mussel man

One dollar nigiri night at Ricksha was enjoyable as usual but this week their uni tasted what I imagine poo to taste like. Still, for a dollar I'll give it a try every week because sometimes it's superb.

I also went to Maaloufs this week and was pleasantly surprised to find that the chicken schwarma was the bomb even though I usually warn people away from ordering it because my experience in the past was that other dishes were better. It was so juicy and garlicky! Maaloufs is the best, as always.

I can't make it because I'll be soaking in the healing waters of the Yuba, but you guys don't forget to go to the sunday farmer's market this weekend. It's so insane right now. I've been dreaming about the peaches and apricots all week and the flowers are beautiful, too. And buy some mussels from the oyster guy. You get a large amount for five bucks and they are really good quality mussels. You could make this dish with them.

get it together, yelper

I would like to gently admonish this new yelper that these kinds of reviews are not very helpful. Not like she'll see this, but just in case. Wait, what, yelping since 2006 and this is what she is flooding the new reviews board with "good Brtsh food" as the entire review?

Do you guys ever hit up New Roma? Some of their bread is really good! Very yeasty. And it's half off after like one or something? This fluffy yeasty bread for 1.30 was a nice alternative to my usual 10 pound, five dollar, almost-expired loaf of sourdough wheat walnut from Sacramento Baking Company. Sac Baking Co's cost is really spiralling out of control and their bread doesn't last for long. The other day at Safeway they had some on the shelf that had expired three days before. I still buy it though. I don't know why. Because it's purple?

Calvin pissing

In these fractured, polarized times, I think there is one thing we can all agree on, and that's that the Bee Gees are the best, am I right? Hardest working dudes in show business. Did you know they wrote "to love somebody" for Otis Redding but that he died before he could record it? Imagine how good his version would have been.

Sadly, Awesome video has been selling off their VHS selection slowly, and they are currently on the horror movie section. Any horror fan should get his/her butt down there cuz they have some obscure shit, including old Mexican horror films, and all VHS tapes are half off! I didn't pick up any horror films, but I did get a copy of Feelin' Up (which I guess was also released as a film called "Getting Together") and an 80's comedy called "Delivery Boys" (tag line "Boy do they deliver!) and "Wham! in China: Foreign Skies" all for under 12 bucks! Gold! I also rented Kim Kardashian Superstar and let me tell you if you watch this movie you will never hear the phrase, "Oh shit, Ray Jay" the same ever again. I don't know if anyone else has seen this, but wasn't there supposed to be some golden shower action? Speaking of golden showers, a few of us were brainstorming on some Calvin pissing sticker ideas and we came up with Calvin pissing on one of those sticker stick families and R. Kelly pissing on Calvin (that one would be kind of hard to execute)

american badass

ya ya, I know, I'm not amusing you, or myself, or anyone. Need some amusement? Read this guys yelps. He's the one that went off on Temple in that crazy rant a few months back. Most of his other reviews are similarly head-scratching. The positive reviews are just as confusing as the negative ones.

Or, listen to this episode of This American Life. Everybody knows this show rules, but this one I think is the best one I've ever heard. I was almost crying at the end. They must agree that it's a classic because they just rebroadcast it from 1998, when it was recorded.

If you care, I have watched a couple of interesting movies lately. "Black Girl" directed by Ousmane Sembene, which is notable because he was the first internationally known African director, and The Hired Hand, directed by and starring Peter Fonda, which was really only noticeable because it confirms for me that Warren Oates is a badass. He has more charisma in his moustache than Peter Fonda has in his whole body. Too bad Peter Fonda was the star of that movie. I didn't remember until today that he was in Stripes. Can anyone recommend any of his other movies besides Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia? I like that he was in a movie in '74 called "Cockfighter" with alternate titles "Born to Kill", "Gamblin' Man" and "Wild Drifter"! Wow, reading about it on IMDB I see that it's a film about a cockfighting champion who has taken a vow of silence.

thursday night dinner

There were too many shows last night so I didn't go to any of them. Any reports? I did got to the Waterboys third thursday prix fixe dinner and Rick Mahan outdid himself. It was the best one I've been to. The common ingredient in all the dishes was orange cherry tomatoes that were at the peak of perfection. He started the meal with an amuse bouche of profiteroles with house smoked salmon, tobiko, sour cream and red onion. Then came a bomb-ass salad with grilled scallops, super crisp, super sweet corn, haricot verts, thin slices of Spanich chorizo, cherry tomatoes and a delicious, citrusy viniagrette with small pieces of lobster in it! Next were hand cut wide noodles with lightly grilled squash, yummy piquant black olives, onion, and cherry tomatoes. Then came the most delicious ribeyed steak ever. It was heavily salt crusted, so the outer, more well-grilled and salty parts were amazing, as were the rare inner bits. It was huge! It came garnished with fried potatoes, roasted onions, cherry tomatoes, arugula, and parmesan. Last, but not least was a peach filled crepe with vanilla ice cream and a squiggle of balsamic vinegar on top. AMAZING! This meal was 48 dollars, if you can believe that. I was surprised to see a few empty tables scattered throughout the room. He does this dinner once a month and you all really should go. He pairs wine with it, too. Last night I had an interesting white meritage and a cabernet that went excellently with the ribeye.

Tonight the Bananas are playing in SF at the "Drunx not dead" night at the Knockout. That's a really stupid name but it should be really fun.

p.s.-The topping for the ribeye reminded me of this salad that I've made a couple of times that's really good. Roast some potatoes with oil, salt, pepper, and whatever herb sounds good, maybe thyme or something. When they're done, let them cool a little bit, and then mix them with a whole bunch of arugula (it will really wilt down from the heat of the potatoes, so even two bunches wouldn't be too much), some champagne vinegar, and then grate a bunch of parmesan on top. It's great, and I think cherry tomatoes would be a really good addition to it.

new rave

If you still can't get a handle on what the New Rave style is exactly, take a look here. No not the hedgehogs, unfortunately they are not a part of the style, the people wearing the neon crap. Including that hot new model Aygnes Deyn or whatever her name is that everyone is shitting over but who is waayyyyy too eighties for my taste. Even though I vowed about a month back that neon was never OK and that I would never wear it, I found a neon pink tshirt that says "Opryland" on it at the Goodwill so obviously I had to buy that.

And here's another photo blog I check with some good pictures that really capture the mood of a Morrissey concert.

breaking news

The SN&R reported on the story I broke about the Crest. That's funny that the mayor was there and gave positive feedback to Mr. Wine Investor because she played all innocent when LM talked to her about it at the railyards meeting. Two faced bitch! Uh, that's right, I said it.

I'm not trying to sway your votes one way or another, I'd just like to point out that if you'd like to vote for anyone that's nominated for a sammie, you can do it here.

Dueling shows tonight, Dan Deacon at Fools (which is supposed to start at nine, and Ancient Sons at Marilyns). Also, RTL is playing Record Club on sunday. With The Makes Nice (bubblegum rock) and the long-awaited reunion of Red Tyger Church! Once again there are four bands, too many!

Good, they finally posted my comment on that Breton article. I was starting to smell a conspiracy.

And another arena discussion percolates up. So the NBA gets to decide where they want the arena, hmm? We'll see about that.

dalta and dawn: never forget (ps I've copyrwrighted that phrase so don't try to steal it)

Marcus Breton recently switched from writing about sports to writing about whatever, so I guess we can expect more shit like this. Haven't heard an arena mentioned in awhile, how shocking that the former sports columnist would be the only one calling for it. Also, I don't know how often they check the comments for approval, but I sent one a little bit ago so we'll see if they post it. They better because it's not a link to my whale shirts. Besides, that would be pointless because so many orders are flowing in that it's backed up for weeks.

that's it

Look, I'm still being totally boring! Yeah, show at Fools tomorrow which will either be the worst or the best, depending on if you're over or under 30. Some band called the Bananas is playing the Knockout in SF on friday, which is a really cool venue so I'll probably go if I'm not busy washing my lustrous, Janis Joplin-like hair.

I'm eating at Hana Tsubaki tonight so I'll finally get to try their uni, which comes highly recommended.

anotoher annoying yelp of pho bac

in its entirety:

Okay, so it was like 100 degrees outside, we had just gotten out of our bar review class at McG's (the Essay Workshop #2), and I was hungry. It was my turn to drive.I didn't know where else to go so we headed to Broadway.Pho Bac Hoa Viet caught my eye, and it jolted me with a pho craving. So I ordered the soup with beef and beef tendon (just to see what tendon was like when it was served on purpose).The 2.5 gallon bowl of hot soup didn't really help me out with the hot-weather overload that day, but the tendon was really interesting. It looked just like fat, but it didn't react to my chewing the way you might expect fat to. It had more structure, yet it was pleasantly soft. Not chewy, mind you, just "soft."My BFTB* had some really yummy looking shrimp stuff. I think we'll go back to this one again.

*"Best Friend 'Till Bar [exam]" (A modification of BFF). It just seemed like the right thing to call it, since we now spend every day together from 6:30 am to 3 pm.

he gave it three stars

judge for yourself

Sorry I'm being so boring. I don't feel like posting yet. This guy will be playing at fools on thursday. He is sposadly awesome live

lates

Have a good weekend everybody! I'm out of town on monday but I'll be back to the grind on tuesday.

yay ricksha!

So last night I went to Ricksha, where I hadn't been in a while, and I have a confession. When I eat out with friends, I have a need to control where we eat. Sometimes when someone else picks I get a little pouty inside and as the Armeniac had requested Ricksha for dollar Nigiri night I was secretly bridling at this and wishing we could go to Zen Toro instead. What an idiot I am! Ricksha outdid itself last night. I even got dollar uni as a lark, thinking I could just throw it away if it looked gross because it cost so little. I wish I had tried their uni before I wrote that article aobut because it was far and away the best I've ever had! GW would back me up on this if she wasn't out of town today. It was unbelievably sweet and tasty, as was every single other piece of nigiri I got last night, including hamachi, sake, seasoned squid salad (which is the ika sansai salad, prepared exactly like the delicious stuff they sell at oto's), and ikura. And all that with soup, edamame and a giant beer cost like 15 bucks! Unbelievable.

I can't go, unfortunately, but Calvin Johnson is playing at Fools on saturday. I don't know if anything else is going on this weekend.

autobiography

Holy shit! I googled "jess hilliard" cuz smiller was asking me about an audio zine he used to do called "troop librarian" and because I was reminded of him the other day by that Dishwasher Pete interview. He wrote this totally wonderful autobiography on this website. Holy crap, it's so great! It's funny because this website that it's on seems like something I wouldn't like, and I'm definitely not sure how I feel about Miranda July (who is partially responsible for the site), but I've looked at it before and some of the displays are oddly touching. I liked the one where people sent in pictures from under their beds.

discurses, foiled again

The new News and Review is out. The editors letter makes no sense. They printed a bunch of letters slamming them for various stuff. For the record, I liked Kel Munger's essay on Jerry Falwell. She probably expected strong reactions to it, but I hope the hate mail isn't bumming her out. And I loved KW's slam of Tex Wasabi, although certain septugenarians with a love for Jack Daniels didn't agree. She reviews Pho Xe Lua this week, which I think is maybe the place kind of by Thrift Town with the crazy sign? The best thing in the whole damn rag, as usual, is the little blurb by DB. And he used the word "discursive" which I had to look up. It means digressive or rambling. What a great word, but I discurse.

juice! juice! juice!

No, please don't eat me!

I know I haven't been writing about food much lately. A lot of my eating out has been in pursuit of my July MM column, so I haven't wanted to write about it for fear of getting scooped. I'm being paranoid, I know. I have a question for you bagel lovers out there. Best bagels in Sac? I have a new frontrunner to announce today. It's Manhattan bagel co on 47th and H. Damn good. I think Sacramento Baking bagels are crap, but I like their bread. Bella Bru is OK. I don't know about New York Bagel Boyz. I still try to make it to Lazslo's when I can to get his smoked salmon. It's a damn shame that there is nowhere in town to pick up both salmon and a bagel at the same time.

Other than that, I have been eating healthy as hell at home, with wheat berries and such and I am getting a little bored with that. I bought a juicer at a thrift store and have been juicing as much as possible. fresh carrot/apple/orange/and/or/beet is like the best thing ever invented. also the best thing? grilling golden trout from the davis co-op. it puts salmon to shame.

Hey look, a picture of Hmong protesters in Sac made the nytimes. Look at what a bad ass Vang Pao was.

do it

I was just listening to Dishwasher Pete on NPR on the local chat show and he was of course talking about how Jess H. went on the David Letterman show for him, and he mentioned how Jess used to live in Sac and how he worked at Sutter's fort, which I had forgotten until just now. Watch the clip here. And go see him at Time Tested Books at eight and buy his book.

dishwasher pete tomorrow

Dishwasher Pete is speaking and signing books at Time Tested tomorrow.

I checked out the new Sactown mag cuz a little bird told me they mentioned my whale shirt. It was in this little stats feature and it said something along the lines of "days after whales were spotted that a tshirt went on sale on cafepress that read "sacramento's got whale fever: catch it": 1. Not to quibble or anything, but it was quite a few days more than one when I made that shirt.

There's a depressing letter from a guy that says that sacramento is "finally moving in the right direction, and your magazine is a reflection of that change" and then he goes on to say he can't wait until we get a house of blues and a downtown arena! Yeah, sac will rule then but until that day I'm just going to stay in.

I also heard from the same little bird that Richie Rich got his chops busted pretty bad on the railyards tour and that he couldn't take the heat. I wasn't there, so that's secondhand.

photos from Japan

I just got a disc of pictures of Japan in the mail from our gracious hosts and I thought I'd post them. That's right, I'm about reveal my identity on this blog for all to see:
Here I am at the base of the giant buddha in Kamakura

That's me with the scarf waiting for the cute little green train to take us along the beach in Kamakura

And there I am about to be totally stoked on eating tako yaki outside of a temple in Kamakura.

This was back in Tokyo. These guys were the best. They were grilling up giant shellfish over coals.

Here is the infamous expensive fruit. Each strawberry is about four bucks. I was about to snap a picture of a hundred dollar melon but they asked me to stop taking pictures.

The window display of plastic omurice (rice filled omelette)
Here's omurice with a buttered hamburger patty.

Here's Bancho, a crazy ageless punk guy who played with the Bananas
And a slightly less SFW version, I'll spare you the full frontal that was to come. Unfortunately all the pictures of the bananas are really blurry.

just another friday night in sac

I had the most Sac friday night possible, and it didn't involve Euro lounging, or valet parking, or a wine bar, or any of that psuedo-sophisticated crap that certain developers and city leaders are wishfully hoping will be the future of Sacramento. Instead it started with a delicious (and vermin free) five dollar meal at Los Jarritos (I'd like to extend my congratulations to them on their reopening after a two day closure for cockroach infestation-no big whoop). Smiller got the ceviche, which didn't cause him any ill effects, and I got yummy and greasy chicken tacos and we both got rereshing Modelo Especials. Then we headed to an off the chain concert by Knock Knock at Cesar Chavez park (click on picture if you want to see details, such as JerPer's outfit)

Aww..so cute!
These two are naturals on the big stage

Maybe not Knock Knock's biggest fan, but he was into it.

Three of these ladies were doing a coordinated dance at one point. Jerry Perry is probably clutching a stack of Alive and Kickings and I would like to say for the record that I'm disappointed in him for putting Warp Eleven on the cover. Worst band ever! Let's hope the A and K curse continues and they break up.

This bellydancing diva got thanked from the stage by Connie for the hard work she was putting in. After the concert in the park there were a ton of different things going on, but we chose to go to a house show featuring some up and coming young bands by the name of David Copperfuck and Connie Fucking Francis. Hey it's hard to think of band names! At least they're not full sentences like some names these days.

Here are some of the members of David Copperfuck. They were very fun and their seven inch is pretty good.

Here's a picture of Connie Fucking Francis at work. They do punk style Connie Francis covers. OK, not such a great idea, but entertaining for a little while. Fun bands are back, and I'm excited! It was a really fun night, with lots of bike riding, MAYBE a couple of illicit substances (I'm not admitting to anything) and friends all over the place. And that's what Sac is all about!

you: enormous wang me: wet pantalones

WoW tears another relationship apart. And another missed connection, this one in Davis. I wonder which mechanic shop she went to? Pure idle curiousity, of course.

Lots and lots of shows tonight. I guess just check out what's up sacto for the short cut. I heard that Knock Knock are supposed to play around eight. Shit, I see what's up sacto doesn't have this show. OK, Cesar Chavez park, Poplollies at 530 (Gbomb says they're good) then Agent Ribbons, Baby Grand and Knock Knock.

Richard Rich

First things first, if you love the Crest, please shoot off a quick email to Jim Brennan. Some talking points include: the Crest is host to a wide variety of successful local events, the Crest is the only independent theater in town, the Crest has a wonderful manager, Sid Heberger, don't fuck with the motherfucking Crest, etc. Here's his email again: jbrennan@scopusadvisors.com

The railyards meeting was pretty disheartening. I sat right behind my archnemesis, Suheil Totah, and tried to give him the evil eye. His sidekick, Richie Rich (yeah, that's his name) also spoke and they both just blew a lot of smoke up our collective asses. It was so touching to hear how the Thomas Enterprises Corp really cares about Sac and our history so much, and that they stay awake at night thinking how to do right by us. We can look forward to the next few years of Thomas trying to squeeze money out of the city and state for this project.

The only heartening thing that I saw was Mrs. Troublemaker and her mom barging on up to the mayor to talk to her about what the hell is going on with the Crest. The mayor doesn't have a clue but she is meeting with Brennan soon. While you're at it, write her an email about it, too. hfargo@cityofsacramento.org OMG, I just looked at her website to get this email and here is a quote: Our new vision: Sacramento will be the most livable city in America.

Why stop with America? Sacramento is already sooooo much more livable than say, Venus, what with it's toxic clouds of acid in the atmosphere and such. And it's hardly even bikeable, with barely any mixed-use luxury lounging lofts.

There are a lot of shows tonight, which I'll post about as soon as you write those emails! Keep pissing in the wind, maybe a drop of piss will hit something and stick, you never know.

nononnonononnononnnonnonnonnonnoooooooooooooo

Why take a fully functioning, viable business and change it to chase a pipedream? Build something if you must. Like the Mondavi Center. A wine country investment group is going to come into our city and fuck up one of my favorite things about it? How can this happen?

civic obligations are a drag, am i right?

probably too busy to post until later. be sure you check wburgs comment that fills you in on the railyard meeting tonight. hope to see you all there!

write it

I'm off on wednesday. Write those letters!

Call to action!

If this post bores you and you start skimming, just read the second part and shoot Jim Brennan a quick email.

As pointed out in this article the city is soliciting feedback from the public on the development of the railyard. Here are the details. It boils down to a meeting this thursday from 6-800 at the train depot. As loathe as I am to dwell in a beer and wine-free atmosphere during this prime afterwork time, I think I will go. This is an interesting event, perhaps Bill Burg can elaborate on it as I imagine he might have something to do with it? (oops, he already did on the forum, here's what he wrote:

I hoped to have a map to post today...I'll add it once I get it, but here's the skinny:The Sacramento Old City Association presents its quarterly Preservation Roundtable, Saturday June 9 at 9:00 AM. Admission is $5 at the door.The Roundtable will be held in the paint shop of the Southern Pacific Shops. For those unfamiliar with the Shops, it is the building farthest to the right in the Shops complex when facing north from the Amtrak passenger platform.How to get there: By car, take I-5 to Richards Blvd. and turn towards the river (left if you're coming from downtown, right if you're coming from the north.) Turn left on Jibboom Street and look for the UP signs. Follow the signs through the Shops past the Paint Shop, where there is a large open area for parking.By light rail, take the Gold Line to the Sacramento Valley station. Walk a bit east to the end of the platform, cross the tracks and just walk across the field to the Paint Shop, which is the building farthest to the right.The Preservation Roundtable includes various speakers from the city of Sacramento, the local development community and those involved in historic preservation activities. Thanks to Thomas Enterprises, who have made the Shops building available for this event.At 12:00 PM, the meeting will conclude with an exclusive tour of the Shops complex, led by California State Railroad Museum staff.

And, the second call to action for the day. OK, so if you were paying attention the other day, you saw that I linked to some off-the-record scuttlebutt from the skyscraper forum about a remark made by Jim Brennan. Jim Brennan has recently acquired the block of 10th and K that the Crest is on, minus the building that the Pyramid Brewery is in. He was talking about turning the Crest into something Julliard-like (if you read the Vellinga article linked in the first paragraph you see that another developer has similar plans for the railyards). Some of us freaked out a bit, but a well-connected heckasac friend contacted Jim Brennan and he was suprised to find out about all the events that happen at the Crest and welcomed feedback from the community. So let's give him some feedback, in a polite and positive way (I know, it will be hard). Let him know what a treasure the Crest is, and how we would like it to remain a movie and performance venue. I for one will note that I would welcome any changes that would lead to increased success for the Crest but that I will cry a river if arthouse movies start passing us by if any changes result in fewer movies booked at the Crest. It would also be nice to emphasize that the Crest has been the one thing on that block that is open and successful for a while now (before Pyramid) so we might not want to mess with success.

Here's his email

jbrennan@scopusadvisors.com

time for a poll

Scroll down on this page for a Ski Instructors review! Wait, he's not the same Scott Miller from Game Theory? Scott, can you call me, we need to talk. I'm feeling deja vu, like I have made this exact same joke before. I've been writing Heckasasc long enough that I get that feeling a lot.

There will be a call to arms later on the Crest situation. We can keep it levelheaded. Things aren't so bad at all.

I've seen a couple movies lately. I saw Inland Empire at the Crest, which I think is already gone from the Sac area. What a stinker! This is not a must-see for anyone, not even David Lynch fans. About a quarter of the audience walked out even though I imagine that most of them were aware going in that it was a three hour David Lynch movie. Laura Dern was good in it, but I can't stand what she does with her mouth when she cries (it's like this grimacing sad-clown thing) and she is pretty much making that face the entire time. The choreagraphed dancing scenes with suicide girl types makes it really seem like DL has lost it.

Has anyone seen the silent monk movie at the Crest? How boring is it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Die Hard (not at all boring) and 10 being Inland Empire (excruciatingly boring)?

I saw Knocked Up last night. It's not as funny as 40 year old virgin, but it's pretty fucking funny. Apatow is a casting genius for casting his cute kids and his really funny wife in major roles.

Watching both Knocked Up and Bedazzled lately has made me ponder a question that I need some help with, who's finer? Paul Rudd or Peter Cook?

stupid pet tricks

in answer to gbomb's prayers, I have posted the dumbest video ever of Karp getting bugged by the love (or hate, with alpacas there's a thin line) of a wayward alpaca.

ORMF!

Hmm...I was all set to post a pretty awesome video of the Bananas at ORMF and a pretty dumb video of an alpaca harassing a dog, BUT I guess my videos are too big for youtube? How can this be? Does anyone know what I can do?

too much to handle

And the events just keep rolling in....tomorrow of course is the big Operation Restore Maximum Freedom extravanganza, and THEN on sunday Matt and Kim are playing at Fools and SUPPOSEDLY, ALLEGEDLY they are the best live although certainly not the best recorded as I can testify. This is a three band show that SUPPOSEDLY, ALLEGEDLY starts at 9pm.

hold onto your hats

AP reviewed Sushi Cafe on Alhambra. Choice quote (unfortunately he did not have lunch with Henry Rollins):

Rollins and I took a pass on the sea urchin and smelt roe and asked for bento boxes

of course you did! Not like I'm some extreme challenge eater, but compared to him I am. Also, he defines "tempura" in the article.