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...
NEWS: Two Years After Council Push for Local Investment, Hampton Roads Ventures Has Yet to Deliver
Hampton Roads Ventures, created by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, is headquartered in this office building in Norfolk. (Jim Morrison/For the Virginia Mercury) BY JIM MORRISON More than two years after Norfolk’s city council directed a for-profit...
VEER Music Awards Nominees Announced
By Staff We are pleased to announce the complete list of nominees for the 2025 Veer Music Awards. The 757 region had an immensely diverse range of musical releases in 2024. In determining nominees, we looked primarily for bands and musicians who officially released a...
Music Video of the Year Nominees Announced
We are pleased to announce the nominees in the Music Video of the Year category for the 2025 Veer Music Awards. The awards presentation is scheduled Sunday, February 2 at Elevation 27. Online voting is set to begin soon…stay tuned. And the nominees are… Sunny...
Animated/AI/Effects Music Video of the Year Nominees Announced
By Jeff Maisey We are pleased to announce the nominees in the Animated/AI Music Video of the Year category for the 2025 Veer Music Awards. This is a new category for our music awards presentation. We also include music videos with heavily artistic effects within this...
TRAVEL: Return To Scotland, Highlands & Castles
(Barcaldine Castle is an enchanting Bed & Breakfast today.) Words & Photos by Jeff Maisey We began Day 2 of our West Highland Way trek with sore muscles, dried mud on our boots, and an optimistic sense of adventure with nine miles of what would be very stony...
Hurrah for Film & TV
(Green room and studio at Hurrah TV and Film Academy. Photo by Michael Bibbo of Waverleigh Creative.) By Montague Gammon III The Hurrah Players unique new Nusbaum Family TV & Film Academy, which starts its first round of classes for ages 12 and up on January 6, is...
Instrumental Lifeline from Hampton to Swannanoa
(L-R) Chris Jaconson, Roberta Lea, Kelly Murphy, Bobby Black Hat Walters, Karen Benson, and Karl Werne raised $7,700 to benefit musicians in need recovering from Hurricane Helene. By Jim Morrison Bobby Jaramillo arose early, as usual, on a September morning in the...
ESSAY: The Resilience of Hope
By Tom Robotham In the wake of the election, as I noted here last month, I felt a profound sense of despair—and it lingers still. But in recent weeks, it’s been counterbalanced by meditations on hope—how it “perches in the soul,” as Emily Dickinson put it, “and sings...
Posed Photography Nominees Announced
BY STAFF The following submissions have been selected as nominees for the 2025 Veer Music Awards in the Posed Photography category. Voting is expected to go live on January 1 at veermag.com. Congrats to all nominees and thank you to those who submitted entries....
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...
2025 Veer Music Awards Results
By Jeff Maisey A capacity crowd was treated to a memorable night at Elevation 27 where local musicians were recognized and 757 region bands paid musical homage to the legends who performed at the original Virginia Beach Dome. Here are the final results. Album...
Black Music & Cuisine at the Heart of Fat Ham
Director Jerrell L. Henderson By Jerome Langston “James Ijames is one of the best actors that you will ever see in your life,” surprisingly says Chicago-based play director, Jerrell L. Henderson, who is in town to direct Ijames’s best-known play, Fat Ham, for...
Grateful Dead Air
By Jim Morrison The fourth installment of Dead Air, a cavalcade of Grateful Dead covers that brings together artists from across the Commonwealth, had its roots in Cincinnati. Mark Keefe, radio station WNRN's program director, was a college student at Xavier...
TINA Preview
(Jayna Elise as Tina Turner in TINA - The Tina Turner Musical - Photo By Julieta Cervantes) By Jerome Langston "She’s an absolute legend,” says singer/actress Jayna Elise, about the iconic Rock & Roll Queen, Tina Turner. “She had such tenacity and just...
ART NEWS: Synergy in Suffolk
(Jennifer Lucy and Hillarey Breedlove) By Betsy DiJulio If you recall the Greek myth in which humans were originally created with four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces, you know that Zeus, fearing their power, split them into two separate parts condemning...
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...
The Executive Chef at Chesapeake’s Top Steak House is Just 26
By Joel Rubin If you request a 10 oz sirloin ($37), an 8-oz tenderloin ($49) or a 12 oz ribeye ($50) at The Butcher’s Son in Chesapeake, it better be hot, melt in your mouth and medium rare (if that’s your pleasure) when it arrives. “I know that very well,” says Jalen...
Aslin VB: Not Just Beer, It’s a Destination!
(Aslin’s tasting room in Virginia Beach. Photo by Diane Catanzaro) By Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones How fortunate we are in Hampton Roads that the popular Aslin Beer Company has opened a taproom and brewery in Virginia Beach? Excellent beer, a diverse food menu,...
Green Onion Blooms Bright Again
(A healthy lunch: Poached Pear Pecan Salad with grilled chicken added.) By Jeff Maisey The Green Onion is back and better than ever. Like many independent, locally-owned restaurants, The Green Onion was challenged in a variety of ways during COVID and in the aftermath...
The Table Side Caesar Salad at Isle of Capri is as Popular as Ever
(Isle of Capri servers and Caesar Salad makers Justin Zobel, Nancy Binetti and Az Tomouro with restaurant GM Dave Cox) by Joel Rubin If you are a “server” at Isle of Capri Restaurant on the 6th floor of the Holiday Inn Express (39th and the oceanfront), you do much...
The (Ice Cream) Flavors of Summer
(Randy Windley says vanilla is most popular at Doumar’s.) By Marisa Marsey Call it a double-dip. In 1984, Ronald Reagan proclaimed July to be National Ice Cream Month and designated the third Sunday of the month (July 21 this year) as National Ice Cream Day. Good...
Roast Rider Still Riding High
(Coffee mates: Wayne and Lisa Richmon partner only with roasters who lead the industry in social and environmental responsibility including Equator. Photo by Tyler Kahlil.) By Marisa Marsey Cha-ca-cha-ca-cha-ca. Is there any sound more titillating than your favorite...
Ghent Burger Week
(Pixels Technotronic Burger) By Jeremy Bender Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the best burger of all? From May 27 through June 2, 13 restaurants will compete in the inaugural Ghent Burger Week. Loyal patrons and hamburger fanatics alike are encouraged to visit...
Pronounced New Eateries
By Marisa Marsey Restaurant names, like baby names, come in waves. Remember the address age (Bistro 210; useful, pre-GPS, for recalling locations)? And the monosyllabic era (here’s looking at you, Stove)? Now restaurateurs are spurning marketing gurus who advise...
Chef Close to Open ILO Bistro
(Chef Zack Close. Photo courtesy of Glass Light Hotel.) By Jeff Maisey Zack Close, who spent a decade in New York City and worked with Daniel Boulud at his Michelin- starred restaurant, Café Boulud, before returning to his hometown of Norfolk to become the Executive...
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