Midtown Monthly, a magazine covering arts, entertainment and life in Midtown Sacramento, will cease publishing a print edition after this month, Editor Tim Foster announced Monday. Originally an offshoot of Capitol Weekly called Midtown/Downtown, Midtown Monthly launched as its own glossy magazine in March 2007, Foster said. The two magazines shared a printer, designers, advertising sales staff and other expenses. When Capitol Weekly moved to publishing online only in January, all of the shared costs suddenly fell to Midtown Monthly, and it was too much, Foster said. “We were back to shouldering 100 percent of those costs,” said Foster, 46, whose full-time job is working on political me

In a world where nearly everyone has a smartphone or an iPod and news flashes are delivered in 140 characters or less, the landscape of news media is rapidly changing. Here is a quick roundup of recent changes in the local news outlets: Sacramento News & Review: Looking for a new editor The Sacramento News & Review has been a print publication since 1989, and Melinda Welsh has been the editor for most of that time. About a week ago, she decided to step down, and now the News & Review is conducting a nationwide search for her replacement. “I love the job, it’s the coolest job,” Welsh said Friday. “But it’s been long enough. Eighteen years as an editor? It’s time to do something different

by Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop Directed by Rodman Flender Last summer, Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium was one of the venues for Conan O’Brien’s “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour.” That tour is now the focus of the behind the scenes documentary “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop” – a somewhat unflinching look at an attempt to make show business lemonade from a deluge of unwanted lemons (or perhaps, in some opinions, a single unwanted Leno). For those who live in caves, go to bed at 9pm, or go to bed at 9pm in caves, last year saw messy contract negotiations over late night programming at NBC. Years earlier, O’Brien had been promised the holy

by Tony Sheppard Originally Published in Capitol Weekly This may be the least comprehensive restaurant review ever. So don’t be surprised if I go off on a tangent or two. Good Friends is located in South Natomas, in a small shopping plaza on the south-east corner of the I5 and West El Camino intersection. The location is close to several housing complexes and also the campuses of the University of Phoenix and the Art Institute of Sacramento. It’s a faculty favorite for the Arts Institute and, given that the Capital Film Arts Alliance meets there, also for some of the filmmaking community. For that reason, I’ve eaten there multiple times in the last couple of years, but I’ve never actuall

By Tony Sheppard Originally Published in Capitol Weekly If shopping for a new Beddinge Murbo and a companion Glasört Kulle or maybe a couple of Pjätteryds makes you a tad peckish, fear not for IKEA will feed you just as happily as they’ll load you up with flat-packed Aspelunds and Trondheims. The restaurant at IKEA is a simple, bright and airy cafeteria with limited, but also pleasant and cheap choices. The signature product is the Swedish meatball, served in a light creamy gravy and generally accompanied by the Swedish “go to” utility item, the lingonberry preserve. These lingonberries double as a relish or a jam, and also appear in a syrup that makes such a tasty drink you might inadv

The Messenger Directed by Oren Moverman By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson are an Army Casualty Notification Detail, tasked with informing the N.O.K. (next of kin) when their loved ones have been killed in action. It’s a soul-destroying assignment and, as explained by the older man (Harrelson) to his younger colleague (Foster), it’s not one that can be made easier by staged shows of understanding. But it’s a necessary function in a time of webcams and cable news shows. They race to get to the N.O.K. before they hear the news from anybody else. Foster has been on the edge of stardom for a decade and may be best recognized recently as Angel in “X-Men: The Last

Trash Film Orgy Saturdays, Midnight (doors open at 11:30pm), July 8th – August 15th Crest Theatre By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly As well known to the veteran loyal fans (many of whom routinely wear zombie makeup) as it is completely unknown to more formal film festival goers, the Trash Film Orgy (TFO) opens its 9th season this Saturday, at midnight at the Crest. Every week of the season, TFO showcases a cult or B-movie offering with audience participation, in the form of competitive loud witty banter during the movie, not just permitted but encouraged. I asked TFO Co-Producer Christy Savage a few questions about the concept and this season’s lineup: Tony: Could you explain the basic c

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Directed by Shawn Levy By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly I was pleasantly surprised by “NatM:BotS” and it may be one of those rare sequels that manages to surpass the original, albeit by taking a slightly different tack. Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, erstwhile museum night guard and now successful inventor and infomercial pitch man (supported in his commercial enterprises by another pitch man, George Forman). His old work place, New York’s Museum of Natural History, is undergoing renovations and updates, and the exhibits are scheduled to be archived in Washington. This of course is problematic, given the presence of an ancient Egyptian

Terminator Salvation Directed by McG By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly If the recent “Star Trek” was a total system reboot of an aging franchise, then “Terminator Salvation” is more like a welcome software upgrade, complete with flashier graphics and increased memory. Set in 2018, it follows John Connor (Christian Bale) as he exhibits inspiring leadership in the battle against Skynet and the machines. If all of this seems a bit familiar, with outposts of humans battling overwhelming odds against hard to kill opponents led by a crusty Bale, it may not be the previous “Terminator” movies that you’re thinking of. At times it’s a little reminiscent of “Reign of Fire” only with bullet-spewing

Angels and Demons Directed by Ron Howard By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly “Angels and Demons” is the second movie made from a Dan Brown book featuring the character of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). The other is “The Da Vinci Code” and while the “Angels and Demons” novel appeared first, the films are being presented to audiences in the reverse order, with the implication in the film that the stories are sequentially switched. This works in the sense that the events of the two novels are independent of each other and the sequence is unimportant, so there’s no real point in selling the second film as a prequel just to preserve the original publication order. But it also presents some problems

Star Trek Directed by J.J. Abrams By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly I’ll open by cutting to the chase and saying that this is a neat movie, firing on all dilithium chambers and achieving everything I had hoped it would achieve, despite a host of hurdles to overcome.  So what about those hurdles…  Star Trek has a back story that’s intimidating to say the least. One has to decide whether to stick to the original canon or branch off in a new direction and enrage a generation of fans. Or, in the case of Trekkies, a generation and a next generation of fans. It’s now 40 years since the first TV series ended, and there have been six series, including an animated version, and 10 movies. Some of