I’m going to keep this brief because I am worn out. A little too much fun and sundown by the riverside over the weekend has caught up with me and I am tapped out. All work and no play might make one dull, but I’m not exactly feeling sharp at the moment either. There’s probably a balance to be struck with this kind of stuff, but I am not the person to ask about that today. Sorry folks, there just isn’t any juice in the tank.
I would like to briefly mention that Sam Neill was an incredible actor and Bonnie Tyler had an amazing voice and we are much poorer as a species now that they have passed away. The same cannot be said for certain senators, who seem to have been born wearing out their welcome and spent their lives ruining ours. I won’t pollute this space with any names because they don’t deserve that and neither do you. Have a wonderful week.
Thursday
Yagody is a Ukrainian folk quartet composed of four women of varied musical tastes who coalesce under a banner of song made up of pure homage and love to their motherland. If you’re interested in active sounds from Ukrainian folk traditions old and new, swing by the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 8 p.m. ($25).
Friday
The Wild Hare Tavern is the place to be tonight if you are in the mood for some OG Humboldt weirdness and goodness. Ask Sophie is joining forces with Fred and Wilma, aka Peggy Martinez and Jeff Kelley in their project that runs across the universe of 20th century sounds and styles. This all tees up some fine and silly shenanigans from Brett the Truck, which is local caterer and man-about-town Brett Shuler’s long-running rock project from back in the day. The fun starts around 8 p.m. and it’s only $5 at the door.
Saturday
If you didn’t score Northern Nights tickets and are feeling a little bit of FOMO, turn that into FAFO for free at the Miniplex at 9 p.m., where some local DJs are getting together to reimagine the music from their favorite anime films. The show is billed as Neo Tokyo Arcata 3026, and will feature tracks re-tuned and curated by the likes of WRYE, Pretty Soldier, Octoshmoto, Doctor Foxmeat, Damnit Dave and Weirdest Mike.
Sunday
The Eureka Chamber Music Series is featuring one of its free concerts at the Sequoia Park Gazebo at 11 a.m. The program is called Bach Under the Canopy, which gives a pretty decent idea of what to expect.
Monday and Tuesday
Vox Aurea is a Finnish youth choir who will be visiting our community to share their song at Christ Episcopal Church at 4 p.m. on both Monday and Tuesday. That alone would be reason enough to have a gander, but the plot thickens when you take a look at the program. The choir will be performing Echoes of Eureka, an opera by Bay Area composer and conductor Eric Tuan, about the violent expulsion of more than 300 Chinese immigrants from Eureka in 1885. The story centers around a teenager named Charley Wei Lum, a real person who lived through that horrific event and narrowly escaped being lynched due to the intervention of the Reverend Charles Huntington, a local priest. The seven-act choral opera features additional libretto work by the author Emily Jiang and poet Daryl Ngee Chinn, and each performance will be followed by a question-and-answer interview session with Vox Aurea, facilitated by Jean Pfaelzer, who wrote Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans about the purging of Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest. There is no charge for tickets, but donations are happily accepted.
Wednesday
The Humboldt Folklife Festival is up and running again, and tonight is a celebration of bluegrass and beyond. If that is of interest to you, roll by Dell’Arte at 6 p.m. for tunes in the key of the Compost Mountain Boys, A Banjo Makes 3 and the ever-excellent Hobohemia. Tickets are $15 for the general public, but you can shave $5 off that price if you are a member of the Humboldt Folklife Society. Viva.
Collin Yeo (he/him) is living in what Beck described as a “bozo nightmare.”
This article appears in Humbuggery in Humboldt, Part 2.