Arts DEVO

Dude! Where’d this show come from? Arts DEVO is very intrigued by Lost on Main’s Saturday, Feb. 21, headliner. Nik West is a funk bassist from Phoenix who looks like a cross between Janelle Monáe and a graduate of the Bootsy Collins Funk University (which, by the way, is a real thing—sign up today at www.thefunkuniversity.com). Her funky bass-slappin’ antics are naturally getting most of the attention, but for me, it’s her voice (and her outrageous sense of style) that are most noteworthy (check out her pipes on the slow jam “You” at nikwestbass.com). West’s band for her Chico show will include local drummer Dave Breed (of For the Love of Frank) and Redding guitarist Marc Cooper (GrooveStruck). Local intergalactic groove-masters GravyBrain will open for what looks to be the perfect night cap to the Uncle Dad’s Art Collective’s Purple Rain tribute earlier in the evening at Chico State’s BMU Auditorium.

Join the art team Dig art and art people? Want Chico to always be overflowing with both? Then show up for the Chico Arts Foundation’s Meet and Greet this Friday, Feb. 20, 4:30-7:30 p.m., at 2590 California Park Drive, and rap with the members of the local-art-funding nonprofit and find out what they have planned for the year. Application packets for new board members will be available, as will a sign-up sheet to become a volunteer.

The Spaceman cometh Local rocker-turned-filmmaker Josh Funk will premiere his second film, The Spaceman, this weekend at the Pageant Theatre. The black-and-white short is part stop-motion animation and part live-action, and stars the writer/director’s brother Jordan as a man who “builds a cardboard spaceship and goes to an alien planet to dispose of a mysterious object.” Funk will also present his first stop-motion short, the most-excellent Wormholes, during the screening. Plus, he’ll be showing off some of his puppets and props and will be on hand with his crew for a Q&A. There will be two showings—Saturday, 1 p.m., and Sunday, 6 p.m.—and $5 tickets will be available at the door.

Count your words Finally, the CN&R has gotten back to hosting one of our writing contests! As of today, we are accepting submissions for Poetry 99 (deadline is March 17, visit www.newsreview.com/poetry99 to enter). Last year, we decided to switch things up by moving Poetry 99 to the spring (to coincide with National Poetry Month) and Fiction 59 to the fall (entries will be accepted starting some time in September). In the process we skipped a writing contest last fall. That means it’s been a year and a half since we last received your poetry, and with all that extra time to refine your poems of 99 words or fewer, we’re expecting nothing but greatness!

Lining up for Pliny Thanks to a work training Mrs. DEVO attended in Petaluma last weekend, Arts DEVO was lucky enough to spend his Valentine’s Day in nearby Santa Rosa with several hundred beer lovers and a couple of cold glasses of Pliny the Younger. It was my second pilgrimage to Russian River Brewing Co.’s annual two-week-long release of its triple IPA, and it was just as bold and piney and huge and clean as I remembered. And to those who say they would never wait five hours in line for just a beer, I say, “Thank you!”