• Cover Photo by Muir Adams.
• Muse

Welcome to Muse, Vol. 1, No. 1.

The idea for a monthly arts and culture magazine is not new. In fact, the North Coast Journal was founded as a news, arts and entertainment monthly in 1990 and continued until September 1998 when it was converted to weekly.

Now, once a month on the week of Arts Alive!, you will find Muse magazine inserted into your North Coast Journal. Pull it out. Save it. Plan your month ahead. Invite out-of-county family and friends to town. Use the Muse to entice them to visit.

The two publications (and the Journal website) have a very symbiotic relationship. Muse is a look-ahead -- a preview -- for the entire month. Coverage will include people profiles and major cultural event highlights like the Kinetic Sculpture Race, theater openings, dance events, music and concert highlights, and all things art.

We are fortunate to have a talented team of writers already in place to tell us not only what’s happening for May but what’s important. Bob Doran, the Journal’s arts and culture editor, will edit and contribute to Muse in addition to his weekly Journal duties. Muse free-lance writers include Richard Evans, who will preview the visual arts; Bill Kowinski, theater; Stephanie Silvia, dance; and Terry Kramer, classical music. (Many Journal readers may remember Terry was one of our original free-lance writers, contributing a gardening column for many years until she was spirited away by the Times-Standard.) We are inviting other writers to pitch us story suggestions and ideas for future columns. And Andrew Goff, Journal calendar editor, will also contribute to Muse.

The Journal will continue to have calendar highlights for each week, as well as reviews and other regular columns including Filmland. The most complete calendar on the North Coast, of course, is still on the Journal’s website, available 24/7. If you’ve never tried our high-tech, searchable database, go to www.northcoastjournal.com and click on Calendar. Then pick a date -- any date. May 29? You’ll learn that the Kinetic Race will be in its second day of craziness, the Redwood Coast Scrabble Club is meeting, an open mic is scheduled at Mosgo’s, and all three casinos have Sunday karaoke. It’s amazing.

I won’t tell you all the potential names for this magazine that were rejected before we settled on the word Muse. As a verb, it means to be absorbed in thought, to reflect. It’s from the Old French, muser, “to meditate, waste time.” From Greek and Roman mythology came the noun, muse, representing the nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences. Today, a muse is “a source of inspiration.”

So to our readers, we challenge you to meditate, waste time and get inspired by the month of May.

And remember, this is all a work in progress. Let us know what you like. Let us know what we left out. Let’s build this magazine together.