Things sound scarier, sadder or sexier in French. Take, for example, the mid-century jazz standard “Autumn Leaves.” Every pianist in America from that era had a crack at that tune, from the block-chord, frenetic mania of Bill Evans’ version to the over-sweetened hit by Roger Williams. The original French composition was called “Les Feuilles Mortes,” […]
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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Something for Everyone
For reasons of space, as well as a general exhaustion from my personal life that has set in with the coming seasonal shift, I am going to keep this intro brief. Sometimes it’s good for a writer to shut up and let the facts speak for themselves. This a busy week full of exciting happenings, […]
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Warm Shadows
Well, I made it through the long weekend without calamity, as I hope many, if not all, of you did as well. I took some of the time to throw a surprise birthday party for my youngest brother, whose birthday in August was overshadowed by a death in the family. I had never thrown a […]
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Solidarity Forever
I’m not going to waste too much of your time here, as we all have a long weekend ahead, one we can enjoy collectively only because of the efforts of the greatest collective struggle of all time, and the one least reported on in our country because the struggle isn’t over yet. I am talking […]
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The Grateful and the Dead
In Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s Been a Death, in the Opposite House,” the reader is given a glimpse, from the outside looking in, of the social mechanics of death “In just a Country Town.” The narrator/neighbor watches the windows open, a mattress taken outside, and the retreat of the defeated doctor met with the arrival […]
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No Country Music for Old Men
Now that much of the controversy surrounding Jason Aldean’s latest single has been supplanted by another meaningless and obnoxious salvo in the seemingly endless, mind-crushing American culture war — thank you, Lizzo — I wanted to share something that occurred to me during all the hubbub. While I’m not interested at all in the “Try […]
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The Best of the Rest
A quick congratulations are in order for everyone and everywhere that won a coveted Best of Humboldt award in this issue. We are all of us winners for getting to live in a place as packed with the sort of folks who make up our artistic population. Keep it up, please. I did want to […]
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Nuclear Summer
I watched Oppenheimer this weekend and, as current movies aren’t my beat, I’m not going to comment on the film itself, except to say that “Property is theft” is a Proudhon quote, not from Marx. I felt a lot of things about the movie and, ultimately, left thinking about how depressed George Orwell was by […]
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You Only Live Twice
It’s midsummer, which means I have been engaging in my regular seasonal habits when I am not working. These more or less boil down to going to the river, looking at my bank account and thinking about traveling, reading in my backyard and going to the river again. However, there is something that I do […]
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Once Upon a Time on the Couch
Faced with a small amount of time to myself, I was doing the unthinkable the other day, sitting in my living room and watching a movie. I almost never watch films alone, as I prefer to read when I’m alone, and I like sharing television and movies with other people. Credit my late mother for […]
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Buck Wild
I’m writing this under the influence of the waxing Buck Moon and maybe it’s the weather, or the masses of asses clogging up the roads and beaches, but I am definitely feeling a sense of power and excitement with tinges of manic frustration. As I may have alluded to before, the effect of the full […]
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A Tale of Two Characters
Pairing is a weird notion, particularly in art and music, where not every comparison is consonant. A lot is left up to individual taste, as well, which is the nature of critical study. My general criteria for reviewing local music is as follows: I won’t write about anything I disliked (this town ain’t big enough […]