I’ve been all over the place in these pages lately, writing about everything from the excellent Eureka Symphony, the Spanish Civil War, the architectural history of our own rapidly expanding police state and the incumbent circumstantial depression that comes with it, to some of the music from years past which I have overlooked or had the wrong idea about for far too long. Sitting right now on the backend of a weekend that was long in labor and short in leisure, I’ve decided to shelve the usual essay with a quick summer reading list of books suited for river days, foggy evenings and everything in between that our county offers us when we have the spirit of leisure on our side. In no particular order, here goes.
The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp is a 1968 autobiography by an excellent writer and British wit whose prose is as humorous as his life was honest. He was an openly gay man since the early 1930s, ages before such a person had any visibility in society and when criminal prosecution and violence were the common remedy for such. He was also a casually perfect writer whose sentence construction is still something to be admired.
A Place of Greater Safety is a piece of scrupulously researched historical fiction about the early days of the French Revolution by the master herself, Hilary Mantel, the author of the acclaimed Wolf Hall. Seen through the eyes of three major players who all lost their heads to Madame Guillotine in 1794, this one has a lot of resonant themes with current events and is a good primer for Americans to learn about a revolution they understand more in memes and slogans than they do in practice and history.
Speaking of Americans, the absurd humor of Masters of Atlantis is a great, fast read through the wild world of our national credulity for “secret societies,” and the rip-off artists and con men who inhabit their ranks. Written by one of America’s best novelists, Charles Portis, who is most familiar as the author of True Grit, one of the only John Wayne movies I can stomach — I prefer the Coen Brother’s remake from 2010.
A famous western leads me to the larger landscape of our absurd pop culture that can only be understood through the lens of its last great frontier, television. In this case, The Simpsons, whose golden era of the first decade of its now far too-long existence still glitters among the fecal waste of later seasons. Stupid TV, Be More Funny is author Alan Siegel’s informative history of the genesis and realization of those glorious years, told with extra helpings of interviews with many of those there at ground zero.
Last week I mentioned the essays of Ishmael Reed, a great writer who is far enough removed from the epicenter of liberal academia to have a library of useful and prescient ideas which straddle the world of early Black American diaspora mythology and the burgeoning world of 1970s postmodern fiction. He’s like Thomas Pynchon with a deep connection to the American griot instead of the black magic of the CIA. But speaking of that black magic Pynchon tapped into, check out Paul L. Williams’ Operation Gladio, about the gunpowder caves and blood fountains built by the subterranean power cabals formed by surviving Nazis, ultra-reactionary Vatican insiders, our CIA and NATO-adjacent operatives to create an infernal and deadly bulwark against the chimera of communism in place of white-hat diplomacy. Read up and look around at our own country for evidence of a domestic version of Italy’s “Years of Lead,” which kept the country unstable for the bulk of the Cold War.
That’s all for this week, folks.
Thursday
The Creative Sanctuary’s fine cadre of jazz musicians continues rolling along with their excellent series celebrating the various satellite musicians associated with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Tonight’s gig at 7 p.m. at the Arcata Playhouse is a celebration of tenor sax player Benny Golson, whose brief stint with the Messengers produced the 1958 hard bop classic Moanin’. As before, the assembled team will include tromboner James Zeller, pianist Matthew Seno, Tree on sax, bassist Danny Gaon and drummer Ramsey Isaacs filling in the sticks for Mr. Blakey himself, who moved onto another plane of existence 35 years ago this October. Tickets are a sliding scale of $10-$30, so come on down and pay what you can.
Friday
A lot of mini-festival fun, unique in purely Humboldt County ways, is happening today and into the weekend. Starting at 3 p.m., it’s the first day of Outer Roominations outside Loleta — more on that in Sunday’s entry — but my suggestion is a trip to Blue Lake, where at 7 p.m. at Prasch Hall you will find the Humboldt Folklife Festival Barn Dance. The music will be provided by the Cidermill String Band, with dance-calling courtesy of local folk songstress Lyndsey Battle. ($15).
Saturday
Portland’s MarchFourth has been at it for over 20 years, making high-energy dance and funk grooves with a marching band format. Tonight the ensemble is invading the Eureka Theater at 8 p.m., with local funk royalty Object Heavy holding up the house as local support with its considerable live power. Tickets are $30 at the door the night of and $20 in advance.
Sunday
Outer Roominations, the art and live music installation festival at 2550 Table Bluff Road, is finishing up its three-day run today with a noon start time. Tickets are $20-$40 sliding scale, with a “not turned away because of no money” policy at play. What isn’t negotiable is the $5 parking fee, so consider carpooling. Too many artists to name and that’s not my beat anyway, so here’s the lineup for today’s live music offerings on the grassy plateau: Sub Aura, Shiny Eyes, the Uncredible Phin Band, Mares and a 4 p.m. closeout with Bric @ Brac. No matter which day(s) you visit, this is guaranteed fun.
Monday and Tuesday
These are some of the quiet nights of the dog days of summer. Skip to tomorrow for two very interesting shows.
Wednesday
Cory Hanson of psych-band Wand fame, blew a very big hole into the landscape for himself two years ago with the release of his acclaimed record Western Cum on Drag City Records. Since then, he has been only building on his fascinating take on psychedelia and rock weirdness. This is wall-melting death trip music with a cartoon patina of brightness over the lead paint and asphalt of the forgotten towns of the American mindscape. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. he is making a return to the scene of the crime at the Miniplex, this time with excellent new(ish) act Western Extra providing the best support for this bill our formidable local scene can offer ($15).
If you went to college in the 1990s, there’s a good chance you have some familiarity with the second wave jam scene that produced massive stadium acts like Dave Matthews Band and Phish. There were many musical offshoots, from funk to electronica, that swam in that wake, and among the most respected in the former style is Philadelphia’s G. Love and Special Sauce, who are still touring and grooving over 30 years after starting out. You can catch them tonight at Humbrews at 9 p.m., with tickets running from $40 for general admission to $100 for a pre-show acoustic storytelling solo set by Mr. G. Love himself.
Collin Yeo (he/him) is suggesting you listen to “CIA Man” by the Fugs for shits and whistles.
This article appears in A Saturday at the Rodeo.