Great Jazz Weekend in Sacramento

Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson

TONIGHT! 9PM, Shady Lady Saloon: The debut of the Free Badge Serenaders, Sacramento’s only and best novelty banjo/washboard duo. Come on by and tap your feet, clap your hands, and generally shake your money maker. 14th and R streets. Free entrance if appropriately attired in saloon prohibition regalia.

SUNDAY- 5PM, Red Lion’s JB’s Lounge: Shelly Burns, with Bill Dendle and Sacramento’s nicest man Shelley Denny. If you haven’t checked out the new lounge at the Red Lion, it’s really something special — great sound system, beautiful bar, neat vibe — a great place to listen to jazz. Come hear some of the best interpretations of American classics and kick off your Jubilee week right. Red Lion Inn, Arden Blvd and Business 80.

SUNDAY- 7PM, American River College: World renowned vibraphone player Bobby Hutcherson makes a rare Sacramento appearance. Playing with the Capital Jazz Project, Hutcherson will bring his 50 years of playing experience to bear on an exceptionally lucky audience. Tix are $20, $15 with student ID. It’d be worth it at twice the price.

Two Milestones in One Weekend, Both Meat-Related

Sacramento will see not one but two milestones achieved this weekend.

Jim Denny’s 75th Anniversary- Saturday May 16- 816 12th Street, Sacramento

Festivities start from 8 to 10 am there will a recession-proof $3.00 buffet style breakfast with a pancake eating contest at 11 am. At noon, there will be another hard-times priced $3.00 buffet style lunch. Come and enjoy local treats and suds. The afternoon will rock with live music provided by The Regulars, Ol’ Cotton Dreary, and Who & The What Now! Stay for the burger eating contest, activities for the kids, and a raffle with great prizes from area businesses. Proceeds from the raffle will go towards expanding the restaurant which is both desirable (if you’re hungry) or a bit of a bummer (if you’re a preservationist).

Sam’s Hof Brau 50th Anniversary- Monday May 18th– Watt and El Camino, Sacramento

Two things will make the 50th anniversary party at Sam’s exceptional. First, 50 cent pastrami sandwiches. Second, the recapturing of the “Sam’s” name. For too many years, the venerable Hof Brau has been languishing under the bland moniker of “Plaza Hof Brau.” But not anymore. With a little scratch and some fierce negotiations the wise new owners of the ‘Brau (same folks that own Mikuni, dontcha know) have reacquired the Sam’s name. From now on, saying “Sam’s Hof Brau” will not only conjure a sense of history, but speak of great things to come. Come on by, raisea pint to the new improved sign, eat some meat, and revel in a piece of Sacramento’s history and future.

Grab Your Bike and Grab a Fork

May is Bike Month in Sacramento. In honor of the two-wheeled festivities, some restaurants are offering great deals if you ride your bike there and walk in wearing bike shorts that show off your package. (This part might be optional, I can’t really tell by the literature.) So grease up your Schwinn (not a euphemism) and sharpen your chopsticks, May is a great month for eating if you’re on two wheels. Check out these deals:

  • Lucca Restaurant & Bar, Complimentary dessert with purchase of an entree for anyone who rides their bike to the restaurant in May (but whatever you do, don’t sit in the back room)
  • Riverside Clubhouse, Bike Night, Every Wednesday, 5-8pm, if you ride your bike to Riverside Clubhouse, $1.00 tacos & $2.00 beers
  • Chipotle (Midtown), free burrito for everyone on a bike on Sunday, May 17, from noon to 4 p.m. They’ll also have “best of” contests, raffle prizes, and more.
  • Hot Italian, a free pizza to anyone who rides in on an Italian-made bike on May 14, Bike to Work Day for lunch and dinner (Huffy’s are Italian, aren’t they?)
  • Morgan’s Bar & Grill, Bike Night, Sundays 6-11 pm, $1 PBR/$5 PBR Pitchers if you ride your bicycle (Try the pulled pork sandwich, it’s spec-tac)
  • Nolan’s Hilltop Tavern, $1 off every draft beer for everyone on a bicycle in May

Repeal the two-thirds majority component of Prop 13!

Money in the ballot boxIn doing my homework on the slate of state propositions for the May 19 special election, I am starting to feel like repealing Proposition 13‘s two-thirds restriction on the legislature for tax increases would be a good idea. It’s not because I think taxes should be greatly increased to get our state out of its fiscal woes, and I want to remove all impediments to doing that. It would take something stronger than waterboarding to get me to suppress my anti-tax reflex.

The reason I want to allow the legislature to raise our taxes by itself is because when revenue-raising ballot initiatives fail, the politicians blame it on us voters. Darrell Steinberg warns us that deep spending cuts will be needed if the ballot measures don’t pass. Arnold’s talking about legalizing pot so he can tax it, which he doesn’t think is right but he’ll do it anyway, if other people think it would be good. (I get the feeling his brain does not suffer the same condition as his other muscles, that one.)

Continue reading “Repeal the two-thirds majority component of Prop 13!”

Jinglethievery

How can the folks at Bonney Plumbing live with themselves, knowing their new radio jingle COMPLETELY rips off the old Sacramento vanilla_ice-to_the_extreme_album_coverUnion one?

No long-term Sacramentan could ever forget the Union’s “Four forty-four fifty five five five. That’s the number for the classified!” Fast forward a couple of decades, and now Bonney is singing the “four forty-four” tune. That is SO not cool.

This might go down in the annals as one of the landmark copyright cases. I’m just reminded so much of that Vh1 interview of Vanilla Ice explaining that “Ice Ice Baby” has one more quarter note (actually, I think it’s a hemidemisemiquaver) than Queen’s “Under Pressure.” And I quoth, “See Queen’s is din din din dindindindin, and mine is din din din dindindindin ch.” (The “ch” is the high hat — you know, with the souped up tempo. I’m on a roll; it’s time to go solo.)

Note to Mr. and Mrs. Bonney (who seem like lovely people, by the way): Just don’t touch the old “GET IT NOW! AT FLORIN ROAD TOYOTA” with the entire staff singing along, and we’ll be fine.

Mira Loma wins National Science Bowl

A big, brainy Right Awn! to Mira Loma High School students Andrew Chen, Rishi Kulkarni, Edward Lee, Sriram Pendyala and Heather Yee (and Coach James Hill) for taking the championship at the 19th annual National Science Bowl.

They win a trip to the International Science School in Sydney, Australia this summer. If they are named the best high school scientists on Earth, they will compete and surely lose in the Milky Way Science Bowl, where Geminids have won for most of the past millennium.

Perez Hilton, here I come

Steve Large
Julissa Ortiz

Item! Yesterday afternoon I spotted CBS13’s Steve Large and CW31’s Julissa Ortiz shopping for groceries together at an East Sacramento grocery store. Can picking out avocados be called ‘canoodling’? It’s the scoop of the century…not.

Oh well, the search for actual gossip continues. As a side note, I can see now that being a paparazzo requires a sharp eye, because when people wear baseball caps you cannot tell who they are.

Free Comic Book Day today

Wolversometing
Actually it sounds like this movie is teh suck

Today being the first Saturday in May, it is Free Comic Book Day at participating comic book stores all over the U.S. and Canada. You just walk into a store and walk away with a free comic book. Though you can’t enjoy a trip to Comics & Comix, you can use the FCBD website’s bookshop locator to find a participating location.

Some pretty fun sounding titles are being offered this year. This one called Resurrection sounds good and comes with a preview of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen series. I recommend the Atomic Robo title, and of course you’ll probably need to get their early if you want to score a copy of the Brian Michael Bendis-penned Avengers book.

What were you planning to do today, just sit in your house and not get free comics?

Beermann’s, Greenhouse closing

Two more area breweries have closed their doors, both in Roseville.

The Greenhouse Restaurant and Brewery shut down earlier this month. They were open for less than a year and had an uphill battle with the high cost of organic beer and sustainable food. Unfortunate, as both the food and the beer were excellent.

This Friday, Beermann’s Beerwerks Brewery will also close. Beermann’s just celebrated their 10th Anniversary and have been operating solely out of their Roseville warehouse after closing their brewpub at the beautiful and historic Empire Ballroom in Lincoln in 2006.

Beermann’s fans should visit this Thursday or Friday between 3 and 8pm for a final brew-ha-ha. Come lift a glass and offer a toast of thanks for 10 years in our community. If you would like to join other beer lovers, the Hop Heads of Sacramento Beer Lovers Union will meet at Beermann’s Thursday at 6pm.