Arts DEVO

A very seasonal column

• Beer season! Fall is in full effect, and the bro-in-law and I are just three weeks away from cracking open the first bottle of our super dark, toasty, smoky, malty homemade ale—Ryno and DEVO’s Campfire Stout. But beer is not the only thing on the calendar. It’s also …

• Beard season! Having the S.F. Giants in the World Series with their famously bearded bullpen—anchored by the badass-of-badassess, the black-bearded Brian Wilson—is enough reason to redub the upcoming month Novembeard. But, thanks to the Chico Beard Collective, calling those 30 days anything else would actually be impossible. The collective, run by local DJ, theater stud and LaSalles booker Jeremy Votava, is organizing Novembeard as a sort of beard-a-thon fundraiser for high school music programs. The “growers” just have to pony up $25 in seed money and be on hand at the opening Clean Shaven Day (Duffy’s, Nov. 1, 6 p.m.). Then throughout the month, as the beards flow forth, they’ll show up for weekly “checkpoints” while seeking additional donations. As the press release says, “For the duration of four weeks, EPIC beards will be grown for the world to behold.” Contact chicobeardcollective@gmail.com for more info.

• Bard season! Pleasant Valley High shows off its fancy new performing arts center with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a rendering of three of the Bard’s tragedies into comedies. Oct. 28-29, 7:30 p.m., at the CUSD Center for the Arts.

• Bored season! Arts DEVO is really not political. Left or right, politicians who have been around for any length of time become really slow when it comes to making changes. So, when I vote, my only criterion is to endorse whoever seems most likely to do things differently. I don’t care about experience or even ideology; the candidates I support just have to be cool and/or weird and have the guts to say how they feel. That’s why (going against CN&R’s official endorsements) Arts DEVO is voting for Quentin Colgan for Chico City Council. Dude says whatever he wants, he’s way weird (did you see him dress up as the Mad Hatter just to screw with Tea Partiers on Tax Day?), and the bonus is he really cares about what goes on locally. And on account of the mustache, I’m also supporting Mark Herrera. Two newbies with fresh ideas would not hurt at all.

• Boards season! Enough politics. The NBA opened the 2010-11 season this week, and the Slapatomato Kings are looking young, quick and promising. ’Reke is definitely the real deal. Though I see him as a scoring assassin who would be even more unstoppable if the point-guard responsibilities were solely in the Slovenian hands of Beno Udrih. Adding man-child rookie DeMarcus Cousins to the break has the next 82 games looking really exciting.

• Bochey season! Did you hear? The Giants are in the World Series! Nor Cal’s mental health hangs in the balance.

• Voorhees season! It’s that time of year again, when Walmart trots out the blood-filled toy knives and every other costume has the word “sexy” in front of it. It’s pure mayhem out there! Two recommendations for ghoulish fun: The original, silent, Lon Chaney version of Phantom of the Opera (with organ accompaniment) at the State Theatre in Oroville (Saturday, Oct. 30); and Halloween Live!, a theatrical interpretation of John Carpenter’s classic slasher flick, at the Blue Room Theatre (Oct. 28-31).