If 2020 had been normal, my plan was to talk about Frankenstein, which the Davis Shakespeare Festival was going to present this fall until the pandemic killed off in-person performances. Rob Salas, co-artistic director and co-founder of the festival, is my guest today, and we still talk about the play by Nick Dear, which is based on the book by Mary Shelley and presents a creature very different than the “green skin and neckbolts” image of the monster in the 1930s movie. We also talk about how the 10-year-old festival is holding up during the pandemic, how they’ve spent 2020, their thoughts about next year (which might still include Frankenstein), how Black Lives Matter has changed their mission, and why they chose Davis as a place to create a professional Equity theater company.
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On today’s Davisville we talk with Steve and Kit Boschken, Davis real estate experts and the owners of Boschken Properties, about the housing market in Davis this fall. Today's topics follow up our talk with Steve Boschken last May, and include apartment vacancies, the thin supply of homes for sale, rising home prices, the pandemic, unhealthy air from the wildfires, rents, buyers, trends, interest rates, lasting impacts, and not knowing when students will be able to resume in-person classes at UC Davis. Almost all UC Davis classes this fall are online, and could stay that way through the rest of the academic year.
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So, what’s your opinion of the Eagles? The band, not the team. How about Emmylou Harris, the unusual pedal steel of the Flying Burrito Brothers, or the pop twang of the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon”? If any of this resonates with you, or even simply makes you curious, then today’s guest might interest you: Larry Lobre, a retired administrator at UC Davis, a musician, and an instructor whose next class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC Davis in October presents “The Origins and Development of Country Rock Music.” We talk about the genre, what it offers, OLLI, The Flying Burrito Brothers'Gilded Palace of Sin, and the time Merle Haggard, his backseat full of 45 records, drove in to a Signal gas station where Larry was working in Oildale.
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Ryan Collins and Paul Doroshov first appeared on Davisville in July 2019 to talk about homelessness in Davis (“Many homeless people in Davis are finding homes, but more people are becoming homeless”). Today we catch up with developments since then, including the Daytime Respite Center that opened on L Street in February, and the impact of the pandemic. Ryan works directly with homeless people in Davis as the homeless outreach services coordinator for the city, and Paul is deputy police chief for Davis.
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The Palms Playhouse, with no clear end to the pandemic in sight, has gone on indefinite hiatus and isn’t renewing its lease for the location in downtown Winters it has called home since moving from Davis in 2002. However, co-owners Nora Cary and Andrew Fridae are keeping the Palms going as an organization. On today’s Davisville we talk with Cary about the pandemic, the last concert they held on March 7, running a for-profit business with no profit, the magic of a good performance, some favorite moments since she and Fridae bought the Palms in 2016, and what might come next. (Photo shows Peter Case onstage at the Palms in July 2019)
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The new book “Exploring the Berryessa Region / A Geology, Nature, and History Tour” makes clear that there’s much more to see and explore in the area west/northwest of Davis than the Lake Berryessa reservoir--from stunning views and the Hubcap Ranch, to the region’s cultural heritage and the features that make it a hot spot of biological diversity. On today’s Davisville we talk with co-author Marc Hoshovsky, a retired naturalist in Davis, about what’s up there, plus how and when to see it.
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Many public statues are being defaced, toppled or removed this summer, and names taken off buildings, as more of America comes to terms with the ingrained racism in the United States that oppresses African-Americans. Statues of Confederate war heroes or slaveholders are particular targets. But this fight over symbols is not new, nor is it external to Davis; this city has had conflicts over symbols like the statue to Gandhi in Central Park (pictured), and over naming a street for Edward Teller, co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb.
Melissa M. Bender, a senior lecturer at UC Davis, co-edited “Contested Commemoration in U.S. History / Diverging Public Interpretations,” a textbook with 11 essays on topics that go far beyond statues. They vary from movies with an antebellum theme made during Barack Obama’s presidency, to the homes destroyed to create Shenandoah National Park, to the depiction of female U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War, and the fate of a house in Chicago where members of the Black Panthers were killed during gunfire with police in 1969. The subjects today include how to decide what to keep, and why.
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You’ve heard songs from this genre—if you’ve watched enough TV or old movies, you could probably hum at least a few (think Dragnet, Shaft or Mission: Impossible). But although crime and spy jazz produced iconic melodies, says Davis writer Derrick Bang, these days the style is largely dormant. Bang has written two new books, “Crime and Spy Jazz on Screen” (they cover 1950-70 and 1971-present), to help bring the music out of the shadows. On today's show we define crime jazz, talk about the way it draws your attention, sample two of its popular songs, and learn the value of a killer opening theme—and why the style faded. The movie Easy Rider was a factor, as was the growing number of commercials on TV.
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Each year, UC Davis chooses a graduating senior to receive its University Medal—effectively, the top student from a class that includes many thousands of accomplished students. Today we talk with 2020 medalist Jumana Esau, who grew up in the Bay Area and Jordan, about the award, why she studies climate fiction, the value of her English degree, her work for refugees, the practical power of a good story, and what she’ll take with her from Davis when she leaves.
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2020 is an eventful year, and Gloria Partida is about to become mayor of Davis right in the middle of it, in July. She appears on Davisville today as she gets ready to begin her term, and the subjects include the killing of George Floyd in police custody, the difficulty people have talking honestly about racism, and the pandemic, plus the latest Davis development questions, and the job itself.
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