Sneak peeks at the Dec. 23 Arcata Eye Scene section include a review from the Absynth Quintet‘s show with Rashad Eggleston’s The Tornado Riders:

Photos by TMc | Eye, of course.

(Monica stayed later and has the leopard-print skivvy shot here.)

You’ll also find an update by Shea Freelove about his experience in Bangkok, another fab column by Ross Rowley and a variety of random information regarding arts and theatre in Arcata and beyond… Happy holidays!

Ross Rowley takes on the 12 notes:

There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#.
How can 12 notes cause so much discord and dissonance between people? It’s just a matter of how you arrange these notes, adding rhythm, tempo and dynamics that dictates styles of music and more importantly, styles of people.
“I hate country music.”
“Well, I hate punk.”
“There ain’t nothing worse than reggae.”
“God, I can’t stand Dixieland.”

Josh Duke loves ladies who love Led Zeppelin:

While I would like to spend my time ranting and raving about how awesome Power of County was on Saturday night, this review really has nothing to do with them…. Instead I focus upon a band that has learned to capitalize on both the nostalgic parts of our minds as well as the libidos of every man in the room all in one bundled fireball of a package:  Zepperella, an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute outfit from San Francisco compelled me to trade $10 for an opportunity to have my eardrums thankfully blown out by a quartet of beautiful sirens.

Shay’s Rebellion reviews Josh’s review of Shay’s Rebellion:

Concerning last week’s article on Shays’ Rebellion and The Hard Ride: I’m sorry that Josh Duke didn’t like the show. I didn’t realize that our music could be so offensive to some people. But then again, I sometimes forget that there is a fairly large contingent of self-satisfied hipsters out there with radically different tastes than I.

Once again, Terrence McNally believes you should attend a Trigger Renegade show:

As Arcata cannabis celebrants are settling in for the night this Sunday, 4/20, feeling the gravitational pull of second-hand overstuffed couches and Ben and Jerry’s pints, conversing with tribe members that, “Dude – my fellow patchwork-clothed compatriot! We totally inhaled marijuana smoke and felt its effects in a large municipal park today!” the better action awaits at the Alibi. At home, among the tapestries and shag carpeting, the fuzzy dreadheads will be, nodding off to a canned bootleg of Garcia noodling incessantly at ‘Warfield ‘79.” Across town, the Viking war party will have landed, tearing open sonic walls and further loosening the nails and screws of an embattled, listing tavern. Trigger Renegade will play. And this will be good. Slough Feg will play. This, too, will be good.

Buy a paper for the full stories, or check here for more.

Catholicism’s spread into Ireland… Portuguese imperialism… importation of African dance… Catholicism again… it all exploded to a drum beat as the last 1,500 years of Western Civ was perhaps unintentionally played out at Inferknow’s Green Day 2008 at Portuguese Hall where Jameson Irish Whiskey and Samba Na Chuva clashed happily.

Organizer Brian Loose noted that the Saturday falderal was respectful of the Vatican’s request to keep the St. Paddy’s partying free from Holy Week.

So it all worked out pretty well, all that history stuff, except for the snakes.

This should be top of your list: Dagger of the Mind, left, at the Alibi Saturday night. Shakespearean metal.

when I mentioned that someone found the Eye’s Scene blog by searching for “duck tongue.”

For your visual pleasure on B1:

Arts!Arcata, of course.

The magic of Thursday night karaoke in the Blue Lake Casino’s WAVE with Terrence’s commentary inside.

Plus, Humboldt Brews reopens: Read Josh Duke’s Bonus Tracks‘ review, below.

Thursday night was special to me. A coming home of sorts occurred as Humboldt Brews reopened in all its remodeled glory, ready to serve non-distilled liquid joy to massive throngs of wristband-clad revelers that scrounged to get inside before reaching capacity.

With a new coat of paint, some serious renovations, and a public outcry for a nightlife spot with some actual floor space, Humboldt Brews gave us a venue with plenty on tap, an actual stage, and a rousing band to keep the crowd guessing. But between the sticky floors, fancy lighting, and overactive haze machines, we still couldn’t ignore the fact that we were watching a band named after one of the most annoying Will Farrell characters since “A Night at the Roxbury.”

Elvis Costello once said “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” and I imagine in my mind’s eye that he must have been watching a jam band when he thought of this.

What separated Moo-Got-2 from the usual stoner jam fare is their priority in maintaining a beat and tempo worthy of cutting a rug over. But I would say they retained the basic elements of any jam band: a group of bored jazz musicians, a bass player obsessed with Jaco Pastorius, the ability to improv a single riff in at least twenty-seven ways, and then taking no less than fifteen minutes to do so for each song. And I’m not knocking them; they were the safe, non-abrasive, pastel wallpaper choice for the opening night of a trendy joint that’s not trying to be exclusionary. No one’s gonna think they’re terrible, but they’re in the position where their music can only be enjoyed under the auspices of a crowd that is there to dance.

This review would be entirely different if there had only been a crowd of four or if I were listening to their album at home. The show was good because the crowd had a good time. It was music for the masses that did what it could to pass for clever and complex. I wrestled much with how to review a band that falls in musical realm where my tolerance fails after 10 minutes of STS9, and I saw that the only way to judge a party band is to judge the party itself.

The endurance that shined through their nearly three-hour set prompted me to get a lovely bouquet of the glandular activity of Arcata’s finest, and as the humidity of the room rose ever higher, I found a nice stool to sit on and dodge the elbows of those who have no concept of the personal space they occupy.

I’m glad that Humboldt Brews is back – and hopefully for the better. I’m sure the crowd was good for business, but I will personally be happier when the night arrives when I will not have to wait in line to get in. Waiting in line to see a show was one of the reasons I left L.A. in the first place.

For every e-mail we get praising the keen wit and “fresh approach” of our Bonus Tracks columnist comes one that asks, “Is there any way to get rid of that Josh Duke?” fun@arcataeye.com.

If you were to pick up an Eye – or even better, subscribe – here’s what you’d get in this week’s Scene section:

HOUSE CALL (TMc)We figured that over 300 people would turn out just to support the financially strapped but well-deserving Arcata House on a Saturday night (putting families into housing  – who could be more worthy of love?)…

WILD MEN Don’t miss Monotonix…

SENSELESS MAYHEM Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Local group of ragamuffins puts on strange play for no good reason!…

SNARK HUNTING In The Hunting of the Snark, eight odd but endearing characters are in pursuit of a mysterious and possibly dangerous creature that none of them have ever seen…

PAGAN CHRISTMAS (TMc) Christmas definitely came earlier than most TV holiday commercials when Portuguese Hall became ground zero for Pagan Christmas…

SELF-REFERENCE WITH JENNIFER Imagine this: you’re there in your new house, mentally arranging the living room, when the moving van arrives…

PELLET GOBBLING WITH JOSH I have this theory that if I ever get suckered into having children, I just know that the karmic powers that be will have their revenge on me by having my children grow up to be the spiteful, resentful antithesis to your favorite local music journalist…

The satisfaction of knowledge and thrill of enlightenment await.

Terrence tells you all about one of our favorite photogs.

UPDATED

Terrence couldn’t figure out how to click on the link. So we’re making it easier for him. Here’s the story:

Photographer extraordinaire Sheldon Sabbatini on love and passion – Nov. 13, 2007

Terrence McNally
Eye Business Editor

HSU – Small, rural California towns have a tradition of attracting great talents. Whether it was Samuel Clemens looking for gold riches, but finding jumping frogs in low Sierras’ Murphy or Bret Harte starting a journalism career at 22-years old at Arcata, Northern Californian-pioneering towns often pull in striving talents.

In Arcata now, it’s college commitments that bring in smart strangers. Sheldon Sabbatini, didn’t even come to go to school, he’s just sort of married to Humboldt’s wildlife program. Fiancée Lindsy Greene is working toward her master’s degree. Sabbatini, arguably one of the area’s best photographers, is biding his time, trying to figure out how to make the most of this weird, isolated burg. That’s love. Were he alone, Sabbatini would still be on the side of a snowed-in Western mountain shooting aerial drops from professional snowboarders. That’s his other passion, now a second-tiered one.

Based in Salt Lake City, Sabbatini became a much-sought after cold-weather sports photographer. His photos graced the leading snowboarding mags and Sabbatini ran with the top boarders in the sport. But one thing leads to another. Before that, Sabbatini was a dutiful art school student.

A high school talent for shooting skateboarding friends led into a real grasp for photography. He’d grown up around it – his mom worked a photo booth when they lived in Wisconsin. Sabbatini soon found himself studying the art in Bellingham, Wash. Armed with a degree, Sabbatini didn’t have a lot more. Every year, art schools churn out talented graduates with just about zero knowledge about how to navigate the business. “The reality is you still have to figure out how to get a job. They don’t tell you anything about
making money. Undergrad degrees – that’s how it is,” he says.

Sort of a whim, Sabbatini and Lindsy left Washington for Utah, snowdrifting. He knew how to shoot – well. He fell for snowboarding.

An easy-going personality and a head for camera technology, Sabbatini soon found friends making it in the business, and they took him under their wings. He was spending 200-days a year knee-deep in the show, shooting. And now he’s here, for a while, hundreds of miles from any serious snowpack.

“It’s been a big change,” he says resignedly. It’s been a year now. Most would have idled. Sabbatini has been working, building his portfolio with new and interesting shots. He’s gotten some work with Mad River Community Hospital and Kokatat, but his main mission has been to keep growing his craft. Sometimes paid. Sometimes just to do an interesting project.

He’s connected with every local photographer he could find, to talk shop. “I’m not afraid to share ideas. I’m all about sharing information.” Not everybody’s matched his enthusiasm, perhaps sensing a talent who would scoop up biz. He figures communication is a better resource than isolation and has kept at getting his name out there.

KSLG’s John Matthews

Sabbatini recently spent two days in Ferndale shooting all the KSLG 94.1 FM radio personalities. He liked the station. He offered his services. Most photographers probably would have gone for the in-studio shot with an “on-air” sign in the background. Sabbatini’s photos are stark, white background, empty-space drawing out faces of people accustomed to behind-the-mic privacy.

Two days later, he had coordinated a shoot of 40 Humboldt Roller Derby girls at the 330 Club. The team is just getting rolling. Maybe none of the girls had been asked to do a model shoot before. By the end of the afternoon – bolstered by a tight lighting system and a fog machine – he’d turned them into stars.

He asked them what they wanted to do, let them run with their ideas. Sometimes he’s reserved and self-effacing. Sometimes he makes faces at them, if he needs to yank them out.

“I probably look like an idiot. I don’t care. It’s about making them comfortable – as long as you capture their personality.” Trained in the art of photography, he might have thought the jobs were beneath him when back in school. But he’s pulling real gems out of the events. The lowest rung, perhaps? Sabbatini has thrown himself into wedding photography with abandon, seeking out clients looking for totally original representations of the day with a fine arts approach. He found, to his surprise, he really enjoyed it. Maybe more base yet – Sabbatini is figuring to remake the high school senior portrait into a unique shoot that blasts a teen’s personality off the page. Not posed shots on beach rocks. Vibrant lighting and energy. It’s commercial and it’s got its integrity intact.

“Artists have to be starving? I don’t agree,” he says. And he’s happy here, for however long he’s here. “There are so many places to get stellar photography. I just want to stir things up.

“I spent my first year here either working outside the area or thinking about what I’m going to do once or if we leave, and now, I just want to make great photography for the people here. I want to push the limits of other photographers and make great images in the meantime.” More examples of his work at flickr.com/photos/sabfoto.