#95. Jackie Dandeneau: How A Small Playhouse Became a Big Engine for Culture and Connection

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and neighbors, Scott Hammond with the

Scott Hammond: 100% Humboldt podcast in Humboldt County with my new very best friend, Jackie Dandeneau.

Scott Hammond: Hi, Jackie.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hi, Scott.

Scott Hammond: How's your day?

Jackie Dandeneau: My day has been a lot and good.

Scott Hammond: A lot?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. As my days usually are these days.

Scott Hammond: I think we're all having a lot days.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … it's happening a lot. Uh, so what's your– W- I was gonna just be funny and say, "What's your deal?" But-

Jackie Dandeneau: What's my deal?

Scott Hammond: What's your deal? How, how is your-

Jackie Dandeneau: What's my deal?

Scott Hammond: What's your deal? What do you, what do you do? How did you, uh… Well, we'll, uh, find out how you got here, but what's your current, uh, deal?

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, currently I am the executive artistic director of Playhouse Arts, which is the local arts agency for the city of Arcata. I'm also the conductor of the Blue Lake Community Choir.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mother to Leo and Cora.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's a lot of hats.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, partner to Barb. Got all these hats, got 'em all on.

Scott Hammond: Nice. You got… And you're out in Blue Lake, which is really cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Out in Blue Lake. It's awesome out there.

Scott Hammond: Oh, man.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: All the, the old crows, those guys, the crew.

Jackie Dandeneau: They are awesome. The Lolas.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Ladies of the Lake.

Scott Hammond: Those are Lolas.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, there's Lolas and Crows.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I think they, they bought Lolas too.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I'm always envious of you Blue Lakers 'cause it's 22 and freezing in McKinleyville. We got to Blue Lake, it is 89, and everybody's got their Speedos on.

Jackie Dandeneau: And we're all so happy and full of joy and-

Scott Hammond: I know, there's community

Jackie Dandeneau: … love thy neighbor.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. McKinleyville, a little.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's, yeah. No, McKinleyville's, you know-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … I, I firmly believe that McKinleyville is the next

Jackie Dandeneau: hot hub.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Because, um, I, I just think McKinleyville's on the cusp of a lot.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: A lot of change and a lot of community connection and a lot of community action.

Scott Hammond: I think you're right.

Jackie Dandeneau: So I know people have dissed communi- uh, McKinleyville for a while.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … I just, um, I mean, I love the stuff that's going on in McKinleyville.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: You got more grocery stores per capita than

Jackie Dandeneau: cents.

Scott Hammond: Eureka Natural Foods, come on.

Jackie Dandeneau: Safeway.

Scott Hammond: So you got a Saf-

Jackie Dandeneau: Gross Out.

Scott Hammond: Got… And we got good old Gross Out.

Jackie Dandeneau: You got it all. And you got-

Scott Hammond: I'm glad that-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … you called it Gross Out.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Sorry, Grocery Outlet.

Scott Hammond: Only our kids… Grocery Outlet. Bargain Market, there's a song. We won't sing it.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. You know, so I, you know, I, I'm a fan of com- of McKinleyville, and like I said just recently, we did our festival out there, One Village Many Peoples-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … in McKinleyville, and it was fabulous. Pearson Park is, like, a gem.

Scott Hammond: It's beautiful.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's beautiful, and you don't have to rent porta potties when you do an event there. That's all I'm saying, producers.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can save-

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: … yourself, you know, two grand.

Scott Hammond: Shucks, we got electricity out there.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know. You got toilets and electricity.

Scott Hammond: Oh, man, we got free grass.

Jackie Dandeneau: And so many spaces and grass and…

Scott Hammond: Well, you know, Jesse with the chamber does that summer concert series every

Scott Hammond: Thursday.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. It's great.

Scott Hammond: Oh, well, there's been some big crowds.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And fun, fun dancing. The-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I actually have been known to dance now quite, quite-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … I could cut a rug and cut the grass.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: I know.

Jackie Dandeneau: At the same time?

Scott Hammond: Mm. Occasionally. Depends.

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, you'll have to come to the playhouse 'cause we're doing a big, uh, fundraiser,

Jackie Dandeneau: and we're-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … gonna do some line dancing.

Scott Hammond: Oh, fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: We're gonna have some people teach line dancing, and then Cadillac Ranch is gonna play. There'll be-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Jackie Dandeneau: … a cabaret, Cadillac Ranch, a little bit of line dancing.

Scott Hammond: Rick from Blue Lake.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, Rick from Blue Lake.

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

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, Cadillac Ranch rehearses at the little church.

Scott Hammond: Is that Cadillac Ranch from Blue Lake?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's Cadillac Ranch from Blue Lake.

Scott Hammond: Is that in California?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wait, Blue Lake is… Let me show everybody where Blue Lake is.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, see the line that goes to the right? It's out that line that's 299.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's about three inches from Arcata.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: About-

Jackie Dandeneau: It's on your way out of town

Scott Hammond: … as the crow flies.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So give us the Jackie story and how the arc of your, your, your

Scott Hammond: deal.

Jackie Dandeneau: Ah.

Scott Hammond: Your life. Where were you-

Jackie Dandeneau: The arc of my deal

Scott Hammond: … you're Canadian, right? You're born in Canada?

Jackie Dandeneau: I am Canadian. I was born on a small farm-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Jackie Dandeneau: … between, um, Edmonton and Jasper, if anyone knows Jasper National Park-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … in Spruce Grove. I was actually outside of Spruce Grove, so I grew up youngest of seven on a farm. Did a lot of, uh, you know, horseback riding and gopher catching and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … did a little bit of milking, not very much, but every once in a while, 'cause I was the youngest of seven and I was a girl, so when times were tough, they would get me to go out and milk my sister's cows. Um, yeah, so I grew up doing that.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Very musical family. My dad was a guitar player. My sister, guitar player, singer, knew every song to, words to every song and chords, and so I kinda grew up around music and community engagement. They were big, um, community people. My dad was the bingo caller in Spruce Grove-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … and my mom worked concessions, and they were Elks Club and Royal Purple and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … curling and very, very involved in the community.

Scott Hammond: Say hurling or curling?

Jackie Dandeneau: Curling.

Scott Hammond: Curling. The s-

Jackie Dandeneau: Curling

Scott Hammond: … the sport

Jackie Dandeneau: Not hurling like throwing up.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, the f-

Jackie Dandeneau: No. Curling, like the sports

Scott Hammond: … the Canadian sport.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, Canadians, bonspiels and matching sweaters and-

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: … we would go to town on a Friday, and my parents would curl, and I'd go to the arena and watch people play hockey and-

Scott Hammond: Oh, fun

Jackie Dandeneau: … you know, skating and all kinds of things like that.

Scott Hammond: I love it.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then I went to theater school. Uh, I went to the University of Alberta, which is a professional training program in

Jackie Dandeneau: Canada.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Kind of one of the, you know, there's two schools, the National s- Theater School and, and, um, University of Alberta. Now there's York and there's other, um, schools as well, but at the time, those were kind of the two major ones, and I went there. It was a four-year program, and then I got out, and I got my Canadian Actors Equity card, and I started working professionally

Jackie Dandeneau: right away.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: I worked at the kind of regional theaters across Canada, um, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia. I did the Stratford Festival, which is like the Ashland

Jackie Dandeneau: Festival-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … of Canada. It's a pretty big deal and-

Scott Hammond: Is it mostly Shakespeare?

Jackie Dandeneau: It is Shakespeare, but the same thing. They have to do musicals so that they can pay for Shakespeare.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, and I was part of the young company, so we were-

Scott Hammond: And where's that? Is it BC?

Jackie Dandeneau: In, in Stratford, Ontario.

Scott Hammond: Ontario.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Got it.

Jackie Dandeneau: So out east. So I, I did that, and then I did a l- a whole bunch of, uh-

Jackie Dandeneau: Theater

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … oh, just kind of did, you know, I'd do like six theater professional shows a year-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … where I just go into towns and act and go home.

Scott Hammond: So rock star th- actress.

Jackie Dandeneau: Rock star actress.

Scott Hammond: Rolling through Canada.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then, yeah, and then I got a part in a movie called Blood Clan.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yes.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes. And you can see it. I think it's on YouTube or something.

Scott Hammond: Blood Clan.

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Who does it star?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um-

Scott Hammond: Besides you

Jackie Dandeneau: … Gordon Pinsent, who's a big Canadian actor.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: And Michelle, I can't remember her last name. It's a, it's a murder mystery.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Or not a murder mystery, it's like a

Jackie Dandeneau: horror show.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Anyways, I got that part, and so it was being released in the theaters in Vancouver, so I moved to Vancouver and I got an agent. So I did film and TV for a while.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Did some commercials, film and TV things, and did a lot of radio drama while I lived in Vancouver.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Theater. Um-

Scott Hammond: That plays into today, right, that radio station that we'll talk about?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, later. Yeah. And then I moved to Pender Island. And then I met David Fernie who was from Dell'Arte. And then we got married, and then we had a baby.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then-

Scott Hammond: Dell'Arte, Blue Lake.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, Dell'Arte, Blue Lake.

Scott Hammond: Do you have Leo or… You're-

Jackie Dandeneau: Leo

Scott Hammond: … Leo.

Jackie Dandeneau: Leo's-

Scott Hammond: How old's Leo now?

Jackie Dandeneau: … 26.

Scott Hammond: Wow. How quickly they age.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know. We moved here when Leo was three.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we've been here, I've been here 23 years.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then we had another kid, Cora, who's now 20.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then David and I got a divorce. And we're still friends-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Jackie Dandeneau: … and work together. And he's-

Scott Hammond: He doesn't work at Dell'Arte anymore.

Jackie Dandeneau: He does not work at D- sometimes he does. He was in the summer show last year.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. So he's great. He's a great technician, and he does video.

Scott Hammond: Is he part of the Playhouse group at all?

Jackie Dandeneau: He is. I mean, he's a founder, so-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … you know.

Scott Hammond: You guys, you guys founded it together, right?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. For sure, we founded-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … the Playhouse together. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Is there… So the Arcata Playhouse is in Arcata, which is-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … on that map.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And, uh-

Jackie Dandeneau: It is. It's right there

Scott Hammond: … it's, was there theater or anything there before you guys?

Jackie Dandeneau: It was, before we took it over, it was a Star Garden Theater, which was a small children's theater.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: But before that, it was the Pacific Arts Center, which was a pretty big deal-

Scott Hammond: Right, right

Jackie Dandeneau: … in Humboldt County. The Pacific Arts Center did a lot of stuff. A lot of really great performers doing, and directors, and, um, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mostly theater though? Or-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Theater. Straight ahead theater, the Pacific Arts Center.

Scott Hammond: So, so not much music-wise.

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't think so. What I think it was known for was theater, and the theater was set up differently.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: So it took up the playhouse, the Bella Studio and the big studio. So that was-

Scott Hammond: It was bigger, yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … yeah, it was bigger.

Scott Hammond: I remember that.

Jackie Dandeneau: And it was turned the other way, so there was a backstage and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … a shop. And Michael Foster, who's kind of well known for a lot of, uh, lighting designs in Humboldt, he lived in the little button factory house, which is now Holly Yashi's hairdressing

Jackie Dandeneau: studio.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that one.

Jackie Dandeneau: Which was a button factory.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: He lived in that little house and was the TD.

Scott Hammond: That little pink house?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Yeah, so it, uh, it's nice to know a lot of those,

Jackie Dandeneau: um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … Pacific Arts Center people who did a lot of stuff.

Scott Hammond: My mind is going way ahead. I wanna hear about all the bands and everybody that

Scott Hammond: you've met-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … and all the stuff, but we'll, we'll put that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But if-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … you're just joining us-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes

Scott Hammond: … my new best friend Jackie-

Jackie Dandeneau: That's right

Scott Hammond: … and I are here together talking.

Jackie Dandeneau: Here we are, talking.

Scott Hammond: Um, about her and Arcata and Humboldt.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And I wanna go back to Canada.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Let's go back to Canada.

Scott Hammond: So, so I'm, I'm, I'm kind of a little bit funny

Scott Hammond: sometimes.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So I really like the Trailer Park Boys.

Scott Hammond: Trailer-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Trailer, is that-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Tra-

Jackie Dandeneau: Trailer Park Boys.

Scott Hammond: Sorry.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's okay. Um-

Scott Hammond: Do you speak Canadian?

Jackie Dandeneau: I do. Sometimes I speak Canadian.

Scott Hammond: Sor- sorry.

Jackie Dandeneau: But sort of I've got my American accent now.

Jackie Dandeneau: But-

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: … when I listen to some of my, my sisters, I hear a very big, "Oh, sorry. Yeah. Oh."

Scott Hammond: Molson, Molson Golden.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, that's right. I'm gonna throw that up on the roof.

Scott Hammond: On the roof?

Jackie Dandeneau: On the roof.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um,

Jackie Dandeneau: yeah.

Scott Hammond: Our kids got us, our, our older teenagers got us started on Trailer Park Boys.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: It's just, like, so off the hook and, and off, off the wall.

Jackie Dandeneau: It came out after I left Canada.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oddly enough, 'cause I've been gone for 23 years. So you don't get a lot of CBC Canadian broadcasting stuff. I mean, you do now with some of the stuff that goes on.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Jackie Dandeneau: But I, uh, kind of missed a lot of-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … the Canadian things that went down.

Scott Hammond: Her BC's really beautiful.

Jackie Dandeneau: It is really beautiful.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: There's a lot of really beautiful things in, in British Columbia. Yeah. You go up and Vancouver's a beautiful city. It's got beaches.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: Sometimes in Vancouver you can ski-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … go to the beach, all in the same, like just with a bus ride.

Scott Hammond: Fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can take the bus-

Scott Hammond: Literally can do both

Jackie Dandeneau: … to this ski hill. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then Bouchar- Bouchard Gardens.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's in Victoria.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, my dad went there-

Jackie Dandeneau: That's on the island

Scott Hammond: … and said it was unbelievable.

Jackie Dandeneau: The, uh, Victoria's really beautiful, too. Big island, lots of really Yuquot and lots of really wild things there-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … on the, uh, west coast of Vancouver Island. I lived on an island in between Vancouver and Victoria, Pender Island-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … which is the Customs Island. So it was a small island. So when I moved to Blue Lake, I was like, "Ooh, I've moved to the city now." "I can just like r- drive and get groceries and come home. I don't have to like take a ferry or…"

Scott Hammond: I can go to Murphy's Market and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, exactly

Scott Hammond: … you know, market.

Jackie Dandeneau: Just before I moved, to be fair, just before I moved, we got a, a new grocery store on Pender Island, and it had one of those doors when you come to it and it

Jackie Dandeneau: opens.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: And you could actually have two shopping carts in the same aisle.

Scott Hammond: That is tri-

Jackie Dandeneau: So we were like-

Scott Hammond: Star Trek

Jackie Dandeneau: … "Look at us go big time now."

Scott Hammond: Which is, we've arrived.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. But, so Blue Lake felt like a big city when we moved here.

Scott Hammond: Blue Lake is so, so cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Joni and I started doing our date night there about 10 plus

Scott Hammond: years ago.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, cool.

Scott Hammond: Went to the brewery and just, you know, we'd have an hour on Wednesday nights and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice

Scott Hammond: … it was all the live music back in the day, and it was-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … really, the vibes, it's, it's shifted. It's, there's still music.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, but-

Jackie Dandeneau: The casino, the sushi at the casino is really

Jackie Dandeneau: great.

Scott Hammond: They have good sushi.

Jackie Dandeneau: Sushi Blue.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm, it's delish.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I like the, I like the casino. Everybody's got their cigarette smoke. I, whatever. I-

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't think they have that now

Scott Hammond: … been to a number of those. They-

Jackie Dandeneau: They ha- you have to, everything, they have one room that's-

Scott Hammond: Maybe there's-

Jackie Dandeneau: … or one section that is-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … cordoned off. But Sushi Blue, you can just go in with your Kids even

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: Kids can go in.

Scott Hammond: They have a good IPA too. The Dillon what's-his-name.

Scott Hammond: Schatz?

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah. The-

Scott Hammond: He was the brewmaster at

Jackie Dandeneau: … Powers Creek Brewery

Scott Hammond: Yep. Correct. Very good.

Jackie Dandeneau: Thank you

Scott Hammond: He's quite a… Shout out to Blue Lake Casino.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. And also The Doghouse is really good too. Darcy at The Doghouse right there in Perigo Park.

Scott Hammond: Oh, Darcy's our favorite.

Jackie Dandeneau: Such good food.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Darcy at The Doghouse.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Go Doghouse.

Scott Hammond: Is that in Perigo Park?

Jackie Dandeneau: It sure is.

Scott Hammond: And is that Blue Lake, California?

Jackie Dandeneau: It's in Blue Lake, California, which is just up the little black dot, about three inches from Ca- from Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Yep. Hey, Darcy, we love you a lot.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. It's true.

Scott Hammond: She was our school bus driver for our specialist-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, nice

Scott Hammond: … son Gabriel for a while.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We always loved Darcy.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. She's good.

Scott Hammond: She was

Jackie Dandeneau: She's a good egg.

Scott Hammond: And then there's Jewel Gin and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Jewel, that's a awesome. Jewel and s-

Scott Hammond: I like Jewel

Jackie Dandeneau: … Jack's Chocolate is out there now in the industrial section

Scott Hammond: Oh, they're out there too. Tomas too are his warehouses.

Jackie Dandeneau: Tomas, and also s- Fish Brothers.

Scott Hammond: Oh, they're there, okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, we got-

Scott Hammond: And

Jackie Dandeneau: And

Scott Hammond: Wallace and Hines.

Jackie Dandeneau: Wallace and Hines.

Scott Hammond: Here it goes.

Jackie Dandeneau: True that.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Bl- uh, Logger Bar.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, the Logger Bar.

Scott Hammond: Is what's-his-name a cool guy, Michael?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: He is. The Logger Bar is great.

Scott Hammond: He's a Del Arte guy, right?

Jackie Dandeneau: He was. He was one of the founders.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, one of the original sort of staff of Del Arte. Joan, and Michael, and Donald kind of put the, the name on-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … the company there.

Scott Hammond: That was a legend-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … in the day.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yep. It's true.

Scott Hammond: Gosh. And I worked at Perigo Park as a rec- recreation guy-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, wow

Scott Hammond: … with Pete Shepherd and Greg Devaney.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, look at that.

Scott Hammond: Back in the day.

Jackie Dandeneau: Back in the day.

Scott Hammond: One of my first jobs as a rec major, Humboldt State.

Scott Hammond: Come on.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yay.

Scott Hammond: Not Ca-

Jackie Dandeneau: That's cool

Scott Hammond: … not Cal Poly.

Jackie Dandeneau: I like the rec majors.

Scott Hammond: Oh, what?

Jackie Dandeneau: We often have… I mean, we have had in the past rec majors come work with the

Jackie Dandeneau: playhouse.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. They're fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We're fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: You get a lot of things with b- being a rec major. You think, "What the heck is a rec major?" But they get, like, you know, event planning, and business, and marketing, and-

Scott Hammond: Oh, dude

Jackie Dandeneau: … s- everything. They come with it all.

Scott Hammond: Best major ever. Yeah. My kids go, "Did you major in recess?" Actually, you know who made that up was Janet Cole.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Steve Cole's w- ex-wife.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And she introduced me in a Toastmaster meeting, and he was a rec major, and he majored in recess.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: And I go, "I don't know f- I like that. Yeah, I'll go with that."

Jackie Dandeneau: I w- wouldn't mind majoring in recess.

Scott Hammond: Recess was a cool major.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Scott Hammond: Came with about seven minors, but that's fine.

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, I got a BFA, so, you know.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm.

Scott Hammond: What's a, what's a BFA?

Jackie Dandeneau: Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, you know, or Bachelor of, you know. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So what brought you and your ex to Humboldt?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um-

Scott Hammond: Did you guys come together, marry in Canada?

Jackie Dandeneau: We did. We, he was a Del Arte grad, and he got a job being the booking a- um, manager-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … for Del Arte, so he came, and I taught voice there for 10 years. So I, um, did vocal ensemble work and-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … voice stuff.

Scott Hammond: Do you still sing?

Jackie Dandeneau: I still do.

Scott Hammond: Really? Can we sing the rest-

Jackie Dandeneau: Sing of cave.

Scott Hammond: We can sing the rest of the interview.

Scott Hammond: That would-

Jackie Dandeneau: We can sing. Sometimes I just have, today is a musical day, people. I'm gonna sing everything I do.

Scott Hammond: I like it.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Musical theater.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hello. Welcome to the meeting. Welcome to the meeting, meeting, meeting. Welcome to the meeting.

Scott Hammond: Perfect. I like it.

Jackie Dandeneau: You know.

Scott Hammond: Somewhere.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. Keeps me interested.

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm, I'm interested anyways, but.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, you're, you're fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, um-

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, thanks.

Scott Hammond: You're really fun.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: S- so you guys came to Humboldt.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yep.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause he was here earlier.

Jackie Dandeneau: He had gone to school with Del Arte and done some booking for them, so then they were looking for people to, someone to book tours for them.

Jackie Dandeneau: They wanted-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Jackie Dandeneau: … they did a bunch of national tours and stuff.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's right. They used to tour.

Jackie Dandeneau: He, yeah, he took over that, and I taught voice, and then

Jackie Dandeneau: we brought-

Scott Hammond: Who was the one with, uh, Joanne, Joanne with the Mary Jane-

Jackie Dandeneau: Joan Shirley

Scott Hammond: … Joan? It was the m-

Jackie Dandeneau: That was not Mary Jane. That was Scar Tissue.

Scott Hammond: Scar Tissue.

Jackie Dandeneau: That was kind of her film noir-

Scott Hammond: Is she still living?

Jackie Dandeneau: … character. No, she died.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, she died almost three years ago, sadly.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Really big loss.

Scott Hammond: How old was she?

Jackie Dandeneau: She was, I wanna say

Jackie Dandeneau: six… 70.

Scott Hammond: Oh, not that old.

Jackie Dandeneau: Not that old.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: I think. She was a f- good friend of mine, so-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Jackie Dandeneau: … yeah.

Scott Hammond: All right.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Good memory.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Good memories for sure.

Scott Hammond: So, so then you guys branched out and, and bought or did the-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Well, then we started the playhouse because I had this one-woman show that I wrote-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … that was kind of, um, a mystery one-woman show about h- how this restaurant started on fire on a small island.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: So I, I wrote this show, and so I wanted to do it, so we did it at what was the Star Garden Theatre.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then we found out that they were at risk of losing their lease because they couldn't pay the rent, so we said, "Oh, this would be great. We could rehearse. We could do our thing." So we took it over as the Star Garden.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And Cora, our youngest, was really young at the time, and I remember nursing and then the, m- just being like, "Okay, look, if we're gonna do this, we just have to have control of it."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: 'Cause I can't deal with people fighting or any nittly things. I got too much on the boil. So we took over the lease, and then

Jackie Dandeneau: that's-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … where we, where we, uh, where we are now.

Scott Hammond: Who owns the building then?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, Meliss- um, uh, Lisa, Brian and Lisa Don- Tonson Finegan.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. They used to have the shoe shop.

Jackie Dandeneau: Melissa-

Scott Hammond: No?

Jackie Dandeneau: Not Melissa. Lis- Lisa Tonson and Brian Finegan.

Scott Hammond: Finegan.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nobody knows her as Melissa. I just have that in my head because-

Scott Hammond: I know, I know them from, they owned a business in Arcata.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes. They're woodworkers, amazing woodworkers.

Scott Hammond: That's it.

Jackie Dandeneau: And her brother's a, like, world-renowned photographer who's just an amazing photographer and-

Scott Hammond: Is there a Kelly Tonson Printer thing?

Jackie Dandeneau: I think so.

Scott Hammond: I know a lot of this 'cause I used to call in all the businesses in Arcata. I sold newspaper, which is a print product that had

Scott Hammond: paper.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And we sold ads in the Tri-City Weekly.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, I remember-

Scott Hammond: You too

Jackie Dandeneau: … the… I love the Tri-City Weekly.

Scott Hammond: Tri-City was great. For kids-

Jackie Dandeneau: They had those little jokes in the Tri-City Weekly.

Scott Hammond: Oh, really?

Jackie Dandeneau: They had, like, the joke column. You'd always get it, like, if you'd go to Peppers or when-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Jackie Dandeneau: … you know, whatever the restaurant was for breakfast, they'd have the Tri-City

Jackie Dandeneau: Weekly.

Scott Hammond: I loved it, man. It was cool 'cause we just kicked butt on the time standard, 'cause it was all about revenue-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and advertising. So you could do, Pearsons would do the front page 12 times a year. It was great.

Jackie Dandeneau: Why? Nice.

Scott Hammond: And it was just, uh… And Ron Pileggi, my boss and fr- still friend-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … um, talked to him today. It's a great, great family-ran thing, and it's

Scott Hammond: positive.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And how else do you support nine children on one income in Humboldt?

Jackie Dandeneau: Ah.

Scott Hammond: Barely.

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't know.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: Magical place. Anyway-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I digress.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you guys took over the entire-

Jackie Dandeneau: We started the-

Scott Hammond: … the whole thing

Jackie Dandeneau: … the Playhouse. We renamed it the Arcata Playhouse, and we started that, and then we went along with that. And then at some point, um, I, I was a teacher's aide, and I got laid off from my job, and at that point you could go to the job market and they would help you

Jackie Dandeneau: find a job.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: And so I went through every personali- I did it all, personality

Jackie Dandeneau: tests-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … had a counselor, what, what is my aptitude? What could I be good at? And they were like, "Well, it seems like you should be in the arts." And I was like, "Huh, isn't that crazy?"

Scott Hammond: Weird.

Jackie Dandeneau: Weird. So, uh, I, I made the choice. They were like, "You could," you know. I was, I was be- becoming a teacher or a bookkeeper.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: And I decided I would go for my business associate's degree because-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Jackie Dandeneau: … it would help me more-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … to, to run the Playhouse.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: So I got my business associate's degree from

Jackie Dandeneau: CR.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: I went back to school.

Scott Hammond: Lovely.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then I interned with the Ink People and Libby Maynard.

Scott Hammond: That's right.

Jackie Dandeneau: And so, uh, I-

Scott Hammond: We were next-door neighbors, right?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's when we were next-door neighbors. That's when I first met you.

Scott Hammond: Scott Hammond State Farm, located in Eureka, California, right over here on the map-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … w- was your-

Jackie Dandeneau: Just three inches from the back line.

Scott Hammond: Which was your neighbor.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: How long were you there? 'Cause I remember-

Jackie Dandeneau: You know, I think I was at the Ink People for, uh, almost 11

Jackie Dandeneau: years total.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: I told Libby that I would stay with her until she retired, but the Playhouse just kinda took off, and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … I couldn't. I was not doing a good job there, and I was not doing a good job at the Playhouse, so I had to-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … step out of there.

Scott Hammond: What was your role there?

Jackie Dandeneau: I was their bookkeeper.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, I worked originally, when I first interned, I worked for them 20 hours a week, so I did admin and bookkeeping for them.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then I went down to be their bookkeeper for, like, five to seven hours a week. I came in one day, and they were picking up and all these other revenue streams.

Jackie Dandeneau: Like-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … all of a sudden there was Venmo and PayPal and who knows what. All these things were coming in.

Scott Hammond: Did you track it all?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, and it just, I kinda, my head kind of exploded a little bit.

Scott Hammond: That's the other side of the arts brain.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The numbers.

Jackie Dandeneau: It was just like it needed more than five hours a week-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Jackie Dandeneau: … is what it all came down to, and so I left and just started doing the Playhouse full t- uh, well, I was already doing it full time, but, um, so then I just started doing the books there, and then I ended up giving the books away there, too.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: So just too, too much.

Scott Hammond: And they just moved, uh, couple y- well, pre-COVID I think, and then Potawat Dental has the building now.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: It's all redone. It's beautiful.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Potawat.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. They, um, they just bought a new building, Ink People did.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, yeah, Leslie Castellanos, the ED of the Ink People, and they just bought a new building on, um, I think it's Third and-

Scott Hammond: They're down in Old Town somewhere, yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: But they're not there anymore. They're now… Well, they're, they're gonna be there for a bit, but they got this new building, and they're gonna move in.

Scott Hammond: Where's that at?

Jackie Dandeneau: It's in Eureka, and it's, I think it's where the old, um, the old billiards place used to be.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's right there on the corner.

Jackie Dandeneau: On Third.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, right there on the corner.

Scott Hammond: That was Club, uh, Triangle.

Jackie Dandeneau: The Club Triangle, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And all that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. So they just bought that building.

Scott Hammond: Beautiful.

Jackie Dandeneau: And it's gonna be beautiful. The, I, I missed the, the release of it and all their plans-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … but I've sort of heard via the grapevine-

Scott Hammond: Can I say the snarky thing that no one's gonna sleep in the doorway anymore?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It'll be a actual business that'll have people.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can, but they might sleep in the doorway, but it'll be okay. They'll be okay. They'll say, "Hey-

Scott Hammond: It'll be different

Jackie Dandeneau: … we're gonna open," and they'll move.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: They're pretty reasonable.

Scott Hammond: Move it on down.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, move it on down.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. So, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, okay, so Playhouse.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The fun part.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, the Playhouse, the fun part.

Scott Hammond: So how-

Jackie Dandeneau: Fun city

Scott Hammond: … what have you liked about doing the Playhouse and running the show?

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, man.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause it sounds like you're more than just shows and concerts and theater.

Jackie Dandeneau: We really are.

Scott Hammond: Like, you've branched out into, like, this other stuff with the city and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … like you were telling me outside, the, the, um-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … all the art displays and things.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And painting hydrants?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, we did, we work with the City of Arcata on, um, we helped develop the Arcata Strategic Arts Plan-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … through a grant that we got with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we kinda-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Jackie Dandeneau: … spearheaded that with Susan Ornelas, and then it completed with, uh, Gillan Martin and, who else was on that? Gillan and… Oh, I just drew a blank.

Scott Hammond: That's okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's crazy. So yeah, we, we did the Strategic Arts Plan. So we're the local arts agency, so we help them, you know, connect with artists and put together an artist panel to make sure, you know, what the call to art is-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … and, and make sure that, you know, things are g- going, and we administer the program for them. And then we also have a program called Our Space, which is an arts program for houseless people.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … use art as wellness, so giving people a place to be something other than a number or a thing to be dealt with.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: They come, and we've made– We're coming up on our fourth zine, so we

Jackie Dandeneau: do that.

Scott Hammond: Is that the Creamery? That the building?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, we, you know, we were in the Presbyterian Church, but we

Jackie Dandeneau: got

Jackie Dandeneau: kicked out. We didn't get, really get kicked out by the Presbyterian Church, but it, the, it became an, a, a, we couldn't stay there. So now we're looking for a new place, and we have some deets on some, but, uh, it's all sort of under wraps right now.

Scott Hammond: Just wanna do a shout-out to all the Presbyterians in the world.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just wanna say hi.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes, exactly. I only work in Presbyterian Church apparently 'cause I use the Presbyterian Church in Blue Lake for the choir.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: And then I-

Scott Hammond: Isn't there a, a full gospel choir?

Jackie Dandeneau: No, we're a small little-

Scott Hammond: No, no, I mean the one-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … the one, the big one in Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Did they-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … hang out at the Presbyterian for a long time?

Jackie Dandeneau: They were at the Presbyterian for a long time.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: And now they're at-

Scott Hammond: What are they called? Arcata G- Full Gospel Choir?

Jackie Dandeneau: Redwood Interfaith Gospel Choir.

Scott Hammond: Oh, they've changed.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, and they're at the Playhouse. They rehearse at the Playhouse.

Scott Hammond: Oh, beautiful. Did you ever know Marquita Sims?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Loved her.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: She used to go to church with Marquita.

Jackie Dandeneau: I mean, I knew her through Barb, so just on the periphery.

Scott Hammond: Marquita's a sweetie.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Was, w- still is a sweetie.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We'll go with that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. So, um, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Marquita.

Jackie Dandeneau: Marquita.

Scott Hammond: Kate Simpson

Jackie Dandeneau: And then what else? Then we have Artists in Schools. So we put artists in schools. Right now we're in Blue Lake and Fieldbrook and-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … um, just signing contracts. We go to Whale Gulch. We've done Loleta.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um-

Scott Hammond: Where's Whale Gulch, like SoHum?

Jackie Dandeneau: In South, yeah, SoHum, yep.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. Like Petrolia, down that way or?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, no, more like towards, not Petrolia. Garberville maybe.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, probably.

Jackie Dandeneau: Garberville off the-

Scott Hammond: There's gonna be a safe shelter

Jackie Dandeneau: In between Garberville and Petrolia

Scott Hammond: … out that way. It's SoHum. It's, it's-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, SoHum

Scott Hammond: … it's right o-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Can you see it? It's right over there.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's past, it's, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's on the map, on that, that arm that goes south

Jackie Dandeneau: It's to the right of the lower black line, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Let's…

Scott Hammond: Dial it in.

Jackie Dandeneau: Dial it in.

Scott Hammond: Please.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we do that. Then we do a program called Skuyetsl Ni Na with the Yurok

Jackie Dandeneau: Tribe-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … which translates to We Are Becoming Well, and we're in Orick doing that program

Jackie Dandeneau: right now.

Scott Hammond: That's so cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, and then we have KHHA 94.7, Community Forward Radio in the heart of the Creamery District.

Scott Hammond: Say it one more time.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's KHHA 94.7 Arcata LPFM in the heart of the Creamery District.

Scott Hammond: Oh, I know. I know.

Jackie Dandeneau: What?

Scott Hammond: My neighbor is one of your DJs.

Jackie Dandeneau: Who?

Scott Hammond: Greg Smith.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh,

Jackie Dandeneau: yeah.

Scott Hammond: He does a, he does like a hip hop show or-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Probably. Sh- there's, I think-

Scott Hammond: He loves it. He, he does-

Jackie Dandeneau: … Nerely has like 60-plus DJs there

Scott Hammond: … He knows Nerely. He's telling me all about her.

Jackie Dandeneau: I have a radio show there too.

Scott Hammond: Do you really?

Jackie Dandeneau: I do. I do, uh, 11 to 12 on Tuesdays. It's called What's Up? It's called that so that I can talk about whatever I wanna talk about.

Scott Hammond: Is it just you?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Awesome.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can come on my radio show.

Scott Hammond: I, I would love-

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't have an engineer, though.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you don't?

Jackie Dandeneau: Or a camera, no. So sometimes-

Scott Hammond: Do I have an engineer?

Jackie Dandeneau: … I push the, sometimes I push the wrong button where I'm like, "Yeah, we're gonna hear from… Oops, okay, wait, that's the wrong one."

Scott Hammond: Sorry, Led Zeppelin.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's right. We're not gonna hear from anyone 'cause I have not pushed the computer

Jackie Dandeneau: button. No, so I'm my own engineer. It's fun. It's a great little radio station.

Scott Hammond: Where's the studio?

Jackie Dandeneau: It's, uh, in the Creamery District-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … kind of across from Holly Yashi.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's in this converted storage unit.

Scott Hammond: Of course.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like all good radio stations.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. Like all good radio-

Scott Hammond: I should start in radio

Jackie Dandeneau: … There you go.

Scott Hammond: I even have a face for radio.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, you've never heard that joke, ever.

Jackie Dandeneau: Never.

Scott Hammond: Never.

Jackie Dandeneau: Never.

Scott Hammond: So tell me about the station. Is it like 100 watt? Is it bigger?

Jackie Dandeneau: Not a very good question. It's LPFM, so it's really in Arcata, but I can get it in Blue Lake in my driveway, and I can get it coming-

Scott Hammond: In your driveway.

Jackie Dandeneau: … coming here.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: I can get it along the waterfront. People can get it in Neyland. Some people in McKinleyville-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … have got it. That's the 94.7 in your car.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: 94.7. But you can also, there's an app, so you can get it wherever you are.

Scott Hammond: Right, and then it streams. It's perfect.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm, and it's the same programming.

Scott Hammond: It's all digital at that point.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, tell me, has it kind of replaced KHSU? Am I giving it a-

Jackie Dandeneau: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … that kind of credit or?

Jackie Dandeneau: Well, it, it grew out of KHSU-

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: … shutting down, where I was like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … "Oh, dear, that's-"

Scott Hammond: Were you part of that? Were you on the show?

Jackie Dandeneau: No, I, I just used them a lot. They were really, they really connected us to a lot of our people who came to shows, who supported the playhouse, so it was kind of like, "Ah."

Scott Hammond: What a great, yeah, local-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … KHSU

Jackie Dandeneau: So it was a, it was a, uh, we got together then and we're like, "Let's do another one," and, you know, we talked about doing a radio station and we're like, "That's so much money. We don't…" And it was discouraging, but then we started the, the, the streaming, uh, K- KHHA, or Humboldt Hot Air online, humboldthotair.org. And then Nerely went to a radio conference in New Orleans

Jackie Dandeneau: and, um, people were like, "They're opening up the, you know-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … the LPFM licenses." So she just-

Scott Hammond: Get one

Jackie Dandeneau: … was like, "Let's get one."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: And she applied and we got one and she-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Jackie Dandeneau: … sort of took all the stuff and ran with it and-

Scott Hammond: Uh

Jackie Dandeneau: … worked with the engineers to get the equipment up and running and-

Scott Hammond: Her dad was Vinnie-

Jackie Dandeneau: Vinnie Devaney.

Scott Hammond: Vinnie De-

Jackie Dandeneau: Fogu.

Scott Hammond: Fogu, yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Fogu on KHHA. Yeah, so she's been, it's been quite astounding watching her. Nerely came through the playhouse with Apprentice Entertainment. We used to have a teen program called Apprentice Entertainment. So she was heavily involved with Apprentice, and then she went away and came back.

Scott Hammond: It's beautiful. And-

Jackie Dandeneau: And I ran into her at Murphy's and I was like, "Hold up. Are you back in town?" And she said-

Scott Hammond: Oh, hold up

Jackie Dandeneau: … "Hold up, I am." And I said, "Hold up, you should take over this radio station," 'cause she had so much experience in radio with her dad.

Scott Hammond: She's surrounded.

Jackie Dandeneau: And also she had a, a show called Queen Beats-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … in Santa Cruz-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … where she went to school, and my kid loved Nerely's Queen

Jackie Dandeneau: Beats show.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: So it all just-

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Nerely. Hey, Nerely.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nerely.

Scott Hammond: I wanna meet her.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. You should have her on. She's awesome.

Scott Hammond: Maybe I'll do that. Her-

Jackie Dandeneau: She might be your new best friend.

Scott Hammond: Her… Well, I need as many as I can get.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. Right now-

Scott Hammond: I'm losing them left and right.

Jackie Dandeneau: … we need so many best friends. It's what it's all about.

Scott Hammond: I'm gonna tell my, can I tell my Greg Devaney story?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So Greg and I, um, worked together at the rec program, Humboldt Rec program with Pete Shepherd, doing kinda like what you're doing, Orick, Manila, rec programs in Trinidad where I worked, and then, uh, also SoHum, Briceland.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And all these low-income kids that couldn't get to Camp Kimtoo saved their life, but we did, we staffed people for like six, eight weeks every summer.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: And Pete and Greg come on, made it happen through grants through Manila West Haven Parent Council and John Wooley and amazing Sue what's-her-name, and just amazing people that we have in our

Scott Hammond: community. And, um, Greg would do, uh, T-shirts. He would do screen prints-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … of T-shirts. And one of the classics was, "Don't eat the stew at Camp Kimtoo." Every kid got a shirt, brought a shirt- …

Scott Hammond: screened it. And one of the beautiful things I'll never forget is he was dying. He was having a beer at Mad River. I'm like painting a story like I'm out there all the time. You know, not, not a big beer drinker at all.

Scott Hammond: Um, and he s- And I, I sat with him and I knew that he was perishing, k- but he was having a beer with his caregiver. I don't know who it was. And he goes, "Yeah, he could sit down. He's a Christian, but he's not an asshole."

Jackie Dandeneau: That's good.

Scott Hammond: And I go, I go, "I love you, man." And, and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Stamp of approval

Scott Hammond: … I ended up praying over him and with him, and it was beautiful. It was just a-

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice

Scott Hammond: … a really… It's who I am, man. I just showed up, and I was present with a man I loved, and who, who was dying.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, um, transitioning. So it was just a… There's my moment. Um, so-

Jackie Dandeneau: That's a great moment

Scott Hammond: … it's a great moment.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's a great moment.

Scott Hammond: Let's go on to rock and roll, 'cause I wanna hear the-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … I wanna hear the shows that-

Jackie Dandeneau: Rock and roll

Scott Hammond: … have been memorable at the-

Jackie Dandeneau: Ah

Scott Hammond: … at the Playhouse. Um, hold up. Let's talk about that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hold up?

Scott Hammond: If you… Well, that's what you said at Nerely, right?

Scott Hammond: Hold-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, hold up, Nerely.

Scott Hammond: Was it hold up?

Jackie Dandeneau: Hold up.

Scott Hammond: Was it hold up?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hold down.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hold up.

Scott Hammond: Hold up.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hold up. Are you living here?

Scott Hammond: So, so… Hold up. So what are the best, I don't know, five best shows that just come to mind-

Jackie Dandeneau: Wow

Scott Hammond: … that were just, like, a powerful night that got anointed, and they're… The supernatural and the natural got really close that night.

Jackie Dandeneau: You know, Mariachi Lindas is an all-female mariachi band.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: And they came for the Women's Fest, and that to me stands out as something that was, like, so much work and so much negotiations-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … and so many travel everythings, and-

Scott Hammond: How many people?

Jackie Dandeneau: There were, uh, nine of them, 10 of them. And we had to fly them from LA.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And they did a workshop at Cal Poly, and we had to-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … find housing for them, and they were so

Jackie Dandeneau: awesome.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: The, um, it brought in so many people that weren't normally at the Playhouse.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Jackie Dandeneau: And all these people where they'd say, "This is from Oaxaca," and people would be like, "What?" And they'd sing along with them.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And that-

Scott Hammond: So international night.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Yeah, it was great.

Scott Hammond: That's so cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: That was a really, really great, great show.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, you know, there's been so many great shows. M- Patty Larkin's show was really great. Um, you know, John Doyle's show on Tuesday. The, the one thing that really makes the shows-

Scott Hammond: Was John Doyle good?

Jackie Dandeneau: He was really good.

Scott Hammond: Joni's gonna be bummed when she hears this.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, John Doyle, he was really great. Really, like, personable and so skilled, and-

Scott Hammond: He's the Irishman?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, and really generous.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Jackie Dandeneau: And, but the thing, you know, w- when I think back on all the shows, the thing that really sort of makes it for me, and I know it's gonna sound corny, but really it's the audience.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's the people that show up to come see what is brought forth for them. You know?

Scott Hammond: Or they're really into the band.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, even if there's, like, 30 of them, the people, the musicians who tour through pretty hands down are like, "This is a gem."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Both the room, the way it sounds-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … and the people who show up on a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Friday, Saturday. But

Jackie Dandeneau: just, um-

Scott Hammond: Earl Thomas was pretty good

Jackie Dandeneau: … Earl Thomas. I wasn't there for that one.

Scott Hammond: His guitar player, man, that dude.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, he's awesome. He came before.

Scott Hammond: From San Diego.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Talked to him.

Jackie Dandeneau: He came with him last time.

Scott Hammond: You know what he did that was cool?

Jackie Dandeneau: What?

Scott Hammond: He actually has a, uh… Oh, wait.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, wait.

Scott Hammond: He doesn't have a Dick Taylor bar, but he has-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … a business card. A Baileys Toledo. What?

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Just happened here.

Jackie Dandeneau: Look at that.

Scott Hammond: Dick Taylor, you know they're a big sponsor.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: You know they just won a bunch of contests, like, for the last 10 years? Like, they win everything.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, voted best chocolate on the West Coast. By somebody. I don't have any idea what I'm talking about. But I do know-

Jackie Dandeneau: Dick Taylor

Scott Hammond: … it's good choc- Do you like chocolate?

Jackie Dandeneau: I like s- I like everything except for pork hocks. It's the only thing I don't like.

Scott Hammond: You don't like what?

Jackie Dandeneau: Pork hocks.

Scott Hammond: Oh, like a hock, like the, like-

Jackie Dandeneau: No, like the pig's feet.

Scott Hammond: Like a pickled pig's foot.

Jackie Dandeneau: And they roll the fat down and boil them.

Scott Hammond: Oh, they're gross.

Jackie Dandeneau: Pork. Gross.

Scott Hammond: I don't like the pickled pig's feet in the bars.

Jackie Dandeneau: No. Nope. Uh-uh.

Scott Hammond: Those are Midwest.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's, I know.

Scott Hammond: So we're gonna, we're gonna compete here in about, really shortly-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … uh, for a Dick Taylor bar.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: If you're in. Do you like a good contest?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm gonna go back to-

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm a little non-linear for a contest, but, you know, we'll give me a whirl.

Scott Hammond: That's okay. Here, watch this done linear. I'm gonna go back to Earl Thomas.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay, great.

Scott Hammond: Whoop.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm paying attention.

Scott Hammond: So his guitar player goes, "Here's my g- here's my…" I said, "Man, bro, you're good. I'm from San Diego." He goes, "I'm from Fallbrook, man."

Jackie Dandeneau: Ah.

Scott Hammond: And I go, "Fallbrook? I totally lived… My aunt and uncle live there, and avocados and-"

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. I was just gonna say avocados.

Scott Hammond: And I go, "Hey, bro." You know, and he goes, "Here's my business card." So I've never had a musician have a Instagram everything. Uh, what's that called? The, the symbol that you scan?

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, QR code.

Scott Hammond: QR code. He had the whole nine. But this guy could play-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … guitar like nobody's business. He's pretty good.

Jackie Dandeneau: I remember him from last time Earl Thomas came and played.

Scott Hammond: Funny thing is I looked like him. I go, "See what I look like now with… See, see the no hair guy?" I go, "I had hair exactly like yours, like, down to my waist."

Jackie Dandeneau: Wow.

Scott Hammond: "And I was that and a bag of chips." I go, "This is what you have to look forward

Scott Hammond: to, bro." I think he walked away at that point. Just turned around. No, they were fun. That was a good show.

Jackie Dandeneau: Cool.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, I was out of town that weekend, oddly enough.

Scott Hammond: And The Wardens were good from Canada.

Jackie Dandeneau: The Wardens. I love The Wardens.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Jackie Dandeneau: You know, the, the funny story about The Wardens is we had this young

Jackie Dandeneau: man from Humboldt State, when it was Humboldt State still.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, it wasn't Cal Poly yet. He, uh, we did this speed dating thing to find, or s- like speed, kind of a speed dating thing to find someone to work with our teens for Apprentice Entertainment, and his name was Eli Baum.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And he came and worked with our teens, and then he stuck around, and he was involved with us, and then he was like, "Jackie, there's this band called The Wardens. Uh, we should bring 'em in." And I was like, "Okay, let's give it a whirl."

Scott Hammond: They're from Canada? What?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. So it was his first show, kinda, that he… He produced a skateboard show, um, with, um-

Scott Hammond: But he did their show.

Jackie Dandeneau: But he produced-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause it had video. It had a whole video screen.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It was fabulous.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. It was fabulous. So he brought them to the Playhouse, and they were so great. I just-

Scott Hammond: They've been back, right?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. They came once, and then they just came back, like, not that long ago, like March.

Scott Hammond: And their slideshow is Banff and beauty and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Jasper

Scott Hammond: … oh. By the way, how far in- inland is Jasper from the Pacific? Like in hundreds of miles

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm, like, I don't know miles

Scott Hammond: Is, is it still BC?

Jackie Dandeneau: But it's probably about

Scott Hammond: Or another province?

Jackie Dandeneau: It's… Jasper's in Alberta.

Scott Hammond: So it's two over or three?

Jackie Dandeneau: No, one.

Scott Hammond: One.

Jackie Dandeneau: So BC is shaped like this.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: And Alberta is shaped like this.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: And Jasper is right here.

Scott Hammond: So it's center.

Jackie Dandeneau: Kind of where the two provinces meets.

Scott Hammond: What's after, uh, Alberta?

Scott Hammond: Edmonton.

Jackie Dandeneau: Saskatchewan.

Scott Hammond: Saskatchewan. Is Edmonton in Saskatchewan?

Jackie Dandeneau: No, Edmonton's in Alberta. Edmonton is the capital of Alberta.

Scott Hammond: I should know that. My neighbor's there now.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's okay. Regina is Saskatchewan.

Scott Hammond: Regina. Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's the capital.

Scott Hammond: Oh, it reminds me of a song. It's, uh, so. Anyway, um, I-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes

Scott Hammond: … really digress on that one.

Scott Hammond: Um,

Scott Hammond: this.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes.

Scott Hammond: For you.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Chocolate.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yum.

Scott Hammond: Dick Taylor, downtown, Old Town.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay.

Scott Hammond: And all around the world.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. I like those guys. I also like, uh, what's their band?

Scott Hammond: Huckleberry Flint.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's it, yeah.

Scott Hammond: They played at your place.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes, they did.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: They played a Christmas show at our place when our Christmas set was all up.

Scott Hammond: Heard about it.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Couldn't get tickets.

Jackie Dandeneau: No, sold out 'cause it's only 150 seats.

Scott Hammond: Haven't missed a show since.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they're great.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're playing at The Steeple.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: Do you know Paul Beatty that was on the show, that runs The Steeple?

Jackie Dandeneau: I know… I've spoken to him on the phone.

Scott Hammond: Nice guy.

Jackie Dandeneau: But I don't know him.

Scott Hammond: Great guy.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know they do great stuff out there. What a great idea.

Scott Hammond: The other lady we saw at the, um, at the playhouse was Lori, what's her name? Bluegrass.

Jackie Dandeneau: Lori Lewis?

Scott Hammond: Correct.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Also good.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, she couldn't come back to the playhouse this time.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Let's go back to-

Jackie Dandeneau: It was just a little overbooked

Scott Hammond: … we'll go back to the playhouse before we-

Jackie Dandeneau: Great

Scott Hammond: … sign off.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay.

Scott Hammond: But first.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, uh-oh.

Scott Hammond: For all the dollars, at least the d- chocolate bar.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's too far away for me to ding it. That's an unfair competition.

Scott Hammond: No, I'll be-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, you're gonna be the dinger

Scott Hammond: … I'll be doing the dinging.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay, I thought it was gonna be like who dings first.

Scott Hammond: No, no. No, you don't-

Jackie Dandeneau: Like-

Scott Hammond: I already know the answer to the question.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, okay.

Scott Hammond: Actually, I don't.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, I see. Okay, great.

Scott Hammond: Um, best day of your life.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm. Hmm. They're all so good. That's the hard thing.

Scott Hammond: What a good answer.

Jackie Dandeneau: You know, because I'm non-linear, I don't have a, like a f- a, a beginning and

Jackie Dandeneau: an end.

Scott Hammond: You could circle back.

Jackie Dandeneau: I have like a, a milieu.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, I guess meeting my kids, uh-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … on my trip across the country in my 1997 Toyota Tacoma with

Jackie Dandeneau: my dog.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Jackie Dandeneau: When we were all together for a hot second.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: That was really fun. That was a good moment.

Scott Hammond: How old were they?

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, Leo was probably 22.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: So Cora was, was 16.

Scott Hammond: Like road trip.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. They, uh, Leo was graduating from college.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we dro- I drove there, and Cora flew in, and we had some moments.

Scott Hammond: That's a cool memory.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, I don't know why that one came to me. There's so many though, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: I feel so grateful for my life. It's full of a lot of really good things.

Scott Hammond: I really-

Jackie Dandeneau: And so to pick one-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it's hard

Jackie Dandeneau: … is hard.

Scott Hammond: Somebody said, uh, do a gratitude journal every day.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Life changing.

Jackie Dandeneau: That, great. That, that means you'd have to be linear. That means you'd have to do the same thing every day.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: It's kind of, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It'd be a habit of-

Jackie Dandeneau: A habit, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Maybe it's habit-forming in a good way.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, maybe.

Scott Hammond: Maybe you could do it at different times of the day.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. Wake up, "Oh, I forgot to do my journal."

Scott Hammond: Write in different ink every day.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Question number two. What's soul-crushing for you?

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, injustice.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: That is soul-crushing for me.

Scott Hammond: Which means you're a justice person.

Jackie Dandeneau: I am a justice person.

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Jackie Dandeneau: I hate when things are unfair.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, it really, um, doesn't… It sits really hard with me.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. We have an, a justice joke in our house.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which is like, "What?" Injustice is really ba- I really hate it, but I really hate it when it happens to

Scott Hammond: me.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So it becomes personal.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey. Dream day in Humboldt. You go 9:00 to, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, unlimited funding, stay in Humboldt. What are you doing for 12 hours?

Scott Hammond: Go.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, getting up and probably going for breakfast. Gonna go for a walk, maybe a little hike in something around, sit on the beach, draw things in the sand, watch my

Jackie Dandeneau: dog run.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, then have food outside with a whole bunch of people.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, hear some great music outside.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: That would be really great, just to sit and not do anything.

Scott Hammond: And then do that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Not do anything. Follow my nose, wherever my nose takes me.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Jackie Dandeneau: That is a really great day for me, when I don't have any meetings, I don't have anything going on, and I can just be like, "Huh, maybe I feel like having a coffee now. Maybe I'll-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Jackie Dandeneau: … lie in my backyard and look at the leaves of the lilacs."

Scott Hammond: In Blue Lake.

Jackie Dandeneau: In Blue Lake, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Where it's sunny. Not right now, but…

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, I think it's raining right now, but-

Scott Hammond: It's close to rain

Jackie Dandeneau: … we need rain.

Scott Hammond: Wow, good answer.

Jackie Dandeneau: But yeah, so that's mine.

Scott Hammond: Good.

Jackie Dandeneau: Follow my nose.

Scott Hammond: I love the free flow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: All right. For all the marbles. I would, I would give you the chocolate bar in that last answer, Brett, but-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, thanks

Scott Hammond: … one more.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay.

Scott Hammond: What's life-giving for you? What really feeds your soul in terms of refreshment, renewal, recreation?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, oddly enough, my job. Not oddly enough. It's, my job and my passion are so closely

Jackie Dandeneau: aligned-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Jackie Dandeneau: … that I, that I am filled with gratitude that I get to do the thing that I love the most.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: You know, standing and seeing people enjoy something that you've put together or that you've been a part of-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … to me, that's really an amazing feeling, like

Jackie Dandeneau: PorchFest.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: Or sometimes when I walk in the theater and I turn on the lights and I'm like, "Look at this."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: "Look at this."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's a big moment for me too.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, congr- by the way, congratulations.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, thank you.

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm a winner?

Scott Hammond: Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yay. I hardly ever win anything.

Scott Hammond: You get a Belize. This is a T- from Toledo, not Ohio.

Jackie Dandeneau: Ah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, 72% dark. Let me give you the notes. Maya Mountain cacao, dried plum, tart cherry, and jasmine tasting notes.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Taste that jasmine. Congrats.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm gonna wolf this down while I drive back to my meeting in Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, no, no. We, we've actually polished-

Scott Hammond: … close to full bars. You know, it's funny 'cause they're actually pretty locale, and the, and the wi- the wiring up of the sugar-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … not that bad.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh, that's good.

Scott Hammond: Pairs with red wine very magnus.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's great. I'll have this when I'm on the beach. It's Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, which is a harvest festival,

Jackie Dandeneau: so-

Scott Hammond: Oh, really?

Jackie Dandeneau: … I'm going to have Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

Scott Hammond: On Monday?

Jackie Dandeneau: On Monday. And so, um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … I will be giving thanks for the harvest and, and the change of seasons and moving into winter.

Scott Hammond: I'm getting a gratitude, uh, sorta thread here.

Scott Hammond: I like it.

Jackie Dandeneau: There's so much to be grateful for.

Scott Hammond: You gotta look and you gotta make an effort, but-

Jackie Dandeneau: There's so much to be, mm, about to, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, but I think, I think gratitude's training.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: It's just soul training.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I gotta get disciplined and just really do it.

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause otherwise, what's the opposite of gratitude? It's pretty ugly.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that complaining complainer. Ugh. Oh, I-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and I- who wants to be around that person?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Get out of here with your bad vibes. Go, go on now. I know you're hurt. You're broken.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But are you… But we could choose.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, and also, uh, I mean, I think of

Jackie Dandeneau: gratitude not in the absence of pain and in the absence of brokenness, but gratitude as the-

Scott Hammond: Lovely

Jackie Dandeneau: … small balm within the brokenness and within the pain. So where am I right now?

Scott Hammond: I like it.

Jackie Dandeneau: Am I… You know, do I have s- sun on my skin or rain on my fingers right now?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: What is one thing that I can have gratitude for? Because I think all of us are broken and all of us have pain.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Amen.

Jackie Dandeneau: And, and all of us have gratitude, no matter. The person who's sleeping in the doorway at the Ink People is filled with gratitude and community, and we are all connected in that web of, um, you know, in that web of humanity.

Scott Hammond: Imago Dei.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: What's that, Imago Dei?

Scott Hammond: Imago Dei. Huh?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. What's that?

Scott Hammond: Image of God.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: See the-

Scott Hammond: It's Latin.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know-

Scott Hammond: I know a little Latin.

Jackie Dandeneau: I don't know the… I'm not-

Scott Hammond: I'm a rec major. I have no idea-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … what I just said.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm not a very good… I think I'm a… I don't know what I am. I never grew up with any religion. I just developed my things as I went along.

Scott Hammond: You grew up with people.

Jackie Dandeneau: I grew up with people and a big family and a lot of community that says, "This is what… This is the thing."

Scott Hammond: I like your comments on brokenness and holding space for love and gratitude and grace-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and all those things-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … in brokenness 'cause I think that's kinda closer to my definition of joy.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And happiness has the lucky element of haphazard within it-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … 'cause it can go, I could be maybe happy or not.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But joy is kind of an attitude and a, a place of the heart,

Scott Hammond: so, um-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … let's c- let's call out all, all of the other concerts-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yes

Scott Hammond: … really fast, and then let's call out all your marketing and where we can go to find out more about the playhouse.

Jackie Dandeneau: Great.

Scott Hammond: And then I wanna know about your legacy, what you wanna be known for and l- when you're, when you're gone, what are we gonna s- what, what's, what kinda talk are we gonna talk about you?

Jackie Dandeneau: They're gonna talk shit about me, you know?

Scott Hammond: It'll be good shit.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. You know, uh, I, I think generosity, that would be the big thing, that if-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … people thought that I was a generous person-

Scott Hammond: I love it

Jackie Dandeneau: … and that they said I shared, and I was willing to roll up my sleeves and help out and be generous with both my time-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … my energy, my spirit, my visions.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um-

Scott Hammond: Love it

Jackie Dandeneau: … and that leads to, you know, the playhouse. What's gonna happen with the playhouse? Secession. Looking at secession, who's coming in, how you loose the reins-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … how you give over, how you say, "Yeah, that's great. How about you do that, and I won't be involved-

Scott Hammond: Right

Jackie Dandeneau: … in telling you how to do it." And so looking really, really a lot at secession 'cause I turned 61 this year, so I'm like, I want it to be a legacy that lives on through the eyes of everyone, so trying to make a scope that can do that.

Scott Hammond: You look great for 61.

Jackie Dandeneau: Hey, thanks.

Scott Hammond: I just-

Jackie Dandeneau: I just got my hair cut. That's why.

Scott Hammond: I just turned

Scott Hammond: 51.

Jackie Dandeneau: Uh, really?

Scott Hammond: That's why my no- my nose just went wonk.

Jackie Dandeneau: I think that it's good to embrace your age because you worked hard for it, and the other alternative is not so

Jackie Dandeneau: great-

Scott Hammond: How do-

Jackie Dandeneau: … in this moment

Scott Hammond: … how do we know?

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. We don't know, but at this moment, it wouldn't be a great alternative.

Scott Hammond: We'll get curious later.

Jackie Dandeneau: 'Cause we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Scott Hammond: That's also true.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay, I'm be- I'll be 66 in January.

Jackie Dandeneau: Good job.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, look what I-

Jackie Dandeneau: High five at 66.

Scott Hammond: I don't know. I just showed up.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: I just woke up today.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's-

Scott Hammond: I went outside and breathed some air, and-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … there I was.

Jackie Dandeneau: There you were

Scott Hammond: … in, in grace.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know.

Scott Hammond: Thank you.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: So tell us how to get ahold of the playhouse.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh. You can find us online at playhousearts.org. That's playhousearts.org. You can phone us at 707-822-1575. That's

Jackie Dandeneau: 822-1575.

Scott Hammond: Very nice.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can find us on Facebook or Instagram.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can c- find us at info@playhousearts.org. You can knock on our door.

Scott Hammond: Ooh.

Jackie Dandeneau: We are open 11 to 2 Tuesday through Friday. We have an operations person there.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: You can come to the Arcata Playhouse. Find us at your local school. Find us at the City of Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Find us at Ferry Fest, Porch Fest, Zero to

Jackie Dandeneau: Fierce, um, Family Fun Series.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: We have a holiday show coming up.

Scott Hammond: You're everywhere.

Jackie Dandeneau: We have a lot of things on the boil right now. We're, um, doing a book launch with, um, the Big Read, NEA, National Endowment for the Arts Big Read. We're giving away books of-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … poetry by Ida, Ada Limón called "You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: And we have 350 books to give away so people can read poetry about nature across America, and then we can meet up later in the March, in May and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … talk about what we love about our environment and where we live.

Scott Hammond: And poetry.

Jackie Dandeneau: And poetry, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So who's coming fourth quarter to the playhouse? 'Cause I remember-

Jackie Dandeneau: Coming up, we have Geoffrey Folkholt. We have Robbie Fulks, um-

Scott Hammond: Got tickets for that

Jackie Dandeneau: … this weekend we have, um, Ponies of Harmony, uh, Benny Sidlinger, and la, la, la, I'm forgetting the other priest, and they're on Friday night. That's with the-

Scott Hammond: And then the Christmas show

Jackie Dandeneau: … Creative Sanctuary. Jazz on Saturday night.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: The holiday show opens the first two weekends of December.

Scott Hammond: What's that about?

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, well, it's called Dungeons, Dragons, and the Wizard of Doom: A Playhouse Holiday Pantomime. So it is a wacky piece of original theater with a nine-person cast, a choir, a band, lots of business going on. So that's the first two weekends of December. Danny Cohn is doing a fundraiser for North Coast Children's

Jackie Dandeneau: Services-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … um, and someone else on December 20th. You can rent the playhouse. We're renting it out for your holiday Christmas party.

Scott Hammond: Now, that's a great idea.

Jackie Dandeneau: And it'll be all decorated and ready to roll. You just show up.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: The Christmas tree is there.

Scott Hammond: Bring your food and your people.

Jackie Dandeneau: Everything's ready to go. Yeah. We can run the bar for you.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: Um, so we're doing that for the holidays. I'm trying to think if I'm missing somebody else.

Scott Hammond: That's quite a good idea. I like that, especially if you have-

Jackie Dandeneau: Thank you

Scott Hammond: … any sort of, like, bigger crowd or crew.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, like, if you have a small… Like, like, I'm thinking, you know, Dennis Real, Los Bagels, that you have these smaller satellites, but to bring everybody-

Scott Hammond: Dennis

Jackie Dandeneau: … together.

Scott Hammond: Real.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Peter German.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly. You could come-

Scott Hammond: What's the phone number again? 822… Can you sing it?

Jackie Dandeneau: 822-1575. That's 707-822-1575.

Scott Hammond: I like that. Steve, uh… Oh, Steve Justice was an insurance guy in Arcata. He would go, "822," you know, "8793. 822, p-bucket."

Jackie Dandeneau: P-bucket?

Scott Hammond: P-bucket.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's funny.

Scott Hammond: Oh, he's quite funny. He had it on kids radio forever. It was quite, um… It took a little bit for people to get it, but they did.

Jackie Dandeneau: We're also doing radio ads for the holiday show.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Jackie Dandeneau: So you, Scott Hammond, could, uh-

Scott Hammond: Be a sponsor

Jackie Dandeneau: … enlist us-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … to write a radio ad for you.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Jackie Dandeneau: We will write it. We'll perform it at the playhouse during the show, and then

Jackie Dandeneau: you-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Jackie Dandeneau: … can have a digital copy of it.

Scott Hammond: Very cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: We have Tim Randles, Jeff Kelly, Marla Joy-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Jackie Dandeneau: … Charlie Itell, and a 14 to 20-voice choir and actors to-

Scott Hammond: Tim Randles?

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Tim

Jackie Dandeneau: … to really execute, uh, quite a skookum ad, as we say in Canada.

Scott Hammond: Skookum. That's a-

Jackie Dandeneau: Skookum, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's a BC thing.

Scott Hammond: I think that's a Alaska thing.

Jackie Dandeneau: It might be.

Scott Hammond: I had a pastor friend that-

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh

Scott Hammond: … was pastor in Bayside, and he goes, "This coffee is skookum."

Jackie Dandeneau: Skookum. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I go, "I haven't heard that one." I go, "Wow."

Jackie Dandeneau: It must be northern, um-

Scott Hammond: It's something

Jackie Dandeneau: … Vancouver Island.

Scott Hammond: It's something north.

Jackie Dandeneau: I think I got it in the Queen Charlottes.

Scott Hammond: It means killer.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Tasty.

Jackie Dandeneau: Skookum.

Scott Hammond: That's skookum coffee.

Jackie Dandeneau: So we can make you a skookum ad.

Scott Hammond: I'm all about skookum ads.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The trouble right now is you don't really wanna hear about your insurance or your insurance guy because it, it's a whole nother-

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, but if it's fun, you definitely wanna hear about it.

Scott Hammond: That's true. It's gotta-

Jackie Dandeneau: It's just gotta be fun.

Scott Hammond: You know what they taught me in insurance school?

Jackie Dandeneau: What?

Scott Hammond: If you're not having fun, Scott, you're just selling insurance.

Scott Hammond: I go, I go, "Darla, you're amazing." Darlene. "Darlene, you're amazing." It was a great quote. It's just like a Zig Ziglar fan-

Jackie Dandeneau: Wow, fun selling insurance. Okay.

Scott Hammond: If you're not having fun, you're just-

Jackie Dandeneau: Selling insurance

Scott Hammond: … being a janitor.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You're just running a theater.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah, it's true. I, I… Motto one, one of my mottos is, "If you can't have fun, what can you have?"

Scott Hammond: Yeah, what are you doing here?

Jackie Dandeneau: So exactly.

Scott Hammond: It's not fun. Well, what a delight you are.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Hammond: Thank you for being here.

Jackie Dandeneau: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate you. Yeah.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I know we gotta get you to-

Jackie Dandeneau: Appreciate you for asking me

Scott Hammond: … your next meeting and everything.

Jackie Dandeneau: I know. I gotta go eat pizza with artists and talk about an upcoming-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Jackie Dandeneau: … call to art for the city of Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Oh, no, you don't. You have to eat chocolate first.

Jackie Dandeneau: I'm gonna eat this chocolate on the way there.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you're the…

Jackie Dandeneau: Doing that for the camera.

Scott Hammond: You…

Jackie Dandeneau: I think that's the camera.

Scott Hammond: Very ni- I see. Oh, that's… It looked real here. Jack, thanks for joining us.

Jackie Dandeneau: Thank you so much for having me, Scott. Come on What's Up one day. KHHA 94.7.

Scott Hammond: I, I will take you up on that.

Jackie Dandeneau: Put it on your car.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. We'll be back next time. If you wanna like us, love us, give us money, do all the things, um, uh, please adore us-

Jackie Dandeneau: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … at, uh, uh, we're on all of the socials.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: We're on all the podcast platforms.

Jackie Dandeneau: Nice.

Scott Hammond: We are on YouTube under 100% Humboldt.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And you know that we're, we're on… We didn't even talk about Access Humboldt.

Jackie Dandeneau: Oh.

Scott Hammond: All those other channels.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Oh, lovely.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's, that's, they're a great outfit.

Jackie Dandeneau: That's true. They are.

Scott Hammond: They're really cool.

Jackie Dandeneau: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Access. Anyway, thanks for coming.

Jackie Dandeneau: Yay, local media.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yay, local media.

Jackie Dandeneau: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Thanks for coming.

Jackie Dandeneau: Thank you.

Jackie Dandeneau: Boom.