I’ll keep this brief, because we are celebrating our non-human friends this week, and not my doggerel. Here’s a little edited Walt Whitman: “I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained… Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things… Not one is […]
Jessica Grant
Posted inArts + Scene
Comedy Tonight: Tuesday, Feb. 18
We have a new venue in town, as the Jam in Arcata is no more, having morphed into something called the Wild Hare Tavern. Out with the old, in with the leporids. Humor is often the best way to break the ice in a new social situation, so what better way to get acquainted with […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Comedy Tonight: Monday, Aug. 19
Savage Henry Comedy Club presents Medicine, a show by host and producer Jane Alexandria, where a group of local comedians is encouraged to “grin and bear it” by telling stories of personal trauma and ameliorating the horror with laughter. Starting at 9 p.m., and for only $1 to get in, you can come hear all […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Stand-up Comedy Workshop at Savage Henry
Think you’ve got the stuff to be a stand-up comic? Are your friends always saying you should take that schtick on the road? Check out the Stand-up Comedy Workshop, Sundays, 7 to 8 p.m. at Savage Henry Comedy Club (free, donations accepted). Local stand-up comic Jessica Grant leads the workshops that are open to anyone […]
Posted inMusic
A New Holiday
I have been getting a lot of pushback for some of my opinions lately. This is good, people should talk. And if I’m right, I don’t need to worry too hard about defending myself, assuming that there is such a thing as objective reality and the spin cycle of post-modernism hasn’t melted us into insanity […]
Posted inMusic
Blackened Brightness
This week is a bit of a somber one for me, as Nov. 25/26 marks the 20th anniversary of my mother’s death from cancer at the far too young age of 52. I give those dates because she passed away late at night after Thanksgiving of 1999, likely with the cold front that curls over […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Wednesday, May 23
Siren’s Song hosts a Hip Hop and Ladies Comedy Night at 9 p.m. ($5). The unusual assemblage features local DJs, rappers and female comedians in a likely fun mash-up. Full disclosure, I have a pig in this poke — my insanely talented middle brother Ian will be spitting his spoken-word rap stylings under the moniker […]
Posted inMusic
Call Me By Your Band Name
The more creatively named bands featured this week got my wheels spinning down memory lane. Despite a preternatural and seething distrust of all things over and done with, I couldn’t help thinking about some of the uniquely named groups I’ve encountered over the decades. I myself used to front a New Orleans-based punk/psych outfit called […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Monday, May 14
Music-wise, it’s a quiet night on the far-western front but since I have pumped everything from dance to puppetry to burlesque here, let me suggest another medium that’s all about the timing and the rhythm: I speak of the boozy and lurid world of the professional truthteller, the stand-up comic. Kyle Kinane is very funny […]
Posted inMusic
Call Your (or Somebody’s) Mother
I will make this short and sweet, like these fragrant May nights we are lucky to share. Your life started with a womb — unless you were hatched like my friend Walt the bearded dragon — and if you are lucky enough to still have its owner as a positive part of your life, you […]