Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "culture"

Valentine's Weekend Events in Sacramento

2012-02-09T20:29:23Z

Looking for a special way to turn your Valentine’s Day into a memorable holiday? There are myriad options out there, but here are a few highlights for the upcoming weekend:

For the foodie (Fri & Sat 6pm): Let GrubCrawlUSA's Pre-Valentine's Sexy Singles Mingle & Consensual Couples Crawl take you on a taste-tastic tour of Sacramento's finest dining spots. Whether you’re single or paired up, there’s a spot for you—Friday is aimed toward singles & Saturday to couples (so, presumably, if you find someone on Friday you can make a return tour on Saturday!).

For the single lady (Fri 9pm): Stroll Now 100.5’s Mile of Men at The Park Ultra Lounge and take your pick from the area's most eligible bachelors. Stay for the afterparty and get your photo snapped in the photobooth manned by Nicholas Wray.

For the sporty sort (Sat 7am): Rise & shine Saturday morning and get your jog on at Race for Justice: 9th Annual Valentine Run, which begins from Country Club Plaza. This fun run has a kids' race component, plus a costume contest for dogs & humans alike!

For the musical type (Sat 10pm): Make your way to Vega's Nightclub & Sports Bar this Saturday night for Valentine's Heartbreak Hotel. Not only you will you enjoy live music by Barrel Fever and the Fortunite Few, you'll also get to see a live burlesque show and participate in a free pin-up photoshoot by Bad Bones Photography.

For the animal lover (Sun 10am-4pm): Head over to the Sacramento Zoo Sunday afternoon for I Heart Sacramento Zoo and watch the animals receive their Valentines, plus participate in informative talks and peruse activity tables.

For the anti-Valentine (Sun 7:30pm): Movies on a Big Screen notes that around Valentine's Day, they like to screen "some kind of movie that might make your date a little uncomfortable with your idea of romance." This Sunday evening, they feature the 1923 silent classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which, they claim, is a romantic movie (if you remove all of the violence, murder, mayhem, and obsession, that is).

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Find more detail on these events along with many more at Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

Disclosure: Written by Sacramento365.com Assistant Editor, Alison Kranz

Hearts for the Arts

2012-02-09T17:43:04Z

Beating human hearts and artistically painted hearts in all forms filled the Alex Bult Gallery to raise funds to help kick off the Any Given Child program.

Sacramento was chosen by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC as the very first site in the country to pilot the Any Given Child program which seeks to ensure that every child in every K-8 school has access to quality arts experiences.

17 pieces were auctioned off by David Soborn Auctions. A silent auction followed.

According to their FaceBook page this morning "Hearts for the Arts was a smashing success last night! Amazing art, music, food and a live art auction with lots of creative friends all partying together - and supporting Any Given Child, a very worthy cause."

Event photos are after artists and sponsor recognition.

These artists and sponsors, according to this website, made it possible:

Artists

Chloe Evans

Christian Cinder, cinderartist.blogspot.com
Chris Cabaldon, cityofwestsacramento.org
David Lowe, kvie.org
Daniel Mendoza, mendomas.com
Deidre Daughtry, artbydeidre.com
Gabrielle Summers
Gayle Rappaport-Weiland, grappaport.com
Heather Olson
James Cooper, seeart.org
Janet S Regan, regan3.com
Jared Konopitski, jaredkonopitski.com
Jill Allyn Stafford, jillallynstafford.com
Joe Strickland, joestrickland.com
Judith Monroe, judithmonroe.com
Kanika Marshall, KanikaMarshall.com
Kelly O'Connell
Kelly O'Neill
Kristin Marshall, gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com
Mayor Kevin Johnson, kevinjohnson.com
Lani Woods, LaniWoods.com
Maren Conrad, marenconrad.com
Milton Bowens, milton510.com
Rachel Smiley, smileyphotography.net
Raphael Delgado, artbyraphael.com
Shane Grammer, sgstudiosinc.com
Tanya Bermudez, BermudezArts.com
Tim Collom, timcollom.com
Tony Natsoulas, tonynatsoulas.com
Trisha Rhomberg, trisharhomberg.tumblr.com
Micah Crandall-Bear, micahcrandallbear.com
Patris Miller, artist-patris.com
Pattie Moreno, hot1035.com
Steve Hamm, urban-now.com

Sponsors

Trenton Bahr Fine Portraiture
Sacramento365.com
Advantage Presentations
Radio Hot 103.5
International Academy of Design & Technology
In Full Bloom by MJL
Wes Davis Imaging
DBI Beverage Distributors
Hot Italian
Sacramento Region Community Foundation
University Art
Hilton San Francisco
Ruhstaller Beer
Sweet Bohemian Life
Nugget Markets
Michelle Alexander
Clemon Charles
Deborah Edward
Tracy Saville
Jill Allyn Stafford
Michelle Wong

Here are some photos from the event:

Del Paso Boulevard is not Del Paso Heights

2012-02-09T03:51:47Z

There are many places in Sacramento city and county where a long roadway travels through numerous neighborhoods: Fair Oaks Boulevard, Watt Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard, for starters.

When the street name is very close to the neighborhood name – such as Del Paso Boulevard and Del Paso Heights – people unfamiliar with the area often confuse the road and the neighborhood.

Sacramentans take pride in their neighborhoods and, since the reputation of one neighborhood is not always carried on the roadway to the next, that confusion can get on a resident’s nerves pretty fast.

For example, a commenter on a recent Sacramento Press article about road improvements along Del Paso Boulevard had this to say after seeing a reference to Del Paso Heights in the article:

“The neighborhood that is affected by these changes is Woodlake, not Del Paso Heights. Why do journalists at Sac Press and the Bee constantly think that anything on Del Paso Blvd = Del Paso Heights? Del Paso Heights does not begin until much farther North,” Natalie Kuffel said Monday.

The ire is understandable – Del Paso Heights isn’t located on or adjacent to Del Paso Boulevard, and the nuances of Woodlake and Del Paso Heights are significantly different.

“It’s very confusing, and a lot of people think that they are the same,” said Jerry Kinglsey, president of the Woodlake Neighborhood Association.

Woodlake, as described by Kingsley, is a “nice, quiet community, secluded with lots of old trees.”

The community was established in 1924, and most of the Woodlake community was built in the early ‘30s, Kingsley said Wednesday. Some of the newer homes were built in the 1950s.

“There are people in Woodlake that were born there and raised their children and grandchildren there,” Kingsley said.

The neighborhood is known for its large, older homes and tree-lined streets, Kingsley said.

Woodlake is bound by Arden Way to the north, Hwy 160 to the south, Royal Oaks Drive to the east and Del Paso Boulevard to the west.

Del Paso Heights, on the other hand, is located about four miles north of Woodlake – and the neighborhood begins well past the point on Del Paso Boulevard where the road splits off to become Marysville Boulevard, Kingsley said.

Del Paso Heights is bound by Interstate 80 to the north, the Arcade Creek levee to the south, Marysville Boulevard to the east and Norwood Avenue to the west.

“It all started as part of the Rancho Del Paso land grant,” said Sondra Betancourt, lifelong resident and president of the Ben Ali Neighborhood Association.

Del Paso Heights is also an older neighborhood, and it was predominately a blue-collar/white-collar neighborhood, that "typified the hopes and desires and values of middle-class America of the 1950’s," added Brent Scott, a former Del Paso Heights resident.

“Over time, with use, the familiarity with the first two words become an all-encompassing term,” Betancourt said. “People have a common misconception that anything near Del Paso Heights is Del Paso Heights, but they don’t have any idea of what the map really looks like.”

Del Paso Boulevard travels through multiple neighborhoods after Woodlake – including Old North Sacramento, South Hagginwood and Hagginwood – before ultimately arriving in East Del Paso Heights.

“What most people think of as Del Paso Boulevard – with the art galleries and the finer restaurants – that is Old North Sacramento, which is close to Woodlake,” Betancourt said.

One of the key landmarks in “true Del Paso Heights,” according to Betancourt, is the Urban League building on Marysville Boulevard.

Del Paso Boulevard – the roadway – has been undergoing some transformations lately with streetscape improvements and business development along the corridor.

Meanwhile, Del Paso Heights – the neighborhood – could use some similar improvements, said Fran Barker, president of the Del Paso Heights Improvement Association Monday.

“The streets need lights for safety,” Barker said. “With crime the way it is, the city needs to consider safety projects first.”

Del Paso Boulevard is not Del Paso Heights – it's much more, and residents in the communities along that roadway would likely agree.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Historic City Cemetery tour to celebrate Black History

2012-02-09T02:27:21Z

The Old City Cemetery Committee, in conjunction with the Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum in Sacramento, will offer a free tour of the Historic City Cemetery at 10 a.m. on Feb. 18 to honor Sacramento’s black pioneers.

“We’ll be featuring a dozen or so fascinating people from Sacramento’s history who were African-American or who affected their experience,” said Dr. Bob LaPerriere, founding member of the Old City Cemetery Committee.

Several guest docents from the Sojourner Truth Museum will be positioned along the tour to speak about Sacramento’s black pioneers. Eric Bradner, volunteer docent with the Old City Cemetery Committee, will lead the tour. Among the stories he will feature are those of five people Bradner said he discovered this year as a result of his research.

All five were members of the Colored Convention, an anti-slavery organization that sought to give black people the right to testify in a court of law.

Each docent will present information and history about "Negro trail blazers" who now rest at the cemetery, Bradner said.

Black barbers played a key role in the abolition movement, he said, and their graves are part of this tour. It was one occupation black men were allowed to do at the time, and one that was often performed by East Coast-educated doctors and lawyers who were unable to find work in their chosen professions.

“Barbers had a secret code, akin to the Underground Railroad,” Bradner said. He said people would pass along information through barbers about people who tried to settle in the area with slaves, and it would eventually get to abolitionists in Sacramento or San Francisco.

Also featured will be a “buffalo soldier” – a black soldier who fought in the Civil War and an opera singer named Anna Madah (Hyers) Fletcher.

Edwin Crocker, a well known abolitionist who acted as the attorney for Archy Lee, the famous fugitive slave, will be visited on tour as well, Bradner said.

Nelson Ray, along with his wife and son, is buried at the cemetery and their story will be presented by William “Malik” McDaniels, guest docent from the Sojourner Truth museum. The members of the Ray family were enslaved in Missouri in the early 19th century, but became separated following the death of the plantation owner.

Although Ray’s son was believed to be between 5 and 10 years old when he was sold to another slaveholder in Texas, the family was reunited decades later in Placerville, where they mined for gold, McDaniels said.

Tour attendees can expect to learn about a man who was among those who sat on the first all-black jury in Sacramento. Also buried at the cemetery is a man who ran an all-black boarding house and a restaurateur, Bradner said.

“We tell stories about people,” Bradner said, adding that it won’t be a boring history lesson. “There are so many great stories in that cemetery.”

The tour should last about one hour and is free, but donations are welcome and will go to repair broken tombstones, LaPerriere said.

The Old City Cemetery Committee conducts free monthly tours of the cemetery on many subjects. The history of labor in Sacramento will be highlighted later this year, Bradner said. Lantern-light tours are conducted three times each year, and private tours can be arranged for various prices.

The Historic City Cemetery is located at 1000 Broadway. Parking is available across from the cemetery on 10th Street.

For a full list of events, click here.

Midtown's musicians featured in new art exhibit

2012-02-09T01:37:59Z

Art pays homage to art in a new gallery exhibit called “Musicians of Midtown” at Gallery 2110 as artist Brooke Walker-Knoblich exhibits 10 paintings of local musicians playing in Midtown venues.

“I’ve always been intrigued by musicians in particular – not just music, but the performance of music,” Walker-Knoblich said.

The paintings – all done in oil – evoke the emotions she felt in hearing the music, she said, adding that she watched the musicians perform, drawing sketches of them in as little as 30 seconds, then painting the larger works using the sketches as foundations.

Some of the works have shorter brush strokes to fit with the quicker pace of the music, while others are longer, and light and darkness are used to show emotion as well.

Musicians such as Musical Charis, The Nibblers and Clemon Charles are featured in the paintings, and the venues in which they are performing include The Urban Hive and Bows & Arrows, though the musicians are the prominent parts of the paintings.

For the exhibit, 20 sketches and 10 paintings are on display, and Walker-Knoblich said she spent the past year working on the body of work, which could extend into the future if other galleries are interested in the style.

Originally from Nevada City, the 29-year-old Walker-Knoblich moved to Midtown about three years ago. The current show is a departure from her normal style of work, which is Renaissance Realism.

“It was very liberating, and very challenging, too,” she said. “It was very different. I could kind of do whatever I wanted.”

She sketched more than 450 musicians over the past year, but for the show in Midtown, she chose 10 locals to turn into paintings.

“When I moved down to Midtown, I started checking out the scene, going to venues, and I was totally shocked at how great the scene was and how personable the artists were,” Walker-Knoblich said.

Walker-Knoblich said she has been an artist from an early age, but a year spent in Paris when she was 21 was the year when she determined art would be her career.

Clare Bailey, owner of the gallery, said that she would like to see Walker-Knoblich’s work tour to other cities, allowing Walker-Knoblich to add new paintings as some are sold and keep the exhibit evolving and financially successful.

“There are some artists, whose sketches she did, (who) have traveled from across the country to get here, and those haven’t turned into paintings yet, but they could, and this could be an exhibit that travels,” Bailey said.

“I think one of the elements that I love the most is we’re paying tribute to music in a fine art gallery – and it’s all related,” Bailey said.

All works are for sale, and the exhibit will run through March 2, Bailey said.

For more information on Gallery 2110, click here.

The exhibit is currently on display, but a reception will be held Thursday, with Walker-Knoblich available from 6 - 8 p.m. Guitarist Sean Paul Mee will be playing music during the reception as well.

Viewing the show on Saturday will be possible anytime between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m., as the gallery extends its hours for the Second Saturday Art Walk. Walker-Knoblich Will be in the gallery from 5 - 9 p.m. Saturday as well.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Major League Baseball returns to Sacramento in March

2012-02-09T01:10:39Z

Before the Sacramento River Cats begin the 2012 season in defense of their 10th division title in 12 years, one of the most successful American professional sports franchises will host one of Major League Baseball's most storied champions.

For the first time in half a decade Major League Baseball will be played in Sacramento as the River Cats host their parent affiliate Oakland Athletics on March 31, 2012. Following a successful 2011 season, in which Sacramento won its 10th Pacific Coast League South Division title, the River Cats kick off the 2012 season against some familiar faces who have found success at the Major League level.

The River Cats will host the four-time World Series champion Oakland A's for a fifth time – the first four were sellouts – at Raley Field in West Sacramento.

Since moving to Sacramento in 2000, the River Cats have been one of Minor League Baseball's most successful franchises – winning two Triple-A Championships (2007, 2008), four PCL Championships (2003, 2004, 2007, 2008) and drawing more fans than any other Minor League team over the past 12 seasons.

The roster of former Sacramento River Cats who had successful careers with the A's and the rest of Major League Baseball is an elite one.

Sacramento has graduated more than 200 players to the Majors, including 2002 Cy Young Award Winner Barry Zito, 2002 American League Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske and Dallas Braden, who famously pitched the 19th perfect game in MLB history for the A's on May 9, 2010.Braden, pitcher Brett Anderson, shortstop Cliff Pennington, catcher Kurt Suzuki and second baseman Jemile Weeks are among current A’s players who passed through Raley Field.

The March 31 exhibition game will be the first time a Major League team has played in Sacramento since the River Cats last hosted the A's in 2007. In 12 years, Raley Field has hosted eight Major League games – four between the River Cats and A's (2001, 2003, 2006, 2007), twice against the San Diego Padres in 2001 and the Colorado Rockies in 2004.

The A's will hit the bags at Raley Field against the River Cats just two days after a five-game tour through Japan.

For more information visit www.RiverCats.com/Oakland

Disclosure: Brett Ransford is a Media Relations intern with the Sacramento River Cats.

Sacramento's Patrick Mulvaney to Serve as Celebrity Chef at California Nut Festival in Chico - 4/21

2012-02-08T18:23:45Z

Get your taste buds ready! With a focus on locally grown foods from the North Valley, the third annual California Nut Festival is scheduled for Saturday, April 21, 2012, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each year, this popular culinary event showcases plentiful gourmet food offerings, wine and beer sampling, nut-inspired cooking demonstrations, live musical entertainment on two outdoor stages, an inspiring art show featuring talented local artists and much, much more. Tickets go on sale March 1 for the 2012 California Nut Festival that takes place outdoors on the historic grounds of the Patrick Ranch Museum in Chico, California.

Locally grown nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios take center stage during crowd-pleasing cooking demonstrations happening throughout the day. To showcase the locally grown edible treasures, the organizers of the California Nut Festival are proud to host two celebrity chefs at the festival this year -- nationally recognized chef and “healthy eating” cookbook author Holly Clegg from Louisiana and highly acclaimed chef Patrick Mulvaney whose Sacramento restaurant Mulvaney’s B&L was recently highlighted in the Zagat Survey annual guidebook as one of the country's top places to eat.

The goal of the vibrant, entertaining and fun annual festival is to celebrate the culinary delights grown and produced in California while paying tribute to the region’s strong farming heritage and providing festival guests with an opportunity to connect with local farmers and growers.

“With exciting new offerings and returning favorites, we look forward to dazzling, delighting and impressing both the local community and guests from near and far during the festival this year,” explains Kathy Chance, lead organizer of the 2012 California Nut Festival. “In addition, we take great pride in supporting the Patrick Ranch Museum, which is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the rich agricultural history of the area.”

Located in Sacramento’s North Valley 90 miles north of Sacramento, Chico boasts a rich agricultural history. To make the festival a weekend getaway, guests can fly directly into Chico via a short 45-minute flight from San Francisco. Sacramento International Airport is the closest major airport and offers shuttle services and rental car options. Visit the Chico Chamber of Commerce at www.ChicoChamber.com (click on Visitor Information/Places to Stay) for numerous local hotel and bed and breakfast accommodations.

A dedicated committee of local volunteers -- that include many farmers and local business people -- coordinate the vibrant one-day festival, which benefits the Patrick Ranch Museum, a newly restored mansion and working farm managed by the Far West Heritage Association.

The California Nut Festival is presented by the Butte County Farm Bureau, Tri Counties Bank and the Farmer’s Circle, and is sponsored by Enloe Medical Center, PG&E and various other farmers and local businesses.

For more information about the California Nut Festival, visit the official website at www.CaliforniaNutFestival.com or call 530-519-1882.

Disclosure: Traci Rockefeller Cusack represents a number of businesses and organizations throughout Northern California including the California Nut Festival.

Trash Film Orgy fundraising event

2012-02-08T07:30:37Z

Sacramento’s Trash Film Orgy Productions (TFO) is preparing to make a new feature film this spring. In an effort to bring the film to the big screen, TFO will hold a kickoff fundraising event this Friday, February 10 at Sacramento’s On the Y.

TFO is a Sacramento-based film production company that specializes in creating high quality, low budget horror films. TFP also produces the annual Trash Film Orgy Midnight Movie Film Festival. The Crest Theatre has been home to the event since 2001.

Friday’s Super-Special Fundraiser Show will feature a special screening of TFO’s hit, “Monster from Bikini Beach.” The film, shot in Sacramento, includes clips of several Sacramento landmarks.

The 2008 film is an entertaining carnage and mayhem B-movie meant for an over 21 crowd. The movie combines B-movie elements of other beach party films such as “Beach Blanket Bingo,” 1950’s monster movies, slasher type elements and some awesome humor to bring a truly amusing local indie film to the screen.

The monster lives in the river banks and caves of Camaroville and comes out in search of bikini-clad beauties. Elsewhere in Camaroville, a nightclub go-go contest takes place, a crooked cop and mobsters try to fix a drug deal gone wrong while a local news team looks into the current crime wave.

TFO Productions continues to bring fun events to various Sacramento sites giving audiences a chance to participate in different contests and entertainment. The TFO team of Darin Wood, Christy Savage and Amy Slockbower understand what local fans want and strive to bring that type of entertainment to town. TFO is also commonly credited with inventing the ever-growing Zombie Walk in 2001.

The Pyronauts were featured in the movie and will be playing live music on Friday night. A go-go dance-a-thon will be part of the evening’s fun events as well. As usual, when a TFO event is brought to the Sacramento stage, audience participation will be encouraged.

The go-go dance-a-thon will give participants a chance to win some exciting prizes and a go-go queen will be crowned.

Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at 9. Tickets are $10 and the event is for the 21 and over crowd. Monster drink specials will be featured and will include live drinking games and Bikini Beach Bingo. Proceeds from the event will go towards TFO’s new movie production.

Come to On the Y, located at 670 Fulton Avenue, and partake in the screening of Monster from Bikini Beach. Enjoy an evening of fun, dance, live music and entertainment while supporting TFO’s next film.

Family Circus workshops

2012-02-08T05:09:00Z

On Sunday morning at the University of California, Davis Mondavi Center, Kevin O’Connor, Slater Penney, Christine Germain and Emily Leap led two free workshops on rope climbing, juggling, building human pyramids and using the trapeze. Each 90-minute workshop accommodated 60 very lucky participants ranging from age 4 to adult. More than 300 people could not be accommodated.

Kevin O’Connor, an MFA choreography candidate and graduate of the National Circus School of Montreal, was the event’s organizer. O’Connor invited three other trained professionals to lead the four simultaneous workshops sponsored by the new UC Davis Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance.

The morning workshop buzzed with energy from participants, and a passion for teaching was exhibited by Slater Penney, an educator in physical theater and Emmy winner who opened the event and led the group through a series of warm-ups that included stretches for legs, torso and hands.

Other exercises included spatial awareness activities that required each participant to find a person to follow and to keep that person on their right. The catch here was not to tell the other person. Penney then directed the participants to locate another person and keep that person on the left. The key was to keep the original person to the right and add the second person.

After warming up and learning more about spatial awareness, Penney broke the group into three smaller groups of about 20 participants each for the first of three rotations of juggling, human pyramid building and aerialist work. Each group spent time in each of the three areas. The aerialist work was divided between rope climbing and trapeze work.

Penney led the group in juggling colored scarves and tennis balls. Scarves were wadded and dropped and participants were asked to perform while the scarf was floating to the ground. A waving of arms, dance moves and jumping took place before the pink, blue, orange, green and yellow scarves landed. Scarves were tossed high and caught on heads and juggled before participants were given tennis balls – first one, then two.

Penney refers to himself as a “Jack of all trades” and said that he loves teaching. His passion for teaching and for the circus arts shone as bright as his orange shirt. He leads programs for children from 5-10 years old at the International House in Davis.

The group next to Penney, led by Christine Germain, a dancer and an MFA student, worked on partnering skills and trust as they held hands and leaned back or placed themselves back to back and moved from standing to a squatting position and back. Germain told the group as she led them through the building of a small human pyramid that the lizard becomes the rock. Weight distribution was discussed, and no one fell over during the morning workshop.

Along the back wall, O’Connor led the third group through rope climbing. Perhaps the only disappointed participant was Katrina Hernes, an avid tree climber and gymnast, who was told that she would not be permitted to climb to the top of the ropes for safety reasons.

Rope climbers also worked with aerialist and dancer, Emily Leap, on the trapeze where she first demonstrated a spin and then guided participants, holding firmly to the small children.

Each group worked for approximately 20 minutes with each leader, and the time seemed too short for most when the 60 participants were reassembled for cool-down exercises led by O’Connor.

“As part of my upcoming MFA thesis presentation,” said O’Connor as he explained the reason for the workshops, “I wanted to activate the Mondavi space with a whole cross range of the surrounding Davis community. I wanted to bring people into the space to play, learn, meet each other and share ideas. I think more of these types of workshops could happen here so that the Mondavi center has a felt sense of being a creative space and force in the community.”

O’Connor, with collaborator Leap, will present dis/connect, a show that explores the idea of place, at the Mondavi Center for two weekends beginning February 16. The show will feature four additional dancer/circus artists and three vocalists and will be, according to O’Connor, “an interactive event that will move between a performance and audience participation,” with a soundscape featuring live vocalists.

Many attendees and several workshop leaders expressed a desire for more workshops like those presented Sunday where children and adults, and friends and family came together to learn more about themselves, about circus acts, and to enjoy themselves.

Nonprofit organization reaches fundraising goal

2012-02-08T02:07:02Z

La Raza Galería Posada, a local nonprofit Latino arts organization, succeeded in reaching its fundraising goals to stay open after Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna helped fill the funding gap with a music event Saturday.

In November, the center announced that it needed to raise $25,000 or face closure.

“We are extremely grateful for Supervisor Serna for his beyond-the-call-of-duty support,” said Marie Acosta, executive director of La Raza Galería Posada. “It’s very rare when an elected official will go out of their way and walk the talk for a nonprofit in need of funding.”

Funding sources for the art gallery and cultural center, located at 1022-1024 22nd St., have been in steady decline since 2005, threatening the existence of the 40-year-old center.

Saturday’s event, titled “Phil Serna Music on a Mission,” raised $30,000, which was split between La Raza Galería Posada, Cottage Housing, Women Escaping a Violent Environment and Roberts Family Development Center, according to a Monday press release.

While the extra push was needed over the past year, Acosta said Tuesday that there are several new funding sources opening up for the center this year, and the organization will apply for funding from places such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sierra Health Foundation, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.

“We are very hopeful that we will be able to receive funding from those sources, but we will always need support from the community, and now more than ever,” Acosta said.

Keep the arts in your heart this Wednesday

2012-02-07T18:18:48Z

At this Wednesday’s Hearts for the Arts Benefit Event (6pm-9pm at Alex Bult Gallery) artists, community leaders, and Sacramento’s finest convene to celebrate and raise funds for Any Given Child Sacramento. This initiative, spearheaded by For Arts’ Sake, strives to ensure that art experiences are accessible to every child in grades K-8.

As a part of this fun, alternative event you can treat your Valentine to a night like no other, all while supporting a great cause and enjoying an evening of art, music, cocktails, and refreshments.

Esteemed auctioneer David Sobon will auction off “heart-works” donated donated by over 24 local artists, including Raphael Delgado, Shane Grammer, and Micah Crandall-Bear. Live music will be provided throughout the evening by Clemón.

All proceeds from the $30 tickets ($40 at the door) go to support Any Given Child.

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Find more detail on this event along with many more at Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

Disclosure: Written by Sacramento365.com Assistant Editor, Alison Kranz

Lube & Roses at Marilyn's

2012-02-07T17:01:51Z

Recently I made my first visit to Marilyn's on K St. The show was Lube & Roses: A Night of Bare Bellies and Drag, a fundraiser for The Gender Health Center (GHC) in Sacramento.

Information about The Gender Health Center follows the photos of the fundraising evening.

The show ran the gamut from silly to raunchy:

"GHC is a non-profit agency that provides counseling/therapy services to anyone who expresses the need, as well as anyone who self- identifies or is perceived, to be gender variant," Ben Hudson explains.

Their services are accessible to the most underserved communities, including the LGBTQQI ( Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, and Intersex) community and focusing on the "T" or transgender.

Co-founders Ben and Rachel Hudson are longtime Sacramento residents.

Rachael, Operations Manager, is a transwoman who has lived in the Sacramento area since 1978. In 1999 she began her search for others like her and discovered the Sacramento Gender Association (SGA).

Ben, Executive Director, has served on the board of the SGA and is co-founder of the Sacramento Transgender Coalition and TransFamilies Sacramento.

Clinical Director David Nylund is an expert on transgender mental health care and is a full-standing member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), Hudson explains.

Supporting gender identity transitions are at the heart of their core services.

"Counseling staff can also support family members and friends of transgender men and women," Rachael said.

The transition of Chaz (Chastity) Bono has offered the public a peek into the life of a transgender person.

Intro to Photojournalism Workshop Feb. 21

2012-02-07T01:08:27Z

Photographs are an important part of storytelling and can often tell a story on their own. After a brief workshop hiatus, our first Sacramento Press workshop for 2012 will be on photojournalism. (The Journalism Open workshop wasn't a typical workshop for us.)

John Hernandez will teach an introductory photojournalism workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Photojournalism."

Hernandez is a Sacramento-based photographer. He has professional experience in wedding, portrait and social documentary photography as well as various multimedia platforms, including audio slideshows. He has freelanced for ABS-CBN, a Filipino American news channel, and interned at The Sacramento Press. He has a journalism degree and Asian American studies minor from San Francisco State University.

He will discuss photojournalism – what it is and what it isn’t. Hernandez will also talk about equipment, tips for shooting and demonstrate how to make an audio slideshow.

Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Sacramento Valley Station station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks.

We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as the Amtrak parking lot charges, and we cannot cover the cost of parking.

To RSVP, email workshops@sacramentopress.com. If you RSVP and decide later not to attend, please send us an email to notify us that you will not be coming so we can have an accurate head count.

Thanks, and we hope to see you here!

Sacramento museum day celebration at Sojourner Truth Mulitcultural Art Museum

2012-02-07T00:52:50Z

Well over 800 visitors participated in the Museum Day festivities at the Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum this past Saturday.

The day’s events included cultural performances, storytelling, arts and crafts activities for children, food demonstrations and vendors displays of ethnic jewelry, greeting cards and well as original works of art.

“We had a beautiful event today,” stated museum director and founder, artist Shonna McDaniels.

“All of our activities today were intended to further our primary mission to educate children and adults about the cultural diversity that has strengthened this nation while providing a platform to develop and showcase artists from culturally diverse backgrounds,” said McDaniels.

The work of McDaniels and resident artist Joe Pollakoff are featured throughout the building. Pollakoff also serves as the curator of the departments of art, history and exhibits.

The museum houses a diverse collection of artifacts dating back to the slavery era and includes a collection of dolls previously owned by slaves.

During the hourly tours of the museum, a very knowledgeable Pollakoff explained how the dolls doubled as hiding places for valuable items that were forbidden to slaves.

“Not only have we found precious metals and other heirlooms inside of the dolls in our collection during the restoration process, one doll contained the set of iron shackles that you see in our display case,” stated Pollakoff to a group of visitors, some of whom were visibly moved by the revelation.

The Florin Arts and Business building features long hallways with spectacular murals depicting the history of black people dating back from Africa through the civil rights era and includes many familiar faces that are recognizable from current and historic events.

Reyna Greenfield discovered the event while searching for an extra credit project as part of her curriculum in a course on culture and diversity in early childhood education.

“I enjoyed the art today; it has been a great experience,” said Greenfield as she was preparing to leave after spending some time viewing the murals and taking the tour.

“During the tour and learned a great many things I did not know about the influence of African-Americans and their art upon the American culture,” said Greenfield.

The Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum was admitted to the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAMS) in 2007 after many years of dedicated work by a long list of local artists led by McDaniels, who is the executive director of the non-profit corporation that holds ownership of its name.

“We have recently begun the process of seeking a permanent home,” stated McDaniels, when discussing what the future holds for the Museum that bears the name of Sojourner Truth, a former slave who escaped to freedom with her infant daughter in 1826. Truth is also famous for being the first black woman in America to win a court case against a white man. The case assisted her in recovering her son, who had been sold illegally into slavery.

“We have grown tremendously since we moved into this location in 1995,” said McDaniels.

“The time has come for us to secure our own facility so that we can be in full control of our mission and our destiny,” she said.

The building that houses the museum has changed ownership several times during the past 17 years and is now currently up for sale. With each change in ownership comes the delicate process of negotiating the role, rights and obligations of the museum vis-à-vis the vision of the new management of the building.

None of those concerns were on the minds of the visitors who were busy enjoying the unique opportunity to learn about history while appreciating the visual and performing arts that were a part of the day’s scheduled events.

The featured youth artists for the day were twin sisters Keley and Catherine Suan. The Suan sisters are up and coming artists who took home two first place and two second place prizes at the Cal Expo Youth Art and Design Expo in 2010.

Both of the young women are determined to pursue a career in art and are now taking college courses to pursue different goals.

“I’m thinking about becoming an art teacher so I can keep my art close to me while still submitting work to galleries,” stated Catherine.

“I am more interested in illustration and animation because I like my art to tell stories,” said Keley.

Both Catherine and Keley were busy throughout the afternoon explaining their artistic techniques and showing their work to potential customers.

The museum is frequently opened for field trips to area schools and community centers that bring classes or groups to take the tour and learn about the struggles and triumphs of people from diverse cultural backgrounds throughout history. The museum’s original focus on African-American history has not changed, but has expanded to include non-white cultures whose accomplishments in art and society deserve more recognition.

The youth representing the After School Program led off the afternoon’s activities at noon. First the Phoenix Park Unity Teens put on a fashion show that featured traditional African clothing and included tribal symbols placed on the skin using various colors.

They were followed by the Phoenix Park African Dance Group. The young dancers put on a well rehearsed and high energy dance routine accompanied by music which featured traditional African drums.

The performances resumed at 1 p.m. with the Azteca Dance Group wearing colorful costumes complete with long feathered headdresses and leg ornaments whose rattling sounds accompanied the drum beats created by a decorated drum played by one of the group members.

The Azteca Dance Group demonstrated a variety of traditional Aztec ceremonial dances and prayers. When it came time for the “friendship dance,” all members of the audience were invited to join in and participate, and most did.

Meggan Mariano and Maria Morge of the Sacramento Black Art of Dance Group performed an elegant dance routine entitled, Spiritual Awakenings, to music composed and performed by jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.

Following the tradition of black concert dance in American culture, the routine was so inspiring and well done that an encore performance was requested by audience members who gathered up attendees who missed the initial performance.

Sandy Holman of the Cultural C.O.O.P of Davis demonstrated her enthusiastic storytelling skills to a very attentive audience of children and adults alike. Her storytelling included visual displays as well as call and response participation by the audience.

Holman’s storytelling was educational as much as it was entertaining. She told stories about the history of Africa along with anecdotes from her childhood and repeatedly cajoled, encouraged and inspired the children in the audience to read, take care of their bodies and not engage in negative behaviors that would jeopardize their future success.

Holman completed her time by quizzing audience members about the identities of the members of the African royalty she described and rewarding those who remembered the correct answers with a variety of educational items including books on African history.

The AAPACC Hmong Dance group also graced the audience with a routine of traditional dance. Their movements were perfectly coordinated and featured intricate hand movements that matched the agile dance steps set to the fluid traditional Hmong music. The appreciative audience appeared to be somewhat disappointed that the young ladies only performed one routine.

“I really liked the Hmong dancers,” stated Jasmin Vargas, age 8, when recalling what she liked best about Museum Day.

“I made clay dolls and noisemakers and I saw a lot of art,” added Vargas, explaining what she would remember about the day’s events.

The Museum Day festivities included several hands-on stations where children of all ages were invited to join in the fun to create art or participate in educational activities.

Early in the day a group of children worked together to paint a diversity mural that was placed upon the wall for display in the area that was reserved for arts and crafts.

The arts and crafts available included making shakers or drums, handmade pillows, coloring books with themes featuring cultural diversity, and Diwali Diays (candles).

There were also children fashioning figures out of clay, as well as one station where the art of sushi making was being taught and everyone was able to admire their creation before dining on what they made.

One special attraction was manned by Col. Thomas Sherman (Ret.), Executive Director of the Youth Aviation Academy. It featured a computer flight simulator identical to the ones he uses to teach aviation to sixth graders at Harmon Johnson Elementary school in Del Paso Heights.

Col. Sherman explained that he started the non-profit after his retirement to expose children that would likely not otherwise be introduced to the possibilities of a career in aviation. His idea of bringing in children at a young enough age so that they can be inspired to do the hard work necessary to be qualified to become pilots, air traffic controllers or serve as members of the ground crew is just now beginning to develop.

“We people of color don’t get the kind of exposure we need to excel in areas where we’re underrepresented,” stated Col. Sherman when explaining the struggles he went through because he was only one of a few members of his flight school class that did not already have a pilot’s training and license after earning his Electrical Engineering degree and accepting a military commission as a second lieutenant.

The final performer for the day was “Magic Forrest” Barnes, a very well regarded local magician who combines teaching little known facts about African American inventors and pioneers with a variety of illusions and magic tricks.

Magic Forrest incorporated volunteers from the audience into his presentation. Nearly every youngster in the crowd participated in one form or another before he was done.

Magic Forrest frequently mesmerized the crowd with his tricks and had one young lady visibly disturbed with worry when it appeared that he was about to pour a cup of water over her head that somehow turned out to be empty.

During his time before the crowd, Magic Forrest encouraged the children to dream big and think big. His message emphasized the need for kids to stay in school and to believe in themselves.

As the afternoon’s event drew to a close, a number stopped by to retrieve the work they displayed for the event and a group of volunteers began to assist in putting away items brought out for the event.

“I really like what Shonna is doing here at the Sojourner Truth Museum,” stated John F. King, a well regarded and accomplished artist who has been on the forefront of the art scene in the Sacramento Area for over four decades who had art on display during the event.

“Her multicultural approach to this museum is fantastic and is greatly appreciated and much needed here in the south area,” said King.

“Your light really shined bright today,” stated L. Finch, the building engineer of Florin Road Arts and Business Complex, as McDaniels went by busily taking down the artwork that was hung specifically for the event.

McDaniels modestly responded.

“I owe a big thanks to a whole lot of people that made all of this possible, including you, Mr. Finch.”

Cronenberg Goes Freudian

2012-02-06T19:31:34Z

“A Dangerous Method”
A Film Review by Gary Chew

Not being a student of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung or Sabina Spielrein (not to mention Otto Gross), it's difficult knowing to what extent accuracy has been taken in David Cronenberg's “A Dangerous Method.” But suppose that what's depicted in this really chatty film is what happened, starting - as it did - one century and eight years ago. Right now, the film is playing at Sacramento's Tower Theater, Broadway at Land Park Drive.

Let's begin with a line spoken by Viggo Mortensen (as Dr. Sigmund Freud). With the soaring phrase of the sentence being “...the black mud of superstition,” it's easy to infer that Cronenberg continues his intellectual-like and rather kinky cinematic surveys.

With “Method” there's guilt, doctor/patient and teacher/student relationships, as well as what drives human sexuality and any connection it might have to death...all with occasional strains of Wagner quietly sounding in the background. Cronenberg and Lar von Trier (“Melancholia”) were big on Wagner in 2011. Surely somewhere in one of these movies, there's a Siegfried.

As I watched “A Dangerous Method,” I expected Friedrich Nietzsche to suddenly appear any second. But he didn't, which says something about the historical accuracy of the film. Nietzsche died a hundred and twelve years ago.

”Method” is a curiously constructed triangle of real persons in a story that has only two of them involved sexually, but all three intellectually engaged.

The intellectual part has to do with what makes human brains tick which, in turn, signals emotions and thus, actions taken...due to the kind of ticking going on. In this case, in the brain of Spielrein (Keira Knightley). Actually, Spielrein was Russian-born and became one of the first female psychiatrists.

Sabina, “almost in a basket,” you might say, is institutionalized and comes under the “talking cure” of Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Jung's wealthy, lovely and mild-mannered- yet intuitive -wife, Emma (Sarah Gadon) is with child.

After some overacted scenes by Knightly in varying states of hysteria, which seem to be a product of Sabina's earlier life with a jerk of an authoritarian father, she and Jung succumb to sex play (definitely a doctor/patient no-no).

The couple then swears-off the liaison (Jungian guilt?) for a while and Carl becomes Sabina's unofficial graduate adviser as she finalizes her doctoral dissertation (definitely a teacher/student no-no). The subject of her dissertation brings the principals closer together.

Thickening the psychological brew a bit is a real psychoanalytic pagan of a fellow called Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel). It's decadence in full-swing as Gross, in therapy with Jung, nearly persuades his somewhat religious psychiatrist to a rather anarchistic attitude of life and sex.

Does it just happen, at about that time, Carl and Sabina become intimate? Maybe a question on her final quiz should've been, “Who's treating whom?” It comes out that, like Sabina, Otto also has a very strict father.

Freud's character is held at somewhat of a distance, although it plays an important part in the script. I've never seen Mortensen better in a role.

Fassbender, doing Jung, is smooth as glass. Cassel, you'd swear, is Otto Gross, particularly if you’ve ever happened to look up information on the historical Mr. Gross. Although hardly as well-known as Freud, Gross was on a Freudian path maybe a bit before Sigmund, but apparently he wasn't nearly as well-organized and responsible as the Father of Psychoanalysis.

“Method” is much with conversation and little on action, but the historical importance of the film and its personalities, as they relate to the beginning of the 20th century and what's soon to follow (WWI), provide most of its fuel. Closing the eyes occasionally won't cause you to miss a lot of this movie, even though there's a lot to get.

A play titled “The Talking Cure” was used by its playwright for the “Dangerous Method” adaptation. He also did the screenplay for the excellent film, “Atonement.” Christopher Hampton is his name. Both his play and movie script about Freud, Jung and Spielrein rattle about, ironically, what might be called the “psycho-circumstance” of today. All the debate of how the mentally disturbed are best treated, particularly as Freudian Psychology was coming into vogue, seems to pale and fall moot, since fewer contemporary patients receive “the talking cure,” unless they can afford it.

It's more often that a cathartic shrink one-on-one is supplanted by a vial of capsules or tablets prescribed by a psychiatrist in an office somewhere.

Don't forget to sign-off on the Seroquel, Sigmund.

Real Relationships: Unsolicited Valentine's Day advice

2012-02-06T17:59:44Z

It is February. The month of love. The month of loneliness.

Pretty much everyone falls into one of those categories, but I want to remind you that single does not mean alone.

Make a point to connect with a friend this Valentine's Day. After all, love is not just intimate, but a feeling we have for people who matter to us. Reach out and schedule coffee, dinner, or a fun night in. Forget gifts. They don't matter in the face of time spent together.

Don't get depressed about being alone, but remember to be thankful for what you have, for who you have.

Write a love letter to yourself. Remind yourself who you are and what makes you thrive. Make a list of things you have done and things you have yet to do. Treat yourself to a large cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

If you do have a special someone, put a little thought into your time together. Don't buy for the sake of buying, don't go out for the sake of tradition. What do you two really love to do together? Sometimes it is OK to just be.

Be together. Be in love. Be in relationships with family and friends.

That is what Valentine's Day is about: full, unabashed love for family, friends, life and self.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Have a relationship question? Email me at sacpress@live.com. Questions will be featured Mondays in Real Relationships.

"Water Falling Down" American Primere at B Street Theatre

2012-02-06T06:49:38Z

“Water Falling Down,” currently in its American premier as part of the current B3 Series at B Street Theatre, is the story of Dad and Son.

Dad is an elderly man loosing his mobility, at least under his own power, and is slipping into aphasia — “poor man’s Alzheimer’s,” as his son calls it. His wife of 30-some years died not long ago without, it seems, telling anyone that she was sick.

Son is a dutiful sandwich generation child with a son who won’t talk to him and a surviving parent that often does not make sense when he does talk. The only other “family” is ex-wive(s) who only seem to make his life miserable, leaving him to deal with Father on his own.

A common story for many boomers: trying to juggle career, family generations and some semblance of a life of one’s own. The difference here is the men are Australian and the twist is the old man goads his son in to taking him on one last trip through Europe like the trip of a lifetime he and mom had taken many years ago.

Australian playwright Mark Swivel’s play takes a caring but realistic look at its characters and their situation. He obviously has great affection for his main two characters. Swivel, who describes him self as a lawyer, strategist, and writer, is a very interesting person himself with two carer tracks. One is theater. The other is micro-finance and creating capital and credit for the poor.

The play is reminiscent of a genre from the late 1940s to early 1960s that were slice-of-life or realistic. Plays like “The Subject Was Roses” and “Marty” were plays that strove to give a look at social issues but not in an overt dramatic way. These plays were also vehicles for actors to show how wonderful they could be portraying everyday people.

David Cramer, who has appeared in numerous regional productions as well as television, gives the character of Dad, whether angry, sad, or being funny, a realistic, grounded feel. His Dad ranges from funny to pretty scary.

Kurt Johnson (“39 Steps,” “God of Carnage”), who has been performing on both sides of the lights with B Street for nearly 20 years, plays Son. Johnson beautifully portrays a man pushed to the brink of exploding, pauses and centers himself and then proceeds in the most loving way in his interactions with Dad.

Another 20-year B Street actor, director and writer, David Pierini (“Snow Queen,” "Juni B Jones...”), directs, smoothly moving his actors through numerous scene changes while maintaining their characters’ underlying humanity in each scene.

All the B Street production staff do their usual good job, including newcomer Ian Wallace’s set design that cleverly borrows parts from the current Family Series.

“Water Falling Down” is a good play, well acted and nicely staged written by a fascinating playwright.

†††’s Live 2012

2012-02-06T06:32:23Z

It’s Friday night at Ace of Spades with Chino Moreno, lead vocalist of the Deftones, and Shaun Lopez, guitarist of Far, crossing over to a new experimental era with †††.

A line of tattooed girls with skin tight jeans slink through the crowd as fans trickle in. Over 500 people paid homage filling the bar, to near capacity with a mix of high school students, collegiate couples, 80’s heavy-metal fans, punk rockers and adult film models.

There were two openers Secret Empire, a six man band from Los Angeles and Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross from Chicago. Both bands were the opposite of the other, balancing a yin that sided on the side of heavy metal and the yang on the side of experimental electronic fusion.

The first, Connor Ragan (24), wrote all the songs for Secret Empire including “Plastic Wrist” and “Alien Burial.” His bizarre mohawk, a deep blond, contrast with his black long-sleeved threads and jeans evoked a dark confidence in a young idealist wanting to be noticed in a conservative world.

The second, Dexter Tortoriello (25), of Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross was more understated. In a gray t-shirt and plastic-rimmed glasses, he tested the limits of a synchronized drum machine, a Mac, and a microphone hypnotizing the crowd with "White Sun" and “Blacks.” The entire set included a civil rights speech and the song Ave Maria layered with electronica sounds.

Connor Griffith, a senior from Mira Loma High who scored tickets through an online guitar site was in the audience impressed by the varied styles of music. He was excited to finally see Moreno, the former Deftones vocalist, who is not only a role model to teens everywhere but also his own fourteen year old son.

An altar of crosses await. The †††’s color change from hot pink to turquoise blue to a pure white light. The fine line of rock music and religion dilate. The audience is almost inclined to dunk their fingers in holy water. Then again, within these walls, there is plenty of sin.

“We’ll drink from the waves and feel our souls. We’ll fall asleep on the graves and seal our souls,” Moreno’s deep melodic tone shrills in “Holy Ghost.”

Dino Campanella and Chris Robyn then elevate with drums, facing each other to the lyrics of the song, “This is a Trick (Hello Hello I Know)."

On keyboard and guitar, Jono Evans and Chuck Doom summoned a calypso rhythm to “Bermuda Locket.” The lyrics ignite a light, "just come this way and I will bring you to life."

Lopez lures the audience deeper with the forbidden “Frontiers,” sailing off into the sun to rediscover the height of “Prurient.”

“Back in Sac, what's up?” Moreno yells at the top of his lungs. The crowd jumps at his beckon, the light of their phones waving in recognition, seizing the moment to welcome a hero. They wave their hands in empathy, accepting their star with “Telepathy.”

After all Moreno, originally came from Sacramento. A moved fan snuck on stage to pay respect, then hurled himself at the spectators. As long as you let me play, I’ll let you win.

The mood then changes as the synthesizer blaze to a somber, “1987.”

“A shoebox of ashes, a silver casket, a mother dressed for eternities, breathe in the waves.” His words reminise on identities, lost, and graves.

Shaking it off, Moreno says, “I want to dance. This is so much fun. I’m so glad that we are here. This song goes out to my pops and Uncle Chi (a tribute to Deftones bassist Chi Cheng who was left in a coma after a 2008 car accident),” as he transitioned to “Trophy.”

He then embraced fans, holding their hands to the call of “Option.” Moreno’s profound evolution, with Crosses, his fear surrendered to what is dear.

“Just open your heart and say, ‘I swear on the cross. Can you promise this to the grave?’”

Lights dim to the ringing of church bells. The music is his calling. A promise to give it all as Crosses return with an encore, the “Years” and another EP in the works for 2012.

"Where We're Born" - Solid Ensemble Brings Big Talent to Small Space

2012-02-06T03:57:09Z

Where we’re born is more than a location, it’s part of who we are.

Where We’re Born, the stage play by Lucy Thurber, is a strikingly simple and honest look at a young woman’s struggle with life change, the desire to and difficulty of leaving the comfort of your home and history—however hurtful it may have been. It is not a story, but a more like a series of snapshots taken during the course of a few days when the relationships and potentially, lives of three people are forever altered.

The catalyst for all of this is Lilly (Jessicah Neufeld), on a quasi-vacation from college. She arrives back in the small Western Massachusetts hill town she calls home just as a domestic crisis is unfolding between her cousin, Tony, (Brian Harrower) and his girlfriend, Franky (Kelley Ogden), but rather than creating a welcome diversion, she unleashes unexpected drama of her own.

The cast of five, under the direction of Lisa Thew, gives solid individual performances, as well as performing keenly and comfortably as an ensemble.

Harrower gives an especially subtle, but emotional and compelling interpretation of Tony, a guy who spends most of his time drinking beer, smoking pot, playing pool, and listening to rock and roll with his best buddies, but also has a deep-seated need to keep all of the women in his life happy.

David Chernyavsky and John Gregory Young round out the cast as Tony’s ever-present pals.

Ooley’s is a little-known theater, intimate, but more than adequate. KOLT Run Creations makes good use of the space, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Even the concessions are notable, provided by Num Nums, homemade for each performance and chosen specifically for each show. (Lime mini-cupcakes: To. Die. For.)

Having just seen another local show earlier in the week, it was impossible not to compare and contrast the quality of the productions. The lead actress in the previous show tripped over numerous lines (more than a week into the run) and--along with others in the cast--over the area rug that kept flipping up throughout the show.

Not fatal mistakes, but distracting flaws.

When the lights came up at the end of Where We’re Born, my guest and I turned to each other and marveled that two hours had already passed.

That’s a rare and excellent entertainment experience.

If only there’d been more people there to share it.

Where We’re Born, February 3rd-26th. Ooley Theater, 2007 28th Street (near T Street). Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM; Sundays, February 19th and 26th at 2 PM. koltruncreations.com or (916) 454-1500. This production contains adult content.

Ask the County Law Librarian -- Law Library Closing for Move; Re-opening March 1

2012-02-04T18:04:01Z

Q. What’s going on at the Law Library? There is yellow caution tape across the stairs to the second floor, which is closed to the public, and there’s a whole lot of banging and clanging going on up there!

Ted D.

A. Sorry about the noise and disruption, Ted! We’re doing our best to keep it quiet, but the sound you hear coming from the second floor is the result of having workers dismantle our rather large shelving units--we’re preparing for our move to a new facility about two blocks on the other side of the courthouse.

The Law Library and Civil Self-Help Center will be closed starting at noon on Friday February 10. We expect to open in our new location at 609 9th Street (corner of 9th & “F”) on or about March 1, 2012. Until February 10, if you need any material on our second floor, please don’t hesitate to ask a reference librarian—we’d be happy to run upstairs and get it for you!

While we’re closed, you can still visit our website at www.saclaw.org for a wealth of information, including sample forms and instructions for navigating a variety of common legal procedures. Our website may be down for a couple of days while we move our computers, but you can “like” us on Facebook or “follow” us on Twitter for the latest details on when that might happen, and exactly when we will re-open.

You may also visit the Witkin State Law Library of California or the Yolo County Law Library, which are the two nearest law libraries open to the public in the Sacramento area. The Yolo County Law Library has graciously volunteered to remain open an extra hour, until 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday for the month of February to accommodate our patrons.

Again, we apologize for any disruption in service, but we sincerely hope you will visit us in our new location and that the many amenities of 609 9th Street (including abundant street parking!) will make you think it was worth the wait!

Do you have a question for the County Law Librarian? Just email sacpress@saclaw.org. If your question is selected your answer will appear in next Thursday's column. Even if your question isn't selected, though, I will still respond within two weeks.

Coral Henning, Director
@coralh & @saclawlibrarian
www.saclaw.org

Keeping it local on L Street

2012-02-04T05:14:41Z

Wednesday was ladies’ night at the Goodies and Glam event, hosted by Face it Salon, Spa & Boutique on 18th and L streets. Patrons were invited to taste wine from Revolution Wines and cake and cookies from TreyBCakes. They shopped, got their makeup done and even scored a quick facelift.

Owner Sherie Scalzi, 30, said this was the first event that was broadcast to the public, and that they will continue to have monthly events.

Face it Boutique, which opened seven months ago, houses designs from local artists and students like jeweler Caroline Hearn from the International Academy of Design and Technology in Sacramento.

“I have really, really loved working with local designers, so we try to get a lot of local people here,” Scalzi said. “We work with people at events and at our store to help everybody’s business, so it’s fun.”

Scalzi opened Face It Salon on 19th and L streets two years ago, just around the corner from where the boutique is now. She started carrying her friend’s Me and D clothing line, and when the boutique outgrew the space, she opened a store that now caters to both men and women.

Scalzi, who grew up in Sacramento, studied aesthetics at Citrus Heights Beauty College so she could take care of her acne.

“I had major scarring on my face, my chest and my back,” Scalzi said, “so I went for my own personal needs and desires. That grew into my business, which grew into permanent makeup and massage and waxing.”

After her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Scalzi learned how to apply permanent makeup so she could help.

“She went to have her eyebrows done at a permanent makeup studio,” Scalzi said, “and they messed her up. So I ended up going to school for permanent cosmetics to correct her eyebrows.”

Scazli worked in local salons for 11 years and said she finally opened her own because she was fed up with the lack of customer service.

“I pride myself that my staff makes me feel really comfortable from the moment they walk in,” Scalzi said. “It just kind of stems from that. I finally felt like I had learned all the do’s and don’ts and went out on my own.”

Customer Serena Kirk has visited the full-service salon for two years and she said she comes back for the customer service and all that they offer.

“Their staff is just really friendly,” Kirk said, “and I trust that they will make me look good.”

For Scalzi, it is more than the returning clientele that keeps her motivated. She said that she wants to prove to her family that all this hard work was worth it, and she wants her three children to know they can also achieve their dreams.

“I want them to have and be and do whatever they want,” Scalzi said. “I don’t ever want them to do something that they don’t love. I can honestly say I love what I do.”

To find out more about Face It, visit the website.

Sacramento Ballet's Cinderella

2012-02-04T04:06:51Z

Sacramento Ballet’s in-studio previews for “Cinderella” sold out, and these performances created a delightful show for children and adults. The in-studio performances were held at the Sacramento Ballet Studios on Thursday and Friday.

The preview shows gave guests an opportunity to see an up-close and personal view of the wonderful talent the Sacramento Ballet has to offer. This unique perspective allows viewers to appreciate the effort that goes into each movement.

On Thursday afternoon, artistic director Ron Cunningham welcomed ballet enthusiasts to the event held at their studio at 1631 K St. Cunningham introduced several of the dancers performing in “Cinderella.”

Richard Smith and Rex Wheeler are cast in the roles of Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters, giving them a comic role. Their dance moves brought laughter from the audience at various points. They were also dressed in costume for the performance, while most of the rest of the cast wore casual ballet outfits.

Cunningham noted that his version of “Cinderella,” originally created in 1976 for the Boston Ballet, has been seen by audiences around the world. A Chinese national TV station also televised the ballet to over 30 million viewers.

“Cinderella” is divided into three acts. Act 1 begins with Cinderella, played by Alexandra Cunningham, working hard performing unending chores. The ungraceful stepsisters try outfits for the royal ball, and later a dance master attempts to teach them dance moves and social graces.

As the stepsisters attempt to dance, a viewer cannot help but notice how much effort it takes to move and dance like someone who does not know how to dance. The stepsisters’ moves are made to look clumsy and funny, and their whimsical facial expressions are very comical and are sure to delight the audience at the Sacramento Community Center.

Act 2 takes place at the royal ball as guests await the arrival of the prince. The court jester, played by Christopher B. Nachtrab, entertains the royal guests. Dancers gracefully waltz around which again shows their classically trained adagio moves and balance. Their fluid movements hypnotize the audience.

When Cinderella arrives at the royal ball, guests are impressed by her natural grace and beauty. Once the prince, played by Stefan Calka, arrives and sees Cinderella, the two instantly fall in love.

Calka’s performance is physically demanding, and his moves are classic and elegant. During one of his solo dances, Calka’s glissade movements used the whole studio floor, as he danced to impress Cinderella, but the whole audience was impressed by his fluid dancing.

Cinderella continues to dance with her new love as time seems to have stood still. The beauty of ballet transcends on the ballet studio, making this fairytale come to life in front of the audience.

Soon the clock strikes midnight. As Cinderella races home, the second intermission arrives.

We all know the story of “Cinderella,” but the Sacramento Ballet brings music, dance and love to the studio and will do the same at the Community Center. Cunningham’s choreography is a joy to watch. This will be a love story for ballet enthusiasts of all ages.

“Cinderella” will play at the Sacramento Community Center Theater from Feb. 9 to 12, with two shows on Feb. 11.

Del Paso Boulevard to get a makeover this summer

2012-02-04T02:52:45Z

The Del Paso Boulevard corridor between Globe and Baxter avenues will be getting a makeover this summer in a $1.5 million dollar streetscape project set to begin in May.

The project will include safety improvements at intersections and new on-street parking to the 1000-block of Del Paso Boulevard, according to city Department of Transportation Assistant Engineer Matthew Johns.

The city received federal community development grant funds in 2009 to construct streetscape improvements between Arden Way and State Route 160.

Before construction could begin, the project had to go through various stages of planning, design and environmental review. The project got the final go-ahead from the City Council Tuesday.

Johns said the project includes removing and replacing sections of curb and sidewalk, enlarging the wells surrounding trees along the boulevard and adding an irrigation system to promote growth of the trees.

“One day it’ll have something of a shade canopy from those trees, similar to what you see in Midtown,” Johns said Friday.

The street improvements will also address safety needs along that corridor, Johns said.

There will be a new traffic signal system at the intersection of Southgate Road, Colfax Street and Del Paso Boulevard, on the corner in front of the Sacramento News & Review building at 1124 Del Paso Boulevard.

Currently, there are stop signs at the side streets (Southgate and Colfax) and a marked crosswalk, but Johns said the improvements will include a traffic light and pedestrian controls at the crosswalk.

“Pedestrians will be able to cross when traffic is completely stopped instead of trying to judge when it’s clear,” Johns said. “It will make the intersection safer and hopefully will prevent accidents.”

Fran Barker, a member of the Del Paso Heights Improvement Association and a longtime community advocate, said that the planned improvement project will be a benefit to the area.

“We definitely appreciate whatever improvements can be made to our environment,” Barker said Friday. “Especially safety improvements.”

Barker said that, over her more than 50 years of advocating for her Del Paso Heights neighbors, she has watched many improvement projects go in – but not the ones she feels are most important.

“Beautification seems to come before safety,” Barker said.

One concern for Barker is the lack of lights on the smaller residential streets that tend to get very dark, making it difficult for people to navigate the streets at night.

“With the crime rate where it is, safety is so important,” Barker said. “We should have streetlights. That’s elementary, Dr. Watson.”

Additional streetlights are part of the upcoming project, Johns said, although they will not be installed on the smaller residential streets. They will be put in along the southern end of the corridor, nearing State Route 160.

The project is expected to take nearly four months to complete, Johns said.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Comeback kids pull one out, Kings turn back Blazers 95-92

2012-02-04T02:01:42Z

Since Keith Smart took over coaching duties last month, the Kings have had very little practice time and never had everyone on the roster available for a game.

Things changed this week when the Kings were able to get more time in between games to work on their new game plans. Add that to a healthy Marcus Thornton returning to the lineup and, wham-o!, a team with real possibilities has emerged.

After being down at the half by nine and being throttled by LaMarcus Aldridge the entire time (19 points on 9-of-11 shooting with five rebounds), Smart changed up his formula in guarding the Blazers standout forward which led to a terrific third quarter as the Kings held on the beat the pesky Portland Trailblazers 95-92 on Thursday evening at Power Balance Pavilion.

The Kings came out hustling, but some dumb fouls on the defensive end turned into easy points for the Blazers.

DeMarcus Cousins looked good early but got into foul trouble quickly and didn’t play most of the first quarter.

Aldridge has a great jump shot from inside the circle and put his skills on display early in this one. It didn’t matter who was matched up defensively against him. The way Portland was moving the ball around the court kept Kings players constantly chasing the ball, and Aldridge found himself more open than not for most of the half.

The lone bright spot in the first half for the home team was the ice-cold-as-of-late John Salmons. Salmons had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting that included two three-point bombs.

The wheels almost fell off in the second quarter as a bad mix of players had several defensive breakdowns. With J.J. Hickson, Isaiah Thomas, Travis Outlaw, Thornton and Chuck Hayes on the floor, it seemed that there wasn’t enough leadership or offensive firepower to keep up with Portland.

Smart noticed in time and stopped the bleeding by putting Cousins, Tyreke Evans and Jason Thompson back in the game with about 6:40 left in the second. Down by nine, that adjustment was enough to get Sacramento within three, until several Kings misses let the Blazers get the nine-point lead back before the buzzer.

The Kings scored six straight points as Evans and Cousins came out aggressive to open the third, until Cousins picked up two quick fouls that sent him to the pine early again.

With Cousins on the bench, it was time for Thompson to step up, and he did.

Thompson is having his best year to date and is a real force inside now for the Kings. Thompson finished with 13 points and 12 boards and was very active on the defensive end.

Thompson is fully aware of his improved play but doesn’t see it as a surprise. The way he tells it, if he didn’t have four different coaches in his four campaigns, things may be a little different for the man from Rider.

“It’s tough,” Thompson said after the contest. “Four different systems, and every coach wanted something differently out of me. For me, to keep my head and always staying ready for the future and being positive, then things can work out well.”

Good for J.T.! When you break it down, he’s been the most consistent player so far this season.

Once Evans slammed a ball home to tie the game at 63-63 late in the third, you could feel the momentum change. It seems that every time you just give the hometown faithful some hope, they jump out of their collective seats to show their support.

Thursday was no different.

The fans, who sat on their hands until this point, went crazy when Portland called a timeout to collect themselves.

When Salmons open the final stanza with a three, the fans stayed in the game the rest of the way.

Like the fans, Salmons has been waiting for his game to come around. Thursday, he had his best game of the season.

“It definitely feels good to hit shots,” he said. “When you’re not hitting shots like you’re supposed to, you get frustrated. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated. You just have to stick with it, keep going and try to continue to believe and keep working hard.”

The final moments saw rookie guard Isaiah Thomas get a jaw-dropping block and the Blazers miss two game-tying three-pointers.

Thornton had 20 in his return from a deep thigh contusion and said it’s hard to sit on the bench when you want to contribute so badly.

“It was very, very frustrating knowing I couldn’t get out there and help my team do anything,” he said. “It made me realize that me without basketball, I’m basically dead. Basketball is my life and has been my life since I was little, so I was just so happy to be out there with my teammates.”

KINGS NOTES: Evans had another solid all-around game with 18 points, five boards, five assists . . . Jimmer Fredette, Francisco Garcia and Donte Greene all had DNP-CDs (did not play - coach’s decision) . . . Chuck Hayes said he’s still being careful with his shoulder as any type of collision could dislocate it again . . . Former King Gerald Wallace was held in check and had only eight points and three boards.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF:

Darren Hall at www.darrenhallphotography.net/

The Artist

2012-02-03T21:15:35Z

If you’re going to remove the sound from a film, you’d better do it right. Not being able to hear what people are saying is very odd and kind of disconcerting, especially for a modern audience. Luckily for The Artist, there is a way to make it work, and work fantastically at that.

The Artist opens during the late 1920’s, at the height of our star, silent film actor George Valentin’s (Jean Dujardin) career. He’s a loveable guy, instantly showing his charisma at a premier (evoking some shenanigans from Singin’ in the Rain) for one of his movies. After the premier he bumps into Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) a beautiful young dancer who soon falls in love with him. Unfortunately for George, his world is quickly turned upside down by the advent of sound in the motion picture industry. As he struggles and begins to lose his near perfect life, Peppy’s film career takes off. George must then find a way to put his life back together. But don’t worry it’s not as depressing as that sounds...

Like I said it’s not easy to sit through a whole movie with no sound but the phenomenal soundtrack by Ludovic Bource more than makes up for it. It’s wonderfully upbeat, like the music you hear when you walk down Main Street in Disneyland. It’s also jazzy at times, and quite bombastic at times. If it wins best soundtrack at the Oscars I won’t be surprised.

And while the soundtrack is wonderful, the actors are what sell the movie at the end of the day. Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo are incredibly charismatic as they smile, wink, and dance their way through the movie. I completely fell in love with Bérénice Bejo after watching this film. She has such a beautiful smile and wonderfully expressive eyes. She also evokes a sense of eternal joy and fun that permeates every scene she is in.

Dujardin looks like he’s the illegitimate love baby of Hank Azaria and Gene Kelly; and that’s a good thing. He, like his costar, has a great smile and is fantastic at delivering emotions through simple glances and looks. He’s also serious about his career as George, his hubris and his belief that “talkies” are not a serious form of art is communicated brilliantly by Dujardin.

Michel Hazanavicius’s direction is brilliant too. He uses a variety of intriguing shots throughout the film while also evoking the feel of an old silent movie. I especially liked a wide shot he used of an interesting set featuring staircases. Peppy leaves the scene going up the stairs to the next level (just as her career is beginning), while George walks down the stairs to a lower level (just as his career is beginning to die). How often do you see things like that in Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers? Never.

It’s a rare thing to see a director who can tell a story so well using only the visual aspect of filmmaking when so many rely on expository dialogue too often. “We’re gonna to do this thing next because it will mean that that thing is happening because of this!” Show me! Don’t tell me.

Having seen The Artist I understand why it’s been nominated for so many awards. It’s a beautiful film that evokes the essence of the silent film era while also celebrating the magic of film as a whole. And despite being a silent film, the sheer charm of the leads and the fantastic soundtrack will win you over. 4 out of 5 stars.

Editor's note: "The Artist" is playing at various local cinemas, including Tower Theatre.

Bike theft, Its flourishing and prospering in Sacramento

2012-02-03T15:40:53Z

They come into the bike shop with eyes darting from corner to corner. You can actually feel their fading hope that at any moment the stolen bike that gave them so much pleasure or secured them a swift passage to their livelihood will miracuosly show up. Then without a hello or how are you, the tragic mental record of loss unfolds. With their face quivering they often confess of the ommision of forgetting to lock up their trusty steed.The carelessness and absent mindedness is afterall a part of modern day life.

If the loss makes them just plain mad the next reaction is to get another bike to make up for the loss but this time its going to be invisible to the common bike thief. the uglification insues as the pain of loss is too great. In hopes to fool the thieves, one often camouflages their next steed by buying a black bike with low grade components or plastering it with so many loud angry stickers that the idea of stripping off all that vinyl would waste the bike theives time and delay the next hijacking of someone elses prized steed.

I dont have the figures of bike theft in Sacramento as they are not attainable. You see 9 out of 10 people never file a police report. Perhaps it is just apathy or a hope if they just forget the loss quickly the pain and aching will go away. But I do know the figures from my shop and I will tell you they can reach as many as 5 in a day. My passion is to get people on a bike and to eliminate car trips from the city streets and replace them with happy trips via the bicycle. That said you can understand how this crime collectively takes a serious toll on not just me but all of us who see Sacramento a better place to live when bicycling becomes a common way of life.

This week alone 2 people I know had 4 and 3 bikes taken at the same time out of back yards and garages. We may have a very organized effort here in strip mining Sacramento of its biking way of life.

As a community we must get tireless about locking up our bikes with not 1 but 2 locks, a cable AND a Ulock of quality. Here is a good article on how to lock up to keep bike thieves moving on to the uneducated fellows "at risk" bike.

http://www.sfbike.org/?theft_locking

It is the hope of this writer to create a tight knit community that puts the bike thief into his own apathy until he gets the help he needs to contribute on a positive level.

Disclosure: yes! I shamelessly sell bicycle locks at Edible Pedal Bike shop and delivery.

Film Review: Big Miracle

2012-02-03T07:41:41Z

Big Miracle
Directed by Ken Kwapis

One film this week has noteworthy political content and the most surprising thing is which film it is. From a casual distance, “Big Miracle” looks like a very generic animal rescue story, essentially “Free Willy” x2.5, as assorted people try to help two adults and one juvenile whale escape from behind an ice barrier in the Beaufort Sea. It’s based on a true story of an event that captured national attention in 1988, and the film makes use of news footage from that period, with every major network anchor commenting on the situation as it unfolds.

It also embellishes the story with various formulaic characters and circumstances, including a love story, a somewhat precocious local boy, and an evil “big oil” tycoon. The basic storytelling is no less unsubtle than the recent “The Muppets,” for example. However, what’s surprising, and where the movie manages to shine on some level, are the moments during which several of the major players’ motivations are explored.

It would have been very easy to show involvement from the White House as being a matter of national pride or jingoism, especially in a movie aimed mostly at kids, but it’s described as much more of a compromise of conflicting interests. This was the end of the Reagan administration and we’re given staff who want to send Reagan out with an episode that might help cover for a bad environmental record, while also boosting (the senior) Bush’s election chances, but only if it won’t go bad and cause an even larger stain on the legacy. Similarly, we’re shown conflicts involving the use of a Russian icebreaker ship (in reality there were two) and standoffs between the political interests and Greenpeace (as embodied by an activist played by Drew Barrymore).

Another episode depicts the oil company boss (Ted Danson) being manipulated by his wife into realizing that he can appear friendly to the environment in a way that will probably make it easier to rape it later. It’s a retrospective, narrative example of ‘greenwashing’ a company’s image at a point in time that’s almost as early as the phrase was coined.

This might actually be a good movie for kids, not just as predictable entertainment, but as a way of educating them about how the media and various political interests operate. We see rival television outlets and personalities more interested in ratings than the story, and clear conflicts between local and wider cultural perspectives, along with the other interests already outlined. The film also delivers little after-the-fact nuggets, like the quadrupling of Greenpeace's membership following the incident.

As a story, it offers relatively little that hasn’t been done multiple times before, although this time there might be a little nostalgia for those parents who remember the story. But as a surprisingly nuanced examination of questionable motives, especially for a children’s movie, it exceeds expectations.

Film Review: The Woman in Black

2012-02-03T07:36:20Z

The Woman in Black
Directed by James Watkins

Daniel Radcliffe has made nine theatrical movies in the last decade and eight of them have been episodes in the “Harry Potter” saga. So it’s hardly surprising that when he first appears onscreen in “The Woman in Black,” you find yourself expecting his Hogwarts sidekicks to show up, or a wand to appear in his hand (not helped by an early train journey). But that slight disorientation passes and he turns in a fairly solid performance as the young father who has been sent by his London firm to settle the paperwork of a dead woman who lived in a fabulously spooky house on the far side of a remote tidal causeway.

Outside of the “Potter” films, he’s proved himself to be a versatile performer, probably more lauded on stage than on the big screen, but also willing to throw himself into almost anything as demonstrated in a recent “Saturday Night Live” (including playing the part of Casey Anthony’s yorkie). In interviews, he has described “The Woman in Black” as simply being the best script he'd read at the time he chose to get involved. And it’s a very interesting project, not just for a prospective lead actor, his fans, and genre aficionados, but also for filmmakers and those who are intrigued by the way films are made.

This is a creepy film.

I’m not an easily scared person but there was no shortage of squeals and jumpiness among the audience at the press screening. Which is only to be expected from a film about disappearing children and a haunted house. But what’s noteworthy is how that level of creepiness is achieved. There are virtually no elaborate special effects – it’s almost exclusively an outcome of camera angles, makeup, and timing. This is a $17m production that, in the hands of a different production team could very easily have cost two or three times as much, without being any better at establishing an atmosphere. And that also makes it a good pick for Radcliffe, who gets to headline a film that doesn’t require him to stray far from his comfort zone, and which won’t need to measure success in hundreds of millions of dollars.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have any problems – it does. You can’t afford to think for more than a moment about almost any of the plot details. And much of the logic appears to have been sucked into the marshes on either side of that tidal causeway I mentioned earlier. It’s a brief film at 95 minutes and it doesn’t pause to explain very much: It’s not a complicated story but we’re never told how or why Radcliffe’s character decides what to do or, for example, why residents of the local village never seem to ponder the possibility of moving away despite it clearly being the worst possible location in which to raise a family.

But for the right audience, none of that will matter. It’s creepy and it stars Harry Potter…err, Daniel Radcliffe.

Richard Roeper Talks Film

2012-02-03T07:07:49Z

People enjoyed musings about the movie business from the Chicago native and Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper Wednesday night at the Community Center Theater for the fourth installment of the Sacramento Speaker Series.

He said people often come up to him at parties and say, “I want your job. You get to watch movies all day then talk about them.” What they mean is, “Any idiot can do you job.”

After annually reviewing 250 films, many run together, he said. However, the last movie he saw in a theater was the classic 1946 masterpiece “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Great movies really didn’t have a life beyond the theater or TV,” he said. Today you can find movies three months later on DVD or Blu-Ray. Films that did well from the 40s and 50s are classics because they were played a lot on TV, like “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

When “Star Wars” first came out in the ’70s it took 12 days for the first review to come out.

“The culture was different then,” he said. “There wasn’t as much blockbuster journalism.”

The surge of interest in the filmmaking process has come in the last 15 years or so with the rise of the Internet. These days film speculation and hype is expected weeks or months before a movie is released in theaters and studios know by the first Friday of opening weekend if the film with be a flop or not.

Kelly Brothers from KCRA moderated the question-and-answer portion of the talk.

With the 84th Annual Academy Awards at the end of Febrary at least 10 people wanted to know, “Who are your picks for this year’s Oscars?”

He responded:
• Actor in a supporting role: Christopher Plummer, “Beginner”
• Actress in a supporting role: Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
• Actor in a leading role: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
• Actress in a leading role: Viola Davis, “The Help”

Roeper addressed that Sacramento has been home to filmmakers like director Joe Carnahan — “He is so skilled that he gets in his own way... He should mute it down.” — and Greta Gerwig — “She’s quirky enough that she can crossover from independents to blockbusters and back easily.”

What about the writer Nicholas Sparks?

“Why does he put those people through so much?”

And who is a breakout young actor?

Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the twins Mary-Kate and Ashley, is “the real deal.”

Finally, what is Roeper’s favorite movie of all time?

“The Godfather.” But if it’s late at night and he is channel surfing, “Goodfellas” will suffice.

Disclosure: Join the film production scene in Sacramento by attending or participating in any number of film festivals in the area. Sacramento International Film Festival and A Place Called Sacramento are only a few that come to mind.

Local man part of inspiration for 'Red Tails'

2012-02-03T01:43:23Z

Cuba Gooding Jr. might grab the spotlight in the new film “Red Tails,” about African-American fighter pilots in World War II, but one of the men behind the character Gooding plays* was a pilot with Sacramento ties.

George Roberts served as the operations officer in the 99th Pursuit Squadron in World War II, and he was one of the first five graduates out of the group that would later be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Roberts came to Sacramento with his wife, Edith, in the 1960s, where he worked for Wells Fargo. Though he died in the 1980s, Edith, 92, still lives in the area, and she proudly visits local schools and civic groups to educate them on the history of pilots.

“It was a different time back then,” she said Wednesday. “The government had actually done a study after World War I to determine if black people were capable of leading men in combat.”

Battling deep-seeded institutional racism, the young cadets training to be fighter pilots at an airfield in Tuskegee, Ala., wore their uniforms with pride and dreamed of the day they would take to the skies to fight the enemy, Edith Roberts said.

The “washing out” rate was high, with only five of the 13 in George Roberts’ class graduating, and those who graduated continued to train.

George and Edith Roberts married the day he graduated from pilot training, March 7, 1942. George then moved off the airbase to live with Edith, but that wasn’t easy, either.

“There were no places for blacks to rent houses, so we had to stay in a house with another local black family,” she said.

The 99th Pursuit Squadron was put on alert in January 1943, and none of the men were allowed to leave the base, since the order to ship out could come at any moment. But those orders didn’t come until April.

“They stayed on alert there forever,” Edith Roberts said. “The Army didn’t know what to do with them because they were black, and they were fighter pilots.”

George Roberts missed the birth of his first child since he couldn’t leave the base, and it wasn’t until a brief trip home in 1944 that he was reunited with his family.

When the Tuskegee Airmen did eventually get the call to go fight the Germans, they arrived in Morocco, in North Africa, where British Royal Air Force pilots trained them further on combat techniques.

Occasional letters home and stories in African-American publications were the only communications Edith Roberts and the other families of the African-American fliers got.

The Army – at the time, there was no U.S. Air Force, just the U.S. Army Air Corps – was reluctant to send the pilots into combat, and it took top squadron officers appealing to Congress to get the men into action.

“They had terrible equipment,” Edith Roberts said, mentioning that the squadron flew the outdated P-40 Warhawk plane made famous by the Flying Tigers several years earlier. “When they got their new planes – the P-51 Mustangs – well, they loved those planes more than they loved their wives.”

Edith Roberts said that the airmen were being tested – with many in the Army hierarchy looking for an excuse to can the program and take the pilots out of action because of their race.

To counter that, the men had strict orders to stay with the bombers they were assigned to escort and not go chasing German fighters across the skies, leaving the bomber formations open to attack.

At the time, American bombers flew daylight raids on strategic targets, dropping explosives on munitions plants, oil refineries and other targets essential to the German war effort.

The British, by contrast, flew at night, preferring to bomb entire cities and use the darkness to hide from enemy fighters. For the Americans flying in the day, raids could be disastrous if the Germans could shoot down the bombers without American fighters flying close for protection.

Every bomber shot down meant its crew of 10 Americans didn’t return to base.

“One of The Tuskegee Airmen’s claims to fame is that they never lost a bomber they were escorting to enemy fighters,” Edith Roberts said.

She added that the film, “Red Tails,” has a scene in which bomber crews see the 99th Pursuit Squadron’s red-painted tails and nose cones. The crews are surprised to see that the fighter pilots are African Americans.

It was after the other fliers began to respect the African-American pilots that their stories started appearing in Life Magazine and other prominent publications.

“The film is good,” Edith Roberts said. “It takes some liberties, but overall they did a good job with it.”

She was invited to the home of George Lucas, who bankrolled the film, and spent a weekend with some of the other people who lived through the time to help the young actors understand what it was like.

“They asked us all sorts of questions, and we spent a lot of time with them,” she said.

Edith Roberts said she was happy to talk to the actors and share the story, and that February – Black History Month – is always a busy time for her. Part of her collection of newspaper clippings is on temporary display at the California Museum, 1020 O St. The rest, she said, she needs to keep as she goes to schools and other functions to share the story.

“When I tell kids today about segregation and the racism we lived through, most of them are shocked,” she said. “It’s good that they’re shocked, because they’re not living it. But we lived it, and it’s important to tell them about it so they know how things were.”

“Red Tails” is currently in theaters. For more information on the film, visit the website by clicking here.

For more information on the Tuskegee Airmen, click here.

*Gooding's character is named Major Emanuelle Stance, the same name as an African American soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the late 1800s, according to the National Park Service.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Wilco shakes up Mondavi Center with flawless rock show

2012-02-03T00:14:09Z

Just moments after Wilco’s enigmatic guitarist Nels Cline had peeled the paint off the walls inside UC Davis' Mondavi Center with a little psychedelic freakout on "Impossible Germany," front man Jeff Tweedy pulled out the line of the night:

"You know, something just occurred to me - the guy yelling 'Free Bird!' might help explain the pepper spray incident."

Ohhh, too soon?

Tweedy asked that too, amidst the smattering of "ohhh's" and groans that were peppered (zing!) in with the laughter and the applause - although there seemed to be a resounding agreement that a little aerosol Tabasco to the face would be an appropriate response for a guy who apparently still thinks it's cool or funny to yell "Free Bird!" at a rock concert.

For a band with its roots in Chicago to quip about Pepper-gate, it was a bit of an unfortunate reminder that, at least for now, that's what Davis is going to have to be known for in wider circles. But if Mondavi Center keeps holding shows like the two hours of sheer rock and roll bliss that Wilco hammered out on Wednesday night, Davis might just earn itself a reputation as a concert destination, and not as the place where Occupy went horribly wrong.

There is no doubt that it was "the place to be" on this particular night. Everyone was running into someone they knew in a building that many in the room had likely never been to before. I even ran into Spence from Bay Area up-and-comers The Stone Foxes (and by “ran into” I mean fanboy-ed in the merch line).

Though an absolutely stunning and acoustically pristine hall, Mondavi Center was not conceived specifically for this kind of thing. It’s a concert hall. Rock shows don't typically have ushers in ties, they don't have flickering lights in the lobby to notify that the show is about to start, and they definitely don't have a recorded voice on the loudspeaker reminding you to turn off your cell phones right before opener White Denim took the stage right at 8 p.m. for a sneaky-awesome set of experimental psych pop.

Even the applause after each of White Denim's songs had that "concert hall" sound to it - no yelps, just clapping, like we had just heard a movement of Mahler's Fifth performed by the Hipster Symphony Orchestra.

"The Question" was lingering so heavy in the air you could cut it with safety scissors, even as Wilco was strolling onto the stage precisely at 9 p.m.:

Do we stand, or do we have to sit?

After some collective hesitation, the immediate answer was "stand!" That lasted about 30 seconds, until Tweedy & Co. surprisingly opted to start the show with the intensely beautiful but very mellow 12-minute ballad "One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)." That tune is, unequivocally, a sit-down song.

Owned.

There was no immediate cue to stand again even as Wilco completed an opening trifecta of tunes from 2011’s delicious “The Whole Love,” with the chunky, Radiohead-ish rumble of “The Art of Almost” and skippy pop ballad “I Might.”

But they weren’t Trying to Break Your Heart by playing just new stuff all night, digging into their catalog from way back, to their masterpiece “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and up through the self-titled album, with an continual array of images being broadcast onto a sprawling tapestry of what looked like ghosts made out of tissue by third-graders as a Halloween project. (Hmm, a ghost is born?).

With a band that sports a catalog as extensive as Wilco’s, there will inevitably be allegiances on all ends of the spectrum at any show. You’ll have people that only got into them from “Sky Blue Sky,” and those who will claim to have seen them play in an ice cream parlor in Chicago with only seven other people there, no electricity, and before Jeff Tweedy was even born. Oh, and Coldplay opened the show, too.

Wherever your particular allegiances lie, the newer songs from “The Whole Love” shone intensely bright at this performance. It can be argued that many Wilco fans like Wilco for the slower country-tinged acoustic balladry – and really the only two such songs of the night were “Sunday” and the stirring “Black Moon,” both from “Whole Love.”

That said, the entirety of the show was pure bliss, with Mondavi’s razor-sharp acoustics allowing a razor-sharp group of musicians to sound as good as you’ll ever hear them for what had to have been the most intense two hours in the venue’s history.

It was about an hour and a half in, just after the jazzy number “Capitol City,” before Tweedy proclaimed that “it’s going to be weird to play this song with you all sitting down.”

Floodgates: Opened. “Heavy Metal Drummer:” Killer.

The “other” line of the night came when Tweedy congratulated an audience member down front for “having the most pens in your pocket I’ve ever seen at a rock show.” The fan, who went by “Ramon,” happily handed one of his pens to Tweedy from the front of the stage.

Keeping it visible in his back pocket, and at times victoriously brandishing it like a sword, Tweedy promised to thank the fan in case he ended up writing a song with it – because “I feel like there’s a song in this pen.”

The pen is mightier than the FreeBird.

-------------

Up next for Mondavi Center is Florence + the Machine on April 18 and The Shins on April 23, as the venue continues to get more looks for rock shows from Another Planet Entertainment. Might such gleaming rock and roll nights, like Wednesday night with Wilco, become more of the norm…?

Wilco's Mondavi Center Setlist - February 1, 2012:

One Sunday Morning
Art Of Almost
I Might
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
One Wing
You Are My Face
Laminated Cat (electric arrangement)
Black Moon
Side With The Seeds
Born Alone
On and On and On
Impossible Germany
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Box Full Of Letters
War On War
Dawned On Me
A Shot in the Arm
..
Whole Love
California Stars
The Late Greats
Standing O
I'm A Wheel

The Sacramento Itty Bitty Dog Group

2012-02-02T07:44:18Z

Sunday is a special day for members of the Sacramento Itty Bitty Dog group – it’s when the “Itty Bitty” dogs come out to play at Carmichael Canine Corral.

One hundred eighty dogs and their owners make up the group which started in May 2008. The group meets about twice a month at the park for an afternoon of play.

To be considered “Itty Bitty,” dogs must be 12 pounds or smaller. Organizer of the group, Joan Lutz, said most of the dogs are rescue dogs.

It’s not just the dogs who enjoy the socialization, though, the owners enjoy spending afternoons discussing anything dog-related: nutrition, product recalls, doggy fashion and dog-sitting. It’s not uncommon to see a doggy manicure (owners clipping nails) during a meetup.

The Itty Bitty Dog Group started when four women – Sus Brown, Jeni Vogt, Sherrie Alpers and Christine Golden – decided to start a no-charge group to socialize their dogs.

Lutz said she seeks out and approves new members through Meetup.com (http://toydog.meetup.com/97/). Besides socializing at the dog park, dogs and owners attend potluck dinners, fundraisers and annual dog events such as Woofstock, Petapalooza and Doggy Dash.

While the dogs either decide to sit upon their owners’ laps, kick up dust or get their sniffs and exercise in.

The Carmichael Canine Corral is the most visited dog park in all of Sacramento, according to Lutz, and the park is in need of renovation.

The Itty Bitty Dog Group group, with the help of photographer Micheal Hall, put together its first annual calendar to raise money for the cause. The calendar is a collection of portraits of the “Itty Bitty” dogs and their owners. All the proceeds go to raise money for the renovation of the dog park.

Some of the renovations needed include a new ground cover, permanent seating and benches for dog owners, higher fences and a separate sally port to separate smaller dogs and larger dogs, Lutz said.

Anyone can purchase a calendar, donate, or memorialize a beloved companion by having a personalized brick laid at the park. For more information, click here www.carmichaeldogpark.com

McKinley Park Rose Garden: Getting closer to completion

2012-02-02T02:35:21Z

The long-awaited renovations at the McKinley Park Rose Garden are nearing completion, and the garden is expected to be open by April – just in time for spring weddings in the park.

“The process feels like it’s taken forever,” University of California Master Gardner Ellie Longanecker said Wednesday.

The rose garden was scheduled to be closed from September to mid-February for renovations, including a new irrigation system, accessible walkways, planter curbs, new signs and handicap-accessible parking spaces near the garden entrance.

The work has been extended until the end of March or early April, Longanecker said, because of problems with the new irrigation system that created delays in completing other work, including more plantings.

Longanecker, a rose specialist and one of the many volunteer coordinators responsible for much of the recent work on the garden, said the project has been on the neighborhood’s radar for a long time.

“We initially brought a proposal to the city for this work to get stared in 2009,” Longanecker said. “For three years it’s been one step forward, two steps back.”

Once the work got under way in September, however, it’s been full steam ahead for city workers and volunteers, she said.

Since 2009, more than 400 new rose bushes have been planted in the garden on the southeast side of McKinley Park.

Thanks to a generous donor, Longanecker said, an additional 465 new rose bushes were recently given to add to the garden.

A “plant-a-thon” to get those additional bushes in the ground was originally planned for Saturday, but it has been postponed. A new date has not been set yet.

Longanecker said the planting day was postponed because the city needs to put in new sod around the planting beds, and it would be easier to get that job out of the way first.

It is also important to make sure the new water system is fully up and running before putting in new plants, she added.

“I’m glad it’s finally coming together,” Longanecker said. “It has taken a very strong volunteer effort.”

Longanecker said volunteer workers – including groups of Americorps volunteers, a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department work crew and many neighbors and residents – put in about 1,500 hours of labor working on the garden in the last four weeks alone.

“That’s spading, weeding, pruning and wheelbarrowing in 100 yards of topsoil to spread throughout the garden,” Longanecker said. “(It’s) not easy work at all.”

The effort to refurbish the McKinley Park Rose Garden has been supported by donations including money, gifts of roses and numerous donations of tools and materials.

“It seems to be going well,” East Sacramento resident and garden volunteer Lisa Schmidt said Tuesday. “There’s a lot more to putting in roses than people think.”

Schmidt said that, despite the long wait and all the work that has been necessary, it will be worth it to see the result when the first roses bloom.

“It’ll be like brand new – irrigation, beds, plants, everything,” City Councilman Steve Cohn said Wednesday.

The garden’s new irrigation system will use water more efficiently, Cohn said, and the planter curbs will make the beds easier to maintain.

“The beautiful thing is, we’ve kept the original design (of the garden),” Cohn said. “It’ll really ‘pop’ once spring hits.”

Cohn said that the city didn’t put in the investment it should have in the rose garden over the years.

“Over time, the roses started to lose their vibrancy,” Cohn said. “They were looking sad, really.”

Now, Cohn said, the rose garden will have “new life” and will be more enjoyable for visitors – especially the many couples who have their weddings in the garden each year.

“I’m excited about it,” Cohn said. “We want to save it for future generations and enhance the appearance for everyone who comes to see it for years to come.”

Cohn said a ribbon-cutting and grand opening will be planned when the rose garden is finished, but a specific date has not been set.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Experience Sacramento Museum Day this Saturday

2012-02-02T00:17:59Z

Want to check out some of Sacramento’s wonderful museums but have not yet had the time or budget to do so? Mark your calendars for this Saturday and head out to the 14th Annual Sacramento Museum Day.

A record 28 museums are participating this year, including newcomers the Center for Contemporary Art and the Sacramento Children’s Museum. 26 participating museums are offering free admission all day (10am-5pm; last admission at 4pm), and the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town are offering half-price admission in order to offset parking control and security costs.

Sacramento has a wide variety of Museums featuring everything from art, science, and history to children’s exhibits, wildlife, and more.

If you’re having a difficult time narrowing down the options, take these suggestions into consideration:

In order to have sufficient time at each spot, it is recommended to visit no more than two or three Museums for the day
Many of the Museums are within walking distance of one another so, if you plan accordingly, you can park only once and still make your way to two or three spots. Check out the map.
If you will be taking your car, be sure to read over the Parking Suggestions to make sure your day goes smoothly and you avoid any tickets or fines.
If you don’t want to drive, but don’t live within walking distance, consider taking Regional Transit! A great way to avoid the hassle of parking on a crowded day.
Keep in mind that Sacramento Museum Day is a very popular event and that, due to safety reasons, some museums need to limit the number of admissions.
Consider attending Museums that are less well known to avoid crowds at some of the more popular spots (such as the Sacramento Zoo, Railroad Museum, and Fairytale Town) and to check out something you may not otherwise have gone to see!

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Find more detail on this event along with many more at Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

Disclosure: Rachael Lankford is the Managing Calendar Editor for Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

"Forbidden Broadway" + Cosmo Cabaret Cast = Hiliarity

2012-02-02T00:17:23Z

Cosmopolitan Cabaret opened with the September 2008 to September 2009 run of “Forever Plaid,” which remains the biggest success as a show. “Forbidden Broadway,” which opened Friday night, may just rival “Plaid.”

There are lots of similarities. Both have talented creators, lots of hysterically funny scenes, songs, costuming, props and more.

"Forbidden Broadway" creator and continuing writer, Garrard Alessandrini, aims his sharp pen at mostly easy targets but in incredibly funny ways. You may never have seen “Annie,” “Les Miserables” or “Lion King,” but are still very aware of them and lots of other Broadway shows through popular culture.

Both have four very talented actors, who understand and are so good at delivering the material. There are two men in “Forbidden Broadway,” Mark Ginsburg and Jerry Lee, and two women, Jessica Reiner-Harris and Melissa Wolfklain, all credited as “cast.”

New York transplant Ginsburg, debuting with California Musical Theatre and the Cosmo Cabaret does a Jean Valjean performed by an actor overtaxed by the wrong key among the many roles for which he received long ovations.

Lee, who has been doing great things (“In Trousers,” “Musical of Musicals...,” “They’re Playing our Song”) since his return to his hometown after graduating from Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts a couple of years ago.

I started to say “New to Sacramento,” but Reiner-Harris is a hometown actor who has been quite busy acting, it’s just that she has been acting elsewhere. Her daring-to-take-on-the-diva Streisand is one of the priceless moments in the production. Reiner-Harris is one of those great discoveries for her home town theater scene.

Back for a third time at Cosmo Cabaret is Wolfklain (“A Grand Night for Singing,” “Suds”). The lights will go up on Wolfklain as Annie, an over-the-hill Annie, and the audience begins to chuckle at just the first sight of her character. They end in fits of laughter by the end of the song. Wolfklain definitely charms with her third Cosmo Cabaret production.

In a “West Side Story” spoof, Reiner-Harris and Wolfklain do Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno as dueling stage version Anita verses film version Anita which had both the characters and the audience yelling AYE! AYE! AYE!

Musical director Graham Sobelman (“Graham-A-Rama”) brings out great musical performances and also performs the lively piano score.

The characters would not be complete without the very character-defining costume creation for each character by Alvin Colt, working with the hair, wig and makeup designs of Christine Conklin.

Colt, who had an astounding career in costume design starting in the 1940’s, has spent 15 years designing for “Forbidden Broadway,” receiving a Drama Desk award in 2005 while in his late eighties. The pictures speak for themselves in regard to Colt’s designs.

The same thing can be said for Conklin’s hair wig, and makeup design. This is also her third production at Cosmo (“Suds,” “Bingo”), while also designing for Music Circus (“Camelot,” “Oliver!” and “I Do! I Do!”).

With all those costumes and costume changes someone is needed to keep them in order and get the actors changed - often in record time - and that would be Gabriella Nance as costume coordinator and head dresser. Nance costumed “Plaid” as well.

Three long-time Cosmo Cabaret associates complete the experience of “Forbidden Broadway.” Michael Peters has created a minimal budget-friendly single set, yet it fits so well with the whole humor of the look of an Off-Broadway production. His design is assisted by fellow longtime Cosmo Cabaret associate Sally Slocum’s lighting. Robert Sereno continues to engineer the great sound of Cosmo Cabaret productions.

Pulling all this together is director William Selby. Sacramento Press contributor Barry Wisdom has an excellent interview with Selby in his preview of “Forbidden Broadway.”

“Forbidden” has something else in common with “Plaid” in that both have several creative folks that have long histories with their respective productions. Selby has been an award winning actor, assistant director and now director, of numerous productions of “Forbidden.” His sense of timing, especially critical with this humor, is great.

With “Forbidden Broadway,” everything - the songs, music, costuming and acting - is geared to make the audience laugh. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret production of the Off-Broadway phenomenon hits on all levels and should become a Sacramento phenomenon.

Reiner-Harris says it all in her bio.

“(She) wants to thank the ridiculously fun cast and crew for making her laugh until she cries and snorts.”

With opening night’s audience giving loud ovations for scene after scene, I would say the audience felt the same way.

“Forbidden Broadway” Cosmopolitan Cabaret California Musical Theatre
Through March 18th, 2012
Information and Tickets

Body Fit Challenge Offers People a Chance to Shed Pounds

2012-02-01T19:14:15Z

California Family Fitness (CFF) today announced that its’ next Body Fit Challenge (BFC) will begin Saturday, February 25, and interested individuals are encouraged to sign-up. The BFC is an eight-week long group training program, in which the participants are coached by a trainer through twice weekly group workout sessions, and educated on exercise habits, nutrition and lifestyle changes.

“The Body Fit Challenge has been a great success for our members since it first started three years ago,” said Randy Karr, president of California Family Fitness. “Throughout the duration of the BFC, participants have shed more than 35,000 pounds. We are very proud of the BFC, and are thrilled to be a part of such a life-changing program for so many people.”

At the end of the eight week program, prizes are awarded to the participants who lose the highest percentage of body weight at each CFF club, as well as the top male and female participants company-wide.

“I was hesitant at first to try the Body Fit Challenge because I was insecure about my ability to life weights. But, I decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did,” said Liz Ramirez, CFF member and BFC participant. “My experience was amazing, and my trainer was phenomenal. She was positive, encouraging and motivated me to try harder every day. In eight short weeks I lost 36 pounds, and I feel better than I have ever felt before in my life.”

To find out more about California Family Fitness’ upcoming Body Fit Challenge, please click here. Both members and non-members are welcome to participate in this program.

Disclosure: Justin Dyke is a public relations professional representing California Family Fitness.

American Heart Association's Start Training 2012

2012-02-01T07:04:33Z

The American Heart Association (AHA) held its 2012 Start Training Team Kickoff on Saturday at the California Family Fitness Center in Folsom. The event included health screenings, nutritional and health information as well as a series of mentor and inspirational speeches.

This year’s run/walk half marathon will be held at the American River Parkway on April 28. Participants are required to raise a minimum of $500 through writing letters, email campaigns and personal fundraising websites.

The goal for this campaign is $100,000. By the kickoff meeting, a little over $6,000 had already been pledged.

Start Training is a team training program for AHA half marathon participants of all levels and abilities. The meeting gave people who attended a chance to meet the AHA, mentors and coaches, and culminated in a one-mile walk/run with the AHA team.

The team takes walkers and runners from the first step to the finish line of a marathon or half marathon event. Weekly group training meetings are scheduled to help participants raise funds for the AHA and the American Stroke Association. Mentor meet-ups are scheduled to be held at McKinley Park on Tuesdays. Practices are also conducted and led by experienced mentors.

Justin Carlino talks about his involvement as AHA mentor.

Team mentor Justin Carlino shared his story of living in a house with a long, steep driveway, which he and his wife walked every day. One day, he had to stop because of a shortness of breath. His doctor referred him to a local cardiologist, who diagnosed him with dilated cardiomyopathy, meaning his heart had continued to grow without subsequent growth of heart muscle.

“There were three possible causes: pregnancy, alcoholism, or poison,” Carlino said. “I’m a male who hardly drank alcohol except for an occasional glass of wine.”

After a few years, Carlino was referred to a Stanford Hospital cardiologist for further treatment. Treatment continued for 13 years.

Carlino had a pacemaker installed and was then put on the heart transplant list. Feeling horrible during a holiday, he called the cardiologist and was advised to come in the next day. His blood pressure at the time was 70 over 50, and he was immediately sent to the hospital. Two days later, a heart was available. After five hours of surgery, Carlino had a new heart.

At the time, the hospital had a transplant age cut-off at 70 but made an exception for this case. Carlino, at 73, became the oldest heart transplant recipient in Stanford’s history. Today there is no age limit for transplants at Stanford.

Carlino soon became a volunteer for the California Transplant Donor Network. It wasn’t until recently, at a presentation at the EMT training facility in Stockton, that he learned his pre-transplant condition was classified 1-A, which meant that at the time he had approximately two weeks to live without the transplant.

He now has a patch installed in his chest to correct a venal hernia, eye lenses after laser surgery for cataract removal, has had laser surgery to correct a prostate problem, surgery on his left hand to correct carpel tunnel syndrome, two lower back surgeries and surgery on his right elbow. He says the only original body parts he has are his legs and feet.

Seven and a half years after transplant, Carlino walks rapidly every day. His goal in supporting the AHA was to walk a half marathon.

“I got to the point of walking five miles a day, every day, and I’ve been doing that as soon as I was able to after the heart transplant,” he said. “So that put me in shape for this half marathon. I’ve never done something like that before.”

His strategy for that half marathon was to intentionally start last, at 567th place, to see how many walkers he could pass. He easily passed the first walker who was on crutches, and at the end of the race he had improved his standing by 318 places. His pace of 16.5 minutes per mile was a new record. This year’s goal is to beat that record.

“At the finish line, somebody tapped me on the shoulder,” he said. “I turned, and they gave me a medal. They also gave me a bottle of water, and I turned forward again and the legs said, ‘OK, are you happy we did it,’ then – boom! – I fell forward on my face.”

“I think the real reason I did it is because I had it in my mind,” he said. “I set my mind to it, and I didn’t veer. No rest stops, fluids were given to me during the walk. No potty stops. I just kept going.”

Pam Clements shares her inspirational story.

Stroke survivor Pam Clements also shared her story at the kickoff.

“One Saturday, six years ago, I was very happy,” she said. “I had saved my money and I was going shoe shopping. While I was shopping, and I had some shoes in my hand, something happened. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I got this severe, sudden headache. I got really dizzy, and when I got dizzy I got scared, but I did not know what was happening to me.”

She sat down and believed she was going to die.

“I did not know the warning signs to a stroke,” she said, listing sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arms, or legs, confusion, trouble speaking or understanding, trouble seeing from one or both eyes, trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination, and severe headaches with no known cause. “If you’re having a stroke, you do not need to have all five of those symptoms. I did not have all five of them. I did not get confused, because I never put those shoes down.”

Two months later, a similar thing happened.

“I remember this day so vividly because I was so happy that day,” she said. “I was so happy, and I looked over at my husband and my little yorkie, and I said, ‘God, thank you for giving me such an awesome husband.’ And then moments later that same thing happened again.”

Clements’ husband took her to the emergency room immediately. At the time of the stroke, she was 48 years old, but she said there’s no age limit for a stroke.

“Just imagine waking up one day feeling good and then seconds later your whole life changes,” she said. “When this happened to me, I couldn’t get out of bed by myself, I couldn’t go to the bathroom, I couldn’t walk. I had to learn everything all over again.”

Mentors in AHA half marathon volunteer to help with training and encoruagement.

Each mentor had encouraging words for participants and was a good example of different ages and abilities and how the AHA had become part of their lives.

Participants and guests were then told what donations can do for the community.

“The reason we raise money for AHA is threefold; educate, spread the message you need to be aware of and tell friends and family,” said Erin Harris. Raising awareness and money for research are primary goals. Harris noted that the University of California, Davis had received $900,000 from AHA for research.

“The AHA has funded 12 Nobel Prize Winners for their work directly related to heart and strokes. This is huge and our passion is to make sure that this enthusiasm continues, to make sure we as a community not only know that we need to get health care but that we also have the tools to do that,” said Harris.

Harris said that $50,000 can fund a doctoral student for an entire year and reaching the goal of $100,000, “We can fund two of those just through this fundraising program, so that’s our goal.”

The presentation also included a game where questions were asked and someone in the crowd received a prize for answering correctly. The question of how to reach their goal was discussed during the game. Celia Cortez held a board with the top “5 Ways to Fundraise.” These five ways to raise funding included letter writing, online fundraising, matching gifts, social media and rummage sales.

Coach Raymond Martinez stated that participants were doing something fantastic not only for themselves but were also raising awareness and motivating others.

“We’re all in this together building to participate in that first half marathon,” said Martinez. “We’re going to make it fun for you. We can all go out and run a half marathon today but it just might take us forever. This program will allow us to participate safely and take our time building up to it so that when that day comes it’s more fun, it’s safer, we’re reducing our risk of injury and we’re going to have a good time on that day.”

Martinez said that as participants train it’s important to know that you do your best and stick to it. Participants were encouraged to have fun. He also introduced Daryl Parker, a professor of Exercise Physiology at California State University, Sacramento.

Parker is an exercise physiologist who works at Mercy General Hospital and is also a professor at CSUS. Parker indicated that he loves to come to this type of meeting and listen to speakers and mentors. Parker shared that their speeches motivate him as well. He spoke about the kinds of things people should expect during their training period.

Not all expectations are good, noted Parker. His presentation covered several key items participants of the half marathon should expect.

Parker explained that realistic expectations should be set in order to succeed.

“I have to bring research data otherwise people won’t believe me when I talk. Exercise is good, right? That’s what we came. Chronic exercise is good for you and research backs this. Regular exercise is good for the body. Don’t expect too much too fast as this takes time,” he said. “Keep showing up and success will follow, don’t expect too much too fast.”

Good and bad things follow exercise. Parker suggested setting a threshold and doing exercise. He compared it to a prescription and taking certain doses. A minimum dose should be taken to burn calories and suggested that it could be achieved by taking four to six hourly walks four to six times a week. Another dose could be done by running. You can burn more calories by running three times a week for 20 to 30 minutes. Parker indicated that these doses also serve as disease management.

The training introduction covered many topics and all of the speakers were inspirational. Volunteers at the event helped things go smoothly and they were all more than willing to answer any questions. Mercy General was thanked for their participation and for being a big supporter of the program.

After all the speeches were done, participants were able to do a one mile run/walk to complete the team kickoff meeting. Several runners completed the run quickly, and walkers were able to chat about their experience at the kickoff and talk about their training programs and goals for the April 28 half marathon.

Corti Keeps Tradition of Balsamic Vinegar Alive

2012-02-01T04:04:25Z

Darrell Corti, owner of Sacramento’s beloved Corti Brothers, is an old fashioned and trusted shopkeeper. He is an expert in the production and history of the food and beverages he sells in his artisanal grocery and ensures that his staff is well trained to carry that knowledge to the customer.

Corti handpicks the majority of his specialty products in his extensive travels and during biweekly wine tastings. He also utilizes his relationships with local artisans.

Sebastian Bariani, co-owner of Bariani Olive Oil, is an artisan producer in Sacramento who has known Corti for 19 years.

"We have a long relationship with Mr. Corti. Corti Brothers was the first retailer to buy our olive oil," said Bariani, "he was an influential factor for us to keep producing. We could not wish for a better friend to represent my family's olive oil."

Corti is not just any local shopkeeper. Rick Mindermann, store director and personal assistant to Corti, explained that Corti is world renowned for his contributions to the food world. Such accomplishments include the introduction of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale (Traditional Balsamic Vinegar) to the United States.

Corti was able to find a producer in the late 70’s after selling Mr. Mossimo Violi, a collector of rare spirits, a prescription bottle of prohibition era whiskey. Massimo turned out to be a hobbyist and maker of traditional Balsamic Vinegar and Corti began importing the Violi family vinegar in 1982.

The type of balsamic vinegar that the majority of Americans buy today began emerging on the market in the mid to late 1970's and is known as industrial balsamic vinegar. This vinegar is made by combining grape must (crushed grapes), wine vinegar and often times, sugar. Although these vinegars have a purpose in the modern American kitchen, they are all an imitation of true balsamic vinegar.

Traditional balsamic vinegar has been produced since ancient civilizations. It is remarkably different from industrial vinegar and is identified by its thick syrupy density, caramel flavor and balance of sweet and sharp acidity.

Today the product is made largely by hobbyists under strict monitoring by the Consortium of Producers of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar. The product is made in only two geographical regions - Modena and Reggio Emilia, according to the Consortium’s website.

Due to the intensity and long production time required to make traditional balsamic vinegar, an estimated equivalent of between 2,482 and 2,758 wine bottles are distributed each year in 3.5 oz. bottles, according to Mindermann. These bottles sell for anywhere from $100 to $500 and beyond.

The vinegar is made by boiling down grape must to about 50 percent of the original bulk. It is then aged in a series of barrels constructed from a variety of woods. At the end of each one-year cycle, the emerging vinegar has reduced, and a portion is distributed to the next consecutive barrel until a small amount is removed from the final barrel after a minimum of 12 years, the minimum time of production for certification.

On the production of the vinegar, Mindermann notes, “The most important age is the age of the barrels. It is a blending of old and new material, imparting flavor to the product that is passing through.”

The final vinegar is bottled in consortium owned glass so that the product is protected from fraud. When consumers buy the vinegar in these bottles with the certification seal, they know it is the real product.

By educating the consumer and selling this precious elixir, Corti Brothers has played a pivotal role in the protection of this product and many others, earning Corti the Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian Government in 1992, the Italian version of knighthood.

The vital factor in the protection from fraud for both the consumer and the product is having a shopkeeper like Corti making the delivery. Not only do many consumers trust the verification of the products, there are opportunities to experience alternative trusted products without the high cost.

The Violi family also makes three vinegars named "Paseone," which is constructed in the traditional manner. It is not certified, but there is a clear option to trust that the product is a close sibling to the certified version that they produce because Corti himself has personally inspected the manner of production and the barrels themselves.

“We are shopkeepers; we want to teach if our customers are interested in learning... A shopkeeper knows the realm of his business. It is something that has kept us in business for a long time,” said Mindermann.

After tasting the 12 year vinegar made by the Violi family, it is abundantly clear that it is a unique privilege to have this knowledge in our city.

Below is the complete interview with Rick Mindermann.

Click here for audio.

Disclosure: Jillena Hernandez is the author behind Eat Well, Live Free (www.eatwelllivefree.com) a Sacramento based vegetarian food blog.

Super Bowl hot spots in Sacramento

2012-02-01T03:40:48Z

For football fans still suffering from the San Francisco 49ers’ devastating loss to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game, the Super Bowl may have lost some of its sparkle. But with Sacramento’s great bar scene, one can’t help but be drawn to the festivities.

The Giants face the New England Patriots in Sunday’s game, a rematch of the Super Bowl game four years ago in which the Giants ended the Patriots’ perfect season. The Sacramento Press found these spots to celebrate – or drown your sorrows.

BarWest Burgers & Wings
2724 J St.
476-4550
19 flatscreen televisions, one 10-foot projection screen

At BarWest, the festivities start at 9 a.m. with an eating contest. The brave can take on the “Hot Mess,” a concoction that General Manager Ryan Pierini said has only been conquered once before.

Contestants have 30 minutes to finish the plate – English muffins piled with six eggs, six slices of bacon, six sausage links and country potatoes, covered in Hollandaise sauce. Participants must sign up with the bar by Saturday.

Winners do not have to pay for their food, and they will receive a gift certificate. Anyone who attempts the feat, Pierini said, will receive a consolation prize – a “Super Bowl shot” of their choice.

“We hope to make this an annual tradition,” Pierini said.

Bud Light and Coors Light Girls will be on hand, passing out “bar bucks” good for $1 off beer.

Ink Eats and Drinks
2730 N St.
456-2800
Four televisions

If beer isn’t your thing, perhaps Ink Eats and Drinks will draw you in. The restaurant and bar is running margarita specials on Sunday as part of a promotion with Jose Cuervo Platino tequila.

The Platino Girls will be on site from 3 - 5 p.m., said Jocelyn McGregor, marketing and promotions manager for Ink Eats and Drinks.

In addition to $3 appetizer plates, various fruit-flavored margaritas will be available for $5, and a Jose Cuervo Tradicional “touchdown shot” for $3. For $6, patrons can have a Pabst Blue Ribbon with a shot of Jose Cuervo Tradicional, McGregor said.

Monkey Bar
2730 Capitol Ave.
442-8490
Two televisions

Get started early with Monkey Bar’s happy hour special, ending at 2 p.m. A bottomless mimosa for $10 and Absolut Bloody Marys for $5 are available, and various drink specials will be available throughout the game, Manager Stacey Stell said.

The Depot Video Bar
2001 K St.
441-6823
34 televisions

The Depot Video Bar may have the best shot at a great view for the game with 34 televisions. Each one will show the game, said employee Tim Shaw.

The bar will run happy hour specials throughout the day, including $1 draft domestic beers and $3 pitchers of Miller, Shaw said. Pizza and peanuts will also be on hand.

Streets of London
1804 J St.
498-1388
Three televisions, including a big screen behind the bar

The typical happy hour fare will be offered during the game at Streets of London, Manager Brooke Tachibana said. Customers can enjoy a 20-ounce beer for $4 or get a pitcher for $11. Well cocktails are available for $3.50.

R15
1431 R St.
930-9191
14 televisions

If football alone isn’t enough, R15 will have the Budweiser Girls on hand to give out T-shirts and hats, said Manager Chris Randone.

“We’re going to have some beer,” Randone said. “The game will be shown on every single one of our TVs.”

R15 will also offer its usual bar appetizers, including pizzas, sliders and quesadillas.

Alley Katz
2019 O St.
442-2682
Seven televisions

Starting at noon, Alley Katz will offer happy hour pricing for patrons. Bartender Jon Alford said to arrive early for the best shot at staking out a spot. The bar has seven booths, and extra cocktail tables will be brought in to accommodate the Super Bowl crowd.

“We’ll have our $30 beer towers,” Alford said. “They are a yard tall and have their own taps – kind of fun if you have a group.”

Alley Katz has more than 200 different beers available, as well as a full bar and a variety of appetizers and sandwiches available for under $12.

The Golden Bear
2326 K St.
441-2242
One television

Many northern Californians had hoped to see a local team playing on Sunday, but San Francisco 49ers fans still have a place to watch the game.

“What we’re really hoping to offer is a safe haven for disappointed 49ers fans,” said co-owner Kimio Bazett, a lifelong fan. He added that a surprise drink special will be available for anyone who comes in wearing 49ers gear.

The Golden Bear’s football fare will be a general, all-American barbecue party, Bazett said.

“Our chefs are whipping up something crazy,” Bazett said, and added that they’ll offer $1 off Miller High Life, to keep with the American beer theme.

Where will you watch the game, and which team do you want to see take the win?

LivingSocial shuts down 'Adventures' in Sacramento

2012-02-01T01:34:26Z

The daily deal company LivingSocial decided last week to stop offering its “Adventures” program in Sacramento and an unspecified number of other markets, but company officials stressed that the daily deals and other programs will not be leaving the Sacramento area.

“Adventures are curated activities that you do with friends around you, like a day where you go tubing on the mountain and then have a beer tasting afterward,” LivingSocial spokesman Brendan Lewis said Tuesday.

He said a few dozen markets across the country offered “Adventures,” and it was in the Sacramento area for approximately one year.

“Daily deals will continue to be there,” he said. “Families, At Home and Escapes will be there as well. We remain committed to Sacramento.”

The final local event in the program is a skydiving event scheduled for this weekend.

The scaling back was “during the ordinary course of business staffing decisions,” Lewis wrote in an email, and he said that two full-time employees staffed the “Adventures” department in Sacramento, bolstered by a number of part-time employees.

“Those employees were released,” he said. “I’m not sure the number of part-time employees, but for us, it’s two full-time, which is a very small percentage of our total workforce.”

The company, based in Washington, D.C., launched about two and a half years ago and employs 5,000 people worldwide, according to Lewis.

One of the employees laid off was part-time Experience Coordinator Drew Garrison, who told The Sacramento Press Tuesday that he and other staff were notified of the decision via a conference call Thursday afternoon.

“There really wasn’t any warning, but I don’t think there’s ever a good time to tell people they lost their jobs,” he said, adding that about 15 part-time employees worked for the Sacramento LivingSocial Adventures department.

“They said we all did a great job, and there was great customer feedback, but the possibility for future profitability just wasn’t there,” he added.

Garrison said LivingSocial closed 17 of the 28 “Adventures” departments across the country.

“Sacramento gets knocked a lot for not being a profitable market, and you hear that with the Kings stuff going on, but they cut places like Dallas, too, and that’s a huge market,” he said.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

The indelible soul of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

2012-01-31T21:57:26Z

Ben Jaffe couldn’t quite remember the name of “that big record store” he visited the last time Preservation Hall Jazz Band visited Sacramento, rehearsing for the jazz ballet suite “Ma Maison,” performed at the Mondavi Center back in November.

He did remember that it was “right downtown,” and it occupied a large corner. Not hard to determine that we were discussing The Beat.

“When you walk into places like that, its like, ‘thank you, Lord!’” Jaffe emphatically proclaimed.

“You need human interaction - in society we’ve become more and more isolated,” he said, ruminating on the eternal feud between the comforting smell of a house of vinyl and the ever-increasing prominence of MP3s. “Even though you can have 10,000 friends, the internet promotes isolation - you need to have that human touch.

“That’s what Preservation Hall Jazz Band is, what we’re an example of.”

A proverbial calling card of New Orleans itself, the soul of Preservation Hall Jazz Band doesn’t just pre-date computers and the internet – it practically pre-dates electricity itself. That soul wasn’t even wobbled by the winds of one of the worst disasters in history.

“After (Hurricane) Katrina, it took a long time before we had power back in our city, but we had music before we had power; we had music before we even had water,” Jaffe recalled. “What struck me is how this couldn’t happen anywhere else. (Music) is so engrained in who we are that we’re sort of like the ultimate green city in a lot of ways. We all survived down there for so long without power, but we had our music.”

As much a history lesson as they are a dynamic performance ensemble, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been delivering slices of NOLA flavor around the country and around the world for the last half-century.

On the heels of their massive 50th anniversary celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York, Preservation Hall Jazz Band comes to Three Stages in Folsom (coincidentally lining up with the one-year anniversary of that venue’s opening) on Friday, February 3. Three Stages is located at 10 College Parkway (off East Bidwell on the Folsom Lake College campus) in Folsom. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $25-$49. Ticket information is available here.

Anyone who has been to New Orleans (and as a result has also probably been to Bourbon Street/French Quarter) probably knows that the ambience of Bourbon Street, while continually lively and unique, falls somewhere between Vegas, Disneyland, and a frat party that the cops should have busted up hours ago.

This reporter happens to much prefer Frenchmen Street. Musicians will roam the streets with trumpets in hand, jumping into the fray with whatever band happens to be playing at the club they mosey into. There is a pulse of pure concentrated, un-filtered and un-bejeweled passion for music raging through the streets of that town that is impossible to imagine anywhere else in the world.

To see Bourbon Street as it currently lives (especially after the city’s massive post-Katrina redevelopment), it can at times be hard for that very essence of the city to shine through, past the dense peppering of gift shops and street vendors, bushels of beads and Huge Ass Beers.

But that essence is as strong as ever (if not stronger), and it is headquartered on one of the busiest corners of Bourbon Street at the Preservation Hall, where its namesake Jazz Band makes its home (when they’re not on tour, that is).

There is no true brick and mortar home to jazz itself, but if there was "one place," Preservation Hall is where the musical history of New Orleans lives - and it is seemingly imperishable in the hands of the men and women who make music there.

“It’s a place where we actually get to entertain people in what is essentially our living room, and that is an amazing thing to do - to simply walk in without doing a sound check,” said Jaffe, PHJB creative director and son of band founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe. He became director virtually right out of college, a part of one of many unbroken bloodlines that still run through a band which has collaborated with everyone from Del McCoury to Lenny Kravitz to Mos Def.

An acoustic ensemble, Preservation Hall Jazz Band is able to bring the jazz history lesson (and the party) to virtually anywhere in the world, from Three Stages to the corner of 17th and J if they so desired.

“In New Orleans, we don’t overthink the word jazz - it applies more to sort of the way that we live and the way we experience music,” Jaffe said. “People have applied it to so many different genres of music - cool jazz, modern jazz, East Coast, West Coast - if jazz has done anything, it’s probably become too high-brow or too elitist, and it’s lost its connection to the common man.

“That’s something that I always focus on, the way it’s been preserved in New Orleans for over 100 years, and we still use it the same way. We still play jazz at our funerals and dance parties and carnival parades. We’re not regurgitating something that happened 100 years ago, we’re playing something we’re part of as a city. That’s just so unique to New Orleans.”

City Farm uses waste as an opportunity to grow

2012-01-31T21:39:14Z

The growing season is over.

In the California capital, dead autumn leaves lay heavy on the damp, manicured lawns of Sacramento City College as students learn that through death, something else will eat.

City Farm, Sacramento City College’s organic urban farm, concluded its first semester cultivating students into stewards of the land outside of Lillard Hall on Dec. 2 with an experiential learning experience—naturally recycling organic waste to create healthy, valuable, nutrient-rich compost for the next growing season.

“It's also called ecologically intelligent design,” says Robyn Waxman, City Farm faculty coordinator and graphic communication instructor. “Instead of taking, making and wasting, we are creating new and useful materials.”

According to a 2009 study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. landfills account for 20 percent of the methane emission in the world—a potent green house gas 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Over 34 million tons of food waste goes to U.S. landfills annually—more than any other kind of waste. Only 2 percent is composted.

“The human waste problem is a reality we will have to face in our future,” says guest lecturer Derek Downey, co-founder of the Davis Farmers’ Market Zero Waste Program.

Downey grabs a piece of soil from one of the City Farm plots and looks at it closely as he breaks it apart with his fingers—it is dry, sandy and does not contain any life.

City Farm did not flourish as Waxman had hoped—swiss chard, brocolli and other leafy greens appear dwarfed.

“Even plants have better immune systems with compost,” says Downey, a UC Davis biological systems engineering graduate.
Compost is nature’s way to rejuvenate soil by decomposing organic matter (food waste and yard trimmings) into living soil providing colorful, delicious, micronutrient-rich food.

Waxman and Downey developed and distributed a seven-step pictorial guide to composting to over 20 City Farmers.

“Dead things equal food,” says Downey as he demonstrates layering branches and leaves to form the base of the pile—allowing air to circulate.

Waxman brought a container filled with compostable kitchen waste from her home to demonstrate suitable compost—egg shells, coffee grounds and vegetables.

A few students enquire on where to get worms to start a worm bin for at-home composting.

“I’ve got worms!” says Ryan Thalken, City Farm President, biology major and gardener.

According to Downey, worm poop produces more microbes and pasteurizes the soil. Worms love coffee grounds—a perfect ingredient for compost piles and gardens where worms reside. Downey recommends asking neighborhood cafes for their coffee grounds.

“It’s one way of taking responsibility for your community’s waste,” says Downey.

Waxman explains that classes would like to work together for a common goal or shared learning experience.

“While City Farm does have a club who act as the stewards of the space, City Farm is primarily a place for classes to experiment and test theory learned in the classroom,” says Waxman. “It's a multi-disciplinary, academic garden.”

The Science Math and Engineering Club are sharing the plant biology plot for a water-saving hydroponics experiment. Next semester, the art and chemistry class hopes to include a African history class studying the European indigo plantations to demonstrate making indigo dye for fabrics.

“People crave reconnecting with things that are real,” Waxman says.

Students shovel a thin layer of soil over the pile to prevent flies and odors before covering the pile with a tarp to retain heat and moisture.

With over 10 other classes and clubs waitlisted to use one of the four plots, Waxman feels very positively about City Farm’s potential growth with participatory learning and taking personal responsibility of our futures.

Several other lecture opportunities contributed to City Farm’s success. Secretary of Sustainability and plant biology major Michael Viscuso facilitated workshops on amending soil with natural fertilizers. California Food Literacy Center co-founder and ‘Awake at the Wisk’ blogger Amber Stott discussed natural pest control—more than 60 people attended.

“Most students don't realize how much power they wield,” says Waxman.

In October, City Farm students hosted a documentary film festival for National Food Day focusing on genetically modified food, fair labor practices and sustainable food production—over 100 attended.

“City Farm allows you to take it upon yourself to learn and make with it [the farm] what you want,” says Waxman.

By Monday afternoon following Friday’s composting party, Waxman had emailed City Farm students—per administration, the compost pile must be dismantled.

While clearing the pile, students discussed other ways to increase City Farm yields with compost.

A student passing by the deconstruction of the compost pile stops to ask if the compost pile would smell badly.

“It should smell like the forest floor—like the good stuff,” Waxman says smiling.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a journalism student at Sacramento City College

"Diamonds" ladies night out at the guild theater

2012-01-31T09:05:08Z

The 2012 premier of the Ladies Night Out series of events returned to the historic Guild Theater in Oak Park Saturday evening. The headlining act was veteran singer, songwriter, producer and actor Danny Boy.

Best known for his work as a backup singer during the heyday of Death Row Records, Danny Boy’s solo music is grounded in his musical roots of R&B and gospel as he ably demonstrated to an appreciative audience.

“In 2012 we are taking the Ladies Night Out concept to a new level,” said poet Terry Moore, the T-Mo Entertainment founder who was responsible for bringing Danny Boy from Atlanta to Sacramento. “It is the vision of T-Mo Entertainment to bring outstanding artists to Sacramento while still showcasing our local talent.”

“The Diamonds” Ladies Night Out event also featured nationally recognized poet Ner City (pronounced “inner city”) from Oakland, along with Annie Jay, Sacramento’s reigning “Queen of the Mic.”

Also included on the program was Sacramento-based artist Carla Fleming, who joined forces with homegrown saxophonist Garrett Perkins for a brief set.

Before the curtains opened for the show to begin, poet Steve Morgan graced the audience with two heart felt poems, “Gift from God” and “B-girl Rap.

The always hilarious comic Dru Bruks was introduced as the emcee for the evening and immediately had the crowd in stitches.

Providing the live music for the night was LSB (Love Somebody), which features Leon “Scrap” Gray on the keyboards and Brian Randle on the drums. Joining LSB for the evening was Charles Andrews on lead guitar and Robert Williams on percussion.

Annie Jay was the first featured performer. Her music displayed influences ranging from neo-soul, jazz, gospel and R&B, with a little funk thrown in. She brought composer and guitarist Russell Brown with her, along with percussionist Dominic E. Garcia, who displayed his talents throughout the set playing a wooden drum box known as the cajón.

She opened her set with strong sultry vocals, covering “The Way” by Jill Scott. The “Queen of the Mic” showed her musical sensitivity, covering “Afro Blue” by John Coltrane, “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin and “Brown Skin” by India Arie.

The remainder of Jay’s set consisted of her original music. She frequently acknowledged Brown for his contributions in composing. Her down-to-earth lyrics reach out and speak to all who have experienced life and love.

Those who were introduced to the “Annie Jay Live” experience for the first time were in for a surprise with her stunning vocal range and ability on the songs “Shine,” “Lotus,” and “Caramel.” Her down to earth lyrics reach out and speak to all who have experienced life and love.

Annie Jay closed her 45 minute set with a funk based song entitled “Beast,” which had the audience moving and grooving while Annie Jay cut loose on stage showing her dance moves.

Annie Jay conveyed her love for performing in Sacramento after the show and wanted to be sure to let her growing legion of fans know she is hard at work in the studio on her upcoming debut album.

Dru Bruks introduced local singer Lenoris (P-Dub) Louis, whose vocal skills were frequently met with spontaneous applause and catcalls from the female-dominated audience.

Louis made a difficult task look easy while covering “Lady in My Life” by Michael Jackson. While singing Babyface’s hit song, “Whip Appeal,” Louis interacted with the ladies in the audience, bantering back and forth with them and having them laughing and applauding in response.

LSB did an admirable job with the live music during Louis’ set, and they really shined during his final number, “Do Me Baby” by Prince. Louis flawlessly hit all of the difficult falsetto notes.

After his set, Louis expressed his appreciation for the support and indicated that he will soon be featured in local venues around town with his own live band.

Intelligent, poignant, hard-hitting, heartfelt and often gut-wrenching: Those are the terms that describe the poetry of Ner City, who closed out the first half of the event.

As the recipient of numerous spoken word awards and multiple poetry slam competition victories, Ner City smoothly and flawlessly flowed between poems. He introduced himself to the audience by reciting the poem “My Bio,” explaining his qualifications as a wordsmith and detailing his experiences growing up nurtured by the dichotomy of formal education and education learned only through experience in the streets of Oakland.

In the poem “For Tre,” Ner City describes the challenges and pride he feels by living up to the role of father to his stepson. He was eloquently profound when stating the “job of being a father” is the one that is always available but far too few are willing to accept. The theme of fatherhood extended to his own father, whose virtues he extolled in the poem “My Father.”

To close out his set, Ner City recited his piece called “Letter to the Ex,” wherein he exposed his vulnerability to love and the manipulations and machinations that occur between the sexes.

“I thought the spoken word tonight was excellent,” attendee Candice Johnson said. “Ner City was truthful and touching in his poems and his remarks.”

During the brief intermission, Moore and Burks took charge of handing out gratuities from event sponsors including ladies clothing from Konceited Boutique.

Vocalist Carla Fleming and Garrett Perkins took the stage together after intermission. Fleming performance featured some beautiful vocals and inspirational lyrics from her soon to be released track and video entitled “Rise Again.” On this first track of their set, Perkins, put on exhibition the musical talent on the saxophone he developed while attending the Berklee School of Music.

Followed by another original tune called “Ooh Wee,” Fleming showed her sensual side with the help of Perkins who displayed the skills he has honed through his years of experience touring around the world playing music.

Fleming and Perkins then covered the Ashford and Simpson composition, “You’re All I Need to Get By,” made famous by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. They combined Fleming’s strong and versatile vocals with the influences of neo-soul and jazz to arrange the well-known R&B song in their own unique way.

Dru Burks then brought local R&B singer Kaleo to the stage for a brief appearance to sing Maxwell’s hit song “Ascension.” Backed up by LSB, Kaleo put his heart into the well-loved track, much to the appreciation of the audience that seemed visibly disappointed that he only performed one song.

It was evident that the evening belonged to Danny Boy once he took the stage and took command of the audience.

From the moment of his introduction by Burks, it was clear that Danny Boy is a man whose love of music is the passion of his life.

After thanking T-Mo Entertainment for putting on the show and inviting him to perform, he began singing Bobby Caldwell’s, “What You Won’t Do Love.” Backed by LSB, Danny Boy exhibited the vocal skills that made him famous while demonstrating that his days as a youth at Death Row Records are securely in his past.

While talking to the audience after the opening song, Danny Boy thanked God first and explained how it was his belief that music “touches us, helps us and heals us.”

He then took the crowd on a musical voyage by singing “Rocket Love” by Stevie Wonder.

Danny Boy’s professionalism and status as a veteran singer was apparent to all in attendance when he ventured into some of the original material from his upcoming album “Love Offering,” a two-CD release that will include one disc devoted to R&B (“Love”) and the second devoted to gospel music (“Offering”).

In between his original songs entitled “A Song for Love,” Thunderstorm,” “Some for Love,” and “I Can’t Wait,” Danny Boy showed his versatility switching between love songs, gospel music to the crowd mostly had never known this aspect of his musical journey.

The depths of Danny Boy’s personal struggles in the music business also became evident as he candidly discussed his free-wheeling days and the fact that he left Death Row in debt and was forced to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In true artistic fashion, he turned his misfortunes into music and displayed how from his faith came the songs “Nothing” and “Emotional Bankrupt.”

As his set was winding down, Danny Boy had everybody in the audience on their feet dancing with his rendition of “My Girl.” Much to the crowd’s delight, he came down from the stage and brought a grandmotherly member of the audience from the front row onstage to boogie with him.

He ended his set by covering the gospel songs “Grateful” by Marvin Sapp and “God Is Good” by Regina Belle. He completed the evening with a heartfelt blessing to the audience that included a prayer for healing and help for everyone to become better in their roles in life as husbands, wives and members of the community.

While Burks attempted to close out the show, a request for Danny Boy to return to sing a few hooks from some of his Tupac Shakur songs quickly turned into a spontaneous rendition of Luther Vandross’ “Superstar,” as LSB picked up the cue and joined in after the first few lines.

After a final prayer offered by Moore, who thanked all in attendance and who performed, the easygoing Danny Boy came out from his dressing room and signed autographs and CDs and posed for photos.

“It was an awesome show,” exclaimed local poet and educator Claudia Epperson who attended the event and was waiting in line to meet Danny Boy.

“The show was wonderful,” Ingrid Pinkett said. “I appreciate the fact that Danny Boy reminded us that we always have to remember where everything we have comes from and to give thanks and praise.”

The Ladies Night Out series will resume on March 31. Contact Moore well in advance at (916) 208-POET or fromtheheart1@hotmail.com to purchase tickets. The event is guaranteed to be another inspirational and fun evening of entertainment.

Disclosure: Othello Curry was an active participant in this week's Ladies Night Out Event. Othello worked as a member of the event staff.

Lukas Nelson Sparks Up Powerhouse

2012-01-31T04:30:18Z

Think Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson rolled into one, and yet you can only begin to imagine the sensation of a Lukas Nelson performance.

Hitting the stage at the Powerhouse Pub in Folsom, with his talented band Promise of the Real, Nelson immediately captured the respect of his audience with his opening poetic dirge, “Let Me Smoke My Pipe.” He spent the evening rolling them into his powerful, soulful, rockin’ blues concert that left all satisfied with a truly smokin’ hot afternoon, indeed.

At 23, showing off his recent clean-shaven face and shorter locks, the strikingly handsome yet still boyishly charming son of music legend Willie Nelson is not ashamed to admit he loves and respects the man and the music of his famous father. But, as far as comparisons go, except for the noticeable “Willie Twang” in his voice and his down-home smile and welcoming personality, the younger Nelson stands on his own as an evolving guitar maestro.

From inside Willie’s old bus which Nelson bought from his father to replace the van and motor home he used to tour with, I got the opportunity to find out some of his influences.

“Besides my father, who first taught me how to play and has and continues to inspire me with his writing and music, I also enjoy listening to and have had the opportunity to play with such great musicians as B.B. King, Neil Young, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore — great musicians and writers who all have inspired my writing and playing,” Nelson said. “There is no one song I’m particularly fond of. It’s the same with my dad’s music. I can’t name just one favorite song. It all depends on the day and my mood.”

I mentioned I saw his duo with his father during the country “Throwdown” tour this past summer in Murphys. Nelson said the tour inspired him to write most of the music on his upcoming album, effectively titled “Wasted.”

“It’s how I and some others felt about that particular tour, not wanting to step on toes” Nelson admits. “I loved playing with my dad, but the mix of musicians, for me, was not a good fit. Except for writing and spending some time playing with my father, I felt the time was, well, wasted.”

Nelson has not wasted any time, however, perfecting his presentation skills over the last year with stellar appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and his recent gig playing with one of his musical heroes, Neil Young, at Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit Concert.

Listening to Nelson’s music, wasted time, I far as I can perceive, has creatively been time well spent.

Converting Freeport Blvd into a 'complete street'

2012-01-30T23:45:35Z

The City of Sacramento Transportation Department is considering a redesign of traffic lanes along Freeport Blvd between Sutterville Road and 4th Avenue. This part of the roadway is scheduled for resurfacing in 2013 and last August the city approved a Bike Lanes Project to study options for redesigning Freeport Blvd into a "complete street" as part of the resurfacing effort.

From the National Complete Streets Coalition website: "...a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities."

This section of Freeport Blvd currently has two traffic lanes in each direction, some on-street parking and no bicycle lanes. The designated speed limit is 30 MPH and an estimated 21,000 vehicles travel this street each day. Sacramento City College and C.K. McClatchy High School are located along the section, along with residences, small businesses, restaurants and a senior residential facility.

The city planners are considering these redesign options for Freeport Blvd:

3 Segment Design Concepts (Sutterville to Vallejo)
- Bike lanes, parking on both sides, no middle turn lane, one lane north and one lane south
- Bike lanes, middle turn lane, parking on east side 13th to Bidwell, one lane north and one lane south
- No bike lanes, no parking on either side, two lanes north and two lanes south with lane widths increased

4 Options (Vallejo to 4th)
- Signed southbound bike route
- Southbound bike lane/bike route with push button
- Southbound bike lane with signal control
- T intersection

Students, residents, business owners, cyclists, pedestrians and commuters are showing interest in the project. Tom Buford, Senior Planner with the City of Sacramento, says community interest is healthy. In a telephone conversation, Buford said, "It's an important street in the community and we've seen the kind of interest that we would expect from discussions of changing the way a roadway is working."

Anyone interested in this project is invited to provide comments and suggestions to the draft Environmental Impact Report that is being developed by the city transportation department. Comments and suggestions may be submitted in writing until 5:00 PM, February 13, 2012 to:

Dana Allen, Associate Planner
City of Sacramento, Community Development Department
Environmental Planning Services
300 Richards Blvd., 3rd Floor
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 808-2762
Email: dallen@cityofsacramento.org

Questions may be directed to Linda Tucker, City of Sacramento Transportation Department Director at (916) 808-7523 or email her at ltucker@cityofsacramento.org.

Disclosure: Ron Nabity is an avid cyclist, Sacramento City College student and resident near Freeport Blvd. Ron is also a regular contributor to the Sacramento Press.

Railroad Museum Celebrates Black History Month By Exploring the Role of Railroads in African American History on February 18

2012-01-30T19:04:28Z

In celebration of Black History Month, the California State Railroad Museum is proud to present two special guest presentations and book signing opportunities with Professor Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., author of Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey. After 30 years of research and work in the field of black history, Kornweibel will share his thoughts and findings during two special illustrated presentations on Saturday, February 18, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., each to be followed by book signing opportunities.

His photographic book is a captivating, illustrated tour of the black railroad experience from slavery to Amtrak. It includes nearly 200 compelling images, many of which have never before been published. In the book, Kornweibel examines how the history of American railroads is deeply intertwined with African American history. This industry, America’s first “big business,” provided industrial jobs for blacks who were instrumental in the daily operation and success of America’s railroads.

While there is no cost to attend these special presentations, regular Museum admission fees apply. The book Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey is also available for purchase in the Museum Store.

In addition, Kornweibel has generously donated his research notes from his book to the Museum which can now be accessed through the Museum Library. For more information about this special presentation, accessing information from the Museum Library or about other activities, events and exhibits on display at the Museum, visit www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org or call (916) 445-6645.

Special Note: In cooperation with the Museum, there will be an additional opportunity to meet Kornweibel at Underground Books, 2814 35th Street in Sacramento, on Friday evening, February 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. At this venue, guests can talk with Kornweibel informally, purchase his book and have it signed by the author.

About the California State Railroad Museum
Operated by California State Parks with financial assistance from the non-profit California State Railroad Museum Foundation, the California State Railroad Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Widely regarded as North America’s finest and most popular railroad museum, the complex of facilities includes the 100,000-square foot Railroad History Museum plus the reconstructed Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station and Freight Depot, 1849 Eagle Theatre, and Big Four and Dingley Spice Mill commercial buildings in Old Sacramento. For 24-hour information, visit www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org or call (916) 445-6645.

Disclosure: Traci Rockefeller Cusack represents a number of businesses and organizations throughout the greater Sacramento area including the California State Railroad Museum.

Real Relationships: Saying goodbye to loved ones

2012-01-30T15:57:19Z

Q: My mother is in the last stages of aggressive cancer, bedridden and nearly comatose from the pain medication. We haven't always had a good relationship (actually we have never had a good relationship), but the thought of losing her makes me realize how much I really do love her. I know she has sacrificed a lot for me in her life, and now I feel like I lost out on something special, a relationship with her. I am having a really hard time coping with her dying and us never having the chance to talk about this.

My brother tells me that I just need to let it go and not bog her down with my feelings. I don't know what to do.

A: I am really sorry to hear about your mom and the pain she is experiencing. End-of-life situations have a way of clearing all the gray areas of our lives and making everything black and white.

It is totally natural for you to be feeling a sense of loss and desperation to talk with your mom. You need that closure, but I encourage you to look for the right time. Any conversation that you have with her when she is awak will likely be emotionally taxing on both of you. If she is mostly comatose, then you may not get a chance to have a face-to-face with her, but that is OK. Don’t force it to happen. There will be a time that is right.

Sit by her bedside, even when she is sleeping and pour out your heart. She can hear you, even if it doesn't seem that way. Sometimes closure comes from speaking the words that are in our heart aloud — words you have been thinking but have never said.

If you are having trouble formulating the words in your heart, sit down and write a letter. Take some time to really examine what you want to say, pen your thoughts down and then read it to her. Hopefully you will feel the burden of your past lift off you and only love for your mother will be in its place.

Be prepared that she may have been holding on for a moment when you two could reconcile your relationship. Once that happens, even just from you to her, she may let go.

Let her go.

Give her the permission and the freedom to end her fight and be at peace. Talk with your brother and let him know your feelings and that you spoke to her. Encourage him to do the same if he has anything in his heart that he would like to convey to her. Be in agreement when you both have said your piece that she can go.

Once she is gone, I hope that you are at peace. Carry her memory in place of the burden you felt. That is the best tribute you can make to her.

Have a relationship question? Email sacpress@live.com. Questions and advice are featured every Monday in "Real Relationships."

Good, good, good, good vibrations: Consummate cast overcomes overlong, disjointed script in Capital Stage's 'In the Next Room'

2012-01-30T14:10:52Z

With a title like "The Room Next Door, or the vibrator play," audiences might well expect a jolt or two – and not of the AC variety the newfangled electric gadgets of the late-19th century were known to occasionally deliver.

For those looking for a bit of shock and awe from J Street's "bold, intimate, live" theater, the current Capital Stage production of Sarah Ruhl's comedy does not disappoint. Though Ruhl's script goes for the gag switch a few too many times, and changes polarity with unsettling frequency, the uniformly strong cast led by Michael Stevenson, Elena Wright and Katie Rubin shine brightly and consistently.

Playing through Feb. 26, "The Room Next Door" is set in the late-19th century when the country was getting wired up, and men and women were getting buttoned up. As men's and women's fashions were adding layers and layers of floor-length outer and undergarments (fabulously designed here by costumer Gail Russell), so too were they masking their most primal emotions and desires in what was perceived as civility.

Dr. Givings (well-played with appropriate restraint by Stevenson) is a respected New York gynecologist who proudly refers to himself as a "man of science." His clinical bedside manner is respectful but wholly detached as he prattles on about the accomplishments of Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison and their contributions to the electrification of America while matter-of-factly applying what looks like a hand-held floor polisher to his patients' nether regions.

Convinced of the therapeutic value of the experimental contraption (which he believes cures a host of female-centric ailments, including "congested wombs" and the resulting "hysteria" they cause), Givings offers quick two- or three-minute applications (isn't that always the case?) to "release the juices downward."

He promises the women (and their husbands) who visit his home-based "operating theater" that they will see immediate results.

Among those calling on the good doctor are Mr. Daldry (a suitably stoic Alexander) and his wife, Sabrina (Rubin). Daldry is concerned that his wife is no longer the woman he married and that "there is very little sympathy between us."

"You have no idea what a source of anguish my wife's illness has been to me," he says, pausing just a moment before thinking to add, "And to her, of course."

Other concerns dominate the Givings household as well. Givings' wife Catherine is unable to properly nurse the couple's newborn daughter, who is losing weight. Offering the same clinical compassion to his wife as he does to his patients (whose moans and occasional cries to "God" go unnoticed), Givings flatly tells Catherine, "Your milk isn't adequate."

As he explains, he's not leveling blame, just stating the medical facts.

The grateful Mr. Daldry offers the services of their maid, who recently lost her own newborn, and is willing to serve as a wet nurse.

Frustrated by her inability to properly bond with her baby daughter, as well as with her husband, the always prowling, cat-like Catherine increasingly looks to her husbands' patients for conversation and more. One might think the Givings' home, which begins to feel like Grand Central Station in the second act, would annoy after a fashion, but Wright (in a marvelously antsy, even "hungry" performance) delivers a Catherine who doesn't mind the constant interruptions, but welcomes them to escape her passion-free home life.

"Experiment on me!" Catherine pleads to her husband, longing to witness the bright lights some of her husband's patients have reported seeing during their treatments. Essentially, she, too, would love to be blinded by science.

The era's repressed sexuality is repeatedly used as a punch line throughout the first act, as Sabrina's early trepidation evolves into a daily sprint through the Givings' parlor and into "the room next door" for longer and longer sessions.

These scenes become repetitive and merely stretch out what is already an overlong second act in which one wants to shout out, "Yeah – we get it! The vibrator is getting them off!" The larger joke (one that is also overused) is that the doctor seems oblivious to what his "treatment" is actually doing.

Adding to the bloated second act, and its deviation from massage-and-tickle farce to a more-serious treatise touching on everything from interracial relationships, gender preferences and death and dying, is the focus on two new characters – Elizabeth (Victoria Alvarez-Chacon), the Daldrys' African-American maid who is nursing the Givings' baby, and Leo Irving (Kirk Blackinton), an artist whose recent breakup during a European sojourn has resulted in a stifling creative malaise.

Those who love the vibrator of the title will love what the doc comes up with to alleviate Leo's artist's block.

Under the direction of Peter Mohrmann, there's really not a false moment delivered by the cast. Even in the most-absurd "Saturday Night Live" sketch-like moments of the play, they are true to their characters and rise above Ruhl's material. During the show's quieter scenes, such as in the climax (no pun intended) when Givings and his wife shed convention (and a good many layers of their wardrobe) to finally make a true emotional connection, Stevenson and Wright are absolutely mesmerizing.

Rubin, too, is very good – especially in her scenes with Wright in which the ladies let themselves into Givings' locked operating theater to do a little AC/DC experimentation on their own.

Alvarez-Chacon, who delivers her predominantly poignant lines as mandated by the script, seems a bit out of place. Her character seems like she's on loan from another play. It's not her fault – she, too, does the best she can with Ruhl's occasionally unruly script which is somewhat of a letdown following the pace and comedic tone of act one. Also, a case could be made that her character's speech about sexual satisfaction being best achieved through relations with a flesh-and-blood husband versus a power tool is a bit racist.

At Elizabeth's suggestion of such a scenario, both Catherine and Sabrina pooh-pooh the very thought, as if white, well-to-do women couldn't possibly understand the sexual honesty an "earthy" housekeeper of color such as Elizabeth takes for granted. One could also argue that Ruhl is saying that all lower-income African-American women have a genetic trait that makes slipping and sliding to Morris Day & The Time's "Jungle Love" second nature. Either way, it presents uncomfortable stereotyping.

Whether those who go to "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play" do so for pure titillation, for a glimpse at 19th-century sexual mores, as fuel for a discussion on playwriting, or simply to witness actors on top of their games, there are plenty of reasons to plug in.

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The Capital Stage production of Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play"
WHERE: Capital Stage, 2215 J St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHEN: Plays Jan. 25-Feb. 26, 2012, with performances at 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (special Valentine's Day performance at 8 p.m. Feb. 14)
HOW MUCH: $20-$32; call (916) 995-5464, or go online at www.capstage.org
DIRECTOR: Peter Mohrmann
CAST: Michael Stevenson (Dr. Givings); Elena Wright (Catherine Givings); Katie Rubin (Sabrina Daldry); Greg Alexander (Mr. Daldry); Shannon Mahoney (Annie); Kirk Blackinton (Leo Irving); Victoria Alvarez-Chacon (Elizabeth)

A look back at the remnants following infamous UC Davis pepper-spray incident

2012-01-30T08:56:33Z

DAVIS, Calif. — It has now been two months since the infamous pepper-spraying incident that made UC Davis an international house-hold name occurred. Even after Thanksgiving weekend, only the remnants of the incident remained. Although a bounty of tents could still be found on the quad, a mere handful of protestors could be found in them. Then the Monday morning after Thanksgiving break arrived. Once again, one by one, news vans crept back onto campus as if waiting for blood to be shed. The vans have now let the campus in peace.

Almost all protestors and non-protestors alike felt strongly that the pepper spraying incident was nothing but unacceptable. “The extraordinary reaction of the pepper spraying is entirely sensible, given how horrific it was,” asserted Professor Joshua Clover of the UC Davis English Department. Now that time has passed, the reaction has appeared to settled down.

Similar to many non-protestors, some protestors admitted that the UC Davis movement would have flatlined much sooner, had it not been for the infamous pepper spray scene. “This movement wouldn’t have happened without the pepper spray incident” one protestor admitted.
Although the pepper-spray incident did bring attention to the protestor’s cause, many soon claimed that they were tired of the attention diverting from what really needed to be changed. Others, still, stated the pepper spray to be the reason they were protesting. The non-protestors appeared to be tired of the attention altogether.

Now, as the winter quarter has begun, the various artistic expressions of frustrations that once took over the quad in solidarity for the strike and ongoing protests have dispersed and almost disappeared. Signs such as “The Chancellor was appointed, so was Hitler,” “California RNs support Occupy UC Davis,” and “I’m queer; I’m for justice” could have once been found throughout the conglomeration of protestors, but are no longer abundant.

In the aftermath of the incident, some feared that the school would suffer financially. “I don’t think the protestors realize the long term negative effects the protesting is having on both the students and the university as a whole,” one UC Davis alum stated. In current light, however, it appears that these worries too can be calmed. According to a Sacramento Bee review of university records, not only did the Campaign for UC Davis experience an increase in donations during the this past December, but the $1 billion goal is currently 75 percent achieved.

Once written in chalk on the walkway of the quad was what appeared to be an unofficial documentation of a revised Preamble stating:

1. Reform higher education
2. Reform our justice system
3. Reform health care
4. End the Fed
5. End money in politics
6. Make lobbying illegal
7. Hold the banks and Wall Street accountable
8. End the war! Bring home our troops
9. Rebuild America’s infrastructure
10. Reduce dependency of fossil fuels

The chalk has now faded, and a mere handful of tents remain. Students are once again studying and spending time with friends on the grass outside of Memorial Union. It appears, at least for the present time, that the presence of Occupy UC Davis has run its course.

Disclosure: UC Davis student

"Make Em Laugh" Mines the Humor of Musicals at STC Cabaret

2012-01-28T21:01:32Z

Sacramento Theatre Company associate producer Michael Laun shakes up the STC Cabaret format with some good surprises. SacPress community contributor writer/photographer Barry Wisdom has a great preview of the latest show.

Changes included the type of theme. Many previous shows have centered around specific composers. “Make Em Laugh” which runs for a short four show run this weekend on the STC Cabaret Stage, is centered around the title subject. It is a collection of songs, many of which are very well known songs by extremely well known composers from timeless shows.

Many of the songs are also from “who wrote that”? Great song, but “what show”? Never heard of it. And it all works well together to create a fun musical look at what Broadway and pop culture has seen as humorous in our lives. No surprise, much of the humor revolved around relationships.

Much of the success of “Make Em Laugh” is due to the performance of this ensemble. They are excellent at turning a good song into a whole story. Each STC Cabaret show has a mix of performers familiar to the core audience and new performers. This show has a larger mix of new faces.

Leading off with Laun is Jessica Crouch fresh off her staring role in “Bingo” at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret, a role that caused this reviewer to use the “F” word: Fabulous! She sounds so beautiful while being so downright funny. She is especially great on “What Happened to My Song” from “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

Laun is great on a very funny song called “Hawaiian Wedding Song” from a musical called, of all things, “When Pigs Fly.”

Joining Laun and Crouch from the STC Young Professionals Conservatory for “Make Em Laugh” is 14 year old first year student Devon Hayakawa. She gives a sophisticated performance beyond her years, starting with “Shy” from the tv musical “Princess and the Pea” made famous by Carol Burnett.

New to the ensemble are Robert Irvin, Christine Nicholson, and Madeleine Wieland.

Irvin is great on the Cole Porter hit “Miss Otis” and teams with Crouch on “Sue Me” from “Guys and Dolls” and Laun on “Honest Man.”

Nicholson is a hoot on “April in Fairbanks” and “When Your Lover Says Goodbye.”

Wieland opens with “The Boy From” a Sondheim song with a mouth full of words that she readily handles.

Since a lot of the songs are about relationships and the cast is heavily tilted to those interested in men a lot of the songs are about relationships with men such as “The Boy From,” “What Do You Do About Men?,” and “100 Easy Ways to Loose a Man.”

Also new to STC Cabaret is Sam Schieber, musical director and pianist playing with frequent performer, Kellen Garcia on bass.

Love clever lyrics from Broadway shows, both popular and obscure, performed by some great talent? Check out the remaining shows today at 2:00 and 8:00 pm of “Make Em Laugh.”

“Make Em Laugh.” Sacramento Theatre Company Cabaret
Last shows today
Information and Tickets

MidLife GridLife - Death Be Not Loud?

2012-01-28T19:00:00Z

I began to grieve in earnest on a Thursday morning. It was windy, cold; I was sitting in a chair next to my grandmother’s bed in a convalescent hospital. She had fallen, tripped over her cat and fractured her hip, and was now recovering—doing well according to those who claimed to know—in a dimly lit room that smelled of everything you shouldn’t talk about at the dinner table.

She was wearing a faded hospital gown, the flaccid skin of her right calf sneaking unnoticed out from under an unexpectedly magenta blanket. Gram told me that every night now she prayed for God to take her away. To let it end. I nodded. I said things, endearing, compassionate, empathetic, supportive things. I didn’t blame her.

I didn’t. I was happy she wasn’t frightened of dying (recovery, she said, was much more frightening).

“You mustn’t be sad,” she said, giving my hand a little bounce, “You mustn’t be sad.”

I told her that was something she couldn’t ask of me.

I would accept whatever happened—help her through whatever happened.

I would be happy when she was at peace, glad she wasn’t in pain, but I planned to miss her. To be sad she was no longer accessible, to be, for an unknown period of time, selfish and sad.

From this I would not be dissuaded.

A few minutes later I went to my car and began the extended process of mourning.

My grandmother, Alida, was a woman who still said “mustn’t,” loved opera, and viewed women with suspicion. Her mother was a Swedish immigrant who came to America alone at the age of twelve to work as an indentured servant and ended up marrying a close friend of her employer thirty years her senior.

My grandmother was her third of five children--two boys and three girls--and inherited her mother’s independent spirit and strength, though they were qualities that would not always serve her well during an era when women were still viewed informally as possessions, pretty and pliable hostesses and waitresses, those wives.

She was pretty. Beautiful, in fact. But I hate to think how she struggled with those other adjectives.

There was a first marriage, to a man who used to bring home men and then expect her to disappear.

A second marriage to my grandfather, a police officer, and later Detective. He was in his seventies when he died, but despite the emotional distance that had developed between them over the years, the anger and bitterness we had all seen displayed, my grandmother fell apart.

She asked me to sing Amazing Grace at his funeral, because it had been his favorite song.

She asked me with about two hours notice. I only knew the first verse, and I hadn’t sung in public since the twelfth grade. So, while my mother sat in the front row and sobbed over whether or not she had remembered his favorite flowers (her own way to begin mourning) I got up in front of hundreds of people and sang Amazing Grace accompanied only by an out of tune piano, because when your grandmother asks, that’s what you do.

Her life, I think, had already broken into pieces, but this, I think, is when pieces of her life began to break away.

Earliest years with Grandma were a bit of a mixed bag. She was a loving, if not stereotypical grandmother. Until I was 8, we lived just a few minutes away, and my sister and I spent lots of time at my grandparents’ house, climbing the big avocado tree, playing house on the back stairs, and taking trips to the world famous San Diego Zoo, just blocks away.

Grandma played gin and watched Public Television.

She listened to opera and Johnny Mathis.

She gave us knit suits and pointy-toed pumps and dressing gowns to play dress-up in and wads of baubles and beads to drape and drip and dangle from every available appendage.

She took us shopping and bought us tuna sandwiches in department store restaurants, gave us coffee for breakfast—well, half and half turned beige by a little coffee—and cut iceberg lettuce into the most elegant wedges at dinner, served with buttermilk dressing mixed up from scratch.

She never made macaroni and cheese from the box, but served only the much-coveted frozen kind that came in the tinfoil pan.

She drank martinis, and fished the olives from the glass with two fingernails. She was slightly intimidating, but impressive then.

Not just a person to spend time with, but a person to have experiences with. For better or worse, that never changed.

I was alone with her when she died.

This time we were in the hospital, and I had been quietly reading for hours.

I wanted to be sure she had stopped breathing, even though the machines confirmed it.

I kissed her on the forehead.

I wished her peace.

I waited.

I did not want to risk an opportunity for resuscitation.

I notified the nurses.

I called my mom.

This had been my first experience with the process of dying, and, in some ways, it was easier than I would have imagined.

I am, and always have been, overwhelmed by the idea of my own mortality, but I have always felt strongly about being present during the passing of others, if necessary. I became, at some point, the one to turn to when pets were likely to be put to sleep.

As a result, I was present for the final breaths of my childhood dog, my first husband’s longtime favorite dog, my son’s first cat, and a couple of pets of my own.

It may seem indelicate to relate the euthanizing of animals to the passing away of my grandmother, but it all stems from a desire not to allow anyone to be alone at the end.

I did not want my grandma to spend her last hours—however long that might be—isolated in a sterile hospital environment, devoid of emotional support and loving contact.

I knew, however, that my mom and my sister were not eager to deal with the process, so it was important that I should be available and prepared.

My grandma was 96 when she died.

She was long finished with life, a bit jaded, a bit disappointed, but appreciative of the experience.

I spent almost every part of it with her while I was alive, at least to some degree, right up until the end.

Grieving was mild, more a remembrance of times past than a longing. Grieving had begun in the nursing home as I watched her suffer, a shadow of the person I had verbally jousted with for all those years.

Such was not the case for my friend who recently lost her father.

He was many miles away in another country, and although he, too, had lived a long and full life, well into his 90’s, his death was a devastating loss.

The loss of a father is frequently more traumatic than the loss of a grandparent and for my friend it has created a gaping wound that I can sense will not soon heal.

Exacerbating the sense of abandonment is the isolation she feels, thousands of miles from the rest of her family, left to grieve on her own.

In her culture, she has told me, people come to your home to visit, to keep you company. They don’t want you to be alone. Even though the grief is more pronounced, she says, at least they have each other to share the experience with, to share memories of good times as well as the sadness.

It got me thinking about grief, and the way we grieve—or don’t—in this culture.

When my father died, somewhat unexpectedly, in his sixties, his third wife made unilateral decisions about how his death would be memorialized.

Initially, I was offended.

Then angry.

But later I came to realize just how much being part of that process might have had to do with closure, and the process of grieving.

Over a year later when she released some of his things to us, it was as if the mourning began again.

Seven months later, my son and I decided to cross cultures and create an altar during the Dia de los Muertos celebration to finally honor my dad’s memory in our own way.

Rather than the sense of peace and closure I had hoped for, again, it seemed to renew the immediate sense of loss.

Grieving, I have come to understand, is a process, one that is often undervalued in our culture.

When I send clients to drug treatment programs, they are often amazed to discover that it is the grieving workshop that affects them most profoundly. They are grieving losses that they were not even aware they had.

Many of us have losses that we do not grieve, I think.

We are a chin-up, buck-up, boot-strap pulling society, regardless of whatever touchy-feely trends come and go.

We are just as uncomfortable—if not more—with the grief of others.

How many times my friend has had people ramble on about what’s going on in their lives, only to stop them—blunt as she is—and say, “Do you realize my father just died? And you’re telling me about your trip to Hawaii?”

“I didn’t know what to say.”

This is the most common response. Really though, I think we avoid getting too close to those issues, feelings, with people in our lives.

Our condolences, when we offer them, are quick and awkward, the sub context being, “Please get over this so I don’t have to experience any more of it either!”

But we do ourselves a disservice.Suppressing those feelings or discouraging them in others can lead to anxiety attacks, chronic fatigue and depression, things all-too-common in society.

And prescriptions. Imagine if people came together to support their friends and family in times of loss—job, death, relationship—and some situational depression and anxiety never turned chronic and needed medication!

The film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close addresses this issue in a unique way, as well.
War is all around us. Hunger is surrounds us. Baby Boomers grow older en masse.

Grief is a concept we should all be exploring.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart –John Adams

Sacramento Theatre Company Cabaret Series revue aims to 'Make 'Em Laugh'

2012-01-28T12:13:36Z

Remember when musical theater was called musical comedy?

True, dramatic plot turns have consistenly been essential elements in most of the Great White Way's all-singing, all-dancing productions. From the issue of racial discrimination explored in Jerome Kern's landmark "Show Boat" (1927) to the gritty realities of abortion, rape and suicide facing teenagers in Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's "Spring Awakening" (2007), musicals often have featured some measure of conflict.

Maybe it's the rose-colored opera glasses audiences tend to slip on when looking back, but some still bemoan Broadway's shift away from happy-go-lucky book musicals in which the most-serious issue was the question of who's taking Laurey to the box social.

The truth is even after the musical scale tilted toward heavier fare (think "Evita," "Les Misérables," "Phantom of the Opera," "Side Show," "Parade," and "Spring Awakening"), most every tuner – no matter how dreary the score – continues to feature at least one or two songs that provide some measure of comic relief.

During this cold midwinter, Sacramento Theatre Company presents more than just a few LOL numbers in "Make 'Em Laugh: Broadway's Best Comedy Songs," its latest Cabaret Series revue.

Set to run Jan. 26-28, 2012, "Make 'Em Laugh" is geared to leaving audiences humming (and not bumming) as they exit the STC lobby by showcasing songs from such carefree shows of yesteryear as "Guys and Dolls," "Wonderful Town" and "Once Upon a Mattress."

Directed by STC Producing Director Michael Laun, with musical direction by Sam Schieber, "Make 'Em Laugh" features Jessica Crouch, Christine Nicholson, Madeleine Wieland, Robert Irvin, Devon Hayakawa and Laun. Accompaniment is provided by Schieber (piano) and Kellen Garcia (bass).

"Make 'Em Laugh" plays at 7 p.m. Jan. 26, 8 p.m. Jan. 27, and 2 and 8 p.m. Jan. 28. Tickets, priced at $25, are available by calling (916) 443-6722, or by going online at www.sactheatre.org. Please note that $12 student rush tickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to performances (subject to availability).

Ancient olive trees create the 'heart' of Bridge District park

2012-01-28T04:24:21Z

Four massive Seville olive trees were installed in The Bridge District’s Garden Park earlier this month setting the stage for a welcoming community space in West Sacramento’s newest development area.

Garden Park is a three-quarter-acre public park billed as the “centerpiece” to the first stage of development of The Bridge District, according to Stephen Jaycox, senior vice president of design for The Bridge District’s designer/developer, Fulcrum Property.

Jaycox said the design and planning of The Bridge District is unusual compared to typical new development plans.

“We are starting with the green space and then moving on to building townhomes and apartments around it,” Jaycox said. “This is a different sort of planning from the days when parks were an afterthought.”

The newly-replanted olive trees averaged 21,000 pounds each and are each well over 100 years old, according to Jaycox.

The olive trees were working trees on a farm near Fresno before the move to the park in West Sacramento. They were selected because of their sculptural trunks, character and beauty, Jaycox said.

“Having a fruit-bearing tree is a reminder of the importance of agriculture to our communities,” Jaycox said Thursday.

The trees will frame a seating area in the center of the park featuring a 16-foot-long granite table that Fulcrum Property President Mark Friedman described as “an invitation” to get together with neighbors.

“The trees give the park instant character, creating a sense of age and permanence that you wouldn’t normally get in a new park,” Friedman said.

Jaycox said Garden Park is designed in what is called a “circus plan” – a long oval – similar to South Park in San Francisco.

“It’s long and narrow, and the buildings will go up around it,” he said. “It will feel like being in an outdoor room.”

Garden Park is expected to be the “heart of the neighborhood,” according to Friedman.

“We’ve built it like a jewel box for the district,” he said.

The West Sacramento park will cost nearly $2 million and is being paid for with a variety of public funds including grants and general fund dollars, Katy Jacobson, project manager for the city of West Sacramento, said Friday.

“(The olive trees) give us an instant sense of history as we transform the area from industrial to mixed-use,” Jacobson said.

Additional improvements to The Bridge District will include final construction of an off-ramp at Fifth Street this fall, followed by the start of construction on the first housing units before the end of the year, Jacobson said.

As Garden Park nears completion, the final addition will be a yet-to-be-selected sculpture set in a prominent place as a counterpoint to the ancient trees.

“It will offset something natural – the ancient Seville olive trees – with something manmade,” Friedman said.

Construction on Garden Park began in November and is expected to open in spring, although no specific date has been set.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Free workshops to teach circus skills

2012-01-28T01:31:56Z

Did you ever want to be in the circus, swinging around on ropes and juggling? The UC Davis Mondavi Center is hosting three free workshops Feb. 5 where families are invited to learn some basic circus skills.

“They’ll learn to climb a rope, hang from a rope and do aerial work,” said 32-year-old master’s student Kevin O’Connor, who is one of two artists who will teach the workshops. “There will be juggling, too.”

O’Connor is using the workshop as a way to explore how the Mondavi Center can be used to bring people in for creative energy that can then be returned to the outside community, a part of his master’s coursework.

Other skills taught in the workshop will include making human pyramids. O’Connor said there is no risk of high falls, as none of the platforms are more than 1 foot off the ground, and all ages are welcome.

“It’s great if you wear two layers of clothing, mainly to protect your skin from the friction of the ropes,” he added.

O’Connor graduated from the three-year circus program of the École Nationale de Cirque in Montreal – the national circus school that spawned Cirque de Soleil.

Each workshop will be 90 minutes long, and the first one kicks off at 10 a.m. Reservations can be made by emailing ucdavisdance@gmail.com, and class sizes are limited. No more than seven people can be included on one email reservation.

Janice Bisgaard, spokeswoman for UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance, said the the event is the kickoff for the Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance.

The new institute is set up to allow research to be conducted on campus and with direct interaction with the campus community, as well as allow more interaction between the students and performers who make up the Department of Theatre & Dance.

“We’re really excited at the responses we’ve had among the greater community for the workshops,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to be kicking off our new institute.”

The workshops will be held at the Mondavi Center’s Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, located at One Shields Ave. in Davis.

"The Grey" - Part 2: Interview

2012-01-27T09:23:33Z

INTERVIEW: DIRECTOR JOE CARNAHAN AND ACTOR FRANK GRILLO

[NOTE: THE INTERVIEW CONTAINS SOME MILD PLOT SPOILERS FOR “THE GREY”.]

Recently, in San Francisco, I had a chance to chat with co-writer and director Joe Carnahan and actor Frank Grillo about their new release “The Grey” which opens this week. The film, which is reviewed in a separate article, tells the story of a group of oil workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, where they find themselves stalked by a pack of almost mythically large wolves. Joe is a Sacramento native and we’ve known each other for several years through the local film community and the Sacramento Film and Music Festival.

As we were setting up for the interview, Joe happened to make a self-deprecatory joke about his own intelligence, which led to an interesting opening:

Tony: You see I would counter that right away. I watched “The Grey” a few weeks ago - I don’t like to read production notes before seeing a film and I knew virtually nothing going in – but I knew it wasn’t going to be “Alive” meets “Cujo”… [they both agree] … because I don’t think you’re capable of writing a script that’s that one dimensional.

Joe: Right. You may hate it for its other dimensions but it won’t be mono-dimensional.

Frank: [laughs]

Tony: The other things you’ve written – even a film like “Smokin’ Aces” which is a ‘shoot-em-up’ has a very intricate story.

Joe: “Smokin’ Aces” to me, the construct, was Iraq. I based the movie on Iraq. It starts with misinformation, it leads to this kind of heedless violence, a bunch of people who shouldn’t die do, they make a better deal at the end, and it’s over – that’s it.

Tony: Let’s come back to the war topic later. As I said, I watched “The Grey” knowing nothing about it and had to write my comment for the studio, and I said this isn’t a film about men and wolves, this is a film about life and death, and going out on your own terms.

Joe: Yes. 100%.

Tony: So, I was intrigued as to whether when you read the short story if it came out of nowhere and grabbed you or if you were already thinking of this as a subject you wanted to tackle.

Joe: No, you know what Tony, I responded to the short story because I was on “Mission Impossible 3” and I was going to quit before I was fired. I had run my course on that and here I was presented with this very simple, spare, kind of bare bones survival story - versus where I was at that moment which was a big star, big franchise, big studio, with a big budget at 33 years old and feeling I didn’t deserve any of that….

Frank: No, by the way you do.

Joe: …at the same time “The A-Team” represents me finishing that business on “MI3” – doing a big popcorn movie. So it [“The Grey”] appealed to me in every way that it could, because its simplicity was beautiful to me. But then Ian [Ian Mackenzie Jeffers who co-wrote the screenplay and wrote the short story “The Ghost Walker” on which it is based] did a draft of his own short story and I took that, and over the next 4-5 years rewrote it, fashioned it, and fine-tuned it.

[Joe continued by describing how, with the passage of time, topics which might not have developed quite so readily in a more rushed circumstance, including religion and spirituality, evolved as the story became more polished.]

Tony: So, you guys met on “Pride and Glory” [for which Joe co-wrote the screenplay]?

Frank: A little before that.

Tony: [To Frank] When this first came to you, did you see the script first or was it still an idea? How close was it to the final script?

Frank: I think it was fairly close to what we actually shot by the time I saw it.

Joe: Yes, I gave it to you in September and we were shooting in January.

Frank: Yeah. He had seen some of “Warrior” and I had said to him “I want to work with you, just whatever it is, find me something, I’ll do anything – I’m a huge fan” and he sent me this script. He said to me “January we’re shooting this movie and that’s the role!” And he could have had anybody he wanted for the role, obviously, and he said “It might take me some time but you’re doing the movie – January – don’t take a job!” And I said “Joe, I can’t…” He said “January, don’t take a job! Go gain some weight, beef up, this is what we have to do.” And there we were in January.

Tony: Although underneath something like three parkas…

Joe: Yeah – I had three parkas on but Frank didn’t!

Frank: [laughs]

Joe: You said you wanted the role pal!

Tony: It’s such a neat story and neat characters. I was interested in what drew you to it. The Ottway part [Liam Neeson’s character] is interesting – he’s watched somebody who didn’t have the opportunity to go out on her own terms and he respects that opportunity when it arises. There’s a scene in the wreckage where a guy is dying and the others are saying “You’ve got to do something” and he goes over and says [paraphrased] “You’re going to die – but that’s OK” You don’t see that often.

Joe: No. You see a lot of people killed but you don’t see a lot of people die.

Frank: In the original script – and at first I was kind of upset that we took it out – but when he says that to him, my character says “What are you doing?” But there was such a rhythm, there was such a gorgeous poetic rhythm to the connection that these two guys had that if I had interjected, interrupted, and taken it away from that, it would have destroyed the scene. And that’s my favorite scene in the movie.

Tony: It reminds me - and I don’t think this is a comparison you’ll dislike [to Joe] given that you say you don’t see people die very often - it reminds me of Giovanni Ribisi in “Saving Private Ryan.”

Joe: Which is a brilliant death scene.

Tony: It’s the best scene of the movie.

Joe: And he says “Tell me, tell me what’s wrong” and the blood is almost black and he’s asking for his mother.

Tony: And he basically instructs them to overdose him on morphine. He’s a medic….

Joe: Right, he’s a medic, he knows he going to die. But that’s … anytime there’s a Spielberg comparison, I am firmly in your camp.

Frank: I got a chance to work with him and he said when he saw that scene he actually went back and wrote more for Giovanni earlier in the movie, so there would be more of him in the movie.

Joe: Oh, wow!

[The three of us then went off on a tangent for a minute or two about Giovanni Ribisi’s career starting as a child actor in the sitcom “My Two Dads.”]

Tony: In “the Grey” it seems to me that there were at least quadruple threats: There’s the location that they’re in, there’s the lack of any kind of supplies they would need to survive in that location, the climate obviously, and the wolves. But this isn’t about the wolves, the wolves are just part of that.

Joe: Tony, you see that – but you’re literally one of the only people that has ever said that, right there.

Tony: It’s an obstacle, of which part just happens to be the wolves. They could have just been eyes in the distance and mysteriously, every now and then somebody dies and you never know how they die. It’s almost a MacGuffin.

Joe: Right – they’re as close to a MacGuffin as a traditional film like this would have. Because essentially it’s a plotless movie.

Tony: In fact, to some extent, the whole bundle of obstacles: location, supplies, climate, wolves altogether are a MacGuffin.

Joe: Absolutely

Tony: It’s just there to cause these people to think about the meaning of life.

Frank: Exactly. That’s an accurate reading of the script. You asked what attracted me to the film. As a middle-aged man – this is what I think about all day.

Joe: And also that the wolves are just a force of nature – like the cliff, like the blizzard, like the river.

Tony: Have you been following the news – the timing is really interesting.

Joe: Oh – OR7 – the wolf that’s crossed into California. Yeah, I invited him to the premiere. It’s a very elaborate joke, a very elaborate stunt when he shows up and around his neck he’s got a little pass, a VIP pass.

Frank: It’s a great story

Tony: You clearly wanted something more profound than an action film and you succeeded. But do you worry about the apparent dichotomy between what films are and how films are marketed?

Joe: You know what, Tony, I don’t because what I would like, in fairness to an audience, this is something where I’d like them to cast as wide a net as possible – to get people who are even casual genre fans, who are casual Liam Neeson fans into the theater. Because I swear to God it will become the water cooler talk for days to come. I really believe that. What I’ve said about this film, my ultimate goal, is that it plays for you for longer than the two hours it took to watch. That’s what I want – because I think so much of movies today are just disposable experiences.

Tony: I guess my question is that we’re sitting here saying this is a profound movie about life and death and the human experience….

Joe: Right.

Tony: …so do you worry that the people who do in fact want to see a profound movie about life and death and the human experience are not going to come and watch “The Grey” based on the trailer somebody’s cut of the film that makes it look like “Alive” meets “Cujo”?

Joe: No. Unfortunately, if those people you just described were in the majority, we wouldn’t all be about to speak Mandarin in the next ten years. You know what I mean? If we had that level of engagement or that level of high mindedness, without trying to sound snobbish or arrogant about it, if those kinds of people were in the majority then I think it would be a radically different marketing angle.

Tony: If you think of film classics like 1936’s “Modern Times” or 1957’s “12 Angry Men” – those were mainstream films because you didn’t have studios, indies, direct to cable, and all those kinds of things, so those were films people were going to watch. They were deep films – but they were either social satires or social commentaries. We’ve had this conversation before – now you see things like “Lions for Lambs” [written by Joe’s brother Matthew Michael Carnahan] which is a brilliant piece of writing and “In the Valley of Elah,” and films like “The Company Men” about unemployment and layoffs. I’ve heard it said that folks on the left don’t want to go and see these stories and be reminded of what they already know and folks on the right don’t want to go and get lectured by Hollywood.

Joe: Yes.

Tony: So, do you think there’s a political divide – is it that we’re telling the wrong stories or are we telling the right stories but telling them too soon?

Joe: Well listen, you mentioned “Lions for Lambs” and “In the Valley of Elah” – those are movie about hot button issues. My brother had written “The Kingdom” which in a lot of ways to me was a knock on the Saudis and the Saudi royal family. It was meant to be, not a condemnation but he was certainly taking a shot – it wasn’t just this kind of prosaic look at a different culture – he was going after them. But if you don’t mix in gunfights it becomes this almost geopolitical…whatever. I found, and I got this from my benefactor Ridley [Scott] – I loved the filmmaking in “Black Hawk Down” but it became very jingoistic. And the part about the Somalis and what they were dealing with … and I understand why that was jettisoned. I get it, but it was also a case of looking at how much more money that made than a film like “Lions for Lambs” which was more about talking points.

Tony: If you get me on “Black Hawk Down” we’ll be here all day. But “The Kingdom” and “Lions for Lambs” are an interesting comparison because they’re both good scripts and they both have a lot to say politically….

Joe: Yes.

Tony: ...and I don’t remember the box office….

Joe: “The Kingdom” made a lot more money.

Tony: “The Kingdom” has a lot of shooting and action and “Lions for Lambs” is more like a play

Joe: Yeah, it’s a three act play. It’s a play.

Tony: So if you want to have political content and you want to get something out there and you want to hit a mainstream audience….

Joe: Good luck

Tony: …do you have to disguise it as something else?

Frank: I think you do.

Joe: Oh, absolutely.

Frank: You have to, not sneak it in, but you have to….

Joe: It’s everything short of sneaking it in. It’s very difficult to come straight at somebody with that kind of argument being that political, spiritual, whatever it may be that you’re trying to tackle. In this country more so than any other in the world – we love to slap labels on as quickly possible. And if you’re doing that it’s a “specialized” kind of film.

Tony: [To Frank] In the film, you’re the tough guy’s tough guy. It reminded me of this kid I knew at summer camp who was tough and would never let his guard down – and then I saw him break down completely riding a roller coaster.

Frank: That’s a great analogy.

Tony: Did you know those guys growing up or were you that guy?

Frank: I wasn’t that guy – I was on the other end of it. But I did know those guys and I also spent some time visiting some jails around New York because I wanted to talk to some guys on the other side of that reality. And they all seemed to be the same – you’re right – it’s the big bully who goes on the roller coaster and that was my jump off point. It’s such a cool journey that this guy makes and we all know those people. And how did I get to the point where my hands are always up and I’m threatened all the time. When you’re afraid you get angry and Diaz [his character in the film] is angry all the time. Why? Because he’s afraid all the time. And it was a gift to me as an actor to get to explore this character.

Tony: The amazing thing about “The Grey” is that I don’t think there’s a weak link in the film. The problem with an ensemble movie is that there’s often a character that you want to get eaten by a wolf early on in the movie just so that you don’t get to see him for the next hour. And this movie doesn’t have that.

Joe: I think you really do come to fall for those guys and you appreciate those guys and you pull for them. And that’s as it should be.

[At this point we discussed several characters and their unusual paths in the movie, including specific outcomes for some of them.]

Joe: But there’s bravery and heroism that isn’t always obvious and that you don’t see coming from a mile away

Frank: But we can talk about this all day – this guy [his character] finally got a chance to be part of something. That’s the beauty of it.

Joe: Yeah – absolutely man

Tony: What’s next for you Joe?

Joe: If I get any real run off the Grey, if it allows me to do something else, I’d like to put all those chips toward “Killing Pablo.” For me that particular project is like this vastly undernourished orphan and I need to get this kid a meal.

Tony: That’s Pablo Escobar?

Joe: Yes. I’ve been to Colombia three times, I’ve been to Medellin three times and I love it – as attrition goes it getting pretty close. Somebody asked me why do you want to make that project so badly and I was interviewing this 78 year old man who was there at the time it happened, and I asked him if he remembered anything that day, when they got Pablo. And he said “I was sitting in my house and I thought it was an early winter thunder storm” because the level of gunfire was such that the guy couldn’t discern individual shots and I thought “I’m ****ing making this movie!”

Tony: And anything back in Sacramento – are we going to see you back in town?

Joe: Tony if I could just get, and I’ve said this before – what you need is a full time film commissioner and we need to quit dicking around. And in that City which is one of the great untapped shooting locations – in two hours you can be in the snow, you can be on the river….

Tony: And the neighborhoods can be anywhere.

Joe: Dude, the Fabulous 40’s – all you have to do is switch the cars out and you could be in the 1950’s. I would love to do it. I think the City has to get a lot more aggressive about what it wants to do. You know Kevin Johnson kept the Kings – and that would not have happened with Heather Fargo, they would have been gone. So if he can apply that kind of determination to getting movies shot there….

Tony: You know the “For Arts Sake” manager just left, this week.

Joe: Really? Well you know I’m looking for a job!

Disclosure: The author is co-director of the Sacramento Film & Music Festival and Joe Carnahan is a former special guest of that event.

"The Grey" - Part 1: Review

2012-01-27T09:22:47Z

The Grey
Directed by Joe Carnahan

The promotional materials for “The Grey” would probably cause you to believe that this is a “Jaws”-like adventure, with sharks replaced by wolves. And that’s certainly an easy way to sell a movie – but the truth is somewhat more complicated and worthy of greater respect.

This isn’t just a movie about men and wolves, and the conflict between them after a plane of oil industry workers crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. Underneath that surface, it’s more about life and death and our ability to determine our own fate. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a man whose job is to shoot wolves and remove other threats to the men who work in this desolate place. But he’s also a man with tragedy in his past and consequently empty eyes. When the plane goes down, it triggers in him the need to survive – not so much because he has things to live for, but because he isn’t willing to let anybody or anything else dictate his fate.

It’s an interesting and quite profound premise for what might otherwise seem like a shallow action adventure. But it’s also in keeping for co-writer and director (and Sacramentan) Joe Carnahan, who tends to favor stories that are more complex than they appear.

Some detractors have complained that the behavior of the wolves in “The Grey” is unrealistic, but this isn’t a nature documentary. And the wolves themselves are not the only complication in the men’s lives, existing as they do alongside the extreme cold, remote location, and lack of supplies that they're faced with. As such, the wolves are simply a part of a bundled obstacle, and no more or less a force of nature than the blizzards and low temperatures. They exist as a test within the context of the movie, increased to almost mythical size and actions. They're simply something to be overcome - and they might just as easily have been bears, ghouls, or invisible beings.

Within this premise are some of the best on-film encounters with death – not simply in the sense of the staged violent ends that we've come to expect from the action genre, but philosophical contemplations of what it means to recognize and sometimes accept death, even when it isn’t sought out. And these are genuinely thought-provoking moments: As Carnahan himself said during a recent interview, “...it will become the water cooler talk for days to come. I really believe that. My ultimate goal is that it plays for you for longer than the two hours it took to watch. That’s what I want – because I think so much of movies today are just disposable experiences.” And it succeeds.

The outcome is quite remarkable in that he’s made a film that can satisfy those who are simply looking for a solid roller coaster action adventure, but also those who like to ponder the deeper meaning of a film and the lessons it might evoke, over dinner afterwards, or the next day. It might even cure a dysfunctional family’s inability to choose a movie that appeals to both the parents and the teenagers.

Disclosure: The author is co-director of the Sacramento Film & Music Festival and Joe Carnahan is a former special guest of that event.

'Forbidden Broadway' vet Selby sings praises of Cosmopolitan Cabaret's game-for-anything cast

2012-01-27T03:04:26Z

William Selby remembers well when he first heard about a little cabaret show that was generating buzz among New York theater fans.

“I was a full-time actor at the time, and I had a roommate who was a waiter at this place – Palsson’s (Supper Club) on West 72nd Street,” Selby said. “He came home one night raving about something called ‘Forbidden Broadway’ and did a number for me.

“I fell off the bed laughing – I knew I loved it right then and there.”

Selby wasn’t the only one who embraced Gerard Alessandrini’s concept of a satiric revue that both celebrated and skewered musical theater.

Since its opening 30 years ago this month, “Forbidden Broadway” played almost continuously in New York (after more than 9,000 performances and 20 editions) before closing in 2009. Additionally, Alessandrini’s parodies of both popular and pompous Broadway tuners have spawned a worldwide cult fueled by a continuously updated score and countless tours and special engagements.

One such production, directed by Selby, opens in Sacramento Jan. 27 for an eight-week run at California Musical Theatre’s Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

Selby joined his first “Forbidden Broadway” cast in 1985 when he was selected for a Washington, D.C., production.

Just as he imagined, Selby found it was love at first spoof.

Beyond the joy of performing twisted versions of the Great White Way’s greatest hits to wildly appreciative audiences, Selby said he became a part of something more permanent than a Playbill listing.

“One of the nice benefits of being part of ‘Forbidden Broadway’ is that it’s a family,” he said. “I’ve made some of the truest friends I’ve had.”

“I’ve always come back to it because I love it,” Selby continued.

After 15 years of playing dozens of theater legends in their best and worst roles from San Diego to Singapore, Alessandrini and producer John Freedson suggested Selby join the team’s directorial staff.

“By that time, you know what works,” said Selby.

Since making his directorial debut in Minneapolis in 2001, he has led shows in New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Long Island, N.Y., and at sea onboard a Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines voyage.

The production at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret marks his 15th show at the helm.

While he said he keeps “pretty busy” with “Forbidden Broadway,” both as a director and performer, the Emerson College alumnus continues to take acting gigs that are far from his “FB” roles, including playing the prompter opposite Keith Baker in “Barrymore.”

Selby said working on both sides of the “Forbidden Broadway” footlights gives him invaluable insight on what works – and who works – on stage.

He said he was quick to pick the four performers ultimately selected for Sacramento’s production from the L.A.-based auditions.

“I know in the audition if they can do it – it’s a matter of confidence,” Selby said.

Freedom from fear of failing is an important trait shared by successful “Forbidden Broadway” cast members, he continued. Most of those who try out aren’t professional impressionists, “But as we always say, you don’t have to be a great impersonator, just be willing to try.”

Selby gushed about the way his cast (Marc Ginsburg, Jerry Lee, Jessica Reiner-Harris, Melissa WolfKlain) has shed all self-doubts and vanity to take on the diverse numbers (and costumes) demanded of “Forbidden Broadway” performers.

Jerry Lee and Jessica Reiner-Harris have River City roots, and WolfKlain recently spent eight months at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret performing as the soubrette in “A Grand Night for Singing,” and Cindy in “Suds.”

Ginsburg is a Philadelphia native and former New Yorker now living in Los Angeles ~~Sacramento~~ .

“These guys have totally nailed it,” Selby said of the quartet that escorts their audiences through a whirlwind tour of classic and contemporary musicals from “Hello, Dolly!” to “Hairspray,” and from “Man of La Mancha” to “Jersey Boys.” “Even after all of these years, I don’t take the show lightly. They have to perform the numbers as if they’re actually doing the original shows.”

Selby stressed that one does not need to be a fan of said original productions – or musical theater in general – to enjoy a “Forbidden Broadway” revue.

“You don’t even need to be aware of all of the shows,” he said. “The costumes alone are hysterically funny.”

Selby said Alessandrini and his creative team are very conscious that their audiences aren’t all New Yorkers with easy access to the Times Square TKTS booth, and dismiss more-obscure titles from their list of shows ripe for mocking.

One of the things his New York-based team does in tailoring a “Forbidden Broadway” show for a particular city is to look at what tours recently played in that area. (“Mary Poppins,” which recently played at the Sacramento Community Center Theatre under the California Musical Theatre banner, is featured in Sacramento’s “FB” revue.)

But he also said they try not to underestimate audiences as they’ve found audiences in the hinterlands who were crazy for numbers culled from lesser-known shows.

Call “Forbidden Broadway” a parody, a spoof or a mock-musical, but Selby said it’s not an all-out farce.

“You can play it too broadly,” he said, switching gears to offer up an example of a Carol Channing impression gone awry.

“It can be grotesque,” he said. “There’s a level, and you have to keep that level.”

It’s a balancing act his current cast has perfected, he said.

“They’ll give you what you ask for – they’ve found capabilities even they didn’t know they had.”

Selby said all four shine as newly minted mimics.

“Jessica does a tremendous Patti LuPone. Marc’s Mandy Patinkin … well, I was proud of mine, but his is better. … Melissa – her Carol Channing is so funny. ... Jerry is a terrific Robert Goulet. These four have very strong voices.”

Along with kudos to his cast, Selby applauded the California Musical Theatre/Cosmopolitan Cabaret creative team, including Executive Producer Richard Lewis, Artistic Director Glenn Casale and ~~Company Manager~~ Cosmopolitan Cabaret Associate Producer Marlene Shire-Anderson.

“I’ve decided this is the best team by far that I’ve ever worked with,” said Selby. “They dot every ‘I,’ cross every ‘T.’”

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: “Forbidden Broadway,” a musical revue parodying classic and contemporary musical theater hits from “Man of La Mancha” to “Wicked.”
WHEN: Jan. 27-March 18, 2012 (7 p.m. Wednesdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays)
WHERE: Cosmopolitan Cabaret, 1000 K St., Sacramento
TICKETS: $33-$43; call (916) 557-1999 or go online at www.tickets.com
FOR INFO: www.calmt.com

Editor's Note: Edits have been made to this article after publication.

Kings lose to Nuggets 122-93 in blowout, no one happy about effort

2012-01-27T02:49:13Z

The fans weren’t the only ones leaving the old barn early on Wednesday evening.

Quite honestly, they weren’t the only ones leaving embarrassed either.

By the time the press got into the Kings locker room after losing 122-93 in a blowout to the visiting Denver Nuggets, most of Sacramento’s players had left the arena also.

No Cousins, no Tyreke, not even Donte Greene hung out long enough to give their side of this ugly one-sided loss.

Keith Smart, the new coach of the 6-13 Kings, was alone at the podium to explain.

“Not what I expected,” Smart started his post-game press conference. “And I’m sure our fans didn’t expect that either. Kind of an embarrassing moment for our fans to watch us play that way.”

After pulling out to an early 7-3 lead behind a couple of Jimmer Fredette jumpers - who started in place of an banged up Marcus Thornton, the flood gates broke and the Kings end of the paint opened up like Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea.

Way too easy.

Drive after drive after drive after drive to the rack. The Nuggets kept coming like the incoming tide - relentlessly.

And the Kings didn’t even put up a temporary barrier to stop the avalanche.

By the end of the first quarter, the Nuggets already had 22 points in the paint on 11-of-17 shooting. And they weren’t done yet. They would finish with an incredible 92 points in the paint! This is the most since the NBA began keeping track of this statistic!

Wave after wave after wave of Denver big men and small reaching the rim with uncanny ease.

By halftime, Denver lead 66-43 and the boo birds could already be heard in the old Arco rafters.

Danilo Gallinari, Nene, Kosta Koufos, Andre Miller, Al Harrington and even Ty Lawson before he got hurt were slicing through the lane without facing stiff competition or even a good knock down.

By the half, the Nuggets were shooting almost 60 percent and the Kings were just over 42 percent from the floor.

It wasn’t that the Nuggets ran the Kings off the floor, that wasn’t it at all. It was just that it seemed almost every time a Nuggets player went into the paint, he either scored or another Nugget player grabbed the board and tired to score.

The only defense at the rim for the Kings came in the form of DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins ended up with 17 points and 15 boards. The only other King with more than five rebounds was Greene who had six.

The shocking stat of the night had to be that Evans, who is usually good for 4.8 boards a game came away with none. That’s right, a goose egg - zero rebounds.

Not the sign of a team that is throwing everything they have into trying to get a win.

Jason Thompson, one of the only ones left to speak after the tough loss, ended with nine points and five boards but knew much more was needed.

“It’s frustrating,” said Thompson from his space in front of his locker after the game. “We didn’t take care of business. We knew what the game plan was. From the start, usually come out to a good start but this time we just went against the odds. We weren’t rebounding and we weren’t playing unselfish basketball.”

That’s it! Straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Thompson’s been here since the beginning. He’s unselfish to a fault most of the time and is finally having the kind of season the front office thought he could have when they drafted him four years ago.

Thompson knows the solution to what ails the team and holds out hope that the players can pull it off.

“We all got to look ourselves in the mirror and say how am I going to guard my man and how am I going to stop my man from scoring. At the end of the day, the great teams play team defense. But first you have to be able to stop your man and then worry about the help.”

The former Rutgers standout felt so strong about his case, he said it again.

“We all got to look ourselves in the mirror and not just worry about everyone getting buckets but worry about getting stops and rebounds and just let everything else come to us.”

KINGS NOTES: Fredette ended up with 19 points and had five three-pointers . . . The Nuggets had seven players in double figures scoring including Gallinari (23 points), Nene (16 points), Andre Miller (15 points, 10 assists), Al Harrington (10 points) and Corey Brewer (15 points) . . . Isaiah Thomas had ended with 16 points and had six assists . . . Ty Lawson hurt his foot or ankle and was seen leaving Power Balance Pavilion in a walking boot . . . To their credit, John Salmons, J.T., Thomas and Fredette were ready to answer questions from the media after the game . . . Thornton could miss another week or so with a deep bruise in his left thigh . . . Chuck Hayes should be on the floor again when the Kings travel to Utah to face the Jazz on Saturday

"West Side Story" Revival Another Huge Hit For Broadway Sacramento

2012-01-27T02:26:18Z

Wow! That is what I have to say regarding Broadway Sacramento's opening night performance of the current national tour of "West Side Story." The sold out house at the Community Center Theater suggests others agree. While it is beautifully staged, with wonderful singing anddance, and good acting, it is the material that is the star here.

The powerful music of Leonard Bernstein coupled with the equally powerfully words of Stephen Sondheim are enough to make "West Side Story" a show worth seeing.

Add in the choreography of original "West Side Story" director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, which can move from strongly ballet to strongly modern dance in a moment, and it's hard to beat.

All of this wraps around a story that goes back much farther than

Shakespeare and his Romeo and Juliet: the consequences can be deadly if you fall in love with the wrong person. Arthur Laurents' book moves the story to the low income west side of Manhattan of the 1950s with the racial tension and gang turf warfare between the newly arriving Puerto Rican immigrants and sons and grandsons of the wave of Irish and Italian immigrants that had proceeded the Puerto Ricans.

Interestingly, Laurents who directed the Broadway revival this production is based on, did some tweaking of the original Broadway show. Most revealing is a much expanded use of Spanish by the Sharks both speaking and singing. Laurents used Lin-Manuel Miranda ("In theHeights") to write the translation. Imagine though the idea of altering Stephen Sondheim's lyrics!

Laurents also made some changes to iconic choreographer Robbin's original choreography with the assistance of Joey McKneely.

"West Side Story" which was so groundbreaking in 1957 in so many ways remains a powerful and relevant work today. Some of this might be due to how "operatic" "West Side Story" is. The staging of this productiontends to highlight the operatic elements of the play.

The scenic design by James Youmans has a very opera production feel to it in a very good way. The scenes and scene shifts are very much enhanced by Howell Bunkley's lighting design. There were several scenes where the lighting effect would be described as dramatic.

As for costuming, the Sharks really have it over the Jets in David C. Woolard's costume design. Both the Puerto Rican men and the women know how to dress up for a party. The costumes also enhance the powerful athletic movement of the actor/dancers. From the the whirling color and movement of the women's dresses to the form fitting costumes of the men the costuming adds more color and movement to the dance while beautifully displaying the human form of gifted dancer/performers. As a nod to realism the Jets male gang members are in the iconic gang look of New York in the fifties of jeans, ragged Ts, and tennis shoes.

All this is served up with live orchestra led opening night by John O'Neil.

The cast of strong triple threat performers in dance, voice, and acting were led by Ross Lekties as Tony/Anton and Evy Ortiz as Maria.

Lekties and Ortiz each have a beautiful voice and are wonderful to hear singing the great Bernstein-Sondheim solos of their characters.

Together on the great duets of their characters such as "Tonight" and "One Hand One Heart," they sound even better. Even in a quintet of "Tonight" by Tony, Maria, Anita, the Jets and the Sharks, they hold their own.

That quintet pulled out all the operatic stops in many ways including Maria arriving on the scene on her balcony as it enters above the stage from the wings. The scene is followed by the most dramatic of the scene changes as the highway and chain link fences come into place for the rumble.

Michelle Aravena and German Santiago as Anita and Bernardo and Drew Foster as Riff are equally talented stars with Lekties and Ortiz.

Every thing about this production is geared towards taking one of the most enduring works of story, music, voice, and dance that powerfully tells an age old story of forbidden love and transporting it to what was the contemporary time of its creators. What is amazing is how a story set in the middle of the last century and dealing with social issues of that time, both greatly entertains and brings up numerous issues still relevant today.

In the end though it is the excitement of holding a ticket (if you are lucky) to what will be a fantastic evening of entertainment. The
excitement of the crowd. The curtain goes up and you are treated to a most enjoyable performance of an American classic.

Goodies & Glam in the Heart of Midtown

2012-01-27T01:44:01Z

Face It Salon, Spa, & Boutique is opening its doors Thursday, February 2nd for the ultimate ladies night out in Sacramento! There is NO cost to attend, and from 4-8pm, Face It will be transformed from chic boutique to a one stop glam session, featuring complimentary makeup application by GloMinerals, and skin care consultations by Dermalogica. TreyBCakes Gourmet Bakery & Eatery will provide sweet treats, and Midtown winery Revolution Wines will be pouring locally crafted reds and whites to taste throughout the night.

The Goodies & Glam continue with custom spray tanning, swag bags, and in store deals that make Valentines shopping easy. “We love collaborating with local businesses to make our event a truly Sacramento experience. We pride ourselves on carrying Sacramento based clothing, jewelry, and candle companies in our store. Midtown is a great part of our city-we love how it’s represented at Face It!” said Face It owner, Cherie Scalzi.

The night gets even more glamorous with the coveted Adirenne Maloof by Charles Jourdan shoe collection. Maloof, a Sacramento celebrity and Real Housewife collaborated with iconic French design house Charles Jourdan, to create gorgeous heels, available exclusively to this region only at Face It.

Call to schedule your complimentary GloMinerals makeup application at (916) 441-4270 or email your appointment request to faceiton19th@gmail.com.

Face It is a full service salon, spa, and clothing boutique nestled in the heart of Midtown Sacramento on 19th & L streets. Services include, but are not limited to wedding packages, permanent makeup, skin care, men’s and women’s hair services, and a clothing boutique featuring local Sacramento designers, as well as elite collections from around the world. Visit Face It online at http://www.faceitsalonandspa.com and http://www.facebook.com/faceitsacramento

Disclosure: The author is the social media manager and event planner for Face It Salon, Spa, & Boutique.

The Art of Fashion

2012-01-26T09:41:55Z

The fashion industry continues to grow in Sacramento. Trunk shows, boutique openings, fashion shows, fashion students exhibiting their designs from San Francisco to Sacramento continue to wet the appetite of fashionistas in northern California. Next month will also bring Sacramento Fashion Week to the Elks Tower Ballroom. These events will make an impact in our local economy.

This past Friday night "The Art of Fashion" was hosted by Lounge ON20. The event included a fashion show and was also a mixer benefit event for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of the greater Sacramento area.

A new campaign was launched by BBBS “100 Men, $100,000, 100 Days” that seeks to raise critically needed funds. The campaign is looking to put males in the lives of 107 young men waiting for a big brother. BBBS hopes to match a big brother to a kid that can benefit from a relationship with their mentor and create awareness of how BBBS improves our community. Ticket sales and donations during the event went to BBBS. A table was also set up for guests to view more information about becoming a big brother or big sister.

Donations for this worthwhile cause can still be made at their 100 Heroes Wanted donation page.

The Art of Fashion featured three local designers who continue to make an impact on the Sacramento fashion scene. Designs from Electrik Trice, Samuel Parkinson and Faatui Toele were showcased on a red carpet runway.

Electrik Trice was the first designer of the evening and presented her Romance in Paris Collection. The collection showcased the great talent of the designer and the passion and beauty of her impressive designs. Her elaborate designs included several exciting evening dresses. Electrik's designs also included elegant pant suits as well as one and two piece outfits for an evening out on the town.

Several of her outfits solicited shouts of approval and applause from the audience. Part of the Romance in Paris Collection featured glamorous form fitting outfits. Electrik’s designs were accentuated by exquisite accessories.

Electrik’s new 2012 collection was a big hit with the crowd. One member of the audience was very excited about a red outfit saying, “I want that one!” and as she turned to her companion said, “Honey, please get that one for me.” I don’t know if they bought the dress but several of Electrik’s outfits evoked similar comments.

Samuel Parkinson’s Woodsy Scholar line was showcased next. Parkinson’s KingsTribe Clothing has become a popular brand in Sacramento and his talent has been showcased at several fashion shows in the area including last year’s Designing Dreams.

The Woodsy Scholar line was inspired by letterman jackets and were accented with wool and leather. KingsTribe Clothing continues to bring men’s fashion to the runway and the Art of Fashion event showcased the designer’s versatility and sense of fashion.

KingsTribe Clothing continues to emerge in the Sacramento scene and Parkinson’s outfits continue to live up to their motto: “Made with pride to be worn in pride.” Parkinson’s designs will eventually bring Sacramento fashion pride to our area.

A lively performance by singer and songwriter Tia Ferrera was included as part of the show. During this intermission performance Ferrera, along with dancers Divina and Talissa, entertained the crowd and kept things moving. This was the first time I’ve seen or heard Ferrera and her energetic performance impressed the audience.

The last designer of the evening was Faatui Toele whose 2WEE designs have graced many fashion shows in Sacramento. Toele’s Fall in Love 2012 Spring/Summer Collection included various trendy and sexy outfits. The fashions showcased were eye-popping and included some amazing trends for evening wear.

The Fall in Love line showcased several red and black outfits that received loud applause from the audience. Several outfits were very ornate and detailed and were well complemented by accessories worn. Models also wore some very exotic hairdos.

These three designers have collaborated together in other fashion shows and all have attended Sacramento’s Academy of Design and Technology. Their exquisite designs are available for sale and they continue to grace the fashion scene in Sacramento. Don’t be surprised when one or all of them become well known designers in the larger fashion markets of California and the nation.

These types of fashion shows not only help local designers receive recognition and exposure but designers in turn work to give back to the community by partnering with charities and the Sacramento community. These events also showcase the talents of photographers, models, entertainers, clubs, hair and makeup artists and help foster economic growth in the local economy.

Best Doughnuts in Sacramento

2012-01-26T04:21:04Z

Chocolate frosted. Glazed old-fashioned. Powdered jelly. Maple iced.

Just naming doughnut flavors triggers thoughts of warm, comforting, yeasty smells. Doughnuts are well-known as “one of the best comfort foods around,” according to the Perishables Group, a food consulting firm.

The executive chef for Dunkin’ Donuts says a doughnut “puts you in a calm place, if even for a short time.”

Clearly, the humble doughnut warrants further attention, and I made it my mission to discover the best doughnut shops in Sacramento.

Sacramento has many doughnut shops, so I needed to narrow the field. I explored multiple websites for their “best doughnut” listings and I consulted friends and family. From these sources, I identified the best of the best for my firsthand research.

For the survey, I enlisted the expert help of Brian and Alice Bunch, who were in the doughnut business for 40 years, including many years in their own Bay Area store, World’s Fare Doughnuts. If anyone knows a good doughnut, it’s them.

I asked for their advice on the type of doughnut I should sample to get the best shop-to-shop comparison. Brian said raised glazed are the best choice because they take the most technique to make. Raised doughnuts must be kneaded and allowed to rise before cooking, similar to bread-making. In contrast, cake doughnuts are made from a batter mix and poured out for cooking, like pancakes.

Raised glazed refers to yeast doughnuts coated in a crackly sugar icing.

Baking Management magazine reports that glazed donuts are the most popular, “Glazed still tops among donuts.” Nearly 74 percent of grocery store yeast doughnut sales are glazed, according to a study sponsored by Dawn Food Products.

In addition to raised glazed, I chose devil’s food cake doughnuts (with chocolate frosting) for the survey. Brian informed me that devil’s food was a “poor choice” because anyone can make them. He says most shops use the same packaged mix. Although the quality of the mixes can vary, the variations are small. However, devil’s food are my favorite, so I blithely overrode his objections.

The “hard” part came next. A doughnut tasting companion and I traveled and tasted our way through 11 shops. We then whittled the number down to the top six shops and brought samples to the doughnut experts for the final test. We considered taste, texture and appearance in our evaluation.

Months of research (and 11,500 calories) later, I can finally share the survey results with you.

As it turns out, there is not one overall winner. No single shop scored highest in both the raised glazed and devil’s food categories. Even a tiebreaker chocolate-frosted old-fashioned did not help establish a clear winner. Rather, we identified winners for each of the two sampled doughnuts.

Best raised glazed: Baker Ben’s Donuts (3465 Watt Ave.)
Baker Ben’s raised glazed had a nice yeasty smell and pleasing taste. The texture was soft and tender but held up well when eaten. Although the glaze was a little too white, the doughnut was overall a crowd pleaser.

Best devil’s food: Sweet Dozen (5207 Madison Ave.)
At all shops, the devil’s food doughnuts were a bit disappointing. The cakes had very little chocolate flavor and they all tasted similar. I guess my expert Brian was right. In most cases, it turned out to be the quality of the icing that made the difference.

Nevertheless, we found that Sweet Dozen had the best devil’s food. The doughnut’s appearance generated “ooh’s” and “aah’s” and “that’s a beauty” from the judges. The cake had the perfect amount of crispy crunchiness on the outside and tenderness inside. Sweet Dozen’s chocolate icing was thick, dark and flavorful and elevated their devil's food to the top of the list.

Sweet Dozen also scored highest among the finalist shops with its chocolate-frosted old-fashioned.

In addition to Baker Ben’s and Sweet Dozen, we visited Marie’s Donuts, Donuts Plus, Broadway Donuts, Stanely’s Donuts, Golden Doughnuts, Donut King, Donut Star, CK’s Donuts and Yum Yum Donuts.

If your favorite shop didn't make it to the top, don't despair. An important finding of our study was that most doughnuts tasted pretty darn good and that it was only when we did side-by-side comparisons that the subtle differences were exposed.

Disclosure: personal relationship with the Bunch family

Those Wild & Crazy Birds of McKinley Park

2012-01-26T03:30:26Z

As I left McKinley Library around 2pm today, my eyes were drawn to the backlighting of the inland seagulls as they flitted here and there around the pond.

As I was snapping away more people gathered around tossing food to the fowl, which was a good thing.

I ended up catching the backlighting effect in a few of the shots.

Here's the best out of 360 shots:

After awhile it became monotonous!

New Show "Sactown Famous" Highlights Local Talent and Culture

2012-01-25T22:28:53Z

Local producer and businessman Tony Savo announced today he will be hosting "Sactown Famous" a new reality show set to begin production in the Sacramento region late next week. The show will be produced by Savo's Coalition Media Group in association with One Mil Records and will spotlight the areas local talent, events and nightlife as well as feature exclusive interviews with the Capital city's biggest names.

Tony Savo says: "Sacramento's a very diverse and dynamic city and I think it should be celebrated. We got the Kings, the River Cats, the UFC's Urijah Faber and the Maloof's Global Skateboarding Initiative just for starters... there's a lot to take pride in if you call this place your home."

Savo a long time native of Sacramento first made a name for himself as the CEO and Producer of Coalition Fight Music a local band that has been featured on ESPN, Sky Sports (Fox Sports UK) USA Today and Tapout magazine for sponsoring World Champion UFC fighters Nick and Nate Diaz and Jake Sheilds. Last month Savo launched Coalition Media Group after announcing via his twitter account (@statecyde) that he had recently inked a deal with Samsung Web enabled TV and Europe's top fight promotion UCMMA to provide mobile MMA content to over 20 million smart phone subscribers around the globe. For more info contact sactownfamous@gmail.com

Disclosure: Danny Murphy is affiliated with Sactown Famous

Sacramento Raks!

2012-01-25T06:00:37Z

Stunning dance skills were exhibited by 15 belly dance performances on Sunday night. Dancers in gorgeous and very colorful outfits took the stage and delighted a full house at the Fair Oaks Community Clubhouse.

The Sacramento Raks! Belly Dance Gala Show returned to the Clubhouse for a delightful evening of alluring dance performances. Live, authentic Middle Eastern music was provided by Flowers of the Nile. Middle Eastern cuisine was also available for guests to purchase during the show.

Dancers Ayre Briar and J.R. performed an inaugural performance as Shupa Da. The music of Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky” accompanied their first dance. The Shupa Da dancers wore similar outfits and a purple veil covered their face. Their rhythmic dance was captivating from the start. As they finished the first part of their dance, they removed their veils and started to dance to the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and received loud applause.

Shupa Da’s choreography was created by Briar. Their fusion belly dance performance mixed elements of modern and belly dance along with vintage flair that gave elegance to their act.

Once the dancing started one belly dance troupe after another took their place on stage. Tasha from El Dorado Hills was the second dancer to display her marvelous dancing skills.

Tasha danced to a song that told the story of two lovers who are sad and lost without each other. Wearing all white, Tasha’s flair and dance allowed her to use the whole stage as she performed.

Tatheer was the third performer of the evening. The Auburn based dancer performed two pieces. The first performance was done to the Bollywood dance, “Jai Ho,” from the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. Tatheer’s second performance encompassed Rachel Brice choreography.

Ayre Briar also came back to the stage to perform a solo act. Briar’s performance was inspired by 1960’s belly dance as portrayed in popular cinema. Briar, dressed in gold attire, performed fluid movements to songs that were reminiscent of James Bond movies of the same era. Indeed it incorporated some music from “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice.”

Sacramento based Badia performed next. Dressed in all black, Badia took the stage. She came to centerstage wearing a black veil covering her face. The only part of her face that could be seen behind her costume was her alluring eyes.

Captivated by her dark mysterious eyes, Badia hypnotized the audience as she began to dance. As she danced, she reminded me of a cobra moving out of a basket, and as she moved around the stage she reminded me of a twister moving in the sands of the Sahara.

Kaira Haneem is from nearby Chico. As she came on stage it was announced that she would perform to an Arabic pop song and then a drum solo that utilized her ballet and jazz influenced style of American cabaret belly dance.

Wearing a red outfit that almost matched her hair, Haneem’s performance was well-received. As with the dancers before her, the audience was able to participate by rhythmically clapping along with the music.

The special guest star of the evening was Aubre Hill, who hails from Los Angeles. Hill has performed internationally and is a much sought after master teacher and choreographer. She has a background in ballet, dance, hip hop, musical theatre, folk dance and other dance styles. Hill has also won several international awards and has hosted her own belly dance fitness show on Fit TV.

Hill is currently the Artistic Director of the Lumina Bellydance Company. Her extensive background was brought to the stage as Koop’s “Strange Love” played. Hill’s exquisite movements were fine tuned to the drums of “Strange Love,” and allowed her to show her unique style.

The Henna and Kohl Bellydance Company of Sacramento performed next. The Sacramento based dance troupe is directed by Adriane and they performed a debut dance.

As the company came on stage they each came up with a tray of lit candles atop of their head. The maneuvers for this dance were deliberate and at times exotic as they danced. They were able to maneuver themselves into sitting and lying down positions on stage while the trays remained on their heads restricting their movements. This allowed them to show their balance and dance skills.

The Henna and Kohl Bellydance performance was divided into two or three different dances and as the first set ended, the audience once again clapped in rhythm as the dancers sped up the tempo of music and dance.

Intermission gave the audience time to stretch and get something to eat or drink from the food court in the back of the community clubhouse. The Flowers of the Nile musicians set up their instruments on stage and from this point forward, live music would accompany the dancers.

Several of the dancers during the second half of the Gala Show returned from last year’s Sacramento Raks event. First to perform after intermission was Edemia from Sacramento, who interacted with the musicians on stage. The addition of Flowers of the Nile on stage, in my opinion, was a welcome addition.

Sacramento’s Janene followed, performing a traditional Egyptian style dance to a traditional Egyptian love song. Besides Janene’s fluid dancing, the audience was able to enjoy Philip Gabriel’s voice as Flowers of the Nile played on.

Another Sacramento native now residing in the Chico area, Mychelle Crown combined her love of Egyptian cabaret belly dance with her American jazz and ballet background to create her unique representation of this art. Sunday night she performed to a classic Egyptian song.

Davis’ Nyla Crystal, who was also at last year’s Sacramento Raks event, brought her precision Egyptian style dance to the stage. Her long red hair waved as she danced wearing a red outfit. To top it off, she used a long red veil to accompany her movements. Her fiery performance was well choreographed and executed.

Crystal will be conducting a workshop on April 29 at the Brazilian Center of Sacramento. The workshop is called Beauty and the Sword, and Crystal will cover balancing techniques and sword choreography.

The next performer was Maria, who hails from Santa Clara. Maria wore a lovely white outfit adorned with colorful flower patterns. The flow of the outfit during her alluring dance moves created the illusion of ballroom dancing. Maria’s exotic moves and choreography, along with the live music, once again had the audience clapping as she performed certain moves.

Maria will also be conducting a workshop on April 29, where participants will learn a solo fun drum choreographed dance as well as little tricks to keep the audience surprised and engaged.

Adriane, producer of the Sacramento Raks Belly Dance Gala Show, took the stage for a solo performance. As soon as Flowers of the Nile began playing, the audience clapped to the rhythm of the percussion and Adriane used the whole stage to dance and charm the audience.

Adriane’s fluid dance movements generated audience participation during several parts of her performance. Her charismatic enthusiasm for dance, performance and teaching are evident on stage and off. Adriane’s performance was quite entertaining from beginning to end.

Hill was the last performer of the evening. The special guest did not disappoint and brought the end to a wonderful evening of belly dancing.

The audience that gathered for this Gala Show seemed to have enjoyed it quite a bit. The show brought beautiful music, dance and culture to Sacramento, allowing people of many ethnicities to enjoy an entertaining evening.

One member of the audience, Edwin Hakimi, summed up the evening saying, “I heard about this event a few months ago from one of my friends who was here in May at the last performance. He’s been talking about this for a long time and everything he said was true. There was great food, great dancers and very beautiful, I have to say. I loved it, I will bring my whole family next time; it brings back memories of home.”

Beautiful costumes, choreography and music made this a very enjoyable show. The producers of the show are to be commended for their hard work and wonderful lineup of entertainers.

Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services opens new education and technology center

2012-01-25T05:36:43Z

Families and individuals in need will have access to computers and educational services at the new education and technology center, which hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday. The center, located at 3308 Third Ave., will be open for classes on Feb. 21.

According to Communication Director Kelly Siefkin, the new facility will serve 2,500-3,000 of the 15,000 people the program serves each month. The new center allows for space to divide the groups based on learning levels.

Siefkin said she hopes that the expansion of available programs and training will have a positive impact on unemployment in Sacramento.

“I hope people know they can do everything here to improve their lives through education,” Siefkin said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

The 22,500-square-foot center is more than triple the size of the original 7,000-square-foot facility and will house 120 computers and 11 classrooms, more than double the original 40 computers and five classrooms.

Adjacent to the Center is a 7,600-square-foot garden, which will be used for food supply, and children and adults will use it to grow their own food.

“There will be a kitchen in the garden,” Siefkin said. “The students will be able to grow their produce and see how they can turn it into something they can eat.”

The SFBFS received a loan from the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, a $100,000 technology grant from State Street Foundation and one-time federal and county grants to build the $3.5 million building.

Fourteen-year-old Maria Garcia benefited from the youth education program at the original education center and helped cut the ribbon at the ceremony. She started the program when she was in the second grade and is now enrolled in a private high school and works once a week at McClellan Air Force Base.

“The Youth Academy taught me how to read and write,” Garcia said. “It also helped me catch up with my classes and (taught me) how to get a love for reading.”

After completing the youth academy, she attended the computer clubhouse, which he said taught her how to use the Microsoft Office programs, including Excel and PowerPoint.

The youth academy and computer clubhouse have been combined with the existing PlayCare to make up the youth education program. Separate adult and parent (formerly mother-baby) education programs were also added.

Twenty-two-year-old Cassandra Smith, enrolled in the parent education program, has been attending programs since 2009 and was playing with her 2-year-old son, Orion, in the new 5,000-square-foot recreation area.

Smith, who was eight months pregnant with Orion when she started the program, met with Parent Education Program Manager Lorena Carranza, who she said helped her get settled.

“She provided a care package for moms in the last trimester,” Smith said. “It was really helpful because I didn’t have any of the items.”

Smith said she receives points for each class which go toward her necessities. She added that with the new programs, the points per class will double.

“My stroller broke on the way to class once,” Smith said, laughing. “I was able to purchase a new stroller with 15 points, which was an amazing feeling.”

Smith said that the program not only helps her, but it helps her son as well.

Siefkin added that anyone can attend the program and that the old zipcode restrictions, which prohibited certain programs to specific areas, are no longer in place. While there are paid staff members, the teachers are all volunteers and help with anything from English as a second language (ESL) to computers and parent education.

“We have unbelievable volunteers,” Siefkin said. “They allow us to offer services at no cost.”

According to Siefkin, volunteers, materials and resources are needed immediately to prepare for the opening in February.

“We want to make sure everyone knows the community is welcome to get involved,” Siefkin said.

For more information, visit the website.

Bonsai Forever Stamps Unveiled

2012-01-25T00:24:53Z

The Capital City Bonsai Association and the Sacramento Bonsai Club hosted the Commemoration of the Introduction of the USPS Forever® Bonsai Stamps at the Iva Gard Shepard Garden and Arts Center.

These five new stamps are forever equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate..

The event was packed for the unveiling.

Art Director and stamp designer Ethel Kessler worked with artist John D. Dawson on the Bonsai stamps. Dawson's art has been featured on previous year's stamps. He was unable to attend the ceremony.

Five common styles of bonsai are featured on these new stamps:
1) a Sierra Juniper in semi-cascade style:

(2) a Trident Maple in informal upright style:

(3) a Black Pine in formal upright style:

(4) an Azalea plant in multiple-trunk style:

(5) a Banyan in cascade style:

During the dedication, Jeffrey C. Lelevich, Postmaster, Sacramento explained that new subjects for stamps and postal stationery are suggested by the US public.

They receive 10,000 proposals, all of different topics, a year.

"This is really a treat to have the post office dedicate their stamp here because the Center is the home of Capital City Bonsai Club" said Edzard Schroeder, Treasurer and Budget Director for the Center.

This Club has four other Bonsai groups associated with it.

Ronald Krause, Sekiyu Kai Bonsai Club, gave everyone a good tip: how to say the word Bonsai:
"give the dog a bone and make him sigh": Bonsai sounds like Bone-sigh.

"Bonsai is a combination of two Japanese words
Bon meaning "shallow tray or pot" and sai meaning "plant or tree". Put them together and you get Bonsai.

Bonsai originated centuries ago and the Japanese perfected the art, says Krause. It's not real clear where it began.

In 1909, the first major exhibit of Bonsai was in London, by a group of Japanese artists.

The earliest presence of Bonsai in the US was in Long Island, NY in 1925. A nurseryman amassed a large collection and gave it to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a gift of 32 potted plants.

It was a challenge taking care of them and by the 1940s only 11 of them survived.

Krause continues, explaining that it wasn't until after 1945, thanks to WWII, that Bonsai began to grow.

In 1976, to commemorate the US bicentennial, a collection of 53 Bonsai were donated to the people of the United States by the Nippon Association in Tokyo to the National Arboretum.

Krause said he and his brother luckily saw them right after the donation was made. Within two years half of them were dead.

A Japanese Sensei was soon hired to oversee the collection, which now thrives.

"Bonsai is now among the most radically developing leisure pastimes in the US and its popularity grows worldwide," Krause said and then asked "what is the oldest Bonsai club in California?"

The answer is Sacramento Bonsai Club.

Krause says "not only is it the oldest club in California, it's the oldest in the country."

It was founded in 1946.

Sacramento is the only city in the US with four Bonsai clubs.

In 1999 these four clubs joined together to form the Capital City Bonsai Association. It holds its fall show every October at the Iva Gard Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park.

Wilco descends on Mondavi Center; Shins, Florence next

2012-01-24T19:02:08Z

Rock journs dream about interviewing guys that have the mystique of Jeff Tweedy. So why not try and steal a few hundred seconds on the phone with one of rock's most intriguing (living) front men?

Because it would have been met with about the same response I repeatedly got in my pre-teen years when sending those letters with requests for a dinner date to Jennifer Love Hewitt, c/o Producers of "Party of Five."

Crickets.

In principle, Jeff Tweedy wouldn't be the kind of guy to scoff or turn his nose up at anyone who wanted an interview - that's not his style. There is no visible penthouse or caviar in his songwriting, his performance persona, or in the man himself - it's pretty much all back-alley and cheap bourbon. But there's no way he can say yes to every reporter who wants 15 minutes.

We're the Sacramento Press - and we're awesome, but Tweedy's musings on life and music are generally reserved for the Rolling Stones, Spins, Relixes or Pastes of the world.

Hang on a second...isn't that the same kind of thinking that would lead us all to believe that a band of Wilco's stature would never play in this area in the first place?

Almost inevitably intertwined with bubbling frustrations over Sacramento's struggling stewardship of its own local music scene are the age-old and ruthlessly self-perpetuating gripes about touring bands coming to town:

"No one ever comes to play here...they always pass over Sac between San Francisco and Portland or between San Francisco and Reno!"

Wilco performing at Mondavi Center in Davis pokes a heck of a lot of holes in that argument. They will do so on Wednesday, February 1st, along with White Denim. Tickets have been sold out for quite some time, as you can well imagine, but further details on the show are here (anyone else want to venture a guess that the photo on that website won't quite reflect the crowd that will attend this particular show?).

Speaking of poking holes in that argument, I'll see your Wilco and raise you a Florence + the Machine on April 18, and double-down with indie rock wunderkinds The Shins on April 23. Shins tickets are already on sale through Ticketmaster (amazingly, there's still some left, so get on it), with tickets for Florence + the Machine's recently announced tour on sale through the same outlet Friday, January 27 at 10 a.m.

Wilco, the Shins and Florence + the Machine, all in Davis!?

Before we get too carried away here, it's entirely possible (and indeed likely) that these two lip-smacking shows are directly correlated to the timing of Coachella, at which both bands will be in the neighborhood (that is, California) to perform. Bands are known to schedule regional dates on the way in and out of festivals like this (read: Radiohead in San Jose).

However, both shows (as well as Wilco) are being put on by Bay Area promotions juggernaut Another Planet Entertainment, so there's certainly cause for optimism that they seem to be looking harder at this venue, and indeed at the Sacramento area as a viable concert market. Another Planet is also behind the Black Keys show at Power Balance on May 5, and these are the same folks that handle all the booking for the Outside Lands and Treasure Island music festivals, as well as cornerstone Bay Area venues such as the Fox Theatre, Greek Theatre, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and the Independent.

Do we want them kicking in more shows in Sacramento? Yes please!

Wilco's 2011 treasure of a release "The Whole Love" set up camp in virtually every "Top Ten Albums of 2011" list you could find - and it's no mystery why. It found the common ground between their experimental freakout of a masterpiece "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and the dusty road and somber Americana beauty of "Sky Blue Sky," "Wilco" and others. It's an inviting and intriguing tryst between hope and despair - but this time around, hope wins.

That's not always been the case for Tweedy and his now eponymous band. They've labored through the death of Jay Bennett (in his own right a fine songwriter and leading man) in 2009, and Tweedy's well-documented struggles with addiction and panic attacks - the pains of which have oozed into the fibers of virtually every album they've ever recorded, harnessing his enigmatic persona inside a sonic mausoleum with rays of sunlight virtually pounding through the stained glass to get in.

Sometimes the sunlight made it in, other times not.

To listen to Wilco's music, it often seemed that Tweedy's early rendezvous with death was as inevitable as this reporter's night on the town with Jennifer Love Hewitt was impossible. But when you listen to what's coming out of him these days, you see a man who will always be able to identify with life in the gutter, but no longer cares to reside there.

Watch Wilco performing "The Whole Love" and "Dawned on Me" on Conan on January 23.

There's a wisp of Dylan quality to him, and even a bit of Lennon (but maybe that's just the sweet Rickenbacker guitar?), but the one thing Tweedy has always been is, quite simply, himself.

Always honest (at times brutally so), a painfully beautiful songwriter, and no matter his emotion or state of mind, always a mystery.

It is that mystery, and the songs that are born of it, that makes Wilco what they are.

Disclosure: Aaron Davis did not actually send in written requests for dates to Jennifer Love Hewitt, mostly due to fear

Fundraiser to support teen cardiac arrest rehabilitation a success

2012-01-24T08:58:01Z

This past Saturday night over 150 supporters attended a fundraising event at the Florin Road Arts and Business Complex in South Sacramento for Marissa Grant, 16, a Sacramento area teen who suffered cardiac arrest on January 27, 2011 while attending classes at Natomas High School.

The event was hosted by “The Friends of Michele Grant,” a group that includes Grant’s coworkers, friends and concerned members of the community who came together to provide financial and emotional support as Marissa fights her way back from the effects of being deprived of oxygen for 8-10 minutes before paramedics arrived to revive her.

“We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and love,” stated Michele Grant during her brief appearance at the microphone as she thanked both those in attendance and those who invested countless hours to make the event, “An Evening for Marissa,” a success.

The evening’s program consisted of opening remarks by Joe Pollakoff, Shonna McDaniels and Michele Grant. The MC duties were handled by Pollakoff’s daughter Natasha.

The evening consisted of a full slate of entertainment, a raffle, and a sit-down homemade dinner that included baked chicken, pasta, fresh salad and a variety of side dishes.

Nationally known poet Terry Moore set the tone for the evening with his poem entitled, “Two Seconds.”

Moore alternated between whimsical musings about making an impulse purchase in two seconds and how precious and fragile life can be in that same span of time.

The audience really responded when Moore emphasized that tomorrow is not promised and that everyone should take the time to practice forgiveness and appreciate those in their lives with demonstrable showings of love and affection by reaching out to them today.

Tina B’s Sacramento Soul Line Dancers then showed the crowd some of their unique dance steps to the songs, “Step Off,” “The Cupid Shuffle” and “Wobble Baby Wobble.”

“It is so nice to see what is happening here and to be a part of this,” stated Tina B., who volunteered her dancers to perform at the event after hearing about it from a coworker.

“I am glad to support this mother who’s going through something similar to what my mother went through many years ago,” said Tina B.

Marissa Grant’s care, comfort and rehabilitation were foremost on everyone’s mind throughout the evening.

Marissa attended the event and was exquisitely coiffed and beautifully attired in a taupe blouse and jeans for the evening held in her honor. Her youthful appearance belied the difficult circumstances she endured, and her struggle to regain her health served as the inspiration and purpose for the occasion.

The quiet and reserved teen graciously maintained her poise and dignity before tiring and returning home to rest about midway through the evening.

Marissa’s Aunt, Gayle Bailey, came from the Bay Area to attend the event and contribute to the fundraising efforts.

“I am so thankful that so many people came out to support my niece,” stated Bailey. “I am praying that the Lord heals her body and makes her whole again.”

Local musician and DJ Robert Williams played a variety of gospel, jazz and R&B music while attendees took turns being served at the buffet line set up in the Obama Room.

The foyer was tastefully set up with covered tables adorned with votive candles that surrounded the area that served as the DJ booth and temporary stage.

Once the attendees were served and settled in seats, the evening’s activities proceeded forward.

Natasha Pollakoff sought help from audience members to pull the winning raffle tickets from a basket and announced the numbers, much to the delight of the winners.

Joseph Lacefield first took the stage, leading about a dozen members of the local a cappella group, “Sticky Notes.”

Their 20 minute set of gospel music included the songs, “Ain’t No Rock,” “Be Unto Your Name,” “Awesome God,” “Exalt the Lord,” “Deep Calls to Deep” and “Lead Me to Rest.”

Evangelist Raymond Coats followed with a soulful a cappella rendition of the classic song first made famous by the Hollies, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.”

After more raffle prizes were given away by Natasha Pollakoff, the featured group for the evening, the Spiritual Harmonizers, took over the entertainment and proceeded to fill the building with their well-rehearsed combination of vocals and live gospel music.

The Spiritual Harmonizers consist of Doyle Bryant, Larry Stephens and Earl Peeples on lead vocals with Eric Canada providing supporting vocals. Musicians include Tony Marshall on keyboard, Eucerean Harris on drums, Jimmy Bray on percussion, Norman Coats on lead guitar and Preston Hayes on bass guitar.

The selections performed by the group included “While I Run This Race,” “This Old World,” ”Holding On,” “Be Alright,” “Since I Found Jesus” and “Another Blessing.”

The messages conveyed in their music provided a fitting culmination of the evening’s entertainment. It reminded everyone in the audience of the blessings conferred upon Marissa Grant and the entire extended Grant family to have Marissa well on the road towards rehabilitation from her illness and medical condition.

Known as Long QT syndrome (LQTS), the illness is a congenital disorder that is very difficult to detect and is known to cause cardiac arrest and seemingly inexplicable sudden death by natural causes.

Danielle Grant, one of Marissa’s older siblings, described how everyone in the family was extremely worried about Marissa and how that concern extended to Michele, who practically lived at the hospital with her during the first few months after she fell ill.

Damarrus Grant, Marissa’s older brother, indicated that the past year “went by so quick.”

“It has been a reality check that has made my faith in God much stronger,” said Damarrus.

“Marissa is getting better every day; she is looking better and she fights hard every day,” stated Danielle.

Once the evening came to a close and the attendees cleared the building, “The Friends of Michele Grant” were united in their belief that the evening had been a success both financially and in terms of showing community support for a family during their time of need.

“People really showed how much they cared,” stated Joe Pollakoff, a colleague of Michele Grant’s who is credited as the individual who carried the idea of holding a fundraiser to others and organized the individuals that contributed to making the event a success.

“I thought the event was magnificent,” stated Shonna McDaniels, who arranged for the use of the building where she is the Director of the Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum.

“I was pleased to see all of the support - it was a wonderful night,” said McDaniels.

Anyone who is interested in assisting the family by donating vacation time to Michele Grant, or who simply desires to make a financial contribution to assist Marissa in her rehabilitation may contact Joe Pollakoff at (916) 801-3673 or via email at j.pollakoff@gmail.com, or Michele Grant at (916) 501-5917 or via email at chelleg510@gmail.com. Michele Grant may also be contacted at P.O. BOX 348324, Sacramento, CA 95834.

Amazing Adventures in the Greater Sacramento Area

2012-01-24T07:25:42Z

Like most families around the country, here in the Sacramento area we’re all watching our budgets very closely. I didn’t want that to stop me from having fun with my family during the weekends and our off-time from school and work. My initial inclination was to share many of the spots I had visited with my friends while we were teenagers growing up in this great area. Now that I’m older and going back to these fun places, I’m reminded how entertaining and enjoyable they are.

It’s great to start with some of the more obvious attractions like the California State Capitol. My daughter loved walking the big stair cases, sitting in the senate chambers, exploring the museum rooms, and of course browsing through the gift shop. You can spend hours exploring the California State Railroad Museum and then ride the Sacramento Southern Railroad on the River Route down the historic Baths. Then have lunch visiting with the turtles overlooking the Sacramento River just yards south of old town. You’ll have fun at Sutter’s Fort while docents reenact early Sacramento history and even shoot off a canon. During a recent Sacramento Archives Crawl event, we were able to “Explore History” at four great locations packed with interesting and nostalgic finds. Don’t forget the Historic Governor’s Mansion. From the outside it didn’t seem that big to me, but once you’re inside it’s enormous. The staff there takes you on a great tour, and when we went, there were lots of children on the tour who really enjoyed it too. There is so much to do in downtown Sacramento that we’ve barely touched the surface.

Heading East from Downtown on 80, be sure to check out the Aerospace museum of California near the former McClellan Air base. It’s hard to say it better than they do when they say this museum “…captures all the marvels of flight for visitors to experience firsthand.” You’ll get to sit in the cockpit of large historic aircraft, explore space exhibits, and so much more.

Further east, I really wanted to take my family to the Griffith Quarry in Penryn, and we were not disappointed. We learned that much of the granite for the California State Capital building came from this quarry, as well as granite for other historic buildings. Then we spend hours walking the quarry nature trails with their numbered points of interest through-out. One of our favorite areas is in Auburn. We of course had to snap a picture of our daughter sitting in the mining pan of the Dr. Fox’s famous Miners statue the graces old town Auburn. I remember seeing other unique statues created by Dr. Fox, still located near his offices in Auburn. They’re huge and amazing, and they’ve stuck in my mind since I saw them as a child. I had to take my family to see them. A visit to the Placer County Courthouse is well worth your time. The historic carousel horse exhibit was really interesting and there are many historic rooms to explore as well as several other interesting exhibits. While in Auburn we love to go to the Auburn Drug Store old-time soda fountain, sit at the counter and enjoy a delicious milkshake. There is so much to do not too far up the 80 and 50 East corridors - including North and South on Highway 49. You can spend many afternoons in Grass Valley, Nevada City, or over in Coloma, where you can visit the Historic Sutter’s site. My family loves Coloma. We went Gold Panning, watched the Blacksmith docent work his iron, and spent the whole day there exploring this great area.

East of Sacramento on Highway 50 my family and I visit Lake Natoma and the Fish Hatchery several times a year. You can feed the salmon and steelhead fish in the raceway ponds and check out the learning center. This area has great trails, lakes, and so much nature to discover. You can continue east on 50 up to the wonderful historic town of Folsom. There you and your family can spend many afternoons in the antique shops, candy stores, fun boutiques, and great eateries. A bit North-West from Folsom, over near Ancil Hoffman park in Carmichael there’s a great area called the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. It’s an award-winning environmental and cultural education center located along the beautiful American River Parkway. There is a fascinating American Indian exhibit and wonderful artifacts. You’ll find hours of enjoyment exploring this attraction. My daughter keeps asking to go back for more fun.

It’s so appealing to have attractions that are in our community and don’t cost an arm and a leg to experience. Some of these great venues may seem obvious because we live and work around them each day. None the less, I would imagine you and your family might fill a day with smiles as you rediscover some of these local attractions in our wonderful greater Sacramento area.

Article by: Ron Maltase

Ron Maltase has lived in the Sacramento area his entire life and has worked for a major healthcare provider for over 16 years. He is also the Author of the Gordon the Scarecrow children’s books.

Junior Journalism Writers

2012-01-24T03:20:50Z

When did you get the "writing" bug? That insatiable bug that you must write something, anything to tell and inform the world. Was it when you wrote for your College paper? Maybe, it started in High school when you were in the Yearbook Club or writing for the the school newspaper. Whenever it was, it gave you the momentum to continue to write your stories or articles today.

This just may be true for a handful of students that are in the Journalism Club at Isador Cohen Elementary School. Yes, I said elementary. They are students ranging from third through sixth grades and they write the stories for the school newsletter. The Club is in its second year at Cohen and has seen an increased interest to participate from last year.

If you peeked in the computer lab, you would see the students in different stages in their writing process. Ranging from: gathering research for their interviews, writing their story in Microsoft Word, copying and pasting their finished story into the Microsoft Publisher newsletter, taking pictures, or searching for graphics to place in their article. They are always working on something to meet the deadline or for the next newsletter.

Joining the club was a process within itself. The children had to fill out an application, provide one teacher reference, write an essay, and have a short interview. Those that met the deadlines and completed the process were selected to join the club. "This provides the students "real" world experience and helps put the students at ease when they are interviewing for their stories." said Dawn Weymouth, the club advisor.

The students were able to put those interviewing skills to the test when they had the opportunity to interview SCUSD's Bully Prevention Specialist, Shiela Self for their "Bullying" article and Rosemont.patch.com Editor, Cody Kitaura. Cody was actually doing a story on the Club, but little did he know, the club was doing a story on him too. Both were really great and had so much information for the students to use for their articles and later on in school or their lives.

The club is still in the infancy and with the kind of students that are currently partcipating, the club will continue to make great progress. As long as they have that writing "bug" they will have a place that allows them to continue to write and inform their parents and peers. Never know, it may give THEM the momentum to continue on long after they have left the halls of Isador Cohen. Keep that pen to the paper and your fingers typing, kids!

Disclosure: Dawn Weymouth works for SCUSD at Isador Cohen.

HELLACAPPELLA 2012: Northern California’s Premier Showcase of Collegiate a Cappella Groups

2012-01-24T01:17:48Z

HellaCappella, the most highly anticipated a cappella concert of the year, will take place Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 7:30pm at the ARC Pavilion on the UC Davis Campus. Hosted by UC Davis’ amazing, all-female a cappella group, The Spokes, HellaCappella is an exciting collaboration between a cappella groups of all shapes and sizes. Hailing from various northern Californian universities, this year’s dynamic lineup includes show-stopping performances by two-time champions of the International Competition of Collegiate a Cappella, The Men’s Octet from UC Berkeley, Cloud Nine from UC Santa Cruz, NBC’s The Sing Off a cappella competition finalists On the Rocks from University of Oregon, and more!

HellaCappella has been gaining momentum and selling out more and more seats each year. Now, for the first time ever, this eighth annual HellaCappella is proudly being held in UC Davis’ premier entertainment venue, the ARC Pavilion following the likes of chart-topping groups such as Ke$ha and LMFAO! HellaCappella’s audience continues to grow, attracting music lovers across generations from the greater Davis and Sacramento community.

The Spokes are the only all-female group at UC Davis. Founded in 2004, the group currently consists of 13 talented and dedicated girls whose shared passion for music and performing shines when they take the stage. Their repertoire includes a wide range of music styles, from top 40 (She Wolf by Shakira) to jazz (Smile by Charlie Chaplin) to alternative (Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes) to R&B (I’ll Be Waiting by Adele). The Spokes love to entertain the UC Davis campus and local community as well as all of California, and their enthusiasm for singing can be clearly heard in their latest album, On the Wall, which is now available on iTunes.

This HellaCappella, The Spokes have committed to raising funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society, the leading community-based health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. Last year’s HellaCappella raised over $1500 for Daraja Academy, the first free all-girls secondary school in all of East Africa. The Spokes hope for even greater success this HellaCappella, as we rally our community to help support the American Cancer Society.

HellaCappella is a one day, must-see event that will premiere on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 7:30 pm in the UC Davis’ ARC Pavilion. Tickets can be purchased at the UC Davis Ticket Office located at Freeborn Hall on campus, by calling (530) 752-1915, or at tickets.com. Presale tickets are $7 for students and $10 for non-students. At the door, tickets are $9 for students and $12 for non-students.

On the night of the performance, doors open at 7:00 p.m. Parking can be found in Parking Lot 25 directly across from the ARC or the West Entry Parking Structure, located on the corner of La Rue Boulevard and Hutchinson Drive.

For more information, visit www.davisspokes.com.

Disclosure: Camille Martinez, author of this article, is the Publicity and Philanthropy Director for The Spokes, and hopes to see you at our next show!

Don't Miss "Sacramento Museum Day" on February 4!

2012-01-23T18:57:59Z

After a record-breaking attendance of more than 115,000 visitors last year, 28 Sacramento area museums will offer free or half-priced admission all day on Saturday, February 4, 2012, during the 14th Annual Sacramento Museum Day. New this year, 26 of the 28 museums will offer free admission whereas two destinations located in residential areas -- the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town -- will offer half-priced admission to offset parking control and security costs. This hugely popular community event is presented by the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAM) and proudly supported by Umpqua Bank. Sacramento Museum event hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with the last guests admitted at 4 p.m.).

Sacramento Museum Day, a popular Sacramento cultural tradition, is designed to encourage all members of the community to experience the Capital City’s incredible wealth of art, history, science and wildlife -- at little or no cost.

And while shuttle busses will not be operating this year, several museums are within walking distance of each other and easily accessible via public transportation. Guests are encouraged to download a Sacramento Museum Day guide and map available online or at any participating Museum. Event coordinators also suggest that guests plan to visit no more than two or three different museums on this day in order to allow adequate time to enjoy the experience and to travel between individual sites.

As an added treat on Sacramento Museum Day, free ice cream will be provided by Umpqua Bank volunteers (while supplies last) at three locations as follows: 10 a.m. at Fairytale Town, noon at the California State Railroad Museum and 2 p.m. at the Aerospace Museum of California.

“After our record-breaking attendance last year, the momentum continues as more and more community members are discovering the amazing array of arts, culture and museum offerings available in the Sacramento region,” said Sacramento Association of Museums Chair Roxanne Yonn. “Due to the overwhelming popularity of Sacramento Museum Day, we’ve made some changes this year that we hope will encourage visitors to explore a museum they haven’t been before to gain a new perspective and appreciation for what our diverse and rich community has to offer.”

While admission is free at 26 of the participating museums during Sacramento Museum Day, admission to two destinations located in residential areas are half-priced as follows: Sacramento Zoo is $5.50 for adults, $3.50 for children ages 2-11 and free for children under two; Fairytale Town is $2.25 for everyone and free for children under two years of age.

Due to the popularity of Sacramento Museum Day, some locations must limit the number of admissions for safety reasons. More detailed information about participating museums, limitations, suggested parking and public transit options is available at www.sacmuseums.org (click on “Events”), or by calling the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau at (916) 808-7777.

Sacramento Museum Day 2012 is proudly supported by active and engaged community partners. In addition to title sponsor Umpqua Bank, other sponsors include FOX40, KSEG 96.9 FM, Outword Magazine, the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, Sacramento Regional Transit and STAR 106.5 FM.

Participating Museums for Sacramento Museum Day 2012:
Aerospace Museum of California – California Automobile Museum - California Foundry History Museum – California State Military Museum – California State Capitol Museum – The California Museum – California State Indian Museum – California State Railroad Museum – Center for Contemporary Art – Crocker Art Museum – Discovery Museum Science and Space Center – Don & June Salvatori California Pharmacy Museum – Fairytale Town – Folsom History Museum – Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park – Heidrick Ag History Center (Woodland) – Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park – Museum of Medical History – Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum – Old Sacramento State Historic Park – Sacramento Children’s Museum – Sacramento Zoo – Sacramento Historic City Cemetery – Sacramento History Museum – Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum – Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park – Wells Fargo History Museum (Capitol Mall) – Wells Fargo History Museum (Old Sacramento)

About the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAM)
Comprised of 28 greater Sacramento area museums working in partnership with the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, SAM’s mission is to raise awareness of local museums by giving the community the opportunity to discover California’s fine art, history, science and wildlife treasures. SAM achieves its mission through implementing cooperative promotions and developing strategic marketing alliances, by encouraging sharing of knowledge and resources among its partner institutions, and by conducting Sacramento Museum Day each year.

Disclosure: Traci Rockefeller Cusack represents a number of businesses and organizations throughout the greater Sacramento area including the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAM).

Real Relationships: Social Media

2012-01-23T16:34:26Z

Maybe it is just me, but I am so thankful that Facebook was not around when I was in high school. The drama that it can cause is ridiculous. Even people in their late 20s and 30s succumb to the drama Facebook provides.

"You checked in at where with who? I thought you were home sick! You told me you don't even like that girl. Liar. We're through!"

"I get so mad at all those girls who comment of my boyfriend's wall. Don't they know we're together now?"

"Who is that guy who always ‘likes’ your photos and comments? Do I need to pay him a visit?"

"Why are you still friends with your ex? Now he can see everything we do!"

Please raise your hand if you have been a part of or heard of situations exactly like these. [hand raise]

Frankly, it annoys and saddens me to think that a website is capable of such holding such power over our lives and relationships.

However, Facebook only has as much power over our relationships as we give it. If you are in a relationship with someone, I would hope you know them better than the Facebook masses do. You are aware of who they hang out with and who they don't. You have a general idea of what they do in their day-to-day lives. Don't let comments from other people question the trust you have in each other.

Here is a concept: Talk to your significant other about their life. Don't read about it on Facebook.

Problem: There are always going to be those silly guys you went to high school with who like to stir things up by making an inappropriate comment about you on Facebook. There are always going to be those lonely, desperate girls who like to reminisce in a public forum about "all the fun” you two used to have. “You know, that night... ;-)”

Solution: If you have some real concerns about the activity on your significant other's Facebook, talk to them. Don't wage a war of words between you and the unseen stalker. That brings you down to their level. Consider, though, that most of the time it is a one-way admiration competition and your man/woman could care less. In fact, they are probably embarrassed by it and aren't quite sure how to stop it.

Facebook does break up relationships. This we know.

It also creates relationships, restores relationships and maintains relationships.

Facebook is not the devil. Its users are. Don't let it ruin (or run) your life, and make sure you are not one of those people ruining other's lives.

Next step: Responsible Facebook practices. Learn them. Live them. Love them. If you don't, maybe you should get off Facebook.

Sacramento Fashion Week Press Party

2012-01-23T00:19:17Z

Mayahuel Tequila Museo hosted an elegant evening of fashion on Thursday night. Designers scheduled to participate in the Designer Showcase were on hand to celebrate a Sacramento Fashion Week Press Party.

This year’s Sacramento Fashion Week will take place the week of February 21. Several events are planned for the event including two Designer Showcases with the final show on February 25.

Several Sacramento Fashion Week staff members were on hand to meet and greet guests at the event. Producer and Executive Director, Duane Ram, introduced the event and other staff members. Creative Director, Will Rodriguez, also said a few words to start the sixth year of production for Sacramento Fashion Week.

Designers arrived at Mayahuel and mingled with guests. Models arrived later aboard a stretch limo and posed for photos in front of the Tequila Museo before making a grand entrance.

There are 13 designers scheduled for this year’s runway fashion show. Two nights have been set aside to showcase their creativity in fashion and share their designs with the ever growing Sacramento fashion scene.

The International Academy of Design and Technology (IADT) will host a training workshop at their campus during the second day of Sacramento Fashion Week. The workshop, Model Boot Camp, will be open to the public and will be helpful for aspiring models.

Sacramento State Student Fashion Association (SFA) will host a Fashion Forum on February 23. The forum will be held at the Hinde Auditorium at Sacramento State University. This event will feature industry professionals who will bring their perspective and knowledge in their profession. Different career fields within the fashion industry will be shared with students and others in attendance.

Representatives from Make-A-Wish Foundation of Sacramento and Northeastern California were also on hand. Make-A-Wish will be the beneficiary organization of Sacramento Fashion Week for the second straight year.

Guests were offered delicious appetizers from Mayahuel’s kitchen and a multi media presentation played in the background creating a lively atmosphere.

I was able to talk to two of the designers and their models to ask them about the upcoming fashion show. The designers I spoke to, Julian Gutierrez and Vasily Vein will be featured in the Designer Showcase on February 25.

Julian Gutierrez is originally from Sacramento but now lives in San Francisco attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).

The Sacramento Press: How did you hear about Sacramento Fashion Week?

Julian Gutierrez: Well I’ve been an intern for Caren Templet for about two years. Sacramento is a tight niche community and word gets around. I did a collection in high school that was well received. I just started college at FIDM this year and this will be my third quarter so I’m really excited that I can participate in this show.

SP: Do you know any of the other designers here from FIDM?

JG: Actually many designers are close and they know and help each other and we’re all trying to help Sacramento perhaps become the fashion capital of California.

SP: When will your fashion line be showcased?

JG: I will be showcasing on Saturday night.

SP: Do you have family in Sacramento?

JG: Yeah my family is here. I have some family in Texas but my immediate family is in Sacramento, I grew up here.

SP: What advice, if you had any, would you give someone who may be trying to get into design?

JG: You need to take every opportunity that’s offered no matter how small. Try to find someone in the industry and network with them and really show your interest and your enthusiasm. Tell them you really want to be where they’re at in the industry. That’s what I did at Templet and I went beyond things I would ever be able to learn in school. As I’m getting older I’m starting to see things that are happening to me that I never thought would happen. I’m very impatient so I thought that this would never happen but it does. I know people that have motivation and really want to do something but at this point they don’t have the skills and are impatient like I was. I would give them advice to follow anything in their life they really want and dedicate themselves to it and follow through to really achieve what they want.

SP: How old where you when you realized you wanted to be a designer?

JG: Maybe when I was in junior high when I was about 13. When I moved to my apartment my mom gave me this mural where I did a fashion sketch when I was about four and I had no idea that I even did it. I used to go in front of the TV and pause it and draw whatever interested me. So in my mind I’ve been designing forever. I find fashion to be beautiful and necessary in my life.

SP: How would you describe your style?

JG: At this point in my life I just really want to make things that are simple, silhouette and basic and that are comfortable but have beautiful detail. I’m inspired by Alexander McQueen and Chanel and the beauty of it is that their clothing is so simple and silhouette and so form fitting in the right places and yet not being vulgar. I find it a lot sexier when a girl or anybody is actually covered up kind of modest and has the sense of formability but still not letting anybody take advantage. I really want to make clothes for people who want change and are always trying to change their life for the better.

Model Danielle Birum wore a Julian Gutierrez design and I asked her a couple of questions to get a model’s perspective on the event and to find out a little more about her.

SP: How long have you been a model?

Danielle Birum: I’ve been a model for a total of five years now in the Sacramento area.

SP: How did you become involved with Sacramento Fashion Week?

DB: I emailed my friend Maria when I heard about Sacramento Fashion Week and asked if I could be in it and at the last minute I was able to get in. I had done a show with Maria before.

SP: Have you done any other runway shows before?

DB: Nothing really big.

SP: Are you from the Sacramento area?

DB: Yes, I’m from Sacramento and right now I go to American River College. I’m transferring in the fall and I will be going to Monterrey Bay to study Marine Biology.

SP: Do you think you’ll also continue to pursue a modeling career?

DB: It just depends, I really would love to have a career in modeling but school comes first. I should mention that Julian’s fabric choices are amazing they feel awesome they’re amazing and gorgeous.

SP: Who is your favorite model?

DB: I like Heidi Klum and Marisa Miller.

A designer who was part of the last Designing Dreams fashion show Vasily Vein was also present and I was able to ask him and his model some questions. We spoke through a Russian interpreter in order to make sure we understood each other.

SP: I notice you do most of your work in San Francisco but how did you become involved with Sacramento Fashion Week?

Vasily Vein: I love their organization system and the Sacramento Fashion Week team. I had a part in the Designing Dreams fashion show last year and I think they’re one of the best fashion teams in the area.

SP: How long have you been a designer?

VV: All my life, since I was 12 years old.

SP: What or who inspired you to get into fashion?

VV: I’ve always wanted to be involved in fashion. As I thought about what career I wanted to pursue I realized that I wanted to be involved in fashion. Fashion has always been my passion.

SP: I read somewhere that you designed for several Russian rock stars can you tell me who?

VV: I was involved in designing outfits for Russian entertainers. I was a designer for Russian pop and rock stars. I worked with Russian singer Linda for about 10 years. Linda is very famous in Russia and Greece.

SP: When did you come to America and why?

VV: I came to the U.S. three years ago. I like risk and love to experiment and America offered a great challenge.

SP: Have you been to Sacramento before for any shows?

VV: I was in Designing Dreams in August of last year.

SP: Do you have any parting words for Sacramentans coming to the show?

VV: Please come and see my designs. I will try to have a fun presentation for the public.

SP: How would you describe your style?

VV: I try to make beautiful outfits and try to make them for everyone. My creations are not just for the runway but are also made for casual and formal wear.

Maria Kondrakhanova wore a gorgeous red dress designed by Vein. Their interpreter indicated that Kondrakhanova is a top model in Russia and hailed from the Russian city of Nizhniy Novgorod.

SP: How long have you been modeling?

Maria Kondrakhanova: I’ve been a model since I was 16 years old. I’ve been a model in Russia but not in U.S.

SP: What inspired you to become a model?
MK: I love beautiful things, outfits, people and other things and fashion makes me like it’s a dream. I enjoy showcasing beautiful designs.

SP: When did you come to America?

MK: I came to America three years ago for the first time

SP: Who is your favorite model and designer?

MK: I love the beautiful designs of Vasily. My favorite model is Natalia Vodianova because we’re both from the same hometown.

The evening provided a great setting for fashion designers, models, advertising and modeling agencies, photographers, make up artists, hair stylists, media and other fashion industry people to enjoy the beginning of this year’s fashion extravaganza. Tickets for Sacramento Fashion Week are now on sale and this year they’re expecting to sell out.

CA State Managers Failed to Shut-Down Unlicensed Care Home

2012-01-21T17:18:25Z

Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) is responsible for regulating care homes for people who are unable to care for themselves. This story revolves around a care facility for the elderly, that was not licensed. All care homes in CA must be licensed with the CA Dept of Social Services (CDSS). If a care home is operating without a license, the owner is fined and put out of business. Well, that is the so-called state mandate, anyway.

In summary, here are the chain of events which occurred from 2007 to 2010, in the small farm town of Fall River Mills, CA.

Owner of the elderly care home "Riverview Residential" was cited in July 2008 for running a facility without a license. The owner was given two chances to complete the required state application, return it and get a license. She failed both times. The state inspector (known as a Licensing Program Analyst {LPA}) in charge of the Fall River Mills jurisdiction, attempted to shut down the facility. The care of the people living at Riverview was extremely negligent, several residents died and there were numerous complaints about the health and safety of the clients living there.

The LPA continued to report the horrid conditions of Riverview to the CDSS management in Sacramento. The LPA met with Adult Protective Services, The Ombudsman and the Shasta County Sheriff on numerous occasions to attempt to shut down Riverview, The CDSS managers ignored the requests for assistance in shutting down Riverview. On November 9, 2009 the LPA went to Riverview and was accompanied by a sheriff's deputy. The LPA delivered a fine to the owner of Riverview in the amount of $20,000.00 for operating without a license. In order for a fine (known as a Civil Penalty) to be validated, it must be signed by a regional manager. The LPA sent the document to the regional manager for signing. The manager never acknowledged the document and it was never signed.

On November 17, 2009 the LPA was notified that a resident was found deceased and wedged between a wall and a mattress. The LPA notified the CDSS managers immediately. The LPA also requested permission to contact CA Department of Justice Elder Care Division (DOJ). On November 18, 2009 the LPA received an E-mail from the CDSS managers which ordered the LPA to not contact DOJ. It is common practice to notify DOJ in this type situation. The LPA called the director of APS, provided a direct line to an agent of DOJ. DOJ then got involved in the case. The LPA was interviewed by a supervisor from DOJ. The DOJ supervisor asked why the CDSS managers ordered the LPA to not contact DOJ. It was unknown why the order was given.

The LPA continued to press the CDSS managers for assistance and request that a manager sign the document for the $20k fine. All requests were ignored. On February 10, 2010, the LPA was pulled off the case, revoked from working in the field, reprimanded to work solely in the office and denied the scheduled step pay- raise. The LPA resigned in April 2010 as a result of the situation.

This story was published in the Mt. Echo Newspaper on January 17, 2012, by editor, Walt Caldwell. I provided a link to the article. The article gives names, dates and places. Very well written and based on factual, documented evidence.

http://rcfereform.org/news/Mountain_Echo_Reports_CCLD_Misconduct

Disclosure: Yes. I was the Licensing Program Analyst mentioned in the story.

STC Pollock Stage "Ruthless!-The Musical" Ruthlessly Funny!

2012-01-21T06:18:48Z

Ah, the child actor. So much competition, so much drive, so many stage mothers and many others, as we shall see, pushing. Oh, and then having to survive the bad reviews.

But when a child actor makes it big, there is lots of money and other perks to go around. They say for a child actor to succeed, they and everyone supporting them need to be ruthless. But ruthless to the point of killing a rival? For the lead role in the third-grade play?

The center of attention in “Ruthless! The Musical” which is just ending its first week of sold-out and nearly sold-out shows at the Sacramento Theatre Company’s Pollock Stage is Tina Denmark. Right behind Tina is Sylvia St. Croix, child talent representative, who is going to see that Tina makes it no matter the obstacles. Not so sure is Judy Denmark Tina’s mother, a self-described talentless housewife with a husband constantly on the road for business. No problem for Tina’s grandmother, a theater critic with a nasty reputation. The other characters are the aforementioned obstacles in the way of Tina’s rise to stardom, a trajectory from starring in the third-grade play to starring on Broadway.

The book and lyrics by Joel Paley are ruthlessly funny. Marvin Laird’s music successfully taps into several well-known Broadway musical motifs. This is a show that evokes the famous stage moms and their songs from Broadway and film to evil child horror film such as “The Bad Seed.” If ever a show fits with STC’s theme this year of “A Season of Mystery, Music & Mayhem,” this is it, where all three abound.

First billing in the cast goes to Michael RJ Campbell for the role of Sylvia St. Croix. Campbell is well known around Sacramento for the many roles he has appeared in, especially at STC, most recently in “A Christmas Carol.” Closer to “Ruthless!” would be last year’s role as Jitter in “Musical of Musicals:The Musical” or Campbell’s several appearances over the years as Goneril, one of the ugly stepsisters in “Cinderella.”

The role of Sylvia St. Croix, according to lore, was not originally conceived to be a male actor’s role, but actor Joel Vig’s audition for the original 1992 off-Broadway show was the best, and it has now become a tradition.

Campbell’s performance far transcends the mere humor of a woman being played by a man dressed up as woman. He truly captures the essence of who Sylvia St.Croix is as a character and uproariously displays her humor, while doing a nice job of belting out her songs.

Mom, Judy Denmark, is played by Andrea St. Clair in her Sacramento Theatre Company debut. St. Clair’s performance is a hoot as her character morphs from the often clueless and easily outmaneuvered Judy to the ruthless, demanding Ginger.

Lauren Metzinger and ~~Julie~~ Jillie Kate Randle alternate playing Tina. Metzinger is in her third year in the STC Young Professionals Conservatory. She appeared on the STC Mainstage in last season’s production of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” as well as many Music Circus shows. Randle, now an 11-year-old sixth grader, started out with El Dorado Musical Theater at age 7.

Metzinger played Tina in the show being reviewed. She performed with the same aplomb as her much more experienced fellow actors. She also seemed to have a little wink and nod to knowing what Tina faced, being a young actor herself.

Becky Saunders was most recently seen at STC in the Pollock as the widow Lili Harrison in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.” She stretches her acting muscles as three different very funny characters: Miss Thorn, the somewhat deranged elementary school drama teacher; Lita Encore, the heartless critic and adoptive mother and grandmother; and Emily Block, the journalist for an avant garde theatrical magazine with more than just lesbian tendencies.

Netty Carey, another young actor with a growing performance résumé plays Tina’s archrival, Louise Lerman, and Eve, as in “All About,” Ginger’s backstabbing personal assistant.

Producing director Michael Laun’s direction is big, bold and brassy, as this production deserves. As a self-described musical fan, Laun’s affection for the show is obvious.

Graham Sobelman, of Graham-A-Rama fame, is the musical director working with frequent collaborator, pianist Erik Daniels, who gives his usual excellent performance, here while hidden in the scenery.

With this range of women’s costumes, many outrageous, veteran STC costumer Jessica Minnihan has lots of fun creating outfits that help create the humor of these characters.

A big shoutout to the wigs created by Nila Coats. They are as much a part of the characters as their stories.

Jarrod Bodernsteiner has created another set design (actually two sets here) for the Pollock Stage that most of us would be happy to live in. You want Texas suburban ranch house chic or New York City penthouse modern? That is what you get with “Ruthless!”

The show is nicely lit with lighting design by Ron Madonia, who has already been described as a “Northern California star lighting designer” this week.

“Ruthless! The Musical” is proving to be highly popular, and it is not surprising. Everything here, especially a great cast with a well-written play with lots of humor, have created a production that is ruthlessly funny.

“Ruthless! -The Musical” Sacramento Theatre Company
Through February 19, 2012
More info and tickets

Editor's Note: Corrections have been made to this article after publication.

MidLife GridLife - When Crazy Became Cool

2012-01-21T03:53:34Z

For most people, being told they were officially crazy might be a little frightening, a little offensive, or just plain fighting words!

I was tremendously relieved.

Since right around sixth grade, I had felt as though I was, to borrow from Kurt Vonnegut, becoming “unstuck.”

It was, in the grand scheme of things, a subtle process.

It became difficult to fall asleep (hence the late night calls to radio stations).

It became equally difficult to stay asleep.

I became fixated on unfathomable concepts like mortality, and the idea that we are all floating on a planet in space.

I could no longer stand to watch Star Trek.

I could no longer stand to watch anything that reminded me that we were all going to grow older and die—which was just about everything.

I learned to block a lot of the feelings out, to consciously avoid thinking about them.

I also began to drink heavily, ‘round about 13 or 14, which seemed to help.

Unless you count the hit and run at 16 and the DUI at 20.

Self-medication, in my experience, is seldom successful; that’s why they give the doctors the prescription pads, and they hardly ever prescribe an ongoing course of bourbon.

My break came as an adult, living on my own, unable to manage any longer. I went to County Mental Health and was interviewed by a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with Manic Depression, now called Bipolar Disorder.

He never actually used the word “crazy,” but that was how I felt. Having someone acknowledge that there was a medical reason for all of those years of emotional mayhem was the greatest gift anyone had ever given me.

If you could name it, you could fix it, right?

Not so fast.

Not so simple.

The side effects of the drugs available in the 80s were worse than my milder of the two forms of the disorder. Mood swings or tweaking? Swell.

Anyone with mental health challenges knows that finding the right medication in the right dosage is sometimes a very frustrating and lengthy process. Fortunately pharmaceuticals evolved and continue to improve.

Medication isn’t magic, but for someone whose brain is firing the right chemicals, it can be the foundation necessary for being able to focus enough to do the other things that need to happen.

Over the past twenty five years, I have been fortunate to have found the right cocktail of legal pharmaceuticals to maintain a healthy balance of fun and functionality in my life. Days of work missed due to my diagnosis have been extremely rare.

As my supervisor recently put it at a staff meeting,
“Elaine, I hope you don’t mind my just putting you out there, but, people, that is an example of a well-medicated person!”

Yes, I have become a poster child for mental health. I’m good with it.

In my line of work—human services, and currently, working with formerly homeless men and women as a sort of “guidance counselor” to help them set and achieve goals toward self-sustainability—I find being bipolar to be an asset.

It has given me an ability to empathize beyond what any education could have, and Appropriately sharing my own experience as a mental health consumer and the friend, daughter and family member of other who are bipolar allows me to build trust with clients that I might not otherwise achieve.

I am fortunate to have found work that I love in a field that allows me to be open about my challenges.

I am grateful for that.

But not everyone is as fortunate.

Mental health services are increasingly more difficult to access.

At Kaiser you can get a psychiatrist, but counseling has gone by the wayside. Group therapy is often your only option, unless you pose a threat to yourself or someone else.

I learned to fight for my mental health when I was with Kaiser. I often wondered how the really unstable people managed!
Private insurance will take your copayment for counseling, say twenty bucks, but a counselor isn’t always a good counselor. And sometimes a counselor isn’t even a real counselor, but an intern, a counselor-in-training.

Psychiatrists will dispense medication, but they don’t always feel obligated to explain why, how the medication works, or what happens when it isn’t working.

I’ve often thought I could give workshops on “Symptoms and Side Effects Your Doctor Didn’t Bother to Explain” and make a mint—if only the potential patrons weren’t so tough to market to and get to keep an appointment!

As previously mentioned, even when you get the meds going, there’s no guarantee that you get the right mix the first time. It can take some time to achieve the appropriate blend.

Frustrating as hell when you’re feeling crazy, but there it is.

All of that assumes you’re a member of mainstream society.

If you’re poor, on a subsidy, forget about counseling altogether.

You can get medication, but it’ll likely be from a primary care doctor who knows less about mental health than I do, and will be just as happy to give a little Vicodin chaser to round things out.

Even if you manage to beg, plead or scream your way into a relationship with a psychiatrist, those visits are few and far between, which is not the way it should work when you’re trying to find that magic medicinal mood cocktail.

It sucks to be poor.

I write about all of this because I’m determined to turn the elephant in the room into a pussycat.

It is true that people with bipolar disorder can become psychotic and require hospitalization. It is true that we can exhibit bizarre behavior, including a little OCD.

It is equally true that someone with BPD could have been sharing a cubicle with you for the past year, and you’d never have known they were affected. I know this, not only because people have said it about me, but because it happened to me recently.

Could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out the person I’d been sharing an office with has BPD! Three of us do, actually (the other one I’d known about), so that’s a force to be reckoned with—a temperamental triangle.

All parents.
All still working, even through a nightmare economy.

All popping prescriptions with psychiatric blessings, praying chemicals kick right in our heads another day.

Crazy, huh?

"Carnage": Albee Style, Almost

2012-01-21T02:27:27Z

“Carnage” A Film Review by Gary Chew
Sacramento, California January 20, 2012

Occasionally a play is good enough that it will eek itself into a motion picture. Since plays tend to be rather static, it's common that when they're made for cinema, people who seldom go to the Theater complain about the movie being different from most other films they see.

That can be said of Roman Polanski's new film, “Carnage.” As a play, it won the 2009 Best Play Tony. On stage it was known as “Le Dieu du Carnage” (“God of Carnage”), written by Yasmina Reza, the Paris-born Jewish playwright/actress/screenwriter of Iranian/Hungarian parentage. Ms. Reza and Polanski wrote the screenplay.

The first 10 minutes of the picture had almost put me in a snit for what looked to be a slow-rolling ninety minutes or so to come, when, all of a sudden, it didn't matter it was a movie of a play I was seeing. As Leon Russell once wrote in his best song, “... the words got in the way.”

Well actually, it was the dialogue.

And it was Jody Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly up there being the only characters in this work that speaks volumes about the real possibility that many contemporary people are determined to be so terribly“civilized” that they're savage.

I knew that what we had here at the neat, old Tower movie house at Land Park and Broadway in Sacramento was the Theater---at work. I settled in.

Who's afraid of a little carnage when it takes place in a nicely appointed middle-class apartment overlooking the big city, I ask. There live Mr. and Mrs. Longstreet (Foster plays Penelope; Reilly is Michael). Visiting the Longstreets for the first time (the couples have never met) are Mr. and Mrs. Cowan (Winslet is Nancy; Waltz, Alan).

Penelope, or Penny, is into art and saving Darfur. Michael sells products for the home. He's done well. Penny is sort of liberal and wannabe art patroness, working part time in a bookstore. She's even co-authored a book. And it comes out later, after a few scotches, that Michael might listen to right wing talk radio when no one's around. But he's nice guy.

A little higher-up the money chain, Nancy doesn't work, and Alan is an attorney who is called on his cell every 3 or 4 minutes regarding a legal matter connected with one of his clients (a pharmaceutical firm) and the sale of a particular medicine that could be dangerous to the health of a patient using it. And guess what son named Michael has an elderly mother who takes that med.

What brought on this afternoon chat at the Longstreet's is that their son, Zachary, has been smacked in the face with a stick by the Cowan's son, Ethan. It happened in the schoolyard. And Zac sustained incisor damage. Otherwise, he's good to go.

The Longstreets and the Cowans are rational human beings, living urbane, responsible lives. Each of them only wants to do the right thing. How could anything go wrong?

Stuff starts going wrong about 10 minutes in, just when I was trying to pull myself out of the snit about this being a sluggish, static stage play put to film.

This brings me to a point I like to make, now and then: dude, it's the story that's important...then the “cinemagic” or the great film director/auteur stuff follows right behind it. Some movie experts tend to forget that. Taking one more shot at this point: Have you ever seen a really visually astounding film that's well-directed in the many ways it takes, but has a script that sucks? I have.

Digression finished: “Carnage” really gets terribly ugly and you get to laugh much of the way. Nancy barfs on expensive art books. Alan's cell gets thrown in the bowl of water, just under the real tulips. In the living room, Penny gets agressively physical---in a non-amorous way---with her husband. And Michael gets out his 17-year-old-scotch for everybody in this party of four. As stated earlier, he is a nice guy.

All it is...is...just really great actors, really getting into some really juicy roles...and probably having a ball while on the shoot that was done in Paris yet, through the windows, looks like New York. And don't forget the really fine music, at the top and bottom of the film, composed by Alexandre Desplat.

My only criticism is that the role of Alan should have been played with a little less snark. The words Alan speaks do the talking. And the script is a little limp keeping the Cowans there so long for the melée. (Maybe a storm, outside, could have kept them there.) I think I would've walked out of the Longstreet digs about ten minutes after being let in---unless, of course, Liz and Dick had been the couple who'd asked me over.

Mr. Albee, your cell phone is buzzing.

Creativity Revived

2012-01-21T01:04:05Z

Growing up, sometimes we forget to exercise our creative activities. For some, our creative drive dies right along with the hand-me-down car from Grandma senior year in high school. Sometimes our creative energy is put on the backburner as stresses and responsibilities of being an adult such as finding a job, keeping a job, paying bills, the mortgage and providing for our families take over… or our creative energy fades away completely.

Here in Sacramento, we love each other. We support each other. Seriously, we do. Just stop for a moment and think back on how many creative projects, ideas and businesses that have thrived in the last decade or so. Regardless if the doors of any of these ideas or businesses are still open or not, the point is... they made it happen. There is no denying the inspiration of such creative ventures have spread faster than a California wildfire during a dry, hot heat wave.

The latest album you’ve had on repeat is your best friend’s band. The last film you watched was your boyfriend’s short film that was screened at the local art collective spot. The earrings you are wearing are handmade from a local designer bought from the boutique your neighbor owns. Within the last few years Sacramento has built a pretty comfortable and welcoming cushion for the our creative class to fall on.

We were fortunate enough to have events like SellOut/Buyout, which was a combined art and trade show that called for local artists and designers. For some, Sellout/Buyout was how we were introduced to many of our favorite local designers and artists today. Annually, Sacramento hosts Launch, an art, design and music festival. Launch highlights some of the most talked about local artists, musicians and designers. Both events like Sellout/Buyout and Launch were opportunities for artists of any avenue to showcase their creative pursuits and network with like-minded people.

Julie Cassotta, 29, a Sacramento native who recently discovered her talent and love for handcrafting jewelry, recently said goodbye to an 8-5 office job to pursue more satisfying opportunities. She admits she used to do a great deal of creative writing when she was younger that she no longer does. She is also a graduate from the Elite Academy pursuing hair and makeup, but hasn’t been using those skills as much as she would like to these days.

For the last 14 years Julie has learned the art of repairing and building custom guitars at her family owned shop, SonFather Guitars, alongside her brother, Jesse and her Father, Dave. All those years working intensely with her hands has acquired her precise skills that have helped her with her jewelry designs, as she works towards a collection of hand crafted one of a kind pieces of jewelry that includes a bevy of necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets.

For Julie, what started out as a creative hobby for herself now has her pieces for sale at Bows and Arrows Vintage clothing store in midtown Sacramento as well as her Etsy online shop, Real Life Dollhouse.

Julie's pieces are reconstructed, mixing different types of materials together such as vintage charms with modern, and she has taken the time to share some information in the interview below regarding her new jewelry designing success, and how it has revived the creativity back into her life.

Question: What inspired you to start designing jewelry?

Answer: Initially, I was frustrated with buying cheap jewelry that fell apart and not being able to afford some of the rad jewelry that I was seeing online and whatnot. I started remaking pieces that had broken or lost parts or were out of date, etc. Then one day I was looking for a lion necklace and couldn't find what I was looking for so I decided to use my inlay knowledge and make something myself. A light bulb kind of went off in my head and it just took off from there.

Question: When did you realize your creative endeavors could become more than a hobby?

Answer: I started posting some of the pieces I had made on my blog and had received great responses. I figured it was time to take it seriously and put together a collection and start an Etsy store.

Question: You know you've found the perfect material to incorporate into one of your pieces when...........

Answer: …… I find something interesting or just catches my eye really. If there's something I'm looking for but can't find, I'll try to make it myself.

Question: Do you have a plan of attack when you start creating pieces such as sketching ideas or do you just dive into it?

Answer: Both really. Sometimes I have a clear vision of what I want to make and other times, more often actually, I just look around at what I have and start piecing things together. Especially when working with natural materials like stone and wood, sometimes they have a mind of their own and will only let me manipulate them so much.

Question: You also repair guitars at your family owned custom guitar shop, SonFather Guitar. Explain how working there has influenced or helped your jewelry design?

Answer: Well, I've been working with wood from a very young age because of the shop and my father being a woodworker. The inlay aspect of guitar building has always been an interest of mine and has become a skill I have developed and specialized in for over 10 years now. The influence it has had on the jewelry is very literal and apparent, I basically use the same materials, mostly scraps or samples that we've had lying around for years. I started with the lion piece that I made for myself, then I started making similar ones for friends then I just kind of developed a "let's see what else I can do" mentality about it.

Question: Your Soapstone, Heartbeat Wooden Double Finger and Ebony and Turquoise statement rings are featured in your Etsy Shop. All very unique, and obviously hand crafted. Tell us about the work that goes into those pieces compared your reconstructed pieces.

Answer: The wood and stone work is definitely more unique and personal. A lot more work is involved. It takes time and planning, templates, samples, test runs, etc. The reconstructed pieces are simpler, easier, the kind of thing I put together sitting on the floor in my living room watching a movie. Those are more about having a good collection of interesting items to work together.

Question: Do you favor making one style of jewelry over another?

Answer: I love both really, the ones that I wear the most myself are the reconstructed ones, they're a little bit more casual, easy to wear with many different things. The statement pieces have to wait for the right occasion but they're more challenging for me to make so I take a bit more pride in those pieces.

Question: Do you have a favorite local designer(s) that createhandmade items? ( jewelry, clothes, accessories, etc.)

Answer: I have a friend in San Diego, Georgina of Trevino Joyeria, who makes fantastic jewelry. Also, Tessa Parks has been making some really rad stuff lately, although I'm not sure if she has any for sale yet.

Question: What direction do you see your jewelry designs going?

Answer: I honestly have no idea, I'm inspired by all kinds of things all the time, I think it will always be changing and evolving. I'd like to learn how to do some metal work, so maybe things will go that direction? I don't know. I'm not much of a planner. I just do things and see what happens.

Hopefully for some of you who have shelved your canvases in the depths of your closet or let dust collect on your camera in the recent years, remember why you had those items in your pocession in the first place. Make time for your long lost creative activity or try a new one you never imagined you had in you. Who's next, Sacramento?

City planning bike lanes on Freeport Boulevard

2012-01-21T00:50:26Z

The city is in the planning stages of bringing bicycle lanes to Freeport Boulevard between Vallejo Way and Sutterville Road – something neighbors and school officials say will make the busy thoroughfare much safer.

“We’ve had several accidents and many kids getting hit on bikes,” said McClatchy High School Principal Peter Lambert on Friday. “As traffic becomes more and more congested, we want to continue to look at ways to ensure the safety of our students as well as those who work and live in the area.”

Students at McClatchy High made a video highlighting the dangers of the street about three years ago, and they and Lambert said the area isn’t safe for cyclists.

The city issued a notice of preparation Jan. 13, which is the beginning of the process to get the bicycle lanes on the pavement – a process that will have to go through an environmental impact report and get City Council approval before work can begin, said Andrea Rosen, chair of the ad-hoc committee for the Freeport bicycle lanes through the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association.

“The SCNA has not taken any position on the Freeport bike lane project because it is at the beginning of the environmental review process,” Rosen said Friday, adding that once the city decides on a plan, the board will then vote to determine whether it supports the plan.

Rosen said that now is the time for those who want to voice their opinions on the project to take action.

The public will have the chance to weigh in on the process at a meeting from 6 - 8 p.m. Wednesday at the McClatchy High School Cafeteria, 3066 Freeport Blvd., said Linda Tucker Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

City Councilman Jay Schenirer, whose district partially covers the area, said he supports bringing bicycle lanes to that section of Freeport Boulevard.

“I’m very much a supporter, and beyond Freeport, I’d like to see us become more bike-friendly in the city,” he said. “We have young people riding to school and in the neighborhood, and what we have around Freeport is currently not a great situation.”

Schenirer said that, since the project requires an environmental impact report and approval from City Council, it won’t be a quick process, but he hopes to see work complete in the next couple of years.

Rosen said the SCNA expects the environmental impact report to be done in October, and that she hopes the issue makes it before the City Council by the end of the year.

“The neighborhood views this as a gap in the bike lanes,” she said. “We’ve been told that the city has long wanted to fill this gap because of the schools (both McClatchy High and Sacramento City College) and the general bicycle safety.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

"The Giver"-B Street Family Series

2012-01-20T07:55:40Z

The B Street Family Series opened, “The Giver,” an eyes wide open look at how “Utopia” can become “Dystopia.” For an excellent introduction to the show see Barry Wisdom’s Sacramento Press preview of “The Giver.”

Long time B Street Company members Elizabeth Nunziato and Jason Kuykendall are Father and Mother, the adult component of the mandatory two adult two children family unit. They are so good at creating this feeling that under the veneer of happiness is a pervasive fear of the consequences of differing at all from the norm which flares up anytime the children question something.

Nunziato also plays the elder that announces the role that has been selected for each child as they cease to be children and prepare to be adults - as they become “Twelves,” a term that may or may not be related to age or grade in school.

The female and younger child of the family unit, Lily, is played by Brittni Barger, who came to B Street in 2009 as an intern and has now become an Equity actor. Barger shows off her skill playing a character that is at the youngest end of the age range of characters she is great at performing.

She is joined by current B Street acting interns Erika Lecaj as Fiona/Rosemary and Brandon Alexander as Asher. They convincingly move from carefree childhood through the ceremony to become “Twelve” and move on to responsible adulthood and apart from each other.

Lily’s older brother Jonas, also becoming “Twelve,” is played beautifully by east coast educated Grant Jordan in his B Street Theatre debut. Jordan is wonderful as the young man that is chosen to become the Receiver of Memory by the Elders and will detach himself from his family and friends to be the one to hold all the memories, good and bad, for civilization.

Bay Area actor Gary S. Martinez gives a magical performance as the former Receiver of Memory, now “The Giver” of the title, who has failed once before in transferring the memories to a new Receiver. Sacramento theater goers don’t often get to see Martinez’s performances except for his indelible performance as “Gary” in “Every Christmas Story Told-and Then Some” at Capital Stage for the last six years. The role of The Giver could not be more different than what could be described as clowning around in “Every Christmas...” The Giver is much closer to an Albus Dumbledore. He must transmit all the memories, but in a way that the young man can absorb and handle.

Laura Baker’s direction moves from scene to scene at a teen/pre-teen pace but pauses in each scene to have her wonderful ensemble of actors beautifully deliver some profound things to think about.

To me there isn’t a preachiness to Eric Coble’s play, but more of a wide-eyed look at the demand for sameness, which even if for supposedly good reasons, can have fatal consequences.

Coble based his play on a novel by highly popular children’s writer Lois Lowry. Lowry has been travelling the world since she was a child and has undoubtedly been exposed to more diversity than most.

Northern California star lighting designer Ron Madonia’s lighting greatly aids in the shift from scene to scene and setting the mood, especially true in a play set in a world with no sun.

Ian Wallace, new to B Street, has done a fun, interesting and inspired job with this set that beautifully shifts from all the same to the impending explosion of memory and knowledge of difference, good or bad.

I would highly recommend that parents see the show with their children over ten, as recommended. I would suggest that parents be ready for their children to ask questions. I would also highly recommend that adults who love attending live theater see “The Giver” for the excellent thought provoking theater it is.

“The Giver” B Street Theatre Family Series
Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 and 4:00 pm through February 19, 2012
More info and tickets

Paula Deen to do live show at Community Center Theater

2012-01-20T04:20:43Z

Paula Deen – best known for her traditional southern cooking on the Food Network – is coming to Sacramento for a live show on Feb. 3.

While Deen will cook at the Community Center Theater that evening, she’ll focus on what she said she cherishes most about fame – meeting people she never would have met in her life as a bank teller.

“I’ll just visit with people,” Deen said. “It’s kinda like coming into my living room, us getting to know each other. People come in and forget everything that irks them.”

Deen will appear on stage with her husband, Michael Groover, whom she describes as shy, funny and a great cook.

“He has got the keenest sense of humor,” Deen said. “He’s one of the funniest men I’ve ever met.”

She said she’s looking forward to the trip to Sacramento, but her schedule will force the visit to be brief.

The appearance coincides with a donation made by the show sponsors, Smithfield and Safeway, as well as the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, to the Sacramento Emergency Foodlink. Deen’s live show is part of a nationwide tour during which donations will be made to several organizations.

Pork will be on the menu for the evening, but fans shouldn’t expect her live show to mirror the cooking shows for which Deen has become famous.

“If you are expecting to come away with a Julia Child cooking degree, you’ll be disappointed,” Deen said.

In addition to three television shows featured on the Food Network (“Paula’s Best Dishes,” “Paula’s Home Cooking” and “Paula’s Party”), Deen is a restaurateur and cookbook author. It’s a family business, Deen said, and she often collaborates with her two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen.

“The best part of a family business is working with family,” Deen said. “And the worst part is working with family.”

Sure to be a topic of conversation is Deen’s recent revelation that she has diabetes. While her website promises new, diabetes-friendly recipes in the future, Deen said the six weeks during which her shows are shot are not a snapshot of her daily fare.

“We don’t eat in the south like people think. We eat a lot of vegetables,” Deen said, adding that she uses a lot less butter in her cooking than people commonly believe.

Deen recently topped Maxim magazine's list of television’s sexiest chefs, a title that she said she thought was a joke, initially.

“My breath was knocked out of me,” Deen said. “I was shocked. I loved it!”

As for what’s ahead for Deen, she said she’s working on many projects, but isn’t able to discuss them yet.

“The biggest is yet to come in my career. That’s all I can say,” Deen said.

Deen will personally make the delivery of pork products at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 3, said Mary Meagher, director of public relations and development at the Sacramento Emergency Foodlink.

“Our food closets will greatly appreciate the protein items,” Meagher said. “Through 140 partner agencies, we serve 100,000 people each month. We’re very happy that Sacramento is one of the stops.”

Tickets are still available to Paula Deen’s live show at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 at the Sacramento Community Center Theater.

Ballroom Dancers Compete in Sacramento

2012-01-19T21:56:43Z

The glamour and glitter of Hollywood, the unbelievable grace and beauty of ballroom dance and the amazing athleticism of international sport came together in Sacramento on Sunday.

The North American Same-Sex Dance Championships at The Ballroom of Sacramento was an exciting all-day competition of dancers from across the nation. The event culminated in an evening dance show, “Dangerous Liaisons: An Evening of Espionage and Intrigue,” featuring many of the champions and competitors. The competition was conducted under the auspices of the North American Same Sex Partner Dance Association, or NASSPDA.

From the time the first couple took the floor for the single dance events until the final formation team and show dance events, the competition was a whirl of action, grace and drama.

Beginners, intermediate dancers and professionals brought their best to the floor. Before a panel of five certified judges, men and women in sequins and rhinestones twirled and dipped, floated and flew through the intricate steps of more than a dozen dance styles.

Ballroom dance is divided into two major categories, called Standard and Latin in the International lexicon, and Smooth and Rhythm in the American version. The rules and criteria differ somewhat between the International and American versions. For example, in American Smooth, the partners are allowed to separate and dance around the floor, whereas International Standard dancers must remain connected.

The dances follow the same general categories, however. In Standard or Smooth, dancers must learn and compete in waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, quickstep and foxtrot (standard) or slow foxtrot (smooth).

In Latin or Rhythm, the dances are cha cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive (Latin) or cha cha cha, rumba, bolero, swing and mambo (rhythm).

Dancers train for years, and usually practice for several hours a week. It is a grueling and exacting sport, with attention paid to every line and nuance, and every step must be perfectly aligned with that of a partner. It can be an expensive sport as well, considering the cost of lessons and rehearsal space, fitness coaching, and travel for competitions.

Those dance shoes in a myriad of designs for different dance styles, the specially fitted dance tuxedos, and the beautiful swirly gowns sewn with thousands of crystal beads can cost many thousands of dollars per dancer.

Interest in ballroom dancing has risen dramatically with the popularity of television shows like “Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and others. Argentine tango has become a very popular pastime for young urbanites, while dance clubs across the nation are packed every weekend with country western, salsa and swing dancers.

For the same-sex dance community, there are only a few welcoming programs among dozens of dance studios. In Sacramento, The Ballroom hosts a thriving same-sex program under the leadership of former world champion Robbie Tristan, and same-sex dancers are welcome at the Mirror Ball Dance Studio in Sacramento.

Dancing in the River City hosted the event as their fourth annual competition and show at The Ballroom. Under the leadership of Cindy Mills and her longtime partner Annette Wegesend, with dancers Robert Aina and Elly Bishop, DIRTC has built a strong organization of same sex dancers who are committed to holding this annual event. Since 2008, DITRC has been able to raise funds which have enabled Sacramento dancers to travel and compete in the Gay Games in Cologne, Germany in 2010 and in the North America Out Games in Vancouver, BC in 2011. The group is raising funds now to sponsor dancers to the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio.

Newly crowned champion Kieren Jameson (Women’s International Standard, Women’s International Latin and Women’s 10-dance, with partner Emily Coles) talked about what the same-sex dance community means to her.

“I’m very happy with our wins today, but the rivalries that you see are all on the floor,” she said. “Outside, we are all friends. You meet so many wonderful people from all over in the dance world. We all respect each other.”

Kalin Mitov and J. Michael Winward are the new men’s champions in International Standard, American Smooth, American Rhythm and Men’s Nine-dance. The Boston-area team have been dancing together for only a year, yet they move with such intense connection that they seem like lifelong partners.

Mitov started dancing at age 7 in his native Bulgaria and now teaches dance at Fred Astaire ~~an Arthur Murray~~ studio in Massachusetts. Winward is also an instructor at a different Fred Astaire ~~Arthur Murray studio~~ , and together they won the U.S. championship in Oakland last year.

“Same-sex dancing is more versatile, because you have to know every step, both leading and following,” Mitov said. Though many couples switch roles in same-sex dance, Mitov always prefers to lead. They practice together three mornings a week for at least two hours.

Jose Comoda and Chris Phan once again captured the Men’s International Latin title. They were champions in 2009 and 2011 as well.

Show dance offers the dancers an opportunity to interpret any dance in their own way. The 2012 show dance winners are local favorites Robbie Tristan and Robert Aina. Tristan is a former world champion who currently teaches at The Ballroom and works with students in Los Angeles and Albuquerque as well.

Tristan is a charismatic and energetic dancer who is extremely popular with his students. He is the driving force behind the same-sex dance program at The Ballroom and has recently begun work on a foundation to bring ballroom dance into the lives of at-risk youth.

LGBT youth are often at particularly high risk of suicide, bullying, abandonment, substance abuse and runaway/dropout status, due to the discrimination and lack of societal, family and institutional support they often experience. Giving these young people access to a sport where they are accepted and celebrated for their gifts regardless of their sexual or gender identity is a positive project which has been embraced by several same-sex dancers across the country.

Formation teams are comprised of several couples performing a choreographed number together and may be a single dance or any combinations of dances.

The formation dance medal was captured by the Vima Vice Squad, a company of eight dancers from the San Francisco Bay Area. The group includes Latin champions Phan and Comoda, Ron Jenkins and Photis Pishiaris (men’s standard second place winners who also dance together as Photon) and other competitive dancers. Their routines are always fresh and popping with crisp steps and catchy costuming.

The Sacramento Sensations formation team featured happy pirates doing a nightclub two-step routine. Other formation teams were the St. Louis Equality Dance Team, and Rolling, from the very active Oakland dance community.

There are additional single dance categories as well: country two-step, country waltz, West Coast swing, night club two-step, hustle, salsa and Argentine tango.

Bernadette Koh and Noreen Richards took second place in the women’s Latin level B final. Partners on and off the floor, they have been dancing together for 11 years, but because their home city of Albuquerque, N.M., is not at all welcoming to same-sex dancers, they travel to Sacramento to study with Tristan. They have competed for four years in the April Follies in Oakland, home to the U.S. championships in 2011. The pair has also competed in the Outgames in Copenhagen and in Vancouver, B.C., and in the Chicago Gay Games.

“Dance is a great outlet for your emotional energy, and it is based on trust and connection,” Richards said. “I love to twirl, and I love to travel. Dancing brings out your inner diva!”

Koh and Richards are not the only dancers who are willing to travel for the instruction and coaching that meets their needs.

Dancing in the beginner class, Michele Jang won several single dance and Pro-Am awards. She is a remarkably talented dancer who will definitely be rising in the ranks of the sport. She lives in San Luis Obispo and travels to Oakland for training at the studios of former world champion dancer Zoe Balfour.

Balfour’s former partner, Citabria Phillips, has switched from leading to following since Balfour’s 2011 retirement from competition. Her current partner in the women’s standard category is Angie Esswein. They have been dancing together for about nine months, and Sunday’s NASSPDA competition was Esswein’s first in 20 years, and her first as a lead. She danced for several years but then gave up the sport for two decades. However, the joy of dancing was never far from her heart, and when she decided to dance again, she donned a tuxedo instead of a swirly chiffon dress.

“It just feels more natural to me,” she said. Esswein and Phillips competed and won in several single-dance contests on Sunday.

By the end of the long day, tired and happy dancers had claimed their ribbons and medals. Some rivalries had played out in unexpected ways, some newcomers had made their mark, and some veterans had demonstrated their staying power. In the close-knit world of same-sex competitive dance, there is a sense of camaraderie and mutual support that is heartwarming to behold.

Despite their long hours of high-energy dancing, spirits remained high as the participants rehashed their performances and tucked into homemade chili and cornbread, and the 2012 winners sat down to dinner beside the champions they had unseated just hours earlier.

For more information on same-sex ballroom dancing, visit http://www.dancingintherivercity.com/, http://aprilfollies.com/ , http://nasspda.org/home/and http://www.theballroomofsacramento.com/

Editor's Note: This article has been edited after publication.

Saturday: Verge Ahead into 2012

2012-01-19T20:28:22Z

Verge Center for the Arts has remained a consistent hub of creativity for Sacramento since they first opened their doors as a private art gallery in 2009. In 2010 they expanded into their current space—a 22,000 square foot warehouse in Downtown Sacramento—and organized as a nonprofit. Now home to 30 resident studio artists, plus extensive gallery and event space, Verge continues their mission of exposing Sacramento to the contemporary art and artists of the region.

2011 was a particularly big year for Verge. Among many other achievements, they had a more-than-successful Kickstarter campaign ($9,165 raised on a $7,500 goal!), won the First Place award of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and Sacramento Region Community Foundation’s Arts Innovation Fund, and Executive Director Liv Moe was named Arts Executive of the Year at the Arts & Business Council’s “Prelude to the Season” event.

This Saturday, celebrate Verge’s 2011 successes and help them “Verge Ahead” into 2012 at the “Verge Ahead Success Party” (6pm-Midnight at Verge, 625 S Street, Sacramento). If you have yet to check out this innovative local arts spot, there’s no better time than this!

In addition to exploring the studios of resident artists, you’ll be able to play “Art Golf” (each hole is specially designed by a Verge artist, and be sure to try for a hole-in-one at the Sac365 hole!), get your photo taken at the photobooth for instant sharing of the fun on your social media networks, see live performances by a multitude of bands (Mom, Christine Shields, Fine Steps, Gentleman Surfer, and Ganglians), and dance the night away to tunes spun by DJ Scott Soriano and DJ Hailey. If that’s not enough, arts collective Future Art Notables will take over the temporary gallery with their installation “Assorted Spaces”, which allows viewers to walk among the pieces, fully immersing themselves in the art.

And, don’t worry, tasty beer is provided for the evening by local brewers Ruhstaller, as well as coffee from Insight Coffee Roasters (each $15 ticket includes two refreshments!). Plus, receive free giveaways throughout the night, and a little something extra if you're among the first 50 to arrive.

Come enjoy this soiree and celebrate Sacramento’s burgeoning arts community.

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Find more detail on this event along with many more at Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

Disclosure: Written by Sacramento365.com Assistant Editor, Alison Kranz

It's “Singles Night at the Sacramento History Museum!” - February 9!

2012-01-19T17:49:01Z

No Valentine this year? No worries!

Sacramento area singles looking for a fun new way to meet interesting people won’t want to miss the one-night-only “Singles Night at the Sacramento History Museum” in Old Sacramento on Thursday evening, February 9.

The special festivities include tasty appetizers and wine sampling at the Sacramento History Museum starting at 5 p.m., an evening Old Sacramento Underground tour at 5:30 p.m. led by the crowd-favorite Miss Odessa, followed by a fun and friendly museum scavenger hunt. Then, for those who have worked up an appetite, the popular Rio City Café is offering a 15 percent discount on dinner for everyone with a valid “Singles Night at the Sacramento History Museum” event ticket.

Due to the limited availability, advance tickets are highly recommended and can be purchased online at www.HistoricOldSac.org or by calling 916-808-7059. The check-in for the special “Singles Night at the Sacramento History Museum” is at the Sacramento History Museum, 101 I Street in Old Sacramento. Note that all Old Sacramento Underground tour visitors need to be prepared to walk on uneven surfaces in areas that have low ceilings and in occasional small spaces.

The “Singles Night at the Sacramento History Museum” is presented by the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation (HOSF).

About the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation
The Historic Old Sacramento Foundation (HOSF) is a 501(c)3 public benefit corporation. Old Sacramento is a living historic district. The mission of HOSF is to convey the importance of historic Sacramento as a place that connects our past to our present and future through engaging and entertaining events, activities and programs. More information is available at www.historicoldsac.org.

Disclosure: Traci Rockefeller Cusack represents a number of businesses and organizations throughout the greater Sacramento area including the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation.

'Alley house' to open for neighbors Friday

2012-01-19T02:05:51Z

The architect and owners of a new house on Blues Alley between 22nd and 23rd streets are looking to bring the controversy surrounding its construction full circle, inviting neighbors to an open house Friday.

Originally proposed as a three-story, 2,400-square-foot building, the house, went through a series of design reviews, eventually getting to the City Council.

The house features a contemporary style and materials including corten steel – an alloy that gives a rusted look without damaging its structural integrity –

Sacramento Press Community Contributor Deb Belt wrote about the controversy surrounding the project, which sparked a flurry of comments on both sides of the issue. Read that article and the conversation by clicking here.

Neighbors who were unhappy with the project in their neighborhood of historical buildings brought the issue to the City Council despite the fact that it met all building codes and had been previously approved, said Architect Stephen Henry.

According to a city report, 10 neighbors spoke at the Sept. 16, 2010, Design Commission meeting, with seven opposed and three in favor of the project.

The report states that residents were concerned that the three-story building was out of scale with the one- and two-story buildings nearby, it didn’t fit the aesthetic context of the area and it was “detrimental to the privacy of the adjacent neighbors.”

Neighbors in favor of the project said that it brought welcome security to the area, which was previously vacant and had security issues.

Last February, the City Council directed the homebuilders to redesign the project, a process Belt – who is married to Henry – discussed in a subsequent article.

“They basically said that the building could be three stories tall if it was redesigned, or it could be two stories tall if it’s in the contemporary style,” Henry said. “That really speaks volumes to what the real issue is.”

The builders opted for a two-story home, bringing the square footage down about 600-650 to a total of 1,750-1,800 square feet.

Much of what can be seen of the home from nearby streets is the blue-painted siding, but driving by it on the alley shows the modern rusted steel alloy facade. Opposite the house is a concrete block wall that houses a plumbing company, Henry said.

“It’s kind of a transitional zone of the neighborhood,” Henry added.

With the house nearing completion, Henry said the open house is to invite nearby residents to see the end result. It will be held from 4 - 7 p.m. Friday.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local businesses collaborate on coffee-infused beer

2012-01-19T02:02:34Z

A small-batch, coffee-infused India pale ale is the result of the collaboration of Old Soul Co. and Rubicon Brewing Company. The month it’s spent on the taps at both businesses has brought good reviews, the business owners said.

“We’ve done coffee beers before, but they tended to be darker beers – the stouts and the porters,” said Rubicon Brewing Company Brewer Aldred Griffin. “We almost scoffed at the idea of doing an IPA, but after trying it the first time, it surprised us, and it was really pleasing.”

Griffin said the bitterness and hops in the IPA complemented the roastiness of the coffee.

Old Soul Co. co-owner Tim Jordan said the coffee used in the beer is Ethiopian Beloya, which is one of the rare reserve coffees.

Griffin agreed, saying, “It’s almost kind of a trick when you’re drinking it and smelling these aromas and seeing the color not really matching up with what you’re drinking.”

“We cold-brewed it, and we picked it because it had a little bit of floral character we thought would complement the hops,” Jordan said. “We’ll do this IPA as long as it makes sense for them to have time to do it in their fermenting tanks.”

He said the beer has a little bit of richness to it. The scent of coffee gives the drinker the impression of a sense of warmth inside.

The beer is offered at Rubicon and the Old Soul locations with beer taps: Weatherstone at 812 21st St. and 40 Acres at 3434 Broadway.

A pint runs $4.50, and Jordan said Old Soul pours legitimate 16-oz pints.

“We’re a cafe and coffeehouse first and foremost,” he said. “We’re not trying to make a bunch of money off alcohol. We like to carry artisanal and craft brews.”

Rubicon Brewing Company owner Glynn Phillips said he enjoys working with Old Soul Co.

“They are a great account of ours that has a very local spin on it,” he said. “We buy a fair amount of their coffee and serve it here at Rubicon. I like the way they run their business.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Why we are against SOPA

2012-01-19T01:32:15Z

As an owner of Macer Media, publisher of The Sacramento Press, I have never made a political statement on this site. Today I will, out of self-preservation, and a concern for what is just and good for this site, and the people of this community in general.

Wikipedia went black Wednesday due to its strong opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Google also voiced its opposition with a link on its homepage. Many other Interenet companies took similar steps.

So the first question is: What is SOPA?

SOPA is a piece of proposed legislation in the House of Representatives aimed at, you guessed it, stopping piracy. The main proponent of the bill is the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and is sponsored by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). The bill has both strong bipartisan support and strong bipartisan opposition. In other words, this is not at all an issue divided down party lines. Last weekend, the White House came out in opposition to the bill due to concerns about national cyber-security. A very similar bill is to be voted on in the Senate on Jan. 24, called the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

The bill’s proponents claim that the bill is aimed at stopping the piracy of American intellectual property by foreign agents. The Wall Street Journal has an excellent FAQ covering most of the basics of the bill.

So what’s the harm?

Free speech, due process and commercial viability of Internet sites who accept user-generated content are all at risk due to this legislation.

The trouble is in the wording of the bill, which gives the government and copyright holders enormous new powers to stop sites they believe are violating their intellectual property. And while the bill is targeted at foreign agents, nebulous wording would allow for significant compliance and liability costs to be passed along to organizations such as ours. This burden could easily put an organization such as The Sacramento Press out of business.

Even the well-known constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams, who was paid by the MPAA to write a letter touting the bill, admits that, “When injunctive relief includes blocking domain names, the blockage of non-infringing or protected content may result.” Censoring a little free speech can’t hurt that much, right?

Why SOPA?

That’s a good question and one of my biggest problems with the bill. The bill is premised on the idea the piracy is rampant AND that it causes material harm to the United States in the form of lost jobs and lost revenue. The question is, where’s the proof? Tim O’Reilly, owner of O’Reilly Books and a successful digital and print publisher (owner of lots of intellectual property) says it best:

“There's no question in my mind that piracy exists, that people around the world are enjoying creative content without paying for it, and even that some criminals are profiting by redistributing it. But is there actual economic harm?”

I believe that it should be the burden of the proponents of the bill to prove economic harm before seeking a legislative solution.

There has only been one significant independent study done on international piracy concerns, and one of the conclusions it makes is, “…we see little reason to think that changes in IP protection or enforcement will significantly affect (international piracy).”

This is bad legislation that restricts our rights, is aimed a problem that possibly doesn’t exist and will likely do little to prevent what piracy does.

For these reasons, our company strongly opposes SOPA and PIPA.

I’m happy to answer any question and concerns you might have in the conversation below. Here is a link to the full text of the bill.

Disclosure: I contribute $10 a month to a lobbying effort known as Demand Progress. It currently lobbies against SOPA/PIPA. For more info, visit demandprogress.org.

Second Saturday art and events

2012-01-18T20:49:33Z

Midtown’s first Second Saturday event of 2012 saw smaller crowds this weekend. The smaller crowds however made it easier to talk to artists who exhibited their work.

A number of establishments also appeared to have closed down or moved from Midtown's J Street and surrounding area since last month. This situation has created a new environment where several businesses are collaborating to bring events to a storefront during Second Saturday.

This Saturday, Dragatomi, Metro PCS, tokidoki and Unseen Heroes teamed up for a Metro PCS and tokidoki Phone Release Party.

Unseen Heroes Events Coordinator, Maritza Davis, described the event saying, “This is a tokidoki and Metro PCS release collaboration that brings new phone technology to Sacramento. These events are typically done in Los Angeles and larger cities but because we have an established vinyl toy store here in Sacramento, Dragatomi, they were willing to let us link up with them so that we could feature the phone and introduce it to the public.”

The event ran from 5 to 9 p.m. and a line formed to receive free swag bags that included a tokidoki t-shirt and other goodies. Customers were also given the chance to buy the exclusive phones and sign up for a prize drawing. Several yet to be released phone cases were also available for purchase.

Roshaun Davis, creative alchemist, at Unseen Heroes highlighted the fact that only three launches have been done for the tokidoki phone release and they chose Sacramento as one of the sites. The first release was in New York, the second in L.A. and then Sacramento.

When Metro PCS and tokidoki first partnered they celebrated the partnership by introducing the phone at the New York Comic-Con which is the largest POP culture event on the East Coast. The launch on Saturday night coincided with the SacAnime Convention in town and several visitors who passed by Dragatomi had the SacAnime badges still hanging from their neck.

Inside Dragatomi an art exhibit by Martin Hsu had several of his “Dragon Boy” series art work. The Hsu exhibit will run until February 4.

Down the street at the corner of K and 22nd Street artist Conrad Lawrence had a street art exhibit of bikes and metal art work. Lawrence also created a bicycle powered art mechanism that allowed people who passed by to create a “swirl” art piece that Lawrence hopes to soon have on display. Other finished pieces lay on the ground.

Intrigued by his bicycle art idea I asked how he came up with the concept. “It was inspired by Burning Man. I did a show with tall bikes. In June I had 20 of them and I asked myself how else can I make the bikes interactive? So this idea came up and I built it. Then I thought of the shrink stand over there making everything interactive art.”

Another piece was created by Lawrence’s mother and people could pass by and fill in the unfinished piece. Lawrence said, “The project here is just to fill it in with whatever in order to finish this unique piece of art."

A separate area had a Peanuts comic strip style psychiatry booth called Lucy’s Shrink Shop. The station would allow people passing by to take either the psychiatrist or patient role and initiate conversation between two people. I thought this to be a clever idea and probably one that many corporations could install in a break room or something similar. Street art at times seems to offer more but January’s Second Saturday offered both.

Gallery 2110 and the Sacramento Art Complex had their gallery open for a showing of James Mullen’s work and several resident artists were on hand at their studios. Clare Bailey, Gallery 2110 owner, introduced me to Mullen and showed me some of his work.

Mullen is a Grass Valley artist whose work will be featured at the gallery that runs through February 3.

His artwork was truly fascinating and when I asked him how long he’s been an artist I got an answer that I was expecting after walking around the main hall admiring his work. Mullen said, “For as long as I can remember. Before I went to kindergarten I knew I was going to be an artist.” I’ve talked to other artists who have said similar things indicating they knew they wanted to be an artist going back to grade school. I often wondered if that’s the case only with artists or if extends beyond that. To me it’s astonishing to know someone that young can have that drive. It’s especially amazing since as I’ve become older I still don’t know what I want to be.

Mullen operates a studio out of his home in Grass Valley. His exhibit opened on Thursday and will run for approximately a month. He indicated that much of his work on exhibit goes back to 2005 and more recent work was also on display.

His work, on a smaller scale, reminded me of the Watts Towers that were close to where I lived growing up in Los Angeles. Mullen’s artwork is made up of materials found around where he lives. When asked how he gathered his materials for his artwork Mullen said, “I stop by places near home that I know. I like fencing and I like rusted sheet metal and copper so when I ride my bicycle and I see someone has a bunch of rolled up fencing in their pasture I knock on the door and say, hey you want to get rid of this? A lot of times they say yeah, so I haul it away and take it home.” Mullen said he works with those materials and stretches them out, cuts it up and reshapes it to make his brand of art.

Mullen is always looking for pieces and his friends know that and they too gather up these items and give them to him. He’s been primarily involved in this form of art for the past four to five years and before that he worked with clay for many years. He hears from friends and friends of friends who see his work and they approach him saying, “Hey I have a box of junk you’re going to like and they bring him a box of stuff.” It just goes to show that art is everywhere and discarded items or “junk” with the right imagination can be turned into great pieces of art.

Mullen’s creative art pieces occupy the main hall at the 2110 Gallery and can be great inspiration to students and established artists. The materials he uses come not only from the Grass Valley area but he’s also acquired items from a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and when he has a concept in mind he may search eBay for items in other places.

Live music at the 2110 Gallery was provided by Sean Paul Mee and his music was great ambiance for the event.