My favorite book of the summer was Sisterhood Everlasting, the fifth book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. It jumps ahead 10 years so the characters are a lot older, so it was different than the other books. Although it wasn’t as good as the last four books, I still enjoyed it.

I thought the best movie of the summer was Friends with Benefits; Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis were hilarious. This is after Harry Potter, of course. Nothing could ever beat Harry Potter.

If I had to pick one summer album that was my favorite it would be Maroon 5’s new album, Hands all Over. My favorite songs are “Misery”, “Moves Like Jagger”, and “Give a Little More”. Maroon 5 is one of my all time favorite bands.

– PAAYAL ZAVERI

The best movie I saw this summer was The Help, starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis. This movie had the audacity to lure me into the theater under the false pretenses of being a simple, dated chick flick. Once there, it proved to be an academy award-worthy, compelling film. It really should win every academy award, including a tie for all four best actresses.

I repeatedly listened to Adele’s self-entitled album for at least three consecutive months this summer. She has the rare and pure quality that is uncommon in the music industry these days–pure, unadulterated talent. Not to say there aren’t a lot of great things to listen and dance to but the simplicity of her stylistics and the intensity of her voice not only reinforces her enormous talent but proves time and again how truly gifted this very young Brit is.

Even though it’s technically not a new release, the best book I read all summer was The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. I spent a few weeks in France and Italy at the very beginning of the summer, which inevitably reminded me of the great religious question in my life: which was the best Dan Brown book. Personally, The Da Vinci is the perfect blend of suspense, historical fiction and just a truly fascinating plot with well-rounded characters (even if they’re a little stereotypical).

– BRITTANY PEARLMAN

UC Davis houses the second largest record collection on the West Coast at KDVS, the local radio station on campus. This year KDVS, the independent radio station that broadcasts from the basement in lower Freeborn Hall on campus on channel 90.3 FM, plans to be better than ever.

The station is run by community members and students from UC Davis and even some from Sacramento State. It is a collaborative effort that continues to grow and evolve from all the people who join.

“We operate as an educational radio station, so our number one goal, at least on campus, is to educate people on how to be a part of the media,” said Neil Ruud, general manager of KDVS. “We really value independent media and community-oriented media that comes from the ground up rather than the top down.

KDVS has a few different types of events and projects that they produce. They have their regular radio shows which staff members put on and other long term shows.

“More than the shows that already exist and are really good, I actually most look forward to the new faces at KDVS and the new ideas and diversity that come with them. I like fall a lot for that reason because it’s a breath of fresh air and new input, new ideas,” Ruud said.

To start a new show, DJs must volunteer for a quarter to learn the ropes and become familiar with the equipment they use. Hosts are encouraged to use the extensive music collection to make their show as interesting and entertaining as possible.

One show that has been going on for decades is Live in Studio A. It is on from 11 p.m. to midnight on Thursdays. The show has been passed down for decades since the ’70s and ’80s.

Live in Studio A features a different band or artist every week and they get the hour to showcase their talent. Bands of all levels, genres and locations have been featured on the show.

“We get really interesting people in there, everything from punk to bluegrass, to jazz, classical and spoken word,” said Karen Carchidi, event coordinator for Live in Studio A. “I try and get everybody that I can in the show. People from all over the world have been on the show. I try and pick the out the ones that I think are going to be compelling and make for interesting shows.”

Each band that performs in Live in Studio A gets a copy of their show from the professional recording engineer who does the sound for the shows. Additionally, the shows are posted on YouTube.

KDVS also produces a quarterly magazine called KDVIATIONS. They publish artwork, articles about music, shows, art, theater, etc. Writers, photographers, and artists can submit work. A list of radio shows and live shows for the quarter are also shown in the magazine.

“We’re trying to do creative things with KDVIATIONS and get creative articles in it,” said Nick Nordlinger, publicity co-director of KDVS.

In addition to radio shows, KDVS also puts on live shows. Davis has always had a large music scene, however, it shifted to Sacramento in the late ’90s, early 2000s. Now it is coming back to Davis and KDVS is helping to bring it back.

“It’s an exciting time for music in Sacramento-Davis area; there are a lot of great bands coming around,” Nordlinger said. “The local music scene that KDVS fosters is something that’s always changing; it’s a really good system and a really good scene.

Another exciting project for KDVS is that their record label is really taking off and producing albums. They will be releasing an underground hip hop compilation of Sacramento artists.

“The general theme for this year would be to open it up to more students and getting more people interested in KDVS,” said Alex Surber, publicity co-director of KDVS. “Variety is the spice of radio – if we have someone who wants to play the kind of music that doesn’t really get represented, that’s always welcome. A lot more of the shows are probably listenable to the average person on campus. They are not quite as odd as they used to be.”

List of Upcoming radio shows:

Noise Loves Audio, Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m.; host: Anne Halo.

The Triplofonic Sounds of the Hacienda Sunrise, Tuesday from 1 to 2:30 p.m.; host: Lady Kay.

Mahou Shoujo, Wednesday from 1 to 2:30 p.m.: host Dr. Kelp.

Upcoming Live in Studio A shows:

Unwoman, Oct. 6: Unwoman (aka. Erica Mulkey) is a San Francisco based cellist-singer-composer-producer.

Rose Windows, Oct.13: A band from Seattle; it calls its genre post mortem swamp swimming psychedelic bearers of doom.

Force of Habit, Nov. 3: It is a rock/metal band from Dixon and are always ready to rock.

Saint John and the Revelations, Nov. 17: It is a folk rock/indie band from Venice, Calif.

PAAYAL ZAVERI can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

As one of the main organizations to bring entertainment to campus, the Entertainment Council, which is part of ASUCD, aims to supply the student body with accessible avenues to enjoy.

Being a somewhat smaller aspect of the whole student body governing system, Entertainment Council is given a fair amount of flexibility in terms of how they accomplish attracting, producing and executing Freeborn Hall-sized concerts in years past.

But this year, Entertainment Council Director Henry Chatfield, a senior psychology major, has an even bigger plan for the organization. Along with Entertainment Council’s assistant director and senior technocultural studies major Timothy Chin, and ASUCD’s president and history major, Adam Thongsavat, the team has big goals and big ways to achieve them.

“We’ve had some awesome directors in the past,” Chatfield said. “But Tim and I are trying to go in a different direction, in terms of the size of the shows that we’re bringing. We’ve got some really exciting things we’re working on.”

Last Spring quarter, Thongsavat, Chatfield and Chin proposed Senate Bill 77 to grant the Entertainment Council bigger funds and a means to accomplish Pavilion sized shows.

“We drafted a senate bill which passed and gives us a lot more ability to bring in bigger shows,” Chatfield said. “With more money to work with but in a very fiscally responsible way. It will give us more of an ability to work with what the students would like to see.”

With this new bill, Entertainment Council plans to reach heights that have not been feasibly possible in previous years, for pure lack of funding.

“It gives $100,000 from Reserves for the Entertainment Council, which gives us a mechanism to have a huge capital to get larger venues, like the Pavilion. Which will return us huge funds. It was a huge proposal to come up with,” Thongsavat said.

With this new “machine,” the Entertainment Council fully intends to use the full weight and bring larger sized concerts to Davis, so that in the future, students will fully expect this from their student government.

“We are not like UC San Diego, who has a huge entertainment fee passed onto their students,” Thongsavat said. “They have a mechanism where they have a big fee for students that get them big concerts. Ours is not nearly as large, but now we can compete with other schools and venues.”

More than just bringing in bigger events, Entertainment Council and ASUCD are concerned with maintaining their top priority of pleasing the student body.

“We are doing a lot of shows on Freeborn and Pavilion. It makes it really tough, but it’s on the right course,” Thongsavat said. “My dream is that this will become a large mechanism, with keeping costs low and making money off general admissions. And allowing students to see high quality entertainment.”

Chatfield confirmed that as always, Entertainment Council continues to strive to bring down the price of the ticket but not the value of it.

“We’re working more closely with the executive staff with ASUCD; they are also trying to bring students the cheapest prices possible,” Chatfield said.

The success of the bill, and the consequential ripples that can be felt with its passage, Chin attributed to the relationship between ASUCD and Entertainment Council.

“We’ve been working really closely with ASUCD, and found out what they felt worked and did not [in the past], and try make every event we put together as successful and as available to the students as possible,” Chin said.

To prove they mean business, the Entertainment Council has confirmed that Cake, a native Sacramento band, is performing in Freeborn on Oct. 6 and 7, with help of concert promoters, Square Peg Concerts.

Another concert that the Entertainment Council team secured is occurring on Friday. During this year’s Buzz, a great up and coming band, Wallpaper, will perform.

In addition to that, this year will see free lunch-time entertainment outside on the Quad. Confirmed dates include Writer on Oct. 13, Sleepy Feet on Oct. 17, and Finish Ticket on Oct. 27.

BRITTANY PEARLMAN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

THIS WEEK IN DAVIS

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $35

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

Wayne Shorter Quartet

Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $35

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

Closing Reception of Fall Opener

Today, 6 p.m., free

Room 124, Art Building

MUSIC

Tiesto

Oct. 4, 7 p.m., $40

UC Davis Pavilion

World famous DJ makes his way to small-town Davis! As his exclusive Northern California show, Tiesto will be sure to bring an entertaining and lively show at the UC Davis Pavilion. Don’t miss out on this epic night of dancing your night away.

CAKE

Oct. 6 and 7, 8 p.m., $37

Freeborn Hall

Entertainment Council is doing it big this year with two nights of CAKE. On Oct. 6 and 7, CAKE will bring its American Rock flavor and light up the Freeborn Hall stage.

ART/GALLERY

Closing Reception of Fall Opener

Today, 6 p.m., free

Room 124, Art Building

As the last gallery to be hosted at the “old nelson gallery”, seven Master of Fine Arts Candidates will showcase their artwork. Today’s closing reception will introduce the MFA class of 2012. Additionally, the artists will be in attendance to talk about their work.

The Fifth Annual Davis Jazz Festival: Beyond the Beat Generation

Oct. 5 through 29, varies, free

Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St.

The Natsoulas Gallery hosts its annual Jazz and Beat Festival which pays tribute to the historically significant period of American post-WWII writers and artists. The movement was inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” in 1956. Be ready to get inspired.

THEATER/MONDAVI

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $35

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

The mandolin is one of those instruments that you don’t see often in the context of Jackson Hall venue. Fourteen-time Grammy winner, Ricky Skaggs, brings folky and life-filled music through his skills with various instruments.

Wayne Shorter Quartet

Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $35

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

Jazz, let alone modern Jazz, is magical when witnessed live. Wayne Shorter will present his work with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers through Miles Davis’ ’60s quintet. The jazzy tunes from cellos and horns will play alongside Danilo Perez’ piano and John Patitucci’s bass.

LITERATURE/POETRY

The Poetry Night Reading Series presents Sandra Gilbert

Oct. 6, 8 p.m., free

Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St.

Along with serving as a venue for art and music, the Natsoulas Gallery also features live poetry reading on Thursday nights. Dr. Andy Jones will host the event presenting Sandra Gilbert who is an influential literary critic and poet.

The Philosopher’s Circle

Oct. 4, 8:30 p.m., free

Logos Books, 513 Second St.

Every Tuesday of the month, Logos Books hosts a Philosopher’s Circle which discusses “big questions”. The Philosopher’s Circle encourages all to join – students as well as community members – to discuss questions about life and religion, among other topics.

UYEN CAO can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

There are many things about the UC Davis campus that even seniors don’t know about. For example, did you know the university funds three major museums, all located on campus? The three museums include the Design Museum, The C.N. Gorman Museum and the Richard L. Nelson Gallery.

Design Museum

This Fall, the Design Museum will be in its new home at Cruess Hall instead of its old home, Walker Hall, where it had previously showed exhibits for nearly 35 years. The new location has 1,000 square feet of space, perfect for showcasing even more collections for the next 35 years.

The Design Museum’s exhibitions often show how design in technology can make significant changes in the environments we are in every day. For the upcoming school year, the museum has a very full schedule. Its doors will open on Oct. 10 for an installation done by Robert Gaylor titled Gyre, A Grand Tragedy of the Commons.

Gaylor is a former engineer who incorporates day-to-day consumer products in his exhibitions.

In Winter, starting Jan. 23, blankblank, a Northern Californian design firm that works with numerous types of artists in producing limited edition art, will be curating Need and Desire, Work. Rob Zinn, the founder of blankblank describes the show as one of ambiguities. The show will also include details of the process through several interviews, photographs, models and sketches. In Spring, there will be two student artwork exhibitions; The Design by Design, which is a student competition, and the Design MFA Graduation Exhibition.

The C.N. Gorman Museum

The C.N. Gorman Museum is the oldest museum on campus, founded in 1973 by the department of Native American Studies, and is located in 1316 Hart Hall. It is named after Carl Nelson Gorman, former UC Davis faculty who was a WWII code talker, a Navajo artist, a cultural historian and a Native American advocate.

“The Gorman Museum is a very unique space,” said Veronica Passalacqua, the curator of the Gorman museum. “It is one of the few museums in the nation that focus on exhibiting and working with contemporary Native American and indigenous artists. We are positioned to really push the boundaries of viewer’s expectations in terms of political dialogue and artistic innovation in contemporary media.”

The first show of the year for the Gorman museum will be on Sept. 29, titled Double Vision, which will last until Dec. 2. The exhibition is a collaboration with the Great Plains Art Museum at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The exhibition aims to show a collection of photographs paying homage to the Bison Nation while subtly presenting how the expansionist view coupled together with consumerism culminated in their eventual massacre.

On Jan. 10, the museum will be featuring the works of famed artist, Ruthe Blalock Jones. The focus of the show will be on Native American women and dance. For Spring, Sonya Kelliher-Combs will have a solo exhibition in which organic media such as walrus intestines and beeswax are used to create startling works.

Richard L. Nelson Gallery

Opened everyday except Friday, the Richard L. Nelson Gallery hosts a large quantity, as well as variety, of artworks. The museum is located in Nelson Hall, next to the Wyatt Pavilion and adjacent to Old Davis Road. It was named after the first chair of the UC Davis art department.

The Nelson Gallery has a vast collection of art which contains over 4,000 works of art of many diverse material as well as origin. The Nelson also manages the campus outdoor public art collection, including the Arneson Eggheads series.

“The main thing I want students to know is that we exist!” said Reynold Pritikin, Nelson museum curator. “We’ve been around since 1976, so please come by. Students can see really cool old fashioned art like the Rembrandt and 2500 year old Chinese vessels but also amazing stuff by younger artists.”

The first exhibition of the school year will be by Chico MacMurtrie, who specializes in computer driven kinetic sculptures. It will be titled Birds: A Kinetic Installation.

“It’s a really interesting exhibit,” said Maverick Bohn, a senior who is the desk clerk at the Nelson. “The permanent collection is especially amazing and has artwork all the way back to the 1800s.”

On Jan. 12, “Three Painters: Peter Edlund, Leslie Shows and Fred Tomaselli” will start. It will exhibit new paintings by the three acclaimed artists mentioned above. All three of the artists’ work is influenced by nature. And finally, in June, there is the annual graduate show for students getting their MFAs. Pritikin strongly urges students to come by the museum.

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

Known for hosting artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, speakers like Sarah Silverman and David Sedaris, performances by the New York Philharmonic and other notable events such as the Whitman/Brown 2010 Gubernatorial Debate, The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts keeps true to its mission of bringing shows that will not only attract but enlighten students with its 2011-12 lineup.

With performances by k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Improvised Shakespeare Company and the U.S. premier of Ballet Preljocaj: Blanche Neige, the Mondavi Center has packed the schedule with a variety of shows.

“There’s going to be at least one thing for everyone to look forward to this year,” said Amanda Caraway, public relations coordinator of the Mondavi Center.

But aside from classical artists and performers, the Mondavi Center hosts various other types of professionals. Movie screenings, spectacles, world music, comedies and talks given by authors summarize the sort of shows to anticipate. Along with live performances and speakers, weekly movie screenings are held as a part of a series of filmed operas. With two stages, the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre and Jackson Hall, The Mondavi Center allows for private and large-scale performances.

“Whatever area it is, we want people who we think are the best or who are emerging and we’ll bring them onto campus early on in their career,” said Don Roth, executive director of the Mondavi Center. “Along with tried and true performers on the Mondavi stage, brand new shows and first-timers to UC Davis are on the list of shows for this year.”

The Improvised Shakespeare Company creates Shakespearean plays based on a plot that is given to them by the audience, a first for this stage, in April. The Scottish Ballet makes its UC Davis debut in October, and the U.S. premier of a contemporary Snow White “spectacle” arrives in March.

“We have an all-male ballet company performing in February. They’re mean in drag in full makeup dancing,” Caraway said. “Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returns to UC Davis, and according to the Mondavi Center website, this group remains one of the most popular dance troupes in the United States.'”

Those in charge of recruiting performers and setting up shows attend conferences where artists showcase their talent.

“Anytime we bring a theatre or dance company, we see it first. We have to get a feel for how it’s going to work in one of our halls. With music, we don’t have to see everything,” Roth said. Bringing the best shows to UC Davis students translates into buzz about artists, enrichment of the arts and expansion of knowledge of other cultures.”

The Mondavi Center is also working alongside the Entertainment Council this year.

“We’re in talks with the Entertainment Council to utilize our resources to bring more student-oriented shows,” said Erin Palmer, Aggie Arts director of the Aggie Arts Program. “Aggie Arts is a first-year yearly internship program that works with four students to get feedback from students about classical performances as well as gain administrative skills.”

Because the goal of the Mondavi Center is to provide easy and accessible tickets to see artists that the students will enjoy, student prices and deals are promoted. Something many students never find out is that every first-year student gets a free ticket to any show they want. Whether they are a freshman, a first-year transfer or a first-year graduate student, a free ticket can be obtained through the box office.

For the rest of the students, tickets can be purchased half price any time, all the time. This discount applies to any show, but only one ticket can be purchased with the discount at a time. Students are not limited to the amount of shows they can use the discount for, however.

Because of the popularity of this year’s lineup, The Mondavi box office will be selling tickets this Friday to sold-out shows for the season.

“We think it’s important for every student to see every artist we have here, so we hold 10 percent of tickets for students,” Caraway said. “From noon to 6 p.m., students can bring their student ID to purchase their ticket for half price to these sold out shows.”

ELIZABETH ORPINA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Turn up the stereo and listen to the beats amplified a million times over and over again. Keep turning it up and watch the speakers thump and synchronize with the sound of your heart. Cheap wine, warm summer nights, J Dilla beats, splattered paint on walls and pavement – all remnants of a summer that’s come and gone too quickly.

Perhaps some of you had your share of summer romances, traveling to exotic places, taking boat rides with a good-looking stranger and watching the night unfold in the midst of a sultry summer haze. I guess you can say that I had my own version of that romance but in a very much different, less literal, kind of way: with words, paint and brush.

Granted, my version is far less fun and exciting in comparison, I’m sure. While everyone is coming back with a sexy-lusty golden tan, there I am standing with my pale complexion and paint-stained and tattered clothes. But for good reason, I can’t seem to find a reason to complain.

I did my fair share of soul-searching this summer in complete isolation from the rest of the world. (Where is this remote location you ask? Well, Davis of course!) I forced myself to stay in one location so I could focus on the sole act of painting and writing every day. It’s kind of like when French painter Bernard Buffet locked himself inside his studio for two consecutive days and didn’t allow himself to leave the room until he finished his portrait-I did so within the vicinity of Davis.

[Davis is a funky little place]

But, what sparked this sudden urge to (as cliché as this sounds) “find myself”?

After four years of messing around and mindlessly attending lecture trying to B.S. my way through projects, exams and essays, I figured it was time to hone down the reason why I was really in college. But, this gets into pretty heavy issues – maybe too heavy for this column. Maybe you want the absolute and simpler truth, then? Well, here it is: the realization that I was going to be coming in as a fifth-year super-senior this Fall scared the crap out of me. And with a pile of student loans dauntingly staring back at me, I had to get my shit together. Honestly, fear is the greatest motivator when it comes to “getting your shit” together.

I really felt like I was starting from scratch – as if my entire undergraduate career would squeeze into this one summer leading into this one year. There were so many discoveries to be made about myself that I hadn’t known before. But at the very core of it all, I just knew that I had the greatest passion for writing and art.

So I did it.

On a random weekday during the first week of summer, I met up with my advising counselor and filed out paperwork to change my major from landscape architecture to art studio. At the end of my fourth year of college, while all of my friends graduated, I decided to change my major. Since none of my units overlapped from my previous major to art studio, I am basically starting over.

Although I’m still completely terrified, I don’t remember a time where I felt more alive. It’s a great feeling when you finally know what you want to do. I can finally walk the walk – with a sense of purpose.

If you’ve reached this part of the column, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read this. Let’s take this journey all over again. Let’s talk about music, art and just life in general together in this exact spot, on this exact page, every Thursday. Looking forward to it.

UYEN CAO would like to know your favorite moments and epiphanies during college so far. Let her know by e-mailing arts@theaggie.org.