Cover Story
‘Nibs’ and ‘The Taz’
Sitting in a coffee shop on Harrison Street and sipping a latte shortly before 8 a.m., embattled Humboldt County Public Defender David Marcus pauses to consider a question. Throughout his 20 years of experience as a deputy public defender in San Bernardino County and as chief of Lassen County’s office, Marcus has faced waves of…
Hum Fair
Heads up, the 121st Humboldt County Fair kicks off this week with opening day on Wednesday, Aug.23, and runs through Sept. 4 at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds ($10, $7 seniors, $5 kids admission). That’s nearly two weeks of horse racing, carnival rides, exhibits, food, live music and performances and barnyard animals galore. See you at…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Aug. 21
The Mad Liver Bandery, a supergroup of Mad River Brewery employees is playing at, well, where else? The Mad River Brewery Tap Room at 6 p.m. and for free. They’re joined by Knick Moore and Mike Grady, from what I’m hearing. At the Outer Space in Arcata you’ve got some hip-hop from Milo with Randal…
Music Tonight: Monday, Aug. 20
Here in Humboldt, we have a chance to see the partial solar eclipse, which, admittedly, won’t be as cool as seeing the total eclipse. But we’ll also be spared sitting in traffic for hours on end and camping outside booked hotels up in Oregon. With that said, check it out from around 9 a.m. until…
Va Va Voom
Luck, be a lady tonight. Va Va Voom Burlesque Vixens get things twirling at the Eureka Theater with an evening of Burlesque Roulette, Saturday, Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. ($12-$25, VIP $65-$150). The good times include burlesque, improv, games and raffles and benefit Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction and the Eureka Theater Restoration Project.
Music Tonight: Saturday, Aug. 19
If you’ve been around the Arcata Creamery District, you know it’s been a weekend of partying with the Creamery Arts Festival in full swing celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Creamery Building. As a part of this festival, the second annual Humboldt Fervor Fest is kicking off at 1 p.m., celebrating all things fermented, samples…
Swimming Upstream
The Yurok Tribe’s 55th annual Klamath Salmon Festival, happening Saturday, Aug. 19 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Klamath (free, $15 salmon feast), typically celebrates the wealth of the river and the bounty it provides. This year, with record-low salmon runs forcing the tribe to purchase fish from outside of the Klamath River, the…
BridgeFest
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … out of this world fun at the 21st annual BridgeFest and Flying Saucer Contest on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Bridgeville (free admission). Enjoy human and alien games like Intergalactic Flying Saucer Trials, the alien costume contest and Martian Dirt Bag Muster,…
Music Tonight: Friday, Aug. 18
Swinging jazz tunes are on the bill up in Blue Lake when Lizzy and the Moonbeams stop by the Mad River Brewery at 6 p.m. Get your dance partner out there and feel free to tip the band during this free show. Former Eureka-based rock band Blood Orphans — now based out of Olympia, Washington…
We’ll Toast to That
It’s not everyday that something or someone hits the centennial mark and is still around for the party. Well done, Creamery Building. The Creamery Arts Festival, held in the Creamery District, celebrates the building’s 100th anniversary August 17-20 with tours of its tower, a special outdoor art exhibit by Lush Newton and performances by the…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Aug. 17
It’s the last weekend before school starts for many of our youngsters here on the North Coast, so parents, this might be the final weekend of summer where you’re not doing homework for your kiddos. The Compost Mountain Boys return to the Mad River Brewery Tap Room this evening at 6 p.m. doing their string…
One Fish, Two Fish
Tribal fishermen used the cave nestled in the Upper Klamath Basin for untold generations. Now the spring run Chinook bones they left behind — some dating back 5,000 years — are providing a vital link between past and present in a race against time to save the fish that has disappeared from those rivers. Only…
Drowning in Hoopa
Stanley Capoeman, 64, drowned in the Trinity River yesterday at around 3:45 p.m. According to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, Capoeman was visiting family in Hoopa from Taholah, Washington. His family members reported that he suddenly called out for help and was then swept downstream. A search concluded at 5 p.m., when Capoeman was found…
For Second Year in a Row, No Local Salmon at Klamath Salmon Festival
For 53 years, the Klamath Salmon Festival was a celebration of the river’s bounty and the traditions of the local Yurok Tribe, with Indian card games and stick game tournaments. The games and demonstrations will return this year, but the locally caught salmon that took center stage for over half a century will not, for the…
Meet Me Out Back
If you’re looking for some industrial realness, the narrow lot behind Redwood Curtain Brewery (550 S G St, Arcata) is primed for your Instagram feed. There you’ll find palettes stacked with malt sucks, hulking silver brewing tanks and the fire engine-red Loco Fish Co. truck. The truck parks there seven days a week from roughly…
Booklegger Recalls Eclipse Glasses
Booklegger is asking customers who purchased solar eclipse glasses from the Old Town Eureka bookstore to return them for a full refund after finding out the glasses may not be from a certified manufacturer. In a recall notice sent out today, the store’s owners say they were notified of the possibility by Amazon on Aug.…
Standing with Charlottesville
About five dozen people showed up at the Arcata Plaza this afternoon for a hastily planned vigil honoring the woman killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday. The vigil, which saw those in attendance form a circle on the plaza’s Southeast corner and a number of people speak, was organized by Jill Larrabee, of Show Up Humboldt,…
HumBug: Critters in the Water
The river is low enough now to wade upstream for miles without getting in over my knees. You have to be careful because the rocks are slippery with algae. The annual blue-green algae warnings are in effect and it is suggested you keep pets from drinking the water. A small camp towel is handy to…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Aug. 12
As of press time, I think the Yes We Cann Parade and Hullabaloo is still on in Arcata, which parades through town and ends up at the Arcata Ballpark with music starting around 3:20 p.m. with local artists Dynasty One, Winstrong, Silver Hammer, The New Traditions and B Swizlo’s Hip Hop Lounge. If you took…
Sheriff Says Recent Guard Attack Part of Growing Trend
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal held a press conference this morning to share details about a Wednesday evening assault on a correctional deputy at the county jail and to call for more state resources in response to a surge in similar attacks since the 2013 passage of Assembly Bill 109. According to Honsal, the attack…
Irie Stylings at Reggae on the River
Instagram-ready festival wear has become its own species of personal expression. The styles at Reggae on the River are certainly qualify, whether on performers, fans or the vendors, workers and volunteers who make the show possible, including volunteer security personnel, medics, food truck operators, cooks, camera people, sound technicians and journalists. Oven-like August temperatures presented a…
Humboldt Bay Marathon Gets Running
On your mark … The Humboldt Bay Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K and Mile Fun Run hits the road on Sunday, Aug. 13 from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. at Madaket Plaza at the foot of C Street in Eureka (see www.humboldtbaymarathon for prices). Lace up for a day in the sun or to earn a Boston qualifying…
Woof! There It Is
Leash up, dog lovers, it’s time for the coolest canine festival in Humboldt County. Sequoia Humane Society’s 22nd annual Mutt Strut Parade and Woofstock Festival trots into the Halvorsen Park on Saturday, Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($5, $10 family max. four). Dig it. Fur is gonna fly. The fundraising event for…
Music Tonight: Friday, Aug. 11
It’s Arts Arcata! this evening, so stroll around the plaza and check out the many local musicians providing the soundtrack to your night. I bumped into local bass superhero Dan Davis at the penultimate Crabs game of the season and, after a brief baseball chat, he informed me that Wild Otis would be rocking away…
Besties on the Red Carpet
We’re still recovering from our North Coast Journal Best of Humboldt party on Saturday. How about you? There was a line around the block from the historic Carson Block Building, where the third floor, once the home of a stately theater, filled up with revelers celebrating the winners (voted on by our readers) in our…
Full Kilt at Frolic in the Glen
The North Coast Scottish Society’s annual Frolic in the Glen and Highland Games are back in full kilt for more high-stepping, haggis-eating fun Saturday, Aug. 12 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Rohner Park (free admission, $5 admission to heavy athletics competition in the rodeo area). The frolicking kicks off at 10 a.m. with the Piper’s…
Monster Trucks Coming To Redwood Acres
Are the trucks around here just not big enough for you? The size and sound-obsessed can roll into Redwood Acres on Friday, Aug. 11 and Saturday, Aug. 12 at 5 p.m. to see monster trucks from Straight Up Racing jump, roar and spread some dirt around ($10-$25).
Music Tonight: Thursday, Aug. 10
It’s not often that you can find a free show from the Absynth Quartet but tonight is one of those rare nights. AQ4 will be up at the Mad River Brewing Co. Tap Room doing its polka-dot grass thing at 6 p.m. Bring the kiddos down to groove along. Out of Chicago comes the immensely…
Fight and Flight
Reviews THE DARK TOWER. It’s never surprising when a Stephen King novel series is adapted for film, but an eight-book series? In 95 minutes? The Dark Tower turns out to be a later chunk of that series, with a prequel TV show on the horizon. One hopes that project fares better and makes the most…
‘Gifted and Devoted’
Editor: I am writing to thank Linda Stansberry and North Coast Journal for their brilliant cover story about Humboldt Wildlife Care Center (“Oh, Mercy,” July 20). I have been a fan of HWCC since shortly after I moved to Eureka in 1989 and I think the article captures its “spirit” and “intention” very well. I…
‘A Tissue of Illusions’
Editor: A footnote to Douglas George’s letter to the editor (Mailbox, Aug. 3) about the fiction of free will and how the mechanics of cognition prove it is an illusion. Isaiah Berlin, the late Russian-British polymath and philosopher of intellectual history, wrote in his famous essay about Tolstoy that freedom is real but it is…
Get Close
Thursday It’s not often that you can find a free show from the Absynth Quartet but tonight is one of those rare nights. AQ4 will be up at the Mad River Brewing Co. Tap Room doing its polka-dot grass thing at 6 p.m. Bring the kiddos down to groove along. Out of Chicago comes the…
Happy Birthday, Prohibition!
On Aug. 2, 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act passed. Although later laws would codify punishment for cannabis smokers, sellers and cultivators, House Resolution 6385, drafted by Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics, is regarded as the first time the federal government laid its heavy hand on the plant. The…
PenAir No More
About 18 months after arriving in Humboldt County amid much fanfare, PenAir sent out a press release shortly before 7 p.m. on Aug. 7 announcing it was shuttering its route from Arcata/Eureka to Portland. Some 72 hours later, its last plane had departed the airport in McKinleyville and the airline had filed for Chapter 11…
The Best Thing Since Homemade Bread
Again, folks, it’s flour, salt, water and yeast,” repeats Linda Barry, attempting to assuage her students’ fear of baking bread. In your granny’s day, baking bread was a household chore, as unassuming as hanging out the laundry. While a lucky few come home to the aromatic embrace of freshly baked bread, the majority of loaves…
Seeds and Surfing
This past Sunday festivalgoers at Reggae on the River reveled in good vibes, positive sounds and gorgeous summer weather. Any storm clouds that might be gathering in Babylon were far from the collective consciousness of this happy crowd. Coot Wyman, the affable frontman of the Chico reggae fusion band Mystic Roots, exhorted us to smile…
Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at locations in Arcata. Visit www.facebook.com/artsarcata for more information or call 822-4500. ANGELICA ATELIER 1101 H St. #2 “Overlap,” Marisa Kieselhorst and Abigail Nottingham, mixed media. ARCATA ARTISANS 883 H St. Featured artists Susan Bornstein, acrylic on canvas and Vaughn Hutchins,…
Rob Arkley Goes Back In Time
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Don’t Live in a Murder House
Last week on Facebook I came across a post from the Wiyot Tribe in which it tagged my friend Rachel Sundberg. The tribe was thanking her for helping members learn about cultural protocols, dance regalia and continuing ceremonial practices. The Wiyot children in the photos were happy and in one photo a young girl was…
Ötzi the Iceman
Peering through a small, double-glazed viewing window at the brown, desiccated body of a man who died 5,300 years ago is an uncanny experience. Should he even be on display, for the likes of me and several hundred thousand visitors a year, in this museum in Bolzano, Italy? I tell myself that, since being discovered…
Going Wild at Wildwood Days
All of Rio Dell is coming out for Wildwood Days Friday evening through Sunday night, Aug. 11-13. The fest features food, fun for the kids, a soap box derby, plenty of vendors, a firefighter’s muster and live music. What better way to benefit the Rio Dell Volunteer Fire Department.
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Aug. 9
Local Dead Head Piet Dalmolen is back from the East Coast and playing his guitar for you this evening at the Mad River Brewery at 6 p.m. He does the solo guitar thing with loops and fancy fingerwork. If you leave a tip — it’s a free show — I’m sure it’ll be easy to…
