Author: Hillary Louise Johnson
Q&A: Sacramento’s Creative Economy Manager Megan Van Voorhis
Growing up in Flint, Michigan, Megan Van Voorhis wanted to be a ballerina like the one she saw twirling on an episode of Sesame Street. It wasn’t until she took a business administration class in college that she realized her calling wasn’t to make art, but to make art possible. As the head of Arts Cleveland, she introduced innovative programs linking art with health care and helping creators access their inner entrepreneurs. As Sacramento’s freshly appointed Cultural and Creative Economy Manager, the former dancer takes the stage for her next act. Here the new 916 resident talks about the arts’ influence on the GDP, how to reopen venues safely in the age of Covid, and why the ability to create is a basic human right.
The Sweet Life
On the eve of his 100th birthday, Wayne Thiebaud—the Sacramento painter best known for his evocative portrayals of desserts that look good enough to eat—talks about the new pieces he’s working on (yes, he’s still wielding a brush—and a tennis racket!), his favorite kind of pie, and why, despite his status as one of America’s most important living artists, he still sees himself as “just an old art teacher.”
Murders, She Wrote
Over the past decade, Granite Bay author Theresa Ragan—or T.R. Ragan, as she’s known on Amazon, where she has sold more than 3 million books—has been penning mysteries and thrillers in which female vigilantes exact not-so-sweet revenge on their male predators. Her latest page-turner stars a Sacramento crime reporter and a crew of femmes “fatal.” Get ready for a bloody good read.
Game Nights
We’ve got game—or rather, games. From a new underground mini-golf pub pouring local craft beers to a popular BBQ joint that just added axe throwing, here are six hot spots around town where you can eat, drink and play your way through these cool winter nights. Game on!
In the Name of the Father
After graduating from UC Davis in 1967, Stephen Kaltenbach headed east and thrived in the heady New York art world, exhibiting alongside future greats like Richard Serra and Bruce Nauman, and inhabiting provocative alter egos à la Sacha Baron Cohen before Sacha Baron Cohen was even born. But it was his return to Davis that resulted in one of Sacramento’s most beloved paintings: a hauntingly evocative portrait of his dying father. With the launch of his first solo American museum show in over 40 years, the artist reflects on the man who inspired his masterwork and his own starring role as both father and son.
Courtside Cantina
An eye-catching Mexican eatery has opened across from the Golden 1 Center, boasting regionally sourced south-of-the-border dishes and a room with a view that’s perfect for hooping it up.
Signature restaurant announced for new downtown boutique hotel
After years of planning, the historic California Fruit Building at the corner of 4th and J streets in downtown Sacramento, will reopen next summer as a 100-room modern boutique hotel called The Exchange Hotel, with a signature restaurant on the ground floor called Ecce-llente!
Space Odyssey
You don’t need a wormhole to visit the cosmos, just a seat in Sacramento State’s space-age planetarium
True West
In his day job, Cornel West is a Harvard professor, a New York Times best-selling author, a national authority on race and a passionate advocate for the poor. In his spare time, he’s appeared in two of the three Matrix films (because, well, he helped inspire them), recorded three albums, and is taking meetings on the 2020 presidential campaign trail with Bernie Sanders and Cardi B. At a time when the country feels hopelessly divided, this nearly native son of Sacramento—and a “jazzman in the world of ideas”— has a message of love and compassion for all races, religions and political persuasions. And no matter how far he ventures from home, he carries with him a moral compass that unfailingly points west.
Rocky Horror Time Warps to the ’20s
Are you ready to travel to another dimension, with voyeuristic intention? The Green Valley Theatre Company continues its tradition of reinterpreting the ultimate cult classic, "Rocky Horror," as a period musical—this year, with a Jazz Age twist. Frank-N-Furter and flappers? We’re shivering with anticipation.
Best of the City 2019
As they say, there must be something in the water here—Sacramento’s got it going on. From a cool moonlight hike to a cooling moo-less milkshake, from fiery hot street food to a fire-breathing street dragon, and from an Olympic-caliber butcheress to an Olympic-caliber aquatic center, here is our list of the places, people and things making big waves this year.
Small Wonders
With the need for homeless housing solutions greater than ever, an aspirational new architecture competition is yielding innovative ways to approach domestic design
A Whole New (Old) Ball Game
Bocce is one of few sports you can play while holding your drink. No wonder it’s the local bar scene’s hottest trend. Here’s how—and where—to let the good times roll.
Paradise Found
After a career that took her from being a style maven at Williams-Sonoma to launching a boutique bowling alley in San Francisco, Fair Oaks native Sommer Peterson has returned home, importing a slice of mid-century Palm Springs along the way. She calls her little piece of heaven Shangri-la. You can call it your new home away from home.
New hotel and residential project to rise next to Tower Bridge
The Sacramento waterfront is about to get a big boost from some familiar names with deep local roots.
The Big Chill
It's summertime in Sacramento and the living is easy—except when Mother Nature cranks up our city's thermostat. If you can't stand the heat, it's time to get out of town. From clear-bottom kayaking in Tahoe to a waterfall-filled hike in Marin and an ocean safari in Monterey, we've got 18 ways to keep your cool right now.
Cast Away
Angling to become an angler? Start with the Japanese tradition of Tenkara fly fishing, where all you need is a simple rod, line and fly. Come on in, the water’s fine and the trout are jumpin’.
Making It All Popp
Call him an interior designer, a home designer, a furniture maker, a graphic artist, a chef or a classic car collector—or all of the above. Whether he’s crafting the look and feel for a hot new restaurant, a neighborhood taproom, a high-end chocolaterie or someone’s home, Curtis Popp has carved out an eclectic career as one of the city’s most sought-after visual thinkers. Sacramento, meet the modernist Renaissance man.
Mid-Century Makeover
In 1959, two ambitious young architects and one soon-to-be-world-famous artist finished work on a building that caught the eye of the design world and introduced this city to the “International Style” that was sweeping America at the time. Today, that mid-century modern edifice, the original headquarters for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is about to be born anew after an $86 million face-lift. Turning 60 has never looked so sexy.
Field of Screams
By day, they are nurses, schoolteachers, lawyers, students and auto mechanics. By game night, they are the beating heart of the Sacramento Republic FC. Meet the 800-strong Tower Bridge Battalion, a whomping, stomping, self-organized army of men and women whose bond with their team is uniquely fierce. Fair-weather fans, they are not. With the new soccer season starting in March, the fever pitch is already rising. Hear them roar.
The Ice Blocks Cometh
It is, by all appearances, an urban utopia. Come this spring, more than 500 people will work there, more than 200 will live there, and thousands more will dine and shop there. Its innovative tenant mix ranges from an insanely popular “doughnuterie” to a gourmet dog food shop and an Internet-based boutique where you don’t leave with the clothes you buy. And this bustling village within a city—elevated by art and cutting-edge architecture—all exists within a two-block span in the coolest district in town. Could the Ice Blocks be the new model for modern living in Sacramento?
Special K
After decades of blight, one of Sacramento’s most critical blocks—linking the Golden 1 Center to the rest of K Street—is about to become an instant neighborhood, bursting into existence with hundreds of new residents and the city’s most concentrated collection of local retailers and restaurateurs. Here’s how a small group of visionary developers may have created the blueprint for how to design, build and curate the downtown of our dreams.
The Whole Earth Cataloguer
UC Davis professor Harris Lewin is about to launch one of the most audacious scientific ventures in human history—to map the DNA of every living thing on Earth. The 10-year, $5 billion quest could result in a tsunami of medical cures, solutions for global hunger, and the creation of a new “Silicon Valley of agricultural science and biotechnology” right here in our backyard. Oh, and it might save the planet too.
Holy Roadster, Batman!
For decades, Roseville-raised George Barris was Hollywood’s top car customizer. A rare replica of his celebrated 1966 Batmobile va-va-vrooms into downtown.
The Curious Case of William T. Vollmann
He jumps freight trains for fun. The FBI thought he might be the Unabomber. He won the National Book Award the same year as Joan Didion. And some people think he’s a lock to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Acclaimed author William T. Vollmann gives us a peek inside his Sacramento studio (and his head) on the eve of releasing his new books on climate change and the end of the world as we know it. Yes, Bill, we’ll take that scotch right about now, thank you.
A Slice of Life
At 97 years of age, he is unequivocally one of the world’s greatest living artists. But back in 1960, Wayne Thiebaud was still trying to find his way as a young college professor at UC Davis. As a new exhibition explores the decade that defined his signature style, the prolific painter and passionate teacher reflects on his not-so-still life.
Just Add Water
Before you can go from farm to fork, you’ve got to go from land to farm. On a plot in West Sacramento, start-up Farm from a Box is seeding an innovative way forward for new agriculturists.
Now Hear This
Listen up, Sacramento. Whether you’re a beer lover or a political junkie, here are four locally produced, locally focused podcasts worth iTuning into.
Mirror Image
A shiny new object in West Sacramento strives to reflect its evolving surroundings, shifting with the changing elements and combining sculpture with nature along the waterfront.
Eat Drink Play Love
If you think you know Napa and Sonoma, think again. We’ve got the skinny on the region’s newest hot spots (and updates on a few old favorites), just in time to celebrate the harvest season. Discover the movie mogul’s swimming pool where you can make a splash, the glampground where you can sleep in a yurt, the fried chicken shack where you can sample a Michelin-starred chef’s finger-lickin’ fare and, of course, the coolest watering holes, from a bike-themed tasting room to an organic cider house that rules. Scroll down, and get ready to wine and unwind.
Bavarian Rhapsody
Building on the success of their popular Oak Park taqueria La Venadita, Tom and David Schnetz open Oakhaus nearby, serving up German comfort food with a side of nostalgia. Get set to tuck into a Teutonic Thanksgiving (yes, in the middle of summer) with all the fixins.
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