Chinese New Year is around the corner, falling on Feb. 5 this year. To celebrate the Year of the Golden Pig, my southern Chinese family’s tradition is to have savory rice ball soup the night before, whereas the northerners like to have dumplings. The soft little balls made from glutinous rice flour symbolize closeness and […]
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Posted inArts + Scene
Salt: Emily Silver and Holly Sepulveda
Since it opened on F Street last year, the nonprofit gallery Canvas + Clay has been staging exhibitions that approach arts programming in novel ways. Canvas + Clay is affiliated with the Eureka Studio, a fine arts center for people with developmental disabilities and the gallery’s two-person exhibitions pair studio-affiliated artists with established locals. Salt, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Old Haunts
We’ve all been there. You’re a middle-aged “retired” (read, talentless) dancer, furtively packing to leave your husband for the umpteenth time, trying to convince your brother this one will stick while he blathers on about his fleet-footed fiancée. Oh, you haven’t? In that case, you may not identify with the setting of Ferndale Repertory Theater’s […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. FEBRUARY: You’ll be invited to make a pivotal transition in the history of your relationship with your most important life goals. It should be both fun and daunting! MARCH: Don’t waste time and energy trying to coax others to haul […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
A Low Barr and a Cashed Bowl
In case you’ve been living under a rock — or just glaze over at the mere mention of Russia — the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing last week for President Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr. While the vast majority of news coverage of the hearing focused on whether Barr would recuse himself […]
Posted inMusic
Fiddles, Violins and Killer Sax
This week features a folk-heavy lineup of artists, as well as some odd ducks and assorted bright things. And because I have an interview with one of them elswhere in this issue and an album review in the works, I am going to be a man of few words in this intro and simply wish […]
Posted inMusic
Gothically Feminine
Four-time Grammy winner and Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame inductee Rosanne Cash plays with John Leventhal at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. The Journal interviewed her by phone from Nashville about her newest album She Remembers Everything and her relationship with writing. North Coast Journal: What was […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Border Dispute
Neighbors can be odd. Next-door neighbors even more so. You’re not under the same roof, like siblings. But you are expected to get along with them, albeit for reasons of geography rather than genetics, and, like family, you don’t always get to choose them. In the comedy Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias, the first offering […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Survival Strategies
Reviews THE FAVOURITE. Lanthimos is a writer and director of comedies not for the faint of heart. He makes movies I find hilarious; others seem to come away despondent at their misanthropy and absurdity. Some might call what he does psychological horror. But to me, the critical distinction lies in his emphasis on humor as […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Celery at Center Stage
An ingredient of Italian soffritto, French mirepoix and the Cajun holy trinity, celery is rarely at center stage in a recipe. We’ll change that in 2019. Celery has a long history that goes back to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. A National Geographic article describes what Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Cancer, Part 2: Turtles, Birds and Rabbits
Last week, we looked at some of the many reasons why the diagnosis and treatment of cancer are so difficult and controversial. A common way of illustrating the problem is the “turtle-bird-rabbit” analogy. Although it can equally well apply to breast cancer (the most common cancer in women), here I’ll discuss it in relation to […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Making it Official
I remember well when I was editor of the Arcata Union in 1986. The Hadley family, which had owned the weekly for more than 50 years, sold the newspaper to a pair of investors from the Bay Area. I interviewed the new publisher, a guy from Nevada, and he said all the right things: “No […]