Glasnost
Inside Dell’Arte’s holiday show
Cover Story
Glasnost
A tall man in costume runs up and down the aisles of the theater at something near full speed, blowing a saxophone in time with the brass-and-percussion chorus on stage. They’re performing the raucous, upbeat finale — "We’re in the spirit. The holiday spirit!" — and the saxophonist’s impressive foot speed doesn’t seem to affect…
Thanks in advance!!
Associated Press Joining the cacophony of wants bouncing at Prez-Elect Obama’s ear is a request from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to consider the pedestrian, and the cyclist, when he puts together that economic recovery package during his first days in office. The package, says the RTC, is expected to devote vast funds to car-centric road projects.…
MediaNews Downgraded
… to a “substantial risk of default,” says Moody’s Investors Services. The company has a debt of close to $1 billion. But the Times-Standard’s parent corporation bristles at Editor & Publisher’s musings to the effect that the massive American newspaper super-chain could be headed toward bankruptcy, following the Tribune Co.’s trailblazing path down that road…
Living and dying (RIP)
click on photo to read Tommie's story Got a note from Eric Heimstadt of Humboldt Medical Supply: Tommie Offord died last night, he was doing fine last Friday when we were by to see him. The information I just got was that he fell on Sat. and went to the hospital then next day, he…
Mother Jones on the big tree hug
from www.wordle.net Mother Jones magazine’s story on the end of the timber war in Humboldt, in the November/December issue, contains all of the requisite key words for a good local yarn: treesitters, sneaking, tofu, ruddy, mustache, glint, dash, fun, tree, old growth, chainsaw, Hurwitz, clearcut, Lorax, locked, crushed, wiped out, redwoods, debt, slow-growth, hug, happy,…
Pink slips and shopping sprees
Got this from the (didn’t they just go bankrupt?) LA Times today:
Diesel Dope for Supes
Typical Grow The troubles associated with marijuana grown with the use of fossil fuel were covered by SoHum blogger Kym Kemp in a Journal story titled ” After Hacker Cree k.” The diesel dope issue hits the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors tomorrow as a group of concerned citizens led by Robert “The Man Who…
New 2nd District Diff Maps
By popular demand , here are some new maps of the Second District Supervisor race. Like the ones below , they compare June results to November results for each of the three candidates. This set, I think, is more intuitive. (But a bit trickier to calculate.) This time, we just have two colors. Blue is…
How Anonymous Are You?
There was some talk over at Heraldo’s the other day about Internet anonymity and the law. (Can’t find the link, sorry.) If I remember correctly, the nut of it was: Under what circumstances can a court force out the identity of an anonymous Internet blogger/commenter? Heraldo’s answer was that anonymous blogging has been ruled to…
Second District Election Maps
Here’s a sneak preview of next week’s Journal , offered by way of contribution to a discussion over at Eric’s place . We know that Fortuna apple farmer Clif Clendenen won last month’s runoff election for Second District Supervisor. But where did he win, and how big were his gains (and his competitors’) from the…
Sara Bareilles up for Grammy (times 2)
Eureka homegirl Sara Bareilles hit the big time some time ago, but her career just got even bigger. Her hit single “Love Song,” which went to No. 1 on the charts, is now in the running for a “Song of the Year” Grammy. It doesn’t get much bigger than that, but wait, she’s also in…
Marina Center Tome Arrives
It’s finally here! More than two years after its original ETA, the much-anticipated Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Marina Center project arrived like a solemn Christmas present, dropping with a thump on Eureka City Hall, libraries and the doorsteps of local pooh-bahs. Coming in at more than 2,100 pages, the monumental document falls…
Not the King of Pop
I’ve never fully understood why Richard Thompson never achieved the popularity and the cultural icon status of some of his compatriots. He’s a stellar guitar player — when Rolling Stone magazine assembled a list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, he was in the top 20. And his songwriting is absolutely brilliant. Songs…
Ghost Bike
As you drive east on Highway 299, nearing Blue Lake you might be startled by the white bicycle chained to the fence a couple dozen feet off the highway. Next to it someone has hung two wreaths. The "ghost bike" marks the spot where Blue Lake resident Greg Jennings, 42, died on Aug. 25 as…
One Locavore Menu
It all started with my locavore-restaurant concept, a whimsy that became a column. But readers took it seriously: “When are you opening, what’s the name going to be, who are the chefs?” As though some millionaire had just presented me with a check for $875,000. Of course, folks in the food business know that restaurant…
Dissynergy
Editor: I am confused by the “Synergasm” article (Nov. 13) written about the Fourth Annual Synergy Fair, an event I put energy into organizing and promoting all year long. Synergy Fair is a service to the community, a time for people to learn and experience the many types of complementary alternative healing modalities available to…
Live at Roadburn
Over the past three years, San Diego’s Earthless has steadily built a following based on the strength of its intense live performances and absurdly long, yet captivating, instrumental jams. Its reputation earned it an invitation to this year’s annual Roadburn Festival in Holland, where organizers unexpectedly asked Earthless to perform on the festival’s main stage,…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive!
Proudly presented by USBank, with Eureka Main Street and the Humboldt Arts Council. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are Saturday, December 6, from 6-9 p.m. Phone 442-9054, for more information or to have a listing included. http://aweurekatoday.blogspot.com. 1.WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Lauren Sarabia, photographs of Asia. 1a. F STREET CAFÉ 1630 F…
Smuin Ballet
I wanted to be dazzled. Christmas ballet programs are high-tech, high-quality entertainment. I wasn’t looking to be moved, only pleasantly distracted. From the start, Smuin Ballet’s The Classical Christmas wasn’t going to deliver. Although the requisite dance chops were present, the troupe’s unisons and executions were not piquant. The thing about great ballet: it has…
Dirt Don’t Hurt
Musician, songwriter and vocalist Holly Golightly hasn’t slowed up much. Since her time in the mid-’90s with the garage band Thee Headcoatees, the all-female counterpart to Billy Childish’s Thee Headcoats, Golightly has released over a dozen full-length studio albums. Her styles, like her moods, swung with each of her records, from rockabilly to folk to…
The Straw-Bale Paper
There is nothing that represents a rural community like a straw bale. Friends in Ferndale built a house out of straw bales this year. And in these pages, Amy Stewart taught us how to build a vegetable garden on top of one. Now I want to show you how you can build a news publication…
Hanging With the Hipsters
On the table are several half-empty bottles of cheap wine and sparkling pear cider, a plate of brie and strawberries (or the remnants of what was), as well as a fancy chocolate cake in honor of Jeff Hunter’s 27th birthday. It also happens to be November Arts! Arcata. “This is our third Arts Arcata event…
The Tides of the Bay
Twice a day, Humboldt Bay inhales and exhales a vast amount of water through the half-mile-wide harbor entrance between north and south spits. How much water? Picture a cube straddling four city blocks, that is, two blocks long, wide and high. That’s the volume, on average, that passes through the “throat” of the bay every…
Glasnost and More
If you’ve ever been mooned by gypsies in the Les Halles shopping mall in Paris, as I was, you’d know how much fun they can be. In Dell’Arte’s Christmas show, the Glasnost family first appears pulling a gypsy cart, which contains, among other things, the set. As the family members decorate the bare stage, they…
December Looming
solstice moves more swiftly each year (didn’t I…
The Music Director
To put it simply, The Glasnost Family Holiday is a musical, and every musical requires a music director. The assignment went to Gregg Moore, a natural choice if you know anything about his work. Dell’Arte Founding Artistic Director Joan Schirle gave him a call as the piece was coming together. He was glad to hear…
Go South
Previews Somewhere people will be watching Milk or Frost/Nixon this coming weekend, or even Rachel at the Wedding, but in Movie Mudville (a.k.a. Humboldt County), we have one pathetic choice. Opening Friday, December 5 is Punisher: War Zone, a sort of follow-up to 2004’s The Punisher with Brit Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo on the defunct…
