Now, friends, is not the time to lock in. Now is the season of drifting along with the current, at least for the weekend. Make waves while the sun shines. This issue of the Insider has a slew of slowed-down activities to enjoy at your leisure. Flip through our Perfect Trips and plan (or don’t […]
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill is the managing editor of the North Coast Journal. She won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s 2020 Best Food Writing Award and the 2019 California News Publisher's Association award for Best Writing.
Posted inJust Browsing
Bubbles Takes You Back
Forget rage rooms. People should be cutting 4-pound loaves of colorful, translucent glycerin soap to relieve stress. Just watching Carla Hayes, owner of Bubbles, slice them into fragrant, candy-colored chunks is soothing. In fact, your cortisol might cool just walking in and taking a deep breath. Bubbles has been open since January of 1973, when […]
Posted inGet Out
A Wild and Wooly Night at the Rodeo
The Fortuna Rodeo’s Full Throttle Friday, as photographer Mark Larson discovered this week, is a very different vibe from old-fashioned riding and roping. Things start off low to the ground with Mutton Busting, in which youngsters take a traditional one-handed rodeo ride on a sheep. The introduction of motors and wheels amps things up significantly, […]
Posted inOn the Table
What’s Good: The Brunch Club
Brunch is the most social of meals, built for leisure and stretching out the day. It may be the most challenging to eat alone, though I’ve done it happily. (When you focus on your French toast completely, it’s a different experience, and eavesdropping on the next table is juicier after a night out.) Now that […]
Posted inNews
20 Years at the Playhouse
On Monday afternoon at the Creamery Building, Jacqueline Dandeneau stands with her thumbs tucked in purple overalls, grinning as David Ferney explains the Flynn Creek Circus’ Russian swing act to Vicki Ozaki of Humboldt Taiko. Ferney spreads his hands, pantomiming the “boat” the acrobats stand on, rocking higher and higher — to the mounting rhythm […]
Posted inGet Out
Old Town’s Festivities for the 250th
Old Town was full of July 4 revelers during Eureka Main Street’s holiday street fair on Saturday. Folks wound through vendor booths, information tables and food stalls, and tapped toes and danced to the music on spread out stages. The gazebo served as a backdrop to dancers and bagpipers alike as performances peppered the afternoon. […]
Posted inOn the Table
Matcha Pavlova, A Delicate Drama Queen
Who doesn’t love a dramatic dessert? Pirouetting near the top tier of the over-the-top dinner finales, just below things that are set aflame, is the Pavlova. There is dispute over the birthplace of this airy, fruit-laden miracle, just as rumor surrounded the birth of the Russian prima ballerina, choreographer and ballet company founder for which […]
Posted inNews
Miranda’s Rescue Under Scrutiny, Part 2
The sprawling landscape of Miranda’s Rescue is open and green, with horse paddocks, barns and white fencing. Outdoor kennels are lined up in squares around grassy expanses. The rescue, which includes president and founder Shannon Miranda’s private residence, encompasses 50 acres of Fortuna farmland, some 20 to 30 acres of it usable, and a good […]
Posted inOn the Table
Oyster Fest in Photos
The Arcata Plaza was once again thronged with shellfish aficionados, day drinkers and music lovers for the 36th annual Oyster Fest. While the crowds reveled at the zero-waste party in the sunshine, judges, including yours truly, held their bivalve conclave, emerging to declare Mainely Lobster winner of both Best Oyster and Best Raw with a […]
Posted inNews
Miranda’s Rescue Under Scrutiny, Part 1
On the night of April 12, Jennifer Raymond crawled through a tunnel she’d cut in the thick hedge wound with blackberry vines that separated her property from Miranda’s Rescue and clipped the wire fencing. She found the fresh mound of dirt she’d been watching and started digging with her hands. “I dug and got 2 […]
Posted inNews
Duane Flatmo Wants to Wow
Standing in the glow of El Pulpo Magnifico — artist Duane Flatmo’s massive, motorized, flame-shooting, scrap metal octopus — is a physical experience. As anyone who’s encountered it in the desert plain of Burning Man or its December Arts Alive appearance in 2022 will recall, the plumes of propane flame turn its silver body a […]
Posted inScreens
Folk Horror Summer
PASSENGER. Sunken in our seats after the now usual set of car commercials that precede the previews, the trailer for Passenger was a welcome jolt. A likely pair of dudes pull over on a dark backroad for a potty break that escalates to creepy disappearance, sudden shock, gore, specter-sighting and a cracking jump scare. It boded […]