Cover Story
Humboldt, The Book
The Making of Humboldt When Emily Brady arrived in Garberville in the summer of 2010, she was thinking that the sorta-famous, sorta-secretive pot town could make for an interesting chapter in a book about California’s (seemingly) impending marijuana legalization. But almost immediately she realized that the insular, outlaw culture of Southern Humboldt warranted more than…
Zoo Welcomes Furry Red Bundle of Joy
Aw. It was a very special Father’s Day for one local couple, Sumo and Stella Luna, who welcomed their first child into the world on Sunday. And this was a furry one. Stella Luna and Sumo are the red pandas at Sequoia Park Zoo. The four-ounce girl cub was the first red panda born at…
Frustrated Trail Advocates Launch Rogue Experiment on the Dunes
Yesterday afternoon, a small group of people, two horses and a dog hiked along the sandy path from the Manila Community Center across the rolling dunes to the ocean. When they reached the front line of dunes, where vegetation peters out and the beach slopes down to the coastline, two men began shoving and hammering…
Phillip Smith-Hanes, the County’s Chief Administrative Officer, is Job Hunting
County supervisors have had a lot of disagreements over the past three and a half years, but there seems to be consensus on at least one subject: Phillip Smith-Hanes is damn good at his job. So it will likely be a disappointment to learn that the county’s chief administrative officer since December 2009 is one…
Oyster Fest: Mellower, but not a Bust
By noon, Oyster Fest looked positively placid. Not empty, by any means, but no beer lines (!), and more elbow room than a typical Saturday morning farmers’ market. By all accounts the morning was quieter than years prior. A local security guard named Annie manned the entrance to Willow and Libation, one of several walkthroughs…
Centerarts 2013-2014 Lineup
Grab your calendar—the Centerarts schedule is here. Fans of country music have Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell as well as Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt to look forward to. Reggae devotees can worship at the well-traveled feet of Jimmy Cliff, and fans of heavy makeup can check out Blue Man Group’s antics. From Wynton Marsalis…
Best in Shell
Much has been made of the Oyster Festival’s fence, and how to get around it, but it hardly matters. You’re not truly inside until you breathe the rarified air of the VIP lounge in the Plaza Grill, gazing down on the plebeians on the plaza. You also get to glimpse the blue tarp of secrecy…
H2-Woes: Klamath Ranchers Told to Shut Off Water
It’s getting hot on the Upper Klamath. This week, the Oregon Water Resources Department began telling ranchers to shut off irrigation; their rights to Klamath basin water are superseded by tribal rights. Klamath tribes fought for decades to determine their rights to Klamath River water were the oldest, and won earlier this year. They were…
Welcome, Jennifer
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, who has written for the Journal about everything from redevelopment to zombie Thanksgiving wrestling to her grandfather’s miso soup, joins our staff this week. She grew up in New York State and earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Columbia University in New York City. Jennifer was a book…
Oyster Hysteria Roundup
Attendance numbers are still an open question for tomorrow’s Oyster Fest on the Arcata Plaza, but when it comes to community engagement, this sucker’s already a blockbuster. Ever since the Journal’s Bob Doran broke news of this year’s $10 admission fee, the community has been atwitter (and, uh, Twittering, Facebooking, etc.) with opinions, questions, concerns…
Nice Wheels
To the giddy delight of every passing kid in Old Town (and a few grown adults, including this writer and a pair of excited female whistlers) Humboldt Bay Fire flexed a little muscle this morning. Pulling up in their dazzling ladder tiller truck, the boys suited up for some rooftop training. The star: The 100-foot…
Hodgson Issues Call for Supervisor Challengers in KHUM Interview
Elaborating on her op-ed piece in this week’s issue, Journal Publisher Judy Hodgson took to the airwaves this afternoon, telling KHUM’s Mike Dronkers that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ recent vote to replace the guiding principles in the general plan update was “one of the more blatant power grabs that I’ve seen in all…
![Hezekiah Allen, Assembly Candidate, Launches Petition Asking Supes to Revisit Guiding Principles [UPDATED]](https://i0.wp.com/www.northcoastjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/hezekiah.webp?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1)
Hezekiah Allen, Assembly Candidate, Launches Petition Asking Supes to Revisit Guiding Principles [UPDATED]
Hezekiah Allen, an Arcata resident who recently announced his run for the 2nd District seat in the state Assembly, has launched a change.org petition urging the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to reconsider actions it took on June 3 — namely, swapping out a long-established and publicly vetted set of guiding principles in the county’s…
Ridin’ Ropin’ and Racin’
We all know you’ve been raring for a reason to show off your 10-gallon hat and shiny, new spurs, and on Friday, June 14, you’ll finally have that opportunity. Saddle up your pony, grab your buckaroos and buckerettes, and head to the 56th Annual Garberville Rodeo. The wildly western weekend kicks off at 4:30 p.m.,…
Fest Fee Shellfish
Editor: Thank you for the insightful article on Arcata Main Street and the Oyster Festival (“Oysters, Beer and Cash,” June 6). I have to confess that I decided to boycott the festival three years ago when the organizers jacked up the beer prices and also decided to charge a ridiculous $3 for a paper bracelet that verified…
Be Like Mendo
Editor: Kudos to Ryan Burns for his excellent article (“Meet the County’s New Values,” June 6). As he clearly pointed out, the issues raised by the actions of the Gang of Four (Fennell, Bohn, Bass and Sundberg) are many. The most distressing issues are those of process and the totally new slant given to the…
Beyond Infinity
Editor: According to Amir Aczel’s “Mystery Of The Aleph: Mathematics, The Kabbalah, And The Search For Infinity,” it is very questionable whether Cantor “won” his lifelong effort to master infinity, as stated in the caption to the photo accompanying Barry Evans’ excellent piece (Field Notes, June 6). All through his mature years, Cantor suffered periodic…
More Summer Fun
Editor: Consider picking up a snack at the local store (“Five Things,” June 6). You might enjoy it on the bench under the overhang, watching the passing parade, or while perusing the bulletin board (trailer for rent, bookmobile schedule, quarterhorse at stud). Maybe they carry fishing lures and plumbing supplies, too. They might have a…
Careful, Sawyers! Editor:
This is in response to Greg King’s comment (Mailbox, June 6) on saw safety re: the cover of the “Humboldt at Work” issue, (May 23). Great shot, but the first thought that came to me was much like Mr. King’s reaction: No chaps. No ear protection. No eye protection. Not even a pair of gloves.…
First, Borders. Then Rails.
Editor: Humboldt County has transportation nemeses: a harbor nonviable for commercial deep sea vessels, and the Eel River’s defunct railbed (“The Disappearing Railroad Blues,” May 16). Sometimes flexibility changes perspective. Humboldt and Mendocino are long counties. Conditions call for economic vision. Suggestion: Weigh amending Humboldt’s southern and eastern boundary lines — the southern portion of…
A Decade of Creative Cooperation
It’s time to go to the store. You put your list together: butter, milk, coffee, bread — and a small raku-fired sculpture of a frog having tea? OK, so art is not on the typical shopping list for most people. Perhaps that’s why the folks from Arcata Artisans were told “this is never going to…
Second Friday Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at more than 30 participating locations in Arcata. Visit www.artsarcata.com for even more information about the event or call (707) 822-4500.ABRUZZI 780 Seventh St. Live music. Serving late from 7 to 10 p.m. ARCATA ARTISANS COOPERATIVE 883 H St. Wine will…
Mad River Preview
Even the high priestess Mary Jane of the past two summers might think this is pretty far out: Dell’Arte opens this year’s Mad River Festival on June 20 with its production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. “It’s a little daunting,” director Michael Fields admitted. “But it’s good for us to push into new territory.”…
Cocktail Garden Crazy Talk
This is the final installment in our Year of Cocktail Gardening. To wrap things up, I give you the craziest, most unrealistic plants you will probably never actually grow in a cocktail garden. It is only because I can’t grow them that I think about growing them so much. Read on, dream away, and let…
The Pinnacles Condor Experience
While many of us are enraptured with our local bald eagle fledglings (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-bay-eagle-cam), California condors are making a slow but steady comeback from the brink of extinction a few hundred miles away. Visitors to the nation’s newest national park, Pinnacles, have the rare opportunity to see condors in action. The park is one of two…
Four Ways to Spend Your Saturday
Yes, yes, yes… We’ll get to Oyster Fest. But let’s begin with the most promising press release of the week — as in, it promises you an amazing time. Do you like to dance? We’ll start with a few questions. Do you like to dance? Do you like dancing among kind, accepting people? Do you…
Witness
Standing upon the cliff of impossibilities: I wait Ready to jump into the ravine where the canyons are wide and filled with the slow rivers of time the evening yawn of sunset, cools and the side pools are surrounded by the whine and whirr of crickets, cicadas But the lazy fish turn in their sleep…
Leadership Seriously Lacking
My mom used to say, “Judy Ann, if you can’t say anything nice about someone … .” You know the end of that sentence. I hope she will forgive me. I landed my first real job when I was 15. I fried taquitos and made banana splits in El Monte, Calif. My first professional job…
The Joy of Frances Ha
Reviews FRANCES HA. The quirky, hipster ingénue is a trope that will probably last forever. From the flapper girls of the silent era through Annie Hall and Amélie, leading men have been tripping over themselves to win the hearts of girls with that certain je ne sais quoi. Frances Ha, the latest from writer/director Noah…
Oysters, Oysters, Oysters (Beer), Oysters
The $10 price tag may be strange and new, but Oyster Fest 2013 promises to make this year’s event as bivalve-filled and beer-soaked as always (maybe even a little bit more). Center stage of the fest goes to the delicious, local Kumamoto oysters, of course, but the silver and slippery shellfish will have to share…
