Someone once told 24-year-old Corina Teran that she had set out on her educational path backwards. After high school, Teran followed a fairly traditional route, attending California State University, Stanislaus, to pursue a major in criminal justice. She started her new life, moving up to Modesto and setting the wheels in motion to follow her [...]
Saema Adeeb — the first born of a first-generation immigrant family from India — stepped onto the UC Merced campus four years ago as an introverted teenager with little perspective beyond what she learned in her Bay Area neighborhood growing up. She had few ambitions other than breaking free from her conservative household and she [...]
Noel Gomez has been defying the odds for a long time. You could even say that being born was his first act of defiance. “I was a surprise baby for sure,” says the UC Merced senior. “My mom was told by the doctor that she couldn’t have any more children after my sister, but 14 [...]
The newest map in the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) is approximately four feet long, and encompasses a vast amount of the local area and Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is a full-color, glossy and beautifully detailed. My host is enthusiastically pointing out features that she has personally visited or where interesting projects are being [...]
Eddie Garcia was in the back of Main Street Tattoo when I finally found him for the interview. I handed him a generic watercolor brush from my stash, “It’s too soft I think.” He is smearing purple acrylics into whites, evolving the hues into the contours of an umbrella and not on a canvas, but [...]
Merced natives and psychedelic rockers Down Dirty Shake have come a long way from covering The Strokes songs in a garage in high school. Last year, the band, who’s members now live in the Bay Area, played 21 shows and are on track for 50 this year. The new album is scheduled for a summer [...]
Cap & Town, Downtown Merced’s annual celebration of local graduates of all ages returns from 5 to 10 p.m. on May 17. The event will feature live music, a beer garden, family entertainment, craft booths, exhibits and great food. The event has grown to be one of Downtown Merced’s signature events, drawing thousands to Main [...]
The Prime Shine MiddleState Independent Comedy Film Festival kicks off April 26 with a sneak peek of the films, complimentary appetizers, a no-host bar and a guest appearance by “It’s A Disaster” director Todd Berger. The first of two nights for the fourth annual comedy and film festival, the free festival reception will be held [...]
What is Urinetown? According to the title song of Playhouse Merced’s current production (April 12 – April 28), Urinetown’s a place. It’s a lie. “A means to keep the poor in check until the day they die.” It’s a musical that is sure to raise a number of eyebrows just based on the title alone: [...]
Following the fateful acquisition of a ukulele, Alison Rush sort of fell into songwriting. Now, two years later, the newly settled Merced resident finds herself wrapping her first album, titled “Rarest Bird,” with a release scheduled at Coffee Bandits on April 27 to celebrate the whole experience. Rush’s songwriting efforts began in 2010, when she [...]
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