Ground Game

Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2008 / Vol. 19 / No. 44
Getting out the Obama vote in a Western swing state

Cover Story

Ground Game

Oct. 7, 2008. The white-erase board on the wall says 29 days until the election. This is my first day volunteering for Obama’s Campaign for Change in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The newest polls for this state show it’s 44-44, Obama v. McCain. According to those who spend a lot of time studying the way states…

Judy Hodgson

Eureka Reporter calls it quits

The great daily (or nearly daily) newspaper war has ended with a victory for the Times-Standard. The Eureka Reporter announced today that it will cease to exist after this Saturday, November 8. The announcement evidently came as a surprise to most everyone, including the staffs of both papers. Dean Singleton, CEO of Media News, the…

Ryan Burns

Newpaper War Over; Reporter Folds

But enters into some kind of weird JOA with the T-S? Quoth the Dean: “It’s satisfying to prevail in battle but, as one who loves newspapers, it’s sad to see one go away, but I’m glad the Reporter’s spirit will live on in the pages of the Times-Standard,” Singleton said. Cold blood, folks — that’s…

Hank Sims

Prop 8 battle headed for court

Opponents of Proposition 8, the ballot measure titled “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry,” have not yet conceded defeat. They’re holding out hope that absentee and provisional ballots still uncounted might make up for the fact that “Yes” votes currently outnumber “No”s by around 500,000. In the meantime, No on 8 groups have already…

Bob Doran

KEET is sorry for switching away before Obama’s speech

Obama giving historic Election Night speech While watching Obama’s big moment last night at home with friends and family, I was getting irritated by the scrolling tickertape of state-by-state results and other business at the bottom of the screen on CNN, so I changed the channel to 13, hoping for something cleaner from PBS. To…

Bob Doran

Tonight

Vote The NCJ and KHUM (104.3 and 104.7 FM) are joining forces to cover this baby live. I’ll be on the air with Larry Trask off and on most of the night, and we’ll be looking at local, state and national results as they come in. We’re going to have people up and down the…

Hank Sims

It’s on…

feeding the electronic ballot counter The polls are open. People are voting. Get out there and do you duty. Voting tip: While I was in line waiting to vote in Arcata, a man came in who had received an absentee ballot by mail. He had decided to vote in person instead. To do so, he…

Bob Doran

Un Dia

D.I.Y. Do-It-Yourself. This was a phrase attached to the ethic from frontier days of punk music, both here and abroad, but it was not so exclusive to the particular musical genre. The “No Wave” movement in New York (and later, Chicago and Los Angeles) also took more experimental forms and performed in a variety of…

Mark Shikuma

Saint Dymphna

In recent years, New York band Gang Gang Dance has become a creative force in experimental rock, with a sound created by intersection of a wide pastiche of influences. The conceptual bent of their new album seems to be something like a 2008 version of an album like Talking Heads Remain in Light, mixing electronic,…

Spencer Doran

What’s The Problem With Bullfrogs?

One sign of a healthy pond or wetland is the presence of frogs, right? Well, that depends on the species of frog. Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are native to North America east of the Rocky Mountains but have been introduced outside of this range for frog-leg farming and backyard pond-stocking purposes. Bullfrogs can now be found…

Luke Groff

At the Orgy

Until the woman walked by with her breasts hanging out, it could have been any old Halloween party. Well, that’s not entirely true. There were other clues, like the Jack-o-lantern with a dildo for a nose. And the strap-on strapped onto the Amy Sedaris look-alike collecting tickets at the door. Plus the array of couches,…

Ryan Burns

Learning the Drill

To drivers passing Eureka High’s parking lot Monday morning, it must have looked like an official military drill: two battalions standing in perfect formation, looking sharp in their Navy blues. But up close you could see these were not hardened soldiers; they were high school students enrolled in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps…

Ryan Burns

Faith and Religulous

Previews Opening on Halloween is The Changeling, a thriller set in the late 1920s based on a true story about a woman who claims that the child returned to her following a kidnapping is not her son. Directed by Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie stars as the mother, with support from John Malkovich and Amy Ryan.…

Charlie Myers

Rammin’ at Ammon

In a serene meadow in the Willow Creek hinterlands, where wispy pockets of early-morning moisture hang just overhead, a raucous cry cuts through the dreamy stillness: "Man rammin’!" This is the All Hallows Heave, Humboldt County’s premiere disc golf tournament. We are at Ammon Ranch, a lush piece of National Forest Service land about a…

Luke T. Johnson

Weird Halloween

No need to try fitting the Starving Weirdos into any pre-ordained category. They’ve coined their own name for their non-genre — "floorcore" — although it’s more a description of the band’s performance style than their sound. Bandmembers kneel or crouch on stage or in whatever room they’re playing (there’s often no stage) amidst an assortment…

Bob Doran

Spoilt Culture

It’s been so long since things have run smoothly at Humboldt State University that most of us have lost any idea of what normal is supposed to be like. The distrust, suspicion, hatred, paranoia, internecine warfare, obscure bureaucratic maneuvering — it all seems like standard operating procedure up on the hill, and we just shake…

Hank Sims

First Saturday Night Arts Alive!

Presented by US Bank and Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are held the first Saturday of each month. Phone 707-442-9054, for more information or to have an exhibit/performance included.   1. WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Colleen Hole, Pastel and Ink, Birds and Nudes. 1a. F STREET CAFÉ 1630 F…

North Coast Journal Staff

Bats!: A Colloquy

It was just another typical evening in the Stewart-Brown household. ME: Honey, would you like to hear some fun facts about bats? SCOTT: Actually, I was just wondering if there were any fun facts about bats I hadn’t heard already, so your timing is perfect. ME: Did you know that there’s a guy at HSU…

Amy Stewart

The Demos’ demos

Editor: You write this week that it would be unpalatable to tie Humboldt to Redding and our red environs (“Town Dandy,” Oct. 23). Au contraire, mon frere!  Facing the same problem of political passivity from the opposite side (although Jeff Morris is making a brave attempt against Rep. Wally Herger this year), I’ve dreamed of…

North Coast Journal Reader

Pork II: A New Hope

Last week’s “Table Talk” described how a national aversion to saturated fats was exploited by the National Pork Board in two ways: First, in creating “Pork — the Other White Meat” as slogan and campaign. Second, by breeding and raising pigs in confinement, and with low-fat, antibiotic-laced diets. The column detailed the literally odious methods…

Joseph Byrd

Pedaling Scorn

Editor: Since you guys are in the print biz, which involves writing, we who shall be known as “readers” wish to hell you’d know, as a matter of form, if the story involves bicycles, the work “pedal” will be in play. Not “peddle,” dammit! (See “Money, Dope and Potholes,” Oct. 23.) And don’t get me…

North Coast Journal Reader

Caption Correction

A photo caption on pages 12 and 13 of last week’s Journal misidentified Arcata City Council candidate Jason Grow as fellow candidate Geronimo Garcia, and vice versa. The Journal regrets the error.

North Coast Journal Staff

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