Arts & Culture

With the announcement of this year's Coachella lineup - a three-day festival in Indio beginning Apr. 16 - it's hard to balance the pros and cons of spending $269+ for a three-day pass. If you haven't seen the new Coachella lineup yet, the schedule for the festival is available at Coachella.com. Here are some exciting artists worthy of mention.

I'm sure it was someone's new year's resolution to eat healthier this year. It certainly wasn't mine.

Let's face it: Supernatural fantasy is here to stay-and we're not talking about vampires and werewolves anymore. Welcome to 2010.

Philanthropist and UC Davis donor Margrit Mondavi has pledged $2 million for the proposed UC Davis Museum of Art, a project that has been in the works since 2006. The museum would house the university's collection of 4,700 artworks currently in the Nelson Gallery, as well as new collections and multidisciplinary collaborations.

The annual THIRDeYE Theatre Festival, presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance, features works that are written, directed and staged by mostly UC Davis undergraduate students. This year's line-up includes "Empty All the Boxes," "Fools Afloat" and "The Blue Jay's Song" and will be performed on Jan. 27 through Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts has been home to many dramatic and cultural performances throughout the years. The upcoming performance Spirit of Uganda is no less pertinent.

"Do you want to have a slumber party in my basement?" Or is it summer? Neither of them sound too great/safe anyway. Though her lyrics are so direct and meaningless, Ke$ha insists on offering her own distorted views on love and partying. Ke$ha's debut album, Animal, seems to lack elements of creativity, significance and effort. Clearly she was hungover when she wrote the lyrics for Animal - that's probably why there's so much one-sided dialogue and giggling going on throughout.

MUSIC

After playing a series of nine shows at the 2009 SXSW Festival, Los Angeles-based Local Natives soon gathered a flurry of positive reviews, briefly toured in England with the help of NME and landed themselves on the endearing indie label Frenchkiss Records (The Dodos, Antlers, Passion Pit) in late November. The alternative rock quintet, previously known as Cavil at Rest, released their debut LP Gorilla Manor earlier that month on UK's Infectious Records and look forward to the official US release of Gorilla Manor in mid-February.

Miike Snow, a Swedish band formed in 2007, is a great listen for the indie electro-pop fan. Their music is marked by interesting fusions of instrumentals with electronically altered sounds, and subject matter that compares the singers to elements of the natural world. By reducing himself to his animalistic basics in songs such as "Animal" and "Plastic Jungle" ("I fucked a gorilla / I change shapes just to hide in this place but I'm still an animal"), lead singer Andrew Wyatt intensifies the trance-like mood common in most of the band's music. Each song's use of synthesizers always seems fresh and innovative rather than repetitive. Toe-tapping beats, varying subject matter and the impressive vocal range of this group keep the album interesting and refreshing.

After releasing a handful of popular singles on Kitsuné, Modular and R&S over the past year, Manchester's trendy dance-rock quartet Delphic released their much anticipated debut LP Acolyte on Tuesday. The band currently holds third place on the BBC Sound of Music 2010.

The laid-back king of cool, Snoop Dogg, presents his own vision of Alice in Wonderland in his latest album, an amusing homage to the rapper's own world. Each track is done in the traditional Snoop style, with straightforward beats and calm, confident raps. It's unfortunate that, given Snoop's distinctive star quality, nearly every track features another artist. While the inclusion of such artists as R. Kelly, Soulja Boy and Brandy provides nice variation, the album is not really a solo effort.

For most of today's music listeners, the words "classical" and "guitar" probably do not sound like they belong in the same sentence.

Indecisiveness is frustrating.

UC Davis art students should feel honored. David Humphrey, a New York artist, has agreed to lecture and hold a book signing at the Technocultural Studies Building today from 4:30 to 6 p.m.