Hitting it Home
Brett Pill’s climb from the crabs to the Giants
Cover Story
Hitting it Home
It was a warm September evening, even by San Diego standards, when Brett Pill stepped to the plate for his first at-bat as a San Francisco Giant. His gray jersey was crisp and unstained, and his matching pants were pulled down over the tops of his cleats. Sitting nervously along PETCO Park’s first-base line, his…
‘Federal Terror Campaign’ Hits Mendocino Collective
Federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency today raided Mendocino County medical marijuana collective Northstone Organics, whose executive director, Matt Cohen, is featured in this week’s Journal cover story by Zach St. George. Cohen’s collective was operating under a permit issued by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Dept., and by all indications it was following the…
Houses: Sort of Affordable Again
More affordable than they’ve been in almost a decade, anyway. In August, low interest rates and sagging pricetags combined to make the median-priced Humboldt County home more affordable (as a percentage of the median household income) than it’s been since February of 2002, according to data released today by the Humboldt Association of Realtors. Here…
Peace Talks in Garberville
Back in July in sunkissed Garberville, residents/merchants and loafers/homeless engaged in a particularly wet battle in the war over Veterans’ Grove, a little park on the town’s north end where hordes of wanderers and folks down on their luck apparently have set up semi-permanent camp. According to reports on SoHum reporter Kym Kemp’s blog, “Redheaded…
Scam Alert
And it’s old school. Door-to-door style. Eureka resident Jude Cole called us up today to report that bogus magazine sales-people have descended upon Humboldt County. Cole wasn’t immediately suspicious at the appearance of a couple of young people at her doorstep, even though they “looked like cast members of Glee — with the whitest teeth,…
Hank3 at the Mateel
Humboldt County plays host to a plethora of subcultures and niches. Occasionally, multiple groups have the opportunity to intermingle and merge into an eclectic mix of harmonious excellence. Hank3’s performance at the Mateel was one such occasion — and it was glorious. His versatility as a musician and his stamina as a performer drew a…
Tomatoes as Comfort Food
Being Italian, I should be eager to preserve tomatoes. My mother did it every summer in her kitchen. If my memory serves me well, she would get 175 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes and turn them into countless bottles and jars. As long as I lived with my parents, I played a role in my…
One Last Summer Beer
We’re getting down to the wire here, HumCo. Suck up these next couple weeks of Indianish summer, because we’re about to plunge into months of soaked gray bummer. The end is nigh. Sure, there are those jerks who will throw out jerky statements to the effect of, “You know, I actually love the rain,” or…
Classical October
The North Coast’s fall classical music scene explodes this weekend when an array of critically acclaimed musicians from distant Jerusalem, backyard Canada and down-home Humboldt County offer works from Baroque to contemporary and everything in between. Eureka’s Calvary Lutheran Church sizzles Friday, Oct. 7, when the young and hip Canadian Borealis String Quartet returns to…
Is Walmart Watching You?
Here in Humboldt County, many people are worried that Walmart has acquired a lease to open a store in the Bayshore Mall, though we have heard no official acknowledgement of that. I’m more worried about some other Walmart acquisitions. In September it acquired OneRiot, which is a company that sends customized and targeted ads to…
Chromeo’s Shiny Electrofunk
Chromeo — the name takes the Bard’s tragic romantic hero and adds a modern gleam. The Canadian neo-funk duo consists of David Macklovitch and Patrick Gemayel, aka Dave 1 and P-Thugg, two friends who have been making music together since their high school days in Montreal in the mid-’90s. The partnership began with Patrick joining…
Prison Perspective
Editor: Thanks to Ryan Burns (“Caged,” Sept. 29) for an insightful look at “media day” at Pelican Bay State Prison. However, it is worth perspective. We could be elsewhere. Consider Alan Gross in a Cuban prison for giving away laptops, the two Americans who spent two years in an Iranian prison for hiking, and, of course, Amanda Knox, appealing…
Kids Today
Jessica McGuinty is having trouble finding solid employees, which seems an odd predicament these days. Just last week we reported on a career fair in Eureka that drew hundreds of eager job seekers (“The Hunt Is On,” Sept. 29). Yet McGuinty, the owner and founder of Arcata-based hair care company Jessicurl, said quality workers…
Interactive
No doubt about it. Humboldt loves Michael Franti. Of course, lots of folks do. Why? Let us count the ways. He’s tall, dark and handsome, but cute, with cool curls (thanks to Humboldt-made Jessicurl hair products). Franti is the master of hippie hip hop: His rhymes are clever and he’s a “fight the power” guy,…
Cancer is Funny
REVIEWS 50/50. Usually, atypical urban settings in movies kind of bug me, coming across either like pandering or kitsch. But in 50/50 — set in Seattle, filmed in British Columbia — the oppressiveness of the perennially gray Pacific Northwest adds to the mood. Combined with excellent performances from a smart, understated script and a concise,…
Missing Charlie
I just read with huge disappointment that Charlie Myers will no longer be in NCJ Filmland (“Charlie Says Farewell,” Sept. 29). It is a sad day indeed. Since he began writing film reviews, I’ve been a faithful reader. It isn’t just the reviews themselves, which I have to say do mean a lot to me…
Best of Thanks
Editor: I just wanted to thank my clients who took the time away from their busy schedules and voted for me in the Best of Humboldt, Tattoo Artist category (Sept. 22). I don’t mind being voted second best, as there is always room for improvement. And second to Brian [Kaneko] is a compliment. Besides, I don’t tattoo…
Are Days Getting Longer?
Or am I getting older? No, really, they are getting longer. In a nutshell, the energy to run our tides has to come from somewhere — no magic perpetual motion machine! — and that somewhere is the Earth’s angular momentum, or spin. The moon generates tides gravitationally by pulling most strongly on the side of…
Dedicated Diners 2
Editor: I would like to take a moment to respond to the article “Dollars for Docs” (Sept. 15). As a “Doc” I can admit that I need “Dollars” to conduct my life and care for my son, but never have these “Dollars” tempted me to change what I expect of myself, which is to offer…
The Whole Love
Jeff Tweedy has been navigating his band Wilco through various musical waters since 1995 with some drastic line-up changes along the way. With the release of The Whole Love, the third studio recording with his current lineup, Wilco finally emerges with a logical follow-up to the excellent, organic folk-rooted Sky Blue Sky, released in 2007. While the…
Bumper Sticker Update
Bumper Sticker Update
My Inner Fog
Hugs coastlines,Rolls over bottomlands, Saunters up hills Steeped…
Gray Matters Fall 2011
Gray Matters Fall 2011
