Beach Vacation v. Climate Vocation
(An elevated view of the Intercoastal Waterway with Holden Beach barrier island sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean. Writer Skip Stiles and family vacationed here during the summer. Photo credit: NC’s Brunswick Islands) By Skip Stiles Bursting at the seams, back...
ESSAY: Musical Riches Await
(Virginia Symphony Orchestra's new music director Eric Jacobsen) By Tom Robotham Recently, for another publication, I wrote a piece about the dawn of a new era for the now 100-year-old Virginia Symphony. As of July, the orchestra has a new music director—cellist and...
ESSAY: Remembrance and Renewal
Words & Photo by Tom Robotham Late last month, I spent a week in New York City. It was my first visit to my hometown since 2018, and in the days leading up to the trip, I had a lot of mixed emotions. On the plus side, I was looking forward to spending time...
Contemporary Art Museum Rebrands
By Jeff Maisey Let’s spell this out so there’s no confusion: Virginia Museum Of Contemporary Art. After more than a decade, the colorful MOCA logo with a splash of gray paint serving as the letter “o” has been replaced by a more slender design stacking the...
The Magic of the Market
(A handy, fashionable bag is what every market-goer needs.) Old Dominion’s University Village comes alive every Saturday By Jim Roberts Opening a brick-and-mortar business in the middle of a global pandemic might not seem like a wise move, but Ty and Christine Harrell...
ESSAY: SIMONE BILES: A PHENOMENAL (GOAT) REALITY
By John L. Horton We have just witnessed Simone Biles winning her spot on the United States Gymnastics Team, June 25-26, in St. Louis, Missouri. Biles’ two-day total score of 118.098 was more than two points ahead of runner-up, Sunisa Lee. What an...
ESSAY: Competition
(If the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games proceed, Virginia Beach’s Simon Biles, pictured on the cover of Vogue, plans to take her newly developed vault to heights unseen.) By Dr. Jerry Gaines & Sue Rowdon “You can’t claim to be good if you have never been tempted to be...
ESSAY: A More Perfect Union
By Tom Robotham Of all the holidays we celebrate in this country, the Fourth of July is my least favorite. One reason is that it brings back unpleasant memories from childhood. Back then, in my neck of the woods, at least, it was dominated by one thing: illegal...
Summer Music Series Return
(North Mississippi Allstars will perform at free show on July 7 on the 17th Street Stage at the Oceanfront.) By Jeff Maisey Summertime in Hampton Roads traditionally means outdoor concerts galore, and now that restrictions have been lifted organizers have been...
At Long Last, Naro Reopens!
(A scene from the must-see “In The Heights”) By Tench Phillips, Naro Cinema After an unexpectedly long hibernation that began all the way back in March of 2020 with the mandatory closing of the theater, the Naro Cinema has finally reawakened and opened our doors for...
MUSIC: Still Drivin’ N Cryin’
By Jim Morrison By the time Kevn Kinney moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1982 he was an old young man. He'd been working since he was 16, hard labor, jobs most nobody else cared to do. In Georgia that was working as a form carpenter building sewage plants. For...
ART REVIEW: Nature Comes to Light
(Sand Dunes, Sunrise, Death Valley National Monument, California, 1948, printed 1974, Ansel Adams (American, 1902-1984), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Andrea Gray Stillman, 2018.584, © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust) By Betsy DiJulio Landscape...
Top 5 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard albums of 2022
By Nate Sacks Australian Psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard had yet another prolific year in terms of official album releases. The band previously released 5 albums in 2017, and now 5 years later they repeated the madness. There's plenty of smaller...
London Calling and Gourmandizing NEON
Artist Matthew McGuinness By Betsy DiJulio Look beneath the surface of most community murals and there you will find a rich backstory—a stew if you will—of historical context and contemporary perspective. The newest mural in Norfolk’s NEON district boasts that...
A Magical Paradox: When Students Become Teachers
By Kate Mattingly Learning a dance is a lot like playing a game of telephone: movement leaves one body and is passed to another, transformed by that person’s anatomy and style, and then transmitted and transformed again, and again. For Eli Motley, a...
Romantic Christmas with Dave Koz
By Jeff Maisey Smooth jazz saxophonist Dave Koz has made a successful seasonal career hitting the road for the past 25 years in the month leading up to Christmas Eve with his critically acclaimed Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour. When the Silver...
The Nigerian Connection
By Jerome Langston While a fellow at the Newark Museum of Art back in 2015, curator Kimberli Gant, PhD, discovered a significant connection between African-American painter Jacob Lawrence, regarded by some as the most celebrated black...
PREVIEW: Mummenschanz
(The avant-garde mime troupe has a distant connection to Norfolk) By Jim Roberts Mummenschanz, the avant-garde mime troupe celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has a distant but meaningful connection to Norfolk: Floriana Frassetto, one of the group’s founders,...
Bruce Hornsby Preview: My Fecund Years
(Bruce Hornsby Photo by Sarah Walor) By Jim Roberts Bruce Hornsby, the Grammy Award-winning musician from Williamsburg, is in the midst of the most prolific phase of his career, releasing three solo albums over the last four years. While he still tours with his band,...
Local Music Reviews
Jae Sinnett’s Zero to 60 Quartet With Symphonicity “Live at the Sandler Center (Self-Release) Back in April, Jae Sinnett’s Zero to 60 Quartet performed live at Sandler Center with the backing of Symphonicity, Virginia’s official orchestra conducted by Daniel Boothe....
20 Years of St. George Brewing
By Jeff Maisey Remember those investment commercials with the slogan, “They make money the old fashioned way — they earn it”? Well, St. George Brewing Company should probably have a similar theme. Something like, “They make beer the ol’ fashioned way — they stick to...
Lafayette Lager: Top NATO General collaborates with Bold Mariner on symbolic beer
By Jeff Maisey NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, French Five-Star General Denis Mercier recently joined Norfolk's The Bold Mariner Brewing Company’s Michael Stacks and John O’Reilly in brewing Lafayette Lager. The French-style lager will debut at the...
Green Flash Foreclosed Upon
BY JEFF MAISEY A year and a half ago it seemed Green Flash Brewing Company was on top of the world, expanding its distribution to all 50 states with fresh product and production breweries on both coasts. Then in January of this year, the announcement of staff...
Consider The Oyster Tour
By Marisa Marsey “American oysters differ as much as American people…” - M.F.K. Fisher, Consider The Oyster, 1941 Many a Manhattanite has never reached the top of the Empire State Building. Philadelphians rarely visit the Liberty Bell. Except with out-of-town company,...
Bold Mariner to Open Satellite in Ocean View
By Jeff Maisey The Bold Mariner Brewing Company will open a satellite location in Ocean View at 1901 East Ocean View Avenue. The brewery will operate in a former Bank of the Commonwealth building. According to owner Michael Stacks, the brewery will open in late fall...
Green Flash Auctioning Virginia Beach Brewery
By Jeff Maisey San Diego-based Green Flash Brewing Company appears to be liquidating all assets of its Virginia Beach facility including the facility itself, bottling line, tasting room and draft system. The auction is being done through Heritage Global Partners,...
O’Connor Wins Big in Dublin
O’Connor Brewing Co. claimed a gold medal, three silver medals and four bronze medals in the 2018 Dublin Craft Beer Cup; a global competition, which allows craft brewers to showcase their brews to have them rated, tasted and analyzed by an expert, international panel...
Here’s to 2018: Whiskeys for Hogmanay
By Jim Roberts “Hogmanay” is the celebration of the new year in Scotland, so it makes pearfect sense that whisky, the national drink, plays a prominent role in the festivities. “Wherever you go,” Angus MacRaild wrote on ScotchWhisky.com last New Year’s Eve,...
Amber Ox Crafts Beer and Food
Words by Chris Jones & Diane Catanzaro Photos by Diane Catanzaro The Amber Ox Public House in Williamsburg is a new brewpub that is in many ways a game-changer in Hampton Roads. Creative, seasonally-inspired cuisine, top-notch beers brewed on premises, guest beers...
Smartmouth’s Pilot House Takes Flight
By Jeff Maisey What better way for Smartmouth Brewing Company to complete 2017 – a year that marked its 5th anniversary and a year in which it won Best of Show at the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild annual Virginia Beer Cup competition – than with the highly anticipated...
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