Month: October 2009

No Impact Man: Film Review

NoImpactManCould you live one year without electricity, toilet paper, toothpaste, or your car? One New York City man embarked on this seemingly impossible journey with his family. The results were filmed for the documentary No Impact Man, which opened at the Crest Theater yesterday. The film compliments the best-selling book by the same name.

Colin Beavan is a history writer with an environmental worldview. When he realizes that his lifestyle doesn’t live up to his own expectations, and that his writing falls short of fully expressing his passions, he embarks on the potentially crazy adventure of becoming No Impact Man: diminishing his environmental footprint. His wife, at first begrudgingly, must join him for the wild ride along with their toddler daughter.

Continue reading “No Impact Man: Film Review”

Hoptoberfest at Rubicon

While dodging the ghosties, ghoulies, and drunk drivers this weekend, beer lovers should take note of Rubicon‘s annual Hoptoberfest celebration. Throughout October, they have featured pale ales, IPAs and double IPAs from brewers across the West Coast. This weekend, all of these beers will be available along with two versions of one of Rubicon’s hoppiest offerings, Hop Sauce.

In addition to well-known standouts from Anchor, Speakeasy, Bear Republic, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas and Deschutes, make sure you sample some great beers that are rarely seen in the area. Sierra Nevada’s new Estate Harvest Ale is creating a huge buzz among beer lovers and is in limited supply. Russian River is best known for the legendary Pliny the Elder, but less appreciated is their stellar house IPA. Moonlight Brewing Bombay by Boat has been a Bay Area favorite for almost two decades but Sacramento native Brian Hunt generally limits his distribution to that section of California. Another Sacramento expatriate, Matt Sager, brewed the impressive Hopsaur for Great Basin. Iron Springs Casey Jones Imperial IPA will make you want to drive that train up to Fairfax to check out their small brewpub with an incredible beer menu.

Complete list of Hoptoberfest offerings after the jump.
Continue reading “Hoptoberfest at Rubicon”

Around the Web today

Our old pal Tom Ziller has his official Kings 2009-2010 preview up at Sactown Royalty. Though since we’ve already played a game I guess that makes it just his view now. “Last Year’s Record: No Comment.” Heh.

And a little blog called the New York Times has “36 Hours in Sacramento.” The discuss Ella, Tower Cafe, Old Sac, the CA budget crisis, and Faces. They also slyly call our “more trees per capita” status into question. It’s not like we say “prettiest trees in the world,” right? It’s a statistical fact that should be easy to confirm. Big city jerks.

Adventure Cyclist Shares Globe Travel Tales Tonight

Weir's new book: Travels with Willie
Weir's new book: Travels with Willie

Ever picture yourself traveling across the globe?—by bicycle? Sacramento native Willie Weir has done it, and done it cheaply. Across the United States, Canada, and even through far-flung places like South Africa and Laos, Willie has put his pedal to the road. He shares his travel tales tonight at REI in Sacramento at 7:00pm.

Weir is a cycling columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine and a public radio cycling commentator. He’s experienced it all, and done so on a tight budget. He’ll go so far as to call himself “cheap.” In fact, one five-month journey cost him only $400. Find out how he does it tonight for a cheap $5, which benefits the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates.

If you can’t make the event, his adventures can also be found in his new book Travels with Willie: Adventure Cyclist.

Our name is Sacramento, and we have a problem.

When I first moved to these fair parts several years ago, one of the things I took note of was the casual attitude where DUI was concerned. People here don’t take drinking and driving very seriously compared to where I’ve lived before. It’s so commonly done and accepted that I’ve seen off duty cops do it (and even a certain coach of your Sacramento Kings). I’ve had difficulty understanding how unconcerned people here are with impaired driving and the risks that come with it.

It’s no surprise our region is rife with buildings crashing into our moving vehicles.

I felt some vindication about my feelings on this issue when I came across Marcus Breton’s article in Bee today:

Continue reading “Our name is Sacramento, and we have a problem.”

Bold new arena finance plan: Charge people for seats

Arco Arena
Creative Commons License photo credit: Bo Knows California

The city’s groundbreaking new idea for financing a replacement for Arco Arena is to charge fans for their attendance, as this Sac Bee article explains. I’m kidding, though I’m not quite sure how $40,000 over 40 years, paid as $1000 per year ($24 per game) is different than a $24 season ticket (and $24 at the current Arco location basically gets you a parking space). If it had to be paid upfront I could understand.

Also, I’m not sure why anybody would pay for a seat at an arena over 40 or 50 years; after all, Arco has been marked for replacement for almost a decade. There must be something to this seat mortgage idea that I just don’t understand. It would be the first time I have ever, ever blogged about something without complete understanding of the issue, so you know I’m being truthful. 🙂

The Creative Use of Coincidence?

Let’s all stop and say “Why the Face?” together at this one…

Like a find-the-word puzzle, the second message was visible by stringing together the first letter of each line down the left-hand margin. It consisted of a common four-letter vulgarity followed by the letters “y-o-u.”

It is rather humorous I’m afraid to admit. The question is whether it was intentional or not. Have a look and judge for yourself.

“Kudos to the governor for his creative use of coincidence,” said Ammiano’s spokesman, Quintin Mecke. “You certainly have to have a sense of humor in politics. Unfortunately, this humor came at the cost of the Port of San Francisco.”

Intentional or not, it is clear the “Us” vs. “Them” pissing contest rages on in politics.

Your Sac Raggers on Twitter!


via Flickr by CC Chapman, cc

There’s a new shopping-list aggregator slash celebrity-death announcer program on the market called Twitter, and some of your favorite Sac Rag contributors are on it! Follow @CoolDMZ, @RonTopofIt, @stickiepants, @SinghintheCity and of course @TheSacRag.

We are jumping into this new media world with both feet. “With both feet” means you wait until something’s saturation borders on disgusting before you try it, right?

State Parks cutbacks announced

In the face of a public outcry over the possible closing of many of California’s 278 State Parks, the Governor has announced his alternative plan for funding our State Park system. As announced last month, all parks will remain open, but more than $14 million will be cut from the budget through various means. Services to many parks will be scaled back, including hours of operation, maintenance, staff, and educational opportunities.

After the jump, I will provide a summary of all cuts to Sacramento area parks. If you are planning on visiting any State Park, make sure you research the location to insure that your visit is not adversely affected. And, please, remember that we all own these parks. With reduced services, it is more imperative than ever that we all be good scouts and clean up our own messes, pack out what we bring in and leave no trace of our visit behind.
Continue reading “State Parks cutbacks announced”

Skeptical about the water bottling ordinance

DSC07843
What, me controvershulz?
Creative Commons License photo credit: Qiao-Da-Ye賽門譙大爺

I’m skeptical about Kevin McCarty’s plan to draft an emergency ordinance to require special permits for water bottlers. My views pretty much jive with what the Sac Bee editorialized today. I think most people should be wary of government being able to change the rules and apply them retroactively. And I am wary of government changing the rules every time somebody follows the rules and it leads to an outcome they don’t like. When you do that, it should come with an acknowledgment of failure on the part of the government. Instead, this Nestle deal is spun by folks opposing it, including McCarty, as an attack on our resources by the evil Swiss. (I always knew that neutrality thing was a smokescreen.)

Continue reading “Skeptical about the water bottling ordinance”