Besides showcasing local performers in the 20 months since it opened its doors at the old Creamery, the Arcata Playhouse has hosted a number of visiting productions. These not only provide opportunities for North Coast audiences, but also for local theatre artists to see interesting work developed elsewhere, especially from larger theatre centers. And thanks […]
Arts + Scene
Reviews, interviews and upcoming highlights from the week in visual and performing arts around Humboldt County.
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Art of Propaganda
What do you think of when you hear the word “propaganda”? Lies? Deceit? Politics? Dictionary.com defines it as, “information, ideas or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.” Wikipedia states that propaganda “often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives […]
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Downtown Owl
Several years ago, Chuck Klosterman rose to prominence as the author of an amusing, if sometimes tendentious memoir called Fargo Rock City. In it, he described growing up as a teenage metalhead in rural North Dakota, and trained his sharp critical mind to extolling the virtues of the sometimes despised subgenre of ’80s hair metal, […]
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Enchanting Ember
Previews Opening Friday, Oct.17, is Max Payne, a video game adaptation with Mark Wahlberg in the title role as a leather coat-clad, pistol-packing antihero cop. Rated PG-13. 90m. At Mill Creek, the Minor, Fortuna and Broadway. In the road trip/teensploitation comedy genre, Sex Drive chronicles the journey a libidinous 18-year-old male (redundant, I know) who […]
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Fable, Western, Comedy
Previews Opening Friday, Oct. 10 is The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire. Set in the 18th century, the film co-stars Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling. Rated PG-13. 110m. At the Broadway. Adapted from the spy novel by David Ignatius, Body of Lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a journalist trying to penetrate […]
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Naked Eloquence
Art doesn’t come out of a vacuum. It comes from influences, inspiration and experience of those who came before, of those who are your contemporaries. California-based photographer Edward Henry Weston was no exception. Born in Highland Park, Ill., in 1886, Weston received his first camera when he was 16. Only a year later, his photographs […]
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Inside Out
It’s a funny thing about education. Of course it’s necessary, but when it gets too formalized, it can become limiting. A person who relies only on the education of institutions may gain a lot of knowledge, but will not gain wisdom. Wisdom comes from life experience — hard knocks and intimate relationships, meeting other cultures, […]
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Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
I’m making a list of people who helped me ruin my life. Marshall McLuhan convinced me that in this high-tech age you can live anywhere and be a successful writer. Not really: Constant on-site ass-kissing in N.Y.C. or L.A. is still required. Buckminster Fuller convinced me to try writing about large-scale connections and trends. Bad […]
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Humboldt County Sucks
Previews A slew of films open locally on Friday, Oct. 3. The western Appaloosa follows two gunman (Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen) hired to take down a tyrannical rancher (Jeremy Irons). Rated R. 114m. At the Broadway. An American Carol is a comedy about a documentary filmmaker who wants to abolish the Fourth of July. […]