Tom Duhain: King For a Day?

Tom Duhain; Edward Woodward
Left: KCRA’s Tom Duhain;
Right: “The Wicker Man”‘s Edward Woodward

I had never seen the cult classic “The Wicker Man,” which has been in rotation on IFC, until last night. The resemblance between KCRA’s solid reporter Tom Duhain and Ed Woodward’s Christian martyr Sgt. Neil Howie is too great to pass without comment on The Sac Rag. As you can see in the picture, however, Duhain’s standard expression is the smile of the ultimate news professional, and I don’t think Woodward cracks a smile once (who can blame him, with all those filthy heathens, right?).

Cruiser Chick(s) revealed!

Much the same way the now infamous photo of Sasquatch was engrained in our minds as youngsters, I couldn’t believe my eyes this afternoon when I came across a gaggle of cruiser chicks on Alhambra. As promised, I quickly reached for my low resolution camera phone to capture this moment for eternity. As you can imagine this illusion departed as fast as it arrived. But not before my Sprint LG went to work thus pulling back the curtain on one of the most puzzling mysteries in Sacramento history. Cruiser chick, I’ve outted you!

Kasbah Lounge

Last night, after taking in the show at Arco Arena…What show you say? Well, Disney on Ice of course, duh. Anyway, after experiencing that cultural blitzkrieg, my lovely companion and I needed something more mellow. How bout Tapas? How bout Ink? Wait, wait, I know, let’s try that Kasbah lounge, we haven’t been there yet? So we went.

Let me just give you a quick summation of my internal thoughts as we spent an hour at the Kasbah:
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BASE Jumper Tragedy of ’05

Was it just my wife and me, or was the BASE jumper story last night the funniest local news piece in a while? I don’t think print reports do it justice; to really get the local flavor of this story of a daredevil yahoo jumping off a TV tower and getting stuck on his parachute about 200 feet up, you had to see Miguel Almaguer reporting live from the scene for the 10:00 news on WB58. (Was it a slow night for TV or what? We actually found ourselves watching “Joey” for like 5 minutes. We were eating May Flower at the time so our hands were occupied.)

Unfortunately the video clip on wb58tv.com does not contain video of Almaguer with his makeshift model of the tower and the guide wires that the jumper was caught on, which he used to demonstrate the different scenarios firefighters were considering for freeing the idiot. He did not, unfortunately, use a GI Joe figurine to stand in for the nimrod, who has titanium rods in his legs from a previous unsuccessful jump. Dumbass.
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Sacramento radio throws in the towel

Although I really don’t know anyone that regularly listens to FM radio anymore, I did notice that the local station (93.7) that airs the “Howard Stern Show” recently switched formats in preparation for his December departure to satellite. Now I am not saying I listen to the Stern show, that’s like admitting you shop at Wal-Mart…sort of…I just happened upon this radio station while my iPod’s FM transmitter was syncing up, yeah, that’s what happened.

This new format you ask? Jack FM. Just one visit to their lame Web site will give you an idea of the cheese that is Jack. And this name thing for radio stations really bugs. It’s not new, I know, but come on, it’s a radio station. Here’s a good article about the switch (it’s to the sacbee! and it’s good! it CAN happen).
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Cafe Rolle

For those of you old-school suburbanites who reside in the narrowly defined neighborhood known as East-Sac (which encompasses an area roughly one block square staring and ending on H St and a fixed point on a graph defined by a the equation X+Y=Elvas) you already know about Café Rolle. But, for those of you that don’t know of its allure, you have truly been missing out on some hot “joie-de-vive” action.

Café Rolle, in its simplest incarnation, is French food with panache. (For those of you who are not Francophones, “rolle” is French for “what a ball does when you throw it down a hill,” and “panache” is French for “panache.”) I had always heard of Rolle referenced as a lunch place, which seemed odd to me since French cooking and lunchtime eating usually don’t go together in my mind. Mais oui! (But yes) This place is a luncheon fantasy of good smells, great visuals and above all, indulgently delicious food that is luncheriffique (made-up word).
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Mason’s: So Far, the Best

Mason’s is where it’s AT! (And that’s saying a lot since I rarely end sentences with prepositions.) I checked out Mason’s, it’s my new fave. Design: uber-modern. People: probably too early to tell, but I spied mostly polished, semi-hoity-toity types. Service: impeccable (one of my friends found it annoyingly constant, though). Bar menu: lengthy and of the best quality. And let’s not forget about location. I don’t mean geographic, I mean proximity – to other bar venues.

Several years ago, most of Sac’s good bars were isolated. Meaning you’d have to DRIVE in order to bar hop. (I am not really a fan of bar hopping for its own sake, rather I like to have the option to go next door if my original destination is too crowded. Or empty. Or boring.) I remember the Centro/Blue Cue/Harlow’s corner was convenient …
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Let’s Talk Talking Heads

And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here? Just kidding. I feel like dishing about local news personalities. Today it’s Paul Joncich and Eileen Javora. I like Joncich because he’s not afraid to get caught with his arms crossed when the camera cuts back to the anchor desk shot. It goes a long way toward creating the persona of a no-nonsense newsman. I mean look at that biography: 2 Emmys, who knew! and “one of the first local television reporters in the country to visit the Soviet Union after the fall of communism.” That’s some resume.

The thing about Eileen Javora is that I fear she might be a cyborg. Try to guess how old she is–she could be anywhere from 23 to 42 as far as I can tell, and until KCRA releases a full DNA test I will continue to use whatever public power I have to out her as an ageless half-robot.