Local trumpeter summons the spirit of Miles Davis

73 years since dropping out of Julliard School of Music and 17 years since his death, Miles Davis comes back to life from the lungs of Arcata local, Nicholas Dominic Talvola.

On Sept. 9 on stage at Arcata Playhouse, local players Tim Randles (keyboard), Ken Lawrence (bass), Tommy Fitzmaurice (drums), Russ Thallheimer (sax), and Brian White (trombone) were lead by Nicholas Dominic Talvola on the trumpet to pay tribute to one of the most influential figures in the history of Jazz and 20th century music.

“Miles Davis is a big inspiration for me,” Talvola said.

Born and raised in Arcata, Talvola has recently returned home from performing internationally with his band The Johnny Freelance Experience. For any resident in Arcata the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

A quarter after 8 p.m. the band is on stage beneath dimly lit blue and red lights. The playhouse is packed and nearly every seat filled. Talvola walks on stage looking like a mix between Bob Dylan, era ’65, and Wayne Coyne, lead singer of The Flaming Lips. Black dress coat over white button up and bow tie, black jeans cuffed at the ankles and shiny black loafers. His hair is a salt and peppered bird nest and a beard to match, and of course he wore signature jazz Ray Ban sunglasses.

“I know you’re wondering about the playlist. There’s nothing classic,” Talvola said to the audience in between songs.

The first half of the first set Talvola is right, there isn’t a single song off “Kind Of Blue”, arguably the most well known album of Miles Davis, but the songs are hand picked from Talvola as being especially inspirational in his musical career. One could argue every Davis song is a classic and the band made it seem so.

“The Theme” is the first song to warm up the audience, the bass takes the first solo and soon quiets down as Talvola hammers the melody faster. Next songs are “If I Were a Bell” , “I Fall In Love Too Easily” and “Well You Needn’t”, not original Davis compositions but all songs played the way he performed them.

By this time the audience is fully submerged in the mood and so is the band, who since the beginning have played on the same wavelength. One can feel the friendship and comfortableness each player has with one another, setting a tone that invokes relaxation with fierceness.

As a surprise the second to last song before intermission is off “Kind Of Blue”, a tactic Talvola uses to keep the audience on their toes and keep the set unpredictable. An energetically charged solo by Thallheimer, the saxophone player, in “Stella By Starlight” is then followed by a fast and ferocious “Mile Stones”,the title track off the album with the same name. That offers Talvola a solo that leaves the audience stunned, his style of trumpet playing takes the listener back to the Beep Bop era of smoke filled speakeasies pouring out musical giants.

After intermission songs are played back to back until the dark and luminescent “Nefferti”, off Talvola’s favorite Davis album, which bares the same name, and his playing shows his gratitude and influence.

“I think I’ve listened to that album every day for 12 years,” Talvola said.

Next the night becomes strange and funky. The sextet becomes a septet and a guitarist is added to the bandstand. Pedals and distortion join the show as well. It’s time for Davis’ experimental sound, unconventional style and rejection of traditional jazz rhythms.

Songs of “Bitches Brew” era, which is Davis’ electronic instrument experimental album in the 70’s, are wildly played and thrown out like gas to fire, all with eloquence and careful measure. Between Thalleimer and Talvola’s solo’s feeding off the guitar reverb and electric keyboard the entire stage is moving.

The song with the title track off “Bitches Brew” starts at 10:48 and doesn’t end until 11:03 p.m. The song was said to be the last but Talvola in the last minute shocks the audience by shouting they may not have classics but they have “So What”, which is the title track of “Kind of Blue” .

The night ends with the classic that everyone knows, “So What”, and every instrument is played magically. The tapping of everyone’s foot is matched and the blowing of brass is completely in sync.

The lights come on and a standing ovation is performed. The diversity of age in the crowd proves the music of Miles Davis is timeless and Talvola and fellow band mates continue that legacy.

Residents and students alike came together on the 4th annual Arcata “Out of the Darkness” community walk on Sept. 9 to raise awareness for mental health and suicide and to reduce stigma in the local community through connection. The event was also to fundraise for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Heather Freitas is the lead organizer for the AFSP Out of the Darkness community walk in Arcata. Freitas said the walks are a way for the community to come together and create awareness as well as fight negative stigma against mental health.

“It is not possible without the community,” Freitas said.

The walk starts in Arcata Square where participants checked in, looked at mental illness informative booths and engaged in activities that share a connection with suicide.

Participant Sarah Zerkel writes a personal message for a posting board during the Arcata Out of the Darkeness event on Sept. 9, 2018. The board is made of memorials, pictures and tributes that other participants put up. | Photo by Michael Weber

Before the walk, community members were able to show support and learn about mental illness by wearing self identifying beads, sharing stories, and listening to speakers talk about mental health.

The walk itself was an estimated three miles long and took an hour and a half for all participants to complete the walk.

A major landmark of the walk was passing through a “bridge of support,” where motivational and inspirational posters made by former volunteers were put up for display.

One of the numerous posters filled with messages for participants of the Arcata Out of the Darkness Walk in Arcata, CA on Sept. 9, 2018. | Photo by Michael Weber

Participants of the Out of the Darkness community walk in Arcata, CA cross the St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetary on Sept. 9, 2018. | Photo by Michael Weber

In the end, participants walked through the finish line and were congratulated for completing the walk.

For the closing ceremony, Friedas shared her personal experience to the crowd.

“On this day in 2011,” Friedas said her first loss to suicide was her dad. She said he hid it well, and passed away when there was no one to check up on him.

“We don’t grieve just the loss of a life, we grieve with how our relationships change as well,” Friedas said in her speech.

Sept. 9 is also the start of suicide prevention week. As national suicide rates are rising, according to the CDC, support for mental health will continue in the community of Arcata.

As the second month of the school year is well under way, first year students start to settle in to their new living situations on campus.

Moving out of a family home to a university can be a daunting experience. The idea of leaving the safety and stability that parents have provided their whole life is something a lot of young adults have to deal with.

While nerve-wracking, this experience can also be something extremely exciting. Students get to meet new people and make friends from all around the country and the world.

Michael Dunn, who moved from Oakdale, California, describes it as a very new and interesting experience that he’s not used to.

“I come from a small town, so it’s been real different meeting so many new people at once. It’s been real diverse,” Dunn said.

While the idea of meeting new people from around the world can be a lot of fun, leaving the safety of your family and your home is a very different thing. There’s a lot to enjoy with the freedom, but it’s not always easy abruptly leaving your parents.

Baciro Jalo who moved here from Washington, D.C. enjoys his independence.

“I definitely enjoy my total freedom and being away from home. Nobody is telling me what to do and when to do it. It’s still hard because I also miss them,” Jalo said. “We are young and away from our parents, away from people who control us. Here we have total freedom. This is where we choose the way we want our life to be. This is where you can do bad things, and good things, whatever you choose to do.”

Roy Licona-Tamiriz who moved here from Madera, California, describes it almost as a ritual.

“It’s kind of like a bird leaving it’s birds nest. You have to learn on your own and adjust to it all, to the outside environment.”

As the first weeks can be crucial for these young adults to settle in to their new lifestyle, it’s important to reflect on what can be done to make things even easier for them. While setting up freshmen groups and events is a great start, working to make it easier in other ways might help these new students even more.

When asked about if there are things the University could do to help make the process of moving in and settling into the new life on Campus easier Licona-Tamiriz said, “I would say having more freshmen oriented programs, having the freshmen more involved, introduce them to study groups early on in their first classes and get them to interact with each other.”

At home tattooing is often cheaper and more accessible for artists and customers

Emi bought a tattoo gun a couple of months ago and did her first one on herself.

Since then the Humboldt State alumna and artist has been tattooing friends for a much smaller fee than a professional parlor.

“People have been asking me for tattoos for years,” Emi said. “I didn’t want to give people shitty tattoos.”

While studying art at HSU, Emi lived with another tattoo artist who taught her most of what she knows. Though she has only been tattooing for a short time, you wouldn’t be able to tell from her work.

Though it is easy to get a cheap tattoo gun online, Emi knows that getting a tattoo is a big commitment and doesn’t want to use cheap supplies. Just one basic component of her machine cost her $250. She also takes very careful steps to ensure everything is clean and sanitized to prevent infections.

Tattoos used to be reserved for sideshows, sailors and punks, but now it seems like everybody has one. Modern tattoo shops have been around since the 1960s.

In recent years, it has become much easier for an unlicensed person to buy a tattoo gun. You can buy a kit on Amazon for as low as $20. Because of this, there are many people buying kits and setting up impromptu tattooing stations in their home.

Madison has around 13 tattoos and has no issue with getting them from her friends because she knows that even though they are unlicensed, she is familiar with their work and is confident knowing what they are doing. In fact, she prefers getting them from her friends because it strengthens their friendship.

“Pretty much every single one of them was done by a friend except for the ones done by me,” Madison said.

The biggest concern with tattoos done in the home is safety and precision. Professional tattoo artists need to have a license in California to legally tattoo someone. This is because of the health risks that come with repeatedly puncturing somebody’s skin with a needle.

Some of these risks include infection, allergic reaction to the ink, or the spread of blood borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis. That is why it is important for everything to be cleaned and sanitized.

Brian Kaneko is the owner of True Nature Tattoo in Arcata and has been a professional tattoo artist for 20 years. All of the tattoos he has he got in a shop, and he has never tattooed anyone outside of one. However, Kaneko does understand the appeal. Tattoos are rooted in counterculture, and getting them done in the home by a friend feeds into that idea.

“In general, young people are less concerned with repercussions” Kaneko said.

Kaneko also compared getting a tattoo in someone’s house to unprotected sex. It’s more fun and often times you’ll be fine, but the possible repercussions if something goes wrong are not worth it.

“You don’t have to be a carpenter to build furniture in your garage,” Kaneko said “but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can really mess someone up.”

Update 9/13: The last name of Madison has been removed upon request. Contact us for more information.

Outer Space gives home to marginalized to create

Most towns and cities have a do-it-yourself music venue. Sacramento has the Red Museum, Santa Rosa has the Hendley Hotel and Berkeley has The Gilman. Arcata has Outer Space. However, you can’t simply call Outer Space a music venue. Outer Space has what others do not: the Breakfast All Day Collective.

Breakfast All Day Collective, or B.A.D. Collective, was started by HSU alumni Alex Nordquist and Zev Smith-Danford. Nordquist, who is from the greater Los Angeles area, earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology. Smith-Danford, from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area, was a journalism student that used to write for the Lumberjack. Both have lived in Arcata for eight to nine years and spent the last five growing the collective.

Nordquist said it all started with opening up their homes to underground house shows.

“Arcata has a really long history of having a pretty thriving underground DIY art scene. Arcata has more artists per capita than anywhere else,” she said. “It was a way to lend legitimacy to our booking of bands when we were bringing them into our home.”

“We know that the young college population that comes up here often feels so isolated,” Smith-Danford said. “Having a space in Arcata could potentially be much more long lasting and fulfill the great need that has existed here.”

Although Nordquist and Smith-Danford are officially the project managers, they flatten the power structure in the collective. Ultimately every decision is brought into group discussion. They are 100 percent volunteer run, the youngest being under 10 years old and the oldest over 60. There is no board of directors, only the core collective members made up of those who put in time, energy and interest.

“We know that the young college population that comes up here often feels so isolated,” Smith-Danford said. “Having a space in Arcata could potentially be much more long lasting and fulfill the great need that has existed here.”

The collective meets on Wednesday nights at Outer Space. They sit in a circle as they discuss the week’s agenda. The meetings begin with names and preferred pronouns: he, she, they, they’re and them, making sure everyone is addressed correctly. Everyone has an equal voice and the atmosphere is welcoming and all-inclusive.

Carlrey Arroyo, an HSU alumna of environmental studies, has been volunteering since last summer. She has tried to put in as much time as possible while working full time, sometimes doing more and other times less.

“The way I see the space is we’re constantly having to ask for resources or demand respect. Here we actually have a space that facilitates the opportunity for anything. I see it as possibility. A place to create,” Arroyo said.

According to their website “Breakfast All Day Collective attempts to create spaces where everyone can feel safety and freedom from various forms of oppression faced on a daily basis. These include but not limited to: racism, classism, homophobia, ageism, ableism, domestic violence and judgmental fundamentalism.”

Outer Space offers programs like ‘I’m Still Here,’ a mental health support group facilitated by Nordquist on the second and fourth Sunday every month. It also houses other programs such as the Youth AA that meets Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. and the POC (People of Color) support group that meets Saturdays from 3-5 p.m.

“Some people call us a venue, we’re not a venue. We’re a non-profit community space,” Smith-Danford said. “One of the things we do is music events and while those music events are fun and cool and needed in their own right they allow us to have these low cost or free programs that are actually truly needed in this community.”

A sizable portion of the space is dedicated to their community gallery, showcasing local artists that aren’t seen in other galleries.

“One of the fundamental goals is to try and re-center marginalized voices; to amplify and uplift marginalized voices particularly in the context of the arts because if you’ve ever existed in any sub-culture than you’d understand those places just end up replicating the same power structures and inequalities that exist in mainstream society,” Nordquist said. “You can either say that sucks and that’s how the world is or you can try build structures that don’t replicate that, and that’s what we attempt to do.”

Displaced cats from the California fires put on display for adoption.

With the Carr and Klamath fires wreaking havoc among many California residences, 12 displaced and abandoned felines from those surrounding areas adorned the K-Mart shopping center in Mckinleyville on Aug. 25.

Shannon Ventuleth is the director of Sierra Pacific Furbabies Rescue of the Northern California Division. She has been an advocate for cats in these situations since 2014.

“We have adult cats from the Klamath fire, and kittens from the Carr fire and other cats that have been abandoned or found from local areas,” Ventuleth said. “They were originally for short term at Shasta sanctuary who’s a rescue partner of ours, who have lots of cats.”

Pat Inabnit was the first to arrive with her three cats Zippy, Cally, and Brock. All of whom were lost because of the Carr fires.

Inabnit has been a foster cat owner for about three years now. Inabnit said it all started when she took in a pregnant cat a friend of hers found. From that point on she developed a love for raising pregnant cats and preparing kittens for great homes.

“Zippy is a tuxedo cat, who just loves everyone. Cally and Brock are the inseparable ones,” Inabit said. “They both helped one another to get out of their shell. Before being together they were not nearly as calm as they are now.”

From the Carr fire area, cats D.G., Li’l Tom, and Casey were on display doing what cats do best, being fluffy and hard not to pay attention to. Patrons and employees could not resist the little furry felines.

The rescue got its start when Ventuleth decided to rescue a black cat called “Nix” from a high kill shelter in Riverside, California.

“It all started when I wanted that cat, and a guy named David Luke said he would go down to pick up Nix, and he would have his secretary drive him back up to me,” Ventuleth said.

From there Ventuleth started to work with a rescue up north until she filed paperwork to start Sierra Pacific Furbabies Rescue.

The rescue shelter regularly hosts pet adoptions every month at Petco. The Aug. 25 adoption was the first of which to be held at the K-Mart location in Mckinleyville.

Terry Olgin is the lead service member at the K-Mart in Mckinleyville. This was his first time hosting an event.

“Every Saturday we try to host events here at K-Mart so that we can get the community more involved,” Olgin said. “At first, we were going to host dogs, but with the fires this might be better for Sierra Pacific because the main focus can stay on the cats.”

With the California fires continuing to rage and destroy homes, hundreds of misplaced cats continue to load up on the street and are in danger of being put into high kill shelters. For these 12 cats, Sierra Pacific Furbabies is giving these adorable felines a second chance to once again belong to a home or a loving family.

For more info on Sierra Pacific Furbabies Rescue and how to adopt you can access their link http://www.sierrapacificfurbabies.com/ or contact Director Shannon Ventuleth (707)441-9502.