Arts & Culture

Grammy award-winning singer-songwriters Willie Nelson and K.D. Lang have recently been added to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts' 2008-2009 season and are scheduled to perform early next year.

By the end of November, tens of thousands of writers around the world will be able to call themselves novelists. They are participants in the National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit writing contest with the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

Though it functions as a bridge between various disciplines of art and entertainment, the panoramic art form may not be a well-known creative channel. Visual artist Sara Velas is working to change that.

They've been hailed as "San Francisco's new indie rock darlings," but Berkeley-based band the Morning Benders is working to prove that they are worthy of the hype.

The Morning Benders take the stage tonight at 8 at the ASUCD Coffee House. Opening the show are San Francisco-based bands Social Studies and Love Is Chemicals. The event is free.

MUSIC

Jeremy Jay, Jake Mann, J. Irvin Dally

Today, 8 p.m., $6

Luigi's Fun Garden in Sacramento

The more mature (read: older) readers of Artsweek should be no stranger to the music of Jake Mann: The UC Davis alumnus started out in local music staple The Zim-Zims and has worked with familiar Davis figures such as Payam Bavafa of Sholi, Garrett Pierce and Andy Lentz of Mad Cow String Band.

According to some statistic presented by some magazine, the average height for a woman aged 18 to 24 is 5-foot-4. That being said, being a mere two inches below this average shouldn't make that much of a difference, one would think.

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?