Another blog to track in the Sac blogosphere, from Midtown Monthly. A few posts are up already, from Heckasac’s Beckler; HK, who must be music writer Heather Klinger; and founders Tim Foster and Liv Moe. Building on Midtown’s arts-food-music-life coverage with a blog seems like a great addition and I wish them luck!
Author: CoolDMZ
"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?"
Bee’s teacher database sidesteps privacy issue
Kudos to the Sac Bee for its newest salary database on all of the state’s teachers. “See how well your school district pays its teachers.” Not “See how much your kid’s teacher makes.” The tool allows you to look up district average salaries and other data, and compare salaries across districts in a region or across the state. A useful tool without any of the privacy issues. This should be the model for all of the Bee’s salary databases.
I do think it is interesting that the spin has been spun somewhat on this one… “Are teachers in your area making what they deserve?” That sentiment is absent from Melanie Sill’s editorial on the backlash to the State worker pay database. Back then it was all about doing a public service, giving us information about worker compensation because “state spending [is] under pressure.” Now, it’s all about making sure your kid’s teacher is getting a good paycheck? Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I sense that the Bee is making some much needed course corrections here.
Sign Sudoku – Land Park Pony Rides
I snapped a shot of the sign at the pony rides at Land Park, because I thought it would make a great logic puzzle to get our brains buzzing this fine Monday morning…
McClatchy to freeze wages
This just in… The McClatchy company is announcing a one-year freeze in employee wage increases.
This means that if you are scheduled to receive a merit or salary review between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, your review will occur one year later than scheduled. For example, if your next salary review date is March 1, 2009, the salary review will be postponed until March 1, 2010.
Ouch. The tough times continue. And two weeks’ notice, that’s rough. However, if you’re working for McClatchy and you’re…still working for McClatchy, this is somewhat of a relief?
“Big Love” sightings
The internets were all abuzz with rumors of a Chloe Sevigny sighting at midtown vintage boutique Bows & Arrows on Saturday. Word from the Woodland Daily Democrat is that miss Sevigny was in the area filming “Big Love” for HBO:
[C]ast and crew arrived in Woodland Thursday night as part of a plot line that involves a family road trip retracing the steps of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism. …
Additional scenes will be shot over the coming week in Grasslands Regional Park in Davis, and in various parts of Old Sacramento, he said.
So the bigger story is that this is your week to get a Bill Paxton or a Jeanne Tripplehorn sighting in Old Sacramento! I’m clearing my schedule as we speak.
Note to “Big Love” writers: Please, please, write a scene in which one of the younger wives is bossy and Bill Paxton says to the first wife, “Why don’tcha put HER in charge!!?”
Bee photos from Olympics
Via zokuga, two photo blogs to check out for images from Beijing–Paul Kitagaki’s images on the Sac Bee photo blog, and former Bee photog Kevin German’s photoblog “Wandering Light.” German lives in Vietnam and does kickass photo documentaries of Southeast Asia, as I learned in the last five minutes. Here is my favorite of his so far:
Boon Boon: Your Asian Fusion Connection
I always felt bad that I had teased the folks at Boon Boon, especially after a commenter pointed out that the restaurant is named after the owner’s mother. The fact that several commenters on that post remarked on discussions with the staff at Boon Boon is very telling about the kind of place Boon Boon is. I’m glad that I finally checked it out, because this is a little gem of a place.
This is the right kind of fusion for me–it’s not so much specific menu items that are tweaked, it’s the menu as a whole. Thai favorites like curries and pad thai are alongside spaghetti and meatballs and “Southern Great Steak” (“A great recipe from a Southern Attorney who bring on tasty Prime selected quality Rib Eye beef same grade as 5 stars steak house with half the price, come with pan fried butter herbs potatoes, and mixed steamed veggies.”)
Quick question re: state workers
Something I just thought of while I was washing out my tupperware in the office kitchen after lunch: If the state workers do have their salaries cut down to Federal minimum wage (i.e. if Arnold can find a few hundred COBOL programmers ASAP) will they get their union dues taken out of that? Or will they not have to pay their union dues?
SN&R “on” best burritos
kitty burrito
Just in time for this week’s News & Review, I’d like to react to last week’s cover piece on burritos written by Ben Russell. Russell really seems to know how to turn a phrase, and the piece is actually incredibly informative. For example it confirmed my preference for Guerrero’s tortillas as the best tortillas at your local supermarket (or your massive soulless food chain, whatever your preference), and it taught me that the word for people from the state of Jalisco in Mexico is Jaliscenes.
JACKPOT @ Blue Lamp Sunday, early show, $5
Having just returned from a massive road trip, I’ve got my favorite local band Jackpot on the brain. For some reason whenever I hit the road in Norcal it makes sense to have Jackpot on the stereo. Something about the mishmash of sounds–on “Shiny Things” and “F+” at least–and Rusty Miller’s creaky voice and memorable lyrics is quintessentially Sacramento to me. So Jackpot was in frequent rotation up through Glenn, Tehama, Siskiyou Counties and into Oregon. (Also: “The House at Pooh Corner” read by British actor Peter Dennis. Melancholy but hilarious.)
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