Pete Scully’s ‘sketchcrawl’

Pete Scully is a UC Davis employee (graduate coordinator for statistics and biostatistics) and a sketch artist, for whom the campus and the surrounding community are favorite subjects.

And, since this is The Arts column, this item is about his art, or, rather, his next “sketchcrawl,” this one on the campus, where he spends many a lunch hour, out and about, sketching. Check out his work.

The "Let's Draw Davis!" sketchcrawl is set for Saturday (Sept. 17), when, as Scully noted, the campus “will be starting to bustle” with students.

The event is free and open to the public, with all ages and all skill levels welcome. “All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on!” Scully advised on a flier.

The flier sets a meeting time of 10:30 a.m. at the Memorial Union bus terminal (near the phone booth). Participants are invited to reconnect at 3 at the Eggheads in front of the Art Building on Hutchison Drive, to check out everyone’s sketchbooks.

Shakespeare goes for a ride!

The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble continues its entertaining bike ride through the arboretum — presenting A Midsummer Night's Dream along the way. The production, the first of the ensemble's second season, opened Sept. 15 and is scheduled to run through Oct. 2, in partnership with the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum.

The play’s lovers, mechanicals and fairies are using all sorts of bicycles in and around the gazebo, and the production incorporates bicycle parts into the props and set decorations, and even musical instruments — all in recognition of Davis’ love affair with bikes.

The lovers, for their wild chase in the woods, are on bikes. The mechanicals, who perform a play within the play, comprise a rag-tag group of bike mechanics. And the fairies, traditionally represented as woodland sprites, are more interested in stealing bike parts and playing music on rusted bike tires.

And look for Titania the fairy queen on her rowing bike — on which she can recline like, well, a queen!

The ensemble described this Midsummer as a fast-paced version with actors in multiple roles — embracing a tradition that dates from Shakespeare’s time. For example, one actor will play Helena (the lover), Moth (the fairy) and Snug (the mechanical).

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, presented by the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble

WHEN:

• Friday-Sunday, Sept. 16-18 — 8 p.m.
• Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 22-25, and Sept. 29-Oct. 2 — 8 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept. 18 and 25, and Oct. 2 — 2 p.m.

WHERE: Gazebo

TICKETS: $15 adults, $10 students, $5 for ages 12 and under (the prices listed here are different than previously announced). You can buy tickets online, or you can reserve them by calling (530) 802-0998.

MORE INFORMATION is available online or by sending an e-mail to davis.shakespeare@gmail.com.

The Outspokin’ Cyclist

Back when he lived in Durham, N.C., Phillip Barron wrote a monthly bicycling column for The Herald-Sun newspaper. Now he works at UC Davis, perhaps the most bike-friendly university in the country, and has assembled his old columns into a book: The Outspokin’ Cyclist.

“With insights into cold-weather bike commuting, urban
design, the spiritual solitude of solo mountain biking, and
the philosophical problems with drug use in competitive sports, Barron’s columns offer glimpses into the life of a cyclist and a small city’s biking community,” reads a news release for the just-published book.

The publisher says the book will appeal not only to the people of Durham, but cyclists and others everywhere “who simply enjoy a good story.”

Barron, digital history developer for The History Project at UC Davis, said he stopped writing the column in 2008 after a cycling accident knocked him off his bike.

“For two years, I didn't ride much. But moving to Davis, with its incredible cycling infrastructure and culture, has made it possible for me to regain the trust in my sense of balance needed to ride.

“And now, just like before, I'm cycling every day — to work, to the grocery store, for all errands, and out into the countryside on weekends.”

The Outspokin’ Cyclist is available in paperback and for electronic readers. Barron said The Avid Reader should have copies within a week.

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