Greetings!

Welcome to the premier posting of Hi-Lo [Sacramento], a blog which will showcase the highs, lows and everything in between concerning California's state capital,  Sacramento.

Sacramento is a, well, fairly "eccentric" berg. While the City Planners would seemingly love nothing to micromanage Sacramento into a "World Class City," Sacto's natural jankiness still seems to leak through their heavily lacquered-on "classy" veneer. For every prefab and mundane ultra lounge, full of douche-y The Hills poseurs, there's a scuzzy dive bar around the corner where, no doubt, the natives are being entertained by the spastic dance moves of Downtown James Brown (one of Sac's many, many eclectic characters).

Sacramento, goes by many names: Sacto, The City of Trees, Stucco City, Sactown, Baltimore West, The River City, Sacratomato, NutSac, Slackramento, Suckramento, etc. In keeping with Portland and Austin's motto of keeping their cities "weird," Sacramento has the unofficial motto of, "Keep Midown Janky," which was first coined by local Melanie Dinos ("junky" + "skanky" = "janky"). Try as we might, Sacramento will never shake its low-brow vibe, which most of the locals have learned to embrace, accepting Sacramento's endearingly odd personality and quirks.

Some of the facets that have put Sacramento on the map include being the the birthplace of the now-defunct Tower Records chain, being the hometown of the hair-rock band Telsa and being one of the targets of Ted "The Unibomber" Kaczynski's mail bombs. Sacramento also lays claim to famed indie bands (past and present) such as Tiger Trap, Hella, Mayyors, and Ganglians, as well as pioneering the now national trend of The Zombie Walk and being the hometown to underground comic artist and frequent New Yorker cover contributor Adrian Tomine. So, I guess we have our proud moments, too.

Sacramento's main hub is the downtown/midtown area, also known as "The Grid." This urban area is fairly easy to navigate, with numbered streets running west to east, intersecting with lettered street running north to south (crack-open a beer and watch drivers from the neighboring suburbs drive the wrong way down one way streets!) The area is still dotted with some of Sacramento's most historic buildings and Victorian and turn-of-the-century homes, even though most of the grandest buildings (The Alhambra Theater, The Sacramento Hotel, The Buffalo Brewery) were razed in the "old is bad, new is good" short-sightedness of the late '60's and early '70's.

Sacramento's urban core has much more character than its surrounding suburban slums, most of which seem to have a dubious and depressing "I give up" feel. Given that, there are still many fine gems hidden within the 'burbs car-centric nooks and crannies (the all-vegetarian Sunflower Drive-In comes immediately to mind!) The Grid, however, is where it's at in Sacramento, offering many things to see and do and eat, well within walking or bicycling distance.

But it's the people who give Sacramento it's chutzpah, and unlike other cities and their decadently extravagant citizens (I'm looking at you, Des Moines!), Sacramento's denizens are a bit more, shall we say, "interesting." On any given day, you can be hexed by The Bird Lady, schooled in the finer points of death metal by Ground Chuck, told a tale of woe by a  horse-voiced "gummer," or yelled-at about the nefarious dealings of the C.I.A. by Middle-Aged-Man-On-A-Razor-Scooter-Wearing-Life-Sized-Butterfly-Wings. There are dozens and dozens more of these wonderfully crazy characters, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Hi-Lo [Sacramento] will hopefully endeavor to cover Sacramento's best and worst qualities (which are, at times, frustratingly intertwined) to give you sense of what Sacramento living is all about, from a blogger who currently calls Midtown Sacramento home. Think of this blog as a primer; read on and see if you have the janky inside you to stomach living in a marginal town that frequently makes no. 50 on any one of Men's Health magazine's Top 100 lists ...if you dare!


Best of luck to ya, hon.