A+E

From a high wall overlooking my kitchen, the Angel of Purses and Keys monitors my distraction and does her best to keep me on track. Or at least that's what I would imagine she does if I were prone to angels.

But just looking at her in the morning makes me consider: black purse in left hand, set of keys in right, smart red heels, red dress, brown hair, massive white wings. She stands on black-and-white tiles at her open front door. Behind her, beyond the tidy rooftops of Manila, puffy clouds of steam drift sideways from the (now-dead) pulp mill. "Be prepared as you walk into the world each day," she seems to say. Mostly, her goofy aspect makes me smile.

I bought this colorful small painting directly from the artist, Joy Dellas, during Open Studios one year. I had thumbed through stacks of unframed work in Dellas' cramped, colorful studio till the angel appeared. There were others (amid the winning cats and stolid dogs) — including a winged male holding a hammer and toolbox, which someone nabbed before I could get it. Dellas told me she had painted my angel literally to remind herself not to forget her purse and keys. I took my painting home, glued it to handmade fuchsia paper and a recycled wood frame, and hung it up.

This is the beauty of Open Studios: You find treasures, and you get to talk to the artists in their own habitat (which sometimes includes chickens).

The 15th Annual North Coast Open Studios is this weekend and next weekend, June 1 and 2 and June 8 and 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. You will find a directory of artists, a map to their studios, images of their work and more at northcoastopenstudios.com. Be aware that some artists only open their studios for one weekend, others for both.

This Saturday, June 1, young lemonade stand entrepreneurs will be out in force to quench your thirst.

Launched in Houston, Texas, in 2007, Lemonade Day aims to make the lemonade stand experience an enriching one, giving young people a taste of establishing and running a business.

The young entrepreneurs have been planning and preparing for a while, with the help of their families, event organizers, volunteers and local businesses. For example, at a workshop at Jefferson School in Eureka on May 15, youngsters heard from last year's entrepreneurs, discussed stand location and visibility, and shared ideas for preparing lemonade. The Jefferson School workshop gave kids a chance to practice serving customers, tracking expenses and revenues, and, of course, playing with lemonade. Participants experimented with gusto, mixing lemonade with fresh juices and herbal infusions to get ideas for variations on a theme.

It should be easy to include a lemonade stand in your itinerary on Saturday. Expect to see stands at the Arcata Farmers' Market, the citywide yard sale in Fortuna, the Pony Express Days Parade and Festival in McKinleyville, Old Town and Henderson Center in Eureka and many other locations. And when you buy some lemonade, remember, the youngsters are encouraged to donate some of their proceeds to good causes. More information: humboldt.lemonadeday.org.

For those who were turned away from the standing-room-only performances of A Midsummer's Night Dream in 2011, you are in luck. Director Heather Sorter has restaged her original ballet — a dance version of Shakespeare's romantic comedy of errors — for the large venue of Eureka High Auditorium.

This soiree into the Bard's land of enchantments crosses the great cultural divide of toe shoes versus barefooted dancers. Sorter mixed it up by inviting Bonnie Hossack, a modern dancer, and Leslie Castellano, an aerial-silk artist, to choreograph sections of the show. Flurries of winged fairies, bona-fide ballerinas, court entertainers dangling overhead, a pack of randy hounds skulking in real fog, sword fighting, classical lovers' pas de deux — it's all there.

For an added bonus, two of the male leads are members of the Robert Moses Dance Company in San Francisco. The local dancers come from many studios, including Sorter's own The Upper Studio in Bayside.

A Midsummer's Night Dream is presented by The Upper Studio and the Humboldt Dance Alliance, a DreamMaker project of the Ink People Center for the Arts. Friday, May 31, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, June 1, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Eureka High Auditorium, 1915 J St. Tickets — $15, $10 for children — are available at Berliner's Cornucopia, Threadbare and Wildberries. More information: 360-791-4817.

Glorious weather for the Kinetic kickoff!

Blue Lake lived up to its rep with a beautiful sunset as Josephine Johnson snapped some pix at the annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash at Mad River Brewery.

It's not often you see grown men pedaling giant insects through the middle of Old Town, but this is one of them. The Kinetic Grand Championship (the Sculpture Race, to most people) has been rolling along, in one form or another, for over 40 years now (probably due to a lack of friction, yes, physics!). Every Memorial Day weekend, northern and southern Humboldt County are united over their love for person-propelled, papier mache machinery. This year promises to be as kinetically captivating and ridiculously rivalry-filled as always.

Think of the Grand Championship as an Iron Man triathlon but with bicycle lobsters and a DIY flare. Competitors will pedal, float and coast through a 42-mile track, starting at the Arcata Plaza and ending in the Victorian Village of Ferndale. In case you're unaware, 42 miles is a lot of miles. This is a distance most Humboldtians won't drive, let alone self-propel themselves through. There's a show in Eureka, and you live in Arcata? Too far. A multi-city, semi-manic, three-day parade?! Yes, please.

The race kicks off at the noon whistle on Saturday, May 25, from the Plaza in Arcata. From there, entrants trundle through the dunes in Manila to the infamous, 100-foot sand dune that is "Deadman's Drop." Have you ever bicycled through sand? In a giant dragon? This is no easy feat, but some of these racers have been perfecting their sand-pedaling skills for years, and the competition is fierce. The first day of racing ends at the Gazebo in Old Town Eureka, with bars conveniently located in all surrounding areas. After a long day of dragon-pedaling, everyone needs a cold drink.

Day two picks up right next to where day one left off. At 10 a.m., the sculptures take to the waters of Humboldt Bay at the Wharfinger Building, finally lending credence to the idea of a fish needing a bicycle. Once across the water, they cross the Samoa Bridge and head to Hookton Hill, where they pedal for about a mile up a fairly steep incline (7 percent; ask your engineer friends what that means. I know I did). The competitors end the day with a much deserved, private camp out.

Rested and relaxed from their night in tents and sleeping bags, the racers start the last leg at the mouth of the Eel River. Here, they cross through the mud and sludge of Morgan Slough, finally ending on dry and solid ground. After 1 p.m. the sculptures start to cross the finish line on Main Street in Ferndale. Once they've crossed the finish line, it's generally a minglefest right up to the Glorious Final Awards Dinner at the Ferndale Fireman's Hall.

Spectators are welcome to view and cheer along most of the race track, but extra caution must be taken to ensure the safety of the racers and the accompanying traffic. Basically, keep your spectating to the rural, backwoods part of the race, or the starts and finishes of each day. Avoid following the sculptures as they travel along major roadways. Safety first! And let the kinetic festivities begin!

Pick up the print edition of the Journal this week for a special Kinetic pull-out section.