Living year-round in a college town is weird and it seems living in a Cal Poly town is only going to be weirder. Assuming I will ever be able to afford to permanently settle here, my years will always be divided by the academic calendar, already askew from nature, beginning as it does, in autumn. I’m always on the border of the rotating community, kind of checked out, noting the waxing and waning of the student population by small signs in the traffic, like parking availability and some less desirable out-of-town driving habits. This weekend is going to host the great spectator’s sport of watching people discover in real time which of Arcata’s streets are in fact, one way. I’m usually amused and sanguine about the behaviors of our temporary population, and I understand that the students and their families are every bit as necessary to the economic survival of the community as the tourists were to my former home of New Orleans. I don’t much relish people speeding through the marsh and bumping music when I am out birdwatching, but as a local, there are still some spots far enough out there to be shrouded in mystery to the casuals. Anyway, I’m not the person to defend the American class system of higher education, and I tend to look at the institution as one of the prime support beams of our laughably stupid and empty meritocracy. However, I do recognize that for some, a college degree is an achievement invested with meaning, and I salute those of you who are going to walk the line, shake the hand, and grab the paper this weekend. My only advice, as you navigate the professional world ahead of you, comes from the title of a song by one of my favorite Canadian bands, Destroyer: “Don’t Become the Thing You Hated.” Good luck out there.
Thursday
The Reverend Horton Heat is an institution among fans of “psychobilly” music, which is a twangy mix of country, punk rock and rockabilly. For nearly 40 years, the Dallas-based trio has been tearing up stages around the world, led by guitarist Jim Heath, whose stage name gives the band its evocative, backwoods revival-preacher vibe. Tonight at 8 p.m. you can catch the boys at Humbrews, where they will be teaming up with similarly minded quartet The Delta Bombers from Las Vegas ($25).
Friday
Sonora, Mexico’s Sub Pop Records-signed act Margaritas Podridas is a young group of mostly female musicians who have dipped deep into the well of a genre of early-’90s music called shoegaze. With a heavily treated and distorted guitar tone and introspective, sighing vocals, this group has mastered all the finer points of the form. Tonight they share the stage at the Miniplex with Biblioteka from Seattle, a band with a similar vibe that appears to have been very influenced by the alt-sounds from that decade (an era I only sort of remember and I am almost certain none of the group’s members were alive to experience firsthand) at 9 p.m. ($15).
Saturday
Well, it’s graduation day at Cal Poly Humboldt and while a lot of people are unhappy with the school’s administrators these days (what else is new?), we can still support the students. Here are three DJ-curated events to choose from to celebrate the milestone. First up at 6 p.m., the Blue Lake Roller Rink is hosting a Vinyl Spin and Skate featuring The Observatory ($10). When that finishes up at 9 p.m., there are two Arcata destinations, Humbrews and the Miniplex, where you will find dancing tunes. At the former venue, Soul Party will be going down with the usual suspects for $10 at the door, and at the latter, an inclusive, queer-friendly jamboree by Trinidaddies will feature DJs Dacin, Chef Trevor and Trout Daddies ($5 before 9:30 p.m., $10 after).
Sunday, Mother’s Day
Tokyo’s prog/punk mutant Green Milk from Planet Orange returns to the Miniplex tonight at 9 p.m. to entertain all you mothers and mother funkers out there. The group got a pretty good reception last time it rolled through town, if memory serves, so if you want to get in on it, consider nabbing an early bird ticket for $15. If you’d prefer to roll the dice on the night of, the price goes up by $5.
Monday
RampArt Skatepark is having an evening of death metal tonight, starting at 8 p.m. The line-up reads like a laundry list of things found in a severe car accident, with Laceration from the North Bay Area, Oakland’s Wretched Stench and local folks Bloodspire. An even $10 gives you access to this all-ages show.
Tuesday
If you have ever been curious about the viability of prop comedy in the local scene, tonight is a good night to head over to Savage Henry Comedy Club, where you will discover Mad Props, a show dedicated to giving random items to various comedians and letting them improvise it out. The host and jokers are still TBA, so you can come in with literally zero expectations or prejudices at 9 p.m. ($5).
Wednesday
Movie night! Here are two options, spanning across a wide area, where you will find movies in large venues at 6 p.m. For the free family-friendly option, the Scotia Lodge presents Toy Story, Pixar’s beloved tale from 1995 about … even if you haven’t absorbed the meaning through cultural osmosis, it’s all in the title. Meanwhile, over at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, The Road Warrior fills the big screen with its predictions of an apocalyptic future. I suspect our actual coming apocalypse will have fewer cool costumes, and rather than fighting in improvised war vehicles over tankers of gasoline, we will be driving EVs and hybrids and fighting over a shrinking, poisoned water supply. But there will still be plenty of mass death and violence, so there is that. Five bucks gets you in the door, $9 gets you in and lets you leave with a cool poster to help remember the good times when the reckoning comes.
Collin Yeo (he/him) has done the reading but will not be completing the assignment. He lives in Arcata.
This article appears in Summer of Fun 23.