My job is to take in the finest art and entertainment that Charlottesville has to offer. That in itself can be a full-time job, on top of the other full-time job that is writing here and in the paper, editing and compiling listings. If I were a food critic, 2010 would’ve left me with a royal case of gout. But as it is, I write about Charlottesville art, and 2010 was a year that left my brain all wrinkly, my body tired, and all of me excited about 2011.
Throughout the year there were a bunch of art-related events that thought outside the box, and, whether or not they worked, they tried—really tried—to be different. Or maybe the events didn’t turn out the way everyone expected. Or maybe they weren’t planned at all.
What each of these had in common is that they made my job fun. So without further ado, here are three of the local events that made 2010 interesting. Plenty more to come.
WTF art spectacle
The first annual WTF Award goes to the young printer and artist Avery Lawrence. Lawrence lugged exercise equipment—first a rowing machine and then treadmill—to the corner of third and Main St. on the Mall, operated it mid-day while wearing an enormous mask, white shorts and no shirt, prompting hundreds of lunch-breaking locals to ponder: WTF?
Even after this Open Studio, we’re still waiting on an answer.
Avery Lawrence went all Brewster McCloud on the Downtown Mall
Radio rebound
In a recent interview with a noted physicist, the New York Times Magazine’s Deborah Solomon offered a universal rule to compete with Einstein’s unified field theory: “Everything in the world will get worse,” said Solomon. To its small and feverishly dedicated group of listeners, it sounded like the universe was operating on that rule when UVA announced a group of changes that would fundamentally change programming at the eclectic WTJU.
But amid massive public outcry plans to change the station were, for the most part, put on hold. Meanwhile, with two recent fund drives surpassing their goals (the Classical Marathon this month beat its $40,000 goal by $6,000 in pledges) it looks like all it took to motivate those who love to tune into 91.1FM and hear something new was the threat that someday it might not be the way it is now. Go, go, status quo!
Read our full coverage here.
Name mismatch
Any room that hosts music around here gets a de facto seal of approval—thanks for doing everything you do!—but sometimes taking the music out of the venue has a way of freshening one’s perspective on things. That was the case when the Vermont vocal trio Mountain Man (one of whose members lives in Charlottesville) played at the gorgeous Christ Episcopal Church on First Street early last month.
Who would have figured that a group could learn be so musical without having first learned to plug in a guitar? The three ladies of Mountain Man have some growing up to do. But let’s hope that in growing up they don’t lose their charm.
Mountain Man covers Tom Waits’ "Green Grass"
What was your favorite art opening, happening, album, about-face, retirement of 2010? Feel free to post suggestions in the concert below.