People get gung-ho about repetitive dates, and so do we here at Sacramento365.com! In that spirit, we decided to get in the groove of 12/12/12 and round-up 12 fun things for you to do in Sacramento today. 1. See choirs from the Lodi Seventh Day Adventist Elementary School (11am) or the US Army Corps of Engineers (Noon) perform holiday tunes for free at the Capitol's annual Holiday Music Program. 2. Do a little shopping at Sacramento Downtown Plaza and then bring your receipt to the Downtown Sacramento Ice Rink for a free skate rental. 3. Learn about the local and regional impact of the arts at Pence Gallery's Art Grown Locally panel discussion. 4. Shop for wine while drinking wine at E

Can you belive 2011 is practically over? New Year's Eve is this Saturday and if you're still searching for plans, we here at Sacramento365.com have gathered up some activities for you. If you're looking for a great, family friendly New Year's Eve experience, complete with fireworks, be sure to head to Old Sac for the New Year's Eve Sky Spectacular. But, for those of you who are looking for some adult celebrations--no kids allowed--here're a few options to greet 2012 (see even more in our Top 10 & Holiday Event Section). Sacramento nightlife is kickin'! 1. New Year's 2012 Bash with Mickey Avalon: Ace of Spades, 7pm Hailing from Hollywood, Mickey Avalon is known to the world as one of the

November’s Second Saturday attendance appeared to have decreased this month. Two hot spots however thrived and attracted visitors to the monthly Second Saturday Art Walk. Art galleries and other establishments on 20th Street as well as businesses on K Street attracted large crowds. Downtown Sacramento’s K Street, in another effort to jump start the commercial area, opened for vehicle traffic on Saturday. A stage was set up on 12th and K Streets to accommodate an opening ceremony, a car parade, and other entertainment to celebrate the event. Classic cars paraded down K Street for the first time in over 42 years. Reminiscent of cruising down the boulevards of San Francisco or Los Angele

The 12th annual Sacramento Film and Music Festival opens its SummerFEST program tonight by honoring another long time Festival director.  This year's Film Arts Service Award will be presented to Cecile Mouette Downs, director of the Sacramento French Film Festival.  Cecille has worked previously for the Film Department of the French Embassy in New York City, and as a Press Officer for the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel in Paris. She has a master’s degree in history, is a regular contributor to “France Today” magazine, and was the 2010 recipient of the Arts Executive of the Year Award from the Sacramento Arts & Business Council. This is the fifth Film Arts Service Award to be presented

Here are some of the many music events happening in the Sacramento area this week. For more detailed information on these events and many more go to www.eMusiConnect.com. Sacramento Area Concerts & Music Events Defending The Caveman at Cosmopolitan Cabaret on 1000 K Street in Sacramento. Continues WED-SUN. Show times are at 8PM or 7:30PM with some 2PM matinees. Tickets are $33.00 - $48.00. Through Sunday, July 17th: Music Circus presents The Producers at Wells Fargo Pavilion on 1419 H Street Sacramento. Shows at various times. Tickets are $30.00 - $59.00. Beginning Tuesday, July 19th - Sunday, July 24th: Oliver! Through Sunday, July 31st: CA State Fair Concert Series at Cal Expo. Info

Big Brothers Big Sisters has partnered with eleven celebrated Sacramento restaurants for “Cocktails for a Cause” in July. These eateries are lending their best mixologists to create refreshing, innovative cocktails to generate funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Sacramento throughout the entire month of July. Beginning Friday, July 1st and continuing throughout the entire month, DeVere’s Irish Pub, District 30, Dive Bar, Ella Dining Room and Bar, Grange, L Wine Lounge, Lounge on 20, Mulvaney’s, Pizza Rock, Red Lotus and Zocalo will be serving a delicious cocktail, aptly named the "Big Brother/Big Sister" or something similar. Every one of these eleven Sacramento hot spots will c

Walking up to the venue, the thumping sounds of the opening act were clearly audible from half a block away. Clustered at the front entrance, a small swarm of well-dressed clubbers attempted to talk their way onto the VIP list as the line of ticket-holders stretched out past to the left, waiting patiently for the bouncers to take aside the rope and usher them into District 30 for the much-anticipated appearance of legendary DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold. Upon entry to the club, the place was already full to capacity with a crowd that would more likely fill a place like this on Friday or Saturday than a Thursday night. The openers, local DJs three b, treated the early arrivals to an expe

Internationally-renowned DJ Paul Oakenfold played a set Thursday night at District 30 on the K Street Mall in Sacramento. Compared to his year-long residency on Saturday nights at the Rain nightclub at the Palms in Las Vegas, where he presides over 25,000 square feet and around 2,000 clubbers, this was an intimate affair and chance to see one of the world's best at close quarters.

In an attempt to bring vitality to the once desolate K Street Mall in downtown Sacramento, District 30, one of the newest night clubs, is still thriving after four months of business. You can’t miss the bright lights of District 30. The glowing LED projected sign they have at their entrance is enticing. If it wasn’t your friends who lured you there, or what you’ve heard, it was the sign. There appeared to be a hustle and bustle about the area which wasn’t too crazy for a Friday night, but it was still early – 11 p.m. You’re greeted by multiple doormen who guard the black velvet ropes to enter the club. The cover is $15 unless you sign up on the e-mail guest list days in advance on thei

Trust me, fellow Sactowners…in about six or seven weeks, we’re going to be yearning for this. It’s June 5, and in what should have been our first full official weekend of summer, everyone seems to be deadlocked in collective melancholy over the “WTF!” of late season rains (for these purposes, “WTF” will be officially dubbed as “weather that fails”). We will get our sun. We will get our heat. And it’s summer, which means, we will get our shows. Here’s a look at some of the summer’s can’t miss shows in Sacramento. Cheers! Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt – You can say whatever you want about Lyle Lovett, like his ballyhooed relationship with Julia Roberts or the fact that he bears a slight rese

Human Soup: the mixture of dancing bodies, exhausted deodorant, sweat and frenetic stirred lovingly by an artisan DJ that is the signature of any good dance club experience… Entering the District 30 on Thursday night the usual early-evening club atmosphere presented itself as the crowd milled around the bar, ordering drinks and preening in the see-and-be-seen milleu of Sacramento’s newest trendy nightclub. Local spinner DJ Benji worked the booth in anticipation of the headlining act, coaxing people on to the dance floor with a selection of club-friendly hits. At first, patrons’ directed their focus on the bar with the exception of a few intrepid girls dancing it up on the floor. Although

Electronic music duo The Crystal Method will be coming to the new District 30 venue April 7, and Ken Jordan, who founded the group with Scott Kirkland in the 1990s, spoke to The Sacramento Press about the upcoming show. The Sacramento Press: How would you describe your music? Ken Jordan: I would say it’s electronic dance music. It’s hard and soulful, and it’s more of a, well, not-quite-underground sound. There’s lots of jargony words I could use to describe it, but it’s cool, electronic dance music. SP: You’ve been nominated for Grammy awards twice for best electronic/dance album (2009’s “Divided by Night” and 2004’s “Legion of Boom”). What does that sort of recognition mean to you, and

Dive Bar owner George Karpaty is expanding his business territory. Two months after opening the mermaid bar and two other businesses on Sacramento's K Street Mall, Karpaty is in the final stages of negotiating a lease for a fourth concept in El Dorado Hills. The San Francisco nightclub owner previously said the bars and gourmet pizza restaurant he opened in Sacramento early this year were pioneer concepts he would like to take elsewhere. Karpaty is now talking with folks in Santa Monica, Hollywood, Las Vegas and Oakland about opening versions of the K Street businesses there, depending on space available. He and Pizza Rock partner Tony Gemignani are also working on plans to open Pizza R

By now you've probably heard a few things about the three venues that opened on K Street recently: Dive Bar, Pizza Rock and District 30. I've experienced the novelty of Dive Bar and tasted the rocking pizza, and Thursday night I visited District 30 for the first time to see house music legend Donald Glaude in Sacramento's newest boutique dance lounge. Access into the club was painless. I arrived early and there was no line at 9:30 p.m. Stepping in, you'll find the club's lone bar is on the right, and VIP booths line the left side. Keep going and you'll hit the dance floor and DJ booth, with some larger VIP booths tucked in the back. The smaller VIP booths toward the front run about $300 a

On Wednesday night, Dive Bar held its grand opening. The "New K Street" has been covered ad nauseum here and (and here and here and here. . . .) and elsewhere. George Karpaty's new "entertainment complex" is big news, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I put on my press hat, my dance pants and my shiniest shirt and headed over. The block was already bumping when I arrived a little before 8 p.m. I went to Dive Bar first, but my contact was nowhere to be found, the mermaids had yet to arrive and the bar was seatless. I decided to to take my leave and begin my night with a beer at the pizza "joint" next door. Pizza Rock was bustling. The huge dining room was close to packe

Sacramento residents greeted the city's newest entertainment spots – a mermaid bar, a gourmet pizza restaurant with acrobatic pizza tossers and a high-end dance club – on K Street Mall last week. Pizza Rock, 1020 K St., opened Friday following sneak previews held earlier in the week at all three businesses. Sacramento Press’ Mariel Tagg was at Pizza Rock's grand opening Friday, talking to first-time customers and getting some background from co-owner Tony Gemignani: http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/43794/Pizza_Rock_opens_to_the_public Grand openings for Dive Bar and District 30, which flank Pizza Rock, will be held Wednesday. Community contributors Kati Garner and Ron Nabity co

The K Street Mall saw some unusual activity last night as the Dive Bar/Pizza Rock VIP Party came to life. Located between 10th and 11th Streets, three new development projects are reaching completion with the intention of pumping new life into the pedestrian mall area. The Dive Bar boasts an enormous salt water fish tank above the bar, complete with live "mer-people" swimming leisurely overhead. Pizza Rock offers gourmet pizzas, a full bar stretching underneath a life-size Peterbilt truck rig crashing through the wall. Pizza Rock's ceiling displays a variation on Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" from the Sistine Chapel - in this version God is handing an electric guitar to Adam. A plush d

Three new façades add a bit of “wow” to K Street Mall. Work is close to wrapping up on San Francisco nightclub owner George Karpaty's new businesses, Dive Bar, District 30 and Pizza Rock. A month away from the expected openings, contractors applied some of the finishing touches to the exteriors Thursday. The bar, club and restaurant technically occupy one building, owned by Sacramento developer David Taylor and CIM. But the exteriors were rebuilt to look like three distinct, separate spaces – from sleek contemporary to slightly edgy to quaint, Old World charm. The façades are like book covers, designed to entice by giving just a taste of what's inside, said the project's architectural d

Sacramentans will have to wait just a little longer to watch pizza makers tossing dough and mermaids swimming over bartenders' heads downtown. The opening of a trio of new K Street establishments – Dive Bar, Pizza Rock and District 30 – has been postponed from this month to late this year. The delay has come from “surprises” that cropped up while building a structurally sound vault under the sidewalk, said San Francisco nightclub operator George Karpaty. "Nobody's really late. It's just the way construction goes," he said. "Big projects run into delays. They've done an outstanding job dealing with all the surprises." The vault will hold three electrical transformers to power the buildi

Dive Bar and two sister nightlife venues are expected to open within three months on K Street, breathing new life into the struggling pedestrian mall well ahead of other developments. San Francisco nightclub operator George Karpaty's trio of nightlife venues has been seen as competition by some at a time when local businesses continue to struggle and even close. Karpaty said he was lured to Sacramento partly by the success of nearby venues such as Social Nightclub, Ella, Grange and the Citizen Hotel. But Karpaty said he's developed concepts — a "mermaid bar," a gourmet pizza restaurant with acrobatic pizza tossers and a high-end, over-30 dance club — to further develop K Street Mall into