photo credit: Brave Heart

The City announced on Friday that it had met a December 1 deadline to get shovel-ready on the project to move and realign the tracks at Sacramento Valley Station.

I trust that even though they were “scrambling” to get it done, Kevin McCarty and the other city council members made sure to scrutinize the environmental and logistical work before proceeding with requesting taxpayer money to fund the project on behalf of Thomas Enterprises. Or is it only important to scrutinize when a private company wants to spend its own money?

Continue reading “City wins $20 million stimulus for Railyard move” »

Heidi Komlofske and Ross Rojek in final edits of their anniversary issue of Sacramento Book Review

One year ago, as newspapers across the country were stopping the presses, one brave couple dove in head-first. That’s when Heidi Komlofske and Ross Rojek started a little publication called Sacramento Book Review. Just as the LA Times was closing their book review, this Sacramento couple was starting theirs.

Crazy? Perhaps. As Rojek reached out to publishing companies in search of books to review, one publicist bellowed, “What idiot starts a book review in this economy?” The idiot savants went on to publish 115 reviews in that first September 2008 issue. Today, the company boasts 100 book reviewers, and this month they started their second publication, San Francisco Book Review.

Continue reading “Start the Presses! Local Publication Celebrates One Year Anniversary” »

We’ve spent so much time reading this year about restaurants closing, shutting down, and otherwise disappearing from the face of the Earth, that we’ve forgotten some of the more positive stories of the year.  So, in a spirit of happy-fun-time, let’s reminisce about all the brave souls who actually opened a business this year and are still in business at year’s end.  Here’s to the entrepreneurs!

Capitol Dawg- 20th and Capitol-happy hour pricing and one of the only places in town that you can get a deep-fried dog.

Cosmo Cafe- 10th and K- a sleek eatery attached to the charming Cosmopolitan Cabaret.  It’s still getting its sealegs, but the Paragary name is popular enough to mean that you need a reservation on most nights.

Tre- Howe and Hurley- The Haines brothers continue the expansion of their restaurant empire, this time with a mega-lounge.  Strangely enough, the food at Tre is probably the best food coming out of any of the Haines’ kitchens.  Will people go to a night club to eat though?  With food this good, they just might.

Table 260- 9th and J- upscale soulfood downtown.

Grange at the Citizen Hotel- 9th & J- as far as hotel restaurants go, this one is similar in that it’s also in a hotel. Continue reading “Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive 2008: Restaurant Openings!” »

It’s been a little over a year since I saw Agent Ribbons play, for the first and only time, opening for the Dead Hensons at Old Ironsides. When they had finished their set, I was left with the satisfied feeling that one gets after seeing a very promising band at the beginning. Unfortunately, that summed up what I knew about the band. Shows came and went and I twiddled my thumbs, barely registered their passing until on Monday I finally got the gumption to see them. I even braved the echo chamber that is the Press Club, wary of the fact that I’ve been near deaf for days after going to punk shows there.

Agent Ribbons, of course, is nothing like punk. Their collection of love songs is charming, pleasantly full of sass and embodies a whimsy more along the lines of LA’s the Ditty Bops, though without the signature vocal harmonies and less complex songs. However, the lyrics are intricate and clever; paired with the music, the songs bring to mind the some Anne of Green Gables universe where troubles are something that can be kissed away. Considering that Agent Ribbons boasts a mere two musicians, drummer Lauren Hess and singer/guitarist Natalie Gordon who play without a backing band, they’re also remarkably complete. “Birds and Bees,” a fifties throwback ballad, is filled in on the chorus with a quickly strummed guitar and Lauren’s tom playing keeping time until the music simplifies to the next verse to give attention to the lyrics.

Continue reading “Sacramento’s Darlings: Agent Ribbons at the Press Club” »

A photo of Tom Brady is a blog post’s
ticket to Google success

Two free events coming up this weekend that I wanted to make sure to mention. First of all, don’t forget Saturday is Museum Day. Free admission to 25 local museums from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Forecast calls for rain at least part of the day on Saturday, possibly in the afternoon, so maybe an after-lunch trip to the train museum will be just what the Dr. ordered for your weekend.

Continue reading “Weekend events: Museum Day, Harpeth Trace @ The Firehouse” »

Be Brave Bold Robot understands you and your twentythirtysomthing heartaches, your existential angst, your weekend drunks and all that whatnot. Shelling out a few bucks for their self-titled album, you’ll see how much as they throw their hearts down on the bare wooden bar top to point out all its scars. The problem is that they really don’t make me care. Instead they throw about songs that vary from maudlin and melodramatic to so saccharine that it’ll make your teeth hurt.

Within the album we have “Gamma Rays” in which lies the revelation of eating pancakes with Grandma, “Shun-shine” a tiny footnote of a song that illustrates how much songwriter Dean Haakenson can drag out a simile and then slap you in the face with it, and “Secrets,” Haakenson’s four and a half minute spoken word track carries the prize for the most odious of lines, with meaningless quotes like “he had the practiced stubble of a civil engineer” and the irritating paradox “silent din of the darkness.” The last is as unnecessary as it is irritating because it’s a prologue, set to explain the premise of “The $1000 Grape Drive-By.”

But BBBR can play and “Those Things” boasts a plunky banjo climax sweeping you into the story of a night out to meet girls. If Haakenson reins it in a little bit, their second album will probably be worth the money you didn’t pay for the first.

Between the DUI-related fatal crashes and the dangers of highway 12, it’s been a tragic month in the area. Each story is accompanied by on-camera appearances by the victims families–not family spokespeople, but spouses and children. In their rush to be first to the scene and get the highest level of access, I think local news agencies are throwing common sense and good taste to the wayside.

Continue reading “Victim reporting hits rock bottom” »

There’s something to be said about trying to improve your community.  When Andrea Balcavage complained to city hall that the sidewalks on her street were unusable, she unfortunately learned that the thing to be said was “damn!” – especially when city hall stuck her with a bill for $1,200 when she tried to make a positive difference in her neighbourhood:

After complaining to the city of an uneven sidewalk in front of her home she was later notified of other repairs she was responsible for; her total bill? About $1,200.

“It’s not fair. They’re extorting residents. It’s their trees, how is that my fault?” said Andrea.

Despite her outrage, the city code’s been around for at least 30 years and it’s based on state law.

Continue reading “Right Awn! Friday: Squeaky wheel gets greased” »

My encounter at the fine taqueria Tortillas (unfortunate name, but great burritos. It would be like a burger place called “Buns” or, I suppose, an Italian restaurant named “Tomatoes”) tonight with the fam’ was vintage Sacramento. To get there on a workday for early dinner you have to brave the Northbound Howe Ave. rush hour traffic, which is no picnic, but man that pork burrito is worth it. We roll into the joint and are the only ones in line. Now, a family of four basically either has to eat PB&J at home or designate one parent to order food for the group in order to acquire a meal with no fuss, so as I’m standing in line with the baby in her carrier, my wife is taking the toddler (2 1/2 y.o.) to the restroom, I’m conferring with her on what those two ladies would like to eat.

Literally in the middle of that sentence, while I’m standing maybe 3 feet from the cash counter, in busts this very typical Sacramento woman. She gives me the “you in line?” but with that voice that’s maybe twice as loud as it needs to be. “Uh, go ahead” I grumble, and she barges past me and proceeds to order a takeout order for 2 or 3 in that same voice.
Continue reading ““You in Line” at Tortillas?” »