Eight Days at the Races
With horse racing in decline, how does a small track like Ferndale survive?
Cover Story
Eight Days at the Races
The June 5 meeting of the California Horse Racing Board at the Santa Anita Race Track was almost over. But before going into the public comment portion there was just one more quick item: the approval of a batch of contracts — for veterinarians, for drug testing at UC Davis and for race overseers called…
DIY Healthcare Town Hall
Apparently unsatisfied with Rep. Thompson’s telephone Town Hall on Health Insurance Reform, the local Tea Party People have decided to throw their own — with experts to answer your questions. Here’s the announcment: Calling All Patriots To Town Hall on Health Care Wed. Aug 26, 6 p.m. Fortuna Veteran’s Memorial Bldg. 1426 Main St. Fortuna…
10 commercials
That’s what my wife and I were subjected to last night at the Broadway Theatre before a showing of District 9 , beating the previous record (in my personal experience) of seven commercials. That doesn’t count the slideshow-style commercials that precede the darkened theater, big-budget Coke and Army ads. The movie start time was listed…
Voting Begins!
… in the North Coast Journal’s 2009 “Best Of Humboldt” Readers’ Poll! You better get up in this! Blogthing readers should take especial note of the two ultrapolitical categories in the 13 up for election: “Best Public Official” and “Best Activist.” Very early returns from the Twittosphere are showing a distinct lack of enthusiam for…
Ballet aux bicyclettes
winners. Meet the 2009 European champions, Carla and Henriette Hochdorfer:
The Humboldt County Stimulus
businesses.The Humboldt County Stimulus: ProPublica details all known recipients of federal stimulus dollars county-by-county. In Humboldt, anyway, the education and housing sectors are the big
Sunny Brae house fire
This fire started Monday, shortly after 5 p.m. in Sunny Brae. A female resident (wearing yellow in the video) said she’d gone to the store for 20 minutes, and when she returned first responders were already on the scene. She had no idea what started the blaze, which gutted the upstairs of the two-story residence.…
Foster’s Humboldt C. takeover – another perspective
Foster’s Humboldt C. takeover – another perspective: The Modesto Bee weighs in on Modesto-based Foster Farms’ bid for Humboldt Creamery, a business they describe as “something of a throwback” because of the size of farms and the fact that Humboldt cows eat grass. Includes handy box score to compare the two
Plea from the NHM folks
The folks who called for a gathering Wednesday at HSU to see if there’s a way to save the imperiled Natural History Museum vowed to send out a press release regarding their intentions ASAP. Here’s what they came up with, followed by guidelines from HSU administrators regarding what they want to see if the community…
Plea from the NHM folks
The folks who called for a gathering Wednesday at HSU to see if there’s a way to save the imperiled Natural History Museum vowed to send out a press release regarding their intentions ASAP. Here’s what they came up with, followed by guidelines from HSU administrators regarding what they want to see if the community…
Ween Kills Dwight Yoakam
This just in from the folks at Dimmick Ranch: Regrettably we have to announce that the Live on the County Line show Saturday August 29 featuring Dwight Yoakam at the Dimmick Ranch has been cancelled. The show was also set to feature Kelly Willis , John Doe and the Sadies and Wanda Jackson . “This…
Praise Be to WD-40
We may appear to be a manufacturing company, but in fact we are a marketing company. — John S. Barry, president of the WD-40 Company, Forbes interview It’s been said the only two absolute essentials in any toolkit are duct tape and WD-40. John S. Barry, the man who figured out how to turn a…
The Beer-Sotted Sentry of Moonstone Beach
O stubble-faced sentinel In baggy shorts and undershirt…
Trees Are People Too
"A tree," states Jeff Gillman in his new book, How Trees Die: The Past, Present, and Future of Our Forests, "can be briefly defined as a tall plant with a woody stem which survives for more than a single year." But a tree is so much more than that. In this slim and personable exploration…
Life on Earth
Seattle-based singer/songwriter Jesy Fortino, under the apt nom de guerre of Tiny Vipers, writes and performs music from a place of isolation — like, say, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland — a place, an environment set apart from a larger body. Tiny Vipers’ sophomore release, Life On Earth, evokes an atmosphere both foreign and familiar. Even…
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!
Rewriting the Bible is a pretty audacious undertaking. Jonathan Goldstein doesn’t seem like the most likely candidate for the challenge, either. He’s best known for the cringingly funny and self-deprecating stories he tells on radio programs like This American Life and Wiretap (the latter of which he hosts on CBC radio in Canada), stories about…
A Deadly Scum
The first sign that something was wrong with Joey, the Johnston family’s beloved, hyperactive Blue Heeler cross, came as they were walking back up to their campsite from the edge of the Van Duzen River. He was moving slowly, which actually wasn’t all that strange considering the manic, splash-crazy swimming he’d been doing for the…
Story Power
Under uncertain clouds on a warm August evening, the crowd standing inside the entrance to the Blue Ox Millworks Historic Park heard a witty prologue concerning Jason and the Golden Fleece, performed by a barbershop quartet (the Millworks’ chief, Eric Hollenbeck, sang bass). Then they saw a funeral scene on a grassy hill to the…
Three Thumbs Up
Previews Opening Friday, Aug. 14, is the allegorical scifi film District 9, in which extraterrestrials in South Africa are forced to work for low wages and live in substandard conditions by a multinational corporation. Rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language. 112m. At the Broadway, Minor, Mill Creek and Fortuna. The Time Traveler’s Wife…
Notes from Underground
A couple of Saturdays ago, my friend Ken Malcomson and I had just sat down to interview Bernardine Dohrn and her husband, Bill Ayers, at the Arcata Co-op, where they’d just purchased a cartful of groceries to take into the mountains. A young stranger came up to the table. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said,…
Wailing
A few years back, guitarist Jonah Lipsky dropped out of the jamband he’d been playing with, patched together a mess of effects pedals, looping devices, keyboards and electronic drums and became J Wail, solo electrojammer. Born in NYC and now based out of Denver, Mr. Wail has been coming through these parts since around 2005…
Watch Them Fight
Occasionally you hear someone raise a stodgy moral objection to The Media’s "horserace coverage" of politics. Let’s briefly acknowledge that these grumpy scolds do indeed have a point — not everything should be fun — before brutally sending them back to their caves. We posit that the human brain is hard-wired to revel before the…
Arts! Arcata
Arcata Artisans 883 H St. (4) Wine served to benefit Breast Health Project! Marian Coleman – ceramics Mimi LaPlant – painter Candy Miller – polymer clay jewelry Arcata City Hall* 736 F St. (15) Paula E. Cunningham “Images of a Man’s Best Friend” Arcata Exchange 813 H St. (6) Wine served to benefit The Natural…
Ex-Hacks on the T-S
Editor: As a retired reporter, I frequently find myself in agreement with Media Maven Marcy Burstiner, but this time her broadside against the Times-Standard misses the mark (“Media Maven”, Aug.6). And her sniping at reporter Thadeus Greenson is unfair. Greenson is the best thing to happen to the T-S since millionaire Rob Arkley’s misbegotten venture…
