U.C. Merced opens its doors

When I was in high school (oh so long ago) there was talk of a new UC in Merced. There were banners and celebrations and I remember thinking that this was a good thing for the otherwise faceless San Joaquin Valley (faceless to us who lived large in the facemore booming foothills of California’s Mother Lode). At any rate, a few years went by and the talk died down and the news started to dwindle, or perhaps my interest in it did.

Well what do you know? The new U.C. Merced is up and running and ready to take on Turkey Tech…err, the world! I was wondering what sort of aspiring, young high school grads will have their eyes set on UCM when I came across this quote from an article at News10.net:
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Flickr: Photos from Big Fun

So the State Fair is over. The CoolDMZ clan didn’t get a chance to go, though we were thinking about it this fine Labor Day weekend. To see what you missed, or to help jog your memory if you had too many deep fried delicacies and blacked out, check out these Big Fun ’05 tagged Flickr photos that I found via Get in the Sac.

A few Administrative tidbits: Contrary to popular belief, comments on The Sac Rag are not moderated, but merely checked by humans in order to obliterate spam. Fortunately, comments by people who have previously commented can be automatically accepted, it turns out. In case some of them are coming back ever, which at this point is kinda 50/50. Also, comments on The Sac Rag reflect the respective opinions of the commenters, even if the commenters are Sac Rag contributors.

50 Years of Horror

Well, moving on… Did anybody else see the head-to-head 50 year anniversary specials on KCRA and News10 on Saturday night? One thing it proved to me is that local news shows see horrific local tragedies and think it’s their time to shine. The parade of memorable moments from both stations seemed more like a “Here’s to the worst things you’ve lived through” marathon. But as usual, with a local angle. For example, here is News10’s page dedicated to its top stories of the 70s and 80s. Explosions, crashes, disasters, murder, and Elvis. One of the most horrifying segments my wife and I witnessed was the capture of a kidnapper, caught on tape by News10. During the report, police on the scene discovered, in real time, another missing girl in a cardboard box in the creep’s trunk. Live on the TV news!
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Spray now, we’ll discuss the details later

Wanted to follow up on the WNV epidemic from a few weeks ago. It turns out that it is going to be very difficult to determine whether or not the abrupt spraying of pesticide over our homes even worked! According to a sacbee.com article, “it may be impossible ever to draw firm scientific conclusions on how much the pesticide treatments helped to stem the West Nile virus.” Apparently, this has a lot to do with budget restraints on the vector control agency.

I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but aren’t budgets the sort of thing you work out in advance? Like, maybe a year or so? Perhaps when we were told last year that this virus was out there and potentially could hit us hard if we didn’t wear long sleeved shirts, spray on the DEET, and stay inside during peak skeeter hours, the powers that be could have also been preparing themselves fiscally. Realizing that this could get to a point where mass spraying of potentially cancer causing chemicals would be required.

I don’t know, just seems a little Bush league (pun intended) to drop this stuff on us with no real, shall we say, exit strategy? (hey, we’re kicking it up a notch here at the rag so work with me!)

Three-Way Thai

It seems like Thai restaurants are popping up faster than teenage wood at the new Hooters joint at Arden fair. While they might not contain sweater meat and rib cushions in profusion, Thai restaurants usually provide an exciting array of uniquely spiced dishes, crisp Asian beer and creative head-dresses.

I’m not sure when it was that Thai went from fringe ethic eats to mainstream American diet, but I knew when I saw a “Taste of Bangkok” booth at the state fair that Thai food had definitely arrived. Let’s talk about the three I’ve eaten at most recently:
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We report, you throw up

Thanks to Sac Rag reader “Lofter” for bringing to our attention the Good Day Sacramento story on conditions at Rice Bowl restaurant this morning. I didn’t see it either but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that i’m 101% sure sac-eats was not crediting with breaking that story. But did anybody see the story? I’d love to hear from you.

P.S. My one story about “The Loft” which I assume refers to the über cool rock venue of the same name is that I borrowed a copy of Deleuze & Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus from the book racks there and never returned it. Because what are they gonna do, demand that I follow society’s rules?

(Actually I’m not sure if I returned it or not. If it was the night I got spit on there then I might not have gone back after that. If you’re still fired up I’ll totally get you a new copy. Although sheesh, $19.95, capitalism at its finest.)

Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

On my way into work this morning, I was listening to the radio and caught an interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on KSAC. It hit me hard, because despite what you hear from other interviews and press conferences, you could hear the frustration and desperation in his voice – someone who is at the scene and is trying to deal with the catastrophe at the ground level.

At first, it didn’t occur to me to post anything about the disaster, because it wasn’t exactly a local story. But, I’m sure all of our thoughts and prayers are with those who are suffering along the Gulf Coast. I would encourage anyone and everyone to try and help out anyway they can, if even by way of a donation to the Red Cross (1-800-HELP-NOW) or another appropriate relief organization.

Th’ Losing Streaks need our help

Via BeatNonStop, a blog by SacBee music guy Chris Macias (big ups to whom, by the way, are due for daring to pose for that picture), although really I heard this first from Heckasac (see, that’s called a “hyperlink,” you use it to alert Web site readers that you’re including a reference to another site on the Internet) Th’ Losin’ Streaks and formerly The Troublemakers lead singer Tim Foster had a burglary at his Oak Park pad and got a bunch of stuff stolen. Not a group to take tragedy lying down in a puddle of Red Stripe and bong water, the local Sacto music scene is staging a benefit concert!

Because if there’s one event out there right now that has victimized innocent peoples’ property, and put them at the mercy of our generosity, it’s the theft of vintage guitars from a Sacramento musician!