Category: Media

Watts out at KCRA

Local news is a fickle game. We’ve always tried to follow the action along the way and provide you with our observations and updates. In fact, these observations and updates have been one of the main reasons people find themselves on this here web log.

In this tradition we must begin our paper trail for Julie Watts who was recently “laid off” from KCRA (btw, I’ve always thought the term “laid off” was for seasonal workers like lumberjacks or carpenters…)

While I am on the subject of annoying terms and euphemisms, here’s a blurb from the Sacramento Business Journal article:

“We’ve had some staff reductions,” said KCRA general manager Elliott Troshinsky. “These are challenging economic times and we needed to scale our business accordingly.”

“Staff reductions” eh? “Challenging economic times”? Why didn’t you say so. Well, who is going to pick up the weather reporting slack in Julie’s absence? You know, cause times is tough all over in case you haven’t heard.

Wait, what’s this? Hello, Byron Miranda, what’s going on? What are you doing here? Oh, you were recently hired to forecast the weather at KCRA? How odd. They just recently reduced staff, you know…I did catch him on his first day when he made a joking reference to his ex-wife. Make yourself at home, BM.

Good luck, Julie. Hope the blogging thing works out for you. Let us know if you need any help.

Punching the Bee’s Ticket: Sacramento Comedy Spot Featured

Sure, we all know that Sac hates hip-hop, but the Bee sure loves improv.  Resisting the urge to feature another poorly reviewed movie on the cover of the Friday Ticket, the Bee went with the local angle and featured performers from the Sacramento Comedy Spot.  Stepping away from his usual theater and dance reviews, Bee critic Marcus Crowder does a nice writeup of the shows being offered at the ‘Spot every Friday night.  

Hats off to the small group of folks who work hard at the ‘Spot every week to put on creative, entertaining shows, not least of which director Brian Crall, who busts his ass to keep the place running like a wildly uncontrollable ship without a rudder.  Improv at the Comedy Spot runs every Friday night at 9pm, tickets are $10, presale tix can be purchased on the ‘Spot’s website.

Sacramento rallies around Grant High

By now, you’ve heard that Grant High won the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division State Football Championship Bowl Game on Saturday night in Carson, CA. Fox 40 took the lead with their extensive coverage of the game. Watch the kids arrive in Northern California from cbs13.com. Ah, to be young again…

What’s really exciting here is how quickly the community gathered around to schedule a parade to celebrate the victory.

Twin Rivers School District officials, and city officials, are scrambling to lock down speakers, publicize the event, and make other preparations. “We got a permit rushed right though and every one is very excited to celebrate some good news,” said school district spokeswoman Trinette Marquis…Marquis said the Sacramento police and fire departments have chipped in by handing out fliers in addition to their normal crowd control and safety duties. The district’s automated phone system will be making more than 25,000 phone calls to invite district students, parents and staff to the parade and rally.

That’s good stuff right there. *rant* Seriously, how many more news stories about how things haven’t begun to suck yet can we all take? We get it! */rant*

The parade (great use of umapper.com, btw) is set to start at 1 p.m. at Grant High School and end with a 3:30 p.m. rally at the City Hall at 9th and I streets.

Bee tuition piece focuses on woes at Country Day

The Bee’s Robert Faturechi reports today that area private schools are seeing increased requests for financial aid:

At Country Day – where tuition costs as much as $17,300 a year – administrators are already taking steps to buy cheaper school supplies, save energy and reduce gas consumption in school vehicles.

I can’t help feeling that Faturechi was playing for an unsympathetic audience reaction by mostly highlighting Country Day School and Jesuit High School (my alma mater) in his report about area families having trouble paying for private school. That’s the only explanation I can find for his relegating Cristo Rey High School to the bottom of his piece. Cristo Rey exclusively targets low income students, who pay for their education by working at local businesses. Some of those businesses are having to pull their support for Cristo Rey, Faturechi reports, which is hurting the school’s bottom line.

KVIE’s “On Tap” quenches

Gary Gelfand from "On Tap" on KVIE's "ViewFinder"
Gary is on point this time.

During the holiday break I had the opportunity to catch the latest installment of “ViewFinder” on KVIE. This series is always on the money, but Episode 8 welcomed me with a cold pint of refreshing goodness…beer! And what a treat it was.

Hosted by Gary Gelfand, (I know, right, “The Sports Show” notwithstanding) this episode “chronicles the rich history and science behind brewing and takes a look at how the recent craft-brewing revolution was born right here in our backyard.” Mixed in with a little Sacramento history and “did you know” tidbits and I was hooked! I especially enjoyed the reference to the now-defunct Buffalo Brewing Co.

The episode airs again on Sunday at 6pm. You can view the full episode here as well. Please to check it out. You won’t be sorry.

Google more silly than local news

Yesterday I saw the Official Gmail Blog post about a new “Mail Goggles” feature, designed to prevent Gmailers from sending that drunken “late night Friday email.” I chuckled, assuming that the jokesters at Google couldn’t wait until April 1 to launch another yuk-fest of a fake feature. I did notice a few news stories about the feature, but I didn’t think much of it.

And then just now on the KCRA morning news I saw Walt Gray report on it. Ha! I thought, just wait until I blog the heck out of this hilarious small town bumble from the gullible yoyos at the local news station. Before I did that, however, I searched again for news stories. Hmm, doesn’t seem like Information Week would fall that easily. Much less Wired. More importantly, the feature does appear in my Gmail settings. It was not a joke at all.

What? This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Sure, I suppose it qualifies as “useful,” but it’s just so damn silly–geared for the intoxicated, set to be enabled on weekends only. I’m definitely not saying that because I was duped. Duped into thinking it was a hoax. 🙂 Oh Google, you have bested me this time.

Proven innocent?

Perhaps all of you legal eagles out there can help me with something. The Sacramento Bee reports that a man was shot in the abdomen yesterday in downtown Sacramento. The story has a headline that reads, “Sacramento panhandler accused of shooting disabled man.” The first sentence of the story reads, “A woman panhandling in downtown Sacramento Monday pulled out a gun and shot a disabled man who refused to give her money, scattering a terrified crowd gathered at a busy bus stop, police said.”

Is there a difference between *accused* and *police said*? Throw in a photo of the “accused” and you got yourself an open and shut case…

I did enjoy this quote though:

“Why would someone ask money from someone who is obviously disabled?” asked his younger brother, Adrian Perez. “This is really outrageous.”

Do disabled people have a history of not carrying spare change? Just sayin’

Update: Bad example as the suspect has basically confessed to the crime. I do still wonder what terms the media can use, quote, etc. with regard to criminal activities.

Bee’s New Comment System Highly Commented Upon

In a piece by the Bee’s Ken Chavez, new rules were rolled out today to help police the otherwise monumentally ridiculous world of online comments.  In an Onion-esque move, the Bee has gone to a system called “Pluck” to help monitor, organize, and expand on the Bee’s current comment system.

To this reader, the new system looks like it’s aimed at doing three things: 1) Keep inappropriate comments off the site, 2) keep inappropriate commenters off the site, and 3) create a community on the website that will draw more clicks throughout sacbee.com. 

The most insane, and perhaps the most meta, thing about this issue are the comments on the story at sacbee.com talking about comments on stories on sacbee.com.   Feel free to comment.

Frequent Caller Bassil Works Out The Kinks

RunnerGirl is in training for both her “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” taping in New York AND a 100 miler (within days of each other — which gives her an iron-clad excuse if the 100 miler doesn’t work out as planned.) Throw in a demanding career and a nice dose of volunteer work, and RunnerGirl can get a little tense.

She is currently hooked on this season’s “Project Runway” and has taken on contestant Suede’s affectation of speaking in the third person. OK, it has already gotten old — I will stop. Someone tell Suede to do the same thing, please. And don’t think we’re NOT going to Mood fabrics while we’re in NYC. Holla at your boy. Make it work. Continue reading “Frequent Caller Bassil Works Out The Kinks”