Arts Devo

DEVOtions It’s a common refrain for Arts DEVO this time of year: There’s more to do in Chico in the spring than one person can possibly do. In addition to the quantity, the variety is striking. Not even counting what’s already been highlighted in our This Week (page 26) and Nightlife sections (page 32), we have:

• Fresh Ink 2016: A program of four original one-act plays produced by four different local directors at the Blue Room Theatre. Opens tonight, May 19, and shows Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m., through May 28.

• Notes from Home: A Choral Performance: The Doin’ It Justice, Voices for Peace community choir, led by local guitarist Warren Haskell, has been promoting peace and justice through music for eight years, and for this year’s annual spring performances, the group will be raising money for Shalom Free Clinic and Stairways Programming. Two shows at St. John’s Episcopal Church: Saturday, May 21, 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 22, 4 p.m.

• Lyme Aid: “An evening of music to raise awareness about Lyme Disease,” with performances by Ha’Penny Bridge, Bird and Wag and Leann Cooley & The Cats. Saturday, May 21, 7 p.m., at 1078 Gallery.

• Poetry on Demand: Local poets will be at The Bookstore and ready at their typewriters. Pay $5, and they’ll write you a poem. Sunday, May 22, 1-4 p.m.

• Yart sale: Chikoko collective presents an arts and crafts marketplace behind the Bookstore, with art, original fashions, vintage items and more. Saturday, May 21, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

• Funk to the Nth! Spearheaded by Nikki Glaspie, former drummer for the likes of Dumpstaphunk and Beyoncé, The Nth Power is a funk/jazz/soul powerhouse from New Orleans that will join locals Sofa King at Lost on Main, Sunday, May 22, 8 p.m.

Rise of the clammy! When I’m hot, I sweat … really, really bad. Five minutes into a workout on a warm day I look like someone is pouring a bucket of water over my head while another person simultaneously blasts me with a garden hose. You can watch the sweat flow right in front of your eyes. And this past weekend, on an insanely gorgeous spring day in San Francisco, I worked up a worrisome amount of sweat as I ran all over AT&T Park with several thousand weekend warriors for a recent installment in the Spartan Race series. This was a Spartan Sprint, one of the company’s shorter races (there are also 8-, 13- and 26-mile versions, many including mud and fire obstacles). It featured 3-plus miles of running around the stadium, much of it up stairs, with 20 stops at different obstacles along the way—scaling 7-foot walls, running with 30-pound sandbags, jumping rope with a giant, heavy-ass rope, etc. Just another day at the ballpark! (There’s actually a documentary coming out in September, Rise of the Sufferfests, that attempts to answer why obstacle-course races have become a worldwide phenomenon.)

The truth is—despite my almost passing out from dizziness while doing box jumps in left field (unleashing a bonus wave of cold sweat from every pore)—the workout wasn’t too bad thanks to my preparations with Taylor Wakefield, trainer of the Obstacle Course Racing class at In Motion Fitness. There was a whole 10-person InMo OCR team (which included Mrs. DEVO) that ran together (and added all together, the other nine didn’t sweat as much as I did) and most of us agreed that some of our workouts in Chico were harder than the AT&T race. It was actually pretty damn fun. So thanks, Taylor, for helping me keep the gut to a minimum, and thanks for helping all of us have a day that was more “funfest” than “sufferfest.”