Arts & Culture

Bruno Mars' debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, is anything but conventional. The rookie took on his musical endeavor seriously, and proved what talent actually sounds like.

Initially, Infinite Definitive sounds like it could be heard on a movie during the opening credits, or a running or happy scene. The harmony is a little repetitive at first, but the songs grow on you. The songs are cheery, positive and uplifting in sound and Keith Lynch's seasoned voice adds to the flavor. It's good enough to hear in a serious movie and calm enough to fall asleep to.

With some notably heavier guitar riffs and spastic beats, Floater takes a different direction than most bands that reign in the mellow indie-rock scene of Portland, Oregon. Wake is definitely a rock-inspired album.

Prior to last Saturday at 8 p.m., I was an opera virgin.

Pictures of derelicts, vagabonds and punks run amok in the Richard L. Nelson Gallery exhibit "Wonderers." Guest curated by Matthias Geiger, the show features seven different photographers as they capture the roving, wandering and uprooted existence that many are living to this day.

On Oct. 2, KDVS 90.3 FM presented the 10th installment of the Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom Festival at Plainfield Station in Woodland.

Proudly displayed on Brooklyn-based hip-hop/punk band Shinobi Ninja's MySpace is this excerpt from a review by Radio Exile's Dan Berkman:

From tonight to Oct. 24, the Department of Theatre & Dance, in collaboration with Sideshow Physical Theatre, presents a brand new play entitled Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love at the Mondavi Center's Vanderhoef Studio Theater. Tickets are $15 for students.

In Ireland, Friday night revelers traipse from bar to bar sampling drinks in what's known as a "pub crawl."

THIS WEEK IN DAVIS: Kero One; Donnie Darko: Free Screening; Los Lobos

Interesting fact: The name for this Irish trio came about when one of the band members mispronounced "Tudor Cinema," the name of the local movie theater. This relatively lesser-known band has come out with a high-energy electropop/indie rock album that will keep you tuned in the whole way.

For all those people who still ache for the days when Maroon 5 had just released their brilliant first album, Songs About Jane, kiss those heartaches goodbye! Okay, well maybe not goodbye, but the sultry rock band's new album, Hands All Over, is a definite improvement from their second album, even if nothing will ever compete with that first album's unparalleled success. Hands All Over goes back to a more melodic, acoustic direction, much like their first album.

A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy's! The sewer people stole my skateboard! I once saw a baby give another baby a tattoo -

Howl appears at first to be one of those quirky indie films that are so popular at Cannes right now because their low budget makes them feel honest, or less commercialized so to speak. Regardless of what genre Howl fits in, I believe that it is honest, and more importantly rich in both wisdom and human rights.

On Oct. 7, 1955, at a student-run gallery in San Francisco called Six Gallery, a poet named Allen Ginsberg read a poem entitled "Howl" which ignited a series of stimulating shocks and ultimately, a movement known today as The Beat Generation.