herbiehancock

I took these last August. Not egregious, but I don't understand why they replaced old, self-sustaining trees with needy grass. And overwater it. Excess water was running from these median sprinklers onto the road at least a dozen foggy, humid days last summer.

HSU's new residence halls are lovely - if you're into Midwest business-park aesthetics. But why stop at mediocre architecture when you can install one of the ugliest, most uninspired landscaping designs ever seen? Read last semester's Lumberjack article about faculty member Pete Haggard's disgruntlement. I'll be looking further into this project. In the meantime let me vent about the aesthetics. Though I have to look at "it" every day on my way to school, please note - the HSU groundskeeping staff does not decide the landscaping design process, so they are even more unfairly burdened with maintaining this monstrosity. [These are low quality phone pics, but the image quality probably glosses over the landscaper's faults - like beer goggles. Click on them for larger views.] Oh nice. Gravel is one of least favorite ground coverings, especially paired with asphalt (my least favorite). Gravel is also uncontainable and the most skateboard-disagreeable substa...

I guess Arcata's coffer are flush from the new sales tax income. Last week a crew painted new bike lane signs and sharrows on H St. at 14th (Yay!). Today, they're tearing up the freshly decorated pavement! Awesome!

Of all the sniveling, holier-than-thou tween starlets, Hayden Panettiere has got to be the worst. Ugh, she is so dreadful.

I never understood the law against flyering telephone poles. It seemed like an arbitrary law, one that gave that downtown "ripper" some curmudgeonly quest. I never found flyered poles unsightly, so it seemed more like a slight against fun. But that's all changed now. Living on the southeast corner of a busy intersection in downtown Arcata means my house and yard are in the direct path of every flyer that blows off of a pole. Which is nearly every one. It's windy in this town, and staples, duct tape and nails are no match. Now my daily charge is to walk through the yard and pick some tattered shit. And I expect this from the knuckleheads who pull up in their lifted 'pornstar' and 'fat rat records' ass-mobiles, but every telephone pole in Arcata is sporting an AS and Center Arts flyer. Shouldn't a venerable institution like HSU follow the law in this town? And you know what else? Anyone looked at the Center Arts lineup this year ? Not bad, some regul...

Disclaimer: I haven't cared for a Tim Burton movie since 1994's Ed Wood, which was excellent . So every new project he does puts me on edge. Which brings me to his latest project, yet another remake of a often retold and re-imagined story-- Alice in Wonderland. While I might have been excited about the prospect of TB doing this 15 years ago, it seems all too apropos for a guy who I see as creatively spent and riding the coattails of his quirky early years. What better material than Alice, right? But these early peeks look like they've just taken the same old Alice imagery and CGI-ed it up. Not that there's anything wrong with the classic blue-dress Alice or chubby-cheeked flowers, but if they couldn't find something more groundbreaking, why bother? Check out the pictures here. I think that modern Burton has more say in the production design of his films, to their detriment. Without Henry Selick (the real brains behind A Nightmare Before Christmas) and Bill Boes (who...

I just read The Buzzing, by Jim Knipfel, who apparently writes a column for the NY Press. It was a Christmas gift from my Aunt who finds gently used copies of cool books at her local library for the family each gift season. It's a light, predictable read for the most part, but it suffered from one of my least favorite tendencies in entertainment that's been popular for at least 15 years now. Quentin Tarantino popularized a dialogue style that was fast and fresh, and thick with pop culture references. "Madonna" scene in Reservoir Dogs... Awesome. "Elvis vs. Beatles" in Pulp Fiction.... Good enough. But recently I've been feeling insulted by this insistence by writers to insert their personal favorite "obscure" taste into their work. That's my biggest gripe with Tarantino lately. In "Death Proof" it's all "Nice one, Zatoichi" and "Vanishing Point is the best movie ever." Barf. That kind of writing is soooo ex...

I was perusing one of our local film critic's blogs today and this is what he had to say . Being a former movie theatre employee, I can comfirm that he nailed it right on the head. And I'm jealous he ranted about it before I thought of it. I guess it doesn't affect me directly anymore. I have heard both of those excuses before ("I paid so much for it" and "hey, they have to do something at their jobs, right?") and they are both crocks of shit. Do you throw your tray and trash on the floor after you eat your McDonalds? Do you pour the last of your backwash beer on the floor and toss the pint glass over your shoulder in the Alibi? We would find half eaten bags of heavily buttered popcorn literally dumped all over the floor. Even leaving it upright would have been too kind of a gesture. Nowhere do you make such a seemingly intentional mess (well, maybe the ballpark now that I think about it). And at every restaurant you pay a lot more than you normally woul...