Do you ever wonder why it seems so much easier for Americans to fantasize about an apocalypse than a revolution? Or why we are more attracted to entertainment with visions of post-apocalyptic scarcity and violence rather than a peaceful, cohesive, post-revolutionary society that nurtures a livable future? For most of this new century, our culture has been filled with visions of barbaric survival and mass death full of kill-or-be-killed scenarios of us versus them played out in movies, video games, mass media editorials and political speeches. Why are we like this? I don’t exactly know, or I don’t have the space here to sound out every theory. So I’ll offer a quick, loose and imperfect explanation instead. There is something within the trifecta of imitation, inspiration and imagination that can create magic, while similarly, without all those components in play, you can find dullness and devastation.
Dreamers, artists, theorists, engineers and scientists all imitate the familiar forms, are inspired by their structures and intellectual lineage, while they imagine new ways to express the human yearning for the expansion of the known world. To copy something is to echo its basic structure to tune a radar system capable of sounding out new shapes in the frontiers of our desire and vision. It’s a rough slog with a lot of analytical work and little payoff in terms of flashy dividends. It requires a cooperative attitude and a timeline that is resigned to the notion that one’s lifespan might not meet the timeline of the project. But it is good, honest work. And there are exciting flashpoints that illuminate our progress in the larger arc like celestial cameras capturing a long stop-motion dance to our liberation.
Fascism, like AI, offers none of that creative liberation, only dead ends. But these are dead ends that front-load the delivery of cheap thrills at the expense of progress and imagination. It mortgages the future for a high-interest cash injection into the distractions of the present to further simplify the simple minded and entertain them with a soul-destroying barrage of numbing emptiness. An uncanny valley fever dream caused by an infection that spreads through the endemic torpor of a population weighed down by the trench warfare survival of late capitalism. It sucks, but it’s not a death spiral yet, and we are not yet terminal invalids. Imitation, inspiration and imagination. Look at what’s happening around the world and take notes. If your oppressors approved of what the people of France, Albania and elsewhere are currently doing, they would report on those actions as inspirational revolutions. The fog and deliberate obfuscation in the mainstream media about these revolutions tells you everything you need to know about the fearsome power of imagination, inspiration and imitation.
Have a fearsome week.
Thursday
Caveman Dave is a one-man band whose main instruments are guitar and vocals. The recordings I listened to feature some programmed backing rhythm tracks and both acoustic and electric guitars, along with hybrids like the cigar box guitar. He lives and teaches music lessons in Eugene, Oregon, and regularly tours the coast hitting bars and pubs to play original songs that are pretty appropriate for those spaces. Tonight, he’ll be at the Logger Bar playing a free gig at 9 p.m.
Friday
Etana is the stage name of Shauna McKenzie, a Grammy-nominated singer originally from Jamaica whose reggae vocals have been winning fans around the world for nearly two decades. Tonight, she will be bringing her neo-soul reggae sound to Humbrews at 9 p.m. Tickets are going for $25 in advance, $30 at the door, so plan accordingly.
If you want something completely different, the Logger Bar has a free one going on at the same hour. Former duo Todd Complex has become a trio with the addition of bassist Max Rodford and this will be his first show with the post-rock guitar and drums singer/songwriter act. Also on the bill is Coffin Spiders, a new Blue Lake doom and stoner duo featuring Nick Nava from the similarly genre-coded Bay Area band Hornss.
Saturday
Blues, soul, folk and Americana singer/songwriter Chris Pierce will be at the Old Steeple tonight at 7:30 p.m. Pierce has toured and released albums for the last three decades, sharing some big stages with artists like Neil Young and B.B. King. The man plays a lot of instruments and has a big voice, which is sure to fill the former church tonight. Tickets are available online for $26.50 or at the door for $30 if it doesn’t sell out in advance.
An hour and a half later at the Shanty, you can end your night with a free show of art rock, space weirdness with Control Voltage headlining the stage in the Swan Room. Also on the bill is Amen! Lao Tzu, a new project by Kris Swan from Silver and Nails.
Sunday
Jazz and worship musician and hymn writer Dan Damon is putting on a performance of his devotional music at First United Methodist Church in Eureka at 4 p.m. I believe this is a “donations welcome” type of event, although I haven’t found a suggested amount as of press time.
Monday, Full Moon
The music associated with Steely Dead should be pretty easy for many people to figure out, but in case there’s any confusion, this Denver-based jam band fills its sets with songs by two very different but similarly adored bands from the ’70s: Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead. And although both now-defunct bands are known for very different disciplines — the former was a studio machine that churned out perfectly mixed records while the latter was a freewheeling live act that served as the ancestral waters for all modern jam bands — there’s still a healthy overlap for the fanbases. If you are in either camp or just interested in general, swing by Humbrews around 8 p.m. with $25 in hand, or drop $20 for advance tickets.
Tuesday
Lately, I have been filling this space with a repeated suggestion for the reader to check out Strange Meeting at the Basement after 7 p.m. Other writers might get worried that their readers have grown tired of these now-familiar entreaties to see and hear this avant jazz act work its magic, but as Tommy Lee Jones’ U.S. Marshall Samuel Gerard told Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble in 1993’s The Fugitive, “I don’t care.”
There is a $5 suggested donation at the door for those of you who do care about the details.
Wednesday
NAZA is a 2026 documentary about the ongoing genocide in Palestine inflicted by the Israeli government and military and abetted by our own government and private arms industry. Produced by the Guardian newspaper in Britain, it has caused such a stir in the international scene — it was not allowed to be screened in Israel — that some current leaders in “the only democracy in the Middle East” have threatened to revoke the citizenship of its Israeli creators, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Shine a Light on Palestine is presenting a screening at the Minor Theatre at 7 p.m., so come and see and decide for yourself while it is still legal to do so here in what the late Dick Cheney called “the oldest democracy in the world.” Tickets are a sliding scale $10-$20.
Collin Yeo (he/him) would probably give it all up for a better world, if he were asked politely.
This article appears in The Eureka Chinatown Monument.