Arts Devo

Good hair day I've had basically the same haircut for my entire adult life. Derived from some British/new-wave paradigm I dreamed up in high school, my style has always been to keep the sides and back short and the top long (with the length varying greatly—from Morrissey to Thurston Moore) and parted to one side. “Wedge-head” is what the jocks in high school called it. Barbers have called it everything from The Collegiate to a “skater cut,” but despite the predictability of my taste, very few have been able to get it just right. Of the dozens of barbers and stylists I've sat for, only a handful have cut my fat head perfectly. When it has come together, it's been a huge surprise. So, with that said, I have to give a huge shout out to my current guy, Ricardo Mojica, over at the new Chico's Barbershop downtown (162 E. Third St., 487-7373), who just gave me probably the best haircut of my life. I can't stop looking at myself! Arts DEVO highly recommends the man and the clean, stylish new shop, with six barbers—Eberardo, Sage, Javi, George, Franco and Ricardo—cutting at six very busy chairs.

Good beer days One of the most popular beer events going is Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.'s annual Oktoberfest celebration during the first week of Oktober, and tickets are just about to go on sale for this year's beer/food/music celebration. (Visit sierranevada.com/oktoberfest to buy tix starting Friday, Aug. 14). And for 2015, there are two big pieces of news: First, Sierra Nevada has added a third day of revelry under the big circus tent next to its hop fields, so now you can go Friday or Saturday night or Sunday afternoon (Oct. 2-4). Second, the Oktoberfest that Sierra Nevada brewed this year is the first in what will be a series of annual collaborations with German brewers with the goal of creating authentic versions of the traditional festival beer. The 2015 brew is a collaboration with the 600-year-old Brauhaus Riegele in Augsburg, Germany, and is getting rave reviews (Men's Journal called it the “world's best Oktoberfest”). It's already available in stores, and is very, very tasty.

The good word Crap! Last week, when I was singing the praises of Cans of Soup, the new chapbook by local poet Marta Shaffer, I neglected to say where one could pick up a copy. Let me correct that now by saying it is available for $5 at The Bookstore, where they love poetry and celebrate the spoken word by hosting regular readings, like the one next week, Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m.

Good old days Even though I'm tempted to cry, “Where has the time gone?!” truth is, it really seems like a lifetime ago since the Superwinner Summer Rock Academy. Staring up at the poster hanging on my office wall, I can see that it was 20 years ago, Aug. 17-20, 1995, that Mrs. DEVO, our friend Conrad Nystrom and I hosted a four-day indie rock fest featuring some of the coolest bands from the Western U.S. and beyond (S.F. Seals, Versus, The New Bad Things, PEE, Baboon, KARP, Mecca Normal, Knapsack, Track Star), including some of my personal all-time favorite Chico crews (Death Star, Land of the Wee Beasties, Uncle Rosco, Mid-Fi, Harvester, Trench). Everything I've done with music in Chico grew from that moment. So much great music, so many friendships, so much debt and one giant badge of honor for a group of snobby indie kids in a song written by a spurned Mother Hips band: “I wanna be a Superwinner, too.”