Cover Story
North Coast Night Lights
Long have I been fascinated by photographing light in the dark of night. Other photographic interests come and go, but that one is always present, a constant pull on my imagination. If people go through phases in their art, I am definitely deep into a night phase. A photograph is not merely an impression of…
Two Arcata Eateries Call it Quits, Cite Cannabis Downturn
The yellow Simmer Down Caribbean Cafe truck that was a fixture in the Pacific Outfitters parking lot has shut down. Owner Patrick Gaskins, who started the business in May of 2015, places the blame squarely on the budget-tightening effects of legalization. “The last harvest season of 2016 right after Prop 64 passed, I slowed down,”…
Volunteers Needed for Homeless Count
The Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition is seeking volunteers to participate in its biennial count of people experiencing homelessness locally. The count is dependent on volunteer participation and tries to quantify the number of people living without shelter on a single night. The results of the count serve as the single best quantification of the…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Jan. 9
BoomBox is an electronic act that plays an organic mix of blues and house music with an ear to rhythm and dance music. Founder Zion Rock Godchaux — the son of Grateful Dead singer Donna Godchaux — writes the tunes and sets the scene and has done so for nearly 20 years. Tonight his group…
Charmaine Lawson: DNA Evidence Identifies Son’s Killer
The mother of slain Humboldt State University sophomore David Josiah Lawson took to Facebook this morning to express frustration that the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office still hasn’t made a charging decision in her son’s case two months after the Arcata Police Department handed over its investigation. “The Department of justice [has] identified my son’s…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Jan. 8
Wisconsin-born singer/songwriter Jeffrey Foucault has a sound that harkens back to a less divisive time in the acoustic and roots music world, when people like Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and Dwight Yoakam bled between the fabric of American music and culture to make great and gentle art. Touring on the heels of his latest release…
Music Tonight: Monday, Jan. 7
E-TV is a comedy show put on by local stand-up comic Evan Vest where he curates a selection of internet videos for local comics to riff off. Will we see a panel made up of the likes of William Trousers, Bartholomew Pantyhose and Sibyll Ascot cracking wise at neo-Vine culture? Come over to Savage Henry…
HumBug: Sailors and Queens in Winter
Winter time is a slow time for bugs. Being cold blooded the chemistry of life that powers them slows down. Many of their life cycles are adapted to spending the short cold days in their sedentary forms as eggs, larvae or pupae. Those that persist as adults mostly hide through the worst of it, emerging…
Los Lobos!
Come howl with the legendary Los Lobos on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. Since their start 30 years ago in East L.A, Los Lobos has topped the charts in the U.S., the U.K. and beyond. The band was recently nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, too. Join the pack at…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Jan. 6
It’s another award-winning night of karaoke over at the Miniplex tonight starting at 9 p.m. Enjoy a seasonal cocktail or five from the bar at Richards’ Goat and sign up for free to be a local hero on the mic-for-hire circuit of your dreams.
Tuesdays in the Library with Sturges
In life, writer/director/actor Preston Sturges was an interesting man, to say the least. A not-so-successful inventor in his early years (although he did invent a “kissproof” lipstick for his mother’s cosmetic company) and a playwright who enjoyed some success, he eventually made his way to Hollywood and screenwriting, where he found great success. The films…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Jan. 5
Sansfü is a group composed of members of the venerable and versatile jam avatar-act Absynth Quartet, specializing in the “Gypsy jazz” swing section of musical influences. You can catch them tonight at 10 p.m. at North of Fourth to hear the sizzle, stomp and shuffle in person (price TBA).
Eureka Women’s March Back on for Jan. 19, with New Organizers
As a catalyst for change, Women’s Marches across the nation provided a stepping stone that helped propel women’s issues to a forefront these last two years. But, this year’s march in Eureka was cancelled December 28 after organizers released a statement saying their committee was “overwhelmingly white” and needed more diversity. This brought national attention with…
Wheeler Steps Down in McKinleyville, Creating MCSD Vacancy
In 2011, George Wheeler, a McKinleyville resident and Vietnam veteran was horrified to see a neighbor spraying a potent herbicide on the hayfields near his home. As a victim of Agent Orange poisoning, Wheeler did not want his five children exposed to anything that might endanger their health. He quickly found other neighbors were just…
Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 4
The hush of winter in Humboldt doesn’t manifest itself in heavy blankets of snow but our nightlife still hibernates accordingly. So here are two low-impact freebies for your Friday night’s pleasure. Local rock and blues trio Triple Tones plays the Fieldbrook Eatery and Market at 7:30 p.m. When I was a kid growing up in…
New Year’s Hike in the Dunes
Start 2019 off on the right foot with a guided New Year’s Hike. On Saturday, Jan. 5 at 10 a.m., join Friends of the Dunes for a free tour of the Lanphere Dunes. Traverse some of Humboldt County’s diverse coastal ecosystems, including coastal dune forest, seasonal wetlands and large, moving sand dunes, with naturalist Barbara…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Jan. 3
Louiza is the stage name of Oakland singer/songwriter Rebecca Mimiaga. Tonight at 10 p.m. her winter tour stops at The Jam, where she will perform with her quartet in anaticipation of Louiza’s upcoming album Swim at Night, set for self-release in April ($5). The music is pinioned between the traffic lights of indie pop rock…
Radioman Goes Live
A couple of months ago, Eric and Viviana Hollenbeck were having a quiet dinner with longtime friends Michael Fields and his wife Lynnie Horrigan. They talked about the Blue Ox Historic Village the Hollenbecks have run for decades and a bit about Dell’Arte International, where Fields works as the artistic director and Horrigan does costume…
Dazzling Camouflage
The new year at Black Faun Gallery in Eureka begins auspiciously with Dazzle Shjips, a solo exhibition featuring sculpture, film projections and two-dimensional works by North Coast artist Benjamin Funke. The show offers up an abundance of recent sculptural pieces featuring Funke’s recent experimentation with new materials. The exhibition title Dazzle Shjips alludes to the…
Arts Alive!
Presented by Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and performances are held the first Saturday of each month. For more information, call 442-9054 or go to www.eurekamainstreet.org 707 BAR (formerly Steve and Dave’s) First and C streets. Barry Evans photography. Music by Dr. Squid. A TASTE OF BIM 613 Third St. Maggie Draper,…
Looking for Aliens
Seems we’re hearing a lot about aliens these days. They’re humans supposedly swarming over the border, snails invading our lakes, plants taking over the dunes. Even cancer cells, those utterly homegrown products of their hosts, are deemed “alien.” The word itself derives from its Proto-Indo-European root *al- (1) = “beyond” via Latin alienus “of or…
To Look upon Monsters
Reviews First, a few words on Welcome to Marwen, which I have not seen and do not intend to. When trailers began to appear months ago, touting it as the most original movie of the year (I’m paraphrasing), I was decidedly non-plussed. And so when the forecasts came in estimating a 50-60 million dollar box…
Hibernation Breaks
For all its vaunted pomp and first-tier-in-the-new-year position on the calendar, January is a pretty beige and uninspiring month here in the Northern Hemisphere. All through December it comes rushing up the stairs, hitting each landing on the way up like a tensioning string, only to knock forcefully on the protagonist’s door to deliver the…
Raising a Glass of Resilience
Even for fire-wary and -weary Californians like myself, it’s been hard to comprehend the destruction of the Camp Fire, the Nov. 8 wildfire that decimated the town of Paradise in Butte County. That morning I was in Sebastopol, more than 100 miles from Paradise as the smoke flies. We woke up to clear skies. By…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): No one has resisted the force of gravity with more focus than businessman Roger Babson (1875–1967). He wrote an essay entitled “Gravity — Our Enemy Number One,” and sought to develop anti-gravity technology. His Gravity Research Foundation gave awards to scientists who advanced the understanding of gravity. If that organization still…
Into the Old Barn
We walk together Along the Lost Coast One eye on Towering waves Whisked ashore Beneath dark clouds Finally dousing our Endless Fire Season On Christmas Day. Avoiding quicksand We squeeze between Ancient Redwood siding Holding what is left of An abandoned Dairy barn Littered with work tidings Scattered aimlessly Waiting to float Far away …
Don’t Forget the Dunes!
Editor: I enjoyed reading the package of articles in the Dec. 20, 2018, edition, “A Special Place,” about the work local conservation groups are doing to preserve and restore some of the beautiful natural landscapes we love so much here on the North Coast. I’ve lived in Manila since 1994 and have enjoyed watching similar…
An Important Omission
Editor: Thank you for covering the important issue of the challenges people face in the local rental housing market in your Dec. 13, 2018, issue (“The Housing Games”). There were several mentions in the article of housing practices that are, in fact, unlawful, such as landlords preferring “women over men, those with no children over…
‘Thanks Alan!’
Editor: Regarding “A Burning Question” (Mailbox, Dec. 20): Alan Sanborn wonders why the fine tuning of universal fundamental constants has any more relevance than his leaving his house at exactly 10:17 a.m. on Tuesday. I have it on good authority that what he didn’t realize is that he’d been singled out by malicious extraterrestrials as…
Don’t Bank on It
It looks like the California cannabis industry will remain largely a cash enterprise for the foreseeable future. The 18-member Cannabis Banking Working Group chaired by State Treasurer John Chiang issued a 151-page report detailing why creating a public banking system to accommodate the legal weed industry would be so expensive, difficult and legally iffy that…
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? at the Arcata Library
Hi again, neighbor. Pull on your comfiest cable-knit sweater and pay a visit to Mr. Fred Rogers, the man who influenced and educated generations with his long-running TV series, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. On Thursday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m., the Arcata Library offers a free showing of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a poignant biography…
