Arts & Culture

Director and writer Oliver Stone spoke at UC Davis’ at the Mondavi Center last Friday as one among a series of distinguished speakers to come through Davis in the last year. As a filmmaker, Stone is perhaps best known and revered for Platoon (1986), a semi-autobiographical account of a platoon’s foray into the metaphorical heart […]

Editor’s Note: For the rest of this quarter, Aggie arts reporter Sasha Sharma will investigate the process of designing a runway collection from beginning to end. Check MUSE weekly to see Funmilayo Alabi’s progress as she continues to work on her collection for the Picnic Day Fashion Show taking place in Spring 2012. With New […]

MUSIC Shinkoskey Noon Concert: The Oracle Trio Today, Noon, free Room 115, Music Building April Johnson (violin), Peter Seidenberger (cello) and Kate Boyd (piano) present the Shinkoskey Noon Concert: The Oracle Trio. They are scheduled to perform Saint-Saëns: “Allegro vivace from Trio No. 1 in F Major, op. 18,” Dvořák’s “Trio in E Minor, op. […]

The Belle Brigade Reprise Rating: 4 The Belle Brigade keeps it in the family for good reason. The band is comprised of siblings Barbara Gruska and Ethan Gruska. The pair seem to share a musical harmony reminiscent of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and 70s pop-rock. Their first single “Losers,” with its anthemic lyrics and […]

Lana Del Rey Born to Die Interscope Records Rating: 3.5 Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die includes the melancholic and potent “Video Games” that brought her into fast relevance in the later days of 2011. It is a song that, alone, can elevate an album into the positive echelons of any review. It hits a […]

There are moments where I am sitting in my lecture hall staring down at the 20-something rows of seats in front of me, just listening to the cars whistling by outside. It is crazy to think that the convention between this four-walled and predictably constructed room can no longer hold my attention for more than […]

The Nelson Gallery currently offers a new art exhibit titled “Poking At Beehives: Three Painters.” Running now until March 18, the showcase features Leslie Shows, Peter Edlund and Fred Tomaselli’s great foray into postmodern art. Each painter approaches the canvas in a way that figures to redefine what belongs in a canvas. Shows’s resin-heavy pieces […]

Because of its immense popularity last year, Hellacappella will now be held in the ARC Pavilion, which seats over 8,000 in contrast to Freeborn Hall’s seating capacity of about 1,300. The event, which will be held this Saturday, Feb. 4, is organized by The Spokes, UC Davis’s only all-female a cappella group, and will feature […]

Deep in the heart of Oakland a band arises, mixing all the roots of American music. Blending different genres ranging from Blues to Gospel, Second Line New Orleans Jazz, and early R&B, The California Honeydrops have received numerous awards, including five East Bay Express Readers’ Poll awards (2011), including “Best Band,” “Best Album” and “Best […]

Performance and video art is quickly becoming a prominent medium in the art world. By manipulating theater, comedy, singing and various other kinds of visual references, artists can create a unique dialogue in digital form that speaks in a way that no other classical medium like painting or printmaking can do. Kalup Linzy is one […]

MUSIC Sands, And And And & Death Songs Saturday, 8:30 p.m., $6 (all ages) Luigi’s, 213 E St. Luigi’s, which had its grand opening in Davis this month, opens its doors for all ages on Saturday night. KDVS DJ and Crossbill Record manager Michael Leahy organized the event, as Cool As Folk presents Sands, And […]

The Black Keys El Camino Nonesuch Records Rating: 4 An American muscle, flexing its engine in full reverie, the closer one draws near the more gasoline taints the air. The Black Key’s latest album El Camino serves a heavy hand numbering in a romp shaking expedition into the modern classicist school of blues rock and […]