Category: Arts

Best Comedy Weekend of the Year

I know, I know, you’ve all got 153 Christmas parties to attend this weekend, but really, it’s the same old party every year. Get out and see some comedy instead of discussing your crappy 401k returns with your neighbor. There are several awesome shows this weekend featuing local talent and special guests from as far away as Daly City. Ooooo, Daly City. I know, it’s totally exotic.

Comedysportz Sacramento– with special guests Oui be Negroes. Friday and Saturday at 8pm.
Comedysportz plays fast paced improv appropriate for all ages. Special guests, San Francisco improv troupe Oui be Negroes will be on hand to take it to the local team. Come see a balzing fast ComedySportz match at 8pm, then stay for the midnight show at 10pm!
Tix are $12. 2230 Arden Way-Suite A.

Sacramento Comedy Spot– Friday and Saturday at 9pm, improv at the Comedy Spot. Friday’s show presents Anti-Cooperation League, the best long-form group in Sacramento. Saturday night is an improv battle pitching last month’s winners, Dabble, against SF team, Crisis Hopkins.
Tix are $8 Friday and $5 Saturday. BYOB. 1716 Broadway.

Coexist Comedy Tour– Friday at 8pm @ the Crest Theater. Frequent commenter (although MIA for quite a while) KLJ joins forces with four other comedians, each of which has a different slant on the hereafter and the after-party.
Tix are $25

Local “college” goes Hollywood

Link to Prop 8 - The Musical

I am sure many of you caught the opening scene in “Prop 8 – The Musical.” It stars Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, Rashida Jones and others as the “Sacramento Community College Players.”

That’s pretty much where the fun ends as the video’s writer, Marc Shaiman, brings Scott Eckern into the mix.
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Sacramento gets the “Colbert Bump”!

After being twice admonished by reader Brambles for not blogging the KJ appearance on Colbert (I think partly I blanked because it was supposed to be on tonight, and not on the 11th) I finally checked it out. Thank Jeebus for the online television. I myself have gone without cable for a few years now and mostly not had to look back, what with the plethora of online options, and the sublime unintentional comedy of “One Tree Hill.” Next week: a 1920s fantasy episode written by Chad Michael Murray. That is can’t miss TV right there. But I’m digressing…

Continue reading “Sacramento gets the “Colbert Bump”!”

New film blog/community debuts

eraserhead
Andy Richter Jack Nance in “Eraserhead”

Film critic extraordinaire and die-hard zydeco apologist DB, launches a new site Monday (November 10), The E Street Film Society. DB writes:

Any of you who have followed my other blogs (The Barnesyard and Movie City USA) know what you are in for, but this blog will lean much heavier towards movie reviews, discussion, and interactivity. My goals are threefold:

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Sacramento Trivia Alert!

When we’re not asking the tough questions and searching for the right answers, we enjoy us some Sacramento trivia. With all the tension surrounding the state of the world right now, we were thrilled to hear from “Anna in Sacramento” today.

Anna writes (in my best Casey Kasem voice)…

Dear Sac Rag,

“Okay, we’re having a fit of nostalgia here in the office/random memory (very random!). Can anyone name/remember the bands that played at KWOD’s 1998 Summer Concert at Arco Arena (also known as the show that Green Day canceled because their drummer got bonked on the head by one of the guys from Third Eye Blind)?”

There’s not a ton of information on the InterWeb, so what say all you thirtysomethingers out there?

John Updike(!?) lecture next Tuesday UPDATE – RIP

UpdikeAcclaimed American author John Updike, author of the Rabbit series, the short story “A & P,” The Witches of Eastwick, and frequent contributor to the New Yorker, will appear Tuesday at the Crest Theater as part of the California Lectures series. Garrison Keillor, that old salt, was a recent lecturer too. And in February, Lemony Snicket! Though not in character.

Seems like a pretty unique opportunity to see and hear a legend like Updike. I doubt he uses the C-word as much in his lectures as he used to in his books. If you have never read Witches of Eastwick I really recommend it; it was the first Updike book I ever read (I have not seen the movie, I take my filmed witch entertainment in the form of Supernatural). There appears to be a sequel book out.

John Frickin’ Updike
Crest Theater
November 11, 2008 7:30 PM
$27, yowza

Update 1/27/09: Mr. Updike passed away this morning at age 76.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

ice skating
Penguins love ice-skating

…[Your holiday of choice here]! The Downtown Plaza Ice Rink opens tomorrow at noon with FREE skating all day. After tomorrow, regular admission is $6 plus $2 for skate rental. Plus $8 later on at Rite Aid for ankle braces and ice packs. The rink accepts cash only.

Mrs Cool reminds me that this weekend also brings 2nd Saturday and the Antique Faire. It was great planning to have the faire on Second Sunday, if you aske me.

Mad About Plaid: Seeing this show once is not enough

Cosmopolitan Cabaret Forever Plaid

Even if you didn’t grow up in a KCTC “Music Of Your Life” listening household with parents who grew up in the WWII era, it would be impossible to not enjoy The Cosmopolitan Cabaret’s presentation of Forever Plaid.

Sac-eats and I just returned from the 8pm show, where we were treated to 90 brilliantly executed minutes of ’50s and ’60s tunes in four part harmony — which proved to be the ideal antidote to the figurative election hangover. Still smiling ear-to-ear, I’m already plotting which table I need to reserve for my next visit to this show.

Continue reading “Mad About Plaid: Seeing this show once is not enough”

“Suspiria” @ Movies on a Big Screen

Suspiria

If you’re still looking for something spooky to do Halloween night and you’re into artsy gore … then let’s face it, you’ve probably already seen the 1977 Italian horror flick “Suspiria.” I have not actually seen this film, but reading about it and seeing a few stills has always been as much contact with it as I desire. I do appreciate the allure of 70s film, but I don’t dig on horror as a genre because I am a big sissy baby. However, I am also the kind of person to recommend a movie that I know other people think is hip just so that I can seem hip by association. In conclusion and in summary, go see “Suspiria” on Halloween but don’t bring any babies, whether they are tall grown men acting like them or the actual kind.

“Suspiria”
10/31, 7:00 PM
600 4th St, West Sac
Admission: $5.00

Sad news for Pumpkin Patch fans

No more pumpkin patch in Roseville

We love us a pumpkin patch here at the Sac Rag. I was beginning to wonder where we were with a 2008 review when I came across this article from kcra.com:

A Placer County pumpkin patch that’s been a local tradition for 20 years won’t be selling any pumpkins this year after getting hit by metal thieves.

Police said the thieves stole copper wiring from electrical lights and a truckload of tools from the Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Patch in Roseville.

The owner of the patch decided not to open this season after spending $15,000 on repairs.

As we used to say growing up, “that’s weak sauce, man.”