the Sac Rag

Dead Kennedys, Rancid, NOFX, and more recently, Green Day: The Northern California punk scene has just as much to celebrate as Seattle or New York. Tonight, you can reminisce with author Jack Boulware of the new punk historical book Gimme Something Better. He speaks at Time Tested Books (1114 21st Street in Midtown) at 7:00 p.m.

The book documents the colorful history of the underground Bay Area punk music scene. According to the author, “outside of New York and London, California’s Bay Area claims the oldest continuous punk-rock scene in the world.” Gimme Somthing Better is the first exclusive look inside the scene from a strictly San Francisco perspective. The San Francisco Chronicle calls the book “…a sweeping oral history likely to remain the definitive tome on the topic.”

Pick up a copy of the book and hear the author speak tonight. And rock on!

Don’t forget, tomorrow is Free Museum Day in Sacramento, where 26 area museums and historical facilities open their doors for free. Perfect day for it with the rain we’re expecting. Will rain make it more or less crowded? I know it’s nice to get some indoor fun, but it can also be a pain getting mobilized when it is raining.

Free Museum Day
Proudly supported by Umpqua Bank
Saturday, February 6, 2010
10 a.m. to 4 p.m
26 participating locations

As part of their 20th anniversary of brewing award winning lagers, Sudwerk is introducing the S-series of limited release beers. Their first release will be a Dunkel Weiss Bock, which is also their first high octane beer topping out at 8% abv. Sudwerk is describing it as smooth and well-balanced, with the yeast and wheat character of a Hefeweizen, the malty richness of a Dunkel, and the strength of a Bock. Since Sudwerk is one of the best damn producers of German-style beer this side of Munich, I am eagerly waiting to try this out. Release is extremely limited, so don’t dilly dally on this if you want to try it. This beer will be like hossenfeffer; hare today and gone tomorrow.

Continue reading “Sudwerk introduces Signature series” »

Guess who’s coming to town? That’s right, the Westboro Baptist Church, an internationally recognized hate group that has been banned by the United Kingdom, will be coming to Sacramento to remind us that we are all sinners doomed to hell. Why? We are all Satan worshipers for following religions such as Judaism, Catholicism or Islam, and America is being punished by God because we embrace homosexuality. They have appeared at the funerals of American soldiers, college students, Michael Jackson, Mr. Rogers, and Jerry Falwell, informing their families, loved ones and the world that the deceased was currently burning in hell for all eternity, and you are next, Satanist!

This Friday they are coming for you.

Continue reading “God hates everybody, especially YOU” »

If you’re a sacrilegious, unemployed heathen who happens to be in Rancho Cordova at any point in time, please disregard this post.

As reported by the Sac Bee, the mayor of Rancho Cordova has big plans for the fair-sized denizens of his city:

Rancho Cordova’s “Great Health Challenge,” planned for announcement at tonight’s City Council meeting, calls for members of the community to drop a combined 40,000 pounds – 20 tons – over the next 10 months.

A rather ambitious objective, I would say. Continue reading “2010 Forecast: Heavy (!) traffic in Rancho Cordova’s drive-thrus” »

Looking for something fun to do indoors for a birthday the other week, I bit the bullet (to overcome three things: my hatred of spending money, my aversion to dealing with other people, and my gag reflex at the smell of heat lamp-warmed pizza) and took the family to Sky High Sports in Rancho Cordova. But the results were quite satisfactory!

Continue reading ““Tramapoline! Trampopoline!”” »

I went to my parking lot recycling spot (awesome site, btw, 2004 & 2005 “News” articles) on Saturday to cash in some bottles and cans that had been piling up (why give that money to the County, right?) only to find out that their hours had been dramatically cut recently. Why? It’s good for the bottle, right? It’s good for the can, right? It’s what Oprah wants us to do!

As it turns out, what do you know …

The state has tapped the California Redemption Value fund for $417.7 million in loans to help deal with its budget crisis. Consumers pay about $1.2 billion a year in 5- and 10-cent deposits on most soda, sports drinks, juice, beer and water bottles and cans sold in California.

The parking-lot recycling business operates as a for profit enterprise helping to make it easier for folks to return their recyclables for cash. You know, creating jobs, providing a service to the community. Yawn…

Continue reading “Recycle this!” »

If you haven’t already visited the new Article Consignment Boutique at 5704 Elvas Avenue, I suggest you get a move on. Starting tomorrow, January 29 through February 6, you’ll get an extra 10% off items dated 12/30.

That means 60% savings, folks! This consignment store operates on the 30-day system. If an item hasn’t sold after 30 days, it gets marked down to half its original selling price. Bargains await!

This cute little shop gets all sorts of fab pieces from East Sac’s elite. I found Prada, Banana Republic, and Lucky, to name but a few. Continue reading “Consignment Sale Alert!” »

The Sacramento Police Department released surveillance photos of two yoots who held up a video game store on Northgate Blvd on Saturday afternoon. The crooks happened to look directly into the camera as they were leaving the scene of the crime. The press release is titled “Hey Look, It’s a Surveillance Camera, I’m Going to be on TV.”

“But seriously. What is the deal with these armed robberies? It’s like, don’t you even have money to buy video games yourselves? The ladies know what I’m talkin about. Don’t even get me started.”

UPDATE: This press release was also cross-posted at The Sacramento Press. In other words, the cops themselves are part of the “citizen journalism” experiment over there at the Press. Hmmm.

I received an email this morning informing me that the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon is holding a contest to change their name. Why? Because they have to!

When we decided to revitalize the long-standing Sacramento Marathon in 2005 our goal was to give it a name, identity, and personality that would be fun and relevant for our community. At the risk of being offensive to some, we renamed the event to the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon. Our runners not only embraced the name “Cowtown”, but also the theme, the festivities, and, of course, our cows. After all, who could resist those loveable, yet admittedly forlorn, cows that grace our race shirts each year?

Makes sense to me. If you can’t beat’em, join’em, right?

Simply put, Sacramento is no longer a cowtown & the name no longer accurately describes our community. We’re ready to forge ahead proud to leave this outdated ‘description’ behind us…Apparently, not so in Texas! The folks in Fort Worth, TX, their runners, their attorneys, and no doubt their cows, are so pleased to have the distinction of still actually being, well, a “cowtown” that they will go to any lengths to covet the name “Cowtown Marathon” exclusively. So, we are relinquishing the name and they can now maintain a legacy Sacramento no longer has to endure.

Alrighty then…So, what would your suggestion be? Feel free to submit it formally, and even in the name of the SacRag if you want to be really cool. Otherwise, leave your snarky goodness as a comment and we’ll have some fun at Sacramento’s expense.