get to know me

I call this picture "the 70s". That's me and my mom in the upper left.  I don't know who the other couple is, but they are pretty badass.  I just emailed my mom to find out.  I predict her answer will be "I don't remember".  And no, she does not have Alzheimer's.  She just can't remember anything.  I once watched her cousin thank her for taking her to see The Doors in Hawaii and my mom said, "I've seen The Doors?"  Drugs aren't really the excuse, either.  I don't think she did that many drugs. This picture must have been taken in 1975.

Oh no! The Campbell's plant is closing! Terrible for those workers.  I read a business article about Campbell's experimenting with kicky ethnic flavors in single-serving bags.  I hear the death knell sounding.  All the old ladies who use the soup as a sauce are dying out.  Fun fact: my household was pretty snack-free growing up so sometimes, as a chubby tween, I would eat a can of mushroom soup right out of the can as a snack. No water, no heating, can marks still intact.

a first

This has got to be a first: even I'm not checking heckasac.

 It's a combo of way busy at work (that's the number one factor), with more writing for SNR, and just general topic fatigue after all these years.  There are, sadly, no shows I've been interested in, so that's gone.  Local politics are not really pissing me off (except Breton's valiant crusade to convince us that all homeless people are scary criminals - what a great Catholic he is!)  WWJD, dude.  Jesus would straight up stop feeding those homeless people.  But I have heard the Northgate bike area has gotten gnarly, and that was really sad that guy got stabbed (but did not die). no, wait, that sounds like I'm sad he didn't die.  You know what I mean!

Tomorrow I'm going to see some live comedy and check out a restaurant to review.  It's at punchline.  I'm sorry to be a dick, but sell me on anything being good at Comedy Spot?  Be honest, not just  nice.  I have not seen anything, I just don't understand why so much of it is sketch and why they don't get touring comics.  Someone explain this to me?

Everyone has probably stopped checking. 

cool guy

I haven't had a lot to post this week, obvs.  JayBiz and Knock Knock have a show tomorrow at a place called Midtown Village Cafe at 18th and I?  What the heck?

Also, Verge rummage sale all day today and all weekend.  With ice cream!

The Master opens at Tower today! They better make it look good, and not super dark.  Maybe I'll watch it at the Varsity in Davis.  Killer Joe opens today at the Crest, which doesn't look that good, but I want to see it because I saw the crazy nasty play.  P.S.-go see the Enron play at Cap Stage!

I profiled the guy from Wonderbread 5 for 15 minutes because I saw them and their rabid fans at the State Fair.  Laugh if you want but this guy is cool and he's turned his cover band into his only job and he owns a house in Sausalito! And other members of the band own homes in Napa.

dude loves cats

 bsssh pleeze.  picture post after the jump!

angry?

Lest you think my boundless anger about the moving of the train platform is unfounded, here is where the train lets you off in the afternoon.  Can you even see the station?  Look really hard.  Sacramento, I have been to Grand Central Station, I have taken trains at Grand Central Station, and you are no Grand Central station.  So angry.

Ate at Bistro Michel for the first time last night, with mixed results.  That place is really weird.  My steak frites were quite good, served with a curry ketchup.  The steak was topped with fine herbe butter.  The mussels were ok, served with fennel and pernod, however, they kind of wrecked that with wayyyy too much cream.  Not necessary.  The server seemed hellbent on getting us really drunk, and I blame my current headache on the nasty free glasses of Ficklin chocolate "port" that they served us.  I get offended when people call something port when it's not from porto.  I guess I have a lot of anger inside.  He also gave us a free Duchess de Bourgogne beer.  This was in addition to a bottle of Gigondas for four and a glass of rose for me.  Then at the end of the meal our server completely abandoned us to drink beer with his friends on the curb (which is kind of awesome) but we had to go inside eventually after waiting for the check to be taken for like half and hour.  The dinner took three hours.  Which is fine.  That area is weird.  Magpie's new little place is open right there.

BTW, Ficklin "port" are opening a tasting room at 20th and I?  Good luck getting Sac into wine.  I'm convinced that will never happen.

realize it, dudes

You know whose bread is not good?  Village Bakery.  It's really light.  No seriousness to that bread.  I don't understand how people make bad bread.  How do they not know it's bad?  If you don't know what to do, just rip off the Tartine cookbook or something.  Or how about the Big Sur Bakery one?  God their bread is awesome.  That Zen bread or whatever is amazing. And why can't anyone make any goddamned spelt?  In Scandinavia, it almost goes without saying, all the bread is good. That said, cutting down your bread is sure an easy way to lose weight.  And beer intake.  Come to think of it, most brewers make bad beer and they don't realize it. 

time machine talk

My embarrassing drunk convo used to be about my love of yoga and my "practice" and now it's moved onto my love of the Grateful Dead and specifically Jerry.  But seriously, if I had a time machine I would
1) kill  Hitler
2) go to this one Grateful Dead show in the early 70s, Scott, if you're reading, remind me of the date?  It is sickkkkk. Phil bombs dropping everywhere during St. Stephen.

Fresh and Onlys are playing Tuesday night at the Blue Lamp with G. Green and Terry Malts.  I'm glad this got moved from the Ace of Spades, that would have been an echo-ey disaster.  Fresh and Onlys are HELLA GOOD, my friends.  That said, I may not go because it's in my contract that I don't have to go to the Blue Lamp more than once a week or I have to go on suicide watch.

BAR reviewed both Giovanni's this week.  I have eaten at both and it failed to make any impression.  What do you guys think?

I am not being paid by the Bee to say this

Wow, Bites is on fire!  And he's woken the sleeping Bee up, too.  How's this for a quote, from K.J.'s attorney,

"People are curious about all sorts of things, that doesn’t mean they have a right to know them,” said Hiestand. “There are a lot of nosy people, the K.J. haters, who have nothing better to do than to ask for more than the law requires. But we have no plans to deviate from what the law requires.”
Doesn’t the public deserve more disclosure than that? Bites asked. After all, this is the mayor of the city.
“What the public deserves is what the law requires. If the public wants more disclosure, the public should change the law,” Hiestand said.

Okayyy.  That really sounds like someone with nothing to hide!  We need to throw this fucking bum out.  And meanwhile, instead of being in Sac to deal with the heat he's getting, K.J. is at the DNC.  He's a fake Democrat, what the fuck is he there for?  Oh yeah, to schmooze and get donations, the things he's best at. 

I know this is a flip-flop for me, but can I urge you all the subscribe to the Bee?  Hear me out: it's imperfect, yes, but it's still the best place to get your day-to-day news about Sacramento.  Also, and this is highly subjective, but I really look forward to reading it every day over coffee.  Sure, sometimes that takes less than 5 minutes, but for the price, that's not bad.  And, New York Times crossword puzzle.  C'mon.  It's like 3 or 4 bucks a week.  Try it!

bad night for trying things

The lack of comments makes me feel like no one is reading this thing, so I feel weird, but then I just looked at my stats and I see people are looking, but I guess there is just nothing worth commenting on.  Oh well, I guess I'll just soldier on.

I had a pizza emergency yesterday and had to buy a slice at Luigis or risk starving.  Wow.  The crust seemed like it was molded from sand.  Or maybe from one of those bleached cow carcasses in the dessert that had been pulverized, shaped into a pizza-like wedge, and then further dehydrated on the face of the sun.  It was that dry.  I was in the mood for an oily, cheesy slice, and instead I got crust that sucked the moisture from my body, a layer of cheese that was perhaps 20 microns thick, and no discernible sauce.  What kind of pizza is this?  What style is it?  Who in their right mind would make or sell such a pizza?  Are we all just cogs in god's giant machine or do we have free will?  These are the questions this slice raised and I still feel unsettled.

It was a bad night for trying things, because I also tried the Ruhstaller HopSack beer.  Zuh? WTF? not LOL, at all.  Fresh hops were supposed to be involved with this beer somehow?  Perhaps the bottle was molded from them because the beer showed no signs of it.  Nastay.

get your island on!

 Nuff said.  Picture post after the jump!