James Cassar ’16

Major(s): English and Media Studies

 

I’m one of two Senior Arts & Entertainment Editors for The Cavalier Daily, which I’ve been since January 2013. I’m DJ Dad (no, seriously) alongside DJ Mom on WXTJ on Mondays from 10 p.m. to midnight on a radio show called Time Out! where we talk about how legendary Kanye West is and I play music usually reserved for fragile teenagers. In addition to that, I’ve had to clean up blood on the basketball court at the Aquatic & Fitness Center as a Facility Supervisor a few times in my time here. 

 

This seems like a really hard question, because a lot of my extracurriculars don’t just occur outside class, they occur outside Charlottesville. When I’m not doing one of the above things, I help run the record label I started my third-year called Near Mint, write for Alternative Press and Modern Vinyl, manage an emo band called The Obsessives, and have rebooted my freelance publicity firm that donates 10% of everything it earns to charity called Dragonfoot PR. Despite all this, I do think I’ve helped WXTJ realize its secondary purpose as a purveyor of local music culture in Charlottesville, especially considering how awesome a house of Gordon Avenue called Camp Ugly has been just this fall in organizing events for Feminism is for Everyone (FIFE) and to highlight local artists. The Cavalier Daily also has really allowed me to springboard some ideas off my Arts & Entertainment writers and there’s a lot more initiative my co-editor Candace and I are taking to legitimate what some may think this isn’t as a vital arm of our student newspaper.

 

I got to interview Kevin Spacey when he came to JPJ for the Speakers Series last year. It was undeniably the most terrified and astounded I’ve ever been. I have cerebral palsy so talking to him about how thoroughly he researched his role for The Usual Suspects, which was a character with that disability, was pretty neat. Other than that, seeing a room of sweaty, pink-shirted homies listen to The Obsessives and actually take something away from their thirty minute set was pretty heartwarming.

 

Other than that, I’ll be graduating in December and hopefully moving to Philadelphia or New York to never stop writing and chasing a music-industry dream. I know I’ll be talking in Austin as part of an unofficial showcase near SXSW, a music and technology festival, next March. I’ll be speaking with music journalists and aficionados that I admire about venue accessibillity, essentially trying to rally for concert venues to make sure everyone can comfortably enjoy and have access to live music. We’re gonna change the conversation and have fun.