*Beans and Cornbread. Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five. A battle at the dinner table in the deep south featuring Beans vs. Cornbread. Old school at it's best. If you like this 1949 "jump swing" hit, you'll love "Saturday night fish fry!"
*Carolina in my mind; James Taylor. I've had some great times at my buddy Tom's place in Laurel Springs, NC. So much so that i bought a small piece of ground there. North Carolina is strikingly beautiful....much like California only more lush. Thinking of Carolina is always a cure.
* Good Riddance; Green Day. We play this a fair amount on the Eagle. I've heard it many times and it doesn't get old. "I hope you had the time of your life". This song was matched to video as a going away for the original owners of KCRA when they sold in 2000. It floods me with wonderful emotion about that time in my career.
Is there one song that gets you back on track? What is it?
1. Kate Gosselin; "Jon and Kate Plus 8". I have to admit, i think she's hot until she starts talking. She has a one-track mind...it's all about her. What are these kids going to end up being like with cameras following them around is all they know? Kate complains all the time. It's grating...but we watch.
2. Betty Draper; "Mad Men". She takes her cue from Joan Crawford. She may be the worst Mom ever. Threatening to cut off her daughter's finger? Throwing her son in the closet after he was caught smoking? (she chain smokes).
3. Wilma Flintstone and Jane Jetson (tie). Wilma was always leaving Pebbles and Bam Bam alone in the rock house. Dino was the babysitter! Jane Jetson had a robot for a maid! She wasn't in the show much...my suspicion is that she was trying to pleasure Mr. Spacely to give George a raise!
4.Peg Bundy; "Married...with Children". She didn't cook or clean and was a bad wife and didn't care. She had no ambition and no job. She raised two brats by her fine example. She was created to be one of the worst TV Moms ever, and was.
5. Mrs. Estelle Costanza; "Seinfeld". My God, she was awful...she just badgered her son George to death. She delivered one of the best lines I've ever heard when she caught George "pleasuring" himself. She told her husband that George "was treating his body like an amusement park!" Awesome.
Those are my top five worst TV Moms of all time. Yours?
*Paint it Black. 1968. "Aftermath" album. The first #1 single to feature a sitar. I was living in India at the time and music there is all about the sitar. Still brings back great memories of that time for me when i hear it.
*Rocks Off. 1972. "Exile on Main Street" album. Pure rock song with a great horn section. It's like listening to a tailgate party on a '45 single.
*Wild Horses. 1971. "Sticky Fingers" album. Only reached #28 on Billboard that year, but Mick's ex-wife Jerry Hall says it's her fave Stones hit.
*Sympathy for the Devil. 1968. "Beggars Banquet" album. The history of mainkind from Lucifer's point of view. It was written right after Robert F Kennedy was shot..which was right after Dr King was shot and four years after JFK was shot. I was wondering myself if the USA was turning into target practice for anyone willing to say anything.
*Time waits for no one. 1974. "It's only rock and roll" album. This song has never been done live, nor should it without Mick Taylor. This was the final album with Taylor as his lack of credit for writing the song was one of the last straws to him leaving.
All football fans are talking about the NFL Draft, which leads us to bust out our draft day steals from years past by the 49ers and Raiders. These are later-round picks that turned out to be gems! Let us know which names YOU would include on these lists (feedback@eagle969.com).
San Francisco 49ers
1968- Skip Vanderbundt, LB Oregon State (third round)
1979- Joe Montana, QB Notre Dame (third round)
Dwight Clark, WR, Clemson (tenth round)
1986- John Taylor, WR, Delaware State (third round)
Charles Haley, DE, James Madison (fourth round)
1988-Bill Romanowski, LB, Boston College (third round)
2009-Ricky-Jean Francois, DE, LSU (seventh round)
*1988. My first week in Sacramento, and covering the team at the first Arco Arena.. I went into the Kings lockerroom and up to Reggie Theus. He said "hey, it's the new face in town". I always remembered that act of kindness. He's always been my favorite Kings for his exploits on...and off the court! Great tennis player too.
*1988. Gregg Lukenbill takes me on a sky walking tour of the new Arco arena being built. We end up on a catwalk about 100' up over all the beams and just a shell of the place. I am not good with heights, but Gregg figured i had a hard hat on so what could go wrong? I got to see places of Arco i didn't care too.
*1996 Playoffs. Game three vs. Seattle. The Kings had won game two in Seattle to even the series at one each. It was the first home playoff game at Arco in ten years. When the Kings came out of the lockerroom for warmups with "the boys are back in town" playing.... the place went crazy. Like crazy crazy. Fans stood and completely screamed their lungs out during pregame. I was in the stands as a fan, and we all looked at each other with "we need to save something for when the game actually starts". Kings lost the game and the series, but that night was my #1 moment.
*1998. Jerry Reynolds jumps up to beef a refs call and passes out right in front of me at the scorers table. Blaine Reichelt whistles him for a technical foul for his histrionics, then recinds the call when he realizes Jerry might be dead. Medics ran out and Jerry wakes up. Turns out Jerry had been on a new diet and hadn't eaten...and that was all it was.
*2002 playoffs vs Lakers. Peja airball. I felt Peja was a better regular season performer than in the hot lights of the playoffs. The biggest shot of his life turned out to be an airball. It came with 11 seconds left to go in game seven against the Lakers with the Kings down 99-98. It's a shot Peja hits in his sleep...in the regular season. The Kings went on to lose game seven in overtime, and their best chance to win an NBA title.
*Elliott Troshinsky, General Manager, KCRA-TV A salesman by trade, Troshinsky runs the most watched television station in the region and has the responsibility to keep a dominant station evolving while not blowing up too much of what's working. It's not as easy guiding a highly watched station as one might think. The Kelly family of Sacramento owned and grew KCRA from the 1950's until the sale to Hearst Company in 2000. Troshinsky has the final say in selecting news management and is ultimately responsible for what we viewers watch on KCRA's local newscasts. KCRA has not lost a 5pm/6pm newscast during ratings since 1998. You must change with the times...but if you're dominant, how much DO you change?
*Cheryl Dell, Publisher, The Sacramento Bee. If you think "nobody reads the papers anymore" just do something wrong and it ends up in the BEE.....your neighbor will find it. The BEE still has a circulation of 280,000 people, and 325,000 on Sunday. All local TV and radio stations peruse the morning BEE to see what they'll be covering that day. All major newspapers have less readership, but then again, erosion has affected TV News in an alarming way too. The BEE is still the ledger of record in this town...and the fifth largest newspaper in California.
*Marcos Breton, Columnist, The Sacramento Bee. The wordsmith of the city. Every paper has a go-to guy who speaks either to...or for the city. Breton has evolved into this role as the Bee's soul. He usually speaks up for the downtrodden and those affected by immigration issues. He also doubles as a crisp sports columnist.
If he doesn't like you, you're toast. See Fargo, Heather or the Maloof family for details.
*Jeff VonKaenel, Publisher, Sacramento News&Review. The anti-Bee weekly paper, the N&R is free and with a weekly circulation of 74,000. Every coffee shop and midtown eatery has copies laying about. The N&R does a nice job with layout and going underground to investigate stories. Block out at least an hour to get through it.... if you don't mind the seemingly endless adds for massage parlors and tattoo houses. They are, in many ways preaching to a liberal choir but it seems their readers wants to read it anyway.
*Doug Elmets, Elmets Communications. KCRA-TV uses Elmets frequently as a commentator to dissect political situations and elections. All that while Elmets holds down his day job as a communications whiz AND being the advisor to area Indian Casinos. He's got his hands in a lot of pies. You could see him on TV one night defending something done at Thunder Valley casino, and the next morning appearing in the KCRA newsroom talking about Reaganomics or "why Iowa went heavy for Hillary". Are the lines blurred here? It's nice to be that glib and in demand.
He's smart and a great sense of humor.
1. "Funderland"; Land Park Sacramento. Old school mini-amusement park with a log flume ride, roller coaster and flying planes. Can't beat it for the under ten year olds. Plan a picnic before or after because you're right at the park. Next door is the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale town. You could kill the whole day in one spot. Dad could even get in nine holes while Mom sweats the kids by herself! Or not.
2. "The California Museum", 10th and O Sacramento. There are so many great museums in the city, but this is one i think alot of folks miss. Sure, we take our relatives to Old Sac, The railroad museum and the State Capitol building, but this is a museum with great history about our state. Make this one a stop with the kids the next time you want to try something new. Better suited for kids 8 and up. Other great stops include the Aerospace museum at McClellan Park and the Marshall Gold discovery site in Coloma.
3. Bouncing. Yes, bouncing. Nothing wears the little darlings out better than a trip to one of the many bounce spots in greater Sacramento. Spend 2-3 hours bouncing, and they're sure to pass out on the way home. Our fave spots are the "Bounce spot" in West Sac, "Laguna's awesome party spot" in Elk Grove and "Sky High" in Rancho Cordova (trampolines aplenty). These places are a gold mine in the winter to get out of the rain, and in the summer to escape the heat.
4. River Cats Baseball. The area's affordable sports entertainment venue that's family friendly. Of course they have bounce houses for the kids. Lawn seating is available for families that want to set up lawn chairs or throw down a blanket. My kids are good for about 4-5 innings or until i'm broke from buying chicken strips and dinger dogs.
5. Indoor skating. Great to get out of the rain or away from the sun. We've hit "Skatetown" in Roseville for a couple of birthday parties for ice skating. My kids are always trying to get me to take them to "The Rink" at Bradshaw and Highway 50 for roller skating and/or to "Sunrise Roller land" in Citrus Heights. They fall a hundred times but keep getting up for more!
*Vida BLUE; A's and Giants. I met Vida the day he reported to KC in April 1982 after being traded by SF. I remember standing on an empty field interviewing him and thinking "omg..this is Vida Blue". I was working in Ft Myers, Florida where the Royals had spring training...and we hooked up for some beverages that night at Raffles Bar. He told me stories about how A's owner Charlie Finley wanted him to legally change his name to "True Blue" and how Charlie's donkey would crap all over the infield during batting practice. Vida later moved to Sonora, CA and we kept in touch during my sports days at KCRA.
*Dennis ECKERSLEY A's. The classiest interview ever. I had to interview him right after the A's demoted him to the bullpen in Spring Training '88. He wasn't happy about it. He went on to become the most dominant ninth inning guy i've ever seen. His best "stand up guy" moment was in the World Series that same year, right after he gave up the iconic homer to Kirk Gibson. Eck didn't hide in the shower. He stood in front of his stall and calmly addressed us on how that was the "wrong pitch" to throw to a hobbled Gibson and how the loss was totally on him. He owned the moment, and it was a big one. Classy.
*Dave HENDERSON A's. He flashed that gap-toothed grin constantly on and off the field and engaged with fans in between pitches. It was like he was drinking in every moment he had as a player, knowing it wouldn't last. I've never seen a player who had more fun. "Hendu" had a solid MLB career as a player and he made all of us beleive he enjoyed every minute.
*Will CLARK GIANTS. Thrill was a tough interview because he like to use the word that rhymes with "duck" a lot. A total leader on the field and off. He wasn't easy to get on camera unless Kristine Hanson of KCRA did the interview. We understood.
*Rickey HENDERSON A's. Most interviews were a challenge with Rickey, becuase he was hard to understand and he referred to himself as Rickey in the third person. "Rickey will not play for that amount of money because Rickey is worth more" said Rickey. I think that's what he said. He was really from Mars.
My Top Five Local TV News Anchors. Criteria includes market longevity and field reporting skills (names interchangable)
*Edie Lambert KCRA 3.
The lead station's most tenured news anchor who knows the value of community work.
A true passion for getting stories right. One of the markets best reporters for years when she was out in the field starting in 1995. She can write/report/anchor/go live in the field. She cares about the product and the people watching.
*Cristina Mendonsa KXTV 10.
Steady star quality and the face of the local ABC station since she started in 1995. Viewers often remark about the twinkle in her eye. Great fashion sense. Is the equal of any on the anchor desk but hasn't worked a regular reporter shift except for special assignments. Would be a star in any city. News10 is lucky she's stuck around.
*Deirdre Fitzpatrick KCRA 3
An Emmy winner as best anchor in the Sacramento AND San Francisco markets. Fitz has a great journalistic background from the U. of Missouri. Can write with the best of any network reporter. She's a mainstay of the station's Olympic coverage from anywhere in the world.
The only downside to her being tethered to the morning anchor desk is we don't see her live reporting on the evening newscasts. She's been at KCRA since '97.
*Sam Shane KOVR 13
A true veteran of broadcast journalism who's probably the most experienced anchor...and reporter in the market.
A standout at KCRA who after a stint at KGO/San Francisco became a daytime fixture as a news anchor on MSNBC.
He has the look and polish (and voice) of what news management calls a "command anchor". I think he's one the best reporters in the country. If he'd chosen that path, I have no doubt he'd be on 60 Minutes.
*Chris Riva KCRA 3. Why? He's the market's "Mr. Versatile". His regular week includes anchoring the weekend evening newscasts AND reporting on breaking news during the weekdays AND anchoring sportscasts when Del Rogers is off AND handling sports field reporting as well. He could be covering a live pot bust in El Dorado County one day AND the local prep baseball playoffs the next. He could probably do a weather forecast too.
St. Patty's day falls on a Sunday this year. Bummer for businesses that prefer it on a weekday. Maybe an act of Congress can move the holiday to the third Friday in March so it's guaranteed to stimulate the economy? My top places to go this weekend to celebrate St. Patrick's.
*Old Sacramento. The 17th annual Old Sac St. Patty's parade starts at 1pm on Saturday. 60 marching units and 1000 members. It's free! After the parade, make sure you hit O'Mally's Irish pub for some beverages. The blue cheeseburger with bacon is worth the stop anytime. www.oldsacramento.com
*Boxing Donkey Irish Pub, 300 Lincoln in Roseville. They start serving on St Patty's day at 6am! Live music all day. This place has become a destination spot for all of Roseville/Rocklin/Granite Bay. The Schubert family knows how to run a pub. www.theboxingdonkey.com. Old town Roseville is getting a bunch of pubs together.. check it out!
*DeVere's Irish Pub, 1531 L St Sacramento. What a true Irish pub run by real Irish! This spot has become a true destination for all who haunt downtown. The beer selection is excellent, and the food is authentic irish. Try the beef stew and the lamb sliders. Deelish. www.deverespub.com
*Bonn Lair Pub, 3651 J St Sacramento. Great neighborhood bar with excellent stouts. Like any St Pat's destination, get your bowl full of corned beef and cabbage.l
*Gallagher's Irish Pub, 1201 K St Sacramento. One of the old time downtown pubs that moved to a new location a few years back. They boast 30 single malt Irish and Scotch whiskeys avail.
Other St. Pat's hot spots;
East Sacramento-Club 2-Me, Chargins and Pine Cove.
Land Park area-Jamie's and Riverside Clubhouse.
Auburn-the Power Club. www.powerclubauburn.com
Those are my reccomendations for this weekend. Got any hot spots i don't know about yet?
Weekday Mornings
