Married, Not Married, Married …
Same-sex couples talk about life during the rise and fall of Prop. 8, California’s gay marriage ban
Cover Stories
Nine Arguments Against 8
Woven throughout the Prop. 8 debate you’ll find plenty of dispute, anger, indignation and hand-wringing about morality and ethics, those cohabitant “better angels of our nature,” to quote Honest Abe via Obama. In overturning California’s voter-approved measure, federal Judge Vaughn Walker largely dismissed such concerns, ruling that the measure “enacted a private moral view without…
Married, Not Married, Married …
In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed same-sex couples to marry in his city. Between Feb. 12 and March 11 — the day the state Supreme Court stopped the practice — 4,037 same-sex couples got their marriage licenses in SF. Almost a dozen of those couples were from Humboldt County, and in June of…
Assembly Member Evans Endorses Cleary
Assembly Member and state senate shoe-in candidate Noreen Evans today announced that she is endorsing Patrick Cleary in his bid for Fifth District Supervisor. In a press release, Evans said Cleary has “the skills and experience to help Humboldt County create new, sustainable jobs and get our local economy back on track, while protecting our…
Palling Around
Last night, some sixty odd Humboldt County residents jumped on the opportunity to follow in President Obama’s footsteps and pal around with a “terrorist.” Educator and frequent Fox News target Bill Ayres made a scheduled appearance at Arcata’s Northtown Books to give a short talk on the state of the education in America and to…
Outside Lands — All-Ages and Worth the Drive
Note: Teenage sister-brother freelancers Kaylee Savage-Wright and Nick Savage-Wright submitted the following review of the Outside Lands festival. Being situated between San Francisco and Portland makes Humboldt County a convenient stop for touring bands. Unfortunately, those bands tend to be big either on the folk scene or classic rock has-beens — and even when the performer is…
Sneaker Waves: A Public Service Announcement
Local artist Rick St. Charles — artist? I guess you could call him an artist — would like to remind local beachgoers about the danger of sneaker waves along our shores. And this is how he goes and does it. For a somewhat more sober but far less memorable take, DeAnza College has a good…
Music! at Arts! Arcata
The streets were alive with music last night as Arcata celebrated its monthly arts night.
In the Ocean, For the Oceans
Margo Pellegrino is a 43-year old mother who wants to draw attention to the plight of the world’s oceans by making long-distance paddles down the coastline of the U.S., calling out to communities on the way to highlight critical ocean concerns. These include the impact of dumping sewage, fertilizers and plastics; of overfishing; and the…
A.M. Fire at Quality Inn in Eureka
The Eureka Fire Department responded to a fire at the Quality Inn located at 1209 4th St. in Eureka Friday morning. Flames were said to be visible coming out of a second story room upon the arrival of rescue workers, but were extinguished. At this time, the cause of the blaze is unknown. No one…
Ms. November
Late last year I got an email from Oakland-based accordionista Tara Linda. She was coming up to Humboldt to visit and although she did not have any gigs lined up, she wondered if I might know how she could get on the radio. By chance, she was coming on a Wednesday, the day when my…
The (Near) Death of a Sea
These aerial photos of central Asia’s Aral Sea show the disappearance of most of what had once been the world’s fourth largest lake. Since the diversion of its feeder rivers by Soviet Union irrigation projects in the 1960s (making Uzbekistan one of the world’s largest producers of cotton), a volume approximately equivalent to the combined…
Talking Trees
Redwood trees have a variety of ways to make you feel insignificant. There’s their height, of course, and nowhere is that more true than in Rockefeller Forest, the tallest forest on the planet, where more than 140 Sequoia sempervirens, or coast redwoods, top the 350-foot mark. (That’s 80 percent of all 350-footers worldwide.) Then there’s…
The Little Easy
“The Town Dandy” this week brings you the results of a week-long investigation, which involved more than a score of interviews and some 400 man-hours of exhaustive field research. In brief, the results of this unprecedented inquiry is this: The town of Orleans, up there in the upper-right-hand corner of our county, is one seriously…
Haiku of the Profane
Editor: Even though he follows perfectly the haiku syllable pattern, Joel Mielke’s well drawn and cleverly worded cartoon, “Humboldt County Haiku #2” should be titled more accurately “Humboldt County Senryu” (“Mielke,” Aug. 5). Japanese haiku poems are spiritual and idyllic, referring to seasons of nature. Senryu poems follow the same syllable pattern but are more…
Mines
Three years can seem like a lifetime in the ever-changing, frenetically charged realm of independent music. These days, decent follow-up albums are harder to come by, and unfortunately, artists tend to be condemned to the netherworlds of this merciless industry about as quickly as they are propelled into the heavens of stardom. Friend and Foe,…
Bagging on the Baggers
Editor: In response to Terence Roberts’ complaint (“Mailbox,” July 29), let me first offer this olive branch: It is nice to see a communication from a self-described Tea Party Patriot (or whatever splinter group) that is somewhat reasonable and rational. Democratic pundit Donna Brazile recently wrote that the Tea Party(s) are not racist, but she…
That’s All I Need
The 74-year-old Detroit native and R&B soul singer Andre Williams is literally a soul survivor. His life so far is a story that legends are made of. In 1957, before he’d reached 21, Williams had written the top 10 Billboard R&B hit “Bacon Fat.” In the early ’60s, the young songwriter co-wrote Stevie Wonder’s early…
Humboldt County Fair
Cartoon by Joel Mielke.
Aug. 16-31
August 16: British scientists recently used radar to measure the number of insects flying around in a column of air one mile high. In addition to the expected butterflies, moths, and flies, they found termites, aphids, and spiders drifting about on air currents quite high above the earth. In one month, three billion insects passed…
Friday, August 13, 6-9pm
1) AMPT SKATE SHOP 1040 H St. Show at Hunter Plaid Gallery to benefit expansion of Arcata Skate Park. 2) ARCATA ARTISANS 883 H St. Loryn White, ceramics; Brooke Fox, pique assiete mosaics; Holly Garbutt, quilting. 3) ARCATA CITY HALL* 736 F St. Pete Castellano, photographs. 4) ARCATA EXCHANGE 13 H St. Greta Rose Pitsenbarger,…
Rent-a-Pirate
In 1879, Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera called The Pirates of Penzance premiered, not in London, but in New York, arguably influencing the development of the American musical. A little more than a century later, Jonathan Larson’s rock opera Rent made New York its subject and changed musical theatre everywhere. Outstanding homegrown productions of both…
All Tribes Dance
When she moved from Brazil to Humboldt two years ago, Marjo Lak brought Butter Music Brazil with her. “It’s a record label started by a DJ collective with five DJs who started doing festivals and parties together,” said Lak, calling from her home in McKinleyville. “It’s a label I carried with me — it’s kind…
HC Fair is Money!
See, if this were most counties, you’d have to wait an entire year for another fair to roll around after the Redwood Acres Fair wrapped for the year. But even if our local economic outlook is not so bright, one thing we Humboldtians have going for us is that we’re fair rich. It’s once again…
Sotirios is Dying
I just heard today, It’s too sudden, I…
One Sweet Year
It doesn’t seem like only a year, but it was August of last year when La Dolce Video opened in Arcata. Aimee Hennessy and Merrick McKinlay purchased the DVD library from the closing Video Experience (where Merrick worked) and moved it up G Street to the former home of Tranquilitea Wellness Center. “It’s been an…
Charlie Chuckles!
Previews EAT PRAY LOVE. Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir about food, love and finding religion is adapted by writer/director Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee) with Julia Roberts journeying from NYC to Italy, India and Bali. Not yet rated. Opening at the Broadway, Mill Creek, the Minor and Fortuna. THE EXPENDABLES. Writer/director/actor Sylvester Stallone stars in a super-macho action…
