Looking for something to do this Friday night? Put on your dancing shoes, head over to the Blue Lamp, and support a good cause! Japan XOXO is a benefit dance party, with all profits from the door going to the American Red Cross. Join local DJs Shaun Slaughter, Adam J, Sam I Jam, and Taylor Cho as they do what they love to support an amazing cause. Feel like you could do more about Japan's dire situation? Feel helpless? Japan XOXO offers a very easy solution: COME DANCE. Expect an evening of fun house, bouncy house, hip house, topsy turvy techno, treacherous techno, and some fun indie stuff mixed in the middle keeping the party going all damn night. Plus, enjoy drink specials all night--

Arco Arena (soon to be Power Balance Pavilion) was transformed into a dirt arena for the 2011 Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Sacramento Invitational on Friday and Saturday night. The first thing newcomers to the PBR must know is that you do not refer to this as a rodeo. No, as Jack Carnefix told me, “rodeos have a few bull rides but mostly include things like mutton busting, calf roping and pole bending.” He continued with, “this two-day event is just bull riding – no gimmicks.” As the night began a group of men came-out to the floor and traced the letters PBR with gasoline. As the fireworks burst and flames shot from the flame guns, the traced letters came to life with fire. With music

The Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series is in town this weekend for its second stop of the 2011 season. In conjunction with the appearance, the PBR held a media hour on Thursday afternoon where I had the opportunity to meet and interview Bull Rider McKennon Wimberly. Also in attendance was Zorro, a 25-year-old, 1,700-pound bull. More on him later. I met Wimberly in the Kings store. The 5-foot-9-inch, 150-pound Cool, Texas, native was wearing a black banded cowboy hat that matched his boots, blue jeans, a light brown vest (that matched the band on his hat) and a collared shirt which read Neckover, a brand of horse trailer, down the sleeve. He looks every bit the professional

And so it begins. Wednesday night, the Giants continued their amazing run through the playoffs with an 11-7 defeat of the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the World Series. On a night when Timmy Lincecum struggled on the mound (four earned runs over 5 and 2/3 innings), the pressure was on the Giants hitters to pick him up, and boy did they ever. They jumped on the heretofore unbeatable Cliff Lee (7-0 with a 1.26 E.R.A in eight career playoff starts coming into Game 1) for six earned runs, and knocked him out of the game in the fifth. In true Giants fashion, even though they won the game handily (the Giants held leads of 8-2 in the fifth and 11-4 in the eighth), there were plenty of moments o

        Think back to your freshman year of high school.  Imagine you just went through an especially excruciating day of what was surely an excruciating year.  You slept through first period, missed a quiz, got pantsed on the green (or a comparable humiliation), your crush pointed out that you had a "bat in the cave," and everybody laughed at you . . . you get the idea. Murphy saw your day, and was so moved, that he wrote a law to commemorate it.               Fourteen-year-old you somehow made it through this day from Hell.  You got home, got to your room, locked your door and laid on your bed, overwhelmed with a soul-crushing angst that only a 14-year-old can feel.                You

 Dear "Cheaters", There is no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna spit it out:  I've been seeing someone else.  I want you to know that I'll always have love for you.  When I was new to town, you took me in, and I'll never forget that.  We'll always have Oregon basketball; who knows, maybe we can ring in the new arena together next fall. You need to understand that it's not you, it's me.  Please, don't cry.  Stop it.  You're a still wonderful bar, I've just found someone I'm more compatible with.   It's been going on a few weeks now. I wanted to watch the Giants game and grab a beer, but it was raining, and I didn't want to go all the way down Folsom to do it. I'd noticed this plac

Call them crazy. Call them reckless. Just don't forget to call them cowboys. This weekend at Arco Arena, Professional Bull Riding returns with death-defying action and good family fun. Three intense rounds of competition will produce a winner. The rider who amasses the highest points total after enduring three rides will be crowned the Sacramento champion in the "Built Ford Tough Series." This weekends event will also feature a first-time competition between the No. 1 and 2 riders in the world. A one-time challenge is scheduled, with the highest point total after one ride taking home $10,000. Riders must hang onto the bull for 8 seconds. Points are awarded for technique, form and length