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Toast of the Town in Arcata  By Michael The K  
                                                              
Well the new and florishing "Arcata Theater  Lounge" played host to the longest surviving ska band in the U.S. Norm Crawford (Bad Kitty presents} hit a home run last night  At the exciting "Arcata Theater lounge ",   Norm always  books exciting cutting edge acts from the U.S. and abroad.  This time out he crafted a fine bill of fare ,headlined by the legendary "Toasters"

This group founded  in 1981 and still led by guitarist, singer, songwriter,  Buck Hingley, rocked the place with upbeat intoxicating ska rythyms and beats. Hugh who originally grew up wanting to be a british secret service man , really looked the part, when i met him briefly at the event . There was Hugh, behind an a group of tables that displayed the groups cd's  t-shirts jackets and various other interesting items with the "Toasters" logos embellished on the front !

Hugh stood at his laptop pc and kept busy there untill his turn on stage. I asked him if he ever weaved his James Bond fantasies into song and his quick reply was, we covered Johnny Rivers "Secret Agent man "several decades ago. The British are always good at comebacks and quips and this was no exception. Later that night I was treated to Hugh and the dynamic Toasters ,driving the crowd into frenzies with there hypnotic chords   and beats > Mosh Pits abounded all night from the opening act  to the stunning  performance of "Killbot " who started the frenzie by laying out a set that was tight , dramatic and had the audience in their grasp from the downbeat.  I had a exciting time as did the entire assembled group that braved a storm threatning night, to get a glimpse of the oldest ska band in the nation .

See the attached site for more info on "The Toasters" and where they will be playing next.  I highly recommend this group to all who appreciate real entertainers .  Thanks Norm for bringing in another diverse and creative show . Check out "Bad Kitty" presents if your looking for cutting edge entertainment that will give you an escape from todays uncertan world ! And also visit the "Arcata Theater Lounge " and the diverse events they offer weekly ! The events keep getting better and more Upscale  and the audience is the real winner !

http://www.radioradiohumboldt.com/2010/02/toasters-wednesday-feb-24-2010.html

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Dimebag Darrel: Gone But Not Forgotten
By David Giarrizzo
True virtuosity seems to be a short lived blossom. There is always someone who wants to take the light off of the talented few and get their 15 seconds of fame with a deranged act. On Dec 8th 1980, John Lennon was gunned down in front of his home at the Dakota Hotel in New York. Dejavu

Wednesday, December 8th 2004, a 25-year-old man identified as Nathan Gale stormed the stage at Damageplan's concert at the Alarosa Villa in Columbus Ohio shooting and killing Pantera founder and Damage Plan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and Damageplan bodyguard Jeff Thompson, 40; fan Nathan Bray, 23; and Erin Halk, 29, who worked at the club. Gale also wounded three people in the audience before an off duty policeman was able to confront Gale. Patrol officer nearby, James Niggemeyer, heard the call of shots fired at 10:18 p.m. and by 10:20 p.m. had snuck inside the club through a back door, according to public information officer Sergeant Brent Mull.

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Vitamin D: Reduction in Heart Disease
By Jim English

Middle-aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%, according to researchers at the University of Warwick. A team of researchers at Warwick Medical School carried out a systematic literature review of studies examining vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders. Cardiometabolic disorders include cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome...

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When to Leave: How to Live
By Rebecca Kimbel

Questions on escaping painful and abusive relationships have been the topic of my mail in questions this week. Each situation is as unique as the people involved in it. Living with abuse is unacceptable. What to do about it and when, requires answers to several questions involving several different circumstances.

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Eureka Gets Terminated
By Michael the K

That would have been the headline in Hollywood ,so I thought it appropriate here.   Old town in Eureka was graced today by the Govenor Arnold Schwartzenegger. The Governator  was here on a tour of the city and to access the damage caused by january 9th's 6.5 earthquake .  The Quake cased extensive damage to the city and the assessment to date is 28 million dollars .

The Governor expessed his and the governments  sympathy for our tragedies and offered hope for support. he declared Eureka a National disaster area, siteing severe damage to over 250  buildings. Because of the extent of the damage was beyond local city or county capibilities, outside counties will be called in to assist .
      
The entourage from Sacramento, included his  Associates ,Aides and a group of Secret Service men, Men in Black as well as Undercover groups . All these working like clock work to both protect the Governor and his group and also to let him be himself with the crowd that gathered to experience this world famous personality.

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Merle Haggard: The Man, The Con, The Musician
By David Giarrizzo

Merle Haggard was born to James and Flossie Haggard on April 6, 1937. His parents moved from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression, converting an old boxcar into a home. Before their marriage, James played fiddle in local honky tonk bars. Flossie was a member of the Church of Christ, which led to her forcing her husband to stop playing the honky tonks. James died from a brain tumor when Merle was nine years old. After his father's death, Merle became rebellious. In an attempt to straighten her son out, his mother put him in several juvenile detention centers, but it had little effect on Merle's behavior. As a teenager, he fell in love with country music, particularly Bob Willis, Lefty Frizzel, and Hank Williams. When he was 12 years old, Haggard was given his first guitar by his older brother; Merle taught himself how to play by listening to records that were lying around the house.

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MoonAlice: The Legend Continues
By Michael the K

On Sunday July 9th 2009 , Arcata's Mainstreet concert series played host to the Moonalice legend . Moonalice a supergroup consisting of great musicians from several legendary bandsmade it's last appearence here in dec of 2008 . In case your not familiar with this touring entity , Moonalice is based on a prehistoric tribe that has evolved into this goup along with its spiritual followers. read more watch videos below

Moonalice - "Stella Blue" - Arcata Plaza 8/9/09	Moonalice - "Somebody To Love" - Arcata Plaza 8/9/09
Moonalice - "Barbara Allen" - Arcata Plaza 8/9/09	Moonalice - Highlights from the Arcata Mainstreet Festival - Arcata Plaza 8/9/09

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Ike Willis & the Pojama People: Keeping the Legend of Frank Zappa Alive!
By David Giarrizzo

As I walked up the ramp to a delivery door in back of the Red Fox Tavern, I couldn’t help notice the silhouette of an afro lurking in the shadows. Out into the street lights appears a black man in his sixties, clad in black and hefting a guitar amp out of a van. “Man, I’m too old for this!”, he cries as he drags the amp up the ramp. As he limps into the room, it is apparent that this”roadie” is actually Ike Willis, the voice and guitar behind legendary Frank Zappa. “Hey, man, I just rolled in. I have got a back ache and a abscessed tooth, so let me get a pain reliever and set up, then we can do the interview.”

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Poor Sleep Associated with Lower Resistance to Colds

Individuals who get less than seven hours of sleep per night appear about three times as likely to develop respiratory illness following exposure to a cold virus as those who sleep eight hours or more, according to a report in the January 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation impairs some immune function, according to background information in the article. Research indicates that those who sleep approximately seven to eight hours per night have the lowest rates of heart disease, illness and death. However, there has previously been little direct evidence that poor sleep increases susceptibility to the common cold.

Sheldon Cohen, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and colleagues studied 153 healthy men and women (average age 37) between 2000 and 2004. Participants were interviewed daily over a two-week period, reporting how many hours they slept per night, what percentage of their time in bed was spent asleep (sleep efficiency) and whether they felt rested. They were then quarantined and administered nasal drops containing the common-cold–causing rhinovirus. For five days afterward, the study participants reported any signs and symptoms of illness and had mucus samples collected from their nasal passages for virus cultures; about 28 days later, they submitted a blood sample that was tested for antibody responses to the virus.

The less an individual slept, the more likely he or she was to develop a cold. Lower sleep efficiency was also associated with developing a cold—participants who spent less than 92 percent of their time in bed asleep were five and a half times more likely to become ill than those whose efficiency was 98 percent or more. Feeling rested was not associated with colds.

“What mechanisms might link sleep to cold susceptibility? When the components of clinical illness (infection and signs or symptoms) were examined separately, sleep efficiency but not sleep duration was associated with signs and symptoms of illness. However, neither was associated with infection,” the authors write. “A possible explanation for this finding is that sleep disturbance influences the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, histamines and other symptom mediators that are released in response to infection.” The results suggest that seven to eight hours of sleep per night is a reasonable target, they conclude.

Comment: Getting efficient sleep will be important this fall and winter if the flu epidemic accelerates. A formula like SleepCycle, which deepens sleep, may be an important component in keeping the immune system strong during the cold and flu season. Note also that sleep disturbances influence the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines that are released in response to infection.

Reference:
Cohen et al. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169 (1): 62 DOI.

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Does New Flu Virus Kill by Causing "Cytokine Storm?"

The flu outbreak that began in Mexico and continues to spread around the globe may be particularly dangerous for young, otherwise healthy adults as it may be able to induce a “cytokine storm,” in which a patient's hyper-activated immune system causes potentially fatal damage to the lungs.

Research studies and review articles exploring the regulation of cytokine responses in the lung and how infection-related dysregulation can cause a cytokine storm have been published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal.

A cytokine storm occurs when the body's immune system over-reacts to an intruder, such as a virus, by producing high levels of cytokines, which are signaling chemicals that help mobilize immune cells capable of removing infectious agents from the body. When too many cytokines are produced, they can stimulate an inflammatory response in which the accumulation of immune cells and fluid at the site of infection may prevent affected tissues and organs such as the lungs from functioning properly and may even cause death.

Some influenza viruses can cause an unusually high proportion of deaths among healthy young adults with well-functioning immune systems who become infected, possibly due to this cytokine storm phenomenon. This phenomenon may also explain why the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, for example, was also particularly deadly for young healthy adults.

David L. Woodland, PhD, Editor-in Chief of Viral Immunology, and President and Director of the Trudeau Institute, Inc. (Saranac Lake, NY), emphasizes that much is still not known about the current influenza outbreak. “We do not know how long ago this virus emerged, how deadly it is, whether it has pandemic potential, how the severity of infection relates to patient age, and why some infected patients die—whether a cytokine storm is responsible for these deaths,” says Woodland.

What we do know, he adds, is that some viruses have pandemic potential and that historical evidence supports the possibility that young healthy adults may be especially susceptible to more severe infection and poor outcomes due to the ability of a strong immune system to initiate a cytokine storm.

References:
Genetic Engineering News (2009, May 6). Does New Swine Flu Virus Kill By Causing A “Cytokine Storm”?

Obtstacles and Opportunities
By Rebecca Kimbel

Every obstacle brings with it an opportunity to grow and to make something better. Every obstacle presents contrast. Contrast high lights what we don’t want and there by clarifies what we do want. When we are confronted with a negative challenge we become more acutely aware of what it is that we really desire and value. All obstacles, both great and small, have within them an opportunity to study contrast If we face them as challenges and not as threats, if we face them with the best of our capacity, if we face them by dealing with them as they come, we are given opportunities to gain strength, self confidence and knowledge.

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Killing the Messenger
By Rebecca Kimbel

My hope to cause expanded thinking, new awareness and more open acceptance and growth. We can not change what we refuse to acknowledge. All change comes from an understanding of what needs to be changed, a willingness to learn how to make better, rise above or deal successfully with a dysfunction. Nothing changes when we refuse to acknowledge the problem. We can not change what we refuse to see

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Reversing Age Related Loss of Sex and Intimacy
By Jim English

One of the many challenges facing aging baby boomers is the prevalent —and outdated—notion that the gradual loss of sexual enjoyment with advancing age is both unavoidable and natural. read more

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Acceptance
By Rebecca Kimbel

What is acceptance? Is it position, wealth or fame? Is acceptance fitting in physically, emotionally or intellectually? In a world of contradictions, how does a person get acceptance? read more

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"Brace Yourselves!": They are Coming Back!!
By Michael the K

Just got a letter from that incredible band "House of Floyd " Seems they are going to be casting their magical spells at the grand "Eureka Theater " in Eureka this coming September . Mark Showalter and the group , do everything by the book ,when it comes to performance , promotion and advertizing . They have included in their
E-mail the groups touring schedual for late summer and fall. read more

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Raggae Celebrates 25 Years on the River
By Michael the K

Tanya Stephens, The Abyssinians, Queen Omega, The Mighty Diamonds - pics by Kevin Cornelius

This year" Raggae on the River " got it together and in spite of losing "Peoples Productions"(the long time producer of all their past events) had their 25th anniversary blast once again.On the bill this year was the electric "Queen Omega" who really got my attention last year at a festival in Eureka. this lady rocks ! Along with the +Abbysinians" ,the "Mighty Diamonds " Etana, Tanya Stephens and others.....

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Poor Sleep Increases Risk of PoorBlood Sugar, Diabetes, & Abnormalities
Growing research continues to implicate poor sleep habits with a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. And increasing risk for diabetes is not the only health problem associated with sleep duration…

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New York Times Best Selling Author
By Rebecca Kimbel

New York Times Best Selling Author, Irene Spencer, who topped the charts with “Shattered Dreams”, presents another book which is expected to far out exceed her New York Times Best seller. The new book is out now. The title is “Cult Insanity”, a factual account of her life in a Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamist cult where the doctrine of blood atonement was a reality that claimed the lives of friends and family alike.

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Equality
By Rebecca Kimbel

Understanding social equality is incomprehensible to many.
A disgusted parent expressed, “I own the house. I earn the money. I make the decisions. If my kids think they are equal, they can get out and take care of themselves. In this house, my rule goes.”
This father assumed money, possessions, and maturity, created an unequal justification. read more

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Respecting You
By Rebecca Kimbel

How long have you been longing to be treated with value and respect? How much pain have you experienced nursing emotional wounds because you were treated as if you had no value? How many heartaches have you experienced because you were treated as if you didn’t count?

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Sex and Chocolate
By Rebecca Kimbel

Sex and chocolate have a lot in common. They can be sweet morsels that soothe ones soul or addictions that ruin life. When one tries to fulfill their natural love of sweetness with chocolate or sex alone, one is left more nutritionally depleted than they were when their hunger started. We must have nutrients that nurture, heal and promote positive growth. People by nature seek what builds, sustains and uplifts. We need what makes us strong, happy and constructive, otherwise, the toll on our health and happiness becomes obvious.
Sweet indulgences are best when they are with someone who appreciates, admires and enjoys fulfilling as much as being fulfilled. If the emotional fulfillment is not there, it is common to see a person feeding fat cells and emotionally starving. read more

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Researchers Discover Molecular Link Between Sleep & Weight Gain

New research is revealing a link between sleep quality and weight control, with some studies indicating that sleep disruption can increase weight gain, and other studies revealing that diet affects sleep

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Celtic Disease Four Times More Prevalent Now Than in 1950's

Celiac disease is an immune system reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley or rye. In patients with celiac disease, ingesting gluten leads to an immune response that attacks the villi - the tiny, fingerlike projections lining the small intestine that enable the absorption of nutrients from food.

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Obesity & Diabetes - Double Risk of Heart Failure: Patients with both conditions much more difficult to treat

The twin epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes will continue to fuel an explosion in heart failure, already the world's most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease…

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Bud Gardener
By Rebecca Kimbel

There are few gifts greater in life than being touched by someone who inspires you so deeply that your life changes direction.

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