Sacramento Comedy Spot Grand Re-Opening This Weekend

sacramentocomd16dMoving from its humble digs on Broadway, the Sacramento Comedy Spot — the city’s premier destination for improv, sketch, and stand-up comedy – opens Friday at its new location in the Marrs Building on 20th and J in the heart of midtown. The Spot has been putting on some of Sacramento’s best improvised and sketch comedy shows for almost a decade. If you like shows like Saturday Night Live, and Who’s Line is it Anyway?, this is the comedy club for you. Friday’s shows feature the Anti-Cooperation League, Sacramento’s longest running long-form improv group, at 9pm and Throwdown, a competitive improv and stand-up battle, at 10:30pm. Tickets are only $8 per show and are nearly sold out. Shows run Saturday and Sunday as well starting at 8pm.

Check the Sacramento Comedy Spot’s website for information on show times, tickets, and a schedule of classes where you can learn how perform improv, write sketches, and put together a stand-up act worthy of the club circuit. www.saccomedyspot.com

KSSU destroys at CMJ!

KSSU takes Station of the Year at 2009 College Music Journal awards!

The College Music Journal is one of the largest and most influential publications for the college radio industry. Seattle’s KEXP has won Station of the Year honors since the inception of their annual awards… until this year.

The hard work and keen ears of Sac State’s student run station KSSU was recognized with twelve nominations in major award categories. This year, KSSU defeated other stations that have paid professional staff, a larger audience and better funding with their tireless dedication to music and to our community. You should reward their efforts by tuning in and getting a taste of Sacramento’s only source for alternative radio.

2009 CMJ Awards for KSSU
Station of the Year
Music Director of the Year – Suzie Kuo
Biggest Community Resource
Best Use of Limited Resources
Best Student-Run Station

“Spring Awakening” Contest winner

And we have a winner: Kassie Rivera, a local actress, correctly answered our trivia question, which was:

What musical was performed in Sacramento by a local theater company with the musical numbers done in reverse order, and then after only one performance had all subsequent shows cancelled by order of the composer?

The answer: Merrily We Roll Along, by the inimitable Stephen Sondheim. The script for this play unfolds backwards, so this appears to have been an attempt to turn it back to regular. Kassie will be seeing “Spring Awakening” in recognition of her local theater trivia pwnage. Congratulations Kassie!

That was fun, you’ll definitely be seeing more contests here in the future.

The tall ship is here!

Hawaiian Chieftain
Creative Commons License photo credit: timmycorkery

The Hawaiian Chieftain, “a replica of a typical European merchant trader of the turn of the nineteenth century,” has docked in Old Sacramento for Adventure Cruises:

Our three-hour family-oriented Adventure Sail features a living history experience with demonstrations of tall ship handling, sea shanty singing, and maritime storytelling.

Tickets are pricey, but come on, shanty singing.

Historical Seaport Web site

Sacramento Seen in Green: City Voted 7th on Environment

Back in 2002, Sacramento earned an award from Time Magazine for being the most diverse city in the nation. It’s still a badge of honor we wear proudly, and it’s time to add another star to our uniform. Sacramento has officially been ranked the 7th “Smarter City” by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Basically, we’re mean on being green.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) didn’t pass out this honor lightly. Their mission is to “protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth.” Birds, bees, trees, you, and me—the NRDC is trying to protect us all. Their “Smarter City” ranking drew upon a number of environmentally-friendly criteria, breaking down the results by city size. Sacramento was measured in the “large city” grid along with jolly green giants San Francisco, Seattle, and the like.  

Continue reading “Sacramento Seen in Green: City Voted 7th on Environment”

Boo at the Zoo

We took the family to “Boo at the Zoo” for some Halloween revelry Saturday night. It was a great costume party for the whole town, and it seemed like the whole town was there — they might want to open up a little bit more of the zoo next year. Since they had the train going down the main avenue I take it that area is not off limits at night: they should probably open that up to take some of the strain off the narrow walkways around the pond. The dance party tent was a great addition.

The best costume I saw on a grownup was a guy in a Halo soldier costume wearing an apron and carrying a spatula: “Master Chef.” Nice work, whoever you are. I also saw a totally scary Ray Trethaway costume. 🙂

Gift suggestion: “Images of America” books

The “Images of America” books make a perfect holiday present for the local history fan in your family.

With more than two hundred vintage black-and-white photographs, each title celebrates a town or region, bringing to life the people, places, and events that define the community.

From the publisher’s website. Click on the link below, or the book cover image to the right, to buy one or 5 or 10 today and make the Sac Rag a few cents.

“Images of America: California” – Sacramento neighborhoods and beyond

No Impact Man: Film Review

NoImpactManCould you live one year without electricity, toilet paper, toothpaste, or your car? One New York City man embarked on this seemingly impossible journey with his family. The results were filmed for the documentary No Impact Man, which opened at the Crest Theater yesterday. The film compliments the best-selling book by the same name.

Colin Beavan is a history writer with an environmental worldview. When he realizes that his lifestyle doesn’t live up to his own expectations, and that his writing falls short of fully expressing his passions, he embarks on the potentially crazy adventure of becoming No Impact Man: diminishing his environmental footprint. His wife, at first begrudgingly, must join him for the wild ride along with their toddler daughter.

Continue reading “No Impact Man: Film Review”

Hoptoberfest at Rubicon

While dodging the ghosties, ghoulies, and drunk drivers this weekend, beer lovers should take note of Rubicon‘s annual Hoptoberfest celebration. Throughout October, they have featured pale ales, IPAs and double IPAs from brewers across the West Coast. This weekend, all of these beers will be available along with two versions of one of Rubicon’s hoppiest offerings, Hop Sauce.

In addition to well-known standouts from Anchor, Speakeasy, Bear Republic, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas and Deschutes, make sure you sample some great beers that are rarely seen in the area. Sierra Nevada’s new Estate Harvest Ale is creating a huge buzz among beer lovers and is in limited supply. Russian River is best known for the legendary Pliny the Elder, but less appreciated is their stellar house IPA. Moonlight Brewing Bombay by Boat has been a Bay Area favorite for almost two decades but Sacramento native Brian Hunt generally limits his distribution to that section of California. Another Sacramento expatriate, Matt Sager, brewed the impressive Hopsaur for Great Basin. Iron Springs Casey Jones Imperial IPA will make you want to drive that train up to Fairfax to check out their small brewpub with an incredible beer menu.

Complete list of Hoptoberfest offerings after the jump.
Continue reading “Hoptoberfest at Rubicon”

Around the Web today

Our old pal Tom Ziller has his official Kings 2009-2010 preview up at Sactown Royalty. Though since we’ve already played a game I guess that makes it just his view now. “Last Year’s Record: No Comment.” Heh.

And a little blog called the New York Times has “36 Hours in Sacramento.” The discuss Ella, Tower Cafe, Old Sac, the CA budget crisis, and Faces. They also slyly call our “more trees per capita” status into question. It’s not like we say “prettiest trees in the world,” right? It’s a statistical fact that should be easy to confirm. Big city jerks.