The turnout for Sacramento Beer Week has been tremendous. I have seen several events that were practically wall to wall with people enjoying their friends and Sacramento’s finest pints (and schooners, and tulips, and litres, and samplers and chalices and…) and have been genuinely impressed by the quality of events and participation from Sacramento’s beer community.

Independent of the great beer, food and fun, do you know what my favorite part has been?

No douchebags.

Continue reading “SBW – Now douchebag free” »

The History Channel amuses me, as many of their shows seem to be fact checked by contestants on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” (the adults, not the kids), yet I still tune in to their shows. Today, I watched The Crumbling of America, which details the disasters that American cities face from our dilapidated infrastructure.

Of course, Sacramento’s levee system is highlighted. My favorite part is their computer simulation of a levee breach in Natomas, which consists of a picture of water superimposed over a picture of Arco Arena. Woo, high tech!

Continue reading “The Crumbling of America” »

Heckasac has a video of Sacramento psych/noise pop band Ganglians playing their song “Hair” on the immortal show “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.” That’s not exactly what’s happening — the video is a mashup of the Ganglians song dubbed over the original track by members of the band Polaris, who did most of the music for the show. (But if you have never seen the members of the band Ganglians, like me, it would have taken you 20 minutes, like me, to figure out what was going on. Good thing I was Ace Blogger on this one and not my usual Post Now Google Shit Later Hack.)

However, the Ganglians song could be from 1994 — it has a sort of California garage mid-90s vibe. It reminds me of Further, an LA band from that era. The Ganglians tune is probably not for everybody, but I dig it a lot.

Beckler claims to be “too old to have watched Pete and Pete” but you’re never too old to enjoy that show. I don’t think I’m younger than Ms. Heckasac, but also I don’t actually think of “Pete and Pete” as something of my past. It seems like one of those things that you’ve either never heard of, or you love it so much you don’t go a week without thinking about it. Right? Right? Anyone?

..you can see across California!

While flying home yesterday morning from a conference in Minnesota, I stared out the window and watched the west go by. Barren mountains and alkali flats were the lay of the land, with nary a tree to be seen.

As we crossed over Carson City and into California, it was like the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy escapes her black and white world and into a technicolor dream. Continue reading “On a clear day..” »

We’ve taken our shots over the years at the two ring circus that is “Good Day Sacramento,” but we’ve not told the other side of the story, the side that compares Good Day against the other morning shows in the area to see where each stands in this fence-sitter of a media market. (Are we a small big market or a big small market, who can tell?) This week, a dear friend relayed to me his experiences with a two morning shows, and I’d like to share those with you. Hopefully, this will give you a chance to judge for yourself as to who really rules the airwaves from dawn to coffee break.

First of all, let me set the scene for you. My friend had two appearances lined up last month to promote an event, one appearance on the KCRA morning news on channel 58, and one appearance on Good Day Sacramento. The KCRA news appearance was (as if you couldn’t already see this coming) a bad scene.  Rushed for time, fighting technical difficulties and trying to get out his message points despite the woodenness of the broadcast team, my friend did his best to fill the thirty seconds that they wound up giving him. According to him, the crew was a bit scattered, everything was thrown together last minute and the everyone seemed a little stressed. Continue reading “A Tale of Two News Shows” »

I’m going to take the liberty of following up on RonTopofIt’s earlier post introducing us to Real Worlder Shauvon by giving my take on last night’s premiere and my thoughts on Real World Season 38…

Continue reading “RW Shauvon update #1″ »

If your radio dial hasn’t quite made its way to 650 on the AM, do yourself a favor and move it there between 6am-10am Monday through Friday.

Once Shawn & Jeff left the airwaves, I quickly became a convert to the Armstrong & Getty morning drive program after hearing my friend Elizabeth start virtually every sentence with, “This morning on Armstrong & Getty they were talking about…” Continue reading “I Heart Armstrong & Getty” »

So I was sitting last night at dinner in a local family chain eatery, watching in horror as children as young as 5 were being left completely unsupervised in a crowded restaurant, planning a long rant recounting all the times I’ve seen this happen lately. And then I realized that I can’t say a darned thing.

Continue reading “Please watch your kids” »

A friend just sent me this link to a YouTube clip from News10 about the two Del Campo grads whose videos posted to YouTube as “Smosh” are some of the most popular entertainment among those with whom YouTube is popular entertainment. Apparently they have the #2 watched clip on there. My YouTube just keeps blinking “12:00″ so what do I know.

Warning: watching a clip of TV news on YouTube in which you watch a clip on YouTube is only 2 layers away from smoshing your brain.

I’m sitting in a room on the 21st floor of the Omni in San Diego, looking down into PetCo Park, where the Padres are playing the Giants. I can tell every time Bonds makes an appearance — the boos rock the ballpark and practically vibrate the foundation of the hotel (which has a four-floor skywalk into the park).

Why am I not at the game? Three tickets, four people (late entry to our party), so I opted to stay “home” and get some work done. (The Omni has to be one of the most efficient business hotel chains around, totally dedicated to helping you get everything you want done, from hooking to fast, flawlessw WiFi in every room to getting your 14-year-old niece some tourist options to get her out of your hair for a while. Oh, and great handmade chips!)

Sounds like the seventh-inning stretch down there now …
Continue reading “Downtown stadiums” »