The 10th annual Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo at Blue Lake Casino hosted 35 tattoo artists and other vendors last Thursday through Sunday. Organizers Ted and Amy Marks brought in a familiar line up of tattoo artists, including Liz Cook, Lisa Hower, Tye Harris and Liz Venom, among others, as well as a good mix of […]
Blue Lake Casino
Posted inArts + Scene
Photos from Ohana Comic Con
A surprisingly large crowd of costumed cartoon, movie and anime fans (estimated between 800 and 1,000) filled the Sapphire Palace at the Blue Lake Casino and Hotel on Saturday for its first ever Ohana Comic Con. Organizers of the event used the Hawaiian word “ohana,” meaning “family,” to attract families. The cheap tickets (in contrast […]
Posted inMusic
Blues, Loops, Peyote Rock and Soulgrass
Thursday Bluegrass returns to the menu at the Mad River Brewery Tap Room this evening around 6 p.m. courtesy of the Compost Mountain Boys. As usual, this is a free show, but that doesn’t mean you can’t throw a few shekels toward the band. The Old Steeple in Ferndale is starting off its season with […]
Posted inMusic
Stop and Hear the Roses
It’s not often that I’m impressed with the trajectory of humankind. I wonder if we’ve hit a plateau and just can’t biologically evolve in any significant relation anymore to the technology we’ve created. The quantity of experience, and the quantity of stimuli that surround us in the 21st century is really mind-boggling, if we take […]
Posted inMusic
Get the Folk Up
Thursday You might want to start getting comfortable up in Blue Lake in the run up to the Humboldt Folklife Festival. Start off this evening at the Mad River Brewery with folky fiddle tunes from Fingal, which will be starting it up around 6 p.m. and for free. Remember, kids and dogs are welcome, but […]
Posted inMusic
Entertained to Death
Technology giveth, and technology taketh away. I’ve been pondering this thought for a while now. I won’t claim to be a fully out-of-the-closet Luddite, but compared to many — my children especially — I am far more wary of the trade off between what we get from technology and what we give to technology. Specifically, […]
Posted inMusic
About Bob
My freshman year in high school, I’d hitch rides to school with my friend Cameron and his mother. Cameron and I would groggily listen to cassettes his older brother gave him: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. We listened to Dylan from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan up to Blood On the Tracks and anything […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Fear: Karaoke
Fear is exhausting. Constantly fighting, flying or freezing leaves me with nothing but fatigue. Everyone has fears and phobias, but I have so many: heights, drowning, clowns, abandonment, failure, Ferris wheels, horses … the list goes on. When I say I’m tired of living in fear, I’m not speaking metaphorically. It’s time to face a […]
Posted inMusic
The Rebel Incubator
June 12, 2003 should be a local holiday. On this day, a raucous and deafening cultural event took place, the immediate effects of which have been overshadowed by the sonic mushroom cloud that continues to unfold to this day. The site of this Manhattan Project was The Alibi. The elements fused together were local bands […]
Posted inPerfect Trips
Perfect Fall Trips
The North Coast offers much to appreciate in autumn, both indoors and out. Museums, murals and exhibits, both on tribal lands and in civic buildings, feature traditional and modern tribal arts and culture. Meanwhile, prehistoric trails and settlements, along with recreated villages still in ceremonial use, reveal ancient land and waterscapes that date back millennia. […]
Posted inStories
Hot Streak
Feeling lucky? Home to four casinos, each with unique style, our neck of the North Coast has all your gaming fronts covered. Why not hit ’em all in one day? We did. That’s right, grab your lucky socks, steel your poker face and get ready for an 80-mile marathon day of card-turning, dice-throwing, primo food-eating, […]
Posted inNews
Inked Hearts: A Photo Essay by Mark Larson
As I entered the Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo, I was immediately struck by buzzing of tattoo guns and the unusual sight of many people lying passively on tables, receiving their latest ink. I enjoyed my visit to the sixth annual tattoo expo held in the Blue Lake Casino’s Sapphire Palace on Feb. 8, partly because […]