Category: Far North

Those of us craning our necks in Old Town can satisfy our curiosity at last. The frankly named Rooftop Sushi is out in the daylight at last (148 E St., Eureka). Slip into the modest entrance on the E Street side of the new building and ride the elevator (a Eureka rarity) to the fourth floor, where the soft opening is in full swing.  Opening during a welcome streak of sunshine, co-owner and chef Joe Tan and his business partner Lily Tan (no relation) say the first couple of days have been busy. While the indoor dining space and counter were empty off hours, every seat on the patio was taken with diners enjoying nigiri, maki sushi and plates of spiraling beef carpaccio. And sunshine — lots of sunshine. The view of the bay is reserved for the event space on the other side of the rooftop, but the restaurant’s half of the partially covered wood deck overlooks Old Town and environs.  Chef Tan has said he was looking forward to turning his sole attention to the venture, a smaller restaurant, now that he’s moved

This week we’re looking at the life of Patrick Harvey, an incarcerated man who could potentially be resentenced in Humboldt County. We’re also sharing the story of a volunteer for CASA who’s making time for kids in foster care. Finally, a humorous fish story just this side of NSFW. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on Humboldt stories.

Editor: Our “last best chance” is, and has always been, empowering the people in their own backyards (“Our Last Best Chance,” April 11). Weaning ourselves from “fast-track global destruction” requires ecological humility. Each of us can and must eliminate greenhouse gas emissions to fast-track our children’s survival. By omitting consideration of the most effective alternative energy sources available today, your article urinates into the wind onto the people. Clearly, the best chance to address the climate crisis is empowering the people to place solar on their rooftops. This is not just aspirational: I, along with many others, have relied on rooftop solar since the 1970s. Solar energy is so much easier and affordable to implement now than 50 years ago. Fast-tracking our children’s survival requires that subsidies flow toward rooftop solar/battery; but self-reliant families don’t assure big energy profits. Artificial intelligence businesses and the military need huge amounts of power and are the primary beneficiaries of centralized electric power. We the people just need enough to power our lights, appliances and vehicles; a rooftop/battery solar system. Installation costs zero out in just a few years, especially

I like it when a new group I haven’t heard before drops a line to let me know about an upcoming gig because I am given the chance to see what the music makers (and the dreamers of dreams, per Roald Dahl writing as Willy Wonka quoting the poet Arthur O’Shaugnessy) are up to. But things really line up and start sparking and twitching for me with the holy amperage of life when I actually love the music they send. I got treated to just that sort of galvanic shock this week when Liz, aka Trash Panda, from the new Eureka duo Hermit Crab sent me the goods: a link to their latest work, The Earth is Visible from Space. Dear lord of the deadly glowing seas, what a beautiful, stuttering mess of sputtering beats, all chopping through a tideline of battered shoreline debris and foamy toxic unguents. Samples, beats, sax, voices, all funk-scuttling over an ambient mapped fallout zone of music, land-mining Mother Nature with barbs of exploded pop culture and crooning about the mess. This trash is a blast and I love it.

Local guitar playing and soothsaying storyteller Anna Hamilton brings her trio and its blues to the Basement tonight for a free recitation at 8 p.m. I remember her tunes and chatter fondly from the good old days at the Clam Beach Inn (RIP), where she’d take over a corner and fill the barroom with her earthy magic that expanded as the beer taps flowed like the wavy drizzle in the backyard Strawberry Creek forest basin. Here’s a glass tipped to those memories and a sip in honor of those to come…

Editor: Thadeus Greenson’s coverage of Cal Poly Humboldt’s work confronting the glut of plastic everywhere and in everything now (“Turning the Titanic,” April 11) was an encouraging start. However, at the end of the article was Morgan King’s more important point, I think, that the fossil fuel industry and the plastics industry’s shift of responsibility to the consumer is, perhaps more crucially, what needs to change. If companies make and promote products that create immense problems for the planet, those same companies need to be held responsible for solving those problems that they have created, the onus ought to be on them. And why isn’t it? Advertising (professional lying) is part of the problem. That “recycle” is a euphemism for what is in actuality a nonexistent service — that’s part of it. That, as King points out, companies have done a great job moving where the spotlight goes. And, of course, there’s profit. Companies only do what they ought to do that would benefit the well-being of others if doing so is profitable. New World Water, in Arcata, is one solution: refillable glass containers, as well as

‘Living in amends,’ a candidate for resentencing hopes for another chance Patrick Harvey, speaking to the Journal from the California Medical Facility, a state prison in Vacaville, falls silent for a moment, considering the question about hope. Harvey, who has served 25 years of a 25-to-life sentence, reportedly the first under California’s three-strikes law handed down in Humboldt County, has a tendency to speak quickly over the phone, though it’s unclear whether that’s the product of his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or the prison’s phone system only allowing 20-minute calls. But asked about hope, he pauses. “I’m what they call state-raised,” he says, explaining that at 52, he’s only spent 14 months as a free man since he turned 18. And even before he came to prison, he says, there were stints in juvenile halls and the California Youth Authority. He says he’s been accustomed to incarceration since his early teens, since he was first sent to juvey in San Diego County after he ran away from home and was caught breaking into a vacant apartment, looking for a place to sleep. “Once that began, I was

Welcome to Washed Up’s Xucation Channel where we present science education in a format that people will actually watch. In this episode, a lady visits a gentleman and we learn about an interesting fish. “Hey handsome, bet you can’t resist these.” While he fails to resist those, let’s discuss the Pacific tomcod (Microgadus proximus). This fish is in the family of true cods, which can be distinguished from other fishes by their three dorsal fins, two anal fins and a single whisker, or barbel, at the end of their chin. (A lot of non-true cods are commonly called “cod,” such as “rock cod” for rockfish, and “black cod” for sablefish.) “Let’s see how big you are.” The relevant part of our well-above-average gentleman performer is approximately the size of an average adult tomcod. So, unlike the bigger cod species, there is only a very minor commercial fishery for Pacific tomcod. But they are a somewhat popular sportfish that are often caught from piers. Like other cod, they have delicately flavored flakey white meat. And some people cook them as you would freshwater panfish. “You deserve

I want to be A good ancestor To plant seeds for Future generations To harvest I want to leave A foundation For strong community Happy and willing to Work together I want to work For bringing humanity Back to humans Because a good future A strong future Needs all of us Dottie Simmons…

Editor: The shadows do grow long for our species. Perhaps the Gods would be pleased to witness their followers use some of the land and sea to preserve the biosphere (“Our Last Best Chance,” April 11). We can only hope that it is not too late. Fred Summers, Ferndale…

Arcata High students unveil mural honoring Lawson In a room packed with Humboldt community members, Charmaine Lawson, dressed in all black aside from red text on her shirt reading “Justice for Josiah,” turned to place her hand close to the image of David Josiah Lawson. After a few moments of silence, she cut the rainbow ribbon in front of the mural honoring her son. “[It represents] power, strength, tenacity — continue to fight, cause I’m not fighting alone,” Charmaine Lawson said. “It means the world that my son is remembered after seven years. To see that, I’m grateful. My heart is filled with gratitude. My son’s memory is very much remembered; evil will never win.”  The mural memorializing David Josiah Lawson was unveiled April 10 at Arcata High School. The 19 year old was a sophomore at then Humboldt State University when he was fatally stabbed April 15, 2017, at an off-campus party in Arcata. To mark the seventh anniversary of David Josiah Lawson’s death, Arcata High School’s Black Student Union (BSU) attempted to immortalize his legacy in collaborating with Art Representation Culture (ARC) and

Editor: The Journal and other local media outlets report regularly on local car and truck crashes that seriously injure and kill people (“One Killed, Another Injured in 101 Crash,” posted April 2). The death toll on our streets and roads is a national disgrace. It is a particularly acute problem here in Humboldt County, and our most vulnerable road users are most at risk. Mapping local crashes that have resulted in serious injuries or deaths makes one thing very clear: Serious crashes are concentrated on state highways. Deadly crashes involving people walking and biking are particularly common where state highways pass through communities, like Broadway, Fourth and Fifth streets in Eureka. Caltrans has made significant progress in recent years toward prioritizing safety for all modes of transportation, and the agency deserves credit for those changes. But that improvement is not coming quickly enough, and there are still conflicting pressures and outdated policies that hold back progress on safety.  That’s why my organization, the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, is so excited that Senator Wiener has introduced Senate Bill 960, the Complete Streets Act. This bill

Let’s hear it for the Logger Bar again, which has positively crushed it with booking this week, finishing strong with the return of Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, Portland’s favorite stardust country and lost highway soul seekers fronted by one of the best voices in the biz. The very talented Turtle Goodwater of Barn Fire and too many good gigs to name adds his shine to the night, which starts at 8 p.m. and costs a mere $5 to help keep our brave players on the road. Folks, live music is back and hot tonight…

In response to his daughter receiving a swastika on social media, a California Jewish lawmaker is pushing for a bill that would give school administrators authority to suspend or expel students if they cyberbully fellow students away from school and outside of school hours. But Long Beach Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s Assembly Bill 2351 is coming into conflict with California’s recent reforms intended to prevent students of color from being expelled and suspended at disproportionate rates. The ACLU and other social justice organizations oppose Lowenthal’s bill. The bill’s critics told the Assembly Education Committee earlier this month at the bill’s first hearing that giving school administrators authority to punish students for behavior that occurs off campus could result in the return of “racially biased and disparate” punishment that puts students on a “school-to-prison pipeline.”  Lowenthal told the committee that as a socially-conscious Democrat, he previously couldn’t “imagine a scenario where I’m on a different side” from the ACLU, but he said his daughter’s experience highlighted why the law needs to change. “Only a decade ago, school bullying ended once you got home and were safe,” he

In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fishery managers unanimously voted to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row.  The April 10 decision is designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive.  Salmon abundance forecasts for the year “are just too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s appointee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said last week. “While the rainfall and the snowpacks have improved, the stocks and their habitats just need another year to recover.” State and federal agencies are now expected to implement the closures for ocean fishing. Had the season not been in question again this year, recreational boats would likely already be fishing off the coast of California, while the commercial season typically runs from May through October.  In addition, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide next month whether to cancel inland salmon fishing in California rivers this summer and fall. The

The Logger Bar hits us with a rare Monday night show at 7:30 p.m. and this one looks like a rip-snortin’, garage-rockin’ deal with our local lovelies Clean Girl and the Dirty Dishes cranking the amp alongside SUX from Seattle, featuring a lady named Lolli from the infamous mean-ass punk band Mommy Long Legs. The $5 is pocket change for a chance to jam out on this one with some high-nitro tunes. …

Minnesota bluesman, picker, and singer-songwriter Charlie Parr is the real deal, by which I mean an artist who has sublimated the nerve-ending feedback signals of his life and the lives of those around him into a sound that captures the true essence of storytelling, that elusive place where fiction creates truth. I’m not the only one to recognize this, either. The guy has a career traveling the world with his guitar, no easy feat in the year of Our Lord 2024. He’s parked over at Humbrews tonight at 8 p.m., where he will be joined by banjo-playing singers Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, also known as The Lowest Pair, an indie-grass duo minted in Olympia, Washington, a decade ago, and rolling on down the road ever since ($25, $20 advance). …

Two free shows tonight at great local venues with some of the best and offbeat bands around. Rooster McClintock brings the fine country jams alongside Heaven’s Taint (lol), which I am told has a surf rock vibe, to the Logger Bar at 8 p.m. An hour later over at the Shanty, you can  enjoy a more jangly and pulsing psychedelic deal with Widdershins, who have united for the evening with the excellent odd-rockers Silver & Nails for what I’ll call a perfect lineup for the joint…

UPDATE: Ferndale Police Sgt. Robert Lindgren says the artillery shell that prompted the evacuation of a building and the partial closure of Main Street this morning while the county bomb squad responded was empty. Lindgren also corrected some inaccurate information initially disseminated to the Journal by police amid the dynamic events of the morning. Lindgren says police were notified this morning of a possible explosive ordnance at a book store on Main Street and he responded, taking some pictures of the device to send to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad, which then asked him to evacuate the building and cordon off the area while it responded. The device was ultimately removed using the bomb squad’s robot and then determined to be empty. Lindgren says it was subsequently determined the book store’s owners acquired several boxes of what they thought were books about a month ago from some kind of estate sale. When they began going through the boxes today, Lindgren says they came across the antique artillery shell, were concerned and contacted Fortuna Police Chief Casey Day. The device was then reported to

Part of Ferndale’s Main Street has been cordoned off and a building evacuated due to fears that an antique artillery shell on display at a book store may be live, according to Police Chief Ron Sligh. Sligh said the store, Butterfat Books, put the shell out on display some time back and concerns began to circulate yesterday. “Someone saw it and thought, ‘Those things can be dangerous if they’re live,'” Sligh said, adding that police then contacted the store’s owner to inquire about it and they reported they’d obtained the shell at an estate sale. Police took a picture of the shell and sent it to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad, which decided to “err on the side of caution” and send bomb technicians to come look at the device and asked Ferndale police to evacuate the building and block the surrounding area, Sligh said. Sligh said the store’s owners recently went to an estate sale in Crescent City, where they bought some boxes of books and found the shell inside one of them. As such, Sligh said, they were unable to speak

For our annual Green Issue, we’re looking into all things eco. First, there’s green burial in the works in our county. We’ve also got updates on the Earth flag legal conundrum and Measure S. Finally, we’re looking into Sunken Seaweed’s quest to help reestablish bull kelp and grow sustainable seaweed for consumers, too. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on Humboldt stories. …