Author: CoolDMZ

"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?"

Game Guy on GDS Tomorrow

Just got the heads-up from Game Guy Scott Fera that he’ll be on Good Day Sacramento tomorrow during the 7 and 8:00 hours to talk about one of his favorite new games, “Guitar Hero.”

UPDATE: The 7:00 hour appearance was top-notch local television, with Game Guy showing his chops on the classic “Iron Man,” the anchor’s desk playing right into the fun, and Tina Macuha getting into character as a rabid groupie.

Joncich, Whitney Out

According to my morning paper, Paul Joncich and Jennifer Whitney are being replaced as anchors of the evening news on CBS 13. The only confirmed new face is Sam Shane, who is pictured on that link in a location that makes it seem like he is the writer, Sam McManis. Funny.

The other replacement hasn’t been named and it looks like KOVR wants to downplay the role of anchor #2. So Sam is the man for now. I wonder if it’ll be a reporter from another station? That could be a good play.

Weird art in weird public places

When I saw it the finished “Alhambra Project” the other night in all its neon-sign glory it reminded me of a former public art project. Am I crazy, or was there at one time a giant laser beam running east-west from Old Sac toward Fair Oaks, as if the Broderick Boys were trying to destroy the El Dorado Hills with a destructo-ray?

In my research I also stumbled upon the Sacramento Arts Commission site, [snark] circa 1997 [/snark]. I don’t think we’re supposed to be looking at it, though–navigation links on some of the subpages point directly to documents on somebody’s “S drive”…

Re: Libeskind and Sacramento

Amanda from My Urban Vista beat me to the punch on the giant sign advertising the designer of Aura, a future 36-story residential building going up opposite the Downtown Plaza. She’s got real smarty-smart book learnt things to say about it, so all I’ll add is that it looks to me like the building developers are trying to do that Target thing, where they sell us the product by selling us the designer. That trend is getting ridiculous at Target–at first when it was Isaac Mizrahi, that worked because he had name recognition for more than a handful of fashion-lovers–and using it on an architect is simply weird.

Ixnay on the Acism-ray

If I have to hear one more time how Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, being put up by the Sacramento Catholic diocese for sainthood, was “known as the ‘lowrider’ bishop“, I’m not sure what I’ll do but it will be full of righteous indignation. Has anyone actually heard the phrase “barrio bishop” or “lowrider bishop” before, say, this weekend? I only remember him being called “Bishop Gallegos” or “the Auxiliary Bishop” or “Alphonse” (non-Catholics my think that’s a joke, but there’s actually this one prayer during mass that goes “Jesus this Jesus that blah blah bow your heads, [INSERT FIRST NAME OF BISHOP].”)

While we’re at it, can we re-re-name the Alhambra Blvd. Safeway store “Alhambra Safeway,” and reserve the word “ghetto” for its literal meaning, namely the part of town reserved for mistreated minorities.

On second thought, this may be a losing cause. Check out this screenshot of Merriam-Webster’s and the Google ads I got when I searched for the snarky real definition of “ghetto.” Ugh.

Home Sales Skepticism

CoolDMZ is many things. I was told recently by my 2-year-old that I’m “just a man who loves stickers,” for example. But one of the things I am not is a real estate or economics expert. So take the following with a few dashes of salt (to taste).

When I read that there are indicators of slowing home sales, I expect to be told of the number of actual home sales, since a sale indicates an actual transaction–demand being met by supply, capital being exchanged for capital. So in the above article, as in so many others, I only get the number of houses being supplied by the market, my skepticism alarm goes off. If three times as many homes are for sale this month as there were last year, that means crap to me about home sales unless I know how many of those homes were bought. Maybe there is a terminology problem here–maybe “home sales” really does mean “for sale signs posted.”
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