biz journal roundup

More development news. It's funny that Thomas Enterprises has such elaborate plans for the railyard when they don't own it yet.

And I was looking at an article about Jimboys expansion and saw this. Hamburger Mary's is just OK, so I can't get very excited about the owners opening a place, but the selection of food on the river is so dismal that this at least can't make it any worse. It's been open for a while now, has anyone been there?

Here's a biz journal poll on the arena. It's not a random sample so it probably doesn't mean much.

Joe Sun won't back down

I'm a little late in posting on this, but the city is currently in a land dispute with Joe Sun. They're gonna have to up their offer because it seems to me that trying to use eminent domain could take years and tons spent in legal fees and they might not win anyway. And yeah, K st. records is moving for sure and they don't know where.

dark dark youtubes

Smiller said these were slowing down the blog too much, find them on youtube if you wanna watch 'em

courtesy of neon

Narty of the year!

Wow. What a party that was. So fun! Nar sounded so great. Earlier in the day when they were practicing and I was dropping off food, they kicked into "drunk and benevolent" and it brought tears to my eyes. Stony Ridge is the perfect setting for a party and it was a magical night. I took some non-digital pictures that are guaranteed to be terrible so I'll post those eventually. Does anyone else have pics? Video? I tried to pace myself drinking until Nar started playing and then I enlisted people backstage to bring me beers. The Natural Ice was a mistake that I regretted later. It set off a tidal wave of events that culminated in me hurling anti-Semitic invective at police and then trying to run away. Oh wait, that wasn't me that was Mel Gibson (good job Mel, you dumbfuck. You were still hot in Mad Max, though). One of the best things about the party for me was all the dogs to pet! A dream come true. I hope none of them were Jewish dogs, though. Thanks to everyone for all the great presents. Once again, I'm awash in a sea of wine and I'm swimming for dear life.

Next item of business for me is that I realized I can't attend the SRD meeting tomorrow, even though I was supposed to generate an agenda. Can someone else step up for that? The meeting is at Charv's house. He'll probably post the address to the yahoogroup. I'm reviewing the Firehouse for Midtown monthly tomorrow night. Maybe it sounds like a lame excuse but that shit pays the bills.

Get on the ground and roll around

Wow, could this day get any longer or more boring? Answer: no. I'll be slinking out of my work the back way pretty soon hopefully so see you all at the narty! Narty hard!

Wow. Maybe we should be fearing for our job.

She said it, not me.

I wanted to mention that I ate at Andy Nguyen's again the other day and the food came in a timely fashion and was really good. It's still lame that they stopped serving beer, though.

I had a lovely evening at the Waterboy, as usual. They had a special of oysters on the half shell. The mixed grill with lamb and sweetbreads was excellent, and the peach crostada dessert was amazing. When we were trying to pick dessert wines, I almost went with a 10 year tawny port, but then we noticed something called the Harbor Winery '84 Mission del Sol that was only 4.50 for a glass. We asked the waiter about it because we were intrigued by the price and because I couldn't tell what it was and he said it was a port from West Sacramento. I figured it would be gross but I was curious and had to try it. It turned out to be really good, with an insanely pecan-y, caramel-y aftertaste. We asked if we (I sound like Heyamoto, it was me and Scott) could look at the bottle. It had the label you see above which is so rad looking. The bottle confused things more because it said "Amador county" on it, yet said it was produced and bottled in West Sac and that it was a white dessert wine (even though it was an amber color). I can't believe an '84 vintage could be sold at such a cheap price! I tried to do a little research but haven't come up with much. I know you can get some of their wines at Corti's. Here's a little report I found online about their '76 vintage. I guess it's not fortified. I have to visit this place! Here's a quote from the online blurb:

Harbor Mission del Sol: I've not had this wine in some 15 yrs or so. It was made by Charlie Meyers at HarborWnry, down in West Sacramento on Harbor Blvd, in an old auto repair shop out back of Wingo & Sons Upholstery (least that was the business out front when I visited there in '74) from very old Mission vines on the Deaver Ranch. The grapes were left on the vine until they were raisened, then harvested to make a sweet (unfortified) dessert wine. When I visited Deaver Ranch in '75; the craggy/raw-boned Ken Deaver, Sr. was especially proud of gnarly/ugly old vines that dated before the turn of the century. I expect they're probably ripped out by now. In its youth, this wine was loaded w/ oak and had a very sweet very intense grapiness to it; a classic Calif cream sherry style of wine. It has matured into a pretty nifty old/elegant kind of cream sherry, more like an old oloroso. I still have a few btls left so we'll try one in another 15-20 yrs and report back.

And in a related note, the guy who drew the poster is named David Lance Goines and there are so many super cool posters on his website. Looks like he did the art for Chez Panisse, too. I love that '70s/Art Nouveau style. If you like it too he has hundreds posted on the website.

Narty on!

Like I said before, Bananas show in SF tomorrow, Nar Party (Narty? Par?) saturday at Stony Ridge, 420 4th ave. Come at 4:00, wear your volleyball outfit and bring a wienie (to grill!)

I'm still waiting to hear on whether Kabinet has a screening this weekend.

more lighthearted links

NSFWAA (at all) but amazing I'll give you a hint, it is a tattooed dick. The pics are pretty small so you can look at it quick.

robert plant still on top?

An entertaining village voice article where oldster rock critic Robert Christgau (he of the "future of rock and roll" quote for the boss) went to a show everyday for a month, including a !!! show. He loved Robbie Fulks. It's telling that he ranked the Robert Plants show at the top, though.

never mind

Oops! Guess I made a little wrong turn there. What I meant to say is that the News and Review is practically perfect in every way. Just like Mary Poppins.

Damn, the Firehouse restaurant has an extensive website! Some might even say frivolously extensive in these trying times. The wine list is crazy. They have banyuls from 1949 for 75 a glass! Are they really going to open a bottle that's been aging since 1949 just to sell one glass? I'm asking MH for wine recs for when I go. Has anyone been there? What did you get? Good or bad?

Banderas was another place I was thinking of reviewing but they just got kinda trashed on chowhound. I didn't know it was a chain.

Also here's a link to a cute pic of Joanne Newsom, a confirmation that's she recording her new album with Van Dyke Parks, and mp3 of rough-sounding but good new songs.

S.O.C. (save our city)

OK, I can see you guys are all in a lather over my blue-eyed soul post so now that you've had time to calm down it's time for me to start complaining again. The new News and Review is out today. I can't read KW's review yet because even though it's only 11:15 I'm ravenously hungry. From just skimming my eyes over it it sounds amazing, and I'm on the Korean tip lately, too, so I'll have to go. She also clues the readers in to a Philipino market that I hope to be visiting soon. So far, so good, right? Another lighthearted column from Becca Costello, that's her deal, this week she dressed up like Dinger. The problem here? Our entire city is being sold up the river by the mayor and city council (I know I'm being dramatic but it IS dramatic) and they are barely reporting on it. This city is filled with muck about knee deep and they are not raking it. There are so many stories to be looked into and this week the cover story is about the Placer county eco-terrorists. Cosmo wrote it, and i'm sure it's a good, well-researched article. Last week the cover story was about people in Sac who have creative jobs. Where's the sense of urgency? Where's the digging? Why aren't they busting the chops of the city council, the mayor, channel 10, the Bee, the Maloofs, Thomas enterprises etc. every single week? There are billions at stake here and this city is in the midst of what looks like a gold rush to developers all over the country and most people downtown and in surrounding areas don't know and it's debatable whether they care. But some of the back-door dealing and alliances are pretty scandalous so it can be juicy depending on how you look at it. The Bee won't do it, and no one else has the resources to do it, we need the News and Review to have our back. Cosmo has written some good urban planning articles in the past, but we need more! There really is no other issue as important in Sac for now (besides flood control, but there's plenty of muck to be raked there, too, and maybe someday we'll literally be knee deep in it, hope not). The citizens need to wake up and realize the scope of what's going on under their noses. It's too late for a lot of projects, like the twin towers (and there's a story to be told there involving inadequate planning and funding for emergency services to these large buildings), but we need to wake up and speak up before the serious development gets underway in the railyards. SRD is trying to get educated and have an impact, but the SNR has a built-in readership and a way to reach people. What about the shady connections between Rob Fong and the Maloofs? What about the loopholes in zoning restrictions that are being exploited right and left? I could go on. We don't need any more cover stories about dirt biking, we need someone to report on this stuff. Bites covers this a bit, too, and there is a brief mention of the arena in her/his column, and maybe they are working on some big stories right now, the News and Review is a rad local resource, don't get me wrong. I just think they need to hammer this stuff into peoples heads week after week, the same way the Bee and the local news does on a daily basis, but with facts, not propaganda.

blue-eyed soul

The six organs show was really fun. I smoked hella brownweed (which I would like to give a shout out to for not getting me too stoned, thanks brownweed) and there were lava light-type projections going on so that was good enough for me. Psych-folk is OK, but what I'm really excited about is blue-eyed soul (I like the brown-eyed variety, too), namely, Robin Thicke. I'm not embarrassed to admit this. Yes, he's Alan Thicke of Growing Pains son, and you may remember when he busted out a while ago when he performed a song called "shooter" on the Tonight Show or something with Lil Wayne. Finally his record company is wising up and they filmed a video of them doing the song and hopefully it will be a single. It's gonna be big. He also has a much-delayed album coming out, that I think Pharrell is producing. I like this comment on youtube on lil weezy:

dis song is fuqen bom, weezy de best rapper spitting rite now til jay come baq, carter II was a fuqen CLASSIC. WEEZY F BABY BITCHES

speaking of blue-eyed soul, there is a pretty big tabloid scandal in England going on with George Michael right now. He got busted cruising again (not by the cops, by the tabloids) and people are saying his wedding to his longtime bf is off. The reason George Michael is the best is because he called into a radio show and said this:

I've got no issue with cruising. I've talked about it many times. This is no more of an issue than I ever said it was, it's never been an issue between us,”

and: 'You can't be in shame about the situation if the person isn't shamed, and I am certainly not that. 'I should be able to be what I am to young, gay people, which is a man who has succeeded in the industry for 25 years.

'Sorry if people don't like the fact I cruise on Hampstead Heath but the police absolutely accept that it goes on at night, it's the only place in London where that is so it's generally a safe place.'

exciting to me

newish corti's newletter!

what's up sacto

new blog about sac haps (no not arenas, things to do)

that's hot!

A correspondent in NYC has informed me that the new hipster trend in Billyburg (yes I said it) is Jesus-style headbands. I'm going to wear one tonight at the Six Organs show and blow everyones mind.

let's get this party started?

I think this blog has a pattern where it's sometimes a little boring earlier in the week and then it really picks up speed by the end, so I'll try and kick that off.

On saturday, my birthday festivities will kick off around 4:00. Nar is gonna play pretty early. Come early for the cutthroat volleyball and stay for the band. And bring stuff to grill. If you choose to imbibe bring something, but I know most of my friends don't drink.

There's a show tonight at fool's foundation, a big one, six organs of admittance. It's expensive, but it's because this guy is pretty big and has a guarantee.

I'm going to the Waterboy tomorrow! Exciting! And I think I'll be going to the Firehouse soon under the auspices of Midtown/Downtown monthly. I'm curious about that place. It has a great location but I've never heard anyone say much about it.

Hey JG, what's up with the Kabinet this weekend? You're screening a movie, yes?

The Bananas have a show in SF on friday. Peeps should try to go, it will be fun!

the a word

More a word news.

I ate at Mikuni last night and I feel like a sucker. It's just not good. The zig zag roll was soggy and gross. On the plus side, you can get a giant jug of Geikkekan silver for 13 bucks and they turned a blind eye when GW carried out the remainder of it. Then we went to see "the lady in turdwater" as DB has dubbed it over at the Barnseyard. DB, you were right, I should have listened to you. I knew it would be dumb, but I didn't know that it would be a dumb kids movie. Well, unless the narf showed her tits later in the movie. I wouldn't know because GW and I left after about 35 minutes of schlock. It was funny how the narf kept reminding me of Madison in Splash because it was so clear that a movie in this vein (adult fairy tale) can be so much better if it has a sense of humor about itself. What passed for humor in "turd" was pretty much just broad racial stereotyping. The jerks behind us giggled plenty, even piping in saying "ching chong" when the Asian stereotyping was going on. Good one.

NAR!

I'm dreading to see what Voisin wrote over the weekend and I'm declaring a one-week moratorium on this blog of any arena talk. It's going to be voted on in November and I bet everyone that reads has made up their mind already so right now there's not much point.

More importantly (to me) my 32nd birthday is tomorrow. I'll be working. Last year my work took me to Nationwide, hopefully I can do that again this year. On saturday there is a Nar reunion dealy that I requested as a birthday present. I know a dude that was nice enough to make it happen. There is also gonna be volleyball and bbq-ing, sadly of the bring everything yourself variety because I don't want to run myself ragged making stuff. I'll post the details later in the week.

Have you forgotten how insanely good the Sunflower in Fair Oaks is? I won't even entertain the thought that some of you haven't yet been there because you might as well just slap yourself in the face if that is true. I wish that instead of an arena (oops, there's the a word) my tax dollars could go to building a Sunflower downtown. Hell, I would pay a hundred bucks personally to make that happen. And Fair Oaks Blvd. is loaded with every thrift store known to man (including a new thrift town). I scored a new dining room table from the antique and thrift store across from the Thrift Town.

Andy Nguyen let me down again yesterday. No, not the food, that was fucking delicious and reasonably priced (which is why I keep going back). They let me down by being completely chaotic as they always are, even though it wasn't that crowded. I gave myself almost an hour before the movie I was going to go see and it wasn't enough. I crammed my food down which gave me indigestion and I still decided I was going to be late while rushing there and didn't go. Curse you Andy Nguyen! GET IT THE FUCK TOGETHER PLEASE! They were screwing up people's orders left and right while I was there.

sunday four eyes show

I have a buyer in mind...

her initials are EC