Arts DEVO

Local color “My ‘mummy’ is from Chico. I caught a catfish in Horseshoe Lake.” That’s the artist statement accompanying Jada Parsons’ “Mummy; Catfish; Clownfish,” a mixed-media piece featuring a construction-paper mummy lurching across a black background. It’s my favorite of the kids’ entries at Chico Museum’s just-opened I Love Chico exhibit. It’s hanging in one of the interactive sections of the show, specifically in the kids’ hands-on section where copies of pages from local illustrator/rapper Aye Jay Morano’s ingeniously conceived Welcome to Chico coloring book are made available for visitors to fill in with colored pens and crayons. Featuring outline-only versions of some of Morano’s popular Chico Icons prints—the Catfish sculpture on Hwy 32, Chinca’s Market, the Thunderbird Lodge sign—the book was made especially for the open-entry exhibit and will undoubtedly be on most every local’s Christmas shopping list this year (available for only $10 at the museum and Lyon Books.)

My favorite pieces of the show were probably Emilio Benitez’s “ill.city,” a small sculptural silhouette of a downtown Chico block made from black spray-painted tequila bottles and spray cans, and Phoebe Rothfeld’s “Chico Pentimento,” an ink-and-conte crayon depiction of downtown neighbors the Upper Crust and The Bookstore drawn on a patchwork canvas made of local restaurant menus. Exhibit runs through Jan. 31.

Dear Café Coda (re: “secret show,” Saturday, Sept. 15): Hey, wait. I got a new complaint: I’m so damn bored, I’m going blind! What’s going on?! What the hell am I doin’ here? Kill the headlights and put it in neutral, then do a little dance (and then drink a little water). Entertain us!

I may be dumb, but I’m not a dweeb. Oh, I’m still alive, and it’s not fair to deny me. (Sleep with one eye open!) You’re so fuckin’ special. I wish I was special. I’m just a sucker with no self esteem.

Don’t believe everything that you breathe. Life is too short, so love the one you got (’cause you might get run over). I don’t care what they say about us anyway. I don’t care about that—nothing compares to you. Here we are now. We get to carry each other. You oughta know: It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.

I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do, but I believe in miracles, and a miracle has happened tonight. Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known. Woo-hoo!

Help a Dogg out The kind-hearted folks from the Dachshund Rescue of Northern California, in Forest Ranch, need your help. One of their rescues, an 8-year-old ball of goodness named Snoopy, was attacked by another dog four years ago and has since been living in pain due to an infection that had eaten away part of his jawbone and the fact that his broken bones never actually healed. They need to raise $4,800 by Oct. 25 in order to get a final surgery and bring an end to the little guy’s pain. Visit the Rescue’s site at www.drnc.org and click on “Snoopy” to donate.

Best F#@king news team member Local boy and former CN&R arts editor Jason Ross has been a (six-time Emmy Award-winning) writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for the past decade, and Friday, Sept. 14, at 5 p.m., he will be in town to speak at the BMU Auditorium as part of Chico State’s Constitution Day celebration.