Judge Doom, the villain of 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, was the despotic lawman of the film’s fictitious Toontown, a zany Hollywood for animated characters that existed alongside its real-world cultural mecca in the film’s 1947 storyline. Himself a cartoon in human disguise, this demonic executioner of toons sold out his own kind to pulverize the Technicolor wonders of Toontown to build a massive freeway in a scheme that would make Chinatown’s Noah Cross smirk his evil rictus grin. You hear the term “cartoonishly evil” thrown around a lot these days to describe the oligarchic architects of our Idiot World, and that’s probably because you only need to squint a little to see how nakedly corrupt and audacious their unchecked cruelty is playing out in their preferred expression of the death drive that has fueled the most destructive and nihilistic misadventures throughout human history. I mean, these assholes are trying to force upon us a new extractive industry that strip-mines the past while destroying the future in every possible way, polluting all ecosystems from our physical environment to the landscape of our dreams. And they appear to be getting away with it. I shouldn’t have to say that I have no relationship with AI in creating this or anything else I write about, but that’s become such an outsider position that it bears repeating. But I’m neither a doomer nor an outlier. I’m just a human, unable — like the rest of us — to live in the artificial physics of Toontown, but still capable of appreciating the parts that come from the organic forces of creation. So while I can’t live with the Animaniacs, I can whistle a merry melody dirge as the bombs pummel the bright memories and turn what once was into what can never be again. As I refuse to be a doomer, I still embrace my version of a cartoon future and dream of a day when the villains are the only victims of their corrosive ooze.
Th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!
Thursday
Art-rock prog weirdos Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are back in town at Humbrews tonight at 8:30 p.m. This time around they have brought with them fellow Oakland homelanders Gumby’s Junk, a group of sonic surrealists who palette-match the headliners in a very complementary fashion. Advance tickets are on sale now for $20 and it will cost an extra $5 at the door, along with the uncertainty of getting in if this one blows up like it oughta.
Friday
The Eureka Symphony ends its season tonight and tomorrow night with a program called A Requiem for Humanity, which is hopefully a more wistful than prophetic title. Either way, it’s a performance of Brahms’ A German Requiem, which is lovely and chock full of choral beauty. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. both nights, and tickets will run you from $21-$54.
Meanwhile, a half hour later at Synapsis, there is a perhaps livelier event that is nonetheless informed by the encircling chaos of the times. Kommuna Lux is a Ukrainian folk act that brings a high energy hybrid of the former plus Balkan dance and horny klezmer sounds to every gig. The group is currently on a barnstorming U.S. tour to spread the tunes around and raise money for humanitarian relief and aid for Ukraine. If you’d like to support the Ukrainian people in a way that doesn’t involve treating their suffering as a necessary tragedy in a proxy state to further the geopolitical whims of the blood demons and Nyarlathoteps lording over the fall of humanity, this is an excellent opportunity for such. Tickets are only $20 for a rare treat.
Saturday
Because I’ve got nothing going on for the first of the month, let’s load up tonight with three diverse 7 p.m. gigs to cast a wide net to snag as many of you as possible. First up, the good people at the Creative Sanctuary are continuing their excellent Homage to the Message series of shows highlighting various stars from the extended universe of Art Blakey’s curation of the Jazz Messengers. Tonight’s gig at the Arcata Playhouse is all about the music of pianist and composer Cedar Walton. Tickets are a sliding-scale $15-$30 to see James Zeller and company do that thing they do so well.
Meanwhile, over at the Moss Oak Commons, it’s another edition of Openhead Records’ Freq Night. Tonight’s show is all about low and slow, meditative sublimity with acts Elegant Humanoid, Samantha and Pleaura & Godzdog joining forces with No Passage from Portland to trickle out drops of healing salve through the speakers. The suggested donation is $10.
And finally, the Redwood Interfaith Gospel Choir is movin’ on up from its usual spot at the Arcata Playhouse to the bigger seater Eureka Theater for its annual concert. The program has grown, too, with two bands, 95 singers and a guest appearance from the Oakland Interfaith Community Choir. This is gonna be big and hot, so get your $20 ticket — $15 for students and seniors — ASAP.
Sunday
Vegan Slaughterhouse and Maya Songbird headline a good vibrations underground show at the Outer Space tonight at 7 p.m. Come celebrate a rare May Blue Moon along with Thee Olde Druids, who may or may not know a thing or two about lunar events. The suggested donation is $5-$20.
Monday
Well, it’s June.
Tuesday
The Neighborhood Kids are bringing the Voice of the Revolution Tour to the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 7 p.m. Well-lauded in their native San Diego — the group won Best New Artist and Best Hip Hop Artist in last year’s San Diego Music Awards — the Kids are on the road to spread their music and message of uplift and transformation during a time when everyone out there could use a whole lotta positive change. Greater Los Angeles duo the Indigenous Cats and local sage Nac One split the undercard for what is certain to be a perfect way to inaugurate a summer full of progress, from the ground floor of a growing, shared community to the rare colors of our glorious dreams. The time is now, the place is now … and the tickets are only $20. And there will be great food available from Aquilli Metzi. Here’s to a better world, built tonight and many more like it in the future.
Wednesday
Speaking of the future, the past is always prologue, to paraphrase Antonio from Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest. And the past depicted in Alex Cox’s film Repo Man is informed by a stark futurism and tempered by a sarcastic irony rarely seen outside of great literature and cinema. Appropriately released in 1984, this punk rock vision of Hell is one of my favorite comedies of the modern canon. You can check it out at the Arcata Theatre Lounge tonight after 6 p.m. for Sci-Fi Night. Same deal as always: Show up before 7 p.m., throw down $6 — $10 if you want a poster, too — and enjoy the fun.
Collin Yeo (he/him) is just some guy.
This article appears in In it for the Glory.