Arts & Culture

For the very first time, Aggies can enjoy a night at the opera at the Mondavi Center.

If you wandered by Wright Hall's Main Theater last Thursday night, you would hear an eclectic combination of high noted operas, soulful gospels and many, many scales of arpeggios. Was the choir practicing into all hours of the night?

Eight UC Davis undergraduate students have moved one step closer to being the next great American writer. On Feb. 10, the winners of the 27th annual Pamela Maus Contest in Creative Writing, which honors both fiction and poetry written by UC Davis undergraduates, were announced in a ceremony at Voorhies Hall.

The Doggfather of rap stepped onto Aggie soil for the first time Monday night and delivered an unforgettable performance.

The most notorious person in film studies right now is a guy named Mike Lacher.

THIS WEEK IN DAVIS: Author talk: Elena Mauli Shapiro; La Rondine; Daphne Loves Derby

A collective gasp of surprise could be heard at the 53rd Grammy Awards on Sunday night when the winner of the "Best New Artist" award was announced to be not emerging stars Florence + the Machine, Mumford & Sons, or Drake, or even every pre-teen girl's fantasy, Justin Bieber, but a woman by the name of Esperanza Spalding.

In a sure to be inspiring evening, the critically-acclaimed playwright, author, and poet Ntozake Shange will be featured in the Leslie Campbell Legacy Speaker Series presented by UC Davis Campus Unions and African Continuum in honor of February's Black History Month. The presentation will take place this Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Freeborn Hall.

When you see actors on stage reciting their lines under the glamorous limelight, did you ever think about the design, aesthetics and planning that goes on behind scenes?

While a number of Davis students were dancing the night away at Monday's Snoop Dogg concert, something a little different was happening at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

On Tuesday night in 1100 Social Sciences, something that has never been done before in the history of UC Davis occurred: a talent show. The Campus Union Center for Student Involvement has officially succeeded where others have failed.

For one UC Davis graduate, going to work means operating angst-ridden, singing puppets in packed theaters around the country. And yes, that is exactly as fun as it sounds.

Due to the recent pop rock rendition of Spring Awakening that made its Broadway debut several years ago, most people are totally unfamiliar with the musical's predecessor, the play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, written in the late 19th century.

There was a soft silence in the crowd of more than one thousand people and then, the curtain rose, the beginning beats of a popular Hindi film song filled the air, and a group of dancers burst onto the stage. Their costumes shimmered in bright blues, shimmering reds and hot pinks as they threw their hands up in the air, twisted in a seductive pose, and began their routine.

Long Beach natives Cold War Kids' new album is filled with grown up melodies and commercial sound. Mine is Yours is a collection of tracks that is passionately played, cleverly written and filled with catchy melodic hooks. The bands ambiguous grace embodies the album as singer Nathan Willett croons to bluesy rock, filling it with emotional fervor, that at times does seem a little disingenuous.