Ah, sweet decisions.

This weekend, you have the choice between the Suds on the Green and the Midtown Community Festival.

Both are for children’s charities, both feature fine brews, each has interesting stuff to do besides drinking. Enjoy!

Future Sac State grad student “Natalie Dylan” is setting the blogosphere and horny-man media afire by offering her virginity in exchange for tuition. Her current offer is $250,000, which makes me wonder why she doesn’t opt to pay for an education from a more prestigious university.

Oh, that’s right, she’s a virgin whore selling her body with assistance from Howard Stern. Never mind.

Ah, how time flies. This year, the California State Fair had a shorter run than in past years, so we’ve had to pack in our allotment of free concerts, fried food and big fun into only two weeks. As usual, the Fair closes after Labor Day, so make the most of the weekend if you are in town!

There are a few more attractions that I wanted to point out in case you have not had a chance to catch them.

The Sea Lion Encounter gives you the chance to play with, take a photo with, and get kissed by a California Sea Lion. All proceeds are for charity, so go take the rare opportunity to smell a little fishy, but in a good way. This exhibit is next to the track, where thoroughbred racing continues all weekend.

The Stars of the Peking Acrobats show is just damn cool. Don’t miss their breathtaking stunts.

Continue reading “State Fair - Closing Weekend!” »

I’ve got a lot of random thoughts after the first weekend of the California State Fair, so forgive me if they are a little haphazard.

It appears that the organizers this year had two goals, which I think are both blue ribbon ideas and successes in their implementation:
1) More public participation
2) Be more funny

If you check out the free Official Program included in every Sacramento News and Review (another stellar idea), you’ll see that there are a lot of audience-involved competitions, including the Fair’s Karaoke Championship on 8/30, the Rock Band (as in the video game) Stage, and the State Fair Star talent contest, among more than a dozen others.

You’ll also see more comedy around the park. Funny attractions range from the educational (Sparx Sound Effects Show, one of the many Hollywood-themed attractions) to the wacky (the Traveling Game Show is hysterical) to the just plain weird (check out the creepy singing robot at the SMUD exhibit). And, as usual, Jeremy the Juggler is back, who I think is damn funny and super-talented, calling him a “kids” attraction is a little insulting, in my opinion. Weird Al also made his second appearance in a row, let’s hope he comes back next year. If you weren’t there, you simply have no clue how great his show is.

Now on to the Booze!
Continue reading “Stickie’s Report on Big Fun - Part 1″ »

Tomorrow, KVIE’s Viewfinder will feature a look at the Sacramento Craft Brew scene in On Tap. A visit to SacBrew will be featured and area beer journalists will be tasting and talking about Rubicon IPA, Sudwerk Pilsner and SacBrew’s Imperial Stout.

Thanks to Bill, who pointed out that On Tap was discussed on today’s broadcast of Capital Public Radio’s Insight. Click here to access the show archives.

If there is one thing you can count on, it is the presence of your old pal Stickie at the California State Fair. I’ll try to keep you updated about cool stuff, but I urge you to check the daily schedule at their website to keep abreast of the hundreds of events.

Wednesday at midnight is the last day to buy discount tickets, including the $36 adult season pass. This weekend features Smashmouth (who have apparently moved to Stockton and have quietly been playing with local acts when not on tour), The Doodlebops (who I find to be a creepy Canadian offspring of The Wiggles and GWAR, but kids seem to dig them) and the fantastic Weird Al, who very amusingly got blamed by local morons for attracting some unsavory elements to last year’s closing weekend because he is a rapper.

Sac State’s new digital billboard overlooking Highway 50 is scheduled to go live today with a barrage of advertising to simultaneously distract and educate drivers, raise much needed funding and refresh the public debate about the new University branding, logo and tagline that “Leadership Begins Here”.

If you have not seen the sign, it looms 55 feet above the freeway and has a 48 by 14 foot digital face. This sucker is big. It makes me wonder if CSUS hired the same folks who design advertising for casinos. Not the ubertrendy manscaping and fake boob casinos, the ones on rural highways filled with old people. The good news is that it features new LED technology that allows the contrast to brighten or dim depending on changes in lighting conditions. Hopefully it will be less obnoxiously intrusive than the one bordering Cal Expo, which tends to lull and hypnotize me with giant images of Monica Woods and Dale Schornack.

As many as 8 ads will rotate every 64 seconds. It will also provide public information such as traffic updates, road conditions and amber alerts. Clear Channel owns and operates the sign, and has entered into a 25 year lease with University Enterprises with an initial $750,000 payment. President Gonzales has put aside almost half of that amount in an account dedicated to funding research and travel to academic conferences.

(Note: Clear Channel says that it will go live today as it did not go live yesterday.)

The Bee reports today that the property that has housed Corti Brothers since 1970 will be leased to another tenant. CB has occupied the location since 1988 without a lease, so I suppose it is no surprise that the landlords opted to strike a deal that more than doubles the rent on the 20,000 square foot location from $12,000 to $24,000 a month. The new business will be Good Eats, a gourmet market and bistro. According to Mike Dunn at the Bee, CB will close the current location by October 15.

With their top quality selection of…. jeeze, just about anything you could want to eat or drink, I am a huge fan of CB. Since 1947, they have been on the short list of Sacramento’s best, and I hope that this continues long into the 21st Century. Let’s support Corti Brothers for as long as we can to help make that transition to a new store as quick as possible.

A quick reminder that the Sacramento Area Music Awards are tonight at the Crest Theater. Doors at 5, show begins at 6. More than a dozen local bands will perform. I will be sporting the sweet-ass Cinderella shirt that I chose from my roommate’s selection of 4 Cinderella shirts. Why? Not sure.

$10 at the door.

Doooooo Dooooooo Da Dum Dum Dum Dum

That is the sound of me singing the Olympic Hymn after several glasses of fine California wine. You, dear reader, may get to hear this masterpiece in person if you join me at the Winelympics at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg this weekend.

In a clear attempt to make this a classy event, organizers decided not to name it the Wine-Olympics, which evokes an image of Bum Fights and probably skirts a copyright law or two.

The Winelympics is a fund raiser for the Make-a-Wish Foundation and will feature competitors from local wineries and other organizations. Events include the Waiter’s Relay, Barrel Rolling and both corking and uncorking contests. Doors open at 11 AM with an admission fee of $10 per day with three events held on both Saturday and Sunday between Noon and 5 pm. The six wineries at the Old Sugar Mill will be pouring.

If you wish to field a team of three (or more!) there is still time to register. Your friendly neighborhood Stickie will be joining the good folks at Revolution Wines to bring home the gold to Midtown.