Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "rain"

The Beatles are in town! Broadway Sacramento's "Rain" delights--for one week only.

2011-12-28T18:27:09Z

Travel back through time with Broadway Sacramento's Rain, a Beatles tribute show that began as an offshoot of the Broadway production of Beatlemania. Rain ran on Broadway for 300 shows and 8 preview performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York City and has also been a hugely successful national tour for years. Together longer than the Beatles, Rain has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance.

This multi-media show begins by taking us away to a time when four young men stepped on stage at the Ed Sullivan show and changed music as we knew it. Rain chronicles the journey America took with the Beatles, showing us footage of screaming fans, interviews, and historical happenings that changed us all.

Looking around the room, I saw three generations of Beatles fans, all singing along, dancing, and screaming like it was 1964. When it came time for the last number to be performed, I didn’t want the show to end. And neither did anyone else, Rain went on to perform two encores.

This show is the next best thing to seeing the Beatles. Who knows, you might just learn a new song or two!

Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles continues at the Community Center Theater through January 1. Show times: Wed 8pm; Thurs 2pm & 8pm; Fri 3pm & 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm.

The Broadway Sacramento season continues with West Side Story (Jan 24-Jan 29), Mamma Mia! (March 13-March 18), Million Dollar Quartet (April 17-April 22), and Wicked (May 23-June 17).

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Written by Sacramento365.com Intern, Aimee Steffen
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Excitement builds as autumn approaches

2011-09-13T01:28:36Z

Summer is almost over, but fall in Sacramento offers new things to look forward to. This is the time of year when the leaves change color, the weather cools off and the smells of fall swirl in the air and capture the hearts of the people. The Sacramento Press asked: What are you most excited about for fall in Sacramento this year?

Brittany Ryan, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State from Natomas, said, “I love when the leaves change color and am excited to drink pumpkin spice lattes from the local coffee shops.”

Christina Peterson, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom from Sacramento, said, “We are excited to start the family tradition of going to Apple Hill and the pumpkin patch with our new little boy.”

Shannon Davis, a 23-year-old hair stylist and student from Sacramento, said, “I am excited to walk around Midtown all bundled up, with an umbrella.”

Whitney Day, a 25-year-old nurse from Sacramento, said, “I am excited for this fall in Sacramento because I love the big pumpkin patch maze in Dixon.”

Dwayne Keller, a 60-year-old retired artist from Sacramento, said, “I am excited to walk in the rain instead of the heat.”

Alex Arnold, a 23-year-old photographer and student from Sacramento, said, “I am excited to celebrate at the Turn Verein for Oktoberfest on Oct. 7 and 8. I am also excited for photo shoots with the fall leaves.”

What are you excited about for fall in Sacramento this year? Tell us in the comment section below.

Are You Ready for an Emergency?

2011-03-14T18:34:56Z

Stay in touch with local officials during emergencies by signing up for alerts at the County and City of Sacramento’s Emergency Preparedness website: http://www.sacramentoready.org/default.htm.
Learn about preparation of emergency kits, evacuation routes and local resources at the region’s one-stop site for emergency readiness.

Third time is not a charm. . .

2010-05-12T15:25:41Z

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not really. It had been a dark and stormy afternoon, however, and about 4 p.m., I thought the River Cats series finale against the Colorado Sky Sox was in jeopardy of being rained out.

Fortunately, the storm broke around 5 p.m., and by game time there were only a few clouds in the sky. I arrived about 6:30 and was pleasantly surprised to find a press pass waiting for me at Will Call. I'd thought that ship might have sailed after the "flip flop incident," but apparently not.

I felt like a good cop, though somewhat of a loose cannon, who'd lost his badge and gun because of his erratic behavior. Like Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon". On Monday, I got my badge back. .

Many factors -- the pouring rain a few hours earlier, the fact that it was a Monday night, the record low temperatures (39 degrees at the Sacramento Airport) -- resulted in a sparse but hearty crowd. The listed game attendance was 6,169, but if there were 2,000 people there, I'll eat my hat.

There were plenty of good seats to be had, and I had several of them.

I started the game two rows behind the River Cats dugout, behind a group of rambunctious middle schoolers and their chaperone. The catcalls were flying, although most of their hooting and hollering was of the positive variety, and directed toward their hometown heroes.

They took a particular liking to catcher Anthony Recker, who seemed to be their favorite. When Kyle Middleton threw a close strike in the first inning, the kids credited it to the catcher. When Sky Sox leadoff hitter Cole Garner, who had reached base on a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, tried to steal third, Recker hosed him. He threw a perfect strike to Steve Tolleson, beating the runner by two feet. The kids went buck wild. "No one runs on the Recker!" (I can't be the first person to propose his nickname be "Home," can I?)

Corey Wimberly, who continued to impress, led off the home half of the first, but was left stranded. This was the first of four times that the River Cat catalyst (River Catalyst?) would reach base, but to no avail. It was a frustrating evening for the men in white.

The second inning was memorable only for a catch made by Jack Cust on a ball crushed by former MLB'er Jay Payton. The blast tied up the erstwhile Athletic, and he ended up doing a full 360 pirouette before making the catch. I'd always heard he wasn't much of a fielder, but he performed admirably in left this night.

The third inning again had Wimberly's fingerprints all over it. He made a diving catch to rob Sky Sox Warren Schaefer of a hit in the top of the inning, then had a single and was caught stealing in the bottom. "The Recker" isn't the only one no one runs on.

At this point, I decided to switch vantage points, watching the next two innings from about six rows behind home plate. Just as I sat down, Matt Miller smacked a single to right, then advanced to second when Michael Taylor threw a missile about 10 feet over the shortstop's head. It would be a tough night for the big right fielder from Stanford.

After Miller advanced to third on a groundout, Chris Ianetta roped a line drive single to right. Miller had to wait and see if the ball would be caught. Taylor was not able to catch it, but he grabbed the ball on one hop and immediately let sail a perfect strike, on the fly, to the catcher. It was a bang-bang play at the plate, but Miller slid in just under the tag. Almost a spectacular play but, unfortunately, this is neither horseshoes nor hand grenades. 1-0 Sky Sox.

The next few innings were fairly uneventful with a few highlights:

I wandered back over to the Cats' dugout and met a couple of huge A's fans, Jan and Adam, who were keeping score, right down to whether the strikes were swinging or looking. So what, you say. Well it wasn't so much what they were doing, but how they were doing it: on an iPad. There is an app for that, and it's pretty incredible. They showed me the scatter grid for Eric Sogard's last 10 hits. Incredible; a couple of fans doing statistical analysis that MLB scouting departments weren't capable of 30 years ago.

Wimberly got on base again, and got caught stealing again. No one runs on Michael McKenry, apparently.

I headed down to the dugout press area to finally meet the man who provides the fantastic photographs for my stories, Ahsan Awan. He invited me to watch the last couple of innings with him from the dugout, which was pretty awesome.

The kids by the dugout are ball crazy. A particularly rambunctious young man named Darren kept asking me for a ball. I told him I didn't have any and to "try the guys on the field." Then he asked the Sky Sox third base coach. "Do you have any balls?." When this elicited no response, he tried again: "How much balls do you have?" The kid had gumption, I'll give him that.

A couple of minutes later, he was eying my program. "Where'd you get that? I want one." I handed it over, knowing that it meant far more to him than it did to me. This led to one of the more surreal moments of my life. He ran off, only to return a moment later with a pen. "Can I have your autograph?" Ahsan was dying: "Hold on, I want to get a shot of this." After he had changed lenses, I obliged the precocious youngster with my signature. Anything for the kids.

In the bottom of the seventh, Taylor hit a one-out double, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Tolleson hit a slow grounder to the third baseman, Taylor broke on contact. When the Sky Sox third baseman decided to throw home, it looked like the ball would beat Taylor there by a half step. This was going to be a great play at the plate. Then Taylor stopped in his tracks, maybe 10 feet from home plate. It could have been a bang-bang play at the plate or a monumental collision that Sky Sox catcher McKenry wanted no part of. Taylor is 6 feet 6 inches, 260 pounds and had a full head of steam, McKenry is 5 feet 10 inches, 200 pounds, and was standing in place. Advantage, Taylor.

It became an easy tag out. Taylor was fully pot committed and had the better hand, but he folded to a weak bluff. Rally killed.

The Cats had another scoring opportunity in the bottom of the eighth, when Wimberly, who finished 3 for 3 with a walk, hit a two-out double. Sogard followed it with a walk. Cust came up with a chance to tie the game or give the Cats the lead, but he couldn't pull the trigger on a close 3-2 pitch and struck out looking.

The Cats kept scrapping in the ninth. Carter struck out swinging but reached first base on a wild pitch by longtime Minnesota Twin Juan Rincon. Taylor continued his rollercoaster evening with a sharp single to center. All of a sudden, there were runners on first and third, nobody out. The spattering of fans who remained on this frigid evening reminiscent of Candlestick were on their feet and could smell a victory. Tolleson hit a swinging bunt, advancing Taylor to second. Rincon then intentionally walked Adrian Cardenas. The stage was set.

Bases loaded, one out, Recker stepped into the batters box. I looked over at the kids behind the dugout and they were going bananas. Recker worked a full count from Rincon, fouling off several tough pitches. Unfortunately, the last one just barely stayed in play and was caught by McKenry against the backstop. Michael Affronti was the Cats' last hope, but he went down swinging.

Game over, another heartbreaking defeat for the good guys.

To sum it up, I attended three games during the recent homestead. The home team lost all three games by a total of three runs. The kicker is that they gave up unearned runs in all three games: 4 of 9, 4 of 5, and 1of 1. And that doesn't include several baserunning mishaps. It's a shame, because it seems like they have the talent to win the division if they can just get out of their own way.

Storm socks Sacramento

2010-01-21T03:49:54Z

A winter storm carrying wind gusts up to 60 mph and heavy rain pounded the Sacramento region Wednesday, cutting power to more than 50,000 people, knocking down dozens of trees and causing minor street flooding.

Most of the outages were scattered in small pockets with small numbers of customers per outage. The highest number of outages was 370 at the storm's peak, which occurred between about 9 and 10 a.m., said Chris Capra, spokesperson for Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

The storm didn't cause nearly the amount of power outages as the biggest storm in October, when thousands of outages occurred, Capra said. The lack of leaves on trees at this time of year helped; there wasn't a substantial number of leaves to soak up rain into branches or to contribute to branches being blown about by the wind, he said.

"We haven't seen the kind of damage we saw in the October storm," Capra said.

The city of Sacramento's Urban Forestry department got 40 calls of trees down, eight for trees needing to be removed and 31 calls of branches down or damaged, according to city Department of Transportation spokesperson Linda Tucker.

Almost 20 traffic signals were affected, many turned or without power, and some street lights were knocked down by falling trees or damaged by wind. City street crews closed Raley Boulevard near Santa Ana Avenue due to flooding of Magpie Creek.

Many people experienced only momentary losses of power. SMUD troubleshooters and other crews were out working to restore power throughout the day, but not during the height of the storm.

"When it's real windy and wet, we can't put crews out there to work," Capra said. "First of all for their safety. And in a matter of time, the wind could blow real hard again and it becomes fruitless.

By 7:30 p.m., only 2,700 customers were without power.

"We're looking at restoration efforts continuing throughout the night," Capra said.

Sacramento residents can call 311 to report downed trees or branches or other unsafe conditions to the city.

Photos by Eric Whalen and Suzanne Hurt.

Storm snippet

2010-01-20T23:05:15Z

"That's the thanks I get?" could be going through this Sacramento City worker's mind when a car sprays him as he tries to unclog a drain at Freeport and 10th in front of The Crepe Escape. In my journeys around Downtown, East Sac and Land Park, it looks like we emerged relatilvely unscathed. A worker prepares to cut a big limb (below) at the corner of N and 23rd this morning, perhaps as preventive maintenance. I caught news blurbs of a tree that fell on a house in Fair Oaks and of a Southwest flight from Sacramento being struck by lightning in southern California.There are scattered power outages in the area, (good for restaurants), and a potential for blizzard conditions in the Sierra.

As this publishes, it's looking like Wednesday's Round 2 is coming our way.

SacPress Photos | Kati Garner

More storm photos

2009-10-14T06:24:50Z

It was quite the blustery day in Sacramento as winds reached over 50 mph and more than 3 inches of rain fell, according to Fox 40 News meteorologist Kristina Werner.

Trees and branches fell in streets, on houses, on cars and power lines went out intermittently through the central city.

Streets turned into ponds, traffic slowed making commutes much longer than usual and I-5 was a flooded mess near the boat section despite the recent work by Caltrans.

It seemed there wasn't one corner of the city that the storm didn't touch.

Businesses such as Temple and Lucky Lefty's (shown below) felt the effects of the storm.

It's hard to believe many of us were just wearing flip flops, skirts, shorts and sleeveless shirts, as ponchos, hooded jackets, scarves and boots accompanied upturned umbrellas and scurrying people.

The rain did lighten up around 6 p.m. and there was even a rainbow to brighten the day.

Fall is definitely here.

The first two photos were taken by David Watts Barton. The rest of the photos were taken by Ed Fogle of Maverick Photography.

After the rain, a spectacular rainbow

2009-10-14T01:15:30Z

Storm damage this morning

2009-10-13T18:37:48Z

Here are some photos of the effects of the storm from community members who were out witnessing the damage.

This was taken at Q and 16th streets by Michael Gelber.

These two photos were taken on I Street and 30th. Ed Fogle of Maverick Photography took these as part of a live stream. More photos can be seen at sacmav.com

The next photos are from Southbound I-5 near the J Street exit in the boat section. These photos were also taken by Ed Fogle of Maverick Photography.

If you have photos of the storm, we'd love to see you post them on our site. If you have any questions on how to upload your photos, contact journalism@sacramentopress.com.

Stay safe and dry!

Rainy Road Havoc for EMS

2009-05-02T02:40:42Z

Sacramento, CA
Friday, May 1, 2009

Sacramento EMS crews were kept quite busy all day Friday. Mild temperatures and start of a new weekend had many people out on the road, but add in rain with heavy traffic throughout the region and you’ve created a recipe for havoc on the roads. We caught up with Sacramento Fire engines, truck crews, medic rigs, and Sac Police on a couple of incidents today out of the many we heard being dispatched over the squawk box. As the rain poured down, fire crews made sure the scenes were safe and assisted as paramedics tended to the victims; and officers took statements and reports on wet notepads.

The first incident we encountered with EMS crews was a head-on collision on Elder Creek Rd, just east of Power Inn before the railroad tracks. The second incident was a vehicle vs bicycle and a secondary collision when another vehicle ran into the first. We were unable to get information on injuries; however, airbags deployed on both of the vehicles in the first accident, and the juvenile bicyclist was being treated in the back of the ambulance upon our arrival at the second incident.

These weather conditions are expected to continue throughout the weekend. With the decent temperatures expect lots of people out and about and heavy traffic conditions. With the sporadic cloud burst and periods of heavy rain, expect traffic delays. Consider leaving early so you can take your time getting to your destination safely. When we are in a hurry and potentially distracted, it greatly increases our chances to be involved in an accident. Not only do we put ourselves, our families and those around us at risk, we also put our local firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement at risk as they put themselves in harms way on the wet roads to tend to our injuries and take reports. Yes, it is their job, but wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to do their job. Be safe as you travel around town this weekend.

River's rising

2009-03-04T23:23:25Z

So, two days ago, I took a quick shot from the I Street Bridge, upstream towards Discovery Park. This afternoon, during a break in the rain, I walked back up and took another. Not quite the same telephoto distance, but I do believe you can see some change in the height of the river.

So, how weird would it be to have a levee break in the middle of a drought?

Be Grateful for cloudy skies

2009-01-25T03:50:25Z

The Bee was full of cloudy skies today with news of soaring unemployment rates and the fiscal undoing of my employer, the County of Sacramento. It put me in a gloomy mood.

Yet when I took my dog out for his walk this afternoon the actual cloudy skies brightened my outlook. The clouds were beautiful to look at, for one, and made me feel grateful for the rain they carried, which our drought-ridden state needs so badly.

So I took some pictures of them.