#100. The Editor Who Rewrote Community Engagement: Kevin Hoover’s Inspiring Path

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond and the 100% Humboldt podcast. The number one hundred ep- hundredth episode, gotta say that quick, with my new best friend, Kevin Hoover.

Scott Hammond: Hi, Kevin.

Kevin Hoover: Hi, Scott.

Scott Hammond: How's your day?

Kevin Hoover: So far so good. I'm still vertical.

Scott Hammond: You're s- up-

Kevin Hoover: It's always a plus

Scott Hammond: … upright and talking.

Kevin Hoover: Right.

Scott Hammond: Tell, tell us, uh, who's, who's Kevin Hoover? What's your, uh, your day job?

Kevin Hoover: Well, my day job is serving as, uh, editor at large of The Mad River Union.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, you know, when you're an editor of a paper on our size, basically, it's like being, you know, the manager at a convenience store. It's like, yeah, you're the manager, and you just do everything you can't find someone else to do.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: So, uh, you just never know what's coming at you. No, no two days are the same, which I love.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and, uh, you know, I always find something interesting new out about… Does that sentence work? Interesting new, uh, out about, um, my

Kevin Hoover: community-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … and the people in it, and so it's just a every shape-shifting kaleidoscope.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Northern Humboldt's, uh, perfect grounds for all that.

Kevin Hoover: It really is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. So you guys cover… Well, I imagine you cover the state and, as, as needed, but Arcata, McKinleyville, Blue Lake-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … up the coast.

Kevin Hoover: NoHum, as we-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … euphemistically call it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: But we'll cover, you know, well, things that happen in Manila-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … as well. Um, there's a lot going on out there. You know, y- you can… It's kind of a, I don't know, the Mandelbrot set or something. You can pick any little tiny part of it and zoom in-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and it's just as complicated as everything else.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: You can zoom in on that and it's still as complicated, so.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Kevin Hoover: There's a million stories out there.

Scott Hammond: Yep, yep, still being told.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, tell us about you and how you got to Humboldt and where you went to school and grew up and your-

Kevin Hoover: For sure. Well-

Scott Hammond: What, what's your deal?

Kevin Hoover: Right. I don't really know what my deal is. Well, I was born in a log cabin that I helped my dad build and, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Kevin Hoover: … and I showed up here. No. Um, I, um… Okay, so I grew up… Well, I was born in San Francisco.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And I lived on Haight Street-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Kevin Hoover: … before it was a thing.

Scott Hammond: How old were you when you were on the Haight?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, you know, an infant-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Kevin Hoover: … basically, young. And, um, I remember the day in, well, I don't know if I wanna say the year, but there was a big earthquake-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … when we lived in San Francisco, and I still remember my mother rushing me out the front door of the apartment building, and everything was shaking, which I thought was amazing-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … and she was wigged out. And then my dad came and found us, and, uh, my mom said, "We're moving."

Scott Hammond: That's it. We're done.

Kevin Hoover: "We're moving to the East Bay." And, uh, within, I think, a year or two, we lived in, uh, Hayward.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Kevin Hoover: And proceeded to live in a few different places in the East Bay. Hayward, Castro Valley-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … Fremont, and, um, you know, that was where I spent my childhood and back in the duck and cover era-

Scott Hammond: Sure, yeah

Kevin Hoover: … when I was actually around before there were any satellites in the sky.

Scott Hammond: Imagine that. Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. So-

Scott Hammond: So you and I are about the same age. I'm only, uh, 49-

Kevin Hoover: Oh

Scott Hammond: … like you.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Well, you're a young pup compared to me, so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So y- did you come to Humboldt then and go to school?

Kevin Hoover: Nope, not at all. There's a widespread belief that I attended Humboldt State University.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Never a day. Well, I did, I took a few night classes there for fun things-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … like guitar and stuff like that.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: And certainly spent a lot of time up there, but no, never attended a single class

Kevin Hoover: there. Although, you know, it'd be great to be an alumni.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, but, uh, I am just not that. But, uh, I came up here, the origins of story.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: It's kind of an oft-told tale and kind of a war horse. So if you're out there and you've heard this before, you can-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, bear with us

Kevin Hoover: … go, uh, make a sandwich or something.

Kevin Hoover: But, um- One day, I was reading, some folks of a certain age will remember the National Lampoon.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, predecessor in a sense to The Onion, uh, and, uh, they had a true facts column in there where, uh, it's like real s- stuff that really happened. It's just as weird as the made-up stuff. And one item happened to be about how…

Kevin Hoover: And somebody was up on the statue of McKinley stuffing cheese in his nose and ears.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Kevin Hoover: And I thought, "What?" That's-

Scott Hammond: This is McKinley on, when he was on the Arcata Plaza.

Kevin Hoover: Yes, the statue-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Kevin Hoover: … of William McKinley that was-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … on the Arcata Plaza until several years ago when it was-

Scott Hammond: It was down Ohio?

Kevin Hoover: It's now in Canton, Ohio, and I have yet to see it there, but I have been to, um, their museum, McKinley Museum, a couple

Kevin Hoover: times-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … when all that was pending.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: When I was doing stories on the, the transfer of the, the potential transfer of the statue. I just wanted to see it. And, but they've done an amazing job of restoring him, as you may-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … we're going off on a tangent, but you may recall when it left Arcata, the statue was quite battered and had some-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Kevin Hoover: … some kind of caustic substance on it. It was all smeared up- … and everything, and there's a somewhat metaphysical aspect to this. You can look it up on our, on the Mad River Union website. When he, of course, it's a hunk of metal, um, was being prepared for shipment out of town, they had a tire, um, underneath him, and he was laying there. And I– You know how he always had that kind of stern, glowering look?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: He was smiling. He was like, "I'm going home."

Scott Hammond: That's funny.

Kevin Hoover: You can see it in the photo. And I'm not a person who believes in kooky, spooky superstition, but-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Kevin Hoover: … there's something different about his face. And now they restored, uh, the patina to a deep, rich thing, and it's-

Scott Hammond: It's probably beautiful

Kevin Hoover: … it's by the courthouse where he-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … practiced. That wasn't his hometown, by the way. He just– It was his a- adopted hometown, but that was where he-

Scott Hammond: Interesting

Kevin Hoover: … practiced law where he got out of the Army.

Kevin Hoover: But-

Scott Hammond: Canton, Ohio, yeah

Kevin Hoover: … back to me.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: So I read this thing in the National Lampoon True Facts about, um, about this statue in this nutty little town, and I told my friend, and he goes, "Oh, my sister went to, uh, college up there."

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Kevin Hoover: And I said, "Well, let's go up there." And he goes-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Kevin Hoover: … "Okay." So we came up.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: And I wasn't doing journalism at the time. I was in retail. And I– But I still, by instinct or whatever- Did my little Mr. Reporter thing. I went to Tiffany's Ice Cream Parlor, which is now a sort of antique store-

Scott Hammond: This is great

Kevin Hoover: … gift shop. And I went up to the guy in, uh, the ice cream shop 'cause it was reported by Tiffany's Ice Cream.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And I said, "Hey, do you know anything about the cheese and the statue?" The guy goes, "Yeah, I reported that, and boy did they come down on me like a load of bricks."

Scott Hammond: Ha.

Kevin Hoover: So, um, and then I remember going up to the statue and looking for any ch- remnants of cheese. I didn't see any.

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: Forensic, forensic look.

Kevin Hoover: Yes, yes. CSI cheese nose. And, um, didn't see any, but I loved Arcata. Like right then I thought, "This town is of a scale I can appreciate."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, um, I like its, uh, alternative culture and I like the, the youth vibe from-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … the college and everything. And, um, people, a few people warned me, "You know, I just gotta tell you, Kevin, it's stuck in the '60s." And I said, "St- tell

Kevin Hoover: me more."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And so, uh-

Scott Hammond: I wanna know more.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. I went back and gave notice at my job, and within a month I was living up here.

Scott Hammond: Wow. That's a shift.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. And I loved it, you know. I just immediately just flourished in, in the culture of Arcata.

Scott Hammond: So you wound up as a journalist, uh, without official training?

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So-

Kevin Hoover: I was, I was working at RadioShack, which used to be-

Scott Hammond: In Valley West?

Kevin Hoover: No, at the one, uh, 600 F Street, which is now the,

Kevin Hoover: um-

Scott Hammond: All right

Kevin Hoover: … well, it was the Take and Bake place. I think that went out of business.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. That was down in Uniontown, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Now it's, it's Subway Sandwiches. Yeah. Anyway, um-

Scott Hammond: That's right.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Where were we? Wait, I was-

Scott Hammond: Tiffany's. That's, uh, you, you took me back 'cause remember Tiffany's had all the video games early on.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, that was-

Scott Hammond: Pac-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Pac-Man and stuff.

Kevin Hoover: That's when Carol moved it over to the other place, which is now part of, uh, Plaza, which is the furniture and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they moved it around the back there

Kevin Hoover: … home furnishings. Yeah, there was a whole full-on liquor store there-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … uh, back there.

Scott Hammond: I, I think, um, I look back at that whole time and I'm, uh, yeah, great town. Joni just went to a meeting in, at McMack at, at, the, there was a planning meeting this week. Perhaps you were there. And, uh, he talked about a 15-minute town where everything is within 15 minutes walking-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … or riding a bike.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And the, the s- you know, scalable town.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they wanna, they wanna shift McKinleyville into that. We can talk about that some.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, they do. And with the town center, they've got quite a, quite a plan there for making it a walkable-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … community.

Scott Hammond: So I wanna, I, w- I, I rarely do this, but I wanna, I wanna speed this up because I think you have so much to share, and I wanna really kind of br- bring it out in full living color before we actually do the quiz.

Kevin Hoover: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Your personal quiz-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, okay

Scott Hammond: … where you earn things.

Kevin Hoover: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Um, so I, I wanted to kind of just r- real kind of quick, I don't know, game show style. I, that, that wouldn't be me or you. But, um, the HSU, uh, community connection to the city, what, what… I'm sorry, Cal Poly. You, you were gonna correct me, I think.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, not really. A lot of people still say that.

Scott Hammond: Still a-

Kevin Hoover: We know it's Humboldt

Scott Hammond: … still Humboldt State.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Um, well, it, that's such a big topic. I mean, the two are, I think, quite inextricably linked.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, it's been said that if we didn't have HSU/Cal Poly there, we'd be Orick. And nothing against Orick.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: It's a wonderful little place on its own, but we wouldn't-

Scott Hammond: Or Coos Bay. Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, we wouldn't be, you know, uh, the town with all our presumptions and our little civic narcissism that we have.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, the, you know, Cal Poly, the money that it infuses into the community and the culture-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and all the knowledge base-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … and all the wonderful folks, um, is really, defines the town, I think-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … quite heavily.

Scott Hammond: Sure. Sports? Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, well, yeah. Sports and culture and all the businesses that

Kevin Hoover: exist-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … um, that wouldn't, certainly wouldn't-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … otherwise if it wasn't for the students. I'm really a big fan of Cal Poly Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: I just think it offers so much-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … to the m- community in ways obvious and not.

Scott Hammond: And this thing's growing, right? They're gonna, they have a grow- a growth scale.

Kevin Hoover: They have made a $458 million

Kevin Hoover: investment

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … in Arcata, and we're seeing that play out now-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … in a lot of the acquisitions that they're making.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: As you may know, they just purchased the 191-acre Sun Valley Floral Farms-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … main site-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … when they already owned a couple of parcels nearby. And, uh, they're making investments in the community all the time.

Kevin Hoover: And, um-

Scott Hammond: That was your big story on the cover the other day.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: It was. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: We've just scratched the surface of that one. But um, and we don't know what they're going to use it for.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: But it's, they certainly, they do.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Kevin Hoover: They wouldn't make such an acquisition if there wasn't-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So it's not really public what they're gonna do with it.

Kevin Hoover: Not yet.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Kevin Hoover: Um, if I was more of a detective and more, uh, you know, persistent and more of a pest-

Scott Hammond: It'll come forward

Kevin Hoover: … I'm sure I could go bother people and cultivate sources and get some whiffs of what they have in mind, but-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … they probably have a lot of things in mind for it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: It's very nicely positioned to do a lot of things.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: I mean, you could do agriculture there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: You could even do public events. You've got those cavernous buildings you could have-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Um, but you could, uh, you know, there's environmental things. I mean, gosh, you could put a data center or something out there and-

Scott Hammond: What'd they pay for that? Any, is that public?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, five million. 5.05 million.

Scott Hammond: Stole it. Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Stole it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Because a couple of years ago, it was erroneously, according to Lane DeVries, former CEO of

Kevin Hoover: Sun Valley-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … although he may still be that, um, he, um, suddenly this, um, sale thing, it appeared online for sale for $14 million, and the realtor had all the stats and maps-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and pictures and, and everything. But Lane said, "Oh, it's a mistake."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: And it's like, "Really? That's just a mistake?" He goes, "Yeah, that guy doesn't know what he's doing." He disowned that listing entirely.

Scott Hammond: Just downplayed it.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, yeah. But apparently it was still for sale and available,

Kevin Hoover: so-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Kevin Hoover: … they just snapped it up.

Scott Hammond: Huh. So, um, I wanna talk about Arcata's future and, um, uh- What would you say about Arcata's culture? And, and, and I, I just wanna frame these questions, where, where are we at, and where are we going generally in terms of, um, Arcata as a demographic, as a culture, as a,

Scott Hammond: as a vibe?

Kevin Hoover: Well, we're going underwater, uh, for one thing. Um, we've gotta have some kind of climate resilience plan. We do, uh, but um, yeah, the encroachment of

Kevin Hoover: the bay is-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … imminent. Some people don't think so, but I-

Scott Hammond: So it's c- it's coming-

Kevin Hoover: … do

Scott Hammond: … coming up-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … toward the city.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, depending on what, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … projection you believe and how fast that'll happen and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … so forth. Um-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … I'm not even saying it's anthropogenic, but I mean, it, historically, water levels come and go, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … it's gonna be… That'll be the next big transformative e- event potentially. You know, uh, we have a, one of your previous guests, Ray Olson-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … wonderful person, does a little thing that shows up, uh, on our transom every so often, which is Lumberjack Flashback.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Hey, Ray

Kevin Hoover: … one week, we have-

Scott Hammond: Shout out Ray Olson.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Hey, Ray. Um, the one in this week's edition's from 1980 and, uh, you know, you're looking at all their little quaint concerns and things from 1980, and I just kinda wonder what they'll be in a, the same interval of time from now.

Kevin Hoover: But, uh, you also get the pretty clear message that the more things change, the more they stay the same-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … too, so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: But we'll see. I don't know, uh, where we're going with our-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … evolution as beings, but I think we're kinda

Kevin Hoover: merging with cyber in a lot of ways, so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Well, there's that big thing, what used to be Copeland Lumber, right?

Scott Hammond: The, the, uh, underground, uh,

Scott Hammond: fiber-

Kevin Hoover: Right

Scott Hammond: … box.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, that's now a data center.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: That's gotta be pretty profound, right?

Kevin Hoover: Well, it was nice. It w- it was a, it was a Copeland Lumber, which was-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … a cool place, and then it was, uh-

Scott Hammond: To invest lumber?

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And apparently there's a big family issue there, because this wonderful state-of-the-art,

Kevin Hoover: uh, store-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … closed.

Scott Hammond: A-

Kevin Hoover: Very strange

Scott Hammond: … as, as did Eureka Store, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And then it became this data center that a lot of people really feel uncomfortable about, but, um…

Scott Hammond: It's a cable that goes all the way to Japan or Russia?

Kevin Hoover: Singapore, is it?

Scott Hammond: Singapore.

Kevin Hoover: I think maybe. Um, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Is-

Kevin Hoover: And then there's-

Scott Hammond: Is that advantageous to Arcata or Humboldt?

Kevin Hoover: You know, I mean, i- if you use data, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, these data centers may not be with us-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … for long, though. They may turn into something else.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Lumberyard.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. That'd be coming full circle.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a full circle.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Ray Olson. You guys, I, I, I k- I keep seeing on, uh, Access TV, Access Humboldt TV, um, the cabin that vanished.

Kevin Hoover: The cabin.

Scott Hammond: You were, your, um… It was great. I mean, he, he set it up as, as perfect, um, um, documentary and, or at least maybe a little tongue in cheek in there, too.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But it was great. I think you, you, you know, investigative reporter, Kevin Hoover, on, on the spot, you know, and what a great story that-

Kevin Hoover: It, that is what you would call a, a traditional shoe leather

Kevin Hoover: type story-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … for a journalist, because it happened at a meeting. Uh, very few people go to the Forest Management Committee meetings unless they have an interest.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And a lot of people do have interest, so it is well-attended. But, uh, generally unwa- the unwashed public doesn't just show up at

Kevin Hoover: 7:00 AM-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … on a Thursday morning to go to a meeting. I do, and you know, I'm always trying to cover the, the forest. I, the forests are my things. For some people, it's the marsh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … or the bottoms or… But the forest-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … has always been, 'cause-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … we didn't really have that in the East Bay where I lived, um, this wonderful rainforest, redwood rainforest.

Scott Hammond: How many acres behind Arcata Community Forest?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, the main community forest I think is 600 something, but the total is, like, 20 f- almost-

Scott Hammond: It's huge, right?

Kevin Hoover: … I think it's 2,500 now with all the acquisitions-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … the Jacoby Creek Forest, and then some of the, uh, easements and acquisitions that they've added on.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: So I went to the Forest Management Committee that day, and it was, I think it was just pretty much concluded. It was in staff reports, and Mark Andre, who was then the environmental services director-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … just happened to mention, "Oh, yeah, we found another cabin up there in the

Kevin Hoover: woods."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: "This one was kinda weird, but anyway, we're gonna try to reach the person who put it up and have it taken down." And I thought, "Okay."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: 'Cause there had been cabins in the woods before.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, a lot of them are, you know, they're little settlements and they're, uh, unceremoniously dismantled. But this one was different.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, Mark took me out there, and the interesting thing is it was in a little pocket of the community forest surrounded by trails. It was just the kinda place you would never really think of going.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Kevin Hoover: And, um, this person was there for years because there was a little logbook of, uh, their home improvements they did.

Scott Hammond: Interesting.

Kevin Hoover: I felt kinda bad about it, you know, but it was mentioned at public meeting. It was on public land.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: It wasn't authorized. Um, and-

Scott Hammond: They put a notice out on it, right, to-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Um, I think I went out there with Officer Heisi- Heidi

Kevin Hoover: Grossman.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and, uh, yeah, and a environmental services worker. And you could tell… Well, first of all, you could stand 100 feet away from it and never see it.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: And, um, we went in there, and it was quite meticulously wrought. Uh, there was no, you know, sanitation facilities visible of any kind.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And there, you know, there were no social trails around it like to a latrine or anything, but it was immaculate.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, the person, whoever did it, if you're out there, you know, get in touch, for one thing, but, um-

Scott Hammond: That was your appeal at the end. Has he or she ever-

Kevin Hoover: Never.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: This, the enigma only heightens with everything you-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Kevin Hoover: … think about with regard to this place.

Scott Hammond: Interesting.

Kevin Hoover: It was obviously a very literate, uh, person who was living Out their doctrine, their beliefs. A lot of people said Unabomber or something like that, but it didn't seem, you know, malevolent in any way.

Kevin Hoover: But-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … um, it was very, uh, scrup- scrupulous. Everything was very tidy in the kitchen, if you've seen the pictures. Uh, there were books, there was art. Um, and you know, I, we- Heidi had to go in, so we knocked, and then she entered. And, um, I looked around, and I left a note for the person, "Look, I don't wanna out you. I don't, you know-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … but if you wanna talk to me anonymously, I'll protect your identity."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: No response, and I totally respect that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: There have been a few people over the years who were just rugged individualists who said, you know, and they were really interesting

Kevin Hoover: people.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: It was just… And they said, "You know, I don't really wanna be a part of what you do," and I said, "Respect."

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Kevin Hoover: You know, that's cool.

Scott Hammond: Good for you, man.

Kevin Hoover: Left a note, never heard from anybody.

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: Was there somebody living at the time?

Scott Hammond: It-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … it was obvious they were?

Kevin Hoover: It was, it was active.

Scott Hammond: It was occupied, okay.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, we went back. Uh, I went back with a GIS student from then HSU, and, uh, we checked the place out, and he wrote his term paper or something on it.

Kevin Hoover: And, um-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Kevin Hoover: But you could see it was in the process of being dismantled.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: And then the last thing we saw of it was that on a Sunday, somebody was up there jogging. It was a city official-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … um, jogging on a Sunday, and they went out there, and the entire place was, it was scoured. It was gone except for the wood stove-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Kevin Hoover: … which was warm, and that was Sunday at around noon.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: Monday morning, Mark Andre went out there. It was all gone. And nobody-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Kevin Hoover: It was like it was vertically lifted out or something.

Scott Hammond: Go figure.

Kevin Hoover: No one saw any vehicles. No one saw anybody carrying anything out.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: So the enigma of that thing is-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … impeccable. I mean, we just do not know who did it. But, uh, I got a, a few people said, "Oh, I think it's this guy I see in the library sometimes at night, uh,

Kevin Hoover: you know-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … reading up in the periodical section." And why do you think

Kevin Hoover: that? And-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … "Well, they're really quiet."

Scott Hammond: He's a mystical guy.

Kevin Hoover: You know? But I never found it.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Kevin Hoover: Never found it.

Scott Hammond: That's a great… You know, better, better to never know, 'cause then it, then it has that, that, that sheen of mystery.

Kevin Hoover: It may true.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: It's true.

Scott Hammond: Hey, if you're just joining us, I got my new best friend, Kevin Hoover, publisher. Are you a publisher, editor?

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, pub- editor-

Scott Hammond: Owner?

Kevin Hoover: Co-editor, publisher, co-owner.

Scott Hammond: And jan- janitor.

Kevin Hoover: And janitor. That's, I, I said that in my title.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: Editor, publisher, and janitor.

Scott Hammond: Of The Mad River Union.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The only paper that we subscribe to.

Kevin Hoover: Wow.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Joanie and I.

Kevin Hoover: Honored.

Scott Hammond: Let's talk about Arcata and crime and the culture of crime, and, and but more than that, you're writing on it in your police blotter 'cause it's, uh, always joyful to, um, see you wordsmith some of these, um,

Scott Hammond: uh, uh, minor misdemeanors and, and heavier crimes. So, uh, take it away. You got a couple books that you've written around that?

Kevin Hoover: Well, yeah, but they-

Scott Hammond: A lot of-

Kevin Hoover: … they were compilations of things I did at the time. The, I, I went through a period of mild fame when people discovered- … the police log, but this was back before everything was anything was everything. Um, that was back when there was a form to

Kevin Hoover: break.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: You know, so the traditional police log when I came on The Arcata Union was, um, it was just a really quick, uh, kinda cursory, whatever the most prominent. It was may- four items, five items on-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … page two written in very dry fashion. And, um, that was, I went to work at The Union, which is another little story. But, um, and I was just doing production. I was a production assistant. So one of my-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … great talents, this was on Reddit the other day, what do you do that no one needs? And, uh, paste up in production.

Kevin Hoover: Like-

Scott Hammond: So you did cut and paste?

Kevin Hoover: I did-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Kevin Hoover: … with line tape and-

Scott Hammond: Yes

Kevin Hoover: … the wax machine and-

Scott Hammond: With Barry, Barry and, uh-

Kevin Hoover: I can-

Scott Hammond: … Judy

Kevin Hoover: … uh, they might've been before my time. I worked with Cindy Noble and-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Kevin Hoover: … Grace Kerr and other people who were-

Scott Hammond: I know Grace, sure

Kevin Hoover: … uh, amazing, amazing. Grace is a-

Scott Hammond: Barry was in sales-

Kevin Hoover: … a genius but-

Scott Hammond: … I think, uh, priestly

Kevin Hoover: Uh, maybe.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, I came in right at the, kinda the end of the thing.

Kevin Hoover: I was there-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … for almost three years, but it was the-

Scott Hammond: Quite a paper. The Hadleys were-

Kevin Hoover: … death shift. Yeah, it was after the Hadleys had it.

Scott Hammond: Magical people.

Kevin Hoover: They had sold it to Kurt Tuck.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And then it was, uh, taken over by, uh, Humboldt Group.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Mr. O'Dell, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … who owned it at the time.

Scott Hammond: S- We used to call him Citizen O'Dell.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, did you? Yeah, I can see why. Okay.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: Rosebud. But anyway, um-

Scott Hammond: Exactly

Kevin Hoover: … yeah, so one day, one fateful day, Rosemary Edmonson, my wonderful editor, um, another great mentor, um, said to me, "Kevin, I, I don't have time to write the police log. Could you write it?" And I said, "Oh."

Scott Hammond: Thank you.

Kevin Hoover: "I'm gonna write the police log that drew me up here."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: Because that was the true facts. National Lampoon had been in the police log.

Scott Hammond: Perfect.

Kevin Hoover: I'm like, "Wow, this is, like, meant to be." So I started writing the thing and adding little

Kevin Hoover: flourishes.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And you know, at, at that time, that was outrageous. You know, you don't, you don't write a poem

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … about, um, a broken window or something.

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … and yet I did. And, um, then it started getting a little bit more over the top, and then there was a little pushback from the company, and I made it more conservative. And then I would push the envelope back and, um-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … you know, eventually it just became Kevin's creative writing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And so… But not creative because I, you know, I'm always happy to add color and context-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … but I didn't, you know, put anything in there that didn't happen.

Kevin Hoover: Um, so, um, it became the police log, and it got a lot of notice. It was written up in a whole lot of newspapers.

Scott Hammond: That's right, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: LA Times, Chronicle, Times of London.

Scott Hammond: I bet you sold 100 of those.

Scott Hammond: Hundreds.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, it was in The New York Times too.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Kevin Hoover: The funny thing was whenever they would pick items to break out for their story, they always picked what I thought were really dull, undistinguished- … um, items. They never picked what I thought were the-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Kevin Hoover: … the ones that cracked me up.

Scott Hammond: So you kinda cut your teeth at The Union.

Kevin Hoover: I did, yeah

Scott Hammond: And then at year 100, they shut her down?

Scott Hammond: Is it 101?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, it was, uh, yeah, it was, I think 116 years or so it was.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: 1886 to 1994 or something like that, or-

Scott Hammond: So did you start your paper-

Kevin Hoover: 1995

Scott Hammond: … on the back, uh, uh, after that was finished?

Kevin Hoover: Right. Yeah, I did. Well, so the, the short version on that is that it closed, and yet, uh, so me and Jack went… It became The Humboldt Beacon.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And the fi- the fiction-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … at the time was that the union's assets were going to be folded into The Beacon. You'll still have your Arcata Union, but it's just gonna be called

Kevin Hoover: The Beacon.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And we're keeping in the o- keeping the office, which is now Arcata Pro Floor. Uh, and, um, we worked… It was, it was just bizarre, Scott. It was a… You'd go into this building that at one time had a big web press in the back.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Kevin Hoover: That had gone away many years earlier.

Scott Hammond: I remember it well, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, you do? Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I've been in there a number of times.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. And, uh, had a newsroom and an ad staff, and really it was just, like, me and Jack.

Kevin Hoover: And-

Scott Hammond: In this cavernous building.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Full of ghosts, and treasures too. There was a lot of old antique newspaper stuff-

Scott Hammond: Interesting

Kevin Hoover: … and files and things, which I wish I had saved, because eventually all that stuff was just put out on the loading dock and disappeared.

Scott Hammond: So how did Judy Hodgson play into that? She was the editor-

Kevin Hoover: She was the editor-

Scott Hammond: … prior to leave

Kevin Hoover: … a time under Mr. O'Dell-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Kevin Hoover: … before I got there. Um, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay, gotcha. So you were at the tail end, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: The very tail end.

Scott Hammond: I gotcha.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, the death watch.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And we'd go in there and work and, um, you know, eventually they sold the building and moved us into Jacoby's

Kevin Hoover: Storehouse.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: My first office there of many, um-

Scott Hammond: This is in the back of the f- f-

Kevin Hoover: We were, uh, we were… No, actually, we were on, on the fourth floor at that time.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you- they're way upstairs. Okay.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, way upstairs. And, uh, so… Well, well, what happened though was Jack was, um, the first bureau chief, as it were.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And then he didn't really enjoy working at The

Kevin Hoover: Beacon. Um, so he, he was the true, I think, leader and innovator around here. He, he started the McKinleyville Press.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. That's right.

Kevin Hoover: And then when he left, I became, you know, bu- bureau chief and, uh, as it were, and we would both be at board of supervisors meetings, you know, and he'd be sitting next to me writing in his notepad. He'd go, "You should start a paper." I said, "I don't wanna live that dangerously." But, um, other people would tell me, "I refuse to read The Beacon 'cause they're the bad guys." And I didn't necessarily feel they were-

Scott Hammond: They're pro-Fortuna. Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … full, yeah, they were f- And, uh, but the culture was different, and it did reflect and iterate out in the coverage and so forth.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and, uh, but then I would have Jack badgering me to start a paper, and then people in the community said, "Hey, look, if you start a paper, I'll buy ads for a year. Hey, look, if you start a paper-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … I'll give you $1,000," which was probably $4,000 now.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and finally, I j- I don't know, I might have suffered one or two editorial reversals working for The Beacon and finally said, "You know

Kevin Hoover: what? Okay."

Scott Hammond: I think I'll, I think I'll say yes.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, I think I'll say yes.

Scott Hammond: Good for you.

Kevin Hoover: So I gave notice to-

Scott Hammond: What year was this?

Kevin Hoover: This would've been '96.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: And I gave notice at the, um, at The Beacon and the… I s- I just need two weeks' notice, and the next day they let me go. They said-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Kevin Hoover: … "Well, you're gonna have mixed loyalties. We'll pay you for the two weeks that you would've worked-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … but you're out."

Scott Hammond: But you gotta go, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, so I said, "Okay." So-

Scott Hammond: Same thing happened to me with Media News.

Scott Hammond: I was gone-

Kevin Hoover: Really?

Scott Hammond: … within a day.

Kevin Hoover: Wow.

Scott Hammond: Bye-bye.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And we'd like your Rolodex back too.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, it's weird. It, it's a weird policy.

Kevin Hoover: So yeah, so I spent three weeks just… I remember, uh, just working day from early in the morning till late at night-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … you know, 'cause you have to do everything.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: You have to do all the business stuff, get a business license, find a space to work in. Uh, I had to hire reporters, find an advertising person, a production person, get all the-

Scott Hammond: Was that, was that Terrence?

Kevin Hoover: … supplies. No, Terrence came later.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Kevin Hoover: Um, w- I went through, there were a few people.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, Terrence was another incredibly wonderful person-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … who really-

Scott Hammond: Hey, Terrence.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, he defined the paper, and he just did, went so far above and

Kevin Hoover: beyond-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure

Kevin Hoover: … offered so much. It was really quite a partnership. Um, so yeah, I started this thing, but I remember going for three weeks. But you also have to, you know, sort of develop what's your look and feel gonna be. Uh, and I, I hired, well, sort of hired, um, a graphic designer. Uh, but they were gonna be so expensive that I just said, "I'll do it myself." So I had an idea. So I wanted that retro future look. I wanted to have the typewriter font, but I wanted it to look kinda modern. Um, so I remember that three weeks

Kevin Hoover: of early in the morning till I just am gonna drop.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: You know, I'm making so many mistakes, I gotta go to bed. But I, in fact, it was so hectic-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … that there were times when I, I, I couldn't even turn my head to talk to somebody. I go, "Okay, talk to me.

Kevin Hoover: I, I can't." And eating at the desk and everything and- … uh, you know. But after three weeks, the first paper came out, and that was when I learned that typos, you can make what you think are perfect pages, and in, in those days we had to, you know, still drive the pages to the press.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: And I'd-

Scott Hammond: Where'd you print then?

Kevin Hoover: It was in Smith River.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: At the Del Norte Triplicate.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and so, um, I developed this theory that as you drive your pages to the press, little gremlins, gremlins-

Scott Hammond: Typo gremlins

Kevin Hoover: … crawl, crawl onto the page and rearrange things.

Scott Hammond: Yes, they do.

Kevin Hoover: Because I could… 'Cause you could look at the page and say, "What am I not seeing?" And you can read every cut line, you can read every thing.

Scott Hammond: 10 times.

Kevin Hoover: And it's perfect, and you can have other people do it and, you know-

Scott Hammond: Isn't that funny?

Kevin Hoover: … three, five people read it, and then as soon as it comes back from the press-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … your eye falls right on the mistake.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, it's-

Scott Hammond: And so does the reader

Kevin Hoover: … it still happens.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: But the readers are much more forgiving. Uh, I had, um, CJ Ralph told me one time, he goes, "I love your typos." I think I had had a week where I, there was a front page headline typo, which still happens once in a while somehow. It's those gremlins.

Kevin Hoover: But, um-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … but CJ told me, he goes, "I love your typos, Kevin, because I know you're making

Kevin Hoover: them."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: "It's not some guy in an office building in Atlanta-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … or something." And I go, "Well, I'm glad that they have some value to you," you

Kevin Hoover: know?

Scott Hammond: It's like video, the rough and grainy video-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … is kinda cool and hip.

Kevin Hoover: Sure, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, and if you're just joining us, uh, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt

Scott Hammond: … podcast with number 100, man. I did 100 of these.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, I haven't yet, but we're getting closer.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Hammond: With, with my new best friend.

Kevin Hoover: I'm honored, obviously.

Scott Hammond: Oh, thanks, Kevin-

Kevin Hoover: 100

Scott Hammond: … for being here. Um, so talking about Arcata culture, uh, versus, uh, other cultures and crime, and wanna talk

Scott Hammond: about, um, um, what's your, what's your sense of the community? Are we head… Do you have big fears? Do you have, uh, some things that, that keep you up at night? Or w- what are the opportunities? Maybe that's a better question.

Kevin Hoover: Um, you know, the opportunities are infinite. Um, you can come to Arcata, and if you're willing to work, uh, you can get a darn good job still to this day.

Kevin Hoover: Um, I knew a person who came to town with nothing, and she immediately

Kevin Hoover: got five jobs that weren't great. You know? She might have been house cleaning or a-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … be- she might have been a barista. Nothing against those things, but they aren't necessarily what she wanted to do forever. She worked hard. She excelled. She worked her way up, got a supervisorial thing, and eventually ended up owning a business, so-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … you can do that. You just have to be willing to work and not make excuses.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I think of Yakima and-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Marimba One and-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah. Ron Samuels, yeah

Scott Hammond: … yeah, you know, Holly Yashi and all the-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … all the crew and all the, all the food pe- people at Food Works.

Kevin Hoover: Food Works is an incredible incubator-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … for all kinds of things.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, so opportunities there are in Arcata. Just be willing to work and suffer.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: O- one day I was out taking pictures out by the Creamery, um, uh, and there were some young folks, and I said, "Hey, can I take your picture against this?" I- you know, it's the art and commerce district, and they have this giant cup of pencils and pens and brushes. I go, "Can I take your picture?" And they go, "Why?" And I go, "Well, it's I, I'm work- I work at the newspaper, and I take pictures."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And the guy goes, "How do I get your job?" And I just said, "You

Kevin Hoover: suffer."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: "The universe wants you to suffer."

Scott Hammond: Yes.

Kevin Hoover: "So you have to go out there and work your ass off-"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and, uh, get underpaid and treated unfairly and do all kinds of things you don't wanna do. And eventually y- you, you find the slot that you're, I don't know, meant to be in or-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … that you function well in-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … your skill set and your attitude is optimized for.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Maybe, if you're lucky.

Scott Hammond: If you're lucky, yeah. Hey, let's do the quiz.

Scott Hammond: You ready?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, sure.

Scott Hammond: This is for all the money, by the way.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, okay.

Scott Hammond: So, so funny thing, um, is since it's the 100th, uh, anniversary, the 100th episode, uh, I have a $100 bill here for, uh, for you.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: And, um-

Kevin Hoover: Wow

Scott Hammond: … you can keep it framed. You can donate it.

Scott Hammond: I, I don't-

Kevin Hoover: Okay

Scott Hammond: … it's that time of year, whatever you wanna do.

Kevin Hoover: Wow.

Scott Hammond: But so, so this quiz is actually for the big bucks. So, so a- and I even defaced it with some, some ink on it. So, uh, don't tell anybody. Uh, hey, question number one: Kevin Hoover, for all the money what's your best day? What was, what, what's been one of your best days in life?

Kevin Hoover: Okay. Uh, well, uh, the essential components, not essential, but some of the components of a great day for me will be to get up early, uh, drink a bracing cup of coffee. I'm eccentric, so I get up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: That's my favorite time of day. Everything's-

Scott Hammond: Super quiet

Kevin Hoover: … quiet. Nobody's bothering me. Um, and I drink, uh, a little coffee with my kitty cat and, um, take my news bath-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … as Frank Zappa would call it. And, uh, kind of find out what's happened since I last compulsively checked all the news. Uh, and then kinda, you know, check the emails, see if anything's… I've always had, since doing the Arcata Eye, this, this feeling that I'm behind.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: You wanna be up on everything, and everything that I have-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … that I can put on the page, I wanna do that. So check my stuff. I might w- you know, you can work anywhere now, which is awesome. Uh, I'll do a little page work, and then I'll,

Kevin Hoover: um, go for a big old walk. I'll, I try to walk at least two miles a day. If I'm lucky, I can get in a hike up in the, uh, Sunny Brae track of the community

Kevin Hoover: forest.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, you know, come back, go into the office, talk to Jack for a while, maybe go out on a story. I like doing that sort of thing. Um, and then maybe go, like tonight, I'm going to a mixer. You know? There's, uh, social-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … events that occur-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … and you get to meet people in the community, and-

Scott Hammond: Arcata Chamber mixers are-

Kevin Hoover: Chamber mixers

Scott Hammond: … top notch.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah. Oh, they're great. And, um, there's just always something, um, going on. Uh, and then maybe a dinner with my significant other would be great, and then, uh, back to the chair and the kitty cat. And, um, but there's 1,000,001 other things that I could do there, too. So I could play my drums. I've just been playing with this little ensemble lately.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, rediscovered my musician side.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Or I could, um, work on some of the side projects that we do. Uh, we make the recreation guide for the city-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … and that's always a fun diversion.

Kevin Hoover: I like, I like… I, I have to get out and move around, but once I've done that, I like to sit at my computer and make-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … do art and compose things. What I didn't mention is, uh, the thing that I find most absorbing, and it's almost so fun that

Kevin Hoover: it's hurts. Which is making music, uh, using Logic Pro on my Mac.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: So digital audio workstation. You go in. You have an idea for a piece of music, and you can go in, and you can spend 10 minutes on it or 10 hours or 10

Kevin Hoover: years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, you can… You have orchestras at your command, and, you know, sh- you do manipu- meticulous note placement.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: And I have an EP in mind, uh, that should

Kevin Hoover: be coming-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … out next year of my unique, eclectic blend.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Kevin Hoover: We used to get a lot of things at the newspaper that said, "This musician's unique, eclectic blend," and I would-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … put down the needle, as it were, on each song, and they weren't that unique or

Kevin Hoover: eclectic.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: But, um, my stuff is very bizarre.

Kevin Hoover: So-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Kevin Hoover: … and it's all original. There's no AI, and, um, hopefully you'll be able to hear what I'm talking about.

Scott Hammond: How do you find it? Through the website? Through the paper?

Kevin Hoover: It comes… Oh, how do you find my music?

Scott Hammond: How would we find it to buy it?

Kevin Hoover: I'll, I'll be on Bandcamp.

Scott Hammond: To buy. Okay.

Kevin Hoover: So there's this w- so I already have an account through Bandcamp.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: I just haven't posted anything yet.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: But yeah, my EP will be out hopefully next spring.

Scott Hammond: Kind of piggybacks into the idea of, uh, some of the shows we've seen at the Creamery District or Theater Lounge in terms of- Some of the music that's come in through the years, I mean, you… 30, 40 years, you- you've had to see a lot of really memorable-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … people. So, um, uh, w- well-

Kevin Hoover: One of the first ones that we're gonna, uh-

Scott Hammond: We're, we're gonna talk about that 'cause you're still on the quiz, so.

Kevin Hoover: Oh. Quiz.

Scott Hammond: So we're… I wanna talk about that, memorable bands, memorable, uh, personalities, and we'll cycle to that soon as-

Kevin Hoover: Okay

Scott Hammond: … soon as you, i- if you pass the quiz. We'll see. N- number two, worst day ever, what was, what was a horrible, no-good, very bad day?

Kevin Hoover: Oh, my.

Scott Hammond: And by the way, I like the, the Frank Zappa reference to the news bath.

Kevin Hoover: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Is that a ph- phrase he used?

Kevin Hoover: That's a, a phrase he used.

Scott Hammond: That's a Frank phrase.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know the Stones and everybody, when they came to LA, you know where they'd go

Scott Hammond: visit first?

Kevin Hoover: Where?

Scott Hammond: They'd go see Frank.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I, I find that very interesting. It's like the Beatles would go see Fr- what?

Kevin Hoover: He knew every-

Scott Hammond: He-

Kevin Hoover: All kinds of people, Clapton to Hendrix, Bob Dylan, they all came to his house,

Kevin Hoover: um-

Scott Hammond: They'd go hang out at Frank's.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, and, um, they sure did. So, uh, worst day, uh, when someone dies-

Scott Hammond: Ooh

Kevin Hoover: … or gets hurt.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: You know? I mean, you, you have to cover that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And oftentimes it's someone you love, uh, 'cause-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … you love a lot of people who are fixtures around there, or maybe they were just

Kevin Hoover: nobody.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And they died alone-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … in a little hole in a tree, in the w- That was one of the

Kevin Hoover: people-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … who, uh, died who deeply affected me. There was this little eccentric fella who had a bicycle, and he had some kind of mechanical aptitude. So he had this bike-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and he could turn it upside down and turn it into a drum set. And he had all these attachments for-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … percussion instruments, he would play in the plaza. And I said, "Can I do a little story about this?" He goes, "No, I don't want to be part of your thing." And-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Kevin Hoover: … he died unfortunately alone.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And so that would be a bad day.

Scott Hammond: I, I think of all the guys, John the Rag Man.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, uh, yeah, Pete.

Scott Hammond: Or Pete, sorry.

Kevin Hoover: Johnny Antonioli was-

Scott Hammond: And A- Antonioli would ch- hitchhike.

Kevin Hoover: And I just ran across-

Scott Hammond: And scream at people. Ah.

Kevin Hoover: I ran across a f- uh, a Person on the Street thing, we called it Viewfinder-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … I did for the Arcata Union, and I asked people, w- "Why do you smoke cigarettes when you know how bad they are for you?"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And I asked Johnny, and he goes, " 'Cause I like to smoke. Get away from me. I don't like that. It's a stupid question." "Get away from me." He was great. I liked him.

Scott Hammond: He was amazing. We'd pick him up hitchhiking.

Scott Hammond: He was just-

Kevin Hoover: That's how I got to know him, I got his story in the thing

Scott Hammond: … and he smelled to high heavens, and he-

Kevin Hoover: John-

Scott Hammond: … had to go back to Orick

Kevin Hoover: … he needed a ride to Orick.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And I very unauthorizedly took the Arcata Union van and gave him a ride, and turned on the tape recor- He had to sit in the back because of

Kevin Hoover: that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And, um-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Kevin Hoover: … but he told me his story, and he was, I was doing-

Scott Hammond: Beautiful

Kevin Hoover: … him a favor, and he told me his version of his story.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: But then I talked to all the relatives and others who gave me some context, but I was very proud to have been able to profile, uh-

Scott Hammond: I love that

Kevin Hoover: … Johnny. And I'll always remember, you know, he lived to be about 190 years old, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … I would see him on the plaza. He would be drinking a half pint of half-and-half with a McTell's lemon, uh, pie. And that's, that's gonna be the secret to-

Scott Hammond: To longevity, yeah

Kevin Hoover: … longevity right there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. What a great, what a memorable guy.

Kevin Hoover: He was great. But yeah, Jo- uh, Pete, uh, the Rag Man.

Scott Hammond: Pete the Rag Man.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. He's another amazing person.

Scott Hammond: Who was the other guy that died in the last five years or so with COVID? He was at North Town a lot with the big, the big dread.

Scott Hammond: Uh-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, uh-

Scott Hammond: He walked around at North Town

Kevin Hoover: … right, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, God, God, forget his name.

Scott Hammond: Nice guy.

Kevin Hoover: You asked me his name, so I can't remember, but-

Scott Hammond: Los… He would hang out at Los Bagels a lot too.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. I m- there have been so many-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … very memorable, eccentric people-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … who, and some of whom pre- predate my arrival. But, um, Madhavi Riley, a wonderful woman, the first bohemian, a woman who lived in Sunny Brae.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: She was amazing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: I, y- that's the trouble with lists is you always leave somebody out.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: So I don't wanna elevate… I mean, Monica Hadley, she was a monster.

Scott Hammond: She was a sweetheart.

Kevin Hoover: There are people, and the great thing to know is that the truly great people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … are still there. Jan Carr, there is a, this person defies words, defies logic, defies… She's, she's supernaturally-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … amazing-

Scott Hammond: Hi, Jan

Kevin Hoover: … with what she does.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, Heidi Grossman, Officer Grossman-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … is another one of my just most-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … uh, respected people.

Scott Hammond: There's a guy you did an obit for that used to come to the Bagel Sto- Shop. Um, he's from back east. He wasn't all that old. He's just maybe in his 50s or 60s.

Scott Hammond: Brian. He used to swim in the bay. Um-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, okay. I don't know.

Scott Hammond: He, he would come and just chat it up with us, and, uh, the, I'd take my kids to Bagels, and he was-

Kevin Hoover: Wow

Scott Hammond: … he was that guy. What I like about you, maybe I love about you, is that your

Scott Hammond: objectivity, I, I, I believe that's to be true of you, and, and it kinda comes with the person in the job, is curious. You're curious.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, curiosity is your main-

Scott Hammond: To interview Johnny and to, to-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … to log Johnny's life.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Archive Johnny.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, he was-

Scott Hammond: Amazing

Kevin Hoover: … I think when you said Brian, I thought maybe you meant Brian Sprout, the, the bizarre sculptor who passed away. He was great. Um, yeah, I mean, you just turn the corner, and there's some amazing person-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … you just would like to know, who may or may not wanna know you.

Scott Hammond: Right. Or the guys with the yaks that came through town.

Kevin Hoover: The yaksmen, yes.

Scott Hammond: The yaks… Oh, jeez.

Kevin Hoover: They were interesting guys.

Scott Hammond: They were some rude mofos, man. They harassed a woman right in front of me, man. I didn't, didn't like that.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. They were, they were a mixed bag. But I did, you know, get to know them as best I could, and I think I got a semblance of grudging respect from them.

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: The yak men.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's like a superhero. All right. Hey, number, question number three. We're almost through these. What's fulfilling to you? What, what fills your cup?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, well, uh, saying when we, when Jack and I go through the pages, and we find all the mistakes we think we found until, except for the ones we didn't. And we say, "Well, okay." And we always say the same thing every week, "Okay. Well, we'll do it again."

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Kevin Hoover: And somehow we always do it again.

Kevin Hoover: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … so that's a moment of fulfillment. That's when I enter my state of what I call equipoise.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: I'm done with the paper.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: You know, it's Monday. I can do anything, and there's, I have no

Kevin Hoover: obligations.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Kevin Hoover: You know, I could go out for a long walk, or I could go-

Scott Hammond: Equipoise

Kevin Hoover: … go make music or something.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: But everything that is pulling on me, plunk, snort, uh, is- Pulling equally.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: There's no one thing that I have to go do or not, but, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … yeah, I, I'd say that's-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … fulfilling. Or, you know, when, um, I'm with creative people doing something interesting-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … or I'm interviewing somebody who's doing something completely awesome, um, I just really get into their world and, uh, I'm-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Kevin Hoover: … just thinking, "Oh, they're living the dream. That's great."

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, real empathy, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: So those are fulfilling things.

Scott Hammond: Great. Hey, last question. Maybe the ti- I gotta get it to ring here. Hey, Kevin Hoover, who are you and what do, what do you want?

Kevin Hoover: You know, who am I? That's a question beyond my pay grade. What I want is for everyone to get along, realize that they breathe the same air, and they want the same things-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … mostly. Um, and-

Scott Hammond: True

Kevin Hoover: … but a lot of the things that divide us are purely elective and

Kevin Hoover: superficial.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, I want us all to realize what's real and what's not real.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, so if I get preachy as a crabby old guy, um, I would like

Kevin Hoover: folks to-

Scott Hammond: Preach, yeah

Kevin Hoover: … use critical thinking.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: What is that? Um, I've heard people say, "Well, everybody wants critical thinking, but they don't know what it is." I know what it is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: It's two things: understanding what logical fallacies are-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and, um, making evidence-based decisions.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Kevin Hoover: It's as simple as that. So look up logical fallacies.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Realize that popularity isn't truth.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Something may be overwhelmingly popular-

Scott Hammond: True

Kevin Hoover: … and it still isn't true.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and, uh, that's just one of the many. There are so- some people are really dialed into logical fallacies. There's so many different ones.

Scott Hammond: Wait, there's not a flat Earth?

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: Wait a minute

Kevin Hoover: … you know, that's not an evidence-based conclusion, um, unless you wanna skew the evidence. So what I want is just for all to, all of us to get

Kevin Hoover: along-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … and find the-

Scott Hammond: Good work

Kevin Hoover: … humanity in each other-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … uh, without regard for race, creed, color, you know, age, any of that stuff.

Scott Hammond: Beautiful. I love it.

Kevin Hoover: And, and celebrate your, the fact that that other person's way different than you.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: You know, because that's great.

Scott Hammond: Get curious, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: They're gonna have realities in their mind that you will never be able to approach.

Scott Hammond: Right. Right. And chill out enough to get curious and-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … maybe-

Kevin Hoover: I want everyone to have a full stomach and be warm, and that's kinda it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Good work. I love it.

Kevin Hoover: One of the things that'll never happen in my lifetime.

Scott Hammond: So, so before we talk about your legacy, uh-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, geez

Scott Hammond: … let's talk about some of those col- by the way, winner, winner, chicken dinner. Uh, I'd like to present you-

Kevin Hoover: Wowza

Scott Hammond: … with a real Benjamin Franklin-

Kevin Hoover: Wow

Scott Hammond: … $100 bill framed, and, and you feel free to do whatever y- whatever you need to do with that.

Kevin Hoover: Thanks.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Usually I just give away like a big Dick Taylor bar, but-

Kevin Hoover: Gosh

Scott Hammond: … we're really, uh, we're stepping it up on this.

Kevin Hoover: This is really something.

Scott Hammond: Number 100. Yeah, that's, that's, that's Ben. What a… Now, he was iconic. What a great guy he was. We won't even-

Kevin Hoover: Ben?

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, I would love to have met him.

Scott Hammond: My favorite historical figure.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah. He, he was-

Scott Hammond: Complexity. He saved-

Kevin Hoover: An amazing guy. He, and he was another one who was curious, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, with the key and the…

Scott Hammond: Oh, and he saved, he saved… He won the Revolutionary War as far as-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. He, he was… Uh, he, he had a broad array of

Kevin Hoover: interests.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, he just tried to do a lot.

Scott Hammond: Interesting dude. So, uh, as we bring it in here, so, uh, let's talk about some colorful personalities in, in town, um, maybe of influencers, and then maybe, uh, s- dovetail that into some

Scott Hammond: music. Um, not that we'll sing or play, but people that have come to town. We've, we saw Billy, Billy Bob Thornton and the Box

Scott Hammond: Cutters. We thought they were rockabilly. They were grunge and super loud at the Theater Lounge. So a lot of people have come through over the years. Bruce Cockburn, of course, and, and Cal Poly's had, you know, staggering amounts of amazing talent, right?

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Any- anybody come to mind and…

Kevin Hoover: Well, I saw… The first thing, uh, I… One of the first things that I wrote for the Arcata Union was a review of a Chick

Kevin Hoover: Corea-

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool

Kevin Hoover: … show up at, uh, Center Arts it was in.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And it was just a trio, but the amount of music that those guys made just filled the room as much as a six or eight piece band.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Wow.

Kevin Hoover: It was amazing, and I wrote up a review of it, and I got to interview

Kevin Hoover: Chick.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Kevin Hoover: And it was right after Mr. Zappa had died.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, and I asked Chick if he had any thoughts about that, and he said something so profound.

Kevin Hoover: He goes, "Well, I loved Frank, and, uh, but, you know, um, let's talk about life. Life is for the living."

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Kevin Hoover: "And so celebrate the living."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: That was what Chick Corea said.

Scott Hammond: Good word, yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And, um, it's meant a lot to me over the years.

Scott Hammond: So Roy brought a lot of shows up. You probably knew Roy.

Kevin Hoover: I know Roy, yeah.

Scott Hammond: What a sweetheart.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, he was great.

Scott Hammond: Nice guy.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Saw a lot of shows, and then you got Jackie at the Arcata Playhouse.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, Jackie.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Jackie. What's up?

Kevin Hoover: Jackie. Yeah. J- the, what they're doing at the Playhouse, that another, is another thing. The, the Jackie and the folks at Playhouse Arts really spearheaded the whole, which I, the whole, uh, art and commerce neighborhood. They stuck up for their neighborhood.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And they, you know… I, I love it when neighborhoods and commu- small communities, uh, coalesce.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: They might do so for emergency preparedness or, you know, neighborhood watch, or they might, you know, um, they might kinda get to know each other because there's some new development as like this gigantic, uh, cellphone tower. Uh, it was 184 feet monopole tower that's gonna go into residential Sunnybrae.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, and the Friends of Grossman Creek are now organizing. So some– So I love it when neighborhoods organize-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and they get to know each other, and they, they find each other. It's so easy for us to be isolated and to o- only, uh, commiserate in virtual communities with our belief tribes-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … as it were. Um-

Scott Hammond: Well said

Kevin Hoover: … but, uh, yeah, I love, I love it when, uh, 'cause you had that with the Sunnybrae Arcata Neighborhood Association when- Uh, they were, uh, they were gonna harvest the, what's now the Sunny, the Arcata Community Forest-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … Sunny Bay track. That was gonna be all harvested. And, uh, Mark Lovelace and other folks, uh, organized to stop it.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: And did

Kevin Hoover: … and did.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: In a very ethical, orderly, principled

Kevin Hoover: way.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Kevin Hoover: And it shows that it can work.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And, uh, so that really, I, I get a large charge out of that when neighborhoods, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … get together, when folks get together and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … do good things.

Scott Hammond: And I think you're right. The pub and that whole district has a-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … that whole nice vibe and we call it the troubadours that come through. It's always amazing to see-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, I know

Scott Hammond: … some of the talent, uh-

Kevin Hoover: Oh my God, Tony Le- the Stick Man with Tony Levin and all those guys come through. I, that gets some major talent out there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, they had George Hrab and, uh, Joey Fabian, my Skeptical Friends who were up there.

Scott Hammond: Saw Robbie Fulks and, uh-

Kevin Hoover: Wow

Scott Hammond: … Jenny Scheinman.

Kevin Hoover: Wow. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: She's, she's amazing. I-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I had never seen her. She's quite, quite the f-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … quite the violinist, quite the musician.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, Arcata's a cultural hub.

Kevin Hoover: There's-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … I mean, Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … he used to hang out at People's Records.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, he used to come down and just hang out in the doorway and-

Scott Hammond: They, SNL did their 50 year, uh, kind of tr- I was gonna call it a triage arc of their story and, and Beefheart was

Scott Hammond: on SNL.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, and he was absolutely hor… In New York they'd say horrible. He, he, e- they, they, they critiqued it and, they, the, the guy that got him on the show got in trouble-

Kevin Hoover: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … 'ca- 'cause he really blew it up. But he was lived up in Trinidad?

Kevin Hoover: Yes, he did. As Frank, Mr. Zappa remembers it, he wanted to go live in a place where he could see whales.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Kevin Hoover: And a lot of people would tell me, "Oh, I see him all the time walking, uh, to the post office." And I sent him a couple letters.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And I said, "Look, Don, I mean, I respect you. I, I'm just a, a Frank fan. I'm a You fan. I, I love your Sh- Shiny Beast Bat Chain Puller." It's one of my favorite albums.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: Um, uh, you know Beefheart, when you listen to him, he thought different. He, and-

Scott Hammond: He had a different deal

Kevin Hoover: … I always think that, I always feel different after a li- like reading a Kurt Vonnegut book or something. It's just like- … it kinda retrained- … my neural pathways and so-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … but he never responded.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: And there again, I totally respect that.

Kevin Hoover: It's-

Scott Hammond: It's cool. I like that about you.

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … one of my foolish little, um, my foolish little popsicle stand or-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … is-

Scott Hammond: No resentment. That's good.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: No, that's fine. Uh-

Scott Hammond: That's good

Kevin Hoover: … but I do regret. But he, uh, you know, when he passed away, he went to, um, Mad River Community Hospital ER.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: And on the subreddit for, uh, Captain Beefheart, I told 'em that. I go, "Yeah, he died in my hometown." And-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Kevin Hoover: … so yeah. But I remember seeing him on stage with Frank, and he had a big paper bag he'd pull his mouth harp out of and the stuff.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Kevin Hoover: So he was an amazing cat.

Scott Hammond: Iconic, yeah. So, uh, most amazing stories. Two or three that, that stand out over the 30 plus 40-ish years.

Kevin Hoover: Well, gosh, I'm kind of on the spot. Most amazing stories that I've covered?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Or just, uh, that, that influenced or impacted you, people.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, sure. Well, The Cabin in the Woods was one.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: Um, that was certainly the most recent, and that was the most, I would say, ripped off or the most popular story.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, there were a lot of people who would take that story and t- take my byline off of it.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Kevin Hoover: They'd even rewrite it, uh, because they would come at it from-

Scott Hammond: Interesting

Kevin Hoover: … and one of the reasons it was so popular is 'cause if you're a, a homesteader, you know, you're interested. If you're a, a total iconoclast, you, or an

Kevin Hoover: unplugger-

Scott Hammond: Survivalist

Kevin Hoover: … survivalist-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … or prepper, yeah-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … then you're interested. If you're a civil rights person, you… Or if you're a, a forest person, I mean, it just-

Scott Hammond: So they'd snag it and take your byline?

Kevin Hoover: All kinds and, uh- … it would pop up everywhere. And they would do that, they would do that classic thing, "They thought it was just a f- a, you know, a copse of trees, but," then there's the, the picture with the red circle, you know, and, um, sensationalizing it. And w- disappointingly-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … a lot of people who call themselves journalists would take my story and change it around and put their name on it and stuff. I wrote a few letters, but I mean, trying to stop-

Scott Hammond: What are you gonna do?

Kevin Hoover: … abuse on the internet is futility. Um, were there any other stories? I'd say probably, like I say, some of the, uh, uh, profiles that I did of just regular people who are exceptional. I, I could go talk to… I could just pick somebody out on the street, and I promise you they would have incredibly interesting things-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … to tell me. So a lot of the people profiles. Uh, we did a lot of stories about, you know, toxic waste

Kevin Hoover: sites.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: Um, I did some journalism. Everyone's forgotten it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, but, uh, we, we uncovered some really serious, um, situations out there at, you know, uh, out on the Arcata bottom. And also, uh, in Blue Lake by the water aquifers up there with CR Pacific, was it? I mean, I don't wanna say the wrong company, but, uh, anyway, um, yeah, so there's, there's bad stuff-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … going on here and there. But, um, Brian Sprout, there was another one.

Kevin Hoover: Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … various people who have come and gone and left an imprint on the

Kevin Hoover: town and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Jim Test, there was another… See, I'm doing a list. I'm, I'm-

Scott Hammond: Is he, is he Bug Press?

Kevin Hoover: He was.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Great guy.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. He was another wonderful person.

Scott Hammond: What a nice man.

Kevin Hoover: Oh, he was just ridiculous. He was just so, uh, insightful and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yes

Kevin Hoover: … he brought about so many changes.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: But then so did Victor Schaub, you know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: And so right now is Alex Stillman.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: Another just ridiculously amazing-

Scott Hammond: Pete, Pete Shepherd.

Kevin Hoover: Yep. There we go.

Scott Hammond: I mean, there's, uh, let's go, Ja- James Washington.

Kevin Hoover: James, everyone's favorite Arcata person.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah, James is just ridiculous.

Kevin Hoover: I love him.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so many of the people. Let's, let's keep going. What other, uh, people have influenced you or-

Kevin Hoover: You know, I, I wish I had made-

Scott Hammond: … known over the years

Kevin Hoover: … a list or something, but-

Scott Hammond: And it, it's hard 'cause you're gonna leave somebody off.

Scott Hammond: It-

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But I, I get it

Kevin Hoover: … I am, but I mean, um, I, I just, I meet them all the time and,

Kevin Hoover: um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … and s- I just go, "Wow, here's a, here's a pretty special person."

Scott Hammond: And business people, Victoria from Bubbles and-

Kevin Hoover: Yep. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Julie-

Kevin Hoover: She's great. Yeah. I, I've worked with her.

Scott Hammond: You ever heard of Julie Fulkerson?

Kevin Hoover: I, I might have heard of Julie.

Scott Hammond: She's, she's, she's still around, I think.

Kevin Hoover: I remember being in-

Scott Hammond: Hi, Julie

Kevin Hoover: … uh, what was a, a back room of the Arcata Union building on the plaza, which I now, I think is now just open- Um, it was demolished. Uh, but I was in there in 1996 and I said, "Hey, I'm starting a paper." It was actually at a, uh, campaign thing for Connie Stewart, who was running for council for the first time.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: And I said to Julia, "I'm starting a paper." She goes, "What are you gonna call it?" And I said, "The Arcata Eye."

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: And she goes, "Oh my God," 'cause it sounds so

Kevin Hoover: tabloidy.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Like, you know, look at, "Here's a look at-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … you." But that was, why I called it that was because, well, it, it kind of rolled trippingly off the tongue. Um, but um, also because the slogan for it was, "See yourself." Okay? Look in the eye and see yourself in-

Scott Hammond: Good

Kevin Hoover: … it's your eye. Uh, but that was one of the things in life that I don't think very many people get to do, name a newspaper.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: And when I started looking into names of newspapers, I found some really… There's The Telephone and the-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Kevin Hoover: Just they have all kinds of-

Scott Hammond: The Bee.

Kevin Hoover: You can just call it anything really.

Scott Hammond: You could.

Kevin Hoover: I was just thinking how the new version of AI, uh, Gemini, is Nano

Kevin Hoover: Banana. Uh-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Kevin Hoover: … and it's, I asked Nano B- I was taking a picture the other day, it was a couple people through a shop window, and there was all these reflections. And I just, "I'm gonna ask AI to take the reflections out of the window." And it, it did so impeccably.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Kevin Hoover: But even though AI now gives the right number of fingers and things on your

Kevin Hoover: hands-

Scott Hammond: Right

Kevin Hoover: … um, it still couldn't repeat that because the picture that I asked it to do wasn't the best picture.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: So then I sent the best picture through it, and it couldn't do it. I could not get it to do it right again, so.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. AI's gonna take us over, but not anytime soon.

Scott Hammond: Let's just, let's just cover AI real quick to your point.

Kevin Hoover: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Kevin Hoover studied hu- at Humboldt State University and developed a passion for community journalism. Come on, AI, you can do better than that.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That, that's not a common mis- That's, that an uncommon mistake when I-

Kevin Hoover: You know, that's a-

Scott Hammond: … some of these I run

Kevin Hoover: … assumption, and I find that when I need to run corrections, it's always because of, of an assumption that I made.

Scott Hammond: I like this one, if I may. Hoover is known for his engaging and often humorous writing style, blending thorough local reporting with a deep understanding of community dynamics. I think that's a high compliment.

Kevin Hoover: It is.

Scott Hammond: It's a little general, but it's, it's kinda nice.

Kevin Hoover: And it's higher than I probably deserve.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Kevin Hoover: You know, newspapers have-

Scott Hammond: But you're humble

Kevin Hoover: … physically downsized quite a bit. Um, and for press reasons.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Kevin Hoover: The paper that we have now is so much physically smaller-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … than even what we had 10 years ago, and then that was-

Scott Hammond: Oh, my type standard came.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah. And so-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Kevin Hoover: … the space that, we, we actually had to reduce our point size from 10, 10-point type, body type, to 9.5, and even go down to nine sometimes-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Kevin Hoover: … which gets tough for the older folks. Um, but you gotta do it to cram everything in. So one thing that people don't necessarily, uh, understand about what we do is that we're a newspaper. We're not a website. We, we do a website, but it's only mostly stuff that's in the

Kevin Hoover: paper.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Kevin Hoover: So we're constrained. So if a story, the s- the length of the story is basically dictated by how much space I have-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Kevin Hoover: … physically putting ink on wood fiber to, um, to make a newspaper. So if we're not as thorough, that's probably

Kevin Hoover: one reason.

Scott Hammond: That's a good reason. Yeah. I appreciate you being here. Um, any parting shots? How do we get ahold of you?

Kevin Hoover: Has this been an hour, really? You know, Alex told me the other day, she, I said, "I'm gonna be on Scott's show," and she goes, "It goes fast." Um-

Scott Hammond: It goes fast

Kevin Hoover: … parting, parting shots. Um, you know, be nice. Don't assume the worst about the other person.

Scott Hammond: Good word.

Kevin Hoover: Um, especially if there's a cute name for them, you know, if there's a, a term that objectivi- izes them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Kevin Hoover: Uh, try to go beyond that and just kinda look in their eyes and see where they're coming from, and assume their-

Scott Hammond: Love it

Kevin Hoover: … halitosis isn't too bad like mine. Um, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Kevin Hoover: … get to know them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Amen to that. I like that. How do we get ahold of you at the, uh, the paper? What's the website?

Kevin Hoover: Uh, news@madriverunion.com.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Kevin Hoover: I'm there all the time.

Scott Hammond: You're easy to find, get online.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You can find you, call you.

Kevin Hoover: Sure. Sure.

Scott Hammond: Carry your picture.

Kevin Hoover: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Kevin Hoover: And-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Kevin Hoover: … I wanna thank you for do-

Scott Hammond: Hey

Kevin Hoover: … both doing this and-

Scott Hammond: Thank you

Kevin Hoover: … having me on.

Scott Hammond: I appreciate you being here. So our, our parting shot for the 100th episode with my new best friend, Kevin Hoover. Um, what's your legacy? What's your tombstone saying?

Kevin Hoover: Uh.

Scott Hammond: What are we gonna say when we get up at the community center and read, read the

Scott Hammond: eulogy?

Kevin Hoover: Um, you know-

Scott Hammond: What would you like? Let's just say it that way

Kevin Hoover: … well, you know, he meant well and did what he could.

Scott Hammond: Like it, love it. Well, thanks, Kevin. Appreciate you being here.

Kevin Hoover: Thanks, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Uh, hey, and thank you for listening and watching and, uh, joining us, and, uh, would love you to subscribe and like stuff and share it and do all the things on the podcast platforms. We're on, um, as you know, uh, uh, uh, on cable, 12 usually, and, uh, certainly YouTube. So, uh, like us, love us, uh, contribute. Oh, and before I forget, uh, Quality Body, huge sponsor. Dick Taylor, even amazing.

Kevin Hoover: Yummy.

Scott Hammond: And don't forget, uh, Dutch Brothers. So I would be remiss to not mention those folks 'cause they are, they make this, uh, world go 'round and at least part of this one. Kevin, thank you.

Kevin Hoover: Thanks, Scott.

Scott Hammond: All right. Have a great day.

Kevin Hoover: You too.