For anyone who has ever been stuck with horrible seats or waited in line at a ticket office only to be turned away, it can be agreed upon – good live music can be hard to find. Fortunately, a solution to this problem can be found in downtown Davis. Friday at 10 p.m. begins the spring and summer live music season at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, located at 129 E St. On the bill for opening night is San Francisco-based western swing group Lady A and her Heel Draggers as well as the townies Mad Cow String Band. When Sophia’s first opened in 2001, co-owner Kevin Wan said hosting live music was never far from his plans for the business. However, due to logistics and other matters of running a new business, the concert series did not get its start until about two years ago. Last year, Wan and Michael Leahy, a Davis resident and DJ at KDVS 90.3 FM, presented Sophia’s “Cool As Folk” live music series (named after Leahy’s radio show). The series invited acts like Minnesota-based folk band Cataldo as well as the Dodos, who toured with Frenchkiss labelmates Akron/Family and performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival.

The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts announces its 2008 to 2009 season, offering patrons the chance to see an impressive line-up of prominent performing artists, lecturers and musicians, as well as emerging talents and newcomers in other numerous fields. The new season, which is the center’s seventh, runs from October through June and will feature 66 events and 87 performances. Some of the large acts of the upcoming season include Linda Ronstadt in concert, a performance of Hamlet by Shakespeare & Company and a lecture from activist Gloria Steinem.

hree individual works of choreographers food science graduate student Ann Marie Dragich and senior dramatic art majors Toni Alejandria and Vivian Thorne come together to form this year’s Main Stage Dance/Theatre Festival, held in the Main Theatre this weekend. Combining both dance and theatrical elements, Main Stage utilizes the visual and auditory to render an immensely diverse and contemplative production. Each piece radically differs from one to the next, embodying each student choreographer’s unique strengths and creative abilities. Theater and dance associate professor David Grenke, the festival’s artistic director, has been involved with the festival for five years and oversaw the production of the event.

The central pillar of liberalism is a quest for equality in every form. This is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. At the root of the vast majority of liberal beliefs is an opposition to those with greater power. In nearly any political or societal situation, liberalism takes the side of the “oppressed,” the “dispossessed” or the “disenfranchised.” In foreign policy, America is perceived as being more powerful than other nations, and thus we are assumed to be the bad guy or the aggressor. With the environment, mankind is seen as the destructive overlord of nature, needing to be reined in by regulation, limitation and education. In issues of race, class and gender, the side that is perceived to be weaker is invariably favored: Latinos and blacks, the poor and the downtrodden, women and those “undecided” as to their sex.

Letter: University disregarding Jewish students One would think that after UC Davis upset 11 percent of its incoming freshmen in 2006 by having move-in day on Rosh Hashanah, one of the two Jewish Holy Days, they’d know better the next time around. Low and behold, the following Move-In Day in 2007 fell on Yom Kippur, the other Holy Day on the Jewish calendar. Once again, Jewish students missed an important holiday normally spent with family. Picnic Day, arguably the most important and exciting day of the school year for students, faculty, alumni, friends, and family, is on the first night of Passover. Picnic Day’s theme this year is a “kaleidoscope of voices.” This kaleidoscope of voices must be broken, because a significant minority group will be underrepresented on Saturday. I know my voice won’t be there. How can Jewish holidays continue to be neglected? Shame on Student Housing, shame on the Picnic Day Board, and shame on this university that takes great pride in its diversity.

Many UC Davis seniors return for a fifth year, but few have the kind of year Ryan Royster is having. After being selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 44th round of the 2007 amateur player draft, the Sacramento native opted to stay a fifth year in Davis. After obtaining his communication degree in the winter quarter, Royster continues to pad his stock for this year’s draft with one of the biggest breakout seasons in the Big West Conference.

ast month, Rob Olson argued that I had missed the mark in my account of conservatism’s history. He stated that, “[conservatives] in the past defended the elite,” whereas today, they “defend certain principles which apply equally to all.” And Rob is right – conservatives of the past did indeed defend the elite. But to do so, they used certain ideas; ideas which sound awfully familiar to the ones they use today. But you don’t have to take my word for it…

ditor’s note: MUSE offers a monthly feature to highlight artists in and out of Davis that impact our community. This month’s “Five Questions” is with Adam Selzer, the lead singer of the Portland-based folk band Norfolk & Western. Selzer also runs Type Foundry Recording Studio in Portland, where he has worked with M. Ward, Little Wings and The Decemberists. Norfolk & Western will be performing Saturday at the Old Firehouse on campus, along with their Portland friends Weinland and Sacramento’s Silver Darling. For more information on the band, visit norfolkandwestern.org. 1. What’s Norfolk & Western up to currently? We are recording a new record – we recorded some of it in Spain last year and the rest at my studio Type Foundry. We’re leaving today for a short west coast tour – other than that we’re waiting for the sun to come out so we can barbeque tofu. 2. If you could live in any time period in history, which would it be? Any time where people did not have access to use cell phones in public.

UC Davis is harvesting more than just vegetables this spring. The California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) has recently licensed the commercialization of several inventions that work to reduce the cost and increase the dependability of daylight harvesting systems. The co-exclusive license agreements were with Watt Stopper/ Legrand, a Santa Clara-based company that manufactures energy-efficient lighting controls and sensors, and Axis Technologies Inc., which both designs and manufactures a line of energy-saving and daylight harvesting devices.

The 94th Annual Picnic Day is just around the corner, and the Davis community is sitting at the edge of its proverbial seat. For those unfamiliar with the event, Picnic Day is a campuswide open house that aims to bring together various groups in a celebration of the richness and diversity of student life. But why do people choose to partake in Picnic Day? This answer may vary depending on who you ask. To the faculty and administration, Picnic Day is an opportunity to interact with the students and browse various academic departments to see what they have accomplished. It is also a chance for them to outreach to the community and show what UC Davis has to offer.

State Representative Lois Wolk (D-Davis) has introduced legislation regarding oil spills for inland waters. It comes just months after a cargo ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay after colliding into the Bay Bridge. Although it’s commendable that these bills are being proposed and hopefully being passed, they should be put forward before the spills actually take place. This inland oil spill problem has been a constant dilemma. While marine damage gets the majority of the attention, inland oil spills currently make up 75 percent of all spills. So it comes as a shock that this bill was not proposed sooner; inland spills have been an ongoing issue for many years, even before the Costco Busan accident.

Call it magic, call it luck. Whatever you want to call it, the Aggies have it right now. Last week, UC Davis pulled off a pair of 11th-inning comebacks against then-No. 10 Stanford and Big West Conference foe UC Santa Barbara. On Tuesday afternoon, cross-town rival Sacramento State (15-18) became the latest victim, as the Aggies (24-11) rallied for three runs in the ninth to snatch an 8-7 Causeway series-sweeping victory at Dobbins Stadium.