I don’t attribute much of human behavior to the far-out celestial bodies in our solar system. Credit that to a rebellious streak I’m employing against my now-deceased parents who met in the 1970s in a transcendental “community” that was somewhat active in that archetyping. I don’t worry about which planet is in retrograde. I do, […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Silent Nights
It’s no secret that our nightlife, bountiful as it may be for an area as remote as Humboldt County, ebbs and flows. Especially this time of year, when the holidays and the schools more or less dictate the terms regarding the potential audience numbers needed to lure bands, promoters and venues into production mode. That’s […]
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Big Beat Bonanza
It occurred to me during this year’s Best of Humboldt voteing that I hadn’t been putting enough thought into the trending directions of our local music scene. Blame it on the pandemic’s flattening effect, as well as a year of distractions in my private life, most of them gloomy and bad. It seems silly in […]
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In With the Future
Well, it’s that time of year, when I must once again appeal to the reason of my fellow Americans and suggest we not only can but must do better regarding which holiday we choose to celebrate this week. Things change and historical reassessments have produced a staggering amount of evidence that Thanksgiving is built on […]
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Beasts of Burden
Much ink has been spilled on the colonial mythology of the upcoming holiday and the horrors in Palestine. When confronted with the unrolling and competing narratives of a real-time conflict, I turn to relevant historians and critics of the past, and I can think of no one more qualified to speak on colonial narrative than […]
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Armistice
Last Sunday we had Fall Back, when we retreated to an extra hour of darkness — and for many, sleep — on the clock to adjust to the changing season. Fall back, retreat, ceasefire, armistice … these words flow together in a certain thematic harmony as we reach the last one. Until 1954, we used […]
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Old Songs, Young Blood
The other day I was thinking about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, that odd musical character from fairy tales who agreed to remove all the rats from a besieged village for a fee. Upon completion of his task, the village leaders decided to renege on payment, so the piper returned and merrily led their children […]
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Dressing Up
Time for a costume suggestion. We all know about David Bowie’s various personas, the most famous of which was Ziggy Stardust. There was also Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke and Jared the Goblin King. But for a brief moment during his fascist Orwellian masterpiece from 1974, Diamond Dogs, the world got a taste of […]
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All The Old Familiar Places
I’d like to share with you, dear reader, an experience I had recently. For the purposes of this story, I’m going to say that it’s true but you can treat it like the dreamy introduction to Dante’s Inferno or the beginning of a Twilight Zone episode, if that works better for you. I found myself, […]
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Horrorville
There are so many shows this week that I had to be a lot more discerning than usual and carve my list down to a manageable size. An embarrassment of riches I’ll gladly take. My social battery isn’t where it used to be but it’s slowly recharging, and beyond everything else, I’m sure we could […]
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Midnight Music
Years ago, I used to listen to more esoteric, dark music. This was probably something to do with age, as one of the ironies of youth is that it often allows for a grim fascination with death and decay because the observer is still cloaked in the bloom of vitality. Or maybe I’m wrong and […]
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Because It’s There
I’m packing up and heading out of town this week with the promise that I’ll return with tales of adventure and conquest. For me, that boils down to the possibility of going far enough north up the Pacific Coast to see a puffin in its native home. While I concede a floating puffin is a […]