Author: CoolDMZ

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

Abu Dhabi do a number on Sactown

I’ve never read a more heartless editorial. Steve Dilbeck of Abu Dhabi’s The National seems to think that the Kings woke up last week in Sacramento after a bender and need to get the fuck out of Dodge.

Get this: free agents do not want to live in isolated Sacramento; they do want to live on a bluff overlooking the Pacific.

He sounds like some kind of median income Nazi who only knows about basketball from the dictionary and only knows Sacramento from the map. Don’t they have like, slavery in Abu Dhabi? I’ll take Sacramento, ocean view bluffs or not.

You think you’re so smart

As with being told to vote (I can’t find where I talked about that), I’m not entirely sure how I feel about being told to try my hand at balancing the budget. I assume the Bee’s interactive feature was not done in cahoots with the powers that bee in the state house. But I was also asked by the Natomas School District to participate in an “interactive budget workshop” (tonight at 6pm at Inderkum High School) to collaborate with Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan on balancing the state’s books. For some reason this just doesn’t sit right with me.

Sure, we voters bear some responsibility for the mess as many of the strings tying the hands of the legislators were put there by voters. But making sense of it is part of a politician’s job. They seek our input when we vote, so pretending that they are taking our input in the line items of the budget seems like a preemptive excuse for when the final result doesn’t please anyone. “Well, we certainly did solicit your input, but as you see there are as many budget solutions as there are Californians, so our options were limited, etc.” So when the actual budget consists of a bunch of backroom temporary and no permanent solutions, we won’t have anyone to blame but ourselves.

I know my feelings on these things are seldom relatable but there you have it. What do you think? Do you enjoy fiddling with the knobs? Do you think they actually care what we’d do if we called the shots?

Funnel cloud [photo]

I am usually skeptical about weather warnings and today was shaping up as validation of that, since it cleared up nicely despite forecasts for rain through the evening. But that was before I saw this outside the window here at work just now. Technically this is a funnel cloud, I believe:

Now if I could just find my grandparent aged aunt and uncle and my little terrier dog and get into the cellar, I’ll be all set.

Do or die week for Kings?

Mayor Johnson is still sounding optimistic about keeping the Kings in town and apparently March 1 is the deadline for the Kings to file a relocation request. Notes from Bill Bradley and Voisin (interesting note about Stern’s Sacramento-is-Seattle reference) and Sam Amick are worrisome, while Ryan Lillis and the Here We Stay folks provide optimism on the subject.

If this goes the wrong way and we lose the team, will I regret agitating against raising taxes to pay for a shady deal to build the railyard arena? I spent some time this morning rereading some of my posts from that period of time and I maintain my stance. I am aware that Oklahoma City is somewhat of a success story, with the city now owning Ford Arena. I’m not 100% sure that there wouldn’t have been some kind of deal involving a tax increase in return for city ownership of the arena that I couldn’t have supported. But the amount of concessions Sacramento City and County leaders were willing to give the Maloofs made the 2006 deal a bad one for citizens, IMHO. And if we had known this situation would be a direct result it would have made that deal even more distasteful.

Surely you don’t lack for places on the Internet to answer this question but what do you think? How do you see this thing playing out?

Coexist? Comedy Tour film needs a kickstart

Keith Lowell Jensen

My favorite local raconteur Keith Lowell Jensen is seeking funds through Kickstarter to finish a Coexist? Comedy Tour documentary the troupe has in the works. Looks like they have about 2 days left to make about $5,000.

If you’re in the dark, The Coexist? Comedy Tour was a tour made up of a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu, a Budhhist and an atheist comedian, the atheist being your’s [sic] truly.

The way Kickstarter works is that the pledges will be returned if the sought goal is not met.

Kickstarter: The Coexist? Comedy Tour Documentary Film

Where is the smartest service staff?

lemur waits for service at McDonald's
Creative Commons License photo credit: Scorpions and Centaurs

While ordering at what I assume it’s appropriate to call “Camellia McDonald’s” (Folsom and 56th in East Sac) I realized that almost every time I visit that establishment I am struck by the way the young staff is, to put it delicately, unburdened by the pressures of intelligence. I recited my order and this young lady looked up at me for such a long moment that I actually questioned whether I was in the right place.

Continue reading “Where is the smartest service staff?”

Forbes: Sacto one of most “miserable” cities

Just A Stub Left
Creative Commons License photo credit: Orin Zebest

Well, our fair city has made another publication’s list and as usual, it’s not good news. This time, we’re #5 on Forbes.com’s list of “America’s 20 Most Miserable Cities.” The big news is that California has 4 of the top 5 spots and 8 cities overall in the top 20.

How did they figure that? Forbes.com explains the methodology… Continue reading “Forbes: Sacto one of most “miserable” cities”

Crash tax craziness

Fiat Punto
This guy’s not even from ‘Merica. Cha-ching!!!
Creative Commons License photo credit: Niccolò Caranti

I still can’t believe that 5 humans, not to mention 5 city council members, think an out-of-towner “crash tax” is a good idea. Apparently in California, unless something is specifically illegal, you can find some group of idiots who’ll think it makes sense. And if you need a group of idiots, who better than a roomful of California politicians?

With the chorus of boos around the region about the “crash tax,” including a threatened tit-for-tat response from Yolo County, I am thinking its days are numbered.

In looking around at other instances of “crash tax” in the news I found out that another municipality undergoing such an experiment is none other than New York, New York. However, in the case of the Big Apple it is merely a charge on at-fault drivers for FDNY response to a car crash. Compared to the City Council’s laugher of charging our neighbors this almost makes sense.

Continue reading “Crash tax craziness”

Dawes @ Odd Fellows Hall, Davis Feb. 1

C'mon guys, it can't be that bad.

There’s a fair amount of buzz around LA’s Dawes, a mellow country rock band appearing Tuesday at Odd Fellows Hall in Davis. After the band was recommended to me a few weeks ago by a coworker who discovered them at a live show, I have had their new album, “North Hills,” in steady rotation and it has endeared itself to me very much. It’s not the straight ahead country or the jangly country-psych I usually go for (if that makes any sense). It’s an earnest and seriously beautiful album, and the word on the street is they put on a great show.

The album, North Hills, is available in the MP3 format on Amazon for $5. Take a listen to “When My Time Comes” and you’ll be sold.

Dawes, Jonny Corndawg, Shannon Harney & Friends
Tues., Feb 1, 8:00 PM
Odd Fellows Hall, all ages
Tickets: $10 on TicketLeap or $12 at the door

Music Circus auditions!

Please sir, be anti-child labor. And no, I don't mean labor that is opposed to children

Think you got what it takes to be a London fishmonger, a playactin’ cowpoke, or a hanger-on to a Knight of the Round Table? Well, your chance to find out may be coming! California Musical Theatre (one of our gracious sponsors) hosts auditions for the 2011 season of Music Circus, featuring such shows as Oliver!, Annie Get Your Gun, and Camelot.

Sacramento auditions for non-Equity singers and actors (ages 16 and above) will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 1-2, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, 1419 H Street, Sacramento by appointment only. Appointments may be scheduled by calling the audition hotline at (916) 446-5880, ext. 137, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 23-35, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Calls will only be accepted during these hours (no messages please).

In addition, there are separate dance auditions and auditions for members of Actors’ Equity, but if you’re in one of those groups you are not getting your audition notices from this blog.