Sons of Bill‘s latest dispatch of tour info, which includes a September 24 date in town, came with some extra good news: The hometown heroes are giving away their "Life in Shambles" EP—a tour-only release from their recent run—for free, zero, zilch, diddly-squat. Get it while it’s hot at Lonestarmusic.com.
On another note: The last time Feedback checked in with Russell Richards, who creates frantic, inaccurate maps of Charlottesville and is the CEO of an imaginary barbeque sauce company, he was selling off all of his art after breaking both of his arms in a terrible bicycling accident. At the end of June he wrote about the experience in a blog post called, "What breaking my arms did for my art," and it’s a fascinating look into a local artist’s creative process one year after losing the ability to make art: Being forced to take a step back made him reconsider his style. The irony? "My art was finally receiving a degree of praise and attention, all for the old work, just as I was on to something new." Read more here.
Richards’ inaccurate map of Charlottesville. Click to link to his site. More below.
Speaking of growing more fond of something after you lose the ability to do it, the film critic Roger Ebert—who used to come to town to perform shot-by-shot analyses of classic films for the Virginia Film Festival—has a book coming out in September about his favorite kitchen appliance: the almighty rice cooker. Why is Ebert writing a book about cooking when, irony of ironies, he lost the ability to eat, drink and speak four years ago? Whatever the case, his writing is great. His recipe for soup: "Assemble your ingredients. Throw them in the pot." And stew: "Like soup only with less water, Albert Einstein." Read more here.
Don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?