Arts DEVO

• Rock like an Egyptian: How far do I need to go with this description to pique your interest in this performance that will be like no other to ever come to Chico? Thoth is a New York street performer who dresses like an Egyptian and has been doing “prayformances”—dancing, playing violin and singing in an invented language about a mythical world he calls Festad—for the last decade, and a documentary short on his life won an Academy Award in 2002. Hooked yet? Well, how about the fact that his duo Tribal Baroque—with protégé Lila’ Angelique (The Pink Angel)—will be performing on the Grub farm this Saturday, Dec. 3, with Mike Wofchuck’s samba drum troupe Wolf Thump and Gordy “The Banjo-ologist” Ohliger. This is it, folks.

• Vooma vooma vooma voom! The Chikoko fashion design/performance collective is looking for performers for the Voom Voom Variety Show (Friday, Dec. 9) that kicks off their Bizarre Bazaar arts/craft faire weekend at the Chico Women’s Club. Visit www.chikoko.com for info.

• The key of Z: One of Arts DEVO’s favorite local performers, folk-rocker Zach Zeller, has recorded an incredible new song—a moody, dirge-like number called “Limbs in Flight”—to be used in a soon-to-be-released short film called Ed by his buddy Brady Nielson. Don’t wait for the movie though. Buy it now for $1 at zachzeller.bandcamp.com.

• The perfect gift: Without much fanfare, the Jesus Center’s writing project, The Derelict Voice, released a second book of poetry and prose by the participants of its weekly writing group last spring. At 86 pages, The Derelict Voice, Volume 2 is more than twice as big as Volume 1, and while you can download each for free at www.derelictvoice.com, why not purchase some hard copies as gifts and help ’em pay off their printing bill. For more info, contact <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">{ document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,100,101,114,101,108,105,99,116,118,111,105,99,101,64,121,97,104,111,111,46,99,111,109,34,62,100,101,114,101,108,105,99,116,118,111,105,99,101,64,121,97,104,111,111,46,99,111,109,60,47,97,62)) } </script>.

• The other perfect gift: Buy a birdhouse and help the Patrick Ranch Museum and the students in Fairview High’s Alternative Education Program. Retired Fairview principal Bernie “The Vig” Vigallon is busy this season building fun rustic birdhouses, and the folks at Patrick Ranch are selling them this weekend (Friday, 4-8 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) to raise money for both causes.

• From the mouths of little birds: Word has it that the creative peeps responsible for the RayRay Gallery and the Comedy From the Couch series at the Blue Room Theatre have combined forces to open a brand-new venue. This January, the two entities will move into a new multidiscipline home downtown on West Third Street (next to Preston’s Shoe Repair), to be called The Last Stand. We’ll be keeping our ears open.

Hey C! By now you may know that Christine LaPado, our CN&R colleague and one of the pillars of Chico, is moving with her lovely daughter, Lydia, and badass fiancé Firefighter to upstate New York this weekend (see From This Corner, page 5). I could say a thousand things and tell many stories about my kind, passionate, talented friend, but there’s one idea that I want to get into print:

For those open to it, every day offers opportunity for adventure. It doesn’t matter if it’s happening in Bakersfield or Berlin, every moment, every interaction—no matter how mundane the circumstance or familiar the surroundings—is an opportunity to plug into life. And there is no human I’ve experienced so far who is as completely open to every single breath in this weird world as Christine. When I think about that, and how much that part of her has influenced the way I look at things, it occurs to me that there couldn’t be a more deserving person to set out on a cross-country drive on the way to a wide-open East Coast adventure. No one could possibly get more out of such an opportunity than Christine. And though I will miss her terribly, I can’t wait to hear every bizarre and beautiful story. Thanks for everything, C.