Interview with Ella!

ella
Originally uploaded by becklerg.

So I just got back from my work "retreat". Not too much debauchery to report. The best (most embarassing) thing was that the first night I got wasted and did karaoke to the Grease soundtrack into a banana. To the same song. Two times in a row. Then I threw up and passed out. All by 9:30!

I sent an interview to Ella and she was kind enough to reply. For those of you that know Ella, you know that she now resides in beautiful Tujunga. Ella is one of the ten or so people that comes to mind when I think of what makes Sacramento what it is. That's vague, I know. I don't really have time for a proper intro because I should really go do some work. Ella is amazingly creative and knowledgeable. She throws the best dinner parties and always makes anything more fun. I'll let her speak for herself now. I hope she likes the photo that I stole from her friendster, I think it's cute.

Where were you born?
I was born at Kaiser on Morse Ave, September, 1970. I am a 5th generation Sacramentan on my mothers' side. My Great Great Grandfather left the Azores as a teenager, to avoid being drafted into the Portuguese milliary, on a New England whaling ship in the 1860's. He sailed around the horn to California in 1870. He deserted the ship in S.F. and settled on "Babel Slough" which is in the delta near Clarksburg. He had relatives there already, since family members from our village of Ribherinia do Pico had come here during the gold rush. My Grandmothers' family helped establish West Sac. My Great Grandparents lived at 3rd and T. Relatives of mine had the Gentlemen's Club at U street built. My great great uncle was known about town as "The Bean King" and had a mansion over by target (bulldozed for freeway). My mother's family have always been farmers. It is a neat feeling to! have roots like that in your home town. It has sometimes really helped me cope with life. I am of Portuguese, Hungarian, Cherokee, Scots/Irish and French descent. What a mess!



What high school did you attend?
I went to Highlands High School for my freshman year in 1983-84. I grew up in North Highlands and although it was fun to grow up there, it is a pretty hopeless and violent place when you get older. My parents put me in Loretto High School my sophomore year. It was far from the neighborhood and total culture shock. It is a rich, Catholic, all girls "college prep academy". I hated it, although I am glad that I got a good education. My friends and I were the only new wave/punk kids at school. I remember not fitting in that well, having to wear a uniform every day except Friday, our family being really poor and sometimes being high on codeine saved from one of my bouts with walking pnemonia. Our graduation was at the Cathedral on K street. We wore white ball gowns and elbow length gloves and carried a dozen red roses.! I had to steal my diploma when I graduated because they were going to keep it because I had so many uniform violations (untucked shirts, wrong shade blue socks) until I cleaned the school for part of the summer AFTER I graduated. Fuck that. I cleaned the school the whole time I went there because we didn't have enough money to pay full tuition. I had a lot of good times too, like learning how to use the darkroom or listening to Pet Sounds for the first time in art class. Or dyeing my hair unholy shades of red at the Smith's house and hanging out with Dave and his sister Cary. I think I was "most individualistic" or some shit like that once in the yearbook. So funny!

When did you move downtown?/First house you lived in downtown?

August, 1989, age 18. My boyfriend and I moved back from Nevada City and got a one bedroom apartment on T street between 18th and 19th for $250. It was haunted. We moved to F between 14th and 15th in February, 1990. In those days, we rented the prettiest 1920's 2 bedroom apartment in the GHETTO for $175 per month! I feel like I'm 700 years old!

Sac Neighborhoods you have lived in?

Southside Park and Alkali Flats

Favorite Neighborhood?

The Delta, Southside Park or Curtis Park in the pre yuppie days.

Plan a perfect day off in Sac. What would you do? Where would you eat?

Hmmm? First of all it would be WARM. Denios at like 6am and I would find the best stuff ever and all the 20's dresses would fit me perfectly but there would be some to share too, then the Farmers Market at 9, then lots of kitchen time, making orange/blood orange/mandarin juice and eating fresh goat cheese on toast with my grandmothers' gooseberry jelly or fig jam and hanging out with Willy and Tess, talking. Then some house cleaning and the house would be SPARKLING CLEAN with flowers all over the place. There would be no clutter. Then we'd walk or ride bikes to a really fun afternoon show at the loft, where we'd see everybody we love. Everyone, including Marie would live in Sac again and we'd all drink some brews. After the show, a group of people would go hang out at our amazing, antique filled, house on G and then I'd whip up some food, which would turn out perfectly. Then I would happ! ily putter around the house doing things and playing records until I had to go to a party at like 10pm! Then stay out all night having fun and walk home when the birds start to do that special morning chirp at dawn and we'd go to sleep with all the windows open and a delta breeze in the air. Perfect!

Changes in Sac over the years-positive and negative?

It's not as janky and fucked up anymore. I miss that. Now I have to go to Stockton to get my kicks. This is both negative and positive I guess. Also- it used to be like a little village, downtown, a little town where there were local businesses ONLY. I really miss that part. Oh, and there were hookers and lots more bums and nobody ever said MIDTOWN. Captain Zorgli anyone? Starman (aka george clinton)? Stabbie? The old man in the wheelchair who yelled at you by the loft? The entire K Street Mall bum world? It was like a fucking casting call for civil war survivors down there! Those were the days. I really don't like the term Midtown. I wouldn't mind if they just called East Sac and McKinley park Midtown. But come on folks? Downtown is downtown until you get to the damn freeway over by Alhambra! Fuck Midtown.

Favorite Sacto bands

all of my friends' bands! Especially Bananas, Nar, Bright Ideas, Yamos, Four Eyes. or most anything those folks are/were in. That band with Uli and Jay Howell too! Anything with Tristan/Patrone/Ed. Daisy Spot.

memorable shows:

I really wish that I didn't have alzheimers and could REMEMBER the DETAILS.
Basically, I can't even lie and say that I was overly wasted, I am just old.

Pavement / Sebadoh at the cattle club.
Monks of Doom -cattle club
Pavement - old Ironsides
Tallulah Gosh in that basement on 19th
The entire Loft phenomenon - all of it, no matter what.
Yamos shows.
Daisy Spot, whenever they play.
Any Halloween show.
Any No Kill I show.
Shows with classic Sacramento heckling going on.
hmmmmmmm.....???? (Bananas at poinsettia, does it count?)

Favorite venues

The Loft
basements
back yards
renegade shows
veterans halls

Best Thrift Store

The best thrift store is a carefully picked out yard sale.

Tell me about a thrift score or a Denios score that was memorable.

It's not going to matter to anyone, but I swear I had a magical/religious experience at Denios just last summer. I've been looking for a missing shade to a light fixture of mine for 15 years. Honestly. I've never really needed to put this fixture up in my house until last summer when Willy and I moved to LA. It was made in about 1932 and I've never seen a shade for sale EVER in 15 damn years. Long story short- We came up to Sac and went to Denios with the naive expectation that we might find it there cause we really needed it bad. I have been to Denios about ten thousand times in fifteen years and never found it. Well, I found it on a table covered with half empty perfume bottles from the 90's and "new" stuff all over it. It was just about the only old thing on the table. It was $5. I freaked out so bad that I couldn't yell to Willy to stop walking and come back. I couldn't speak. I needed it, a! nd the Gods of Denios smiled on me. Willy finally came back and I recovered the use of my voice and he asked me how much it cost. I said $5 and he said "What? You could have got it for $3!!" I don't tempt the gods that way. Nuh Uh. The whole thing was magical. I still cannot believe it happened.


Sac Jobs- where have you worked? Best/Worst?

I Magnin, Lunas, Crest, Vitae, Whole Earth Access, Statenet, Emigre (best), Cafe Rolle, Murphys Magic Supplies (worst).

Best Mexican restaurant:
now defunct El Mariachi on Harbor in W. Sac
now defunct 524 on 12th.
Vallejos for carnitas, enchilladas or that good ol' steak quesidilla
La Fiesta/La Favorita carne asada and fresh flour tortillas.

Fave Restaurant:
Vientianne on Harbor in W. Sac
Taka's
Marika

Do you plan to move back?

Yes, now that I am the proud inheritor of a 1880 mansion on G street. Yes, someday I will move back and get down to some SERIOUS interior decorating. I cannot wait until that house looks the way I want it to look. It is gonna be good. I also cannot wait for the parties I want to throw there! I want it to look like a railroad baron's house with real American renaissance revival antiques from the 1870's mixed up with lighter things and oriental carpets and taxidermy and lots of books. Too bad that I don't have a million bucks to decorate it.

Memorable parties?

I loved having parties at my house on 10th and S.
I loved the old fashioned dance parties all over town that we used to have.
I just love a party, as long as it's at someplace where I can get comfortable and am not COLD.

What do you think about the jizz trees? Love 'em or hate 'em?

Alianthus "tree of heaven" - I hate them with a passion. They are taking over the world and destroying all native trees. I wish they had never been imported from China. I hate them, and I think they are actually evil, like cudzu. Probably from another planet. It makes me sad to see them on wild land especially.

New hipster kids - love 'em or hate 'em?

Once upon a time, we were all new hipster kids, right? Well, except Vanoni. I like the ones who have a fucking sense of humor and who aren't so scared of strangers that they won't talk to me. I like knowing I could pick one up in each hand and throw them if they act up. I have gotten crazier as I have gotten older and now I feel like I have a form of Tourettes. I find myself heckling those kids a lot more than perhaps I want to. Most of them will be moving to SF and becoming those people we love to hate in about two years anyhow, so I don't worry too much. If they want to live in Sac for the long term, they better grow up to be rad people.

Now that you don't live in Sacramento anymore, what do you notice about it when you come to visit?:

Life moves at a slower and more relaxed pace.
It is surprisingly rural and small, much more than I ever thought.
There are so many pretty old houses!
Rent is not super cheap.
It is less affluent than I thought. (those schmucks up in Granite Bay are probably all from Los Angeles)
It's beauty has to grow on you, as sometimes it isn't readilly apparent. It isn't a spectacular looking place, at first.
People are heavier than in LA
Regular people, say at the movies or shopping, in Sac are not as stylishly dressed as in LA, and this can be a really good thing sometimes, when "stylish" might equal cast-offs from Pamela Anderson's closet.
Regular people in Sac, going to dinner at a fancy restaurant would not find it appropriate to wear sweats and flip flops, which for some reason are de rigeur in LA.
People in Sac drive much faster on the freeway than in LA.
There are lots and lots of TINY humans in LA, like a race of elves, that do not inhabit Sacramento.