The historic 1907 house, a few blocks from the Arcata Plaza, glows from its recent restoration. Sparse furnishings. No kitsch. Little evidence of the teen and 5 year old who live and do cartwheels there — or the additional two kids at last night’s slumber party. Humboldt-based screenwriter/director of The Wine of Summer (2013) Maria […]
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Deco Redux
It was another one of those gilded ages, when Americans were lifting themselves out of economic depression and getting on with prosperity and excess. In 1939 Streamline Art Moderne designers rolled out the art deco New York World’s Fair, the aerodynamic GM Futurliner and the soaring rounded towers of Emerald City in The Wizard of […]
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Many Hats (and Roller Skates)
From government to the environment to music and the military in Humboldt, Natalie Arroyo has her foot in it or on it — figuratively and literally. One place that has special significance to her is the Eureka Waterfront Trail, the newly completed 6.3-mile contiguous trail that runs north from Herrick Avenue to Tydd Street. “Since […]
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Attack of the Monster Women
A few minutes into the 2006 Humboldt County music documentary Rural Rock & Roll, The Monster Women’s guitarist and vocalist Courtney Jaxon describes our little slice of heaven. “There’s something strange and magical about this whole place,” she says. “It’s like we’re in the middle of some weird forest where things are different.” A bit […]
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The Spirit of a Place
“You’re playing hooky today,” Jerry Rohde’s mom informed him one autumn morning when he was 12. They piled into her 1954 Ford sedan and headed into the San Bernardino Mountains to explore a historic Wild West village she visited when she was a girl. Set in a pine forest surrounded by steep cliffs and rocky […]
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On the Rise
In the buttery warm bakery air, plump loaves rest on cooling racks like hens in a coop. The back door is propped open to let the breeze in as three people work at a wooden slab table dusted in flour. With one eye on the clock, the bakers knead and form dough. “Deli rolls come […]
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The Craftsman
“Here’s a cool thing. I just figured it out,” confides Eric Hollenbeck, sitting on a worn chair next to a scavenged 1960s Double Star potbelly stove. “You know that saying, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?’ Well, what does that mean?” He coughs a deep, smoky cough and continues. “Does it make you physically […]
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Theater Kids
Arcata Playhouse founders Jackie Dandeneau and David Ferney met as young actors touring the Canadian Fringe Circuit in the summer of 1995. The story goes that her sketch comedy troupe crashed his comic acrobatic troupe’s show in Edmonton. After that first encounter, “I chased her around the world. Literally,” says Ferney. They eventually moved to […]
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Learning a Thing or Two
If you ask around about the big Intertribal Elders Gathering, to which thousands of native and non-native people from all over the Pacific Northwest flock every year, you’ll hear again and again, “You should talk to André.” Fifty-two-year-old André Cramblit has long waves of gray hair and an occasional sly smile. And he has had […]
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Home Track
“Here you go, darlin.” The waitress sets a BLT and fries in front of Rod Kausen and returns to the kitchen for a bottle of ketchup. Bacon hangs lackadaisically from neat bread triangles. “You don’t mind if I eat?” Kausen asks. We’re meeting on what Kausen calls his “busy day off.” He wears a lot […]
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Grand Dame
Joan Schirle leaves her shoes at the door of the classroom and travels across the airy, cool studio in a pair of black sweatpants. Her MFA students are settled along the east wall. The sun shines on their backs through the tall windows of the 100-year-old building. Schirle situates herself in the center of the […]
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The Old Steeple
Paul Beatie was standing in the kitchen when his life took a dramatic turn. “I was making coffee and my wife was on the computer in the other room, and she starts swearing, [yelling], “You’ve gotta come see this! The church is for sale!” The 115-year-old building came with a permit for live concerts, so […]