Friday, February 23, 2007

natalie makes the news

Here's a pretty rad article about our own Ms. Head. Too bad Graswich couldn't write it.

59 comments:

Alice said...

is this a new feature in the bee? i hope so.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they're gonna write about Natalie once a week.

-miller

Anonymous said...

yeah its called hangin with the head. We just chat about stuff and junk.
-natalie

Anonymous said...

I love it! But it makes me miss Sac...

brew

Anonymous said...

Maybe because it's time to come home.

That Natalie series will be interesting, there are so many topics to cover like "Punks of greater Bellingham," "Nerdy teevee shows" and "Guess who came into the law library today."

gbomb

Anonymous said...

Punks of greater Bellingham?
you mean me of course.

how about keeping your skin milky white with Natalie Head.

Anonymous said...

I bought the bee. Where is it? Did I miis it?

-Al

Anonymous said...

Sunday's bee.

Anonymous said...

Last Sunday's or this Sunday's?

Is it the one with the funny Drabble cartoon?

-Al

Anonymous said...

Bob Silva seems quite taken with Natalie! That was great!

Anna

Anonymous said...

What's the fascination with Bobby Bahama, Beckler? I mean, good riddance from that corrupt little shamus fellator from the pages of The Bee. Why Sacramento Magazine picked him and his pizzazz-free prose up is a total mystery.

Sylva wrote that? Well, at least it wasn't The Heckamoto.

Anonymous said...

Too bad Graswich couldn't write it.

You said "couldn't" when you meant "wouldn't". No wonder The Bee won't hire you and kicked you to the Midtown Monthly curb.

beckler said...

I know, and after I went through that exhaustive interview process at the Bee, only to have to take that job at Midtown Monthly. Humiliating.
BTW, I had a Heyamoto sighting at the spaghetti factory this weekend! Exciting. She is shockingly young.

beckler said...

I've been stewing on this and I'd like to say congratulations because in two and a half years of writing heckasac, that may be the most irritating comment I have ever gotten. And it's pretty nonsensical, too. I didn't mean "wouldn't" I meant "couldn't" as in he can't because he no longer works for the Bee.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Really? I love the sour grapes anonymous comments from the bee, but then again, they aren't aimed at me.

I love how much the mouse threatens the lion.

There was another local blog in which a former Bee insider totally took them to task, but I just went to look for it and it was deleted. I am certain that law suits were threatened.

gbomb

Anonymous said...

Is that a slam on me?
Because frankly you could have done better.
I admit though I will lay in bed tonight sleepless, wondering why an some faceless person on the internet thinks R.E. Graswich is too good for me but eventually the pain will fade.
-Natalie.

Anonymous said...

The lion is not threatened by the mouse. Trust me. The lion has bigger things to worry about.

Anonymous said...

Like what, offshoring customer service?

gbomb

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Dear mr. bee,
One who's job will soon be sucked into the Mclatchy vortex of 'profitable' newspapers shouldn't tempt fate by mocking others employment. See ya at the jobs desk for the SNnR soon!

Anonymous said...

Who says Bee is a Mr.?

Anonymous said...

If you all hate the Bee so much, why do you read it? Doesn't Midtown Monthly give you all the Sac news you need?

Anonymous said...

And please refrain from calling it the Brick Shithouse. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I guess a similar question would be "if you hate Heckasac so much, why do you read it?".

-miller

Anonymous said...

I find it amusing and sometimes even informative. And it often makes my blood boil. It goes back to the old adage about keeping your friends close but your enemies closer, or something like that.

(At least I answered your question. Now answer mine.)

Anonymous said...

But what about me?
Isn't that what this is all about?


Damm, why is that so hard for you anonymous types to understand. A sunday fluff piece about me is the fucking best. And surely thats what we need to remember.

Is it my milky white skin making your blood boil? Because I could understand that being the source of all this bitterness, seriously.
Milky!

-Natalie

BTW: thanks for linking to it anyway.

Anonymous said...

it's cracking me up that whoever this bee person is, is actually getting all buzzed up an ornery in much the same way that a real bee would if you were to agitate it. i think i'm going to start refering to anonymous as "scoopy."

bzz, bzz,
mrs. troublemaker

Anonymous said...

What I find so interesting about you, as a group, is that you hate on the Bee like it's your job, yet you jump at any free publicity you can get from it. If you hate it so much, why agree to an interview? I figured you all were above being in the Bee.

I will be the first to admit that the Bee has its share of flaws, including its misguided attempts to attract younger readers. But it's still a well above average daily with a decent national reputation.

Tolerate it or use it to line your cat box. I don't care. Just don't bite the hand that feeds you.

p.s. Thanks for the nickname idea. It sure beats being anon.

archbishop said...

When I've been asked for an interview, the Bee gets the same refusal I give to local teevee and radio.

Sure it's for nothing important, usually Peep eating contests (2007 is the 10th anniversary!) and novelty bands, but I think most media is hecka creepy. The random acts of nonsense I've done to amuse myself and others have no business with all ya'll.

So Queen Bee, put that in your pipe and bite it.

Anonymous said...

To answer your question, I don't really read The Bee unless it's sitting around free at a restaurant or coffee shop or something. And in that scenario, I'll read just about anything. Including world-class columnist Anita Creamer. If only she were here now. To let us know. That to once again see the world through the eyes of a child, is to find peace at last.

-miller

beckler said...

oh man, I was thinking yesterday that I should have deleted that gossipy thing about calling people the heathers cuz that's below the belt so I'll delete that in a sec. I read the Bee because I need a source for local news and it's the only daily in town. The News and Review is better but it only comes out weekly and it doesn't have anywhere near the reporting resources (read: money) that the bee has backing it. I only read it online for free, and then only a few days a week. I find it to be way too pro-arena and pro-development in general, I think it is unecessarily sensationalistic (like how it's trying to stir up some EMT scandal to capture the glory days of the fireman sex scandal that probably sold a crapload of papers) I think that its "synergistic" deal with channel 10 is really lame, and most of all as far as what I care about I think that the food section totally sucks it. To reiterate, I mostly read the free content online to find out what the developers are up to. I read the sac business journal online for the same reason but they have less free content.

Anonymous said...

Damm, I wish I wasn't responding one more time.

I never said I hated the bee.
I made a few jokes becasue frankly whatever you think about "us" when one of "us" is in the paper its sort of funny to see your bros in the paper. you know send it to your grandma your co-workers make some fun of you. Seriously why would you think that I was above the bee? I have actually not said one damm thing about the bee.
And if I had known that agreeing would involve some faceless ass ripping on me in a public forum I would have known I had one more thing to look forward to.

I also work for a county library, and no matter what you may think of me the work I do is pretty good and part of the article was to spotlight that. Unfortunately you didn't see it that way. Why would I need free publicity? Again, I hate that you anonomous (only my friends get knicknames) seem to be tearing into me a bit.

ahh screw it.
-Natalie.

p.s. people read the paper to read about me.

beckler said...

I will pretend that someone out there gives a shit and clarify my criticism of the food section of the bee, mostly because I keep having this recurring nightmare that someone introduces me to Mike Dunne. Not that I have any idea if he is aware of my existence. I don't have a specific beef with MD, he has been writing about food here since 1985 and as I am a little burnt after writing about food once a month for not even a year I can't imagine how burnt out he must be. It seems clear to me that the man would prefer to write about wine, and I think he should be allowed to do that. The Bee food coverage in no way reflects the diversity of the restaurants in the greater Sac area. For example, Allen Pierleoni wrote a recent column about Banzai Sushi, and unless I read it wrong he was saying he doesn't like raw fish and he orders stuff like sesame chicken at Japanese restaurants. There is nothing wrong with that, unless you are a food writer. I think food writers should have a sense of adventurousness and very few food phobias or restrictions, unless it's a specialized column, like for vegans or something.

Also, now that I have lulled you all to sleep, my other beef is that the recipes in the food section suck. I frequently make stuff that I read about in the NYtimes and I have yet to make anything from a recipe in the Bee

archbishop said...

I'm sorry, Natalie. I didn't even read the Bee about you.

I read it less than Miller.

One of my reasons why I think the Bee is el sucko was not describing the ethnicity of the guy who was stabbing people in midtown/downtown at random because it seemed like race baiting. I can't remember the exact irresponsible reason they had but it was crap.

I was thrilled that the Bee printed the mug shot of a teaching friend who was arrested after one of her students said he slept with her. As far as I know (and since I rarely read the Bee, but I've asked other teachers), the Bee never ran the kids apology for ruining her career. Not that it would've helped at that point. But it's nice that the Bee running her mug shot enabled vigilante web sites to have a picture of her to post.

The weird thing is, I'm a news junky. Only I don't know much about local news because there's nothing local to check.

Oh wait, I was glad that the Bee followed up on the water death. I found out about that from another source and when I realized it was local I checked the Bee. Glad the Bee stirred the pot on that one (those deejays knew it killed a kid in Chico).

Anonymous said...

I have given kudos to the bravery of the Bee's Scene section for years. Both Abby AND Ann Landers?! I find that brave and refreshing. It's too bad it couldn't continue. Of course, that's not the Bee's fault.

gbomb

Jackson Griffith said...

Jeez, gang. I love the Bee. Especially the comics page, with "Mark Trail" and sudoku six days a week, but also some of the other comic gems, like when the paper gets the wrong people to review shows or write pieces (see: Dixie Reid, Lisa Heyamoto). And I like reading my old SN&R alumni, like Rachel Leibrock and Marcus Crowder, in addition to Chris Macias, Blair Robertson, Allan Peirloni and a few others. I may not agree with them on everything, but what the hey. Diversity of opinion is better than some Stalinist orthodoxy, right?

Anonymous said...

Something that should be pointed out is that, just because some people on here think the Bee is kinda crappy, it doesn't mean that "we" (the imaginary Heckasac central brain) "hate on the Bee like it's (y)our job" as Scoopy imagines. I mean, read the comments in order. One person 11 comments in makes a Bobby Bahama/Heyamoto joke & the Bee folks jump in & steer this discussion to "why do you all hate the Bee blah blah...". It started as a simple "hey, our friend's in the bee" post. Get over it, Scoops.

-miller

beckler said...

JG-
it's really hard to understand tone when stuff is written on the iternet. you sound half sarcastic half sincere and I'm confused.

beckler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beckler said...

I just deleted the dreaded double post.

beckler said...

To clarify the comment to JG-
I feel like you're halfway busting my/other commenters chops for dissing the Bee while you simultaneously kinda dissing the Bee. Am I getting that right?

Anonymous said...

Does our "group" include the 5% of the Sacramento population who subscribes to the SF Chronicle? I wouldn't say my dad hates on the Bee like it's his job, but he still thinks that it's pretty weak.

Brew

Anonymous said...

"Hate it like it's your job" is some new slang for 2007 for sure!

"I hate that guy! Well, I mean, I don't hate him like it's my job, but he still sucks."


-miller

Anonymous said...

if hating were your jobs, you'd all own luxury lofts.

Anonymous said...

And you'd be my neighbor.

brew

Anonymous said...

and we'd high five after your baffling non sequiturs.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
You gotta just suck it up when you get snapped like that.

-miller

Jackson Griffith said...

Becks--

Nah, I'm not busting anyone else's chops here. Perhaps I should qualify what I wrote above by saying that I think the Bee has some very good writers, but they get assigned some really stupid stories at the editorial level. If the Bee had editors commensurate with the abilities of its writers (along with some people who can write decent headlines and kickers), it might not give the impression of sucking as hard as it sometimes does.

I guess I'm feeling all soft and charitable these days, what with all the recent turmoil in my personal life. It must be a pressure cooker over there on Q Street, what with the way McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt has destabilized the company with his KnightRidder deals and other bonehead moves. And I know times aren't all that great in the newspaper biz, but the Bee kinda has the franchise locked up in this burg.

Anyway, my $.02.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
beckler said...

too personal

beckler said...

jg-
thanks, now i get it.
scoopy- i keep trying to think of something to write to you that won't infuriate you further but will convey that you should calm down, but i know that you'll just buzz louder. you know what, i can tolerate a diversity of comments and differing opinions, but quit insinuating we're all a bunch of losers. heckasac commenters represent a wide range of socioeconomic levels, educational backgrounds, and artistic bents, but we are all united by the fact that none of us are fucking losers who wish we could buy luxury lofts and are bitter that we can't. capice?

Unknown said...

Except for me.

Anonymous said...

I think there are several "Bee people" posting here, so I'm going to continue to use my nickname from earlier to differentiate myself.

Reading over your comments and criticisms about the Bee since I posted the question asking why you all read has been interesting. For the most part, I agree with your criticisms. There are a few really good writers (Blair Robinson) and quite a few crappy ones. The editorial higher-ups make a lot of dumb decisions and often over-sensationalize things that need not be. There is too much of a pro-arena/pro-development slant, imo.

My issue with some of the Heckasac posters is that you do sometimes toss your insults below the belt, then you turn around and get nasty when folks disagree. That's not cool. Bee insults bother me just like Midtown Monthly insults insult Beckler.

Please continue to make fun of Graswich. He kinda deserves it. And if you have serious complaints about editorial coverage, don't just act all petty on a blog. Take it to the editors, and please mention you're under 40. The newsroom administration is pretty old and does stupid things to try to attract younger readers, and they need to hear what younger readers think.

And yes, the Knight Ridder acquisition has demoralized the hell out of the place. Lots of us are looking for other jobs, but the newspaper market is not so great right now.

End of soapbox.

Anonymous said...

Scoopette, you plainly and correctly rectified the situation.Kudos. I'd like to apologize for the loosin' jobs comment I made earlier. It was stupid and rude of me to trivialize the possible loss of your jobs. I do think it's a shame that the Bee doesn't present straight news all the time, but the Bee ain't alone. I'm sure the vast majotity of the staff would rather focus on getting responsible usefull, news to the public rather than making a profit. Oh wel,l the future is always bleakest right before the end.

beckler said...

Yeah, I felt bad that midtown monthly was being criticised, but I didn't imply the guy who wrote it was a jealous loser or anything. But I don't think you're the one who was writing that crap anyway.

Anyone been watching the frontline series on the media?

Anonymous said...

I saw the first 2. Last nites is on the dvr. It's great and rare that this series is being shown; truth is a scarce commodity on tv. I felt bad for Josh Wolf, the anarchist blogger who's in jail fr' not handing over his video of a protest. 6 months in jail! dig up McCarthy, his kids have made him proud.

Anonymous said...

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo...it helped Courtney and it gets me beer from the moody zen monk at days bar.Maybe it will help night rider too.Gambette Bee san...jay