Fathers and Fests 

We are creeping toward the salad days of summer, my dears, and this week has some proper preludes for that laziest, grasshopper-ish of seasons. Oyster Fest is here (a truly strange notion to me as no one sensible in my former home of Louisiana eats oysters in the warm months, but we are luckily blessed with a much milder climate here), Father's Day is on Sunday and the days of this week and next will be the longest of 2018. So get out there and enjoy what Louis Armstrong called the skies of blue, the clouds of white, the bright blessed day and the dark sacred night.

And have a wonderful week.

KEET/KHSU continues its free Lost Coast Sessions series at the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 7:30 p.m. with superb local funksters Object Heavy as the solo act on the bill. Word on the street suggests that the music won't be the only free attraction and that pizza from The Jam and a free copy of the Heavy's latest effort will be featured, too, so make sure you reserve your space on the dancefloor.

New York jazz pianist, composer and Columbia and Julliard grad Ben Rosenblum is known for his rhythm block-chorded, Bill Evans-esque chops. With bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Ben Zweig he has formed — what else — the Ben Rosenblum Trio, which will present its modern jazz sounds to the lucky people at the Sanctuary tonight at 7:30 p.m. ($10-$20 sliding scale). Ben will be playing the in-house Sanctuary piano, a 1914 Steinway Upright made in Astoria, Queens, in the factory on the titular street/place. When I lived in NYC, I used to find myself wondering: Were there more garrotings around that piano district in its heyday? Perhaps The Power Broker author Robert Caro owes us a book about it.

Well it's Oyster Fest in Arcata today on the plaza. Will my heroic love of bivalves win over my seething dislike of crowds? I don't yet know but I will suggest two shows to appease those who are either drawn to the spectacle or smitten by the idea of wedging a healthy distance between oneself and the bright-eyed bon vivants. For the former, The Jam is hosting a post-fest party with Grateful Dead cover band extraordinare Rosewater playing two sets. The first is an all-ages and free affair kicking off at 6 p.m. and the second is a 21-and-over adventure for $10 and will start no earlier than 9:30 p.m.

For those of you who wish to avoid the mother of pearl-tinted daytime adventures in non-kosher eating, may I suggest a free joint going down at the Vista Del Mar at 7:30 p.m. Come join fuzzy jumpers Hollow Down, punkers Dead Drift and super-weirdos CV for an evening of waterside anthems.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my own father a happy one from afar because he is currently visiting his parents' land of Canada. And having outed my family as immigrants, I would also like to take a moment to state that ICE is an American Gestapo and that I fully support its disbandment and the prosecution of its agents. The Nuremburg defense isn't any more acceptable today than it was in 1945. There, now you know that I am my father's son. Happy Father's Day, Pop. Anyway, here are a couple things to do with your own daddies on this most holy of dad days. The Humboldt Botanical Gardens is hosting a Music in the Garden event at 1 p.m. with music by The Handshakers. Admission is $8, $5 for seniors and students and free for Humboldt Botanical Garden members.

Meanwhile, there's an open house fundraiser at the Sanctuary starting at 4 p.m. with games, food and drink, and a silent auction. Live music will kick off at 7 p.m. with a generally folk-toned series of sets by Cold Light of the Day, The Bandage and J Street Regulars so please bring your best-est patriarch to this multi-generational affair.

Sushi Spot in McKinleyville continues to host the jazz duo Anemones of the State on the first and third Monday of every month for a free set for the roll-and-sake crowd starting at 5 p.m. Bring your hungry ears and mouths like some sort of beautiful shellfish and just gorge on the tastiness.

Syracuse's bouncing old skool hip-hop and funk trio Sophistafunk rolls through Humbrews tonight at 9 p.m. A mainstay of the festival and party circuit, these sophisti-cats have also made their bones as a featured act tapped for his birthday party by the frosted-one himself, Guy Fieri. So if that seems like the sign of a hot time in Flavortown to you then come on down ($10).

It's Pints for Non-Profits night again at the Mad River Brewery at 6 p.m. The tunes are free and supplied by the folk and blues-flavored Frogbite, and the cause of the week is Humboldt Homebrewers, so it sounds like a delightfully beery ouroboros to me.

Full show listings in the Journal's Music and More grid, the Calendar and online. Bands and promoters, send your gig info, preferably with a high-res photo or two, to [email protected].

Collin Yeo knows about modesty and propriety and when the time is right to simply shut up. Sadly, he acts on none of this information. He lives in Arcata.