Arts DEVO

Spring cleaning This column is pretty simple. (Looking at the dude up top, you must have already known that.) For the most part, this space is concerned with answering two questions:

“Hey, what are Chico’s artists up to now?”

“Hey, what’s going on under your hat, Arts DEVO?”

As unyielding 20-40 mph springtime winds have caused all Energy Dome activity to seize up, I will spare you my frazzled ramblings and stick with the former concern. Which is just as well, since the predictably fertile Chico art scene has created a backlog of announcements. Briefly:

Dan (or Danny) Chico’s favorite avant-garde singer/songwriter, Dan Cohen, is making an overdue return to a local stage, on Friday, April 17, at 8 p.m., at Café Coda. Playing with a full band, Cohen will present a set of mostly new tunes—“plus a few surprises”—as part of a power-packed bill that includes The Devil Makes Three’s Pete Bernhard, Portland’s Blue Cranes, plus Aubrey Debauchery and the Puke Boots.

Welcome back Z Remember Bobolink, those dudes who used to put on packed funk, jam and jazz shows at the old Bean Scene? Aside from the annual spring fest in Belden (happening this year May 20-31—visit bobolinkmusicfestival.com), Bobolink has been out of the scene for a while … until this Wednesday, that is. Bobolink booker Azariah “Z” Reynolds is back in town with his new Z’s Live Music company, and his first show features Greensky Bluegrass and Ten Mile Tide on April 22, at Lost on Main.

Shakespeare in the Club With city funds dried up, Ensemble Theatre of Chico‘s long-running summer Shakespeare theater series will, for the first time, not take place in a park (or a plaza). Instead, July’s lineup of Romeo and Juliet and The Trials of Zorro will go on at the Chico Women’s Club.

Gaga for Dada

Oroville artist Howard McCaleb splits his time between the North State and Germany, where on March 22 he debuted the first exhibit at Dada Post, a new artist-run space he started in a former smoked-fish factory in Berlin.

Don’t forget the kittens and puppies Butte Humane Society is one of the 10 finalists for Zootoo.com‘s Shelter Makeover contest, and they are depending on your votes. Polls close Sunday, April 19, so go now to buttehumane.org for strategies on how to help.

And don’t forget the Fay Dog Chico-bred artist and rapper Casey “Fay Dog” Fay has written and illustrated a children’s book—Wonders of the Sea: Cephalopods—that is available now at Lyon Books. Fay will be in town Saturday, May 16, for a reading/signing at Lyon.

Wait, there’s more! Some super-quick DEVOtions: Studio clearance sale of Cynthia Schildhauer paintings during Thursday Night Market tonight (April 16); visiting artist Yuji Hiratsuka gives a printmaking talk at the Turner tonight, 5 p.m.; two performances of North State Symphony‘s Igor Meets Elvis program (featuring “Dead Elvis”) at 1078 Gallery, Saturday, April 18, 7:30 and 10 p.m.; Norton Buffalo at Paradise Performing Arts Center, Saturday, 7 p.m.; Fairy Tales opera workshop at Chico State, April 22 and 23, 7:30 p.m., in Rowland-Taylor.