‘A Giant Falls Among the Redwoods’
John Hudson, a Purple Heart veteran who lived for 37 years with HIV, and the indelible mark he leaves on Humboldt
Cover Story
‘A Giant Falls Among the Redwoods’
Sister Merry Peter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence remembers the December day clearly. In her role as Mistress of Missions with the Sisters’ San Francisco house, Peter had been helping a group in Eureka form a new convent that would be known as the Abbey of the Big Red Wood — helping them find…
Mike Huckabee Sends Ferndale Some Love
So it turns out former Arkansas governor, radio host, minister and conservative political commentator Mike Huckabee has a show. It airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, where you can also tune in for Jesus the Game Changer. Huckabee features a segment called “Our Kind of Town,” in which the folksy politico, who resigned from the…
North Coast Night Lights: Houda Beach Cave
It was a low tide, a low moon, the cave and the Milky Way — long had I waited for this combination to come together. And when it did, somehow, I was there. All summer I’d watched the tides, waiting for a tide low enough for me to get to the cave safely sometime before…
Fire Burning West of Alderpoint
At approximately 8:30 a.m., Cal Fire received a report from a school bus driver of a fire burning near River Road west of Alderpoint in southeastern Humboldt County. According to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Laura Coleman, the fire is slowly spreading through leaf litter and by 9:30 a.m. was about 1 acre in size. Chopper…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Sept. 26
Sam Beam is the central component in the band called Iron & Wine. For nearly two decades, he has made music for the masses — from the unfortunate and extremely cloying cover of Such Great Heights to the genuine great heights of his later albums — Sam Beam has kept Iron & Wine relevant and…
Suspected Coke Dealer Fails to Appear in Court
A $200,000 arrest warrant was issued this morning for Ariel Arguelles-Sosa after he failed to show at a bail review hearing requested by the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office to raise concerns about whether his bail was procured from drug money, according to a media report. Arguelles-Sosa was arrested Aug. 30 in what officials described…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Sept. 25
Blue Lotus Jazz is a guitar and vocal jazz duo who I have enjoyed in the past and repped in this column before. I will now rep them again, because their music is free, easy and calming. Catch them at 6 p.m. at the Mad River Brewery’s tasting room.
Contrary to Report, DA Sees ‘No Legal Basis’ to Appeal Kitchen Sentence
Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming has no plans to challenge the eight-year prison sentence that Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Kaleb Cockrum handed down to Marci Kitchen last week for the 2016 DUI crash that killed two teenage girls, including Kitchen’s own daughter. In the last few days, you may have read a piece…
Music Tonight: Monday, Sept. 24
Seattle’s iji has a sound that can best be described as bubbly chamber pop. The hushed vocals crash against cheery multi-instrumentation in a bright little world of feeling and joy. Iji plays The Outer Space tonight at 7 p.m. ($5). Opening the evening will be the dusky rainbow tunes of mister moonbeam and the gentle…
Multiple Vehicle Crash on 101 Near 299
A multi-vehicle accident near the intersection of State Route 299 on U.S. Highway 101 about 12:08 p.m. caused major injuries today. According to the CHP Traffic Incident Information Page, multiple vehicles were involved including a motorcycle and two cars. All lanes were reopened by 1 p.m., according to the post. Editor’s note: This report first…
HumBug: Two Killers and a Charmer
The insect season is winding down. The imported species of praying mantis, (Mantis religiosa) are mature now and can occasionally be seen flying. Insects only get fully developed wings in their final molt. Although there are some exceptions, mantises aren’t among them. Flying, they look like less agile dragonfly. The four wings and size are…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Sept. 23
The Sanctuary offers a brunch-time, swing-jazz-era café experience for free when The J Street Regulars plays a set of vintage jazz and dance tunes for the coffee-drinking and pastry-eating set at 10 a.m. Dance a bit or just sit and sip — there is really no pressure here, just a fun time for all.
The Murder Mountain Docuseries is Upon Us
Remember that documentary crew that was running around Humboldt on and off through the spring and summer? Well, the finished project airs Sunday night at 7 p.m. on the Fusion Network, which is a real network that I looked up (channel 342 if you’ve got DIRECTV). The crew and its producer talked to Journal staff…
Planning Commission Approves Mercer-Fraser Asphalt Plant Near Big Lagoon
The Humboldt County Planning Commission has approved plans for the continued operation of an asphalt plant less than a half-mile from iconic Big Lagoon despite objections that all the relevant data about the plant has not yet been received and over requests to postpone the decision until next month. The plant has been operating for…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Sept. 22
Julian Lage is a world-class jazz guitarist from Santa Rosa who, as a single-digit aged wunderkind, was the subject of a documentary called Jules at Eight. The subsequent decades have been kind to Julian. He has built up an impressive resume touring the world with heavyweights like Gary Burton and Nels Cline. He brings his…
APD Re-Investigating Every Lead in Lawson Case, According to Memo
The city of Arcata has hired the nonprofit Police Foundation to review the Arcata Police Department’s controversial response to the April 15, 2017, stabbing death of Humboldt State University sophomore David Josiah Lawson at an off-campus party. According to a Sept. 10 memo to the city council from City Manager Karen Diemer that was released…
North Coast Night LIghts: Fernbridge Beneath the Milky Way
A photograph is not merely an impression of light, it is a combination of light and time. We don’t usually think about that as we snap our shutters in fractions of a second. Not much that we can notice changes in a fraction of a second. But when that element of time is extended a…
Coroner IDs Man Fatally Shot in Phillipsville
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has identified the man fatally shot in Southern Humboldt early Thursday morning as David Oney Hanna, 28, who had been living in Phillipsville. An autopsy has been scheduled for Saturday, according to a news release. Another person who suffered head wounds has been determined to be a person of interest…
Good Relations’ Sexytime Quiz Night for Fire Relief
Think you know a thing or two about a certain something-something or a little something-something about a certain thing or two? Take your knowledge to The Historic Eagle House and impress everyone at Good Relations’ Sexytime Quiz Night for Fire Relief on Saturday, Sept. 22 from 7 to 9 p.m. ($5). Bring a team of…
Music Tonight: Friday, Sept. 21
Indie music has been a genre for so long that the term has functionally lost all use as a descriptor. It now includes acts who are certainly not independent in any meaningful sense of the term and therefore has joined the ranks of blues, jazz, rock and rap in the pantheon of genres that have…
UPDATE: Person of Interest Cooperating in Phillipsville Homicide Investigation
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man hospitalized with head injuries after a pre-dawn fatal shooting in Phillipsville this morning as a “person of interest,” adding that he’s cooperating with the investigation. In a press release this afternoon, the sheriff’s office says the identity of the deceased male is being withheld until…
Movie Magic
What is happening at the Arcata Theater Lounge this week? Are they reading my mind? Scraping my Facebook page for intel? It’s like they have ESPN or something. The cornucopia of cinematic delights on the menu this week is definitely enough to part me with that emergency $20 I keep stuffed in the junk drawer.…
Vintage Carnival and Picnic in the Park
An old-fashioned Vintage Carnival and Picnic in the Park is coming to the Southern Humboldt Community Park on Saturday, Sept. 22 from 3 to 10 p.m. ($15, free for kids 12 and under). There are games for kids and adults, 13-piece marching band LoveBomb Go-Go from Portland, local DJ Marjo Lak, Humboldt Aerial Collective and…
Fighting Entropy
Life’s tough, then you die,” proclaims that helpful bumper sticker. Then look at what happens: Entropy takes over. Actually, the entire course of our bodies’ existence, from birth to death, is spent in a nonstop battle to maintain low entropy. The moment we die, entropy starts increasing as the body’s organization gives way to decay.…
Stylish Monsters
Reviews A SIMPLE FAVOR. The thing here is style: a modern noir about a missing person, a psycho-sexual thriller soaked in gin and dressed in devastating clothes, played out in a gorgeous, antiseptic ultra-modern house. That’s only a little less than half of it though, the veneer of the part of the story dominated by…
Save the Mateel!
Editor: We have a treasure here in Humboldt County — the Mateel Community Center. For many years the Mateel has been giving us love by putting on concerts, dances and festivals (“Now Entering Babylon,” posted online Aug. 7). We have been able to attend theater and dance performances done by children, youth and adults; attend…
‘Zero Tolerance’
Editor: It’s been reported in BuzzFeed and in the North Coast Journal that the Trump administration’s Justice Department, under AG Jeff Sessions, has created the “Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee” (“Reefer Madness and Bongzilla,” Sept. 6). This administration may intend to implement a nationwide zero-tolerance approach to marijuana similar to the current policy of zero tolerance in regards to…
Bliss!
Editor: What bliss it would be if only Trader Joe’s, Olive Garden, In-N-Out-Burger or other delicious food franchises would move into Eureka (“The Colonel Comes Back to Eureka,” Aug. 30)! Since we have so few doctors left to provide our medical care we might as well enjoy ourselves, for what could be a better way…
‘Grief and Despair’
Judge Kaleb Cockrum on Tuesday sentenced Marci Kitchen to eight years in prison for driving drunk and running down two 14-year-old girls, including her own daughter, saying he didn’t believe her version of events and felt the actions she took following the 2016 crash warranted a prison term rather than probation. Calling her behavior “several…
Cheatham’s Grove
Once I didn’t get trees Where I grew up trees were here and there among the houses along the streets buildings seemed bigger I climbed trees I liked them But I didn’t get them. Then I came here Here the trees are monsters or gods they tolerate beneath them only the humble sorrel the bracken…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Sept. 20
Aussie Sub Pop Records band Deaf Wish plays an end of summer — in the Northern Hemisphere — show tonight at 7 p.m. at the Outer Space. I usually get annoyed at the lazy comparisons music writers make to Sonic Youth and P.J. Harvey when faced with a female-fronted arty rock band, but in this…
In Case of Emergency, Break Glass
Bringing an entirely new meaning to the term “functional glass art,” a Canadian dispensary employee recently fought off armed robbers with nothing but a 2-foot glass bong. Surveillance video of the attempted robbery, which has since gone viral, shows two employees — one male and one female — enter the dispensary trailed by an adorable,…
Give Me My Flowers So I Can Eat Them
Ripe tomatoes, aromatic herbs, and sweet melons. Every late summer, most of us can expect to find our favorites at the farmers’ market. But some of the season’s treasures are still lesser known: squash blossoms and amaranth greens. If you love Italian cuisine or are a fan of “trendy” foods, then no doubt you’ve heard…
Murder Mystery with an English Twist
There’s nothing quite like a good murder mystery (especially a British one — I admit I may be biased on this point). That’s just what’s on offer with the latest production of Frederick Knott’s Dial ‘M’ for Murder at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. If you’re not familiar with the story from the Hitchcock movie,…
The Fruits of Autumn
I spent last night sleeping under a fig tree on the grounds of a farm my friends just purchased. Not one of those farms, by the way, although that doesn’t matter in my opinion, but a bona fide organic food producer. After a great dinner I slept under that tree with my girlfriend and dreamed…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.” So says poet and philosopher Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening. Now I’m transmitting his observation to you. I hope it will motivate you to expend less energy fantasizing about what you want and devote more energy…
Diamond Girl
A little fall fire is swirling our way and not just in the form of leaves. Seattle-based Flamenco dancer Savannah Fuentes brings her rhythmic heel, heel, planta, planta magic back to Humboldt in Diamantes de Color (colored diamonds), An Evening of Flamenco on Friday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Bayside Community Hall ($34…
