Virginia Beach’s ViBe District Celebrates 10 Years in 2025
(Murals painted on the exterior walls of local business are a signature of the ViBe Creative District.) By Kate Pittman In April 2025, the ViBe Creative District will celebrate 10 years of as the creative heartbeat of Virginia Beach, a place where hundreds of local...
VEER’s Top 10 This Week Playlist
Check out this week's Top 10 playlist from 757 region recording artists
All Fired Up — Perry Glass Studio
Spectators (in the background) are entertained by the process of glassmaking by Cedric Mitchell in the auditorium of the new Perry Glass Studio of Chrysler Museum of Art. By Jeff Maisey Take your seat; the show’s about to begin. Light-tight mechanical black curtains...
Live it Up
By Tom Robotham Our total attitude towards art, was, like, get up and do something — quit sitting there whining. – David Johansen, on the spirt of The New York Dolls In 1982, when I was working as a reporter and music columnist for The Staten Island Advance, I got...
A year after opening, controversial Norfolk brewery closes
By Jim Morrison When Norfolk’s City Council approved the permit for the controversial Armed Forces Brewing Company over some neighborhood objections, several members said let the marketplace decide its fate. It didn’t take long. A year after opening its doors, Armed...
Cancer Survivor Sam Hunter Has Brought Open Faced Goodness and Healthy Drinks to Summit Pointe
Samaria Hunter By Joel Rubin Toastique Gourmet Toast and Juice Bar (www.toastique.com) is a 21st century breakfast/lunch place. With hearty helpings of such ingredients as avocado, smoked salmon, lump crab, peanut butter, Tuscan tuna, and ricotta atop healthy...
50 Years of Arlo On Your Radio
(Arlo working the board before his 10 AM to 3 PM mid-day shift in February 2025. Photo by Jeff Maisey) By Jeff Maisey “The enormity of the importance of Mike Arlo in our lives can best be described by imagining what the past 50 years would have been like without him:...
Williamsburg Symphony celebrating 40th anniversary
(Michael Butterman conducts the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra. Image by Kim Kiely Photography.) By Jim Roberts Dr. Jon E. Krapfl was a loyal subscriber to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 20 years. So loyal, in fact, that even after he moved to Williamsburg in...
ESSAY: Sounds of Silence
By Tom Robotham For the last decade or so, I’ve been in the habit of turning on CNN first thing in the morning, and letting it run for hours until it was time head to campus for afternoon classes. Often, it was background chatter while I prepared lectures, graded...
2025 VEER Music Awards
Some info for those attending the 2025 VEER Music Awards. The event is this SUNDAY, February 2 at Elevation 27 in Virginia Beach. TIME: Doors open at 5 PM. Show starts at 6 PM sharp. The program generally runs 3 hours. PARKING: The large Wal-Mart parking lot across...
GRAMMY Winner Curates and Creates Music
By Montague Gammon III One of the most acclaimed of contemporary composers, the 2024 GRAMMY winner for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Jessie Montgomery, who’s also a prime instrumentalist and who just happens to have a real, albeit distant, familial Norfolk...
A Cultural Revival
By Jerome Langston It was on a very recent Friday morning, when the great Wynton Marsalis told me, during a Zoom call, that I have “a young sound. If you’re older, congratulations. You found the fountain of vocal youth.” I mean... that compliment will likely...
Bach to the Future and Jupiter Too
Flutist Demarre McGill will solo on C.P.E. Bach’s most famous flute concerto. Photo by Carlin Ma. By Montague Gammon III A genuinely out-of-this-world little symphony begins each concert in the March 28-30 series of Virginia Symphony Orchestra performances in Norfolk,...
MOMIX Alice: Technicolor Masterpiece for All Ages
By Montague Gammon III Virginia Arts Festival’s entrancing presentation of MOMIX: Alice hits all the marks for dance and theater fans, for people who delight in beauty of all sorts, for parents who want to entertain offspring – provided mom and dad do not mind being...
ART REVIEW: Smooth Sailing on the Plastic Sea
Duke Riley, Cob Dock & the Red Hook Lady Fliers (detail), 2017. Wood, tin, roofing tar, latex paint, slip cast ceramic pigeons and performance ephemera from Fly by Night. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Nye’ Lyn Tho Photograph By Betsy DiJulio If you search...
ART: What She Wore, What She Bore
By Betsy DiJulio This is the story of how the contemporary art trope of the “empty dress,” symbolizing both presence and absence, connected three high school juniors and an ODU professor through a shared passion for women’s social justice. The students—Adaline Scott...
Come Together Over Little Shop of Horrors
REHEARSAL SCENE: Audrey Seymour (Cree Carrico) and Urchins (Nikki Wilson, Jhayda Washington, ShaaNi Dent) Photo by Samuel Flint By Jerome Langston Arriving at the Wells Theatre on a recent Friday afternoon, I spotted theater artist Melissa Mowry, who directed...
Saxophones Take Center Stage for Attucks Jazz Series
(Steve Wilson. Photo by John Abbott) By Jerome Langston “That was my first time really getting to know him,” says well-known saxophonist, Walter Blanding, about interacting with jazz pianist John Toomey, during the rehearsal for the newly formed Attucks Jazz...
Money and Love, Class and Deceit: It’s Comic Opera!
(Soprano Keely Flutterer in a past performance of Rinaldo, Armida. Photo by Evan Zimmerman.) By Montague Gammon III The post-Valentines Day Virginia Opera production of Così fan Tutte, Mozart’s comic tale of tested love and strained fidelity, harkens not just to the...
Sisters Light Up VMT Annie
(Rainier Treviño as Annie and Georgie as Sandy. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade.) By Montague Gammon III Virginia Musical Theatre’s February production of the wildly popular musical Annie at the Sandler Center marks a homecoming for the local actress in the...
A Taste of Joy
Dallas Walton, of Cork & Bull, is among the top chefs whipping up delicacies to benefit Easterseals PORT Health's Culinary Connections. Courtesy photo. By Marisa Marsey Ashley Bruno, looking sharp in a royal blue chef’s apron and puffy white toque (yet...
For Valentine’s, I Present My New Love: “Easy Weeknight Dinners”
By Marisa Marsey Emily Weinstein makes no bones about not being a professionally-trained chef. It’s why the editor in chief of Cooking and Food at The New York Times is so good at her job. Most home cooks aren’t culinary school grads either. Skill levels vary wildly...
Big Ugly Celebrates Big 10
(Peake Lager remains a big favorite amongst Big Ugly Brewery fans) By Jeff Maisey Chesapeake’s first craft brewery will mark its first decade in business with an event being dubbed as Big Ugly Brewing: 10 Year Anniversary Tiki Party. The weather might be chilly...
ESSAY: Lost & Found
By Tom Robotham Last spring, I wrote an essay called “Leaving the Treehouse”—a reflection on my realization that it was time to vacate the apartment I had occupied for 17 years. I called it the Treehouse because it was on the fourth floor of an old building in West...
Here’s to 2025: Local distillers preview plans and products for the new year
By Jim Roberts “Good things come to those who wait.” This is especially true in the world of distilling–where some spirits have to age for years before they are sold and consumed. With this in mind, we reached out to the distillers of Hampton Roads to see what...
Dessert Beers and Beer Desserts
Words by Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones Photo by Diane Catanzaro Beer, glorious beer. Is there anything beer can’t do? From appetizer, to main course, to dessert, beer has the culinary chops to enhance any part of your meal. Yet, beer is often overlooked for the...
Wines For The Season
By Jeff Maisey Caymus 50th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon California After our Fall Arts Preview issue featuring Virginia Opera’s 50th Anniversary on the cover, I decided to uncork my bottle of Caymus 50th Anniversary for a private toast to life and the...
A Tale of Two Sweeties
An international array of savory and sweet treats entice at Tous Les Jours. (Clockwise from left: coffee bun, kimchi croquette, Portuguese egg tart) By Marisa Marsey Two buzzy bakery-cafés – one on the Peninsula, a Hampton Roads inroad for a red-hot...
Start Spreadin’ The News…And The Schmears
(Baker's Crust Bagel offers a slice of New York with skyscraping sandwiches. Courtesy photo.) By Marisa Marsey Nostalgic for New York City? Haven’t yet gotten to Gotham? You could watch “When Harry Met Sally” or read some Meg Wolitzer for a fix. Better still, schlep...
Opa! ilo
(Chef Zack Close adds pepper sauce over the Hanger Steak) By Jeff Maisey The “food is phenomenal.” That was a common comment quickly spreading on Instagram following the friends-and-family soft opening of ilo, a neighborhood bistro located in the Historic Freemason...
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