Newest articles and comments on The Sacramento Press written by Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg on "Blackbird to open by end of February"

2012-01-29T06:33:15Z

But Crave-it Grill was basically just a Sysco truck with a counter. I think restaurants that put some uniqueness into their offering will be rewarded.

Joel Rosenberg on "To Catch an Error contest starts Monday!"

2011-11-14T20:36:58Z

Almost 3 hours after the fact? I had higher hopes for your responsiveness.

Joel Rosenberg on "Mastodon's Beastly Inspiration"

2011-11-03T19:54:25Z

And a great time was had by all. It was my first time at that venue and I was pretty impressed.

Joel Rosenberg on "Occupy Sacramento protesters want exception to city camping law "

2011-10-15T04:29:36Z

I'm not a follower of either movement, but that's ridiculous

Joel Rosenberg on "Historic Maydestone building opens after renovation"

2011-10-13T07:27:16Z

What?

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacramento chefs take on the Vegan Chef Challenge"

2011-10-06T19:24:48Z

If a customer who hasn't heard of the challenge orders a vegan meal instead of foie gras, even if only out of curiosity, would you believe that more good has been done than harm?

Joel Rosenberg on "A look inside Sacramento International's Terminal B"

2011-09-20T04:23:40Z

And believe me, those guys work fast!

Joel Rosenberg on "10,000 Articles"

2011-09-05T03:54:33Z

Trollers gonna troll.

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-09-01T21:52:46Z

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but earlier I noticed that you forgot to add an article in one of your first comments ("some theological document, probably Christian Bible, states…"). You can click the "edit" button next to your comment to make any adjustments if you wish to correct this.

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-08-31T05:53:04Z

Regarding the size of the icons: it's appropriate for your name, no? Seriously, though, many people who use RSS look to their browser to find the available feeds. In Safari there will be an "RSS" button in the right side of the address bar that you can click and hold to see all available feeds. Firefox 5 and 6 hides RSS a bit, but you can find them by going to Bookmarks → Subscribe to this page → Name of RSS feed. I'm not sure about Internet Explorer. Here are some feeds, you can play with their patterns if you want to discover more: Artlcle Feeds: http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/56021/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/storyline/56040/feed Section Page Feeds: http://www.sacramentopress.com/section/frontpage/curated/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/section/frontpage/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/section/frontpage/comments/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/tag/business/curated/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/tag/business/feed User Feeds: http://www.sacramentopress.com/user/Joel/articles/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/user/Joel/comments/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/user/Joel/all/feed http://www.sacramentopress.com/user/Joel/userarticlecomments/feed

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-08-30T22:47:24Z

To me (as a Sacramentan), 100+ comments about a geographically-centered rift over the ethos of our city make an article like this noteworthy. Although your comment does remind me of that Onion article, "'Most E-Mailed' List Tearing New York Times' Newsroom Apart" ( http://onion.com/9ThwnE )

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-08-29T22:54:37Z

"Is there no way to observe a stereotype and not be levying an insult at the same time?" Of course, but complaining about categorization and then doing the same is a different matter.

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-08-29T18:09:14Z

You can't get the best of both worlds by taking the high and low roads at the same time. Posting mocking pictures and descriptions of midtowners and then saying that you don't believe in what you've listed is like telling a friend "I could call you a lying, manipulative, backstabbing hag, but I won't sink to your level." Still, it 's a good subject to bring up to both communities. You've obviously sparked a good discussion here.

Joel Rosenberg on "No, Not Everyone Who Lives in Roseville wears Ed Hardy"

2011-08-29T16:37:04Z

So your answer to being negatively stereotyped as a Jersey-Shore poser is sto stereotype others as hipster posers?

Joel Rosenberg on "A guide to Shoki Ramen House for the diet-restricted"

2011-07-05T22:47:16Z

"a so-called vegan customer has been seen eating tomago (sweet fried egg)" When customers identify themselves as vegan, it doesn't mean they're actually vegan. It just means they've started using the restaurant's definition of those words.

Joel Rosenberg on "Controversy at the co-op: Boycott Israel?"

2011-06-10T22:24:23Z

We should ban goods from China, because of their oppression of the Falun Gong. We should ban food from France, because they restrict women's rights to wear religious clothing We should ban food NOT from France, because they stopped the patriarchal view of women's clothing. We should ban meat, because killing animals is cruel. We should ban cheese, because enslaving animals is cruel. We should ban foreign produce, because of the environmental impacts of transportation. We should ban products in boxes without soy-based inks, because they seep toxins into landfills. We should ban high-fat, highly processed foods, because of the children. We should ban soy, because the jury may still be out on the hormone thing. We should ban non-raw food, as it promotes a non-healthy lifestyle. We should ban bottled water in all forms, because of the landfills. We should ban conventional produce, because organic farms are better for the soil. We should ban alcohol, because of the problems it causes in the body and society at large. And when the only thing left in the co-op is a single display of organic, county-grown avocados from the most inoffensive family farm that gave everybody throughout their organization and supply chain fair living wages and a full health plan, all the shoppers will finally be happy.

Joel Rosenberg on "Video and audio layouts on The Sacramento Press"

2011-06-03T21:30:13Z

For now we're only testing it out on the section pages, but hope to spread it around soon!

Joel Rosenberg on "Video and audio layouts on The Sacramento Press"

2011-06-03T19:19:48Z

My favorite so far: http://sacpr.es/XP My theory involves a Sacpress overlord with a desire for flies, a penchant for honey, and an eschewal of vinegar.

Joel Rosenberg on "Food blogs growing in Sacramento"

2011-05-31T22:11:00Z

Also, although the blogger is from Davis, I've been a fan of Vegetarianized for some time: http://www.vegetarianized.com

Joel Rosenberg on "Kings to stay in Sacramento – for now"

2011-05-02T23:45:55Z

Sports nuts drive their Humvees to the Kings game rockin' the Limbaugh like this: "dum-dee-dum-dee-dum". Patrons of the arts pedal their fixies to see Ira Glass at the Mondavi blastin' the Neutral Milk Hotel like this: "der-dee-der-dee-der". Thanks, folks. Please make sure to tip your waitresses.

Joel Rosenberg on "Kings decision coming down to wire"

2011-05-01T09:04:42Z

Because cities must only do one thing at a time.

Joel Rosenberg on "Local teacher releases children's Harvey Milk workbook"

2011-04-27T00:59:33Z

Perfect, I think we're now on the same page. The essence of your original comment was: "All types of bigotry should be rooted out in a holistic manner, giving equality to all kinds of bullying." And I wanted to comment on this. Now you've cleared this up to be: "I consider homosexuality a particular lifestyle and, as such, it should not be presented innocuously in public schools as that would construe an endorsement." And I don't care to comment on this.

Joel Rosenberg on "Parking Tickets or Partaking in Thievery "

2011-04-26T21:19:25Z

hear hear

Joel Rosenberg on "Local teacher releases children's Harvey Milk workbook"

2011-04-26T21:14:11Z

i guess I meant to say that, just because the writer wrote an article encouraging tolerance for one type of bigotry does not mean she finds other types of bigotry not worthy of fighting. Now, if you have a problem with teaching this sort of thing at all in school, that's a worthy debate, but from your first comment it seemed as if you were angry that there wasn't mention of "book[s] praising people with red hair and freckles". I was addressing what you actually posted, not what you were going to write in the future.

Joel Rosenberg on "Local teacher releases children's Harvey Milk workbook"

2011-04-26T18:45:36Z

It's not unreasonable for an article, or law, or community effort to focus its energy by dealing with a single issue. It would be just as unfair for me to criticize your comment for not attempting to address world hunger.

Joel Rosenberg on "Local teacher releases children's Harvey Milk workbook"

2011-04-26T02:40:29Z

And not all types of bigotry have had the same impact on society or have caused equal amounts of violence. Think of it as bigotry triage. First we'll try to prevent another Matthew Shepard, then we'll tackle the freckled kid who got spitballed.

Joel Rosenberg on "Beta no more"

2011-04-22T18:34:46Z

Thanks, Ben. It's been a group effort: shoutouts to Joe, Artur, Steve, Luke, and Andy.

Joel Rosenberg on "More bicycle access coming to downtown"

2011-04-14T16:32:19Z

"large well lighted signs at every entrance to the grid that say's 'welcome to midtown, watch out for bikes'" …running through a stop sign riding three abreast on the sidewalk the wrong way down a one way street that has two bikelanes."

Joel Rosenberg on "Local Roots Food Tours offers an opportunity to experience Sacramento's culinary scene and learn about the city's historical roots"

2011-04-05T20:23:45Z

The link ( http://local-food-tours.com/culinary-cultural-experience/ ) at the bottom of the article seems to work for me.

Joel Rosenberg on "Opinion: Open letter to Midtown Business Association, Mayor Johnson, City Council Members and the General Public"

2011-04-01T04:50:05Z

Thanks guys, I can't wait to check these links out.

Joel Rosenberg on "Opinion: Open letter to Midtown Business Association, Mayor Johnson, City Council Members and the General Public"

2011-04-01T01:38:25Z

Or just give a simple, non-combative direct question a thumbs down. Good luck influencing the policy wonks.

Joel Rosenberg on "Opinion: Open letter to Midtown Business Association, Mayor Johnson, City Council Members and the General Public"

2011-03-31T22:29:53Z

Here's a 10-year-old program study from the Oregon Department of Transportation. It's a very readable guide to assessing and quantifying parking problems, taking perceived problems and turning them into data in a step by step way. Even if we stopped at page 7, getting a bunch of stakeholder citizens to gather the data in key neighborhoods during perceived key times (workday, lunch, after dinner, overnight, Second Saturdays) would help convince your detractors that there may indeed be a problem. At the very least, people like me (and I assume those in policy-making positions) prefer quantified data over scattered anecdotes. At the very least, it gives us something to do other than talking *at* each other using opinions that are irrefutable but incomparable. One person saying "the parking situation in my neighborhood currently bothers me" and another person say "the parking situation in my neighborhood doesn't" aren't in conflict and serve little purpose in achieving consensus. http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/publications/parkingguide.pdf

Joel Rosenberg on "Opinion: Open letter to Midtown Business Association, Mayor Johnson, City Council Members and the General Public"

2011-03-31T21:51:35Z

Other points, assumptions, and recommendations aside, I'm most surprised about the parking claims in this article. I was just telling a friend from the Bay Area how happy I was that in the year and a half I've been living here, I've never had to park more than a block from my house, which is on the corner of a busy second Saturday intersection. This is just my story, of course, and the posters have theirs. Which areas in particular do you consider as impacted for parking? What metrics do you use for quantifying this problem or comparing one neighborhood to another or our city to another city?

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-29T18:09:25Z

Like I said in the article, "I don't assume it's exhaustive for all vandalism occuring in the grid." As long as you report graffiti to the MBA regardless of what kind of Saturday it is, the numbers should be consistently off.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T08:48:22Z

Well, I don't think I have enough data to say there is no difference in crime, just that there's no evidence in the public reports I was looking at to show an uptick. But if it's true, it could be due to a lot of factors. I've been reading about "Confirmation Bias" in how it relates to one's perception of a Sports game. One player that you already dislike makes 2 bad plays that were memorable, and you'll leave the arena thinking he laid a stinker, even if he had 40 other great moves and stood out on the scoresheet. I bet when I see more people than usual and hear more voices than usual during an event that I'm already nervous about, if I see a tag or litter the next morning, I'll say "See! Those second Saturday kids are at it again!" even if my planter was broken two Fridays ago and my flowers will be pulled next Saturday.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T07:20:48Z

I couldn't get that site to work, but after reading your comment I attempted in a different browser. Looks like it was trying to open a popup that I was rejecting. Strange they would launch the data in a new window. In any case, this data certainly is better. It may be a little harder to parse, but I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T07:14:22Z

The only assumption would be that the percentage of reported vandalism wouldn't change weekend to weekend. If, say, 80% of vandalism goes unreported, I wouldn't expect that to rise to 98% on just one weekend a month.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T06:45:44Z

I guess my scenario for the commenters would be this. Let's say that all 6 of these Second Saturdays each had an explanation for the unremarkable number of reported vandalism incidents. In one case it could be because it was 15° colder than every other Saturday over the last 6 months. In another case, perhaps the Saturday coincided with a major sports event that kept everyone off the streets, and so on. People on this site haven't been saying "You know, even though they've been looking like every other weekend recently, vandalism on Second Saturday has been deceivingly low because of a variety of fluke factors over the last six months, so we better get ready for hell once we regress back to the mean!" People have been complaining about the actual quantity of experienced vandalism. So if, from weekend to weekend, reported vandalism hasn't varied over the last 6 months for whatever the reason, how then do we explain the recent complaints?

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T05:43:01Z

How interesting. I like that the January weekend was the coldest in this list and had the fewest incidents of the 6 Second Saturday weekends captured. If we can just keep this town cold, our walls will be safe.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T05:38:19Z

Well, couldn't you assume that the percentage of unreported crimes is the same on any given weekend? This isn't an attempt to say that there were only 5 incidents of vandalism on 12/5 and 12/6, but just to provide a relative comparison of police reported data from weekend to weekend. I spent some time on the CrimeReports website hoping for more context on the incidents they were listing, but didn't get any clarity on the nuances. I had originally gone to the official Sac PD crime mapping website, but I got the impression that it was under mothballs.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T05:36:27Z

I agree, it can be taxing as a midtown resident. Just this past Saturday my downstairs neighbor had to shoo away some young drunk ladies who were urinating on our lawn. It was a much louder third Saturday than the prior Saturday in my neighborhood. But this is just my story, and I'm sure next month will be different for me.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T05:30:28Z

Good point, but you can compare Second Saturdays in the winter to non-Second Saturdays in the winter. And check out the temperatures above for some more relevance. The weekend number I listed are for Saturdays and Sundays, but not Mondays. I'd love to get some earlier crime data, but that's all I could get my hands on in the public domain.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T05:20:16Z

I took a look at http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KSAC and captured all the weather data for these weekends with another program. Assuming only temperature and rainfall matter, here are temperatures and rainfall (in inches) for every Saturday in the last 6 months, at a point taken between 6 and 7 PM. Date Temperature Rainfall 10/02 80.1°F N/A 10/09 75.9°F N/A (Second Saturday) 10/16 66.9°F N/A 10/23 57.9°F 0.01 10/30 60.1°F N/A 11/06 60.8°F N/A 11/13 57.0°F N/A (Second Saturday) 11/20 48.2°F N/A 11/27 42.1°F N/A 12/04 53.1°F 0.01 12/11 53.6°F N/A (Second Saturday) 12/18 55.4°F 0.02 12/25 48.9°F 0.04 01/01 42.8°F 0.00 01/08 39.0°F N/A (Second Saturday) 01/15 50.0°F N/A 01/22 57.0°F N/A 01/29 48.9°F N/A 02/05 68.0°F N/A 02/12 52.0°F N/A (Second Saturday) 02/19 45.0°F N/A 02/26 44.1°F N/A 03/05 60.1°F 0.00 03/12 57.9°F N/A But it's important to note that I'm not attempting to provide a predictive model. There's so little data here that all I can say is that over the past 6 months, the amount of reported vandalism on Second Saturday weekends has not stood out from other weekends. I can't speak to how the weather may affect vandalism on future Second Saturdays.

Joel Rosenberg on "Second Saturday vandalism data analysis"

2011-03-26T01:11:24Z

The incidents I included occurred either on a Saturday or a Sunday. I figured that would account for late-night reports as well as reports filed the next day. I suppose that vandalism to businesses may be reported on Monday mornings when employees start their work weeks, but it was unclear to me whether the CrimeReports site was labeling the date and time of an incident as the report date or occurrence date. For such low volumes of data, it probably wouldn't affect the conclusion, but I did have the same thought you did.

Second Saturday vandalism data analysis

2011-03-26T00:46:46Z

Today I came across a comment on Bill Burgua's recent article about the Second Saturday Art Walk. Larry was exasperated about the crime he witnessed on our most recent art walk, specifcially citing the vandalism near his place of residence.

He wrote:

"The last Second Sat event I got graffiti outside on my apartment building as well as inside and this is a controlled acces building. Out of Control! City council talking about walkable alleys when we dont even have walkable streets."

I often read the complaints from my neighbors concerning the escalating crime during Second Saturday. My personal feeling is that it's no different from the drunks and litterbugs I see roaming the streets every weekend evening. I decided to take a deeper look and check out the crime visualization site that Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong promoted this week.

Narrowing the map to the grid, and constraining solely to property crimes, I exported a list of all crime data using the site's "print" functionality from October 2010 until last weekend. I then skipped all non-vandalism crimes such as unlawful camping and trespassing incidents to focus solely on the issue Larry was complaining about. Using a little programming know-how, I formatted the crimes by weekend into the lists at the bottom of this article.

Due to this not being an official police analysis, I don't assume it's exhaustive for all vandalism occuring in the grid. And while the CrimeReports website lists the time an incident occurred, that data wasn't available to me via the print feature, and I couldn't find any other means to export data. Because of this, I've included Sunday as well. Hopefully this will serve as a rough guide for incidents over the past six months.

Data Summary

Weekends: 24
Second Saturday weekends: 6
Non-Second Saturday weekends: 18

Total weekend incidents: 69
Second Saturday weekend incidents: 23
Non-Second Saturday weekend incidents: 46

Average incidents per weekend: 2.88
Average Second Saturday incidents per weekend: 3.83
Average non-Second Saturday incidents per weekend: 2.56

Although the six weekends sampled have a slightly higher vandalism rate than the 18 other weekends, this isn't a big enough difference or sample size to substantiate the claims that the vandals paint the town red (and blue, and green) one weekend more than any other. January's Second Saturday weekend shared the lowest number of incidents for that month. November's was right in the middle. December's art walk had the highest number of incidents.

Seems pretty routine to me.

Incident Breakdown by Weekend

10/02 = 4
10/09 = 4 (Second Saturday)
10/16 = 2
10/23 = 2
10/30 = 5
11/06 = 2
11/13 = 3 (Second Saturday)
11/20 = 2
11/27 = 1
12/04 = 2
12/11 = 5 (Second Saturday)
12/18 = 1
12/25 = 3
01/01 = 4
01/08 = 2 (Second Saturday)
01/15 = 5
01/22 = 2
01/29 = 2
02/05 = 4
02/12 = 4 (Second Saturday)
02/19 = 3
02/26 = 0
03/05 = 2
03/12 = 5 (Second Saturday)

Incident List (Date, Type, Incident Description)

See my scribd document: http://www.scribd.com/doc/51572612/propertycrimes-20100925-20110325

Joel Rosenberg on "How Do I Know What’s Going On In My Neighborhood?"

2011-03-23T07:12:18Z

Sagging pants?

Joel Rosenberg on "Kings file for relocation extension"

2011-02-28T21:49:58Z

As an 18-35 year old professional who recently moved to Sacramento as a renter, something like this does influence my decision to buy a home here (and contribute my tax dollars) or move to a metropolitan area with more to offer. Of course it wouldn't weigh too heavily, but it's something to consider.

Joel Rosenberg on "Midtown's My BBQ Spot reopens as Luck's BBQ"

2011-02-27T10:25:35Z

This comment kind of reads like you're affiliated with the place ("freshly made and served warm," "comes mild and spicy," "they are open late Fridays and Saturdays too"). That's great if you're just excited about them, I was just a little suspicious is all.

Joel Rosenberg on "SACRAMENTO HOUSING AUTHORITY OPENS WAIT LISTS ON NOV 29"

2011-02-25T22:43:52Z

Hi everybody, please note that this is an article about the wait list, and not the list itself. Please don't post personal details here, for your sake. As the article states, go to this website for more information: http://www.sacwaitlist.com

Joel Rosenberg on "Drinking Water Fluoridation - A Roadblock to Greenness?"

2011-02-16T20:23:31Z

This comments is an article which is a reprint of a press release from Dan Stockin of The Lillie Center, Inc. A comment on our site may not be the best way to reprint press releases.

Joel Rosenberg on "Whooping cough clinic is Feb. 12 in Carmichael"

2011-02-10T05:41:19Z

Parent's who don't want their kids to get the shot should reconsider. "The Whooping Cough's Unnecessary Return" http://on.wsj.com/gMsAxu

Joel Rosenberg on "Illicit mural removed"

2011-02-03T01:42:57Z

Honest Abe is back!

Joel Rosenberg on "Illicit mural removed"

2011-02-02T08:56:33Z

Well, one man's art can also be my kind of art, but the bloke should at least let me know before plastering his favorite Andres Serrano print on my garage door.

Joel Rosenberg on "WINNING STREAK SNAPPED AT ONE"

2011-01-27T18:49:48Z

I think that's what he was going for.

Joel Rosenberg on "Electronic music festival showcases local and international acts"

2011-01-26T08:43:51Z

Looks like that second URL should be http://sacelectronicmusicfest.com

Joel Rosenberg on "Preview: Deerhoof performs at Harlow's Thursday"

2011-01-26T08:41:25Z

Sweet

Joel Rosenberg on "Original "Survivor" Richard Hatch in Sacramento this weekend"

2011-01-14T18:10:46Z

Then let us simply take the cost of running the government, divide that by the number of adults over 18, and send everyone the same bill.

Joel Rosenberg on "Kings stomp Nuggets"

2011-01-09T23:55:39Z

Wow. Go Kings.

Joel Rosenberg on "A thank you to our community contributors"

2010-12-24T04:32:51Z

6 minutes after this article was published? I think you deserve a holiday break.

Joel Rosenberg on "Chilly weather no concern for 17th Run to Feed the Hungry"

2010-11-28T02:46:51Z

Wow.

Joel Rosenberg on "Mati's delayed, but still scheduled to open"

2010-11-22T21:21:32Z

Ah, the joy of semantic misunderstandings. So I should read it as "will you be able to dine in when they eventually open". This, unfortunately, I don't know.

Joel Rosenberg on "Mati's delayed, but still scheduled to open"

2010-11-22T05:18:40Z

"Prasad said she didn’t want to speculate on what day the restaurant will open." Seems pretty straightforward to me

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacpress search updated"

2010-11-13T01:53:44Z

Glad to hear

Joel Rosenberg on "Workshops tackle safe bar operations"

2010-11-08T22:05:29Z

Getting blues musicians to stop playing their music ain't going to make them any happier.

Joel Rosenberg on "Arena stalled"

2010-10-27T20:45:53Z

One can have many reasons behind a single action. For instance, I chose programming as a profession because it's always been my hobby, but I also didn't mind having enough money to live comfortably. In the case of Sacramento Press, giving my community a platform to have conversations such as this does provide a different sense of satisfaction than working on software that runs a cardboard box factory, although I'd probably have to defend my intentions to the public less often.

Joel Rosenberg on "Arena stalled"

2010-10-27T06:47:45Z

Writing a website that caters to a market capped by the size of just one city wasn't the top item on my list of "The Quickest Ways to Turn Clicks and Page Views into as Many Dollars as Possible."

Joel Rosenberg on "Arena stalled"

2010-10-26T18:07:24Z

Well, I don't think I would have gone through all the trouble to create a platform to express your views if I didn't think they had any value.

Joel Rosenberg on "Arena stalled"

2010-10-26T16:06:08Z

You're probably right. Carry on, everybody!

Joel Rosenberg on "Arena stalled"

2010-10-26T10:06:19Z

I think you should write at least one positive, innocuous comment for every five of your usual gloomsters. It'll brighten your day and you'll feel great!

Joel Rosenberg on "Fiesta for 200 years of Mexican independence"

2010-09-17T00:19:53Z

Many people in the US celebrate Bastille day – it's a fun day to enjoy all things French. It's a celebration of France's equivalent "Independence Day". Check out all the angry comments on this article about Bastille Day: http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/32961/Bastille_Day_Waiters_Race_in_Midtown

Joel Rosenberg on "!!! (Chk Chk Chk) brings dance party to Harlow's"

2010-09-15T06:38:18Z

Can't believe I missed this!

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacramento Google Technology User Group"

2010-09-02T20:38:56Z

Thanks for the info, Thomas. One of the developers here at the Sacpress also heads up a Groovy Users' Group that meets monthly (including tonight here at our office): http://groups.google.com/group/sacgru Here are a couple other tech groups in the area in which people may be interested: Linux User Group of Sacramento http://www.saclug.org/ Sacramento Java User Group http://www.sacjug.org/

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacramento's drinking water in good shape"

2010-08-22T06:48:32Z

They're trying to take my essence!

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacramento Gold advance to NPSL Northwest Division Championship"

2010-07-13T08:30:02Z

Fantastic Photos

Joel Rosenberg on "Rep. Matsui Introduces Legislation to Bolster Local Clean Tech Industry"

2010-04-28T18:41:26Z

Deep Breaths, Deep Breaths

Joel Rosenberg on "Sugar Plum Vegan Opens"

2010-04-01T04:45:50Z

I'm pretty excited to stay in the grid for a dedicated vegetarian restaurant, let alone a vegan one.

Joel Rosenberg on "Sacramento River Cats: Baseball by the Bridge"

2010-03-30T04:37:24Z

Going to Raley Field for a cold beer on a warm night is a highlight of the summer for me. The fact that I can walk from the Sacpress office (or anywhere downtown) is a definite plus, too.

Joel Rosenberg on "Matteo's Pizza and Bistro"

2010-03-22T22:33:03Z

For transparency, I believe you should disclose that you are an employee of Matteo's.

Joel Rosenberg on "Knight news challenge grant"

2010-01-18T08:52:23Z

How are The Sacramnto Press, Sacramento Bee, and other outlets participating in the project?

A winter evening with George Winston

2010-01-09T02:13:32Z

Not having any relatives west of the Mississippi, my family often traveled up to Portland to spend Thanksgiving with old friends. We'd usually pick up a couple books on tape from the Contra Costa library before heading out on road trips like these, but pianist George Winston's albums Autumn and December always traveled with us.

Because of these albums' bonding themes – holidays, family, journeys – the music grew into an important memory from childhood. In some ways, it ceased being art for me, in that I couldn't evaluate it with a critical eye as I developed musically. This isn't to say that I think George Winston is a bad composer or pianist. In the same way I occasionally eat at a childhood restaurant or put in an old movie regardless of its merits, Winston's music provides a service to me that eclipses anything that it could offer artistically.

So when I found out that he'd be playing the Crest Theatre in Sacramento Thursday night, I purchased tickets for the concert and convinced some family members to drive up from the Bay Area to join me in the realization of this shared tradition. I left work early, showed everyone the fading holiday cheer of Midtown and stuffed them full of pizza. After finishing a glass or two of wine and poking around the historical displays, we made our way inside the beautifully ornate (if half-filled) Crest.

It's always a crapshoot to hear an artist live for the first time, especially after years of familiarity with the ins and outs of his recordings. You can't help but anticipate the exact melody, tone, and tempo you know by heart. This put me at a disadvantage. It's like hearing the same stories about an old family member over and over throughout your life. When you finally meet that person, how could you not expect him to be the one-dimensional person from those stories?

I've been to enough reunion concerts to know that this discovery process is usually irreversible. Depending on the strength of the recordings and their attachment to me, a disappointing performance could end up spoiling all future listenings. This time, however, I felt confident. The specific role of his music in my life distances the art from the artist himself.

Several minutes past the advertised start time, Winston entered the room and took a seat beside the Steinway. He was dressed modestly in a collared shirt, blue jeans and in his traditional stocking feet. Although his beard, glasses and male pattern baldness might have imparted a professorial impression, his soft-spoken nature and light-hearted candor showed the depth of a person with respect for his audience and a passion for the music he plays.

There was a quietness that extended beyond his speaking and into his performance. None of the instruments he played were amplified, but beyond that, Winston's care for resonance and tone required the listener to focus completely on the stage. The piano managed to fill the room adequately, but the softness of his "slack key" guitar renditions demanded a particularly deft ear. Normally, when an artist removes accepted tools in a performance or on a recording, it ends up being more of a parlor trick than a benefit to the overall sound. In this case though, the music was better for it, even if I had to cock my head during several pieces to hear them clearly.

The Winter Show was peppered with pieces familiar to me: "Carol of the Bells" from December, "Moon" from Autumn, and a handful of compositions from these and other solo piano albums he's released over the four decades that span his career. When a familiar tune from those canonical recordings came up, my initial reaction was to jerk and react to the differences in melody in his improvisations, and it was hard not to notice when he was a note or two off when exploring an idea or working up to a new one. But it was fun listening to him add inspiration to his piece; the uniqueness made up for the occasional misstep or half-explored diversion.

He also drew selections from a handful of artists that have influenced him over the years, from early Doors songs to Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts classics. These choices enhanced the concert and made it a personal experience. He has a passion for stride piano, a jazz style from the 1920s and '30s, and blended his own personal touch into these standards well. The pieces were a good fit for Winston's approach to the piano; he keeps his own compositions anchored with a rhythmic approach for his left hand while doing the melody and the improv with his right, a hallmark of the stride style. He also played several slack key guitar tunes, including a haunting piece that closed out his concert.

In the end, I appreciated learning of his influences and hearing the tunes and styles that were personal to him, rather than attending a note-for-note run-through of his most famous albums. I left with a more accurate impression of him and his music than when I walked in, but the nostalgia for those classic albums wasn't lessened by seeing the bigger picture. If anything, seeing this humble, unassuming man play the soundtrack of my formative years was like finally meeting the distant relative for the first time and leaving with a greater appreciation of the stories of the past.

Joel Rosenberg on "Local Businesses Celebrate Mexican Independence"

2009-09-16T18:10:08Z

Yeesh

Joel Rosenberg on "The poets of Sacramento - a weekly column"

2009-08-04T22:28:47Z

Hi MitaJoAnn, The article is currently in the culture section, but because it was written a few weeks ago, you'll have to go back a few pages to find it. It's currently on page 5: http://www.sacramentopress.com/taglist/culture/page5 We don't classify articles in a traditional sense, it's up to each author to pick a few categories when writing an article. If you think an article could use another category, you can "tag" it yourself in the "Your Tags" section above. I just tagged this article "Poet Laureate". The more people tag, the more we all benefit. Also, here's a tip: scroll to the top of this article, and click "poetry" under "Community Tags". Now you'll see all articles that have been "tagged" as poetry-related by authors and readers like you!

Joel Rosenberg on "Toward a clearer picture"

2009-08-02T07:39:05Z

Thanks everyone! I just want to add that tonight we released another fix that addresses some outstanding Internet Explorer 8 issues. The writer's dashboard and article creation pages now look like they're supposed to, and images can be uploaded without those annoying popup errors.

Joel Rosenberg on "Toward a clearer picture"

2009-07-30T11:30:58Z

It's come to our attention that people are having trouble writing and uploading pictures in Internet Explorer 8 (both before and after the change described here). We're working on it and will get it fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, we've verified that the writing tools currently work well with Firefox and Safari if you want to use a temporary solution.

Toward a clearer picture

2009-07-30T08:50:13Z

Have you ever noticed yourself straining to make out someone's profile picture? Perhaps you've had trouble seeing detail in an article photo. If so, you'll be pleased to know that tonight we've rolled out an update to The Sacramento Press that should make your pictures clearer and smoother than they've been before. Initially, you'll only see the difference in pictures uploaded after today, but in a few days we'll go back and fix everything uploaded to the site since day one. In addition, article images now appear in the order in which they were uploaded, and we're now accepting a few more image file types (although we recommend sticking with JPEG or PNG files).

We also added a few new capabilities and crossed some items off our list of known problems. Here are just a few of the 35 fixes and additions we've made:

Improved article pages so the text loads instantly (no more waiting for the whole page to load on your mobile device)
Fixed your personal tag clouds
Made the site work better in Internet Explorer 6 (but please upgrade to IE8!)
Darkened the text throughout the site to make it a little easier on your eyes
Fixed a problem when writing articles with Safari 4
Tweaked our layouts to have Featured Pictures clickable, and added quotes around Featured Comments (see picture above)

As always, let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Joel Rosenberg on "T'was a fine fayre"

2009-06-28T20:42:42Z

Amazing shots! Looks like the fayre is still going on today. Here's some info from their website: The 23rd Annual Fair Oaks Renaissance Tudor Fayre Sat/Sun June 27th and 28th, 2009 Fair Oaks Park, Fair Oaks, CA 10AM - 6PM both days TICKET INFO $12: Adults $6: Children 12 and under $6: Seniors 65 and over, peace officers, fire, and military Free: Children 3 and under $30: Family Packs ( 2 adults and 2 kids ) $3: Add additional children to a Family Pack. $20: Two day adult passes. Students bring student ID for discount. More info here: http://www.renaissance-rose.org

Joel Rosenberg on "Distasteful tasks: RT considers fare hikes, service cuts"

2009-06-09T17:35:25Z

I'm curious in reading that study. Got a link?

Joel Rosenberg on "Gay rodeo events start today"

2009-06-08T04:16:51Z

Why not?

Joel Rosenberg on "Gay rodeo events start today"

2009-06-06T19:00:16Z

Irish Irish Irish Irish Irish Irish Irish Irish... whats wrong with having just a parade? What does it matter which country you came from? What really is the irish agenda in having a Saint Patrick's Day parade...?

Joel Rosenberg on "Way to go"

2009-06-03T18:24:26Z

Just like your comment.

Joel Rosenberg on "Demonstrators rally at Capitol in response to Prop 8 decision"

2009-05-27T21:01:04Z

"Gays receive all the same rights as straights with "Civil Unions" as "Married" straights do" Just to address that "all" in your statement: couples in state-sanctioned civil unions do not receive the benefits of marriage at the federal level. This includes the ability to file one's federal tax form jointly or sponsor a spouse for citizenship. Even outside the federal level one could make the argument that because it is more costly to hire a lawyer to grant or enforce rights such as the power of attorney or medical visitation allowances, couples in civil unions are disenfranchised due of the greater number of hoops required to jump through in order to realize the rights both arrangements share.

Joel Rosenberg on "Floods, bugs and oil spills made a great day at Capitol"

2009-05-22T08:18:31Z

Great Photos!

Joel Rosenberg on "Johnson: city still sees Cal Expo as "option" for Kings "

2009-05-20T21:48:53Z

Well, such is their right in a free market economy, I suppose. Perhaps the government can mandate price caps for retail and food service businesses to protect the consumer.

Joel Rosenberg on "Johnson: city still sees Cal Expo as "option" for Kings "

2009-05-20T20:31:01Z

For the facts: Single Ticket Prices Giants: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/ballpark/seating_pricing.jsp A's: http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/ticketing/singlegame.jsp?c_id=oak (At bottom of page) River Cats: http://www.rivercats.com/tickets/singletickets/ Getting concession pricing has been a little difficult

Joel Rosenberg on "Forgot your password?"

2009-05-12T05:51:34Z

Well, hopefully the larger text size will lower your optometry bill at least a little. We've heard from some people that the grey text helps them read easier, but it definitely is a contentious little issue with a good amount of people on both sides. When Amazon updated their Kindle a few months ago, there was a minor uprising because of the lighter text they introduced. Maybe we can strike a balance and adjust the text to something between what we have now and pure black. In any case, thanks for the feedback!

Joel Rosenberg on "Forgot your password?"

2009-05-11T09:09:02Z

Let me know if you see any issues or have any concerns

Forgot your password?

2009-05-11T09:08:31Z

The Sacramento Press was updated tonight with a grab bag of wish-list items, tweaks, and bug fixes that have been accumulating over the last two months.

Recently, we've been using email as a tool to pass on news and workshop event details to you. Now, with this new release, we've started verifying email addresses on our site. So, for all new signups (or if you're already signed up and you change your email address) you'll get an email that contains a link to visit that lets us know your email address is in good working order. This will help us better communicate with you. We run a lot of free, fun workshops here in our downtown office, and having a working email is really important for us to be able to get the word out.

Here's a few other things we've added:

If you forget your password, you can request an email that shows you how to reset it
You can now log in with your email address
If it takes you a long time to write an article, the site won't kick you off when you eventually try to publish it
You can easily cycle through all an article's images when zoomed in
We've increased the font size in our conversations
There's a new RSS Feed for site-wide comments
If you include a large image in the middle of your article, it won't spill over into other parts of the page anymore

The list of minor fixes and features keeps going, but I won't bore you too much with that. Enjoy!

Joel Rosenberg on "Friday NIght! CIP"

2009-05-11T08:23:45Z

Thanks for the info!

Joel Rosenberg on "HANDICAPPED PARKING"

2009-04-30T20:02:52Z

Although it looks that this lady was abusing the system, it's important to note that not all handicaps are accompanied by a wheelchair or a pair of crutches. Personally, I'd err on the side of caution rather than accost a stranger who might be suffering from an excruciatingly painful albeit invisible disease.

Light Rail Suspicious Activity

2009-04-03T18:11:32Z

Free Webcam Chat at Ustream

This is a live feed from our office window, which is the epicenter of the hazardous materials threat ongoing at the Sacramento Valley Station Light Rail stop.

The feed captures a small fraction of the law enforcement officers involved, but shows the ones at the center of the problem

UPDATE: Live feed was discontinued at approximately 12:45p.m. as all the law enforcement had left the scene.