Gift Guide 2018
Holiday Gift Guide 2018, plus Assemblyman Jim Wood heads effort to identify victims of the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., and an interview with incoming Arcata Police Chief Brian Ahearn
Waffling in Rio Dell
Pull up to the Root 101 Nursery (770 Wildwood Ave., Rio Dell) and instead of soil you may smell waffles. Tucked in the corner of the shop is the Wildwood Waffles counter, behind which steams a trio of busy waffle irons. Puffed, crisp and cakey, the waffles come straight off the cast iron and are…
UPDATE: ‘Most Bud I Have Ever Seen in One Place,’ Officer says of 16K Pound Bust
Yesterday, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) in conjunction with multiple agencies served warrants on four properties they believe to be related in the 4100 block of Wilder Ridge is southwestern Humboldt County. Lt. Mike Fridley of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office described the scene as having the “most bud I have ever…
UPDATE: Rollover Crash Near St. Joseph
Two vehicles collided in Eureka just before 10 a.m. One vehicle rolled over and the occupants were reported trapped at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Buhne Street not far from the St. Joseph Hospital. The ambulance picked up at least one patient and transported them to the hospital. The intersection was blocked for a…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Nov. 28
Humbrews hosts the return of The Travelin McCourys tonight at 9 p.m. ($30/$25 advance). These bluegrass masters are offshoots of the bluegrass master himself — Del McCoury. When not functioning as crack backing players for the Del McCoury band itself, these next-gen pickers hit the streets to play the music they love for the world…
ABC Moves Forward with Revoking Liquor Licenses for Arcata Bars
The California Bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control has adopted a judge’s recommendation to permanently revoke the liquor licenses for popular longtime Arcata bars Sidelines and Toby & Jack’s. The decision, which comes just a couple of weeks after Administrative Law Judge Alberto Roldan issued a scathing ruling that substantiated a combined 30 allegations against the…
Gun Prompts Lockdowns at Hoopa Schools
This morning, Hoopa Elementary, Hoopa High and Captain John schools in the Hoopa Valley were put on lockdown after a firearm was found on campus at Hoopa Elementary. An investigation followed. “At the conclusion of the investigation, we determined that students and staff were not in harm’s way,” reads a letter posted on the Hoopa…
SpongeBob Creator, HSU Alum Hillenburg Dies at 57
Stephen Hillenburg, the Humboldt State University graduate best known for creating the beloved animated world of SpongeBob SquarePants, has died. He was 57. Hillenburg credited his time at HSU for nurturing his fascination with marine biology and love of art, which ultimately merged together in the colorful creatures of Bikini Bottom, including a young sponge…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Nov. 27
Ghost Ring is a Portland trio fronted by Kay Morrisette that plays a warm and sad kind of regret crystalized into beautiful folk songs like frozen waves on a dead shore. Blood Hunny is their long lost local twin. Together the groups unite for an evening of reverb bliss at the Siren’s Song at 8…
Snow Balling: Photos from the Snowball Drop with Santa
Santa Claus showed up, along with a large crowd, to enjoy the warm sunshine during the sixth annual Snowball Drop late Saturday morning at the Old Town gazebo. Eureka Main Street organizes the Small Business Saturday event, shooting some 500 “snowballs” (ping-pong balls) into the air above the attendees with an air cannon. This year,…
Music Tonight: Monday, Nov. 26
The Redwood Curtain Brewery hosts a free Bluegrass Open tonight at 7 p.m. While I have never been a huge fan of bluegrass music, I do love the synergy of people coming together to play and share in a common love, so I can’t do anything but endorse this egalitarian jam. Plus, it’s a Monday…
HumBug: A Sparse Week
Looking for something to write about this week, I remembered back in June I posted a photo of a robber fly cannibalizing another one. When it was done, it flew away leaving the dead victim’s carcass in the weeds, so I collected and mounted it. Surprisingly, it fell apart, the back half of it disintegrating…
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox brings down the house with magnificent re-imaginings of contemporary pop and rock hits done in the style of jazz ragtime and swing classics. Catch these clever and talented musicians Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts ($66-$169).
Music Tonight: Sunday, Nov. 25
The Bob Clark film A Christmas Story has in its 35 years entered into the yuletide pantheon of movies that everyone knows, whether by viewing it or just sheer cultural osmosis. It serves as a nice holiday companion piece to another Bob Clark work, the proto-slasher film Black Christmas. I like to watch them back…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Nov. 24
Tonight still falls within the magisterium of the late-November holiday so there’s a good chance that not everyone in our college-rich towns have returned from abroad. However, for those of you who are in the area, here are a couple of dance parties to either work off a meal or work up an appetite to.…
Snowball Drop on the Gazebo
Good things come in small packages. Try your luck catching flying ping-pong balls worth fabulous prizes and store discounts at the Snowball Drop, Saturday, Nov. 24 at 11:30 a.m. at the Old Town Gazebo (free). New this year is the Gumball Drop for kids only. The “gumballs” are colored ping-pong balls that kids can redeem…
Music Tonight: Friday, Nov. 23
Let’s ease back into the nightlife after the holiday with some simple and fun shows for those of us with potentially stretched waistbands and exhausted social niceties through familial gorging. The popular Lionel Bart musical Oliver! Begins its three-date run at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts tonight at 7 p.m. Come enjoy the…
Fortuna CCC Crews Heading Home From Florida
Fortuna crew members of the California Conservation Corps are scheduled to head home today after helping out with damage caused by Hurricane Michael in Florida. According to a release, the corps members mainly worked in Bay and Gulf counties, two of the hardest hit by the massive storm that killed at least 60 and wiped…
That’s the Spirit
We’ve barely shoved Halloween back into the closet and the sugary-sweet shock of Christmas music wafting from radios and in stores hits us. It’s not quite time to put the Elf on the Shelf or the Menorah on the mantle, but things are about to get lit. Eureka and Arcata Main Street organizations help get…
‘Beautiful People’
Editor: I am so pleased to have the occasion to thank the North Cast Journal for their cover story, “#WeWillNotBeErased,” (Nov. 8). It was wonderful to see positive and informative coverage of a reality that is, on the whole, kept under the covers. I would like also to thank the three beautiful people who shared…
Corrections
Due to an editing error, a story headlined “McKinleyville Water Rates Set to Spike” in the Nov. 15, 2018, edition of the North Coast Journal contained inaccurate information about the rate increases. Beginning in January, customers will see a combined 7 percent increase to their water and sewer bills, meaning a customer currently paying $50…
One Native’s Perspective on Turkey Day
The fourth Thursday in November is always a special day in many Native households. For most it’s about time off from work (if they have a job as the national unemployment rate for Native Americans is 12 percent according to the US Census, versus 4.2 percent for the country in general) and an opportunity to…
‘Restoring Trust’
Newly minted Arcata Police Chief Brian Ahearn was all smiles and excitement when he sat down with the Journal Nov. 15, his uniform pressed and new, less than a week into the job. The 30-year law enforcement veteran from the San Diego Police Department is taking over a department that’s been embroiled in no small…
Tragedy and Misanthropy
Reviews Sharp-eyed readers will likely note the absence of a review of Widows, Steve McQueen’s heist movie, which also appears, from this distance, to be something of a feminist call to arms. I say “appears” because the vagaries of real life prevented me from seeing the thing in time for my holiday-accelerated deadline. I’ll write…
The Bear Harbor Railroad, 1892-1905
Last week, we followed the saga of the Bear Harbor Railroad from the delivery in 1892 of a “Gypsy” locomotive — what would become Bear Harbor Lumber Company No. 1 — to the early 1900s, when the grandiose plans of lumberman Neff Anderson began to be fulfilled with construction of the mill town of Andersonia,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In his autobiography On the Move, neurologist Oliver Sacks praised his friend Jerry’s curiosity and knowledge. “Jerry has one of the most spacious, thoughtful minds I have ever encountered, with a vast base of knowledge of every sort,” wrote Sacks, “but it is a base under continual questioning and scrutiny.” So…
Weed for the 1 Percent
Americans have a tendency to take things too far. It’s true. That’s why Christmas decorations have begun to infiltrate department stores before their Halloween counterparts are off the shelves. It’s why large swaths of rainforest have been obliterated so we can have cheap hamburgers. (One might argue that it’s also why we have military bases…
Champurrado
As the weather gets colder, the drinks get warmer. While I do appreciate a good seasonal drink, I’m not talking about pumpkin-spice-anything. It’s time to let atole warm up your heart. For those unfamiliar with atole (pronounced ah-TOH-leh), it’s a corn-based drink made throughout Mexico and Central America. With origins dating back to pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica,…
A Little Music, a Little Kindness
I am going to ignore the holiday altogether, as far as my music beat goes, because virtually no one books shows on that day. I will instead make a couple of suggestions for those of you who celebrate or discard this gluttonous holiday. Firstly, be nice to other people whether they are your family or…
Street Poetry
If not from spotting him around Old Town, you may recognize Bob Hager from his Oct. 26, 2017, Journal cover story “Homeless Survival Guide.” Hager is a veteran and he and his late wife, Kathleen, had been homeless off and on for decades and were evicted after a long-term stay at the Budget Inn in…
North Coast Legislator Heading Effort to Identify Fire Victims
North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood was 6,000 miles away from his home district, on a legislative study trip in Chile, when he got word Nov. 12 that he needed to return to California. The Camp Fire in Butte County that sparked Nov. 8 near Pulga and tore through the community of Paradise continued to rage…
Eucalypts Over the Water
They’re not from this place The Eucalyptus trees spearing the sky Their naked trunks below near gleaming in the morning sun Massive branches and leaves darkly silhouetted against backlit morning fog The trees reach wide and tall near the bay It’s a negative tide and little wriggles of water sparkle in the sun The water…
‘Scratch a Hippie’
Editor: The elections have come and gone, Measure M has been voted down handily. This action by the good people of Arcata is another empty gesture akin to window-dressing and lip service. It is astonishing to me that when the NAACP is asking Humboldt State University to please discontinue recruiting students of color because of the discrimination they experience when…
Thanksgiving Day Events
Football, Butterball, Hardball. Your family has its Thanksgiving traditions. Before you get all about that baste this turkey day, spend some time with your community. Feeling plucky? Start the day off with the Jogg’N Shoppe Turkey Trot, Thursday, Nov. 22 at 9 a.m. starting at Old Town Gazebo ($20 with shirt, $10 without). Registration on…
Olvier! The Musical
“Food! Glorious food!” We’ve all sung it. And not always on stage. Main Stage Musicals presents Oliver! The Musical, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 23-24 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 25 at 2 p.m. at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts ($14-$25). Romp with Oliver, the Artful Dodger and all the lovable pickpockets in…
