Arts & Culture
UC Davis Film Festival offers professional feedback for student film projects
Arts & CultureApril 24, 2008
Students with a deep interest in filmmaking as well as those who just
like fooling around with their camera for class projects may have found
a rewarding avenue for their efforts. The UC Davis department of theatre and dance Annual Film Festival, in
association with the department of technocultural studies, is
announcing a call for submissions due this month for the 8th annual
screening in June. For first time, the film festival will give students the opportunity to
project their movies on a big screen at Varsity Theatre in downtown
Davis, said festival founder, judge and UC Davis theatre and dance
professor John Iacovelli.
Putting the fun in fundraiser
Arts & CultureApril 24, 2008
With a sagging economy, the dollar cannot buy much. But cobble together
$100 worth of change from your La-Z-Boy, and you can multiply your 15
minutes of fame by four while supporting freeform community radio. The annual KDVS 90.3 FM fundraiser kicked off Monday and will last
until Sunday at midnight. The weeklong fundraiser is the only time of
the year that KDVS actively seeks contributions from their listeners.
The 24-hour, volunteer-run radio station derives two-thirds of its
annual budget from this weeklong fundraiser, said general manager and
junior technocultural studies major Ben Johnson.
In concert
Arts & CultureApril 24, 2008
It’s been a busy week for the concert-goers as Freeborn Hall hosted two shows in two days: First the Canadian identicals Tegan andSara with the Aussies,An Horse; then Death Cab for Cutie and The Cave Singers came. Attending two back-to-back concerts, similar in taste and most likely drawing an overlapping crowd, might make some double-nighters feel like experts. I went to the front of the line at Death Cab for Cutie and was advised to sign up my friends to take shifts waiting in line. When I askedsophomore communication major Alexandra Garabedian if she was a really dedicated fan since she had been camping out since10:30a.m., she threw me a curveball.
The latest trashion trends
Arts & CultureApril 22, 2008
Kicking
off Earth Week on Monday at the Memorial Union patio was Trashion Show
2008, presented by the ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning
Commission (EPPC) and the Student Fashion Association (SFA). Models sashayed down the runway in designs made entirely from
recyclable or reused material. Sixteen looks were featured at the show,
including a red mini-dress adorned with CDs found at the recycling
center and accessorized with a bag made from a cereal box by junior
design major Frankees Samad. A ballet-inspired dress made from trash
bags by first-year Sarah Silva also took the stage. Prizes were given out to designs that were judged as the most
sustainable. Rachel Aquino, a first-year political science major, won
third place with a dress created from newspapers from the Cuarto Dining
Commons. Senior textiles and clothing major Maureen Dougherty won
second place with her refashioning of a shawl into a strapless dress
and for a design made from a vintage dress from the ’80s.
Canadian folk-pop duo plays tonight at Freeborn Hall
Arts & CultureApril 21, 2008
Your style has always been seen as acoustic folk rock. How is your newest album, The Con, different, and why did you make that change? We always saw ourselves as songwriters, so there wasn’t much emphasis on developing the band with instrumentation. With So Jealous and The Con,
we had the chance to think a lot more about the instrumentation and
worked a lot on it. We went so far as to put our own drums down and
mapped out what we wanted our songs to sound like.… When we first
started making music, we were 18, where you go into a studio and rattle
something out.
ARTSWEEK
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
LIVE MUSIC Lee Coulter, Jakob Martin, Aaron Bowen Today, 7:30 p.m. ASUCD Coffee House Who’s
got the booty? She’s got the booty and you’ve got the booty voodoo!
Headlining tonight is the Australian witch doctor Lee Coulter, who
anyone hungry for a little John Mayer with some added spice will eat up
immediately. Half-handed Cloud, LAKE, G2 Friday, 7 p.m. Scrambled Egg House If
you thought this show was last week, well, I was just kidding. The
Berkeley resident John Ringhofer is the original bassist of Danielson
but now writes jovial acoustic folk which may be enjoyed by a wide
range of listeners. He will be joined by the local UC Davis alumnus G2
Out on the weekend
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
To be honest, I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of “artsy
stuff” scheduled to take place over the next week. Picnic Day is a lot
to swallow, which is expected – but to those of you scratching your
heads as you look at MUSE today, have no fear. The “expert” in all that
is artsy or of entertainment value shall bestow upon you an exclusive
list of where you should be seen and what you should be doing this
weekend. Search Party. Attention
all student music makers: your deadline is tomorrow! Before you go on a
Safeway run to stock up on red party cups for an epic beer pong
tournament this weekend, get your entry in for Search Party, the campus
“talent search” brought to you by MUSE, the ASUCD Entertainment Council
and KDVS 90.3 FM.
Reduce, reuse, rethink: Examining clothing waste
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
t’s a familiar wardrobe cycle: Spring comes, time to buy new clothes. Summer comes, time to go shopping yet again – the routine continues year after year. Urging people to rethink their consumer habits is “Trashed Fashion: Breaking the Cycle,”a
short film screening Friday at 7 p.m. at the Agrarian Effort Co-op near
the Segundo residence halls, which will be followed by a clothing swap. “Trashed Fashion” highlights several ideas to incorporate
sustainability into one’s shopping habits by suggesting alternate ideas
to purchasing new clothes. Amanda Ornellas, a senior women and gender
studies major, made the film with three other students.
Five Questions with…Norfolk & Western
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
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.
Main stage Dance/Theatre Festival takes Main Theatre
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
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.
Mondavi announces 2008 to 2009 season
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
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.
Review: Shine a Light
Arts & CultureApril 17, 2008
Shine a Light Directed by Martin Scorsese Concert Promotions International Rating: 3 Considering its subject is the legendary Rolling Stones and it is directed by the critically acclaimed Martin Scorsese (The Aviator, The Departed), Shine a Light is
a surprisingly boring and pointless film. On the bright side, at least
only $15 was wasted on the IMAX ticket when it could have cost $400 to
see the same thing live. Scorsese’s film Shine a Light documents the Rolling Stones’ performances at New York City’s Beacon
Theater on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, 2006. These two performances were added
onto their tour specifically for filming and featured a set list
atypical from their other shows, with notable star guests like former
President Bill Clinton, The White Stripes’ Jack White, Christina
Aguilera and blues legend Buddy Guy. Mostly filming the two concerts, Shine a Light is also sprinkled with various interview clips with the band from the
mid-’60s and is preceded by a semi-fictionalized introduction with
Scorsese and the staff on show preparation.

