“Although it might feel as though you are quite still at the moment, you’re actually moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into … the Twilight Zone.”
Those words, grabbed from one of the variations of introductions into the old TV show from which this column gets its headline, are a signpost marking our entry into a place where the familiar is used against us as a decoy to let our guard down. Horror is so much more effective when it is coated in a facsimile of something comforting and routine. Normalcy can easily become something terrible when it is allowed to shift and redefine itself until we find ourselves accepting something monstrous as a matter of course. If you think for a moment about how much mass death, oppression, naked corruption and surveillance we’ve been conditioned to accept over the last couple of decades as an inevitable side-effect of the policies of our overseers, it’s impossible to feel as though you aren’t being shuffled into some kind of nightmare. Any road, no matter how scenic, can lead to a killing field. I remember reading during the second Obama administration about a 13-year-old Pakistani kid who had become terrified of blue skies because that was when the U.S. drones would fly overhead and rain down fiery death, including a strike that killed his grandmother as she worked in her garden while he played nearby with his siblings. They say one aspect of fascism is war and colonialism coming home. Can you think of anything in our current news cycle that involves families across America being terrorized by militarized state violence?
Humans are surprisingly durable. We can get used to almost anything to maintain a stability that allows us to survive our conditions. But that durability doesn’t justify those conditions, especially when they are being inflicted by arbitrary forces that don’t adhere to any natural, moral or rational laws. One salient quality about the Twilight Zone is an ambiguously vague entrance into its borders, met with a shocking reveal when the strangeness of this new dimension becomes undeniable. This tracks, as the edge of the day is much blurrier than the totality of the engulfing darkness of night. It is in that disorienting blurriness that twilight reigns briefly as a lord of misrule and illusion. One wonders if we, the people, can use that blurriness to change the tempo of the coming night. Submitted for your consideration, have a great week.
Thursday
I was out at the Basement last weekend to catch some of Makenu’s excellent set. As I left down the H and Seventh street side of Jacoby Storehouse, I looked up at the lights in the windows in the stories above me and made a mental note to drop a mention of the (relatively) new restaurant and venue Havana, so here it is. DJ Papichulo will be spinning tunes for free starting at 9 p.m. for all revelers.
Friday
Double your options tonight, one for Eureka and another for those Arcata-bound. First up at the Wild Hare at 8 p.m. is a variety show, with music by Fek and the Future Friends of Sound, Lady Games and an acid house set by Hudson Glover. There will also be a light show by The Idyllic Suntoy and stand-up sets by Thos Sullivan and a mysterious mummified entertainer from ancient Memphis, and a one-duck show called I am Donald Duck. The whole shebang will be hosted by Josue Valdez and the door costs $7, $5 if you wear a costume.
A half hour later over at the Shanty, there’s a garage-y rock show with Seattle’s Acapulco Lips joining Eureka bands Hey Eleanor and Clean Girl and the Dirty Dishes. This jam will put you back a mere $7.
Saturday
Folk, country and bluegrass singer-songwriter Michael Hagen has been performing solo in our county under the name Oak Top for quite some time now, but all that is coming to an end, as Hagen is set to begin the next phase of his life in Tennessee. Come celebrate his swan song Cali show at the Logger Bar tonight at 8 p.m. Lxs Perdidxs is also on the bill and there’s no cover at the door.
Sunday
Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka is hosting the Mosaic Vocal Ensemble at 4 p.m. today, for a program of a cappella music that includes Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, a popular piece from the World War II-era with words by W.H. Auden, among other works ($20).
Back at the Logger Bar at 8:30 p.m. is the return of premier Portland country act Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, who will be performing along with local twangy surf rockers The Starhoppers ($5).
Monday
It’s quiet as a graveyard tonight, so move along before the spirits hear you.
Tuesday
There’s a good pre-Halloween warm-up over at the Miniplex tonight at 8 p.m. Portland’s Dancing Plague will be sharing the stage with Aux Animaux from Sweden, for a program of haunting and spooky darkwave and industrial sounds. After the live acts pack up, local DJ crew Hispanic! at the Disco will be rolling out a special crossover set of gothic-fused cumbia music. Tickets will be going for $15 at the door, $12 if you buy in advance.
Wednesday
April 20 of this year marked the 90th anniversary of the release of Bride of Frankenstein, director James Whale’s sequel to his successful 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic English Romantic-era monster novel. Arguably his greatest work, the film is a complete piece of art, with the cinematography, sets, sound design and acting all blending together into a time-tripping story of pure atmosphere, that rare element so sorely lacking in contemporary cinema. If you’d like to see this masterpiece on the big screen, head over to the Arcata Theatre Lounge between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to snag a seat and a chance at the pre-game raffle. Tickets will run you $6, $10 if you wish to leave with a poster. l
Collin Yeo (he/him) is a writer, handyman, and amateur boxing coach. His blog can be found at allcatsaregray.substack.com.
This article appears in No Kings II.