Skip the crowded malls this Saturday and bring your wish lists and your camera down to the MARRS Building to visit Santa’s Workshop! Santa and his elves have opened up their workshop for the past two Saturdays and this Saturday they are inviting the whole family, even the pets! Residents and visitors are invited to visit Santa’s Workshop at the MARRS Building from 11am-4pm. Pets are welcome to come down from 2pm-4pm. Grateful Dog Daycare will even be on hand to give the photogenic pooches a special treat. The MARRS Building is located in the heart of Midtown at 20th & J Streets. MARRS retailers invite all, big and small, to join them at this festive event. Retailers at MARRS include Pete

2nd Annual 12 Days of Midtown Midtown Sacramento is all dressed up for the holiday season with events and specials that are sure to fill visitors and residents with holiday cheer. Festivities will occur December 1st - December 12th with a variety of activities for all ages. The 2nd Annual event will feature various local businesses throughout the Midtown district. The 12 Days of Midtown kicks off with the Winter Wine & Jazz Mixer featuring the Sacramento Philharmonic on Thursday, December 1st. The full calendar of merry activities includes a Hot Toddy contests at  Santa’s Tavern (The Golden Bear), a gingerbread cookie workshop at artBEAST, Santa’s Workshop at the MARRS Building, multiple

Midtown Merchants are brewing up a bewitching good time for kiddos and pooches of all ages and sizes. Midtown's Annual Halloween celebration is just a few days away. Join us for the Midtown Trick-or-Treat and Pooch Parade this Saturday, October 29th from 11a.m.- 3p.m. Enjoy an afternoon of Trick or Treats from over 70 participating Midtown businesses, as well as a parade of dressed up pooches strutting their stuff throughout the district. In addition to satisfying your kids sweet tooth, bring the whole family down to Mixed Bag (24th & K) and Relles Florist (24th & J) for a variety of FREE family friendly activities. Catch the hourly magic show, pumpkin decorating, face painting, balloon

  The Capital Cities Artober celebration is in full effect and Midtown is excited to give the Sacramento region another opportunity to explore and commemorate the arts in a big way. This Saturday, October 15th, the Midtown Modern Arts Festival (MMAF) will take place on 20th Street between J & K. The FREE family-friendly street-fair will occur from Noon – 6:00pm and is guaranteed to offer attendees a broad spectrum of creativity including Music, Dance, Comedy, the Visual Arts and every medium in-between. The festival will feature a performance program on two separate stages: the KlickNation Stage and the MARRS Building Stage. Performing artists include the Sacramento Ballet, The Sacrament

Wayne Static will play at Ace of Spades on Tuesday to promote his first solo project album “Pighammer.” Opening acts will include Eye Empire, Kyng, One Eyed Doll, Gemini Syndrome and Damage Over Time. Static, who is known for his work over the years with metal/industrial/thrash/techno powerhouse Static-X (not to mention his insane signature 10-inch spiked hairdo), has taken a hiatus from the band to focus on putting out a record that is purely his own. “I think (“Pighammer” is) a lot more focused,” Static said of the differences between his solo project and his work with Static-X. “I wrote 99 percent of the music for Static-X, but I had a whole band to deal with, so the whole process was

It’s almost time for the August ‘Second Saturday’, where midtown SacTown comes alive with artists, musicians, art galleries, and shops in the evening hours. “K” Street is ‘kickin’, “J” Street is “jumpin’, and the surrounding streets are pulsing with the rhythms of the night. But what about “E” Street over in Mansion Flats? Mansion Flats, the sister neighborhood to Alkali Flats, is located from 12th Street to 16th between “the Union Pacific Railyard & “J” streets. Mansion Flats, Alkali Flats and New Era Park were the original City Street Railway neighborhoods and consisted of the wealthy and middle class families, according to the Sacramento History blog. Have you been looking for some p

Ahmeer Rivac has a competitive will. He’s a big fan of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts. His spirited attitude has been known to be on display during his workouts at Capital City Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But now the 33-year-old has harnessed his energy for a battle against Stage II Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Rivac’s fighting spirit will give others a fighting chance, when he serves as the face and the voice to the upcoming blood and marrow drive that takes place June 10 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at Sutter Cancer Center, 2800 L St., Classrooms 1-4, in Sacramento. The event is sponsored by BloodSource and Sutter Cancer Center. “Although those who donate may not directly help me, it will definit

Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and its construction partner, The Boldt Co., today “topped out” the Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center by placing the final steel beam on top of the hospital under construction adjacent to the Capital City Freeway and between L Street and Capitol Avenue. At 179 feet, 3 inches, it is the tallest building in midtown Sacramento. A traditional “topping out” ceremony was held by The Boldt Co. and Sutter Medical Center to thank the construction workers for their hard work and safe, efficient erection of the steel, and to celebrate the continuance of the midtown expansion that also includes a major renovation of Sutter General Hospital. The final b

Hundreds of Sacramento locals gathered at the corner of J and 20th streets in Midtown Sacramento late Saturday afternoon as world-renowned performance painter David Garibaldi showed appreciation for Kings fans by featuring them in his “Be Heard” mural. Garibaldi requested photos of fans via Facebook and Twitter last week, and he chose 10 of the photos to display on his massive mural. “I’ve never done anything quite like this,” said the Sacramento artist. “I was honored to give something back to the Kings fans, who are the ones responsible for the team staying in Sacramento.” DJ Joseph One’s music echoed off the buildings and through the streets as crowds of people watched in awe and gos

When visiting the downtown/midtown area of Sacramento, be on the lookout for Sacramento’s favorite alien, the Brutha From Another Planet (B.F.A.P.). He can be spotted performing his unique dance moves to his favorite music on his space age music box which includes 70’s and 80’s funk, disco, and dance music from all eras. The B.F.A.P. was named by a group of admirers who first witnessed his funky dance moves. Meeting and greeting the B.F.A.P. is easy. He is very family friendly and is a great crowd pleaser. Youngsters of all ages are delighted and frightened by his robotic dance movements after seeing him frozen in place. Ruben of South Sacramento, age 10, described the B.F.A.P. as “Reall

My, it was a busy weekend around Sacramento. And I'm not talking about the holiday. People were shot, people were killed and people (and homes) were robbed. And there was all the other horrible stuff that happens daily. I took the four-day weekend off from news consumption. Monday morning, I remembered why. Much of it, especially the crime news, is depressing and does nothing to improve my life. Worse, some of it is not even entirely true. But confronting it now gives me the opportunity to ask Sacramento Press readers a question about the future of this website. But first, as they say, the news: The big news that I missed until Monday was that a group of four people – described in The

A marketplace of colorful stalls will take over one of Sacramento's busiest corners Saturday. Like an oasis in a concrete desert, a new public market called the Midtown Bazaar will spring up on a parking lot at 16th and J streets — across from the Memorial Auditorium and P.F. Chang's China Bistro — and flow through an alley into a cavernous old building for a few hours each week. At least 75 local vendors offering art and other goods have already signed up for the grand opening, to be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. With an indoor location measuring 25,600 feet, the market will be held year-round. The old garage at 1630 I St. sports old timber trusses, a mezzanine and roll-up doors in back th

local.indie.music.photos combines photographer Amy Scott's love of both music and photography into a visual glimpse of the Sacramento music scene. As a regular in the Downtown/Midtown scene, throughout the past few years, she has shot hundreds of local Sacramento music shows and has uploaded literally thousands of photos to her Flickr page. Oftentimes you will find her near the stage at the latest show, camera in hand, ready to capture a band in all its glory.    On Friday, June 11, local.indie.music.photos, in collaboration with Luigi's Slice and Fungarden, present a showcase of around a hundred of Scott's local live band shots from the past year and a half. The show will feature live p

The City of Sacramento's Parking Division and Revenue Division would like to share an update about expired residential parking permits. The City is in the process of renewing over 700 residential parking permits for the "K" parking area in Midtown. The current permits expired on May 31. Renewal permits are expected to be mailed out by Friday, June 4. Residents should continue to display their current permit until they receive the renewed permit. Specifically in the K residential parking area (designated by signage and located in Midtown), parking citations will not be issued for expired permits until after June 20, to allow enough time for permits to be received and displayed. If residen