thinkin about wrasslin

Did you guys know that there is a straight-edge WWE wrestler named CM Punk? He's really straight edge but it's also his wrestling gimmick. He even has a tattoo that says "out of step". He used to be a good guy, but now he's a major heel. This is from his wikipedia entry:

His character took on a more sinister dimension on the November 27 episode of SmackDown when he revealed that he had converted Luke Gallows, who had previously been portrayed as mentally retarded, to the straight-edge lifestyle which had rid him of his mental troubles.^[95] Continuing to espouse his straight-edge philosophy, Punk began to present himself as a cult-likesavior to the crowd, growing his hair and beard long in an allusion to Jesus.^[96] Through January 2010 Punk began to convert planted members of the audience to a straight-edge lifestyle, making them take a pledge of allegiance to him and shaving their head as a sign of renewal and devotion

That makes the sign in the audience that said "even Jesus hates CM punk" more understandable.

That's all I got, just thinking about wrestling.

I'm back!

I'm back! Here's a cheese porn shot of Mt. Tam cheese from Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes Station. The current Gastronomica has a long, boring panel discussion of the term "food porn" and what the hell it means. Everyone pretty much concluded that it doesn't mean anything. One guy on the panel, anytime he was asked a question, would refuse to answer because it's a meaningless term. Why did he agree to be on the panel?!

Anyways, Mt. Tam is pretty good. It's made with Strauss milk and extreme milkiness is the taste I got, with a tiny bit of funk.

Tasty local wine I got at the Cowgirl Creamery.
This was a driveway of a mysterious religious retreat in Olema.
camping tunes. the dead was sounding sweet.

pile o'antlers. and skulls.
Can you take a bad picture of Big Sur? Answer: no.

last post for a bit

I want to tell you about a show NEXT Friday (the 26th). It's got a cracking good lineup. It's Record Club at the Blue Lamp. Pants Yell, Summer Cats, English Singles, Eux Autres, and Brown Recluse. Total Slumberland show.

Movies on a Big Screen has a pretty interesting-sounding documentary going on this Sunday. It's called Herpers and it's about people who are into reptiles. Here's the description from the website.

It is estimated that there are 13 million pet reptiles in the United States alone. That means that approximately 4% of households in the country houses a least one reptile, some have even more. In fact, there are even a few who have achieved quite a wealth with their reptile breeding programs. These people are known as "Herpers" stemming from the word Herpetology: the study of reptiles and amphibians. Still, the fact remains that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who are reptile fanatics, and those who have no idea that ther are people in the world who are, in fact, reptile fanatics. Herpers is a feature-length documentary for them both, produced by the multiple award-winning filmmaker, Dav Kaufman who fits proudly in the former category. Herpers takes us from coast-to-coast from the forests of Virginia to the skyscrapers of Chicago to the hills of Hollywood and all points in between in search of this unique reptile culture. We visit with Reptile Breeders, Enthusiasts, and Celebrity Herpers alike in this entertaining, funny, and sometimes peculiar investigation into not only one of the most misunderstood creatures on our planet, but the "Herper": the most misunderstood people on our planet as well.

It's this Sunday at the Guild, 7:30 pm. Five bucks. CHEAP!

Here's my first attempt at no-knead bread. It's pretty funky looking! It got stuck to the tea towel, which was gross and maybe ruined my tea towel. I'm still not quite sure about no-knead bread. I like kneading, and also I have found it to be harder to find a time that's convenient to let bread sit for 12-18 hours and then for another two hours than to just clear 6 hours to make regular bread. I ended up letting this bread rise for almost 24 hours because of that. But the advantage to the no-knead for those who like it is the texture, right?

Babs in jail!
I won't be posting next week cuz I'll be in a California Gold vacation.

Cookies!

This cookie is the bomb! It's a crispy almond butter cookie.

It's safe to say the Scandinavians know cookies.
Here's the recipe. The "frosting" is kind of weird, it's just really melted butter with almonds. I think I would skip the frosting next time and just put chopped almonds into the cookies. And don't pay attention to the cooking time, just watch for the edges to get brown. The key to the deliciousness of the cookie is the oatmeal (I used whole oats) drenched in warm butter at the beginning. The butter softens the oats up so you just get a slight hint of the flavor and texture of an oatmeal cookie.
for dinner yesterday I had the same thing everyone else did
corned beef from Taylors. So good!

Thank You Patrick Mulvaney

Remember a while back when I read in an interview with Sasha Grey that she liked hanging out at Tower Theater and I asked who the hell she was hanging out with? I guess it's some guy that worked there named Ian that I never met and don't recognize, but if you check this video at about the 2:15 mark he's on the Tyra Banks show with Sasha.

Speaking of Tower, I really liked The Ghost Writer. Snicker if you must but it was so rad to see an actress (Olivia Williams, the English teacher from Rushmore) who is in her 40s and looks like she is in her 40s with a face that moves who is totally beautiful and plays a smart, sexy character. Also, Kim Cattrall is in it, which is kind of funny. It's like Polanski is trying to atone by only casting women over 40.

Anyway, here's the clip. If you know the guy it's probably crazy to see this.

Another week, another amazing dinner at Ella. Beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes, trumpet mushrooms (I think), yummy sauce, and then pasta gratin on the side with breadcrumbs. The beef just melted into bite after perfect bite of tender meat and fat.

They still have the 50 dollar dinner deal this week and it's corned beef.
The Four Eyes played the Shamrock'n marathon in Old Sac-home to tshirts such as this. Are these cats part of the red hat society? Do they let cats join? Do they have to be female cats and what age?
some tired fans
they played songs to get the crowd pumped like "Ben Race-y", eye of the tiger, you're the best, etc. It was so fun. When they played Eye of the Tiger people who were walking would burst out running.

here are some delighted fans
oldest fan in the world!
youngest fan. the next generation.
on Sunday, Mulvaney held his annual (is it annual? this is the first one I've been to) pig roast. These ladies walked through the crush with a bagpipe and a super loud snare.
Here's the guest of honor.
This was a very Sac event, so of course there were people in costume and someone was wearing a cat-in-the-hat hat. Smiller declared St. Patrick's Day the most Sac holiday.
Here's the guys portioning out the pig.
In addition to the whole pig there was a whole lamb, roast chickens, potato salad, beans, the whole magilla. As is often the case with food at Mulvaneys, the mulitple desserts were remarkable. He had this awesome, slightly bitter toffee that I need to look into. And Guinness ice cream, which I didn't get to try.
Thank you so much Patrick!! This man should be knighted by the city for what he's done for us. What a huge amount of work and expense this must have been! Everyone had a blast.

shamrock'n good time

Hmmm...the weekend is upon us.

Saturday night marks the closing of the Verge. Also, Roan Press is having their book realease party for their Joanna Newsom book.

Sunday morning, the Four Eyes are playing a half marathon. They are playing from 8am to 11, right? At the corner of 2nd and K. It's daylight savings so it's gonna feel real early.

LOL catz

Tomatoes! I love these babies. The peppers on the right are just starting to come up.

Beer bread!Made with Deschutes Obsidian Stout. This is a hint about an article to come.
Cute kitty! She's like, "bish pleez". LOL.

news, some of it sad

This article about Jnews in the NYTimes magazine is nuts, and is mostly about Nevada City. Will it now be flooded with trust fund artists? Only time will tell. Sacramento's own Roan Press is mentioned in it because they just put out a book of writer's essays about Joanna Newsom. There's a chapter by Dave Eggers, for example. The publishers of Roan Press are having a reception for the book this second Saturday at Newsbeat.

Speaking of second Saturday, Verge Gallery is moving, and this Saturday is their last reception there. It's the closing reception for the show Haute Romantics, which is composed of young, up-and-coming New York artists. The show is curated by the bloggers behind Art Fag City.

Besides the sadness of the Verge moving, there's some more city sadness. Curtis Park is getting a long, slow reaming from Paul Petrovich. At the planning commission meeting about his huge gross proposal for a development, Petrovich and his ilk got to talk for over an hour and a half of a four hour meeting. Then the planning commission deliberated for about 20 minutes and voted UNANIMOUSLY to approve the development. This is from the SCNA website:

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING?

After a five and a half hour hearing, at 11:15pm, the Planning Commission voted 8-0 to approve

the staff recommendation. The staff recommended support for the general plan amendment and

zoning changes and certification of the final EIR with the following conditions:

1) Enhanced notification to the neighborhood when the revised Remedial Action Plan is made

public.

2) The primary entrances of commercial buildings shall be oriented to the street.

3) Swap the location of the senior housing with the other multifamily housing to locate the senior

housing closer to the main street.

The Planning Commission also recommended that the City's Traffic Division should evaluate and

advise the City Council on the various options for the 10th Avenue connection. Per the normal

established process, the developer will need to come back to the planning director for site plan

review for individual pieces of the development. Any planning director decisions are appealable to the planning commission.

The only request from SCNA that was granted was the request to have the primary entrances of

commercial buildings be oriented to the street. However, the decisions of the Planning

Commission ARE NOT binding. The Council has the last say in how the project will be

developed. There were no conditions placed on the project that would limit the size of the

commercial space or the footprints of buildings. No additional streets were added to make it more of a street grid pattern and there was no requirement for a pedestrian bridge to be built to transit and Sacramento City College. Your voice is needed when this project goes to the City Council on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Please write or e-mail the Mayor and City Council and copy

ncc@sierra2.org.

bullshit detector

OK, you guys have to help by being my bullshit detector. I guess on TermBo people have been talking about Kiedis' tweets, which are indeed pretty funny. If you go down the list, over a year ago he tweeted this: Scoping opening acts for our next tour - I'm stoked on this chick MOM from Sacramento http://is.gd/hRwK - laidback mellowship vibes

I wish they were real but I really think they're fake. What do you think?

Scored this at Time Tested this weekend. It's really fun to browse. Of course Darrell Corti has a recipe. It came out in the 80's so it's just a trip, man.

Touchez! Good show old chap!
Did you know that the Four Eyes are playing a half marathon in Old Sac on saturday? It's a run where they have bands stationed along the route. More details to come. There's also a competing event early saturday morning-a yard sale. I hope to maybe sell some clothes? Mark your calendar.

The Alkali Flats and Friends will be holding a "Big Yard Sale" at my place, the SW corner of 23rd & N street, on Saturday the 13th day of March, commencing at 8:00 AM.

two shows?

Remember when we had those dry years when there were hardly any venues and most good touring bands were skipping Sac and no younger people were starting bands? Thankfully those days are over but the consequence of that is that sometimes there are two-can you believe it?-two good shows on the same night. That's what's happening on Saturday. I'm going to the Knock Knock, Touchez, Lambs show at Luigis. Lambs are Aaron from Finches band. I've heard they are good. There is also a show at the Sol Collective with G. Green and Electric Jellyfish from Australia.

go tonight!

First off, I'd like to apologize for the snarkiness of my Scene and Heard thing in the SNR this week. It's not extreme, but there is a low-level snark. It's pretty easy to default to if you're pressed for deadline.

Second, I guess Knock Knock is playing tonight at Old I? I had no idea. They are playing with Agent Ribbons and Dog Party.

Third, I had a superb meal last night. As Die Antwoord would say, it was some next level shit. Ella is having this deal that MH clued me in to that is pretty unbelievable. In fact, I didn't believe it until the bill came. Through the month of March, they are offering a weekly menu of dinner for two with a bottle of wine for fifty bucks!!! All of the upcoming menus sound scrumptious (you can read about them next week in the SNR), but if you can make it today or tomorrow I strongly advise it. Oh yeah, and I didn't notice it on the menu, so you have to know to ask for it.

The dinner is an entree and a side served family-style, so DKK and I ordered an appetizer off the menu. Roasted bone marrow still in the bone topped with parsley, capers and onions. We pried it out and slathered it on buttered toast points.

If there ever was a time to use the word unctuous, this would be it.
I forgot to take a picture of the wine that the sommelier paired with the meal, but it's the 2007 Glatzer gruner veltliner. Delicious. The entree this week is crispy skate wing in brown butter, also with capers. What catapulted this dish into the stratosphere? Those celery leaves you see strewn about the top. I love celery, and I love bitter notes in food. I am going to steal this idea for flavoring. The texture of the skate was also really nice, with crispy bits.
Here's the whole shebang, including potatoes Lyonnaise. This was just one of my servings. This was a lot of food.
We still had room to split one light dessert so we got the Asian pear with ginger sorbet. Just one of the top ten desserts of my life. No big deal for Ella apparently. So smooth, interspersed with pleasant pear graininess. The ginger was subtle, it was mostly just the perfect essence of pear.
And then there's the general elegance and comfort of the restaurant. The total for this whole beautiful night was 47 bucks each. And if money is tight, you could definitely skip an appetizer. Go tonight! Or tomorrow! Or sometime this month for sure.

still scared of gg allin

I am in love with a man....a man named Elliot Benson. I did such a fun focus group this morning! 65 bucks!

The show last night was super fun. I love the Hub. I love that Jason D. song that the English Singles play. The 12 string sounded so good. I missed most of Harlem because I was at the Round Corner, which was really stupid of me. I guess they started really quickly after the Singles and I let time slip away. Mayyors sounded so good, really intense. I did sneak out early. Did anything happen with the scary guy in the GG Allin shirt? He headbutted smiller in the shoulder. Even after all these years, GG Allin still scares me. It's based on his appearance on Jerry Springer. I bought it all hook, line, and sinker and it scared me to know people like that existed.

From GG Allin to...the camellia show. Natural transition. Imagine the havoc that GG Allin could have wreaked among a bunch of old ladies and their show camellia bushes. He'd totally shit in the pots for starters. This info is not easy to find (surprise! camellia ladies are not that internet-savvy), but I'ma hook you up. Sorry, I'm very tired. It's this saturday and sunday at the memorial auditorium. FREEEEEE. Saturday 3pm-6pm, Sunday 10am-530 pm.

hot!

This picture is funny. Mayyors/English Singles/Harlem tonight at the Hub.

That was a short-lived redesign! Not everyone agrees that that picture was as good as I thought it was.

Show huh?

Oh yeah, and there's a pretty off the chain tomorrow at the Hub. Mayyors, English Singles and this touring band who are quite good, Harlem.

Beer Week is over

Press release from Dan Scott:

Inaugural Sacramento Beer Week Ends

SACRAMENTO, CA ---- After 7 days and more than 300 events, the inaugural Sacramento Beer Week has drawn to a close. Organizers, event hosts and participants are calling the week and unqualified success.

Executive Director Dan Scott states, “Sacramento Beer Week will be back next year. More important that that, businesses will be planning beer events and menu changes throughout 2010. This past week made people realize that Sacramento is a large and enthusiastic market that is eager for more and different experiences with beer. I attended events all week that were packed with people celebrating their great beer community, and I don’t think it is going away.”

Eben Weisberg, Craft Beer Manager of Saccani Distributing Company, helped several of his local accounts plan tastings of craft beer from around the world. He says “I firmly believe that the first annual Sacramento Beer Week was a success that far surpassed every one's expectations. The goal was to arrange in the area of 100 individual events. As it turns out, Sacramento put together in excess of not only 300 events, but over 300 quality events.”

“I think we underestimated the Sacramento region. It was our hope to both expose people to a broader range of beer and a wide range of beer experiences and we did what we set out to do. The eye-opener for me was that the region didn’t need more education, they needed the opportunity to exercise what they already knew and where desperately waiting for. Sacramento and its neighbors have lived in the shadow of the San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego beer scenes, but no longer do.”

“From a business perspective, the events helped provide a strong shot in the arm of a sore economy by an industry that has not only remained firm throughout this period, but shown substantial gains throughout it. And even though this was a one week extravaganza for many happy and exhausted business owners, I think the long term positive effects have yet to be felt. Of the many of events I personally attended, most if not all left patrons and owners alike asking for more. Seeing the possibilities, sometimes for the first time, has opened the community’s eyes to the overall possibilities beyond the scope of just one specialty event. I know that the region is already planning more events in the near future to promote the joy that comes from imbibing one of life's finer things, craft beer.”

Peter Hoey, owner of Sacramento’s newest brewery Odonata Beer, paired his beer with some of the area’s chefs including at The Grange, The Chef’s Table and Pangaea Café with guest chef Christopher David-Murai. Hoey says, “Sacramento Beer Week really brought the community's focus on to beer and specifically local breweries like mine. Odonata is a new company and we are glad we could participate in so many events and introduce ourselves to so many local beer fans.”

Glynn Phillips, owner of Rubicon Brewing Company, reports record breaking sales at his business. Rubicon featured beer and food specials all week and hosted a number of California guest breweries including Moylan’s, Marin Brewing and Stone Brewing. He adds, “Sacramento Beer Week was a great way to promote awareness of the craft brewing industry in our community. The Rubicon is committed to serving the very best beer we can make or acquire, and there is nothing we enjoy more than sharing our beer and that of industry friends with novice and seasoned beer enthusiasts alike. We are grateful to our patrons for their rousing participation and say ‘cheers’ to everyone who enjoyed a beer during Sacramento Beer Week.”

Tim Jordan, part of the team from Old Soul that recently acquired The Weatherstone in Midtown, paired local craft beers with appetizers all week and was a stop for more than 75 cyclists during a Saturday pub crawl organized by Two Rivers Cider. He states “Old Soul at The Weatherstone had a tremendous February, in part due to the Sacramento Beer Week event.”

Chadd McNicholas, Organizer of online Meet-up group The Sacramento Hopheads, attended events throughout the week. “Sacramento Beer Week was a great time with great people and an awesome selection of beer. Business owners I spoke to said they did great business all week. In one week, we had dozens of new members join The Hopheads and our hit rate on our website tripled.”

Here is my meager allotment of beer week photos:

Kassandra at scavenger hunt check-in

opening night at the Colonial
dapper dude
Two Rivers open house