Posted inMusic

Music Tonight: Saturday, Dec. 20

It’s solstice eve, and due to the coming of another more celebrated eve on Wednesday,I’m loading the underboughs of this evening with shows to balance the silent nightsahead. The big shebang is happening over at the Arcata Playhouse, where the JingleJam Holiday Benefit, packed with so many local shining stars, will be happening in two […]

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Because It’s There

I’m packing up and heading out of town this week with the promise that I’ll return with tales of adventure and conquest. For me, that boils down to the possibility of going far enough north up the Pacific Coast to see a puffin in its native home. While I concede a floating puffin is a […]

Posted inArts + Scene

Music Tonight: Saturday, May 6

Houston rapper Devin the Dude has built his 25-year career around the oddball, back-alley by the mainstream style of hip hop that has made that city an artistic haven and spiritual twin of its cultural sister city of New Orleans. I’m talking about cool, idiosyncratic shit that is too real to be esoteric and far […]

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Make Fun, Not Fire

I’m settling back into the swing of things here at the Setlist. It was nice getting feedback from some of you about the return of this little column. Even nicer was snagging some free drinks as a result of my bartender shout-out last week. Free booze is truly the Olympian ambrosia for a gadabout town. […]

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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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The Week in Review

Like everyone reading this, I survived the blackout PG&E inflicted upon us. Sitting in the dark, reading books by candlelight and headlamp, gave me ample thinking time, so I have decided to review some of last week’s events, both worldly and personal. One thought came to mind: Public utilities should be publicly owned, and the […]

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I’m Your Man in thePeanut Gallery

I was in my early 20s when I realized that I would never cut it as a strictly objective journalist. I had just sold my second piece of freelance writing to a now-defunct magazine called Clamor. It was an interview with Christian Parenti, the author and Iraq War correspondent for The Nation magazine. Hearing about […]

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Some Things Last A Long Time

Last week two very different musical geniuses passed away. Ric Ocasek was a hook-writer like no other before or since, and was the mind behind The Cars, as well as a talented producer behind the boards. Daniel Johnston was a lo-fi music collage artist who suffered openly and tremendously from various mental health issues for […]

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Listen Up

The Book of Sirach, one of the Books of Wisdom from the Tanakh, tells me that if I conduct my affairs with humility, I will be loved more than a giver of gifts and that I should avoid seeking the things too sublime for me or beyond my strength. For, I am told, “The mind […]

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