caffeine attack

I am so excited that the comments have taken off in the last week or so. I hope that continues. I am excited about every fucking thing in the world right now because I drank two cups of Peet's and topped it off with a soda. I feel like my whole body is vibrating. This is actually rather unpleasant. I just heard an ominous rumbling in my bowels.

So, I am on a work trip until next tuesday. There may be no posts until then (unless Miller wants to do it), but I may be able to check my email, and, inspired by Heather, I have already emailed my interview questions to the next subject that I have in mind. Hopefully I will be able to post that over the weekend.

In case you were wondering, there is no Knock Knock show tonight (bummer). The listing on the undie list is wrong wrong wrong.

Oh yeah, the new SN&R contains a coupla letters regarding C.K.'s thing last week about why critics do what they do. Both seem to agree that bands should stop whining (or "whinging" as they would say in the comments on Dave Smiths blog). There is also a feature about the Ariel Pink show next thursday. I will most likely go to this but I haven't heard him yet except for one downloaded song that did nothing for me. But listening to stuff on my computer speakers at work is no test for whether I like it.

Out hud review

The new Out Hud got an 8 in Pitchfork today: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/o/out-hud/let-us-never-speak-of-it-again.shtml

I get paid tomorrow so I should be buying it soon.

And to milk the joke for a second time: N.E.R.D. is apparently not officially broken up. Their fan will be so stoked.

Stir it up

Hmm...I'm at a loss today so far as to what to write. I haven't been up to much lately. I feel the urge to just write something controversial so that people can slug it out in the comments and do my work for me. OK, here goes-Christina Mendonsa-not really a hottie. Or News 10 Tower-kind of an eyesore. No? That's not doin' it for ya? How about-Karate Party-best Sac band ever. The music thing seems to work.

Maybe I'll think of something later.

Oh yeah, and I know the Terri Schiavo thing has been beat to death, but here's an article that gives the neuroscience perspective: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639/

drunk post

There is a crazy article in the NY times magazine about so-called "exurbs", which, in my understanding are new cities that are springing up in places like Arizona that are all sprawling and strip-mally like suburbs, but they are not suburbs because they aren't based around any cities. These places sound like hell and they are intertwined with the rise of the megachurch. It is worth it to register for the NY Times online, if only for the food articles and the magazine. This exurb story reminded me of me and Graces foray into suburbia last friday to go to the giant galleria mall for the first time. We ate at a Cafe Bernardos in Roseville that had a bizarre patio. The whole area is just creepy stripmalls. The patio was basically set in the middle of a parking lot and it was enclosed by plastic and had tons of heat lamps and a really loud fountain to drown out the traffic noise. I felt really sorry for the people who live around there. This was the nicest outdoor eating experience they could hope for and it was lame. Actually, Sac doesn't have much good outdoor dining, but Miller has said that the patio at Aioli is the best, so maybe I will go there on a warm night. Also, whenever I am in the suburbs I trip out on how rich everyone looks. Where do these people work that pays them so much money? I don't get it.

On the food tip, the chowhound message board is having a lively debate about the adventurousness of Sacramento eaters. It stems from an article in the Bee in which a distinguished local chef said he was leaving Sac because everyone just wants fried calimari and no one would eat his stuffed pigs hooves or whatever. The article is linked on the message board. I find this argument somewhat irritating, even though I agree that it is lame when each restaurant has the same selection of fried, greasy appetizers with dippin' sauce. The reason I find it irritating is that people say "adventurous" when they mean "weird, exotic, and disgusting meats". I am adventurous in the sense that I like food heavily spiced and really spicy. Or new vegetables or fruits I've never heard of (like cardoons) or in new combinations. But just because I don't want to eat a gland does not mean I'm not "adventurous". If so, the folks on Fear Factor would be sophisticated eaters. There is also a weird branch on the message board where they talk about parking and how some suburban couple won't try the Waterboy cuz they're scared they won't find a parking space.

The grad student will be at the undisclosed remote location in two minutes. I'd better post this shit.

be nice

Woah. Blogger is fucked and I couldn't post all afternoon yesterday.

The comments are getting pretty heated. I'm staying out of the fray. It's starting to look like the Sac indie list down there. Speaking of the indie list, I sometimes hear about what's going on there and I think that maybe I should re-join, but I may have mentioned that I got burned pretty bad in the brief time I was on it and was really embarassed and mad. I didn't realize that if you stepped up and made a statement that you left yourself open to whatever mean thing anyone wanted to say about you. Specifically, and I may have posted this before, I can't remember if I did, but local writer and smart guy Dennis Yudt (who I recognize but have never met) responded to my first post by saying, "Welcome to the indie list. Now shut the fuck up." That did make me feel so welcome. It reminded me of high school. Back then I was afraid to stand up for myself because if I said anything, the other person would have no limits on the fucked-up shit they could say and they could hit me in my most vulnerable areas (figuratively, of course. Well, figuratively and literally, sometimes). I don't like this style of fighting. I think civility is a wonderful thing and that the internet, by rendering the communication indirect and somewhat faceless, makes it OK to just go off on somebody. I'm not the originator of this theory, obviously. Everyone knows this. Anyway, maybe I will re-join that list or the indie chick list. Is it worth it? I welcome your comments on this subject.

I listened to the Pearcy's on the NPR show yesterday and it was quite unexciting. They only got 15 minutes and Jeffrey Callison didn't take any callers. No mention of the skeletons in their closet.

Not much else to post so far. I keep forgetting to mention that I finally went back to the farmer's market at 6th and W on sunday, and plan to visit much more frequently. It's great! Not just boring old veggies, but Sac Baking Co. bread, fresh eggs, hand made cheese, olive oil, honey. In short, everything you could want to make a delicious post-market sunday breakfast. Check this out. If you're not an early riser it seems to go until at least 11:00 so drag your ass out of bed and get over there. Oh yeah, and it's cheap, too.

Feel the heat

Yikes! Things are heating up around here at Heckasac. But I can take it, as long as no one ever, ever says anything mean about me. Because I will cry. And even though I cry approximately 3.6 times every day it is still so sad when I cry. It almost makes me cry thinking about it.

The couple that is behind the whole soldier in effigy controversy will be on NPR on Insight with Jeffrey Callison today at 2:00. I may be able to listen, so I can report on it for those who can't. If you're really interested, you can probably listen to it off the Capital Public Radio website later today.

Christian Kiefer talks back

Jeez-I totally missed that Christian Kiefer did a late comment on a post I wrote awhile ago. Here it is, in case everyone else missed it:

I know I'm a bit behind the curve on this blog but let me make a couple of quick comments. As a music fan, the "intentions" of the band are mostly irrelevant. What isn't irrelevant is what the band is actually doing. Think about it this way: If I intended to write a brilliant novel but my skills only allowed to write a mediocre novel, does that mean a reviewer should write "Gee, this novel is brilliant" because the intentions were such? God, I hope not.As for the CD Roundup: You're right it was stupid. Sometimes these things seem like good ideas when you're writing them and then later you eat shit for it. It was a dark and stormy night, indeed.Miller: Let's talk about context. I'm not sure what you mean exactly, or how I'm missing the point. What I want to be is a good, critical writer, and I'm definitely interested in what you have to say. I may not agree with your criticisms of my criticism, but I'd like to understand where you're coming from.Heckasac: I've been lurking around your blog for a while and like it very much. Hope you don't mind that I've jumped on for a moment.

This reminded me that I meant to mention how Christian had a sizable write-up on Rock The Light in the News and Review this week: http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/current/clubber.asp
All the members of the band were quite pleased and said they felt he "got it". And I'm not just writing this because he gave me a compliment, I swear!

Happy Easter Baby Jesus!

I would LOVE to post any ratgrabbin' pictures. So email 'em to me if you want them up.

This may be a post of limited interest to some (which may not distinguish it from all my other posts). I read this creepy little two-pager in the NY times about a woman that is obsessed with her husband and talks about how she loves him much more than her kids and vice versa. It was so weird that I knew that someone on one of the gossip blogs I read would talk about it, and turns out it was written by the wife of the novelist Michael Chabon, of Kavalier and Klay fame. So, it that sounds even vaguely interesting to you, check it out. It's bizarre.

Let's see...what's up. In Davis today there is an insane migration of teenage Monarch butterflies. I'm not sure if this is happening in Sac, too. The air is filled.

Two firsts this weekend: I lost my virginity and had my first drink. J.K. that could have been my blog entry from about '93 (which would have made me 19, for the record). Back then, blogs were called diaries and you hid them under your bed. But seriously, painfully lame jokes aside-I went to a show at the Fool's foundation and took my first ride on the bike trail. I know, I know it's weird that I've never been on the bike trail before but in general I don't like to engage in any activity which will make me sweat. I make an exception for strenuous eating. The Bright Ideas sounded great, mostly because Miller had prepared me for it to be echoey, and it wasn't as echoey as I thought it would be. I guess there was a dance party there on friday night, so if anyone went, let me know how it was. I cut out before the other band. I shouldn't have done that. I heard they were good. The bike trail thing was earlier on saturday and should lead to a Spring of exploring the bike trails. It was great.

On Easter sunday I went to church and thought about how baby Jesus miraculously crawled out of that cave or wherever he was. Not really. I actually attended a performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera? operetta? thing at Sierra 2. A friends sister was in the cast. This friend tricked me by not telling me until we had 5 minutes to go in that the thing was 3 hours long. The opera started out really slowly and I was dreading sitting there all that time and contemplating cutting out at the intermission, but I stuck it out and it was pretty entertaining. I was very touched that there are people that love singing and performing so much that they will do it without being paid and in the spare time that they have after their regular job. It had a live orchestra, so that was cool, too.

Tree huggers

The Bee had a bunch of short opinion pieces and cartoons about the arena by their editorial staff yesterday. Nothing too exciting. I kind of skimmed them, but they all seemed pretty balanced with no Voison-style panic.

They have an article today about the Sacramento Tree Foundation calling for a concrete plan to increase the canopy of trees, mostly in outlying areas of Sac: http://sacbee.com/content/news/story/12635910p-13489734c.html
That's great that they're trying to get together a plan. I am thinking about donating to this organization. I know that trees downtown may not be an important issue on a global scale, but it's very important to me, and I worry that people are just taking the relatively old-growth downtown canopy for granted. I have read that there isn't enough money to maintain it properly and everyone has seen how many diseased trees are cut down and not replaced. On that note, I was reading my book "Sacramento, City of Trees" yesterday and learned that the trees that drop those seed pods that I call "monkey balls" (you know, the brown, prickly things that will make you fall if you're not lucky) are called London plane trees. I also learned that two cottonwoods near Sutter's fort are the oldest downtown trees, coming in at around 130 years old or so.

Weekend wrap up later. Maybe.

later skater

ugh. so groggy. will post later.

Petey wanna cracker?

I'm off tomorrow due to the wonders of working for the state. Tomorrow is parrot friday at Beer's books so head on over and say hi to Petey.

new out hud drops

outhud
Originally uploaded by becklerg.

Awww! Aren't they cute! Caroline's comment reminded me that the new Out Hud album came out this week, and tonevendor's website says they have both the CD and LP in stock. For a recent short BBC interview go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3803474

hipsters, hipsters everywhere

Here's a little tip for you: if you call in an order for dine-in at Zelda's (it's always a good idea to call ahead because the pizzas take about 50 minutes to make and bake) and you get there and it's insanely crowded and you tell the only waitress you can flag down after waiting for 10 minutes for someone to notice that you're there that you will take it to go instead, make sure to keep inquiring about the status of your pizza, because they will let you sit there like a weiner forever and never tell you that your fucking pizza is done and is just sitting there getting cold. Just a tip.

Over the now cold, soggy pizza at the TOHTUL ETERNUHTY FEHST house (I'm only calling it this because I think it's funny that the noise dude downstairs has christened Mike Banana's house with this name) Grace, Mike Banana and I had an interesting discussion that brought up more questions than it answered. So I'm turning to you, my readers, to help me out. We were talking about the proliferation of kids that I will call "hipsters" for lack of a better term. We were trying to figure these super styley kids out, mostly just wondering what the hell kind of music they listen to and would any of us have any bands in common with them if we were to strike up a conversation. We came to a few tentative conclusions: 1) These kids do not seem very friendly or ever look like they are having a good time. They tend to be quite dour. 2) There are definitely some sub-groups going on in there, they're not all into the same thing. I posited that there is a sort of noise music type of kid, like the ones downstairs at theTOHTUL ETERNUHTY FEHST house. These kids seem nicer and a lot of them have beards. I kind of have a handle on some of the music they are into. Then there are the kids that Mike B. called the "fake New York techno-clash or whatever the fuck it is" kids. They are the ones that have expensive haircuts, jeans, and seem pretty unfriendly. What kind of bands do these kids like?

Of course, these are just generalizations. I know some younger people that are quite nice and don't fit into either of these groups. But there are so many of these new people that I occasionally see at shows or certain parties and I just can't figure them out. So hopefully somebody has some insight. There may be more subgroups that I don't know about, too.

I'm gonna feel like an idiot if no one comments and I will probably delete this post. So, even if you don't know, you can just make something up. Wild speculation is welcome.

can't think of heading

I'm pretty busy. I'll try to post around lunch.

Time wasters

If you have some work time to waste you should check this out before it gets taken down (which should happen momentarily): http://www.patriciaheatononline.com/xeobook/index.php?from=10&more=10&key=
This is Patricia Heaton's message board. She's the generic actress on Everybody Loves Raymond. She issued a statement speaking out against removing the feeding tube of Terry Shiavo and she is getting reamed on her message board.

Also, this interview with David Cross is pretty funny, although I haven't seen Arrested Development so I don't really get all the references:http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/culture/imterviews/david-cross-the-defamer-imterview-037022.php

continued...

slamson
Originally uploaded by becklerg.

Because our seats were better, we were seated by a lot of people who looked pretty rich. The little kid next to us would shrilly cry out "defense" every time the Trailblazers had the ball. So she said it approximately twenty trillion times, interspersed with talking to her mom on the cellphone walkie talkie. Awww, kids are so cute. The guys behind us had such choice quotes as "my car has a bumper sticker that says, "I think, therefore I am Republican", and were also heard making fun of the player on the Trailblazers named Ha Seung-Jin by saying it "have some gin". Hilarious.

A bunch more crap happened on the court, the Kings were doing great and then it was halftime. I was disappointed to find that the halftime show was dedicated to the Royal Court Dancers, so there was no Slamson, no trampoline, nothing. Just more of the crappy dancers doing the running man in sparkly shirts. There was half-hearted applause while each dancer was introduced. Republidork yelled "Woo" for one girl and said, "that's my girlfriend". There was some Slamson during the game, and I love the way he struts and points. I contemplated whether it would be funny or sad if my impending mental breakdown took the form of me hugging Slamson and refusing to let go. At least it would make the news.

The game resumed and there was more dribbling, shooting, etc. At one point a grotesque inflatable monstosity known as "Air Slamson" took to the court to entertain the fans. I refuse to believe that Slamson was really inside there. This Slamson had a giant head, kept making awkward freakish motions and pelvic thrusts, and at one point shot foam out if its (I think, I coudn't really see)armpit. Then it's bobble head collapsed into itself. I was repulsed. I can't believe that kids weren't crying all over the arena.

The Kings led the whole game by at least 8 points, so, predictably, with about five minutes left, at least half the arena started to exit. YOU PEOPLE THAT LEAVE EARLY SUCK. You don't deserve your tickets. Have some respect for the players. I know the parking situation is bad, but it's part of attending a game. We left right after the game and it took us about ten minutes to get out of the lot. That's not too bad. This behavior led me to conclude that for a lot of the people there, the main reason they want to attend a game is to wear their Kings gear, eat a King dog and get a fleeting sense of triumph for beating the traffic out of the arena. That leads me to the hottie phenomenon. There are all these women at the games who like to dress in tight, breast revealing clothing and parade up and down the aisles every five minutes. Ladies, are you really this starved for attention? Do you like it when 10 year olds and grandpas look at your chest?

So, that was my game review. Hope all the technical basketball jargon didn't throw you off.

To be continued.....

I went to the King's game last night. It was really fun. This is the second game I've been to, but the first where I've had seats in the lower level and it really makes a difference. I don't have very good "sports eyes" (meaning I can't usually follow what's going on), so watching it from the upper deck was more like watching it on TV and I kept spacing out.

The Kings kicked ass on the trailblazers. I developed a game-length crush on Trailblazers player Joel Przybilla, and D.P. and I argued about his ethnicity after the game, but when I looked him up today, not only could I not find out his ethnicity, I saw a close-up photo and my crush faded. He seemed like kind of a baby, anyway, he threw a couple of mini-tantrums during the game.

To start at the beginning, D.B. had some sort of extra special parking pass that seemed to promise that there would be a special lot just for us and we would be whisked past the lines of traffic. Instead, we drove around and around the arena fruitlessly searching for the lot in the utter chaos that is the Arco Arena parking lot. It was seriously like driving in Tijuana, which I've done, so I know what I'm talking about. Of course there were some jokes cracked about how the lack of signage is just another indication that we need a new arena and that the Maloofs investigated it and found that the current signage absolutely can't be fixed.

We finally found the spot and D.P. and I headed (shit I keep getting busted on the net but I have to write this-see how much I risk for my faithful readers? God I have had so much Peet's coffee I feel like I just did a line) straight to the concession stand for King dogs. This was my dinner, so I thought the big dog would do the trick. This dog was about two inches more more dog than I wanted. I'm a six inch dog kind of girl. The game started, lots of action occurred, none of which I can relate because I tend to forget sports stuff, but it was exciting at the time.

This sucks! I have to go work but I'll continue the post later.

All I can say is...

yeahright
Originally uploaded by becklerg.

yeah right. Check out http://www.sactowers.com/
and be sure to turn your speakers up to hear the soothing tones of fuckjazz (man that looks dirty when you write it, but somehow it's not as dirty to say).

go kings.

I'm busy today. I'm going to the Kings game tonight so maybe I'll write about that tomorrow.

Hott coffee

My god I'm gonna have to start going to Naked Lounge again because you just can't find sexiness like this at Peet's: http://sacramento.craigslist.org/mis/64708449.html
A Bowl of Soul AND a beaver shot for under five bucks? It's a bargain.