The COG and the Machine
Inside the local agency that holds Caltrans’ purse strings
Cover Story
The COG and the Machine
Humboldt county residents showed up en masse. Representatives from the Eureka business community were there. An environmental advocacy group gave a PowerPoint presentation. The meeting lasted until almost midnight. But this wasn’t a debate about Home Depot. It wasn’t a meeting about the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy or unregulated marijuana grow houses. Rather, it was a…
Added To Pipe
Humboldt Blogs blogfeed users, please extend a big blogthing welcome to: The mysterious Kym K, aka The Redheaded Blackbelt. Our scenester pals at the Arcata Eye.
Lame Excuses
Many apologies for the sporadic posts. Truth is, we’re all working on some massively awesome things that we’re gonna unleash on your head next week and all throughout the month of December. Trust me — cool stuff coming up in the paper. Take that to the bank, sucka. Meanwhile, we just put our annual Gift…
Help!
Directed by Richard Lester New 2-disk DVD release Apple/EMI Even if there are movies greater than Help! — which recently arrived in a new DVD edition — it’s hard to think of movies more wonderful. The Beatles were great enough without their film work, but the double whammy of Hard Day’s Night and Help! was…
Hundred Flowers Bloom
The big headlines from last week’s Bay District election focused on the McKinleyville area, and rightly so. Up there, port development skeptic and fisheries biologist Pat Higgins utterly crushed 16-year incumbent Charles Ollivier, perhaps the loudest voice in favor of the dubious proposal to bring mass industry back to Humboldt Bay (see “Views of the…
‘Othello’ in Arcata
When Venice was a great power, its most trusted military leader was Othello, a Moor. In secret, Othello wooed the daughter of a Venetian noble, Brabantio, and as the play opens their secret marriage is about to be revealed. I ago, a trusted officer who may or may not be seriously aggrieved at being passed…
Post-Vocal Symphonies
My co-worker Heidi asked me a question at the office the other day, something along the lines of "Do you know anything about a band from Canada coming to town? I can’t remember the name but my friend says they’re good." "Are they Quebecois?" I wondered. I’d heard about that show. She didn’t think that…
What’s so amazing about anemones?
Among all the fantastic products of three billion years of evolution, such as intricately constructed ears, eyes and skeletons, the most amazing exists within primitive anemones, corals and jellyfish. The stickiness you feel when touching anemones in local tide-pools is a consequence of thousands of microscopic harpoons launched into your skin. Each launching mechanism is…
Asters Up Front
It was a perfect day to be in the garden. There had been just enough rain to make the ground damp and easy to dig, but not enough to turn it to mud. More rain was on its way, but not right away. Time to start transplanting. I’ve been working on this gradual transformation of…
Pulp Friction
It was early January 2005, and things were a little shaky to say the least out at the pulp mill on the Samoa Peninsula. Stockton Pacific Enterprises, Inc., then-owner of the mill, was sinking fast into the surf under nearly $30 million debt to investor PPM America, which had loaned SPE the money to buy…
Hobart Brown RIP
Considering the rumor that Hobart Brown’s last words were, “Alert the media,” chances are you’ve heard the sad news: Ferndale’s world-renowned artist died from pneumoniain the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna at the age of 73. Best known as the “Glorious Founder” of the Kinetic Sculpture Race,…
Lame Lions
Previews Opening Friday, Nov. 16, following in the footsteps of last year’s 300, Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf brings another digitally enhanced warrior to the screen for your viewing pleasure. The film uses the technology of "performance capture" seen in The Polar Express to tell the story of the misunderstood monster who has been terrorizing us humans…
Saving Daylight
Fog burns off under light saved for this…
Does Paul Giuntoli grow the best beans in the state?
The subject line for the e-mail said simply, “Cool Beans!” The message came from juice man Dave Feral (see “Table Talk,” Oct. 4), who serves on the board for North Coast Grower’s Association, the folks who run the local farmers’ markets. Dave noted that he’d heard at a recent NCGA meeting that, “Paul Giuntoli of…
Rooster McClintock
Oct. 27, 2007 Live at the Ocean Grove Crunk music is the notorious southern brand of hip hop — dizzying repetitive beats crafted to make dancers ecstatic, often with the assistance of alcohol and drugs. A pre-Halloween evening with Humboldt honky tonk band Rooster McClintock at Trindad’s Ocean Grove offers an easy comparison: honky crunk.…
Why Kerouac Matters
Book by John Leland. Published by Viking. Few literary brands need to be reduced in size and fable more than that of Jack Kerouac. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s On the Road, the hip European clothing shop Hogan debuted its own line of Kerouac-inspired beatnik clothing, including boots starting at $475. Clearly…
