Arts & Culture

Although Davis has its share of mid-sized and smaller concerts,larger acts usually travel across theCauseway to play in Sacramento at venues like the Arco Arena.This month,however,is an exception as a six-act show featuring Gym Class Heroes,Shwayze,LMFAO,Tyga,The Knux and HardNox will rock the UC Davis Pavilion on Feb.26.

Sophomore design major Greer Shively used to think that a cappella groups were all about nerdy males in the Ivy League system. That was, however, before she heard about The Spokes, an a cappella group on campus. Now, in the middle of her second year as a singer with The Spokes, Shively has learned a thing or two about the art of a cappella, a style of vocal music without instrumental accompaniment.

This week in Davis– StereoEarth,Neurotunnel,Crazy Ballhead Women’s Research and Resource Center Benefit Dance Party Birdstrike Theater

Rating: If the recently split garage rockers of Be Your Our Pet were ever to be collectively slipped a roofie and forced to reunite and record together,the music they would produce would not be far from that of The Bird and The Bee.

As much as I’d like any readers out there to believe in the warm benevolence of my smiling picture or the cheeky,scintillatingly witty words of my ever cleverer columns,I’ve always been kind of a bad liar,so I will go right out and admit it:I am a shy person.I mean,sure,I’m relatively friendly and stuff,but I’ve had more people comment on my shyness than I think necessary.

Pamela Maus Contest in Creative Writing Today,7p.m. 126Voorhies The annual Pamela Maus Contest in Creative Writing will announce the winners of both the poetry and fiction competitions tonight at7p.m.in126Voorhies.The contest will be doling out$1500in total prize money to the finalists.

Upon walking into the room you first notice two large,very different landscape images on the walls to the right and left.Though one is of a vineyard and the other of a dusky Hawaiian horizon,the lines and shadowing are soft and exhibit a unique textured feeling.

Rating: For myself and undoubtedly many others, the release of Sholi’s first full-length album represents something more than just new music. The band, which originally formed in Davis, has been something of an icon in the local music scene for years now.

The Movement II Friday,7p.m.,free Technocultural Studies Building (formerly the Art Annex On-campus hip-hop means more than an intro to hip-hop dance class or a lunchtime picnic with The Federation on the Quad.

Taken Now playing at the Regal Davis Stadium5on G Stree Taken has all the key aspects of a typical action movie.Itstarts with the basics:trustworthy main character,dire situation and linear storyline. Thencomethe fun but still familiar parts.The movie is peppered with realistic,claustrophobic fight sequences reminiscent of theBourne series.The protagonist has implausible but forgettable means of gathering information.

As students,we are expected to make school the focal point of our lives – planning our schedules according to classes and units taken or devoting a good portion of our lives to earning a university education.This is precisely the kind of thing that interestsphotographer Catherine Wagner.

MUSIC Katy Perry,Alphabeat Today,7:30p.m.,$20 Empire Events Center in Sacramento Never mind Katy Perry – also known as the woman responsible for arguably the most annoying song of2008 – I’m turning my focus to Alphabeat.The Danish dance-poppers have been associated with the Wonky Pop movement,a musical crusade for the “quirky,credible and catchy” that is rooted in the offbeat side of pop music of the ‘80s.