Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "american river college"

Master Singers' Season Opener is a Gem

2011-10-31T03:33:06Z

The American River College Theater was sold out Friday evening as the Sacramento Master Singers presented a wonderful ensemble concert to begin their 26th season.

“From Sand to Pearls: A Choral Tribute to Perla Warren” honored the longtime music instructor with an ambitious program involving four choral groups, several supporting instrumentalists and a solo jazz pianist.

Many of the musicians were former students of Warren and credited her with the transformation of young voices into accomplished musicians.

Dr. Ralph Hughes, artistic director of the Master Singers and a colleague of Warren, is also the director of the 26-voice American River College Chamber Orchestra. He led his young singers through a quartet of challenging pieces, singing in Italian, Latin, Cuban Spanish and the non-verbal language of Hutcheson’s “Lament for a Lost Child,” performed in eerie darkness with only tiny blue lights held beneath the chins of the singers.

This performance was testimony to the quality of the music program at ARC, and it seems certain that many of these talented students will go on to develop the depth and maturity evident in the alumni singers who followed.

1990-92 alumnus Jim Martinez is a classical and jazz pianist with an impressive résumé. He honored his former teacher with a sparkling medley of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” and the Harry Warren/Mack Gordon classic “There Will Never Be Another You.”

Another alumnus of Warren’s classes is Julie Adams, who directs the choir she founded in 2000, Reconciliation Singers Voices for Peace. RSVP is a talented group of slightly older singers who donate their time and talents to provide both beautiful music and financial contributions to local charitable organizations.

RSVP began their set with a whimsical, upbeat and complicated tongue-twister involving a poet and bananas, set in very difficult mixed meters. Their lovely rendition of the traditional “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” featured solos by tenor David Saul Lee and alto Gaw Vang.

Moodswing is a jazz quartet from the Bay Area, and Julie Ford and husband Paul Ford were both shaped and trained by Warren. Their sound is very close, tight harmony in a classic jazz idiom. Opening with Al Jarreau’s “Mornin’” and ending with the fabulous “Bernie’s Tune” from the 1950s, they delivered a clear and respectful reading of the genre. Yet it was the powerful and haunting “Calling You” from the film “Bagdad Café” which touched the audience with the strength of this quartet’s connection to their ARC roots.

The Sacramento Master Singers began their set with one of the most sprightly of Bach’s motets, “Der Geist hilft unser Achwachheit auf,” featuring a double chorus in a light and uplifting mosaic of voices.

In an early nod to the Christmas season, the women sang a delightful hymn of praise and rejoicing, “Gaudete!” The men followed with a beautiful arrangement of “The First Noel” and concluded their set with the charming and playful “Yo le canto todo el dia” including some complex hand-clapped rhythms.

As a finale, all the singers formed a mass chorus to present three lovely pieces, including one written by Paul Winter and Paul Halley based on themes heard in the eerie, plaintive recorded cries of a tundra wolf, and then echoed by the choir and soprano saxophonist Jason Galbraith. It was a haunting and unusual Kyrie from a Mass celebrating the whole Earth as a sacred place.

Warren’s choral groups, the American River College Chamber Singers and the American River College Jazz Choir, earned many honors and awards over the 30 years of her tenure as conductor. They performed in several countries and received numerous awards.

In her closing remarks, Warren beseeched the audience to keep music alive, in schools, workplaces and the world at large, especially in the hearts, hands and voices of all people. Her legacy is a dedicated family of musicians who will see that her vision is carried out.

2nd annual Jumble Sale fundraiser for Verge Center for the Arts

2011-08-04T02:05:52Z

As part of the Verge Center for the Arts’ second annual fundraiser jumble sale, VCA will host a preview party Thursday, where 20 artists will invite the public into their studios.

VCA is a nonprofit organization that promotes career working artists by helping them display and promote their art as well as providing affordable studio space for rent.

Funds from the jumble sale, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will allow VCA to continue the expansion project.

The Verge Center for the Arts was founded in 2008 and expanded into a 22,000-square-foot warehouse space downtown in 2010, and the space is being developed to include a classroom for public art courses, a printmaking lab, extra gallery space and 10 additional studios for rent. To learn more, continue reading here.

“(It) is a very special center for the Sacramento region that is doing wonderful things to support artists and support art education,” said Jiayi Young, professor of art new media at American River College. “It is something that we definitely need for Sacramento and (the) surrounding areas.”

The jumble sale will include many items that have been donated, such as exercise equipment, furniture, vintage clothing, electronic equipment, bicycles, books and art supplies.

The preview party for the jumble sale will be Thursday from 6 - 10 p.m. at 625 S St.

For $15, guests can attend the preview party, where a no-host bar will serve beer and wine, Luigi’s Slice will serve pizza and Scott Soriano will DJ. Attendees can tour artists’ studios and get first dibs on the items that will be for sale at the Jumble Sale held at the same location.

“The No. 1 difference between this year and last year is that we’ll have art studios open for touring,” said Liv Moe, executive director for VCA.

The jumble sale will be open for free to the public Friday from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Aside from the items for sale at the jumble sale, a temporary gallery will display artwork that can be purchased.

Each artist will have an art piece in the temporary gallery at the preview party that “helps illustrate their style,” said artist Jose Di Gregorio, who is also part of VCA’s board of directors.

“A lot of the work that I do is nonrepresentational, abstract paintings,” Di Gregorio said.

He uses two different styles of painting, one he said he calls drip painting and involves manipulating paint without using a paintbrush. Another style incorporates lines and dots to create geometric shapes.

Di Gregorio said he has a lot of artwork that will be for sale at the gallery, including small pieces ranging from $100 to large paintings that go for $1,000. Visit his website here.

Jiayi Young will be among the 20 artists who will have their studios open to the public at Thursday’s preview party.

“I attempt to mix traditional art with new media, and I tend to mix art and science,” Young said.

Young collaborates with her husband, Shih-Wen Young, who has a doctorate in high-energy physics and is also a professor at American River College, to incorporate science into artwork.

A series currently in Young’s studio is called “One Moment in Time” and is a project geared to answer the question, “If you could see sound, what might it look like?”

“We are turning sound into visuals, and my husband has used the physics of wave propagation” to do this, Young said.

She described the project as taking a visual snapshot of what sound waves might look like spreading through the air a a given moment.

The art pieces that Young will have on display at the preview party in her studio range from $100 – $2,500. For more information, visit her website by clicking here.

Professor of painting and drawing at Sacramento City College Gioia Fonda has been part of the VCA since 2008.

Fonda said she works with multiple media, but likes working with paper and is also working on a sculpture piece.

“My work is really playful, with the exception of the garbage pieces, and usually really colorful,” Fonda said.

Fonda said the atmosphere at Verge is really inspiring and that “it is really great to have other really serious artists around.”

Fonda’s artwork ranges from $50 – $2,000. For more information, click here.

Di Gregorio said he thinks the atmosphere at VCA is filled with “a lot of really thoughtful, innovative, articulate people who have some really creative things going on within their own craft.”

“It is an incubator of ideas that becomes like this living, breathing organism that, for people like myself, can come into and know that there is progress being made in each studio,” Di Gregorio said.

For more information, visit the Verge Center for the Arts website here.

Stuart Little Comes To The Salvation Army

2011-06-29T22:55:03Z

Today, the kids from The Salvation Army’s day care and summer day camp programs had a chance to see Stuart Little. Not the movie, but an actual live production, performed by the American River College Theatre Arts Department.

The performance took place at the Salvation Army’s Oak Park campus.

“It’s great that we can bring this to a warm and friendly environment,” said Tracy Martin Shearer, director of the play. “That’s the thing about the arts; it brings joy, entertainment, education and excitement. We often find that more than half of children watching had not seen a play until our performance."

The latest presentation was part of the theatre arts department’s “Children’s Theatre Tour” in which the performers (consisted of nine American River students) take the show to a local elementary school and education program. Most times, the schools are charged a small fee for the performance, but Shearer wanted to do something different for The Salvation Army.

“We wanted to donate the show for the kids this morning,” Shearer said. “It looks like The Salvation Army is doing a great thing for the neighborhood and for the children involved."

The 50-minute play of the classic E.B. White children’s novel was not your typical show. It was very interactive. Some of the children in attendance were asked to participate on stage or interact with the characters during the play.

“This was a great way to expose our children to the arts and for them to see a live theatre production,” said Sonja Stires, Salvation Army’s Director of Programs for the Oak Park campus.

The ARC students will continue performing “Stuart Little” at least four more times in July at the Fair Oaks Community Clubhouse. All of those performances are open to the public.

Syd Fong is the director of public relations for The Salvation Army-Sacramento County Operations. For more information about The Salvation Army in Sacramento, log onto www.salarmysacto.org. For more information about the Stuart Little live show, you can call (916) 224-7947.

North Natomas Library Public Art Tour

2011-06-03T01:13:26Z

Drivers, bikers and pedestrians on Del Paso Road ~~Boulevard~~ may have noticed an 18-foot-tall steel post topped with an eyeball peering down upon a 10-foot-tall open book sculpture with giant spectacles on the side. What they are looking at is a piece of Sacramento's public art collection.

“We have one of the best public art collections in the country. We have been doing it for over 30 years,” said Art in Public Places Education Coordinator and tour guide Dixie Laws.

Art in Public Places is managed by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and is funded by the city and county through ordinances that dedicate 2 percent “of eligible capital improvement project budgets,” for artworks, Laws said.

The organization was founded in 1977 and has 700 works of art in the city and county, Laws said.

Art in Public Places presents the North Natomas Library Public Art tour from 1-3 p.m. Saturday at the North Natomas Library 4660 Via Ingoglia.

Local artists' will be present to share the story behind the artworks adorning the interior and exterior of the library. Audiences will learn about the artists’ background and the expressive goal of their pieces.

The purpose of the tour is to celebrate the public art pieces. All the art at the North Natomas Public Library was put in in the last year, according to Laws.

“People don’t think to go to the suburbs to see it,” Laws said.

The best kind of public art is what Laws calls site-specific: “It is designed for the building, when the building is being built.”

Public art is a challenge because the pieces have to be made out of permanent materials that are hard to vandalize, and also are sturdy enough to last at least 20-25 years, Laws said.

Public artworks are important for the community because they “give the places character,” Laws said. “It gives people a chance to see art without having to go to a particular place.”

Lincoln artist and educator Ray Gonzales said he has been working with Art in Public Places since the ’90s. He has public artworks at the Boys and Girls Club as well as coyote-themed “relief sculptures on 4,000-pound clay cylinders” in North Natomas’ Kokomo Park.

Gonzales’s handmade ceramic tile mural, located in the entrance hallway of the North Natomas Library, is called “Kokomo Joe and Kokomo Colleen Surfing the Stacks.”

“This mural is a layered artwork that is fun to look at and fun to touch – the more you look, the more you'll see,” Gonzales said.

The mural depicts two surfing coyotes wearing feathered headbands, with rolling hills in the background.

“I try to make my pieces relevant to the community,” Gonzales said. “The coyote is an important animal figure in a lot of Californian Indian mythology.”

He incorporated the coyote theme as a way to pay homage to the indigenous people who cultivated the land before the arrival of European-Americans.

Layered information within the mural incorporates the community and includes a tiger peeking in the grass representing Inderkum High School’s mascot and a beaver in the river symbolizing American River College’s mascot, Gonzales said.

“There is a small heart stone that looks like a rock, for my wife, Colleen,’’ Gonzales said.

“Tucked in the water are salmon, because salmon run through the rivers here,” Gonzales said.

There is a plane in the sky with “Autumn Airlines” written on it, representing Gonzales’ granddaughter. He also incorporates other symbols into his works, chilli groupings represent his three sons and nine lady bugs his family of nine.

Gonzales wrote in the initial art project proposal that “the layered information probably won’t be noticed at first – but will reveal itself to those so inclined to look with repeated visits to this area.”

Jim Piskoti, emeritus professor of fine arts from California State University, Stanislaus, has been doing kinetic paintings for 12 years.

Piskoti has worked with Art in Public Places for three years and has completed five public artworks, including a metal cutout depicting figures engaged in different sports at Hampton Park in the Meadowview area. Piskoti’s four interactive media pieces in the library’s children’s section portray a “celebration of reading,” depicting children reading with imaginations engaged.

Piskoti said he promotes the idea of stepping outside of the rectangle canvas and incorporating other dimensions into his works, like LEDs, mechanical motors or sound. Most of his artwork involves moving parts, he said.

“The building is very modern,” Piskoti said about the library. “I wanted the pieces to look like they were done in the 21st century. I wanted them to be playful and fun.”

Piskoti uses acrylic paints for the image detail and adds the LEDs, wood reinforcement, chaser circuits and wiring to the back of each piece.

“I am working on the front and back at the same time,” Piskoti said. “It is a lot of time-consuming work, but that’s the type of work I do.... Everything goes through many stages before it is complete.”

“Reading is an Adventure” is the biggest of the four mixed-media wall paintings with LEDs. The 88-inch-long heavy interactive media piece features three children peering down from a magenta magic carpet upon a world filled with favorite children’s book characters such as Charlotte from “Charlotte’s Web,” Alice and The Mad Hatter from “Alice in Wonderland,” the blue whale from “Moby Dick” and many others.

“They are not rectangle,” Piskoti said. “They have an organic shape and flow that I think works well with the images.”

Piskoti emphasizes the use of acrylic layering for his art pieces.

“I don’t like blending color, but I like having color show through, so I do a lot of layers of colors. I think that makes it exciting,” he said. “Layering, for me, is how I make the pieces lively and expressive.”

The artists will be present at the North Natomas Library Public Art tour from 1 - 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $8.50 for adults and free for ages 16 and under.

For more information about art tours, contact Dixie Laws or click here for art tour maps in Sacramento.

For more information about Jim Piskoti, click here.

The open book sculpture visible from the street is titled, “Authors of our own Destiny,” and was created by Joe Scarpa.

Editorial Note: A correction has been made to this story after it was published. The incorrect information has been struck out and the correct information has been added.

On Being Clairaudient and Clairsentient - The Musings of an Empathic Psychic

2010-11-06T09:00:37Z

Having special gifts are truly a blessing...for the most part. The Powers that Be, sometimes known as "God" or any of the other titles held, gives us these gifts when we are young. It is only the 'Prove it to me' scientific attitude of the World that makes us a little jaded and unbelieving and we begin to close off these portals of information; becoming one of those who rely on the scientific realm or begin asking for the tangible results.

But what about those days when you just want to run into the market to grab a few things and the cosmic neon sign is on, blinking AND playing a message over the astral loudspeaker? Then the lady in line in front of you turns around and proceeds to give you a one minute update on her life - vocally, while you are getting other information through the back of your head. Your hair is mussed and you are in your funkiest sweats, definitely NOT the time for a consultation. This is sometimes what I experience as a clairaudient and clairsentient.

I must have been a precocious child, as I can recall my Mother trying to 'shhh' me when I would put my wonderings to words and say things that I was working on in my head. Like the time I went to Houston and I, coming from a predominantly caucasian part of California, wondered out loud about the many African-Americans that were around me. How interesting that later in my life, I would practice an indigenous nature-based religious belief that came over during the Diaspora. I am sure now that I must have caused embarrassment for my Mother on more than one occasion.

Being clairaudient and clairsentient is sometimes a challenge to own these gifts. Like the the time in the vestibule of my Catholic church at the time when I was being told something by an elder in the congregation, and a young male voice (I am presuming that it is St. Michael, my favorite angel) whispered in my left ear that it was a lie and I almost choked on my mint. Another time, while leisurely strolling the pasta aisle of a nearby supermarket, I could hear a buzz or hum coming towards me, like when you are in the country late at night and you can hear a car approaching from the distance and the noise grows louder are it gets nearer. I turned my head to see a man who could have stepped right out of Woodstock approaching my basket. His eyes were intent in a stare on me and when he whooshed past me, I could hear the works, "rape you', blow past me like the wind. I stopped and blinked, turned around, and he was gone!

Another dilemma that I face is the gift of being clairsentient, the ability to feel sensations on my body that are indicating something with the other person. For instance, when doing a tarot card reading for someone is when they are not telling the truth, or at least, not telling me how bad it is. How do you maneuver around that the messages radiating from them are like the wind blasting me from the front, but they are saying "No' and the sensation of stomach.They are holding back because the 'secret' is out.

A few years back, I went with an acquaintance to a night with a psychic. The room was packed and my friend had to sit alone a couple of rows in front of me. During the session, I kept adjusting my posture in the chair as I kept feeling that something was grabbing my left shoulder and pulling me down towards the floor. I also had the sensation of uncomfortable heat, as if I was in front of a large roaring fireplace my left. After the psychic's talk, she went around the room giving each an opportunity cramping starts in my body. When it was my turn, I instead asked her to 'help me' with this situation. The psychic told the audience that I was picking up the problems of the lady sitting to my left. She asked me what was the sensations I was feeling, then asked to lady what was affecting her on the left sade of her body. The lady told the psychic that she ha a nerve illness that is 'flaring up' and she is in pain on her left side. The psychic, myself and the whole room then joined together to send her healing on the afflicted side. After a bit, the psychic came back to me and asked how the sensation was. I told her the heat was not at a temperature I could handle and the pulling down of my shoulder had lessened. There are other times that I 'take on' a clients' pain while doing a reading, and then give them alternative and natural remedies they might want to try at home. While I am not a doctor nor do I practice medicine, I tell people to do the research into healthy herbs and spices that will help in their situation.

I know that I was given these gifts to assist people that need guidance and I thank the Heavens, Saints and Angels every day that I have these abilities to help others. I always ask that if the messages I receive become 'bunk' or not true anymore, I would then close these portals of information and insight and become a muggle. Thank goodness so far, this has not happened.

Jacqueline is a well known tarot reader in the greater Sacramento area. She is an educator and a cultural anthropologist and has guest lectured at Cosumnes River and American River colleges for the Magic, Witchcraft and Religion classes offered on both campuses. Jacqueline graduated from cat yronwode's Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course and makes various items of this unique Southern folkloric belief system for clients. She is an aborisha in the Cuban/Puerto Rican Lukumi religion and sings with the Afro-Cuban dance/drum group, Ebo Okokan. Jacqueline currently writes articles for various magazines and does readings with the Tarot and Obi divination by appointment only. You may visit Jacqueline's various websites at:

http://www.tarotbyjacqueline.com

http://www.free-candle-spells.com

http://www.lucky13clover.com

International track and field registration now open

2010-11-05T02:25:58Z

Sacramento will be hosting the 2011 World Masters Athletic Championships, and registration is now open.

The worldwide event draws track-and-field athletes from about 80 countries every two years and is rarely held in the United States, with the last time being 16 years ago, according to Bob Burns, spokesman for the Sacramento Sports Commission.

“It’ll mean quite a bit of business here locally,” he said, explaining that most of the estimated 5,000 athletes and their families will be staying in the area for at least a week, as the event is held from July 6-17.

The biannual event is open to everyone 35 and older, and Burns said there is usually at least one athlete 100 years or older.

Registration costs are available at the event’s website, but Burns said the average cost per athlete is about $125.

So, why Sacramento?

“There are probably three factors we had,” Burns said. “We’re in California, and that’s attractive. We’ve put on the Olympic trials, and our group knows how to put on a complicated, multi-day event, and we have good facilities.”

The facilities include Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium. American River College’s Beaver Stadium and Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium, where more than 80 percent of the events will be held.

To register for the event, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Capitol Events for this week

2010-10-27T01:33:27Z

Thursday, Oct. 28
Noon - 12:30 p.m. – The Center for California Studies at Sacramento State will be photographing members of the 2011 Capital Fellows Program on the West Steps of the Capitol. Around 65 people are expected to attend.

1 - 3 p.m. McNally Temple Associates, Inc. will host a rally in support of Proposition 25 on the South Steps of the Capitol. Proposition 25 changes the legislative vote requirement necessary to pass the state budget from two-thirds to a majority vote. Around 100 people are expected to attend.

Friday, Oct. 29
11 a.m. - 1 p.m. American River College will host a rally on the South Steps of the Capitol for Respiratory Week and promote awareness regarding respiration therapy. About three people have signed on as participants.

City of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration a Big Sucess

2010-04-24T18:48:58Z

There were several Earth Day celebrations and events Thursday. One of the biggest and most successful was the official City of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration. The event was held at Cesar Chavez Park and in the plaza of City Hall. An estimated 3,500 people of all ages attend this years' event. It was supported by Mayor Kevin Johnson and the City Council. The City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department organized the event.

I spoke with Neighborhood Services Department Director Vincene Jones. Jones and her staff started back in January giving early notice to Sacramento area schools, informing them of the event and its value as a field trip. Local media was enlisted to help get the word out. They worked with Regional Transit to secure 560 one-day free passes for bus and light rail. This allowed students to use public transit to and from the event in keeping with the values of Earth Day.

Staff had targeted junior high and high school students. It was obvious that there were large numbers of younger kids also. They especially stood out in the orange aprons given to them by Home Depot along with plants to take home for planting.

Home Depot had one of 59 booths. About 25 booths were commercial entities. The rest were city departments, other governmental entities, nonprofits, education and others. The 59 booths were an increase of about 35% over last year.

Mavis McAllister from American River College and Peggy Ursine with Cosumes River College were promoting Los Rios GreenForce. This is a program with all four Los Rios colleges that prepares students to work in green industries.

Ryan Bailey had a booth promoting Sacramento Sustainable Businesses. This included BERC, a free public service provided by Sacramento County, the city of Sacramento, Sacramento Utilities Departments and Sacramento Local Regulatory Agencies. They advise businesses on how to navigate all the complex environmental regulations.

City of Sacramento departments included utilities, promoting pollution prevention in waste water runoff, recycling, composting and one of several displays of worm bins. City employees Jamie Cutlip and Karl Kurka operated a booth promoting the city's Create a Sustainable Sacramento program. Bill Maynard, who works tirelessly at events like this, was giving out tomato plants as part of the city of Sacramento Community Garden Program.

The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District booth was a great hit with the kids. There were live displays of all stages of mosquitos and mosquito fish that eat them The kids were having a great time watching the mosquito fish eating mosquito larva. Kevin Valone and Steve Ramos with Vector Control said that this was one of the best turnouts for any of the venues they have been to. They were especially pleased with all kids asking them questions. They said they have found it best to educate the young kids to achieve their goal of protecting public health and welfare from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes such as West Nile virus, Western Equine Encephalitis, canine heartworm, malaria and others. In most cases, the kids go back to their families and educate them. This was a comment that was echoed by many of those presenting at the event.

There was also entertainment, with a message for the kids from Radio Disney, a performance from Top Class Magic and the Sacramento City College theatrical performance of the “Fall of X,” a play about the dangers of joining a gang.

Besides Home Depot, there were several other commercial green businesses or businesses with green products. These included Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, Costco, Propel Alternative Fuels, Green Sacramento Construction Services and several solar energy companies.

Jake Millan with Propel related a story about the power of kids. A man who came to his booth told him that he had recently purchased a flex fuel vehicle that would run on E85. When asked what prompted this, the man replied that his kids were so embarrassed and tired of getting teased when they were dropped off at school in the family Hummer they pushed the family to buy a more responsible vehicle.

Now I do not want to create the impression that the city of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration was only for kids. There were large numbers of downtown and state office workers asking questions and collecting information. I spoke with Rocklin Treasurer Kim Sarkovich and Mary Rister, one of her staffers. They were attending a conference on municipal finance. They said they were having a wonderful time visiting the event during their lunch break. They were particularly enjoying the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop booth. Part of Sarkovich's interest stems from her hobby as a suburban beekeeper.

All the people I spoke with who had displays at the event were very pleased with the turnout and response from the public. They expressed that Jones and her staff at Neighborhood Services were great to work with and that they were pleased with the commitment throughout the city government supporting a green and sustainable Sacramento.

Photos: 1. Welcoming kids to Sacramento Earth Day Celebration 2-3. City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department 4. Ryan Bailey, Sacramento Sustainable Businesses 5. city Department of Utilities 6. Jamie Cutlip and Karl Kurka, Create a Sustainable Sacramento 7. Bill Maynard, Sacramento Community Garden Program 8. Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District employees Kevin Valone and Steve Ramos 9. Radio Disney entertains 10. Sacramento Natural Foods Coop 11. Dennis with Costco 13. A solar energy provider and Jake Millan in front of the Propel Alternative Fuels booth 12. Green Sacramento Construction Services 13. Kim Sarkovich and Mary Rister check out the Soil Born Farms booth with employees Randy and Jackie

Rally for Social Services at Capitol Ends 365-Mile March From Bakersfield

2010-04-22T04:17:53Z

Thousands of people from across California gathered at the Capitol to express their anger over continuing cuts to social services in the state Wednesday afternoon.

The rally came on the last day of a 48-day, 365-mile march that started in Bakersfield in early March. While there were six main marchers, many other people joined them for certain days or sections of the march. The audience hoped that the march and rally would send a message of discontent with declining funds for social programs including schools, universities and homecare providers.

"This isn't the end of a march, this is the beginning of a movement," said Doug Moore, executive director of the United Domestic Workers of American Homecare Providers. "If we join together, we can restore the American Dream."

"We won't let Wall Street or the auto companies fail, but we are letting our schools fail by forcing them to make Draconian cuts in their budgets," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "Fixing the problem will take hard work."

Weingarten said there are three steps that can be taken to fix that problem, the first being to increase taxes on the rich.

"It's time that in the richest state of California, the rich pay their fair share of taxes," she said, getting a loud cheer from the audience. She also suggested closing tax loopholes and allowing the budget to be passed with a simple majority instead of the two-thirds majority currently required.

"All of us have to take more responsibility," she said as she finished. "This is only the first step. March on! March on!"

The rally audience included teachers, social workers, students and school employees who hoped their presence would help get their message to legislators.

Casey Borcher is a student at Woodland Community College and said that both his parents are teachers and have been affected by the cuts.

"They're doing more work for less money," said Borcher, who is working on a getting a teacher's credential himself. "It's ridiculous to me." He said that while he hopes the rally spurs action, he's not sure there are many specifics.

"I'm hearing a lot of vague stuff, like education first," he said. "I want to know what we're going to do."

Other people at the rally had some skepticism about the rally, but were generally hopeful.

"These things don't seem to generate much enthusiasm, but the alternative is nothing, so I'm optimistic," said Rudy Pearson, a history professor at American River College, adding that he was encouraged to see people travel from Southern California. He said that his school has seen the impact of budget cuts after courses were dropped, services to students were declining and there were no new hires.

"The problem keeps compounding itself," he said.

Suzy Kelm, a teacher at Pixley Elementary School, said the rally was important to show unity.

"Coming together like this is where it's at. It shows we're together," she said, adding that her school has seen cuts in music, sports and school staff. "This brings awareness that cutting the budget in education cuts the opportunities for future education for everybody."

Susan Oeland, a homecare provider with United Domestic Workers, said her program that takes care of elderly and handicapped people is in jeopardy of losing 90 percent of its budget or being eliminated entirely.

"We're here to fight budget cuts," she said. "We're fighting for the people we work for."

Oeland works for a woman who takes 15 medications per day and has no family. She said that if the program is abolished, her client and many others like her will have to go to a convalescent or nursing home, many of which are full. Oeland added that two of her elderly relatives died from a lack of attention, and she doesn't want that to happen to other people.

"It takes a special, loving person to take care of these people," she said. "They care for them not just as a paycheck, but as a human being. We don't want that to go away."

Scott McTeer, a staff member in the Stockton Unified School District, said he is afraid his job could be cut any day and hopes to be employed long enough to pay for his children to attend college. He said the rally is just a starting point for their cause.

"I hope the Legislature hears us loud and clear," he said. "We've just started this fight, and we're not going to stop until we get our fair share."

A portrait of Autumn Sky

2009-09-26T03:46:25Z

Most 20-year-olds don't play over 15 instruments or write three songs per week. Nor have they traveled and lived all over the United States. But Sacramento musician Autumn Sky didn't grow up in a so-called "normal" household.

Having played hundreds of shows, the ambitious Sky is on the rise.

Sky (she uses her middle name instead of her last name, Hall) was born in Paradise, Calif. She and her family lived out of a Volkswagen Beetle near Puget Sound in Washington and spent time in Oregon and Wisconson before settling in Sacramento.

She also recalled living in a log cabin in Mendocino as part of a nudist colony.

"There is a whole [photo] album that my parents have and it's all these babies and families just hanging around, only wearing tool belts," Sky said, with a hint of dry humor. "The sad thing is that people who live in nudist colonies are not the people you want to see nude."

Another thing that sets Sky's family apart is that they are high on the autism spectrum. Her father has Asperger's. She is the oldest of seven, with brothers and sisters who also have autism, Asperger's and dyslexia, she said.

"All of those disorders are blessings. There's so much of a stigma [but] I think it makes us all really cool," Sky said. "My autistic brothers are the sweetest people in the world."

It's hard to imagine Sky's colorful background when face-to-face with her. She wears girly dresses, reads poetry (e.e. cummings is her favorite poet) and once worked at Starbucks, she said.

Sky is currently on hiatus from jazz classes at American River College, works at Raley's during the day and admits a guilty pleasure: listening to pop musician/actress Mandy Moore.

Her hobbies include painting and writing and illustrating her own children's books. When she was younger, she had stage fright, and aspired to to be a journalist and author as a creative outlet.

Sky was introduced to music growing up around a grandmother who played piano and a mother who played both piano and violin and sang. She started taking piano lessons from her mother at age 6, then moved to violin at 11.

As a young teenager, Sky started doing open mic nights at her church, but she soon found her niche after moving on to the True Love Coffeehouse, as well as the Fox and Goose pub. "I used to do five open mics a week," Sky said, adding that she gained a sense of friendship among open mic performers.

"What else was I supposed to do?" she added. "Performing is so much fun for me, and it brings me so much joy to bring other people so much joy; it's extremely therapeutic."

"[Sacramento's music scene] is vastly underrated; there's so much potential," she said. "In L.A. I would be a folk singer among 500 others. It's very good for me to be in a place like this. I feel like [people] really cherish the music that comes out of here."

She released an EP, Diminutive Petite in 2008, and a friend from church helped Sky finance and produce her first album All Which Isn't Singing earlier this year. She made the album with most of the Sacramento band All on Seven backing her, creating an upbeat blend of pop, folk, and rock.

Sky is currently working on a follow-up album and is in talks with a label to have it released by next spring. "It has a '60s sound mixed with Tim Burton and Sunshine Pop," she said. If all goes according to plan, she will also be touring the Northwest in the upcoming months, she said.

Sky will be playing at Club Retro, 6521 Hazel Ave., Orangevale, on Saturday at 8 p.m. One can also see her play during her 11 Sacramento-area shows scheduled in October.

She will soon make her journalist aspiration a reality by previewing some of her own shows, here, at The Sacramento Press.

Photographs credit Caitlin Bellah/Autumn Sky

Series of Stolen Art

2009-09-09T03:24:01Z

In the now thriving Sacramento art scene, theft has been a recurring problem among college artists.

Since 2005 American River College students and instructors have been seemingly targeted as victims of art theft. Within the past year the problem has become increasingly worse, with three pieces taken weeks apart from each other.

On Aug. 15, 2005, Craig Schindler, an instructor at ARC had a painting titled, "Para Las Mujeres Victimas de Cuidad Juarez" [translated as "For the victims of Cuidad Juarez"], taken from the Kanakos Gallery, a gallery located on the campus of ARC for students and faculty.

Schindler said the painting was a tribute to the women being victimized and found dead in the deserts of Juarez. The proceeds from the sale of the painting were to go to Amnesty International's funding for awareness of Juarez Mexico.

Student Denise O'Connor had two charcoal pieces titled "Jane" and "Reclining Nude" taken from the Mar. 15 showing "From Realism to Abstraction" at the H Street Phantom Space.

"Obviously, I thought they were good enough to exhibit in a student art show, but I can't help but thinking the subject matter may have made them of especial interest to someone," said O'Connor.

O'Connor did not anticipate her works being lifted, so unfortunately she does not have any photographs of her stolen pieces.

Student Ronda Chatelle had a matted photograph titled "World Traveler" taken from the same H Street Phantom Space just two weeks later on Mar. 28.

Chatelle has printed postcards and distributed them on the ARC campus and among the art community in hopes that her photograph will be returned to her.

Once again in March, at Formoli's restaurant on J Street, instructor John Stuart Berger had a piece titled, "Don't Fuck with Karly," stolen on the last day of the showing.

According to Berger, a fraudulent check was given as payment for the painting. After the check was found to be fraudulent, Berger was unable to reach the people responsible by phone or mail.

"I wanted to think that it wasn't done under malice, but after all this time my mind is beginning to shift the other way," said Berger.

One piece of art was returned to instructor Joy Bertinuson after she had a wood-burning titled "Stigmata" lifted from the Del Paso Boulevard Phantom Gallery site approximately two years ago. Bertinuson's piece was generously returned to her after a student at ARC recognized it and brought it back.

"I did feel strangely complimented that it was my work that was stolen," Bertinuson said. "Historically, the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is one of the most sought after by thieves. In fact 'The Scream' has been lifted on several occasions. But I don’t think most artists share the feeling of being complimented at the theft of their works, particularly when they are still missing."

As the art community grows in Sacramento, so does theft and the fear among artists that they may be the next victims of lifted art.

Berger recommends, "If you're hanging at someone's house and see this painting on their wall," referring to his stolen painting, "it doesn't belong to them. You might want to mention to them, 'I bet you got a hell of a deal on that painting, wink wink'."

If any of these pieces are found please contact the American River College Art Department at: (916)484-8433 or The Sacramento Press at (916)443-6825 and they will be returned to the artists.

Demonstrators rally at Capitol in response to Prop 8 decision

2009-05-27T07:17:00Z

Lisa Gorden and JDD Doran-Jammer, both blind, trailed behind the crowd of people marching around the Capitol, echoing their chants “Hey hey, ho ho, discrimination has got to go.”

Although they are not gay and said marching with crowds is difficult given their physical disposition, the two friends joined in Tuesday’s rally against the California Supreme Court’s upholding of Proposition 8.

“I’m just real sad and mad about the Prop. 8 decision. It just seemed important to come out in the heat and support this,” Gorden said. “We have plenty of noise to follow.”

Gorden and Doran-Jammer were two of an estimated 2,000 who appeared at Tuesday’s rally, organized by Equality Action NOW, which refers to itself as a Northern California grassroots civil rights organization. The rally began at the Gay and Lesbian center at the intersection of 20th and L Streets and continued with a march to the west Capitol steps, where a demonstration followed.

Among speakers at the demonstration were Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-Monterey), joined by religious speakers, spoken-word artists, musicians, organizations such as Marriage Equality USA, Courage Campaign, NOW, Stonewall Democrats of Sacramento and representatives of Meet in the Middle 4 Equality.

Steinberg expressed his admiration for “people who are willing to take [their] own struggles out to the streets.”

“It’s not about sex, it’s about love,” said Ammiano, who is openly gay. “It’s always been about love.”

Other speakers expressed anger and frustration, identifying the court’s decision as a disappointment and a failure to protect the rights of minorities in a democracy, as well as hope for the future of gay and lesbians and their families. They encouraged participants to continue to be active beyond the rally.

“Rallies are great…movements are better,” said speaker Dayne Damme.

Several speakers addressed the group of demonstrators across the street from the Capitol holding yellow “Celebrate Prop 8!” signs. Jorge Riley explained that he and some of the other 16 demonstrators were former members of the American River College student government that passed a resolution to endorse Prop. 8 in October.

“We want to be the alternative voice,” said Michael Hart, who was demonstrating with the former ARC students.

“It’s always important to show both sides and leave it to the people to decide,” Riley said.

Riley added that he was there to “support good family values” and that he was not demonstrating to endorse hate.

Jade Beranski of Equality Action NOW said that considering the heat and that it was a work night, she was satisfied with the turnout at the rally.

To read about yesterday’s initial reactions to the upholding of Prop. 8, visit the following link:

Initial Reaction

*AUTHOR’S NOTE: ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY JONATHAN MENDICK AND JENN WALKER OF SACRAMENTO PRESS*