Arts & Culture

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum is the third release from English electro-indie group Kasabian. If their second release Empire disappointed fans of their first self-titled release, WRPLA steps back to solidify the band's foundation as a solid and electric rock group - perfect as a soundtrack for speeding (on your bike, of course).

In recent months, artists from around the world have been inclined to use synthesizers, talk boxes, auto-tune, pitch shifts and other various electronic devices, causing a gravitational shift toward glitzy electro pop in multiple other genres.

Dream Theater released Black Clouds and Silver Linings last June, achieving what just about anyone would consider successful acclaim after the album debuted at number six in the Billboard Top 200. This is even more of a success for a band that churns out 16-minute epics on a regular basis - effectively bringing progressive metal within the ranks of Lady GaGa and Hannah Montana.

We're officially eight weeks into summer break and whether you're taking summer sessions, busy working for some extra money or just kicking back and enjoying your freedom from academia, surely you're wondering what there is to do on these quiet Davis nights. Memorizing every frozen yogurt flavor at Yolo Berry, Swirl and Yogurt Shack may take a week or two depending on skill, but what's next?

MUSE spoke to artist Julia Elsas, a graduating student in the UC Davis MFA program. Elsas and four other graduating students - Crystal Haueter, Cynthia Horn, Evie Leder and Josh Short - present their work at the 2009 MFA Exhibition, currently on display at the Nelson Gallery in the Art Building.

MUSIC

Multimedia Ensemble

Today, 8 p.m., free

Technocultural Studies Building (formerly the Art Annex)

Silent films are like a blank slate for musicians, and the UC Davis Multimedia Ensemble definitely cultivated a new idea when they scored Yasujiro Ozu's 1934 silent film A Story of Floating Weeds. Led by music department lecturer Sam Nichols, the film is sure to provide an avant-garde and experimental version of one of film's early forms.

Ian McFeron Band, Shannon Harney

Today, 10 p.m., $3, 21

Sophia's Thai Kitchen

Any band named after its lead is suspicious, and often terrible (well at least one well-known one is). But the Seattle-based Ian McFeron band shouldn't be feared, with their laid-back fiddle, slide guitar, Dylan-esque vocals and major-key strumming. Davis student Shannon Harney will perform as well.

Since the release of their tantalizing indie-pop EP, Chunk of Change, Passion Pit has been gaining popularity among hipsters all over the world.

The six-track-long anthology was a Valentine's Day gift for lead singer Michael Angelakos' girlfriend at the time and eventually circulated around Emerson College, where Angelakos was attending school.

Soon after the mid-September release of Chunk of Change, Passion Pit's music has been slowly introduced to the world by corporations such as PlayStation, MTV, Pitchfork and BBC's Sound of 2009.

Alas, here we reach the end, good readers. A good 28 weeks of you putting up with my Thursday antics really have gone by quickly, now haven't they?

And with my graduation coming up, it's an especially vulnerable time for me to get all gooey on you. But the only tears that will be shed will be the ones from my right eye as it heals from a corneal ulcer, because I plan to leave on a contemplative yet light-hearted note.

An imprisoned princess, a plotting stepbrother, forbidden love and a bet. That Shakespeare sure did know how to write a story.

This Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., the Integrated Studies 8B: Playing Shakespeare class will perform Shakespeare's Cymbeline in Wyatt Theatre. The event is sponsored by the University Writing Program and the performance is free.

The Playing Shakespeare class is offered every spring quarter and is taught by Dr. Eric Schroeder. Schroeder is known for wanting to study and perform each of Shakespeare's plays in the class first, before repeating any. As Cymbeline is not one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, this production will be full of surprises.

On May 16, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a commencement speech at UC Merced. After noticing the campuswide effort that motivated the first lady to speak, two UC Davis students were inspired to get a different inspirational woman to speak at UCD.

Operation DeGeneres is a movement on campus with the main purpose of wooing Ellen DeGeneres to the UCD campus to speak. Many of those behind the project believe DeGeneres' appearance would be a great way to attract more attention to the often-overlooked UC Davis.

It's time to add another business to the list of things lost in the Sacramento area due to the faltering economy.

Alternative rock music listeners will have to go somewhere else to get their radio fix as KWOD 106.5 FM "Everything Alternative" shut down after 18 years on the dial. At 9 a.m. on May 22, KWOD played their last song - "Short Skirt Long Jacket" by Cake - and switched over to KBZC 106.5 FM "The Buzz", a station set to play exclusively 90s music.

The UC Davis Multimedia Ensemble is not dishing up your everyday traditional orchestral performance. They are instead presenting a musical explosion, melding together sounds from horns, drums, bottles, water and even laptops.

Under the coaching of Sam Nichols, a lecturer in the department of music, this group of 12 students from the music and technocultural studies departments has been working to create a soundtrack for the 1934 silent film A Story of Floating Weeds by Yasujiro Ozu.

In today's world, career advice for anyone interested in the arts is usually less than optimistic - simply glancing at any front page of the New York Times will likely offer such conclusions.

MUSE interviewed three representatives in the three broad fields of visual arts, film and creative writing to lay down the basics of preparing for an art career in and after college.

MUSIC

Relient K, Owl City, Runner Runner

Today, 8 p.m., $18 in advance, $20 day of show

The Boardwalk in Orangevale

I was born secular, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the agreeable, if not catchy, pop punk of Ohio group Relient K, even if they make the occasional illusion to the man upstairs. They certainly are sneaky about it, those ones.

UNITY

Today, 8 p.m., $10 in advance

Freeborn Hall

Other than the Wellman Pit during Whole Earth Festival, I don't see electronic music getting its fair share of attention on campus. This scarcity changes with UNITY, a rave presented by newly formed student group Electronic Music for Change. All proceeds go to the UC Davis Children's Hospital. Any UC Davis ticketholder can bring one guest; tickets will not be sold at the door.

Although he graduated from UC Davis in 1983 with a degree in physics, award-winning writer and cartoonist Brian Fies has found himself using his knowledge of science to make art.

Fies' second graphic novel, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, will be released in mid-June. Examining the 20th century, the novel explores the bygone golden age of technology and puzzles over its disappearance.