Cover Story
All Creatures Great and Small
It’s late afternoon on a blustery October day. Rev. Sara Potter of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arcata bends over the leaf of a plant outside the wall of the sanctuary and speaks in hushed tones for a few minutes before she makes the sign of the cross and moves on. Tucked within the greenery…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Oct. 25
Identical twins and multi-instrumentalists Katelyn and Laurie Shook front Portland’s indie pop band The Shook Twins. Banjo, electric guitar, and hushed telephonic vocals collide with gentle ambient pops and subtle harmonies to create a very lovely sound. This is roots music with modern songwriting and an emphasis on textures and harmonic innovation. Catch them at…
Full Steam Ahead
The transplanted location appeared to not be a problem for the eighth annual Fall Splendor Fashion Show Fundraiser for the Southern Humboldt Community Park as it attracted a packed house to the Inn at 2nd & C in Eureka on Saturday evening. In previous years, the event took place at the Mateel Community Center. Dressed in…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Oct. 24
This is a good evening for free live jazz (not to be confused with “live free-jazz”) in a barroom or beer garden. For the latter, head to Blue Lake and the Mad River Brewery taproom at 6 p.m. for the guitar and vocal stylings of Blue Lotus Jazz, a mellow duo that picks out standards…
Music Tonight: Monday, Oct. 23
Oh boy, he’s back. Puppeteer, singer, storyteller, “alien abductee” and Adult Swim channel gadfly David Liebe Hart will be at the Miniplex for a night of multimedia music, comedy and A.I.-uncanny-valley-type weird behavior to support his new album Space Ranger. Years ago I saw his show in New Orleans and had a blast talking to…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Oct. 22
Are you feeling a desire to jam out? Do you enjoy a Phish-y mix of acoustic and electric instrumentation? Vermont-based Twiddle is the show for you tonight at Humbrews at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door.
Fancy Toast and Bacon
Depending on the day you’ve had, a cocktail may or may not cover it — even if it comes with “intention,” like those on the bar menu full of essential oil-spiked concoctions at the Griffin (937 10th St., Arcata). Might they be where the room’s pleasantly herbal fragrance is coming from? In any case, despite the…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Oct. 21
The Arcata Vet’s Hall Bar (on the corner of 14th and J streets, downstairs) has been undergoing something of a renaissance lately. Thanks to the efforts of a younger crop of local veterans, there is a brand new beautiful redwood bar in the basement and shows have started to crop up there semi-regularly. Similarly, what…
Hearing Set in Public Defender Case Amid Settlement Offer, Allegations of Delay Tactics
The Humboldt County Superior Court has set a hearing next month to determine whether embattled Public Defender David Marcus meets the minimum state qualifications to hold his job. But Patrik Griego, the attorney who brought the lawsuit challenging Marcus’ hire, is worried the county is engaging in a pattern of “gamesmanship” intended to delay the…
Macabre Cabaret at Dell’Arte
Haven’t quite had your fill of scary clowns? (Sidebar: What the hell is wrong with you?) It’s all fright wigs and red-nosed menace at Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m., when the Macabre Cabaret takes the stage ($12, $15). This creepy night of comedy is for ages 16 and up.
Dancing The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas comes in dance form on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 2 and 7 p.m. at Redwood Raks World Dance Studio, courtesy of 555 Contemporary Dance Co. ($10, $8 kids 10 and under). Ya Habibi Dance Co., Sassafras Bellydance, Sequoya Cross and Matilda Jackson join in on the spooky fun.
Ghosted! Spooky Movies for Halloween
There are two kinds of spooky Halloween movies: the kind with goofy ghosts and special effects you can laugh along with and the kind that make you genuinely afraid enough that afterward you brush your teeth without looking in the mirror. What? There could be some creepy apparition standing behind you. Start with the scary…
Bigfoot Film Turns 50
Looking at all the thirsty folks on social media makes you appreciate those who avoid the spotlight. Take Bigfoot, for example. There’s a quiet dignity in not posting every elk bone he gnaws on Instagram, not Facebooking every time he freaks out a camper, and just hiding stock-still behind a redwood for hours without Tweeting…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Oct. 19
Portland’s greatest Talking Heads cover band Life During Wartime brings the full David Byrne cosplay to Humbrews at 9:30 p.m. with the next best thing to being in Hollywood’s Pantanges Theater in December of ’83 when Jonathan Demme was filming Stop Making Sense ($15). If you are looking for something more contemporary (with another 1980s…
Welcome to the Party
I suppose the best way to start this off is by introducing myself. My name is Collin Yeo, I am 35 years old, unmarried, no kids, a native son of Humboldt and I love live music. I spent my 20s in New Orleans, where I worked as (among a whole lotta other things) a musician.…
Up in Smoke
When surveying the neighborhoods reduced to ash in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties over the last week, I think most of us probably felt an acute vulnerability. The devastation was so complete, so widespread, with thousands of structures leveled, dozens killed and more than 200,000 acres charred. As I watched a group of volunteers load…
Dark of Night Edits to a Sungrown Ordinance
Well, the secret’s out. As Thadeus Greenson headlined in the Oct. 5, 2017 Journal, there’s “Way. Too. Much. Weed.” He reported that a recent state Department of Food and Agriculture study “found that while California consumes about 2.5 million pounds of cannabis annually, it’s producing more than five times that amount, some 13.5 million pounds.”…
Squid Pro Quo
First, I’ll answer a reader’s question about the giant salp from last time: Does it ever get eaten? I answered, “Yes. Everything gets eaten — even you, eventually.” However, I only said that because I’m afraid to say, “I don’t know.” So, I checked the internet. I quickly found a fish called the warty oreo…
Getting Foodwise
Gathering around a huge communal dining table on a Sunday afternoon, a small group of women find seats on wooden benches. Piles of colorful vegetables, either sliced, chopped or freshly snipped, cover the workspace of Arcata’s cooking school and culinary event space, Foodwise Kitchen. Quickly making everyone at home with her bright smile and easy…
Catch of the Day
I have been following Kirk Lombard’s blog, The Monkeyface News, for years now. His delightful writing style is a poetic blend of personal experience, history, humor and even a haiku once in a while. As a forager, freediver and angler along the California coast for more than 30 years, Lombard’s words always seem to resonate…
‘Simple as That’
Editor: As a long-time Humboldt resident, I lived in SoHum many, many years ago, owned a café in Briceland and the record store in Garberville itself. I can understand your writer missing the point of the Reggae Wars so completely plus, how the whole place defies description (“Reggae Falling,” Oct. 12). SoHum is unheard of…
Maximizing Carrying Capacity
Editor: The reason the Earth can not sustain the growing population is because we severely reduced the carrying capacity of the ecosystems that sustain us by depleting resources faster than they’re replenished (Mailbox, Oct. 12). Our population did not deplete the native foods and plants by eating them all, we destroyed them and the habitats…
Stuck with Yourself
Reviews HAPPY DEATH DAY. I was reticent at the prospect of another PG-13 horror movie. More often than not, the tamer rating means the movie has been defanged just enough to sell tickets to unaccompanied minors, which almost inevitably means something of substance has been removed, reinforcing that commerce will always trump art. Or it…
HumBug: The Ins and Outs, Pros and Cons, and Nuts and Bolts of Collecting Insects
Lately, events have me laboring at the tedious process of “pinning” a few insects. I typically prefer to photo document, but the tiger moth was nearly dead when I found it and I felt it would have been a waste just to let it decay away. The scorpion and velvet ant were from out of…
Correction
In “Purple Yam Dim Sum” (Oct. 12), the instructions for the steamed buns should have indicated adding 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of yeast, not teaspoons. The Journal regrets the error. Related Stories
Sharktober Part Three
Sharktober?” my friend asked. I’d just told him about this column I’m writing. “Yes, Sharktober,” I repeated. “Shark … tober?” he said again, drawing the syllables out as if to ensure he was saying the word properly. “Yes!” I confirmed once more. We stared at each other for a moment, then it dawned on me:…
Freshwater Native, Triple Amputee Inspires Students
The last thing Wendi Figas Locatelli remembered was falling asleep. The 34-year-old mother of three, who grew up in Freshwater and attended Eureka High School, did not know that her body was fighting off a lethal infection, that doctors had told her husband to notify the family to come visit her one last time and…
Needles, Needles, Needles
The stark reality of the local heroin epidemic spilled into the streets of Eureka last spring when the public restrooms in Old Town overflowed, clogged with thousands of syringes and other paraphernalia that had been stuffed down the toilet. Located near the gazebo in the heart of city’s tourism zone, the bathrooms have long been…
Steampunk Splendor
Bustle over to the Inn at 2nd and C on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. for Fall Splendor Up, Up & Away, an Elegant & Odd Steampunk Adventure ($25-$200). There’ll be drinks, Victorian vittles, the annual Costume Fashion and Trashion Show with DJ Marjo Lak, a live auction and music to get down with…
