Ain't Misbehavin' 

Despite last week's wild news cycle, you will not be getting any political talk from me now. I stand by my words from a few weeks ago, before the debate, that because we are all locally removed from national electoral culpability, we are free to chase our own winds, fair or foul. I'll even go a step further and do something rare (for me) and quote the words of Arthur Schopenhauer: "The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."

None of this absolves us of responsibility. Quite the opposite; it allows us to focus the aperture of our attention where it really matters, among our own community. You can do a lot of good in this world without leaving your home turf or watching the national news. If you get troubled by something bigger than you feel you can handle, remember television isn't real, and our corporate media runs on spectacle to obscure the massive crimes and violence of its beneficiary class. If you feel the gravity pull toward some incendiary celestial monster on the page or screen — especially those little phone screens — relax, it's only a paper moon. Walk outside, look up and check out the real deal as it waxes toward full this Sunday. We've all been living through an awful slog of disruption and steady chaotic incidents for some time, but nothing compels any of us to order the focus of our lives around that shit. Your life, possibly your one and only, or possibly revolving eternally again and again, very likely something far different and inconceivable to humans, is still yours, more than anything else, anyway. Share it wisely, with love.

Have a great week.

Thursday

The Humboldt Folklife Festival rolls on toward its conclusion in a couple of days with another evening in the amphitheater. Tonight's theme is "Bluegrass and Beyond," with performances by Ruby Ruth and Mule Ranch, Elderberry Rust and Cadillac Ranch. The bands play in that order, with a 6 p.m. start time and $10 admission price, minus two bucks if you are a member of the Humboldt Folklife Society.

Friday

Jazz heroes tend to burn bright and fast like John Coltrane, or bloom and curl out, evolving in stages over many decades like Sonny Rollins. Yusef Lateef was in the latter camp, with a music career that saw him shifting from a tenor sax and flute player in the world of established jazz norms to training as a composer and learning a squadron of instruments from many cultures to realize his vision of creating syncretic human music from around the globe. It was "world music" years before the genre was named and formalized. With Lateef, many things were possible, and new possibilities expanded from the living tree of jazz. If you like the sound of that, you're in for a treat tonight, as some of our best players are interpreting his work, with the quartet RLAD tapping roots for trumpeter Nicholas Talvola, trombonist Brian White and flute/sax player Gary Lewis. It all goes down at Trinidad Town Hall at 7:30 p.m., with tickets running a sliding scale $10-$20. Do not miss out.

Saturday

Two interesting but disparate shows are happening tonight, one in Arcata at 7 p.m., the other in Blue Lake two hours later, and so with a nod to chronology, let's go. At Outer Space it's a three-pronged affair, with Sacramento alt-rock band Quinine representing the road dogs, with local color provided by ambient act Blub and synth jazz duo Moosejaw. All-ages, $5-$10 sliding scale.

Later on, the scorching outlaw country of Barnfire is on tap at the Logger Bar, historically a great venue for this band, and a good way to say farewell to the Folklife Festival in style. No cover.

Sunday

It's a fine afternoon to go check out the music scene at the Fieldbrook Winery. Today's players are Celtic, world, and folk guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Seabury Gould, who will be joined by fiddler Evan Morden. The tunes start at noon and are free, with an understanding that refreshments are available for purchase, and a note from me to tip the musicians if possible.

Monday

It's 7 p.m. on Monday night at Savage Henry Comedy Club, which means another installment of — thunderclap, sword slash, scream and evisceration sounds — Metal Monday. Tonight's road band is a grindcore act from Michigan called Cloud Rat, with local support from Malicious Algorithm, The Groomers, Kolonizer and Pruritus Ani. If you don't understand basic medical Latin, try to scratch that last name out for yourself. All-ages, as always, with a sliding scale $5-$15 to get inside.

Tuesday

Matchess is the nom de stage of Whitney Johnson, and also the name of a trio she leads to play her compositions, which are fairly abstract soundwaves of musical glossolalia and deep-brain somnambulant exploration. I listened to the Drag City artist's latest offering and found myself wondering if I had somehow slid a cold fusion coil into my cerebellum, but in a pleasant way. They will be doing this sort of thing at the Miniplex tonight at 8:30 p.m. for a door price of $15, $10 if you pay in advance. IDYL, the solo project of Dan K from Black Plate, will be doing something pretty amazing, too.

Wednesday

Speaking of the Miniplex, it's a good time to remind everyone of Big Mood, the weekly queer dance party curated by DJ Pandemonium Jones. The fun starts at 8 p.m., it's free to get in and this boy knows his stuff when it comes to grooving on wax tracks made to melt your candle and spin your flames.

Collin Yeo (he/him) can think of a lot of things from 1981 he'd rather see return than last week's mess. Post-punk tapes with instrumental B-sides, for instance. He lives in Arcata.