Summer of Fun 2008
Summer activities for kids, summer festival guide and a cautionary tale (or stay safe this summer!)
Cover Story
Summer of Fun
Humboldt County has a wealth of organized summer activities for children. This is just a survey of what’s available. For more information, contact your school, church or pick up a copy of the Humboldt Kid’s Digest at a branch of the Humboldt County Library, the Eureka Chamber of Commerce or county agencies. Most of these…
Liveblogging the Election
Just before 8 p.m. County Clerk-Recorder Carolyn Crnich says that around 26,000 absentee and vote-by-mail ballots were sent out for this election. Ten thousand of those have been counted and should be available shortly. There’s 3,000 of these ballots that are in the Elections Office’s possession but uncounted. They will not be counted tonight. 8:01…
The Journeous Journey
Three months ago, Humboldt County, we set out on a journey. A journeous journey — one that took us through the lowest valleys and up the highest hills. Today, we have reached the end of the journey. And yet, at the same time, the journey has only begun. The end of one journey; the beginning…
Salmon can swim on buses
A judge ruled yesterday that TriMet (Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon) violated state and federal free speech laws when it rejected an ad (above), calling it “political,” submitted by the Karuk Tribe and Friends of the River Foundation. In February the ACLU sued the bus company over the rejection. Judge Henry Breithaupt said TriMet’s…
Test-Driving Barack’s Chili
Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama’s recipe for chili has been the #1 story on northcoastjournal.com almost from the moment it was slapped up there. Now Ian Froeb, “Gut Check” columnist for our sister paper in St. Louie, answers the question we’ve all been asking ourselves: Can the man make a decent pot of chili? Click…
Show: Eric McFadden and his Funky Friends
The spot was an elusive and desolate warehouse in industrial Arcata, off West End Road. It was 9:30 last Sunday night. Inside the tall aluminum doors of the two-story warehouse, soft spotlights glowed purple and red through swirls of opalescent white smoke. Urban graffiti and abstract oil paintings of 70’s icons such as John Lennon…
The Winner!
No, not the election. That’s tomorrow… As noted by the folks at Rep. Mike’s office: Humboldt County Student Wins Congressional Art Competition WASHINGTON—Today, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson announced that Fortuna High School senior Sarah Swanlund is our district’s winner of the 2008 Congressional “Artistic Discovery” Competition. Sarah’s art was chosen from among finalists across…
My Crystal Ball
First of all: Vote Tuesday! And on Tuesday night, keep it tuned to the Blogthing for full election night coverage. Now. I’ll admit up front that my track record is only so-so. In my own personal win column: Gallegos (recall), Gallegos (reelection), Chris Kerrigan (Eureka City Council, 2004), Mike Wilson (Bay District, 2005). Losses: Rodoni…
King’s Salmon
Editor: The Karuk Tribe’s representative Craig Tucker has been making the rounds, both on the media front and in the rumor mill, to discredit the Northcoast Environmental Center’s position on Klamath dam settlement talks. (“Town Dandy,” May 22) Tucker’s pitch is unfortunate. He contends that the NEC has had “two years” to bring up our…
Thing of the Past
Album by Vetiver Gnomonsong When The Band released Music From the Big Pink in 1968, the record was a revelation, a watershed, especially among fellow musicians and singer-songwriters across the globe. It was a new type of Americana — one that embraced a lost songbook of American folk, blues, rock and country and reinterpreted them…
Cub Care
Editor: We appreciated your recent article on the mountain lion cub (“Of Cubs and Men,” May 15). We were happy to be able to clarify the situation. There are a few points, however, that we think should be mentioned. The Humboldt Wildlife Care Center had no say in the decision-making process regarding the eventual plan…
Summer Festival Guide 2008
Warm breezes are just around the corner and with the change in weather comes hot fun in the summertime and a collection of annual outdoor music events, some of the local ones decades old. When last year’s festival guide came out, we were reporting on a battle over Humboldt County’s biggest music fest, Reggae on…
Next up: RATT
Editor: As I write this, Humboldt County is on the eve of one of the finest cultural moments the area has experienced since, well … ever. Tonight, taking the stage in a casino (the indoor equivalent of a county fair) is Night Ranger (“The Hum,” May 22). Tickets starting at $39. Leave your self-respect at…
Dreamers
When I met Israeli rocker David Stitch from The Mother’s Anger a couple of years ago, he was living some weird version of the American rock dream, traveling around the states, living in the band van, calling no particular place home, playing soaring guitar and writing intense songs. Last week he called me from his…
Battle of Richmond
Editor: As is the case for most of our country, Humboldt State University is experiencing ongoing financial pain. In our case, that has resulted in damage to our capacity to teach and engage in scholarship. It has been an extremely stressful time for my colleagues and me as we cast about to find ways to…
Creaky Old Indy
Previews For those who didn’t get enough of Sex and the City from Candace Bushnell’s book of her collected newspaper columns about young, single, professional women in Manhattan, one of whom was the author herself, or from the six-season HBO series, May 30 brings fans the big screen version, and it remains to be seen…
Wars Remembered
“Well, maybe a dream it was / It’s really hard to tell / But if it’s not, I’d just survived / The very depths of Hell.” So ends the next-to-last section of a 15-part poetic rumination on the Vietnam War written by Blue Ox Millworks founder and Vietnam vet Eric Hollenbeck. You probably haven’t read…
Task Force
Armed with pie charts, statistics and a pictorial display of the sort of slovenliness the Humboldt County Code Enforcement Unit frequently deals with regularly, interim County Counsel Wendy Chaitin and Deputy County Counsel Richard Hendry began an overview of the controversial unit last Friday at the first meeting of the Code Enforcement Task Force. (For…
What the Brits Are Up To
At the moment I’m on holiday, as they say here in Jolly Old England. We’re here visiting relatives, but I thought I mightas well take the opportunity to suss out the British art scene. This, of course, is an impossible task for a three-week visit, but I’ll tell you about a few interesting things I’ve…
Nice to be Nice
Well, here we are with only a few days left to go in the first and possibly final round of the 2008 contest for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, and so far there’s been a noticeable absence of juice to the campaigns. Lo and behold, everyone seems to have played above board, more or…
A Cautionary Tale
A friend once asked me, mockingly, “Do you consider nature benign?” I instantly pictured what he pictured: me floating barefoot through wildflowers, head in the clouds and a benevolent smile on my face, hugging rabbits and kissing beetles, oblivious that a few paces behind me in the flowers bobbed the fuzzy tipped ears of a…
Fossil Collagen
Collagen is the protein that holds our bodies together. It constitutes our connective tissues. Lampreys, sharks and skates use it instead of bone. It is such a tough protein that some small fraction may have survived 68 million years in a T. rex skeleton excavated a few years ago. A team of six scientists recently…
Barack’s Chili
Food and agriculture issues might not make the headlines very often in a presidential race, but they affect everything from health to energy policy, and touch on a lot of ethical, economic and environmental issues along the way. Thus, I’ve been trying for weeks to reach Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton…
Street Horrrsing
Album by Fuck Buttons ATP Recordings I’m not entirely sure what a Fuck Button is. As a noun, it could be what you press in times of distress. As a simple statement, it perhaps expresses a preference for zippers. With an added comma, it denotes that a preference for zippers has been denied: “Fuck, buttons.”…
The Story of a Marriage
By Andrew Sean Greer Farrar, Straus and Giroux We’re in a strange time in the history of the novel. It would eventually cannibalize all previous literary forms, but in England the novel began as almost satire, a playful burlesque of sermons, letters and travel narratives. It started as a popular form and prospered as such…
The Cursed Wind
I’ve been getting e-mails from Journal readers all week. Everyone’s freaked out about the blazing heat followed by the rain and the fog followed by the maddening wind. “What’s up with this weather?” people keep asking me. Like I would know. As I write this, it’s the wind that’s making everyone nuts. It’s a forceful,…
