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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #26 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 24 Nov 04 15:32
permalink #26 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 24 Nov 04 15:32
Election issues: We had everything from a one percent sales tax hike (failed) to an unconstitutional anti-GMO ordinance (also failed). My main focus was on the berserk Arcata City Council race. David Anderson: I was privileged to have an acquaintanceship with David, and always enjoyed his acerbic asides regarding news events we covered together. He never wrote for the Eye, but said nice things about it. He did do stories for the Union while I was there. Here's our story on David's passing: http://www.arcataeye.com/top/020122top03.shtml
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #27 of 73: Count me among the hammers and rasps (crow) Thu 25 Nov 04 14:49
permalink #27 of 73: Count me among the hammers and rasps (crow) Thu 25 Nov 04 14:49
Tell us about the new book, Kevin. Is it more best of the police log or something differernt? is the point of view "wacky arcata" or something more?
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #28 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 26 Nov 04 15:04
permalink #28 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 26 Nov 04 15:04
The new book's core content is similar to Vol. 1, but obviously not the same items. Come to think of it, that would've made things a lot easier. Vol. II picks up where the first book left off, and those who enjoyed that will like this one. I think we selected more action-packed items for this book. Plus we had a clearer idea of what we wanted for look and feel, and had more experience in book composition. I tried to create a kind of noir pulp fiction look for the cover, but in the end it took on a sci-fi feel, so it's a genre mongrel. But the colors are real pretty, methinks! There's a subliminal suggestion in there, and - woo hoo! - an actual subtext idea, too! But no neeed to explain those now. I wanted the inside to carry on with the noir pulp fiction idea, and you'll see those cues in the form of art commissioned from my buddies Thomas Doyle, Dave Held, Lush Newton and Bobby Wright. But again I got carried away with photos, so it kind of diluted the cheap novel motif. Plus, there's three sidebar pieces by Terrence McNally, Jennifer Savage and Helen Wilson. The front cover is somewhat viewable here: http://www.arcataeye.com/book/ I think this double-posting problem is Safari-related. I'll try Firefox next.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #29 of 73: owes its distinctive orange color and pungent smell to (crow) Fri 26 Nov 04 16:18
permalink #29 of 73: owes its distinctive orange color and pungent smell to (crow) Fri 26 Nov 04 16:18
Congratulations! Hm, I've run out of obvious questions like what Arcata is like and how you got there. I'll think of more, but in the meantime, if you feel like telling us about anything or if anybody else has questions, please chime in.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #30 of 73: Mayan devils make me do it. (crow) Mon 29 Nov 04 11:48
permalink #30 of 73: Mayan devils make me do it. (crow) Mon 29 Nov 04 11:48
I think everybody knows by now that the Pink house is the courthouse in Eureka (and I've seen it, and it's truly pink, and hideous.) And that the Marsh is the nature preserve where people are always trying to camp. tell us more about some of the places and people that appear in the log (if you can do so without incurring liability.) There was a guy who was taking pictures of people in the park and generally being a pest to anybody who was trying to use the park next to his house. Is he still around? Who are Pete and the Pirate?
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #31 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Tue 30 Nov 04 09:08
permalink #31 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Tue 30 Nov 04 09:08
"tell us more about some of the places and people that appear in the log (if you can do so without incurring liability.) There was a guy who was taking pictures of people in the park and generally being a pest to anybody who was trying to use the park next to his house. Is he still around? Who are Pete and the Pirate?" Poor Mr. Seeders was so obsessed with Stewart Park. He's passed away now, and I considered advocating that the park he cared about so much be renamed after him now that it's being remodeled, but his behavior (some of which is documented in the new book) was so foul that there's no point in rewarding him. He would run up to kindergarten classes having an outing and take pictures of the children, seize frisbees that strayed into his driveway and he even put up a faux "electric fence" to protect his stupid driveway against minor incursions. He'd call the police (and me) when a children would trample the grass by playing on it or when he was holding some kid's frisbee hostage. Then, when the police officer would try to resolve matters in a friendly way, he'd start photographing the officer and file a personnel complaint against him, triggering a required review of the case and wasting all kinds of time and money. Poor guy - he was smart, too, and could have been doing something productive with all that energy. The Pirate was L. Scott Rebman, now deceased. Scott's life fell apart thanks to alcohol, from what I could determine. In his past was a wife and family, and apparently he had held it together for a while working as a carpenter. I used to see him at the post office, looking at pictures he'd been mailed of his children. But his final years were occupied by small-time - I mean really small-time - drug deals and arrests for petty - really petty - crime. He'd recount in excruciating detail how a hash deal had gone south at his campsite last night, or how someone took two hits off the wine bottle instead of the one allowed by camp protocol, or how the cops had dumped out his just-opened bottle of rum and ticketed him for camping, etc. he moved to Hawaii and died of a lung infection. Pete, fortunately, is still with us. He's a rugged individualist and incurable romantic who wanders the streets wrapped in blankets and being rousted from underneath people's porches. I've been trying to incubate a profile of him, but hard facts are hard to come by. Anyway, Pete's a genuine and eccentric small-town character.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #32 of 73: Berliner (captward) Tue 30 Nov 04 09:48
permalink #32 of 73: Berliner (captward) Tue 30 Nov 04 09:48
I've been reading the log for as long as I've been on the Well, I think, and I have sort of an Arcata of the Mind that sets up when I read it. I'm sure it wouldn't do me any good if I were suddenly teleported there, but I wonder if you'd do us the favor of elaborating on some of the places, just as you've done for the people, in Arcata. Tavern Row: what kind of bars there, and how long is it? Seems like a lot of natural foods joints and so on, a shuttered theater... But I'd like some horse's mouth kinda details.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #33 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Tue 30 Nov 04 12:31
permalink #33 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Tue 30 Nov 04 12:31
Too bad that Mr Seeders has gone on to his reward, whatever that is. yes, let's hear about arcata.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #34 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Tue 30 Nov 04 17:02
permalink #34 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Tue 30 Nov 04 17:02
Here's the enlarged view of the front cover of II. The extraterrestrial trollop appears on the back. There is actual subtext, plus a separate subliminal suggestion on the front cover. At least I tried. http://www.arcataeye.com/book/book2_large.jpg
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #35 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 12:01
permalink #35 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 12:01
"I've been reading the log for as long as I've been on the Well, I think, and I have sort of an Arcata of the Mind that sets up when I read it. I'm sure it wouldn't do me any good if I were suddenly teleported there, but I wonder if you'd do us the favor of elaborating on some of the places, just as you've done for the people, in Arcata. Tavern Row: what kind of bars there, and how long is it? Seems like a lot of natural foods joints and so on, a shuttered theater... But I'd like some horse's mouth kinda details." If you enjoy Arcata of the Mind, best not come here and see how insufferably normal most of it is - on the surface, anyway. One of the things I always try to do is see Arcata afresh, though it's so easy to become wrought up in routine and assumptions. I'd like to have that wowee-zowee feeling I had when I first came here, which I believe was related to the tiny scale of things and the feeling of remoteness. Tavern Row is one block with four bars - Everett's (kitschy, with stuffed animal heads and all kinds of retro-goop everywhere), Toby & Jack's (my favorite, if I have one), the Alibi (which features music and delicious heart-attack breakfasts) and the Sidelines (a sports bar popular with the young HSU scholars). Marino's, just off the Plaza, burned down three years ago. The floor show outside provides much grist for the coplog, especially when cowboy-persons clash with sitabout spangers (spare changers), etc. There are plenty of natural foods places, but 10 times as many traditional sorts of restaurants. (No Indian restaurant, though - you have to go to Eureka for that. And no salad bar restaurant like Fresh Choice, either.) More to come... gotta do some newspaper stuff now.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #36 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 12:02
permalink #36 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 12:02
"I've been reading the log for as long as I've been on the Well, I think, and I have sort of an Arcata of the Mind that sets up when I read it. I'm sure it wouldn't do me any good if I were suddenly teleported there, but I wonder if you'd do us the favor of elaborating on some of the places, just as you've done for the people, in Arcata. Tavern Row: what kind of bars there, and how long is it? Seems like a lot of natural foods joints and so on, a shuttered theater... But I'd like some horse's mouth kinda details." If you enjoy Arcata of the Mind, best not come here and see how insufferably normal most of it is - on the surface, anyway. One of the things I always try to do is see Arcata afresh, though it's so easy to become wrought up in routine and assumptions. I'd like to have that wowee-zowee feeling I had when I first came here, which I believe was related to the tiny scale of things and the feeling of remoteness. Tavern Row is one block with four bars - Everett's (kitschy, with stuffed animal heads and all kinds of retro-goop everywhere), Toby & Jack's (my favorite, if I have one), the Alibi (which features music and delicious heart-attack breakfasts) and the Sidelines (a sports bar popular with the young HSU scholars). Marino's, just off the Plaza, burned down three years ago. The floor show outside provides much grist for the coplog, especially when cowboy-persons clash with sitabout spangers (spare changers), etc. There are plenty of natural foods places, but 10 times as many traditional sorts of restaurants. (No Indian restaurant, though - you have to go to Eureka for that. And no salad bar restaurant like Fresh Choice, either.) More to come... gotta do some newspaper stuff now.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #37 of 73: AZanimal (zepezauer) Wed 1 Dec 04 13:28
permalink #37 of 73: AZanimal (zepezauer) Wed 1 Dec 04 13:28
(Double posts can result from the use of "post and go" in Engaged. If you use it, you end up at a list of topics for the conf you are in. But, what your browser "remembers" is not just the page you are seeing but the post that brought you there. If you then refresh the browser, e.g. to check for new posts, the post gets re-sent.)
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #38 of 73: Helen (hlnbkt) Wed 1 Dec 04 14:19
permalink #38 of 73: Helen (hlnbkt) Wed 1 Dec 04 14:19
Kevin, I enjoy reading about the travelers and other characters who earn a place in your weekly log. Do any of them ever read about themselves, or see themselves and go "hey! wait a minute..." ? Or do they remain blissfully unaware of the entertainment value their actions provide for the reader?
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #39 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 14:43
permalink #39 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 14:43
"Kevin, I enjoy reading about the travelers and other characters who earn a place in your weekly log. Do any of them ever read about themselves, or see themselves and go "hey! wait a minute..." ? Or do they remain blissfully unaware of the entertainment value their actions provide for the reader?" Yes, some of them grab the paper to read of their own exploits. Uncannily, most people are delighted to read about their unseemly incidents, mainly because I mostly don't use real names. One time a guy (not a street person, but a neighbor from down the block) got really really super super mad at me for the oddest reason - because I used conditional terms like "allegedly" and "reportedly" in relating his incident. I always do that if I wasn't there looking at the event. In this case, he'd been walking his dog past - of all places - our house. We had a next-door neighbor with an unruly dog which was, of course, left unleashed all the time. The mean dog attacked his leashed dog as he walked by, and as I was familiar with this situation, I reported the matter pretty much from the victim's (his) point of view. But because I said "allegedly" and didn't flat-out convict anyone of a crime in the paper, he called me in a very agitated state. He repeated the term "allegedly" from the item back to me in a sing-song schoolyard voice and demanded an explanation. As I tried to provide it, he told me off and hung up. But, as I say, most folks - especially the ne'er-do-wells - enjoy their moments of infamy, I guess because no one else bothers to cover their situations, even disparagingly.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #40 of 73: Alan Turner (arturner) Wed 1 Dec 04 15:58
permalink #40 of 73: Alan Turner (arturner) Wed 1 Dec 04 15:58
Somehow, you manage to report similar (happened before, happened again) stories and keep them fresh. I can only think of about three ways to say "drunk", but you seem to have about 57 of them. Some recur, like "coctail enhanced", and some don't. How do you manage to come up with new ways of describing the same thing? And how do you decide which ones are good enough to reuse?
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #41 of 73: Dennis Wilen (the-voidmstr) Wed 1 Dec 04 23:40
permalink #41 of 73: Dennis Wilen (the-voidmstr) Wed 1 Dec 04 23:40
Apparently, King Nimrod has his own song: <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002RSXQY/104-4910557-1372742?v =glance> "Cuando el rey nimrod" Artist: Solstice Assembly Song often done at Hannukah, in the Sephardic language, Ladino, which is derived from medieval Spanish
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #42 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 23:42
permalink #42 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Wed 1 Dec 04 23:42
How do you manage to come up with new ways of describing the same thing? And how do you decide which ones are good enough to reuse? Yes, thats the challenge, and youve touched on the key to keeping the Police Log original and interesting, which is the rules, the internal logic with which its composed. Repetition's OK if you use "invisible" words, even neologisms, odd coinages, slang and nicknames that are standards, that have no effective equivalent and which serve the item. Sitabout, bongo stylist, or Pink House all come to mind. However, lazy repetition is something to avoid as time and mental resources may permit. Its not unlike playing a musical instrument. One can do these things by rote, relying only on technique. My friend Tim Gray was the drummer in a very unambitious country-rock band, and he told me that there were gigs where he was pretty sure he was playing along on autopilot while he was literally asleep. There have been uninspired weeks where Ive gotten through it with marginally amusing, makeshift mechanical wordplay, which is always a sullen and sullying experience. Its schlockery and hackism to fall back on mere technique, like a noodling guitar solo that says nothing. Best is when, as occurs without predictable pattern or logical explanation, every item seems pregnant with descriptive possibilities. Most of the time, though, its simply a matter at chipping away everything that doesnt look like an elephant. You sit and stare at the screen and keep coming up with ideas - new ways to say things in a valid way, that has some internal rhythm, pun possibilities, or might be a creative malapropism or obscure reference to something someone will be delighted by, and do this while serving the essence of the item, whatever it is. How long you have to spend on it bears on high your quality threshhold can be. And of course, writing is about rewriting. So after drafting the thing, you later print it out on the actual newspaper page and see it anew, inevitably fixing problems and making enhancements. I was surprised how underdeveloped or awkward some of the newspaper items we compiled for the new book were. So I freely revised and smartened up many of them. Much of this is so similar to other forms of art, as Ive mentioned. Making film, recording music, painting a picture all involve the composer doing, rejecting, reapproaching, trying to see it anew, and then letting go knowing that regret will surely soon follow. But its also true that you can screw with things forever, and they usually dont come out too well if overly labored on anyway. I doubt if I'm telling anyone here something they don't already know from their own creative endeavors. That is, not counting the ones who get everything right the first time to their permanent satisfaction. Fortunately, on a weekly paper, you dont have time to dwell on all the infelicities and missed opportunities. You have to move on, and theres always another issue coming up in which you can get it right. Its an ever-receding horizon.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #43 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Thu 2 Dec 04 10:33
permalink #43 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Thu 2 Dec 04 10:33
It really is an art form, and I salute you for coming up with so many ways to describe the same stuff. I started out with crime logs reading the Point Reyes Light which is great because of those only in Marin crimes like somebody reporting her brother in law tried to attach a milking machine to her breast, or somebody reporting their neighbor painted the fence an objectionable color. The Eye not only has weird crimes, but normal crimes decribed weirdly. (what's the weirdest crime you can remember? any milking machines?)
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #44 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Thu 2 Dec 04 22:24
permalink #44 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Thu 2 Dec 04 22:24
(what's the weirdest crime you can remember? any milking machines?) This is an oft-asked question for which I never have an adequate response. I should memorize some sound-bitey tales from one of the books to regurg on demand. There was the guy who called the cops about the milk in his fridge. The milk level in the carton was an inch or so at variance with his memory of what it should be. In the intro to Vol. II, I mentioned the moron (in so many words) who, likely addled by speed or huffing or sheer genius, struggled to rip a stereo out of a dashboard in the middle of the night while leaning into the steering wheel and honking the horn, which of course alerted the neighborhood to his cunning heist. People argue about shrubs. They impute all kinds of sinister motives to people who aren't like them, then gather to argue about you looked at me funny. Neighbors will start with a parking conflict - usually there's too many cars per student rental house, and conflicts erupt. Sometimes, once people become nemeses over chickenshit disputes, it snowballs and then the most prosaic and routine encounters turn into confrontations. Er, wacky misadventures for you and me, that is. The real weirdness is in the Why of it all. People go out and spend a lot of energy doing blatantly illegal and self-destructive things for the merest of short-term gains, then blame everyone else for the consequences. And we have to hire personnel to manage them in this activity.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #45 of 73: Berliner (captward) Fri 3 Dec 04 02:14
permalink #45 of 73: Berliner (captward) Fri 3 Dec 04 02:14
One of my favorite crime log things is the bongo limericks. How many do you think you've written over the years? At some point, you need to collect them all in a single volume, because no author should be without a Slim Book of Verse in his catalogue.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #46 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 03:18
permalink #46 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 03:18
"At some point, you need to collect them all in a single volume" We discussed exactly that the other day. Assuming Vol. II pays for itself, we'll do Vol. III with an utterly different theme and format - possibly poetic. I've been on a limerick vacation lately, perhaps because of a paucity of bongo-related carnage. But I'm sure there will be more to come. Thanks for liking them!
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #47 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Fri 3 Dec 04 08:58
permalink #47 of 73: all-nun, all-harmonica band (crow) Fri 3 Dec 04 08:58
When we talked to Kevin in his office, I asked about the bongos - why? why Bongos? why in Arcata? He didn't have an answer for that but said he continues to be amused at how people tolerate huge noisy logging trucks and other noxious vehicles, but let one bongo ring out and they're on the phone to the constables. (see, his style is infectious.)
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #48 of 73: David Gans (tnf) Fri 3 Dec 04 13:36
permalink #48 of 73: David Gans (tnf) Fri 3 Dec 04 13:36
(Our next interview has rolled into the center ring, but that's no reason for this one to end. Please continue!)
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #49 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 13:46
permalink #49 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 13:46
It's amazing, isn't it, how the brain filters our senses based on conditioning? If you try to hold a conversation on the Plaza, there are always these awkward pauses as you wait for a truck or motorcycle to pass. (What's especially fun is when the discussion is a heated one that had to be held out of the office, and you're in the think of an argument or semi-hostile interview and have said something provocative, and suddenly there's an internal combustion-related upheaval and you both have to wait while the unresponded comment hangs in the air...) But if some guy breaks out a bongo and starts tapping it, someone will call the cops. To me, bongos are a pleasant sound. And yet I know perfectly liberal permissive people who claim to get immediate headaches and can't tolerate it at all.
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Kevin Hoover, "The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios"
permalink #50 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 14:01
permalink #50 of 73: Kevin L. Hoover (kevinhoover) Fri 3 Dec 04 14:01
That would be the "thick" of an argument, although "think" sort of works.... Nah.
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