Arts & Culture

"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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LIVE MUSIC

Lee Coulter, Jakob Martin, Aaron Bowen

Today, 7:30 p.m.

ASUCD Coffee House

Who's got the booty? She's got the booty and you've got the booty voodoo! Headlining tonight is the Australian witch doctor Lee Coulter, who anyone hungry for a little John Mayer with some added spice will eat up immediately.

Half-handed Cloud, LAKE, G2

Friday, 7 p.m.

Scrambled Egg House

If you thought this show was last week, well, I was just kidding. The Berkeley resident John Ringhofer is the original bassist of Danielson but now writes jovial acoustic folk which may be enjoyed by a wide range of listeners. He will be joined by the local UC Davis alumnus G2

To be honest, I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of "artsy stuff" scheduled to take place over the next week. Picnic Day is a lot to swallow, which is expected - but to those of you scratching your heads as you look at MUSE today, have no fear. The "expert" in all that is artsy or of entertainment value shall bestow upon you an exclusive list of where you should be seen and what you should be doing this weekend.

Search Party. Attention all student music makers: your deadline is tomorrow! Before you go on a Safeway run to stock up on red party cups for an epic beer pong tournament this weekend, get your entry in for Search Party, the campus "talent search" brought to you by MUSE, the ASUCD Entertainment Council and KDVS 90.3 FM.