Born again
The new NEC fresh-faced and ready to rumble
Cover Story
Born again
On a sunny, nearly hot spring afternoon in early April, Susan Penn was setting up easels inside the Northcoast Environmental Center’s headquarters and placing paintings on them. The office was chaotic – boxes everywhere, some with giant stuffed salmon swimming atop them. How much of this stuff would make it to the new headquarters, up…
For your information
Last month, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) was dining at Charlie Palmer Steak House – that echt-D.C. eatery – when a fellow patron started choking on her meal. According to the Napa Valley Register, Thompson noticed the diner’s contortions, hung up his cell phone and rushed to administer the Heimlich. After four or five thrusts,…
People Project protest ends
Two Sunday mornings ago, my mother returned from walking to church in town. "There’s a Hooverville down the street," she told me. My mom is just old enough to remember the shanty towns that popped up in urban areas during the Great Depression, where homeless families lived in makeshift shelters made from packing crates and…
Dope beats
A small item in the April 21 issue of the Reporter began this way: The unsanctioned celebration of the illegal drug marijuana on Friday commonly referred to as “420” didn’t go unnoticed by the Arcata Police Department. Forget the problem of the double negative. I ripped this 127-word brief out of the paper because it…
Take 8: The Sunset Western Garden Book
At this year’s San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, the Sunset staff had put up a sign showing every edition of their famous "green book" going back to 1954. The caption asked, "Do you remember your first?" I remember my first. It was the sixth edition, about 13 years ago. I was shamed into buying…
An Arts Collective on ‘Art’
Art collectives have probably been around as long as people and art. Groups of artists get together for a variety of reasons: to share resources, exchange ideas and tips on technique, to critique each other’s work. Some groups, such as the Futurists of the early 20th century, formalized and wrote long manifestos, and certainly had…
Eating Out On a Budget
I confess to being an elitist regarding food. I have been a professional cook and restaurant manager, and my wife and I enjoy cooking, eating and talking about food, so I have acquired definite prejudices and preferences. I also want my columns to entertain, rather than be purely practical. Thus, some of my more adventurous…
A Plastic Vodka Bottle Full of Pennies
I caught Jason Webley’sact a few years ago in an unlikely place: a sports bar behind the now defunct Arcata Denny’s. (The Placebo put on shows there for a spell.) What I remember most is him jumping up on a table with his accordion to lead the crowd in one rollicking sing-along after another. Webley…
