Raising Caen 

Two weeks after the election, and the county feels like it's still on the exhale.

Trinidad City Manager Steve Albright retired. The Humboldt Redwood Company sold Scotia's old biomass power plant to an outside concern. Kathy Moxon, longtime director of community strategies at the Humboldt Area Foundation and a powerhouse in the local economic development world, was separated from the organization under mysterious circumstances. (Check the North Coast Journal Blogthing and future NCJ issues for more on that.)

A bear cub pressed against the closed north door of the Arcata Co-op on Monday evening, and another bear -- or was it the same one? -- was found up a tree a couple of blocks away. Recent candidates, both winners and losers, sent out thank-you letters to supporters and waited for the new day to dawn. Everything would soon be put to rights, or else go straight to hell.

Get ready for yet another round of murder music strife, as the Red Fox Tavern, against all good sense and decency, invites the homophobic Jamaican dancehall artist Capleton to our shores for a post-Thanksgiving show Saturday, Nov. 27. We've been through this oh so many times before: Local concert promoter throws a show for the area's faux Rastafari -- wannabe followers of one of the world's most retro-dumb cults -- and invites a crowd-pleasing shit-talker from the most violently, murderously anti-gay country on Earth to lead the festivities. Other locals, naturally, object.

This guy Capleton was first shown the door back in 2004, when Humboldt State's Associated Students canceled a show after realizing what they'd gotten into. Since then, in the face of international pressure, he signed the Reggae Compassion Act, a pledge to drop songs like "Bun Out Di Chi Chi," which invites fans to set gay people on fire, from his act. And then he broke the pledge, and has seen his shows canceled across the U.S. and Europe as a result, including one in Santa Cruz.

But not in Eureka, apparently! A Red Fox press release for "Fire King Capleton's" show praises his "fiery stage persona," allowing only a passing reference to the controversy: "His lyrics have been the subject of controversy when, according his managers, they have been mistranslated."

MONITORED! Journal Almanackist Amy Stewart scored another New York Times Op-Ed piece over the weekend, this time with a brief post-Prop. 19 yarn about receiving an unexpected shipment of ... uh, product ... at her bookstore, Eureka Books. Stewart's piece was titled "Leaves of Grass" -- geddit?!?! -- and it was published on Saturday ... In other matters Stewart, the best-selling authoress dropped a new book trailer on the YouTubes a few days ago. Shot in newsreel fashion, the trailer warns against the threat to democracy posed by Wicked Bugs, a fascinating selection of malaria-spreading, crop-decimating, nose-infesting vermin. Stewart's newest is a follow-up to 2009's Wicked Plants, and it's coming to you in May from Algonquin Books ...

Let's hope Stewart's droll video gets a tenth of the plays that former Ferndale Enterprise intern Adam Cole clocked on Tuesday. Just one day after Cole posted a "rap" video salute to National Public Radio called "Good Radiation" on YouTube, it went ultra-mega-viral. What does it offer? A couple of young, well-dressed white kids bopping around throwing made-up hand signs and slinging shout-outs to Carl Kassel, Garrison Keillor, etc. All the stars in the NPR firmament RT'd the holy hell out of it, naturally. The production values are tight, but we prefer Cole's earlier efforts in YouTubery -- such as the folky "There Is A Light," a jaunty salute to the then-imperiled Fresnel lens at the Humboldt County Fairground ...

For our final bit of amusing video news, we offer many congratulations to Jennifer Callen, Monika Little and Frank Mancinelli -- victors of the Journal's first-ever "Sing to Win" Facebook competition! We dangled tickets to Saturday's sold-out "House of Floyd" in front of the public's collective nose, and over six of you responded ... The challenge: Sing a Pink Floyd tune into your webcam-hole, then post the results for all to enjoy. Callen, Little and Mancinelli's versions of "Breathe in the Air," "The Great Gig in the Sky" and God-knows-what, respectively, were the clear favorites. Head on over to the Blogthing to catch ’em all, and while you're there you can download Little's operatic performance as a ringtone.

As Syd Barrett said: "Hunnh?"