Derrick Bang writes reviews for the Davis Enterprise and his blog, Derrick Bang on Film. On today’s show, an autumn tradition on Davisville, he discusses the year-end films, the movie hits and misses of 2013, the passing of Roger Ebert, and even a little about holiday jazz. You see him here next to a poster at the Varsity for “12 Years a Slave”—the first movie of 2013 to earn one of his rare 5-star reviews.
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With the Cannery housing development coming up for a decision, now’s a good time to take stock of the Davis housing market—including trends this year in sales and prices, the outlook for 2014, who’s buying, and the effect of adding the Cannery’s proposed 547 homes to the local supply. We discuss this and more with returning guest Steve Boschken, a Davis mortgage and real estate broker who also has a degree in environmental design and urban planning from UC Davis.
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Davis Makerspace, sort of a cross between a workshop and a public library, and open to science and tech as well as to art, opened in a converted storage unit in a downtown alley this year. So how does the budding nonprofit work, why is it here, who’s it for, and what does it offer to Davis? We get answers today in a talk with three of its members/directors – Nicholas Weigand (far left), Jeff Tolentino (holding a drum he made at makerspace), and Braden Pellett.
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Today’s show has two segments with seasonal connections. The first is a talk with Maria Clayton of the Davis Schools Foundation about the goals of its latest fund-raising campaign on behalf of Davis public schools; then we talk with Betsy Raymond of Acme Theatre Company, and Raphi Gorga, who plays the title role—and nails the accent—in Acme’s fall production, Dracula.
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“Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here,” a new book by UC Davis international law Professor Karima Bennoune, has stories about people in Muslim-majority societies who resist Muslim extremism; she discusses what the United States should do, why fundamentalism has spread, how the left and the right get the issue wrong, and more, today on “Davisville.”
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Today’s
Davisville presents two new interviews with entrepreneurs in Davis: Theo Mak, far right, co-creator and executive editor of The-O Network, which posts news and information about movies, art and music from Japan; and artist/illustrator Jed Alexander (Nickleodeon, Cricket), whose “(Mostly) Wordless” picture book will be printed in 2014 thanks to his successful Kickstarter campaign.
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The Davis proposed plastic bag ban—truthfully, more of a curtailment—is an odd mix of the irritating and the compelling. Whichever resolution you prefer, the tug of bags could resolve this fall, if only because City Council members must be growing tired of indefinitely extending a debate about the proper makeup of shopping bags. On today’s Davisville we talk with Davis Enterprise reporter Tom Sakash, who has written about the proposed law. We get a rundown on the current proposal, and where Davis stands as the council takes up the issue one more time.
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Today's Davisville is part 2 of a discussion with Rob White, hired in March as Davis' first chief innovation officer. Topics include this spring’s surprise proposal to put a business park near I-80 and Mace; local economic trends; what Davis offers and lacks; and how others see us. Find Part 1 at http://www.kdrt.org/node/12701.
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For today's program and next we talk with Rob White, hired in March as Davis' first chief innovation officer. Topics in part 1 include the reason for his job, how he works, the techDavis group that initially paid half his salary, and entrepreneurs at work in Davis. Part 2, which debuts Aug. 19, addresses this spring’s surprise proposal to put a business park near I-80 and Mace; and looks at local economic trends, what Davis offers and lacks, and how others see us. Big ideas involving Davis are in play, and we discuss one of them: a possible test track for ultra-light-rail transit technology near UC Davis.
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Summer is an active season for live theater in Davis--Acme, Barnyard, Common House, Davis Musical Theatre Co., the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, and others all have shows this summer (this image comes from Common House’s summer poster). Live theater in Davis is expanding in terms of quantity and ambition; on today’s show, Bev Sykes and Jeff Hudson, who review live productions for the Davis Enterprise, size it all up--quality, favorite moments, what they'd like to see more of, trends, and more.
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