Arts & Culture

Upon walking into the room you first notice two large, very different landscape images on the walls to the right and left. Though one is of a vineyard and the other of a dusky Hawaiian horizon, the lines and shadowing are soft and exhibit a unique textured feeling.

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For myself and undoubtedly many others, the release of Sholi's first full-length album represents something more than just new music. The band, which originally formed in Davis, has been something of an icon in the local music scene for years now.

The Movement II

Friday, 7 p.m., free

Technocultural Studies Building (formerly the Art Annex

On-campus hip-hop means more than an intro to hip-hop dance class or a lunchtime picnic with The Federation on the Quad.

Taken

Now playing at the Regal Davis Stadium 5 on G Stree

Taken has all the key aspects of a typical action movie. It starts with the basics: trustworthy main character, dire situation and linear storyline.

Then come the fun but still familiar parts. The movie is peppered with realistic, claustrophobic fight sequences reminiscent of the Bourne series. The protagonist has implausible but forgettable means of gathering information.

As students, we are expected to make school the focal point of our lives - planning our schedules according to classes and units taken or devoting a good portion of our lives to earning a university education. This is precisely the kind of thing that interests photographer Catherine Wagner.

MUSIC

Katy Perry, Alphabeat

Today, 7:30 p.m., $20

Empire Events Center in Sacramento

Never mind Katy Perry - also known as the woman responsible for arguably the most annoying song of 2008 - I'm turning my focus to Alphabeat. The Danish dance-poppers have been associated with the Wonky Pop movement, a musical crusade for the "quirky, credible and catchy" that is rooted in the offbeat side of pop music of the '80s.

Rating: 3

John Frusciante will always be known for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers rather than his side career as a songwriter. His personal work, while generally impressive, is essentially just an offshoot of his work with the band, and The Empyrean offers nothing to the contrary.

Amongst my list of innocently bad habits (i.e. constantly cracking my knuckles, biting on straws), my worst vice has to be a combination of two others: the Internet and going on random tangents.

So when you're leading an Internet-less lifestyle at home like I've been doing for the past month, it's easy to devote an awful amount of time normally spent on web browsing (read: Facebook and online shopping) thinking instead about useless things, such as which of my friends would make the best "Chain Reaction" teammates or what country I would visit if I were Anthony Bourdain.

Liberal arts professors tend to appear quite busy as they sprint across campus from staff meeting to staff meeting, their bags overflowing with academic journals and used notepaper. Always curious about on-campus happenings, MUSE set out to discover what exactly these busybody professors were really up to. The answer for three hard-working professors was simple enough - writing.

Revolutionary Road is essentially a reworking of 1998's The Truman Show, instead using themes of abstract (rather than literal) confinement.

The film's lack of linear plot renders it rather difficult to describe. It spends very little time with back-story, instead choosing to jump directly into what might be termed the conflict. This permeates every part of the film, never allowing the characters or the audience a chance to catch their breath.

Advertisements on billboards, text in album sleeves and letterforms on book covers - the art of typography may be taken for granted, but artist and designer Simon Johnston has made quite a name for himself in the field.

In the exhibit "subject/verb/object," which is currently on display at the Design Museum in Everson Hall, Johnston explores the nature of visual language and the relationship between visual aids and their semantic roles. An artist talk and reception featuring Johnston will be held tonight at 6:30 in Everson Hall.

Even the most casual gamer has heard of, played or avoided World of Warcraft - a game increasingly notorious for anecdotal stories of fun and horror as more and more players log on.

In a speech early last December, former Federal Communications Commission commissioner Deborah Tate said that addiction to online games like World of Warcraft is one of the leading causes of college dropouts across the United States.

The Favorite BIcon Movie Night, a part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center's "Beyond the Binary" Week, is a chance to gather with friends and fellow students to eat cupcakes and watch an award-winning film that deals with bisexual issues.

Sure, it may be the oft-picked on butt of many jokes, but I have to say that I've always found Canada strangely endearing. Loonies & toonies, universal health care, sexy foreign accents - really, how could I not have a crush on our northerly neighbor? So when I heard that Canada was making a mixtape for President Barack Obama entitled "49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel," I could hardly contain myself in the cutesy preciousness. I cooed, I giggled, I died in an explosion of bunnies and rainbows and lollipops and Hello Kitty.