Titlow Hill Blues
A mess of illegal parcels, junky squatters, pot ops, mad landowners — and sudden county interest in these matters — have clouded this backwoods paradise.
Cover Story
Titlow Hill Blues
The wine-makers move in The twiggy young vineyard swoops up a gentle slope of high prairie, its staked rows parting midway to flow around a stand of wild, mossy oaks. All around, barely visible in the winter fog that’s descended on this afternoon, more prairie hills rise, dip and rise. If you followed them northeasterly,…
A-town Anti-Prom
Fun flash! (Emphasis ours): The Arcata Costume Prom is a high school age dance put on by local Arcata teenagers who found the proms instituted by their schools to be lacking in style and not serving the whole student population. The Costume Prom was created to fulfill many dance styles and musical taste from Jazz…
NCJ Hack Jumps to Silly Conclusion
HSU Lumberjack [Some Arizona paper] wins dubious honor: Hundreds of years of print journalism have generated countless millions of headlines. (At least I’ve never counted ’em.) So it’s no small feat that HSU’s student newspaper [some Arizona paper] made the cut for The Huffington Post’s “Funniest Headline Fails of All Time.” Bask in the afterglow,…
Advice For Drug Dealers
Here’s a tip for you drugmongers out there: Let’s say you and your man-friend, who happens to be a convicted felon (sexy!), are hotboxing it in a casino parking lot, enjoying some well-earned r & r after a grueling day of meth-peddling. We’ve all been there. And we all know that, on days like this,…
Icky-sounding Murder Investigation
Two men were arrested on suspicion of murder over the weekend, and judging by a Sheriff’s Office press release, the body must have been in a bad way. Without the question even being posed the release states, “The condition of the remains is being withheld at this time.” It goes on to explain that forensic…
Humboldt?
USA…” Interesting thread on the Rollitup.org website, a collection of forums on topics including General Marijuana Growing, Seed and Strain Reviews and Cooking With Cannabis. Someone calling himself “KongoBam” posts in a forum called “Toke N Talk,” although it would seem another forum, “The Black Briefcase” (business discussion, stock advice, financial management) might have been…
John Ross: Loose in Obamalandia
John Ross: Loose in Obamalandia: Our favorite former poet-in-residence John Ross spins tales of his latest book tour — “First stop was the near north woods, Humboldt County
Georgian Chicken Thighs with Chickpeas
God, this is a good dish. I know I should lead in with a catchy hook about its antioxidant flavinoids, or its localvore superiority, or its ability to increase your prowess in between the sheets. Yeah, I’m getting to that. But really, this dish is just awesomely delicious. It originates back in my poverty-stricken days…
Orders of Magnitude
At a conference on Mars some years ago, I was amused by a comment by long-time NASA researcher Chris McKay. Another space scientist was enthusiastically explaining how his proposal to send humans to Mars would cut the cost of a Mars mission by 90 percent, from NASA’s then-estimated $400 billion to a mere $40 billion.…
Broken Hearts
Previews Opening Friday, Feb. 19, is Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island. Based on the tense 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River; Gone Baby Gone), the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as U.S. marshals who in 1954 are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane located…
Ready for Her Close Up
You probably know her from her surprise hit, "Luka," a compelling first-person story/song about a boy who’s a victim of child abuse that somehow became a Top 10 hit in the ’80s. But did you know Suzanne Vega is also considered "The Mother of the MP3"? When German audio engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg was designing the…
Away We Go
For reasons that will soon be evident, there aren’t going to be any names in this column. Earlier this week, we received a call from someone we know and respect, and who has had plenty of useful information and insight in the past. This person — Source X — wanted to pass along some information,…
Schoolyard Scrap
Everyone with the City of Eureka believed it was a done deal. Jefferson Elementary School, which has lain empty and deteriorating in the West Side since closing in 2005, would be sold to the City for $600,000 in redevelopment funds — half in cash and half in installments over the next five years, per a…
Ladies’ Choice
Editor: I was among the throng of well-wishers and free-foodies Saturday evening at the “world premiere” of the FilmHumboldt (aka, the Humboldt Film Commission) “Love Humboldt” film campaign (“Humboldt: The Brand,” Feb. 11). The room was abuzz with anticipation, and I was hopeful, after all the hubbub created by the process with which Ms. Debets,…
Copped Out
Editor: Thanks for your continuing coverage of the code enforcement issues (“Code Cops, Not Real Cops,” Feb. 18). Your coverage has been critical in exposing this travesty of justice. However, this issue has not been resolved. The County Counsel’s Office and Supervisor Duffy are continuing to try to use the code for other criminal issues.…
Tonterias
Editor: Could I add a correction to Ruthanne Cecil’s correction (“Mailbox,” Feb. 4) of Barry Evans (“Field Notes,” Jan. 21)? I may be wrong, but I don’t think Tonto ever said anything like “What do you mean, ‘we’?” That would be too blatant for even the racist perspective that created him. However, the masked man…
McKinleyville Arts Night
1. The Front Gallery & Gifts, 1181 Central Ave. Various Artists, local art and glassware; Acoustic rock by Osiris. 2. Pathways Trading Company, 1183 Central Ave. Laura Goldentree, paintings and drawings. 3. Curves, Miller Business Park Mary Martha Saussy, mixed media in pastels, oils, watercolors, and pencil; Laura & Zach Wellman, fused glass window ornaments.…
tomorrow
My car will not catch on fire it…
Realism
"I have a strange relationship to variety," singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt said in a 2008 NY Times interview. "I like variety." Merritt’s prolific work accurately reflects his statement — from leading his band, The Magnetic Fields, to working on numerous side projects, including a recent scoring of an Off Broadway musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s tale…
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and The Triumph of Spectacle
In 1967, French political philosopher Guy Debord warned that the spectacle is "the sun that never sets on the empire of modern passivity." In his new book, Chris Hedges examines the anatomy of our American empire and how it suffers and will expire because of that passivity. Hedges combines narratives from professional wrestling, the porn…
