After Hacker Creek
As harvest time comes to the hills, residents grapple with the consequences of diesel-fueled dope
Cover Story
After Hacker Creek
Here, the air above the creek bed hums with the murmur of bees. The tock-tock of dripping liquid sounds like the faint ticking of a clock. This late in the year, the water barely creeps over the rocks but the air is sweet and warm. A small shallow pool between large stones cups two foothill…
Pastels on the Plaza is on!
The sidewalk is a little bit damp, but artists are doing what they do the first Saturday of each October, creating art on the Artcata Plaza for the benfit of Northcoast Children’s Services. There’s patches of blue sky overhead and it looks like it may be a beautiful day aferall. artists working this morning on…
Another one – Union Street by HSU closed due to bomb threat
lock down at 14th and Union A portion of the Humboldt State University campus is in lock-down mode today due to the second bomb threat is the space of 10 days. According to Sergeant Dave Brown of the Arcata Police, speaking just after 3 p.m., University Police located a suspicious device somewhere in the vicinity…
Rain postpones Discovery Ride / Oysters and Ale
Just in case any bicycle bugs are wondering and haven’t already heard, the Discovery Ride through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, scheduled for this Saturday, has been put off until next Saturday Oct. 11 (info here). Yes, the rain is to blame. You know what this means: It’s time to discover other things, indoor pursuits…
Bike Rider’s Prayer
Tendrils of fog floating flattening deep greens of…
Inside Out
It’s a funny thing about education. Of course it’s necessary, but when it gets too formalized, it can become limiting. A person who relies only on the education of institutions may gain a lot of knowledge, but will not gain wisdom. Wisdom comes from life experience — hard knocks and intimate relationships, meeting other cultures,…
A Glass in the Barn
Who would have thought there would ever be two successful movies about American wine? But following on the heels of Sideways (based on Merlot-tasting in Santa Barbara wine country), comes Bottle Shock, a critically acclaimed comedy based on George Taber’s book Judgment of Paris: California Vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized…
Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
I’m making a list of people who helped me ruin my life. Marshall McLuhan convinced me that in this high-tech age you can live anywhere and be a successful writer. Not really: Constant on-site ass-kissing in N.Y.C. or L.A. is still required. Buckminster Fuller convinced me to try writing about large-scale connections and trends. Bad…
Brown Submarine
"Prolific" suggests "fruitful" or "productive." Former Guided By Voices bandleader Robert Pollard is beyond prolific. The 51-year-old songwriter from Dayton, Ohio, has been busy. Aside from the 16 full-length records released by his band GBV, Pollard has released 20 solo records under his own name, and he has released 25 additional records of "side projects."…
What, Me Worry?
Not everyone reads the New York Times. Some people skip the San Francisco Chronicle, don’t listen to National Public Radio and are too busy putting their kids to bed to watch the network or cable news. They get their news from their local newspaper. What a nice world those people lived in last week. In…
Rock ’N’ Roll
Tom Stoppard is sometimes unfairly regarded as a playwright where ideas trump character, but in fact he has a rare ability to create characters who express themselves through the ideas they espouse. From his first success, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead, to his recent three-play epic of 19th century politics, The Coast of Utopia, he’s…
Humboldt County Sucks
Previews A slew of films open locally on Friday, Oct. 3. The western Appaloosa follows two gunman (Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen) hired to take down a tyrannical rancher (Jeremy Irons). Rated R. 114m. At the Broadway. An American Carol is a comedy about a documentary filmmaker who wants to abolish the Fourth of July.…
Irie, or Not?
If you don’t pay close attention to what’s going on in Southern Humboldt you may not have heard that there was some serious confusion last week regarding two SoHum events: last Saturday’s Humboldt Hoedown and this Saturday’s Irie Boogie. Both affairs were scheduled for Southern Humboldt Community Park, a lovely spot right outside of Garberville…
Unconcealed
There’s been a lot of feedback on last week’s cover story, and particularly on the cover of the paper itself ("Pistol Packing People," Sept. 25). In case you missed it, the story was about people in Humboldt County with permits to carry concealed weapons on their person. The graphic on the cover was composed out…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive!
Presented by US Bank and Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are held the first Saturday of each month. Phone 707-442-9054, for more information or to have an exhibit/performance included. 1. WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Robert Daugherty, black and white photographs; Burt Severy, sculpture art. 1a. F STREET CAFÉ 1630…
The Gundersen Verdict
You could have cut the air with the edge of a manila folder inside Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Bruce Watson’s courtroom last Wednesday. It was about 10 minutes to 10 a.m., and everyone waited with held breath to hear the jury’s verdict. The defendant, former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen, leaned forward in…
For Shame
Editor: Rarely have I ever read articles or headlines as slanted or biased as Heidi Walters’ “Pistol Packing People,” printed in your last issue (Sept. 25). Using the California Public Records Act to strong-arm the Sheriff’s Office, Walters obtained a list of local citizens who have legally obtained gun permits in Humboldt County. Then she…
Bomb Threat
Once again — what, the last time was just in May? — a bomb threat had Humboldt State University all bound up and tense last week as men and women huddled in bright vests near the danger zone and others — campus security and campus housing staff hastily stuffed into yet more bright vests –…
Heap it on
Editor: There was no reason, journalistic or otherwise,to publish the names of CCW permit holders. In doing so you compromised the safety of all citizens of Humboldt County. The common criminal will now know with some degree of certainty which citizens are unarmed. The more aggressive criminal will know where to look for firearms. I…
Charity At Home
Editor: I’m glad to see Mark Lovelace doesn’t want to take the raise that the greedy current supervisors voted themselves (“Town Dandy,” Sept. 18). It’s also enlightening to know what he would do with it: Give it to charity. Well, Mark, I pay outrageous county taxes exclusively to fund county government, not to fund charities.…
Cash for Trash
Editor: Cannot thank the Town Dandy enough for the “Pay Dirt” column. More bedrock analysis of our bureaucrats and the pretend democracy will pay much higher dividends than whether Sarah Palin ever wore a bikini, or what Obama’s pastor had for lunch. One item I’d like to add to the Supervisors’ pay raise issue. Loretta…
Alt Vice
Editor: As a novice to national politics, like Ms. Palin, you can imagine my excitement to hear of your six-part series on “The Other Candidates for President” (“Alt Prez,” Journal passim). After reading your final article of the series, however, you can also imagine my disappointment that my (Humboldt County-based) candidacy for vice president, behind…
