Arts & Culture

You know you’re watching a movie aimed at the families-with-kids demographic when animated flicks dominate the previews, as was the case when I saw Wreck-It Ralph with someone special in a cozy Elk Grove theater (which was, in fact, filled with families and kids). I’m not complaining, though: Upcoming DreamWorks fare Rise of the Guardians […]

Let’s take a break from the prevailing political concerns of the week to examine something of a cultural milestone. Friday’s opening of Skyfall, the 23rd installment of the world’s longest continuously running film franchise, also marks the 50-year anniversary for the series. In 1962, a fairly successful Dr. No was released to mixed reception. The […]

Game of the week I have a confession to make: I’m not a fan of the Halo franchise. Despite a handful of fun online-play sessions with friends, I’ve never quite understood the appeal of spending countless hours with Master Chief (despite personally playing every entry in the series in an effort to get hooked). Sometimes […]

I’m squirming in my seat in anticipation of one of my favorite exchanges in all of Hamlet — the scene where Hamlet greets his old friends Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. I pause to look around and observe the faces of my fellow audience members. Given that the lights are still on inside the theater in an […]

America bleeds the blues. It is the music rooted in our country’s struggles and vindicated by our resolve. It is the encapsulation of hope and loss in three short chords, an art form that serves as the bedrock to our rich and ever-expanding musical history. There are few men more formative to that art than […]

Experience what FM radio was like in the early days as KDVS joins forces with former air staff of legendary Sacramento radio station KZAP to celebrate freeform radio. KDVS will dedicate 48 hours of continuous programing to featuring former KZAP DJs. They will play the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s and tell […]

The UC Davis department of theatre and dance’s ITDP (Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance) program presents Nectare, a prelude to the choreographers’ Master of Fine Arts theses, to be presented in spring. Nectare aims to address things like touch and rhythm, visual perception and the immigrant experience. It is also a series […]

One Direction has done it again. They’ve already fostered such an obsession in my heart for them, but no. They release another heart-stopping and swoon-worthy music video for me and the rest of the 13-year-olds out there to cry over. I mean, sure, the three-minute and 38-second black-and-white video is set in a recording studio […]

Artist: State Radio Title: Rabbit Inn Rebellion Rating: 4.5 “This is rock; unrefined, hard and volcanic.” So declares the website of Massachusetts-based rock band State Radio. Listening to the band’s newest album, Rabbit Inn Rebellion, one would be hard-pressed to disagree. State Radio has returned not only to the studio, but also to their hard […]

Rating: 4/5 Cloud Atlas is a rarity. How can we begin to describe what an accomplishment it is that this film even exists? Its source material, a novel of the same name by Englishman David Mitchell, was said to be unfilmable: six stories, all distinctly plotted, representing several centuries from the 1800s to the post-apocalyptic […]

The Poetry Night Reading Series is held at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 First St. in Davis on the first and third Thursdays of every month. The reading series, which starts at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public, features an hour-long reading from a guest poet followed by an hour-long […]

The internet has done it again. Parodying serious events, even as the events are still occurring. Case in point: Hurricane Sandy. Serious and dangerous but somehow extremely entertaining online. Some genius created the Hurricane Sandy Twitter account not to inform the nation of updates on the disaster, but rather to say ridiculous quips that celebrities […]