Cover Story
‘The Future is Ours’
In the coming weeks, hundreds of Humboldt County high school students will take their diplomas and cross the thresholds toward the rest of their lives. Some will head off to college in the fall. Others will enter the workforce. And at least a few will surely stay in their parents’ homes, bumming around and trying…
CALFIRE Academy: Drama, Trauma & Baby Dolls
CALFIRE’s third and final seasonal firefighter training of the year took place last week at the Hilkfiker Training Site. What are they training for? Everything. Literally every scenario that might require their response, from a burning school bus to running up six flights of stairs in full protective gear. On the day we visited, returning…
UPDATE: Eureka City Council Chambers Packed for Budget Drama
UPDATE: A second budget meeting, held last night, explored options to preserve funding for public safety, according to an article in this morning’s Times-Standard. Council Member Melinda Ciarabellini suggested halving funding for Eureka Main Street and the chamber of commerce and cutting funding entirely for such organizations as the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and the…
Seventh Drowning Death of 2015: Don’t Assume a Shallow River is a Safe River
The May 27 drowning death of Brian H. Hone in the Trinity River was the seventh such incident in 2015. Hone, 27, was overcome by the swift current immediately after jumping in, according to the accounts of his two friends. They attempted to rescue Hone but were also overwhelmed and struggled to make it back…
Tonight’s Setlist: The Weekend Isn’t Over
Now, there’s nothing unusual about having the chance to see a cool band or two on a weeknight – Humboldt often being the stop between weekend gigs in larger locales – but catching a band at the Shanty requires a bit of attention to detail. Unlike the friendly service and reasonable prices, Eureka’s favorite dive…
HumBug: Solitary Wasps
Working in my garden, I noticed a small blue black wasp flicking its shiny wings as it dashed across the dirt, searching here and there. I can hazard a guess as to what it was looking for: a spider. Much has been written about the social wasps and their organization, diligence and sacrifice for the…
Who’s Going to Put Out the Fire? Volunteer Firefighters Aging Out of the Service
The ranks of volunteer fire departments are dwindling for lack of fresh faces. The New York Times reported on this trend last year, citing several factors including a shift from volunteer to career firefighting, lack of time for volunteering and the aging of rural populations. This last factor has had a decided impact on departments…
Gavin Newsom Photobombs Garberville
Just about every name in North Coast weed was there; packed into a sweaty, crowded theater for a glimpse at California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Selfies with the photogenic former San Francisco mayor weren’t the only reasons Garberville’s Redwood Playhouse was standing room only — it was the first substantial outreach from Sacramento’s power players…
Tonight’s Setlist: Haunting, Funky, Fabulous, Fantastic Ways to Spend Your Friday
Hie thee to Phillipsville Get out your dancing shoes and prepare to swing because Petunia and The Vipers perform two evenings (tonight and tomorrow) at The Riverwood Inn — be ambitious and see if they have a room for the night. This fantastic band offers a piercing ballad one moment and manic rockabilly the next,…
Stop Calling Stardough’s
Sure, it’s not technically summer yet, but this year’s overcast skies remind us of the Humboldt coastal summers of our youth. If you’re like us, the permafog has you longing for the sunny embrace of Blue Lake. But you’ve been burned before: throw on your trunks, hop on the bike, the promise of cold beer…
Film Permits: The Sequel
How do you make our ancient redwoods even more beautiful? You photograph them as a backdrop to Brad Pitt. Wait. Flip that. How do you make one ancient actor even more beautiful? Regardless of how you flip the question, that’s what Details magazine did in its November cover spread, which you can see online. The…
Don’t Dump on Divers
Editor: While I applaud the efforts of groups diverting waste, I’m disappointed by the negative way that dumpster diving/scavenging was portrayed in the “Hippie Christmas” article (May 21). Offering/scavenging goods for free is not necessarily out of laziness, but a desire to make someone’s day with surprise gifts and to re-circulate goods while keeping money…
Criticism Unfair
Editor: I read the Tony Platt article about police homicides (“Homicide by Police,” May 14) with the same feeling as was so well stated by Tom Dammann in the May 21 issue (“Mailbox”). Tony should be ashamed of sending out such poorly researched and documented material with a definite bias being pointed at the police…
Menu of Menus 2015
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Boom and Boom
Arcata’s Medical Marijuana Innovation Area got an enthusiastic thumbs-up on May 20 from the city council, which ultimately voted unanimously in favor of the proposal, but not before an antsy, standing-room-only crowd stood by while the council spent two hours wading through the night’s consent agenda. When a speaker made a plea for donations to…
North Coast Open Studios 2015
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Hum Plate Round-up
As our annual Menu of Menus restaurant guide goes to press, we’ve been sampling some new joints that have opened up in the last year. Check out the new issue on stands in the coming weeks for more on what’s new in town. Reubenesque It’s hard to look classy whilst cramming a big, grilled, cheesy,…
Oars in the Water
When he gets wind of my plans to go rowing on Humboldt Bay, my husband eyeballs me sternly over his reading glasses. “Be careful.” he warns. “One wrong move and you could fly out of the boat.” A friend suggests I start doing pushups immediately. My mother reminds me to wear a lifejacket. With this…
Faith
Faith Lumbers in sloth like When I least expect it, Back arching into Warm afternoon sun On the front porch where Our Dachshund died, Letting go… — Kirk Gothier
Vacancy on the Bench
Humboldt County Superior Court Judge W. Bruce Watson is leaving the bench. Watson’s six-year term was slated to run through the end of next year, but he announced May 20 that he will be retiring in January, after 23 robed years in the Humboldt County Courthouse. Watson’s announcement leaves a great deal of uncertainty in…
Something Old, Something New
Let’s kick things off with a quick reminder that the Summer Arts & Music Festival is happening at Benbow Lake State Recreational Area this weekend, featuring approximately one zillion bands, local and from elsewhere, with headliners Blackalicious and JJ Grey & Mofro. Tickets are $30 in advance for the weekend or $20 daily at the…
Theory of Anything
Last spring, researchers observing from the South Pole BICEP2 telescope claimed to have found virtually indisputable proof that the universe began in a spurt of insanely rapid inflation nearly 14 billion years ago. (Think of a car’s air bag deploying in a fraction of a second, then multiply the expansion and shorten the time by…
The Bachelorette
Reviews FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. Once I was at the salon with a new stylist who had just moved from San Francisco to Humboldt for love only to break up right away. The other clients and stylists bemoaned the dearth of legitimately employed, responsible, attractive, single men in Humboldt County, telling her, “Move back!…
Growing Pains
Childhood is an odd time. So much of the world is new; there are so many large, sincere questions. Adults seem to move in their own universe — one that’s simultaneously enchanting and frightening. For teens, this conflicting desire and fear seems to increase exponentially. In some moments, nothing feels greater than to inhabit that…
Lady-Fame
Lady-Fame or The Fluke technically qualifies as a memoir, though it feels like an insult to call it one, given the way that term’s been degraded in recent years. The events depicted herein are taken, we are led to believe, from Peter Santino’s real life, though one passage, about a third of the way through,…
Summer Now
You can sit around waiting for the solstice on June 21, or you can start summer now. It must be summer if the Summer Arts and Music Festival is on, right? Follow the sun to the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area on Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31 from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.…
E.T. vs. Yoda
On Saturday, May 30, you’ll have to choose between your favorite locally filmed 1980s sci-fi movies starring an ugly/adorable alien puppet thingy. On the one hand, the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission is putting on Movies in the Park with E.T., in which you can spot scenic Fort Dick, as well as a young Drew Barrymore…
Grill Seekers
You do not need to spend the weekend hunched over coals and woodchips, gasping in the billowing smoke of a grill to enjoy a barbecue. Leave it to pros (or semi-pros, anyway) and eat your fill all weekend. On Saturday, May 30 at Redwood Acres, the Clarke Historical Museum fires up the Redwood Coast Up…
