Arts & Culture

As my tenure as Aggie editor and columnist winds down, I find myself struck by something that strikes many arts writers at the end of the year: the urge to think back on everything that happened over the last 12 months and judge it mercilessly.

There's no denying that Los Angeles is the one of the most significant birthplaces of the West Coast hip-hop music scene. And better yet, L.A. native Dom Kennedy is quickly becoming one of those names to emerge from the West Coast feel and sound.

Landscape Architecture students spend their entire last year designing a site or researching a subject they have an interest in before publicly presenting it the day before their graduation.

As soon as the lights turn off in Wright Hall, the audience is already in anticipation for the exciting and lively music of The Who's Tommy.

"I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey." In 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a film adaptation of a British classic rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, directed by Richard O'Brien.

This time next week, the woman who brought us Favorite Things, the Book Club and Tom Cruise jumping on a couch will have officially closed the curtain on the most iconic daytime talk show of the last 25 years.

Rock band The Who came out with Tommy in 1969, a rock opera concept album about a boy who is deafened and blinded after witnessing a murder. Tommy grows up to become a pinball wizard and a rock star.

Heartful, the annual Korean Culture Night celebrating Korean-American talent and culture, is fast approaching. Held on Wednesday night at Freeborn Hall, the event is a collaborative effort put on by the UC Davis Korean American Student Association and UCD Sigma Kappa Rho.

What happens if you are an engineering, exercise biology, or managerial economics major and you find yourself falling in love with the performance world? Do you have to choose between the two?

THIS WEEK IN DAVIS: The Who's Tommy; Music on the Green with Kevin Devine; UC Davis Jazz Band, "Guest Artists"; The Chillage People; Music on the Green with Kevin Devine; STAND, Mayday: A Call for Solidarity.

Every year in May, UC Davis' department of theatre and dance hosts its own version of the Cannes Film Festival with the UC Davis Film Festival. The festival will kick off on May 25 and 26 at Varsity Theatre at 8:30 p.m.

Art takes a new direction with Josh Greene and his Least Favorite exhibit at the Nelson Gallery. The San Franciscoan-based artist brings the new term "social practice movement" to light with his approach of untraditional art objects.

This album is a must buy for Glee fans, especially for fans of Darren Criss and the Warblers. It shows just how incredible a capella arrangement can sound. Darren Criss's version of "Teenage Dream" was arguably as good as, or even better, than Katy Perry's original song. Another notable song was Criss's version of pop song "Bills, Bills Bills," which is extremely catchy and sure to be stuck in your head once you hear it.

Listening to singer-songwriter Justin Nozuka's sophomore effort, You I Wind Land & Sea, is every romantic's delight. The 12-track album is full of unexpected maturity. Although he is only in his early 20s, it feels like he has had years of experience dealing with the many facets of love. From crooning sweetly about how he has wholeheartedly given his heart to a special love on "Love", to the beat-thumping ode of the tragic falling apart of a relationship on "I Carried You," it's hard to stop listening.

Take a moment to let that sink in, because once you start listening to The Fall, you won't believe it. The hypnotic beats and electronic effects are executed better here than in other artists' tracks recorded in a full studio.