Arts & Culture

The newest art pieces by retired Chicana/o studies and art professor Malaquias Montoya are now on display at the Pence Gallery in downtown Davis. The exhibit - which features 23 paintings and prints - is titled "Globalization & War: The Aftermath" and will be open for viewing until Dec. 21.

The Davis community got a peek inside the world of local radio through the Davis People's Free School course, pirate radio. Taught by Davis resident and radio enthusiast Mark Chang, the class will meet again to set up an antenna and broadcast a radio show throughout Davis. Contact Chang about the upcoming broadcast or future pirate radio classes at toptriode@gmail.com.

Got something to say? Poetry may be a perfect outlet. The UC Davis Poetry Slam Team is holding auditions today at 7 p.m. in Griffin Lounge, located on the first floor of the Memorial Union.

Seasoned UC Davis students and alumni may remember Rock It!, a Thursday night rock addition to the Davis nightlife. They may also remember its conclusion when Rock It! creator Jordan Smart ended the event after a year-and-a-half long run.

Every quarter, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts chooses a new theme for their "Focus on Film" series. Upcoming themes for this year include cases of mistaken identity in Alfred Hitchcock movies and movies that inspired the work of director Paul Haggis. This fall's theme is "Shakespeare in the Cinema."

Undergoing stressful audition processes, dealing with intense criticism left and right - breaking into the entertainment industry is hard enough. Imagine having to overcome problems of misrepresentation and underrepresentation to boot.

Undergraduate students have the potential to do great things. This year's THIRDeYE Theatre Festival, entirely put on by undergraduates, is not one of those great things.

The first play of the festival, The Readers by Joe Ferreira, threw together important plot elements at the very beginning. The mysterious silhouetted paper passers, the barking dog and the franticly cleaning artist started the show off, dare I say, dramatically.

While some students saw last summer as a break from work, Jason Dunne saw an opportunity. The junior art studio major embarked on a project - to create 30 chairs in 30 consecutive days.

Dunne challenged himself with certain guidelines for the project, such as only using recycled or found material and not using any parts that were previously on a chair. The final display, which will be presented at the Basement Gallery (located in the basement of the art building) from Nov. 10 to 15, is a collection of 30 unique chairs.

MUSIC

Mylo Jenkins, Brethren, Brethren & the Brethren

Today, 9:30 p.m., $5

Primary Concepts at 219 E Street

Santa Cruz band Mylo Jenkins makes the kind of down-home rootsy indie-folk that reminds me of my childhood days sippin' lemonade out on my front-porch. OK, so I may be embellishing a bit - truth be told, the apartment I grew up in San Jose didn't have a porch to host impromptu folk jam sessions - but the idea is nice, no?

As the third largest film industry in the world, Chinese cinema is getting some much-deserved attention in the city of Davis.

The 2008 Asia Pacific Film Festival opens today and runs until Sunday. The event is free. A short presentation will accompany each screening, and a public symposium titled "Understanding Chinese Cinema: Gender, Modernity, Identity" will be held on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Olson 6.

Atlanta rock band Deerhunter is defined by two simple characteristics - teenage angst and sexual exploration. The latter I got from a sticker on the album that described their sound as "a distrubing plea for erotic asphyxiation." Um … is that supposed to make me want to buy the album?

There'll Be Diamonds by Portland-based band Super XX Man is the kind of album that should accompany a long-distance road trip. The effortless transitions between tracks make it an easy listen from beginning to end.

The brilliance of the Internet (besides self-promotion and e-endorsing presidential candidates - I like to think all those Obama pins I sent out on Facebook did some good for his campaign) lies in its ability to make even the most boring day seem exciting, or at least marginally interesting enough to care about. Why else would people create blogs that chronicle their lives or to follow things like random street fashion?

Much like a romantic comedy - you know, that old standby you rely on to give you the warm fuzzies when you're feeling down - Jason Mraz did what he does best as he took the stage in Freeborn Hall on Nov. 3: deliver feel-good pop tunes.

Despite late night hours, research and writer's block, the time and effort poured into class papers and assignments is not always in vain.

The University Writing Program's 20th annual Prized Writing Student Authors Event will present three winners from its 2007-2008 competition. The free event will be held today in 126 Voorhies at 4:30 p.m.