Issue: June 24, 2010
FrontlinesWe kick this week off with freelance reporter Peter Byrne's special investigation into the conflicted loyalties of Richard C. Blum, a UC Regent, Wall Street speculator, and husband to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Also in news, Seth Sandronsky details a bill that asks why budget-strapped California is the only state without an oil-severance tax. In Green Days, Cosmo Garvin takes a look at the latest numbers on Sacramento and climate change, Homegrown highlights juicy heirloom tomatoes, and Jeff vonKaenel asks if Mayor Kevin Johnson and U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui were separated at birth.
Feature storyWho knew the greater Sacramento region was home to one of the slow-food movement’s early pioneers? In this week’s cover story, SN&R contributor Nancy Brands Ward follows Georgeanne Brennan into the chef’s Winters kitchen for a leisurely French-cooking tutorial. A nationally esteemed author, chef and gardener, Brennan’s passion is to teach the pleasures of gathering with friends and family over food that is cooked seasonally and grown locally.
Arts & cultureOne of local emcee Mean Doe Green’s first stints on the mic in the studio was with Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon the Chef some 15 years ago. Today, Green’s breaking through big with two new albums on his friend Raekwon’s label. Nick Miller sits down with Green for some “real talk.” Also this week: Michael Jackson laser-show madness, eats like mom used to make—with a kick, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’s unbelievable B.S., hella Dum Dum Girls, the masterer of the 916 universe and how to get your hips to Hula-Hoop.
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Seasonal, local, fresh
Winters cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan was on the forefront of what became a global slow-food movement. Can she entice you into her kitchen?
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Billion-dollar baby
The University of California invests $53 million in two diploma mills largely owned by a regent. Problem?
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Tax Big Oil
Oil-extraction bill seeks funds for higher education.
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Art from disaster
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch inspires creativity—and awareness.
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Nature calls
Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge hosts free guided paddles and hikes.
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Total carbon awareness
The overlooked Sacramento County Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory gives a picture of the Sacramento region’s climate-change impact.
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Letters for June 24, 2010
Love, hate, indifference—readers express their opinions, sometimes about each other.
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Pity dater and the doomed papa
A heartbreaker leads a girl on after getting some make-out action, and a 14-year-old girl is traumatized by her father’s bad taste in women.
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Crash test dummies
Why standardized tests are ruining education.
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Green teamwork
U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui and Mayor Kevin Johnson work different angles to make Sacramento green.
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Hip action
Allison Miller helps Sacramentans loosen their hips by offering a variety of Hula-Hoop classes.
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Tanto hate
The Mexican on soccer and how to get your letter answered más rápido.
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A bridge too near
Will there be a fourth “bridge” between Sacramento and West Sacramento?
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New courthouse a bargain at $440 million?
From the SN&R blogs.
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Strawberry fields forever
Methyl iodide should not be registered for use in California.
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Editorial Cartoon
This week’s cartoon from the mind of John Kloss.
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Behind the steel curtain
Raekwon protégé and Sacramento emcee-on-the-rise Mean Doe Green is ready to stiff-arm hip-hop.
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I Just Stopped By to See the Man
SN&R reviews a new production at Celebration Arts.
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Shear Madness
SN&R reviews a new production at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret.
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M.J.’s laser resurrection
A laser extravaganza tribute to the King of Pop will be featured at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.
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Tango the nights away
Firehouse 5 Dance will host a weekend of tango madness featuring music group Narcotango.
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Family-friendly mutineers
Treasure Island comes to the Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre in Amador County.
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The weasel won
Philip Pullman splits the gospels and discovers that Jesus and Christ were not the same person in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
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Two-wheel snobbery
Eben Weiss is BikeSnobNYC, author of a blog and now a book about cycling.
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Less than illuminating
Jane Smiley’s latest novel, Private Life, is a depressing tutorial on the 19th century’s limited choices for women.
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Can we get a story?
Local fiction writers Naomi Williams and Zoe Keithley will be featured at Stories on Stage this Friday.
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My weekend is a French movie
Daniel Barnes of Cinema Scoped fame goes deep into French territory.
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Off balance and on point
Off Balance 6: Freaks, Geeks and Bad Choices is high-energy, high-octane comic theater and film.
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Mom never made this
Go for the sandwiches, stay to debate the best salad with random customers.
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Sustainable sushi challenge
Garrett McCord demands “green” fish.
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Juicy love
Heirloom tomatoes and offspring are a multicolored phenomenon.
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Four ladies and fuzz
Lo-fi girl rock reaches a zenith with Dum Dum Girls.
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Sunshine for the ears
Mean Doe Green’s Mind Candy Re-wrapped is a game changer.
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Fri, June 25, Frank Fairfield’s music entrances
Frank Fairfield brings old-timey mountain music to Sophia’s Thai Kitchen.
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Sat, June 26, Kris Kristofferson
Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 8 p.m., $45-$65.
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Masterer of the 916 universe
Eric Broyhill, mastering engineer, Bob Ludwig, Bernie Grundman, Monster Lab Audio, the Hangar, Alkali Flat, Gypsy, Heckler Magazine, Stockholm, Dubai, Mumbai, Max Martin, Britney Spears, ABBA, Far, Vagrant Records, Outside the Pale, New World Studios, Insert This Way Records, Mark Malakie, Kai Kln, John Baccigaluppi, Enharmonik Studios, Deftones, Filibuster, Knapsack, Alias Records, Joe and Lesa Johnston, Knapsack, Pus Cavern.
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Greatest movie Elvis never made
Daniel Barnes compares locally filmed The Legend of the Snow Buddies to the King.
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Hitchcock-and-bull
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, the new Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn?
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Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Stefan Forbes’ film is a relatively standard clips doc about the GOP campaign assassin/former RNC chairman.
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The City of Your Final Destination
At the urging of his domineering girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara), an attractively timid young academic (Omar Metwally) seeks authorization to write the biography of a late famous author.
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Mother and Child
With superb, forcefully precise performances by Annette Bening, Kerry Washington and Naomi Watts.
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Winter’s Bone
Director Debra Granik’s movie (adapted by Granik and Anne Rosellini from Daniel Woodrell’s novel) starts out as a missing person story, then becomes a murder mystery.
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