To get to South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento or Placerville while Highway 50 is closed, you can cut over to Highway 88 by taking Highway 16 from the Power Inn Road exit in Sacramento or the Missouri Flat Road exit in Placerville to Highway 49. From the South Bay and Southern California, you can take Highway 88 East from I-5 in Stockton. Once on Highway 88 East, take Highway 89 North to Tahoe. If you haven’t taken the drive before, it is a very beautiful and scenic drive well worth the added time.

More information is available at http://www.way2tahoe.com/

Sammy Hagar and The Wabos
May 6th – 7th
Harrah’s Tickets & Info

Kentucky Derby Party
May 7th
MontBleu Info

SOJA w/ special guest J BOOG
May 10th
MontBleu Tickets & Info

Amgen Tour of California Starts
May 13th – 15th
MontBleu Info Official Site

Eric Burdon & The Animals
May 14th
Harrah’s Tickets & Info

Pablo Cruise
May 21st
Harrah’s Tickets & Info

Concert for the Amazon ft. DJ Paul Oakenfold
May 27th
MontBleu Tickets & Info

Seth Meyers from SNL
May 28th
MontBleu Tickets & Info

Paul Revere and the Raiders
May 28th
Harrah’s Tickets & Info

Freaker’s Ball combines three parties into one, each running simultaneously at MontBleu’s 10,000 square foot convention center, as well as its two nightclubs – Opal Ultra Lounge and blu. On this night of trickery, mystery and debauchery, ditch your conventional party hats and club attire for a more ghoulish, grotesque appearance. Your ghastliness guarantees a good time among club go-go dancers, body painting, drink specials, and premier Bay Area party band, “Pop Fiction.”

Courtesy of Pop Fiction

Pop Fiction’s 8-piece performance will please any ear from any era, as they unleash top hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. The monster in you won’t let your dancing shoes go to waste during covers like Chic’s “Le Freak,” The Stray Cats’ “Stray Cat Strut,” Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” and Beyonce’s “Naughty Girl.”

You can purchase tickets online at Ticketmaster or by calling the MontBleu Box Office at 775.588.3515. Freaker’s Ball commences at 8 p.m. and persists until the last freak standing.

The annual Lake Tahoe Marathon is back, and is shaping up to be one of the best ever. Put on each Fall in Lake Tahoe, the Tahoe Marathon is a huge annual event that brings in thousands of participants, observers and supporters.

Where does the marathon go?

The Lake Tahoe Marathon is run on Sunday, beginning in Tahoe City at Commons Beach, and ending up at Pope Beach near South Lake Tahoe. Additionally, there are two “a la carte” marathons run Friday and Saturday – each is a different course – that serve as part of the Triple Marathon of the weekend – or the “Super Triple”.

The entire schedule of events for the Marathon spans five days, and includes a bunch of great options for families, as well as some of the most enjoyable and challenging marathon courses around. You may run, walk, swim, paddle, peddle or even do a couple of the many different events throughout the week as there are many options for events in which you can participate.

Not everyone has the time or energy to train for a 26.2-mile race – enter weekend warriors. Those among us who run and walk recreationally, in addition to working 40 hours per week at home or in the office, and feel most comfortable with 3-6 mile jaunts.

The Lake Tahoe Marathon hears you – loud and clear. That’s why the race also offers shorter distances, including a 5K through historic Lake Tahoe estates of yesteryear and an all-downhill 10K that kicks off at Emerald Bay’s Inspiration Point – both scheduled for marathon Sunday.

For those ready to swim, bike and run back-to-back, take part in the marathon’s Three-Day Triathlon, which plays out over the course of three consecutive days (Sept. 24-26). Water and biking enthusiasts are also covered with kayak races, and 20, 35 and 72-mile rides and everyone can see Lake Tahoe aboard the region’s best vantage point – on board a Mississippi paddle wheeler at the Sunset Pasta Cruise to Emerald Bay the evening before the marathon.

Runners and walkers have a host of events to choose from during the Lake Tahoe Marathon Race Week. The Marathon winds down the western shore from Tahoe City to South Lake Tahoe for a post-run bash. It has been coined “a Sunday morning run you’ll never forget.” Other opportunities for runners during Race Week include the Tahoe Triple (three marathons in three consecutive days), Marathon Relays, Half Marathon, Three-Day Triathlon, a free Kids Fun Run, and a 20-Mile Run, Jog and Walk. Other events offer biking, kayaking, and Speed Golf.

For a complete schedule of events and information on registering, please visit laketahoemarathon.com.

The Tahoe Tech Talk Conference is less than a month away now and I want to make sure I’m prepared to get the most out of it. Thanks to @JenPwns for turning me onto the article “Things to Pack for a Conference” by Shawn Collins. The article was written back on August 5, 2009 and was a checklist for organizing and getting packed for the Affiliate Summit East 2009. A good read with most everything you would need for that conference, but we’re not going to that conference.

Together, we added some other things you may want to prep beforehand, as well as some questions we still had. Hopefully, this will help others, and if you have anything to add, please add it to the comments below as others may find it useful. This may seem a little over the top, but we wanted to get the most out of this experience. A simplified version of the checklist can be found here in PDF format.

Prepare today.

If you haven’t already, these are the things you may want to do right away. Even though the conference isn’t for a couple of weeks, these items can be done now, so you do not have to worry about them last minute.

Research the Speakers

The first thing we did was to follow the speakers on Twitter. I only know about half of them, so I wanted to learn about who I was going to be listening to. I also browsed over their sites and read a few of the articles they have posted.

Make Preparations to put your Day to Day on Hold

Shawn Collins recommended making preparations to put your day-to-day on hold. (Auto reply emails, voicemail, etc.) As this is only a short conference, I will just deal with emails/etc. after the conference and before the casino.

Verify Websites have Updated Information

We also decided that we didn’t want to pitch one thing, just to have something else live on our sites. I recommend going through and updating all your personal sites, Facebook, Twitter, or anything else you can think of with current, professional information. Try and Google your name/product/idea to make sure you haven’t missed something. (I completely forgot I had a LinkedIn account, for example.) Update avatars, designs, contact information, etc. Especially on your site that you are pitching if it exists. Have your 15 second elevator pitch ready to go. Don’t leave this until the last minute. You may even want to have some business cards made up, if you don’t already have some.

Don’t forget to grab.

These are a few items you will want to grab before you leave. Many of these may seem obvious, but they can easily be forgotten.

Pack Any and All Necessary Chargers

In Shawn’s article, he recommends your camera, phone, and their chargers. My phone is my camera, so I’m good there. I did confirm with the hotel that they do not have a charging station, so it is very important you have some way to charge these items. (Maybe someone that has stayed here before can confirm this, or has another option.)

Laptop and Accessories

You may also want to bring a laptop for use in the room, an external hard drive for storage, and some way to take notes in the conference. (I’d recommend Dropbox for backup and a notebook like in this Lifehacker article.)Remember an Ethernet cable, cable to transfer pictures from camera/phone, and maybe even a power strip. The hotel only has wireless available in the rooms, and that goes for $10.95 for 24 hours, so bring an air card if you have one.

Important Paper Documents

You will also want to grab all your important ID’s, credit cards, and documents such as your hotel/flight confirmations. Many of you will have access to these on your phone, but this is Tahoe, not Vegas. Don’t be surprised if they require a hard copy. Shawn also recommends in his article, to remember extra paper and pens for notes. Even though I have not stayed in this hotel before I’ve found all hotels to be rather generous with these items, as long as you don’t mind the hotel logo on them. If you wait, it’s less you will have to pack with you.

Once you arrive.

When you first arrive and check in, you may want to prep your room a bit before hitting up registration and the cocktail reception. Cash for drinks, snacks for the room, water, and your hangover cure of choice are a good idea. Pain killers, mints, and maybe even energy drinks. I like to confirm there is coffee in the room, as well as a nearby Starbucks or something.

You will also want to get the conference agenda, which will be available at the registration I’m sure or you can view it at http://tahoetechtalkconf.com. At the registration, you will want to remember any new people you meet. Speakers or otherwise. Lifehacker posted a good article on this. Shawn’s article also talks about planning out your goals, who you want to meet, and where you want to go. I’m not sure how this is accomplished, as I know who I would like to meet, but I don’t know the conference protocol for such things. He also talks of bringing courage. That’s what the cocktails are for, right?

After hours.

Remember, you’re in Tahoe at a casino. No need to wall off yourself in your room. Have fun and relax. Even if I don’t get anything out of this conference, I intend to make the best of it and have a good time. You will want to check into the night life around the area. If nothing else, a good place to eat dinner afterwards. The obvious choice is the casino, but that may not be for everyone. The hotel also offers the Vex night club and the Cliché bar and grill. What will you be doing?

Questions?

Some questions I personally still have, that some of you may be able to answer.

• What if you have multiple projects/startup ideas? Should you concentrate on just one, or put together a 15 second pitch for each?
• What expectations should you have going into this? Should you expect to get a chance to present your idea, or just gather information on how to take your next steps?

Hotel Contact Info

Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
15 Hwy 50, Stateline, NV
Phone Number: 775-588-6611 (Direct to hotel.)

The original post, Preparing for Tahoe Tech Talk – Complete with PDF Checklist, can be found on Joseph Rogina’s Blog.

Tahoe Tech Talk Conference
October 1st
Harrah’s Tickets

21st Annual Kokanee Salmon Festival
October 2nd & 3rd, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Taylor Creek Visitor Center

Octoberfest
October 2nd & 3rd
Camp Richardson

No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain
October 2nd, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Info

Foreigner
October 8th, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Tickets

Lake Tahoe Classic Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show
October 8th – 10th
Heavenly Village

Night Ranger
October 16th, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Info

32nd Annual Freakers Ball
October 30th, 8:00 PM
MontBleu Tickets

Rock Sugar
October 30th, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Info

• The Tahoe Queen and M.S. Dixie II: South Lake’s two paddlewheelers offer a beautiful view of the fireworks show from the lake. Board the Tahoe Queen for a Dinner Dance Cruise or the M.S. Dixie II a Fireworks Cruise. Both paddlewheelers offer live entertainment spectacular views. Check out www.laketahoecruises.com for booking information.
• Nevada Beach: About two miles east of the Nevada casinos on Elk Point Road, This beach is perfect for laying out a blanket and watching the fireworks.
• Regan and El Dorado Beaches: Right where highway 50 meets the lake are these two prestine narrow beaches. One of the most popular sites for the show, you better show up early!

Bad Company former lead singer Brian Howe
September 4th, 9:00 PM
MontBleu Theatre Tickets

Labor Day Weekend Fireworks Extravaganza
September 5th, 2010, ~ 8:30pm
Above South Lake Tahoe

Tech N9ne
September 5th, 9:00 PM
MontBleu Tickets

Chickenfoot
September 11th, 7:00 PM
Harveys Outdoor Arena Tickets

Tour de Tahoe – Bike Big Blue
September 12th, 6:30 AM start
Race around Lake Tahoe starts and ends at Stateline. More info.

Straight No Chaser
September 18th, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Tickets

35th Annual San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy Competition
September 18th, 9:00 PM
MontBleu Tickets

Iron Girl Triathlon
September 19th, 7:30 AM
Stateline to Cave Rock Map
More info

Lake Tahoe Marathon
September 22nd ‐ 26th
See laketahoemarathon.com for details.

Tahoe Fall Classic Paddleboard Race
September 26th, 8:00 AM
22 Mile race from Camp Richardson to Kings Beach Registration

EOTO, MartyParty and MiMOSA
September 26th, 10:00 PM
MontBleu’s blu Nightclub More info.

Emmylou Harris
September 30th, 7:30 PM
Harrah’s South Shore Room Tickets

Tahoe Tech Talk Conference
September 30th – October 1st
Harrah’s Tickets

Starting at the Lake Tahoe Horizon Casino Resort on Highway 50, Stateline, South Shore Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the route initially ascends 800-feet through a handful of zigzag turns to a rest stop overlooking notoriously picturesque Emerald Bay. From there, a series of rollers ensues between altitudes of 6,300 feet and 7,100 feet above sea level. On the last leg, a 1,000-foot climb to Spooner Junction presents itself before descending to the Stateline finish. At Horizon’s after-ride pool party, celebrate your hard-earned elevation gain of 2,600 feet over 72 miles with a complimentary to-die-for meal, a relaxing swim, and live music.

Due to the ride’s high elevation setting, Tour de Tahoe is recommended for conditioned cyclists experienced in riding roadways – not beginners. What’s more, participants must be at least 14 years of age. Registration for the 72-mile event is $100. Online registration is open until September 3rd, but you can still register the morning of the race on September 12th.

All Tour de Tahoe riders will be assigned a 15-minute window start time between 6:30 AM and 7:30 AM Keep in mind, the roads will not be closed for this event. Participants must be prepared to share the road with automobiles, ride single file, and obey all traffic laws.

For pre-registered Tour de Tahoe riders and on-site registrants, check-in is from noon till 8 PM Saturday, September 11th, at Tahoe Sports LTD, located in the Heavenly Village Shopping Center off Highway 50. Event day check-in and registration begins at 5:30 AM on Sunday, September 12th, in the back parking lot of the Horizon Casino Resort.

Free parking is available in the back lot of the Horizon, accessible from Lake Parkway Drive.

Rest stops with first aid, technical support, food, beverages, and SAG support are offered at four locations along the course: Emerald Bay overlook, Homewood Mountain Resort, Kings Beach (lunch), and Spooner Junction. Cut-off times do exist at several points along the course and at each rest stop, upon which ride organizers will ask “behind time” riders to sag forward.

An alternative to the 72-mile course is the Boat Cruise & 35-mile Lake Tahoe Half Ride Fun Tour. This option is sold out early last year and is still open. Friends and family can accompany riders across the lake aboard the Tahoe Queen and return to Ski Run Marina. The Boat Cruise & 35-mile Lake Tahoe Half Ride Fun Tour boasts an on board breakfast, lunch stop on the course, Spooner Junction’s rest stop, and a ride t-shirt.

The 120 riders who opted for the 35-mile ride and boat cruise combo will start at 6:45 A.M. at Horizon Casino Resort. From there, participants peddle a short 1-mile stretch to Ski Run Marina ramp, where rider and bike board the Tahoe Queen. The boat cruise discharges cyclists on the shores of North Lake Tahoe, to rejoin the 72-mile riders for the last 35 miles of the course. All participants finish at Horizon Casino Resort.

Visit Tour de Tahoe’s website for more details. Happy pedaling!

Rarely has a band come freighted with such expectation and promise than the new outfit that calls itself Chickenfoot.

Yes, you read correctly – Chickenfoot. Say that name again, just to get used to its sound. Chickenfoot.

It’s a silly name for a band — and album — that kicks a donkey’s ass six ways to Sunday and back again. Maybe that’s because long before the four men who comprise Chickenfoot came together they already filled the pages of rock history with enough individual mind-blowing chapters to boggle the mind.

The news that they’ve pooled their inordinate talents to one collective whole quickly spread across the Internet last year (and perhaps that crazy name helped just a little). The fact that they’ve succeeded artistically beyond anyone’s wildest dreams (except perhaps their own) is all the more reason to celebrate.

First, let’s consider the stellar line-up. There’s Joe Satriani, he of guitar god status, a dream born on the fateful day of September 18, 1970. It was the day Jimi Hendrix died, and it was the same day that Satriani, upon hearing the news, quit his high school football team and decided, at age 14, to devote his life to the electric guitar.

Interesting, what Satriani wanted more than anything was to be part of a big-time rock band fronted by a larger-than-life singer. He bounced around from group to group, but nothing hit the mark. Finally, he scraped money together and made a record of his solo guitar recordings. Not of this Earth attracted the attention of the guitar cognostici. But it was 1987’s Surfing with the Alien that made Satriani a household name. The album went Gold (it has since gone multi-Platinum) and went on to become a benchmark of its kind.

Since that time, Satriani has become one of the world’s most influential guitarists, releasing albums such as The Extremist and Super Colossal that have sold in the millions around the world. “It was all by accident,” the soft-spoken guitarist says. “I never mapped out a plan to be an instrumentalist. I really wanted to be a part of a big vocal-oriented rock band. I had offers, but nothing seemed to fit. Everything seemed like career move…until Chickenfoot.”

So what about that singer? Well, that would be another guy who needs no introduction; Sammy Hagar, the original “Red Rocker”, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee for his tenure with Van Halen, who made his professional debut as the singer for the much-revered group Montrose during the early 70’s.
As a replacement for the iconic David Lee Roth, Hagar faced what many would have viewed as an unenviable, if not impossible fast, but as Hagar sees it, “I decided I wasn’t going to get criticized for being the second singer in the band — I was going to be the only singer in the band.”

Hagar carried the Van Halen brand to new heights, and together they scored a string of No. 1 albums and sold tens of millions of albums. “I upheld the artistry of the band,” reflects Hagar, “and brought them to new places they normally wouldn’t have gone. That, to me, is what I really accomplished in that band.”

Hagar wasn’t looking to form a new group in his post-Van Halen career. “I really wasn’t looking to have a real band, but when I got involved with these guys, only a fool would say, ’No, I’m not going to do this.’ The minute we started jamming it was obvious, like, ‘This is something that needs to be heard.’”

A great band is nothing without a great rhythm section, and Chickenfoot has one of the best in the two-man team of bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Chad Smith.

As a founding member (and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer) of Van Halen, Anthony laid the bedrock for which guitar genius Eddie Van Halen could fly. More than that, he provided a signature style of background vocal that became an intrinsic part of that band. “A total fluke,” the good-natured bassist humbly asserts. “I was just doing what came naturally.”

Hagar sees Anthony’s abilities differently – “Michael keeps the band going. Listen, he’s never going to get the kind of credit he deserves — he played next to Eddie Van Halen. Hell, Jack Bruce didn’t get much credit compared to Eric Clapton — that’s just the nature of things. Mikey held down the fort, and he still does.”

Aiding Anthony in holding down the fort is Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who have, since Smith joined the group in the late Eighties, gone from cult faves to a worldwide force. Heretofore thought of as a “funk/alternative” drummer, Smith gets to rock hard with Chickenfoot, and the percussion explosion he creates might come as a surprise to those who only know of his work from tracks like Under The Bridge.

“The guy’s from Detroit, for God’s sake!” says Hagar. “He can play the hell out of funk, but he’s a rocker. He plays hard, man. You could put one mic in a room with Chad, and you can hear all the parts of his kit — he’s hard, but he’s balanced. The band wouldn’t exist without his groove.”

The members of Chickenfoot admit that the band came together almost by accident, a result of jams held at Hagar’s club, Cabo Wabo Cantina, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

“We were just having fun,” recalls Michael Anthony. “After Sammy and I left Van Halen, we’d get together with musicians, and certain people seemed to really gel. Chad came down and we got on well with him. Gradually, we started talking about doing something more serious, but we needed a guitarist. Somebody smokin’ – somebody who could take us to the Promised Land.”

Enter Satch, who hooked up with Hagar, Anthony and Smith and felt “an immediate connection unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.” To Satriani, who had almost abandoned his lifelong dream of being a part of a “big-time rock band,” here was his chance, and here were his band mates. “After just a few songs, it became stunningly obvious that we shared an overall musical agenda. The only question was could we make a great album?”

The band answered that question last fall when they hunkered down with the illustrious producer Andy Johns at George Lucas’ Skywalker Studios and knocked out a batch of songs that sets a new standard for rock music in the new millennium.
From the thunderous, ominous opening strains of Avenida Revolution (detailing the bloody drug wars in Tijuana, in which Hagar makes his feelings come through his skin) to the album closer, the shimmering rock ballad Future’s in the Past, “Chickenfoot” is a firebomb of a record, the likes of which we haven’t heard in ages.

The band kicks and snorts their way through a passel of take-no-prisoners rockers like Soap on a Rope, Sexy Little Thing, Oh Yeah and My Kind of Girl.

These are the kinds of songs I could never do on my own,” says Satriani, “I needed a band like this to make those songs come alive.” The band explores mature themes on songs such as Runnin’ Out, about a world stretched to the breaking point to Learning to Fall, perhaps the most poignant love song Hagar has ever written lyrics for. As both a vocalist and songwriter, Hagar’s intensity and forcefulness are on vivid display on “Chickenfoot”.

“I write what comes to mind,” the singer says. “I’m not bound by anything subject-wise. I’m inspired by the music. When I heard the music Joe was going for, it made me reach, it made me stretch. I think it made me sing in a way that I normally wouldn’t have done. We seem to have that kind of effect on each other.”

Satriani agrees. “People have this idea of what this band is about, or what Sammy Hagar is about as a lyricist and a vocalist. The thing is that we manage to get each guy to up his game in a non-confrontational way. When I play with Chickenfoot, I find myself wanting to give them more all the time. I don’t hold anything back. I think the rest of the guys feel the same way.”

That Satriani unleashes sheets of shred magna is, of course, a given, but what’s interesting is, as individualistic and recognizable as his talents are — and this is true of all the players — they transform in a strange and beautiful way on “Chickenfoot”.

Likewise, Anthony and Smith, channel past heroes. For Anthony it’s Electric Flag bassist Harvey Brooks. For Smith it’s Zeppelin’s John Bonham. Together, they perform something of an astonishing balancing act, dispending performances that meet at the intersection of Heavy and Nimble. This is what a rhythm section does, drives the band in forceful, creative ways. Listen to Chickenfoot and you’ll hear what a true rhythm section sounds like.

By the way, did we mention they have a weird name?