Art Hop April 20 in Downtown Merced
The popular outdoor art exhibition that features local artists displaying their work in Downtown Businesses returns from 5 to 9 p.m. on April 20. Dozens of artists display their paintings, sculptures, drawings and mixed media work throughout downtown. There’s even live music on the streets to entertain the folks at the always well-attended event. For [...]
Mr. Miss and Ms. Gay Merced Pageant
Rick Regur and Tanisha Hernandez, through the Owl Empire of Stanislaus County, are breaking the mold on pageants with a loud, colorful, classy night on the town. The second annual Mr., Miss, and Ms. Gay Merced Pageant promises to be unlike anything you’ve ever seen in Merced. Prepare yourself for a Moulin Rouge themed party [...]
Commentary: Laura Phillips on saving the Arts Center
I have to be honest, six months ago when I became the new Executive Director of the Arts Council, I really had no idea what I was getting into. I knew the Arts Council wasn’t in great financial shape, that we had been hit hard by the recession, just like everyone else. My plan was [...]
Meet DLM photographer Juno Appleseed
Meet DLM photographer Juno Appleseed. Check out his work at http://junoapples.tumblr.com
Dan Hong Uses Creativity to Build Community
Sometimes, success is not measured in only dollars and cents. For accomplished and perseverant entrepreneur Daniel Hong, success means being a constructive part of his community. After studying at Fresno State University, Hong returned to Merced acquiring a job at Map TV, a local company that produced television commercials. It was there that he got [...]
World Class Dance Coming to Merced Theatre
Arts UC Merced, the group that brought the Yale University Wiffenpoofs to Merced a year ago, are bringing another treat to the Merced Theatre this month. The Lula Washington Dance Theatre, a world-renowned dance group from Los Angeles, will be performing at the Merced Theatre on Sep. 29. Gail Benedict, co-founder and Producing Manager of [...]
Lydia Pense and Cold Blood coming to Merced Theatre
Lydia Pense hasn’t stopped playing music long enough to realize she might be the last woman standing from a generation of rock ’n roll music that produced Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. Pense and her band Cold Blood, have produced music in five different decades, have packed houses across the globe and [...]
The Art of Two — UC Merced professors, students collaborate to produce multimedia exhibit on campus
A pair of UC Merced art lecturers broke from their typical class structures to test the waters of collaboration last semester. The result — a thoughtful exhibit that reveals the creative process in a way that is rarely seen. Tonya Lopez Craig (art instructor) and Vaneha Pravin (instructor in poetry) first bounced the idea around [...]
Playhouse is working ’9 to 5′
When the movie “Nine to Five” was released in December of 1980, the comedy about three female office employees who fight back against their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss, became a blockbuster no one could have predicted. Second at the box office only to “The Empire Strikes Back,” the story of Violet [...]
TEAM TOM: Knocked out by a cold
Last Saturday I attended a weekend bootcamp at Pilates Plus that featured their entire staff showcasing their list of services from personal training, team training, Gravity classes to massage therapy. I showed up bright and early and despite having a twinge of pain in my throat (no pain no gain). It was a lot of [...]
A Change of Pace (Win Tricks)
I usually have a fairly heady, abstract kind of blog. I like to delve into such lofty topics as the ridiculous magnitude of NBA player salaries and the reasons behind societal emotional responses. These are often issues without a clear right or wrong, or sometimes even boundaries. While that kind of writing does embody a [...]
