Cover Story
Going Medieval
The field beside Mad River Community Hospital is empty, with only a painted sign for the Dark Horse Tavern on the stable. But in a few days, it’ll be filled with tents and a tavern, populated by knights, knaves and a village of Vikings. Men and women will clash with swords and sticks, and jousters…
From the Hum: Tonight! Decisions, decisions… (VIDEOS)
You might want to sit down if you’re not already. Do you need a cup of coffee or a sandwich? Because for some reason, Thursday is nuts with shows. Okay. Ready? You’ve got your known quantities — Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at the Van Duzer, Leftover Salmon at the ATL — and then three…
Wiyot Casino Haul In Jeopardy
Opponents to off-reservation casinos submitted enough signatures yesterday to qualify their initiative for the 2014 ballot — and if they succeed in their mission, our very own Wiyot Tribe will be out some significant winnings. “Keep Vegas-Style Casinos Out of Neighborhoods, a project of Stand Up for California,” wants specifically to stop a 200-room, 2,000-slot…
HumCouture
Now this is the way to wear pink! Or at least a way. Jessi Knobelock manged to stop for coffee, straddle her green bicycle and brighten an Old Town morning all on the very same Wednesday. Have you seen a Humboldt Look that deserves a second glance? Email a photo to Jennifer@northcoastjournal.com.
From the Hum: Shigeto, Beacon and Nitemoves TONIGHT
Shigeto Hey, know that the Jambalaya has Shigeto, Beacon and Nitemoves tonight. You dig electronica, minimalist R&B-influenced instrumentation and explorations of the way simple melodies and rhythms can grow into more complex relationships? Great. You’ll want to be there. Showtime’s at 10 p.m., more info at jambalayaarcata.com.
Truffle Kerfuffle
Well, not really, but it’s fun to say. Brace yourselves, people: Venlo has a new owner. Jonah Ginsburg, a real estate agent at Mikki Moves, saw the listing in the office and decided to buy the Old Town chocolate shop. He says he’s not a chocolatier, but he’s learning. And he’s got help. Manager Ken…
Curtains for the Redwoods
Yep, they’ve shut ’em down, our lovely, looming patches of redwoods within the federal government’s jurisdiction — for who knows how long. Redwood National Park is one of the 401 national parks that closed today, along with numerous other federal outfits, as the federal government powered down after Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on…
Voices from The Edge
Humboldt residents living on the edge of poverty now have a voice. That was the intention of Lorena Boswell, founder and editor of The Humboldt Edge, a street paper whose first issue comes out today. Boswell told the Journal today that publication of the first issue has been delayed by a week. “I am so…
Video: Fire Claims Eureka Home
A Eureka house went up in flames this afternoon. Humboldt Bay Fire responded to the home — on the 2600 block of G Street — as area residents looked on.
Cal Fire Crash
Cal Fire Engine 1267 overturned while navigating a steep curve just above Old Hindley Ranch road, near Honeydew this afternoon. Division Chief Charles Hanes said that at this time the cause of the accident was unknown, although brake failure seems likely. Three Cal Fire personnel were transported by ambulance to Redwood Memorial Hospital with minor…
Coffee for a Cause
You’ve gotta get that caffeine somewhere tomorrow, right? Well, know that Dutch Bros. is donating its Oct. 1 proceeds to the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project. That is all. The press release is here: EUREKA, Calif. (Sept. 30, 2013) — On Tuesday, Oct. 1, Dutch Bros. Coffee locations in Humboldt County will donate all proceeds…
Crazy Klamath Mouth
When the Klamath River’s mouth goes south, like it did late this summer, it can make for a wild ride, says Sara Borok, a state fish and wildlife biologist. Instead of dashing straight into the ocean as it does when the mouth opens on the north end of the spit, the river cuts a channel…
Saturday Evening Stoke Recap, Monday Morning Wave Warning
Nipplepotamus, rocking Drivers cruising down Fourth Street into Eureka Saturday evening did a doubletake as they passed. On the right, the Red Lion Hotel, stalwart as usual. On the left, in a tiny parking lot outside a building the size of a single hotel room, a band cranked fuzzy-catchy-garage-y tunes into the street. Surfboard-laden trucks…
‘Tis But Rain
The mud is just making it more medieval. It’s also making admission free. Over at the Excalibur Tournament and Medieval Market Fair next Mad River Hospital, LARPers, jousters, knights, ladies and wenches are still going on with the show. Due to rain, admission is free. Also the jousters are “mud-skiing,” a rare medieval practice about…
More Than a Musical Offering
Longtime KHSU host and friend of the community Ben Tankersley died Tuesday. He was 93 years old. If you ever heard Ben talk, you know who he was. His Friday morning classical music program, “A Musical Offering,” ran for most of 26 years between 1985 and 2011. Two years ago, Ben retired and moved to…
Redwood Jazz Alliance Gigs
The Redwood Jazz Alliance kicked off their season with Phronesis this week, and more is on the way. The lineup for the year features the Claudia Quintet, Fred Hersch Trio, Omer Atival Quintet, Linda Oh Sun Pictures, Michael Moore Quartet and Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort. Check out their website for dates and venues.
$21 Million Worth of Pot Busted in the Last Three Days
A series of massive busts on timber and public lands in SoHum brought down more than 20,000 marijuana plants and 600 pounds of pot — a value of $21 million, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found a house being used for drying an processing by following a trail of marijuana leaves from one of…
Goth Kids
We like to think of the Brits as reserved and refined, and with their perky boy bands and chic princess, it’s easy to forget how creepy they can be. The Humboldt County Library is here to remind us how weird it can get across the pond with its October film series, “Keep Calm: Paranormal England.”…
Pandaring
Pandas — giant, red, kung fu, Sandoval — own the Internet. Why? Because the furry, graphically colored pandas are adorable, exotic and endangered. (If you’ve never clicked on a panda picture online, you might be a serial killer. Get that checked out.) The red panda is like a raccoon from out of town that doesn’t…
Who You Gonna Call? CAL FIRE!
Cal Fire Captain Eric Ayers of Mattole Station doesn’t want another call like the one his crew responded to in July of this year. The victim crawled “quite a ways” along the river bar and then was transported an additional eight miles to the county road before emergency personnel were contacted. He had a severe neck injury…
Free Music from Lila Nelson
Few people in the world own my fanship like singer-songwriter Lila Nelson. Her songs tear at my soul in all the best ways, awash in poetry, insight and sheer artistry. The former Humboldt star remains well-loved locally despite relocating to Oakland a few years back. You may remember her fabulous, humor-filled live shows. You may…
Captive Audience
Reviews PRISONERS. When we were small, my brother and I decided to play a joke on our parents and disappear for a while. This only amounted to a couple of hours hiding out above the garage, and I couldn’t understand why Dad was so upset when he found us. A few decades of living have…
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Good writers can be divided into two categories: recounters and listeners. Recounters make you want to hear their story. Listeners make you feel like you’re reading your own. Cheryl Strayed is a listener. Her immensely popular advice column, “Dear Sugar,” resounds with empathy, wisdom and universal positive regard. Reading her gentle words, you often feel…
A Eureka Vision
Tempered disappointment and optimism. That’s the feeling du jour of some of Eureka’s elected officials, following Bill Panos’ short stint as city manager. And while it’s back to the drawing board for Eureka’s top position, at least this time the City Council goes into its manager hunt with a new top cop and a nearly…
Five Things To Know Before Choosing Your Friends For the Day
1″Our friends are the family we choose,” goes the adage, solace for those whose friends compensate for less stellar blood relations. The key word is “choose.” Since we do have a choice in the matter, today and every day, choose wisely. As you sit down with your coffee and open Facebook or check your email,…
Ganja Capitalism
The pharmacy bottles pictured above are part of a collection of old cannabis-industry flotsam that belongs to “an unofficial historian in Mendocino County.” A slideshow of the collection recently appeared on High Times online, and the post should prove enlightening to anyone who considers medical marijuana a recent invention. One photo shows tall, green tins…
Open Container
Normally when you drink outside in Old Town, a cop or a concerned friend up and takes your paper bag away. Not this weekend — at least not at the F Street Beer Festival ($5, 21 and over, or 14 and under with an adult). The Local, Humboldt Beer Works and the Humboldt Bay Tourism…
On the Homeless
Editor: Last week a community meeting was held at the Wharfinger to discuss the homeless problem in Humboldt County (see this week’s Blog Jammin’, page 12). A suggestion was made to form a committee that would evaluate all of the grants and programs of the Department of Health and Human Services with the intention of…
Jesus No Ne’er-do-well
Editor: Thank you for Grant Scott-Goforth’s article “Water’s for Fighting;” he helped me understand the whole California water issue better; I especially appreciated the map. But I wanted to take an issue on Ryan Burns’ blog (“Blog Jammin’,” Sept. 19) about the Arkley-homeless event, in his bringing Jesus into it (“… bearded hippie with a…
Smile
Editor: Barry Evans’ essay “Happiness? Forget it” in the Sept. 12 Journal cites “evolutionary philosophy” as saying that “our genes don’t give a rat’s backside whether we’re happy or not.” True enough, if our world-view has taken up permanent residence somewhere in the region of the amygdala, a place where kill-or-be-killed, “run away, run away”…
Corrections
Last week’s cover story, “Water’s for Fighting,” contained an error. Water claims for Trinity and Sacramento river waters exceed the available water seven and five times, respectively. Our Sept. 12 cover story, “Main and Loleta,” incorrectly identified the ownership of certain parcels, inadvertently omitting some owners who have partnered with the van der Zee family.…
The Way Summer Turned
She starts slowly, Her hands, circling gestures, hinting to far off places: Familiar, In the way that long gone memories suddenly reappear, New and old, As the eyes of a newborn might tell. Her story moves, Along the lines of his sweaty brow: Furrows of dusty habits, streaked and stale. And his face: a worn…
No Static at All
And on the radio you hear “November Rain” / That solo’s awful long but it’s a good refrain / You listen to it twice cuz the DJ is asleep / On the radio. — Regina Spektor Scanning the airwaves between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Nothing interesting. A classic rock station’s playing Foreigner’s “Double Vision.”…
Hum Plate
Sometimes it happens at first sight, across a crowded restaurant. Sometimes what’s been right in front of you for years just clicks. You fall in love. With food. We’ve been falling in love (or at least infatuation), eating promiscuously and tracking our flings on the new Hum Plate blog. Here’s a little taste of the…
Strings, Hills, Boys and Girls
Well, there went summer, Humboldt! And now we turn to fall, heralded by the rain’s return, balmy south winds quickening the pulse and the twang of stringed instruments calling to you like sirens to Odysseus’ sailors. Yes, it’s that time again. Time for String Thing 5, happening Friday night at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. Here…
Can’t Buy Me Love
The 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, now on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka, is a madcap comedy about an eccentric extended American family. A few columns ago I quoted an interview I did with Jason Robards Jr. backstage on Broadway. The play he was doing was the…
Next Time I’ll Try Skydiving
I hit 60 this past week, and my youngest daughter turned the ripe old age of 18 on the same day. To celebrate, and in my case, to prove that I was not nearly ready to kick the bucket, I suggested that we take on the zip line in the Arcata Community Forest. To my…
Printing the Journal
If you’re reading the paper version of this week’s North Coast Journal, you’re holding a product that was created last Tuesday night on the Samoa Peninsula. Western Web, which occupies 24,000 square feet in the Fairhaven Business Park (in a space previously used as a machine shop by the Samoa Pulp Mill), has been printing…
