It is a new found love and great privilege to be asked by an artist to write about their craft, their love, their product, and their passion. I approach the task with great seriousness and with much study and contemplation so that my product - my writing - will convey to you the reader, an informative and pleasurable read. It has been my honor to have spent several recent evenings listening to the new CD by David Rosales titled Smile. David is a gifted songwriter and vocalist. His vocal stylings on Smile are reminiscent of Johnny Cash blended with that familiar touch of Jim Morrison that fans of Silent Treatment (David's straight-up rock band) are so incredibly turned on by. Smile could b

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, hi

Tonight's Review Writing workshop will be live streamed, and we encourage you to tune in from 6:45 - 8 p.m. Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton will teach the basics of reviewing concerts, theater and other performances. We are not accepting anymore RSVPs at this point. We are at full capacity for attendees. If you have RSVP'd but it's more convenient for you to watch the live stream, we encourage you to do so. The Ustream video will be pasted in this article later today. It will go live when the workshop starts. Free live streaming by Ustream

The Sacramento Press office was packed Wednesday night as Dianne Heimer presented the 45 attendees with tips on how to write better leads – the opening sentences in articles. Before the workshop began, guests enjoyed sandwiches and chips from Dad’s Kitchen. Heimer has been a professor of journalism at Sacramento City College for 17 years. She has a BA in English and an MA in English/journalism. She is currently a freelance magazine writer. “I was excited, ’cause this is exactly what I needed help with,” Keilah Woodard said. She has a blog about places to go with kids called Sacramento Side Tracks. This is the second workshop Sally King has attended at The Sacramento Press. “I really ca

What is one to expect when going to a place called a gastropub? Typically, a gastropub concentrates on quality food while still providing a pub-like atmosphere, but critics say it takes away from the traditional pub feel. This is a larger concept to brand your restaurant with, and when John Gurnee came to town, that's what he was looking to create. A recent post by Girls on the Grid depicting how wonderful the Kupros Bistro is created a far different image in my mind than what I experienced. I sat down at the bar with my food friends, including an experienced fromager, drinkers and a sous chef at one of the Sacramento area’s leading restaurants. We found a quiet neighborhood bar wi

If you had to sleep with one of the Three Stooges, which would it be? And what would your answer reveal about you? Sacramento's own Lambda Players graciously provide the answer in their production of Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown. Alexa Vere de Vere (played here by Kristen Wagner), a glamorous and mysterious woman with a seemingly inexhaustible Rolodex, poses the aforementioned Larry-Curly-Moe conundrum early in the play to Evan Wyler (Matthew Abergel), a writer newly “discovered” by New York's literary elite. Vere de Vere contracts Wyler to write a screenplay based on her terribly exciting and exotic life, and drama ensues. Wagner's Vere de Vere is an affected, just-bare

Thanks to my 14 year old son Patrick's pleading & my passion to partake in live music, he my wife & I headed down to San Francisco last Saturday (2/28) to take in a show featuring Hank III (The grandson of the late great Hank Williams), along with openers "Those Poor Bastards".  What a great evening of fun, family & live music!  The show was held at a new venue to me;  the Regency Grand Ballroom, which is a wonderful spot near the Civic Center area, on Van Ness Avenue.  The hall is one of those old school S.F treasures, a beautiful room, wood floors, high onamental ceilings & walls,  chandeliers & a warm feeling that is hard to explain, but immediatly understood.  There is a perimeter bal

Yesterday I went and saw Oklahoma! at Magic Circle Theatre in Roseville. I have seen many shows at Magic Circle, and I was even in A Chorus Line there. They pump out a lot of musicals and often have a lot of talent in their shows. Oklahoma! is Rodgers and Hammerstein's first Musical. It has never been one of my favorite musicals, and think it has issues. Regardless, I am just going to review this specific production. The full house starts with a corny yeehaw lead by the director Brent Null, but c'mon this is Oklahoma! so I was down. The curtain reveals the typical set I have seen for every production of this show ever (the technical aspect is where Magic Circle has always fallen short sa