This Friday afternoon in early June, Eureka’s Bayshore Mall is bathed in a hue of desperation no amount of sunlight pouring through skylights can brighten. Shoppers are scarce. Roof tiles are dangling. Employees are daydreaming. More than half the storefronts are vacant. Several spaces have been taken over by roadside vendors, peddling rugs and […]
Deric Mendes
Posted inLetters + Opinion
… and after Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is officially open at the Bayshore Mall, and so far the impact on the rest of the mall has been … well, slight. On a Thursday afternoon, just one day after last week’s grand opening, only a few more patrons walked the corridors of what was once a consumerist haven. In the food […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Bill Cunningham New York
It’s good to know there are people like Bill Cunningham in the world. He’s happy. He’s kind and sincere. He has built a life doing what he loves and is acknowledged internationally for it. Richard Press’ charming and emotive documentary, Bill Cunningham New York, is a beautiful portrait of this curious photographer and a passing […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Time for Outrage
It’s arguably a good thing some challenges are too immense to be tackled alone. Cooperation, reciprocation and compassion – the tempered tools of our species’ survival – when wielded against seemingly insurmountable struggles, remind us of what it is to be human. At the seasoned age of 93, Stéphane Hessel has written an appeal to […]
Posted inNews
Rove’s Brain
Barack Obama announced his reelection campaign on April 5, and within hours Karl Rove, the crafty political strategist once famously dubbed “Bush’s Brain,” was on Fox news opining on the field of Republican candidates. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was cited as a leading contender. Was there anyone stronger out there? “There could be someone stronger,” […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex
On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his final televised address from the Oval Office, notoriously warning, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Although his critique was not extensively understood at the time, the term “military-industrial complex,” a reference to the mutual […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents Earth (The Book) A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race
A mock textbook for aliens discovering the remaining vestiges of a planet left in ruin by its now extinct inhabitants, Earth (The Book), presents a definitive guide to our species, planet and what was once our way of life. Jon Stewart and the witty team of writers at The Daily Show step away from politics […]
Posted inNews
Beer Me, Jesus
Sunday night. Humboldt Brews. Chairs, each adorned with a pen, comment card and a small polished stone, obscure a floor where the prior evening’s habitués swayed, with hops-filled bellies, against a layer of beer splatter and body odor-induced humidity to the music du jour. Where concertgoers customarily attempt to flag down the bartender with failed […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hitch-22: A Memoir
Christopher Hitchens is an enigma. At the conception of his socialist activism he decided to no longer answer to Chris, for dropping one’s aitches is a sign of the lower class. Currently, despite being an Iraq War enthusiast, he still considers himself a Marxist, though no longer a socialist, which he confesses with the shame […]
Posted inMusic
Go
Mere days after Icelandic musician Jónsi and his band departed for their North American tour to support the album Go, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted. With a scream Eyjafjallajökull (made up of three Icelandic words: Eyja for island, Fjalla for mountain, and Jökull for glacier) bellowed ash and soot darkening the sky and clouding most of […]
Posted inArts + Scene
I Am Ozzy
"Other people’s memories of the stuff in this book might not be the same as mine. I ain’t gonna argue with ’em. Over the past 40 years I’ve been loaded on booze, coke, acid, Quaaludes, glue, cough mixture, heroin, Rohypnol, Klonopin, Vicodin, and too many other heavy-duty substances to list. On more than a few […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
We all know the formula: The Protagonist, feeble and indistinct, gets accidentally exposed to radiation or some other freak scientific derivative. This in turn gives him supernatural powers, which he nobly uses to protect the public. Leading a duel life as an average man and superhero, he attracts the girl of his fancy, but is […]