Arts DEVO

War of the Wikis Arts DEVO is not one to throw stones. He knows this Chico house in which we live is made up, at least in part, of the empty bottles lined up along our window sills. But what’s he supposed to do when he looks up “CSU, Chico” at Davis Wiki (www.daviswiki.org) and reads this:

California State University, Chico is the second oldest university in the California State University system. In recent years, this tiny little campus with a population of 14,000 has managed to steal the headlines of many papers. Given there is very little to do in Chico, the students have adapted and created their own amusement and entertainment. Like Santa Barbara, Chico is the party flagship of the CSU system. Binge drinking, abusive orgies and severe hazing have made “Chico State” a household name.

Fair enough. It doesn’t make me happy, but at least that’s all …

The University boasts 7 undergraduate colleges (including a college of agriculture) and 5 graduate schools. Through the middle of campus runs a beautiful little creek with trout in it.

… What tha!?! I usually don’t care what the Internets say about Chico, but I’ll be damned if I let an Aggie call Big Chico Creek “little!” It says right in the name that it’s a “Big” Little Creek.

The town of Chico is like Davis’ older, meaner brother that likes to beat it up every once in a while. … Though famed for its partying and dead frat guys, Chico is also a big bike town …

C’mon! Cut it out, Davis! Meanwhile, Chico Wiki’s entry on Davis (www.chicowiki.org/Davis) is just a bunch of nice stuff about farming and bikes. I think it’s clear that our younger brother has a long-overdue noogie coming! I challenge you Wildcats to quit with the beer pong and get out your Wiki bong … smoke out some Davis facts on these cow-tipping fools. Maybe start the throwdown by highlighting Davis grad and Big Brother houseguest Russell “the Lovemuscle” Kairouz. Or what about the frog tunnel, Toad Hollow, and the reptile massacre that ensued when lights installed inside the tunnel cooked the froggies before they made it out, and birds snatched up those who did make it through the magical frog-toasting machine. That’ll really show ’em!

CN&R Wiki A few additions need to be made to the list of new freelancers introduced in newly appointed editor Robert Speer’s From This Corner column last week. Here in the back half of the paper we actually have three more new contributors: Lucas Sarcona, Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff and Daniel Taylor.

Sarcona is a music man (who you might have seen arched over a guitar or keyboard playing in Joybook with wife Erin Lizardo) working on his English master’s at Chico State who has been writing CD/book reviews and features for a couple months now. Berkeley grad Garcia-Sarnoff comes to the Chico area after an extended and award-winning run as a film critic for the powerhouse alt-weekly the Santa Fe Reporter and has already made an impression (see Letters, p. 6) with his packed (and in this reader’s view, refreshing) film and food reviews. And Taylor probably needs no introduction, but definitely deserves one—the nine-year(!) Synthesis vet was one of the paper’s cornerstones, and his bleak and hilarious (or trivial and hilarious, or sometimes even poetic and hilarious) Hot Flashes was the one spot I would turn to each week. Of course, you likely also know Taylor from the stages of local bars and coffee shops since he’s in something like 47 local bands (Surrogate, West By Swan, Cold Blue Mountain, etc.). Now that he’s left the Syn to study law, the CN&R gets to enjoy his CD reviews, music profiles and random features as he keeps his writing hand warm.

And, as Bob mentioned last week, belts have loosened just enough for funny, snarky long-time CN&R film critic Craig Blamer to be able to again contribute the occasional film review. So, all together, that’s four quality additions to the already-packed writing team in the arts half of the paper. Sweet.