Jordan Rock (yes, he is Chris’ brother) pokes fun at millennials and boomers alike at the Paramount on Friday, November 18. Supplied photo.
Jordan Rock’s big brother has been a household name for the comedian’s entire life. That’s certainly had a significant effect on his still-burgeoning career as an actor and stand-up artist—but the Rock clan’s youngest member tries hard not to let Chris’ outsized influence define him.
“It’s definitely a balance. I’m still trying to figure it out,” Rock says. “Sometimes I do wish my name was just Ronaldo or whatever. People will say, ‘He’s funny, but he’s not as funny as Chris.’ They already have this bar that I have to be at.”
Rock, who’ll join Sean Donnelly, Liz Miele, and Funnyman Skiba for the United Nations of Comedy Tour on November 18 at The Paramount Theater, has certainly plotted his own course. Where his older brother rocketed to fame as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member from 1990 to 1993, Jordan Rock’s been doing stand-up for more than a decade and has slowly developed a workman-like following.
Rock also had success as an actor, becoming an unlikely romantic comedy darling on television with recurring roles on HBO’s “Love Life’’ and Netflix’s “Love.” “I feel like I’ve discovered the multiverse of rom-coms,” he says. On the silver screen, the actor’s buzziest role was in Big Time Adolescence, an award-winning indie starring Pete Davidson.
TV and movies come and go, though, Rock says. What he says hasn’t gone away since he was 18 years old is stand-up. And he constantly works on being a better comic.
Over the years, Rock’s had plenty of ups while holding the mic, earning the public respect of the likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle, as well as some downs—like any comedian, he’s bombed more than a couple times with sets that just didn’t go over.
Now, after 20 years of refining his style and content, he says his “sweet spot … is trying to walk the line and address some things where people are kind of asking, ‘Is he with it or against it?’” At the age of 31, most of Rock’s jokes draw on millennial tropes, taking a meta look at modern social media-driven culture or poking fun at his boomer forebears.
“I’m still learning about putting together sets,” he says. “I don’t want to do it the way everybody else has been doing it. I want people to hear a joke and say, ‘I wasn’t looking at it like that, but he has a point.’”
Other than a short bit on “The Slap” that Rock did for a few weeks after this year’s Academy Awards, the comedian doesn’t talk much about his famous sibling during shows. He does, however, maintain a close relationship with Chris offstage. In fact, he rarely makes a decision about his career without consulting his big brother.
“As I get older, I get closer and closer to him,” Rock says. “I’m trying to go places that he’s been before. He’s the person I can call and talk to and get reassurance that the game works a certain way.”
That’s a respect Rock’s had for his superstar comedian bro since kindergarten. One morning, his school’s announcements included a note about the HBO special “Bigger and Blacker” winning an Emmy. “That’s when I realized, ‘My brother is really doing something, and it’s cool,’”Rock says.
According to Rock, coming of age in the house that Chris built has actually made the scrutiny easier for him to handle than some other family members. Unlike his parents and his older brothers and sisters, he doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t the youngest sibling of a huge star. “Most of them had established their personas, and this thing was dumped on them,” he says.
Rock last did a Charlottesville show in early 2017. One of the things he remembers best about the date is that, just a few months later, “something horrible happened there.” He says to expect him to come with all new material: “I’ve turned it over in five years,” he jokes.
The Paramount show will be one of Rock’s shorter sets; with Donnelly, Miele, and Skiba also on the docket, he won’t be “name dropping” his famous pals or telling long personal anecdotes. “It’ll be a bunch of stuff no one has seen,” he says. “I have some good new jokes—some of them might be topical, some of them might be from the news. I try to stay current.”
The United Nations of Comedy Tour, “founded to promote diversity through laughter,” is now in its 11th year. The show, for which C-VILLE Weekly is a presenting sponsor, moved to the Paramount from the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in 2018. Over the years, it’s featured comedians like Irene Morales, Mike Recine, Antoine Scott, and Brendan Eyre. Rock can’t wait to be the latest headliner.
“For me, Virginia’s always been the best. … I used to hop on the bus to go from New York to Virginia—I didn’t care if it was six hours,” he says. “Expect to see a better version of the comic I was the last time I was there.”
Virginia native Jamie Sisley will receive the Governor Gerald L. Baliles Founder's Award at the November 4 screening of Stay Awake, his movie about a family's struggles with a mother's addiction. Photo: Eze Amos.
With a prime-time Virginia film fest screening at the Paramount Theater, the movie Stay Awake has made longtime Charlottesville resident Jamie Sisley an indie-festival darling again.
Sisley first produced Stay Awake, which chronicles a family’s struggles with a mother’s addiction, in 2015 as an award-winning short. After securing Best Narrative Short honors at the Slamdance Film Festival, the picture went on to be nominated for another award at the acclaimed Berlin International Film Festival.
Now, Sisley is back with a full-length version of the movie, a semi-autobiographical story drawing on the UVA grad’s childhood in Chantilly and Leesburg near the well-known drug trafficking corridor along Interstate 81.
But, as Sisley considers the geographic touchpoints that have made him who he is today, he focuses not on his more rural place of birth and early life, but rather on Charlottesville.
“I did most of my growing up in Charlottesville,” he says. “I have an almost obnoxious affinity for my home state … and the Virginia Film Festival was such an education for me. It brought films and people to contextualize those films in a way that really opened my mind.”
Stay Awake, starring Fin Argus and Wyatt Oleff, screens at the Paramount Theater on November 4. Image courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival.
While earning his business degree from the McIntire School of Commerce, Sisley heard a Red Light Management rep was speaking at James Madison University. He skipped class, drove to Harrisonburg, and sat in a JMU classroom as Randy Reed talked about what it meant to be an artist manager. He asked Reed if he could join the agency as an intern. He got the gig.
Sisley says his time at Red Light started it all—his desire to work in the arts, his understanding of the way business and creativity could mingle, how artists could find their voice, and what it meant to be the kind of leader he’d have to be to someday sit in the director’s chair.
“Red Light was probably the greatest and luckiest opportunity I’ve ever gotten,” Sisley says. “It was a master class in business, but it was more than that. Coran [Capshaw] really brought the best out of me, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how he did that and trying to replicate it on set.”
While working at Red Light, Sisley began watching movies in bunches—titles by Fellini and Bergman and Carlos Reygadas. He bought a book about directing by Nick Proferes. He teamed up with another local filmmaker, Miguel Martinez, and applied for a PBS grant to make a documentary. Against all odds, Sisley and Martinez won the funding.
Next for Sisley was film school at Columbia University. While in New York, he also worked on his funded documentary, Farewell Ferris Wheel, which followed Mexican migrants in the U.S. carnival industry. Absorbing theory in the classroom while shooting and budgeting for the doc was like “going to film school twice,” he says.
Sisley released the 14-minute version of Stay Awake as his capstone grad school project in 2015, and Farewell Ferris Wheel in 2016 after seven years of production.
It was on Stay Awake’s first festival circuit run that Sisley decided to write and direct a full-length. So many people approached him to talk about their own issues with addiction—and their family members’ issues.
“I didn’t want to make another film about addiction,” Sisley says. “It takes a lot out of you from the writing side.” But make it, he did.
Stay Awake is different from most addict pics because it focuses on the caregiver, Sisley says. The angle has resonated—both with star talent and critics. Chrissy Metz of “This Is Us” fame took on the role of the mother battling addiction, and the film made it back to the Berlin festival for its world premiere, this time being nominated for four awards. It won two of them. Variety called Stay Awake “especially resonant,” and IndieWire said it was a “sensitive drama [that] illustrates a key truth about addiction: It doesn’t only affect one person, but sucks everyone around into its vortex.” With some reservations, the reviewer went on: “It’s an earnest look at the collateral damage surrounding addiction.”
In addition to Metz, Wyatt Oleff headlines the Stay Awake cast as Ethan, one of two brothers trying desperately to handle their mother’s drug use.
“Stay Awake was an unforgettable experience with an excellent cast and crew who bonded together like a real family,” Oleff says about working with Sisley. “Such a great team to tell such an important and impactful story, and there’s not one thing about it that I would’ve changed.”
Oleff had a major role in the two-part 2017 adaptation of the Stephen King novel It and a minor role in Guardians of the Galaxy. Fin Argus, a multi-talent artist whose biggest role was on Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” rounds out the cast as Derek, the film’s second dogged brother.
At the screening, Sisley will receive another honor, the festival’s own Governor Gerald L. Baliles Founder’s Award, which recognizes “excellence in Virginia filmmaking and honors an exceptional filmmaker who has roots in Virginia or prominently spotlights Commonwealth locales, history, and culture.” Discussion of Stay Awake will follow, featuring Metz and Oleff in addition to Sisley. USA Today’s Brian Truitt will moderate.
The post-screening discussion is certain to hit on addiction, still a significant and growing problem in the commonwealth. Opioid overdoses in Virginia increased by one-third from 2019 to 2022, as measured by emergency department visits.
Sisley hopes his film humanizes the folks who struggle. “In the vast majority of the films I saw growing up … addicts were demonized,” he says.
The filmmaker says he still has so much love for his mother, who is doing well handling her own addiction. But the battle continues. “She would be the first to say that it is a daily struggle,” Sisley says. “I don’t think you’re ever cured of addiction.”
Mariana Bell will celebrate the release of Still Not Sleeping at The Front Porch on Sunday, November 6. Supplied photo.
Mariana Bell had a divergent pandemic experience from most musicians. Ask any songwriter, or any creative person for that matter, and most will say they experienced heightened inspiration during the C-word era. Not Bell.
And she’s okay with that. That’s her journey.
A longtime singer-songwriter who’s now a mother of two small children, Bell found she didn’t have the time or energy to retreat into an introspective world of music production in 2020. And she didn’t have the experience or inclination to clamber aboard the web-streaming craze that fueled so many others.
“I went to school for performance,” Bell says. “The interaction between an audience and a performer is a palpable, visceral thing.” She did a few shows at The Front Porch that got the livestream treatment, but it didn’t “feed her.”
Bell’s eighth studio album drops on November 4.
Bell longed for the joy of in-studio and onstage collaboration. By late last year, she was ready to emerge from her self-imposed choral-cocoon, and as a result 2022 has been a “creative boom time.” Her eighth studio album, Still Not Sleeping, will drop on November 4, and Bell and her band will play a live Front Porch show on November 6 to celebrate the record, a more mature effort than anything she’s attempted before.
“It is probably less edgy and a little more satisfying to listen to—if that is the word. I’m a little less angst-ridden,” she says. “I was less working from a place of, ‘What do I have to say,’ and more, ‘What do I want to hear—what do I need to hear?’”
Bell wasn’t without reason for angst. In the lead up to recording Still Not Sleeping, her close friend and fellow musician Derek Carter moved to Charlottesville, having spent years on the Los Angeles and Nashville music scenes. The two planned to work with a nearly matching group of studio players, some imported from L.A., and record albums in parallel.
It was a heady time for Bell, rekindling her love for music making and reuniting with folks she had spent years with on the West Coast—not to mention her close confidant Carter.
Then, tragedy. In March of this year, just before the two songwriters would both begin recording records, Carter died.
Bell was crushed. She considered her options. Give up on the project—to which Carter had been such a critical party—or move forward. She talked to the band, some of whom were days from boarding planes to Charlottesville. In the end, so much had been set in motion that everyone agreed it made sense to lay down Still Not Sleeping.
The record, however, would be dramatically affected. “We all loved [Derek] dearly, and we didn’t know what else to do,” Bell says. “We wanted to honor him in some way.”
The resulting album, dedicated to Carter’s memory, isn’t a funeral dirge; it’s oftentimes lighthearted and fun. Mostly, the vocals and instrumentation are soaring, hopeful. Sure, Still Not Sleeping dips into melancholy here and there, but according to Bell, mourning loss wasn’t the goal.
“I don’t think trauma goes away—sadness and disappointment and the whole life journey—but I think that processing them as an artist grows differently,” she says. “I no longer feel I need the listener to suffer with me. Hopefully, there is a way to process grief that can allow for beauty and depth without making the problem or the trauma someone else’s.”
Being back in the studio and collaborating with other musicians was a cathartic recovery process for Bell. Working with new co-producer Eddie Jackson, she made her latest record in a more collaborative way than anything she’d done before—with almost no instruments tracked individually and everything produced in concert.
Joining Bell in the studio were drummer Jordan West (Grace Potter), bassist Kurtis Keber (Grace Potter), guitarist Rusty Speidel (Mary Chapin Carpenter), guitarist Zach Ross, violinist Molly Rogers (Hans Zimmer), trumpeter JJ Kirkpatrick (Phoebe Bridgers), and keyboardist Ty Bailie (Katy Perry). Emily Herndon and Speidel co-wrote some of the songs. At The Front Porch, fans can expect to see Aly Snider and John Kokola of We Are Star Children and James McLaughlin, along with Herndon and Speidel. Genna Matthews will join as a special guest.
Bell, who grew up in Charlottesville, lived in Los Angeles and New York, and has been back home for the past seven years, feels she’s learned enough about music after eight albums simply to be herself. On Still Not Sleeping, that means being as “cheesy as possible” when it feels right, shifting among vintage ’70s, pop, folk, and country vibes and “letting go of any preciousness” about genre. “I kind of cringe when I hear that it sounds country, but that’s okay,” Bell says. “We just leaned into it without trying too hard to define it.”
And of course, being herself meant processing the death of someone close, a feeling she’d never before had to confront. It meant saying goodbye, dealing with unanswered questions, and asking herself what she could have done differently.
“I was just trying to be really present and take it one day at a time,” Bell says. “And the more I’ve gotten back into making music, the more I want to keep it going.”
You wasted your summer streaming Netflix. That’s okay. The area’s fall fests are just what you need—they’ll get you outside, where you’ll enjoy some crisp air and boost your vitamin D for the winter months.
Here’s a look at 11 autumn events that are sure to keep you going until the temps plummet.
Charlottesville-Albemarle Black Business Expo
The Charlottesville-Albemarle Black Business Expo, “designed to celebrate and encourage the success of Black-owned businesses locally and beyond,” has been going strong for six years. This year’s event is slated for September 24 at Ix Art Park.
The free festival, which runs from 10am-7pm, allows Black-owned businesses to highlight their wares against a backdrop of DJ sets, live bands, and panel discussions. Expo organizers say more detail on entertainers and speakers is coming soon, but the business pitch contest at 3pm will likely be the can’t-miss spot. blackbusinessexpo.org
Supplied photo.
Virginia Film Festival
Okay, so this one won’t get you outside. But the 30-year-old Virginia Film Festival, to be held from November 2 to 6, has become a premier destination for filmmakers and filmtakers alike. The fest draws thousands to venues around town for film premieres, panel discussions, parties, and more. VAFF has yet to release a screening schedule for this year’s event, but notes that last year’s films earned 33 Academy Award nominations. Past festival speakers have included Ethan Hawke, Martha Plimpton, and Danny Strong.
VAFF says its mission is to offer diverse films of all genres, including comedies, dramas, documentaries, and shorts. It also features a regional focus on Virginia, bringing the festival home for Charlottesvillians, and drawing on UVA academics and cultural experts for film discussions.
VAFF managed an in-person fest of sorts last year, and festival director Jody Kielbasa says this year will mark the event “returning to its traditional format.” “These past two years have brought significant challenges across the arts world,” he says. “And we are hopeful that the current, declining pandemic trends will continue and allow us to gather in a more traditional way and with fewer restrictions.” virginiafilmfestival.org
Crozet Arts & Crafts Festival
The Crozet Arts & Crafts Festival is so hot it’s held twice a year. This year’s fall installment, October 8 and 9 at Claudius Crozet Park, will feature more than 120 artisans, live music, art demos, a children’s area, food trucks, adult beverages, and raffle prizes. Full scheduling and ticket sales went live on September 1. Volunteers are also still welcome to sign up.
“Every CACF is unique because of the incredibly talented artisans who showcase their new work, as well as new musical performances and artist demos,” event director Ewa Harr says.
Don’t miss your chance to vote for your favorite artists at the show, with winners announced Sunday at 4pm. Event pricing is $6-12. Parking is free. crozetfestival.com
Fall Fiber Festival
The name says it all: The Fall Fiber Festival and Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials is not only a celebration of traditional fiber techniques, but also a thrilling dog show. The family-friendly event, baaa-ck this year on October 1 and 2, teaches folks about the fiber-producing animals and shearing, spinning, and weaving their wool and other materials.
This year’s Fall Fiber Festival schedule is dotted with animal exhibits, dog demonstrations, fiber arts demos, fleece sales, fiber and crafts vendors, workshops for adults and children, music, food, and more. Day-of festival tix are $10; advanced sales are $8; kids 12 and under get in free. The festival’s advertising volunteer, Michele Mangham, says more information and updates are coming soon, and she’d like to “thank ewe” in advance for attending. fallfiberfestival.org
Heritage Harvest Festival
Organizers have reimagined Monticello’s Heritage Harvest Festival, a longtime favorite of locals and regional travelers, as a live and virtual series of food, farm, and gardening classes and discussions. The nationally recognized event has tried to hew closely to its traditional format for new programs, with a stated mission of “emphasizing the power of place at Monticello.”
For this fall, two events are currently on the docket: The apple and cheese tasting on October 22 promises to be directly in the Monticello wheelhouse, and wreathmaking workshops are planned for multiple holiday-adjacent dates. Keep an eye out for more info on the scheduled events and more. heritageharvestfestival.com
Overland Expo
If you want to understand the Overland Expo, you must understand the overlander. Trending hard in the last few years, overlanding attracts self-reliant folks who want to jump in their Jeeps, find remote destinations, and camp in the wild, surviving on nothing but their wits.
Overlanding’s premiere festival just happens to light on Arrington, Virginia, for one of its four regional events. This year’s Overland Expo East will attract consumers and industry types to its trade show and 175-plus classes, slideshows, demos, and activities focused on the overland lifestyle. The latest in camping, vehicle, and motorcycle equipment and services from more than 200 exhibitors will all be on display, and attendees can take in the October 7 to 9 event while camping overnight in an open, grassy field surrounded by trees. Organizers expect thousands of attendees and offer happy hours, a film festival, charity raffles, and parties after the daily show closes and the evening descends.
General admission to Overland Expo East is $25 for Friday, $35 for Saturday, $17 for Sunday, or $70 for the weekend. A variety of camping packages are also available. overlandexpo.com
Supplied photo.
Fall Festival at Brewing Tree Company
When local beer industry legend Mark Thompson set up his own shop at Brewing Tree Beer Company in Afton, it was a chance for him to brew the beers he loves—trends of the moment be damned. That meant a focus on more traditional lagers and ales, which you often find in European pubs.
Fall, replete with malty brews like Oktoberfests and marzens, is therefore a time for Thompson to shine. And on October 29, droves can descend on his small taproom for the Fall Festival at Brewing Tree Beer Company. In addition to Philinda Vienna Lager and Twice as Weiss, currently on tap, the event will feature pumpkin chucking, apple-focused baked goods, and local vendors. brewingtreebeer.com
Supplied photo.
Crozet Winter Brews Festival
The Crozet Winter Brews Festival says, “Forget you, cold, we’re drinking outside.” Held for the last three years in early December at Claudius Crozet Park from 11am to 5pm, the one-day event, this year on December 3, promises “mountain views, craft brews, and wonderful people.” The festival features dark and wintry beers, with a focus on Virginia brewers. Headed up by Starr Hill Brewery, the event has featured Rockfish Brewing Co., Random Row Brewing Co., Albemarle CiderWorks, Three Notch’d Brewing Co., Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Selvedge Brewing, and Old Bust Head Brewing Co. in the past. Organizers award a best in show to the top-rated festival brew, as well as second and third place honors. crozetbeerfest.com
Oktoberfest at Blue Mountain
You can do Oktoberfest at Blue Mountain one of two ways. Head out and enjoy malty brews and live Euro-themed music once during the nine-day stretch of celebrations, or go every day for an oompah-fueled, mind-bending roller-coaster ride.
It all starts on September 30, with the addition of live music by Molly Murphy to Blue Mountain’s usual Full Nelson Friday ($3 pale ale pints). Then it’s into the heart of the fest—live oompah music and cloggers on Saturday, more oompah Sunday, a German beer tap takeover on Monday, keg bowling Tuesday, steal the boot and accordion music on Thursday, Fretwell and Full Nelsons on Friday, and two more days of oompah music over the final weekend. German food specials and festive costumes are also on tap. Comfortable dancing shoes and a hollow leg are encouraged. bluemountainbrewery.com
File photo.
Wine & Garlic Festival
After a two-year hiatus, the festival where it’s “chic to reek” is back. The 2022 Virginia Wine & Garlic Festival will bring garlic-lovers from all over the country to Rebec Vineyards in Amherst County October 8 and 9. Now in its 30th non-consecutive year, the festival will have garlicky grub galore, four stages for live music, vino from Rebec and 10 guest wineries, and for the kids, a bounce house, petting zoo, face-painting, balloon artists, clowns, and magic shows.
“We have people that have come as kids, and now they bring their families,” says Svet Kanev, Rebec’s current owner and winemaker. “After the festivals, they put it on their calendar for the next year. It has become a tradition.”
Kanev says that this year’s event will feature a number of new vendors and, as a seafood-lover, he’s excited about the shrimp, fish, and—of course—garlic dishes attendees will get to taste. Early-bird entry, available until midnight on October 6, is $20 to $28. Parking is free of charge and ample, Kanev says. rebecwinery.com
SVBCC British Car Festival
British carmakers might not bring to mind the sexiness of the Italian Ferrari or the precision of the German BMW. But with Jaguar, Austin-Healey, MG, and Triumph Motor Company all hailing from England, the country certainly has its own style. “It’s a niche,” says this year’s SVBCC British Car Festival chairman Wes Maupin. “Enzo Ferrari once said the Jaguar E-Type XKE was the most beautiful car ever designed.”
The U.K.’s automotive styling is on full display at the SVBCC British Car Festival, coming back to Ridgeview Park in Waynesboro on October 1 for its 41st year. One of the longest-running British car shows on the East Coast, the event invites anyone with an interest in autos to come out for the eye candy. Those owning British cars can enter them into the show. Prizes are given out in a variety of classes, including modern “minis,” British DNA/kit cars (vehicles linked to British styling, engineering, or manufacture), and British motorcycles.
The festivities, including an on-site food vendor, door prizes, and special car displays, begin with Crullers & Coffee at the Car Show at 9am. Maupin says to register early so he and his team can set the number of classes for which they’ll award trophies.
“We are always surprised with the quality of the cars that come to the show,” Maupin says. “One of the things that makes our show unique is the proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. It’s a windy and beautiful trip to and from the show.” svbcc.net
Voice of the Cavaliers John Freeman says he's been listening to Virginia Sports Radio broadcasts since he was a kid. Photo: Eze Amos.
John Freeman has found his home in the booth.
The career play-by-play announcer and UVA grad returned to Charlottesville to become the “voice of the Cavaliers” for the men’s football and basketball teams last November. He’d been the primary commentator for several university sports—lacrosse and even some men’s basketball—years ago, but he’d never spoken for the football team.
Before coming back to Charlottesville, Freeman spent five years calling games for Nashville’s pro soccer club. This year will mark his first full season as UVA sports’ top broadcaster. Freeman recently talked to 434 about the move and what’s next.
434: How did you find out you’d gotten the biggest broadcasting gig at your alma mater?
John Freeman: It started rather chaotically. I got a call from my predecessor, Dave Koehn, on a Tuesday, and that Saturday I was calling a football game. I grew up in Crozet and listened to the Virginia Sports Radio Network my whole life, and in a four-day span, I would be calling a game on the network at Louisville. It all started with a one-game contract.
You’ve called a lot of sports over the years but not much football. Is it a challenge going to a new sport?
I guess. My career philosophy has been to never say no to anything. I called the Charlottesville Ten Miler one time from the back of a moving vehicle. We were just trying not to fall out. You really do learn broadcasting best when you’re doing it under pressure.
Do you have a favorite sport to call?
I always say my favorite sport to call is the one in front of me. When I’m in football mode, my favorite sport is football. I just love broadcasting. If UVA wanted me to call tiddlywinks, I would enjoy it. As far as football and basketball, they are distinct. Football is a marathon—almost six hours of broadcasting when it’s said and done. And the booth for football is outdoors; if it’s going to be 95 degrees for the first game, that’s a physical toll when you‘re sitting there and talking loudly for five hours. Basketball, you can really lock in and get lost.
But football is a little slower, right?
You’d be surprised. There’s more to describe. If I have downtime, I talk about what song the band is playing, what color the sky is, what the cheerleaders are doing, the smell of grilled hot dogs in the air.
What does being the “voice of the Cavaliers” mean to you?
Growing up here, we would go to games and listen to the broadcast on the way home, so I’ve been listening to the Virginia Sports Radio Network ever since I was kid. I used to call games off friends’ video game systems. I would make little prep boards. Then in high school, I interned with [former “voice of the Cavaliers”] Mac McDonald the second I got my driver’s license. I went to Western Albemarle, and I would get up at 5 in the morning, when Mac hosted the sports report. I would be cutting audio by 6am.
What’s made you successful in this line of work?
I wasn’t born with golden pipes—nor do I have them now—and I’ve always been jealous of people that just have them. I would like to think my voice is palatable enough, but I think it’s meant I’ve had to rely more on vocabulary and pace, description and inflection. I‘ve had to work harder at those things.
Is there another step up for your career after this?
I don’t see anything that would be better than this. I get to call a national championship-caliber basketball team and an FBS football team. I don’t need another rung—I’m not sure if there is another rung. I’m not going to go to the Commanders in the NFL. This job is rewarding, and I’m part of the community. I get to represent a school that my parents went to, and the reward to me personally is so much greater.
What’s the outlook for the football and basketball teams this year?
Man, I’m completely biased. Two national championships and a Heisman Trophy? Honestly, I think for football, there are a lot of unknowns and a lot of knowns. The offense is going to be record-breaking when it comes to our quarterback [Brennan Armstrong]. If they can find themselves 2-0 or 3-0 and get some momentum under Tony Elliott, it could be a surprise season. The basketball team should be much-improved. I see no reason why they shouldn’t make the NCAA tournament. After growing up watching 15 and 15 UVA basketball teams, I’m still in a state of shock that we are now consistently ranked in the top 10.
After closing her Southwest-inspired spot Junction during the pandemic, chef Melissa Close-Hart is back, newly sober and focusing on a cuisine that's closer to her heart. Photo: Eze Amos
The team behind Junction, the Southwest-style Belmont restaurant that closed in 2020, has launched another eatery in the same space, but new patrons can expect anything but the same old.
The new resto goes by the name Mockingbird and serves up Southern comfort. Head chef Melissa Close-Hart worked with long-time collaborators Michelle Moshier, Matthew Hart, and Helen Aker to come up with the concept after carefully debating Junction’s reopening. Close-Hart says the new direction felt like a fresh start.
“Junction did an okay job, and I did an okay job in that position, but it wasn’t really my passion,” the acclaimed chef says. “We did a lot of research, and we finally just said, ‘The best food gets produced by people that are doing something close to their heart.’”
In addition to switching culinary focus, the Mockingbird dining room has been significantly downsized. Where Junction operated on both floors of the restored Belmont building at 421 Monticello Rd., Mockingbird will stick to the downstairs level. That gives it 100 floor seats and another 13 at the bar, down from 250. The upstairs will be devoted to Aker’s catering operation, and serve as an event space for parties up to 60 people.
At Junction, Close-Hart and her back-of-house team served 2,200 square feet of dining room out of a 210-square-foot kitchen. That wasn’t tenable, and the change will allow the chef not only to cook food aligned with her own Southern heritage, but to do more one-offs and boutique specials. Close-Hart says Mockingbird will differ from other soul food joints around town in that it’ll focus on the Deep South, with a bit of Cajun and creole thrown in, as well as Gulf Coast—rather than Eastern Shore—seafood.
On the menu at Mockingbird are staples like fried green tomatoes and crispy chicken and waffles, but also more unique items like bison hanger steak and the Not-So-Classic Pot Roast with blue cheese crumbles. Close-Hart wants to maintain five daily specials, as well, including an app and entrée along with the soup, catch, and ice cream of the day.
“Being at The Local for the last two and a half years, we do a lot of numbers,” Close-Hart says. “So a farmer might say, ‘I have two pounds of cowpeas.’ We can’t do anything with that.”
The other big change at Close-Hart’s new restaurant is in the chef’s personal focus. She’s been sober for the past three years and says she’s more energized and passionate about running a restaurant than she has been in a long time.
“When we opened Junction, I was not in the right frame of mind, and it took about two years to realize I was in trouble,” Close-Hart says. “And to be frank about it, there are a lot of parts of opening Junction I don’t remember, between the stress and the addiction issues.”
Close-Hart spent 30 days in rehab when she decided to fight her addictions. Some folks around her said she’d never be able to return to the restaurant business and stay sober. But being a chef “is who I am, not just what I do,” she says, and there was no way she was giving it all up.
Mockingbird opened to the public in late July after missing its soft opening the week prior. A COVID flareup likewise slowed the business for several days in early August. Otherwise, Close-Hart says things have been running smoothly, and she continues to revive her love of cooking. She’s also found support for her sobriety from a therapist and the growing crowd of sober chefs in Charlottesville and beyond.
“I don’t even think about it anymore. It is not a concept in my life, and I don’t struggle with it,” Close-Hart says. “I found a happy place, and I have great people that surround me. I’m happy to talk about my sobriety if it helps even one person think about getting sober. And, it keeps me accountable.”
In the main space, custom steel-and-glass pocket doors divide the room and—with the help of a curtain—create privacy for guests. Photo: Stephen Barling
Ruth Chiari and Phil Simon wanted a modest single-family home close to amenities when they moved to Charlottesville. But with nothing on the market befitting the couple, they shifted focus to a single-bedroom apartment—with plenty of clever renovations.
“I wanted something that gave me a feeling of space and light,” Chiari says. “We were also looking to downsize and travel, and we wanted to live someplace where we felt there was some culture and restaurants.”
Photo: Stephen Barling
Chiari and Simon moved to Charlottesville from Fairfax, Virginia, where they’d been in a four-bedroom home. After giving up on their hopes of a single-family dwelling, they rented a condo in the Belmont Lofts. They decided the apartment complex might just work for them long-term. The condos checked a critical box: It was one of the only such complexes the couple could find with outdoor green space.
So when a ground-floor Belmont Lofts unit came up for sale, Chiari and Simon went to have a look.
Built around the turn of the millennium, the conveniently-situated Belmont Lofts might not be “lofts” in the conventional sense. The term traditionally refers to converted light industrial spaces—large, open, studio-type rooms with towering ceilings and exposed ductwork. When Chiari and Simon first walked into the condo that would become their home, they found some exposed ductwork, but also odd angles, low bulkheads, and lots of nonfunctional areas.
Still, they had a vision, so the pair moved forward. They interviewed several architects who might help make the place their own. They decided Brian Tuskey best understood what they were after.
Working closely with Chiari and with Simon’s support, Tuskey set out to transform the nonfunctional spaces in the couple’s newly purchased unit, removing bulkheads, shifting ductwork and piping where possible, and replacing dated details with modern amenities. Storage was particularly critical for Chiari and Simon.
Photo: Stephen Barling
“Brian suggested things that we hadn’t thought of that might work for us,” Simon says. “Talking through everything, we all understood that while we’re not interested in acquiring a lot more stuff, we do have things we have carefully curated, and we wanted to make sure we had places that were safe and climate-controlled.”
The result of the extensive reno was a space with higher ceilings, white walls accented by Chiari’s art collection, white cabinets with quartz and walnut, two updated bathrooms with glass showers, a sound-controlled media room, and storage beyond the couple’s imagination. Around nearly the entirety of the 1,100-square-foot space, and flush to the newly vaulted ceilings, are those highly functional quartz-and-walnut white cabinets. “I call it my attic,” Chiari says. “Everyone comes in and can’t believe the space we have.”
According to Tuskey, the neutral color and design scheme throughout was intended to exploit the apartment’s southern exposure. The two redone bathrooms continue the materials palette, and Carrara marble and white tile were also added.
Tuskey says the project did have its limitations. Budget constraints kept him from being able to change the apartment’s layout substantially. And because the condo is on Belmont Lofts’ ground floor, the building code set certain accessibility guidelines. The existing hardwood floors needed work and could’ve been replaced; instead, Tuskey and his team repaired them as needed.
To satisfy Simon’s love of music, as well as the couple’s desire for calming areas and privacy, the renovation included large, custom steel-and-glass pocket doors, which the homeowners can close to divide the space or create a guest suite. The doors are fitted with clear, laminated glass that effectively block sound transmission but not light, while drapes offer privacy and illumination control.
“Ruth pushed me,” Tuskey says. “Their vision was a nice, clean, bright palette. I wanted the general aesthetic to feel light and bright. That’s how they like to live.”
Chiari and Simon say the updated space is the perfect combination of their needs. When they’re not accessing their garden terrace directly from their functional front door, the condo allows them a comfortable space to enjoy their cherished things while feeling the openness of a space well connected to the outdoors.
“We were able to breathe new life into the unit,” Tuskey says. “Some of the units there are caught in that ’90s style, when some things were kind of thrown together. In this case, it felt like it needed some new life.”
Meg Michaels of Albemarle Home & Staging says, when selling your home,
make it party-ready. In other words, imagine you’re having friends over and you’ll
hit the highlights: an accessible, clean space with plenty of ambiance. Photo: Stephen Barling
Charlottesville residents could easily sell their homes without staging 10 years ago. Now, most buyers expect every detail to be covered, from fastidious interior design to meticulous landscaping, according to local realtor Lorrie Nicholson.
“Staging allows people to visualize themselves in the home and helps create an emotional connection,” Nicholson says. “From my experience, you always see a significant return on staging.”
Several factors have come together to make staging the rule rather than the exception, according to Nicholson. Home improvement television and regular access to real estate websites, Pinterest, etc., means buyers see beautifully staged homes all the time. That means that these days folks have less imagination and less inclination to see past others’ personal effects and clutter.
And while there’s no shortage of tips out there to help sellers get the most out of their home’s appearance—deep clean, go neutral, declutter—Nicholson and local stagers Marybeth Snell and Meg Michaels with Albemarle Staging & Design have a few tricks tailored to the local market.
Own like an out-of-towner
Many vacationers come to central Virginia looking for rental properties, and staging a home for sale shouldn’t be all that different from the way renters configure their spaces. Successful renters are intentional about what they put in their income properties, Snell says; they don’t load them up with the old things they don’t want in their main home.
“We designed a rental home for a client in Wintergreen, and he said, ‘My house looks like your staged homes,’” Michaels says.
Snell and Michaels say a common rule of thumb is that you don’t stage a home the same way you live in a home. But you do stage a home like you live in a vacation home.
Pitch the personal
Many homeowners, particularly older homeowners, grow attached to their heirlooms and personal items. When a stager looks at your things, they have no emotional attachment, and cull your otherwise beautiful antique furniture, oriental rugs, and tchotchkes.
“Charlottesville is such a traditional town,” Michaels says. “Great Grandma’s rug might be worth a fortune, but it distracts the eye.”
Take down your portraits, store your old brown furniture, and roll up your rugs, Snell says. And remember that “red is kryptonite.”
Embrace the outdoors
Charlottesville has a mild, four-season climate, and central Virginia offers great views. Nicholson says those are two things local sellers can seize to gain an edge. Highlight your indoor-outdoor living, and draw attention to windows and other areas where buyers can take in beautiful views of nature, she says. And don’t forget the basics of outdoor staging. A fresh coat of paint and landscaping are critical.
“Landscaping…impacts curb appeal and the buyer’s first impression,” Nicholson says. “Something as small as adding flower pots to a front porch can help create a more inviting entrance.”
Prep to party
Snell and Michaels sum up the tricks of the staging trade simply: Make your home party ready. If you imagine having friends over when staging, you’ll hit all the highlights. A fun and accessible layout—check. Cleanliness and freshness—check. Candles, votives, fresh flowers, fresh fruit, a bar—check.
“Having your home party ready gives it a competitive edge over other homes on the market,” Snell says. “People walk in and immediately relax.”
Michaels says “party ready” means a space that creates an emotional response, a place where buyers can imagine themselves. The combination of a neutral palette and a layout designed to make people use all available spaces “allows buyers’ eyes to flow from room to room.”
Ignore the market
Like many other places, Charlottesville’s real estate market is hot. And while some sellers might be tempted to skip staging when they can earn top dollar anyway, Snell, Michaels, and Nicholson agree that a strong market means you can make even more on your staging investment.
Michaels says she and Snell worked on a house last fall with a floorplan in which many buyers couldn’t imagine living. According to Michaels, when they were done with the place, it sold for way above asking price. “That house was totally party ready,” she says.
Yola is poised for major stardom following the release of two Grammy-nominated albums, and an appearance in the film Elvis. She performs at the Jefferson on Saturday, September 17. Supplied photo.
She’s a six-time Grammy nominee who’s coming off a buzzy cinematic debut playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. So why isn’t Yola, who’ll take the Jefferson Theater stage with her band on September 17, a household name?
A few answers come to mind when talking to the self-proclaimed “genre-fluid” British songstress. First, she’s difficult to brand. Genre fluidity is something some people just can’t dig. And second, she’s skeptical of the media.
“I felt like all people want to do is put you in a little box—or even in a large box,” Yola says. “But white guys can do anything. We thought they couldn’t do hip-hop. They were too far from the streets and elitist. That hasn’t stopped them.”
Household name or not, Yola can sing. And play guitar. And write music. Oh, and she’s an avid student of the human brain.
After her breakout first album, the four-time Grammy-nominated Walk Through Fire, Yola hit a creative dry spell. Her solution? Go deep into her own songwriting process and turn it on its head. “I managed to kind of deconstruct the way I create on a scientific level,” she says. “I am aggressively sciency.”
Yola’d been curious about the brain and its relationship to singing and songwriting since battling vocal nodules early in her career. After struggling with average medical care and vocal coaching during her recovery, she decided to learn exactly what was happening to her. Applying a similarly scientific approach to songwriting was only natural when she had to overcome writer’s block for her second LP, Stand for Myself.
Yola breaks it down like this: Many of the songs she wrote for her first record came from her prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that does all the consciously clever stuff. But on a few songs, she figures she was able to draw from her midbrain, which is responsible for the senses. Those midbrain songs express ideas that spring to mind and “bump together” without help from the clever prefrontal cortex, and they’re more inspired.
“The idea of using that part of the brain that holds everything we have ever sensed and creates this ‘soup’—that’s the thing that allows you to make more elegant connections,” Yola says.
Using that part of the brain is easier said than done. But Yola, like so many of us, had a lot of time to putter around the house and try things over the past couple years. One strategy that worked consistently was watching meditative television—track and field, Formula One racing (she’s a “massive fan”), or the Tour de France—into the early hours of the morning.
Sitting in her living room or idly performing household tasks with burst-of-activity sports playing in the background, Yola was able to enter a less cognitive state, ignoring basic motor functions and focusing on her midbrain soup. The process yielded at least a third of the tracks on Stand for Myself, Yola’s first album to debut on the Billboard 200 (at 196). Another third came from ideas that had been in her head for years, and for the final third, she credits her producer and collaborator, Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, for taking them to the next level.
“Foundationally, Dan and I are both music fans,” she says. “He was able to imagine me doing feasibly anything, and that was also important for me to realize: I can feasibly do anything.”
At this point in her career, Yola refuses to be tied to a genre or put in a box, but she also has a well-defined mission ahead of her. After playing Sister Rosetta in Elvis, she’s considering more acting gigs and has been in talks with producers. But any role would have to be on her own terms.
“I am going to see what speaks to me,” she says. “If I play someone, that character is going to be nontoxic to Black women. That is the brand.”
When it comes to music, “it’s about reclaiming everything that has been stolen from Black people,” she says. She doesn’t want to see what happened to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who had her role in inventing rock music scrubbed from the history books, happen to other marginalized people.
“The machine that we live in has constantly tried to program you against the efforts we’re making to be better. It is an attack on our brains,” Yola says. “Once we realize we didn’t come out of the womb like this, we can say, ‘Okay I have just got to stop these things from attacking my brain and know exactly what we are consuming.’”
Yola says her two genre-fluid records to this point have been building blocks, bridges to something even bigger. Now that she’s showcased her abilities in multiple genres, she’s free to focus on one if she chooses, maybe with a blues record here or a disco album there.
For now, though, she and her band will bring big shows to her fans, even as she plays smaller venues like the Jefferson between festival junkets and major-city headline spots.
“Everywhere we go, we still bring the same bus with the same trailer,” Yola says. “One thing that is maybe different from a festival set is I like to strip everything back on a few songs and show people an original version from before I took it to anybody else. I like to give people that.”
Who is the Pie Guy? In a sense, it’s Keith Groomes who’s always been destined for the role.
Groomes started working with the original Pie Guy, Justin Bagley, in 2015. Bagley then sold the business—at the time a well-known food cart on the farmers’ market, festival and Downtown Mall lunch circuits—to cattleman Rob Harrison. Harrison made Groomes a partner, and in 2018, Groomes bought out Harrison’s piece of the pie.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” Groomes says. “Things work out.”
Groomes took a big step in rolling out his pie empire in January, opening Pie Guy Coffee at 1325 W. Main St. In addition to the Guy’s classic savory (pi.e., the Big Sky, with beef tenderloin and burgundy au jus, and the Sun Valley, with green coconut curry, chicken and veg), and sweet pie offerings, the coffeeshop is dealing cinnamon buns, sausage rolls, mac and cheese, and of course some baller brew.
For Groomes, the classic pies (eat.g., the savory North Eastern, with chicken and mushrooms in a Dijon cream sauce, and sweet potato) are still the faves. And the nostalgia doesn’t end there. He still remembers when he first thought about being the Pie Guy himself.
“I was cooking vegan and vegetarian with my high school English teacher, and we were next to Justin at the market,” he says. “We did smaller festivals and events, and he was the next tier up. I wanted to see what that lane was like.”
