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Monday, May 13, 2024

Arts & Culture

Review: Water for the Day

Given the album title's ambiguity and the multitude of possible meanings, its origin should come as no surprise.

"I was told I was saying in my sleep, 'Water for the day! Water for the day!'" singer-songwriter Shelley Short revealed on her myspace.com profile.

Whole Earth Festival promises an eclectic mix of entertainment

Abundant sunshine and music playing on the grass- Sunday held a tiny preview of the Whole Earth Festival as DJ Sep D, DJ Kelly D,Gabriel Villanueva and Ben Mok held it down on the Quad with the weekly "Sunday Sol."

DJs Sep D and Kelly D are just some of the artists that will perform at the upcoming Whole Earth Festival the weekend of May 9 on the UC Davis campus.This year's theme is "Mending Our Web."

Review: 88 Minutes

"Tick tock,Doc,tick tock." This Seattle-based murder mystery stirs the blood and startles the senses with its time sensitivity,but lacks the intellectual analysis that seems appropriate for a movie with a forensic psychiatrist as the lead character (Al Pacino).

Jon Forster (Neal McDonough)known as the"Seattle Slayer," is sentenced to death row by Dr.Jack Gramm's (Pacino) testimony to a jury based solely on circumstantial evidence.Nine years later and12hours before Forster's execution,Gramm receives a phone call from adigitallyaltered voice telling him he has88minutes to live.

The audience does not find out the significance of88minutes until much later in the film.Upon this revelation,the viewer isin for a much-needed mental exercise toreview the events thus far and piece together how murders identical to the "Seattle Slayer's" keep occurring.

Artsweek

LIVE MUSIC

 

Scotland Barr & The Slow Drags,Kris Anaya

Today,9p.m.,$3,21

Old Ironsides inSacramento

The six-pieceAmericana rock band brings greetings fromPortland,using the catchiness factor to draw in country and rock fans alike.Look to anything from Jimmy Buffet to the Jayhawks for parallels.

 

Body or Brain,Week Long Project

Friday,7p.m.

Turtle House

B's are pretty popular these days - think about bears,beets or"Battlestar Galactica." Well I'll be bouncing my behind to the beats of both "b" bands,and you best be also! Techy pop punkers Body or Brain give the impression thatNapa is a pretty happenin' place.In actuality,they probably sit in their rooms listening to Blink182and writing upbeat jams all day for lack of more fun things to do.

 

Review: Blue Cranes

Out ofPortland's jazz scene comes Blue Cranes' sophomoreall-instrumentalalbum.Composed of almost entirely live recordings,Homing Patterns successfully offers a downbeat eclectic set of thoughtful compositionsfor any jazz listener.

Made up of Reed Wallsmith on alto sax,Sly Pig (Joe Cunningham) on tenor sax,Rebecca Sanborn on keyboards,Keith Brush on acoustic bass and Ji Tanzer on drums,Blue Cranes puts forth a powerful and whole jazz feeling.This robust sound can be heard throughout much of the album,giving it a slightly similar feel to John Coltrane or evenOregon.

The fullness of the album can be most attributed to Blue Cranes' saxophone-oriented style of instrumentation.Wallsmith's alto and Cunningham's tenor work well together,whether they are presenting a solid melody or an abstract idea.The two continually play off each other,forming the core of their style.

Review: Buildings Breeding

Interesting fact:Davis-based band Buildings Breeding was never meant to be a real band.According to the band's biography,guitarist and vocalist Christapher Larsen began with song lyrics that were originally sent as love letters to girlfriend andfuture fellow band member Melanie Glover while she was overseas.

When the band finally did materialize as more than just a façade with its own MySpace profile,it wasgreeted with a warm reception,first locally and eventually nationally.After signing withDavis-grown record label Mushpot Records,the band performed at last year's South by Southwest Festival and had a song featured on the MTV show "Human Giant."

Dance team to hold fifth annual showcase

If you've ever been to a UC Davis football or basketball game, at some point you've most likely heard the following cry over the PA system: "Make some noise for the UC Davis Da-a-ance Team!!"

While these ladies may only be the main attraction during halftime and timeouts during the games, they will take center stage this Friday and Saturday night at the fifth annual UC Davis Dance Team Showcase.

"We're on campus at various events throughout the entire year," said senior co-captain and exercise biology major Shannon Thompson. "But that's us supporting another team. This is our show."

The showcase will be held at Veterans Memorial Theatre at 23 Russell Blvd., starting at 7 p.m. both nights. A silent auction will also take place, with items up for bid ranging in everything from wine bottles to Kaplan prep courses to signed High School Musical memorabilia. But the main feature of the show will be the dance team's performance.

A week to remember: Tegan and Sara Quin

Yes,they are identical twins fromCanada.And yes,they are also lesbians.But audience members got to see another side of musical duo Tegan and Sara when they took the stage Monday night at Freeborn Hall.

Despite the darkly melodic tones of their latest albumThe Con,Monday's show took a positively lighter-hearted approach as sisters Tegan and Sara Quin took breaks to talk to the audience in between songs.Exchanges of sibling banter,hockey debates,talks of "Jacuzzi bum sex" and an unexpected wardrobe change accompanied the set.It was a personal touch from the two in an attempt to connectwith everyone in the audience and evoke a more intimate and casual living room-vibe,regardless of the venue's actual size.

UC Davis Film Festival offers professional feedback for student film projects

Students with a deep interest in filmmaking as well as those who just like fooling around with their camera for class projects may have found a rewarding avenue for their efforts.

The UC Davis department of theatre and dance Annual Film Festival, in association with the department of technocultural studies, is announcing a call for submissions due this month for the 8th annual screening in June.

For first time, the film festival will give students the opportunity to project their movies on a big screen at Varsity Theatre in downtown Davis, said festival founder, judge and UC Davis theatre and dance professor John Iacovelli.

Putting the fun in fundraiser

With a sagging economy, the dollar cannot buy much. But cobble together $100 worth of change from your La-Z-Boy, and you can multiply your 15 minutes of fame by four while supporting freeform community radio.

The annual KDVS 90.3 FM fundraiser kicked off Monday and will last until Sunday at midnight. The weeklong fundraiser is the only time of the year that KDVS actively seeks contributions from their listeners. The 24-hour, volunteer-run radio station derives two-thirds of its annual budget from this weeklong fundraiser, said general manager and junior technocultural studies major Ben Johnson.

UC Davis Film Festival offers professional feedback for student film projects

f080424_ar_filmfest.CNotes: Layout: please make a date to remember shadow boxSummary:Headline: UC Davis Film Festival offers professional feedback for student film projectsLayercake: Preliminary deadline Friday,...

Putting the fun in fundraiser

080424_ar_kdvs.CHeadline: Putting the fun in fundraiserLayerCake: Community radio KDVS 90.3 FM works to meet increased goal of $75,000 By JACKSON YANAggie Staff Writer With a...

In concert

It's been a busy week for the concert-goers as Freeborn Hall hosted two shows in two days: First the Canadian identicals Tegan andSara with the Aussies,An Horse; then Death Cab for Cutie and The Cave Singers came.

Attending two back-to-back concerts, similar in taste and most likely drawing an overlapping crowd, might make some double-nighters feel like experts. I went to the front of the line at Death Cab for Cutie and was advised to sign up my friends to take shifts waiting in line. When I askedsophomore communication major Alexandra Garabedian if she was a really dedicated fan since she had been camping out since10:30a.m., she threw me a curveball.

The latest trashion trends

Kicking off Earth Week on Monday at the Memorial Union patio was Trashion Show 2008, presented by the ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC) and the Student Fashion Association (SFA).

Models sashayed down the runway in designs made entirely from recyclable or reused material. Sixteen looks were featured at the show, including a red mini-dress adorned with CDs found at the recycling center and accessorized with a bag made from a cereal box by junior design major Frankees Samad. A ballet-inspired dress made from trash bags by first-year Sarah Silva also took the stage.

Prizes were given out to designs that were judged as the most sustainable. Rachel Aquino, a first-year political science major, won third place with a dress created from newspapers from the Cuarto Dining Commons. Senior textiles and clothing major Maureen Dougherty won second place with her refashioning of a shawl into a strapless dress and for a design made from a vintage dress from the '80s.

Canadian folk-pop duo plays tonight at Freeborn Hall

Your style has always been seen as acoustic folk rock. How is your newest album, The Con, different, and why did you make that change?

We always saw ourselves as songwriters, so there wasn't much emphasis on developing the band with instrumentation. With So Jealous and The Con, we had the chance to think a lot more about the instrumentation and worked a lot on it. We went so far as to put our own drums down and mapped out what we wanted our songs to sound like.… When we first started making music, we were 18, where you go into a studio and rattle something out.