Cover Story
Moooovers and Shakers
There once was a little girl who dreamed of being a princess. A dairy princess. One day this little girl was in her work clothes, cooking giant meals with her mother for the dairymen, throwing feed to the chickens, grooming her 4-H beast, or bucking hay, feeding calves and laying down clean straw in the…
Feeling Nosy?
State Controller John Chiang is up to his old good government tricks again, updating all that government salary info that some of us love to snoop into.The state site has useful big picture data on cities, counties, state government and the state university system. HSU, it tells us, had 3,656 employees in 2012 and paid…
Arcata Eye, McKinleyville Press Forge New Media Empire
A Mad River media mega-monopoly has formed. Via Facebook, the Arcata Eye announced it will join forces with Northern Humboldt’s other hyper-local weekly newspaper the McKinleyville Press starting Oct. 2. And the Mad River Union was born. Arcata Eye publisher/editor/reporter Kevin Hoover announced in 2011 that the paper would cease publication in February, 2014, leading to…
Creamery Fest Mural Saved From Destruction
As if Creamery Festival organizer Jackie Dandeneau didn’t have enough going on, what with preparing for the first-ever three-day celebration of the up-and-coming arts district, here was a City of Arcata worker tsk tsking the mural she and seven other artists had livened up the intersection of Ninth and L streets with. Dandeneau initially feared…
Summerfest Meltdown
The Facebook page for this past weekend’s cancelled Mad River Summerfest reads like a slow car crash. That queasy feeling began with the announcement of a delay “due to logistical issues” on Friday evening at 7:47 p.m., nearly two hours after The Rezonators were to take the stage. Those issues later turned out to be…
Journal Interviews Chris Lehman, Your Fresh-Faced Candidate for State Senate
About an hour after announcing his run for State Senate, Chris Lehman, an Arcata family man and, at the tender age of 36, a Sacramento insider, sat down with the Journal for a croissant sandwich and coffee (in his own mug) at Ramone’s in Old Town. Bottom line? The guy’s prepped and ready to go.…
Brian Laidlaw Gets the Humboldt Live Sessions Treatment (VIDEO)
So maybe you didn’t follow our guidance last week. Maybe you couldn’t shake your Friday night obligations and get to the Siren Song. Maybe you did go and would be thrilled to relive the Brian Laidlaw experience. Whatever your story, this video by Chuck Johnson — part of his Humboldt Live Sessions series — follows…
Listen: This American Life Talks Mendo’s Pot Program
If you missed the latest episode of This American Life, the fantastic, award-winning public radio program broadcast locally on KHSU, then you’ve yet to hear reporter Mary Cudddehe’s take on Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman and his ill-fated attempt to bring sanity to medical marijuana regulation. As you may recall, Allman came up with Mendocino…
What the Zebra?
Yes, those are zebras browsing in a field along Mattole Road. Josie Brown, a Petrolia resident, says they’re owned by fashion designers based in the Los Angeles area. The zebras are cared for by a father and son team, Luis Juarez Senior and Junior, who make the drive from Ferndale several days a week to…
Tom Waits sightings in Eureka! says Internet
The raspy-voiced-lyrical-genius-famed-singer-character actor Tom Waits has been sighted all over town says former journalo David Jervis says on Facebook. On the one hand, Tom Waits! On the other, maybe the guy’s just trying to have a quiet weekend, so don’t get too crazy with your stalking, fans.
Get yer hide to the races!
A fancy, feisty lot of mules and horses tore up the loamy dark track yesterday in Ferndale, to the delight of the hootin’, wagerin’, drinkin’, beef-chewin’, funnel-cake-inhalin’, corndog-swillin’ crowd that packed the grounds and stadium. If you were the person who forgot to be there, check out what you missed (but don’t despair, there’s more…
Bone Crusher
Hide your Volvos and Volkswagens — the monster truck show is in town at Redwood Acres.
Tune Up
Starting Aug. 26, local residents can join the concert and jazz bands through community education classes at College of the Redwoods. If you’ve got some musical chops, you can tune up alongside matriculating students studying the history, skills and general ins and outs of playing in a concert or in the studio. Brian Newkirk is…
Pass the Hat
Those on the side of good rally quickly around here. If you missed the fundraiser for Josephine Johnson at Mad River Brewery last Sunday, you can still make a donation to replace her stolen goods here. Just over a week ago, Johnson (she of the guitar, newsboy hat and lovely music) was robbed. Her stuff…
If You’re Not Having Fun, You’re In The Wrong Part Of Town
Update: Apparently not everyone remembers when Old Town was swingin’ and wild with drugs or girls (both at once must have been too much to hope for), but current excavations at old Jimmy Dunn’s, corner of 2 and D, recall those glory days. Dunn’s, some may recall, was featured in the Andy Garcia-Uma Thurman thriller Jennifer…
Puff Piece
Previously, I had scoffed at cheese puffs (crab or otherwise) as something only a novice would order at an Asian restaurant. When my pregnant friend raved about the little golden triangles, I dismissed it as a hormonal craving. That said, I have tasted the puffs at Annie’s Cambodian Cuisine, and lo, they are good. Crispy,…
Come on, robbers, return those keys
Inside a house on a corner lot in Eureka, a resident patiently (we presume) waits. And waits. And waits. Or maybe gave up. The sign — “Robbers, please put the car keys in mailbox” — has been up for months and months. There’s a similar sign on the garage-door side of the house. An old pickup’s in the…
Trinity Water Injunction Extended
Klamath and Trinity salmon got another potential setback today, as a federal judge extended a hold on releasing extra water down the Trinity River. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the release was stopped after Central Valley irrigators sued the Bureau of Reclamation, which controls the flow of water from the Trinity Reservoir. The judge until Aug. 21,…
UFOs! Bridge!
Bridgeville is one of Humboldt’s little gems, a friendly and quaint village nestled among the redwoods in the rural reaches of the county. Don’t let Bridgeville’s bucolic smallness fool you, though; that town knows how to have a good time. Saturday, Aug. 17, is the 17th annual Bridgefest and Flying Saucer Contest, and it is…
Former State Senator Pat Wiggins Dies
Pat Wiggins, who represented the North Coast in the state senate from 2006 to 2010, died this morning, a staffer with the Senate Democrats has confirmed. She was 73. Wiggins served on the Santa Rosa City Council before moving on to the State Assembly, where she represented the 7th District (Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties)…
Klamath Salmon Fest
If there’s one thing we don’t have a shortage of in HumCo, it’s festivals dedicated to fish (I’m counting bivalves as fish in this instance). No complaints, of course; fish is delicious and festivals are fun! This weekend, Saturday, Aug. 17, is the 51st annual Yurok Tribe’s Klamath Salmon Festival, and deliciously cooked salmon is…
Five Things To Know Before Playing Cornhole
1. Why cornhole? Because socializing mixed with friendly competition lets some sunshine into the otherwise dark recesses of your brain — it’s science! And because tossing a sack in a hole is harder than you think, you need a challenge, and this is way less scary than skydiving. Also because you muck about on Facebook…
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
David Rakoff wrote the sort of books that you can never shake off; his essays grab hold of the emotional center of your brain, burrow themselves deeply into your gray matter and take root. He boils down the most complex emotional experiences into poignant and precise prose (and sometimes verse!). But at the center of…
Gen X and Y Gardeners
Genevieve Schmidt weeds her vegetable patch. The chickens aren’t boomers, either. Every year or two, some horticultural marketing team gets a buzzing insect in its collective shorts about Gen X and Y and how we aren’t gardening enough. The subtext is that gardening is a boomer activity and that at some scary date in the…
Co-ops and Robbers
Editor: Carl Ratner’s letter (“Mailbox,” Aug. 8) exposing the nefarious workings of the Co-op’s management and its hiring of an attorney from the law firm of Jackson Lewis, dedicated to a “union free workplace” and in bed with the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation, is spot on and well needs reading by those who frequent the Co-op.…
EPD and Mental Health
Editor: Michael Johnson, a top pick for Eureka police chief (Blog Jammin’, Aug. 8) and Mayor Frank Jager belittled people who contacted the city with concerns about Mr. Johnson’s involvement with the 2006 Cheri Lyn Moore shooting. Questioners are described as “a very small group with their own agenda” (Johnson) and “certainly those half dozen…
Tree Concerns
Editor: I love trees. The planet needs more of them. There are, however, a number of problems with planting them up and down the sidewalks of Eureka (“Field Notes,” July 4). First of all, in a city with a climate as cool as it is here in Eureka, the last thing we need is more…
Magic Words
Editor: I enjoyed the poem (“Sorcery”) in the North Coast Journal on Aug. 8. It expanded my horizon to the sea shore, and my vocabulary by four words, which I found in the dictionary. Thank you. Ursula Osborne, Arcata
Malaise
Editor: Walking my dog this morning, I began lamenting the old days, and by that, I mean I miss being naive. When I was young, I held a belief in the good of the majority of people. I liked people. I was optimistic for the positive outcome in any situation that became the larger world’s…
Where Credit’s Due
Editor: I really appreciate Jennifer Savage’s coverage (“The Hum,” Aug. 1) of my Arts Alive! performance at The Works Records in Eureka, and that the story included a great photograph. I deeply and sincerely regret, however, that I neglected to credit the photo. Not only did Traci Bear Thiele take that great photograph, she invited…
Correction
One of the stories in the Aug. 8 “Flash Fiction” was wrongly attributed. “Veritas” (Page 14) was written by Alexis George.
McKinleyville Arts Night
A community celebration of art and artists, with music, food and fun. You can find more information about the artists and venues and see additional images online at www.mckinleyvilleartsnight.com. Call (707) 834-6460 for more information. 1. California Redwood Coast – Humboldt County Airport 3561 Boeing Ave. Artwork by Robert Benson, Floyd Bettiga, Thomas Klapproth, Jim McVicker,…
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Judging from the escalated aggravation level that driving through Arcata elicits, we’ve hit that point in the year when Humboldt State University is about to swing back into session. Some of these students will fall in love with the area, and some will fall in love with people who live here. Those students in love…
Fall’s Lament
Morning wakes Boxes, bags, suitcases Held breath Keys relinquished easily It’s cleared The lists are concluded The tightness The held back emotions Memories What my mother told me The release Their excitement realized.
Reviving a Neighborhood
By now you may have been to — or heard of — the Arcata Playhouse, the cozy theatre on the ground floor of the Ninth Street Creamery building, with its roller-rink floor and rustic charm. The pothole-spotted streets crisscrossing the neighborhood around the playhouse have long cloaked a concentration of creativity, from potters and stained…
Occupy Space Station
Reviews ELYSIUM. Writer/director Neill Blomkamp left a pretty outsized footprint on the cinematic landscape with his breakthrough 2009 debut, District 9. With its elegant visual effects, delicately balanced humanism and uniquely shabby dystopian aesthetic, that movie became a runaway hit and was eventually nominated for a best picture Oscar. As a follow-up, Elysium feels a…
Cheering the bat-thrower? Really, Arcata?
It was a chilly August evening in the Arcata ballpark, but things were about to warm up fast when Sergio Sanchez stepped to the plate for the Humboldt Crabs. This was the sixth inning of a win-or-go-home game in the Far West Baseball League championship tournament, and the crowd greeted Sanchez with “Ser-gi-o … Ser-gi-o…
Crossing the Rogue
The trick of combining the tensile strength (resistance to pulling) of iron and steel with the compressive strength (resistance to pushing) of concrete is just 160 years old. In 1853, French industrialist François Coignet built an iron-reinforced concrete four-story house in Paris. Then 50 years later, another Frenchman, Eugène Freyssinet (1879-1962), took the technique to…
