Keep Upright!
Gas prices driving you to a two-wheeler? Here’s how to stay alive.
Cover Story
Keep Upright!
It was a bright clear sunny morning — "a beautiful day to ride," recalled Seth Griggs. The night before, Griggs, the manager of Adrenalin Motorsports in Eureka, received his first shipment of Lance scooters from China. He had been counting the days until their arrival. He put together a red Vintage 150, did an inspection,…
Lady Blaze
Keeping watch over the forest from a mountain-top fire lookout is one of those spittle-pay but romantic, go-nowhere-but-be-exactly-where-you-wanna-be part-time career choices that holds perpetual appeal for certain lonesome, oft-literary types who get itchy around too many people. Of course, the gig is a diminishing prospect as technology trumps practical romance. But in this High Country…
Memorial ride for killed cyclist
This Sunday, a group of cyclists will be riding in memory of Greg Jennings, who was killed by a car Monday, Aug. 26, while he was commuting home to Blue Lake from work on his bike. Tim Daniels, president of the Bigfoot Bicycle Club, put out a notice, copied below, of the ride on his…
Mind-Altering Music
Psychedelic: It’s a word that conjures images of stoned ’60s-style hippies with flowers in their hair noodle dancing to endless guitar solos. My New Oxford American Dictionary tells me it’s an adjective "relating to or denoting drugs that produce hallucinations and apparent expansion of consciousness" and also "a style of rock music originating in the…
Haven’t Found It
Twenty-three months ago, politics in the city of Eureka looked quite a bit different than they do today. Back then, the county seat appeared just about to be making some sort of leap into full-fledged cityhood. There were issues, activists, interest groups, controversies, anguish … in a word, politics. Real, modern, municipal politics of a…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive!
First Saturday Night Arts Alive! Saturday, Feb. 6, 6-9 p.m., is presented by USBank and Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are held the first Saturday of each month. Phone 707-442-9054, for more information or to have an exhibit/performance included. 1 WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Robert Daugherty, black and white…
Forest For The Trees
Editor: Many thanks to the Journal and to writer Heidi Walters for the excellent cover story (“What Now Treesitter?”, Aug. 8). The photos, especially, showed the diversity of generations, including young treesitters, grandma, teacher and toddler, that make up the forest protection movement. These are indeed new times, when Big Timber and treesitters can sit…
Trust Not in MRC
Editor: Let’s hear it for all of the hundreds of unsung heroes and heroines that were crucial to the successes of Nanning Creek and Fern Gully over the past three to six years(“What Now Treesitter?”, Aug. 8). Most importantly, let’s remember the legacy of Humboldt’s Forest Defenders over the past two decades, and pay our…
Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Editor: First off, thanks for covering the story of the old-growth redwood being saved (“What Now Treesitter?”, Aug. 8). This is truly a reason to celebrate. I have just a few points of clarification about the article. First, I would be very surprised if any of the witnesses to the death of David “Gypsy” Chain…
Heil Bowles?
Editor: It is outrageous and vile that this publication would dedicate precious space to an openly racist political party candidate as if he were worthy of serious consideration (“Alt-Prez,” Aug. 28). You’re putting a candidate who desires the deportation of all non-whites and abortion of all mixed-race pregnancies on the same level as Cynthia McKinney…
The Other Candidates For President: Part III
Two things mark a third-party or independent candidacy for President: the desire to change politics as we know it and the inability to do so. The major minor parties are more effective at scuttling each other’s chances than rousting the two-headed troll that holds absolute power in this country. For example, you’d think that one…
Downer
turkey vulture dares electrified wire fence to shake…
Coming of Age at the End of History
At this point in history, it would be cliché to state that every generation has its calling. However, as Camille de Toledo would tell it, that is exactly the calling of his own. In his book, Coming of Age at the End of History, he describes this generation as those having grown up between the…
A Locavore Dream
In a previous column, I wrote of New York’s newest culinary destination, David Chang’s Momofuku Ko, a restaurant at the forefront of a new American cuisine, making eating out an exciting yet relatively affordable adventure ("Table Talk," Aug 21). But there is another kind of culinary adventure, one presaged by Michael Pollan, whose books (most…
This Time For Sure
A now-dormant lobbying battle for and against Eureka’s Marina Center project will soon reignite if a study on the project’s environmental impacts is released as expected at the end of September or sometime in October. But Marina Center’s environmental impact report (EIR) won’t include a full analysis of a controversial aspect: potential economic effects of…
Form Meets Function
When I got an e-mail from Steven Vander Meer about the Life Drawing show at Good Relations in Eureka, it occurred to me that I haven’t written much about one of the most popular of artist’s subjects: the human form. On the surface, the reasons for painting the figure are pretty obvious. We like to…
Heavy Psych
Along with the likes of Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu, Nebula helped shape the direction of the ’90s desert/stoner rock movement. They didn’t necessarily enjoy the high profile fanfare and commercial success of their peers, but thanks to impressively consistent recordings and Eddie Glass’ signature guitar style, Nebula quickly established themselves as one of…
Indigo Shoes
If you’ve been lucky enough to see the local band Absynth Quintet play live, you know they’re amazing. Sometimes the improvisational jams may go on just a tiny bit too long, but the individual band members’ undeniable talent quashes any negative aspects on that front. The collective picking styles presented by Ian Davidson on banjo,…
An Incomplete Motorcycle Safety Checklist
Riders should be constantly scanning the road ahead for hazards and potential hazards. Debris in the road, like loose gravel or bark from a logging truck, is no problem for a car, but can be disaster for a motorcycle. Pedestrians and other drivers pose their own set of potential problems. • Unlike the driver of…
No Comment
There is a great American song that goes like this: “Once there was a silly old ram, thought he’d punch a hole in a dam. No one could make that ram, scram. He kept buttin’ that dam. Cause he had high hopes, he had high apple pie in the sky hopes. So any time you’re…
Summer Is Dead
Another Asian remake hits the local screens on Friday, Sept. 5, but this time Thai directors Oxide and Danny Pang remake their own film Bangkok Dangerous. The film stars Nicolas Cage as a hit man whose hard edge is threatened by his feelings for a local shopgirl and doubts about his assignment. Rated R for…
