heckamaz

All right, you'll have to indulge me in a few vacation photos. Apologies to the friends who've already seen them. We arrived on the night before the day of the dead, the "parade" we went to the town square to see was really a procession involving four donkey-drawn carts, twelve kegs of pacifico, and everyone in town. We all walked through the streets, crowding around the carts trying to get glasses of beer, while ear-splitting banda music (which is rad) played. Unfortunately, they iced the kegs at the last minute so really we sucked down glass after glass of foam. It was our first night there, my body reacted to the extreme humidity by quickly swelling until my fingers were the size of sausages. I was foolish enough to try to wear boots and pants, a mistake I didn't make again. The rest of the week was cutoffs and flip-flops.

Here are the guys doling out the beer.
This was one of the guys leading a donkey cart. His tshirt says "I survived a root canal"
Here's smiller in a hammock on la isla piedra. You can take a little ferry boat out there. The beach is the best, and there are all these little places to chill and drink beer and eat super good food.

This was a whole smoked dorado fish, fresh smoked for us. Insane.
Here's the beach, sometimes it's deserted, sometimes there are tons of cruise passengers out there.
A sign in the town on a gym. Look like anyone?

Another sign from the same gym.
Here's some tasty pozole from cenaduria conchita. We ate there three of four times. Was this the lettuce that gave me montezuma's revenge? We'll never know.
This was ceviche we had on stone island. In a week of delicious ceviche, this stood out as the best.

Picturesque shit.

Playa Bruja was kind of a bust as a beach but this sign of a surfer is funny.

Here, smiller makes camp in the danger zone. right into the danger zone.
Playa Bruja was pretty but the lifegaurd wouldn't let us swim. eff that.
This courtyard was INSIDE the house we stayed in. no big deal.

This was the view from across the street from where we stayed.

This dog, Chuy was also at the house where we stayed. I think you'll realize that he's the best when you see that he would actually bust downward dog all the time. A dog that does yoga?!
Congratulations. You made it to the end. There is ANOTHER good show tonight in Davis. Two local bands so support your bros!

Tue, 11/13 - JAY REATARD + MAYYORS & WARM STREAMSDelta of Venus, 122 B Street in Davis - 9:00, $6, all ages See THIS! Will be TREMENDOUS FUN!

hey dudes

I'm still in Mexico, but I wanted to post that there is a hot show on saturday: the losin' streaks and the english singles (and some other bands) at the townhouse, at nine ish. I don't know why there is a show at the town house but even that fact makes it interesting enough to check out. I'm bummed that I'm missing Jack Rose at Time Tested tonight.

lates

I'm leaving now and I'll be in Mexico by tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll post, if not I'll be back on the 13th.

fuck roseville dining

Believe it or not, the reason I didn't post yesterday is that blogger wouldn't upload my screen captures from the Woody Allen movie "Interiors". I was surprised to find when I started watching this movie that I had seen it before, probably in the last couple of years. Maybe I was stoned when I watched it? It's pretty Bergman-y, but without the intense shock of Bergman, even though he tries to bring it at the end. I mostly enjoyed it for the interiors (duh) and the clothes. The costumes were done by Joel Schumacher,, later director of such gems as St. Elmo's Fire.

Here are the three sisters, looking very beige.
Here's cutie Diane Keaton sporting a horrible grown out perm. I remember my mom often having this style. She would get perm after perm, hate each one, let it grow out, and then get another one. I wonder if perms will ever come back big? Answer: someday.

Young Sam Waterson was very cute, especially in contrast to Keaton's husband, the slimy bearded guy who tries to rape her sister. I just checked imdb. His name was Richard Jordan, and he died in 1993.

Here, the mousy sister (Mary Beth Hurt) is wearing a coat that I covet. There is a lot of curly hair peeking out.

And, on an irritating note, here is a terrible, terrible article from the Bee about a new restaurant in Roseville. Another b.j. for big business. This time a big business from the jerkoff who foisted P.F. Chang's on the world. They don't even mention the food until almost the end, it's clearly not the priority. This kind of shit drives me nuts. Here's a representative quote:

"We're building (another restaurant) just down the street right now," Platt said. "Prime steaks and Hawaiian seafood. Dinner only. Very high end. It's going to be the most expensive restaurant to ever hit Northern California. And we have another restaurant planned after that."

Isn't that cool that it's going to be the most expensive?

hopheads

On saturday I went to the Rubicon's 20th anniversary celebration, which they celebrated by having 20 hoppy guest beers on tap. My favorite was the Deschutes Hop Trip. The Sacramento hop heads were outside with a table and a silly hat that was supposed to look like a hop blossom (if they have blossoms). Some of the people outside had been there starting at nine am (we got there at around 4). That would be cute except we heard one guy talk about hoping he could make it back to El Dorado Hills. Here's hoping he didn't crash into anyone and kill them! I hope that the Rubicon has more events with guest taps, as their beer is as nastay as ever.

I've written about these two places before, so nothing new under my sun but...

I went to Edokko II the other night and got the tan tan men, and I have to reiterate that their ramen blows Shoki out of the water. Give it a try if you've only been to Shoki. I'd be interested to know if people agree or disagree.

Also, I went to Rolle again for lunch and even though I felt very tantrumy (inside) to find that they had run out of baguettes AGAIN, I got the salad nicoise with poached salmon and it was fucking GOOD. The mustard vinaigrette is delicious. I also got the gratin of the day (red potato) and it was sooo rich and the dusting of herbs de provence was perfect.

viva the free box

Man, sacramento-dwelling chef Joshua Ploeg really came through. He catered a brunch for me that over 25 people were at without breaking a sweat, everyone loved the food, and there were a ton of scones and biscuits and cookies leftover. One of the best things he made this time was a crazy curried banana/fake egg salad finger sandwich thing, which sounds gross but was delicious. There were some fake bacon/fake cream cheese rolls that I hear were really good but they were gone too fast for me to get one. If you have any type of event like this, baby shower, birthday party, rehearsal dinner, hell I'm pretty sure he could handle a wedding probably, email him. travelinechef@gmail.com Unfortunately, he rarely checks his email these days, but if you have any work to throw his way, comment on the blog and I can put you in touch with him. I have his cell number now.

I hear that local entrepeneur Olivia of Olipom is starting up a new business. And she's going to buy and sell clothes ala Crossroads. This is very exciting and seems sure to prosper. I'm going to have to stop giving away my thrift store finds to friends and make some money on that shit. jk!

TJIF!

Alright, Heckasac quit the blog again so this is Miller with the real last post ever - SCHEME! - she's busy & she asked me to post about the show at Delta tonight. The order will most likely be Nice Smile, Coconut Coolouts, Bananas, Tyvek. Delta gets cranky about the shows going late so please heed the 9:00 start time if you wanna catch the whole thing. This show will be all ages, packed & fun & it's only $5. Plus they have good brews. Bananas may very well be playing mostly new stuff since we're just finishing up recording the new record which has somehow taken us four years to do. Nothing gets the audience pumped like new songs they've never heard before right? RIGHT?! That's what I thought. And we'll have some ultra-rare Japan tour shirts for sale that the Japanese kids didn't want because they have Japanese writing on them & not some random english like "Banana Cat Gotcha!" which would've sold like mad I'm sure. So yeah, be there.

everly bear!

dudes, make sure to check teaches of kiedis today.

davis shmavis

I went to the wednesday night farmer's market in Davis yesterday for the first time. Of course it would be awesome if Sac had something like that in addition to all our other markets around town. I got some bland Indian food and finally got to try one of those gourmet popsicles I've heard about, poached pear and brandy.

I also checked out this weird wine shop (Valley Wine Co) on 4th and G in Davis that MH clued me in to. I've passed by it a thousand times on my way to the co-op and always thought it wasn't open to the public. But it is, although there are tons of cardboard boxes obscuring the front entrance and you have to go in through the side. They have an interesting selection. I got a 2004 Alsacian blend for 11 bucks, and smiller got a 2004 Fuller's vintage ale that I don't think they realized they had, it had just been sitting in the fridge for two years. The guys who run it are nice.

halloween

omg! the same woman (who I don't know but this was in vice) who came up with this timothy treadwell costume last year:

came up with this costume this year:

brilliant!

franzia white zin?

Everyone and their sister knows about the Bananas show this friday, right? It rules that there are so many good bands on the bill, however it sucks that there are 4 of them. Too many! I think the Coconut Coolouts are touring with Nice Smile, so that's why they're playing. I heard that the Bananas might play first.

MD posted something about wine on his "food" blog (surprise) about the rankings of wine ordered at restaurants and after the nasty, nasty list of the top ten there was a sad, tragic, heartrending, tearjerking fact :

Overall, chardonnay easily was the most popular varietal at restaurants, accounting for nearly 43 percent of sales, and 41 of the 105 wines in the magazine's complete list\

why people, why? free your palates! you can't even chalk this up to cost because there are so many affordable and delicious whites on the market

preservationist nitpickers

Gballs tipped me off to the fact that those green clothes donation boxes all around town are run by some weird cult. Or maybe just scammers who sell the clothes? Either way, don't drop your clothes off there. Donate them to the salvation army or goodwill, or if they're cool, give them to me.

Today in the bee, Breton has an axe to grind against all us nit-pickers, historical preservationists, and "nincompoops" drowning out "viable visions deserving of support". Yes, that's right, he thinks that all of us common citizens should just shut the fuck up, lay back, and enjoy whatever Thomas Enterprises chooses to do to us. And why? Because they've already spent $75 million (according to him) on the railyards project. So it follows that laying out that much cash means no one should try to block or even question any of their plans. Got that? Here's how he wraps it up:

Otherwise, the city of our civic dreams will never come to pass.

"our" civic dreams? Are you sure about that, Marcos?

dumb bitch

You know what annoys me so much about that stupid joke that Halle Berry made? This.

hawks?

In his review of Hawks in Granite Bay, MD tries to bust (albeit gently) the owners for not having sierra foothills wine! That makes their wine list a refreshing change from every other wine list in the Sacramento area. Even Chez Panisse has a mostly Euro wine list, despite Alice Water's recent disavowal of imported mineral water that caused such a buzz. I concede his point that if they're going to have five zins on the list, they probably might as well have one from the sierra foothills area. Unfortunately, the don't have their winelist online, but their menu looks delicious.

angry letter

The chef of Stonegrill wrote a detailed letter to SN&R refuting KW's recent bad review. He makes some valid points but he is missing the forest for the trees. I'm sure he has read his yelp reviews, and they mostly say the same thing. He brings up that she should have eaten there more than once, and that's something that I find really hard, mostly in the context of a negative review. Sure, Frank Bruni at the NYTimes eats at a place multiple times, and for lunch and dinner, but he probably has an unlimited budget. That's not the way it is at publications like the SN&R or, say, Midtown Monthly. Even if I had the time to do that, if it's a fine-dining place I wouldn't have the money. I've had this on my mind a lot because I'm reviewing a fine-dining place for my December column and I don't think I can afford to eat there more than once but I am really dreading the prospect of not liking it and having to give it a mediocre or negative review based on one visit. There's a very good chance it will be wonderful, and it won't really matter. Food reviewing is soooooo subjective (and of course all reviewing is) so that's why star systems don't make sense to me at all. You're placing this black and white rating on an experience that has so many factors. Reviews should be enjoyable to read and entertaining, and have a clear point of view, but they can only be a guideline, not some kind of biblical pronouncement.

Hey! Look over here! Bill Burg was on Insight with Jeffrey Callison last week talking about his Southside Park book. I hear the book is really good, Beers has it.

Speaking of Beers', Queen Sheba on Broadway has this awesome Hakim "stout" (it's not really a stout-style beer, just a dark beer) that is really spicy and fresh and juicy.

AP reviewed Maalouf's (which is great, I mean great that he reviewed it and of course the food is superb). Here's a couple of definitions he busts:

We began with a bowl of hummus ($5.50), which is pureed garbanzo beans (chickpeas) mixed with tahini (sesame paste), accented with garlic and lemon juice, and topped with olive oil.

Falafel is deep-fried, hush puppy-lookin' croquettes of mashed garbanzo beans, rich with the aromas of spices.

Is there anyone left in the world besides toddlers and the extremely elderly who do not know what hummus is?

tattletale

The stupid old narc Bee wrote a FRONT PAGE article yesterday in which two hard-hitting investigative journalists revealed that state workers are editing wikipedia pages on their work computers. Nobody likes a tattletale, sacbee. I'm sure you are all working hard 40 hours a week and don't have time to do things like, say, check blogs or anything. Yeah, I'm a little sensitive about this because I have an office job and everybody knows the deal with office jobs, there is downtime, and you make it bearable by surfing the internet and emailing your friends. Stateworkers are human, don't fuck up probably one of the only things that makes their jobs bearable. I don't see the big deal with editing a wikipedia entry on porno either, you prudes. Wikipedia contains text only, not pictures, so it's not like they're sexually harrassing others by looking at the page or something.

Congratulations go out to our local Rubicon Brewing Co. for winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the Belgian-style sour ale category for their high mountain cherry ale. This is like the academy awards of America beer, so this is a big deal. Unfortunately, they don't have this beer on draft, but they do have plans to bottle it soon, and I can't wait. I've really been enjoying American sour ales lately, particularly those brewed by Russian River...but you'll have to read about my visit to Russian River Brewing in the next Midtown Monthly.

explain

What is this? Is it an ad? It's certainly not a review. I guess it's an article informing you about the existence of the I Love Teriyaki chain. Thanks sacbee.

Can someone read Heyamoto's column from yesterday and explain the Steve Cohn item to me? Also, can someone attempt to construct a sentence more awkward than "Good thing Austria hadn't come calling"? A prize to anyone who does.

friday morning george michael

I'm at my desk smooth-rocking out to the George Michael song "Jesus to a child". That reminds me, Joel should reprise his George Michael performance for this years smooth rock themed "Halloween" show and I can try to rip his clothes off again! George Michael's website (from whence the tunes emerge) informs me that he has no U.S. tourdates scheduled but that he is going to be playing an angel on a new U.S. TV show? Oh God, the clip is sooo horrible. George, put the blunt down and schedule a tour, please!!!!

Remember how great this video was, when he had just been busted for having sex in that bathroom, and then he has a song about having sex outside and the bathroom turns into a disco and everyone is making out and the cops are busting them and then the cops start making out! Somehow I think that noone reading this is going to enjoy this as much as I do.



The new Fiery Furnaces record is out, Widow City. I've listened to half of the double album and I like it a lot. Matt Friedberger is a genius. They're playing in SF on the 19th.

Sy Hersh, no less

Wow, I'm impressed the nmiller got an interview with Sy Hersh and he really held his own! It's cool that a little bit of his personality emerged in this interview, more so I think than in his recent interview on Fresh Air (which scared the crap out of me!). Read this article or the one in the New Yorker, it's terrifying but people should be aware. Not that we can stop the Bush administration from bombing Iran if they want to. I felt so bad for Hersh when I read how much he hates reporting on this story, but he feels compelled because he doesn't trust Bush to not do it even though it's going to have a catastrophic outcome.

The onion blog (which has lots of good content) just posted a comments policy. The Bee should follow this model. Does the Bee even have an official policy on their comments?

introducing...ganglians

Just yesterday I was saying that if someday I need to write a profile of Vanoni, and lo and behold, he's on the cover of the News and Review! It's about damn time. The News and Review continues their streak of nudity and semi nudity with a picture in the article. Of course as usual, it's a chick. Can't we have some equal opportunity nudity here?

No one is supposed to mention how I said I was going to retire, because then I get embarrassed about it. Can't a woman change her mind?

I checked out the two dollar bar food McCormick and Schmick's happy hour thing yesterday. The place looks like a hotel banquet room inside, which really surprised me. I thought it was really fancy, but the cheap tiling and green carpeting (you should never have carpet in a restaurant, never!) make it look kind of crappy. Between four and six, and from 930 to close, they offer two dollar Coors Light or Bug on draft, and some food items for two bucks. There's a two drink minimum, which seems to be enforced, but they don't have to be alcoholic drinks. Long story short, the food was pretty mediocre. I mean, of course it was, it was two bucks! You can get two oysters on the half shell for two bucks, and when I asked which kind the waitress started to say it's whatever they need to get rid of, and then tried to pretend that's not what she was saying. Of course that's what they are, they're two bucks! You know what else they were? Room temperature. Not appetizing. They didn't make me sick or anything, they just weren't delicious. Everything else was just OK, too. But they do have a hamburger AND fries for two bucks, so if you're really broke, have at it. The best thing I had? A Moscow Mule, which was like 8 bucks.

The house show last night was fun and really well attended. A whole new generation of kids, and they're not bad! The only thing I object to is the unecessary hats. I'm all for hat nerding, but when it's warm inside and everyone is wearing knit hats, I just fixate on the fact that I know their heads are getting all hot and sweaty and why not just take the hat off at that point? The highlight was a new Sac band that was good and I've never seen anyone in it before in my life. They're called Ganglians. We were tripping on them and wondering what their influences are, and I guess you can tell from their myspace.

gaping hole

Too...many...jokes...about....headline...

I just was looking at a Bee story where they allowed someone in the comments to call two black people "monkeys". Oops, some overt racism slipped through their guidelines that usually only allow covert racism! Not really a proud moment for the Bee.

The comments on this one are making me laugh, though. Man, Breton is getting his chops busted left and right!

Holy shit! And look at the comments on this Heyamoto column!

show tonight

No time to post! Go to that show tonight, Woodhouse's new band is playing.

Wed, 10/10 - EAT SKULL (PDX) + MAYYORS + GANGLIANS23rd & L House, Sacramento - 8:00 SHARP, $5 donation, all ages Best new PDX band a'la Times New Viking meets Hunches, sorta...really!

hello?

It makes me sad that no one is even going to guess about the source of those black and white screen grabs. That is from the 2000 loft Halloween show theme "no U.S., no U.K.". That's the amazing Bushwick Bill puppet on the bottom there.

The Head needs some help, she wants to know where she can get her 1980 Honda Express moped fixed.

someone should have told me

How come no one told me the Fevers are the best? I'm so behind the times. And Mario put out one of their records?

There's a house show tomorrow that is going to be really good. Why? I'm not sure, but I'm going to go anyway. Here are the details on it.

I missed the Aguirre screening and instead stayed home (after a decidedly bland and lackluster meal at Shoki Ramen House, they really let me down this time) and watched a collection of Herzog shorts. The first one, The Great Ecstasy of the sculptor Steiner (which is a hilarious example of Herzog trying to impose his own ideas on the documentary he made about ski jumping, he only show the guys sculptures for 2 seconds), about Steiner is fucking amazing, with really stirring music by Popol Vuh

Here's Walter Steiner, he's very self-effacing yet a complete badass
Here's Werner!
There are tons of super slo-mo shots of people flying on skis, and some harsh sl0-mo crashing.

It ends with Steiner reading a poem that he supposedly wrote about lying naked on a rock, and I guarantee you that Herzog wrote it.
The next movie is about the 1976 world championships of auctioneering, and though it goes on too long (30 minutes of listening to that nasally, auctioneering type of voice as they auction cattle) it was still really good and it was quite emotional at the end because they guy who wins is so stoked.
The third short is Herzog and his crew on some small Caribbean island that has been evacuated due to a volcano that is about to erupt and is spewing poisonous gases, so of course as soon as he about it he rushed right there. At one point he supposedly has to flee from a descending poisonous cloud, but I think he might be exaggerating.

screengrab mystery

Not much time to post so here are some crappy pictures. This is Underground Railroad to Candyland, an excellent band. They got those costumes at the Don Quijote store in Tokyo when they were on tour with the Bananas. I would write "good times" right now except I hate when anyone says or writes good times.


Here's the Bananas making all the customary rock faces.
Here's a band I saw saturday night at El Rio, the Rantouls. They were fucking great! Super bubblegum. That guy on the right is Gavin of Fevers fame, and more importantly he is the similar guy of cassingle fame! Look at that guy on the left, he was born to have that haircut. It was his destiny.

I'm hoping this video will embed properly.

You know my new thing to get excited about? Besides George Michael? Screengrabs. Here are a few from a secret source. Can you guess where they're from? You can click on them for more detail. The bottom one is a big clue. And here's another clue,"my eye!"

amusement?

To amuse those of you still left at work (i'm catching the train in 20 minutes myself) here's a few fake yelp reviews:

this is obviously to pad the star rating of arpeggio, which has mediocre reviews, and just got pretty trashed by KW recently in the SN&R. Actually, looking at their page I see that their ratings aren't bad, but I think that review by Jonathan F. might be fake, too. The dead giveaway is people with only one or two reviews.

This place is flooding yelp with fake reviews today.

This guy's review of Stolichniy isn't fake, but I like how his other review is for his company.

all right, that's all I got for now, maybe "amuse" was a little bit strong.

Russian AND China

Wow, has anyone read the New Yorker article on Garry Kasparov (written by New Yorker editor, David Remnick)? It's looooong so I'm not done yet but it's fascinating. Read this account of the first Karpov v. Kasparov championship match:

This first Karpov-Kasparov championship match, which began in September, 1984, coincided with my first trip to Moscow, and I attended several games at the Hall of Columns, the stately venue where Stalin had lain in state, thirty-one years earlier. Every morning, the two men entered from the wings and walked to a chess board at center stage. They sat hunched over the pieces for hours at a time, inches from each other, breathing the same overheated air, Karpov staring at his position, Kasparov staring at Karpov, or, at times, clawing at his hair, rolling his eyes, expressing his emotions with the eye-bulging theatricality of a silent-film star. In the balcony, nearly everyone was pro-Kasparov. They loved his anti-establishment glamour, his audacity at the board even when he lost.
Karpov dominated Kasparov in the early games, taking a four-games-to-none lead. He needed only two more wins to retain the title. The crowds began to thin out. Then Kasparov did something astonishing: in the course of a championship match, he learned to play at a new level. In Game 15, a turning point in the match, Karpov was up a pawn but could play only to a draw after an astonishingly long game—ninety-three moves. Kasparov was figuring out Karpov the way an astute hitter, after repeated, chastening strikeouts, figures out a pitcher. The next eleven games were draws. In Game 27, Karpov won once more, but, again, Kasparov kept forestalling the end—twenty more drawn games came and went, brutal and wearing—and then, suddenly, he took Games 47 and 48. It was now February. The score was five games to three, but the advantage had turned. Finally, the tournament authorities called it off, claiming that both players were exhausted. Kasparov was convinced that the chess establishment, backed by the Soviet authorities, had rescued Karpov. He was furious, but he had learned his opponent thoroughly. He had mastered him. The next year, again in Moscow, Kasparov won the title.

This article also made me realize that they are so many cool Russian words, especially political ones, like apparatchik. Kasparov is half Armenian and half Jewish, a great combination. And speaking of Jews....I had a Jewish feast last night. I went to Teremok (which I guess is in Foothill Farms? I'm not sure what neighborhood that is) to try to get chopped liver, and they were out but instead I got dense wheat bread, pickles, and this lovely delight:
It's a whitefish salad and it actually tasted a lot better than it looked. It was potatoes and onions and fish and sour cream (I think). The pink is not frosting, it's beet juice and sour cream. Here was the full spread. I made blini with caviar and sour cream. Blini are really tasty and hearty and fun to make. They are yeasted, so it's fun to watch it rise and bubble, and they have half and half buckwheat flour to regular, so they have a rustic, whole-grain taste.
GW labored over delicious potatoe latkes, the Armeniac made a refreshing cold borscht, and BR MADE this beautiful challah, if you can believe that!
And then we watched a video of Wham live in China (follow this link for some good examples of what a knob Andrew Ridgely is) and I peed my pants when I saw this:

awwww Jimmy, oh yeah!

While I was checking NRBQ's website to see if they are playing any shows, I came across this picture of Terry Adams with the ageless Betty White at her 83rd birthday party. Did his band play? I'm going to pretend that NRBQ played at her request. And that they played the Golden Girls theme song.

In more music news, Kiedis had his kid. A couple of websites are reporting that the kid's name is Everly B. but I don't buy it. Do you think Everly B. stands for Everly brothers? Is B. the kids middle name? Smiller predicts Hillel will be his name and MD is voting for Ozone. It's gotta be Hillel! Or does he think it's bad form to name his kid after someone who OD'ed?

In other other music news, not only are Knock Knock playing in SF on sunday, the Bananas are playing on friday at Kimos with Underground Railroad to Candyland, who I really like a lot. C'mon, their drummer is named Jimmy, whaddya want?

It's gonna be a rock and roll weekend, because the Rock and Roll Adventure Kids are playing at Delta of Venus on saturday. um, wait a minute, is that show cancelled? I don't see it on the calendar or on their myspace.

you called it

Well, I'm retiring again. Why? You guessed it, because I can dish it out but I just can't take it. And by "dish it out" I mean write fun, informative blog posts, and by "take it" I mean the heaps of praise and adulation, such as being voted third best blog behind some neo-fascist who only posts every month or so. And by "retire" I mean that I have tomorrow off. See you on thursday!

making crap, buying crap

First things first, the new midtown monthly is out, I hear that Skinner is on the cover. That probably means there are some paintings of demons with boners inside. That also means that I can finally reveal that I reviewed Udupi Cafe, in Rancho. This place is the bombdotcom (I put that in to make smiller uncomfortable). Go there, now, and bring me the lentil curry. You can just pour it through the mail slot at my house.

Here are my latest culinary victims. They are Cornish game hens. Remember those from the 80s? Well like many things from the 80s they are back. I should have put Ray Bans on these game hens and then they would have been the height of style.
These are braised game hens. Avert your eyes from the overcooked haricot verts. I got lazy and just threw them in the braising liquid (wine, stock, shallots). An aside-why are small green beans with a french name so fucking expensive? They can't really be grown in France, can they? If so, why can't we grow them here? Are we going to let the French show us up like this? The hens are filled with my patented stuffing, which contains raisins, walnust, apples, celery, and lots of sage. No chicken livers because I can't find a regular chicken liver supplier. Where are they going? To Larry Hagman?
I was scouting a new place to write about on sunday, so I drove out on 80 east to watt. Near the airbases I saw a sign that said estate sale and followed it back to a warehouse area. Ella and Liv take note, it is a warehouse chock full of interesting old crap including a stagecoach and millions of clown paintings.

I didn't really capture the breadth of the items here, because I was worried the proprieter would get mad at me, but they bought the estate of Milos "Sparky" Begovic, who owned numerous Sparky's casinos in Nevada and Lake Tahoe. I guess the mob bombed his casino in Lake Tahoe, which prompted his move to Nevada. He was a collector of clown paintings, boxing memorabilia, horse racing memorabilia, saddles, and probably more. The lady working there said that they have ten more trailers of stuff and that they have bought the Ponderosa Ranch set materials from whatever TV show that was.

the end of an era

Something so crazy, so insane, so bonkers, so nutty, so shocking, so tragic, so earth shattering, so off the hook, off the chain, and off the wall happened this weekend that I just had to come out of retirement and tell you about it.

I had to pay to get into Tower yesterday.

thanks for the memories

Well, you guys have probably noticed that this blog is moribund lately. I'm calling it quits. Nothing dramatic, I just never feel like posting anymore. Hell, I rarely even check the thing lately, and it's only partially because I haven't had much free time to do so lately. I've said all that can be said for now. It's been so much fun! Now go check movie city usa!

nice tail!

ok, ok, I'm back. or am I? I'm conflicted. I don't know. I don't want to make this forum simply a place to post birthday wishes (you can take that shit to birthdays.com). but....happy 21st birthday Heather K.!!! I'm sure this is an even more monumental birthday for a music fanatic such as yourself.

Have you read the new Midtown Monthly (I'm cupping my ear to catch the chorus of "but of course's")? Check the writeup on Chris Daubert. This guy was my art history teacher at Sierra College back in the '90s, and he was an awesome teacher as well as being kind of a tall, bearded fox that I had a crush on. My final project was a collage on riot grrrl that if I remember correctly contained some Rollins imagery, and he gave me an A. Then, due to the crush, I took his drawing class but couldn't deal with the most basic criticism of something I was so crappy at so I dropped it. The show is up until the 29th, and it's at 923 20th st., so check it out!

The Barnseyard (which continues to be the best thing going), has pointed out that we are one of 14 select cities to open the new Cronenburg joint (ha, I'm making myself cringe with that phrase). I heard Viggo (who stars) on Fresh Air yesterday, and in addition to his vestigial tail (OMG, I just googled that to find my old post and found a screen grab and discussion of the tail!!!!!!!) I discovered that he's Argentinian and Danish, and speaks a bunch of languages fluently, and wait, am I gushing? Hmm...I mean gushing with praise but this is sounding obscene. Time to go!

birthday wishes

I am suffering such major blog fatigue, I don't even check my blog first thing anymore! But if you are here, I'd like to say a big Happy Fucking Birthday to one S. Miller!!!!!

Pierlioni watch

first, a show alert....

Just to let everyone know, there has been a last minute show scheduled at the Turtle House (217 2nd street, Davis) for tomorrow, Sept 6th. The following are playing..And The Sorcerer's Stoned (with Jon Bafus);Spider Friends myspace.com/spiderfriends;The Old Haunts (Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill is drumming) myspace.com/theoldhauntsThe show will be starting at 7PM and ending by 10PM. Come check it out!-Audry (DJ Kiwi)

Tobi Vail is pretty much the coolest chick around and deserves our respect as a founding father of Riot Grrrrrl, so you know I'll be there!

AP reviewed ANOTHER chain restaurant...a BBQ restaurant!! Snore. I am sick of the fetishization of pizza, burgers, and BBQ in food reviewing. There, I said it.

Sweet! SIX "American bistros" are opening in Sac this fall. Do you think they will offer upscale pizzas, burgers and BBQ? Again, can someone PLEASE open a French brasserie rather than a bistro? I promise you can still have a burger on the menu if you want. Do I have to open one in my house? I have some Edith Piaf records and bottles of affordable French wine, maybe I can do it. Can we have some food downtown from other cultures that's not motherfucking sushi? Out of nine restaurants listed in this article as opening soon (I'm not counting Vientiane, although it's nice he mentioned it), 6 are American Bistros (which will all be pricy), one is a pizza place, and one is a sushi place. That's cool that Turkish restaurant is opening, too bad it's in Rocklin.

I had another in a very long string of excellent dinners at Pho Bac Hoa Viet the other day (I swear the pho broth was even more flavorful and aromatic than usual) and I noted from a flyer at the front desk that Pho Bac is opening a branch at Jackson Rancheria. Good for them.

Does anyone out there eat at Tapa the World anymore? We went there last night simply because it was still open at like 9:45 and it was fun. Certainly not spectacular. They really need to update their menu, but if you know to stay away from the few dishes that all have the same butter-and-practically-raw-garlic sauce (the mushrooms, the shrimp), some of the tapas are good. The bread basket is excellent, the boquerones were top notch, and despite some gristle, the pork skewers were really juicy and well flavored with chili powder. The live Spanish guitar was pretty earsplitting, though.

the Bee needs to block comments, obvs

Some in our fair-going party remarked on how dangerous the bungee cord ride thingy appeared to be and they were right...and look at the unsurprisingly racist comments on this article. Why oh why oh why will the Bee not block these comments?

Here are some other comments from hateful "tungsten". He's quite skilled at saying racist, homophobic things without using words that will get him flagged.

Renowned Yale singing group attacked in San Francisco
Tungsten at 3:47 PM PST Wednesday, January 10, 2007 wrote:
Gay Tolerance? Not for Straights!
There's the Gay militants for you. The same ones who continually call for Gay marriage and attempt to trump the will of the people. San Francisco values, you can have 'em

oh, and sexist, too

Equally gifted at gab?
Tungsten at 1:57 PM PST Friday, July 6, 2007 wrote:
It must be...............
Due to the feminization of the American male. Women finally henpecked the men enough that they too constantly and senselessly jabber. Let's all shaaaare!!!! And, by the way, your hair looks soooo cute!!! And those shoes!!! What about dancing with the stars?

summer '07-best summer evs?

Is it just me or does it feel like summer's over? I know it's not just me because I didn't think about it until a friend said it. How was your summer? This is what I did on my last weekend of summer.

Had oysters (from the farmer's market, they were all good, but the Kumamotos are a little small and "creamy" right now-I don't want to know what the "cream" is) and stout. This is a traditional accompaniment to raw oysters, but I'm not sure I get it yet. I googled oysters and stout to see what the deal was and this charming little Michael Jackson piece is what came up first. R.I.P. for sure. We are sitting shiva for him around our house.
Watanabe farms told me that this coming sunday (the 9th) might be their last at the farmers market for the season, so I stocked up this time and made a summer salad with tomatoes, cukes, mint, corn, red onions, and a little red wine vinegar and olive oil. The 9th is also the antique faire!
The summer-ending show has got to be Olsen's going away. The city will be a less musical place without him. I particularly enjoyed the old-timey Strokes song he played with Seven Arms of Shiva and his guest turn with the Four Eyes, on both the 'bone...

and the 'ba.
I also celebrated the end of summer by making perhaps my last summer produce pie, a peach one. That's a weed leaf rendering on top. Thanks to Marletta for the pastry cookbook, it was my favorite crust yet. However, due to lack of a double-crust peach pie recipe I screwed the pooch and undercooked it so that it became a double-crust, double-cooked pie. Speaking of pie, does anyone else think that Freeport Bakery is just so-so? Or at least just their pies. The Real Pie Co. berry pie blew theirs out of the water! Too bad the Real Pie Co. seems like it's never open or when it is open is out of pies. A victim of its own success!

return of vientiane

Vientiane is back! It's wayyyyyyy nicer inside. It's a lot smaller, but they never really needed all that space anyways. No TV blaring,which is great. I didn't testdrive the bathrooms but I'm sure they must be better than at the old place. I didn't go for the pork explosion today, but rather a light lunch of spicy chicken soup. It had a lemongrass punch. I'm not so crazy about those little mushrooms, though, and that's all that was in there besides some chicken bits, which were good.
And then a spicy papaya salad. Excellent. P.S. this lunch cost 14 dollars and was plenty for two. Stuff to do this weekend? If you can make it across the bay bridge in time, you can catch the Bananas at Thee Parkside with thee fleshies. Then you should go to the fair at some point this weekend. Soon approacheth thee demolition derby. Hold on just a second! Livmoe had told me that the demo derby was occurring after the fair but the daily schedule places it as taking place on sunday and monday at seven! This is the kind of unacceptable foul up that caused me to miss the dachsund derby this year, which led to the firing of my longtime personal assistant. What gives? Does anyone know?

fair!

Hello friends, what a long strange trip it's been. Going to the fair in 104 degrees may have permanently addled my brain. Please don't fear that I will only be doing photo posts, but today that may be true. I know the fear of photo posts keeps you up at night.

Here's a cute cat painting from the rip off tent where you pay a dollar to see a horse.
Goat with the yellowest beard I've ever seen
This turkey leg server strikes a bad ass pose.

I startle the brisket guy.
Does anyone else hate the photo uploading on blogger? It takes a Ph.D. to figure out how to order the photos correctly and hence, a gnawed-on turkey leg appears before the whole leg.

mmmm.....smoked for 12 hours!!!!
How giant you say?

I would have answered you with the next photo but blogger chose mercurially to put the nest of fries here. They lathe up fresh potatoes and fry them in front of you.

Here's how giant!

It was fucking good. the end

No time!

sorry, no new posts until friday or later!

jalapeno bandito strikes again

I had an excellent time in SF this saturday. The new Gourmet mag is all about Latin American cuisine and before we left I was reading it and thinking to myself how amazingly varied it is and how I really need to eat Mexican food a lot more because it's pretty much the best, which was a perfect prelude to being in the Mission! We ate at El Gran Taco Loco, home of the mural of this stressed out Taco being marched out to certain death by the equally stressed out (and well hung) Jalapeno Bandito.
I had the birria which was fucking delicious! The broth was tangy and thick and the goat was gamey and tender.

Later in the night I had Indian Pizza.
What's Indian Pizza you say? Why, it's regular pizza with curry powder mixed with the cheese, topped with coriander, onions and cooked cauliflower and it is two great tastes that go great together.

And then later, at Thrillhouse Records in the dusty, dusty basement, Nar played to a packed house

The Four Eyes headlined and everybody dug it.
Joel is wearing the hat that I was semi-successfully rocking before the basement got too hot.

OK, that's a pretty crappy picture but I don't want to make it seem like I was only trying to take pictures of Joel. It was really smoky inside and I'm going to be a grump and complain about the people inside smoking. Have some consideration, people!

Thrillhouse Records 3422 Mission St., San Francisco

so.....the Nar/Four Eyes show is a bit unusual. It starts way early and there are six bands and it HAS TO BE over by 10:30. I sure hope Nar will have time to play! Here's the scoop:

Saturday Aug 26th......
This show is going to start early cause we have 6 bands now and they are all out-of-town and awesome. Please show up early so itdoesn't really suck to play first. Show starts at 5pm
NAR (Sacramento)
Four Eyes (Sacramento)
Unloveables (New York)
Vena Cava (san diego)
Hostile combover (san diego)
All hope is noise (ireland)
The likely order will have the 2 san diego bands andthe irish band taking the first 3 spots, then the Unlovables, Nar and lastly, the Four Eyes. Who knows if this order will really happen, so try to show up on the early side. you can always go get a burrito orindian pizza if you want to skip the early bands.Heck, even if you get to the city on time, you might end up missing 3 bands while looking for a parking spot!