Vulnerable
Has anything really changed in Humboldt’s nursing homes?
Cover Story
Vulnerable
Part one in a series If a black hole could compress a lifetime, could mangle and crumple it down to a few essential remnants, they might look like these: A harmonica. A great-grandson’s photo. A painted, prayerful Jesus. A stuffed cat. These are what’s left of the wild days, the now unmentionable tattoos, the jobs,…
Mike Thompson. On a River.
Congressman Mike Thompson stood in the front row, facing the docked shiny, blue jet boat, patiently waiting to get his river tour on. As the remaining 30-or-so passengers slowly shuffled aboard, Thompson — sensing all eyes on him — decided to take advantage of his clout and circumstance. “I’m going to sing for all of…
McK’ville Gets Their Goats
Oh, yes, the town “where horses have the right of way” has a fond and willing eye for the goats, as well. That is, there do not yet appear to be any of those n-o-o-o-o-o-ot-t-t-t-t—h-e-r-e!!! bleatings issuing from the grassy flats of McKinleyville’s Dow’s Prairie, where local-cheese-company-gone-global Cypress Grove Chevre has announced it will put…
Depends on How You Define ‘Scam’
The Journal was recently alerted to a website with the domain name “betterbusiness.net,” which claims to offer a “215 Friendly Rentals List” for $20. Touting itself as “Humboldt’s #1 rental source,” the site says, “We are Local Advocates who know how hard it is to find a home in Humboldt, especially if you are a Medical…
Internet Outage Revenge
If you lost Internet, land line or cell service during the big silence on Friday, your carrier might — just might — give you a little refund. Only you have to ask. Which means you have to pick and poke through one of those annoying phone trees, possibly for less than the cost of a…
How to Own an Email Scammer
An email scam artist recently made a serious mistake: He mistook North Coast Journal cartoonist Joel Mielke for a fool. The scamming scumbag had somehow managed to hack into the email account of a man named Thom, who happens to have Mielke among his contacts. Pretending to be Thom, the scammer sent the following message: Hello, How’s everything…
Tripper
Chicago-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Eric D. Johnson has an artistic pendulum that constantly swings back and forth. His forays as a musician-sideman (playing on the road with Vetiver, The Shins and Califone), soundtrack composer (scoring Max Winkler’s upcoming comedy, Ceremony) and as a solo artist/bandleader have garnered Johnson respect, especially among his peers. Johnson’s…
Stop ‘Helping’
Editor: Although I am happy to hear that so many people had the opportunity to take a close-up look at gray whales, I was otherwise appalled by what I read in your article, “Whales in a River” (July 28). All this jet-skiing, fire hosing, noise-making, etc. sounds to me way too much like a bunch…
Rhymes and Resin
Potluck’s fourth studio album, Rhymes and Resin, released this summer, makes a strong case for independent Humboldt hip hop, showcasing good beats, talented rhymers and scorching guest verses to create a nicely evolved sound. 1Ton and Underrated make up Potluck — they support and complement each other. Underrated made most of the beats on the…
New Lines Can Work
Editor: As a candidate for the U.S. Congress who has lived on the coast in Marin County for the last 13 years, I can relate to concerns about redistricting (“Drawing it Out,” July 21). The powers-that-be are drawing new lines, and we’ll have to deal with the consequences. I went through many years of adult…
Walmart Watch
Editor: As a long time Humboldt county resident from 1950-71 (Crannell, Samoa, Arcata, Eureka) I’d like to add my 0.02 cents worth on the Walmart issue (“Walmart, Jesus and Books without Borders,” July 21). I now live in Lebanon, Ore., and their store here has done nothing but harm to this struggling community. They had…
For the Earth Goddess
This weekend marks the first ever Gaia Festival at Black Oak Ranch, a music and sustainable-living fair drawing performers and attendees from all over the world. The Hog Farm commune organizers describe it numerically: “five stages, four directions, three days, too much fun, one love.” The Hog Farmers trace the history back to “24 years…
Cooked
Back before widespread air conditioning, people left the cities for the cooler countryside in summer. So when the Connecticut town of Westport saw its population increase by half in the summer months, a couple of entrepreneurial members of the Theatre Guild found a big old barn where they could produce shows and enticed New York…
Who’s Flunking?
Editor: I would like to thank Ryan Burns (“The Goat Test,” July 28) for trying to shed light on the Cypress Grove debate in a reasonable tone. There is, however, one thing always missing from the discussions: Cypress Grove did not seek public input from the surrounding community until the day before escrow was slated…
August Awesomeness
It may seem like it’s barely begun, but summer is already winding down and before you know it, the college students will be back in town ready for a new school year. We still have a few festivals left before that season ends, the biggest being the nascent Gaia Festival Aug. 5-7, down at Black…
Dear Me
The height of my writing career came on Oct. 16, 2006, when The New Yorker published a letter I wrote commenting on a story on bioeconomics (scientists stick people in an MRI machine, ask them to make financial decisions and watch their brains tick). Two people I knew saw the letter and were suitably impressed.…
Pay Attention to Rio Dell Now
Even Humboldt’s smaller communities come together once a year to celebrate togetherness. Loleta has its history-celebrating Swauger Station Days, Blue Lake its Annie and Mary Day and the theater-rich Mad River Festival, and Bridgeville its annual sale to a random eccentric millionaire. Good times, for sure. But this week, it’s Rio Dell’s turn. For ’tis…
August Musicals and Makeovers
Opening Friday, Aug. 5, at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre is the Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. With its implications of cannibalism, this groundbreaking tale of a murderous barber and complicit purveyor of meat pies was controversial when it opened on Broadway in 1979. But it won…
Schneider Dock
Is awash in inactivity, Chips piled to the…
The Buddy Brown Blues Festival
Over a span of at least the last 70 years, blues music has been repeatedly declared dying or dead. It seems that every few years an emerging artist is proclaimed by someone as the “savior” of the blues, or proof that blues music is “coming back.” But this is music that’s elemental to the DNA…
Party On, Fernbridge
From below, on the dusty Eel River floodplain, Fernbridge looks solid but graceful. The bridge is concrete — in concrete’s most statuesque form, with soaring arches and tapered columns. Nearing its 100th birthday, the span is also one of the longest and oldest reinforced concrete bridges still around, local engineers and historians say. This bridge…
Ice, Fire and Water
Claire Iris Schencke’s ambitious exhibit, The Glacier Art Project and At Waters’ Edge, is the culmination of a six-year project sketching glaciers on location from Alaska to Argentina’s Tierra Del Fuego. Helsinki-born, Iris (pronounced “EER-riss”) admits to having always been attracted to water and ice. “I fell in love with glaciers the first time I…
August Humboldt Happenings
HOPS IN HUMBOLDT Okay, so maybe the whole weed tourism scheme didn’t pan out for Humboldt. What else we got? How ’bout beer? With five five established local beer makers keeping locals hopped up, Humboldt boasts a pretty impressive per capita brewery count. Need more proof? Well then make sure to check out Hops in…
On the Beat in August
Extended congratulations to Jack Sewell for a gala opening last month of his new Sewell Gallery at 423 F St. This welcome addition to our art scene includes a wide array of work by some of our finest local artists. In August, that includes a section featuring the paintings of Alicia Tredway — good timing,…
Go See Buck
Reviews BUCK. This gorgeous documentary, which profiles a sage-like Montana horse trainer named Buck Brannaman, comes cantering into the Minor Theatre Friday, just in time to alleviate your summer blockbuster fatigue. My wife and I caught Buck in Santa Rosa a few weeks back; I urge fellow movie lovers to reward Coming Attractions Theatres –…
In The Open Air
In the tradition of the 19th century French impressionists who regularly painted outdoors — en plein air — 25 of our local artists will participate in the fourth annual event, “Art in the Garden,” a fundraiser for the Redwood Art Association’s building fund. The setting is the truly magnificent garden at the home of Lynne…
Afrotrance
You might call it North African trance music. Leaders in the movement include bands with a looping hypnotic electric guitar sound driven by an insistent beat like Tinariwen and Group Doueh. With Portland’s Dusu Mali Band, led by Malian guitarist/percussionist Ibrahim Kelly, a touch of American jamfunk is added to the mix creating an Oregonian…
The Circle Keeps Turning
In some circles ballroom dancing never went the way of the Jerk, the Pony or the Watusi. Monday nights at the Moose Lodge in Eureka, those 50 or better gather for the Friendship Circle Ballroom Dance Club, a local tradition since 1951. The dance floor is always crowded with happy folk tripping the light fantastic…
Our Word
The op-ed feature in the Times-Standard called “My Word” perhaps should be renamed. Something like “I’m-signing-my-name-to-this-but-I-didn’t-exactly-write-it.” I’m referring to a July 22 “My Word” signed by seven former Eureka City Council members and one former mayor. The eight expressed support for City Manager Dave Tyson. He has the right and the duty to hire and…
The Turing Test
The English mathematician Alan Turing is generally considered to be the father of AI, artificial intelligence. His seminal 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence begins: “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?'” It was a bait-and-switch tactic, of course, given that no one, then or now, really has any idea how to define…
