Ya know what I love about my friends? When I was talking to them about the fair at the Bows grand opening on Tuesday, SO MANY of them had already been to the fair! Even though it had only been open a few days. I feel that we're united in our love of the fair.
Here's a tag that showed up on a billboard that's on the right side of the road if you're heading to Davis. I feel like this is someone well known, right? I like it. Street art!
As soon as I got to the fair, I immediately flushed 6 dollars down the toilet. J.K., I lost six bucks at the track. That's flushing six dollars down the toilet the fun way. They only have thoroughbred racing during the fair, instead of the normal harness racing.
This rasta banana is a big prize this year
No caption necessary
I tried to capture the fact that this goat looked like Brian Peppers, but couldn't do it.
The Republican booth at the hall of crap had some retro bumper stickers.
The Sacramento County exhibit is HIDEOUS. We should all hang our heads in shame.
But at least it didn't suck as bad as the Yuba one. Which somehow won an award? Obviously this was fixed.
I forget which county this was, but this kayaker has a really tiny head.
and crazy eye
The fresh fried potato chips are good, and a good value.
Finally, all can be revealed about the next Verge Movie Night. Did you know that it's been a year since it started? OK, yeah, at the time it was MidMo movie night and it was at the Hub (RIP), but the first one was on July 22nd and it was our Kenneth Anger Film Festival. We made cool shirts that said Anger, we had a trivia contest, we did a weenie roast and failed miserably at selling any sodas. Since then we've had triumphs and failures, we moved to the Verge, the Crest quarterly series started, John Milne came on board with his pro film setup, we've frozen, we've sweated, and it's been a ton of fun.
As a thank you to everyone who has attended, or as a welcome to new peeps who would like to attend, our next movie will be FREE. Donations to Verge always accepted, or course, heh. It will be a screening of Russ Meyer's Mudhoney so there will be BOOBS. We may show a naughty stag film on 35 mm film if it's not too nasty. We are going to have Sac Treats and Morant's weiners for sale CHEAP. This movie is NOT ON NETFLIX.
Here are the deets:
Russ Meyer's Mudhoney
Thursday, August 18th
Verge Center for the Arts (625 S st)
7:30 pm
Help me remember, what were all the movie nights?
Kenneth Anger film festival and weenie roast - July 2010
August - El Topo
September - did we have one?
John Carpenter's The Thing - October 2010 (one of the least well-attended)
Shock Corridor - November 2010
December - Les Blank's - Garlic is as good as 10 mothers (so cool!)
Christo documentary - January 2011 (this was one of my faves!!, and where it really started to turn the corner in attendance and energy)
The Magic Christian - February 2011 (this was my personal least favorite movie, but I can't talk since I foisted All That Jazz on people)
All That Jazz - March 2011 (people hate jazz hands, how was I supposed to know?)
Chris and Don - May 2011 (a real tear-jerker)
Marwencol - June 2011
that brings us up to the present day.
I'm going to the fair today. What should I eat? I am bummed on what is passing for brisket at the chuck wagon these days.
Did you know THE BANANAS are playing on Friday in Oakland? With No Bunny and Personal and the Pizzas. What's the deal with this real band getting booked with all these joke bands? Shit ain't real.
And the Bows grand opening is tonight. I think I will have FatFace for dinner.
This is Buster Brown. My sister got a dog and it's the sweetest, quietest, bundle of fur imaginable. Zero yap.
I had heard tell of this but now I have photographic proof: Los Jarritos no longer puts veg-all in their rice. Why wasn't this on the front page of the Bee? Things that haven't changed: the old lady is still there, it's still good, it still gave me an upset stomach. We saw a lady there whose drink of choice was a tall glass of milk. Disgusting.
Liv and I are snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and cobbling together a VERY FUN Verge movie night for August. I will announce the deets soon. Here's a hint: a return to the weenie roast and some saucy programming.
Blank City was very cool. If you didn't come to the premier I recommend you still see it.
I saw Tree of Life at the Varsity in Davis the other day and it was like taking off a dirty pair of glasses. The preview for Midnight in Paris (which I saw at the Tower) was like a whole different, clearer, crisper movie. Thank you Varsity Theater, I will try to see movies at you more often. Tree of Life was good and thought provoking. I thought it was probably the best depiction of rough-and-tumble boyhood that anyone will ever or could ever film. My favorite thing was the clips of Thomas Wilfred's light artwork "Lumia", which served as a palate cleanser between scenes.
I got a glimpse of the new bottle shop that's going to be adjacent to Pangaea and it is going to rule!! It should be open within a couple of weeks. If we have to have just one good bottle shop in Sac I'm glad it's Rob opening it rather than the Burgers and Brew dudes. I don't sense any real love of brew from those guys. Hopefully we'll also have more than one someday, but this one is gonna be good.
Do you guys know about the reception tomorrow for the Nate Cordero show at the Nelson Gallery? Here's the info. Looks like there's an upcoming event there (August 12th) that Old Man Foster will be speaking at, along with Chris Daubert. I hope I can go to that too.
What?! They're playing Kreayshawn on 102.5? That's cool.
I'm sure you guys all know about Blank City at the Crest on Friday but do you really KNOW about Blank City at the Crest on Friday?
a) Richard Kern, one of my favorite perverts
b) benefits the Verge and is a fun way to do it
c) Mike C. is djing beforehand so come hang
d) features downtown gallerist Patti Astor (see above) who created the FUN Gallery, which is legendary, and coincidentally, features prominently in that Art in the Streets show at MOCA
e)talk by CSUS film professor Jenny Stark (that's a perfect punk film name) before and a showing of one of her short films
f)be there!
Yay! Rick wrote a yelp review of Bows to counter the ultra-hateful review that this bitch wrote. She's now moved on to reviewing the city of Paris on yelp and complaining that they don't give free soda refills.
L.A. was so fun!!! Liv and I stayed in Echo Park. Cute neighborhood and walkable stuff, including a walk to the Echo on Saturday night to see Sonny and the Sunsets. I was so psyched they were playing there, it was totally out of the blue. I just saw it in the LA Weekly and tripped. I wish they would play Sac.
There was a place in the neighborhood that was like a Mexican Dennys, but good.
We went to the "Art in the Streets" show the MOCA. That was kind of the reason for the trip. It's a show that everyone is talking about and probably will be for years to come. It's is mind-bogglingingly huge. It encompasses everything from graffiti, to surf, skate, lowrider and punk culture. It's very entertaining but I didn't find any of it very moving. I guess it kind of felt empty to me.
Part of the exhibit was a full-sized customized ice cream truck that was blasting The Doors.
I thought one of the more thrilling things to see in person was the original Sex Pistols art.
This show runs until August and it's worth a trip.
The gallery is right near Little Tokyo, so we went to a shop afterwards that sells mochi ice cream, and in this case, mochi gelato.
This is like a very dry peep stuffed with "baby lima beans". Not very good.
Then we ate at Philippe's French Dip, which rules. It's been open since 1908. They have a rivalry with Cole's over who invented the French Dip.
This is the pork dip.
and pickled eggs!
We also went to Watts Towers. Very inspiring! I am now going to start making art in my backyard every day after work and all weekend. Perhaps I will start mosaicing the toilet that is sitting back there.
Tour guide in a pith helmet.
After that, to Compton for Bludsoe's Texas-style bbq. We just sort of randomly picked it and we were STOKED. Fuck, I just remembered I didn't eat my leftover mac and cheese. Goddamnit. The brisket was soooo tender.
We also went to Cole's, which has an awesome bar, but we were all too full to even taste a french dip, which seems ridiculous to me now. This is a Moscow Mule.
This is an elegant mint julep.
Here was our cute bartender, laboring away. We kept goading him about how Phillipe's french dips are older.
Next, back to Little Tokyo for some ramen at a 24 hour ramen spot. That's the REAL test of a world-class city. 24 hour ramen.
See, my camera is still making everything look all misty! Did I get olive oil inside it or something? These are the devils on horseback from Bows Collective, paired with a delicious riesling. They are dates, stuffed with an almond, wrapped in bacon, steeped in mystery.
Here is the cleverly named 104 degree salad from Masullo. He's done it again. It's a salad of delicately cubed jicama and watermelon, tossed in a chili lime dressing. So refreshing and it has a really fun texture.
I forget which pizza this is but it's one of the ones with ham and fontina. The bomb.
If you have too many zucchini may I suggest quick zucchini pickles? Salt some thinly sliced zucchini and onions, then cover in ice water for a half hour or so. Rinse, heat up some vinegar, sugar, and spices, let that cool and...
Voila! Miller doesn't really like them, but I do.
How much do you guys tip? I was just listening to an economics podcast about tipping and when you think about it, it's really weird. I started reflexively tipping 20 percent years ago when my server friends all did so but sometimes that even creeps up to 25.
I fucked up and did a lotta shit but didn't take any pictures. Just mental pictures, but those are already fading fast. One mental picture I will always cherish is seeing Calvin Johnson doing his Calvin dance for Dreamdate. That made me SO PSYCHED. He loved Dreamdate. Then I missed his set cuz I was yakking but I heard it was really good.
The MidMo Reader's Choice issue is gonna be fun. At first I was skeptical about the whole concept but now I'm into it because good stuff won. Stay tuned....
Speaking of MidMo, did you read Tony King's Zach Hill interview yet? So rad! Broken testicles!?!?!?
Has anyone else noticed that everything is going on this weekend is on the same day? July 4th? I can only be in so many places at once, namely: one. The other day at work I was wishing I could clone myself to get more work done and then I realized how much I would irritate myself if I had to work with me.
You know what was good about this coleslaw? Warm bacon dressing. And lots of fresh oregano and flat leaf parsley.
This juicy bird was kind of a mix between the James Beard method (butter!) and the Alice Waters method. I think James Beard would offend Alice Waters if they hung out, but I'm pretty sure he did go to Chez Panisse at some point. Maybe wearing a kimono. And maybe his kimono slipped open and his junk peeped out. Oops!
All I have to say about this picture is - That's racist!
Tried a new Korean place in South Sac called 88 Tofu. It's the only Korean place in that neck of the woods. The vibe is a little weird but I liked the food. Part of the banchan is that everone gets their own dainty fried fish.
My camera seems to be on some misty "Captain Kirk when he looks at a lady" setting. Hope water didn't get inside or something. Their pickles are good. I bought a bunch of them to take home.
Their thing is tofu, and they have a lot of tofu-based soups. This was a mushroom one. Very shroomy.
Their japchae is excellent.
Spareribs: pretty good. A little gamey. Not as good as Pine Tree House.
You only have today and tomorrow to submit your votes for the MidMo's first ever reader's choice survey. Go here to do it.
Also, Joshua Ploeg, the traveling vegan chef, is going to be in Sac in July and wants to cook some dinners. If you don't know, when you engage Joshua, he will come to your house and cook a vegan feast. Here's the email he sent out, reach him at thetravelingchef@gmail.com
Hey Folks
Well, I'm on a trip at the moment yet again (in Pittsburgh, getting ready to cook up a storm).
When that ends, I'm looking at July as California month
feel free plz. to book a delightful vegan dinner, tea party, brunch or other event (something artistic mayhaps?)
in Sacramento or the Bay Area July 3rd-10th or July 24th-31st
lots of options in there. I have already booked the 28th, the rest remains free
let me know if you have an idea
I might do a pickup day somewhere in there, but not sure yet
Hope the summer is treating you all well and see you soon
