First things first, if you love the Crest, please shoot off a quick email to Jim Brennan. Some talking points include: the Crest is host to a wide variety of successful local events, the Crest is the only independent theater in town, the Crest has a wonderful manager, Sid Heberger, don't fuck with the motherfucking Crest, etc. Here's his email again: jbrennan@scopusadvisors.comThe railyards meeting was pretty disheartening. I sat right behind my archnemesis, Suheil Totah, and tried to give him the evil eye. His sidekick, Richie Rich (yeah, that's his name) also spoke and they both just blew a lot of smoke up our collective asses. It was so touching to hear how the Thomas Enterprises Corp really cares about Sac and our history so much, and that they stay awake at night thinking how to do right by us. We can look forward to the next few years of Thomas trying to squeeze money out of the city and state for this project.
The only heartening thing that I saw was Mrs. Troublemaker and her mom barging on up to the mayor to talk to her about what the hell is going on with the Crest. The mayor doesn't have a clue but she is meeting with Brennan soon. While you're at it, write her an email about it, too. hfargo@cityofsacramento.org OMG, I just looked at her website to get this email and here is a quote: Our new vision: Sacramento will be the most livable city in America.
Why stop with America? Sacramento is already sooooo much more livable than say, Venus, what with it's toxic clouds of acid in the atmosphere and such. And it's hardly even bikeable, with barely any mixed-use luxury lounging lofts.
There are a lot of shows tonight, which I'll post about as soon as you write those emails! Keep pissing in the wind, maybe a drop of piss will hit something and stick, you never know.
17 comments:
i just wrote my emails to brennan and fargo. it took 3 mintues. everyone else, please do so. this is important.
points you can make
-the existence of another performing arts theater 25 miles from sac: mondavi center
-prohibitive cost of tickets for such performances versus more accessible cost of theater's current usage
-burgeoning film scene in sac--film festivals, premiers, etc
-music venue that doesn't suck (unlike that place on R street)
-only independently owned theater in sacramento
etc.
write your letters
Yeah, how many shootings have they ever had out in front of the Crest. Versus the jillion cop cars who were parked out in front of Empire on Wednesday night.
Also, WTF with trying to turn the Mercantile Building across from the Railroad Museum into yet another loft development? What genius came up with that idea given the fact that Old Sac has limited parking, no nearby grocery store, and a constant flow of visitors and the local transient population?
Alice, those are really good points. I just wrote to these two people and I emailed as many friends and family members as I could think of who might take a second to write an email.
I'm sure it is pissing into the wind, but at least it's something.
another important detail to point out - which those of us at the meeting came to discover last night - is that there is already a performing arts project planned for the railyards development. the project boasts 3 performance spaces, and a K through college fine arts school. basically a mini juilliard... when i ask the developerrs last night about how this project would conflict with plans for the crest i was told that it was the first they'd heard of the proposed crest project.
the likelihood that two spaces of this nature could exist within 8 blocks of each other with any amount of success is pretty remote. not mention the fact that for even one to succeed they would have to get one hell of a prestigious faculty together to get it off the ground.
watching the ups and downs of the regions university art dept.s makes it clear that you don't end up with a stellar program overnight. if you could just "make" a top shelf fine art school then i'd be getting a better education. this is all very interesting.....
-mrs. troublemaker
just to be a nitpicking jerk, the Mondavi center is less than 15 miles from downtown Sac.
It is interesting and I'm glad someone was paying attention and raising pertinent points. Though it's understandable that Thomas Ent. has no idea about the "repositioning" of the Crest, as it was only made public by a tiny 3 minute speech in regards to the St. Rose of Lima park design. (later expounded by Shallit and the Biz Journal)
And Beckler, your cynicism is humorous, but it ends there. You don't actually have a point, and you definitely missed the point of last night. We're all kinda past the part where the big bad developer has come to ruin the railyards. I'm fairly certain your empty glares accomplished nothing.
I'm glad you came back towerdistrict so I could tell you to fuck off and please never attempt to comment again. Too bad I couldn't tell you in person last night but I don't know who you are.
also, something to consider. . .
my friend noel worked at mondavi around its opening. they had a hell of a time breaking even back then. i can't recall if it was because of lack of ticket sales or not. but basically, making a large venue like that succeed is difficult. and it requires experienced leadership. maybe that was the problem over at mondavi but i always wondered if another aspect was that they were catering their performance series to people who didn't exist in an abundance in the region. the ticket prices at mondavi are insane. i sent my dad to that nick cave/sydney ballet thing for xmas but i would never buy those tickets for myself. even getting them semi-decent seats set me back over $100.00. so, yeah, in other cities they'd subsidize the cost of those tickets for not just students but for normal working folk. they do it in minneapolis. but that's not gonna happen in sac. and yeah, i did read about the other plan for a "julliard" in the railway. which frankly is probably a better area for it anyhow because they could expand the space to include a conservatory or whatnot.
tower district, i don't really want to get conversation with you started in this venue anyways, but what exactly is your beef with hecka? it seems downright mean to be honest. so, in your un-mean words, what was the point of last night? did you truly feel thomas ent. wanted your opinion?
I agree about Mondavi. There was a period last year where I kept checking all their classical stuff to try to go and it was all over 50 bucks. Only students get a break on the price, not staff or faculty. It seems you have to have a backer with deep pockets to undertake something like that, and a willingness to stick it out even if it's in the red for years.
I don't know how much money the Mondavi makes. They were hiring a few months ago to get someone to run it. That person would be GM, lights, booking, sound, and everything else it takes to run a theatre. Basically one person doing four people's jobs.
They hired a college student to do it for cheap. That just seems like they're shooting themselves.
The thing with the Crest deal that is weird to me is that it is within blocks of Memorial and the Sac Convention Theatre. Don't those buildings already show ballet and opera, the type of stuff a Lincoln-Center place would showcase?
Anna
I don't think Memorial does ballet or opera, and the Community Center Theater doesn't do ballet or opera particularly well ... the sound leaves a whole lot to be desired, especially when the ballet is performing to taped music. I would rather go there than to Mondavi because of the cost and the drive, but Mondavi understandably gets most of the good stuff, and their sound is just fantastic. Sacramento really does not have anything to compete or compare with Mondavi (not that we necessarily need to provide competition, since Mondavi is right there).
The problem with the Memorial, apparently, is that it isn't limited strictly to ballet and opera. Somehow preservationists' efforts to maintain its historic appearance and status as a multi-purpose facility, instead of a renovation that would have cost eight times as much, makes Sacramento a cow town.
Okay kids, I have it on fairly good authority from someone I trust that the Crest is in no danger. If that changes, trust me, I will waste no time in donning my ninja suit and sharpening my shurikens, but at this point there isn't a realistic risk to the Crest, the Trash Film Orgy, or the things we love, like beer. It seems like the only people really hip on this idea are the folks who think that any building older than ten years old is "obsolete" and should be swept aside to be replaced by another wine bar and more urban loft living.
thank god beer is safe. for now.
hey - is this jerk richie rich the same one that has richard rich animation studios?
Nope, he's a different jerk.
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