A Room Without A View
Meditation for the Guys Inside
Cover Story
A Room Without a View
In Europe, the tradition is to build the cathedral on the highest part of town. Here in Humboldt County, that honor goes to our local jail. From the bay and much of town, the blocky five-story eyesore known officially as the Humboldt County Correctional Facility rules its surroundings like Tolkien’s Dark Tower. The bleakness doesn’t…
Pro-Marina Center Forces Gear Up for Ballot Measure Fight
Chris Crawford, local conservative politico, sent out a call-to-arms yesterday afternoon, rallying people to organize in support of Measure N, the Eureka city initiative on the November ballot that would change the zoning of the long-vacant Balloon Track property adjacent to Old Town. The zoning change would be a key step forward for the big…
EPD Stings Old Town Johns
Yesterday saw the latest installment of the perennial prostitution crackdown in Old Town, according to this EPD press release. On 7/28/10, in response to neighborhood complaints, the Eureka Police Department conducted a prostitution sting in Old Town Eureka. A female decoy was used, and the men were are arrested after agreeing to pay her to…
Humboldt’s Changing Economy
The latest issue of the Humboldt Economic Index offers some fascinating nuggets of information. For example, the composite index (a sketch of our overall economic health) reached a 16-month high in June. On the other hand, the report states that, “All three leading indicators [unemployment insurance claims, building permits and help wanted ads] point to…
Falling Death at Confusion Hill Bridge
A Mendocino County public school administrator recently plunged to his death from one of the terrifyingly tall bridges that form the Confusion Hill bypass, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Kevin Jolly, who was just hired on as superintendent of Covelo’s Round Valley School District, was 45 years old. He had been missing since…
Life in a Day
Got a Facebook note today from Mary Cruse, Humboldt County Film Commissioner (and a friend) regarding something called Life in a Day, which is taking place tomorrow. It’s sort of like a video version of one of those Day in the Life books. She mentioned that she had a couple of extra camcorders so I…
Define “Classic”
When I was in high school, I drove a ’94 Dodge Caravan … into the ground. It was initially loaned to me by my grandmother, but the more I drove it, the more I trashed it. Eventually, she saw the way the wind was blowing, and the vehicle became solely my responsibility. I used it…
Natural Time (No Additives!)
The story goes that a newly arrived immigrant to London lost his watch, so he walked up to someone who happened to be a scientist and asked, “Please, what is time?” “I’m sorry, you’ll have to ask a philosopher,” was the reply. “I’m just a physicist.” Despite, or perhaps because of, our inability to understand…
Folk Life Goes On
Pete Seeger describes folk songs and those who sing them as links in a long chain that connects us with our past. “It’s just like humanity, we know none of us exist by ourself, we’re part of a long chain,” he told Studs Terkel in an interview done 55 years ago. “And sometimes the important…
I Got Incepted!
Previews “Who is Salt?” The question is the tagline for Salt, an action thriller from Aussie director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Catch a Fire) with Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent accused of being a KGB sleeper sent to assassinate the President. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action. Opening Friday…
Rah Raw Raw
Urania Hunter, of Eureka, loves, loves, loves milk. “It’s the first food for me,” she said, over the phone, one day last week. “I just love milk. It’s my favorite food.” She loves milk so much, she’s willing to buy it locally on the black market at $16 per gallon. Yes, because the Santa Barbara…
Experimenting
Like a number of Humboldt music people, Ryan Carlisle relocated to Portland Ore. a few years back. He’ll return this weekend for three shows playing mutant sax with the experimental psychedelic rock band Eternal Tapestry. In Humboldt Ryan played in High School, Pubic Zirconium and Daytime Minutes (full disclosure, that band also included this columnist’s…
Billboard Brawl
Christopher J. Neary, legal counsel for the beleaguered North Coast Railroad Authority, sat before the agency’s board of directors last week at their regular monthly meeting and said it was time, at long last, to get those ugly billboards torn down. There’s close to 30 of these massive, tacky planks littering the corridor between Arcata…
Reclusion, Early Summer
(In the manner of Liu Tzung-Yuan, 8th century)…
Fran Day Returns
Just moments after Dr. Fran Day left the Eureka library last Wednesday afternoon and began walking across the parking lot to her car, they saw her. First it was a fortyish man, with medium-length dark brown hair, glasses, and silver rings on his fingers. “Dr. Day!” he cried out from across the lot. He hurried…
Shopping and Relationships
One of the biggest arguments my husband and I have had in our 22 years of marriage has been over window shopping. He enjoys it. I do not. For him, tripping around town checking out interesting objects appeals to his artistic nature. For me, it’s simply being thrust into a situation of temptation. Given the…
Top O’ The World
Up here in the second floor of the Omicini building, we can look out our big beautiful windows and watch life happen on the streets of Old Town. You hold in your hands the first issue produced in our incredible new offices, and we hope that it conveys some of the thrill we feel to…
Seemingly Solid Reality
Detroit-based musician, songwriter and producer Matthew Smith has been frontman for Outrageous Cherry for more than a decade, crafting a string of fractured pop releases blurring the borders of pop and experimental music. Smith has drawn heavily from Lou Reed’s blueprint with The Velvet Underground along with influences from a spectrum of ’60s pop and…
Tainted Mayo?
Editor: I enjoyed Ryan Burns’ article on the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s review of the General Plan Update (“Deliberate,” July 15). However, Commissioner Mayo’s statement that he is there to represent private property interests concerns me a great deal, because it does not represent an accurate perspective on the job of a planning commissioner. County…
Fortune’s Fools
The mysterious Madame Rosa, whose unveiled name is Maude, is a young fortune-teller with a phony accent and an identity crisis. Her mother and grandmother, predecessors in the divination biz, convinced her of ironclad fate. But she longs for other possibilities. Jeremy is a sweet but suicidal accountant, tired of being unloved and apparently unlovable,…
Lessons from Life
Editor: I hope Mr. Pennisi’s newly acquired view will inspire him to record more stirring civics lectures for KINS radio’s “Community Comments.” (“Culling Bluffs,” July 8). Perhaps he could voice one on how destructive to a community the arrogance of self-assumed privilege can be. GT Buckley, Eureka
Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’
They call it The Roll for short. Now in its 22nd year, the Roll on the Mattole, the annual mini-music/firefighter’s fest at the Mattole Grange Hall, is put on by the Honeydew Volunteer Fire Company. “It’s our major fundraiser of the year,” said Kevin Houle, who lives out in Honeydew and has been a firefighter…
Tips for Drunkards
Editor: I love Amy Stewart’s “Almanack”! And if you’ve never chased a shot of tequila with a Henry’s garlic-stuffed olive — well. Catherine Barnes, Eureka Sweet Spot: Catherine Barnes wins a Bon Boniere sundae for sending our favorite letter of the week.
Bottom of the Ninth
Major League baseball was the most popular national sport for a long time. A lot of factors went into changing that status, but Michael Shapiro makes a particular case for what happened in this “inside baseball” book. According to Shapiro, 1960 was the year that baseball blew its opportunity to remain America’s dominant sport by…
