New walkways for rail station open Monday

Construction on the new tunnel. From City of Sacramento

As part of the Railyards project the Amtrak lines have been relocated and starting Monday, passengers will have to walk through a partially covered walkway and through a tunnel to reach the new platforms.

The Bee’s Tony Bizjak includes a quote from “city officials” citing that the walk will be “similar to those at many larger train stations around the country.” The only larger train station I have seen is Union Station in LA but I don’t recall a walk this large. Does anyone with experience know if this statement holds water?

Sac Library has LHS kids’ science kits with free passes

With school around the corner you may be looking for fun science projects to do with the kids, either to supplement the science/tech curriculum or to actually have one. Obviously the Sacramento Public Library is a great place to start, and its offering got even better recently with the addition of these “Check Out Science” kits from Lawrence Hall of Science.

Each kit includes a “Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading” book, a full activity notecard, and a “Check Out Science” observation notebook that is your child’s to keep. And another awesome thing about these kits is that they come with one free kids’ pass to Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Continue reading “Sac Library has LHS kids’ science kits with free passes”

IPA Day is Thursday!

Beautiful local hop vines, courtesy of Rick Sellers (Pacific Brew News)

The signature beer of the Western United States, the India Pale Ale (IPA) will be celebrated across the country tomorrow with the 2nd annual IPA Day.

The question is… how do you celebrate this? Do you simply crack one (or several) open, or are there more complicated ways to do it?

This is my confusion about this celebration.

I am all for celebrating one of the great American beer styles. Yes, I am aware of the history of the IPA, but it cannot be argued that Americans are at the forefront of pushing this style to the edge. I just wish that Sacramento knew about this event, and who is going to enable their hoppy celebrations.
Continue reading “IPA Day is Thursday!”

McKinley Park Playground rebuild begins


from the City of Sacramento web site

The bad news over the weekend of an arsonist (allegedly) destroying the playground at McKinley park is giving way to hopeful news of fundraising already beginning on a replacement. City Council member Steve Cohn has established a charity fund, and Sac Press’s Melissa Corker has details on how you can help contribute. Continue reading “McKinley Park Playground rebuild begins”

Brilliant, Just Brilliant

A few weeks ago I wrote about the space formerly occupied by Lounge on 20 converting to a German pub. Due to the fabulousness of the neighborhood, (Lavender Heights) there were many names suggested by readers that had to do clever sausage puns. However, the owners opted for Oscar Wilde-esque drollness with their choice of name: Low Brau.

Kudos, witty restaurateurs.

An autonomous and unimpeded audit or People suck in nature, too

Ron would privatize our state parks.

This California Department of Parks and Recreation financial scandal just continues to prove that until robots rule the world, things will continue to suck because people are behind things.

The Sacramento Bee reported July 20 that state parks has been sitting on $54 million in “hidden assets” for at least 12 years…The money was held in two special funds even as the agency undertook painful service reductions and park closures to achieve $22 million in budget cuts…Some of the surplus money could have been used to avoid those cuts, but it was never reported to the Department of Finance, as required by long-standing state fiscal policy.

All the while, of course, we are asked to “Save Our State Parks” you know, because of the budget.

In January 2011, Governor Jerry Brown unveiled his proposed budget, which included a reduction of General Fund support for state parks by $11 million for Fiscal Year 2011-12 and a total reduction of $22 million by the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012-2013. The California Legislature passed this $22 million General Fund reduction, imposing these permanent park closures.

So, what does one do? Throw the parks out with the bath water? Can I boycott people?

State Fair rock and roll

Dave Mason, Jim Messina and Joan Jett perform this week at the California State Fair.

American Idol Scotty McCreery performs to a packed house at the California State Fair
You know, the kind of music that soothes the soul? Lets you reminisce about the days of old?

Last week, the Golden1 Stage targeted the kids with celebs from American Idol, America’s Got Talent and Disney Channel. This week, the Big Fun includes Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dave Mason playing tonight, Jim Messina on Wednesday and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts on Friday. All shows are free, but you can also buy seats up front and close to the action.

If you are a fan, resolve to join in on some community goodness and dance to the summer songs of yesterday.

Murder most foul requested

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. $30,000 of lighting and sound equipment has been stolen from the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival. I have trouble imagining the pigs that would commit this sin against art, but men are men, the best sometimes forget, and expectation is the root of all heartache.

Shows have been rescheduled to perform in daylight and reduced in price to attract patrons. What is past is prologue and what’s done can’t be undone, so let’s show some support to them, as an overflow of good converts to bad and pleasure and action make the hours seem short. Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. I would go on, but brevity is the soul of wit.

The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival performs at the William A. Carroll Amphitheatre in William Land Park behind Fairytale Town across from the Sacramento Zoo. Make donations here to help them out.

UPDATE: The case is breaking and some equipment has already been recovered, including the light board and a box of microphones!

Discount cats

Cats are on sale at the Sacramento Animal Shelter for only 99 cents.

Need a new cat?
Looking for something fuzzy to stroke? Want a new friend for you and your pets? Tired of referring to the mangy stray in the alley as “my cat?” The Sacramento Animal Shelter has annouced that all cats, young and old, adorable and terrifying, are only 99 cents. This price includes vaccinations, microchip, collar, tag and a bag of food.

Sale ends September 1st, so act today!

Shaq Thompson is 0-32 as a pro baseball player UPDATED: 0-39

Shaq Thompson, the Grant High School football star headed to Washington in the fall to play big time college football, is playing professional baseball this summer as an outfielder for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. How is he doing so far? Epic fail. Thompson is 0-32 with 31 strikeouts. Yes, that’s correct: 31 strikeouts and 1 infield grounder (which produced an RBI, however).

I’m with Bleacher Report’s Michael Felder on this. I think it’s awesome that Thompson is playing pro baseball, and the maturity and humility he’ll gain from this will serve him well when he is playing D-1 football. Let’s all root for Shaq to break out of his slump!

UPDATED 7/30: The long national nightmare is over; Shaq is reporting for Pac-12 football on Thursday. His minor league career ends at 0-39 with 37 strikeouts. There’s nowhere to go but up!