While many of us are enraptured with our local bald eagle fledglings (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-bay-eagle-cam), California condors are making a slow but steady comeback from the brink of extinction a few hundred miles away. Visitors to the nation’s newest national park, Pinnacles, have the rare opportunity to see condors in action. The park is one of two […]
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Posted inMusic
Four Ways to Spend Your Saturday
Yes, yes, yes… We’ll get to Oyster Fest. But let’s begin with the most promising press release of the week — as in, it promises you an amazing time. Do you like to dance? We’ll start with a few questions. Do you like to dance? Do you like dancing among kind, accepting people? Do you […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The Joy of Frances Ha
Reviews FRANCES HA. The quirky, hipster ingénue is a trope that will probably last forever. From the flapper girls of the silent era through Annie Hall and Amélie, leading men have been tripping over themselves to win the hearts of girls with that certain je ne sais quoi. Frances Ha, the latest from writer/director Noah […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hey Look, It’s Us!
Previews AFTER EARTH. Friends who attended last Thursday’s premiere warned me that this might be the worst movie of the year. I didn’t find it quite that bad — not really any damn good, either, but certainly not the worst. Having missed last week’s gala event at the Broadway Cinema, I was able to meet […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Oysters, Beer and Cash
When organizers of Arcata’s Oyster Festival announced they would charge a $10 admission fee this year, people went bonkers. “Elitism!” was the cry du jour. Organizers and supporters pleaded for calm, saying the fee would curtail the festival’s rowdiness and right Arcata Main Street’s listing finances. The ruckus has mostly subsided, but “are you going […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art
That mid-20th century artistic innovations happened in New York, Paris and San Francisco is no surprise, but rural North Carolina? It’s all but forgotten now, but for 23 years many of those who defined American arts came to an isolated YMCA camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains to teach, learn, collaborate and create. Black Mountain […]
Posted inMusic
Fever for All Ages
While the music, arts and greater Humboldt community wait for the return of Bob Doran, the Hum’s true host, the NCJ has asked for a bit of help. To that end, here are some of the week’s shows most worth your effort and hard-earned cash. Think of the children! First off, let’s talk Fever Charm […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Infinity and Beyond
The concept of “infinity” has bothered and challenged philosophers for thousands of years, but the first really modern attempt at understanding it was made by the mathematician-astronomer-philosopher Galileo Galilei in his final book Two New Sciences (1638). The “Father of Modern Science” attributes our problems with infinity to the limitations of our brains, anticipating Emmanuel […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Meet the County’s New Values
On Monday afternoon, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors gave themselves a new compass. This instrument is designed to help them navigate the treacherous waters of the general plan update, a complex voyage through highly contentious policy decisions. The primary destination is an updated general plan, the document that governs land use decisions in Humboldt […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
‘FOUND: Dreadlock’
A recent post on Humboldt County Craigslist captures a certain Arcata mentality so perfectly, it’s as if a whole subcommunity has been projected through a mystical necklace crystal and channeled into the cold binary world of the Internet. “FOUND: Dreadlock (Arcata Marsh),” reads the title. Click and you get the following story: “I was walking […]