Cover Story
Through Mark Larson’s Lens
Everyone’s journey in 2023 through our local events, sports, politics, protests, entertainment and the arts was different than mine, but my goal this past year was to again photograph special moments that were particularly memorable. The mission of photojournalism, as Ted Anthony of the Associated Press recently described it, is “to capture moments that represent…
Richard Alan Wolski: 1947-2024
It is with aching hearts that we announce the death of Alan Wolski, beloved husband and devoted father to two daughters and a granddaughter. Al was born to Edward and Mildred Wolski in Chicago on July 7, 1947, and he always thought of seven as his lucky number. He was a lover of music, nature,…
Robert Walter ‘Wally’ Costa: 1956-2023
A most wonderful man has died. Robert Walter “Wally” Costa was born Sept. 4, 1956, and died July 26, 2023, at the age of 66. Wally was raised in Eureka, graduated from Eureka High School in 1974, then began his life’s career in the timber industry. Employed by several private companies, the work was hard…
Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 12
It’s all energy Latin dance vibes at the Arcata Theatre Lounge this evening starting at 9 p.m., with the return of the popular DJ-curated Fuego. The tune-spinners on deck tonight are DJs Pressure, Statik and D’Vinity, so expect lots of reggaeton and beyond. As per usual, there will be pole and go go dancers providing…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Jan. 11
The Siren’s Song Tavern is hosting an extreme metal show tonight at 8 p.m. San Francisco’s death grind gore band Cartilage with local smashers Sarcophilus Satanicus, Bloodspire and Heathenistic. At least that’s what I have gleaned from the cave bear-etched claw scribble of the band’s logos on the flyer. Door cover is a sliding scale…
Cal State Faculty Union Vows to Strike Over the University’s Final Pay Offer
The faculty union of the California State University is planning a week of strikes across the 23 campuses Jan. 22 – 26 after the system said this week that it would provide 5 percent raises to members, far below what the union is seeking. The California Faculty Association is asking for 12 percent raises this…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Jan. 10
Fay Wray’s character Ann Darrow sure did catch a lot of shit for being “the beauty who killed the beast” in 1933’s massive monkey movie King Kong, and in my view it wasn’t her fault at all for the big guy’s demise, but rather the bozos who stole him from his home on Skull Island…
Despite Coastal Commission Appeal, Schneider Mansion Demolition, Restoration Could be Complete by July
It’s been more than six months since the Humboldt County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the permits and permit modifications necessary for local developer Travis Schneider to tear down his partially constructed family mansion overlooking the Fay Slough Wildlife Area. The deal ratified by the commission in July would have seen Schneider avoid up…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Jan. 7
The Miniplex is hosting a very special gig tonight at an early start time of 7:30 p.m. Rangda is a supergroup composed of Ben Chasny from Six Organs of Admittance and Comets on Fire, guitarist and avant folk composer Sir Richard Bishop, and New York City-based free jazz drummer and master improviser Chris Corsano. This…
Sheriff’s Office Investigating ‘Suspicious’ Death
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has launched a death investigation after human remains were found by beachgoers in the Manila Dunes yesterday afternoon. According to a press release, beachgoers reported finding the unidentified male body at 4:52 p.m. yesterday and deputies and a deputy coroner were dispatched to the scene. “The unidentified male is believed…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Jan. 6
Humbrews is hosting a 50th birthday bash for musician Rob Amerman at 9 p.m. tonight. The lineup features local heavies Former Chimps, War Möth and The Big Mahoff. Rob himself will be playing fuzzed-out instrumentals on guitar in a dynamic duo featuring the drummer Crash Landing. If this is of interest to you, consider stopping…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Eureka Main Street presents First Saturday Night Arts Alive Jan. 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. Galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open late for your enjoyment. 4TH STREET MERCANTILE 215 Fourth St. Various artists. Open until 8 p.m. ART CENTER FRAME SHOP 616 Second St. Jimmy Callian, photography. ART CENTER SPACE 620 Second…
A Daily Dose of Awe
One of my favorite outdoor activities is running in Sue-meg State Park. I start on Patrick’s Point Drive; the stretch of road between the two beautiful wooden signs marking the turnoff and the entrance station is like a red carpet laid out by the park’s welcoming committee. Past the entrance station, I turn left at…
The Cat Has Made Some Resolutions
Good morning. Well, good pre-dawn. Here, let me bat your face to help you wake up. That’s probably as much as your weak human eyes will adjust to the dark but that’s OK. We can talk while I press my full weight on your chest. While you were out celebrating with what smells like the…
Music and Silence
MAESTRO. Due as much to my penchant for low-culture goonery as anything else, Bradley Cooper’s decision to follow up his directorial debut — A Star Is Born (2018), admittedly also a thematic outlier to me — with a meditation on the life and times of Leonard Bernstein seemed anachronistic, to say the least. Shame on…
‘Think Twice’
Editor: Medicare’s open enrollment period is nearly upon us and with it will come pitches from Medicare Advantage to sign up for their plan (“California Says No to Privatizing Medicare,” Sept. 7). Many attempts at getting potential enrollees to sign up are downright deceitful, including letters such as the one just received at our house…
Nicotine: Not So Benign
Smokers trying to quit say they feel like they’re giving up a friend.” Scott Leishow, professor at the College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University Even since the 1950s, when the link between smoking and lung cancer was firmly established (despite the protestations from Big Tobacco), there’s been no question about the harmful effects of…
December Leaves
Days grow shorter shadows lengthen naked branches of my favorite oak trees skeletons of former glory snake across the sky. last leaves hold on, holding out last rays of dying light paint the sky like the inside of a seashell –coral, peach, magenta, violet sculptural beauty of distant trees silhouettes against…
New State Laws Aimed to Streamline Home Building Take Effect in 2024
If California wants to build its way out of its long-term housing shortage, plenty of things stand in its way in 2024: high-interest rates, sluggish local approval processes and a persistent shortage of skilled construction workers, among others. But a slew of housing bills from the 2023 legislative session going into effect on Jan. 1 promise to…
People Like Us
I hope you all landed on the other side of the year safely, with minimal damage to yourself as well as any municipal structures, especially fire hydrants. I stayed in and watched movies; that’s the era I’m in now, I guess. It’s probably for the best. As I warned last week, having been on this…
What’s Good
La Flor Mixteca grows in Freshwater Driving in the early dark past Three Corners Market at the intersection of Freshwater Road and Myrtle Avenue (5945 Myrtle Ave., Eureka), the brightly lit logo of the Flor Mixteca truck glows like a winter mirage. Since the name references a region in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca,…
