the unblinking eye
Arcata, California is a small town along the northern coast. as such it's home to its share of burn-outs and transients and a lot of just general weirdness, all captured nicely in the Arcata Eye's local police log. it's creatively written and almost always a fun read. to wit:
Friday, July 30 10:10 a.m. A bicyclist reported an unproductive encounter with a bus at the bus station a couple of hours previous. Transportation officials checked the security video and said it appeared the biker was "playing chicken" with the bus when he sustained rear tire damage.
2:35 p.m.
A bongo downtown was in blossom
With sound someone found less than awesome
But cops thought it mild
And left the flower child
Having found no good reason to cross ’em.
3:15 p.m.
Again on the square bongos sizzled
Like bippety-boppity drizzle
Cops found the offender
And silenced his splendor
With that, the percussion-fest fizzled.
3:41 p.m. A man at the front counter wanted to report that someone named Mark was "crossing his path."
8:15 p.m. A woman reported her neighbor giving her and her children "dirty looks," and said he washed the kids’ chalk art off the street. For his part, he had previously reported feeling threatened by the scrawlings.
8:52 p.m. A woman reported that she was feeling "out of it."
Comments
I wish those rich squares up on Fickle Hill would quit narcing on me and my bongos.
Posted by: David | August 26, 2004 04:20 PM
The compelling documentary The Corporation, which I'm glad I finally went to see yesterday, focused on Arcata in one of its many segments (it's a 2.5 hour film).
Residents of Arcata banded together to freeze the number of chain restaurants allowed in the city at 9. Here's info on that: http://www.newrules.org/retail/formula.html.
Posted by: Jim | August 31, 2004 02:42 PM