It is fitting that during Earth Week, and a week before the Whole Earth Festival, the city of Davis will host the region’s largest professional art function that embraces earth —literally. That is earth of the ceramic variety.

The John Natsoulas Art Gallery is hosting the 23rd annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art (CCACA) in downtown Davis April 27-29.

Pronounced “caca,” like the natural fertilizer that animals drop to the earth, the CCACA’s festivities will showcase ceramic art from three Los Rios District colleges, CSU Sacramento, UC Davis and more than 40 West Coast colleges, universities and [read more...]

The punk rock group City of Vain is relatively new on the Sacramento music scene, but after just a year of playing together, they are about to launch a tour of the west coast in March.

The band members say they are looking forward to the tour as a way to promote their “American Nightmare” EP. The band will be joined on the road by England’s Crashed Out.

The band members hail from many different locations: lead guitarist Drew Boyce is from Davis, keyboardist Minh Quan hails from from Washington, D.C., vocalist Steve Ross is from Sacramento, along with bassist [read more...]

Bows and Arrows hosted a hooded cape fashion show Feb. 17, where the designers showcased polished styles similar to high fashion runways. In the heat of spring fashion shows around the world, the designers presented pieces with light fabrics to fit the Sacramento weather.  Each designer was able to present at least two pieces. “A lot of the fabrics in this show are spring oriented, especially since Sacramento is mild all the time,” said Trisha Jeanne Rhomberg, one of the designers for the show and owner and operator of [read more...]

Happy hour is revered among the college crowd. Not only do you get food at a cheaper price, but you also get cheap beer; it’s like magic. The Express decided it was time to spread the magic around and see how many happy hours we could hop to in a three hour time frame.

Since our first happy hour happened to fall on Thrifty Thursday at Capital Dawg, we figured that would be a good starting place. For $2, you can get a capital, turkey or veggie dog and if you fancy them fried, corn dogs are the same [read more...]

Many students complain about the size of their book bags. Imagine lugging a 14-inch TV around campus, a necessary evil if you plan to save the world from the comfort of your school’s café.

At City College, lurking in the depths of the café under the florescent lighting, the rotten orange-peel-toned walls scream loudly as the smell of pancakes and margarine circulate in the air. Student and competitive gamer Mathew Boykins, 20, sits with circular thin-rimmed glasses and outdated Nike training shoes, focused and ready to fight.

Boykins is perfecting his craft. Why else would he bear the silver 14-inch [read more...]

If you are interested in hearing about the awarding-winning art series “Scenes from the Downturn: An Exploration of the Pile Series,” be sure to stop by the Cultural Awareness Center from 3 – 4 p.m. Nov. 30.

Gioia Fonda, a professor of 2-D studies at City College will be giving a lecture on her work, “Pile Series.”

“The piles have come to represent many layers of our current state, not only a reflection of the lending crisis but also a comment on our rampant consumerism and the utter disposability of what we produce and what we buy,” Fonda says.

Fonda [read more...]

Looking for an easy alternative way of getting money besides work or financial aid? Write an essay.

Funded by the Sierra Health Foundation, City College’s Outstanding Essay Contest is providing undergraduate students who are enrolled at City College for the fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters a chance to win big bucks based on the essay topic of civility.

The first place winner will receive $1,000; second place will receive $700; and third place will receive $300.

The essay topic on civility can be entirely personal or based on research. There can only be one entry per student and must [read more...]

“J. Edgar,” directed by Clint Eastwood, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in the film which chronicles his life from his beginnings as an ambitious assistant at the Justice Department to his tenure as the first director of the FBI.

Clint Eastwood, possibly the most respected man in Hollywood, doesn’t always hit his mark as a director.

“Unforgiven,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” and were big critical hits. “J. Edgar” however, is not one.

The film, while not boring or horrible by any means, does not do a great job of diving into Hoover’s mind and just [read more...]

Hungry for art? Why wait. City College’s art department is hosting an annual holiday fundraiser art event. This event allows not only students to sell their handcrafted art, it also welcomes staff and faculty as well.

“It is also [gives] a chance for students, staff, faculty, administrators and the public to buy some interesting gifts or something for themselves,” art instructional assistant Jennifer Griffin says.

Students, staff and faculty can submit their artwork between 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Nov. 29 and have itdisplayed for sale in Café 2 Nov. 30-Dec.1. The hours of the function are from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. [read more...]

The saying “for the birds” takes on a whole new meaning at the current Kondos Art Gallery second annual “Birdhouses” show, which opened on Nov. 10. More than 60 pieces of work are on display at the City College art gallery, representing artists from all over California, including some City College faculty and staff.

“People requested that we do it again, because everyone loved last year’s show so much,” said Suzanne Adan, a curator of the Kondos Art Gallery and adjunct art professor at City College.

Eric S. Wood, one of the shows artists and a former art professor at City [read more...]