In October of 2025, Liz Sibley stood in the shell of Jim Dunn’s Cosmopolitan at 301 Second St., the wood plank floor newly oiled and light from the street slanting in on a half-built stage. The bar’s brass footrail lay at its base, yet to be re-attached. At the center of the triptych of mirrors […]
Something Wicked
Posted inMusic
Music Tonight: Friday, Feb. 13
It’s the first of a trio of Fridays the 13th in 2026, and what better way to celebrate theeerie auspices on this eve of Valentine’s Day than a night of punk rock at everyone’sfavorite indoor skatepark? Come join locals Brain Dead Rejects, Guffer andSomething Wicked for a team up with East Bay’s East Boys and […]
Posted inMusic
Love in the Age of War
American English is a lot like the American national project, it steals its resources from other cultures, dumbs down the nuance and meanings into a flavorless boil, and then demands a premium from the rest of the world for being forced to use an inferior product. William Faulkner wrote about his time as a failed […]
Posted inMusic
Music Tonight: Friday, Feb. 6
Speaking of the Arcata Playhouse, there’s an anti-imperialism benefit show calledCommon Denominator put on by the folks in the Humboldt Anti-War Committee and Hip Hop Humboldt as a show of solidarity for the people of Palestine and Venezuela. The line-up is diverse, with jazzy pop tunes from Swingo Domingo, heavier and different fare from Something […]
Posted inMusic
All Tomorrow’s Parties
Last week saw the Arcata Rising fundraiser for the victims of the fire on Jan. 2 take over Humbrews from Friday to Sunday. I am not a very good chronicler of live music when it comes to the straight-story style of reporting; I tend to paint by impressions rather than numbers, for better or for […]
Posted inMusic
Music Tonight: Friday, Oct. 31
As usual, there are many, many, many events going on all over the county. In years past I detailed quite a few of them, but lately I’ve remembered that this column isn’t called the calendar for a reason, so I’m only going to detail two shows, all live music with great bands, in an area […]
Posted inThe Setlist
The King in Yellow
Written in the last decade of the 19th century, Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow inhabits a high-water mark in the lineage of weird fiction and is like nothing else in the canon, including the other published works by the author himself. Only a couple of the stories follow the titular theme to its […]
Posted inMusic
Fanfare for the Common Man
While I am not a fan of historical hypotheticals and counterfactual guesswork, it is enticing to imagine what a different world we’d all be living in if instead of that homicidal hayseed from Missouri, Harry S. Truman, FDR’s previous sidekick Henry Wallace had been vice president when Roosevelt died. Wallace was an avid reformer in […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Friday, May 24
There are two separate local indie rock band shows tonight that are worth your time, only one of which you can choose due to both occurring at 9 p.m., and the limiting nature of the hours in our particular dimension of reality. Wild Abandon is playing a free one over at the Logger Bar if […]
Posted inMusic
Hardcore UFO’s
Well, it’s finally here, Memorial Day weekend, which locally means the Kinetic Sculpture whatever it’s called these days. The weather looks promising, and this stuff is always fun, a welcome diversion and genuinely organic article of regional fun that hasn’t been digested by the tasteless acid pit of global consumerism (yet). I’m looking forward to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Friday, April 5
We all love a good local band showcase, don’t we, folks? Tonight’s line-up spans the rock-to-punk pipeline, with a quartet of groups who all have names that sound like minor Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle villains: Pit Junkies, Marvin the Fly, Something Wicked and The Goons. The action happens at the Siren’s Song Tavern after 7 […]
Posted inMusic
Reap the Wild Wind
Well, April is here, “breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain,” according to the poet T.S. Eliot in one of his most famous works. A popular interpretation of his provocation of calling this “the cruellest month” is the notion that new life coming out of […]