Top Ten Stories of 2007
Year of the Shuffle
Cover Story
Top Ten Stories of 2007
Rails, trails, bankruptcy and dope. It was a topsy-turvy year in Humboldt County — a wierd, shook-up year now spilling its contents into the next. The politically active portion of the community is still divided along lines that were drawn almost 40 years ago, when the first hippies started showing up in Arcata and Eureka…
Bess Dove, Part II
Top Tens 2007 This week in the Hum we looked at favorite records of the year from various sources. Since it was for the print edition where space is tight, I kept the lists to a Top 5. I put the word out via KHSU deejay Gus Mozart that I was looking for more lists.…
Musings on Musicals
The musical is not my favorite form of theatre. Yet when I look back on the past calendar year or more on the North Coast, many of the shows I’ve most admired have been musicals. This personal paradox came into view especially in the last month or so, when I saw four of them and…
Bess Dove 2007
‘Tis the week before Christmas and through most of the county, not much is stirring — with a few exceptions. We’ll run through a handful of notable shows and then move on to some ideas for last minute Solstice/Xmas/Kwanzaa/belated-Hanukkah holiday shopping for music lovers — yes, the annual "best-of" lists. Most touring bands must be…
Dunewalker
When I moved to Humboldt County 15 years ago I spotted what I am convinced was a ringtailed cat crossing Samoa Boulevard past the Sierra Pacific Mill. The long, ringed, fluffy tail was unmistakable, though I have yet to verify this sighting. This is part of the mystery the Pacific dunes hold for me. Now,…
What Is Geologic Time?
Geologic time was involved in my previous articles on earthquakes, marine terraces, photosynthesis and changing climates. I contend that grasping the immensity of geologic time is a prerequisite to a real understanding of our planet and its life. Twenty thousand years ago, Canada was buried under three kilometers of ice and sea level was 140…
Bread, Chocolate and Happiness
"Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!…" And in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate… one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten. — MFK Fisher, Serve It Forth Bread and chocolate is one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten. However, unlike Ms. Fisher,…
Group Therapy
One day in the not-too-distant future, Humboldt County’s anemic medical community might be on the operating table, with the area’s few remaining doctors trying to figure out how to revive it. According to Dr. Ellen Mahoney, former president of the Humboldt-Del Norte Medical Society, the county will have 40 fewer physicians within the next five…
Dear Landlord
The smoldering issues around Arcata’s marijuana business — grow houses and medical marijuana dispensaries — will be rekindled at Wednesday’s (Dec. 19) City Council meeting. The council’s agenda includes continued discussion about establishing a working group to explore standards for the regulation of personal marijuana growing in residential zones and the regulation of medical marijuana…
Meet The Neighbors
With the hubbub about Delta Airlines considering flying planes in 2008 between Arcata and Salt Lake City, perhaps it would be nice to become more acquainted with our potential new "sky neighbors" in Utah. Fry sauce. Liquor laws. Powder snow. Utah, despite being only a daylong drive or two-hour flight from Humboldt County, seems like…
Remainder
Today a black bear walks the creek…
The Rubberneckers
Live, Dec. 15 at the Logger Bar This show reminded me why I try not to go to shows at bars. Came home from work, tired. Took a shower and ate to replenish my energy. Then I went to Mosgo’s to see Ash Reiter (Feist, Rilo Kiley-ish, singer songwriter from Santa Cruz). The show started…
The Rest is Noise: Listening to The Twentieth Century
Book by Alex Ross. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux "Nothing in the annals of musical scandal — from the first night of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ to the release of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the U.K. — rivals the ruckus that greeted [Arnold] Schoenberg early in his career." From any other critic, that statement might…
Dirt Farmer
CD by Levon Helm. Vanguard Records. Levon Helm, drummer and one of the vocalists with The Band, has ended his musical dormancy with Dirt Farmer, his first album of new material in 15 years. It marks a return to the southern roots that his former band encapsulated so well. This is Helm’s first album since…
I Am Bland
Previews The Christmas onslaught kicks into overdrive beginning this Friday, Dec. 21, and continues on Christmas day. Based on George Crile’s 2007 book of the same title as adapted by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (TV’s The West Wingand the short-lived Studio 60) and helmed by veteran Mike Nichols, Charlie Wilson’s War is about how the swinging…
