Arts & Culture

Artist: Unknown Mortal Orchestra Album: II Rating: 3 Second albums can often be a treacherous step for independent bands who’ve gained acclaim on the Net; the continual quest in the blogosphere for a new sound or the single of the day from among a multitude of interesting groups can often result in a band’s sophomore […]

Game of the week Devil May Cry and Ni No Kuni have kept plenty of gamers busy over the past two weeks, but this week sees a return to the typically quiet January release schedule. Luckily that provides me with an opportunity to highlight some smaller indie games that hit the Steam platform in the […]

Every decade in music seems to have a flurry of new genres that can seemingly rise and fall overnight, but leave behind a sonic record of the times we live in. Some stick with us for quite awhile, like grunge or post-punk revival, and others evaporate into the nostalgic ether to be later discovered and […]

The scene was set: I had press tickets to the L.A. Dance Project in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center. I was dressed up. I was with my gay best friend. I was prepared to be blown away by a dance group created by the man who choreographed Black Swan. I was already live-tweeting my […]

UC Davis Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA) presents: The Art of Athletes, the fourth annual ICA student-athlete art show held at the Basement Gallery in the Art Building. The show runs Friday to Monday and will feature over 40 pieces of student-athlete art pieces. There will be a “meet the artists” reception tomorrow from 5:30 p.m. to […]

Album: Heartthrob Artist: Tegan and Sara Heartthrob, the newest album from twin-sister indie rockers Tegan and Sara, presents an artistic evolution for the two. It’s not a crazy move like Lil Wayne picking up the guitar; it’s more like Madonna picking up the guitar. It’s also pretty much par for the band. I should note […]

Film Salome Opera High-Definition Screening Monday, 7 p.m.; tickets: regular $20 / student $10 Mondavi Center The Mondavi Center is to screen Richard Strauss’ sexually-charged one-act opera set in Biblical times, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, by the San Francisco Grand Opera Cinema Series. The opera screening, sung in Italian, includes English subtitles along […]

An art festival at the Mondavi Center will explore the act of migration through art, dance and music. Worlds of Discovery and Loss, which runs from Wednesday to Feb. 3, will feature performances from the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Calder Quartet as well as members of the Department of Theatre & […]

David Simpson is more than your typical English professor here at UC Davis. Before arriving at UC Davis in 1997, Professor Simpson was a faculty member at such prestigious universities as Cambridge, Northwestern and Columbia. He has regularly taught and studied Romanticism and literary theory, as well as published several books. His most recent work, […]

Game of the week This issue’s game of the week is Ni No Kuni, a Japanese RPG from developer Level-5 and animated film company Studio Ghibli. The premise involves a young boy named Oliver, who soon finds himself in a fantastical world full of deadly creatures and magical spells in an effort to save his […]

“Sample This” film screening Saturday, Jan. 26 Sciences Lecture Hall Doors at 6:30 p.m., film at 7 ASUCD’s Entertainment Council will be hosting a special free screening of the documentary “Sample This” on Saturday with a Q&A with both the director Dan Forrer and writer/producer Bob Burris after the screening. “The story fascinated me from […]

Last Thursday, Trampled by Turtles, a bluegrass band from Duluth, Minnesota, rocked the halls of The Fillmore in San Francisco. I had the pleasure of witnessing this invigorating show. Never before have I seen a mandolin played so fast. With notable moments such as their songs “Wait So Long” and “Widower’s Heart,” Trampled soothed my […]