Author: CoolDMZ

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

Sac Bee to publish county salaries?

I have learned that The Bee has filed a Public Records Act for “2007 base salary and overtime records, including employee name, department, and job title” for all employees of Sacramento County. Apparently the Bee is planning to compile a database and release all the information on its website, as it did earlier this year for State of CA workers.

This raises all the same issues as that project, concerning workers’ privacy, safety, and the public benefit of this level of public records releasing by the Bee. Continue reading “Sac Bee to publish county salaries?”

SAMMIES nominees out and about

Tonight at 5:00pm on Public Access Channel 17’s live public affairs show LiveWire! catch 2008 SAMMIES pop nominee The Ancient Sons. What you’ll like about The Ancient Sons is their melancholy Syd Barrett sound — this is not your typical ’60s throwback band. Expect a review of the Son’s debut album “The Dark Gospel” on this site soon…

Continue reading “SAMMIES nominees out and about”

You have to play in Sacramento, haw haw

I am by no means a competent NBA analyst, but I did want to point out one interesting tidbit about Chad Ford’s mock draft analysis of the Kings’ #12 pick: His pick is Lionel Mario Chalmers, and his alternate is Roy Hibbert. Not since the draft of 1997 which saw stars like Chris Wiggum and Ted Krustofsky have the Kings chances in the draft been so Simpsons-centric.

But seriously, what do we think of drafting a point guard at #12? FFT, writing on his new domain altsac.com, says don’t do it because Beno can start. Again I know nothing but for some reason my gut says drafting point guards is a tricky business, especially if you want a player to contribute right away or at least soon.

Tonight at Shiny Object: “The 39 Steps” (1935)

Tonight at the “Movies on a Big Screen” at 4th and F Street in West Sacramento, the 1935 Hitchcock thriller “The 39 Steps.”

This 1935 UK Alfred Hitchcock film was the first to really attract US audiences to his work. The tightly-plotted screenplay was loosely based on the 1915 novel of the same name by Scottish author John Buchan.

I’ve actually never seen this one, though I remember it being my grandpa’s favorite film. Enjoy the trademark cameo by Hitchcock himself as Step #14.

For Sale – 1025 37th St – $350k!!

1025 37th StI know this is sort of an out of character post for this here blog, but occasionally when specific homes that I have always admired go on the market I think it warrants a posting. There are certain homes in town that I have just always wanted to live in. You know, while the people who own it are on vacation. Just kidding! I’m also hoping that merely being mentioned by CoolDMZ will help move some inventory and get the market back on track. 🙂

This house, 1025 37th Street is right behind the parking lot of the Subway on 37th and Jay streets. When I was a kid I always thought that porch was pretty gnarly (that’s what we said back then), and I loved the idea of living next door to Winchell’s (which formerly occupied the Subway space). It has always been on Mrs Cool’s and my short list of dream homes. I cannot believe it is on the market for $350k, that seems like a total steal, even though it is adjacent to the parking lot of a liquor store. Somebody snatch it up! And then have me over for a sittin’ party on that wraparound porch. Did I mention it is right near a Peet’s?

San Diego “your classmates are dead” hoax

California is a very large state. I’m not an expert but I think it’s like, one of the biggest states. 🙂 You would think the smart folks at Boing Boing and the London Telegraph would know that. Instead, Boing Boing, referencing a hoax by law enforcement at “El Camino High School in California,” linked to this story from the Telegraph. This made me waste a whole 4 minutes of my lunch hour tracking down the original story, which comes out of Oceanside, CA and not San Juan Unified.

Continue reading “San Diego “your classmates are dead” hoax”

Tuesday blog roundup

An interesting comment thread about the Bee’s story about health violations at Asian restaurants and the related Bee database on food violations on this Heckasac post Monday about peach pie.

A great post about the Google Street View, including some counterpoint to Scooter’s comments here, on Zokuga, which is a new-since-2008 blog that I think is going to become daily reading for me. Since knowing what I read daily matters to so many people.

Attention blog junkies

A new Sac blog aggregator has hit the market: RiverWrap.com, “All the blogs fit to wrap”…

Our mission is to elevate the visibility of bloggers in our region by providing a portal where visitors can dive into the blogosphere by either searching for topics of interest or browsing our pre-set categories.

It is handy for discovering new blogs, but unfortunately you cannot subscribe in the handy RSS format. So it loses points on that against IpsoSacto, but it does have a much more limited scope (probably something that will change as it gets off the ground) which actually makes it easier. IpsoSacto can really overload your feed reader because you get blogs that are by Sacramento people that are not necessarily local-only. Also it doesn’t hurt their review that Ours Truly (can I say that?) is all over the Top Ten Blog Posts 🙂

Continue reading “Attention blog junkies”

My first Monarchs run-in

Adrian Williams-Strong
Adrian Williams-Strong

Boarding a plane at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Friday morning on my way home, I noticed a woman who looked a lot like Monarchs guard Kara Lawson. I dismissed it as merely the random thought of a sleep-deprived traveler (my flight the night before had been cancelled). But then she walked past me and took her place in line… next to (Sac Rag favorite) Jim “Koz” Kozimor and Coach T, Tom Abatemarco. The Monarchs were headed home after a close game win the night before over the Minnesota Lynx.

They failed to get any kind of group recognition as they filed onto the plane and sat in coach. I boarded the plane and 6′ 5″ center-forward Adrian Williams-Strong was getting herself all settled in my ticketed seat. Hers was just across the aisle so we switched it up. Go Monarchs!