Arts Devo

All the buns and weiners Sexiest food in Chico? It has to be Zot’s! That was the first thing to enter Arts DEVO’s head when we began brainstorming for this alluring food issue. When it comes to food porn, I prefer mine all flushed, sweaty and kind of messy, and there are few foods in town that match that description as perfectly as one of Zot’s hot steamed dogs. It’s way more of a turn on for me than most of the fancy and expensive plates in town. Everything you need for a good time is right there in your face.

Shoegazing Dude, where’s Brandon McKie been hiding? It’s like he appeared out of … oh, never mind. Thin Air—McKie’s lush electro-acoustic indie-pop experiment—is a low-key affair, and he is dropping Hello Hollow, his second album this year, on Friday (Feb. 8), at Naked Lounge. Show starts at 8 p.m. and also features like-minded locals Solar Estates.

86 lives The Paradise Performing Arts Center is hosting its first event since the Camp Fire, a celebration of life for the 86 people who lost their lives during the disaster. The Community Interfaith Memorial takes place Friday (Feb. 8), at 4 p.m., and will feature more than a dozen different traditions—including Bahai, Buddhist, Centers for Spiritual Living, Christian, Christian Scientist, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, Quaker Friends and Rastafarian. Local television anchor Linda Watkins-Bennett will emcee and entertainers will include Doin’ It Justice Choir, guitarist Charlie Robinson, poet Krystlynn Martin and many more. The celebration will be followed by a free concert with family-friendly entertainer Red Grammer.

Art from the ashes For February, the Chico Art Center has put together Renew, Rebuild, Reimagine, a show in response to the Camp Fire that’s “designed to give communities a safe place to share visually expressive acts of resilience.” The exhibit opens this week—reception is Friday (Feb. 8), 5-7 p.m.—and it will be filled with original works plus artifacts from the aftermath of the fire, including photos of sculptures by Patricia Wickes, whose art studio was destroyed. From her artist statement: “For me these images convey something I cannot even name. They are like the ghosts of my work transmitting a haunting message about the impermanence of life and the resilience and strength that emerges during catastrophic times.”

Unbelievable, part two In response to my Kraft-single-on-the-ceiling story in this space a couple weeks ago (Jan. 24), reader Danny Wilson emailed one that blows my processed cheese off the page.

As a boy I would take my mitt [and] a tennis ball and go to the street in front of our Grass Valley house. Hours were spent slamming the ball against a 3-foot-high sidewalk, catching it, then repeating. Sometimes a thrown ball would strike the paved walkway’s top edge. From there, it would fly in one of two directions: If it flew forward, it sent a high pop fly my way. However, if it went backwards, the ball would roll up neighbor Mr. Terrell’s roof, roll back partway, then lodge in his rain gutter. I went back to the spot three years ago on New Year’s and played another round that day. And, yes, three tennis balls, or corpses thereof, were still up on that roof. That’s good preservation knowing that the games were played on North School Street back in 1954.