A Cannabis Carol
‘Twas the season for all good growers to enter their product in the Emerald Cup
Cover Story
A Cannabis Carol
’Twas two months after harvest, when on sites by the Coast, Gathered hundreds, nay thousands, who loved marijuana the most. The buds had been taken from trimmers with care, In hopes that a cannabis cup soon would be theirs. The growers were nestled all snug in warm threads While visions of winning danced in their…
Simple Winter Song At Midnight
For the Dec. 16 North Coast Journal’s poetry feature, we published “Simple Winter Song (A Winter’s Solstice Carol),” whose lyrics and music were composed by Fortuna resident Steve Brackenbury. In our print edition, we ran the lyrics. In our online edition, we ran the lyrics and the sheet music. Now we present to you a…
Snowboarding Accident Claims HSU Student
Humboldt State sophomore Cooper Plaxco went missing Christmas Eve while snowboarding British Columbia’s Whistler Mountain resort, the Press-Democrat reports. “He was good at everything he did,” said another friend, Liz Randol. “He was the sweetest kid.”
Sac Bee: Humboldt Growers Step Up
If you missed this front-page story in Sunday’s Sacramento Bee, give it a read. Reporter Peter Hecht shows how some industrious weed cultivators in Humboldt County, which he calls “America’s most renowned bastion of illicit marijuana growing,” are stepping up efforts to capitalize on that renown. As Hecht frames it, the entrepreneurial members of the…
Local Inventor in NYT
We first encountered Eureka inventor Doyle Doss hawking his hummingbird feeder helmets at the Arcata Farmers’ Market this summer (see below). This weekend that invention and more of his work were featured prominantly in “Behind the Many Faces of Innovation 2010,” in the busines section in the Sunday New York Times.
Geography Quiz
Ready for your holiday geography quiz? Cover the bottom of this column, and we’re off: 1. What’s the closest foreign land? To avoid Eureka-Arcata favoritism, we’ll measure from ACV, a.k.a. McKinleyville airport. How far away is it, to the nearest 100 miles? 2. How about the second- and third-closest foreign countries to ACV? 3. What’s the highest point in…
The Works 5+5
Valleys of Neptune — Jimi Hendrix — Sony Legacy A discovery of some vaulted recordings by the rock legend and guitar god, who passed far, far too soon, brought about this amazing new chapter in the Hendrix legacy, giving us a window into a world that was not near its end but at its beginning…
Two for the Holidays
People in Humboldt County are dancing. Toddlers, school children, teenagers and adults have caught the bug. How potent the ritual of dance class and rehearsal! I spent decades following Terpsichore, the muse of dance. She is alive and thriving, entering dancers’ dreams right here, right now, where we live. The evidence: two fully staged holiday…
Waiting for Science
Mike Thompson says he’s not giving up. Speaking the day after more than 200 people turned out for a public hearing in Eureka to express opposition to the U.S. Navy’s plans to increase training off the West Coast, the Democratic congressman said he plans to introduce legislation aimed at prodding the Navy to restrict sonar…
Resolved: Solvency
Regarding the holiday season: I look forward to January. While in recent years, joy over the annual visit by my mom and brother has eclipsed my standard resentment of the Christmas season, this go-round neither can make it and so I feel myself falling back into my usual “Christmas? Ugh” state of mind. What’s different…
The Fighter: Knockout!
Previews TRUE GRIT. The Coen brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 Western novel stars Jeff Bridges as drunken, one-eyed U.S. Marshal “Rooster” Cogburn (the role played by John Wayne in the 1969 film). He’s enlisted by young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) to kill Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the scoundrel who murdered her father. A Texas…
O Captain My Captain
O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! [O Beefheart!] O the bleeding drops…
Trapper Keepers
When the California Air Resources Board last week approved a landmark cap-and-trade plan, it marked a monumental step in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But some unlikely critics worry that the new policy was something of a misstep. The new regulations — which fulfill the keystone aspect of A.B. 32, the 2006 Global…
Wish Lists
Last week, in our annual roundup of Humboldt County’s year-that-was, we lamented the fact that the winning side in November’s monumental election seems unclear about what, exactly, it would like to accomplish. Business interests and ideological conservatives put a great deal of effort into getting their candidates into office this go-around, and they met with…
Christmas Eve
My husband and I quarreled that winter when…
Missing Link Records 5+5
Psycho African Beat — The Psychedelic Aliens — Academy The complete works (just eight songs) by late-’60s band from Ghana. A perfect crossover of garage, psych rock and Afrofunk with raw fuzz-wah-wah guitar, Vox organ and vocals with loads of reverb and huge drum breaks. Heavy Days — Jeff the Brotherhood — Infinity Cat Records…
Redwood Jazz Alliance Top 11
Deluxe — Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth — Clean Feed. Bassist Lightcap and his band make rippling, surging, ebullient music that borrows from pop, indie, Latin, funk, gospel and African music and sounds like none of them. It just sounds great. The breakout jazz album of the year. Across the Sky — GeggieTrio + Donny McCaslin –…
