Technology has moved indie music forward, but it's still a big puzzle how to make indie music relevant to an online audience. Then again, if you let the music tell the story, much of the mystery is solved. I believe that music with lyrical value that adds insight to people's lives can make indie music more popular. I also believe that combining regional imagery with unique regional music creates timeless local videos. That's why over the past several months I've been producing "drive videos" and "river videos" for SacTV.com. While the drive videos highlight Sacramento's streets and highways, the river videos highlight scenes of the American River. Both types of scenery work well with loca

I moved to Midtown Sacramento in January 2007 from Washington DC. My neighborhood is a wonderful place to live – there is a vibrancy and energy unlike any other place in the Sacramento area. Theaters, restaurants, churches, bars, stores, clubs, and galleries provide a great deal of cultural capital and are one of the main reasons I love where I live. However, there is something that I find comically annoying: complaints about parking. Are there times when finding parking in Midtown can be difficult? Yes. Is this one of the major problems facing our city? No. A recently announced pilot program will create changes to street parking during Second Saturday in Midtown. The three-month trial wi

Downtown Sacramento’s busiest streets should have bike lanes by August or September, according to city officials. The work will begin in June or July and should take a month to complete, according to Ed Williams, Associate Engineer with the city’s Department of Transportation. The intent of the project is to create bicycle lanes on the most-traveled downtown streets, including J, I, Fifth, Ninth and 10th streets and Capitol Mall, city officials previously told The Sacramento Press. On some streets, the plan is to take out one lane of vehicular traffic as is common in Midtown. Cyclists interviewed Tuesday applauded the city’s upcoming road work, which they said will add safety to street

After initially being proposed five years ago, City Councilman Steve Cohn’s idea to name Sacramento alleys has finally been put into action. On Oct.11, the City Council approved a list of new names for the alleys. Cohn said that the alleys need names to help residents identify them more easily. “Instead of saying ‘the alley between L and Capitol,’ you could just say the name of the alley,” he said. The process for naming the alleys took so long, Cohn said, because it is very complicated.   What do you think of the alley names?   “It took a while because we had to do a lot of outreach,” he said. "It's part of the rules and regulations for naming streets." Cohn said that approva

Whenever I am in a hurry, I find myself weaving in and out of alleyways and such trying to take the quickest route to my destination. However, in Downtown Sacramento it seems every other street is bombarded with DO NOT ENTER signs. This frustrates me. The reason it gets under my skin so much, is that as I look down the street, I can plainly see that on the other side of that sign, is a clear and unobstructed street ready for travel. The street goes through, yet there is a sign telling me that I cant. I must admit, that if this were an idea conjured up by the city of Sacramento as some way to control traffic on certain streets, I’m not sure I understand the logic behind their reasoning. T

Yesterday it rained in Sacramento. Yesterday I didn’t pay close enough attention to the weather forecast in Sacramento. Rather than parking near my office, I decided to park about a mile or so away and ride my skateboard in to work. It’s fun and gets me a little exercise. The ride in to work was quite pleasant. The ride back to my truck wasn’t so much, and the rain was not the worst part. I left my office around 5 PM, at which point a steady rain was falling. Skateboarding in the rain sucks. Getting wet sucks, having your wheels get super slippery sucks. That would’ve been plenty to spoil what’s usually an enjoyable ride. Not only did I have to endure getting soaked and trying not to fall

So, what if you had a special short cut to eliminate an extra stop light on your way to or from home to the freeway? What if you got accustomed to using a particular alley in midtown to speed you to your destination? And what if, one day, you couldn't use it anymore?  That's what happened to downtown denizen Lanny Shay, who found one day that a formidable gate had been placed in the middle of the alley that runs from 27th to 28th Street, between E and F. With a "No Outlet" sign posted at the entrance to the alley, the gate - locked tight with a heavy duty chain - his shortcut was no longer an option. "Aren't alleys public thoroughfares?" he asked me this afternoon. "When does that becom