Week 5 has became generally known as the second most hated time for a UCLA student. Midterms Time. The simple mention of the word has been known to cause anxiety, stress, and rare cases…constipation. Needless to say, if you are visiting any campus library or coffee shops this week, you are bound to run into Bruins with their head in the books.

However, luckily to the dedicated student leaders and programmers, this week does not have to be just about cramming for an exam that you may or may not have been going to for the past 5 weeks. Starting off on Tuesday, October 26th, UCLA’s Campus Events Commission (also known as CEC) is having a movie sneak peek of Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis’ Due Date. This film follows two mismatched characters in their quest to reach Downey’s character’s wife before she gives birth to their child. A few reviews have already been released and have been generally positive.

On Wednesday, the fun really begins to hit up and all in time for Halloween Weekend. UCLA’s General Representative 2’s Office is programming “UCLA Halloween,” which is basically a candy giveaway with a sprinkling of some holiday music. On this same day, the Campus MovieFest will go into full effect, brought to you by (once again) the Campus Events Commission (CEC). This film competition allows for students and budding directors to plan, organize, and film a short that will be presented in front of the UCLA community. If the film reaches high remarks, it is put further into a state-wide competition where it will be put up against other schools with the likes of ASU, USC, SFSU, and OSU (to name a few). This competition lasts one week and participants are given equipment to put together a motion picture short. For those who are not interested in getting directorial or comedic, then the Student Welfare Commission (SWC) has something for students in lue of midterms. “Yoga Under The Stars,” as they have aptly named it, is a nocturnal event that will take place on Wednesday at 7pm in the Delta Terrace Grassy Knoll. It is sure to be just what UCLA students need to fight against stress, poor eating habits, and lack of sleep.

On Thursday, the Campus Events Commission (CEC) is having a speaker series event with Dave Eggers. And, after a little research, I found that Eggers is an American writer and publisher – famous for his work on Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and as a founder of 826 Valenica, which is a literacy project. This is taking place at Kaufman Hall at 4pm for those interested.

And, finally, Friday – the day that most students cannot get enough of and, for this weekend only, neither will parents. UCLA’s Parents’ Weekend kicks off on Friday which is supposed to acquaint the parents with the campus and learn about what their students are working on and all of the opportunities that are granted at such prestigious university like UCLA.

Talk about a mouthful of fun activities this week even with midterms overshadowing it.

On another positive note, Halloween Weekend is also here. For some, it will starting on Thursday and for others not until Sunday. But, whatever day(s) that you do celebrate it,  be sure to be safe. And, by be safe, I mean in all meanings. I won’t go into it, but you know. Oh, you know.

Anyways, good luck to all this week and have a Happy and SAFE Halloween.

Cheers!

Andrae Vigil-Romero, New Media
Thunderdome, Thursday @ 8pm
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Thunderdome-on-UCLARadiocom/151573464862521

It’s that time again, folks — Six Degrees is giving away more free tickets to upcoming shows! This week, tune in to win tickets to see Deerhunter at the Music Box on Monday (11/1), or to see Ghostland Observatory at Club Nokia on Thursday (11/4). That’s not all — we’re also giving away tickets to see Young The Giant at the Roxy (11/6), Small Black at the Echo (11/5), Too Short at the Key Club (11/6), and Steel Panther at the Key Club (11/8).  Wanna win? Just tune in to our “Dia De Los Muertos”-themed episode of Six Degrees this Sunday night 8pm-10pm PST on UCLAradio.com.

My first experience with Jennifer Hirsh was on the car ride to her show at Room 5.  Tickets were only $8 and a friend wouldn’t stop goading me into coming – not that I was uneasy.  I trusted his taste and was struck at the mention of “small venue” and “soulful voice.”  She had this sort of jazzy, chill tone from what I could make out squished in the backseat, and I wasn’t expecting much more than a relaxing musical experience that night.

A few hours later, I had it confirmed that Jennifer Hirsh is one of the most talented vocalists chillin out there relatively unnoticed.  She’s got a CD out called “Sweet Words” and a second one in the works, but her publicity is generated primarily by occasional small performances.  Definitely worth the 8 bucks.  Her songs range from the sweetly hopeful to the solemn breakup response, almost always spiced by impressive vocal improv.  Her deeply controlled yet highly emotional voice has a way of interacting with all the instruments on stage; the guy playing an african drum in the corner caught her eye and smiled a few times, and the duet she performed with songwriter/guitarist Adam Tressler was drenched in a tangible, soulful connection.  A few times, she called talented friends on stage for piano or vocal duets, but it was hard to pull the spotlight from her jazzy confidence.

If you go – she’ll be at the Room 5 Lounge in Hollywood on Friday the 29th @9pm – you’ll probably underestimate the cheerful girl chatting in the crowd.  Between songs she’s got a friendly demeanor and an infectious laugh, which is translated through each joyful, soulful note she hits.  Visit her website at jenniferhirshmusic.com to hear some recordings and follow her twitter @JenHirsh to stay updated on show dates.

Jennifer Hirsh’s first album “Sweet Words” is available for download on iTunes via her Website.

For all you lovely UCLAradio.com listeners who tuned in Thursday 10/21/10 to “All That Jazz” @ 12-2pm are thinking WOW they played so really great stuff but what was it called again?  OR if you were super swamped with midterms and couldn’t tune in but still would like to listen to what we played here is our playlist…including music from 1940’s Broadway and some crazy covers by THE KING himself,  Ray Charles, Lady Gaga and some great music from soundtracks.

1. “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” – Doris Day (from Pal Joey)
2. “New York New York” – Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra & Jules Munshin (from On the Town)
3. You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” – Matthew Morrison & Paulo Szot (from South Pacific)
4. “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” – Ray Charles & Count Basie (from Oklahoma!)
5. “People Will Say We’re in Love” – Doris Day & Rock Hudson (from Oklahoma!)
6. “If I Loved You” – Barbara Streisand (from Carousel)
7. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – Elvis Presley (from Carousel)
8. “Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” – Ethel Merman (from Annie Get Your Gun)
9. “Anything You Can Do, I can do better” – (from Annie Get Your Gun)
10. “An Old Fashioned Wedding” – Bernadette Peters & Tom Wopat (from Annie Get Your Gun)
11. “Doin what comes Natur’lly” – Bernadette Peters & Ronn Carroll (from Annie Get Your Gun)
12. “Too Darn Hot” – Stacey Kent (from Kiss Me Kate)
13. “Why Can’t You Behave” – Jo Stafford & Paul Weston (from Kiss Me Kate)
14. “Something’s Gotta Give” – Sammy David Jr.
15. “Blue Side” – Rooney
16. “You Got a Friend in Me” – Toy Story Soundtrack
17. “Love” – Nat King Cole
18. “The Best is Yet to Come” – Tony Bennett and Diana Krall
19. “Someone to Watch Over Me”  — Lady Gaga
20. “Beautiful Dirty Rich” – Lady Gaga
21. “Don’t you Worry About a Thing” – John Legend
22. “Do You Only Wanna Dance” – Dirty Dancing Havana Nights Soundtrack
23. “The Reeling” – Passion Pit (Mike Snow remix)
24. “Wonderful World” – Sam Cooke
25. “You Send Me” – Dirty Dancing Havana Nights Soundtrack
26. “For Once in My Life” – Stevie Wonder
27. “Tainted Love/Where Did our Love Go” – Soft Cell
28. “Love Train” – The O Jays

Tune in TOMORROW Thu 12-2pm for more JAZZ and 1950’s Broadway!!

–little MISS

If you listened to the wonderful Spice Rack last night on UCLA Radio, you’re probably dying for a track list

Here is my minimal tech house / dub play list::

Underworld  – To Heal

Trentemøller – Moan

Trentemøller – Always Something Better

Underworld – Glam Bucket

Trentemøller – Take Me Into Your Skin

Trentemøller – While the Cold Winter Waiting

Trentemøller – Miss You

Trentemøller – Les Djinns

Trentemøller – Sodom

Trentemøller – Windowlicker

Trentemøller – Dead End Street

Trentemøller – The Forest

Trentemøller – Klodsmajor

Trentemøller – Klovn – McKlaren

Trentemøller – Snowflake

The Blacksmoke Organisation – Danger Global Warming

Moby – Go (Trentemøller Remix)

Granules – Beryl Tree

Granules – Dead Bulb

Granules – Heliotrope

Granules – In a Grove

Granules – Institute for Crustal Studies

Granules is a new project my good friend Franciscus Rebro has been putting together with Niv Bavarsky and Sepehr Nabi.  The group has created works of art by sending sound files to one another over the internet (Franciscus from the US West, Niv from US East, and Sepehr from Norway).

www.soundcloud.com/granules and www.fennel.bandcamp.com

I certainly hope you enjoyed the show,

Michael Kashiktchian

The Spice Rack

Tuesday Nights 10PM-Midnight.

This is a weekly UCLA Radio Blog post from DJ Octoon

If you’re a regular listener to my unsigned music show then you probably recognize Republic of Letters- we’ve been playing their stuff for a few weeks now.

But just this week their track “Lost Chord” really got to me.  I don’t know if it’s the Killers-like vocals, or the catchy, mellow – but still energetic – guitar, piano, and percussion work, or what.

Decide for yourself. (Check out the Republic of Letters Website) It’s our unsigned song of the week.  Is it yours?

Bands that define a decade are almost always characterized by a revolutionary sound, a new idea, a sparkling new concept that immediately impacts the music world. Nirvana often takes the credit from reviewers as the most influential band of the 90s for their popularization of grunge and sparking off of a legion of popular copycats for years to come. But during those same years, behind the scenes and off the radar of the Cobain-hysterical mainstream, a little band from Boise quietly released three of the most important and influential records in recent history.Buoyed by adoring reviews from Pitchfork and nearly every other publication, Built to Spill has become a seminal name in indie rock over their eighteen year career, but as all bands do, they began from complete obscurity.

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Craving to hear thunderous kick drums, fat basslines, and euphoric melodies? Or maybe you need something to dance to during the late hours of the night? No worries, the latest edition of Melodic Instinct is available to feed your weekly hunger for fast paced, high energy dance music! Every Week I bring to you sixteen tracks of the latest and greatest releases in trance and progressive music as well as a chill-out tune of the week all wrapped up in a convenient ninety minute continuous mix.

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Campus Events Commission (CEC) presents: A Conversation with Dave Eggers. The award-winning author and publisher will be speaking in at the Glorya Kaufman Theatre (2nd Floor of Kaufman Hall) on Thursday, October 28th at 4:30 PM. First come, first serve, and free of charge — no tickets necessary!

Eggers will also be speaking in Royce Hall at 8 PM to discuss his most recent work, Zeitoun, this year’s UCLA Common Book. Tickets are FREE for UCLA students, faculty and staff with a Bruin Card, and will be available at the Central Ticket Office (CTO). Event courtesy of the UCLA Common Book Program, Student Committee of the Arts (SCA), and Office of Residential Life (ORL). Questions? Call 310-983-1369.

Both events are completely free for UCLA students and offer the opportunity for Q&A with Eggers, so show yo’ face (it’ll be worth it).

Quick bio: Dave Eggers is an acclaimed American writer, editor and publisher. He is the author of six books (notably, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) and the founder/editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco. Eggers is also a successful screenwriter (cowriter of Away We Go and Where the Wild Things Are). Eggers is the co-founder of 826 Valencia, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for youth in San Francisco’s Mission District. In 2004 Eggers taught at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and co-founded Voice of Witness, a series of books using oral history to shed light on human rights issues. Originally from Chicago, Eggers now lives in the Bay Area with his wife and kids.

FUN TIDBITS: Dave Eggers provided the album artwork for Thrice’s album Vheissu and Paul Banks & The Carousels‘ album Yelling at the Sun. You can also listen in on his conversation with Spike Jonze in “The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton” off Beck’s album The Information.

After frying the left side of my brain with a draining math midterm, I decided to awaken the right side of my brain with Foals, an Oxford-based, prog/math rock band who unsurprisingly sold out the show that night.

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For all you lovely UCLAradio.com listeners who tuned in Thursday 10/21/10 to “All That Jazz” @ 12-2pm are thinking WOW they played so really great stuff but what was it called again?  OR if you were super swamped with midterms and couldn’t tune in but still would like to listen to what we played here is our playlist…including music from 1940’s Broadway and some crazy covers by THE KING himself,  Ray Charles, Lady Gaga and some great music from soundtracks.

1. “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” – Doris Day (from Pal Joey)
2. “New York New York” – Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra & Jules Munshin (from On the Town)
3. You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” – Matthew Morrison & Paulo Szot (from South Pacific)
4. “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” – Ray Charles & Count Basie (from Oklahoma!)
5. “People Will Say We’re in Love” – Doris Day & Rock Hudson (from Oklahoma!)
6. “If I Loved You” – Barbara Streisand (from Carousel)
7. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – Elvis Presley (from Carousel)
8. “Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” – Ethel Merman (from Annie Get Your Gun)
9. “Anything You Can Do, I can do better” – (from Annie Get Your Gun)
10. “An Old Fashioned Wedding” – Bernadette Peters & Tom Wopat (from Annie Get Your Gun)
11. “Doin what comes Natur’lly” – Bernadette Peters & Ronn Carroll (from Annie Get Your Gun)
12. “Too Darn Hot” – Stacey Kent (from Kiss Me Kate)
13. “Why Can’t You Behave” – Jo Stafford & Paul Weston (from Kiss Me Kate)
14. “Something’s Gotta Give” – Sammy David Jr.
15. “Blue Side” – Rooney
16. “You Got a Friend in Me” – Toy Story Soundtrack
17. “Love” – Nat King Cole
18. “The Best is Yet to Come” – Tony Bennett and Diana Krall
19. “Someone to Watch Over Me”  — Lady Gaga
20. “Beautiful Dirty Rich” – Lady Gaga
21. “Don’t you Worry About a Thing” – John Legend
22. “Do You Only Wanna Dance” – Dirty Dancing Havana Nights Soundtrack
23. “The Reeling” – Passion Pit (Mike Snow remix)
24. “Wonderful World” – Sam Cooke
25. “You Send Me” – Dirty Dancing Havana Nights Soundtrack
26. “For Once in My Life” – Stevie Wonder
27. “Tainted Love/Where Did our Love Go” – Soft Cell
28. “Love Train” – The O Jays

Tune in next week for more JAZZ and 1950’s Broadway!!

–little MISS

#1 – Are you a fan of Portugal the Man? Maybe even just a fan of live music? Or maybe you just haven’t won something in a while…  Whatever it is, T&A from the Big Time with T&A Show (Wednesdays 4-6) have the answer for you in the form of a pair of tickets to the Portugal the Man show this Saturday (October 30) at the El Rey Theatre. So

#2 – Are you a fan of the Big Time with T&A show?  Maybe even just a fan of funny talk shows?  Or maybe you have nothing better to do on a Wednesday from 4:30-5:30.

Amidst the slow burning flicker of candles, we gather at final resting places to celebrate with our ancestors.  Traditional decorative necessities like pan de muerto and marigolds coat the concrete jungle floor.

Altars that rise like the pyramids of the Maya serve as representations of the great architects that have helped to shape our hearts and minds.

After surviving a legacy of invasion, spiritual conquest and institutionalization the indigenous practice of visiting with our spirit world relatives not only continues but thrives.

The festivities begin with a procession of winds and a flood of dreams invoked by a family photo or favorite drink.  Often it is a song that opens the doors of our minds, allowing us to relive a moment with friends and relatives who have long since transcended into the great mystery.

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I’ve wanted to see Miike Snow play live for the longest time. Their debut album, Animal, mixes the right amount of catchy beats with lyrics everyone wants to sing along to. Last time they were in the Bay Area, where I’m from, their show was completely sold out and on the same night I had tickets to see Hot Chip and the XX. This time, I wasn’t going to miss it.

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It was only after my second viewing of the trailer that I actually felt any anticipation for “Never Let Me Go”. Initial appeals were the casting choice for the leading roles (upcomers Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield) and the few glimpses of beautiful cinematography which vaguely reminded me of Urbanoutfitters Fall catalogues. However, what won me over was noticing “Exogenesis Part III (Redemption)” by the Muse played at the tail end of the trailer. The build up of violin and piano transitioning to the actual track all carried so much emotion that it had me wondering if this film could deliver something as equally moving as Matthew Bellamy’s pleading voice. I wasn’t disappointed. That’s why I would recommend you have an “audio pregaming” to the track (from the Resistance album, great as well) and maybe replay it a few times before heading off to the theater.

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