Events

Electric night parade to resume in Sacramento — 115 years later

2009-11-30T05:20:35Z

An electric night parade will be held next weekend in Sacramento, reviving a 115-year-old spectacle copied by the Walt Disney Co.

Plans are coming together to hold the city's first night parade since 1895. That parade lit up city streets during the Grand Electric Carnival, which heralded the arrival of electric power in Sacramento.

The Parade of Lights, planned for Saturday, Dec. 5, is expected to be short because organizing only began about a month ago. The parade, which will be held in Midtown, still has time to grow if more people get involved, said organizer Tassina Placencia, who owns Le Petit Paris, 1221 19th St., with her husband Ruben.

With the continuing recession, Sacramento seems to need something beautiful for the community to gather around, Placencia said. Businesses in Midtown and its "Handle District" — the neighborhood centered around the intersection of 18th and Capitol — are also doing more to draw customers during the holidays, she said.

"I thought this year would be a really great year to do it," Placencia said. "It's hard times for everyone. That's when you really need to feel the holiday spirit and feel like you've had a great evening with your friends."

Sacramento's Grand Electric Carnival parade, which celebrated the world's first long-distance electric power transmission from Folsom to Sacramento, was so beautiful that Walt Disney Co. later used that as a model for its Electric Light Parade.

The Old Sacramento Business Association announced in September that they were planning to revive the night parade during winter holiday festivities in 2011.

Next weekend's parade, which is expected to start at 6 p.m., will somewhat conflict with the Capitol City Yacht Club's Lighted Boat Parade, with which the association is involved. That parade starts at 7 p.m. at the Sacramento Marina and motors past Old Sacramento and beyond, said Melissa Martinez, executive director of the Old Sacramento Business Association.

The association won't be able to participate because of the conflict and the short notice, she said. However, they hope to coordinate the parades and combine efforts next year.

"I think it just gives us the opportunity to make it bigger and better and collaborate with more partners who want to bring more activity to the central city," Martinez said.

The roughly one-mile parade route will form a square, starting at 17th Street and Capitol Avenue, then heading up Capitol to 19th Street, north on 19th, and then down L Street back to 17th.

Each entry must be lit, have a holiday theme and be family-oriented. Entry fees were $250, although fees have been waived this year to encourage participation, Placencia said.

So far, 12 entries have signed up. They include the Rivercats, baton twirlers, a lone carol singer, the California Highway Patrol, handbell performers from St. John's Lutheran Church and a lighted Sacramento Fire Department truck. Le Petit Paris will pull a 16-foot lit-up Eiffel Tower on a dolley. Yogurtagogo is entering a decorated cart. A team from Good Day Sacramento will ride in a lighted company vehicle.

The Alfa Romeo Independent Repair shop will sponsor an Alfa Romeo Spider pulled by guys on scooters. Elves or Santa's helpers may ride in the car. But there will be only one Santa — and he will ride in an ornate, horse-led sleigh for the grand finale, Placencia said.

"You don't want to confuse the kids, because that's what it's about," she said. "You don't want kids asking, 'Why are there three Santas?' "

People don't have to build floats to participate. The idea is to create a community event, she said.

"It can be as little or as big and elaborate as your budget allows," said Placencia, who opened Le Petit Paris boutique about four years ago and expanded to include a cafe a year and a half ago.

Placencia moved from Lodi to Midtown 22 years ago. She said Sacramento should be able to have a night parade like one Lodi has held for more than a decade. That parade includes lighted tractors and grape pickers, and vehicles sponsored by banks and auto body shops.

Sacramento's parade could still use school or church choirs, or groups of friends and family groups who sing carols, Placencia said. The parade's pace will be controlled to last at least an hour.

While parades organized by parade companies may cost $20,000 to $30,000, this parade is so far costing less than $2,000, Placencia said.

Midtown Business Association is helping to finance the cost to pay for street closures and police officers staffing barricades (more than $900), bagging parking meters (about $400 - $500) and insurance through the city ($350), she said.

This fall, Placencia asked the city of Sacramento and Midtown Business Association if they were interested in helping to organize the event. She was told there wasn't enough time. She decided to organize a small parade to lay the groundwork for something bigger.

"I thought we could try to do it in this neighborhood to get it off the ground and see the potential," she said. "It just goes to show that if you want something to happen, you really have to do it yourself."

For more information about the parade, call 446-3639.

Photo by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sustainable Sac fundraiser next week

2010-01-12T03:48:27Z

Sacramentans can support sustainability, the environment and decreased use of pesticides at a local fundraiser being held next week.

Pesticide Watch and Slow Food Sacramento are teaming up to host the event, Sustainable Sacramento, on Thursday, Jan. 21. The event will laud local sustainability leaders and raise money for Pesticide Watch, a statewide organization based in Sacramento.

"The commitment and expertise, the money and time that's required to step out and do things differently than the easy, conventional approach to raising and distributing food is something that should be recognized," said Charity Kenyon, membership director for Slow Food Sacramento.

The event will honor Harvest Sacramento, a nonprofit program hatched by two East Sacramento residents to glean excess produce for food banks; Grant High School's GEO Environmental Science and Design Academy, which teaches students how to build healthy, sustainable communities; and Hot Italian, a restaurant that uses local and organic food and composting and is housed in a certified environmentally friendly building.

Local Hmong cook Sheng Yang will also talk about the new book she co-wrote, "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America."

The fundraiser will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at Hot Italian, 1627 16th St. Tickets cost $35. Pizza and organic treats are included.

Pesticide Watch has held this fundraiser for the last two years. This year, Slow Food Sacramento has joined in to co-host the event.

Denver mayor, downtown offer ideas

2010-01-20T05:23:56Z

Denver's mayor was in town Tuesday to talk about downtown arenas and the need for strong mayors — two subjects close to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's heart.

Building an arena downtown could help reinvigorate Sacramento's core, if the success of Colorado's capital city is an indication, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said during the Downtown Sacramento Partnership's annual State of Downtown Breakfast.

Last week, would-be Sacramento arena developers outlined seven proposals for a new "sports and entertainment center" in response to Johnson's request for such proposals. All but two were proposed to be built downtown. The same day, a Sacramento Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling that Johnson's "strong mayor" initiative should not be put on the June ballot.

The arena cannot be anywhere but downtown, partnership board Chairman Kipp Blewett said during his organization's 12th annual breakfast. Speaking to 572 people at the Memorial Auditorium, Blewett said he agrees with the Maloofs and National Basketball Association officials, who are saying they want an "urban" arena.

"Are we a city that can do big things? That question will be answered in the next cycle," Blewett said. "The next decade will look nothing like the last one. The success of this decade will not be defined by suburban sprawl."

Hickenlooper has gotten a lot of credit for Denver's renaissance since first being elected in 2003. He was recruited by Johnson and the business improvement district to speak at the event, just days after Hickenlooper announced he is running for governor of Colorado.

Calling Sacramento "almost a sister city" to Denver, he pointed out many similarities he sees between the two, such as their locations near mountains, campaigns to end homelessness and downtowns that contain a shopping plaza, convention center, and city and county administration buildings.

What Sacramento doesn't have is three sports centers downtown. Denver has Mile High Stadium, Pepsi Center and Coors Field. Downtown Denver's revitalization really took off after the first, Coors Field, was built in 1995 two blocks from Union Station, he said. Businesses like his brewpub, also nearby, saw their sales rocket, and a housing boom was launched.

"People saw downtown was a place they wanted to come," Hickenlooper said.

Another similarity between the two cities is that both are based on the "rugged individualism that opened up the West," he said. That spirit has sometimes meant the ones who got ahead were determined by how hard they worked and whether they're willing to collaborate.

Denver, with a population of nearly 600,000, has benefited by collaborating with neighboring suburbs and through Hickenlooper's desire to collaborate with other politicians, he said.

"You can't get that level of cooperation with a city manager-type system," he said. "You can't have a corporation run by a board of directors and the CEO has little power."

Having a strong mayor helped Denver win all three sports centers from the 'burbs, which mostly had the city manager form of government, he said. Denver played the suburbs against each other and got all three.

The strong mayor system also allowed Hickenlooper to hire experienced people who like to work on the cutting edge for his administration.

"That's one of the benefits of strong mayor. It allows you to bring in a talented group of people," he said. "They're able to inject energy and a large amount of entrepreneurship into a bureaucracy."

Calling Hickenlooper a role model, Johnson vowed during his remarks at the event that he and the Sacramento City Council will learn to collaborate more in coming months.

"We are going to work better together than we have ever worked," Johnson said. "We are going to put Sacramento first when it comes to moving forward."

Photos provided by Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

Rex Ride raises cash for parkway

2009-06-09T03:30:07Z

Bicyclists are gearing up for a Sunday ride to benefit the American River Parkway, which faces reduced funding this year.

By Monday afternoon, 233 people had already signed up for The Rex Ride, a barbecue/party centered around an up-to 60-mile, low-key ride on the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail -- also known as the American River bike trail.

The 32-mile, multi-use trail is used year-round by virtually everyone in Sacramento's huge cycling community, said event organizer Steve Rex, who owns Rex Cycles bike shop in Midtown.

"It's huge. It's the focus of the cycling culture that's really rich here in Sacramento," said Rex, 47. A serious cycling injury last fall isn't stopping Rex and his wife, Peggy, from hosting the event again this year.

Proceeds will be donated to the American River Parkway Foundation in a year when the parkway and other Sacramento County regional parks are facing substantial cuts.

County parks are proposed to get a $2.3 million reduction, which amounts to 14 percent of the originally proposed $16.1 million budget. The annual $2.5 million ranger budget is proposed to be cut by 22 percent. About $550,000 would be cut by laying off five rangers, including three who mostly work the parkway, said Sacramento County Regional Parks Deputy Director Jill Ritzman.

The $1.4 million maintenance budget for the parkway alone is proposed to be cut by $370,000, or 26 percent. Two full-time maintenance workers would be cut. The county parks system also would lose 30 percent of its seasonal help to clean restrooms and empty trash, Ritzman said.

The ride is sponsored by Rex Cycles. The business started in a garage in 1987, when Rex built custom bike frames at a house he rented with several other guys.

Now at his second shop in the central city, Rex and his wife started The Rex Ride in 2003 because they believed riders would want to give back to the regional bike trail that gives them so much year-round.

"We had wanted to do a ride with customers.... throw a party, get people together, say 'thank you,' and have fun. I thought, if we're getting all these people together, why don't we try to raise money for a charity," he said. "That year, there were threats of severe cuts in funding for the parkway. We decided that the parkway foundation would be a good cause."

Since then, cyclists have raised $130,000 for the parkway foundation, said Peggy Rex, an outpatient surgery nurse at Mercy General Hospital.

Riding actually brought the pair together. They met at Bici Sport, a bike shop that used to operate in East Sacramento.

He got into road racing in college, followed by endurance riding. The couple has done the 760-mile Paris-Brest-Paris ride together in France.

The Rex Ride is a fraction of that. Sign-in runs from 7 to 8:30 a.m. at William Pond Recreation Area near Arden Way and Fair Oaks Boulevard. The route then travels into the city to Discovery Park, where cyclists turn around and head out to Beal's Point in Folsom. The final leg returns to William Pond park.

Cyclists can ride as long as they want. The $70 fee includes rest stops with food and liquids, a T-shirt and other swag and raffle prizes such as a Fat Tire Ale cruiser bike from New Belgium Brewing Co. Those who want to skip the riding can still hit the barbecue party for $25.

Steve Rex is still recovering from a bike crash last fall. He was doing a long and fast weekend training ride with about 50 other riders on El Centro Road near Sacramento International Airport in North Natomas. His hip and elbow were broken in a smash-up when another rider crashed in front of him. He was bedridden for a month.

Two employees kept the shop going while he recuperated. His femur is a different shape now, and he has problems with range of motion. Rex can ride 10 miles into work on the American River bike trail. But he still can't ride more than 50 miles, and he feels pain when he rides. He starts to limp by day's end.

"But I'm blessed to be able to ride my bike and get back to work and just be able to ride," he said.

As a result of the proposed cuts, Sacramento County Regional Parks may have to eliminate its ranger patrol dedicated to illegal camping. Response times for crimes and accidents in the parkways would be longer, Ritzman said. Also, less-popular park sites will be closed.

Money raised by the Rex Ride helps the parkway foundation manage a volunteer program that "augments" staff resources, she said.

"They're not out cleaning up restrooms or rousting homeless folks. But they are doing trail maintenance and protecting natural resources and doing litter pickup," she said.

Steve and Peggy Rex say the bike trail is "very dear" to them. That's why they sponsor the annual event.

"It's about taking care of our most incredible resource in town," she said. "We go all-out. It's a pretty fun day."

To register for the event, go to www.arpf.org.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.

Air Force Week

2009-09-03T03:32:11Z

The secretary of the U.S. Air Force and the commander of Air Mobility Command will visit Sacramento during Air Force Week, which starts Saturday.

Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Mobility Command's Gen. Arthur Lichte will appear at an Air Force Week proclamation ceremony at the Capitol at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8. They'll also take part in a private leadership forum held the following day at Sacramento State Alumni Center.

The Air Force chief of staff created Air Force Weeks in 2006 as a recruiting tool and to show Air Force capabilities. Nine of them have been held around the country from 2006 through 2008. Sacramento hosted an Air Force Week in 2007.

This year, Air Force Weeks are being held in Sacramento, Virginia and Utah.

The week kicks off with the Mather Mud Run at 7 a.m. at Hagan Park in Rancho Cordova. On Sept. 6 and 7, airmen in the group, Tops in Blues, will dance and perform music and comedy at the California State Fair at 7:30 p.m.

More events will be held each day in the area, including a showing of Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Esquire IMAX Theatre and a free Aaron Tippin concert at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Capitol.

The week culminates in Air Force participation in the California Capital Airshow Sept. 12 and 13.

For more information about Air Force Week, check out airforceweek.af.mil/sacramento.

Artisan bartenders compete during Cocktail Week

2009-08-07T02:05:26Z

It takes more than just top-shelf liquor to make a fine cocktail.

It takes creativity with quality ingredients, inventive bartenders to mix them and establishments that like to be on the cutting edge.

Starting Monday, the second annual Midtown Cocktail Week Sacramento begins a celebration of really good cocktails and the culture behind them: the people, the places, the spirits and the innovation of the city's growing artisan cocktail movement.

"The cocktail movement -- it's just a movement toward quality," said 31-year-old bartender Erick Castro, considered by some to be the "godfather" of Sacramento's cocktail scene. "It's like the rebirth of a craft. And when you get down to it, it just tastes better."

Castro and Zocalo's General Manager Joe Anthony Savala came up with the idea for a Sacramento "Cocktail Week" after taking trips together into San Francisco and seeing how popular cocktails have become there again. Castro was a bartender at Zocalo at the time.

The art and craft of making those cocktails is known as mixology. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Lounge on 20 is hosting a mixology competition to test the skill and artistry of at least six people working at bars in Midtown and downtown. Each "mixologist" will create a cocktail using Beefeater 24, a tea-infused gin introduced last fall.

Competitors include Ricky Paiva of Zocalo, Russell Eastman of Lounge on 20 and Dan Mitchell of Mulvaney's at the B & L.

Ricky Paiva, Zocalo

Ricky Paiva goes to farmers' markets as often as he can. As Zocalo's new lead bartender, he picks up fresh, local produce to make such concoctions as peach-infused tequila and grapefruit/hibiscus salt for the artisan cocktails he creates. He recently returned to Sacramento after six years in Portland. There, he managed a full-on "scratch bar" where he made everything but the liquor from scratch.

The 27-year-old, who's worked at Zocalo only two months, is known for taking what's available and putting together something new. He just invented a cool, creamy, spiced-chocolate cocktail using a limited-release Mole Poblano vodka after Savala got his hands on a few bottles. The mixed drink is so new, Paiva hasn't even named it. He spends "happy hours" mixing, shaking and pouring behind the restaurant's romantic, curvy marble bar. His passion for cocktails made him a natural hire at a restaurant that already pays someone to squeeze fresh lime juice for margaritas and mojitos eight hours a day.

"I try to do everything as seasonally as possible," he said.

Russell Eastman, Lounge on 20

Over at Lounge on 20, "cocktologist" Russell Eastman likes to create balanced cocktails -- not too sweet, not too tart -- that accentuate the liquor. His drinks focus on fruit and may contain obscure ingredients like Campari Italian bitters or yellow Chartreuse liqueur.

Castro recruited Eastman to become lead bartender when the bar opened last year. Eastman said he took the job because the bar is one of the few in town that let bartenders experiment. Clients who know him will sit down at the sleek white bar and let him make whatever he wants. The 28-year-old is guiding the bartending staff in mixology and cocktail recipe creation.

"We do killer cocktails," he said.

Dan Mitchell, Mulvaney's at the B & L

Customers bring home-grown fruit into Mulvaney's so bartender Dan Mitchell can make flavored vodkas, gins and rums. He grew up in the restaurant business and has been making all of his own flavored spirits for about six years.

Bottles of Meyer's lemon and mandarin orange vodkas sat behind the cozy dark-wood bar, while a batch of peach gin was still two days away from being done. He also makes his own bitters from locally distilled moonshine. The 40-year-old puts as much personality as creativity into his bartending. Loyal clients follow him wherever he goes to create drinks like pomegranate martinis. But don't call him a mixologist. "I'm a bartender!" he said.

* * *

Other competitors work behind the plank at establishments including L Wine Lounge, Mix and Ella, Savala said.

The artisan cocktail trend emphasizes the use of fresh ingredients made from scratch rather than pre-made, packaged juices, flavored liquors, syrups and the like, which have added chemicals.

The growing trend to eat more healthy food without harmful additives seems to have spun off into a similar trend with cocktails, Castro said.

These bartenders are often more knowledgeable about what it takes to make high-quality drinks than the average person tending bar. They also spend extra time making things like fresh juices, infused spirits and other ingredients that go into these craft cocktails, said Sonny Mayugba, a foodie and cocktail connoisseur who sits on the event's planning committee.

"This is about discovering you can go out to a guy like Russell and have a wonderful, most amazing cocktail that rivals a great meal -- not by filling you up, but like a tasty piece of food that a chef created," he said.

Mayugba, who also directs business development for The Sacramento Press, got involved with cocktail week last year as the founder of biteclub.com, a niche network for Sacramento's service industry. Through his involvement, Sacramento Press is handling social media networking for the event.

The latest wave in the popularity of cocktails first took off in San Francisco, New York and London several years ago. Sacramento bartenders brought it here shortly after, but the movement has really only caught on in the last year or two, said Garrett Hintze, general manager for Lounge on 20.

"It's at the grass roots level right now," he said.

Sacramentans will have an opportunity to see talented mixologists at work and taste their creations throughout Midtown Cocktail Week, which includes the "Opening Party" at 6 p.m. Monday at L Wine Lounge, 1801 L St.; "Pig Roast & Harvest Drinks" at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Mulvaney's, 1215 19th St.; "Latin Spirits Night" at 6 p.m. Thursday at Zocalo, 1801 Capitol Ave.; a cocktails and food pairing featuring fresh pear martinis, fresh kiwi drops and orange-pomegranate martinis made with Grey Goose vodka at 6 p.m. Saturday at Ink Eats & Drinks, 2730 N St.; and the "Closing Party" at 8 p.m. Sunday at Mix, 16th and L streets.

At 9 p.m. Friday, Castro will be guest bartending a "Crafted Punch Party" at Paragary's Bar & Oven patio, 1401 28th St.

While the events are free, sampling drinks is not. Mulvaney's roast costs $50 per person and includes all food and drinks.

If you want to learn how to make tasty cocktails yourself, Dragonfly at 1809 Capitol Ave. is hosting a "Cocktail Creation Class" at 4 p.m. Saturday. Space is limited. The class will be taught by San Francisco's celebrity bartender Jon Santer, who created a drink called The Revolver for the city's first reservations-only speakeasy, Bourbon & Branch. Register at www.midtowncocktailweek.org.

Castro will help teach the class as well. He left for San Francisco's cocktail scene a year ago, after working as a consultant beverage director to open Lounge on 20. Castro created the bar program, then hired and trained the bartenders. He now works as beverage director for the Financial District's Rick House and teaches a "Cocktail 101" class at Bourbon & Branch, where you can still get one of his carefully crafted drinks on nights he tends bar.

Sacramento's location near trendsetting San Francisco and access to California's fresh-picked produce year-round helped the cocktail movement become well-established here long before other areas, he said.

"In all this, Sacramento is doing well on a national scale. People in Sacramento were making quality cocktails sooner than a lot of bigger cities across the country," Castro said. "It's just phenomenal what's happening right now. And it's taking off across the whole country."

For more information, check out www.midtowncocktailweek.org.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 916-804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.

Air show is big business

2009-09-03T03:30:47Z

The California Capital Airshow will bring more than Thunderbirds, Raptors and historic warplanes to the Sacramento area.

The show is expected to draw at least 70,000 spectators and an estimated $7.4 million to the local economy, which would be on par with last year. The fourth annual airshow will be held Sept. 12 and 13 at Mather Airport, the former U.S. Air Force base. Organizers decided to schedule the event in late summer after last year's show was held on a cold, blustery March weekend.

This year, Air Force Week. will be held in various locations around Sacramento the week before the airshow.

Pilots and airplane enthusiasts aren't the only movers and shakers behind the airshow. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Mather Airport officials and business leaders also have been working to bring the show and its financial benefits to the area.

"This is one of the biggest draws to our region," said developer/business owner Aaron Zeff, as he spent a recent Friday promoting the airshow by flying media representatives and other guests in his yellow Scout seaplane.

Zeff flew F-4 Phantom supersonic jet fighters in the Air Force before becoming a business owner. As a show sponsor, Zeff and staff from his company, Priority Parking, will manage parking for the airshow. The professional parking organization will help maximize space and is expected to help prevent traffic backups on Highway 50, said Darcy Brewer, the airshow's executive director.

From about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the show will feature aerobatics and other performances in military and civilian planes flown by pilots aged 22 to 88. Nearly 100 planes — including rare aircraft — spanning eight decades of flight will be on display on the airport's tarmac. Those will include PT 17 Stearman biplanes, the Aero L-30 Albatros from the Czech Republic, the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, a Coast Guard C-130, a B-52 Stratofortress, the F-22 Raptor and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

"Our whole mission is to inspire kids of all ages to do something exciting," she said.

For the first time in the civilian airshow's short history, tickets have been sold more than 30 days in advance. Sales began last December. As of Tuesday, $40,000 in tickets had been sold, compared to $5,900 in tickets sold at this same time last year, said Steve Hammond, president and chief executive officer of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau and an airshow board member.

The show has drawn as many as 100,000 people. While some show organizers believe that record could be broken this year, the visitors bureau believes the recession will keep the number closer to last year's 70,000, he added.

Mather Air Force Base personnel entertained the region with a military airshow for years until the base was decommissioned in 1993. Local residents went without an airshow until California Capital Airshow was launched four years ago as a one-day event. The county board and Sacramento International Airport system leaders wanted to bring an airshow back to Sacramento. They put together a board of directors, which included some pilots, and hired a company to recruit performers for the show.

Turnout at the first airshow was so large, the show became a two-day event the next year. The show has quickly become one of the country's top 40 airshows, in terms of attendance, and is believed to be the biggest in Northern California, said Brewer.

Much of the spending by airshow visitors is expected in Mather and neighboring Rancho Cordova. Already, 600 hotel rooms, primarily in Rancho Cordova, have been booked for visiting pilots such as the Blue Angels, plane crews and attendees, Hammond said.

"Typically, people think of these kinds of things as only impacting hotels and restaurants," he said. "They certainly get the lion's share of the expenditures."

In addition, gas stations around Mather Field will do very well because the airshow has a big "drive-in market," he said. Only 20 percent of the spectators come from outside the greater Sacramento area. Souvenir sellers on show grounds and other area attractions, such as Old Sacramento and museums, will also benefit, he said.

The visitors bureau has helped promote the airshow, booked the hotels and arranged an Aaron Tippin concert at the Capitol Friday, Sept. 11, for Air Force Week. During the show, Hammond will devote his time to talking with show sponsors in the VIP area, to make sure they get the deliverables they were promised for supporting the show and that they're happy enough to sponsor the show next year.

"We want to make sure our sponsors get good value for the money they invest," he said.

Large, regional events like this don't just bring one-time spending to the local economy. They also help the economy over a longer period by creating the kind of visibility that can help attract companies, development and residents, said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"It's media you couldn't afford to purchase," he said. "The airshow is a great regional-identity event. The more we continue to support events like this, the more these events will keep coming back."

General seating tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate and free for kids under 13. Reserved seating tickets are $40 for adults, $20 for kids under 13. Parking is $10/vehicle. Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates will provide bike parking.

Airshow tickets include free rides on all light rail trains to/from the Mather Fields/Mills station, and on airshow buses from the station to the airshow gate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information about the airshow, call 876-7568 or go to californiacapitalairshow.com. For more information about Air Force Week, check out airforceweek.af.mil/sacramento.

Photos by Eric Whalen

Perspectives 2009 welcomes VIPs

2009-10-09T04:33:32Z

The Sacramento Metro Chamber office has been buzzing this week as Chief Executive Officer Matt Mahood and the rest of the staff finished last-minute details for their big annual event.

One of the most important things they've done to prepare for Friday's "Perspectives 2009: An American Experience" is to work closely with each of the nationally recognized guest speakers.

Surrounded by signed and framed programs from past Perspectives, Mahood talked earlier this week by phone with speakers preparing for their presentations.

The work continued Thursday when speakers started flying in from around the country and Metro Chamber staff became chaperones for the VIPs. Such behind-the-scenes work does more than ensure all the speakers enjoy their time in California's capital. It also has won the city good PR from very high-profile people, from former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright to boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien.

"Every time we have a speaker come here and they have a great experience, they go back and they tell people about Sacramento," Mahood said. "We dot all the i's and cross all the t's and make sure there's icing on the cake, so when they leave, they can say, 'Wow, Sacramento's really cool ... and they really know how to treat people well there.' "

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will headline at the 15th annual Perspectives, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St. The lineup also includes "Flags of Our Fathers" author James Bradley, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, personal finance guru Jane Bryant Quinn and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson. Their presentations will share the theme of turning challenge and adversity into opportunity and even success.

Roughly 3,500 people have turned out for the forum in peak years, but the Metro Chamber expects only about 2,000 Friday due to the recession.

In the last 15 years, the event has brought many sought-after speakers to Sacramento. In 1995, its inaugural year, President George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who would become vice president under Bush's son, shared their views. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke in 2001, before he entered politics, and former U.S. Senator Bob Dole came here in 2006.

Speaker fees range from $10,000 for unknown guests to $200,000 plus expenses for former presidents and heads of state, who are flown in on private aircraft.

Metro Chamber staff greet guests at the airport and check them into luxury hotels. They will escort the speakers to the convention center for the event Friday, as well as to other VIP events and elsewhere around town.

Lawrence Summers, President Clinton's secretary of the treasury, was one of the guests who had positive things to say after his experience in Sacramento.

"He goes, 'Man, you guys should be doing this all over the country. This is such a great event,' " Mahood said. "I laughed, knowing how hard it is to do one."

Volunteers help at the event, but logistics are handled only by the Metro Chamber's staff of 25.

"The entire chamber staff is all hands on deck," said Mahood, who also serves as the organization's president.

The public affairs speakers forum was launched to mark the Metro Chamber's 100th anniversary. Since then, Perspectives has become the chamber's signature event, Mahood said. Speakers' rosters that included motivational speakers and people representatives from both of the two major political parties have grown to include entertainers and intellectuals.

Rice is returning for the second time. She first spoke at the event in 2000, before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and before she became President George W. Bush's national security advisor and later, secretary of state. At that time, Rice was a political science professor at Stanford University and Bush was running for president.

Now, she brings significant political experience and a high-level understanding of complex international and security issues, Mahood said.

"I think she comes back eight years later with a whole new perspective," he said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Kings fans show their love

2009-10-10T04:10:22Z

A wide range of Kings fans turned out throughout the region Friday night to meet this season's players.

From an 11-week-old fan who's barely got his eyes open to a law firm receptionist whose eyes were painted Kings purple, the fans came out to show their devotion as the team prepares to start its 2009-10 season. The team has a new coach, Paul Westphal, and six new players under contract.

Some of the team's biggest fans were kids. Jack Lyons, Matthew Jackson and several other big-eyed fourth-graders from Crocker/Riverside Elementary School in Sacramento posed for photos with first-draft-pick Tyreke Evans, a rookie point guard, and Lanny Smith, a training camp invitee.

"It's my first time meeting the Kings players," said Matthew, who borrowed a Kings jersey for the event at the Wells Fargo Center, 400 Capitol Mall. About 200 people showed up there, while more fans greeted Kings at Arco Arena, Raley's in Fair Oaks and an Orangevale football game. Kings players will show their fan appreciation Saturday as well. For more on Saturday's events and a contest to win Kings' tickets and a chance to sit in the press box, click here.

Land Park resident Amber Lyons, who's been a fan since high school, and her friend Geoff Brewer, a purchaser for the state Department of General Services, brought their four kids and the kids' friends to meet the players.

"We've always just been Kings fans," said Lyons. "I think we're really lucky to have a professional team in Sacramento, and I hope we don't lose them."

Felipe Martin, who works at the Wells Fargo Center, brought his three kids to meet the players. But it's his 12-year-old, Elizabeth, who's wild about the Kings. She became a huge fan three years ago, when her dad took her to her first Kings game.

A lawyer who also works in the building gave Martin two free tickets. The seats were in the center of the second row. Martin took Elizabeth, who'd just started playing basketball.

"I thought that they were cool — and they could really play basketball," she said. Friday, she had a photo taken with Evans and Smith, while her brother got a photo with Sacramento Kings Dance Team members Becca and Sasha.

She and her father have watched a few more games in person, although they sat in the cheap seats, high up in the stands.

"To me, I think live (games) is much better. More exciting," said Martin, 33.

Chris and Sharon Thompson of Eldorado Hills brought their three boys — 9-year-old Jack, 5-year-old Aaron and 11-week-old Cade. Jack and Aaron worked hard in the car on the way to the event, scrubbing souvenir basketballs clean with baby wipes, Sharon Thompson said.

Evans and Smith said they were grateful for all the basketball fans who came out.

"They're showing a lot of love so far," Evans said. "We appreciate them coming, and we'll try to do the best we can on as many games as possible."

Smith, a 24-year-old guard from Houston, said he loved seeing such "enthusiastic" fans.

"It's great to get out here and interact with the fans. Hopefully, that'll translate to them coming out and showing up at the games," he said.

All the players have been practicing hard, he said.

"We have a lot of good guys. The chemistry is really great," Smith said. "It makes it easy to play with each other and normally translates into good basketball."

The after-work crowd included many people from the law firm Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard. Receptionist Anita Zanartu had been waiting all day to meet the players.

She proved it by wearing a purple shirt, purple earrings, a purple necklace, purple eyeshadow and eyeliner, even carrying a purple handbag while she got a schedule signed for her 10-year-old son. The schedule will now reside in an armoire in the living room, next to other Kings souvenirs, Zanartu said.

Bruce Scheidt, an attorney with the firm, welcomed Evans to Sacramento with a handshake. His business suit wasn't purple, but his excitement — and that of others from the firm — was obvious.

"We're all Kings fans," he said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Michael Pollan: Not all "food" is food

2009-06-11T21:33:29Z

Keep this in mind the next time you're trying to decide what to buy at the grocery store to stay healthy: Too much of what's sitting on shelves today isn't really food. It's nothing more than "edible substances."

That's what best-selling author Michael Pollan told a sellout crowd during Wednesday night's California Lecture at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1300 N St. The Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley, has won national acclaim for such books as "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food."

"What is food?" was just one of the questions Pollan addressed in a question-and-answer format led by California's food and ag czar, A.G. Kawamura. That such a question even needs to be asked is evidence that much of American eating has become a problem, Pollan said.

"When it comes to food, I guess I'm conservative. My definition would be the plants and animals and fungi that we eat," he said. "If you process (food) too much, it no longer deserves that title."

"In Defense of Food," Pollan's most recent book, explains that Americans have moved away from eating "products of nature" to products of food science. While Americans seem obsessed with nutrition, they have actually become less healthy in the decades that nutritional science has become big business, Pollan says.

During the talk, Pollan challenged premises Americans are currently operating under. The first, that "what matters in food is the nutrients," has led nutrition to become the country's new true religion. Nutrients, he pointed out, can't be seen by the people eating them.

"If what matters in food is invisible, you need experts to tell you how to eat. It's a little like religion: You need someone to help you navigate the unseen world," he said.

Another premise has led to the idea of "the satanic nutrient" or "the evil nutrient" -- currently things like trans fat and high-fructose corn syrup -- and "the blessed nutrient," which can describe fiber and anti-oxidants, he said.

Under that premise, "eating is a matter of avoiding the bad ones and gravitating to the good ones, " said Pollan.

Because of these ideas, people now have a different perspective on food. And that is, "When you eat, you're either ruining your health or saving it," he said.

In his lecture before nearly 1,000 people, Pollan also discussed "unsustainable," "mono-culture" industrial agriculture, which has led to high food prices and diseases being bred at feedlots; the limits of organic farming; and the need for many farming models to be in place when industrial agriculture breaks down.

Pollan said federal policy change is needed to combat some of the most critical problems. Federal incentives need to be changed to persuade farmers to grow more food people need and to focus on quality, rather than quantity, he said.

The government can reward farmers for diversifying and creating carbon sinks, while penalizing those who produce huge amounts of methane, Pollan said.

The Obama administration also should consider building year-round farmers' market venues, especially in inner cities, to stimulate local food economies and give people access to fresh produce, he said, adding that giving impoverished people vouchers for farmers' markets would also help.

Pollan believes Americans have not only given up healthy eating. They've also lost touch with eating's significant side benefits, which were recognized throughout civilization until recent decades, he said.

People no longer get pleasure from much of what they eat. They've lost an important way to establish their identities, including cultural identities, through food. And they've traded in that all-important bonding and community-building time that comes only during shared meals to eat in front of the TV or computer, at work or in the car, he said.

"We seem to have narrowed down the lens in this health obsession," Pollan said. "That would be fine if it made us healthy people. But it hasn't."

Memorial honors Mary Brill

2009-11-22T00:15:41Z

More than 125 people gathered Saturday to honor community activist Mary Brill.

Brill died Oct. 24 from breast cancer. She was 59.

Friends, family, politicians and others active in the community met at Florence T. Clunie Memorial Auditorium to pay tribute to Brill, who co-founded and led the Sacramento County Alliance of Neighborhoods. She led work on issues that included affordable housing, living conditions, transportation and smart growth.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo were two of the speakers at the memorial.

“She was the bravest person I ever met in my life. She was the strongest person I ever met in my life. And she was the most humble person I ever met in my life,” Steinberg said.

Even as she fought breast cancer, an inoperable brain tumor and multiple sclerosis, she continued to give to the community and to be concerned about the welfare of others, he said.

Inside the hall, guests said they were surprised to see a table full of awards including a Human Rights award from the Human Rights/Fair Housing Commission of the city and county of Sacramento and a Citizen of the Year Award from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments in 2005. She was recognized as Woman of the Year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.

However, Brill had many more — at least 100 awards in all — that she kept hidden away and never mentioned to close friends until recently.

“The thing about these — we didn’t even know she had these. She was just so modest,” said Leslie Palmer, who became close friends with Brill after they met while Brill was working on issues involving South Sacramento’s Meadowview neighborhood.

“The other thing about Mary: There’s nobody like her in terms of community organization,” Palmer said. “That I know.”

Dick Dale shreds Sacramento

2009-06-25T04:05:30Z

Dreams came true last night when the Press Club brought Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitar, to Sacramento.

The guitarist who invented surf music in the 1950s ripped through a horizonless sea of songs and riffs that broke over the crowd like powerhouse waves.

Playing as fast as ever, Dale shredded hits like Esperanza and Taco Wagon while his bass player and drummer tried to keep up inside the tiny club at 2030 P St.

A packed house jammed up to the stage's railing to watch Dale's fingers draw impossibly high-pitched guitar beauty from a sparkly yellow Fender Stratocaster guitar.

Over and over, the man in black with frosty blue eyes created the most unbelievably rad riff combinations. And for one night, Sacramentans got to be part of that screaming guitar paradise.

"I learned about Dick Dale when I was 14. So I've always dreamed about seeing him in concert," said a 33-year-old guitarist who would identify himself only as "Dick Dale Fan."

"Dick Dale's been an inspiration to guitarists everywhere. He's one of the most gifted guitarists who ever lived. He's spearheaded some of the most recognizable bites in rock 'n roll," said Mr. "Fan."

During the show, Dale created unbelievable surf songs out of cover tunes such as The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" and Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" -- a tune he played for so long, he took it outside and gave Sacramento a piece of him. They were songs no one else could ever dream up.

"He plays the songs completely differently every time," said his drummer, Bryan Head, 35, of Los Angeles. "The other night, he played a song I'd never heard in my life. It's hard to keep up with him."

Dale is a left-handed guitarist who's legendary not only for the genre he created while surfing off Southern California's coast 50 years ago, but for being a left-handed guitarist who strings and plays guitars backwards.

When he started learning to play, guitars were only made for right-handed people. He developed his own style and never abandoned it even after guitars for left-handers were developed for players like him and Jimi Hendrix.

Pop punk band Forever Came Calling, the opening act, featured Dale's 17-year-old son Jimmy on drums and Joe Candelaria.

Halfway through the show, the 72-year-old Dale thanked his fans for all the get-well wishes during his fight against cancer, or "dealing with the cancer bullshit," since being diagnosed with recurring cancer last year. He even wrote a song for the hospital nurses who crowded his room.

"They don't call me the King of the Surf Guitar. They call me the Cancer Warrior," he said. "I'm going to conquer the cancer and that's that."

Dale played more than a backward guitar during the show. He played the bass guitar worn by Ventura bass player Sam Bolle, 47, on Peggy Lee's "You Give Me Fever."

He grabbed drumsticks and played the drums alongside Head covering another Animals tune, "The Story of Bo Diddley." Then he quickly moved back to the bass guitar and played that with drumsticks while Bolle held it flat like a keyboard.

He sang to "the California girls I love the most" in a fast-moving cover of The Riviera's California Sun.

Dale teasingly started to play "Pipeline" -- causing one woman to yell, "I love Pipeline!" Then he broke into Misirlou, which introduced him to a younger generation as part of "Pulp Fiction's" soundtrack.

And finally, he closed with his legendary "Pipeline," originally a song by The Chantays; a sweet, soft rendition of "Amazing Grace" for all the troops fighting in distant wars; and thanks to his fans. "You," he said, raising his arms to the crowd, "are my medicine."

Photos by Melanie Turner. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.

Tonight: Musica Romantica

2009-05-22T00:16:35Z

Bailemos, Sacramentita.

Mexico's Trio Los Panchos will bring romantic bolero music to Sacramento when they hit the stage at Empire Event Center tonight on 1417 R Street.

La Raza Galeria Posada is bringing the internationally acclaimed band up north as part of its Sabor! Music series. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $30 at the door.

The fundraiser concert is being held to raise money for La Raza and its cultural programs.

Nearly seven decades after forming, Los Panchos is considered one of Latin America's top trios. They recently played at the Hollywood Bowl for Mariachi USA.

The original band members have been replaced by younger musicians. Gabriel Vargas Aguilar, the son of co-founder Alfredo Gil, is now the band's musical director.

Their music has its roots in central Mexico's traditional trio music. Los Panchos is credited with reviving the genre by mixing harmony and classical guitar into sensual ballads.

The band also created a new style of Mexican trio music when Gil invented a small guitar called the requinto, now a standard instrument used by all trios.

For event information, call 916-446-5133.

Artists reclaim "legacy" trees

2009-06-13T03:46:52Z

Adam Bradley sat on a K Street sidewalk carving a wise old man out of a red cedar log early this week.

A crowd grew while the 29-year-old wood sculptor detailed the face with a Dremel cutting tool and explained that art like his is being made possible through the Legacy Trees Project.

That was just one of the carving demos he did in Midtown all week to highlight a Second Saturday Art Walk fundraiser for the fledgling project. Art by Bradley and four others -- James Cooper, Judith Monroe, Jaime Acosta and Phil Myers -- will be raffled and sold in a silent auction from 6 to 9:30 p.m. June 13 in an upstairs courtyard at 1801 L St.

The Legacy Trees Project is an artist-organized, collective effort to rescue special trees from the wood chipper or woodpile and then distribute hard-to-get large pieces to local woodcarvers.

Most trees coming down in Sacramento for any reason and on any type of property are being turned into firewood or chipped for use in gardens or in wood-burning power plants, Cooper said. Legacy Trees is trying to bring attention to the idea that trees that have had "exceptional life and beauty" can have a future even after they've been cut down.

"It's a matter of whether we think their lives were noble enough to honor them with a legacy that could include fine art, functional art, customized furniture or even architectural use in a home or a state building," he said. "Let's not throw everything into a wood chipper because it happens to be made out of wood."

"I find trees on a regular basis that are going to be cut down. I usually run up to people and say, 'Wait -- I can use this wood that you're cutting into little pieces,' " Bradley said. "We're building awareness in the community about reutilizing the urban forest. I much prefer someone saying, 'What about Legacy Trees Project? They might be able to use this wood.' "

The project, sponsored by nonprofit Sacramento Education Events for Art (SEEART), seeks historic, aged, socially significant or especially valuable hardwood and softwood trees. Its woodcarvers are interested only in trees whose days are already numbered -- those that are dying or coming down for another reason, said Cooper, who serves as SEEART's executive director.

Big trees can be so valuable that commercial furniture makers, including those from other states, try to get dibs on trees that the city knows will be coming down. Those businesses pay for tree removal, which can be costly, but not for the wood, Cooper said.

Legacy Trees Project artists and volunteers don't cut any trees down. That's left to professional tree fallers used by the city, state or private property owners.

Legacy Trees has "recovered" three trees in the two years since it began. One was a much-loved, second-growth sequoia that stood more than 100 feet tall and was cut down on private property near the old state fairgrounds in Tahoe Park. Another was a California black walnut, a city tree more than 90 feet tall, at risk to split in half at Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue. The tree had been planted along an old wagon trail that ran from Sacramento to Fair Oaks.

The effort that launched the entire project was a bid to recover the state's oldest tulip poplar tree, which had been scheduled to be felled at the state capitol. The capitol is a virtual tree museum filled with species from around the world. The 129-year-old tree had been experiencing significant limb loss and rot, said Liz Gransee, spokesperson for the California Department of General Services (DGS).

"Normally, we recycle the (capitol grounds) trees that are slated to come down through the green waste facility," she said.

Cooper and other artists became aware of the situation after the dying tree was cordoned off. They then pleaded with DGS to let them reclaim the downed tree for art. The idea wasn't initially recognized as a winner.

"They (DGS and state bureaucrats) were determined to cut it up and turn it into wood chips. They had already talked to contractors about bringing in these huge wood chippers and turning it into mulch," Cooper said.

The artists continued negotiations with DGS and got support from Assemblyman Dave Jones (Sacramento). DGS agreed with the plan.

After DGS had the tree cut down, a Legacy Trees team of seven men from Sacramento, the Sierra foothills, Mendocino and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta voluntarily worked for two days to remove the tree. Professional tree toppers brought 7-foot chain saws to cut the tree into pieces. Those were loaded onto trailers using a crane brought by another man. Other friends provided a storage place for the wood.

Trees from the capitol can yield financially valuable wood because the trees have been tended so well, said wood sculptor Adam Panto, 44. But the trees' historic significance gives them a cache that makes their wood more prized by artists and buyers alike.

"Using them for firewood would seem somewhat sacrilegious," said Panto. "Anyone who's going to buy a piece of art - if they can convince themselves they have a piece of history, they'll pay a little more for it. As an artist, anything you can do to make a person value your piece more, you'll do."

Bradley has been operating a studio in Sacramento for three years. He got started in the art right after high school by apprenticing with a professional wood sculptor in the Tahoe area for six years.

He does mainly large-scale wood sculptures that include human and animal statutory, relief carvings and contemporary abstractions. Last year, Bradley carved an 8-foot-tall Kit Carson for Kirkwood Ski Resort's main courtyard. He also created a red cedar Okamisama, a Japanese deity, that now sits inside a Shinto shrine in Washington State.

He's lucky to get a lot of his wood from tree trimmers, who usually have to pay to dispose of the wood once it's cut, he said. Long-dead trees, which Cooper has used a lot, are usually not in the same good condition that newly downed trees are.

Artists can have a hard time finding -- or affording -- the slab wood they need. An 8-foot piece of redwood would cost $1,500 at a mill, Bradley said. Or they may object to buying imported wood from a Third World rainforest.

This region is populated with many tree species, including some of those same exotic woods, due to the climate, he added. The Legacy Trees Project helps give artists access to exotics growing here already.

"It takes wood that would normally go to waste... and provides it to artists in the Sacramento region so it can have a new life," he said.

More JazzFest photos

2009-05-25T04:07:33Z