Blogging the Grid - Sacramento David Watts Barton

Outside Lands announced

2009-04-13T12:39:00.001-07:00

Outside Lands acts were just announced this morning, for the Aug. 28-30 event in Golden Gate Park.

Headliners are:

Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys!

The under card is just as impressive:

M.I.A., Blackeyed Peas, The Mars Volta, Band of Horses, TV On the Radio, Ween, Jason Mraz, Incubus, Thievery Corporation, Modest Mouse, Atmosphere, Brett Dennen, Silversun Pickups, The National, Lila Downs...the list goes on, and is available complete at www.sfoutsidelands.com.

There's a new kid in town

2009-03-23T11:55:00.001-07:00

Well, I found out that the man behind tonight's surprising Michelle Shocked show at Marilyn's TONIGHT is Scott Brill-Lehn, and he's got quite a line up of shows coming. Two that I'm particularly jazzed about - OK, three - no, four - are rippin' guitarist Junior Brown at Marilyn's on April 9, live techno band BLVD at Beatnik Studios (very cool place if you've not been there, and even if you have) on April 29, Skinny SIngers at Marilyn's on May 2, and Mike (M) Doughty, formerly of fabulous Soul Coughing, at Marilyn's on May 10.

For more details, visit www.sblentertainment.com

Right ON, Scott. I'll do what I can to help.

Here's the line-up.

Monday, March 23, 2009 7:00 pm

Michelle Shocked

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 DOS (click Tickets)
Artist Website: www.michelleshocked.com

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:00 pm

The Waybacks

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, US (MAP)

Tickets: $15 Advanced $18 DOS
Buy now @ "Tickets" page
Artist Website: www.thewaybacks.com

Monday, April 6, 2009 7:00 pm

Papa Grows Funk

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $12 Advanced $15 Day of Show (Buy @ "Tickets" page)
21+
www.papagrowsfunk.com

Thursday, April 9, 2009 7:00 pm

Junior Brown

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $17 in advance, $20 Day of Show (click tickets)
Artist Website: myspace.com/juniorbrown

Friday, April 10, 2009 8:00 pm

Hockey

Beatnik Studios, 2421 17th St., Sacramento, CA, 95818 (MAP)

www.myspace.com/hockey

Saturday, April 11, 2009 8:00 pm

Izabella

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $12 Advanced $15 DOS (Click "Tickets")
Artist Website: www.izabellaband.com

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 7:00 pm

BLVD

Beatnik Studios, 2421 17th St., Sacramento, CA, 95818 (MAP)

www.blvdsource.com
Tickets: $10 advanced $12 Day of Show
Buy tickets @ "Tickets" page

Saturday, May 2, 2009 8:00 pm

Skinny Singers (featuring Jackie Greene and Tim Bluhm)

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, US (MAP)

Tickets: $25
Buy now @ "Tickets" Page
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/skinnysingers

Sunday, May 10, 2009 7:00 pm

Mike Doughty

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $18 Advanced $20 DOS
Buy now @ "Tickets" page - Tix on sale 3/2/09
Artist Website: www.mikedoughty.com

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 7:00 pm

That 1 Guy

Beatnik Studios, 2421 17th St., Sacramento, CA, 95818 (MAP)

Tickets: $13 Advanced $15 DOS
Buy now @ "Tickets" page
Artist Website: www.that1guy.com

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:00 pm

Cowboy Mouth

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $15
Buy now @ "Tickets" page
Artist Website: www.cowboymouth.com

Friday, May 22, 2009 8:00 pm

Jackopierce

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $20 Advanced $25 DOS
Buy now @ "Tickets" page
Artist Website: www.jackopierce.com

Sunday, May 31, 2009 7:00 pm

Melvin Seals and JGB

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814
(MAP)www.jgbband.comTickets: $20 Advance $25 Day of Show: Buy @ "Tickets" page

Friday, June 5, 2009 7:00 pm

Freakbass

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 Day of show
Artist website: www.myspace.com/freakbass

Friday, June 12, 2009 8:00 pm

Moonalice

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

www.moonalice.com

Saturday, June 20, 2009 7:00 pm

Charlie Musselwhite

Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 (MAP)

Tickets: $17 in advance, $20 DOS (click Tickets)
Artist Website: charliemusselwhite.com

How the HELL did I miss this?

2009-03-22T22:54:00.001-07:00

Michelle Shocked is apparently playing Marilyn's on K Monday night, March 22.

Even my best friend didn't tell me. WTF?

Better to know now than later, however...

Cool!

Worldfest acts: Indigo Girls, Los Lobos, Jackie and Tim

2009-03-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

So, people keep telling me, "I read your blog," and my answer is always, "WHAT, exactly are you reading?" Because I am so lame - and so all over the place, I'm a tad scattershot. I write stuff for SacramentoPress.com, where I am managing editor, and for other publications.

And Facebook has really usurped the blog, to a degree, though you can't write LONG on Facebook. Not even close. But is writing long really still of any value in the era of Twitter? I'd say yes. But not as long as we used to get away with in Features at The Bee. Let alone the New Yorker. But that's not my level.

So, Worldfest. California Worldfest. I've been the last three years, and at this point, would not miss it. Terrific setting, great food and people, and the bands are ALL OVER the place - seriously a more diverse festival of live musicians is not available in this area. I'm a big fan of High Sierra, but it's more a particular realm - "jam band" stuff, with newjazz around the edges - but California Worldfest really does bring in musicians from all over the world, and from all realms of music.

Two artists who stick out from my three years are Eileen Ivers, a remarkable fiddler (with a great band) from Ireland (but with African rhythms) and Fiama Fumana of Italy, who play techno music with "natural" instruments, live. Brilliant concept, great execution.

Now, from Worldfest HQ in Chico, some news: This year's festival runs July 16-19, and there are some interesting acts, most of whom I've never heard of, which I like.

Just added: The Indigo Girls. Other you-know-'em acts on the schedule: Los Lobos, Tommy Emmanuel (great Australian acoustic virtuoso in the Kottke realm, guy plays the guitar so hard it's got holes in it!), Sacramento homeboy Jackie Greene in his collaboration with Tim Bluhm from Mother Hips (The Skinny Singers), and Wailing Souls.

Others:
Lura (Cape Verde Afro-pop)
Old Blind Dogs (Scottish Celts)
Issa Bagayogo (Malian Roots & Dance)
Ledward Kaapana (Hawaiian Slack Key)
Gokh Bi System (Senegalese Hip Hop)
Bearfoot (Alaskan Americana)
Bluehouse (Australian Folk/pop)
Abalone Dots (Swedish Softgrass)
Fishtank Ensemble (Gypsy & Flamenco)
John Cruz (Hawaii’s Singer/songwriter)
Del Castillo (Flamenco & Latin Rock)
Joe Craven (Rhythm Mania) - LOVE JOE!!!
On Ensemble (Taiko Drum)
Cuban Cowboys (Cuban Surf Rock)
Banana Slug String Band (Eco Family Music)
Markus James & the Wassonrai (Blues Connection-Africa to America)
Done Gone String Band (Yukon Old Timey)
MaMuse (Singer/Songwriters)
Handful of Luvin’ (Jam ‘n Dance)

More artists will be added as the contracts are signed. Go to www.worldfest.net to listen to the artists and for a continual line-up updates. Information at 530-891-4098. The Early Bird Ticket Special deadline is March 30 - you'll save $20 off of each adult 4-Day or 3-Day camping ticket.

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse talks Truth Commission

2009-03-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Back in The Bee, sorta

2009-03-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

Rainy, rainy day. Naked Lounge as crowded as I've ever seen it, ditto the Apple Store - WHAT recession?

I was asked by Daniel Weintraub at The Bee to write an editorial for the paper. It ended up not on paper, but on The Bee's website, here.

And here's the actual text...

Paper is passe, but the need for news lives on

By David Watts Barton

Published: Sunday, Mar. 1, 2009 - 12:00 am

I was in San Francisco recently, sleeping above a quiet residential street. At sunrise, I heard a sound like nail guns: "POW!" "Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!" It echoed up the street, and as a vehicle drove past, I realized that it was the free daily Examiner being delivered to every house.

It was so industrial, it reminded me that what is changing most these days is not journalism itself, but its means of delivery. The resources required to create and deliver the paper are getting scarcer and more expensive.

But the human need to tell stories, and to hear them told, is not gone. Nor is the need for accurate, dependable information in a free society. With the Internet, the information and the stories are more easily available than ever before. This is good.

But the nature of journalism, like its delivery, is also changing. These days, the Internet has made "broadcasting," in all its forms, passé. The model that traditional journalists take for granted, whether in print or on radio or TV, is morphing. The Internet allows for a "narrowcasting" of the news, which appeals to readers interested in specific topics and advertisers interested in reaching specific groups of people.

But more crucially, the Internet provides two-way communication. I'd like to see more direct input from the public. Readers responding to news stories, readers writing news stories, and all of it delivered via the Web. The Internet has turned the model of large newspapers being the "gatekeepers" of information on its head. Large newspapers are still diligently minding the "gates," but the fences are down. The information is flowing around those gates.

Although the Sacramento Press is largely reader-written, I continue to encourage the age-old principles of newspapers - accuracy, fairness, timeliness - for the simple reason that newspapers evolved over a long time in a very competitive and flexible market, and those principles work. But we are all gatekeepers now.

David Watts Barton is the managing editor of the Sacramento Press at www.sacramentopress.com

Here comes the weekend!

2009-02-25T15:15:00.001-08:00

Sacramento's music scene looks to be pretty busy this next week, from club shows to ticket on-sales for some of the biggest names in the world.

Tickets on sale include those for Coldplay's summer tour, which is scheduled for the Sleep Train Amphitheatre on July 14. Tickets go on sale Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

Another is Bloc Party's April 21 show at Freeborn Hall in Davis, going on sale this Friday morning at 10 a.m.

Another big name tour going on sale will not hit Sacramento - at least it hasn't been announced - but it is a show that will please Sacramento's classic rock-hungry concert-going audience: Eric Clapton's duo tour with Steve Winwood. The two were band mates in the 1969 "supergroup," Blind Faith, and songs from that band's one album, including Winwood's stoner classic, "Can't Find My Way Home" and Clapton's prayer-like "Presence of the Lord," will be highlights of the show.Tickets for the June 29 show at Oakland's Oracle Arena, will go on sale Monday, March 2.

Also on sale this Saturday, tickets to see the biggest-selling artist of 2008, Lil Wayne, who will play the HP Pavilion in San Jose on March 27.

Speaking of best-selling artists, U2's last album sold almost 10 million copies worldwide. The quartet's first album in nearly five years, No Line on the Horizon, drops on Tuesday.

More down to earth, a couple of hip-hop classics will be playing Sacramento this week. First up is Kool Keith, once of the Ultramagnetic MCs in the late '80s, will be playing Harlow’s tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 25), but if you're up for someone more contemporary, you can't do better than the lyrical flow and deep wit of Lyrics Born, who will play Harlow's on Saturday, headlining a five-hour show of hip hop and rock acts, mostly from around this area.

Alt.rock fans will want to catch Portugal. The Man. at Harlow's Thursday night, while lovers of old school country blues rock stalwarts Little Feat will probably enjoy the stripped down acoustic duo of the current Feat's main guitarists, Paul Barrare and Fred Tackett. The duo will be playing Harlow's on Sunday night.

Throw in last night's A.C. Newman show and it's clear that Harlow's is having quite a week, as one look at their sign (above) will confirm.

Other shows: Jon McLaughlin and the Rocket 88 will play the Hard Rock Café in downtown Sacramento on Sunday, and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir will raise their voices on Friday at the Guild Theatre in Oak Park.

Elsewhere, a Smiths cover band called This Charming Band will play the Blue Lamp on Friday and a band called Everest will play Old Ironsides on Monday evening.

And if you're just looking for a laugh, there are two options: The Smothers Brothers are playing the Cache Creek Casino on Saturday, and Dave Attell will bring his barbed wit to the Punch Line, also Saturday night.

Catching up...

2009-02-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Jeez. a month since I last posted. I'm most on Facebook now, and SacramentoPress.com, but I felt the need to post here...it is, after all, my original online home.

I'm posting because I want to note what Julie said this morning: I'm on fire. I have eight different gigs this week - I am part of what I just heard called "the Gig Economy" the other day, love that - and I wanted to note them, just get 'em all down.

My main gig, of course, is Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com, and I'm writing and editing daily for that (like, seven days a week). Beyond that, this week I just finished a promotional piece for the Mondavi Center, and will have a long-ago-written piece I did for SMUD's website finally come on line (I think).

More importantly, I'll be hosting Insight on 90.9 FM today at 2 p.m. Still just love that gig, it's the MOST fun.

Well, the MOST fun is playing music (I think), which I'll be doing twice this week: Wednesday night at Luna's with Jackson Griffith, doing the round-robin singer/songwriter thing that got me the Insight gig in the first place. Thanks for having me, Jackson. I'll be playing mostly my songs, which I've not done in some time. But since I'm thinking that I'm ready to record my second (once-a-decade) album, I need to get my chops back.

And on Saturday, even though it's not my show, I'm VERY jazzed to be a part of the "Songs about Presidents" show at Marilyn's on K, with a bunch of local songwriters, including Christian Kiefer and Matty Gerkin, who wrote many of the songs for the epic "Of Great and Mortal Men" CD that came out last fall. I'm singing Presidents Grant and Buchanan, and MCing the show. Richard Marsh and Kate Gaffney will also be playing. It's going to be as big as its subjects.

What else? KFBK tomorrow night before the show (ah, cross-promotion, I love it) doing my weekly thing that I've been pretty slack about. Also, Dan Weintraub of the Bee asked me to write a bit about SacramentoPress.com for this Sunday's "Conversation" in Forum.

And I am doing my regular reporting for Bloomberg Financial News in New York, though sadly - OH, SO SADLY - I am losing that gig at the end of the month, a victim (like many others, even at Bloomberg) of the sucking economy. But that gig kept me afloat and I am very grateful to have had it. And Bloomberg wants me to keep freelancing, I'm just losing my retainer. Whatever. ONWARD!

OK, that's it. For anyone still reading - WHY? - thank you very much. And come down to Luna's and Marilyn's, they're going to be good shows!

Just remembered another thing: I'm speaking to Steve Maviglio's class at Sac state tomorrow morning. This is ridiculous.

Here comes the weekend...

2009-01-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

Stuff you can hear:

Pepper tomorrow night (Thursday) at Empire at 15th and R. Also on the bill, Supervillians and Passafire. Sounds cool.

And Friday night, some very cool acoustic music from the fast-rising alt.bluegrass group Devil Makes Three, at the Blue Lamp at Alhambra and N Street.

They need no introduction, but Cheech and Chong have been gone long enough that you might need a refresher. They'll be at the Memorial Auditorium in Sactown on Saturday night. (And please, no "Dave's not here" references...I grew up on that sh*t.)

And finally, Disturbed headlines a headbanger's bill that also includes Avenged Sevenfold and Skindred, Sunday at Arco Arena.

Here's Disturbed doing a cover of Metallica's "Fade to Black," with Avenged Sevenfold following...

Never could get with the hypermetal beats, but what the heck...there you have it.

And Springsteen opening the whole thing

2009-01-19T14:41:00.001-08:00

And this is what Springsteen doing "The Rising" looked like from the crowd. Nice perspective...

U2, "Pride" and Obama

2009-01-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Who better to remind us of the context for this wonderful Inauguration?

Onward

2009-01-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

This blog is slowly - ok, not so slowly - being eclipsed by other forms of media. But jeez, isn't that the norm these days?

Twitter, Facebook and now SacramentoPress.com are proving much more dynamic, and accessible, than this blog has been. In any case, I never much warmed to it. I may find that I go to it more for personal posts, but I may just let it die.

In any case, I have GREAT news to report: I just accepted (duh!) a job as Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com. The site, only up two months, is doing what I wanted to do when I left The Bee - actually, before I left The Bee, but the Bee had other ideas (thanks, RickRod!) - and much, much more. And the two guys running this know the Web far, far better than I. But I'm learning a lot.

So, bloggingthegrid has done its duty to my career, if not exactly to Sacramento (though I like to think it contributed). If you haven't checked out SacramentoPress.com, please do, I think you'll find it interesting, in potential if not in fact. In fact ain't bad - I got a great interview with a guy at The Bee who is training the people from India who are taking his job back to Jaipur - but in potential, it's simply astonishing. And with the crew we are assembling there, it can only get better.

So, thanks very much for paying attention to BloggingtheGrid, and no, this is not goodbye = but my attentions will be even more on SacramentoPress.com, and I'm still covering state courts for Bloomberg News, and then there will be Insight again (soon, I hope) and who knows what's next? A new album?

Good grief, what am I thinking?

A slow start to a great year!

2009-01-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

It's a pretty quiet week coming up, with most nightlife activity based on the first Second Saturday of the year. There are some cool art shows coming up, and the new outlet of the Sacramento Bike Kitchen will open at 19th and I Streets. Get more info at SacramentoPress.com.

For music that night, my for-sure pick is the EP release party by Nice Monster, featuring singer/songwriter J. Matthew Gerken, one of the three men responsible for the brilliant three-CD concept album "Of Great and Mortal Men," a.k.a. The Presidents Album. They'll be playing the Fox and Goose on Saturday.

Other shows of note are all local bands, including a great double bill at Luna's on Friday featuring singer songwriters Ricky Berger and Chelsea Wolfe. Here's Ricky...

The local act named 20,000 will celebrate the release of its new CD at Java Lounge, also on on Friday night.

In San Francisco on Friday and Saturday nights, the Wailers will celebrate the anniversary of the release of the great album Exodus, by playing the whole thing live at the Independent. Minus Bob Marley, of course...

The big "name" event of the weekend is the three-day run of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, which is now almost 40 years old. That'll be playing at the Community Center Theatre Friday through Sunday.

And the first "battle" of the the Jammies series of "battles of the bands" will take place Friday night at Club Retro, the all-ages venue in Orangevale. That leads up to the big Jammies show at the Crest on Feb. 28. For a listing of the Jammies showcases, go here.

And that's just about it.

A new year's feint at posting...

2008-12-29T18:13:00.001-08:00

A week since I posted, and now with SacramentoPress.com, Facebook - did everyone get Facebook for Xmas or something? - and Twitter, the role of the archaic old BLOG is ever more fuzzy in my 20th century mind.

A great Xmas week, heading into new years with a renewed sense of purpose and an increasing income. And new plans for 2009. Like what?

Well, continuing to make a living is a good. Continuing to be a good partner and dad-like fixture. And son to parents who are more and more like children.

Oh, and on the anniversary of my first album - 1999's Straight - a follow up? I've got the songs, and a potential bookend title: Bent. But that's a gimme. Surely, I can be more creative than that? We'll see. Finding the TIME is going to be the trick.

So, back to work. Life is good. Carry on! See you next year.

Christmas Eve thoughts

2008-12-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

So, now that I'm managing editor of SacramentoPress.com, and have a number of writing outlets, and the much-desired "multiple income streams," I may go a bit more personal with the blog. That's what they are, right? (And for you tired of my Hamlet routine regarding content, well...you're not reading anymore anyway...)

This has been SUCH an intense year, macro and micro, and not just for me. Christmas Even has me thinking about how it's affected me, and everyone around me.

For me, navigating the currents of no regular job has been a remarkable series of lessons, and I'm glad I'm learning them, though I'm not such a fan of the process. And I'm one of the lucky ones. I've got time and money to be able to sit at my favorite coffee place and drink and surf and chat and yes, write. My confusion about what to write notwithstanding, I'm a writer, always have been, always will be. And that in itself is a blessing beyond measure. Really. I never, ever forget how lucky I am. (And that's not even counting a great family, friends who ARE family, and a soulmate who gets me even when I don't, and who is a model of calm and groundedness.)

But no steady income - or not ONE steady income - has been a frightening thing at times, and the temptation to find a port in the storm is exceptionally appealing. But at the same time, I find myself resisting what I once thought I couldn't live without: Security. I've gotten THIS far, who's to say I can't go further? I've already been through the fire - now it's just a matter of continuing to dance well on the coals.

Still, security beckons. But that's another story...

I'm thinking beyond myself right now. I just visited a local merchant, an old favorite, and she intoned, at some point, in words to the effect of, "You know, it's all going down next year. Total collapse." Coming just hours after I posted a comment on McClatchy's stock price dipping below a dollar (down from $70 four years ago) on SacramentoPress.com, a few days after I wrote a piece for Bloomberg News about the lawsuits flying between state workers unions and the Governor, The Bee on the table in front of me warning of funding cuts for this and that, my friends' comment was jarring.

Sure, it comes through her prism of the ongoing struggle of any small business, but this is a notion I'm familiar with from the past year, and probably longer: It could all just fall apart. And I've got no real protection, everything could be taken away just like that. And then I'm just...done.

Done? What does that mean? For a generation that grew up in the shadow of the nuclear bomb and the population bomb, with AIDS and global warming following on, the notion of everything just going to hell is overly familiar. We're the apocalypse generation.

And while we've been through previous financial crises, this time feels different. This feels like a disaster. The actual forecasts aren't THAT bad - even 10 percent unemployment is still only one in 10 - but you hear about enough things being the worst "in a generation" or "since World War II," and the mind...goes with it.

And then there are all the friends I have who are leaving jobs - The Bee, specifically, but that's hardly the only place - and they're looking for some security, some encouragement, some hope. They don't k now what's next. They're not sleeping well. Their 401k is way down (forget for a minute that a lot of people don't HAVE 401ks - losing is worse than never having, sometimes.) Things feel desperate.

But despite everything that is happening, I find that I can offer hope. Because despite the sleepless nights, the bill-juggling, and the ongoing glimpses-over-the-precipice, I'm still here, and thriving. I'm managing editor of a promising new venture, I'm a regular stringer for Bloomberg News, and I'm even writing for The Bee occasionally. I do my gig hosting Insight on KXJZ whenever I can - a pleasure that I never saw coming when I left The Bee - and I've got a number of freelance clients. I'm even playing a show with Jackson Griffith on Feb. 18 at Luna's.

And I have a hell of a lot of fun. And I'm being a good son. And a good partner. And I'm even paying down my credit card debt.

So, this meander is, at bottom, to say this: Merry Christmas, everything's going to be alright. Everything is NOT going to collapse, even though it may feel that way. Life will go on, there will be ups and downs and challenges and set backs and amazing, amazing victories. And they will pass, too. And through it all, one can moan and worry and fret, or one can still notice the colors of the trees, the glorious noise that is music, and enjoy, yes, the old cliche: the smile of a child.

And that's what Christmas is to me, a certified ex-Christian: the season of hope. We just passed the darkest night of the year on Sunday, and we partied right through it - happy birthday Jon! Congratulations on getting tenure, Hugh! - and our celebration managed, just like the dances of primitive history, to satisfy the gods and start the days lengthening again.

Soon, the rain - which is gloomy, yes, but remember our drought worries? - will stop, trees will bud, the legislature and governor will get a clue, the market will bottom, and mortgage rates of 5.1% will lure buyers back to houses, and things won't seem so dire. Until next time.

And it is my holiday wish to you, that next time this happens, you remember how bad it was in December 2008, how scary it was, and note that it really wasn't all that bad after all.

It's just life. Live it

Rising to the Top Ten challenge (thanks Spooner)

2008-12-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

My Top Ten albums of 2008. Yes, all (but one) white, all sorta classic rock, but all good. And that's what I needed.

Of Great and Mortal Men - Christian Kiefer, J. Matthew Gerkin and Jefferson Pitcher
Consolers of the Lonely - The Raconteurs
Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings - Counting Crows
Warpaint - The Black Crowes
Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
Dear Science - TV on the Radio
Accelerate - R.E.M.
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Detours - Sheryl Crow

Honorable mention Top 10:
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Gossip in the Grain - Ray LaMontaigne
Giving Up the Ghost - Jackie Greene
House of Bluhm - Tim Bluhm
The Slip - Nine Inch Nails
Sugar Mountain (Live 1968) - Neil Young
Little Honey - Lucinda Williams
Funplex - The B-52's
The Coachman - Kate Gaffney
Born Broken - Christopher Fairman

Didn't hear, but intend to:
Black Ice - AC/DC
Only By the Night - Kings of Leon
The new one by The Killers
Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie (LOVED "I Will Possess Your Heart," however)

(Seriously, I wasn't kidding about it being nearly all-white, all-guys....)

Journalism workshop tomorrow night!

2008-12-17T12:42:00.001-08:00

Today is the last day to sign up for the journalism workshop being presented tomorrow (Thursday) night at the SacramentoPress.com's offices. It's going to be a great basic introduction to writing for the site, which you should definitely be doing. Wait, which I should definitely be doing!

Here's what Editor in Chief Geoff Samek posted about it:

Sign up for our site and come on down to our office for free food and a great interactive workshop taught by Holly Heyser, Sacramento State Professional Journalist in Residence. The workshop will be from 6:30pm - 8:00pm Thursday, December 18th at The Sacramento Press office. We will start with food and refreshments, move on to quick introductions and then the interactive workshop. Please R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, December 17th, and do so by emailing journalism@sacramentopress.com.

News (and olds)

2008-12-12T11:05:00.001-08:00

OK, now that I'm on Facebook more, AND SacramentoPress.com, bloggingthegrid has less pull for me. If that was possible. I just don't find myself posting much. Then again, my life is moving much more online. Like everyone's.

Case in point: I was hired last week as managing editor of SacramentoPress.com, a terrific new reader-generated website dedicated to news of...The Grid! Yes, this is basically a much-expanded and much better version of the idea I had a year ago that kinda sorta (but not really) became bloggingthegrid.blogspot.com.

WAY better.

And it's already getting attention: The Sacramento Business Journal's new edition features a great story by Melanie Turner about the site. Read it here.

So what does it mean for Blogging the Grid? Frankly, I don't know. As managing editor of SacramentoPress.com, I will have my hands full, and I want to keep that beast growing. On the other hand, this is ME. Perhaps I'll focus more on me and less journalistic stuff. I don't know. It's not like (I am always aware of this) anyone really needs MORE to read, right?

Which reminds me. I've come perilously close to cancelling my Bee subscription, for the simple fact that I spend more time hauling the thing around - its supposed advantage - than actually reading it. Get the paper off the porch, pull out the ads and Sports and toss 'em in the recycling (which then needs to be taken out, twice), then half-reading what's left, mostly Our Region because I've already heard most of the news in the A section and can rarely find much to read in whatever they're calling Scene now (Outbound excepted) and...what's left, I can read online.

And it's money out of my pocket besides.

On the other hand...it's The Bee. Obviously, it has been in my life forever (though I actually delivered The Union), and there are stories worth reading in there. But again, there's online.

Online is it, basically. Right? Which brings me to SacramentoPress.com. It is NOT The Bee, it's a different beast. As I said in the Biz Journal story, we're not entirely sure what it is, or will be.

But what's amazing about it - what absolutely suffused the Xmas party Ben and Geoff and Nicholas put on at Tuli on Wednesday night - is the energy. The enthusiasm. First of all, imagine The Bee treating its writers and editors to a night like that. Never happen. But far more importantly, people around the very long table were EXCITED, idealistic, full of ideas and enthusiasm for the project. Compare that to the Bee's newsroom, which a friend recently compared to a "death watch."

As I've said before, I'm not gloating, and if The Bee goes down, we lose what little center is left to our news and information culture in this town. But perhaps that's what is causing the angst: The inclination to hold onto a center. And perhaps Yeats isn't right, in his classic poem: perhaps "mere ancharcy" will NOT be "loosed upon the world." Perhaps we're just moving into a whole new phase - certainly, we are - and it could actually be BETTER than what we've had.

Just different. And trying to keep things the way they've been, or rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking ship, simply isn't going to work, and causes more angst than it creates positive energy.

And that's one reason I signed on with SacramentoPress.com. The energy is there, and more is flowing into it every day. And I've always liked to be where the energy is flowing FORWARD.

Yes, I still write for The Bee on occasion, and I hope that voicing this won't endanger that. There's still a lot in the paper, and the staff, at least what remains of it, is still the best news "team" (as the TV folk say) in our area. Ben and Geoff at the SacPress are BIG fans of the Bee, daily readers. But they do it online, and that's where I do it, too. Which poses big problems for The Bee, in terms of cash flow. But canceling The Bee is going to make my day quite a bit less cluttered.

And sometimes big changes boil down to simple things like that.

A gray Santacon

2008-12-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Damn, it's cold! And grey. This is my least favorite time of year here. Ugh.

Just stopped by my old place to repaint the steps, and it's like it rained or something! Later in the day, perhaps. While I was there, my former neighbor and fellow Burner DJ Erik said hello and reminded me - or his crew of five Grid-bound, twisted Santas reminded me - that today is SANTACON!

I wrote about it last year, and shot photos, but this year it's all about housekeeping, and tonight, my big party of the year at the Canby Vortex. But YOU can go check out the Santas Selebrating on the Grid. The party starts, fittingly, somewhere near the City Jail.

More later. If anyone has any photos, I'd love to post 'em, or link to 'em.

Stay warm!

After the storm...

2008-12-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

Did you ever have so much to write about, you didn't write a THING?

Feel me.

So much changes for me in the course of a week, a four day holiday weekend just ups the ante. And again, never sure how personal to make this blog. Especially now that I'm going to be doing a community website professionally. Think "managing editor." The imaginings of last fall, in post-Bee free-fall, have largely come true. Wow.

More on that later.

There's also: I have left The Grid. Love and life have taken me back, once again, to Land Park. So, am I still blogging the Grid? Or is it time to kill it and start over? I write this from Nekkid Lounge, so I'm still here.

When I left my home at 17th and V, Richmond Grove, Mohan the convenience store owner said, "Good people leave, the bad people stay." The young gangsta (wannabe?) kid at the counter said to me, "He's talking about me."

Quite a moment.

My little neighborhood's have trouble - drugs can be fun, but drugs (and drug sellers) can kill, a person, a neighborhood - and I feel MORE responsible for it now that I've left it for the leafy, ultra-quiet Land Park (and people here resent the term "suburban" - please!).

OK, sentences like that last one might make me writing seem like less than a good thing. Still...

Also, at the end of the year, I think rock critic thoughts. Like, what was good? Or, now that I'm not a pro-crit, what did I like (no need to sheath it in objectivity or historical accuracy)?

Musically, I had a very conservative year, which is very much counter to how I live. But hey, we're somewhat subject to our conditioning, and my conditioning was Beatles/CSNY/Creedence/Stones/Who/Zeppelin: Thus, in some sort of less-enthused return to a long-ago adolescence, nearly every band I liked in 2008 was young (or not-so) white guys (mostly) playing retro classic rock: My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs, Fleet Foxes, Counting Crows, Nine Inch Nails, The Black Crowes, Jackie Green, Tim Bluhm, The Hold Steady, R.E.M....and Sheryl Crow.

And perhaps above all, the three-CD set "Of Great and Mortal Men," the locally-produced celebration of our 43 presidents by Christian Kiefer, Jefferson Pitcher, and Matthew Gerkin, all of whom I interviewed on Insight and the last of whom I had the pleasure of sharing Thanksgiving dinner with. A remarkable set worthy of its epic subject, this album of 43 songs (and accompanying artwork booklet) should last many years. I'd love to do a documentary about it. This is world-class art, created right here in Sacramento. Hallelujah.

So, I will write about all of these things, but there's more living (and writing, and unpacking, and imagining) to do. Soon.

How was your Thanksgiving?

E Costello on Sundance

2008-11-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here's something to look forward to for those with premium cable: Elvis Costello's new talk show, Spectacle, airs Dec. 3 on the Sundance Channel.

Blogging for fun and profit

2008-11-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

So, here's how cool the internet, and a blog, can be:

The editor of the Sacramento News and Review saw my posting about the depressing headlines of late, and my vague addiction to them, even though I know they're doing me NO good - even, perhaps, as a journalist. Or whatever I am now.

And she wants to buy it, and run it. Which is great.

But as I started to go to bed tonight, I thought, the thing about journalism is, it only gets a small part of the story. That is, The Story. It's the whole man-bites-dog thing: News is only news when there is a difference. News is about whatever doesn't work, because if it DOES work, well, what's to say? The sun came up today, the fall colors were brilliant against the blue autumn sky, the soy lattes at Naked Lounge are the best (they use Ambiance soy milk), bikes are amazing ways to get around, people are fascinating, music is comforting, radio is magic, the crows gather every day at sunset, book stores are distractingly amusing, and cooking a meal for someone you love fills your house with all sorts of good things. And Jon Stewart makes me laugh out loud and cold sheets are wonderful to slip in between.

So what else is new? Uh, news?

The stock market is CRAZY right now. I mean, it's dropped by virtually 50 percent in a year. Can it go down 75 percent? Can everything lose ALL value? What is going to HAPPEN???

Will I, you, your partner, your kids, even BE in six months?

Why do we - I - get so wound up about these terrible, scary days? Especially when - and this is what made me get up out of bed to write - when our lives are so GOOD? I mean, I'm living on the edge more than I have in years, and I feel it, but moment to moment, life is so rich and happy. I ache in places I never did before, my bank account is shrunken, and watching the news it's like the Four Talk Shows of the Apocalypse.

But life is good.

So, what do you focus on? The bad news or the good that suffuses every breath, every moment. When you stop and breathe and take it all in, the sheer freakin' magic of being alive...what's more important?

Some say you get what you focus on, and it's true. But the bad is just so riveting. It's the car wreck theory: Who can drive past an accident and not look? Now, via the media, we have access to accidents (or when it's Britney Spears or Larry Craig, "train wrecks") 24/7.

Does that mean we have to keep looking?

And if we don't, how do I make a living?

Appetites ready? But where??

2008-11-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

OK, I got some trouble from some hipster readers that I divulged the location of last year's Appetite Enhancement Bike Ride, a midtown institution (this'll be the 21st year) on Thanksgiving. Picture drunken hipsters (and I say that lovingly) careening down Capitol Mall or trying to see who can ride their bike (naked) into the river. Good times.

And it raises money for charity, via the drunken but caring raffle. In that respect, the more the merrier. But it's something that is best discovered through word of mouth, so I'll "be cool."

So I'll just say that according to my sources, the ride will start the same place it started last year.

Be there. (Where?)

Insight today and tomorrow...

2008-11-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

I had local singer/songwriter Autumn Sky on today's Insight (90.9), which was great fun. She's cool. We are a lucky town to have so many charming, talented young female singer/songwriters. Here's the link to the show.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I'm going to have a couple of the local musicians who are playing on Jerry Perry's upcoming anniversary celebration for The Beatles, also known as "The White Album," Sunday night at Harlow's. Local musicians will be playing every one of the three dozen or so songs on the 1968 double album.

1968. Dude, it's been 40 years.

And I remember when it came out! I old.

I remember that one of the local AM stations, KROY or KXOA, actually played the entire album - even "Revolution No. 9" - in sequence, on the air. A double album, on a top 40 station! I remember writing down all the titles, or what I thought were the titles, and drawing a cover for the album, which heard was going to have no art at all...completely white. This was very different from the covers of Revolver through Magical Mystery Tour.

So, tune into Insight tomorrow at 2 - I'll also have the dynamite guitar tag team of David Shapireau and Steve Randall playing some stuff from Shapireau's new CD with his band West of Next, What Is Your Destiny? And Ross Hammond, guitarist, will attack the least-playable song The Beatles ever recorded! And David Houston, who has produced half the musicians to appear on Insight - including me - will make his first appearance on Insight.

Should be a good one. And don't forget Autumn Sky at Luigi's tonight, and Anton Barbeau at the same venue (20th by SNR) on Saturday night.

I adore Charlie Kaufman

2008-11-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

There's complicated, and there's complex. Life is both, but while many films get complicated, with twists and shifts and surprises and weird juxtapositions, very few capture the essential complexity of life. Charlie Kaufman's movies do. And how!

Being John Malkovich was the first. Adaptation was the second. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was third. Each was better than the one before at conveying the bizarre, multi-layered (no, multi-dimensional) nature of reality beyond what we see and feel and think, but including all of those.

If you've never seen any of those, or didn't "get" them, then don't bother with his new film, Synecdoche, N.Y., because it goes even further than the others, further and deeper and longer and for that reason, it's even harder to understand. And accept.

I love magical realism in movies, movies that add a magical twist to "reality." At its best, you get films like Groundhog's Day, Defending Your Life and dozens of others. On another level, you get The French Lieutennant's Woman, which only seems magical but is in fact entirely realistic (the actors and the characters they are playing shift back and forth, shifting the frame of reference).

Kaufman is more in the nature of The French Lieutennant's Woman, but goes way beyond that, and you have to go with him. It isn't shtick, it isn't conceit, it is an attempt to really express the unexpressible complexity of reality. If this sounds unappealing, or just badly expressed on my part, it's because it's a BIG subject, an impossible task. Words sorta fail me right now.

But that Kaufman tackles those intertwined subjects so boldly and beautifully, and with so much heart is so very encouraging for me. In fact, it brought me to tears several times. Like all great art, art that is about loneliness and death and love and loss and what can feel like the sheer futility of being alive - Synecdoche, N.Y. aims high. And it made me, for one, feel a connectedness with Kaufman and - this is so hard to do without cliches - the human condition.

This is a blog, so I won't go long, but honestly, I can't recommend this movie highly enough. It is NOT a light night at the movies, it doesn't just have the crazy wit of Malkovich or the off-kilter romance of Spotless Mind. It is a more mature work, a sadder work, a slower-paced work. I did miss Spike Jones' relentless forward motion, which he brought to the first three movies as director; Kaufman himself directed this one. But it is a glorious, profound work. I will be cruising the web to find out more about this film, because it's that kind of art - you want to know more about it. If I find more of interest, I'll post it.

But let me just say that this is a film that anyone who saw the first three Kaufman films listed above should at least check out. It's deeper and more complex than the other three, and I wouldn't say it was my favorite of his four (I'd have to go with Spotless Mind there), but anyone with a sophisticated taste in art (it's ok to say "sophisticated" again now, under Obama? It's not too "French"?) should make every effort to see this remarkable film.

Just sharin'.