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

busy weekend

I only have a second because I really should be working and I don't want to talk about the arena anymore. It's depressing me. I need to take a break from thinking about it for a bit.

So there's a lot going on this weekend. The two big things are the second weekend of the French Film Festival at the Crest and the Wasted Weekend III at Old Ironsides. I'll be there tonight slapping my knee at the celebrity-based comedy of the sweaty Neil Hamburger and praying right along with the Knights of the New Crusade. Saturday I may try to get out of town cuz I heard it's going to be 111. Is that possible?

breaking arena news...

thanks to SG. So now they're putting the arena pricetag at 600 million? Uh, is the 20 mill the Maloofs are so generously providing upfront in addition to the 70 mill they need to pay back the city?

pyongyang naeng myun yum

I had a pretty action-packed day off. I read an article in the nytimes about naeng myun (sometimes called Pyongyang naeng myun, try to say that three times fast, or even once), a Korean cold noodle soup dish and I had to have it. Scott and I went to Oz on Bradshaw. This was my first visit there. I was surprised at how fancy it was inside, and there were pictures of the owners with Rick Adelman, various news anchors from around town, and with Bobby J. I love Korea House, but this place is more spacious and pleasant inside. Well, I take that back because I just remembered that it had flatscreen TVs tuned to the food channel everywhere you look, which is obnoxious. But I don't think you can see them very well from the BBQ tables, so it might be nice to take a big group there. We were there between lunch and dinner, and the place was pretty empty. The dish wasn't on the menu and of course I had forgotten the name, but as I started to describe it the guy instantly knew what I was talking about and said they had it. Even though I've eaten Korean food a lot, I had never had bibimbap, and neither had smiller, so we got the cold sirloin bibimbap. The little dishes they bring you beforehand is one of my favorite things about Korean food, and every place brings you something different. This time they had regular spicy kimchee and unspiced kimchee, which was really good. They brought out the bibimbap first and I loved it! The yolk of the fried egg mixed with the rice in a delicious way. I kept stealing bites from scott as we waited for the naeng myun. I had not read the article very closely so I was astonished that the broth was an icy slush! This is the perfect dish for a sweltering day, even though it's really weird eating savory food that is this cold. It has a slightly sour, slightly fruity and sweet (from the pear) broth, buckwheat noodles, a small chunk of beef brisket, slices of daikon, and a hard boiled egg. The served it with extra vinegar if you like it more sour, and a horseradishy mustard. So good! Everyone there was very nice, and even rushed to the table with concern when I had a choking fit from a hot pepper I accidentally ate, and they finished the meal with a complimentary cool drink that I'm not familiar with. It seemed to be some kind of rice drink that was slightly lemony and had a single pine nut in the bottom. Has anyone else had this? This was one of the best meals I have had in a while.

We also went to the viognier tasting at 58 degrees. They had one French viognier and 5 Cali ones. The Cali ones were pretty much oaky and nasty. I liked the French one, but not really enough to buy it. Maybe I just don't like viognier.

Later, we went to Davis for the Parenthetical Girls show, which was fun. That band is very intriguing. They were stoked on the turn out and will probably come back to Sac sometime. They are one attractive band!

Then back to Sac, where I was given a parking lesson by the hooker on scott's corner. I felt that if I didn't take her advice there could be some kind of altercation so because I happen to know she used to be a Marine I took it.

did she mention that we might want to think about building a new arena?

I can't believe she's not embarrassed to crank this same shit out every day. She can probably generate hysteria in a written form in her sleep by now. So an NBA team is moving, big deal. She admits it's from a city with two other professional teams, which makes it quite different from Sac. How about this unsupported statement:

the matter ultimately comes down to this: The Kings and Monarchs could leave, and the region would still need a modern sports/entertainment facility.

She's constantly trying to distill what it all comes down to, and she comes to a different conclusion every time. If both those teams left (which is unlikely), then why exactly would we still need a new facility? She doesn't say, she just presents it as a fact.

For some entertainment, here are the closing lines from the arena articles she's written in the last two weeks (well, except for the one in which she did completely unbiased straight reporting), she really likes to end them with a punch to the gut:

Sacramento is on the clock.

It's all about the building

Roll the dice, but remember your roots.
Sac is home

I am so sick of this that she wins, I will vote for whatever the fuck the Maloofs want. I'll sign my savings over to them, I'll give them my penny jar, whatever it takes to get Voisin to stop turning out this crappy prose.

strictly snoresville

My own blog is putting me to sleep. Sorry guys, also I'll be gone tomorrow. Maybe something exciting will happen when I'm gone. Like Voisin will call me out on her blog. If she has a blog.

SRD! USA! SRD! USA!

There is an SRD meeting tonight, same time and place. Come to it if you can, the last one was pretty cool and dare I say, fun.

I'm off tomorrow (yay!) so I guess I'll blog about stuff you can do tomorrow. Tonight you're going to the SRD so you already have plans. 58 degrees is having a viognier tasting tomorrow. I'm going to that. There' s an interesting show at Delta of Venus in Davis tomorrow. A band called the Parenthetical Girls. Two drawbacks are: 1)Davis 2) it's a "late show", starts on 10 on a wednesday night and there are three bands. Their website is very elaborate and has audio clips so check it out if you care to.

stupid arena

Goddamnit, are you sick of hearing about the arena yet? I know I am. OK, here's the rundown today. News 10 published a bogus new poll with stupid questions like, "Do you want the opportunity to vote to determine if a publicly funded new entertainment venue should be built?" Surprise, most people said yes. Well fucking duh. If it's publicly funded (with tax money) then we do get a chance to vote. It's not up for debate, so what exactly is the point of that question? Here are the results. News 10 is subtly doing this branding thing where whenever they talk about the arena they use the phrase "the future of the arena". They picked up that trick from the republicans. That way, it looks like it's for sure that a new arena is in our future. It may sound dumb, but I'm sure they focus group crap like that. The headline on their homepage right now is "voters want a say on future of the arena". So the executive producer guy thought I'd be surprised by those results? They just framed that bullshit question as if there has been some positive surge in the voting public. Clever. At least they replaced that biased poll on futureofthearena.com with the one from last night.

Here's the front page story in the Bee today. The specter of the Maloof's outstanding 70 million dollar loan is raised for the first time in a while. Some grass-roots group called People United (they must be new, because their website is under construction, just like SRD) is holding a press conference today at 10 (see the end of the article). Good for them.

Like I said, I'm sick of thinking about the arena, so can someone else read this Marcos Breton column more carefully and tell me what the point of it is? I didn't glean it from skimming over it.

letter back from futureofthearena.com

I received a response for my letter to the futureofarena.com Here's what the news 10 executive producer, Michael Langley had to say:

Good afternoon Heckasac (I signed it with my real name but I'm still trying to avoid google),

Thank you for taking the time to write. Actually they are two separate polls. The survey on futureofthearena.com was taken by users who visited the site. That's how they responded. The results on news10.net are from a phone poll taken by SurveyUSA and given exclusively to News 10. I'm sorry these two different polls are not more clearly differentiated. We have commissioned a new poll and will be posting the same results this evening on news10.net and futureofthearena.com. (You may be surprised by what people are saying now.) Again, thank you for taking the time to write and allowing me the opportunity to respond.

So, the poll that they are posting is from people logging onto this website, hardly a representative sample. Check out the post below for suggestions about where you can send any emails you may wish to write regarding this website and whether you think it's appropriate for news 10 to be running a website like this. For one thing, they need to clearly state where they got those numbers on the website.

excuse to print a cute Charlotte Rampling pic

The Bananas have a newly-recorded song (and a new, eye-searing yellow background) on their myspace and it sounds fucking great! Their number of friends has been shooting up since the tour and I may have to create a new profile in the effort to be the one-thousandth friend. They have some upcoming shows posted on there.

That Danny Offer/Dark Dark Mask/Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs show was great fun. Her voice makes me very sentimental and she totally kicked it and talked about astrology afterwards until super late. I'd like to see Dark Dark Mask again but I guess he doesn't play very often. Listen to the song "i've got" on his myspace. He played that at the show and I like it.

The Tati movie was good, although soooo different from Playtime and what I expected. It was very slapstick. The French Film Festival continues this weekend. I want to see the sexy Charlotte Rampling movie.

I also saw A Scanner Darkly at Tower last night and I recommend it. The animation works well, especially the shape-shifting suit. And I can't hate on Keanu despite the expressionlessness of his line reading. I am a sucker for a Philip K. Dick story and it's nice to finally know how this one ends because I've attempted to read it numerous times. Anyone who has ever seen or hung out in a tweaker house will recognize the realism in the one in this movie.

elderly cranks, unite!

Here's the story the public editor wrote about Voisin doing straight reporting, partially spurred by my email. I like that the other guy who wrote in is an elderly crank. Of course, my letter and my intentions in writing it were only partially to say she's the wrong person for the job, and partially to say that the Bee needs to provide more balanced coverage of this important issue, but when the public editor called me he was clearly steering me towards quotes about Voisin. Oh well, at least she had to answer for it...by saying that she's a completely unbiased reporter. Way to do some soul searching, Ailene. Hopefully the reader comments he's soliciting will echo my opinion. It will be interesting. On sunday, Ailene once again doffed her reporters fedora, let her opinions flood back into her cranium and wrote another urgently hysterical column headlined "Sacramento has an identity crisis" about how we need a new arena. OK, listen up folks, if we don't get a new arena the Eagles may never play here again. I know, you probably feel a little nauseous and woozy as you're reading this. Take a deep breath. There. Better? *** If you feel strong enough, go ahead and read the column, it's pretty entertaining. It contains lots of strong, declarative statements such as:

Sac is big league or it's not.

Sac gets a new building or gets out of the game.

Sac builds an arena or the blue collar comedy tour passes us by.

I wrote that last one, actually. But her point is, terrible stuff like that could happen.

The Bee printed my letter in its entirety, too.

***I know something that will make you feel better, her statement about the Eagles is comlete speculation. They played at Arco on their last tour. This statement is based on the new city manager's "sense" that "we are in jeopardy of losing the Eagles and other entertainment to other places." Why because of bad acoustics. So Voisin's new tack is to pretend it's about the acoustics.

gotta go!

allright, I'm out. Go to the Cat Power, er, Carolyn from Finches acoustic show (featuring danny offer and dark dark mask) tonight. It's on 11th and U on the corner across from the school. The green house with the people out front bbqing. Starts at nine!

Holy synergy batman!

A friend of Natalies had her send me this link. News 10 who COINCIDENTALLY broadcast many of the Kings games has a website solely devoted to flacking the new arena. Check out their poll results!

Poll Results AS OF 5/15/06
Do you support the construction of a new arena in Sacramento?

YES
92%
NO
8%

Should public money be spent to build such an arena?

YES
80%
NO
20%

Should the Sacramento Kings pay for such an arena?

YES
93%
NO
7%

Where should such an arena be built?

DOWNTOWN
55%
NATOMAS
37%
ELSEWHERE
8%

Of course they didn't report that the poll-ees consisted entirely of the Maloof family, the city council, the sports staff at the Sac Bee, and Slamson, with Slamson providing the only "no" votes for anything. Slamson is really hoping the Kings move to Hawaii so he can score some Maui Wowee.

french film festival!!

So much going on this weekend! In addition to three competing shows (the acoustic at 11th and U st., a show at Fools and a show in Davis and probably more), Strangers with Candy opens today at the Crest and so does the French Film Festival! I love the FFF, it's the fucking best! And I'm so excited because I just noticed that I can go see the Jacques Tati movie that I thought I was going to miss when it rescreens at 10:45 on sunday morning. Don't miss this opportunity to see a Tati movie on the big screen. I was blown away when I saw Playtime on DVD but there is so much going on in every frame that you need to see his movies on a big screen.

My only quibble with the FFF is that they are playing the horrifying movie Irreversible as a midnight movie. Pure exploitative schlock. It's one of those movies that plays out of sequence that if you think about later if it played in sequence there would be nothing to it. It contains the most brutal and prolonged rape I've ever seen on camera (actually I averted my eyes after a little bit so I didn't see most of it) as well as stomach-turning realistic head-smashing violence when you're not expecting it. It represents the zenith (or nadir depending on how you look at it) of that trend of crappy French movies that just float along for two hours with no plot and throw a rape in to make it seem like they're about something. Don't get me started!

last minute acoustic show

well, I guess it's not last minute exactly, it's tomorrow. Caroline Pennypacker Riggs, one half of one of the best new bands around, the Finches, is playing an acoustic house show tomorrow. It's at Margaux, DP and Jessicas place (this place doesn't really have a punko name even after all these years) which despite the fact that I lived there for a long I can't remember the address of right now! It's on the corner of 11th and U, across from the school. It starts
at nine, Danny Offer is playing too and dark dark mask (ATTENTION all bands stop saying you are 102 years old on myspace, that's not really funny in the sense that it isn't really a joke, plus it is interesting to know how long a band has been around) there will be a pre-show BBQ. Do not miss this! Carolyn's voice is so filled with character, it really stands out from a sea of pretty singing (well, it's pretty also, but it's warm and just, unique, I don't know how to describe it). I don't know what songs she'll be singing, Finches or other stuff. When I was trying to find a photo of her (this one of her and her bandmate from the Finches is the only one on the internet) I was not surprised to note that again and again people call her and the Finches "charming". It's true, she will charm the pants off of you.

pictures to cheer someone up

lame

I feel like this blog has a negative vibe today (but remember just yesterday I posted a positive review of Zen Toro) but how annoying is this? It's from last wednesday but I just noticed it. An article about tortas in which the only local establishment mentioned is Tortugas? So only a place that Americanizes and blands out its food is name-dropped? OK, maybe that is strong, I am basing that on the eating experience of three friends, but I have repeatedly tried Ernestos and Zocalo and found them to be bland. How about the local Mexican restaurants who have been serving tortas for years? How about tortas chilangas, the place that has buzz from people who are serious about finding good food and not just going someplace where you can get valet parked?

yeah, I spend most of my time at stripe clubs

They got nowhere on the arena, as usual. Here's an entertaining quote from the comments:

Taking thing for Granted, doesnt life your live with success

YA!!! guys thats it take for granted what your city has and let the team go so they can move to kansas City. Somewhere closer to Iowa so i can see my Kings play. Wow that must great to have a team in your city with all that money coming that helps your community more then the stripe club you all probably go to. To get a escape from your dull lives without the most energizing team in the league GO right ahead that would be awesome to see a team play for the first time

how were the sammies?

Kw starts off her Bistro 33 review with a mild slam on 33rd st. bistro that kind of irks me (the names sound sillily similar when you write them close together like that). Yeah, the food there is not that trendy and new and the menu doesn't change that often, which is exactly why I go there to have a reliably good meal (usually their nicoise salad) and a glass of wine when I'm doing my laundry. It's why I've gone there usually about once a month for a few years. Not every place downtown is totally trendy, which is good. I feel comfortable there, and like I wrote about Bistro 33, I felt uncomfortable and somewhat ignored there. But this is just a small difference of opinion, she must places she goes pretty often for reliably good sandwiches and salads (of course I go to Bernardo for that more often, partially because their prices are lower than 33rd st.). But just like last week, it seems like she gave it too many stars for what she said in her review. The star system is probably pretty annoying to work with and I guess they don't mean much.

And look, she talked to Daniel Pont from La Bonne Soupe, just like I did for midtown monthly in June. I agree with him about the sweetbreads, although I'm not an expert like he is because they were the first ones I've ever had. If I had started on bad ones I probably wouldn't have gone back. After all, (and you may want to avert your eyes here), they are the pancreas and thymus gland of a cow or pig.

Sammies winners here. Rock the light didn't win, but at least th' losin' streaks did. So the Secretions won the punk category, huh? Hmm..another year that the Bananas didn't win. Yet the Knockoffs have won so many times that they're in the hall of fame. Funny.

But it's not like the News and Review ignores the existence of this long-standing and more popular than ever band, after all they printed an article about them (by Tim White) in 2001. I was perusing that Razorcake interview again this morning in an effort to avoid re-reading the back of the cereal box and it's funny. I'll try to transcribe it sometime once the issue is off the newstands.

I'm late with this but...

Double doses of Sac news in today's Pitchfork.

zen toro

I'm about to go get my standard half fuji salad add tofu lunch at crepeville and I'm very excited about it, but before I go I thought I'd write a review of Zen Toro. I ate there for the very first time last night. Me and smiller tried to go to Mikuni cuz I never go there and it's kind of a novelty to me, and now with Taka's gone...sigh...anyway, upon entering Mikuni smelled like stale grease, the flat screens were all going, it was noisy, and people were lined up for a 20 minute wait. Why will people wait for this place? It is nothing special! So, we just had a pleasant walk to Zen Toro.

The food was EXCELLENT, but there were two drawbacks:
1)the big one, the seated us and then as I was trying to order the server rudely told us that they were closing soon. That sucked and made us feel uncomfortable. If they are going to do that they should just tell us they're closing and they can't seat us. Don't seat us and then act like you don't really want to serve us. I don't usually go to restaurants as they are closing but it's pretty weird for a sushi place to close so early (nine) and there were other people chillin'. In the end we only left a couple of minutes after the last party.
2)this same server was kind of clueless or pretending to be so so that she could rush us out. She could not tell me the difference between fresh water and salt water eel (I was curious to try something new) and then (I guess this is a third drawback but the food was so good I want to hold it down to two) they didn't have the special eel or a toro special that was on the board.

However, it was pleasant and quiet inside (except for their TV being tuned to King of the Hill, same as in Mikuni, why the fuck would anyone want to ever watch King of the Hill with the sound turned off, what is the point of that?!). We got a big hot sake for five bucks and two big rolls. One had hamachi and scallions and was quite good. The sushi rice at Zen Toro stands out as better than average. The second roll had tuna with poke sauce and unfortunately it was pretty bland because the poke sauce flavor was not strong enough. We also got nigiri. We got a seared beef one that was awesome, it had a spicy hot sauce on top and a strong beefy flavor. The texture and flavor of the smoked salmon nigiri was also excellent, and the unagi was the best I've had in ages. A big chunk of fresh, tasty eel. I would have liked to order more but we were being somewhat vibed out (another server we had was nicer and told us to take our time), but this place was really good and I'm going to add it to my sushi schedule.

Busted!

First off, let me say that all of you that weren't at the SRD meeting missed out. It was a productive, energizing meeting. Things are coming along. The website is up (with nothing on it yet) and Alice passed around some design templates that looked great. Margaux has made a pamphlet so that people can sign on and it looks good. We have a tentative date and location for the benefit, and, best of all, the architect and builder who is handling the redevelopment of the block that the old Eppie's is on (can someone help me with his name, I didn't get a card) came and talked to us about their plans and listened to our input. They are still in the very preliminary phases and are meeting with various neighborhood groups. Two good things about this project are that the block is owned by a local family (Eppy's family) and that they are going to have an courtyard for outdoor dining, which we all know Sac needs more of. So if we can just work with them to facilitate some local business getting in there, it could be a much-needed improvement to that area, and it's still early enough that we could hope to do that. We're meeting again next tuesday so hopefully more of you can come.

A guy that some of you may know made the front page of the Bee today, but probably not in a way he would like.

This arena article is better than the ones from the last couple of days. I wish they would just put it in Natomas, though. If they're fretting about the cost then why choose a more expensive site?

SRD meeting after work

6:00, same time and place.

some spinocholli is in my purse right now

I finally strayed from my usual at Zelda's at got the spinocholli pizza. It was the bomb, but the extra cheese on the top made me worry that it is even fattier than the regular pizza. Zelda's has some new items on the menu if I'm not mistaken and one of them is a "special salad" that is kind of a knockoff of the Roma's one. It has salami, strips of swiss, pickled veggies like carrots and cauliflower, on top of iceberg lettuce with a tangy Italian dressing. At six bucks, it was great to split because we all know the pizza takes a while. And you can't beat that four bucks for a frosty half pitcher of bud. If you get frustrated with the wait at Zelda's I recommend you go on a monday night, we got seated instantly.

I have been stoked on Wakano Ura lately and went there twice in a week. If you haven't tried it yet for lunch or dinner I recommend that you guy. Get the niku tofu if you want something hearty, gingery, and warm (which might be better in the winter) or get the spicy tuna roll and salmon teriyaki if you want something lighter. Do it!

Same shit, different city

Ailene Voisin is sooooo versatile. Yesterday she had her reporter's hat on (probably some kind of fedora) and she reported in a completely unbiased manner on how great it is that the city officials are trying to slap together a last-minute arena financing proposal and get it on the ballot, and today she put her cheerleader uniform back on and reminded us for the eleventyith time that we had better build a motherfucking arena if we know what's good for us. And just in case you missed that on the front page of the sports section, there's another article on the front page of the metro section. Once again, no quote from anyone opposing public financing or a sales tax increase, and no mention of the CSUS poll that shows 56 percent opposed to any new arena at all. I love how both writers are so wowed by the fact that they get to hang out at the Palms that they try to make the meetings sound all bad-ass and glamorous. And that they pretend it had to be in Las Vegas so that George Maloof could come (what, does his private jet have a flat tire or something?) rather than the real reason, which is to somehow make this series of meetings look different than the other futile meetings that have been going on for years. Here's the thing, there's no difference, they don't have a plan (besides shutting out Mayor Fargo and sending Rob Fong in her place) and they know that they can't get it past the voters. So good luck with that.

RIP Syd Barrett

still thinking about the chili peppers

If you have seen the new RHCP album, you may be asking yourself, could anything on earth look crappier than that album cover? The answer is yes, and it can be found at the chi pepps website. What a terrible, non-updated website (no tour news). However, I am praying
that Flea will mention chkchkchk in fleamail.

something to listen to

Sometimes I have to search my own archives for cool stuff I have posted. One thing I just remembered was the excellent radio show that chkchkchker John P does. Doo wop oldies and soul. Chkchkchk are currently on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a text quote is that they are "cool dudes". Of course they are!

"we can never fish a good joke out of our head"?!?!

stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitpleasegodstopit

razorcake article

I should have told you guys about this a while ago but because Razorcake mag is not online I kept forgetting. I found them on myspace, though, and I guess the Bananas cover story is still the current issue. I don't know where you can get this magazine in town, but the interview is funny, so check it out. Scott has a buncha copies, too. Speaking of the nanners, they are coming back from their northwest mini-tour today! Yeah!

Arena: Chapter 197

Not long ago I read with delight that the city had given up on getting the arena proposal on the next available ballot, but they decided to get tricky about it. And guess who is all up in that business, gallivanting about the country? Mayor McCheese himself, Rob Fong. This Bee article is weird and slapped together. Please help me decipher this paragraph:

Fong, Dangberg and Hahn flew to Memphis on Friday and toured the FedEx Forum, the Grizzlies' home court that is serving as the model for a Sacramento-area building. And this sticker shock provides the jolt: Completed in 2004, before the cost of materials and construction skyrocketed -- and disregarding the significantly higher prices in the western United States -- the 18,119-seat Memphis facility was financed for approximately $250 million, well below the Maloofs' projections for a similar Sacramento structure.

Are they saying that is good or bad? If it's good, then why the phrase "sticker shock"? Here's another head-scratcher:

Joe and Gavin Maloof, co-owners of the Kings and Monarchs, initiated Tuesday's session and suggested they be held in Las Vegas to ensure the presence of George Maloof, the younger brother and brainchild of the family's hotel-casino operation.

If George Maloof is running things, then is he really a brainchild? More like the impresario, right? Here's the dic def of brainchild:

An original idea or plan attributed to a person or group. So a person can't really be a brainchild.

Anyway, I quibble, the larger point is the city is trying to sneak a fast one through yet again and it ain't gonna work.

a lot of things to do

J. Greenburg has changed the date for the Kabinet's screening of Celine and Julie go boating. Here's what he said:

Sorry for the late notice, but we've had to change this month's schedule a bit. We had planned on screening Jacques Rivette's New Wave classic CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING at the end of the month...but instead we'll be showing it this Sunday, July 9th, starting at 8pm. I know this is a film that many of you were interested in seeing, so I hope this last-minute change won't prevent anyone from catching it. And if you weren't planning on attending...please take my advice and reconsider; it's a really remarkable film!- - - - - - - - - - -

Sunday, July 9th @ 8pm

Jacques Rivette’s CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING(France, 1973)

Please don’t let the three-and-a-quarter hour running time scare you off: time flies when you’re having this much fun! And this madcap, everything-plus-the-kitchen sink fantasy is one of the most sprightly and delightfully goofy films ever made. A librarian with an interest in the occult and a nightclub magicienne strike up a friendship and discover a strange mansion where a tale of murder plays out over and over, day after day, until the duo can solve the mystery. Rivette evokes Henry James, Alice in Wonderland, To Catch a Thief, and dozens of other cinematic and literary touchpoints, but CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is nothing if not original – and rarely screened to boot. So don’t miss this chance to see what critic David Thompson called “the most important film since CITIZEN KANE!”

Also, Baby Grand are playing at Luna's tonight. My yoga teacher's band (she's the best!), Freeport are also playing. Here's a blurb

Friday night: Baby Grand will be playing at Luna's (16th at P? Q?) with Erik Hansen (from the Cassidys) and Freeport. It should be a good time. That place sounds great and is always fun. And as large as the band is getting these days and with how small the room is we may need to put the audience on stage and we'll play in the room!! It's cheap and great! Five bucks, 9:00pm.

There's competition with that, though, because that excellent and enigmatic band the Lilys is playing at fools. It's cool that this cult band is stopping in sac.

On saturday The Dulangs (who?), the megacools and sword awards (which is a local all-star band but right now I can't remember who is in it) are playing at on the y.

Tim White is in a second saturday group show at the Elliot Fouts gallery

And then there's the ye olde antique fair under thee freewaye on sunday.

***and Alkali Flats playing tomorrow, see comment for details

The haps with SRD

OK, peoples there's an SRD meeting this upcoming tuesday (the 11th) and we need to rally the troops. I know everyone's busy (hell, I skipped a meeting myself to go to a yoga class), but we need to get this thing up and running. There has been a start on the website but people who can help with that need to come and maybe you guys can split off into a group and talk about it. Beardsley can't do it all on his own. Margaux made up a pamphlet and it looks good but she could use input also. We haven't gotten very far on the fundraiser but we are still committed to it, and once we decide on a venue it won't be that hard to get bands to play.

If you're like me and you attended a couple of meetings and then felt your enthusiasm wane, I understand. There is so much development going on that when you start looking into it it seems overwhelming and futile. However, I think we need to remember that there are many, many folks like us downtown and that if we could just get up a working website and email list that we could have a large group of people who could call city council members or developers or picket if needed or write letters. I think that if we get a few basic things going (mostly the website) that we can just focus on areas of urgent action.

There are eleven motherfucking billion dollars worth of projects planned downtown right now and of course we can only hope to have a small influence on that, but it's better than nothing. We can't just give up and let them do whatever they want. We can't!

loathsome word

I have only one quibble with KWs review of Mr. Pickles (well, besides the fact that she gave it 2 and a half stars when her review makes it sound as if it's more like two stars), I fucking hate the word "unctuous"! Even writing it gives me the shivers. But I understand because it's hard to think of varied food adjectives to use. Here's a definition in case you need one

unctuous \UNGK-choo-us\, adjective:
1. Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
2. Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
3. Insincerely or excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; marked by a false or smug earnestness or agreeableness.

sub shack tonight

another reminder, the sub shack wine feast thingy is tonight but once again I won't be going. Hopefully next week. Here's their number so you can call and find out the menu 457-5997

antique fair

This is to remind myself as much as you, cuz I always forget, but that antique fair that is under the freeway is this sunday. I've never found anything that good there, but it's still fun to go to and there's always hope. You can go to the farmers market and then there and spend most of your day under the freeway.

sausage style in 2006

Everybody knows that Sac mag sucks (yes I am on a magazine-bashing rampage), but did you know how bad it sucks? I was leafing through it waiting in line (that and doctors office subscriptions must account for 99% of the readership) and they had an article on shopping bargains. They started out with SF supermarker. So far, so good. Guess what the next two were? Target and Big Lots! I can't believe they didn't list my fave (although it's a bit obscure, I admit), Walmart. Also, I hear that AM/PM has too much good stuff.

I had lunch at Tuco's wine bar and cafe in Davis the other day. This is the second time I've eaten there (the last time was almost a year ago) and they have improved by leaps and bounds. The vibe of the place is still a bit odd, and is likely to stay so, because it is small and has a tiny selection of pricy wines with a few tables crammed in, none of them very desirable. The food is also (surprise) not cheap. However, it was all totally delicious. That day they had four oysters on the half shell available, three west coast ones and Wellfleets. We got two each (if you buy 6 you get one free) of the West Coast ones (westside!), kumamoto, Marin, and Sweetwater. They were all so good I could have eaten a million, but the kumamotos were the standouts. This place has a very interesting wine selection as you would expect from a wine shop, but the wines by the glass are not cheap. They REALLY need to offer a house red and white for five or six. It's dumb to have your cheapest wine be nine bucks. That is just too much. We all ordered sandwiches. I got an Italian sausage sandwich, which came with melted cheese (can't remember what kind) and dijon mustard. Jesus it was good, one of the best sausages I've ever had, pink and juicy. They said they got them from Fra'mani in Berkeley, and I bought a package to grill up camping. I just now called the cafe to get that name and turns out the sausage place was opened by the guy who used to be the chef for Chez Panisse. MH got a tuna nicoise sandwich and loved it, her mom got a niman ranch steak sandwich and she loved that. And all the sandwiches came with delicious little side salads. Too bad this place is in Davis, but I still want to go back soon. It was a delightful lunch.

Oh yeah, and speaking of sausage, I FINALLY tried Morant's sausage while camping. I had smoked a giant doob (before the Armeniac dropped it in the river) so everything tasted good to me but the brats were a standout. I am now officially sick of sausage. In fact based on how things are going so far I'd call 2006 the Summer of Sausage.

Ha! I just got a hit for "hefeweizen makes you go to the restroom"

braggin'

My lab and boss got mentioned in the July 3rd New Yorker! I was reading it last night and I freaked when I read it. It's in an article on hemispherectomy, when they remove an entire hemisphere of the brain to help people with severe seizure disorder. We don't have anything to do with that, but we do investigate brain area plasticity and reorganization, which is why young people can recover from this surgery. Here's the quote, with my bosses name abbreviated so no one can google it, read the article for yourself here.

In another experiment, LK, a professor of psychology at the University of California, removed large pieces of the brains of newborn marsupials. Once the marsupials became adult, she examined the brains again and found that they had organized themselves in such a way that the visual, auditory, and other somatosensory areas were all in the same relative positions that they would occupy in a normal brain, but they were smaller, commensurate with the total space available.

the more you ignore me, the more i will post

I just got a hit for "wrestling dudes"

Nnnnneiiiiilllllll Hamburger!

Holy crap! I just noticed that the Lilys are playing this friday at fools! I would love to go to this because the lilys guy is fine and intriguing (and wore sperry topsiders with jeans in a masterful way last time I saw them) and oh yeah they are actually a good band. However, the Finches show will still win out for me. And I just saw the lineup for the Wasted Weekend! It's great, and I'm really glad it won't conflict with my birthday weekend plans. Neil Hamburger! The Four Eyes! And I've been wanting to see the Knights of the New Crusade for awhile. Despite the fact that I'm an atheist, I'm still curious to sample their brand of Christian rock.

come to your senses!

wow, this is the most boring day we've had on this old blog for a while. Probably because smiller isn't here stirring things up.

Sacramento has yet another local magazine (in addition to "Sactown" which is supposed to start up soon). It's called "Senses", have you heard of it? I saw an issue the other day. I hesitate to make fun of it, for fear that someone involved will get wind and make fun of me by saying I have, like, split ends or something (it's true, I do have unkempt semi-frizzy hippy hair, which puts me solidly outside the intended readership of Senses mag), but I simply must. It is totally ridic. It is written in this pretentious, breathlessly SENSUAL style that is completely un-Sac as you and I know it. Why did I put SENSUAL in all caps? Because this is the buzzword of the mag and they use it oh, 26 times or so. If you see it around you have to check it out, I can't fully capture it here. Maybe I should submit an article for the next one called "the sexiest things to do in sexy sexcramento". This is the magazine for people who are living in Sac but saving up money to move to NY when they can. There is an ad for Black Pearl Oyster bar with a nude woman in it. There is a pretentious piece that I'm sure very few have actually read that is ostensibly about beauty, terror, and postmodernism or something? I don't know, I tried to read it but it seemed to be pointless. In the intro local celeb hairstylist Marci, who is the editor or artistic director warns that the mag will "hold nothing back". They should have tried. I don't have all negative things to say about it, though. There's a big article on Daisy Spot, which is cool, and some of the pictures of the ballet dancers are kinda cool mostly because you can see their insane leg muscles clearly.

Here's more info about Taka's from Mike Dunne. I keep holding onto the faint hope that it will come back.

Last years fourth of july "sea of drunken humanity" (a quote from the Bee) did return, albeit briefly. These people really embody the spirit of America and we should thank them, not arrest them. Naked girl mud wrestling and hitting people with oars are the freedoms that our country was founded on.

lohan boob watch

DP, the boobs are back! As are the arguments in the comments about whether they are fake. Even I had to admit they were real in the dark days when they went away. I still think Xtina's are fake, though.

hearing about other peoples dreams is boring

Due to a traumatic late night event involving my mother (I'll leave that to your imagination) I had a series of terrible nightmares this morning. It was pretty much the typical Ultimate College Nightmare called "I forgot to go to my class all semester". How long do I have to be out of school before I stop having this dream? And why does it fill me so with dread? The new twist on it this time was that the professors of the classes I remembered to attend (one of which was a "brazilian" language class, in my dream I'm not smart enough to call it portuguese) were reading my blog. Then the dream ended up with the most terrible "I forgot" scenario of all. I forgot to blog! That's right, I had a blog anxiety dream. So I'm trying to alleviate that right now by posting this.

Speaking of being filled with dread, the new Midtown/Downtown monthly is out (with local hottie councilman Ray Trethaway on the cover) and my articles are in it. The pictures of Gary from the Sub Shack are rad! My Bogle article kinda sucks IMHO (now that I know what that acronym means finally) and contains a Heyamoto-esque sentence that I begged the ed. to take out but he was really busy and forgot. Now Heyamoto can read it and take potshots at me! I used my real name this one and I also wrote a little blurb about the Dinky Diner in Clarksburg.

I really really gotta go do some work but first I'll mention that the wine tasting is at 58 degrees tonight. It's the Grateful Palate portfolio. I think that's an Australian wine importing company but I'm not clear what their wines are. Now my roomate works there so I can use her discount to buy wine! Stoked!

Another cause for excitement is a show this friday in Frisco put on by none other than the illustrious Matt Roberts, who is releasing the Finches six song EP on vinyl. Not as exciting as a new record, but not bad. This show has a fantastic lineup of Whysp, The Mantles and the Finches and is at Hotel Utah. Wild horses couldn't keep me away, which is a good setup for my next post, which will partially about Gram Parsons. Holy crap that man was fine! That's a picture of him with Nudie, obvs. I'm allowed to look at other men right now cuz Smiller is out of town on tour with the Bananas. Who's gonna go see the Thunder Down Under with me? Girls night out!! Woo!