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Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursdays

Campus Editor
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During your time at UC Davis, there is a good chance you will end up taking a class you neither need nor like. Occasionally, these classes are harder than they seem. However, let’s say you recognize your disdain for the subject too late, and you can’t drop the class. What do you do then? Luckily there is a solution: if you are in good academic standing, you may request to take the class on a pass/no pass (P/NP) basis. Though some students believe that taking a class P/NP looks poor on a transcript, it is often a better option than receiving a poor grade in a class and duly lowering your overall grade-point average. There are also a few other benefits that make this option more appealing.

For example, if you are a science major who is 100 percent positive that you want to switch into the College of Letters and Science after you fail a chemistry midterm, it makes sense to complete that class P/NP. That way, the poor grade you receive will not affect your GPA. Also, you won’t have to waste your time retaking the class when you don’t even need it for your new major.

Here’s another example: If you are taking a class just for fun, and you decide that you’ve made a terrible mistake, opting for a P/NP grade is better than having a D or an F on your graduate school application.

Pass/no pass is also a useful grading system if you want to explore interests outside of your current major, but are unsure as to how well you will do in them. In these cases, taking a class P/NP is a great way to try out new subjects while alleviating the pressure of an A to F grading scale. Besides, somehow, classes always seem more fun when you take away the pressure of grades.

Finally, if you are a graduating senior who has finished all your major classes but needs more units to graduate, taking a class P/NP can help lighten your workload. It will mostly likely be the (first and) last time you can congratulate yourself for passing with a C-.

Keep in mind, you do not receive units for a NP grade, and the amount of classes you are allowed to take P/NP varies across Colleges. The classes that are unsuitable for P/NP grading are major requirements, classes fulfilling graduate school requirements, and mandatory breadth courses (a.k.a. GE requirements). If you are still unsure as to which classes you should take P/NP, speak to an adviser. It’ll stop you from making the wrong decision.

For all of you debating about taking a class P/NP, be sure to weigh the pros and cons and make your decision by Friday, May 4th. P/NP grading may allow you to explore a new major/minor, save your GPA, or even help you relax a bit during this lovely spring quarter.

The Academic Affairs Commission (AAC) is an advisory board to the ASUCD Senate on all academic matters at UC Davis and throughout the UC system. Each week the AAC will give you tips about academic success!

Women’s Water Polo Preview

Sports Editor
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Event: Big West Conference Championships

Records: Aggies 17-12(4-1); TBD

Where: Schaal Aquatics Center

When: 4:15 p.m.

Who to Watch: If defense wins games, then the Aggies can sleep soundly at night knowing they have two solid goalkeepers.

Senior Rachel Tatsuko just earned the Big West Conference Player of the Week for her shut-down performances.

Tatsuko, who splits time with regular starter junior Riane Woods, started against Cal State Northridge and San Jose State. Woods also got the same recognition about a month ago.

Tatsuko helped the Aggies upset No. 8 San Jose State with two steals and 12 saves, that included three stops in 6-on-5 situations.

Did you know? The UC Davis women’s water polo program is currently ranked 11th in the nation. Yet, they are not the top-ranked team in the conference.

UC Irvine holds a perfect 5-0 record in conference and is ranked No. 6 in the country. The Anteaters defeated the Aggies 10-4 earlier this season in Irvine.

Preview:  It would appear that things are going the Aggies’ way right now.

UC Davis is the second seed entering the Big West Conference Championship, matching its highest ever seeding at the tournament that it last obtained in 2009.

The Aggies have made a late season push that could carry over to the postseason. They have won 12 of their last 13 games and are a serious threat to capture the Big West title, given they will have home-pool advantage.

The regular season finale against San Jose State brought about very encouraging results, as the Aggies took down the No. 8 Spartans by a score of 10-9.

The No. 2 seed earned UC Davis a bye in the first round of the conference tournament, and they will match up against the winner of UC Santa Barbara and Pacific.

The Aggies topped both the Gauchos and the Tigers by one point margins, and by no means will the No. 3 or No. 6 seeds be walkovers.

Still, head coach Jamie Wright believes UC Davis has a good chance to come away with a Big West title.

“I think we have enough pieces in place to do it,” he said, “now we have to go out and do it.”

— MATTHEW YUEN

Column: The real life

Opinion
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When you leave for a year-long exchange, you put your previous life on pause and start creating a new one from scratch at your temporary home. Obviously, Skype and Facebook help to keep in touch with family and friends back home, but it is the new (and live!) friendships that you’re really interested in developing. How often do you get a chance to meet so many new, interesting people who also are in the same life-changing situation as you?!

This year was supposed to be my American experience. It actually turned out to be our experience set in the American background. It just so happens that the group of people I hang out with are mostly exchange students. I guess it’s natural in a new, strange environment to stick to your own kind. And in this 30,000 plus community, my kind was other exchangees.

We all met on our first week in Davis, starting with the essential trip to IKEA followed by an international students orientation, frozen yogurt at YoloBerry, barbeques and a trip to San Francisco. But in the background, some other very interesting things were happening during that first week. Smaller, more exclusive groups were forming within the big group of  exchange students at Davis — the company of 80 people was simply too big to keep.

Some groups were formed based on nationalities, level of coolness or shared expectations for this exciting year. There was no competition or bad feelings; everything just happened naturally. Funnily enough though, after that first week, the groups rarely come into contact. When we do (usually at parties), it’s always a bit awkward — although we know everything about each other from Facebook, actually we don’t know each other at all …

I don’t think that this ignorance is intentional. Making new friendships, while exciting, can also be very exhausting. After a while, you realize that you are tired of sharing yourself with everyone. But when you turn to those who know you best already, sharing is never a chore. I am sure that there are people in the other groups that I could be very good friends with, but how do you start a first conversation with someone you’ve supposedly known for seven months?

I wish this wasn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong, I love my people, and our group is so big that we need a Doodle in order to see who’s available when just to grab lunch. However at times a change of company can be very rewarding. Some time ago I went on a trip to Joshua Tree. The fellow travellers were all internationals. While I knew most of them from before, most of them weren’t my people. Obviously, it ended up being an amazing trip and a life lesson too!

All those groups just happened. In a different place, at a different time, we might’ve shuffled in some other way. We act like there are some boundaries — we are here and they are there, us and them. There are people migrating from one group to another; for them the lines are more fuzzy. I wonder if the others have ever discussed this?

Anyways, in reality we’re all in the same boat: we all freaked out last week after receiving an official reminder that there’s only 60 days left until the expiration of our visas. Two months and everyone will scatter all over the world. And my paused life has recently been requiring more and more attention. I still need to buy tickets back home, find a place to live in Edinburgh … time to get back to real life. But what can be more real than this?

Each and every one of us will be bonded by the shared experience of Davis and by our fading tans from the California sun. The groups will take on a different life: trips to see each other, letters, FB messages … Hey now, wipe away those tears — we’re still in Davis, there’s still plenty of time to form a music band, we can still make those brownies and we can still learn Italian. And our international student card hasn’t expired yet, in case you’ll need to get out of paying the fine for ignoring yet another STOP sign.

To hear more about group dynamics of international students you can reach KRISTINA SIMONAITYTE at ksimonaityte@ucdavis.edu.

The Shins at the Mondavi Center

Arts Editor
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The Shins at the Mondavi Center

On Monday, The Shins played at the Mondavi Center and filled the sold-out place to the brim with their musical vibrancy.

James Mercer, with his singularly potent talent and his variously skilled supporting cast, jingled on stage with their often wistful, strangely melancholic, yet joyful tunes.

They performed for about an hour and a half, mixing it up between Port of Morrow, their most recent and perhaps too under appreciated album, and the hits. Those ranged from “New Slang,” “Phantom Limb,” “Pink Bullets” and so on, forcing everyone in the audience who didn’t already know that, wow, they have a huge array of truly excellent songs.

Anyone who was worried about The Shins (given Mercer’s relatively recent drift off into Broken Bells, a shoot-off pop-indie attempt met with decent success) probably need not be. The Shins are not dead. They are far from dead. They are very much alive.

It is worth noting, however, that while their live sound is crisp, it is not flawless. They come off best in their softer melodies, during something like “New Slang,” when the instrumentals don’t outweigh the vocals. That is not to say they aren’t good. They are very good — live and otherwise. The chemistry of perfection, however, eluded them at the Mondavi.

Opening up for The Shins were Gardens and Villa, straight out of Santa Barbara, my hometown, looking like a bunch of dirty hipsters (typical of Santa Barbara). They had a Shins-esque quality with a vaguely similar, wistful indie-rock stylization that I found to be very good. They were different enough to spark substantive interest and are certainly worth looking into (they were also at Coachella).

Before The Shins came out, Gardens and Villa’s lead singer, Chris Lynch, busted out a flute (yes, a flute). He rocked that thing like, quite frankly, I’ve never seen anyone rock a flute before: with a vengeance. Though literally, I doubt I’ve ever seen someone really attempt to rock out with a flute.

Later in the show, when The Shins were on, people rose from their seats and the Mondavi got a little steamy. When The Shins exited, the crowd cheered forcefully until Mercer returned to play an acoustic encore. All of the band then came back out and played a couple more songs.

The Shins are a substantial band. Their vocals ring with a verve, and their instrumentals rise towards excellence. It was a good show. I felt lucky to see them live.

JAMES O’HARA can be contacted at arts@theaggie.org.

Preliminary Picnic Day Statistics

City Editor
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Picnic Day statistics are compiled between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday, Davis police and the agencies assisting them.

2012:

Arrests: 53, for public intoxication: 37, four will face criminal charges

Citations: 150, open-container of alcohol: 91 (88 issued in the Safety Enhancement Zone encompassing Downtown Davis and Old North Davis), minor in possession of alcohol: 26

2011: 

Arrests: 54, for public intoxication: 32

Citations: 207, open-container of alcohol: 124 (118 in the Downtown Davis Safety Enhancement Zone), minor in possession of alcohol: 37

2010: 38 arrests (30 misdemeanor, 6 felony), 60 citations

2009: 32 arrests (30 misdemeanor, 2 felony), 83 citations

2008: 19 arrests (17 misdemeanor, 2 felony), 101 citations

2007: 19 arrests (all misdemeanors), 98 citations

— Angela Swartz

City Lovin’

Sports Editor
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Sophomore pitcher Evan Wolf took a no-hitter into the seventh inning to lead UC Davis to victory over San Francisco in his first collegiate win.

The Aggie bats picked up 12 hits to support Wolf’s outing, with four different players recording two hits apiece. UC Davis put five runs on the board, and Wolf’s stellar pitching held the Dons’ bats at bay.

With the 5-2 victory, UC Davis improves to 15-20 overall.

“The team put it on themselves to be better in midweek games and on Sundays and for [Wolf] to come out and respond to that for his first collegiate win is pretty special,” said head coach Matt Vaughn.

Wolf, making his fourth start of the season, gave UC Davis the big midweek performance it has been looking for.

The Clovis, Calif. native retired the first six batters he faced before giving up a leadoff walk in the third inning. Wolf then put down the next seven Dons before hitting a batter with one out in the fifth inning.

Wolf issued his second walk of the game in the bottom of the seventh, then induced a foul out before San Francisco’s Matt Chavez doubled off the wall in right center field for the Dons’ first hit of the game.

“Evan’s had a couple of outings like this,” Vaughn said. “He had a great start at Arizona and another great midweek start earlier in the year, but one or two things went wrong and it snowballed a little bit. To go into the seventh with no hits is pretty spectacular.”

Wolf struck out his third batter of the game before giving up a two RBI single that ended his outing. Freshman Spencer Koopmans relieved Wolf and recorded the final out of the seventh.

The UC Davis offense supported Wolf with an early 2-0 lead. Senior David Popkins doubled with one out in the first inning and junior Paul Politi singled up the middle to knock Popkins home. Politi moved to second base on a passed ball and came around to score on sophomore Nick Lynch’s single.

Popkins led off the top of the third with his team-leading fifth home run of the season over the right field wall.

With the score 3-2 in the eighth, Politi led off the inning with a double and scored on a single from senior Eric Johnson with two outs. The Aggie rally continued with a bunt single from senior Brett Morgan and a pinch-hit RBI single from sophomore Spencer Brann.

“I’m very happy that we competed,” Vaughn said. “We’ll score two or three runs early in the game, but then not score again. [Today] we were able to put up another two runs with some timely hits later in the game. We needed all of that. It shows you that if you throw strikes and compete, you can win ballgames.”

Sophomore Harry Stanwyck pitched the final two innings for UC Davis, giving up one hit while striking out two for his fourth save of the season.

The Aggies didn’t commit an error for the second straight game.

UC Davis continues its eight-game road trip with a weekend match up at UC Santa Barbara.

The Gauchos are currently in third place in the Big West, so UC Davis will hope to carry the momentum from its midweek victory and gain ground in the conference.

This week, the College Baseball Hall of Fame announced its Pitcher of the Year Watch List, and UC Davis senior southpaw Dayne Quist (6-0 1.94 earned-run average, 75 strikeouts, nine walks) has been deservedly recognized as a candidate. The Aggies will meet another player from the list this weekend, UC Santa Barbara’s freshman starter Andrew Vasquez.

UC Davis will look to keep Quist perfect in the series opener. The first pitch at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium is on Friday at 3 p.m.

RUSSELL EISENMAN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Q&A with Music on the Green bands

Arts Editor
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Music on the Green, an event that takes place in Central Park on Sunday, April 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. brings entertainment and food for both the campus and Davis community during a free outdoor event. It is put on by ASUCD External Affairs Commission, Entertainment Council, Environmental Policy and Planning Commission, Campus Center for the Environment, Project Compost, the Davis Flea Market and the City of Davis. The Aggie had the opportunity to interview the bands that were set to perform this weekend.

Jordan’s Beard
What is the origin of your band’s name?
Our bassist is Jordan. He has a long beard that is dyed red in the center. It’s tough to name a band and we had to choose a name because we had a show so we said let’s just name it after Jordan’s beard. It is a terrible name, but it stuck. Jordan is the most lovable person ever so that helps.

If you were to describe your band, what would you say?
The songs come out of 60s soul and funk. Jordan never heard these songs and generally doesn’t listen to the originals. He adds a heavier side to the low end. Our two new additions, Pat and Carl, add a funk high end, so at the end of the day, the music sounds like heavy funk, funk rock blues soul.

What are you most proud of so far?
We have never had a band fight and we get along really well. We play music that both we and our friends enjoy. When you do something that you like, that other people happen to like, that’s pretty neat, pretty cool. I love how friendly the music scene is in Davis. We’re always trying to help each other out. It’s something that I feel really good about.

Lijie
You have performed for TV stations and on tour. How do you feel to have so much success in the music industry?
I think it’s really just to keep believing in what it is that you create and push for what you believe in.

What initially motivated you to pursue the music industry?
I realized halfway through college that I couldn’t do anything else. I’ve been writing songs since I was little. Then in middle school I wrote my first full-length structure song. I called my friend and played it for her on the phone. After the song she was quiet and I realized it affected her. That was one of first times I realized what I could possibly do. It was not until college that I came to understand anything else.

How do you think Davis will respond to your performance?
I don’t know; I hope they like it. It’s hard to tell until you get there. We just had a rehearsal today. It’s been a dream to play at UC Davis — it’s really special.

MerryGold
How do you embody the pioneer spirit of the Wild West in your music?
We often reflect on modern society and feel like we were meant to live in the 1800s. We were born and raised in Gold Country and we have always valued the history of the area. A reverence for ‘nature’ over ‘city’ life is a common theme in our songs. We lived in LA for a while and we were not inspired at all by the music scene down there. We feel old-fashioned in some ways compared to other young/new bands. There is a rawness or an honesty lacking in popular music that we feel is present in our original songs and live performances. We want to be on our own – like pioneers, you could say, forging our own path through the frontier of a technologically-dependent society.

What can Davis expect from your show?
Davis can expect some new interpretations of old time music, plus some original tunes, which we hope people will take home with them as new additions to their personal music collections. We are really excited. We hope it will be the first of many. We’ve made a lot of friends from UC Davis and the Davis area, including the guys from Mad Cow String Band. We’re playing with one of their other projects called West Nile Ramblers at the Cozmic Café in Placerville on May 25th.

Souterrain
Since releasing tracks, what has been the general feedback from fans and critics?
Last year, we released a live recording we made as a trio playing around one microphone in a converted garage which people really liked. It had a rough and ready quality to it and we made it quickly, with just a couple of takes per song, so it sounds like we’re having fun. Music Connection Magazine reviewed the songs positively, but said we should treat the music to the level of production it deserved. So now we’ll have a studio recording coming out next month. By the number of downloads we’ve had of the singles on iTunes, I’m hopeful the record will do well.
What is your plan after playing in Davis?
I think, like most of Davis, I’ll be heading to Burgers and Brew.

DANIELLE HUDDLESTUN can be contacted at arts@theaggie.org.

RENT

Arts Editor
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One of the most celebrated rock musicals, RENT, is set to arrive at Wyatt Pavilion this season. Studio 301, a UC Davis student theatre group, is proud to announce their own staging of RENT, the gritty musical about the struggle for creative freedom, recognition and love when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was quickly changing the NYC landscape.

Studio 301’s RENT will have a two week run from May 10 to 13 and 17 to 20. Mitchell Vanlandingham serves as the staging director and Elizabeth Tremaine is the musical director for this upcoming production. Tremaine took some time out of her busy schedule to provide some insight about the show.

MUSE: Please tell us a little about yourself and your role in this production of RENT.

TREMAINE: I’m a recent graduate of UC Davis, where I majored in psychology with minors in neuroscience and theatre. I am the musical director for this production of RENT.

What made you decide to get involved with this production?

Mitchell and I proposed RENT to Studio 301, the student-run production company at UC Davis, because it is relevant to our community. It tells a heart-wrenching story of friendship, love, loss and grief. We wanted to use RENT to evoke discussion amongst community members about health, sexuality and other controversial topics.

What do you love about RENT?

From a musical standpoint, RENT is a playground. Composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson mastered so many genres of music, from hard rock (RENT) and pop rock (Light My Candle) to tango (Tango Maureen). Unlike other rock operas, which often stick to one genre of music, RENT plays with musical format to help tell the story. It is a joy to work with well-crafted material.

Is there anything different in comparison to the movie version?

Musically, the film version of RENT is significantly different from the stage production. Larson structured RENT as a rock opera: like any classical opera, RENT is composed of both arias (songs driven by a melody in which characters express their emotions) and recitatives (songs in which the characters adopt the rhythms of normal speech). Many of the recitatives were, unfortunately, omitted in the making of the film. We are also having a live band accompany the actors.

What is your favorite part of Studio 301’s RENT so far?

I have loved seeing the cast develop into an ensemble. They have become incredibly close, and their friendship helps make their performances believable and heart-wrenching.

To purchase tickets, contact the Ticket Office at (530) 753-1915; student prices are $14 and general admission is $16. All shows take place at 8 p.m. except for Sunday matinees, which will be at 2 p.m.

MICHELLE RUAN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Editorial: Students for sale

Opinion
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Over the last six months, UC Davis has come under heavy scrutiny for the administration’s treatment of students. A lot of time and money have been spent on administrative reviews aimed at bettering the relationship between police, admins, and the students they serve.

While such criticism is fully deserved, it fails to address the reason why students are protesting in the first place: The cost of our university education is going up and the quality is going down.

It’s been said before, and we’ll say it again – college education should be more than just a resume item.

As students in the University of California system, we are credited with being members of the intellectual elite, but we’re treated more like Model Fords on an assembly line. Surely with a bachelor’s degree comes a deeper, more complex understanding of the world than was held at the unripened age of 18. But it doesn’t seem that UC Davis is doing much to accelerate this process.

By senior year, we’re better at speaking during class when we haven’t done the reading, better at staying up all night writing essays and better at obtaining drugs not prescribed to us. Four years and thousands of dollars later, we are better at playing the system, and that’s about it.

So what is to blame? We approach this problem with what little critical thinking skills we have garnered through GE requirements.

Perhaps it is the quarter system, whose measly 10 weeks provide the same level of engagement as online traffic school. It takes a dedicated professor to give feedback to every essay written in their 300-person intro class. It takes an even more dedicated student to write an essay worth reading with only six hours of lecture material to inform their argument.

Perhaps it is the budget cuts, which mean less attention to individual students. They mean less institutional pressure to not text in class. They mean professors are forced to teach to the test. They mean no one is going to notice if you don’t show up. Furthermore, maybe it is the fact that students are forced to take classes they’re not interested in because there are not enough seats in the classes they care about.

As the cost goes up, there is a greater need for afterschool jobs and less time to focus on studying. When making lattes is your livelihood, it’s hard to prioritize 100 pages of Foucault.

Perhaps all of these issues are leading students to care more about their diploma than the education that comes with it.

But perhaps the problem is bigger than our campus or even the State. Perhaps the real issue is a society which prioritizes money over character, A’s over comprehension and campus police over professors in impacted majors.

If this campus has learned anything over the last few months, it’s that the choices of the UC Davis administration are not necessarily in the best interest of the students.

So let’s stop treating ourselves like products. Let’s start getting our money’s worth out of each and every unit we sign up for. And let’s start thinking critically about our education.

Column: TV guide

Arts Editor
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I’m sure I speak for a majority of college students when I say that our favorite activity of the day, besides eating, is watching television. We may claim to be extremely busy and exhausted, but at the end of the day we find 30 minutes to fit in an episode of “Modern Family” to reward ourselves for our “hard work.”

One of my apartment-mates sets aside at least an hour at the end of his day to watch a television show or two. Oh, only easy majors have time to watch television? Well, here’s some food for thought … he’s a mechanical engineer who still makes time for his nightly “Lipstick Jungle” or “Desperate Housewives.”

Because we’re cheap, we don’t pay for cable. But thanks to technology, we have access to Hulu Plus and Netflix, allowing us to watch whatever we want, whenever we want. In addition to today’s technology and advances in mass media we can find virtually anything online moments after they are aired.

Now, when I do find time to watch my television shows that piled-up from the week, I like to cuddle with my cat and eat a bowl of spumoni ice cream. I’m as far away from a hipster as one can get; I watch television shows that no one has heard of or has bothered to check out.

Yes, of course I watch “Grey’s Anatomy” — Shonda Rhimes’ blessing to the Earth; “Glee” — even though it’s getting worse every week; and “90210” / “Gossip Girl” / other pointless dramas as my guilty pleasures.

What surprises me though is that not very many people watch shows that I would expect everyone to be obsessing over. For one, “Community” is one of those shows that encompasses all humor untouched by television thus far; a.k.a. my own humor. It is filled with pop culture references, quirky characters and a fast and witty script. Now that I think about it, this show actually sounds like “Gilmore Girls” … without the plotline of “Gilmore Girls.”

A brand new show to television, “Smash,” has famous people all over the place. Deborah Messing, Katharine McPhee, Anjelica Huston and Megan Hilty are just a few people of the extremely talented cast. Set around the creation, production and dream of making a Broadway musical, it’s everything “Glee” isn’t: entertaining, deep and with plot lines. Lea Michele should’ve stuck it out for this audition.

My number one television show is “Happy Endings.” There has yet to be an episode that I haven’t literally laughed out loud for and I only wish to model my life after this show. I believe this show is the hidden gem of all comedy television because of the brilliant banter between characters and the hilarity that ensues in every situation on the show.

Something I’m thoroughly looking forward to watching when it returns to MTV is “Awkward.” Basically the story of my life. This girl gets herself into the most awkward and uncomfortable situations and has the dry humor that drives my funny bone. Her outlook on life and her ridiculous friends remind me of everything my life is, has been and what I want it to be.

“Suburgatory”: if you grew up in the suburbs, which I’m assuming most of you have, then this is the show for you. Emphasizing and over-exaggerating the ridiculousness that occurs in those little boxes made of ticky tacky (Get it? “Weeds?”), this show has some of the most ridiculous and hilarious characters. One of the moms named her dog Yakult, after the yogurt. If that’s not enough to get you to watch it then I don’t know what will.

Last but not least, if you’re a fan of “Say Yes to the Dress” and are nowhere near getting married, then “Jersey Couture” is for you. This reality show follows the working lives of a family’s dress shop business that caters to women searching for prom, party or pageant dresses. The customers and their preferences in style make the show — who knew that a lime-green-feather-glitter-prom dress would be chosen for the low price of $800. Who knew. Well, I did. Because I watch this show.

So if you want to avoid your real feelings and drown them with comedic shows, then refer to this column as your guide. You’re welcome. (What show is that from? “Awkward!”)

Are you convinced that “Parks and Recreation” is the show to watch? Yeah, well convince ELIZABETH ORPINA to watch it after she hated the first season at arts@theaggie.org. And yes, she knows that it got better … her television schedule is too full at the moment.

Arts Week

Arts Editor
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DANCE

9th Annual UC Davis Dance Team Showcase
Friday at 6:30 p.m. & Saturday at 10 p.m., $5
Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W 14th St.
This annual showcase serves as the Davis Dance Team’s largest fundraiser, bringing choreography and entertainment specifically for this show. Tickets can be purchased at the door or from any dance team member.

Dance Dance Davis: Free classes
Monday at 6 – 8 p.m., University Club Dance Studio
May 2 at 8:30 p.m., Davis Art Center
Shelly Gilbride, doctor in performance studies, theatre and dance alumna, local arts consultant and dancer, is recruiting at least 100 people from Davis for a flashmob dance performance to take place at a surprise Davis location on May 9 at 6:15 p.m. These dance classes serve as opportunities for those interested to contribute dance steps to the show. For more information, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.

FILM

UC Davis Film Festival
The UC Davis Film Festival is looking for entries of any UCD student film made in the past 24 months. Films made while at UCD are accepted from graduates as well. Videos can be up to ten minutes in length. Final deadline to submit is May 4; submissions and corresponding forms should be turned in to Art 101. For more information, visit facebook.com/UCDavisFilmFestival. Email Ngoc Le with questions or inquiries about volunteering.

MUSIC

Music on the Green
Sunday at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., free
Central Park
A free afternoon with the intention of uniting the campus and the community of Davis, Music on the Green has teamed up with Davis Flea Market to provide free music, delicious food and a zero-waste event. Features bands such as Lijie, Merrygold, The Souterrain and Jordan’s Beard.

MONDAVI

Members of the San Francisco Symphony
May 2 at 8 p.m., $72/$36 (student)
Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center
San Francisco Symphony concertmaster and violinist Alexander Barantschik concludes the San Francisco Symphony’s mini-Mondavi season with performances of work from the Baroque era.

ART

23rd Annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art
Friday to Sunday, at varying times
The CCACA brings the ultimate ceramic sculpture event in an intimate setting for interaction with top artists. There will be demonstrations, lectures and shows. There will be opportunities to meet face-to-face with distinguished ceramic sculptors and see/hear what makes them the top in their field.

Men’s Tennis preview

Sports Editor
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Event: Big West Conference Championships

Teams: UC Davis vs. University of Pacific

Records: Aggies, 5-15; Tigers, 8-14

Where: Indian Wells Tennis Garden — Indian Wells, Calif.

When:  Friday at 11:00 am

Who to watch: Junior Toki Sherbakov is one of The Aggies’ more thrilling players to watch, as he posted a strong performance against the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Tuesday.

In the Aggies’ victory over the Vulcans, Sherbakov helped secure the doubles point with teammate Josh Albert. He cruised during his No.1 singles match, winning 6-1, 6-3.

Did you know?  The Aggies and the Tigers met in the third match of the season.

Pacific came away with a 6-1 win over UC Davis. The Aggies lost all six singles matches and only one doubles match to the Tigers.

Preview: The Aggies begin their quest to a Big West Championship with a match against the No.4 seeded Tigers.

The Aggies ended the season on a positive note, winning two out of four matches, including a conference victory over UC Riverside. UC Davis secured a No.5 seed in the conference tournament with a 1-4 mark in league matches.

Pacific lost three of its last four matches to close out the season with a 2-3 mark in conference play.

“Pacific is a strong team,” said coach Daryl Lee, “but our top two players, Kyle [Miller] and Toki [Sherbakov], accomplished a lot and hopefully the rest of the team will follow.”

Should the Aggies come away with a victory, they will face No.1 seed Cal Poly on Saturday. As of now, they are focused on adjusting to the blistering heat in Southern California and channeling a season’s worth of hard work and dedication into the first match of the Championship.

— Veena Bansal

Column: I know those girls

Opinion
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There’s a lot to be said about the new aptly titled HBO series, “Girls”, and most of it already has been written by TV columnists, feminist critics, New York critics, feminist New York critics and other experts in the world of circle-scarfdom.

“Girls” is a show created by Lena Dunham. She stars as Hannah, a 24-year-old in New York who, at the onset of the series, is cut-off by her parents. Hannah lives in the very real world of unpaid internships, artistic aspirations and premature ejaculations. She and her friends struggle with relationships, dinner parties and trying to figure out if that stuff that gets around the side of the condom can give you HIV, which will then lead to AIDS.

There is a certain aspect to this show that is so relevant to me and our generation that it’s almost hard to watch because you already know how a scene will play out. I mean this as in it’s relatable, not predictable. When I asked a friend of mine what her initial reaction to the show was, she texted me, “I need to make life changes so I stop relating to this show.” And it’s true; in one hour of footage, HBO has shown the most realistic portrayal of the girls that I know that I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen that movie Thirteen).

The show does a good job with its depiction of the interplay between women and the sort of lexicon that friend-groups so impressingly create. On ranking the hierarchy of communication, Marnie says with confidence, “The lowest, that would be Facebook, followed by G-chat, then texting, then e-mail, then phone. Face-to-face is of course ideal, but is not of this time.” Similar interactions provide inside jokes about being a young adult in 2012, like the all but fake power of running a twitter account, or being embarrassed yet thankful that your parents still support you. There is some universal truth to Hannah that is wildly entertaining. It’s not a laugh-out-loud comedy, which makes the interplay of characters that much more realistic and subtly hilarious.

“Girls” is able to provide an entertaining depiction of twenty-something-year-old girls, probably because with all the sex and drama, twenty-something-year-old girls are pretty interesting when they stop obsessing over which brunch place to go to. It’s not a question of when the show will run out of things for Hannah and her friends to do, but if there is a broad enough fan base to carry the show.  Hannah probably won’t resonate with people outside of major cities, and even in those cities, only a small minority will really pick up on her aesthetic as an average-looking, fashion-forward, aspiring author who has sex that is equally as awkward as it is casual.

Which is why the main criticism of the show so far has been its niche approach. Putting emphasis on the struggle of educated, upper-middle class, white twenty-somethings with an affinity for dinner parties is obviously going to receive some backlash. But the point of the show isn’t to depict every 24-year-old girl, despite what the title may suggest. Lena Dunham is depicting her reality, not the realities of other people in New York or the realities of girls in other situations in life.

And while I know each and every one of these girls, I do think that there is something about the show that is relatable to a lot of people who may not be hypochondriac English major about to be cut off from their parents.

It’s because at its core, “Girls” portrays young people who are doing their best to enjoy themselves while coming to terms with adulthood and less-than secure relationships. This narrative can resonate with pretty much anyone in our age group.

Hannah’s stoned proclamation about being the voice of her generation is more an ode to the somewhat silly idea that our generation is searching for a voice and the even sillier idea that our generation deserves a voice.

We don’t feel sympathy for Hannah, since our generation knows all too well what it’s like to be denied a job, or caught in between friends; instead its empathy, because we know exactly what she is going through — we’ve been there. We know it sucks, but it’s way cool that HBO is giving Lena Dunham a Sunday time slot to show it.

If you want to talk more about the show, or you’re a twenty-four-year-old girl living in New York, contact ANDY VERDEROSA at asverderosa@ucdavis.edu.

Who’s that Aggie?

Features Editor
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Editor’s note: In Who’s That Aggie?, The California Aggie finds a student on campus and investigates their background and experiences at UC Davis.

When junior computer science major Joey Fusco walks into a room, the energy shifts in his favor. He moves quickly and speaks even swifter. Fusco sports a slight smudge on the right shoulder of his shirt and a greenish bruise on the inside of his right arm as he extends his hand to shake.

“People never guess that I do what I do,” Fusco said. He leans back in his chair with both hands now resting behind his head. “It’s usually not until they see my Facebook that they find out that I skydive.”

In fact, Fusco is an avid skydiver. In his three years practicing what he calls a sport, Fusco has taken over 500 jumps.

The allure began in a civics class during Fusco’s senior year of high school. His teacher, Mr. Gissell, informed those interested to meet at the school parking lot the Monday after graduation and he’d provide them the directions to the nearest drop zone.

“Mr. Gissell had gone skydiving once and at the end of the year he’d always give a plug for it in his last class,” Fusco said. “This occurred literally the last minute and a half of my high school career.”

Fusco considered skydiving once before. He had wanted to go for his 18th birthday, but his parents weren’t having it, Fusco said. But when that Monday morning after graduation came, little did he know he’d be receiving a belated gift.

“As my friends were headed to the school, they decided to pick me up. They were much more gung-ho about skydiving than I was,” Fusco said. “We just told my parents we were going to the Apple store in Santa Rosa.”

The drop zone was located at the Parachute Center in Lodi, CA, about an hour and a half away from Fusco’s hometown in Sonoma County.

“One of the first things I remember is the harness,” Fusco said. “It’s a big, bulky, rough harness, much different than the ones you get when rock climbing.”

Not knowing what to expect, the plane itself also served as a surprise.

“It was big,” Fusco said. “Not like commercial big, but as big as a little plane could get. It could fit about 30 people.”

He holds boarding the plane as one of his most vivid sensations ever.

“You walk right behind the prop, and it’s really windy, and it’s already hot from standing on the tarmac,” Fusco said. “You can smell the Jet A fuel because it burns so rich and it’s really hot. At this point, I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘I might have gotten in too deep.”

As the jump approached, so did the anxiety. “It’s weird because you feel nervous in spurts,” Fusco said. “The tandem instructors, while going over the procedures and giving advice, are always joking with the group and teasing. It doesn’t allow you to be scared or nervous the entire time.”

Fusco described the plane flying a pattern and looping right above the drop point.

“They threw the doors up, and all of a sudden there was this large gaping hole on the side of the plane,” he said. “You feel the turbulence and intense winds in a way that can’t be described in words.”

As each person jumped, there was a certain sensation that brushed through the plane, Fusco said.

“It was similar to putting your hand out the window of a fast moving car,” he said. “Within two seconds, the person before you goes from someone smashed against your face in a line to this dot that’s falling below. It’s the one second you have to be like, ‘Oh my God!’”

Joey’s eyes grew wide as he discussed his first jump. “That rock back – ready, set, go – moment is a moment I’ll never forget,” Fusco said. He rocked in his chair with a big grin. “You expect the anxiety to continue when you finally jump out there, but it’s all left in the plane. When I finally jumped, there was both a sense of calmness and sensation that came over my body. It was pure euphoria!”

Six months later, he went on another jump before deciding he wanted to take official courses.

“I thought it could just be a cool hobby. Never did I think it would become a full-fledged addiction,” Fusco said.

When describing what keeps him coming back for more, Fusco couldn’t help but to mention the many friends he’s met during his three years skydiving.

“It fast-tracks your friendship,” he said. “No matter how much you skydive, there’s a rush every time that only a skydiver would understand. My closest friends understand that. You feel the tension together, so you inherently have something to talk about.”

Sandra Bond is one of those friends. “Joey is very influential,” Bond said. “He’s definitely the most influential person I’ve ever jumped with. He has a certain air about him that makes everything okay.”

Another friend, Chase Wilhelm, said he and Fusco have had some of their best skydives together. “I couldn’t imagine sharing those moments with anyone else,” Wilhelm said.

Fusco has skydived in various places throughout California, but the Parachute Center remains his favorite.

“I’ve even been to Skydance here in Yolo County, but I find that the pricing is much better at the Parachute Center,” he said. “Tandems run for only $100, plus the guy who owns the place has the most accumulated freefall time in history! That’s pretty cool.”

Unlike many sports, there are no characteristics for a prototypical skydiver according to Fusco.

“Having an open mind is pretty much the only requirement,” he said. “There’s such a diverse group, from accountants and professionals to people in the military.”

Fusco said he has no definite post-graduation plans, but he is looking forward to working as a tandem jump instructor over the summer.

He concluded the skydiving talk in a Mr. Gissell sort of way.

“If I could suggest one activity in life, it would be skydiving,” he said. “People should understand that it’s not inherently dangerous. It’s a sport for me. Some people go horseback riding; I happen to jump out of planes.”

ISAIAH SHELTON can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Women’s Tennis preview

Sports Editor
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Event: Big West Conference Championships

Records: Aggies 11-11 (6-2)

Where: Indian Wells Tennis Garden — Indian Wells, Calif.

When: Friday at 8 a.m.

Who to Watch: Sophomore Megan Heneghan, a freshman in the top singles spot last year when UC Davis was upended by UC Irvine in the first round of the Big West Conference Championships.

A year later, Heneghan is still playing No. 1, but has a year of collegiate tennis under her belt. Coach Bill Maze has cited that this will make a difference this year and in the future.

Heneghan almost upset the No. 1 ranked player in the nation when the Aggies played Stanford and won her final three matches of the regular season.

Did you know? At first glance the Aggies’ 11-11 overall record is mediocre at best. Still, UC Davis stands in second place with a 6-2 Big West Conference record.

The women’s tennis program faced arguably the toughest schedule — consisting of 11 ranked opponents — in its history, but playing the top teams has paid off.

The Aggies recently took down No. 66 UC Irvine 5-2. Both teams ended conference play with 6-2 league records, so the victory over the Anteaters earned UC Davis the nod for the No. 2 seed in the Big West  tournament.

“I was concerned we overdid it early on,” Maze said. “But they kept their heads up and we knew it was the right move because they’re playing the best tennis of the year right now.”
Preview: The Aggies are rolling right now and have five straight conference victories to show for it.

UC Davis will be looking to make a push in the conference tournament where they had a disappointing loss to UC Irvine last year.

Despite the fact that the Aggies’ lineup looks very similar to that of last year, it is entirely different.

“Last year we had four freshmen on the team, and there’s no way you can go there as a freshman and feel natural, not feel those nerves,” Maze said. “That experience is going to help them. I don’t think they’re going to have that this year.”

Senior Dahra Zamudio will enter her final postseason for the Aggies while freshman Layla Sanders will appear in her first. Zamudio has maintained the No. 2 singles position and seven straight doubles victories, while Sanders has had five straight set victories at the No. 5 position.

UC Davis has also found its groove in doubles; having won the doubles point four straight times despite only winning it four times previously in the season.

UC Davis matches up with seventh seeded Pacific today in the hot climate of Indian Wells and will hope to progress on through the tournament. Should they win, the Aggies will play the winner of UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge.

“The second seed helps us a lot because in the heat, it’s tough grind at Indian Wells so it’s nice to play the No. 7 instead of No. 6 seed,” Maze said. “We beat Irvine earlier, but they’ve won it or made it to the finals a lot in the past so it will not be easy to play them if we advance.”

— Matthew Yuen

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