Not Expelled but Not Fully Welcome
Japanese experiences in Humboldt’s Chinese exclusion era, from education to terrorism By Alex Service
Cover Story
Not Expelled But Not Fully Welcome
Editor’s note: This story includes racist language in quotations from historical newspaper articles. Humboldt County’s Chinese history is notorious. For nearly 70 years, from the mid-1880s to the early 1950s, a keynote of Humboldt’s public identity was the (false) assertion the county had successfully expelled all its Chinese or Chinese American residents. During one expulsion…
Music Today: Monday, Sept. 4
It’s Labor Day again, which means that the I Street Block Party around the vicinity of Los Bagels and Wildwood Music is back at it again. And thank heavens for that because in these uncertain times, we could all use a little tradition to lean on. The tunes are free and kick off around noon.…
36th Annual I Block Party Happening Monday
This Labor Day, join the festivities at the 36th annual I Block Party taking place Monday, Sept. 4 from noon to 6 p.m. in front of Los Bagels in Arcata. This fun-for-the-whole-family event is a benefit for Arcata’s sister city Camoapa, Nicaragua, where monies raised support education, clean water and humanitarian projects. The party includes…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Sept. 3
Well, it seems the Miniplex is slapping it out of the park this weekend with shows featuring great talents from the beautiful frontiers of contemporary musical potential. Tonight’s 9 p.m. gig spotlights the incredible acoustic guitar playing of Sir Richard Bishop, a guitarist/composer of unusual talent, who first cut his teeth in the national eye…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Sept. 2
Every so often, the conditions of our homeland create the perfect environment for an unusually excellent band to form and grow into a thing so lovely and special that its very nature prevents it from staying rooted to the soil from whose fecundity it sprang. Like a tumbleweed or a kaleidoscope of dandelion seeds, it…
Catch the Flavor of Shelter Cove at Taste of the Cove
Heart of the Redwoods Community Hospice’s annual dinner event, Taste of the Cove, is this Saturday, Sept. 2, from 1 to 5 p.m. in Shelter Cove’s Mal Coombs Park ($35, $10 for ages 12 and under, free for kids under 5). Enjoy wild-caught fish donated by local fisher-folk, local farm-fresh vegetables and delicious homemade desserts.…
Music Tonight: Friday, Sept. 1
Attention all Weeners out there: The Stallions, Humboldt Country’s premier Ween tribute act, will be jamming at Humbrews tonight at 8 p.m. The band, joined by visiting member and pianist Aber Miller, will be playing the group’s White Pepper album in its entirety, along with some other choice nuggets from its large and chaotic discography…
Summer Movies Series at FRT
Ferndale Repertory Theater presents the third in its Summer Movie Series, with the musical The Wiz, starring Dianna Ross, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne and Mabel King, among others, on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. ($10, $5 students/seniors). Grab some concessions and ease on down the aisle to take your seat for this…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Aug. 31
Blondie’s is the place to be tonight, as traveling glam rock troubadour Scott Yoder returns to Humco for a set that is guaranteed to be redolent of the golden space age of the 1970’s, the gender bending ground zero of one of the greatest movements in musical history. Local support comes from some of our…
Humboldt Botanical Garden Changes this Weekend’s Concert Date
Heads up, North Coast music fans. The Humboldt Botanical Garden had to change the date of its Summer Music Series concert this weekend from Sunday, Sept. 3 to Saturday, Sept. 2. Saturday’s concert will feature music by Irie Rockerz from 1 to 3 p.m. In addition to listening to great reggae tunes from the Rockerz, attendees can…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Aug. 30
The EXIT Theatre is putting on its monthly variety revue, The Something Different Show. Tonight’s performers are musician/sound-dude Michael “Tofu” Schwartz, Laura Hughes and Jauna Little at 7 p.m. ($8).
McKinleyville Man Arrested in Arcata Murder Case
This morning, the Arcata Police Department arrested a murder suspect in the 13000 block of Bald Hills Road in Orick. With the Humboldt and Mendocino county sheriff’s department SWAT teams, detectives served an arrest warrant at 6 a.m., according to a press release, and took Gregory Nelson Mattox, 24, of McKinelyville, into custody. Mattox was…
Photos: Ladies’ Hat Day at the Races
Under a cool marine layer of fog, the 127th annual Humboldt County Fair on Saturday featured the usual horse racing and some amazing displays of creativity, humor and beauty in the 11th annual Ladies Hat Day at the Races. Thanks to the last-minute repairs of earthquake damage, a large crowd safely packed the grandstands to watch the…
Parking Lot Protection Initiative Submits Signatures to Qualify for March Ballot
Proponents of an initiative that would effectively block the city of Eureka’s plans to convert municipal downtown parking into multi-family housing have collected enough signatures to qualify the measure for the March ballot, they announced in a press release. The release says that Mike Munson, one of the leaders of the so-called “City of Eureka…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Aug. 29
Humboldt Hot Air and Richards’ Goat are presenting a show at the Arcata Playhouse I can definitely vouch for, having seen them in New Orleans a decade ago and being a fan for ages. Os Mutantes is the groundbreaking Brazilian psychedelic tropicalia band whose music influenced some of our most influential bands. They were also…
Homophobic Slurs Mar Fair’s Chili Cook-off
The friendly competition of the Chili Cook-off hosted by Guy Fieri at the Humboldt County fair took an unfriendly turn Aug. 24, with anti-gay slurs, property damage and the arrest of one contestant on suspicion of DUI. After an afternoon of cooking chili and making homophobic comments peppered with slurs, Loco Fish Co. owner Jayme…
Music Tonight: Monday, Aug. 28
Forget about the sold out Center Arts gig, if you didn’t get tickets for Sylvan Esso earlier then you are S.O.L. Which is a piece of luck, as tonight’s edition of Metal Mondays at Savage Henry Comedy Club is fantastic. Humboldt-grown but Los Angeles- based Biomass is a group that balances the harmonic splendor of…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Aug. 27
I have been in communication with the owner of Blondies, one of my favorite local venues, and I am happy to announce that the much-loved Sunday jazz jam is on the calendar today at 6 p.m. Bring your instrument, and it is free, as in cost of admission, and style of jazz if you so…
Eureka Theater’s “Summer of Suspense” Presents The Birds
One of Alfred Hitchock’s best-known films, The Birds, closes out the Summer of Suspense series that’s been playing at the Eureka Theater this month in honor of Hitch’s birthday. This Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. catch stars Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren (along with Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and Veronica Cartwright) in this horror-thriller set…
Humboldt History, Maui Fires and Fair Baking
This week we’ve got a historian’s look back on how Japanese people fared in our county in the wake of the Chinese Expulsion. We’re also sharing a first-hand account of the fires in Maui from a reserve Ferndale police officer who lost his family home. Finally, a dispatch from the county fair’s baking competition. Hit…
19th Annual Hops in Humboldt
Raise your commemorative glasses: Hops in Humboldt is back for its 19th round, Saturday, Aug. 26, at Rohner Park ($50 general, $75 VIP, $25 designated driver). Spend the afternoon enjoying unlimited samples of micro-brews from more than 35 breweries, listening to live music, and checking out all the art and craft vendors. The suds fest…
Alderpoint Man Found Guilty of Murder
A Humboldt County jury on Wednesday convicted an Alderpoint man of first degree murder for the fatal shooting of an acquaintance at his home in January of 2022. Jake Henry Combs, 31, faces 50 years in prison for the death of Trevor John Earley, 25, who was apparently shot in the head without warning at…
The Grateful and the Dead
In Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s Been a Death, in the Opposite House,” the reader is given a glimpse, from the outside looking in, of the social mechanics of death “In just a Country Town.” The narrator/neighbor watches the windows open, a mattress taken outside, and the retreat of the defeated doctor met with the arrival…
Gluten for Punishment
The night before the fair officially opens, the food stalls are up, signs ablaze with corn dogs and funnel cakes, but none of the fryers are going. Tonight, the treats are inside Belotti Hall, where, behind a flank of hanging quilts, felted wool bear sculptures and jars of jam, some 140 entries await judging in…
Trinidad Art Night
Featuring Wild Otis rocking at Saunders Plaza East, The Pronouns at Trinidad Town Hall for lively rock favorites and Dementious & Contentious (Matt Brody and John Lee) at Trinidad Art Center. Find a variety of art exhibits and music throughout town; activities include oyster bar/food and wine tastings, skate park and face painting. THE LIGHTHOUSE…
Pintauro’s Defining Moments at NCRT
Joe Pintauro was an author, poet and prolific playwright in late 20th century New York. The eight plays in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s Pintauro, A Night of One Acts are expressions of the human condition selected from Metropolitan Operas: 27 Short Plays. Each one, though brief, is complete on its own and unique from the…
Rabbit Holes and Shaggy Dogs
THE YOUTUBE EFFECT. As a Luddite, my contact with YouTube is infrequent, shallow and glancing: the occasional how-to, stand-up specials, squinty-eyed late-night music video ping-pong sessions, that’s about it. Living as I do in the allegory of the cave, though, I have at least some sense of how central the site is to many (most?)…
Re: Parking, Housing and ‘Arkleyville’
Editor: Rob Arkley has been in the news lately as the head of a coalition of citizens and business people protesting the loss of 640 parking spots in downtown Eureka to satisfy housing requirements (“Initiative Pits Housing Against Parking in Eureka,” Aug. 17). They say they are not against housing plans mandated by the state,…
A Car-free Existence
Editor: I made a decision back in late May to stop driving my car. I did it to experience what life is like for many people in our small rural communities who don’t have a personal vehicle and have to figure out how to move around Humboldt by bus, by bike or on foot. It…
About Spiritual Compassion
Editor: Reading the same letter printed in several local publications made me wonder why Lynn Hubbard needed to publicly confess himself to being a heretic (“A Heretic Reflects on Spiritual Compassion,” Aug. 17). He admits to one-time Lutheran LCMS affiliation (same as Reverend Bramwell of whom he apparently has issues) and to his now apostate…
In Praise of SRL
Editor: I am responding to the NCJ’s June 15, 2023, book review, “The Ghost Forest’s Haunting Histories.” Save the Redwoods League (SRL) started acquiring property for the creation of Humboldt Redwoods State Park in 1921. The acquisitions continued and currently Humboldt Redwoods SP spans 53,000 acres. This is the largest single expanse of old growth…
Correction
A story in the Aug. 3, 2023, edition of the North Coast Journal’s Best of Humboldt section on the winner of the Best Cultivator and Best Local Cannabis Farm categories included inaccurate information. According to owner Jason Gellman, Ridgeline Farms cultivates 9,600 square feet — less than a quarter-acre — of the firm on which…
Final Words
As the Sun rises Blindly touching what matters, My heart is soaring. Kirk Gothier
‘It’s All Gone’
It was almost 6 p.m. on Aug. 8 when Faraz Soltani saw that gusting winds had pushed the fire burning through Lahaina, Maui, to the church across the street from his home and knew he had to flee. “I knew it was a matter of minutes, if not seconds,” Soltani says. “When I saw that,…
