In With the Future 

Well, it's that time of year, when I must once again appeal to the reason of my fellow Americans and suggest we not only can but must do better regarding which holiday we choose to celebrate this week. Things change and historical reassessments have produced a staggering amount of evidence that Thanksgiving is built on a pretext future generations are unlikely to cherish. So I'm calling for a celebratory shift to Nov. 27 for an annual feast in honor of two Great Americans' birthdays, people likely to be fêted far into the future (assuming there is one for our country and species). I'm talking about Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix, who have given this author — and countless others — more joy than any Puritan dorks who were too uptight and annoying to cut it in the England of James I, (he of the famous Bible translation). It's already basically just about turkey, gorging and football anyway, this is just adding a nicer background. Hell, it's also Steve Urkell's birthday (actor Jaleel White's, anyway) and time will probably look more favorably on his legacy, as well. It's the anniversary of the first Macy's Day Parade (99 years ago), so we don't have to change much there, maybe just switch up a few of the floats and make the music louder, better and heavier. If you share in this vision, please feel free to compliment your post-group feeding with a showing of Enter the Dragon followed by an ear splitting round of Are You Experienced? I know the date isn't right, but we can work that out in the years to come. Remember, the past might be foundational but we are the architects of the future. I hope to see you all there.

Thanksgiving

You say potato (boiled, seasoned and mashed), I say eggplant (roasted and converted into baba ganoush). We all have our preferences and today we eat, and, more to the point, feed each other.

Friday

Blondie's is back in the news today and, if you want to spend a little money without participating in the grotesque capitalist watersport of Black Friday, then I suggest you bring $6 to this venue tonight at 7 p.m. to enjoy a triple wallop of local punk and metal talent, with Brain Dead Rejects, Psyop Victim and Image Pit bringing the noise. Clear out your alimentary canal with some heavy, distorted vibrations.

Saturday

The Miniplex has a fantastic local band showcase with some of the best of the region converging for a postprandial party of cinematic jam beauty. Mister Moonbeam has the scene sewed down when it comes to one-man lullabies from the western lands of Nod, east of Eden and below the North Star. The Myrtle Mountain Boys work a similar dusky liminal magic, while Fek & the Future Friends of Sound is always changing its line-up and musical positioning so as not to be an easy target for the forces of banality and entropy, against whom this group operates like a groovy musical terror cell. In short, this is going to be a very good show. The door price is going to be a sliding deal from $10-$15, and 9 p.m. is the beginning of the night.

If you happen to find yourself stuck on the Eureka side of the bay tonight and are still seeking a hot show, fear not: The Shanty has you covered. Due to the inevitable force of human migration, The Flying Hellfish will probably not be playing again around here for some time, so this is your last chance to see this beloved heavy, punked out and surf-ish group in all its glory. Also on board is The Bored Again, aka Dave O and his bass-propelled punk tales. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. and there is no cover.

Sunday

It's a perfect day for matinee performances from our local theater scene. Both shows are happening at 2 p.m. You can enjoy a live radio play version of the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life at North Coast Repertory Theatre. General tickets are $20, students and seniors tickets run two bucks cheaper. Down at Ferndale Repertory, you will find a production of Peter and the Starcatcher, a play adaptation of a children's novel by ur-boomer humorist Dave Barry and thriller writer Ridley Pearson that captures the outer lining of the Peter Pan story. General admission is $20, again, two bucks off for students and seniors.

Monday

The Thing in Arcata is hosting a bee-centric ecstatic artistic celebration of apiarian culture and music at 6 p.m. Featuring an evening of music and poetry, with major accents of mead and honeycombed cultivation, artistic curators Benjamin Pixie, Marya Stark and their Pixie Traveling Medicine Show is certain to be a one-of-a-kind experience for all ye townies looking for a gander at something different in the tail end of November ($25).

Tuesday

Savage Henry Comedy Club is hosting another run of Rebekah Perry's Smutty Buddies, a show where comedians act out live versions of fan-fiction works found in the wild hinterlands of the internet. Just $5 gets you in the door and you should find your seat by 9 p.m.

Wednesday

Best-of lists are generally boring and generic, especially regarding movies. Let's face it, most of the films people universally love are often comfort food, coming from a Goldilocks-zone of mass appeasement. Terrible movies, on the other hand, are where the real good shit runs off the hive like a biohazard slush of bad taste. One such film in the running for worst ever (yet still enjoyable) is the execrable Troll 2, a film many of my friends insist is a masterpiece despite all outward indications suggesting something purely flushable. You can decide for yourself tonight at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, where the doors open at 6 p.m., showtime is at 7:30 p.m., and there's a pre-show and raffle in between. Only $5 to get inside and $9 will let you leave with a poster to help remember the time you watched a genuinely unique piece of shit.

Collin Yeo (he/him) would remind you that one man's pragmatism is another man's performance art. He lives in Arcata.