Behind the Levee
Come flood, quake or high seas, Jacobs Avenue business owners plan to stay put
Cover Story
Behind the Levee
Nobody knows for certain who, exactly, was the first to tromp into the swamp-prone land on the north side of Eureka Slough and begin shoveling bay mud into a long, snaking heap. Likely it was a farmer or rancher. It happened some time between 1901, when Frank Herrick bought 268 acres between Eureka and Arcata,…
Spendy Votes
The California Fair Political Practices Commission has enforced a $4,000 conflict-of-interest fine against Dendra Dengler for her failure to disclose that she had a financial interest in some projects she voted on as president of the Manila Community Services District. Travis Sanford acerbically critiques the situation for the Courthouse News Service: “In exchange for a…
Sundberg To Appoint Susan Masten to Planning Commission
By Hank Sims Follow-up to this week’s story on appointments to the Humboldt County Planning Commission: Supervisor Ryan Sundberg has just chosen former Yurok Tribal Chair Susan Masten to replace current Fifth District appointee Dennis Mayo. As noted in the press release below, Masten is ridiculously accomplished. One additional thing: Her husband is current Hoopa…
Gender and Genre
Previews THE RITE. “Inspired by true events” and based on Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. A young seminary student (Colin O’Donoghue) goes to the Vatican and learns from an older priest (Anthony Hopkins) that demonic possession is for real. 98m. Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material, violence, frightening images…
Unexpected Turbulence
On June 8, 2004, Scott and Lynn Powell bought their first piece of property — a humble plot of fence-lined land in Dow’s Prairie, outfitted with a beige, single-wide mobile home. Near the peak of the housing bubble, this was one of the few properties in the Powells’ price range. “Wasn’t the best timing on…
The Big Womp
It’s true. The master of womp womp, Bassnectar, is coming to town, to Redwood Acres of all places. For the uninitiated, Bassnectar is the self-described “open-sourced musical project” of San Francisco-based freeform DJ/producer Lorin Ashton, a masher of multiple musical styles who is, as he puts it in the opening track of Wildstyle, his latest…
Hot Seats
The latest chapter in the long-running battle over the county general plan took place at the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, when the board voted 3-2 to reappoint Bruce Emad — a 12-year veteran of the Humboldt County Planning Commission — to another term. Supervisors Jimmy Smith, Clif Clendenen and board chair Mark Lovelace…
No Respect
Editor: Thank you for your cover story on the Arcata High junior (“Search & Suspend,” Jan. 20). It reminds me that things are not well at Arcata High and have not been for quite some time. My son, now 25 years, went there for his freshman and sophomore years. At the end of his sophomore…
Anagrams
To be, or not to be — that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune … In one of the Bard’s best thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten … Anything strike you as odd about…
Brownout
Editor: Hank Sims did a good job summarizing Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed 2011-2012 California budget last week in “Golden Boy.” I did not read Sims’ piece with the same “detached, ironic cool” in which Brown delivered this news to Californians and the legislators. I am particularity alarmed with a budget that has “slashed funding for…
Feb. 1-14, 2011
Feb. 1. The municipal code of the city of Trinidad numbers 565 pages in length, or roughly 1.8 pages per citizen. Much of it is delightful and gratifying reading, particularly the section entitled Expectoration, which states that no person shall expectorate upon any sidewalk, street or floor in public buildings or upon any other public…
The Simple Life
Editor: Jennifer Savage’s “Quit Your Whining” was indeed awesome (“Savage Money,” Jan. 20). I can’t shop, so I walk the beach, pick up trash, lose weight, breathe and oxygenate my brain generating well-being and gratitude for freedom and simplicity which is only found in the Now and is, consequently, totally Zen. Since the Now feels…
Having a Ball
The “mildly objectionable weekly newspaper for Arcata” has its yearly party/fundraiser Saturday night at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. That’s right, it’s another Eye Ball, the 14th annual if you’re counting. “It takes a village to support a local newspaper these days,” notes Arcata Eye founder/publisher/editor/chief reporter/etc Kevin Hoover, and it’s once again time for villagers…
Chron Staffer Named Editor
EUREKA, Calif. – The North Coast Journal has tapped veteran San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tom Abate to lead an ambitious expansion that will fuse the paper’s weekly print edition with its continuous online coverage. The goal is to develop a hybrid form of journalism to better serve readers and advertisers in Humboldt County and perhaps…
Anna Calvi
Steeped in praise from the British music press, including Mojo Magazine’s “The Ones to Watch 2011” list, in addition to attracting high-profile admirers such as Nick Cave and Brian Eno (the latter served as an early mentor and supporter), the 28-year-old UK singer/songwriter Anna Calvi has found herself weighed with great expectations. It is difficult…
Hello, Humboldt County
Hello, Humboldt County. By now you may have heard that Judy Hodgson, publisher of the North Coast Journal, has appointed me editor, and asked me to work with Hank Sims and the rest of the editorial team that has made the Journal such a great read these last 20 years. Our goal is to build…
Helpless Laughter
When she was an undergrad at Dell’Arte International, Lauren Wilson liked to clown around with fellow students Joe Krienke and Stephanie Thompson. Ten years later they find themselves back at Dell’Arte, this time as teachers. But it turns out they’re still clowns. So a decade after they put on the red noses and performed together,…
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
It’s a commonplace for comedians, actors and other celebrities to release hastily lashed together books that are little more than self-aggrandizing tributes to, in the words of Bill Hicks, their own fevered egos. Comedian Patton Oswalt’s new book is not one of those. It is not a tie-in to some other media product. It contains…
Improvisatory Flights of Fancy
When Rolling Stone magazine revised their list of the 100 top guitarists of all time a few years back, they added 20 “New Guitar Gods” to the firmament. Among them was Nels Cline, lead guitarist for Wilco since 2007, and leader of a jazzier improv ensemble called The Nels Cline Singers. There are no vocalists…
Question: Sexy Time? Answer: Booya!
Odds are, like many Americans, you have found yourself with friends during a pedestrian game of Trivial Pursuit thinking, “You know, this game just isn’t ‘sexy’ enough, dagnabbit!” You’re not alone. Pleasure-seeking board game enthusiasts have long bemoaned the puritanical leanings of the Hasbro higher ups. I mean, ‘People & Places’ and ‘Sports & Leisure’…
