Take a cue

Sprouting from the west coast originally, I feel it is my duty to bridge the cultural divide between the laid-back and the quick-witted, the burrito and the hot dog, the pedestrian and the car horn, as it were. I want to promote the sharing of good ideas by informing folks on both sides of this continental land mass of the small but ingenious regional idiosyncrasies which may prove beneficial to other locales if adopted.

This time, I’ll share some oddities offered by Sacramento, CA. Although this city houses a little under half a million residents, quite a few small-town quirks have slipped through the cracks of the streamlining urban machinery.

Exhibit A.
Drunk boxing. That’s right, a bunch of tattooed, disgruntled slobs get together every weekend in someone’s backyard, down a few too many cans of domestic swill, and have at it. Just like an unpretty, unsynchronized, lowbrow version of Fight Club.

Exhibit B.
No Kill I. Why shouldn’t there be a Star Trek tribute punk band? With songs like “Starfleet Up My Butt,” “Wearin’ Red,” and “Neutral Zone,” even the nerds-that-be had to include them in the film, Trekkies 2. For your consumption, experience “Regulan Blood Worm” (MP3). If you are familiar with the ways of the Klingon, the No Kill I site offers up some links that may be of interest to your tortured soul.

Exhibit C.
Crash-a-rama. When a 50-something, junkyard-owning, ex-stunt driver is feeling down, he doesn’t just sit in front of the tube cursing Nascar. He orders up a flatbed truck and a few rock bands, inviting everyone with a six-pack of Bud and a faded Harley shirt to watch him relive his glory days. Up until last year, when the Sacramento equivalent of the Village Voice outed him, Johnny Crasharama would set up about 5 stunts on a piece of his own property in the outskirts of town, using old cars from his junkyard.

Exhibit D.
Pin-a-go-go. This pinball convention actually happens just outside of Sacramento, but is definitely worth a mention. Every year, slurpee-filled dads in dirty t-shirts cart their sons to an almost-abandoned fairground, where they pay $5 to spend all afternoon teaching their kin to launch, flip, and tilt.

I now invite my fellow bloggers to share the secrets of a small town near them... I've heard a lot of hype about Maplewood, nudge nudge.

Comments

[Bruce]

What really amazed me about Trekkies 2 is that there are a few Star trek bands floating around. I mean come on folks wheres the love for Space 1999.

[Seth]

Pinball Show in Allentown, PA
April 29, 30 & May 1, 2005
http://www.pinballwizardsconv.com

I've been there in years past. Good stuff, $15 admission is worth the price.

[Rick Ele]

Last year's Crasharama got shut down before it even started. Sadly, it will never happen again in Sacto.

No Kill I's Dave Smith moved to Australia last year, so that band's finished, too.

Three new skyscrapers have been approved, including two that exceed the height of Sacto's tallest building.

The Tracy Wrestling Federation is still leaping Snuka-style from rooftops in stuccoed neighborhoods in the Sacto burbs, however.

[Zach in Philly]

Not a day goes by that I don't not miss the rednecked hippie stumping grounds of Sometimes a Great Notion, from which I hail. Till now, it wasn't hard to imagine that places like Sacramento possessed a little more pinache. Oh well. Sad to hear the Crasharama is no more. There must be something along those lines in meetchya-halfway Texas, tho.

[Rick Ele]

But Sacto does have more panache than that.

You're just mad in Philly that the Kings decimated the Sixers bench in finagling a trade for damaged C-Webb.

Sacto--the home of cool shit like Sexy Prison, the Sores, Weird Forest Records, the Loft, Mr. Perry's, and Original Perry's--RULES!

There's not much in the way of dining choices after 10 p.m., but there's still so much to live for here.

[Zach in Philly]

> There's not much in the way of dining
> choices after 10 p.m., but there's still
> so much to live for here.
heh, heh: ditto in Philly ... unless it's tacos you crave.

>You're just mad in Philly that the
> Kings decimated the Sixers bench
> in finagling a trade for damaged C-Webb.
= ???. Sorry. I sincerely have no clue whatcher talkin' 'bout. Sports -- to me -- are just something to flesh out the news hour. But anyways, I'm most not mad in Philly. The City of Brotherly Love -- "better when you stay the night" and "the city that loves you back" -- works for me. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters are from Oreegun where I grew up in the sticks that I love and amongst the "redneck hippies" -- just don't know how to describe them more accurately -- who's promixity was a precise drag.

'Been to San Fran and loved it. 'Been to Dione Warwick-ville. Eh. 'Been to Lake Shasta -- loved it. Sacramento sounds worth a trip.

[JJZ]

The best pinball event at this point may be California Extreme. In San Jose, CA on August 6th and 7th this year. http://www.caextreme.org/

[Ex Girlfriend]

Dave Smith didn't move to Australia. He's riding an old motorcycle around the world because he's crazy.

[HowdyDodad]

Ahhh, Excremento, how I miss thee. Such a great scene at the Cattle Club in the early 90's.