My post about the Friday night films at the Fool’s Foundation prompted a great suggestion: Beyond the Proscenium is doing a great movement-based show called MedEia at The Space at 2509 R Street.

They’re doing a show called “MedEia” Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm through February 3, with two Sunday matinees January 28 and February 4 at 2 pm. Tickets are $15 general and $12 for seniors, students, SARTA & TBA members. For tickets or info call 916-456-1600 or email.

I haven’t been but if you’d like a review the News & Review has one here.

More on the Morning Rave’s negligent contest in both the SF Chron (where a columnist largely excuses participants and places blame squarely on the station and DJs) and the Bee - where you can hear tape of the contest.

Talk about damning material. The Chron column discusses what can be heard on the tape - but reading it is never as good as listening to it. It’s typical morning show banter from, let’s face it, especially idiotic DJs. Seriously, that show is the reason I keep my old clock-radio instead of switching to some swanky iPod alarm. The inanity (no, I didn’t drop an s there) of those baffoons and their often cruel humor was the only thing that could propel me across the room, out of the cocoon of comforter and into the day. Anything to make. them. stop. talking.

So on the tape we hear them laugh about contestant release forms and nonchalantly brush off warnings about water intoxication with the scientifically incorrect assertion that the human body will simply boot up unwanted water. You’ll barf, see? And then the water is all gone! Absorbtion? Osmosis? Basic chemistry? Not concerns in that control room.

The DJs uttered pretty much every phrase you’d need to utter to get a plantiff’s attorney to kiss you passionately while stroking his American Express black card in appreciation for the coming windfall.

I still don’t excuse the contestants as much as some others do - but man, the DJs make it really hard not to want to.

It’s that cold.

If I hadn’t been too cold to actually get out of my car - instead of circling the block to pull up beside this hydrant and take the photo out of a cracked window - you’d have a better view. But see it? Just there? There’s a little ice stalagmite growing from the drips. There’s been ice on my stairs too, but it doesn’t photograph nearly as well. This photo was taken on Tuesday morning. Yesterday felt a bit warmer. Today, we’re back in the temperature basement. Brrr.

Random, non-weather related aside, after the jump
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Recent thefts of copper wiring from city streetlights makes me wonder…to what lengths will people go? Couldn’t they melt down a penny, even though the copper is mostly in the plating? Why in the north primarily, and what’s up with copper?
Reminds me of unusual thefts in Russia, when I was living there. Public toilets (and there weren’t that many of them) would often be “robbed” of the seat. Most restrooms were toilet-seat-less. I can’t imagine walking off with a (dirty) toilet seat, but people did.
Maybe the city of Sacramento should put lock-boxes on the street lights? If they still get ripped off, it might be a city problem, i.e. an employee’s making a buck on the city dime.

Apparently there’s been a shooting at Luther Burbank High School on Florin Road. The shooting has been called a homicide. East-bound Florin Road is shut down near the high school, and police are searching for suspects who reportedly went west on Florin Road from the school.

More later…

Update (5:20pm): According to the Bee, a man was found shot to death near Burbank High School, but apparently this is not a school shooting. Traffic remains closed on Florin Road between 24th and 29th Streets.

Did you hear about this? The website has a message about the incident - but not much information.

What articles refer to as “water intoxication” is well-known to runners, athletes, physicians, and, one would hope, radio legal departments as hyponatremia, a more serious condition than mere “water intoxication” - and it is deadly. It’s odd that a radio station would choose to hold a contest “Hold your wee to get a Wii” when the dangerous effects of over-hydration are getting more press than ever. This is especially true in the running world as more and more novice runners train for marathons. Because they think they need to, newbie runners gulp down water as if they were elite runners. They aren’t. Presto - instant killer lack of sodium in the body. Just because it’s only water, doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you. Hell, I think ER even used it as a plot point like 6 seasons ago.

According to one report I saw on television this morning, a nurse advised the radio program of the dangers and at least one on-air caller said “hey, this could kill someone,” but they went ahead and did it. The station isn’t the only blameworthy party here, of course, all participants should have taken time to check into what they were doing. I hate the thought of message boards lighting up with “idiot woman” comments - she was trying to win a gift for her kids - but I wish everyone involved had paid more attention to the dangers.

Update: “Trish,” “Maney,” and “Lukas” all got the ax this afternoon, along with 7 of their coworkers. I’m guessing their radio careers are over - at least the on-air personalities’. Then again, since radio voices are largely interchangeable (especially women), they can just adopt another air-name and continue peddling stupid in another market.

Sacramento is nothing if not a scenic town. Sure, people from other larger, better-known and widely photographed urban centers think they’ve got it made - but we’re a Tree City USA, dammit. With plenty of parks, a nice selection of handsomly decorated restaurants, and even more ballrooms than your average mid-size city, thanks to our concentration of lobbyists in need of fundraising venues, finding a place to hold a swanky event should be easy.

And it probably is, unless you’re trying to plan a wedding.

Say “wedding” and the Sacramentan mind leaps automatically to the Sterling, Vizcaya, the Capitol Park rose garden, and a see of peach colored walls, white tablecloths and chairs, and wedding albums interchangeable with thousands of other Sacramento brides.

Yawn.
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If you’re travelling from Sactown to the City (aka San Fran), 8 DOLLARS in the new magic number. As of January 1, the tolls were increased to FOUR DOLLARS each way (I usually have to pay going in on the Bay Bridge and coming back on the Carquinez bridge). So, be prepared with the extra cash, or log onto www.511.org, and sign up for a Fastrak, which automaticaly deducts money from one of your credit/debit cards every time you pass!

Today I was at the local Rite Aid filling an Rx for my daughter and I noticed an extremely tall woman in pointy heels, flirty dress, and long white fur coat. The woman had a brunette top knot with wavy hair flowing down over her head. It was cold today, so my first thought is that this woman is a bit impractical–I mean, she could pass for a “working” girl, if you know what I mean, and hey, we’re in Sacramento, right? Fur coats aren’t usually the thang here, but if you’re cold because your dress is skimpy, I guess it works. Then I heard “her” laugh. A big, booming, deep manly laugh. And then I got a good look at her face–too much man there for makeup to cover. Wow, I thought, we really ARE expanding our horizons–more big city every day. This type of thing wouldn’t phase me in SF, but here… And then s/he wanted to use the Rite Aid bathroom, so there was a lively debate with the pharmacist over where the key might be. The question idly occurred to me…which bathroom would s/he use? Men’s or women’s? And if s/he used the women’s restroom, would I have a major issue with it? What’s my problem with this? Do I have a problem? Guess so, because I spent more than a minute wondering. Then again, I had to do a reality check. I was in Sacramento, but I was in Lavender Heights. I used to live in the area, but moved to the ‘burbs, where rarely is such a sight seen. I was in her turf, not mine, so I needed to get over it. Welcome to Sacramento, where everyone of every persuasion can be found. We’re not SF, Lavender Heights is not the Castro–but we have our own special groups and our own special districts. Sacramento is growing up. Thanks, Arnold.

Recently I had the (mis)fortune to visit the UC Davis Medical Center Emergency Room. It was an evening visit on one of these cold nights, and the place was packed. But not as packed as they expected later, when temperatures would be dropping into what felt like the teens–almost unheard of in Sacramento. The clerk said to me with a smile and a shrug, “That’s when all the good people will come in–” We both knew she meant. She meant the homeless, impaired, and otherwise similarly challenged.

Someone has a whimsical sense of humor at UCDMC. The ER waiting room is painted like a 1980s version of Finding Nemo and there’s a large aquarium at the center of it all. The chairs are a dull bluish-greenish. (It probably would have been better to have black seats–so at least you didn’t suspect what you might be sitting on.) Even though this lovely large fish tank is there for the patrons, ahem, patients of the hospital, no one was looking at it. We were all observing each other. One woman had trouble getting something out of the vending machine and started shaking it. Every head, including mine, turned to watch. Not only did we stare at her, we stared at the baby with a black eye, wondering if the father or mother did it. We stared at the man sitting in his socks whose child was having seizures in the other room.

Pediatric Emergency is even scarier than the main waiting room. You see children who are getting checked after “falling” and children who have other things like blisters or bleeding from an orifice–frightening, really. It occurred to me more often than not that the very parent who brought the child in may have been the parent who caused the harm–if not directly, then by neglect. We were there for a (thankfully) minor eye injury. It gave us the energy to watch others. I found myself hoping that, somehow, all of those ill and injured children could be saved.