Category: Misc

The Bee reports today that Power Balance, the company that lent its name to the building in which the Kings aren’t playing, filed for bankruptcy. Apparently a court found that their bracelets don’t do much more than sit unattractively on your wrist, leading to a class action suit in which the company was liable for the $30 plus $5 s/h for every single person that bought one of the useless pieces of jewelry.

Now I’m not sure what this says about the Kings/Maloofs/city of Sacramento/Federal Reserve Bank, but I do know what it says about stepping up your athletic performance: equipment is rarely the answer.

Wouldn’t a net be easier?

Riding home from Folsom yesterday on the American River Parkway, I noticed a lot of fisherman lined up along the Nimbus Dam. I thought this was a bit odd for a Thursday afternoon, so I took a few photos. As I road past the Nimbus Fish Hatchery I noticed a lot of birds congregating in a shallow area of the river. So, I stopped to investigate. I ran into a nice woman who was also interested in what was going on. She informed me that this was the annual salmon run.

Department of Fish and Game opened the gates at the hatchery’s fish ladder Tuesday to begin collection salmon for the fall spawn. Each year, the Nimbus Hatchery raises 4.2 million salmon. In a brilliant display of nature, the salmon flip their powerful fins and lunge from the water as they climb the hatchery’s ladder. At the top, the fish are stunned by an electric jolt and then spawned by hatchery workers.

Yikes. That is some reward for a hard day’s (week’s? month’s?) work. I am curious to check out the fish ladder though (very cool photos).

The Nimbus Hatchery fish ladder on the American River opened for the fall salmon run. Several hundred salmon most of them jumping swam up the fish ladder to the delight of crowd that lined the fences. After about an hour over 700 salmon of the 1,500 needed were in the hatchery.

It is stuff like this that reminds that I need to get out more. We have some pretty cool things going on in this area.

What with all the talk at Cesar Chavez Park and around the nation about the “1%,” the Bee yesterday provided a closer look at those wealthy one-percenters living in our own backyard.

Looking at a breakdown of the industries the 1% works in, the first question that jumps to my mind is what’s “Other,” where apparently 38% of the region’s $300,000-plus-earners make a living? Is the secret to making it in America avoiding all college courses that might lead you to law, healthcare, finance, construction, trade, or manufacturing?

I should be living in the Fabulous Forties by now.

photo credit: planetadelcangrejo

American rock god Jeff Tweedy and his band Wilco will be making an appearance in Davis at the Mondavi Center next year. The show on February 1 is part of their U.S. tour this Winter for “The Whole Love,” their 8th studio album, which was released last month.

I’ve given “The Whole Love” a few spins and it is a big, bad-ass record. The tickets for the Mondavi show are $45 and they go on sale Friday (pre-sale starts Thursday) … Is that a lot? I haven’t paid for a concert ticket in ages. But Wilco coming to town is enough to get my to break that trend.

Wilco
with White Denim
Wednesday, Feb 1 2010 @ 8:00 PM
Mondavi Center for the Arts
Davis, CA
Tickets: $45 at Another Planet Entertainment
WilcoWorld.net

Apparently Mayor Johnson is dealing with some flak about his less-than-stellar attendance at city council meetings. However, I don’t think he should deal with this situation by letting his campaign spokesman Steve Maviglio do any actual spokesmanship:

“Kevin Johnson puts more energy, time and enthusiasm into the mayor’s job in a week than his predecessor did in a year,” Maviglio said. “There’s a lot more to being an activist mayor than banging a gavel at a dull City Council meeting where minutia is discussed.”

As the great Dirk Calloway said: “With friends like that, who needs friends?”

If you’re looking for the nerdiest holiday gathering around, look no further than Fairytale Town’s “Safe & Super Halloween: The Magical World of Harry Potter.” The event, which starts Friday and runs Friday & Saturday of this week and next, not only has Hogwarts themed candy hunting and special guests, but there is also a Harry Potter trivia contest in the puppet theater stage. Now there’s a trivia night I can win without bringing a posse!

My daughter only recently caught the Potter bug, so we are still way into this stuff. If I have time after constructing working Quidditch player’s uniforms for the kids you’ll catch me there in a kickass Mad Eye Moody cosplay outfit. But now that I think about it, maybe I’ll convince Mrs Cool to go as Tonks and show up as tweedy werewolf Remus Lupin?

Safe & Super Halloween: The Magical World of Harry Potter
Friday & Saturday
October 21 – 22 & October 28 – 29
5PM – 9PM
Tickets are $7 for members and $10 for nonmembers, children 1 and under are free.
Ticket prices increase on October 21 ($9 members/ $12 nonmembers).
Trivia contest is an additional $1 for members and $2 for nonmembers.

For years, North Natomans who worked just 3 miles from home started each day with an exhaust-spewing surrender to tyranny. That tyrant was I-80, which blockades our northern suburbanites from a tantalizingly close downtown destination – because even on a clear, warm day, these oppressed commuters had no choice but to pile in their cars and slog through traffic.

Well, those days are over. Yesterday, city officials opened a new bike and pedestrian bridge that arcs over I-80 and liberates a whole community from the monopoly of the car. For the weary road-enraged populace, bicyclical commutes are no longer a fantasy, but an actual choice.

Continue reading “I-80, your tyranny is over”