Seniors don’t take the heat too well. When triple-digit heat waves hit a city like Sacramento you can bet there will be a lot of calls for help from seniors who don’t have air conditioning or otherwise don’t know what to do in really hot weather. PG&E has a good idea--Cooling Centers--places where seniors can go to beat the heat. The problem is there are no Cooling Centers in Sacramento because PG&E doesn’t serve the city’s electrical needs. So how about SMUD? Do they have any cooling centers. Not yet. Maybe a few seniors should show up at the next SMUD Board of Directors meeting and tell ‘em to get busy. In the absence of any local Cooling Centers, here’s a few things seniors can do to

Historically, Sacramento has had the finest-tasting water in the nation. If you grew up in Sacramento you knew the difference right away as soon as you tasted the water in other cities, particularly Los Angeles. Sacramento is the champagne of public drinking water. The cascading flows from the sacred mountain of Mt. Shasta made their way to Sacramento in a state of purity that left other water districts agog. Along the way, Sacramento fishermen thrived on the striped bass and salmon that called the beautiful Sacramento River home. Los Angeles was so envious of Sacramento water that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)–which had to survive on brackish Colorado Rive

Hundreds of Sacramento Jazz and Ragtime fans caravaned to the famed Woodland Opera House Friday night to hear the equally famous Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra from Norway. Norway? Ragtime? Yes, and they played their repetoire in the spirit of most European bands who specialize in native American music. The nine-piece aggregation was well-rehearsed and had that kind of relaxed approach that comes from lots of rehearsal. The leader, peanist Gunnar Morton Larsen certainly knows how to recreate the ragtime genre, going back to its early roots for tempos, orchestrations and execution. He also played his usual Jelly Roll Morton tunes with the kind of respect that makes them sound fresh even though

THE SIGN SAYS "VISITOR INFORMATION' BUT THEY WON'T TELL YOU THAT YOU NEED A PARKING PERMIT! Recently I had the occasion to challenge a parking ticket given to me by the University Transportation and Parking Service (UTAPS) for not having a parking pass while I was on campus at California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) viewing an art exhibit. It was my first time driving on campus and the youth at the information kiosk failed to inform me that I needed to purchase a parking pass. I went immediately to the UTAPS offices and filled out a form detailing my reasons for asking for a dismissal of the ticket. Submitting it, I was told I would receive a decision in the mail in a few weeks.

In 1957 I was stationed with the army’s 8th Division Public Information Office (PIO) in Goeppingen, Germany. I was a Spec3 radio announcer/producer doing what the army called “hometown interviews,” three-minute clips with selected soldiers which were sent to their hometown radio stations. In June of that year I was detailed to go to Baden-Baden, Germany, to cover thedivision band’s participation in the Miss Europe Festival. Not bad duty. I was walking along the pathway to the festival theater with my lieutenant one evening when I spotted the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Since I spoke fluent German, I stopped her and asked her name and if she was a contestant. She was. Her name w

We all know, or should know, that the 37-year-old Sacramento Jazz Festival was originally the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Jubilee. They changed the name because whereas the Jubilee used to feature wall-to-wall traditional jazz bands, times have changed dramatically and the fan base that supported an all-trad Jubilee has now faded away and if the festival is to remain profitable, it has to attract a wider audience. Older people don’t necessarily like this trend. Younger people love it. At its height, the old Jazz Jubilee used to boast of a line-up of from 110 to 120 bands from all over the world. It was heaven for Dixieland, big band and traditional jazz junkies. Attendance figures regula

Actress/singer Molly Ringwald returned to her Sacramento roots and captivated a full house of Sacramento Jazz Festival fans on Saturday. There was even a line of people waiting to get into the Hyatt Regency Ballroom that stretched outside and half-way around the block. Molly, who just published her book “Getting the Pretty Back,” showed off a new hair-do and a strapless gown that lent a shot of elegance to the event. You may remember that this hometown girl cut her first LP at the age of six with papa’s Fulton St. Jazz Band--a bunch of 20’s and 30’s old time jazz and blues tunes, but Molly was out to show the audience that she’s shaken off her old roots and is squarely into the be-bop/mo