Arts & Culture

If you want to be a big shot someday, you've got to start at the bottom.

An online contest for colleges and universities to host the world premiere of the upcoming film Your Highness, starring James Franco and Natalie Portman, is currently underway. The college that receives the most votes will host the movie's world premiere on its campus, complete with cast appearances and an after-party. Second- through sixth-place winners will win a free advanced screening of the movie.

On March 6, at the Mondavi Center, music lovers and Berlioz fans alike can rejoice. The University Chorus and Alumni Chorus of UC Davis have collaborated with the University of Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Sacramento Children's Chorus, the Pacific Boys Choir, the Davis Children's Chorale and several guests to bring Berlioz's Te Deum to modern audiences.

You can associate formal stages, big lights and grand architecture with symphony and ensemble music - but really, students' hard work and persistence is what ultimately shines through at the end.

Nada Brahma Music Ensemble; Professor Henry Louis Gates; UC Davis Concert Band.

After directing the hit blockbuster films Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, Gore Verbinski takes on the animation world through the charming, and surprisingly dark, endeavors of a thirsty little chameleon.

As the old adage goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This is especially true for Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, who have taken old, forgotten candid videos of the past and strung them together into a 90-minute comedy extravaganza.

There's an overwhelming rush you experience when you revive a feeling you haven't felt in years - it's that great moment of rediscovery.

THIS WEEK IN DAVIS: Daphne Loves Derby; International Film Week; UC Davis Jazz Bands

With an infamous benevolence for the digital age and access to their music (In Rainbows' controversial release in 2007), Radiohead dropped its eighth album like a virtual bomb, shattering airwaves Friday morning when it was released a day early. It's hard to believe that the highly anticipated album, The King of Limbs, is here.

The self-titled and enumerated, sophomoric album of the young songstress Adele is a smart, soul-searching and deeply personal foray into the mind of a truly talented woman. Each song is a snapshot of another dimension of Adele's personality, which, to say the least, provides something more dynamic than what our modern audience is perhaps used to.

Oh, you know you want to buy this album. Glee: The Music, Vol. 4 includes songs performed on the first few episodes of the show's second season, and there are some real standouts.

Inception, The Social Network, Black Swan, Toy Story 3 - even if you've only seen a couple of the films nominated at this Sunday's Academy Awards, you have to admit 2010 was a pretty kick-ass year for cinema. Take it from the cinephile who saw all 10 Best Picture nominees (and no, I will never get tired of bragging about it).

Language, ideas and lasting stories have the power to manifest into something greater than loose pages bound by mere thread and staples. Once in a while, a piece of literature comes along and changes everything - even history.

Despite writing a preview for Body of Knowledge a week prior, I had no idea what to expect when I walked into the Mondavi Center on a rainy Friday night. I was greeted by the ushers with a program and the vague description that the performance piece was "experimental theatre." And experimental it most definitely was.