I went out past the back pasture in the body of this column, so no opening essay this week. In deference to Easter Sunday, when I am writing this, I humbly submit for your consideration the final words of Dante’s Divine Comedy, when the poet has looked upon God in Paradise, but finds himself unable to fully describe that which is other and everything, mover and unmovable, inside all, everywhere, and outside of nothing beyond the center of damnation. The supra supernova of the love that breathes existence into all of Creation:
“All powers of high imagining here failed.
But now my will and my desire were turned, as wheels that move in equilibrium,
By love that moves the sun and other stars.”
Thursday
Jay Si is the stage name of New York State to Portland, Oregon, transplant Jeff Chilton, who fronts a funk powerhouse from that city called Jay Si Proof. Expect a mix of high-energy dance tracks and mellow groove intermissions at their show tonight at Humbrews at 8:30 p.m. ($15, $12 advance). Similarly sonically aligned Soul Trip provides support.
Friday
The Eureka Symphony returns to the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts for the first of a two-night springtime celebration titled “Music of the Spheres.” The program starts out with some heavies from the classical era, with a piece by Hadyn featuring some very talented local high schoolers in the instrumental mix, and Mozart’s hybrid concerto symphony Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in Eb Major, featuring acclaimed violin and viola guest soloists Liana Bérubé and Ivo Bokuli.
The whole thing ends on a much more modern note, with Gustav Holst’s The Planets, a work that is essentially ground zero for many famous film scores and soundtracks. There will be a free pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. called Musical Notes, helmed by pianist John Chernoff and concertmaster Terrie Baune, and the main program begins an hour later, with tickets going from $10-$54. Once again, all hail the Eureka Symphony, especially artistic director and conductor Carol Jacobson, a woman who has run on a seemingly inexhaustible love of music since long before I first met her nearly thirty years ago as a surly kid. She certainly had more delight in the wonder of sound than myself back then, and seems to have only accelerated on her path. We should all be so lucky to catch up, or at least enjoy the gleaming wake of her stellar talent and charisma.
Saturday
If you haven’t exhausted yourself from the action at the third Annual May Day Block Party at 2 p.m. in Blue Lake near the Logger Bar, here’s some more locally crafted entertainment for your enjoyment. The Wild Hare Tavern is hosting veteran eclectic rock act Barking Dogma, with singer Peggy Martinez and company keeping alive the music of local starman Kevyn Dymond, who ascended the stairway at the end of December of 2023. Along for the fun will be Henpecker, described by member and irreplaceable local character Brett Shuler as “geezer garage punk.” The gong starts ringing at 8 p.m. and $5 gets you into the temple of sound.
Sunday
One thing I learned a long time ago in my playing days, especially in New Orleans and Nashville, is that groups and artists come and go with the charts, but studio musicians and backing bands endure because they are made from a different style of workmanship than your average stage-dweller. They have the chops and the instinct to use them in a vast variety of ways, from the subtle to the massive, from vamps to hooks and solos and beyond. And when left to their own devices, they often stretch out in ways most players can only dream of. One such fellow is pianist Matt Rollings, who has forged a prodigious path from the land of jazz to country, and beyond. A very shortlist of people his keys have backed up includes Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett … and that’s just getting started on his long CV. Tonight at 8 p.m., the Redwood Jazz Alliance presents his Humboldt County debut, bringing his Trio to the stage of the Arcata Playhouse for a show that is guaranteed to be worth the door price, which is $20 for general, $15 for students and seniors.
Monday
Chicago, Illinois, vocalist and composer Haley Fohr has etched out a wild career mostly under the moniker Circuit des Yeux, where a very wild vocal range and unique understanding of the 12-string guitar and electronic production has enabled her to created soundtracks and songs alike that fill the space in ways music rarely does, in foggy drips and lightless dark murk-waters penetrated by rainbow-slanted prismatic bursts. New York City’s harp and vocal/violin duo LEYA are quite good as well, and DJ Satanica is on tap to keep the evening’s ambience going, which will be something akin to the stained glass of a gothic cathedral lit up by a faraway atomic blast. If interested, head over to the Miniplex at 7:30 p.m. with $20 in hand, or $15 in a past hand if you bought your tickets in advance.
Tuesday
Well, I wanted to write about the Iris Dement show at the Old Steeple, as I have firsthand experience with her music at that exact venue, but it appears to have sold out. So unless you know something I don’t — which is very, very likely — enjoy something else at home.
Wednesday
Certain films and filmmakers are great test strips for the contextual literacy of the audience, especially an audience of certain political persuasions. I have found, over the years, that folks on the reactionary side of things tend to have a blindness towards nuanced messaging, even if it’s coming at them like a giant alien insect with eviscerating limbs — more on that in a moment. And even though I have noticed it more among the far-right, fascist side of the spectrum, this isn’t a left/right thing, but rather more of a question of understanding subtext, even if that subtext is as large as the damage from a weaponized asteroid hurled with precision at a major terrestrial city — more on that now. Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film Starship Troopers is one of those films by one of those filmmakers. Loosely based on Robert Heinlein’s early Cold War sci-fi galactic interspecies war novel, Verhoeven takes the overtly militaristic and fascist authoritarianism of the novel — set seven centuries in the future — and turns it back at the viewer as a condemnation of our society, as well as a prescient vision of our own nation’s trajectory. Having spent his early youth in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, Verhoeven became famous in America, the power center of the Fourth Reich, by making Robocop, a brilliant satire of commercial fascism. There is no definitive “good” side in these two films, but rather audience-friendly protagonists set in a badlands of violent nihilistic decay. The winners in both movies inherit a morally annihilated world where the meek and the peacemakers are nearly extinct. Tonight’s flick features an amazing mix of imagery from that magical time when practical effects still dominated digital and, as I said before, has terrifying, human-shredding space monsters. A delight to behold on the big screen, which you can do at the Arcata Theatre Lounge at around 7 p.m. — come early for good seats and the raffle — for only $6, $10 if you want to leave with a movie poster.
Collin Yeo (he/him) is a sphere in the Circle.
This article appears in ‘If Only We’d Done More to Save Her’.