The Sonoma Gang
Remembering the genocidal scum who built Arcata
Cover Story
The Sonoma Gang
In March 1850, the brand-new California Supreme Court, Chief Justice Serranus C. Hastings presiding, issued its first-ever decision. The ruling freed seven men who had recently been charged with arson and murder and instead placed them under a $10,000 bond. The men were released from the USS Savannah, a naval vessel anchored in San Francisco…
In the Spirit of the North Pole
Via TNR .
Letter from Lila
Lila Nelson – Photo by Sheldon Sabbatini. Arcata’s favorite singer/songwriter Lila Nelson celebrates the release of a new CD, Letter Home , with a show Friday, Sept. 19, at the Arcata Playhouse , where she’ll be backed by Mom and Pop rhythm section, Tim Gray and Marla Joy and guitarist Greg Lojko from The Rubberneckers…
Arcata Sesquicentennial
Eleven Arcata Mayors Ten of Arcata’s former mayors joined Mayor Mark Wheetley (on right in top hat) on the Arcata Plaza today to celebrate the city’s 150th anniversary. Those who spoke uniformly had trouble pronouncing sesquicentennial (seskwisenˈtenēəl). Perhaps to mark the occasion, someone had decorated the statue of William McKinley with a brassiere. No one…
Could You Be More Specific?
Once in a while a rabid Journal-hater’s interior walls will burst, and pent-up passions come burbling out in a frothing, acrid foam. What can sometimes be disappointing, in such a case, is lack of detail. What we need from you is specifics. What, in particular, set you off? What was the proverbial back-breaking straw? Having…
Nature Cares Nothing for Calendars
It is only September 1, but autumn arrived…
Bangkok Ridiculous
Previews Opening Friday, Sept. 12, Pacino and De Niro are police detectives looking for a serial killer who may also be a cop in Righteous Kill. Worse, there seems to be a connection to a case they had previously "solved." Directed by Jon Avnet (88 Minutes). Rated R for violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and…
Waterfront Meltdown
The Eureka Ice and Cold Storage refrigeration warehouse is one of the most essential businesses to the local fishing industry, but it’s also been deemed a threat to public health and its owners have decided to shut it down. A situation that has been on the county’s enforcement radar for three-and-a-half years is being resolved…
Afro Blue
As any musicologist will tell you, the blues comes from Africa. Nowhere is this more evident than in the bluesy music that comes out of Mali, particularly as played by the late great guitarist Ali Farka Touré, whose sound was famously described by Martin Scorsese as "the DNA of the blues." Before he died in…
Curved
Just before noon on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, a truck carrying an empty 90,000-pound nuclear waste cask to the Humboldt Bay Power Plant came to a slow halt on a sharp curve on State Route 36. It happened near Buck Mountain on a shoulderless, narrow, steep section of road flanked by a rising…
Man Up
There’s something kind of curious about the fact that the latest raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the atrociously acronymed “ICE” — came only a few days after Willie Nelson played Humboldt County. One day after Willie, KHUM’s Mike Dronkers was asking, “Isn’t there anything besides Willie Nelson that can bring the hippies and…
Second Friday Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at more than 30 participating locations in Arcata. Visit www.artsarcata.com for even more information about the event or call 822-4500. 1. East Side Deli and Market 420 California St. Russell Bashaw, natural patterns using blends of organic materials, watercolors and…
Zero Sum
Editor: The article“This Time for Sure” (Sept. 4), on the proposed Marina Center, notes that Home Depot Real Estate Manager Brian Cannard dismissed the belief that a new Home Depot will displace smaller stores, saying: “My sense is, they sharpen their pencils and figure out how to survive.” And Security National’s Randy Gans noted that…
Go Electric
Editor: I would like to add to the article about scooters (“Stay Upright,” Sept. 4). I have an electric scooter which I plug into the wall at the end of the ride. My scooter looks like a Vespa, carries two at the speed limit in town, and is quiet. I definitely echo the great training…
The Other Candidates For President
It’s the rare alternative candidate for President who can lose horribly and still attain third-party glory and national fame. And that’s the Spoiler. It doesn’t get any better than that for an independent or third-party candidate. Knowing he or she can’t win, he sneaks up in a tiny paper boat, rams a hole in the…
Fair Play For Fascists
Editor: Noelle Andrade writes “it is outrageous … for this publication to dedicate space to an openly racist political party candidate …” and demands “an explanation/apology” (“Mailbox,” Sept. 4). I have an explanation: Free Speech! For Andrade’s edification, free speech means free to all of us, not just those who agree with her. I’m opposed…
Garden 2.0
For months I’ve been ignoring the Facebook and LinkedIn invitations my friends have been sending me. I spend too much time on the computer anyway; the last thing I need is to get sucked into social networking. A cousin who is also a writer told me that Facebook was a wonderful way to procrastinate. While…
Yesssssssss!
Editor: At first glance I was excited to see an article about the nude figure and its relationship to the artist, as I use the nude in my own work, but then realized it was just a superficial jab at what the figure represents in art (“Art Beat,” Sept. 4). The subtitle — “Nude portraiture…
Birds of Arcata
"Hello everyone, today was a beautiful day out at the farm. The sun was warm, the air calm, and 102 new little broiler chicks were introduced to the fresh green pasture. Over the last few weeks, activity on our farm has been chuggin’ along as the season marches closer to Summer Solstice — the longest…
Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
The merger of Scott McCaughey from Minus 5 and Steve Wynn, former leader of the LA-based ’80s band the Dream Syndicate, makes for a perfect doubleheader. Together, the songwriters have culled baseball folklore, stories and forgotten personalities to inspire a new album that, to borrow baseball verbiage, goes the distance. With the contributions of REM/Minus…
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
When Fenfang Wang, the protagonist and narrator of Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, finally reaches some semblance of happiness and freedom in her young life, she tries to reach back into her past to deliver a message to her 17-year-old self, an unhappy budding artist trapped in a boring fishing village in East China:…
The Quantum Ten: A Story of Passion, Tragedy, Ambition and Science
“How can you be in two places at once, when you’re not anywhere at all?” When the Firesign Theatre performed that vaudeville parody, they expressed a central conundrum of quantum physics without really trying. A lot of mischief flows from the finding that, at least at the sub-atomic level, an object is created in a…
