Arts Devo

Funnel cakes and pig shit The Silver Dollar Fair is here this weekend and all I can think about is deep-fried batter. Deep-fried, battered what? Whatever! Bring on the frialator freak show! No joke, I will skip at least one meal and run five extra miles just to eat a generous portion of fair “food” for dinner one night this weekend. Funnel cake is a given. And, even though I swore off it after last year for being “just too much,” I will most definitely be hitting up the Sharkey’s Fish Fry trailer for some Cap’n Crunch shrimp on a stick. I can’t help myself.

And the bonus entertainment at this year’s edition of the fair is on point, with X-treme motocross Friday at 7 p.m.; the World Pancake Eating Championship (with Major League Eating’s No. 1-ranked eater, Matt Stonie, competing!) on Saturday at 1 p.m.; and on the final night, Monday, at 5 p.m., it’s a demolition derby!

Local props! To dude-about-town Jake Sprecher for joining Bay Area garage-rockers Terry Malts as second guitarist on the band’s current month-long European tour. Not a bad way for a Chicoan to spend a spring. And to local stop-motion animator Josh Funk, whose rad video for the song “Diggin’ On” by rad Chico band The Michelin Embers was just accepted into the FilmQuest sci-fi/horror/fantasy film festival taking place this June in Salt Lake City.

Ernie is out Arts DEVO is bummed to say goodbye to his officemate/all-around hilarious dude, CN&R Calendar Editor Ernesto Rivera, who is moving on to bigger waters and a sweet community college gig in San Diego. All I can say to him is that, when you’re missing the CN&R, at least you’ll always have the memory of wearing a giant beer-soaked bra while racing your co-workers on an oversized tricycle at the Bear. Like, always. That picture and your name will never, ever leave the Internet (or our hearts). Especially since I’m repeating it here, for you. Good luck, my friend.

Remembering Pat Kopp Plans have been finalized for a memorial mass and a celebration of life for Chico arts icon Pat Kopp, who died this past April 4. The mass will take place at Our Divine Savior Church on Saturday, June 4, at 1 p.m., and will be followed by a celebration at Laxson Auditorium at 2:30 p.m. Both are open to the public.

Preparations have begun Thanks to the adrenaline injection of Pile, the new album by the fun-makin’ bad kids of A Giant Dog, I’m starting to get that summer-jam itch. This year’s playlist will definitely kick off with something by the Austin, Texas, crew (“Creep”? “Sleep When I’m Dead”? “Sex & Drugs”?). Email me your best jams and help me make this the best summer ever!