Solidarity Forever 

I'm not going to waste too much of your time here, as we all have a long weekend ahead, one we can enjoy collectively only because of the efforts of the greatest collective struggle of all time, and the one least reported on in our country because the struggle isn't over yet. I am talking about the labor movement. We can do better than conservatives and liberals, two sides of the same coin minted by industry. The former will tell you workers who strike are traitors who don't know their place in the hierarchy of our perfect, Panglossian meritocracy, a system that allows legacy wealth to dictate anti-human and increasingly environmentally suicidal terms onto the planet with impunity. Meanwhile, liberals will tell you that using electoralism and the corrupted, rotten institutions created by various generations of these monsters of wealth is the best bet for progress — forget about doing anything else, especially upsetting that meritocratic hierarchy. The truth is, you and everyone you know who has ever spent a moment of your lives trading labor for sustenance are more valuable than an encyclopedia full of the "great men" of history. Even today, we could spend every day for a year flying venture capitalists, billionaires, and the wealthy pundits and politicians they have bought into the dark sky for a new, uncertain colony on Mars (or straight into the sun) and notice no change beyond the occasional piece of melted debris falling back to the earth. However, if you spent the same time without the people picking up our garbage, moving our freight, picking and growing our food, building our homes, fixing our infrastructure, teaching our children, and on and on, you'd have a literal worldwide apocalypse. We are the citizens of the future, not the people who have tied us into a system of infinite growth on a planet of finite space and complex, life-yielding ecosystems. Have a great weekend and remember the future.

Thursday

Blondie's is the place to be tonight, as traveling glam rock troubadour Scott Yoder returns to Humco for a set that is guaranteed to be redolent of the golden space age of the 1970's, the gender bending ground zero of one of the greatest movements in musical history. Local support comes from some of our very best kitsch and niche artists, with Clean Girl and the Dirty Dishes and Lxs Perdidxs on hand at 7 p.m. ($8).

Friday

Attention all Weeners out there: The Stallions, Humboldt Country's premier Ween tribute act, will be jamming at Humbrews tonight at 8 p.m. The band, joined by visiting member and pianist Aber Miller, will be playing the group's White Pepper album in its entirety, along with some other choice nuggets from its large and chaotic discography ($10).

Saturday

Every so often, the conditions of our homeland create the perfect environment for an unusually excellent band to form and grow into a thing so lovely and special that its very nature prevents it from staying rooted to the soil from whose fecundity it sprang. Like a tumbleweed or a kaleidoscope of dandelion seeds, it takes to the winds and spreads its musical issue out into the larger world. Sometimes, though, those bands return to spawn for a night or two, and happily, one of my favorite of such acts is doing just such a thing tonight at the Miniplex at 8 p.m. Opossum Sun Trail, whom you might recall most recently when I gave their last release a glowing review in these pages, are back in town, and if you want to hear psyche-western vistas from the outer Cerebellum Range, you must come through. Also playing is a new project called Myrtle Mountain, featuring members of Black Plate, September Rain and that rascally noise scamp Chini. There will also be a set by Berkeley's futuristic synth-folk band Katsy Pline. Just $10 is a steal for this one, and I'd suggest getting in by 9 p.m. to secure a spot.

Sunday

Well, it seems the Miniplex is slapping it out of the park this weekend with shows featuring great talents from the beautiful frontiers of contemporary musical potential. Tonight's 9 p.m. gig spotlights the incredible acoustic guitar playing of Sir Richard Bishop, a guitarist/composer of unusual talent, who first cut his teeth in the national eye working with the influential Sun City Girls. Winter Band is another fine act, featuring members of Six Organs of Admittance and Comets on Fire, while The Uncredible Phin Band had collected musicians who sit "above the salt" in our local music scene, including members of White Manna, CV, and Die Geister Beschwören ($15).

Since this is the long holiday weekend, I will mention another great show for the matinee crowd, just in case you have other plans for the evening. The Shanty is hosting a proper patio punk show, with local heroes Former Chimps and The Real D.T.s. As with Sunday Shanty shindigs in the past, this one hits the mark at 2 p.m. and nothing is required to get you through the door beyond a birthday that is at least 21 years ago.

Monday, Labor Day

It's Labor Day again, which means that the I Street Block party around the vicinity of Los Bagels and Wildwood Music is back at it again. And thank heavens for that because in these uncertain times, we could all use a little tradition to lean on. The tunes are free and kick off around noon. The lineup is as follows: Lizzy and the Moonbeams, Citizen Funk and Timbata. Go get it.

Tuesday

I am once again suggesting you make your way over to the Speakeasy to check out the jazz stylings on the Opera Alley Cats. The music starts around 7 p.m., and the only cost associated with the entertainment is the social convention of buying a drink and tipping the band.

Wednesday

Amber Soul, a Penner family production rooted in well-played pop, will be playing at Redwood Acres starting at 5:30 p.m., where there will also be an assortment of food trucks and vendors. Admission is free, but bring some currency for the food and entertainment, if you so desire it and can spare it.

Collin Yeo (he/him) is a working class son of working class people stretching back as far as the raven of the afterlife flies. He lives in Arcata.