The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valleyThis broken jaw of our lost kingdoms — From T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” Jeepers creepers, where’d you get those peepers? Well, if you are unfortunate enough to share values with the people currently executing the […]
Bow-Legged Buzzards
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Music Tonight: Friday, July 11
So many options tonight, I have whittled it down to two in Arcata that each kick off around 7 p.m. Over at the Veterans Hall, you will find a free one — with donations welcome — offered by devil-rustling fiddle stompers Bow-Legged Buzzards along with Baby W33k3nd. Meanwhile, Moss Oak Commons has a payment optional/$5-$10 […]
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The Sisters of Mercy
I’ve been working a lot lately, which is good for distracting an unquiet mind and (eventually) doesn’t hurt the wallet too much either, but it hasn’t been enough to hold off some of the feelings I suspect more than a few of you out there are also feeling. I don’t want to get into specifics […]
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Music Tonight: Friday, Oct. 11
I love a good show at the Arcata Veterans Hall, and tonight’s line-up can’t be beat, especially the headliners. I’m talking about the return of the Bow-Legged Buzzards, my favorite rot-gut country thrashers led by the devil’s own fiddler himself, Phill Irvine. Rounding out the bill are mega-riffsters Ultramafic and Marble Jar, for whom I […]
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John Brown’s Body
I’ve been trying to make sense of how so many people, some of whom I once considered to be moral, ethical, and generally “good eggs,” as Bertie Wooster would say, can’t seem to take a hard line on the genocide our country is currently abetting in Palestine and now Lebanon. Some things don’t have the […]
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Music Tonight: Tuesday, May 30
This is a powerhouse show at the Siren’s Song that I can absolutely endorse. Oklahoma’s blast rockers Psychotic Reaction share the stage with a powerful lineup of Humboldt excellence. I’m talking about the charnel, country outhouse yowl of the Bow-legged Buzzards. And the stoney riff-ship Planet of Green, which, along with Thee Cokers, fills out […]
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You Can’t Fight in the War Room
I’ve always found it kind of odd that we call it Memorial Day, since the American consciousness is generally incapable of attaching memory to reflection in a way that serves as a reliable monument to the past. We tend to expand grievances while bumping out facts in favor of a national mythology incompatible with an […]
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Spookyville
Halloween tends to promote itself, even when it lands on a Monday, like in this wretched year. That’s just an invitation for a long weekend. I’ll probably go out, even though it’s the first day of the working week. I’m not too stressed about missing out on distributing candy, as I doubt that the forces […]
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Dr. Woo
I’m writing this at the beginning of the week, the day after the eclipse of the Super Flower Blood Moon. I’m probably more immune to the effects of magical thinking and “woo” than most of my fellow Redwood Curtain citizens, but I’m still a little touched by the outré aspects of the natural world. And […]
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From Tragedy to Farce
There are a lot of things I didn’t like about last week, from comical nonsense like The New York Times endorsing Elizabeth Warren AND Amy Klobucar as the Democratic Party candidate because apparently we plan on being ruled by an executive diarchy harvested straight out of the professional managerial strata and with absurdly low support […]
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To Autumn
It’s definitely been what John Keats called a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of the maturing sun” recently. We have been lucky in that sense because even though I have been swerving in the low fog a lot lately to avoid the odd raccoon, dog, cat or dark-hoodied skateboarder, I have […]
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A Wee Touch of the Lurgy
I have what I am telling myself is a slight cold. Maybe it has something to do with my multi-generational associates: My friend’s absurdly cute baby seemed a little snottier than usual when I picked her up the other day and I will tell you that nothing is more likely to Trojan Horse disease into […]