past decade. »Read More

Popularity: 48% [?]