Newest articles on The Sacramento Press written by Lisa Palmer

Let the games begin!

2010-07-19T03:36:32Z

Community was the name of the game at the South Sacramento games on Saturday. Residents played a variety of games, all focused on building cooperation without competition.

We made the games so that nobody’s a winner and nobody’s a loser,” volunteer Charles Chenauot said.

The games included capture the flag, don’t spill the beans and Simon Says, but with a twist. Simon and Simone used the same concept as Simon Says, but without winners or losers. Instead, when Simon told a player she was out, she could join Simone’s game and keep playing.

“We have a lot of community games where people can come together and play without having to be competitive,” volunteer Staphonya Cabrellin said.

The games kicked off a 10-year initiative called Sacramento Building Healthy Communities. Its aim is healthier lives for South Sacramento residents through preventive care, opportunities for children, and addressing the physical, social and economic challenges of the community. South Sacramento ranks as one of the lowest in per capita income of residents in 51 Sacramento County ZIP codes. The area faces issues ranging from unavailability of healthy food to lack of health care to violence.

The games were held at George Sim Park and the community center there, which won’t be open to residents the rest of the year. Budget cuts left Saturday as the only day that the entire park, including the community center and the pool, will be open. Noting the waste of a valuable resource, volunteer Liz Sterba said it’s time to stop relying on the government to fix neighborhood problems and start relying on each other.

“I think that the budget is making it very obvious that we cannot rely on our government to do everything for us, and we shouldn’t,” she said. “We should help each other and we should build each other up and build a strong network of neighbors.”

The games were organized toward that end. After two hours of games in the shade, people were treated to food and entertainment that showcased the area’s diverse cultures. The cuisine ranged from Chinese to Mexican, with a focus on delicious, healthy options.

As the performances went on the crowd thinned, trading the warmth of the community center for the cool of the pool. But the show still went on. Women from the Asian Community Center performed traditional Polynesian dances. The spoken word that concluded the entertainment showcased young poets speaking about their rough upbringing in South Sacramento, including a group of slam poets from Sacramento Area Youth Speaks (SAYS), dedicated to helping young writers find their voice and share it with the community.

The youth were involved in planning the day and helped get the word out to neighbors. Many volunteers were teenagers trying to make the best of their summer vacations.

“I didn’t have anything to do this summer,” Chenauot said. “I wanted to do something that was fun and would actually have a positive outcome instead of doing something like staying at home playing video games.”

Cabrellin agreed. “I think it’s very important to get the youth out, recruit more youth to these events and get them active in their community.”

Patrick Kennedy, a member of the Sacramento City School board and chairman of the task force for healthy foods in schools, handed out free green bean seeds for people to grow at home.

“I think if we can get it bigger every year we can start taking this whole healthy atmosphere to our homes, to our neighborhoods, especially South Sacramento, I think the city would be a better place,” he said.

Sterba said she expects more community get-togethers to result from the initiative.

“The plan is to really do a lot of maybe not large-scale events, but smaller-scale events throughout the different neighborhoods represented,” she said. “We really want to bring this larger set of neighborhoods together and create some unity and synergy.”

Davis plans to make it into the record books

2010-07-14T04:58:42Z

If you’ve ever wanted to be in a parade, you may have your chance. The Davis Odd Fellows are looking for thousands of cyclists to help them beat the world record for the largest bicycle parade.

The UC Davis Aggie Pack held the Guinness World Record for the largest bicycle parade briefly in March of 2007 with 822 bicyclists.

“They were fairly limited events focused on the campus,” spokesman for Odd Fellows Dave Rosenberg said. “This is a community-wide event.In fact, it’s Northern California-wide. We’ve been finding folks from all over to come out and participate.”

The record set by the students was beaten in June of that year by Taipei City, Taiwan, with 1,901 bicyclists. The current record is now held by Bangkok, with 3,515 participating cyclists. But the Odd Fellows hope to win it back for the city of Davis.

“We have a lot of bikes in the U.S., and Davis is known as the bike capital of America,” Rosenberg said. “We’re home to the bicycle hall of fame, and there are more bikes in Davis than people.”

The Odd Fellows are a worldwide organization focused on supporting communities and charities. The Davis chapter is the oldest organization in the city of Davis, established in 1870, decades before UC Davis’s founding in 1908.

Because of its commitment to helping the community, the Odd Fellows organization plans to donate all proceeds to Davis schools. Money will be raised through a small registration fee and sponsorships. Participants not only get to help in the record-breaking attempt, but will also receive a T-shirt with the official logo of the bike parade. So far, the Odd Fellows have gained support from the Davis City Council, the School Board, the Davis Downtown Business Association and the Chamber of Commerce.

“No one has said no, so everyone is sort of slowly coming on board,” Rosenberg said.

Christi Skibbins, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said they’re doing everything they can to help the organization gain sponsors.

“I met with one of the organizers and gave them some advice about the event itself and sponsorship and that sort of thing,” Skibbins said. “We have a mission statement here to represent the interests of local businesses, but also to help the quality of life for the community. And this definitely falls into the quality of life category.”

The Yolo County Visitors Bureau has also gotten involved. The organization has helped with press releases and generating coverage for the parade. Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Diane Parro said they’re excited that the bike parade will provide a fun event for the community.

“We love everything that has to do with bicycles, and we have for several decades, Parro said. “This is a natural extension of what we love about living here. This parade is going to be fabulous for families and spectators--it promotes the thing we love the best and asks us to get on our bikes. We really rise to that kind of occasion. We love that kind of challenge.”

The parade will be held Oct. 3, starting at the Odd Fellows Lodge on Second Street. Cyclists will then head up F Street for about a mile before turning down 14th Street. The parade will then bike through the North Davis Elementary School parking lot and make a U-turn, ending back at the Odd Fellows Lodge. The route will be about two miles long.

But a lot of work has gone into the short parade, according to Rosenberg.

“It’s a huge logistical event,” he said. “It’s like planning a Super Bowl or something along those lines. You’re talking thousands of bike riders, hundreds of lead riders, dozens of volunteers-- there’s many moving parts.”

To officially break the record, the parade should not only have more than 3,515 cyclists, but also needs to follow the rules set by Guinness. Bicycles in the parade should only be two-wheeled and powered by people, they should be moving over a distance of at least two miles from start to finish and they cannot be more than two bike lengths apart. In order to be counted, all riders must bike the entire parade and must give their names, telephone numbers, and the make and model of their bikes. With all these rules and regulations, the Odd Fellows have a lot of work ahead of them.

“We’re going to give it a shot, but it won’t be easy,” Rosenberg said. “The rules are pretty strict in terms of how you do this thing.”

Win or lose, the group plans to celebrate its efforts immediately following the parade with a festival in Central Park. Davis firefighters will hold a barbecue with hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie burgers and a beer and wine garden will help refresh adult riders. Children can enjoy the Tour de Fun, complete with an inflatable obstacle course, a bounce house, face painting, pony rides, bicycle-propelled carousel and inflatable batting cages. Souvenirs will be sold at the event, and the Odd Fellows are currently working on scheduling live entertainment for the festivities.

“Wherever people live in Northern California, I suggest this will be a fun day for them either to come by the parade and be a part of it and a part of the world record, or simply come to the family fun festival afterwards,” Rosenberg said. “It’s just good old-fashioned fun.”

The Odd Fellows hope to have registration for the parade available in a couple of weeks. For more information, visit http://www.worldsgreatestbicycleparade.com/.

McKinley Park farm stand sells out on the first day

2010-07-12T04:31:28Z

Late risers were disappointed when they showed up for Soil Born’s newest farm stand in McKinley Park on Saturday. By 10:30, the stand had sold out of beets, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, apricots and blackberries.

Only potatoes and okra were left by noon, so Randy Stannard, Soil Born Farm’s food access coordinator, turned shoppers away, promising to triple the amount of fruits and vegetables next week.

“We’ll have to make it bigger,” Stannard said. “We had an amazing response. People are just really excited to be able to have something down here in the park.”

Soil Born chose McKinley Park for its stand because of its popularity. “Many people, a diverse amount of people, use the park and are here already,” Stannard said. “We don’t have to pull people here for the produce, they’re already here on their own accord.”

He estimated that 500 people visited the stand to buy fresh produce from local growers throughout the Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Yuba, Sutter, Solano and San Joaquin counties. But Soil Born’s farm stand isn’t your average farmers market.

“Instead of a traditional farmer’s market that has 10 farmers all coming to one place and has a bunch of separate booths, we go to the farms or they come to us,” Stannard said. “So we have produce from 10 different farms, but it gets sold through one booth or one market.”

Soil Born Farms hopes to add more seasonal fruits and vegetables to its selection in the coming weeks, Stannard said, including red, heirloom and cherry tomatoes, peaches, melons, red bell and hot peppers.

The farm stand encourages electronic food stamp users by letting them use their EBT cards and offering them a 25 percent discount. WIC checks are not accepted, but individuals in the program also receive a 25 percent discount. Proceeds from sales subsidize food prices for those needing financial assistance.

Soil Born Farm’s farm stand at McKinley Park will remain open Saturdays through Oct. 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Get ready to Wine and Dine

2010-07-01T20:26:17Z

It’s time to work up those appetites for Sacramento Wine & Dine week. Beginning on Friday and running until July 11, the 10-day event features three- to four-course gourmet meals and wine from Sacramento’s best restaurants for a discounted price.

Produced by the Sacramento Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and sponsored by the California Restaurant Association's Sacramento Chapter, OpenTable.com and Fox 40, the celebration of good food and good wine allows diners a culinary experience for a portion of the normal price. A total of 39 restaurants from downtown and Midtown Sacramento, Woodland, Granite Bay, Davis, Folsom and El Dorado Hills are participating this year. During the event, dinners will be offered for prices ranging from $29-$50.

Mike Testa, vice president of communications and public affairs of the Sacramento Convention and Visitor’s Bureau said the event is an extension of the Raley’s Grape Escape, held in early June, and the Grape and Gourmet , held in July at the Convention Center.

“We really want to create a sort of design culinary week in Sacramento,” Testa said. “It would be a weeklong spotlight on Sacramento restaurants and wineries.”

Testa said that people normally think of Napa when they think of quality wineries, forgetting the ones in our own backyard. Many of the restaurants participating in the festivities offer some local wine to help raise awareness about the resources in Sacramento. Testa said the wine element is what sets Wine and Dine apart from other culinary weeks.

While most people may save the culinary treats offered by restaurants like The Firehouse for a special occasion, Wine and Dine week allows them to try it out.

“Wine and Dine gives you the opportunity to taste The Firehouse and try something new,” Testa said. The Firehouse is offering a three-course meal, complete with your choice between salmon and pork tenderloin for the main course, for $48. The first course gives diners the choice between honey-Thai prawn and heirloom tomato Napoleon, and a dark chocolate torte for dessert. The dinner features wines by Sobon Estates in Amador County, Peirano in Lodi, Booker in El Dorado and Renaissance Vineyards in the Sierra Foothills.

The River City Brewing Company will offer a three-course meal, complete with wine for each course, for $39 per person. Diners can choose between shrimp scampi or crispy eggplant Napoleon for the first course; seabass, Kobe beef, grilled marinated pork tenderloin, or angel hair pasta for the second course; and a dessert of either vanilla crème brulee or French-style cheesecake. Each course is paired with a wine from local winery Boeger. River City Brewing Company general manager Beth Ayres said that food alone would total over $32 normally. The glasses of wine would cost around $6-$7 each, she said.

Ayres said the restaurant has been participating in the Wine and Dine week since its inception. “It’s a good way to get people out to the different restaurants downtown and give them the opportunity to try more things,” Ayres said. “It gives you an option at a better price to come and try some good food.”

Some other participating restaurants are:

4th Street Grille

The Broiler Steakhouse

Cafeteria 15L

Chops, Steaks, Seafood & Bar

Cosmo Cafe

Delta King Pilothouse Restaurant

Ella Dining Room and Bar

Esquire Grill

Frank Fat's

Grange Restaurant and Bar

Melting Pot

Morgan's Central Valley Bistro in the Sheraton Grand Hotel

Morton's Steakhouse

Spataro Restaurant and Bar

Ten 22

58 Degrees & Holding

Biba

L Wine Lounge & Urban Kitchen

Lucca Restaurant

Mikuni Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar

Paragary's Bar and Oven

Tapa the World

For a complete list of participating restaurants and menus, visit www.sacramentowineanddine.com.

Pictures courtesy of the Sacramento Wine and Dine website.

2010 Sacramento Fourth of July roundup

2010-06-30T03:23:02Z

Looking for an explosive way to spend your Fourth of July? Well, look no further. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best Fourth of July events in the Sacramento area.

Sacramento

Cal Expo will once again host an Independence Day Celebration sponsored by Coca-Cola and Miller Lite at the Miller Lite Grandstand near the East Gate entrance. The festivities will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a performance from Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers. State Fair mascot Poppy will also be there to entertain the crowds. Cal Expo’s media partner, radio station 107.9 The End, will provide music to the spectacular fireworks show, starting at 9:30 p.m. Parking for the event is $10, and general admission to the show is free. You can also buy reserved seating for $10 at tickets.com, or at the East Gate box office beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday. Cal Expo is located on 1600 Exposition Blvd.

The Sacramento River Cats will be having their own celebration at Raley Field on Friday and Saturday as they host the Fresno Grizzlies. On Friday, the team will honor Sacramento firefighters with a firefighters' night. Fire engine displays will be set up, and firefighters in attendance will be recognized on the field. Stick around after the game for the fireworks, a kick-off to their weekend celebrations. And as the Cats close out their three-game series with the Grizzlies on Saturday, the U.S. Army will present the Sutter Health Fireworks Extravaganza and start the Fourth of July with a bang. Tickets to the games can be purchased online at rivercats.com, or at the Raley Field box office. Raley Field is located at 400 Ballpark Drive in West Sacramento.

If you want to watch the Raley Field fireworks in a classier setting, you can climb aboard the Hornblower yacht in Old Sacramento. Departing from Front Street, the cruise will begin at 7 p.m. and will include the fireworks show, dinner, and dancing. Tickets for the Hornblower are $109 and can be reserved at the Hornblower website.

Old Sacramento’s newest street theater program, “Time Travel Weekends," will put an Independence Day twist on its historical re-enactments for the Fourth of July weekend. Guests can take part in square dancing, croquet, pie-eating contests and picnics while enjoying military parades and cannon firings. The weekend will also feature a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The Grange Restaurant and Bar on 926 J Street will host its inaugural All American barbecue. The three-course menu will include all the barbecue fixings you love on the Fourth of July. The meal starts with a salad with ranch dressing. The second course provides a slow-cooked Riverdog Farm hog with Carolina barbecue sauce, corn on the cob and potato salad. For dessert, the restaurant offers a berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The all-American meal is $35 per person.

The Sacramento Firecracker 5K/10K will be held at McKinley Park at 8 a.m. Saturday. Participants will be given a free short-sleeve T-shirt at the event. Adults and children can take part in a 5K or a 10K run or walk. Registration is $35 until Wednesday for adults, and $40 on race day. Children 15 and under can participate for $20. Proceeds will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, a group that aims to help injured men and women in the service.

If you prefer to run for free, the Buffalo Chips Running Club will host its 35th annual Fourth of July five mile run, starting at Glen Hall Park on the corner of Sandburg and Carlson Drives in River Park at 8 a.m. Arrive by 7:45 a.m. to sign in. The kid’s half-mile race begins at 7:45 for ages 10 and younger, and the five mile race begins at 8 a.m.

On Saturday, the Sacramento Pocket area will host its annual Spirit of the Pocket Parade. The parade, featuring about 60 floats, will start at 10 a.m. at Lisbon Elementary School, located at 7775 S. Land Park Drive, and will end at Garcia Bend Park on 7654 Pocket Road. The Grand Marshall of this year’s parade will be Bandit, the German shepherd police dog that was recently shot in the line of duty. Other notables at the parade will be Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg and Councilman Robbie Waters. At the end of the parade, a community fair will be held at Garcia Bend Park, where different area businesses will show off some of their wares.

Carmichael

Enjoy a pancake breakfast on the Fourth of July at the Carmichael Park Elks Club Lodge, located at 5631 Cypress Ave. After breakfast, the Carmichael Elks will hold their 52nd annual Fourth of July parade, beginning at 11 a.m. on Marconi and Fair Oaks and ending at the Elks Club Lodge. A celebration will follow at the La Sierra Community Center on 5325 Engle Rd., which will include an outdoor barbecue, live music and dancing, free swimming and games for the kids. The fireworks show will begin at 9:30 p.m. at the La Sierra Community Center.

Citrus Heights

In Citrus Heights, Sunrise Mall, located at 6196 Sunrise Mall, will host a free celebration from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday through July 6. The festivities will include live music beginning at 7:30 p.m., a kid’s carnival and a 3D fireworks show. On Independence Day, the mall will present a fireworks show in the parking lot at 9:30 p.m. Special 3D glasses will be distributed for the show, and radio station 98 Rock will provide synchronized music for the festivities.

Rancho Cordova

Rancho Cordova will begin its two-day celebration of Independence Day at 10 a.m. Saturday with a parade on Coloma Road and Cordova Lane. Activities for the children will be provided from 1-6 p.m. at Hagan Park, located on 2197 Chase Drive, including a carnival, water show, tae kwon do, train rides, petting zoo, pony rides and pedal boats. A beer garden will be open from noon until 11 p.m. At 8:30 p.m., former Bad Company singer Brian Howe will perform live. A fireworks show will begin at 9:45 p.m., and on July 4th, Carmichael will provide more food, music and fun. Along with the kids' zone and beer garden, party band Busta-Groove will perform at 8:30 p.m., followed by the grand finale fireworks at 9:45 p.m. Parking is $10 at the park.

Folsom

Presented by the Folsom Chamber of Commerce, the Folsom Pro Rodeo is offering a new laser light show for fans along with nightly fireworks displays. The rodeo begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday with a Bullipede, where brightly-dressed teams of five runners gallop in a western-style race. Also at 6:30 is the cattle drive. Cowboys will parade steers down Sutter Street in the true fashion of the Old West. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the rodeo gates will open at 6 p.m., with roping events starting at 7 p.m. and riding events at 8:15 p.m. After dusk, enjoy the laser and fireworks show while enjoying live music from the Dave Russell Band and a drink in Mike's Golden Spike Saloon. The rodeo is held at the Dan Russell arena, located at 401 Stafford St. in Folsom. Reserved tickets are $22.50 in advance. General admission is $19 for adults, $15 for children 12 and under, and $15 for seniors. Visitors can park at the nearby Wal-Mart on 1018 Riley St. and ride a free shuttle to the arena.

Barking with the River Cats

2010-06-29T05:09:26Z

When you think of the River Cats, dogs may be the last thing on your mind. But for their fourth annual "Bark in the Ballpark" event on Sunday afternoon, it was the first thing on the minds of many dog owners. By paying for an extra dog ticket, they were able to bring their favorite pooches into the lawn area for the game.

“It’s just an event we wanted to offer to our fans and dog lovers,” media relations director Rebecca Brutlag said.

Before the game, owners were able to parade their dogs on the field as part of the costume contest. While the aerobics instructor dog got a lot of attention on the lawn, the bumble bee pup won the goodie bag, complete with tickets to a future River Cats game.

The Sacramento SPCA was present to spread the word about the shelter.

“We have dogs here that are available for adoption, and we’re letting people know about all the different services we offer,” SPCA volunteer Vanessa Kalinowski said.

The shelter’s booth provided a plethora of information for dog owners, including their spay and neuter program, vaccination clinic and adoption services. A scrapbook at the table provided cute adoption stories for animal lovers to browse. Adoptable dogs sat on the lawn with volunteers, all wearing bright vests that proclaimed, “Adopt me!”

Grateful Dog owner Robert Espinosa set up his booth next to the SPCA. Attending for the second year in a row, Espinosa provided a bowl of delicious dog treats and some information about the services offered at his boarding facility.

“It’s just a fun day to get out with the family, eat bad food and tout the gospel according to Grateful Dog,” Espinosa said.

Grateful Dog provides cage-free boarding, daycare services, a self-service dog wash and full-service grooming.

While the dogs enjoyed the free food from Atta Boy dog food, relaxed on the lawn and took a quick dip in the provided kiddy pools, the humans focused on the game.

The second of a four-game series against the Tacoma Rainiers, the Cats pulled off an 8-3 win. In the bottom of the second inning, the Cats got their first run. Singles from Josh Donaldson and Matt Carson, and a walk from Michael Taylor, who got hit by a pitch from Rainier pitcher Ian Snell, loaded the bases. Adam Heether took a sacrifice with a hit directly to center field and Carson got the run before a strikeout from Corey Wimberly ended the inning.

After a short action-packed, Frisbee-catching show with the Skyy Dogs between innings, the Rainiers quickly came back in the top of the third inning while a loyal fan howled his disapproval. With Jack Hannahan on first, a home run over the left field wall by Josh Bard gave the Rainiers a 2-1 lead.

In the fourth inning, the Cats took over the lead once again with three runs. First to bat, Carson scored a double with a hit to right field. A hit by Donaldson to center field took Carson to third, and Taylor’s ground ball took him out but brought Carson home.

With the bases loaded, a double from Matt Watson brought Heether and Wimberly home, while Tolleson ended the inning with an out at home base.

The cheers and the barks got louder as the streak continued in the fifth inning, when the Cats scored four runs. A tired Snell was replaced by Lavale Speigner as the bottom of the fifth began.

And as the heat rose, so did the tempers. A hit by Donaldson to left field seemed to have been caught by Mike Wilson and then immediately dropped. The play loaded the bases and sparked anger in Tacoma manager Daren Brown who argued with the call. A decision by the umpires to stick to their call left Donaldson safe and Brown irate. His anger got him thrown from the game.

In the fifth inning, the Cats scored four more runs, holding strong to their lead. Tacoma was able to score one more run in the sixth inning, but couldn't catch to the Cats' five point lead.

History comes alive in Old Sacramento

2010-06-28T03:51:33Z

Unsuspecting visitors to Old Sacramento this weekend were confronted with a man named Dr. Cornelius Poindexter claiming to sell miracle elixirs saying that they cure everything from measles to hair loss.

“The cream, when applied to the skin, removes unwanted freckles, warts, boils, blemishes, carbuncles, what-cha-ma-goofers and thing-ma-bobs…whatever you wish to remove,” Poindexter said. “It’s a remedy for alcoholism, and it also cures terminal illnesses.”

“It even cures baldness!” Poindexter shouted to a bald shopper. “I can grow hair on a rock!”

Poindexter quickly disappeared, however, when an older man in a yellow scarf and wide-brimmed hat appeared, claiming to be Charles Crocker himself, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad. “Upon which we drive such ruffians out of town,” Crocker said.

Poindexter cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t know anything about being tarred and feathered,” he said before leaving.

The miracle medicine man was just one of the volunteers helping to take Old Sacramento back to early years of the city with a street theater program.

“We’re indulging ourselves in a little time twisting,” Crocker portrayer Carl West said.

Children were able to make dolls out of straws with the help of one settler, while others took the games to the field next to the Discovery Museum, where they played games like Battledore-- an early form of Backgammon where players hit a cork with wooden paddles back and forth in an effort to keep it off the ground.

Another popular game with visitors was Graces, which involves each player holding two wooden rods. The rods are crossed toward the base and an embroidery hoop decorated with ribbons is tossed to another player by quickly separating the crossed rods. The player on the receiving end catches the hoop with one of his or her dowels and tosses it back in the same fashion.

While some children seemed hesitant to play a game without batteries, they quickly forgot the video games waiting at home.

“As the kids are running around having tons of fun, I’ll turn to the parents and tell them, ‘Now, absolutely nothing plugs in, and your child is having a tremendously enjoyable time with two dowels and an embroidery hoop with a little ribbon on it,'” Red Barn Production’s Wells Twombly said. “We try to introduce some of the simple pleasures and remind kids that there was a lot of fun in the world before they invented Nintendo.”

Red Barn Productions and the Old Sacramento Living History group teamed up to bring history out into the streets. Some participants play music while others act out scenes. One little girl in 19th century dress got her basket stolen by a little boy. The girl chased him throughout the streets of Old Sacramento shouting “Thief!”

Historical gunfights are also staged in the cobblestone streets throughout the summer weekends. “We we’re trying to do is get away from these sort of bang-bang, stick-‘em-up sort of movie things and moving them in the direction of historical scenarios,” Twombly said. “What we’ll be doing here over the next couple of years hopefully is developing more historical exhibits living and breathing right here in the streets.”

So far, the reaction has been positive. People laugh as the man selling the elixirs tries to con them into a miracle cream that smells suspiciously like mayonnaise while children enjoy making the same kind of toys that children in the 19th century played with. And the games are a hit with all ages.

A controversial stage show also plays at the Eagle Theatre, where dancer Lola Montag shows a bit of leg and performs the much-talked about spider dance. “It’s best not to discuss it in the presence of ladies,” Twombly joked.

Lotta Crabtree, the Queen of the Fairy Stars, also performs at each show.

“When it was all mostly gentlemen out here, it was such that they so missed the company of womanhood in general that even the smallest female child could become a star singing and dancing upon the stage,” Twombly explained. “Gold would be thrown at their feet just in tears in remembrance of their own children that they left behind.”

The Fairy Stars, Lotta Crabtree included, represent those girls who became stars in the early mining town.

Old Sacramento’s street theater will continue every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. and will feature gunfights, parlor games, and some familiar characters from the early days of Sacramento wandering the streets in a time warp to the past.

Living Library presents Peter Schrag

2010-06-22T04:24:42Z

Since the inception of the Arizona immigration bill, a great debate has taken place in California over immigration reform. In mid-June, the City Council even voted to take action against the bill by boycotting Arizona businesses.

Sunday evening, author, journalist and former Sacramento Bee editor Peter Schrag took part in this debate as part of Midtown Monthly and Time Tested Book’s Living Library series.

Schrag shared what he learned while writing his newly released book, Not Fit for our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America, with an audience of over 50 attendees, both young and old. Schrag began by talking about some of the propositions that have come into California in the past, including Prop. 187, “which was designed to deny illegal immigrants all public goods, including public school,” Schrag said.

But Schrag said the kind of debates taking place now and in 1994 for Prop. 187 are not new.

“I became increasingly aware that many of the things that were said, particularly in the arguments about Proposition 187, were things that have been said in our history for the past 300 years, going back to the colonial days,” he said.

Taking the audience throughout history through his narrative, Schrag showed how arguments today are mere echoes of the past. He started his historical journey with Henry Cabot Lodge, a senator and congressman who argued for stricter immigration restrictions in the 1890s through 1900s.

“Lodge, along with many other Americans, feared that the immigrants would begin rising,” he said. “Unlike the good old Anglo-Saxon stock, there was fear that they would attract inferior breeds.”

Many southeastern European groups, like the Italians, the Slavs and the Greeks, were discouraged from reproducing. While Teddy Roosevelt didn’t believe in the sterilization of these groups, according to Schrag, he still took part in the discussion, urging white Anglo-Saxon women to have more children.

Schrag said that during this era, eugenics became big.

“It was accompanied by a great deal of scientific ‘research’ proving that these new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were feeble-minded, more prone to disease, more prone to crime, that their kids couldn’t learn in school,” Schrag said. “A whole range of things that I’m sure is not new to you.”

This list continued with things that sound eerily similar to arguments heard today.

“They crowded the cities, they dragged on public roads, public services, they took the jobs from the Americans, they reduced wages. They sounded a bit like Steve Poizner,” he joked.

Schrag continued his history lesson with Congress’ Asian Exclusion Act, passed in 1917.

“This was a line that was drawn on the map of the globe, and people outside that line were basically not entitled to come in and be naturalized,” he said. “And there were a lot of arguments about who belonged on which side of the line.”

Questions were being asked about whether the Pakistanis, Arabs and Turks were one of us, Schrag said.

During the arguments about who was fit to become an American, Schrag noted that the Mexicans were free to come to the United States, but the restrictions on visa and immigration fees made it difficult for them to immigrate.

Schrag said the immigration laws essentially aided the existing immigrants.

“It provided, among other things, a chance for all these new immigrants, these formally non-white immigrants, to assimilate," he said.

The definitions of who was fit to become an American changed over the years, allowing for the immigration laws to be changed in 1965, Schrag said.

“This is something that has a long history,” he said. “And through this old history, immigration and immigration restriction have been woven around each other like a double helix. We want them and we don’t want them.”

Returning to present circumstances, Schrag talked about the new laws in Arizona.

“What’s happened is two ways of immigrants collided, essentially: one from the north — white, Midwestern, mostly older, but not totally older — colliding with younger Latinos coming in from the south and being shocked by this phenomenon,” Schrag said. “I think we (California) have been through this.”

On a national level, Schrag said immigration laws would be difficult to enact because of the common issues of transportation, health, drugs, crime and environment. He countered the idea of these laws with an idea promoted by Robert Pastor, a former vice president of international affairs at the American University in Washington.

Pastor's plan involves the creation of a North American community between the United States, Canada and Mexico to help solve our common problems. Schrag noted that this would be a good solution to think about for the long run, and in the meantime, we should focus on the smaller issues, like legalization of Mexican children raised in the States.

Answering a question from someone in the audience about whether or not the major parties in the United States are conflicted about immigration, Schrag said we all are.

“Americans are conflicted. We are all conflicted,” Schrag said. “Throughout history, we change our minds. We’re much more likely not to want immigrants when there’s a depression or when there are people unemployed, but when there’s a labor shortage, we want them.”

Schrag finished his talk with a quote from fellow author Richard Reeves, who is currently working on a new book about the Japanese internment camps.

“What pushes America forward, not only economically, but politically, is not the old Anglo-Saxon Protestant values of the founders, but the almost blind faith of illegal immigrants,’” Reeves had written to Schrag. “’We’re not only a nation of immigrants, we’re a nation made by immigrants.”

Get inked at the All-American Tattoo Festival

2010-06-18T03:57:10Z

Looking for a little push to get a tattoo? Now's the time to work up your courage, because tattoo artists from all over the world will be inking it up at Sacramento’s All-American Tattoo Festival at the Sacramento Convention Center this weekend.

Hosted by Forever Tattoo and held in the Sacramento Convention Center, the festival celebrates tattoos and the people who love them. Forever Tattoo’s Eiland Hogan said his gang of artists have been to tattoo festivals all over the world, including London, Asia and Greece. The crew decided they wanted something in Sacramento that would operate on an international scale.

“A lot of tattoo conventions are going on in California, but none of them are on an international scale,” Hogan said. “We provide a place where you can come and get a world-renowned tattoo.”

While the festival attracts many tattoo artists from all over California, it also draws artists from Nevada, New York, Hawaii, Florida, and Texas. The festival’s international artists this year hail from Spain, Germany and New Zealand.

“It’s a world scale of what can be done with tattoos,” Hogan said.

Over 100 artists will be on hand to lend their own unique style to human canvases who are looking for something a little different. Hogan hopes to have an attendance of at least 6,000 for this year's festival, coincidentally held on the weekend of Father's day.

The event will also feature a tattoo contests, including Best Leg, Best Sleeve,Best Color, and Best Back tattoos. Some competitions, like the Best Large tattoo, will be divided into men's and women's categories. Each day will end with the best tattoo of the day. Tattoo artists will also showcase some of their own tattoo inspired artwork with over 100 paintings and drawings. This year's live show features the daredevil duo of Tyler Fyre and Thrill Kill Jill, providing a daring Coney Island-style sideshow attraction, complete with sword-swallowing, escape artistry, glass-eating and flame-spitting.

Legacy Tattoo’s Sean Jackson started with the festival five or six years ago as a part of the tattoo artist community in the Sacramento area.

“The festival is a great event, an absolute positive outlet for a lot of the better tattooers in Sacramento, the States and overseas,” Jackson said. “It’s a very positive thing, especially for bringing business into Sacramento.”

Jackson has been tattooing for over 11 years now and enjoys the creative outlet it provides.

“I never know what I’m going to draw until the last second," he said. "I usually pull a really cool rabbit out of my hat. It’s like bringing art to life.”

The All-American Tattoo Festival opens Friday from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m and will continue on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., where the celebrations will close with the Best of Show tattoo competition. Fyre will perform his thrill show all three nights.

Tickets will be available all weekend at the Convention Center box office. Prices are $20 per day or $40 for the entire weekend, including admission to the after-hours party. Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult and are given free admission.

For more information, including a full schedule of events, please visit the festival website.

Images:

1 & 2: Outside Forever Tattoo
3: Artist Chris Danley works on a tattoo
4: A tattoo enthusiast shows off his full back tattoo
5: Brent Patton works on a design
6 & 7: Tattoo art by Jackson
8: Traditional skull with candle by Branden McAfee
9: Praying hands by Mark Matthews

Animal lovers speak out for the Sacramento County shelter

2010-06-15T02:04:36Z

With megaphone in hand, Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society of the United States led a crowd of over 50 animal lovers in chanting “No more cuts, save our pets!”

Fearing facilitated the rally Monday for the Sacramento County animal shelter, who positioned themselves on the steps of the Sacramento County Administration building to raise awareness about the cuts the shelter faces. Participants dressed in red with the message of “stop the bleeding.”

Amy McMullan encouraged members of her group of pit bull owners, called Sacramento Responsible Pit Bull Lovers, to come to support the shelter. The group has about 400 members, with about 15 in attendance at the rally.

“Pit bulls aren’t just the bane of the shelter, they’re actually owned family pets,” McMullan said. “We’re really trying to keep the dogs out of the shelter system, since the shelter is so overrun. We feel like we can create more foster families around Sacramento.”

The group has worked in the past with the Bad Rap pit bull organization in San Francisco (http://www.badrap.org) and hopes to reach non-profit status in the future.

“We’re really just trying to help refurbish the image of the breed and work with all kinds of demographics to bond together and have better recognition of what a pit bull is,” McMullan said.

The group did a vaccine clinic in Oak Park on Sunday and handed out free spay and neuter vouchers.

“Bad Rap said we handed out more spay and neuter vouchers yesterday than they’ve almost ever seen at a vaccine clinic,” she said.

Carrie Fleig from the group was there with the pit bull she adopted from the shelter to show her support.

“We know that a majority of the dogs at the shelters are pit bulls,” Fleig said. “If the shelter goes down, it’ll affect pit bulls the most.”

“We are the only voice the animals have,” Fearing said. “We have to make them realize that we need more time to find solutions, that right now is not the time to cut this. Allow us another year to find more solutions.”

Fearing stressed the importance for the community, including the Sacramento SPCA and the HSUS to unite in discovering how the budget problems of the shelter can be solved.

As the Capital of the most animal-friendly state in the country, the county has one of the largest spay days in the country, according to Fearing.

“It makes no sense to me that this county would make these kinds of choices and relegate us to the bottom of the pile,” she said. “When it comes to animal care, we belong at the top.”

Right now, the shelter is one of the largest in California, housing about 15,000 animals a year.

Celeste Ingrid, volunteer coordinator for the Sacramento County shelter, gave a short talk to the concerned citizens about the problems that the shelter currently faces.

“We’ve gone through about two years of budget cuts,” she said. “We’ve lost 44 percent of our staff and we’re looking at losing about six people soon, which brings us down to two animal care attendants and six officers to care for more than 15,000 animals a year."

The cuts only make up an eighth of a percent to the overall budget.

“That .08 percent doesn’t mean a lot to the county, but those six positions mean a lot to the shelter,” Fearing said.

Ingrid hopes the board will restore some funding to the shelter but acknowledged that many other departments in the county are fighting for the same money.

“There are a lot of very viable departments that we need that are looking for the same dollars, so the board of directors has some very difficult decisions to make this week,” she said. “It’s a big juggling game with a pot of money. Unfortunately, the pot of money is very small.”

The shelter will host a community engagement meeting on Tuesday evening, Fearing said.

“We’re going to start the first meeting by dreaming of what animal care would look like in Sacramento if we didn’t have the rules that we have and if we had unlimited resources,” Fearing said. “We want to just free our minds from some of the limitations and try to imagine what we might do and then figure out a way, as we go forward over the next six months, how to map that to reality and end up some place a whole lot better.”

For more information on the Sacramento County shelter, please visit saccountyshelter.net or sacanimalshelter.org.

Sacramento County animal shelter faces budget cuts

2010-06-08T01:47:40Z

Visiting the Sacramento County animal shelter used to be so depressing. Dogs were in small, dirty kennels with a chain-link fence on every side, and concrete above and below. The cats fared no better, in crates that resembled cat carriers. It was hard to find a happy feline among the bunch. Horses were in small holding stables and had to be covered with blankets in the winter to protect them from the cold.

With the opening of the shelter’s new facility in October 2009, things improved greatly for furry guests. The main building takes up five acres, so the facility has a lot more to offer.

“It has habitat rooms in the front area; you can see cats in what we call their natural habitat, lounging on couches, hanging out, scratching on scratching posts,” said Annie Parker, county communications media officer. “It helps people really envision what the cat would be like in their home and puts the cats at ease. Nothing sells itself like a big pile of kittens on a couch.”

Horses are housed in a barn with heat, electricity and running water. There’s also a two-acre dog park, one of the few in the county.

The shelter provides adoption counseling, so families can ask questions and discuss their household with an expert to find the right pet match. All of the adoptable pets are evaluated for a day or two in order to determine their temperament and what kind of household they’d best fit into.

There's also a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, in conjunction with the Sacramento SPCA, that performs about 1,000 surgeries a month. A rabies clinic is held on the third Thursday of the month, where vaccinations cost $6.

“The entire reason that animal control was conceived in the first place was rabies control,” Parker said. Rabies was a real problem in the early 1900s, so the state mandated that every county have its own animal control department.

For those who like to shop for their precious pets, there's a boutique store run by TEAM, the shelter’s nonprofit organization. It stocks everything from pet toys to cute tags. The shelter is also a gold-certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) facility, one of three in the nation.

Parker said adoption rates have risen about ten percent since the new shelter opened. Euthanasia rates have dropped significantly, and there has been a decrease in the number of stray animals picked up. “We’re getting more business overall because it’s not the nasty, gross shelter it used to be,” she said. The shelter also has information and photos of adoptable or lost animals online.

But with county budget cuts, the shelter is in danger of losing many of its services. “We expect that we will sustain some losses in animal care regulation,” said Carl Simpson, interim director of animal care and regulation.

The shelter already has eliminated 40 percent of its staff, with volunteers stepping in to fill the void. This means longer wait times when licensing a pet or adopting an animal. The shelter is now open Tuesdays through Saturdays rather than Wednesdays through Sundays, and hours have been reduced.

Animal control officers also have taken a hit. “There has been a decrease in investigating things like barking dogs or feral cats,” Parker said. “We need our officers to be investigating serious cases.” The officers now concentrate on animal neglect or abuse and aggressive animals.

Further cuts would reduce shelter services to the bare minimum, Parker said. Animal control officers may be able to respond only to aggressive animals and emergency responses could take longer. Services such as adoption counseling could be cut. “We’ve really come a long way from just pointing at the animal and getting it,” Parker said. “We worked so hard to get these standards in place and work for the community.”

In order to save the shelter from cuts, the shelter has started an SOS, or Save Our Shelter, campaign. Simpson said they received some funds for advertising on county buses and have placed stickers that promote SOS on many county vehicles. The shelter is seeking donations, and Simpson said the response has been impressive, with some giving as much as $1,500. The county also is also trying to increase the number of adoptions. “We’re trying to be more aggressive to get dogs adopted out to rescues, and we try to get people to come in to visit our shelter and adopt,” he said.

The shelter has introduced a licensing amnesty program: Instead of paying a $100 late fee, people who have not licensed their pets will pay the normal $15 fee. Dogs and cats in the county are required by law to be licensed, but Parker said that only 14 percent have been. “If every household licensed at least one of their pets, we would raise over $2 million,” she said.

And licensing comes with a whole set of perks for owners. If an animal control officer picks up a lost licensed animal, they try to reunite the pet with its owner before taking it to the shelter. That saves the shelter and the owner impound and shelter fees. If the owner can’t be contacted, the $40 fee to recover the pet will be waived the first time. Licensed pets are held in the shelter for 10 days instead of the normal three. After that, the animal becomes shelter property and can be adopted or euthanized. If a lost pet is injured, a license helps shelter employees take it to the owner’s preferred veterinarian. And finally, when Fluffy dies, animal services will help with arrangements through its connections with area pet cemeteries.

Clearly, people are concerned about the shelter. Simpson said he’s received about 500 e-mails in the past month from people worried about its future. “The animal-advocate community are very in tune and very concerned about the future of the shelter,” he said. “I’ve had an opportunity to see what kind of impact the shelter has in the community. Folks are able to come in and adopt an animal and leave with a smile on their faces.”

Rebuilding Iceland, rebuilding memories

2010-06-07T03:35:15Z

Stories flowed Sunday as people got down and dirty to help restore the Iceland ice skating rink. People shared memories of old times as they carried debris from the ice floor and helped to remove the wooden flooring around the rink.

Sunday was the fourth day the owners of the rink have asked volunteers to help them clean. Terrie Kerth, granddaughter of the late Bill Kerth, who built the ice rink in 1940, said the response has been unbelievable. When the project began, she said, the debris on the rink was more than a foot tall. Now, it's almost cleared, and the old rink will survive with some leveling. The wooden floors are being torn out and replaced with concrete.

More than 100 volunteers have worked on the project, with about 40 coming Sunday to help finish the job. “When we had our first day, we just had a steady stream of people going with their wheelbarrows,” Kerth said. “It was just phenomenal, and we just kept doing it and it’s amazing the people who come time after time.”

The family plans to reopen Iceland on Nov. 4 for its 70th anniversary. The rink will be open air for a while, but there are plans to install a roof in the coming years. “We’re starting a nonprofit called Sacramento Iceland and we’ll be raising money to put the roof on and rebuild the inside and we hope that by November 2011 to have it back pretty much like it was before,” Kerth said.

Former City Council member Rob Kerth was there when the fire broke out. “I was stuck out back and there was a six-alarm fire,” he said. “I couldn’t get around to the front, flames were shooting 100 feet out of the roof.” Kerth said he thought it was the end of the road for the rink, until he finally made it to the front and saw the bystanders. “It had been burning for about two hours and the sun was just coming up,” he recalled. “There were mothers there in their bathrobes and little kids crying and, this doesn’t happen very often, but there were hockey players hugging each other. People came from nowhere to see the rink and they were very upset.”

“I knew right then that there were enough people who cared about the old gal that we could somehow get it going again. So here we are.”

He also recalled when the U.S. Olympic team and its coaches died in a plane crash in 1973. A benefit show was put on for the families of the team, with former Olympic champion David Jenkins doing triple axles on the small rink. “It was really one of the first nationally televised sports events,” Kerth said.

And there are more stories. The rink is rumored to be haunted by Bill Kerth. Kerth said that his grandfather used to give keys to the place to the early-morning figure skaters. They’d let themselves in and skate for a while before he’d come in and talk to them. In the morning, there would be a fog bank that had built up over the ice, making it hard to see. “Every morning, he would come in the back door and he’d walk along the side of the rink and you could see this swirl in the fog behind him because he’d come in and lean over the rail to talk to the skaters and ask them how they were doing,” Kerth said. Now, every once in a while, early-morning skaters say they see that swirl in the fog and see someone leaning over the railing out of the corner of their eyes.

Bill Kerth and his son were innovators and came up with the idea for the first ice resurfacer a year and a half before Frank Zamboni, who visited the rink and claimed that the family had violated the patent on his machine. “So they got to talking and Zamboni realized that my dad beat him to it,” Kerth said. “Later in life, they became really good friends.”

Bob Hubbard, a competitive skating coach, said he has been skating at Iceland since 1952. “I skated here for many years as a competitor and went on to skate for Ice Capades for six years and started coaching and been doing it ever since,” he said. “I have a lot of memories in this place.” Hubbard said he was at a competition in Santa Rosa when he got the call that the place had been burned. “It’s just taking away from the community, the children, and all the memories and all the stuff with the place because it’s a landmark, it’s been here forever.”

When the new Iceland rink opens in November, there will be a sculpture that includes the blades and skates that were caught in the fire. Gina Rossi, a metal artist working in the area, is excited about her new project. She plans to have the children’s skates bronzed and make metal sculptures of children, each with a bronze skate. In the middle of the sculpture will be a fire bird made out of the blades of old skates. Rossi said the idea of the fire bird is fitting for rink that was burned down and is being rebuilt. “The philosophy of the fire bird is that it eventually just kind of burns up in flames, but with the flames of all that, it leaves a little egg behind,” she said. “And all of a sudden it becomes rebirth.”

Rossi plans to have some of the volunteers who helped to restore Iceland help build her sculpture. “I’m going to have the kids and various people just be a part and I want them to have a little bit of their name on it, so they can always be a part and know that they were involved in the rebuilding of this.”

The artist sees value in the rink's past. “Just being able to walk into something and look around and know that things happened here, as opposed to something that’s brand new,” she said, “It’s got a story. Some children, their parents see them skate here for the first time, and people propose to each other on the ice. Wonderful things happen in life and it just needs to be kept alive.”

East Sacramento set to rock this month

2010-06-04T03:58:29Z

Grab your blankets and lawn chairs and and get ready to enjoy those June nights. East Sacramento is gearing up for this year's annual Pops in the Park concerts, starting Saturday with the country band Whiskey Dawn at East Portal Park.

Pops in the Park began in 1991. “The Sacramento Symphony did outdoor concerts in every council district in order to pay back the community,” recalled Councilman Steve Cohn. The concerts took place in the afternoon, but because of the heat, Cohn said attendance usually was low. Upon entering the city council, Once he became a council member, Cohn decided to change things. “I decided to do evening concerts and do a series and get really good bands that folks would really enjoy,” he said. The evening series has been running annually since 1995.

“It’s kind of almost like a more innocent time,” Cohn said of the series. “You see every age from newborns to 90-plus year olds.”

In the past, concerts had jumphouses and face-painting for the kids, but Cohn said now the committee tries to keep it simple.

“We found that the kids actually have more fun hanging out in the park with all those people,” he said. “We really don’t need to have much else. People entertain themselves.” Attendance at the concerts ranges from 3,000 to 4,000.

Planning for the concerts is a year-round event. Sue Brown, Cohn's district director, does much of it. Along with Cohn and a team of volunteers, she obtains sponsors by the end of the year, and has the lineup figured out at the beginning of the next year.

The Kiwanis Club once again will raise money by selling hot dogs, pizza and hamburgers. The concerts also feature a beer and wine garden. All the proceeds go back into the community.

“We decided to use the Pops money to put towards neighborhood parks,” Cohn said. “In the past, we’ve done a lot of improvement and enhancements to parks.”

The money has helped to build playgrounds and the plaza and fountain at 45th and N streets. This year’s funds will go to something a little different. “Most of it this year is going to keep the Glenn Hall, Bertha Henschel and McKinley Park pools open for recreational swims,” Cohn said.

Performances will include Beatles tribute band Because playing at Glenn Hall Park on June 12. SwingMasters will bring its big-band sound to Bertha Henschel Park on June 19, and The Q-Balls will wrap up the series with classic rock at McKinley Park on June 26. The Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates will be provide free bicycle parking in an area with attendants.

There will be more fun later in the summer with the fifth annual Screen on the Green. Every August Saturday evening, movie lovers can see family flicks in East Sacramento parks. For more information on the events, visit http://sacscreenonthegreen.com/ and http://eastsacpopsinthepark.com.

All images courtesy of the Pops in the Park and Screen on the Green websites

A swinging time at the California Auto Museum

2010-05-31T01:40:56Z

Visitors had a rollicking good time Sunday at the second annual Sacramento Swing Time.

The event at the California Auto Museum featured swing music from nine bands, and offered something for every musical taste, said Fun Monkey Entertainment’s Shonda Honkanen, event co-founder. “We have a whole roster of wonderful music from blues, to jazz, western swing and rockabilly music,” she said. “There’s a lot to listen to and a lot to dance to.”

Entertainment also came in the form of unusual vendors, including Heavenly Gate Tattoos doing on-site inking and a booth selling rockabilly clothing.

The fun continued outside with free swing dance lessons, a hula dancing performance and a car show featuring hot rods and classic cars.

The Pinup Angels showed their support for U.S. troops with a flag signed by men and women in uniform. “We are a troop-support charity and we send care packages to the troops overseas,” said Kitty Baby, founder and manager of the group. Donations are solicited from visitors to car shows and other events, and pinup prints of the girls in swimsuits and tight outfits, reminiscent of the old Betty Page days, are given in exchange. “Our boys and girls just love it,” she said. “We send a lot of pictures to them of what we’re doing at our events, but we also send them pinup prints in the care packages.”

Last year, the swinging celebration drew about 300 people, Honkanen said. “It just keeps growing and it gets better and better. We’ve doubled the entertainment, we’ve definitely doubled the amount of vendors and the people,” she said.

Karen McClaflin, director of the museum, said the facility's proximity to the Jazz Jubilee in Old Sacramento helps. “The timing and the location was deliberate, so that people who attended the Jazz Festival who wanted to come down for the swing music could,” she said. “They could walk if they wanted to and come on down and hear it.”

While the money raised helps Fun Monkey Entertainment put on more swinging events, the company also is glad to support the California Auto Museum, Honkanen said. “I just think it’s important for Sacramento to support your museum, support your local live bands, support local art.”

Such support clearly is welcome. “They’re doing it as a fund raiser for them, but as the venue, it also becomes a fund raiser for us,” McClaflin said. “Because we get people through the door then going to the bar, buying ice cream or buying stuff in our gift shop.”

Sacramento County Fair provides a wild time

2010-05-29T02:24:11Z

Visitors to Cal Expo smell greasy food and fresh manure, which can mean one thing: The Sacramento County Fair is back.

Fair manager T.J. Plew said that this year’s fair features some fun, new and exciting entertainment.

“We have the safari theme and with that we’ve booked a camel show, an urban jungle bird show, an actual safari exhibit with some fun creatures from around the world, and a monkey show," she said. All the shows provide fairgoers with interesting animal facts and let them see unusual tricks.

The camel show featured a demonstration on how to milk a camel. Observers learned that camels give milk for only 90 seconds at a time. Once it started flowing, the fun began. Children watched the camel-milking action in awe.

In the breezeway between the usual community exhibits and shoppers expo, was Safari Adventure Live, with animals ranging from the cute and cuddly kangaroo to the creepy hissing cockroach.

Kids were put through their paces on a National Guard-sponsored obstacle course, crawling under a cloth net, riding small bicycles through bales of hay, and running through tires.

Behind the scenes, employees work around the clock to make sure everything goes smoothly. Plew and her crew are asked one question after another about parking permits and admission credentials for the various food vendors. The team coordinates locations, schedules entertainment, and plans around school schedules for youth exhibitors.

The fair employs about 25 official volunteers, along with parents associated with some of the youth exhibits. Volunteers set up displays and help in the competitions and livestock barn. “We’re always looking for fun, energetic people that want to lend a hand and provide input as to what it means to have fun, affordable entertainment,” Plew said.

About 13,500 guests visit the fair per day, she said. With 25 food booths and 120 vendors showcasing their products, there’s plenty to eat and buy. On the carnival side, Plew said that the fair works with one carnival operator. “He has 32 rides, five food booths, and 12 games,” she said.

Work on the county fair starts in September and ends in May, just in time for opening day. The usual Ferris wheel, bumper cars and carousel can be found in the midway, along with a two-story slide; the Big Dipper, which takes riders on an up-and-down twirling adventure; a fun house; and a jungle-themed adventure walk through, where kids can climb and run across wooden bridges. The Graviton, a spaceship lookalike, provides riders with a weightless experience with its spinning, tilting and shifting platforms. For the wee ones, there are a few small roller coasters, tea cups and a bee-themed aerial ride. Game players can win giant stuffed animals or goldfish by testing their aim with a water gun, or showing off their skills at darts and basketball.

The Sacramento County Fair wasn’t always in Sacramento. “The fair originally was in Galt and at one point was kind of moved around,” Plew said. “It sold its property in Galt so that Cal Expo could have the funds to be built.” Since the construction of Cal Expo, the county and state fairs shared the fairgrounds. “We’re the only fair that doesn’t have its own fairgrounds in California,” Plew said. “Every other county fair has its own facility.”

“Our mission here is to provide fun, affordable family entertainment,” Plew said. “With only a three-dollar gate, and with all the entertainment that’s new, plus the stuff that’s always been here, I think we’ve accomplished that.”

The Sacramento County Fair runs through Memorial Day at Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd. Parking is $10 and admission is $3. Ages 62 and older and children younger than 12 are admitted free. Saturday and Sunday the fair will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Memorial Day, the fair will open at 10 a.m., wrapping up at 6 p.m. The carnival will stay open an hour after the fair closes.

Photos:

1. Entrance to the midway

2. Fairgoers wait in line for the Ferris wheel

3. The caterpillar roller coaster zipping around the corner

4. A train takes visitors on tour of the fair

5. Camels relax in between milkings

6. The Big Dipper takes guests on a wild ride

7. Fairgoers smash into each other on the bumper cars

8. Mad Scientist Dr. Proton gets slimed in their Be Tobacco Free show

9. Children flock to the Mad Science booth to get some slime of their own

10. The kangaroo in the Animal Safari Live exhibit

11. Two teens examine a porcupine quill in the safari exhibit

12. Two sheeps being sheared in the livestock pavilion

13. A girl reaches for the top of the rock climbing wall

Rancho Cordova's furry residents get a new place to play

2010-05-24T02:30:11Z

Rancho Cordova residents were treated to some doggone fun Saturday with at Woofstock. The aptly named event marked the grand opening of the city’s first dog park in Hagan Community Park.

There's been talk of a dog park since 2002, but Rancho Cordova Mayor Ken Cooley still didn’t expect hundreds of people to show up, some of whom had traveled from as far as El Dorado Hills for the event. “I just did not know what to expect this morning, and I’m floored by the constituency that a dog park has,” he said. “It’s fabulous.”

At least 100 hounds were present to help break in the park, which features everything a dog could want: plenty of space to roam, trees for shade and disposal bags for their humans to keep the park clean. The two-acre spread is fenced and split into three sections, two for the big dogs, one for the little guys. The small-dog section is slightly less than half an acre, while the large-dog sections are .92 acres and .72 acres, respectively. One of the large dog areas has a hill. The pups loved running up and down it, while their human companions enjoyed the vantage point it offered.

As with any place in which furry critters are allowed to run freely, there were a couple of fights. Both times, though, the dogs were separated quickly, and the aggressor escorted out of the park by its owner.

Gold River resident Mort Rumberg said people had wanted a dog park for years. “The Rancho Cordova Recreation and Parks District were asked by people wanting to move into the city, ‘How many dog parks do you have?’ ” he said. “Five years ago, there were none.”

A committee, Gone to the Dogs, was formed to find a place for Rancho’s furry residents to play. “We started working raising funds, meeting and putting together a program, and this is the result,” Rumberg said.

The grand opening was clearly all about dogs, and included trainers, sitters and pet food companies, each with treats for the four-legged guests. Those who need better manners can learn them from Serena Saris, owner of the Golden Paws Academy. She will offer classes in the dog park in conjunction with the Cordova Recreation and Parks District.

But there was fun to be had even without a dog. Some people stood outside the fence with their children, watching the pups play while others took in the agility and police K-9 demonstrations. There also were a look-alike contest, in which contestants were judged by how much their dog resembled them, and a stupid pet tricks contest.

As for the dogs, run-by lickings and joyful expressions showed their owners that they think the dog park is the best place in the world to run and play.

Crocker's Third Thursday set to jazz it up this week

2010-05-18T02:34:11Z

Looking for a way to have a little fun on your Thursday evenings? The Crocker Art Museum may be able to help. Running for more than 10 years, the Third Thursday Jazz series will be starting up again this month.

Every month, from May until August, concertgoers will be treated to sounds of jazz in the museum’s courtyard. The Crocker’s marketing communication coordinator, Kathleen Richards, said the event will feature good music, good weather, and good people. “Sacramento is really well-known for its nice summer evenings,” she said. “This is a good way to spend those evenings.”

All shows will begin at 5:30, with the music starting a bit later. Richards said refreshments will be served, including beer and wine, and people are encouraged to come for more than the music. “Usually people just mix and mingle until it starts,” she said.

With past concerts pulling in about 500-800 attendees, the museum staffers are hoping to keep those numbers up so they can continue the tradition of summer jazz concerts in future years. While the museum will be closed from June 7 to Oct. 9 in preparation for the opening of the new Crocker museum, guests are still encouraged to come for the concert and enter at the courtyard gate instead of the museum’s main entrance.

The Third Thursday summer jazz series kicks off this Thursday with Peter Morgan, who will play coastal island-inspired guitar. During the intermission of his show, guests are encouraged to take part in a spotlight tour of the museum, where a special exhibit will be lit with spotlights.

Iván Nájera will play his Latin-inspired guitar rhythms in June, the Garrett Perkins Project is slated to perform everything from bebop to modern jazz in July and keyboardist Roger Smith and his band will close out the series with a bang in August.

Tickets for each show are $10 for non-members and free to members. For more information, visit crockerartmuseum.org/jazz.

Photos:

1. Peter Morgan performing with his band

2. The Crocker's courtyard during a previous Third Thursday concert

3. Iván Nájera performing

4. Roger Smith at his piano

5. The Garrett Perkins Project performing

All photos courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum. Photos 1, 2, and 5 by Greg Flagg

In the Flow brings jazz to Sacramento

2010-05-17T02:43:57Z

Music flowed from Beatnik Studios on Sunday during the third annual In the Flow Jazz Festival. Musicians from all over the West Coast played, including Nels Cline. The guitarist from band Wilco played Saturday afternoon.

“My friend Byron and I, we came up with doing just a festival of jazz to let local and regional artists play,” said Ross Hammond, the event’s co-founder. The festival started at the True Love Coffeehouse three years ago, and moved to its current location at 2421 17th St. last year.

Hammond said the celebration has been growing steadily. “The first year was kind of more Sacramento, then we added some Bay Area stuff, and now there’s a lot of other people from up and down the West Coast,” he said. “It’s getting a little bigger every year.” This year's event was sponsored by the Greater Broadway Partnership, a nonprofit business association.

The Rich Halley Trio came from Portland, Ore., to play. “It has a really good energy to it, a really good feel,” Reed said. The band, together for about 35 years, played Sundayafternoon for about 20 people.

The audience about doubled for a performance by The Reminders, which features Vinny Golia, Tom Monson, Lisa Mezzacappa and Ross Hammond.

“The main thing is that it’s very eclectic,” Hammond said of the festival. “It’s got a lot of different styles.” He said there’s electronic, noise and rock music, something for everyone. “If you don’t like what you’re listening to, you can just hang out for a second, then you’ll like the next thing.”

The lineup moved quickly. After the Rich Halley Trio, the audience was told to move into the next room. As soon as everyone was settled, Joe Berry and Tim Metz began to play. It was a day of moving from one jazz experience to the next.

“It’s a place to showcase talent,” said Mindy Giles from Swell Productions. “You don’t often get to hear something like that on the radio.”

The festival will close Monday with a tribute to local jazz bassist Byron Blackburn. Blackburn, who died in September, recorded an album with a sextet before his death. The Labor Day Session will be released at Luna’s Café & Juice Bar, 1414 16th St., with a special performance by Blackburn’s band.

Photographed performances:

1. The Rich Halley Trio

2. Guitarist Joe Berry and drummer Tim Metz

3 and 4. The Reminders

Fishtank Ensemble brings unique music to Sacramento

2010-05-15T03:23:45Z

What do you get when you cross an opera-trained singer with a self-taught violinist, a flamenco guitarist who formerly played drums in the L.A. rock scene and an upright slap bass player, all with a passion for unique music with Roma roots? You get Fishtank Ensemble. And on Tuesday Sacramento will get a taste of the ensemble at Firehouse 5.

The group got its name from the performance space where the musicians first met. It's called the fishtank because the windows let passers-by peer in. The musicians, including singer and Sacramento native Ursula Knudson, violinist Fabrice Martinex, guitarist Doug Smolens and bassist Djordje Stijepovic, decided to do a show just for fun.

“Somebody came up to me and said, ‘What is the name of your band?’” Knudson said. She answered, “What band?” Fishtank was the first thing she thought of, and the band was formed.

“We’re like a model of the new type of independent band,” Knudson said. Being independent meant the band made its own choices, touring and building a fan base without the help of a record company. “If we were with a huge record label, we wouldn’t be making as much or have as much freedom,” Knudson said. “We’re doing things on our own terms.”

She said Fishtank puts a unique twist on Roma music. “We’re taking Roma music and taking it out of its location,” Knudson said. “It’s a twist to a traditional type of music.” The band builds on the backgrounds of its members, including Knudson, who performed in the Sacramento Opera Chorus for a year when she was 18.

Fishtank Ensemble’s recently released album, 'Woman in Sin," reflects the band’s unique music. “It’s got a lot of different styles, and each one is thoroughly explored,” Knudson said.

She said she is excited to return to her hometown and misses a lot about it. “It’s like the fake South,” she joked. “There’s two rivers, people sitting on their porches and kids walking around barefoot.”

A fun fact: Knudson’s grandfather is Jimboy of Sacramento-based Jimboy’s Tacos.

Knudson promised that Tuesday's show would be fun and unique. “It’s not pre-formulated,” she said. “I call it a train wreck that might happen, but never does.” Band members have to watch each other to find out what will happen next, Knudson said, making for an exciting and unusual performance.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door and are available through Firehouse 5’s website or by phone. Firehouse 5 is at 2014 9th St. For more information, visit www.thefirehouse5.com.

Photos courtesy of Rock Paper Scissors Inc.

City Draft Budget Receives Criticism

2010-05-12T04:54:46Z

City Council members had a variety of reactions to the draft budget presented by Interim City Manager Gus Vina Tuesday night.

The draft was first released April 30, when Vina proposed layoffs of as many as 200 city employees in an effort to balance the city budget and reduce the $43 million gap. Among other things, the draft budget aims to make $14.6 million through cuts to programs and services and $19.6 million by removing all vacant city positions and possible labor union concessions. The draft also proposes to apply $8.8 million in other funds to the budget.

While Vina said layoffs were unlikely at Tuesday’s meeting, council members found issues with other aspects of the draft.

Lauren Hammond, for one, was curious as to why the city needs the Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority after it refused to make a bid for commercial waste collection in Sacramento.

Hammond also raised a complaint about a proposal to reduce the city service hours to four days a week. She claimed that city services like loose-in-the-street green waste pickup are already struggling to operate within a five-day workweek. Reducing the hours could become even more problematic. “We need to be cognitive that there are things that should be done in a certain order,” Hammond said.

Sandy Sheedy found issues with the draft itself. Sheedy felt that neither the council nor the public was given enough information about the budget. “I want this to be as transparent as possible,” she said. “I’m a little disappointed in what I see.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson stressed the importance of protecting the police force from budget cuts. “All of us are eager to dive a little bit deeper a little bit quicker,” Johnson said. “I want to reiterate our commitment to public safety. We want to be a full-service city.”

Yet another opinion offered on the draft budget came from Bonnie Pannell. “I’m disappointed in at least one of the recommendations,” Pannell said, who found issue with the fact that one of the programs proposed to be cut was the city's racial profiling committee.

Betty Williams, president of the Sacramento chapter of NAACP , also objected to cutting that committee. “It’s imperative that we maintain investment in our city,” Williams said. “I would like NAACP to be a part of the partnership in the discussion of cutting programs.” Fearing that similar programs will be put on the chopping block, she expressed interest in seeing the list of services that were not considered mandatory by the city manager and budgeting staff.

The next budget hearing is scheduled for May 25 in the City Council Chambers located at 915 I Street.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Bosom Buddy Program Supports Women

2010-05-08T04:40:59Z

The Bosom Buddy Bra Recyclers are giving bras a second home.

Founded in October 2008, the organization collects used bras from women around the world to donate to homeless shelters and transition houses. If the bras can't be used, they're recycled and given a new life in a different form.

The idea for the project came when Elaine Birks-Mitchell was talking to a friend who worked at a shelter. As they talked about what the women needed, the subject of bras came up. "They never get enough," Birks-Mitchell said. "People don't think to donate bras."

Birks-Mitchell said the response to Bosom Buddy has been unbelievable. The project has received 20,000 bras in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Combined with last year's donations, the total is more than 40,000. While women are encouraged to mail in donations, there are 17 drop-off locations, most are in the organization's home state of Arizona, with one in Dallas, and another in Sacramento.

"For some reason, us women, we don't like to throw anything away," Birks-Mitchell joked. Many donors have found the recyclers on the Web, dug through their closets, and found one or two bras that just don't fit right. Some still have tags on them. And donations have come from as far away as Hong Kong.

Connis Kimball, co-owner of At Last Bra and Lingerie, the local drop-off location, said she decided to work with the program after hearing about it on television. "We had customers coming in that would purchase bras who didn't want their old ones," she said. "We wanted to find something that we could do with the bras other than throw them away." The shop, at 2639 Town and Country Place, has received well over 1,000 bras. "We enjoy working with Bosom Buddies; we all have the same goals," Kimball said.

The recycled bras used to be sent to shelters in a big box, but most shelters couldn't use all of them, and the boxes were taking up precious room. Now, Bosom Buddy will send each shelter a kit that includes a special measuring tape and instructions on how to use it. Each woman can measure herself to get the perfect fit. While all sizes are gratefully accepted, Birks-Mitchell said the biggest need is for sizes 38 and up.

Local shelters also are in need. "Rather than sending everything out of state when we have shelters here, we send some to local shelters," Kimball said. The shop works with St. John's shelter for women and children in Sacramento, and Heather House, a permanent homeless shelter in Fairfield.

Besides recycling lacy underthings, Birks-Mitchell is interested in increasing awareness of domestic violence. Many battered women flee their violent environment quickly, often forgetting to pack bras. Kimball has worked closely with the transitional houses that help them.

"It doesn't matter what your socioeconomic background is, it can happen to anyone," she said of domestic violence. "It's OK to talk about."

Bosom Buddy has done events with the Girl Scouts, and put on "The Bra-Vogue Contest and Fashion Show," in which contestants decorate a bra.

The bra recyclers teamed up recently with Operation Petticoat, a campaign to send bras to women and girls in Kenya. Birks-Mitchell said the lingerie we take for granted here is badly needed there. Most females in Kenya can't afford bras, and without them, it's difficult for girls to participate in activities such as sports.

Birks-Mitchell said she hopes to form a partnership with bra manufacturers. Most retailers and manufacturers throw away defective or unsold bras. Bosom Buddy wants to convince those companies that recycling is the way to go, she said. "It's a neat way for companies to do outreach and do something different."

Images:

1. Logo for the Bra Recyclers

2 & 3. Decorated bras from "The Bra-Vogue Contest and Fashion Show"

4. At Last Bra and Lingerie

Images 1, 2 & 3 courtesy of Elaine Birks-Mitchell

Image 4 courtesy of At Last Bra and Lingerie

Dancing around the Maypole in McKinley Park

2010-05-04T02:49:37Z

Red and white ribbons dangled from the top of a Maypole that stood near the Rose Garden in McKinley park on Sunday, signaling the Sacramento Turn Verein's Maifest. The group brought a little piece of its German heritage to the park with traditional German food, a beer garden and a traditional Maypole dance performed by the Sacramento Alpentänzer Schuhplattlers (Alpine Dancers).

The event helped people from different walks of life learn a bit more about the Turn Verein group and its traditional German roots. The dancers were dressed for just the occasion, with the men in lederhosen and the women in dirndls, traditional German dress.

The celebration raised money for the Turn Verein's German Language School, held at its headquarters on 33rd and J streets. The school teaches both young and old how to speak German. A crowd of about 150 showed up for the event to buy their drinks and sausage in support of the language school.

But everything didn't go off without a hitch. The event started a bit later than planned because of unforeseen licensing requirements, and the banishment of amplified music in city parks made the event a bit quieter than one would expect. And the turnout seemed unexpected. By 2 p.m., the group had run out of sausages for its hungry guests, and at least one keg of Spaten beer was gone by 3 p.m. But the beer kept flowing and, after an emergency trip to the store, the sausage kept grilling as families enjoyed their German picnic on a sunny day.

The festivities continued as the Sacramento Alpentänzer Schuhplattlers took the stage, performing their traditional dances to a three-piece acoustic band.

"We've got 40 dancers, half of them are teenagers or early 20s, the other half are adults," Gary Schultz, director of the dance group, said. Only about 12 of them, both teens and adults, performed the Maypole dance before inviting others at the event to take the dance floor and try their hand at the traditional German dances.

It was a first appearance at Maifest for the Sacramento Alpentänzer Schuhplattlers, though the group dances often at other events.

"We usually dance about 12 times a year, mostly in September or October," Schultz said. "The kids get a chance to perform in front of a live audience. It helps them become more self-assured." The group normally performs in front of a crowd of about 500, much larger than the picnickers.

While it's still unknown how much money was raised for the language school at Maifest, the long lines for beer and food were a good indication that the event was a success.

"It's been a steady line," Schultz commented. "I think we've made a fair amount today."

Sacramento Zoo looks for new home

2010-04-30T04:47:29Z

Residents gathered Wednesday evening at the Hart Senior Center to find a new home for the Sacramento Zoo. After 83 years, the zoo is looking to ditch its current Land Park location in order to gain more space. The two most probable locations are Sutter’s Landing and the Natomas area.

Merely 14 acres in size, the current zoo doesn’t allow for expansion. Many of the animals—including elephants, rhinos, polar bears and cheetahs—had to be relocated to different zoos because of the small size of the enclosures in Sacramento. In order to keep their accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the zoo has to keep up with the changing standards of the association by continuously updating its current animal exhibits.

Despite the fact that collection of animals at the Sacramento Zoo is shrinking, the staff has had to gradually raise admission fees to $11 due to construction costs associated with updating the exhibits. Mary Healy, director and CEO of the zoo, said, “We can’t be a $30 zoo with only 14 acres.”

One option being explored is relocating the zoo to Sutter’s Landing, an area that used to be a landfill that now holds a small community park with river access. The Sutter’s Landing Feasibility Study, conducted to decide if the park would be a good place for the zoo, concluded that the location would not be suitable.

Scot Mende, new growth manager at the Community Development Department, said the current road running into the park, B Street, is not clear or safe for the amount of traffic that a new zoo would bring because of the big hill and railroad tracks it features. A new roadway and freeway exit could cost more than $100 million.

The cost of construction in a former landfill area can also cost the zoo an extra $30 million on top of regular construction prices. It could also take an additional 17 years for the methane in the east end of the park to settle. All these factors combined make the probability of building a zoo at Sutter’s Landing decrease immensely. “Doing anything is a lot more difficult when it used to be a landfill,” City Councilman Steve Cohn said.

Other locations were discussed as possibilities. One was the Natomas Joint Vision Area, a 10,000-acre location currently being planned with an allocation of open space, something the zoo may be able to fit into. The city-owned, 100-acre area north of Arco Arena, where a partially built River Cats stadium now stands, was also discussed, as well as an area of the Job Corps site in Meadowview that may get surplussed in the next few years by the federal government.

Expanding the zoo at its current Land Park location is unlikely. Healy recognized that the zoo is landlocked. “Our best option is to look for a new site,” she said. A City Council resolution passed in 1988 determined that the zoo’s current boundaries within Land Park will remain as its permanent boundaries.

But the topic was still explored. Healy suggested a possible way of expanding the zoo would be to get rid of the “spaghetti” streets outside of the zoo and replace them with a roundabout, exchanging asphalt for space while improving traffic and making school bus drop-offs a lot easier. Healy also talked about creating a separate entrance for a café and gift shop to let patrons explore those areas without paying for zoo admission, as well as creating a round-trip train stop that would run from Old Sacramento to the zoo.

The senior center, located at 915 27th St., was filled with over 60 concerned citizens of the Sutter’s Landing area. Residents worried about increased traffic, as well as a possible disruption of the natural wildlife at the river. Like many Sutter’s Landing residents, Stella Meaney, of Friends of the River Banks, emphasized the importance of the river as a natural asset. “We want the environmental, the ecological, the animals,” Meaney said. “What a great asset to have a stretch of river that’s wild.”

The next community meeting about the zoo’s future will be held at 7 p.m. July 1, at the Parnell Community Center, 2450 Meadowview Rd., with another tentative meeting slated for mid-summer. The Sacramento Parks and Recreation, Community Development Department, and the Sacramento Zoological Society hope these meetings will help them gain public feedback on the different options explored so far.

KlickNation Helps Unite the Sacramento Gaming Community

2010-04-28T03:07:41Z

There was a different world inside “KlickNation’s Hosted Meetup of Awesomeness,” held on Thursday night at 1015 20th Street. Gaming enthusiasts amassed in groups to discuss things like frame rates, metrics, RPGs, MAUs, and DAUs. When one attendee brought his iPad out of hiding, a group of three or four others swarmed around him and the discussion quickly turned from the specs of the iPad to the battle between the Kindle and books. Equipped with tech talk and hours of gaming experience, they were there to prove that the Sacramento game culture is growing.

With about 30 people in attendance, the event featured talks by employees of KlickNation, a company that makes games for Facebook. Talks touched on everything from their history and future, to how to market and make games.

Attendees of the event included artists and programmers, both working and looking for work, as well as game studios, and people who were merely interested in making games themselves.

Mark Otero, KlickNation’s co-founder and CEO, said that while it’s still a small culture, the interest is there. “It’s a lot of hobbyists, a lot of small teams that are still working a full-time job, building games on the side,” he said.

Otero’s first venture into the business world was the Mochii yogurt shop located at 1530 16th Street after he grew tired of the daily nine-to-five grind of previous jobs. His interest in gaming and his degree in computer science from the California State University, Sacramento, led him to his dream job of designing games.

Otero and KlickNation are relatively new to the gaming world. Founded in 2007, KlickNation started out making gifting applications on Facebook, including one called Happy Pills, an application that allowed users to share virtual versions of prescription and illegal drugs with their friends on Facebook.

Superhero City, released on Facebook on June 16, 2009, after only three months of development, became the first game on Facebook to feature animated battles. It “was contrived through watching the TV show ‘Heroes,’ being a big fan of Marvel comics, and having seen ‘The Watchmen,’” he said.

Even though the game had a lot of problems on its initial release, Aaron Nemoyten, product manager for the game, said at the meetup that it still got a fairly receptive response. "Everything can suck except the gameplay," Nemoyten joked.

Devin Becker, 28, was one of the unemployed attendees. Looking for leads on jobs in programming or game design, Becker said he decided to attend the event after finding the meetup group through the web. "I Googled 'game design Sacramento,' and this was the only good result. I thought it was definitely worth a try," Becker said.

His curiosity with the Sacramento game community drew him to the event. "Sacramento is far enough out of the Bay Area that we need events like this," Becker said. "There's no good forum for game design in this area."

According to Otero, that forum is beginning to take shape. He said that organization would allow hobbyists, educators, and businesses to thrive in the gaming industry.

Otero added that it might be another three or four years before Sacramento makes it on the map in the gaming community.

“We’re very happy to be a part of the gaming culture of Sacramento,” Otero said. “We owe it to Sacramento to do what’s right for the city. I’m tired of seeing the creative people move away.”

Enter “Age of Champions.” KlickNation workers revealed a sneak peek of their newest game at the meetup on Thursday. "I think it’s going to be one of the best investments we’ve ever made," Otero said of the new game, set to debut on Facebook sometime this week. The game will have three integral features that will connect with gamers: a 3D avatar creator, a mass combat system, and an incredible story. "It’s about leadership," Otero said. "It’s about building and amassing an army and to compete with other players. That’s the emotional connection our game makes."

Rubicon's Fourth Annual Women in Brewing Event Benefits WEAVE

2010-04-26T02:34:43Z

Good spirits were all around at the Rubicon Brewing Company, located at 2004 Capitol Ave., on Saturday for their annual Women in Brewing event. The event, which features women brewers from the area and around the world, with proceeds from the sales and a silent auction supporting WEAVE, drew several thousand beer enthusiasts throughout the day to sample some good brews.

Several of the brewer s attended the event, including Denise Jones, the Brewmaster for Moylan’s Brewing Company, who brewed the Hell’s Export Lager for the event.

“Usually, beers are turned over in 14 to 21 days, whereas this beer took probably about six to seven weeks before I released it to the public,” Jones said of the lager that she brews only once or twice per year. While brewing wasn’t her first career, it’ll probably be her last. “I enjoy getting up every day and going to work,” Jones said. “It’s not a 40-hour kind of week for me, it’s a lifestyle.”

Jones noted that while men still dominate the brewing world, women are increasingly becoming a part of that world. While she admits the work takes a lot of physical and mental strength, Jones said there are practically no barriers for women in the brewing field. “If you think there are barriers, there will be barriers, if you make them for yourself,” she said. “There’s no barrier that I ever saw that should matter.”

Participating in the event since its inception, Jones said, “I do a lot of charity events, take beer a lot of places, and there are good causes everywhere, and (this is) a really nice community event.”

The Sac City Rollers roller derby team was also there to support the event. Participants for three years now, the derby donates tickets, T-shirts, stickers and signed posters for the event’s silent auction. H. N. Icy, the manager of the team, said the team likes to stay for most of the event, inviting all its fans to come out and enjoy a beer. “We love to come out and support the cause… it’s good for us to be out here, it’s good for WEAVE and it’s also supporting a really good cause,” Icy said. “It’s also supporting women in brewing, which is a really important part. And we are all about women and empowerment, so it’s just kind of all coincides.”

Many agreed, enjoying the sunny weather on the Rubicon’s patio while having a beer with friends. Sacramento native Patrick Mabie, 30, drank his Urthel Samaranth brewed by Belgian Hildegard van Ostaden while chatting with friends.

“It’s a great cause, and a good excuse to drink before five,” Mabie joked.

The event was started four years ago after a Rubicon employee was attacked on her way home and WEAVE stepped in to help her out. Glynn Phillips, the owner of Rubicon, said the local charity helped to get her back on her feet. “They treated her with kindness and respect and helped her out,” he said.

The idea formed after talking one night with friends and employees about beer. “We talked about how years ago it was woman’s job to make beer for household,” Phillips said of the currently male-dominated career. In fact, women were dominating the brewing field as early as 3150 B.C., and remained in that position until the Industrial Revolution and the onset of commercial brewing prompted men to take over.

Phillips then took the idea to WEAVE and formed a partnership.

“They brought the idea to us,” said Beth Hassett, executive director of WEAVE. “They really wanted to dedicate the money to the sexual assault program.” While it’s still unknown how much money was raised through the event, Hassett noted that, last year, they raised several thousand dollars.

“The community supports us a lot, and we should support the community as well,” Phillips said.

“We feel like it’s a great partnership with women who are breaking into a mostly male industry, brewing beer and doing something good to help other women in our community,” Hassett said. “We’re so grateful they’ve chosen WEAVE to benefit from this fun fundraising effort.”

Be sure to watch for the other fundraising events the Rubicon has planned. One of the biggest events is the Midtown Community Festival, benefiting the Boys and Girls Club of Sacramento, where streets are closed for the day to let people have fun and enjoy their community. The Rubicon is also planning a new fundraiser, called 501c Wednesdays, where, Phillips said, “Every week we’ll have a benefit for different charity or nonprofit.”

Image 1: The Hell's Export Lager from Denise Jones

Image 2: Denise Jones, Moylen's Brewmaster

Image 3: Patrons enjoy beer and sunshine on the Rubicon's patio

Image 4: Urthel Samaranth, brewed by Hildegard van Ostaden

Image 5: Patrick Mabie, left, and friends, Ryan Kile and Matt Kretzmann toast for charity