Dreams of Obama
Transformational president or another disappointment? That’s up to us.
Cover Story
Dreams of Obama
Barack Obama, it is true, is a transformational leader. But he needs a transformational movement to become a transformational president. He is transformational not only by his charisma and brilliance, but by embodying the possibility of an African-American being chosen president in the generation following the civil-rights movement. Whether he wins or loses, the vast…
AG Brown sets new rules for pot growers and clinics
This just in from Americans for Safe Access courtesy of Eric H. For Immediate Release: August 25, 2008 CA Attorney General Directs Law Enforcement on Medical Marijuana Comprehensive recommendations include protection of dispensaries Sacramento, CA — California Attorney General Jerry Brown issued long-awaited guidelines on medical marijuana today with support from advocates and law enforcement…
Salzman becomes a blogger
If you are on one of Richard’s e-mail lists, you probably already know: Local prog-politico Richard Salzman has officially entered the blogosphere. His first post is pretty interesting, a between-the-lines analysis of the new contract AT&T sent out to all its customers. (I tossed mine in the recycling pile when I saw it was not…
The Newspaper War – a Death Match? T-S says yes.
Buried back in the business section of today’s Times Standard is a story by Ryan Burns “T-S files unfair business practices lawsuit against The Eureka Reporter.” Specifically the suit filed by T-S/Tri-City parent corp California Newspaper Partnership (a division of Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.) alleges that the E-R has been selling ads at a cut…
Celluloid Reveries
Editor: I couldn’t help it but the cover of your Aug. 14 Journal — “In the Green Room” — reminded me a little of the movie Jurassic Park. The cover could have been modified to have two photos on the cover, the top one being the original cover with the dude on the can looking…
Garden Party En Plein Air
It’s not easy being a plein air painter. You have to haul your materials to remote locations, struggle with changing weather and shifting light, and finish as much of the painting as possible in one go, since it may be hard to return to the same scene and the same conditions day after day. And…
Art War!
Editor: Well, Mr. Handy, all of us artists who don’t fit your narrow definition of “Art” (“edgy” seeming to be your sole criteria) love you too (“Escape From Arcata,” Aug. 7). The art scene is doing so well here and the artists are all making such a good living that of course we have the…
Chang and Change
In a faraway city, a Korean-American chef is changing the way restaurants work. David Chang is a top young restaurateur in New York, and the darling of the Eastern culinary sophisticates; in fact, he just won the James Beard Award for Best New York Chef. Of course, right there, that’s enough to damn him as…
Stuck In The Middle
Editor: [This cartoon is] in response to “Who’s Your City,” Aug. 7. — Joel Mielke, Eureka
The Poetry of Science
My efforts at the Journal are coming to an end after 50 issues. If you are interested in continuing this science column, please e-mail the editor, Hank Sims, at hanksims@northcoastjournal.com. Among many questions I am leaving for others are the nature of corals dredged off Shelter Cove (see photo) and the origin of balls of…
Wild Rivers 101 Film Festival
The name of Mary Cruse, director of the Wild Rivers 101 Film Festival, was misspelled in a sidebar to last week’s cover story. The Journal regrets the error.
Alt Prez
Just two candidates for President? Hardly. We’ve got more than 100 candidates, deluded losers and promising dreamers all begging for attention in America’s sideshow election. You’ve got outraged Ralph Nader to kick around again. But you also have Daniel Kingery, “Your Handy-Man President,” who would fix this country as surely as he’d fix the ceiling…
The Craftsman
Carpenter, lab technician, cook, software designer, glassblower, poet, the maker of musical instruments, the conductor of the orchestra that plays them and the composer of the music they play — sociologist Richard Sennett calls them all craftsmen (be they female or male), and by this description the category includes a decent chunk of the Humboldt…
Friendship Nation
It’s okay to want to get naked. In fact, I would encourage every one of you to give in to that urge, that natural instinct that Foot Village evokes through their latest release Friendship Nation, in what may be the very nexus of acoustic hardcore and scum-folk, if there has indeed ever been one. There…
My Blueberry Nights
Timing. In an interview concerning his latest film, My Blueberry Nights, Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai explained that his film is about relationships and timing. Then again, nearly all of his films revolve around human relationships and timing. Sometimes he draws a winning hand; sometimes he comes up snake eyes. From his first film…
Where Strong Winds Blow
Orick, CA, Bald Hills Road: deer appear and…
The Anti-DNC
About two months ago, Jake Green packed up his belongings and said goodbye to Arcata. He’d lived there two years. It was time to move on — first stop, Denver. While in Arcata, Green was active with Redwood Curtain Antifascist Action. In Denver, he planned to join with Unconventional Denver to prepare for the Democratic…
Obama’s Go-To Woman in Humboldt
When Mary Ann Lyons called the national Barack Obama for President campaign last November to see who she could contact locally to help out, there wasn’t anyone to contact. No one in Humboldt County working toward his election, not officially anyway. They wondered, did she want to become the local point person? Lyons had never…
Up the River
Previews Opening Wednesday, Aug. 20 is The Rocker, a story of a musician kicked out of a fictional ’80s band only to be given a second chance in his nephew’s garage band. Directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), the film stars Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Christina Applegate. Do you think the new band…
Organic Gumbo
When Ida Guillory was growing up in Lake Charles, La., playing accordion was not considered ladylike. That didn’t stop Ida. She would eventually be crowned Queen of the Zydeco Accordion. "Music — zydeco music — was in my family as long as I can remember. I had two uncles that played accordion and a cousin…
Troubled Times At Silvercrest
On July 21, around noon, Silvercrest resident Kathleen Buchanan was preparing to distribute cat food to fellow cat owners in her apartment complex. She was waiting outside the cargo elevator on the ground floor as another resident, David Kelly, rode his electric scooter on ahead of her. Suddenly the elevator began to rise, although the…
Good-Bye To All That
According to the date on the bottom of this page, it has been 28 days since I last smoked a cigarette. This is one of the proudest accomplishments of my life to date, even though I’ve had a big assist from some high-powered and probably inadvisable pharmaceuticals. I feel it now, the knot twisting around…
