The Book Issue
Local authors invade your bookshelves – Kindle? – with idiots and seabirds, evil insects and Karl Rove
Cover Stories
Wicked Popular
Bestselling author and superstar Journal contributor Amy Stewart has been on a whirlwind nationwide tour with her latest book, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects. She’ll be back in town in time for the official book launch party this Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Eureka Books, the…
Rove’s Brain
Barack Obama announced his reelection campaign on April 5, and within hours Karl Rove, the crafty political strategist once famously dubbed “Bush’s Brain,” was on Fox news opining on the field of Republican candidates. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was cited as a leading contender. Was there anyone stronger out there? “There could be someone stronger,”…
Smart History for Idiots
Southern Humboldt historian Ray Raphael has always offered a “people’s” take on history. It started with his first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, published in 1974, in which he told “the true story of Indians, deer, homesteaders, potatoes, loggers, trees, fishermen, salmon, and other living things in the backwoods of northern California.” Ten years…
Painting a Mystery
In her new book Seabird in the Forest: The Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet, Humboldt author and painter Joan Dunning’s appealing text and intimate paintings explain how this peculiar member of the murre family nests in the ancient woods. Unlike their closest relatives, who raise chicks in offshore rocky habitats, murrelets cradle their young on…
Hey, You. Barred Owl.
All this fright and scatter about how the barred owl’s taking over our Pacific Northwest woods, and nobody bothered to ask the barred owl directly about it? As in, “hey barred owl, how many of there are you, really, and have you really come to finish off what the “Spotted Owl–It’s What’s For Dinner” folks…
Food Safety Inspection Map
This week’s cover story, called “Queasy Eats,” is the result of a months-long investigation by HSU students enrolled in an advanced reporting class taught by Asst. Professor (and the Journal’s Media Maven) Marcy Burstiner. The issue is on the streets now and will be online tomorrow morning. But this here feature is so cool that we…
Game of Kinetic Chicken (updated)
Humboldt County’s annual Memorial Day event, known by locals as the Kinetic Sculpture Race, has been fraught with problems over the years, mostly revolving around the fact that the race itself has never had any built-in monetization. When he was alive “Glorious Founder” Hobart Brown spent a lot of time fundraising and ended up in…
Seven-O-Heaven Contest Ends in “Controversy” (Updated)
First off, thanks to the dozens of readers who took half a second to submit captions for our NCJ Book Issue-inspired Seven-O-Heaven Caption Contest. Your pithy entries made the Journal editorial posse, at various times, laugh, cry, scratch our heads and/or fear for the future of our species. Way to go! But one entry stood…
Rabies Update
As promised the county’s public health office released a follow-up press release today about the human rabies infection that was diagnosed last week, but there’s not much new information. Officials are still looking for the animal that caused the infection, and the patient’s condition has not changed substantially over the weekend, according to the release. (The victim is at…
Human Rabies Case in Willow Creek
A Willow Creek resident has tested positive for rabies. That’s about the extent of information released so far by the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC informed local public health officials of the diagnosis this afternoon. The infected animal has not yet been identified, according to a press release from the county…
Writing A Poem Upside-Down
When I am inverted, I fold my laundry…
May Flowers
Following on the heels of April showers, May is not typically the most active month for music and entertainment locally. College gets out halfway through and the full-bore summer festival season has not yet kicked in. But that does not mean there’s nothing going on; take for example, the blossoming of the Humboldt Arts Festival,…
Classical Roundup
Old warhorses and a few contemporary fast ponies hit the last stretch of the symphonic classical music scene in Humboldt County this month. Whether you prefer a rousing tuba concerto, a delightful viola trio, or operatic Latin masses, the North Coast’s lively and talented musicians will not disappoint. HSU kicks off May’s spring concert season…
May 5-11
May 5. The planet you are currently occupying will pass through the debris of Haley’s Comet tonight and tomorrow. This year’s Eta Aquarids meteor shower takes place across a dark sky, so up to 40 to 50 meteors will be visible per hour if conditions are ideal. May 6. Unless you own a greenhouse…
Winning!
WIN WIN. Regular moviegoers know not to trust trailers. In addition to regularly including plot spoilers and often, especially for comedies, revealing the film’s best lines, trailers can be significantly misleading. Such is the case with Win Win. From the trailer I saw too many times, I would have put this film down as a…
Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin About Him?)
Harry Nilsson was a musical force in the early 1970s as a singer and songwriter, though he never quite became a star. But as this DVD demonstrates, he did achieve a mythological status and musical immortality. At one time or another I owned the first 10 of his 15 albums and I still have four:…
Musings
Welcome to Muse, Vol. 1, No. 1. The idea for a monthly arts and culture magazine is not new. In fact, the North Coast Journal was founded as a news, arts and entertainment monthly in 1990 and continued until September 1998 when it was converted to weekly. Now, once a month on the week of…
C’mon
After nearly two decades, the Duluth, Minn.-based rock band Low, co-led by guitarist Alan Sparkhawk and drummer/percussionist Mimi Parker (husband and wife), has amassed a number of tags to its brand of quiet, slower-paced songs, with plenty of dirge running underneath the engaging hymnal-like melodies. It started as a joke when, asked to describe Low’s…
Pound of Flesh
New bail scheduling for Humboldt County drastically raises the stakes on marijuana-related felony arrests, making it more expensive in some cases to bail out on a marijuana possession charge than on such crimes as violent felonies against the elderly, battery of a police officer and involuntary manslaughter. The scheduling, which has been in effect since…
Dancing in the Month of May
It’s hard to know where to start. For me, it begins with modern dance and then ballet: Their historic relationship of rebellions and reconciliations inform my inner dance life. But there is so much more. Dance was the first human artistic expression. Dance and the drum. Before language there was the sound of our nascent…
Wizardry
The note from the Arcata Playhouse starts with the words “banjo wizard.” It goes on to describe the wizard, Tony Furtado, as a slide guitarist, but that doesn’t really do justice to the breadth of his music currently. It’s true he started out as a teenaged banjo prodigy, a picker who won national bluegrass competitions…
May Humboldt Happenings
43rd Annual Kinetic Grand Championship How beloved is the Kinetic Grand Championship? Last September, as part of our annual “Best of Humboldt” issue, the Journal asked its readers to sort through the many annual local gatherings they look forward to and pick one to reign as “Best Event.” It really wasn’t much of a contest.…
Does a Kindle have soul?
We didn’t plan it this way — at least not consciously — but the Journal’s first-ever Book Issue comes at a time of revolution in the publishing industry. Books as we know them are in jeopardy. Last month, the Association of American Publishers released a report showing that in February, sales of e-books — digital…
Grass Poll
Editor: You know what particularly struck me in the story “Bad Weed” (April 21)? Not the accusation of fraud against Friends of the Dunes, including without any response. Instead, it was the description of opponents of invasive beach grass removal as “vocal and compelling.” Vocal they may be, but not very compelling. The long list…
Maine Stage
Almost, Maine, now on stage at Redwood Curtain, is a collection of love stories told in 10 scenes with two people in each, united only by the time and place: a winter night in a mythical, unincorporated town in rural northern Maine. Only a couple of the 19 characters recur in more than one scene…
Choke Point
Editor: Regarding the article “You Are Here” (April 21): It seems the City of Arcata is worried that no one can find the place (a place where driving downtown is difficult due to excessive traffic and where parking is scarce at best), so they need to put up big signs on the freeway to attract…
On the Beat in May
The month of May is filled with art. Here’s just some: At Saturday’s Arts Alive! Jennifer Metz is showing beautiful paintings on silk at Humboldt Baykeeper. Three of my favorites are Blooming Lotus, Beginnings and Home Visions. Her lyrical artist’s statement is “I paint because I am alive and I love life.” C Street Hall…
School of Bank
Editor: Thank you so much for printing David Cay Johnston’s excellent analysis of our corrupt tax system (“Wealth Care,” April 14). In response to that reality, groups of concerned citizens participated in Tax Day demonstrations across the U.S. To draw attention to the impact of corporate tax breaks on our schools, I joined with the…
Why I’m Not Rich
If only I’d listened to Alf. American economist Alfred Cowles III (1891-1984) sought to “elevate economics into a more precise science using mathematical and statistical techniques,” sez Wikipedia. Back in 1944 (I was 2, no wonder I didn’t listen), he published his second report — 11 years after the first — in which he rated…
Tour of the Unknown Coast is NOW
Around about a week ago, some of us who shall not be named exclaimed, “What?! The Tour of the Unknown Coast is here already? But I haven’t even trained! And I was going to conquer The Wall this year and be the queen of ‘California’s toughest century.'” Yes, the TUC is here. If you have…
Arts Alive!
Presented by the Humboldt Arts Council and Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are held the first Saturday of each month. Phone 442-9054 or go to www.eurekamainstreet.org, for more information or to have an exhibit/performance included. A. AORNI CENTER Open Studios preview. 1. EUREKA INN 518 Seventh St. Ellen Bryant vintage…
Expression is Freedom
Ppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnniiiiiissssssssssssssss. Offended? Or did you just say to yourself: “Wow, that’s one really long penis that Marcy started her column with”? I felt compelled to do that in the hope that someone will rip this page off and tape it to the wall of the greenhouse at Humboldt State. Better yet, pick up a copy…
Let Go of the Wheel
One thing you can count on when you talk with an artist; you’re going to be speaking with an individual who enjoys exploring the connections between who they are and what they do. My recent conversation with veteran photographer, William S. Pierson (Bill), was no exception. Pierson has been seriously pursuing photography as a fine…
Thirty Kinetic Years
Duane Flatmo plans to bring his giant lobster back to the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race on Memorial Day weekend. It’s the same vehicle he raced in 2010, but this time around there’ll be a variety of updates, including a fire-breathing monster perched on top of the lobster’s back. The machine is an engineering marvel with…
Get Doomed
It’s been said that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But what if you’d kinda like to repeat it? Or at least lovingly recreate a small portion of it? This Saturday, May 7, flip George Santayana the bird for the first ever Humboldt Living History Day, stretching to seven local…
Nuked Bug
Editor: Regarding your cover article “Repellant” (April 28), about 20 years ago a book was published by radiation scientists Gould and Goldman called Deadly Deceit. The book explained in detail an accident that occurred at the Millstone Nuclear Reactor in Waterford, Conn., about six miles from the town of Old Lyme, in 1975 when many…
