discriminating tastes

I am mad that I forgot my camera and therefore can't post my jazz festival photos. I am currently trying to look through all 888 listings for springbok puzzles on ebay, so I am obviously working too hard to post. If you know puzzles you know springbok makes the best. I won't even really look at non-springboks at a thrift store. This brings to mind the obvious question, are there any nudy puzzles out there? there must be and I will find them.

friday post!

In honor of Kiedis' impending fatherhood (which I am pretty stoked about), I completed a little project I have been wanting to do for a while in which I compile a list of all the place references in the lyrics of Stadium Arcadium. If you listen to the Chili Peppers you will know that this is always the well that Kiedis will dip his wick in when he is stuck for a lyric. Here goes:

Disc one: Jupiter

Dani California-
California of course
Mississippi
Alabama
Louisiana
Indiana
Minnesota
North Dakota

Snow (hey oh)-this is my favorite because it is the only goddamned one with an even semi-catchy hook
None? Amazing

Charlie-
None

Stadium arcadium-
St. Petersburg

Hump de bump-
Love street

She’s only 18 (gross name)-
None but he does have the phrase “the smell of springsteen”

Slow cheetah-
None

Torture me-
Brazil

Strip my mind-
Hades
Carolina?
El Dorado

Especially in Michigan
Michigan, natch
Lithuania

Warlocks (best song title)-
The Vatican
Santa Monica
Japan
China

C’mon girl-
None

Wet Sand-
None, but he does mention “balarama girl” as if balarama is a place

Hey (not to be confused with hey oh)-
None

Here we go with disc two, mars

Desecration smile-
Malibu


Tell Me Baby-
“they come from every state”
Kansas City
This song also contains the best lyric “three fingers in the honeycomb”

Hard to Concentrate-
“the world”
An estuary is a kind of place

21st Century-
Venus

She Looks to Me-
South Seas

Readymade-
Arizona (rhymed with moaner)
State of California
City of Sedona
*Mentions black and decker WITHOUT rhyming it with pecker wrecker

If-
5th Avenue

Make You Feel Better-
None

Animal Bar-
None (but does mention Norman Mailer)

So Much I-
None

Storm in a Teacup-
Heaven
Someplace called a “lasarium”
*also notable because he calls some girl a “sour Kraut”

We Believe-
None

Turn It Again-
Kazakstan
Cuba
Aruba
Dominican

Death of a Martian-
Mars, obvs

And the last mention is…..of course….. Vegas!

Hmm.not quite as many as it seems when you're listening to the album, but still a lot.

kel's new album

and let the discussion about whether he's joking begin...or I can just tell you right now that he's joking. but no one will believe me.

whales vs. jazz

What will happen when the whales meet the drunken revelers on the river this weekend? Do whales like to party? I like this comment on the story:

How to help the whales?
Has anyone thought of using dolphins to show the whales the way home? Since we can communicate with dolphins and the dolphins can communicate with whales, they seem to be the perfect translators. Just a thought... here from Park City, UTAH

The only small flaw that I see in this plan is that we actually can't communicate with dolphins, but besides that it's brilliant. Has anyone thought of using the sounds of Dixieland Jazz to drive the whales back into the sea?

Ella, don't look at this.

Another BJ for the Quarry Pond shopping center.

The Coconut Coolouts were good. I am wearing the dinosaur shirt that you see on their myspace right now. I think that the success of bands like this and Tyvek signals a return to fun bands! Just in time for the summer. It was a bummer that the ten o'clock show at Fool's really started much closer to eleven.

up on my jock

Wow, the SNR is all up on my jock today. Sweet, that's how I like it. The predicted review of Pizza Antica has rolled in.

But I don't want to talk about that, I'd like to talk about the secret Compton's Market. I wish I would have taken a picture of the goddamned sign like I meant to yesterday, it's rad. I'll take a picture next time. It's so secret it seems to have no web presence whatsoever, not even a yellow pages listing. This market is pretty ok. Good produce, good food mags, nice cheese section, terrible and expensive beer selection however. Have you been? The nice thing is that it is in the general area of the Alhambra Safeway but with a pleasant bike ride there rather than an excruciating one. Man, the Sacramento Archives has a computer with pictures of the interior of the Alhambra (taken by Pat Melarkey) which I had never seen before. It made me sadder than ever that it got torn down. If I had a time machine, after I went back in time to kill Hitler, I would maybe try to stop the demolishing of the Alhambra.

be there AND be square

The whale situation is getting pretty sad, so I can't think of a new shirt, although I was thinking of something along the lines of Sac: so nice the whales came thrice!

Hey, there is a show tonight, did you know? It's for Joel's birthday! Four Eyes, Coconut Coolouts and Makes Nice.

It's a little early to mention this show, but Dan Deacon is coming to Fool's on June 21st. This guy is hyped to the extreme and I can't figure out why from listening to his CD, so I'm interested to see this show. I think this show will only go off well if there is a pretty big crowd, so we'll see.

This picture is a visual aid to let you see that smiller and I triumphed over this ape that was trying to make a monkey out of us.

where are they now?

No time to post today, I don't even know what the whales have been up to in the last 12 hours! No post tomorrow either, I won't be in.

new whale shirt

I have made a new shirt to reflect this rapidly changing situation.

sac bee rants and raves

All right, this is the last straw. The Bee needs to end their comments feature now. It has degenerated into just one step above craigslist rants and raves. This is making them look ridiculous. I would also like to point out once again that they censored my comment that linked to my bestselling shirt. Which you can now find by searching "whale fever" on cafepress.com

lorelei and rory?

Go to that link below and check all the new comments on the whale names. HC will be glad to see that Lorelai and Rory has gotten two votes. Delta and Dawn seems to have won out for their names on the local news, which is think is at least better than Rio and Vista. Looks like they were swimming towards the ocean but then they missed Sac.

What a weekend! Gballs party kicked off the summer in the best way possible. Knock Knock channeled the power of the airbrushed white visor and delivered a searing set, and the unnamed band made an auspicious debut. It sounds like both shows in Davis were amazing. The Lavender Diamond show at the Independent was good, but that space was about twice as large as they needed, which really sucked the energy out of the room.

And then yesterday, I read Ethan Frome (wouldn't it be rad if that was a link to the Ethan Frome myspace?) and everyone else went to the Pipas show, which sounded really good also.

By the way, I had another excellent meal at Pho Bac Hoa Viet on Broadway last night, I just feel the need to mention that to counteract all the badmouthing it gets. We got chicken bun and rare steak pho and they were both excellent and served quickly.

ruffled fins

I had to erase that photo for my own peace of mind.

Ha! Some fins are getting ruffled after LH closed the polls for the whale names.

AP does something completely out of character and reviews a ribs place! Oh no wait, I meant he does something completely predictable and reviews a ribs place on Howe Avenue.

Looks like the Bee took down those cocaine-related comments on this article. Is the Bee getting pranked? Here's another comical story involving firefighter Christian Pebbles. Holy shit, that frightening, frightening image was the number one hit when I did a google image search for Christian Pebbles.

Someone just yelped Gunthers and called it "ghetto". And then mentioned it doesn't take American Express. Is that what makes it ghetto? Someon else yelped about how scary Henry's is. Frightened, frightened yelpers.

birthdays

Happy Birthday to GW and Gbomb!!!!!!!!!!!

Gbomb would like you all to know that the musical entertainment is going to start at 9pm sharp!! If you show up at party time you will miss the bands. There is also unfortunately a coinciding Four Eyes and Pizzas show at the Distillery. Summer in Sac: off the chain.

The Sierra 2 Flea Market is on saturday!

Sunday morning is the KDVS record swap. And then in the afternoon the Pipas show. Listen to Pipas here.

Our Liberian correspondent noted that ChkChkChk were on NPR.

I totally forgot about all the shows on saturday in Davis. Tyvek and Cheveau at the DAM house. San Kazakgaskar and Neung Phak at DOV AND the Alkali Flats at Sophias, the worst restaurant that has ever existed. Ever.
I

the internet is really entertaining me today

another funny story and more good comments. Not to mention that the firefighter's name is Christian Pebbles.

Man, the Bee is on fire today! Check out that awesome beaver art at the bottom.

fever spreads

The whale fever spreads as Heyamoto tries to pretend she wasn't 3 years old 22 years ago and that she lived in Sac.

I'm attempting to use the comments to plug my tshirt. I'm just going to sit back and watch the money roll in. Can I quickly trademark the phrase "whale fever"?

do the math

I can't take it. Pho Bac got a 3 out of 5 star yelp (that's good for them) and the woman opened the review by complaining that the bathrooms next to the entryway (which she has never been in) smell like...DISINFECTANT! So it's not ok for bathrooms to smell like shit OR disinfectant, yelpers? What does you bathroom smell like at home? Let me guess, when you take a shit, it smells like shit for a while. Now imagine your bathroom was open to anyone walking by, and multiply that five minute shit smell by the number of people who use it. You might use some extra pine sol in there to counteract that, right? By the way, if you haven't been there, there is a door separating the entryway from the restaurant and inside the restaurant it smells like food and is filled with happy, smiling people who are eating good food.

She says she loves the food but then take away two stars because of clumpy noodles and because it's not New Paris.

catch it!

I made this. be sure to check the back

truly wtf

wtf? our weather doesn't change very often?! it's always sunny.

i'm glad this one comes in an infant tshirt, now i know what to get adk at her baby shower.

what a lovely print

this one's pretty cool. look, you can get a magnet of it.

is this dirty like i think it is?

i'm ordering the trucker hat, so everybody better not get that or we'll all look silly

is this a jerry reynolds quote?

this one of my most hated fonts

this is a nice print, but it looks nothing like sac. it's from this poster shop

whitey's jolly kone thong, anyone?

whale fever: catch it!

Have you ever looked at the sacramento stuff on cafe press? it's pretty amusing. i was just looking to see if anyone had made any "sacramento has whale fever" shirts yet. this one is the worst.

have you seen this woman?

Attention Heckamax! The search continues for Lost Licorice.

falsetto sucker

I fucking love this song and this band, the wild beasts. Yes, I am a sucker for any falsetto including Chris Isaak's!

pizza post

Another appeal (in addition to the FBOW one below): can anyone tell me when the golden state game starts tonight? The nba website says 10:30. That can't be right!

I have been doing some covert eating for MM (I don't want to get scooped so I can't talk about it) so I'll just post about a pizza I made. Exciting?

I started with Old Soul Pizza crust that I got at Taylors. It was just OK and the directions that they had posted at Taylors (and not on the packaging, which is a dumb idea) were wrong. It said to cook at 450 for 8-10 minutes. I even used a pizza stone and the crust was not done at 10 minutes. More like 15. I chopped fresh thyme that I had sittin' around and put it on there, with dollops of Laura Chevre herbed goat cheese.
I did a half-assed caramelization of some onions (I never have the patience to go all the way) and simmed some red grapes in some Harbor Winery Mision Del Sol that I had in the fridge (the leftover warm wine that had some grape juice in it was sooooo delicious to drink). Then I dumped that on the pizza and cooked.
Voila! Pretty good, but I prefer the crust I make myself from Marcella Hazan's recipe. The only problem is it takes 3 hours to rise.

handle it

OK, so the Finches record gets a terrible review because they're not the Animal Collective but this chucklehead gets an 8 point fucking seven! I downloaded this album and listened to it and it's just OK, pretty frenetic and annoying. This reviewer must really love xylophone and woody woodpecker samples. Carolyn said she used that review as inspiration for a song, so take that, stupid p-fork!

I'm glad the Bee is doing this series on drunk driving. It's sorely needed. I wish they would do some hard-hitting investigative stuff and send someone out to observe the zoo that is downtown on a friday and saturday night at 2 am. Maybe that's coming next. However, it's totally absurd to pretend that any bar would ever enforce the law of not serving to someone who is visibly intoxicated. Everyone is drunk in a bar unless you're watching Cheers on TV. The fault lies with the police not busting enough people for word to get out, which is probably because there aren't enough of them to do so.

Hey, Mike Dunne reviewed Cafe Vinoteca. He starts the review with a scintillating discussion of whether it's a ristorante or a trattoria. See a ristorante is...looked I've gently lulled you to sleep. How cute. I know, I know, he handles the fine dining, but who is handling everything else? And don't say Allen Pierloni, he wouldn't know how to handle an actual handle even if it came equipped with an E-Z grip handle. Ha ha, I kid! One day I'm going to run into these guys and I'll just keel over and die.

the weirdest pie

The Sounds of Sacramento thing was super fun. The archives are so cool. I loved getting a glimpse of them. In the back they had a display that had stuff from Joe Sun, including that crazy 50s mannequin dude, and the giant pants and the tiny pants. It's so touching that there are people out there who care to preserve these bits of history as the city goes about destroying them. Too bad I got there after Heather Fargo left, maybe I could have taken her over to that display and given her a talking to about it. At least we'll have an awesome Z gallerie in that space soon so that I can furnish my house with overpriced tacky crap in jewel tones. Yeah, I know there is already a Z gallerie in the mall, but this one will be two blocks closer to my house, so I'll be more likely to shop there, just as I'll be more likely to shop at the Target that they're putting in there rather than the Target already in place 12 blocks away. I got a tshirt from the Sacramento Historical Society that made my head spin. Trompe l'oeil suspenders. Enough said.

The farmer's market is now exploding with produce, it's amazing. Does anyone agree with me that it should stay open later and that there should be food, similar to the wednesday one in Cesar Chavez park? There are so many sundays that I get out of the house too late for the one under the freeway, I wish it could be a morning AND afternoon event. I think people would love that. A tip, the mussels I got yesterday from the oyster guy were the best I've ever had! Sweet and tender. I made the beer and lime fish stew that Mike Thiemann created the recipe for, you know the one I printed in midtown monthly. It was the bomb. If you didn't cut it out, here it is again.

Cilantro fish stew with clams, mussels, corvina and large prawns in a XX Amber lime broth

serves 2

4 large prawns
2 small fillets of corvina or any firm-fleshed white fish
1 cups of clams and mussels @ 6 of each
2 ox. Spanish chorizo, chopped in small cubes
8 cherry tomatoes halved
6 limes juiced
1 ear of white corn, off the husk
1/2 bottle of XX Amber
1/2-1/4 Fresno pepper, sliced
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1/2 white onion shaved or julienned
1/4 cup chicken stock
olive oil
salt and pepper

In a large pan saute over high heat the clams, prawns, chorizo and corvina in olive oil until the fish and prawns are browned on one side. Flip the seafood then immediately deglaze the pan with the beer. Add the onion and corn. The chicken stock and lime juice are added to taste. Reduce the broth then add the whole picked cilantro, cherry tomatoes and Fresno pepper. Finish with salt and pepper. Enjoy! You should be left with a nice citrus broth containing beer and cilantro overtones. Most of these ingredients can be followed to recipe, but I recommend that they be added to taste.

I also made a pie from cherries that I got at the farmer's market without really using a recipe or the right kind of cherries. It was weird. But ok.

bike issue of mm

Have you all read the new midtown monthly? It's so good! In the few days before this new issue came out a couple of questions had occurred to me (is the tree canopy going to die out after all these tree removals? what is up with those bike messenger kids?) and they were all answered in the new issue! The music coverage is especially interesting and well-written this month, too. Pick up a copy today. It's a lot easier to find around now.

say hello to my little friend

The Tyvek show was really fun. The one at the DAM house next week promises to be off the chain, so you should try to make that one if you didn't come to the one at fools, or even if you did.

The 916 did not exactly represent last night for the Finches, so the show started out a little bit iffy, but Carolyn was in such top form with her stream-of-consciousness banter and then of course there were the wonderful songs so by the end the show was saved! The sound at Fools was really good, too. I'm sure they will be back again, hopefully to a packed house.

Once again, a ton is going on this weekend. The Sounds of Sacramento thing is tomorrow night. The Dixon May Fair is going on this weekend (opens tonight in fact). The theme this year is "barn to be wild" so expect the unexpected. There's a demolition derby on sunday at 600. If you have never been to a demolition derby, I highly recommend it, it's quite exciting. Saturday night is second saturday, of course. San Kazagaskar will be flexing and playing outside body tribe, and Alkali Flats will be playing at a location that maybe I'm not supposed to disclose? I'm not sure if it's a secret or what. Sunday is the antique fair under the freeway. I'm tired just thinking about all this so I think I will just stay in and watch Scarface instead.

shows, duh

I haven't had time to read the entire issue of Midtown Monthly from cover to cover, but I read Heather Klinger's record reviews and boy is she a great writer! Very funny. I hope she writes more for MM. Make sure to check the back for a letter to me from and angry Oklahoman (see I was nice and didn't write Okie) about me calling Oklahoma a "flavor-hating state".

I'm off wednesday so don't forget the shows tonight and tomorrow at fools! Tyvek and Chaveau tonight, Finches and (maybe) Bushes tomorrow. They'll be a live simulcast to Germany tomorrow so that Leon can watch it whilst swilling steins of lager.

defending beers honor

I don't have a whole lot to say today, go to the show tonight, etc., etc.

The comments on this article are pretty funny. Here's my favorite:

Before adding new laws, how about enforcing existing laws. I've floated down that river almost 200 times and the VAST majority of drunk idiots I've encountered were under 21 years of age. Beer doesn't make people into idiots, some people just are idiots and make beer look bad.

Way to stand up for beer! I also like the guy who used the subject line "gotta love democrates".

Here's a cool thing going on this friday. If you like to do cool things on fridays, you should check it out. It's in a weird spot. I'm not sure if it's bikeable.

satan would be proud

chkchkchk have a rad Satanic video for "must be the moon"

war of the buskers

What's up sacto has a post about the chaveau/tyvek show that does a much better job of describing than I could. And Biz, scroll down and not that San Kazakgascar is scheduled to play outside of Body Tribe on second saturday, so you're gonna have to find a new spot. Or jam with them.

for sale

Finally, the Bee prints something interesting! I can't belive that N street house is finally up for sale. That must mean that the old lady died. I saw her watering her cactuses once. That is a pretty shady move by the new owner. I don't think he's going to get anywhere near his asking price. He was probably staking that house out for years and waiting to scoop it up. Of course, the article has the de rigeur idiotic comments. The Bee should either shut down their comments or make them approval only. It's really lame that people are writing hurtful and racist shit about people who have been murdered. People even found negative things to say after a story about a guy who got killed by a tree limb in Miller Park!

have you seen this man?

Ancient Sons! Ancient sons! I love this band! The songs on their myspace don't sound very similar to the live experience. They're a lot more rockin'. Sadly, they are having a hard time getting gigs, so if you would like the Ancient Sons to play your ice cream social, wedding, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, briss, whatever, you should message them through myspace.

Record Club was pretty happening yesterday. Granted that was kind of because the other two bands besides Ancient Sons had a ton of members so it made the place seem more full. I personally think that he should stick to booking one or two bands at this early slot, but some of the upcoming shows are inflating all the way up to four! That's a dumb idea because part of the fun is chatting with friends and listening to Roger's excellent djing. Also, it's sunday night so it's perfect to have it over by around seven. Pipas is coming up. Is that the Swedish band or a different band?

Lavender Diamond! Lavender Diamond! Their new album is fantastic! They continue the secret Sac/freak fold connection by thanking John Baccigaluppi at the Hangar. Devendra Banheart has turned every freak folker onto this local recording studio. Has anyone ever spotted him hanging out in Sac? That's a celebrity sighting I'd love to have.

This post is getting long but hang in there. There are two shows coming up this week, don't forget. Tyvek on tuesday night and Finches on wednesday. And yes, they're at fools so you will have time to watch the golden state game on wednesday and still catch the finches.

corti stirs it up

Mike Dunne's blog led me over here, to Robert Parker's message board where they are discussing Corti's decision to eliminate the table wines with over 14.5 alcohol content. By saying table wines, he distinguished them from fortified wines, so it's obvious that he didn't mean port. I think it's also obvious he doesn't mean amarone, one of the worlds great wines, which is produced using a unique method. I would say that he means wines produced in the normal manner that have high alcohol. MH pointed out that this is a brilliant marketing strategy because it gets people stirred up and talking, and will influence the market, yet in all likelihood he probably only will end up eliminating a few wines from his shelves. The reason for that is he tastes all the wines and personally chooses what he's going to stock and always has, so for there to be a wine with higher alcohol content on his shelves he would have had to like it in the tasting, and if his tastes run counter to that it wouldnt' be stocked anyway. Jeez it goes on for seven pages! Robert Parker commented on the second page:

Seems apallingly stupid,frigheningly arbitrary,and like some part of a police state's mentality to me, but it is his store,so he can do whatever he desires...however, given how unreliable labels are...especially those from Europe,this seems like more smoke than substance...some hyprocisy as well..I purchased an imperiale of 1976 Amador Zinfandel bottled especially for CORTI,with his personal label...and served it at a charity function a good decade ago....damn nice zinfandel...well over 15% alcohol...and I don't recall any disclaimers he put on the label warning of some grotesque wine encounter because of high alcohol....but the wine was excellent.....

b.j. for antica

It seems like almost nothing is going on this weekend and I for one am glad. Is there anything happening that I don't know about? There are a couple of really good shows coming up, though. Both at Fool's. Hmm...I see from looking at their website that Get Hustle are playing tonight, but I've never heard. Them. On tuesday the 8th, Tyvek is playing at Fools. And then on wednesday, the Finches are playing at Fools!!!! I thought with the Bushes, but I checked the Bushes myspace and I see they're not playing. What's up with that? Lame. Scott, you should write something that will make people understand why they should go see Tyvek. It sounds good to me on the myspace. Scrappy and tuneful both at the same time!.

I'm sure Pizza Antica in Granite Bay is good, and I'd like to try it because they have thin crust, wood fired oven pizza, but it is annoying to me that this kind of restaurant is automatically going to receive a b.j. from every press outlet while exciting new Thai and Vietnamese restaurants languish with no press at all. I began to get annoyed by this when I read this quote in the Bee from the Pizza Antica owner regarding a visit to Masons that convinced him to start a restaurant in this area "The place was beautiful, and packed with young, affluent, sophisticated people with money to spend, all having a great time," Stannard recalled in a recent phone interview from his San Francisco office. "I thought, 'This place could be anywhere -- San Francisco, L.A., New York. Who wouldn't want to be here?' " Yeah, I hate when I have to eat around old or middle aged people who aren't affluent. It's so unpleasant. And look, this article contains the Bees fifth mention of Tex Wasabi (by my google search) a restaurant that even "it's all good" Mike Dunne couldn't manage to write a favorable review of. It was obvious from day one that the sign went up on Tex Wasabi (like a year before it opened) that Tex Wasabi was going to be a piece of shit, so why keep writing about it?

Look, Allen Pierloni reviewed some kind of generic cafeteria in Folsom. Mmm...soup from Sysco. Assembled by robots, probably. Thanks for the tip, Allen. I'll make sure to never ever go there.

Maybe you've noticed that a Greek restaurant is going in in that building in the 19th st. Safeway parking lot. It's a big chain.

I was just reading the article in the Bee about the poor woman who got killed outside the library on wednesday (the library club). Too awful for words. Look at the comments that people are writing in the Bee! What assholes.

tie dyed crocs

Wow, just when I'm ready to hang it up over here at Heckasac HQ after weeks of comments trickling in and then you guys bust out on the most random subjects. I love it! Yesterday I had the joy that is known as jury duty. Also known as hurry up and wait. I spotted local newsman Dave Walker in the elevator. His neck is very red. That reminds me, the other day I had a very thrilling local celebrity sighting when I was at Cafe Bernardo at a table near Davey D!!!! If I had my camera with me I could have gotten a picture with him. I need to carry my camera all the time because yesterday I saw the most awesome Vice don't which was a middle aged couple, both in tie dyed tshirts and denim shorts and he had tie dyed crocs! During my day of jury service, I got as far as into a court room and heard a bit about a case. I was almost hoping I would get picked by the end just so I could learn the details (it was a civil case but it involved juicy stuff like heavy drinking and racial slurs), but they thought it would go over a week so I'm glad I didn't. I got to have lunch at La Bonne Soupe and although sometimes I don't like his frenchified sandwich sauce the braised pork sandwich was very good.

and another thing...

this is one of the weirdest yelps I've ever read, and that's saying something.

oh god, and david l.'s review of it is also insane (they are obvs in cahoots). sometimes the paint rubs off on your clothing?!?!?! and guess why the bathroom stinks? cuz people are in there taking big coffee shits all day long (not to put too fine a point on it). should the owner post a sign saying "no stinky coffee craps"?

style report

Chkchkchk were really really good. I had low expectations because of the sound being pretty bad at Animal Collective (that low end vibration that the whole stage area does drives me insane) but they somehow had great sound. They have really taken it to another level as a band. They're seasoned pros. I like the dual frontman aspect with John Pugh and Nic. The highlight was when these three highschool marching band drummer kids from the area who played on the record got up and did percussion on a song and they were so stoked! It was a total Tusk moment. Speaking of Tusk, have you given it a listen lately? Listen again to Tusk for the first time. I heard that a friend has a theory that Fleetwood Mac and one other band (the name escapes me right now, maybe he'll post it) invented the 80s and I'd like to make a case that Homzee's aunt and uncle had a big hand in inventing the 80s too. They had the design firm that designed the packaging for Tusk, which has some of the weirdest packaging ever. There's a lot going on in there. Woah, I was just looking for stuff about their design firm (Vigon Nahas Vigon) online and I found a Tusk paperback? What is it, the novelization of the album? As you can see here, they won a grammy for the packaging in '80. Oh, and guess who designed Tom Petty's logo?

That leads me to musing about style, and I have heard a report that the new east coast style is New Rave (this is probably not that new, just new to me). This involves a lot of oversized neon and tight pants, all rounded out with neon nike airs. And skater type cuts, right? And this is the look for dudes, I don't know if it's the same for ladies. Intriguing. I myself will not be wearing any neon but I guess I should never say never. It's amazing how something that I thought looked like crap will start to look good to me if I see other people wearing it in a good way. The style report from Coachella via Brew was: short shorts with suspenders (a la Lohan) and that the Cobrasnake girl was just wearing facepaint and a one piece bathing suit? Sweet. She also related a story whereby har mar was trying to get Giovanni Ribisi to get them backstage at the Chili Peppers. Think about THAT for a minute.

moz!

Morrissey in Stockton was a night I'll never forget. It's hard to put into words what it meant to me but it meant a lot. Unfortunately, the show was cut short. If you've ever been to a Morrissey show you know that part of the deal is people getting on the stage. His fanbase in the last ten years has changed a lot and there are considerably larger dudes trying to get onstage now (rather than the anemic Morrissey wanna-bes that used to get up there) and during the encore one grabbed onto Morrissey (it seems too dorky to write Moz but I don't want to keep typing the whole name) and wrassled him and tore his shirt. The bodyguards pulled him off and Moz and the whole band instantly left the stage as if on cue and Frank Sinatra singing "that's life" blasted through the theater, which was a pretty cheeky way to end it. Wow, Chris Macias already published something about it. I'm really glad I'm not a professional music critic, because it seems to leach a lot of your enjoyment out of everything. Mushy sound? Didn't notice. I was too mesmerized. And what's an aging metrosexual? If they exist I didn't see any there. Here's an article (which I just found and haven't had time to read yet) that attempts to analyze his somewhat recent fanbase within the Latino population. And here's another one. And here's a rad recent la weekly article with video links at the end.

the gauntlet is tossed

Crazy! Corti is refusing to stock any more wine that has higher than 14.5 percent alcohol. That is a bold move and I can't see anyone else following his lead, but I appreciate it.

In another bold move, Askjoey told someone off bigtime in this week's column. I love it!

This is unrelated, but I think it's so rad that Calvin always comes to Sac on every tour. You can't say that for many midsized artists. There are quite a few indie performers that have good shows here and then they get a teeny bit bigger and start bypassing us. Of course, there are quite a few that have crappy shows in sac the first time and never come back. I'll be happy to go see Calvin with a band as long as that Tender Forever chick isn't playing tambourine.

Everybody knows that chkchkchk is playing monday, right? Wow their website looks really good. The animation on their myspace is also quite amusing. Check that tour schedule. That's insane.

yes, i'm serious

I don't really want to reopen the Great Zelda's Debate, but look at this review. And this guy created a yelp account just to write this?! I wish someone did have a picture of the pizza there, also, because it looks fucking delicious.

ganja productions no less!

Oh yeah, I forgot to post about this, on our way out of town yesterday, Scott and I were on our way to Peet's up 19th street and were waiting for the light rail, when Scott glanced over to this telephone pole that had flyers on it and said, "ha ha there's a nar show coming up I guess", just thinking that some portion of a word that had "nar" in it was showing on a flyer. Like, if the band was named Lynrds Innnards or something. We did a double take and saw that it really was an old Nar flyer. We parked and started digging away and this appeared!

I changed my mind, I don't want to marry Stockton blvd., I want to marry the City of Stockton. We tore that town a new one yesterday and I ate so much good food that I want to cry thinking about it. The ethnic diversity of the restaurants and markets there outdoes that in Sac, a city four times Stockton's size! They have at least four Cambodian restaurants, for Gods sake. I don't want to post too much, because I'm writing it up for the June issue of Midtown Monthly. And I'm going back tomorrow for that Morrissey concert at the Bob Hope theater, which I guess is all movie-palace style.

Here's an appeal from Sacramento historian Bill Berg. Let me know if you would like me to put you in touch with him:

Actually, this is an opportune time for me to mention that I am working on a history of Southside Park for Arcadia Publishing, and I am looking for a couple of photos of whatever sort of backyard punk rock parties that people may have had in the vicinity of Southside Park (321 U Street, 6th and T, etcetera) in the 1980s or early 90s to use in the part of the book covering the recent past. I'll bring my portable scanner thingamabob to this event, but I can meet people at any semi-convenient place and time.

crickets chirping

I will be off tomorrow and I know you will want something to read in my absence, so if you are vegetarian, or like beer, or both preferably, check out this website. What's that? Deafening silence. I expected as much. You all sure are quiet lately, except for a few reliables (I won't say old reliables because I don't want to insult anyone). Hopefully the little kerfluffle about scampunking down below won't turn into something while I am gone. I am probably jinxing it just by mentioning it.

see how much it looks like the onion?

KW reviewed a Korean restaurant out in the teeny Korean area on Folsom, Hanbat Gomtang (I'm not sure if I've been to this place or not, I don't think so). It's named after a type of soup called Gomtang. I found it a little odd that she speculated on what might have made the soup such a milky color (wrongly, she guessed rice) instead of just googling gomtang to find that it is actually bone broth that is probably milky from marrow (and tripe and other goodies). I knew this because last week I waded all the way through this exhilarating article about L.A.'s Koreatown from the incomparable Jonathan Gold. I don't mean this to be like "I told you so" I just thought it was weird that when everybit of information is a click away she didn't just look. Long story short, she gave it a pretty so-so rating. I'd still like to try it, mostly because it has dishes that no one else in Sac serves.

The SN&R got really busted out in the letters section this week for running that insert of the Sacramento Union (scroll down to Jeff's a whore). I can't decide what I think about it, honestly. The paper is basically a joke but it's too stupid for me to get offended by it. Someone needs to update the wikipedia site. I can't tell who currently runs and owns the union. Googling JC Dutra just leads you back to the wikipedia post.

saturday night, saturday night

The rockin' continued with the Bananas show in Davis. Hank IV was completely different than I ever imagined them to be, mostly because they have nothing whatsoever to do with Hank Williams. I am sure I am not the only one who got this impression from the name. The Bananas sounded really good and played mostly new ones because that was what the crowd was begging for. You can see HK up front in all the photos, cuz she is a true fan. You can't see the teen moshers but I assure you they were assy as hell. Pushing and footcrushing abounded, as did beer spilling. One of them lost their ipod in the melee, and after the show politely asked if they could look around me for it. Where was that courtesy during the show? Now I sound like I am doing an Andy Rooney bit.

friday night

I decided to kick off the weekend in a way that supports my luxurious urban lifestyle and sauntered over (oops, I mean got my Hummer valet parked) to the Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen next to the new Buckhorns on L. Turns out that friday was their soft opening so I plunged right in. It looks pretty generic inside. There are a lot of squares and straight lines everywhere you look (in more ways than one) and the obligatory big TV and Starbucks-style individual small lamps hanging over the bar. The lady working the front desk, while quite nice, did kind of crack us up by saying "this is the lounge and upstairs is the loft" (I'm surprised she didn't say this is the urban lounge and that is the luxury loft) and also by saying in a mom-ish kind of way that the upstairs was "off the hook" but at least she didn't say hizook. I perused the wine list which was quite boring with each type of major wine represented by one choice (one chard, one sauv blanc, etc.) Smiller got a Belgian (which one, I forgot?). We tripped out that they are offering 12 OUNCE BOTTLES of Hitachino Nest white for 12 DOLLARS! Hitachino is pricy, but by that I mean that same size bottle is 4 bucks at bevmo. No one would take our money so we checked went out to the patio and tripped out some more. Why? Because the patio is surrounded by four stories of luxury lofts on all sides. We could see people in their apartments watching TV. I was like, are you kidding me? They must think Sac is a lot classier than it is because pretty soon this courtyard is going to be filled with wasted people puking, breaking glassware, and probably fighting. This place has the buzz of a major hookup spot because the loft area is pretty isolated from the bar and has a semi-private feeling (ha I just wrote primate accidentally). There were nasty chicks there already ripping it up. Also, people are going to be sneaking their underage friends in through the patio exits on both sides. And probably trying to sneak into the pool in the middle. Can you imagine paying top dollar for a luxury loft only to have a nonstop drunken party outside your window most nights of the week? Pretty funny.

Then it was over to the Distillery where I finally got to see the Ancient Sons after weeks of waiting on tenterhooks (ouch). They were really good. Matt Shrug AND the twins? It's an entertainment bonanza. That chick is not in the band but on friday she was their number one fan. On saturday she probably didn't remember they existed.

Then Sacramento did an impromptu set. Remember Sacramento?

Then Rock The Light rocked it.

answer: my house

Mike Dunne wrote a little post on his blog about the surge of interest in beer. Unbeknownst to me, 55 degrees had a saison tasting this last wednesday. They don't say what next week's is on their website. They should, because guess where else there has been a surge in interest in beer?

a chicken in every pot

Just in case you wanted to see pictures of that chicken from the other night. On top there is the tuna curry crepe, which was pretty good but was much more eggy and less crispy than the one in Japan, so I need to keep trying. I know my crepes were not thin enough. I can't believe how fun it is to make crepes!

I'm going to the special Waterboy dinner tonight and I'm stoked! Here's the menu:

April 19th, 2007
House Smoked Tofino Inlet Salmon and Marinated Monterey Squid with Baby beets, Artichokes, Fava Beans & Crème Fraiche
Saffron Risotto with Polpettini of Veal Sweetbreads with Porcini Mushrooms & Tomato-Rosemary Sauce
Crispy Muscovy Duck Leg Confit with Celery Root Remoulade, Watercress, Sautéed Potatoes & Zinfandel-Black Pepper Sauce
Buttermilk Sorbet with a Crispy Butter Cookie & Brandied Cherries

sweetbreads!

I checked out that newish wine bar The Grand (on 16th and L) the other day. Man, is it small! It seems all right. I couldn't really get a sense of the normal prices and selection because we got there on a monday at 530 and were the only people and the owner didn't give us any type of printed menu or list. He seemed to still be deciding what he would be serving that night. We got two ok glasses of white for like 7 bucks each. Nothing mind blowing. His beer selection sucks, of course.

i love you, stockton blvd.

For you veg-heads there's a store down on stockton that sells only fake meat?! Is stockton blvd. the best or what? I kind of want to marry it. My favorite yelper just wrote a review of New Paris. I can't wait to try that place. I was eyeballing it last night.

Did you know that there are hella shows this weekend? It's true. Rock the Light and the Ancient Sons are playing at the distillery. Ancient sons has hella buzz and sexy twins. What more could you ask for? The Bananas are making a rare live appearance in the area (Davis) on saturday. Why Davis? Sucks for me. Oh well.

holy crepe

I need some more cooking help. Any crepe-makers out there? I want to try to make a tuna curry crepe like I had in tokyo (I even bought cans of tuna there and Japanese mayonnaise) but I have never made a crepe. Advice? Is it really hard? Are there different kinds?

those wacky neocons!

This was before my time, but a yelp discussion thread about restaurants of the past led me to a photo of the food circus! I have tried twice to post this photo but flickr won't let me, so go here. This guy has tons of rad Sac photos.

On a political note, I have been thinking about neocons alot lately because I watched this documentary and then last night I watched the PBS show about Richard Perle. This show should have been titled "Global Chop Busting of Richard Perle" because he just travelled all over and people of many different nations busted his chops about Iraq. He was particularly busted out by Pat Buchanan and a journalist named Abdel Brai Atwan who has interviewed Bin Laden. He is still a true believer though, and spends the hour he is given building the case for intervention in Iran! What a nut!

are you good to eat?

I tried a Thai place last night in Pacific Rim Plaza (the one across the street from SF market). A thai coworker of smillers who is very picky had recommended a place there. There are two, though, and I guessed the wrong one. So I have to go back, but the one we ate at (I think it was called TQ noodle thai? can anyone remember who was there?) was good. There were all Thai families eating there and we got everything medium spicy but it was quite hot! The pork larb was good, but I've had better at Vientianne (which I have to judge everything against) and the red tofu curry was tasty and not too thick with coconut and the fried fish was just ok (I thought we were getting a whole one but it was chunks). The people who run it are very nice.

Then I went over to SF market again and tried to buy a fresh durian (which the most stoned thai teenagers in the world in the line behind me were trying to warn me against) and I had to put it back because it was 32 bucks! When I was there the other day the lady told me five dollars but she meant five dollars a pound. Oops. They also have frozen black silky chickens there. I want to make one. Read about them here.

skyscraper nerds?

and Calpers is outta there! So they don't get the 25 mill back that they already invested (the Bee says yes) ? Who are these Sacramentans that are calling John Saca to pledge their support?

this is all i got

I've got nothing good to post but I am tired of looking at that Yakov Smirnoff picture so I will try to drive it down the page. I did my very first cooking with fish sauce and lemongrass last night, which was very exciting. I got a whole chicken at SF market and unbeknownst to me I believe I bought an old-ass stewing hen. It had the head and feet attached, with the feet nicely tucked up in side the cavity. I don't have a sharp cleaver so some mayhem ensued.

Do you roasted duck lovers out there have an opinion (I know you're an opinionated lot) about where the best duck can be found? How do you feel about Gentry BBQ duck?

There is an entertaining discussion of the term "hipster" going on on yelp.

durian shake

Cool photo! Which one of my friends will Bob Sylva profile next?

I got the pork bun at Hong Luan sandwich yesterday. It was so fucking good! It had these cuts of charbroiled pork that were marbled with succulent fat and crispy on the edges and I could not even begin to tell you what the hell part of the pig they were from but it's my new favorite part whatever it is. And I got a durian shake which was bland but good. The shake really mostly tasted like icy condensed milk. I smelled the durians (it's important to take time to stop and smell the durians) at SF Supermarket and other than poking my nose on a spike, I had no strong reaction. I should have bought one but they were five bucks and I was being cheap. Maybe they're in season, though, because everyone was buying them. I love all the development that is going on over there, right next to Little Vietnam plaza there are posted plans for a Little Saigon plaza. I hope it really gets built.

What a weekend!

What a weekend! What a country! Tonight there is a show at the Fox and Goose-Rock the Light, Danny Offer Sensitive Solo Project and San Kazakgascar. It starts at nine and it's four bucks. I was just looking at the Fool's Foundation website because there is a show tonight there, too and I noticed that Ian Svenonius came to Fool's with Calvin Johnson while I was in Japan. Did anyone go to that? How was it? Sassiest Boy In America! He'll never live that down.

Tomorrow is the Peep Off, and it's second saturday so you can check out Liv's show at Fool's if you haven't already and then you can go check out Biz's regular busking gig on 21st, across from Body Tribe (can't remember the street) and NH is hanging up some pictures. Local journalists are allowed and I will explain to them what is going on if they are confused. "Busking" is where someone sings on the street and in this case he tells his friends beforehand and we go to have a good time and hang. Passersby are welcome, as is money in the hat. Olipom has nothing to do with it.

hot pie pics

I have broken the natto barrier and it didn't even take seven times! Yesterday (my sixth time) I willingly ate it as a snack and I'm eating it for breakfast again this morning! I have joined GW in the shameful ranks of American natto eaters, misunderstood and scorned for eating something that smells like ass and is covered in slime.

I had a very busy day off yesterday. I keep hearing hype about the Uptown's pizza (they just added it to their menu) and I hadn't been there in years so I decided to go. Have you been to the Uptown lately? It completely rules. The Stagecoach (and leave it to my favorite yelper to have written the only review) and the Uptown are what the Cornerstone wishes it could be but never can. Everyone is sooo friendly and cheerful at the Uptown that you immediately feel like a regular. The pizza was good, maybe the cheesiest and gooiest I've ever had. Not thin crust but not Roma's style bready, either. In between. I'm glad I went back, but I don't know that I'd get the pizza again. I'd rather get the breakfast. I'll have to try their club sandwich to pit it against the best one ever from the Stagecoach. They also have tons of specials every day, yesterday they included fresh fish and chips and a turkey and gravy open-faced sandwich that looked great.

I also went crazy and baked two pies! Because of a hilarious mix-up I ended up with twice as much pie crust as I needed so in addition to the apple raisin five spice pie (bottom picture), I had the brainstorm to make some kind of savory lamb curry pie. Smiller and I went to Taylors and they ground us some lamb to order. I chopped up onions and sauteed them, and then added the ground lamb (at this point I drained out as much of the fat as I could and we both did shots of it) and a bunch of the Japanese curry that I brought back. Then at the last second I threw in a peeled, chopped up potato, a sliced carrot, and some peas and put it into the pie crust (I am omitting the description of the giant temper tantrum I have every single time I make pie crust-it's quite sad) and somehow maneuvered a crust on top. I cooked it on 375 until it looked done (about 40 minutes). The potato and carrot cook inside. It was delicious if I do say so myself! That's right, yesterday I ate pizza AND pie.

I have pie crust questions if anyone would like to step up to the plate to help me.

center for contemporary art event

I'll be gone tomorrow so no posts but Liv has alerted me to a cool event on thursday. Photographer Reagan Louie will be at the Center for Contemporary Art on thursday at seven. It's probably not cool that I cribbed that picture but I want to show you why you should go.

la cucaracha and more bitching about Davis

Pretty gross. Someone yelped New Canton about finding a cockroach in their har gow steamer and then posted a link to their county inspection report. That's pretty egregious. I never posted about it, but I ate at New Canton for my Broadway article in MM and I left it out of the review because a)I didn't think the dim sum was that good and b)my dining experience was colored by the fact that I found a large chunk of something metallic in one of my dumpling. A few months ago I saw a big cockroach crawling across the floor at Waterboy though so I guess it can happen anywhere.

On an unrelated note, what the fuck is up with restaurants in Davis? Specifically, small chains that are great in Sac and terrible in Davis. I have found this time and again at Cafe Bernardo, which I finally had to stop eating at in Davis The other day I met some people after work at Bistro 33 in Davis and got a salad that I have often gotten in Sac (the salmon nicoises) and it was so terrible! It was so carelessly assembled that it was like a slap in the face. Guess what it was missing? The nicoise olives, which are what make it a nicoise salad. Also, it was teeny and cost twelve dollars. In Sac the portion is sufficient to serve as a light meal, but I had to keep bogarting food of peoples plates (most of whom I knew) to even approach fullness. Is it because restaurants in Davis are really more for drinking at than for eating?

miso soup

Man, if I hadn't forgotten my camera cord you would have been treated to the unbearably exciting sight of the miso soup I made last night. I know, don't cry, maybe I will remember it tomorrow. Oh well, I'll upload a picture of natto from the net that captures the slime well. Last night was either my fourth or fifth time eating natto in an attempt to overcome my aversion and it is going well. I was enjoying the flavor of the natto and was much less put off by the slime that was coating my mouth, my chopsticks, and my wine glass. Smiller would not even try a teeny bite, however. By the way, I got the idea that you have to eat a food seven times to overcome that from a Steingarten chapter. Here's the recipe for miso soup that I got from our host in Japan, well a rough summary:

-Bring a packet of dashi to a boil in an open pot and boil for five minutes. Dashi is like a teabag, as I learned when I ripped open the first packet and then had to discard the whole mess

-While it's boiling, throw in the ingredients that need some cooking. Last night I used enoki (pictured above) that I got at Otos (I got all the ingredients at otos) and some silken tofu

-When the five minutes is up, turn off the heat and stir in two tablespoons of miso paste.

That's it but it was so delicately flavored and delicious! It was fishier from the dashi than I am accustomed to at restaurants. It also needed greens or seaweed.

Tonight I'll be dining at either the original Mikuni, Maguro in Folsom, or Hana Tsubaki. I have to call around and whichever one has uni is the place I will pick. Hopefully I won't have to gag down any more nasty uni.

he probably had rabies

This raccoon tried to commit suicide off of the freeway near the antique fair on sunday and luckily local news reporters were there to capture this trivial event (can't wait for the bees front page feature tomorrow). I was totally pissed because I had no idea what was going on and everyone screamed and I thought a person had jumped off! As for the antique fair my take was comprised of: Playgirl from 97 with Brad Pitt on the cover (1 dollar), planter with a duck on it that brings my planter without plants in them inventory up to 88 (four dollars) and danish modern-type chair (40 bucks-a steal). The faire seemed very slow due to the holiday.

stank fruite

What's the deal with durian? Any fans out there? Where and how do you get it. Is a durian shake from Pho Bac a bad idea or the best idea ever?

whistling? what's up with that?

In the spirit of taking the piss out of the Bee (why does English slang always sound wrong when I use it?), here's a scintillating piece of investigative journalism. Oh my god, I just read the comments and I'm dying! So funny. I love how it veers from hilarious potshots at the Kings to serious whistling fans.

I don't know why you would care about this but...

Sacrag tipped me off to an article in Entertainment Weekly about a Lincoln resident with an insane Tina Turner collection. I went to high school with this guy. I had no idea about his love of Tina (makes sense because according to the interview he got into it in '93, after we both graduated) but he was well known for his love of martial arts and it sounds like he's still into that. I remember he was the manager at the Lincoln Round table and had a very geometrical hairstyle. Way to go, Joe!

what is this thing, kabob?

Gee, thanks for explaining what hummus is, AP. If that's the level of sophistication he feels he has to write to then it's no wonder the Bee's food coverage sucks. Everyone knows Famous Kabob is the place you go for kabobs, anyways. I confess I haven't been to kabob house, but I'm a little biased against Greek cooking. Any fans out there?

Edokoo II knocked my socks off again last night. I tried the tan tan men for the first time and it was so spicy and delicious! From my limited time there I can now more confidently say that Edokko II ramen is comparable to what you get at a good place in Japan.

do you like to do things?

Fool's Foundation is providing a whole weekend's worth of infoedutainment in the next couple of days. Tonight Shiny Objects is screening a movie about Tokyo punk. I'm there! 7 o clock five bucks. Tomorrow is Liv Moe's opening (that sounds dirty). Starts at seven, right? Sunday is the antique faire and there you go. Weekend over.

poor mans Busfield

Maaloufs!! The best. Fans of Maaloufs will sympathize when I say that when I ordered takeout yesterday I was reluctant to pick it up because I didn't want to offend Maalouf by not eating in his restaurant. I swear that last time I got takeout there he mumbled something about his restaurant not being good enough for me to eat in, but I am also extremely paranoid so I probably made that up. I'm glad that I did take it home, though because the kibbee tastes so perfect with ketchup and I wouldn't want Maalouf to see me eating it like that. I had to post this terrible picture because I found it online. If you squint your eyes you can see where Maaloufs is.

I also watched Body Double. I love Brian DePalma. I just do. That movie is completely nuts. There is a scene which suddenly turns into a Frankie Goes to Hollywood video for Relax. And there is tons of nudity and sex, which always earns an extra star from me. Body Double stars Craig Wasson (good to see that he's still working and hoping that his movie Sasquatch Mountain comes to a theater near me soon). All I kept thinking during the movie is that he's a poor man's Timothy Busfied (see picture above) and wishing that the movie starred Busfield. Melanie Griffith is also in it, and she used to be pretty rad. Is Working Girl worth watching again? It seems that it must be horribly dated.

uni coming out of my ears

I tried out Banzai sushi last night because we called ahead to Maguro and it was out of uni. Guess what, Banzai was out of uni, too! I'm going to try back later in the week for that, when I pay yet another visit to Edokko II for the purposes of my article (they are a block from each other). Can someone explain the complicated pedigree of Banzai? How is it related to Edokko? Regardless of pedigree Banzai is a big dog that should not stay on the porch. An exciting discovery for me. The menu is massive, but unlike Mikuni it does not contain obnoxious ads with wacky pictures of the chef. It's massive because they do it all, everything from all the new style rolls (with the obligatory rip off of the signature Mikuni dishes) to traditional nigiri, to ramen, udon, and curry. So that's at least two places with curry. I want to write more but I feel I'm treading on my Midtown Monthly review so I better shut up now.

Has anyone ever had pasta with sea urchin? That sounds insane but I found a recipe in the Steingarten book and I guess Taylors can get me the sea urchins. If I got it right, this place has the best in the world. The picture definitely looks like what it should ideally look like.

I forgot to post that a while ago I finally got to eat at Cafe Soleil, one of the many businesses with limited hours that I only get to try on days off. I really liked it. It was a pleasant dining experience from start to finish. There were interesting specials, they were super fast, and the weather was beautiful as we sat outside. Does anyone have any favorite dishes there?

shows and stuff

Erik's comment correcting me about the Finches show venue has prompted me to post about upcoming shows and events, because there are a lot, and I want to try to keep them straight. Here goes:

This friday Roots of Orchis (Aaron from the Finches) band is playing at fools
This saturday is Liv's art opening at Fool's Foundation
This sunday (the 8th) is the ye olde antique faire under the freewaye

Friday, April 13th is some kind of crazy solo show that I don't understand, but I know Danny Offer and Brew are involved, maybe someone can explain it to me.
April 14th is the Peep Off


April 21st is a Bananas show at DOV, with Hank IV

I guess it's a little early to get to May events, but both the Finches and Tyvek will be playing shows.

wtf for real

Holy crap, check out Holly P's yelp of masons! That is indeed egregious. And before I get accused of continuing my campaign to bring down local business, Masons is delicious.

Has anyone tried Mehran? This yelp is very intriguing and I like how she gave the smackdown to that first review.

does bites have rabies?

I know, I know, I missed a great show last night, but the New Yorker ain't gonna read itself.

If you like to read about food or like food or like eating food and you have never read Jeffrey Steingarten's book "The Man Who Ate Everything" then you are missing out. I used it as a reference last night for some information about uni and it threw me into a funk because his writing is everything I wish mine could be and never will be. Oh well, the man wrote at the fucking Harvard Lampoon, so he combines a posh and cultured background with a great sense of humor and how can I compete with that? I grew up in Lincoln, for fucks sake. You should read it, Beers probably has a used copy.

The new Midtown Monthly is out, with a great picture of Jer Per on the cover. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet. I can't wait to see what Dani wrote about Joshua Ploeg. I finally got around to reading last weeks News and Review, and I have to say the quality is a bit...spotty. The Bites column is mad as a hatter (if a column can be said to be mad). I couldn't read that poorly written Rancho Murieta cover story, mostly because the lady that wrote it said yeah, I voted for President Bush, are you going to stop reading now. Yep, I am.

I know I'm like a broken record on this, but can we talk about the yelps of Pho Bac? The latest one I read was Dane H's, which prompted yet another visit from me so that I could see what the hell he was talking about. No, the lobby with the bathrooms in it did not stink, it smelled vaguely like food (wafting out of the restaurant) and some kind of cleaner. Inside, the restaurant smelled great. As usual, we got the perfunctory and efficient service I expect, as usual the pho with rare steak was delicious as was the chicken bunh. Don't order the Chinese food, the place has "pho bac" in the name, order the pho! I would be so bummed if yelp actually had an effect and Pho Bac Hoa Viet closed down because it would create yet another type of ethnic food that we have to leave the grid for (Korean, Middle Eastern, etc.). I don't count Andy Nguyen, it's its own thing. Here's another winning quote from Dane H. "but I have the feeing that they are not practicing good food rotation in the kitchen--it's just a matter of time before I get sick, and I've already had food poisoning once this year, and it was not fun". You "have a feeling" and you are basing a review on that? Food poisoning is a serious accusation to level against a restaurant, so unless you really really think a restaurant gave it to you, how about you keep it to yourself? How about the guy who said the food is great but gave it ONE STAR cuz of bad service? I'm interested in Kim S. claim that "they" tried to pummel her friend when he complained. This really drives me nuts, but I know that writing about it will offend someone or multiple someones.

finches

so awesome! Brooklynvegan posted about the finches at SXSW, and look he's leaning in the corner! I tried to give him the photoshop perezhilton treatment of making it look like he's been doing coke and peed his pants and saying something clever like "I eat poo" but I wasn't sure it would come out funny. They caught Carolyn doing her signature "oh" singing face.

The finches play next month at Delta of Venus!

art show

Liv Moe is having an art show and here's the info. I like to rhyme. All the time. That picture on top is an art object that was made from smiller's old chair!

Liv Moe, New Work an exhibition of mixed media sculpture

April 7-28

Opening Reception

Saturday, April 76pm - 10pm

2nd Saturday Art Walk

Saturday, April 14

6pm to 10pm

Closing Reception

Saturday, April 28

7pm - 10pm

Fools Foundationwww.foolsfoundation.org

a load of tripe

Yeah! I've entered the digital age. It's a whole new world. Here is the tripe first course that was a special at the Waterboy last thursday. I balked when I heard the word "tripe" but I trust Rick Mahan more than I trust most of my family members, so I figured I was in good hands. It was scrumptious! Rather than a big sickening sheet of tripe to attempt to saw away at while I gross out on the different layers of the stomach, there were small, delightfully tender pieces, interspersed with and soaking up the flavors of white beans and I think some chorizo? I can't remember exactly. The Waterboy really hit it out of the ballpark this last time. It's always good but this was a cut above. My entree was the rabbit bolognese, with handmade flat, ribbony pasta and it was also wonderful. And the service was the best in Sac, as usual. The only off note was that Darell Corti was there having his monthly wine dinner and he had like 25 corked bottles on his table with nary an offer to share a glass! The table next to use got like three half bottles. Rats.