Last cowboy standing
A tale of rodeo culture in Humboldt County
Cover Story
Last Cowboy Standing — A tale of rodeo culture in Humboldt County
For the rodeo cowboy, speed is everything. A couple of weeks ago, a handful of cowboys gathered at a private arena in Redcrest off the Avenue of the Giants, on a patch of land situated between a forest of tall redwoods and the Eel River. They were there to practice for the upcoming Orick rodeo.…
Hail Caesar!
I never truly realized what a Caesar Salad was until 1969. We were celebrating a special occasion, and my girlfriend insisted that we go to the legendary Paul’s Duck Press, then the most elegant and exotic restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Don’t bother to Google — you’ll find only two references to Paul’s Duck Press;…
The image collector — Kim Sallaway’s perfect moments
SoHum photographer Kim Sallaway is one of those people who carries a camera at all times — just in case. He always wants to be ready should some image present itself, some magic moment that cries out for capture. For the last couple of months he’s been sorting through thousands of images he’s collected over…
Mid-year resolutions — Or, a summer checklist for fall fabulosity
The year is half-gone. The summer solstice is past; the days are getting shorter already. It’s irritating the way time moves inexorably on, especially in a garden. I went on vacation for one lousy week and everything went to seed. It’s time to whack a path through the undergrowth, take stock of the situation and…
Lindsay Lohan’s bad week
Previews Opening Friday, August 3 is the concluding film of the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum , which began in 2002 with The Bourne Identity . These spy thrillers, based on the novels of Robert Ludlum, are on my all-time top five list for this genre (which, pending my actually seeing Ultimatum , only leaves…
It’s just Reggae (a river runs through it)
The first weekend in August is upon us. Here in Humboldt, that means just one thing: Yes, it’s time for Wildwood Days! No, just kidding. It means we batten down the hatches for another Reggae, that massive gathering that’s been bringing thousands of visitors to SoHum from far and wide for 23 years. Most years,…
The long and long of it
I reported any number of ridiculous stories over the course of my career — all brilliant conceptions of bone-headed editors. There was the one on how corporate executives fit physical fitness into their busy work schedules, summer stories about desert heat, a feature about elevators in the TransAmerica Pyramid, interviews with mall shoppers about the…
The chopper
Here it is, Thursday afternoon, and here is Rabbi Les Scharnberg, pawing through the orphaned books on the free-table at the Arcata Community Recycling Center and gabbing with fellow book scroungers. “I’m a compulsive reader,” Scharnberg says. “So am I,” says Rochelle Trochtenberg. They lift books, put them gently down. They seem immune to the…
The secret life of cheese
Earlier this month, Cypress Grove registered a 10 on the local gourmet Richter scale after its new cheese, Truffle Tremor, won top honors at the International Fancy Food & Confection Show in New York City. I decided to write an article about the secret life of chèvre. The story was to be a hard-hitting (well,…
Shue, nerd — NCRT’s new production trapped in the ’80s
If you’re interested in a summer night out, perhaps contributing to a worthy cause while seeing some friends and having some laughs, the North Coast Repertory Theatre production of The Nerd will probably satisfy. If your demands and desires are greater, maybe not so much. This comedy is set in Terre Haute, Ind., in the…
Smörgåsbord of scandal
One.Vice President Darth Cheney evidently had elsewhere to be Tuesday morning, but the House Resources Committee nevertheless plunged ahead with its hearings on if and how and why he engineered the deaths of around 70,000 salmon on the banks of the Klamath River in August 2002. The hea…ring was called “Crisis of Confidence: The Political…
