JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | APRIL 20-26, 2016
Last Descent Ski legend’s wife says book is the first to get Doug Coombs story right. BY KELSEY DAYTON
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
2 | APRIL 20, 2016
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JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE
VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 15 | APRIL 20-26, 2016
10 COVER STORY LAST DESCENT Ski legend’s wife says book is the first to get Doug Coombs story right.
Cover photo by Ace Kvale.
4 OPINION
18 GET OUT
6 BUZZ
20 WELL, THAT...
14 CREATIVE PEAKS
28 COSMIC CAFE
16 MUSIC BOX
30 SATIRE
THE PLANET TEAM
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April 20, 2016 By Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey
A
pril weather with sunshine and temperatures getting in the 50’s always brings people out of their winter hibernations. On days like that, don’t forget to take advantage of riding or walking the inner park road in Grand Teton National Park, while it is still closed to motor vehicles. You can go from the Taggart Trailhead to Jenny Lake, or all the way to Signal Mountain on the highway, without a single Winnebago on the road. That luxury ends on May 1st.
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It was actually the high temperatures that were “cool” in Jackson at the end of last week, so you’ll have to read “What’s Hot” to find out what was really cool. Is that confusing? Average low temperatures here this week are in the upper 20’s, still averaging below freezing. But that is mild compared to the record low temperatures in Jackson this week, which bottomed-out at six degrees on April 20th, 1982.
High temperatures this week average in the mid-50’s, historically. Last week we saw high temperatures hit 62 on Monday, 61 Tuesday and Wednesday, and drop to 39-degrees for a high temperature in town on Thursday afternoon. That was just three degrees warmer than the record cold high temp on that date of 36-degrees, set back on April 14, 1961. On the other end of the spectrum, the record high temp this week in Jackson is 78-degrees, set back on April 21st, 1994.
NORMAL HIGH 55 NORMAL LOW 27 RECORD HIGH IN 1994 78 RECORD LOW IN 1982 6
THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.14 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 2.7 inches (1963) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 4 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 24 inches (1967)
Carpet - Tile - Hardwood - Laminate Blinds - Shades - Drapery Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm Open Tuesdays until 8pm 1705 High School Rd Suite 120 Jackson, WY 307-200-4195 www.tetonfloors.com | www.tetonblinds.com
APRIL 20, 2016 | 3
Jim has been forecasting the weather here for more than 20 years. You can find more Jackson Hole Weather information at www.mountainweather.com
WHAT’S COOL WHAT’S HOT
THIS WEEK
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
JH ALMANAC
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
4 | APRIL 20, 2016
JH
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GUEST OPINION System of a Down Is America truly a democracy when voting continues to be rife with barriers? BY PETE MULDOON
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T
here are a lot of angry Bernie Sanders supporters in Wyoming this week. Having won the state 56 to 44 percent, they are understandably upset that the losing candidate, Hillary Clinton, appears to be walking away with 60 percent of the delegates. How is that democracy, they wonder? America is famous for its belief that it sets the gold standard for democracy. Americans believe that we are not only the inventors of democracy, but that we have always been the best at practicing it. We believe we’re so good at democracy that we are justified in invading other countries and imposing our version of it on them. That is how good we are at democracy. But if there is one thing America has been historically good at, it’s making sure people can’t vote. In early America, you had to be a white male property owner to be eligible to vote. Women, blacks, Jews, Catholics, and non-property owners were barred from voting. America was run for and by wealthy white males. Some things, it seems, never change. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that black men were given the right to vote. Another 100 years would pass before black Americans were allowed to vote in any meaningful way. More on that later. In 1913, voters were finally allowed to vote for senators. Before that, the Senate was chosen by state legislators in exactly the kind of backroom deals that voters are angry about today. Some things never change. In 1920, women were granted the right to vote. Not all women, of course. Black women (and men) still had no meaningful voice in government. Albert Einstein had published his theory of general relativity four years prior. In 1924, Native Americans were finally granted universal suffrage. In 1966, only three years before we would put a man on the moon, Americans finally eliminated the poll tax, which was specifically designed to prevent poor people (especially black Americans) from voting. Today we find more subtle ways of doing that. Some things never change. Today, unlike in most of the civilized world, felons are often barred from voting. As Michelle Alexander documents in “The New Jim Crow”, our criminal justice system was explicitly designed (especially through
the War On Poor and/or Minority Americans Who Use Drugs) to disenfranchise large numbers of Americans, especially black Americans. There is absolutely no logical connection between someone’s violation of a law and their right to voice an opinion on that law, yet the disenfranchisement remains. Some things never change. We have an intentionally confusing electoral system. The wealthy white men who have always run this country have clung on as long as possible to every barrier between citizens and self-government they’ve ever erected. The electoral college, the two party system, voter ID, delegates, super-delegates, winner take all elections, gerrymandering, unlimited corporate campaign contributions, Tuesday elections, reduced polling places, and more, all serve the purpose of preventing or discouraging voting and narrow the range of candidates from which voters can choose. That is a summation of the sorry history of voting rights and democracy in the United States. What does this look like in practice? A 2014 Princeton study shows that there is essentially zero correlation between voter preferences and public policy. They conclude that the United States does not function as a democracy. It likely never has. Presidential elections have by far the highest turnout rates. Yet in 2012, only 54.9 percent of voting age Americans actually voted. This means that only 28 percent of Americans actually cast votes for the winner. The turnouts for non-presidential elections are far more dismal. I don’t have any easy solutions to offer. Maybe recognizing the fact that we aren’t a democratic country is a good first step. And I don’t mean that it’s useless to participate in elections. Local elections often offer real choices, for example, or at least the prospect of real influence. But we should remember that telling people they can’t complain if they don’t vote just ignores the very real barriers to democratic participation that are maintained to this day. And let’s not pretend that things are the way they are today because democracy has spoken. It has not. This election cycle is in many ways about whether we can effect the change we want and need through the ballot box, or whether voters will resort to other methods. Voting rights are a perfect example of that. No group has ever been granted the right to vote without a fight. But by definition those battles weren’t waged at the ballot box, as those who fought them were denied that weapon. The Civil Rights movement in America is a perfect example. Voting is important. If it weren’t, the establishment wouldn’t spend so much time and money on preventing us from doing it. But it’s not enough. We’ll need to educate ourselves, organize ourselves, and demand change from a position of power. It’s always been this way. Some things do actually change, but that isn’t one of them.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
APRIL 20, 2016 | 5
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
6 | APRIL 20, 2016
DESIGN ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS, TCSD#1
THE BUZZ
LEFT: Artist rendering of ‘Y’ housing project. TOP RIGHT: Attorney, school board trustee, and Spring Gulch rancher Kate Mead.
Strip Clubs and ‘Y’ Bother Town tackles several tough issues in forum filled with fireworks. BY JAKE NICHOLS
Pole dancing In an attempt to get out ahead of potential Constitutional rights challenges, town officials are scrambling to move from a temporary moratorium on Adult Entertainment Businesses (strip clubs, et al) to a definitive zoning policy that will ensure such establishments are put in appropriate places. “They are on the rise everywhere including some franchises,” town attorney Audrey Cohen-Davis said as she fashioned some basic rules from accepted standards across the country. Considering the town’s costly lawsuit loss to members of the Right to Life demonstrators arrested in Jackson a few years ago, Cohen-Davis is tasked with balancing Constitutional rights with desired community values. Cohen-Davis insisted no specific plans for a sexually oriented establishment are in the pipeline. The town council felt confident enough that secondary effects do exist regarding AEBs—allowing for municipal codes to override first amendment rights in a fashion that has yet to be successfully challenged by strip club owners feeling discriminated against.
Staff was directed to tweak LDRs and municipal code to allow for AEBs in Business Park (BP-ToJ) zoning and at least 300 feet from the boundary of a school.
Budge slide II Here we go again. Learning nothing from the Budge slide debacle and still having the mess unfixed and unpaid for, town leaders appear willing to green light more housing on the precarious butte. Developers Charlie Schwartz and Eric Grove brought forth an initial sketch plan for 20 residential units at the “Y” on the 1.1 acres formerly home to Choice Meats. On the plus side, developers say they’ve overparked the project (twice the required parking) and are asking for a rezoning from commercial to residential. On the down side, ingress/ egress could present significant challenges and then there’s the butte that continues to ooze toward Broadway at an inch a month. Grove didn’t deny pulling out of the property (especially left-hand turns) would be a bit challenging but felt the residential nature of the project would mean less cars in and out every day than was experienced when the lot was a deli. Schwartz said significantly less traffic would be generated than the 2,538 average daily trips generated when the site was Choice Meats/Amoco gas station. Then Kate Mead went off. “I wanted to cry when I saw this,” Mead began at the meeting where, as a TCSD No. 1 trustee she thought she would be there only to save school kids from G-strings and pasties. “We are effectively ruining this town. And we do it because we think we need to provide everybody with a place to live here. Why are we trying to build housing for employers who don’t want to pay people a sustainable wage in this town? “Our family has worked diligently as have others across the street from this development. We’ve done conservation easements.
Seeing this makes me wonder why the hell we bother. It’s just one thing after another and you start to think why is it that elected officials in this town can’t say, ‘Hey, not everybody can live here.’ I think we are overly enamored with the idea of workforce housing. Come on, you kill the golden goose, eventually. Workforce housing is not that important because people who hire people should house them themselves like we do on our ranches. Do that and we don’t need these big housing developments.” Regarding the site location and potential traffic hazards of getting in and out of what councilman Don Frank called an “oddball piece of property,” Mead continued to be flabbergasted. “Eventually you will have so many people in Jackson that Highway 22 will be unmanageable, which it already is. In the summer it is crazy because all the jackasses out of Wilson have to get to the light first, right? I’m really horrified by the intensity of the development [proposed] on this site. And it’s laughable to suggest this is a less intense use than it was before.” And lastly, Mead could not believe the town was even considering building up on the butte again. She explained her involvement with the Budge Drive litigation as an attorney in town. “Budge Drive litigation showed that the soils were loam with a clay layer underneath. What a surprise. And our engineers said, ‘Oh yeah, you can continue to take away that hill. You can continue to put stuff up there. It’s going to be just fine.’ This is the same hill, the same butte. I just think it’s something you can say no to.” Mayor Sara Flitner and councilman Jim Stanford both expressed some trepidation about building again on the slippery butte. A unanimous decision was made to continue further talks until the town’s next scheduled meeting. PJH
THE BUZZ 2 Finalizing Funding CITY OF GILLETTE
General sales tax identified as means to pay into housing and transportation coffer. BY JAKE NICHOLS
S
ince the beginning of the year, elected officials have been wavering between a tax structure that would best fund the valley’s housing and transportation issues. The trust was originally referred to as the Community Priorities Fund (CPF), though some officials have backed off that nomenclature after Budge slide mitigation was added, then removed, and wildlife initiatives like safe road crossings are continuously brought up. What exactly are this community’s priorities?
Why tax?
excise tax increase. And what will we have to show for it? At best the rate of increase of our workforce housing deficit will be reduced by 10 or 20 percent. A dramatically expanded START [Bus] system will at most handle less than 2 percent of our car trips.” Town administrator Bob McLaurin insisted putting a CPF on the November ballot for voters to decide would not represent a tax hike. “This is not a tax increase. This is going to keep the sales tax at 6 percent if it passes. If it doesn’t pass taxes will drop to 5 percent,” McLaurin explained. Guests and visitors will pay two-thirds of this tax. There is no sales tax on food.”
What tax?
For all MEETING AGENDAS AND MINUTES WEEKLY CALENDAR JOB OPENINGS SOLICITATIONS FOR BIDS PUBLIC NOTICES AND OTHER VALUABLE INFORMATION
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TetonWyo.org The public meeting agendas and minutes for the Board of County Commissioners and Planning Commission can also be found in the Public Notices section of the JH News and Guide.
APRIL 20, 2016 | 7
Elected officials remained somewhat split about the best approach for generating housing and transportation funds. A SPET approach has more inherent accountability and money-tracking safe-measures built in. It is also an easier sell to the public, according to some politicians. “SPET was introduced by John Turner. It’s had a great success in bringing to voters a disciplined way to bring projects with a cost for voters to weight in yea or nay. The vast majority have been approved,” said commissioner Paul Vogelheim. “I don’t see additional general sales tax as the appropriate way to go because of risk of failure, and we would be walking away from a historically successful SPET.” Barbara Allen added, “I still prefer SPET. It’s more specific, measurable and accountable. The voting public gets to weigh in. our feet would be held more closely to the fire and it has a better ability to pass.” Councilor Don Frank saw merits and pitfalls in both tax options. “SPET is imperfect. However it is a very successful way to give voters finite funding for highly specified work outcomes and that’s why we like it. But it does not give us dedicated funding. General is imperfect but it is recurring. In either case, funding is going to be voter approved or not,” he said.
Grossman isn’t buying any of it. “The town and county have a track record of failure on these issues, including a disappointing history of waste and mismanagement,” Grossman said. “Now they are doubling down on these past failures with no coherent solutions on the table. If this resolution passes, at the end of 10 years they will have taxed and spent over 100 million dollars, and what will we have to show for it? A widening housing gap, and a bus system that handles less than 2 percent of our trips.” Former county commissioner Hank Phibbs says he is in favor of a general sales tax to fund CPF but the support comes with a warning. “All of you understand the limitations we as a community face. We can’t build our way out of a housing problem,” Phibbs cautioned. “Retaining the character of neighborhoods makes the choices limited. We need better transit to our neighboring valleys. We can’t simply upzone to build a lot of housing. That’s not realistic.” Bob Lenz worries about the “blank check” aspect of a general sales tax which would be pledged to housing and transportation, but in reality could be used any way government sees fit. “I’ve been in favor of SPET from the beginning. [General sales tax funds are] going to be challenged every budget season,” Lenz said. “There will be people from social services, Parks and Rec, Fire/Ems, Pathways, saying, ‘Out of that five million we deserve this much.’ Believing future commissions and councils down the line are going to honor it doesn’t seem to be very good thinking. It’s foolish people that think we are going to give $48 million to government carte blanch and they will spend it wisely.” The joint board voted to put a general sales tax penny dedicated for CPF on the November ballot. Commissioners Allen and Vogelheim opposed on a 3-2 BCC vote. Lenz held out in the council’s 4-1 vote. PJH
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
According to polls and research, a majority of county citizens believe the availability of affordable housing, any housing, has reached yet another crisis point. Numerous members of the community are being pushed out of the area for lack of housing. Whether government can and should play a role in providing housing and alleviating the effects of growth like traffic jams, was up for some debate at the recent JIM where commissioners and councilors were poised to simple dot “I’s” and cross “T’s” on an agreed upon tax approach. It wasn’t so simple. “This is just a formality today,” councilman Jim Stanford assured those attending the public meeting last week. Commissioner Paul Vogelheim said, “Recognizing we’ve agreed on priorities— transportation and housing—the discussion today is more about how are we going to fund them?” Some in the community, though, are not ready to acknowledge housing and transportation are matters government should be overly involved in. Judd Grossman, who has at times been heavily involved in local politics, voiced his general distrust of town and county government bodies. “Please reject this tax. Our government is not being straightforward with us,” Grossman said. “Shockingly, even if electeds stick with their spending promises this tax will actually do very little to solve our housing and traffic problems. Electeds are simply giving very expensive lip service to these issues in the name of ‘something must be done.’ If voters approve this resolution, at the end of 10 years local government will have taxed and spent over 100 million dollars through this general
A 6th cent of general sales tax is expected to generate between $42 and $48 million for the four years it would be in effect if approved.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
8 | APRIL 20, 2016
Torch Passed to a New Body-Modification Exemplar
NEWS
By CHUCK SHEPHERD
OF THE
how failed to stop transactions by a company whose professed business included exporting miniskirts to Iran (which would be against international sanctions but also not exactly smart business). In another incident, a 19-year-old Mexican man in the drug-cartel-intensive Sinaloa state was allowed to open a private-wealth account with just a bagful of cash, claiming to be a “shrimp farmer.”
WEIRD
Eva Tiamat Medusa, 55, of the Phoenix area, has almost completed her journey (she calls it “transspecieism”) to become a “mythical beast”—like a dragon video-game character—through purposeful facial scarring, surgical implants and even removal of both ears. “Tiamat” was born Richard Hernandez before becoming female and now sports such features as reptilian-style skin “scales,” green-colored “whites” of the eyes, “horns” on her forehead and, of course, breasts. (However, she is perhaps so far satisfied with one part, as she is still a “pre-op” transsexual.)
Government in Action
The Pentagon admitted recently that it has no way to know how many parts or devices are in its equipment inventory—except by going through its estimated 30 million contracts (on the text-unsearchable electronic database) one by one. For a recent Freedom of Information request from a software developer (for the Pentagon’s number of “HotPlug” power-extenders for computers), it quoted a retrieval price of $660 million to cover 15 million hours of work.
Wait, What?
The most recent problem with the Defense Department’s prospective, ultra-modern F-35 fighter jet, revealed in March, is that its “radar control” sometimes malfunctions and that system updates will not be ready until 2020. In the interim, an Air Force official advised that, as a workaround, the radar could be turned off and then back on again (similar to restarting a glitchy computer). n Michael Ford, 36, a U.S. Embassy staff member in London, was sentenced in March to 57 months in prison for having run a “sextortion” email scheme preying on young girls—from his heavily monitored embassy computer workstation, operating undetected for two years. (One workday last April, for example, he sent 800 emails from his desk “phishing” for gullible social media users.)
Police Report
Ms. Charli Jones Parker, a teacher and girls’ basketball coach at the Pickens Academy (Pickens County, Alabama) was arrested on March 28 and charged with having sex with an underage male student. Her husband, James Parker, a math teacher and coach at Pickens, was arrested two days later and charged with having sex with an underage female former student. The district attorney said the incidents were unrelated and resulted from separate investigations.
Leading Economic Indicators
The city council in Palo Alto, California, trying to retain some of its Silicon Valley non-millionaires, proposed a subsidy plan in March to help with steep housing costs. In a town where tiny homes sell for $2 million (and are immediately knocked down and rebuilt), subsidies will be available even to families earning $250,000 a year. n In February, a family court in England reduced the child-support payments from hedge fund financier Christopher Rokos to the mother of his 7-year-old son from the equivalent of about $17,000 a month to about $11,300—though that amount includes more than $1,200 a month for “wine” (perhaps, in case the kid is a handful). n The giant HSBC Bank, which was let off the hook in 2012 for its money-laundering by paying a $1.9 billion settlement and promising to vigilantly guard against future money laundering, was revealed in March to be regressing. HSBC’s monitor said that the bank some-
Latest Religious Messages
In March, Kingdom Church, in the south London district of Camberwell, was fined the equivalent of about $10,900 by the Southwark Council for its amplified music and incessant “loud preaching,” ritually performed “almost daily” at around 3 a.m. A spokesperson told the London Evening Standard that the timing was necessary because that is when evil spirits are most likely to be present.
Scientific Breakthroughs
A new weight-loss device being tested in the U.S. (“AspireAssist”) is billed as a less-expensive alternative to bariatric surgery, with the ability to evacuate up to 30 percent of recently eaten food from the stomach before digestion. A tube, through a port in the stomach, sucks (“aspirates”) the food. n Researchers at HRL Laboratories in California, in a recent journal article, reported that test subjects without airplane-pilot knowledge nonetheless performed flight simulations 33 percent better than a control group after the researchers uploaded electrical signals to certain piloting-helpful areas of their brains.
O Canada!
The town council in Bracebridge, Ontario, approved a new municipal bylaw in March ending existing prohibitions on people engaging in “yelling, shouting, hooting or similar noises.” (Other noise controls, such as on audio devices, or by humans between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., remain in effect.) n Also in March, the city council in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was considering a proposed anti-bullying bylaw prohibiting gossip or (according to the National Post) “rumor- mongering, name-calling, taunting, mocking and ostracizing”—not only in the streets and parks but in “public” places such as bars and restaurants.
The Underrated Goldfish
Veterinarian Tristan Rich, in Melbourne, Australia, was credited in March with saving the life of a 9-year-old goldfish (“Bubbles”) by removing its brain tumor. Dr. Rich had to first figure out how to keep Bubbles out of water long enough to operate, but finally rigged a contraption to continually splash water over the gills. This was Dr. Rich’s second heroic goldfish surgery. (Bubbles’ breed was not reported; ordinary goldfish can be purchased for less than $1.)
Least Competent Criminals
Bad enough that Alfonso Mobley Jr., 26, is a “sovereign citizen,” self-proclaimed as exempt from obeying laws or paying taxes, but on April 5 he also lost both hands—when a bomb he was working on exploded in Columbus, Ohio. The bomb was made of the same material as that in the November terrorist attacks in Paris. A 2010 FBI report labeled sovereign citizens a domestic terrorist group, but Mobley’s associate (who was not hurt) told police the bomb was to be simply a diversion for their planned bank or armored-car robbery. Thanks This Week to Stan Kaplan and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
RE
W PO AN RT TE ER D
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ATHENS, NAXOS, SANTORINI!
Ski legend’s wife says book is the first to get Doug Coombs story right. BY KELSEY DAYTON t first all he could see was a dot on the mountain. Then the camera zoomed in on the bright clothing. Robert Cocuzzo sat in his parent’s basement in Massachusetts as a child and watched Doug Coombs ski. In the Warren Miller films, Coombs would tear down terrain so steep it seemed his shoulders were brushing the mountainside. It was almost as if he was in a crashing wave. Cocuzzo was mesmerized. “He made the impossible seem possible,” Cocuzzo said. The images are some of the Cocuzzo’s earliest memories. They set him on a path that would take him to live in Jackson Hole, and eventually write the legendary Coombs biography. This month marks the 10th anniversary since the storied skier died in an accident in the French Alps, and this year Cocuzzo releases his book “Tracking the Wild Coomba.” The book, which is part Coombs biography and part personal account of Cocuzzo’s journey in
A
reporting the story, comes out in August. According to Coombs’ wife Emily, it provides one of the truest representations of her late husband.
Rebel under the ropes Coombs grew up in Bedford, Massachusetts, the youngest of three kids. He learned to ski in his backyard until he graduated to a hill near his house. He was, by all accounts, a boy with boundless energy and natural athletic ability. He quickly excelled at skiing, and skied with his family at Tuckerman Ravine in New Hampshire as a kid. “That became the theater for his early backcountry skiing,” Cocuzzo said. But Coombs was primarily a ski racer back then. At 16, he broke his neck showing off on a jump for a camera. Doctors said it was a miracle he could walk. They also said there was a high chance he’d reinjure
himself if he continued to ski. Coombs chose to take the risk and follow his passion. It’s the type of anecdote that drew Cocuzzo to Coombs’ story. “Every one of us has to make that type of decision at some point in our life,” Cocuzzo said. Coombs raced on the ski team at Montana State University in Bozeman, but spent his free time skiing in the backcountry near Bridger Bowl. Eventually, he left the ski team to focus on backcountry skiing. He credited his impeccable technique to his race training. After college he headed to Jackson, worked at Teton Village Sports and skied as much as possible. “That’s where he blossomed into his talent,” Cocuzzo said. Coombs split his time between Jackson and Alaska after handily winning the World Extreme Ski Championships in Valdez in 1991. He kept returning to the area to catalogue first descents. “That whole scene was a first descent,” Cocuzzo
ACE KVALE
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
10 | APRIL 20, 2016
Last Descent
Pole to paper
“Emily thought Doug was a goofball, a ‘kook,’ but he soon became her platonic ski partner.” — Cocuzzo
APRIL 20, 2016 | 11
Currently, Cocuzzo is the editor of N magazine, a lifestyle publication documenting culture in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He grew up in Arlington, Mass., and started skiing at the age of three. He honed his skills at Nashoba Valley Ski Area, a small hill near Boston. He moved to Jackson in 2010 to pursue his childhood dream of living in a Western ski town like the ones from his favorite ski movies. He found work at the Cadillac Grille, 43 North and Buffalo Meat Co., and he often heard people talk about Coombs in lift lines, bars and at restaurants. One night he overheard Coombs was from a town near where he grew up. Cocuzzo, a fledgling writer, knew one day someone would write a book about Coombs, but he didn’t expect he would be the one to do it. The switch flipped when Cocuzzo discovered Coombs had learned to ski at Nashoba Valley, that same small hill where Cocuzzo had learned. He was amazed that someone
“Oh, here we go,” Emily Coombs thought the day she met Cocuzzo at the Village Cafe. She dreaded yet another interview with someone who would get the story all wrong. Too often, the media put him on a pedestal—throughout Doug’s life, and especially after his death. “I wasn’t really ready for it,” Emily said. But she always knew someone would write a book about Doug. There was something about Cocuzzo that she trusted, so she stayed open-minded. Over time, she felt telling her husband’s story was Cocuzzo’s calling. Emily met Doug at Montana State. She too, grew up on the East Coast and was an accomplished skier. One winter, when she was a child, her father bought her skis for Christmas and took her out on a hill. “I thought, ‘This is it. I’m never sledding again,’” Emily said. “And I just hiked that hill over and over.” She was skiing at Bridger Bowl with a friend who knew Doug when he came flying off a little cliff and landed in front of them. Emily thought Doug was a goofball, a “kook,” but he soon became her platonic ski partner. He took her down runs she’d never seen. He pushed her beyond what she thought was possible. “I think I just loved the challenge,” Emily said. “I wanted to take whatever sport I was doing and ride the wildest horse, or ski the steepest lines, and he took me there.” Plus, he had a car. Emily didn’t.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
said. “Imagine how rowdy it was at that time. No laws, tons of daylight and a group of bold skiers and a limitless playground.” In 1994, he opened Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, one of the first companies to take clients to ski pristine powder in mountains accessible only by flight. Back in Jackson, Coombs became notorious for ducking the ropes and skiing out-of-bounds at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. After ski patrol caught Coombs skiing in a closed area following multiple reprimands for skiing out-of-bounds, the resort banned him in 1997. “To have him banned was a travesty,” Cocuzzo said. “He was the guy. He was the poster boy.” While it’s impossible to find a direct link, many people credit Coombs’ year-and-a-half ban for inspiring resorts (including JHMR) to open up backcountry access. Coombs’ life was so rich, Cocuzzo knew it was a story that begged to be told.
Powder partners
JOSHUA SIMPSON
RRY PROSOR PHOTO BY LA
Emily Coombs was stunned how well author Cocuzzo captured her late husband despite never meeting him.
like Coombs could learn on such tame terrain and progress to mastering steep mountainsides. Cocuzzo felt he had to the write the story. Originally, Cocuzzo planned a straight biography to capture Coombs’ life. But reporting the project took him on a grander adventure. Cocuzzo had never met Coombs. But to truly understand the legend, he traveled to the places Coombs lived, met his mother, skied with his sister and even retraced some of Coombs’ tracks. “When I talk about the lines he skied, it’s hard to say what that was like for Doug Coombs,” Cocuzzo said. “But I can say what it was like for me. I am not Doug Coombs. I am not a professional skier. I am a good skier, but I am not anywhere near that caliber. I hoped I could lend the average man’s perspective to what his feats were.” Cucozzo went on to go heli-skiing in Alaska and tasted the slopes in Chamonix. Eventually, he made his way to La Grave, France, the village where Coombs died. “I realized my own journey was an effective way to bring people into Coombs’ world,” Cocuzzo said. That was especially true in La Grave, a second home for Coombs and where he lived while exiled from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. La Grave is famous for its natural terrain unencumbered by ski patrol, avalanche mitigation, or signs warning of cliffs and obstacles. “It is a wild place where if you don’t know what you are doing, you can end up in a helicopter,” Cocuzzo said. Cocuzzo met a bartender who offered to take him out on the mountain. He didn’t know where they were going until they arrived at Trifides Couloir, famous for the fact 30 people have died skiing it. For a moment Cocuzzo regretted following his guide, regretted coming to La Grave, and even regretted starting the book. “This was scary for me,” Cocuzzo said. “It wouldn’t be scary for Doug Coombs. It’s almost embarrassing to admit the level of terror I experienced. But when you ski something of high consequence, you have to summon a really potent sense of confidence. It was an important experience for me. There were two dueling emotions after: euphoria of being alive and overcoming it, and then a sense of guilt for doing something so dangerous you don’t really need to.” Over the five years Cocuzzo spent writing the book, he dedicated a few months to living in La Grave. He interviewed those who knew Coombs, and skied where Coombs had skied. Cocuzzo’s experiences on runs like Trifides offer readers a firsthand look at some of Coombs’ personal triumphs. While Coombs’ skiing resume is important, they are also the pieces of his life most people already know. Cocuzzo, much like Coombs, wanted to go beyond those ropes. “I think you can point to his hundreds of first ascents and you can point to the ski technology, and the boundaries at Jackson Hole, and the heli-skiing, but his greatest legacy is found within the people he impacted in his life,” Cocuzzo said.
By Kelsey Dayton eople were skeptical when Emily Coombs said she wanted to start a foundation to teach kids to ski in honor of her husband Doug Coombs. Doug died 10 years ago in a skiing accident in the French Alps. He was known for pushing boundaries and skiing the seemingly impossible. He wasn’t about children, Emily was told. Emily knew it was true. But she also knew how valuable skiing had been in her life. And she knew something else. “Children grow up,” she said. “You have to start them young to create the next generation. A legacy is long lasting. It isn’t that first five-year period. It’s people. It’s life.” The Doug Coombs Foundation is still in its first five-year period, but already it’s having a bigger impact than Emily ever imagined. “These kids aren’t just skiing and happy, but they are thriving,” Emily said. Emily started the foundation, which serves low-income families, in 2013. She noticed Latino kids weren’t on the ski hills. She took it for granted that if you lived in a place like Jackson Hole you skied, but realized many of the kids were from families that didn’t pass down the sport, or even grow up around snow. Everyone knows the health benefits of exercise. But skiing offers something extra. It’s about stepping up to challenges, conquering fear, falling down and getting back up. Plus, in Jackson, how well you ski or what sports you play matters to kids. “I thought about using sports to equal the playing field socially,” Emily said. The Doug Coombs Foundation, which at the time was just Emily, bought the equipment and lessons for the eight kids that came out that first weekend. By the end of the winter she had 28 kids, more than she could afford, but she couldn’t turn anyone away. The next winter, numbers climbed to 65, but the foundation received funding help from Old Bills Fun Run and other sponsors. With growing community involvement, the Doug Coombs Foundation served 180 kids with a $200,000 budget this year. It’s open to kids four years old up into middle school when they can enter the apprentice program at Snow King, and help teach kids to ski while training to be instructors. That first group of kids are still in the program. Karoline Montes, 9, was one of the first kids involved in the program. She’d never skied before. It was scary at first, especially the chairlift. But now she likes making turns and going fast. Eleven of her cousins joined her, as well as her younger sister Natalie Montes and eventually her father Edgar
P
Montes, who is getting better, Karoline said. Karoline’s mom, Alejandra Chavez, never imagined her family skiing when she moved to Jackson about 11 years ago from Arizona. The Doug Coombs Foundation not only opened doors for her daughters, but also offered opportunities for the parents. “It’s such an expensive sport to do, and I don’t think we could have been able to afford it,” she said. Without any snow sports to occupy their time, she and her family were bored during the cold weather. The Doug Coombs Foundation changed that. “Winters are totally different to us now,” she said. Chavez hasn’t quite mastered skiing. She tried it once and fell enough to make her nervous, but she’s promised her family that next winter she’s going to learn. “Now it’s a family thing,” she said. The foundation has expanded beyond skiing. It offers financial help for kids wanting to play soccer and lacrosse. Exum offers kids involved in the foundation two free days of climbing instruction in the summer. Emily also takes the kids hiking in Grand Teton National Park in the summer. The foundation met a need in the community, but also gave Emily a purpose and meaningful job. And it created a legacy for husband. “He is that example of breaking barriers and doing the things that people perceive that are not possible,” Emily said. Emily isn’t naïve. She knows if Doug were alive he wouldn’t be interested in skiing with little kids as beginners. As the kids grow into great skiers, though, Emily imagines Doug skiing with them in the backcountry or leading them down Corbet’s Couloir. “He would have a blast skiing with these kids about now,” Emily said. She also realizes she’s introducing the kids to a sport that killed her husband. “I don’t want to lead them to a destiny of dying,” Emily said. “But I also know how powerful it is, how great skiing is.” She’s made it part of her mission to teach the kids about decision making and respecting the mountains. Most of the kids didn’t know who Doug was when they started skiing with the foundation. But they’ve learned his history, without any prompting from Emily, and they find him inspiring. And they are proud to wear his name on their bright-colored coats. He embodies a spirit of adventure, Emily said. “And that’s a piece of him that is now inside these children.”
It took about a year, but one day while standing in the lift line she looked up and saw the sun on his face. He looked handsome. “And I never saw him the same way again,” she said. The couple dated through college, but went their separate ways afterwards, staying in touch as friends. In 1990, they got back together as a couple. Emily moved to Jackson and they married in 1994. “We were doomed for each other,” she said. Doug started garnering national media attention in the early 90s, including receiving the title “Best Skier in the World,” bestowed by Outside Magazine. Doug was embarrassed, but also understood the attention allowed him to keep fueling his passion. Emily rolls her eyes when people talk about what a hard worker Doug was. “Oh please,” she said. “All he wanted to do was ski. It wasn’t about making money. It was about making enough to go skiing.” Emily constantly worried about Doug when he was out skiing without her, but both Coombses were risk takers. It was normal for them. They just had different mentalities when it came to acknowledging risk. She once said she didn’t want to ski things where if she fell she was dead. He told her to not think about falling, and instead focus on where she was going. “I acknowledge the ‘what if?’” she said. “On the conscious level, he didn’t. He admitted, ‘Yeah, if I acknowledge that, I’m dead.’”
ACE KVALE
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
12 | APRIL 20, 2016
Doug Coombs Foundation
Coombs killing it in Alaska, 1994. “He made the impossible seem possible,” Cocuzzo says.
The family was in La Grave. It was a beautiful, sunny day with perfect powder. Doug begged Emily to ski with him, saying they never got to go together anymore. Emily agreed, and their son David was put in the care of a babysitter. Doug and their friends wanted to ski Couloir de Polichinelle for the last run of the day. Emily said no. She went to ski something safer, and said she’d see him at the bar afterwards. She knew it disappointed him, but she thought of her two-year-old son. Emily reached the bottom of the mountain and
The legend lives on Doug showed people how to not just push, but move boundaries. He made the impossible a reality. But to Emily he was just Doug: a goofball who happened to be a good skier. He was a big kid who never grew up.
He wasn’t a superhero. With that in mind, Emily was stunned when she read Robert Cocuzzo’s book. She couldn’t believe it was written by someone who had never met her husband. “Rob humanized him,” Emily said. “You get to know him as a person.” David was two when his dad died, too young to have concrete memories. He’s a happy kid, who loves his mom, house, animals and skiing. He’s learning to race with the Jackson Hole Ski Club, but he doesn’t take it too seriously. And now he has a way to get to know his father, beyond the accolades and media attention. “When he’s ready to really know who is father is, he’s got this book,” Emily said. “Now he has this treasure that tells the real story.” PJH Cocuzzo’s book, “Tracking the Wild Coomba,” releases Aug. 1. Cocuzzo will donate 20 percent of presales to the Doug Coombs Foundation. Visit trackingthewildcoomba.com to order a copy.
APRIL 20, 2016 | 13
ACE KVALE
Final run
saw the helicopters. A pit formed in her stomach. She dialed Doug’s cell phone. No one answer. The phone rang. Emily answered her friend’s call. “I’m down here watching an accident,” she said. “It’s Doug,” the voice on the other end replied. It would take hours to find out what had happened. Eventually, she learned one of the skiers in the party of four slipped off a cliff. In trying to help him, Doug fell to his death. After that, Emily didn’t want to leave La Grave. It felt like she was leaving Doug. Weeks would pass before she would return to Jackson. They’d just purchased a new house but had yet to even move in. Nightmares of cliffs and avalanches haunted her. She almost gave up skiing entirely, but once again thought of her son. She wanted to share the sport with him.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
She always knew there was a chance of injury or death in the mountains, but Emily feared she would be the one to lose her life. Emily stopped taking major risks in the mountains when their son David was in born in 2004. “It was like my brain changed,” she said. Emily knew every time Doug went out there was a chance he’d get hurt or die. “I was almost ready for it, or as ready as someone can be,” she said.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
14 | APRIL 20, 2016
CREATIVE PEAKS Retracing Her Steps A Jackson native draws from memories to paint new perspectives. BY KELSEY DAYTON
EMILY POOLE
M
ost of Emily Poole’s most vivid memories from growing up in Jackson involve either Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Park. One winter, in high school, she skied around the geysers in Yellowstone. It was all snow and steam in a white landscape. And then an ethereal geyser appeared in the mist. That geyser was Grotto Geyser, and it became the subject of one of Poole’s paintings now on display through April at Cowboy Coffee. Not only will you recognize the locations captured within the canvasses, but you might also recognize the artist’s name. Poole grew up in Jackson and lived in town until she attended the Rhode Island School of Design about four years ago. The show features roughly 12 larger pieces and several smaller ones. Poole created most of the work in a painting class at the design school where she is working on a degree in illustration. All of the paintings are inspired by Yellowstone and Grand Teton National parks. Most are landscapes. “When you are really little, you take those spaces for granted,” Poole said. Now living across the country, she’s rendered just how special the places of her childhood memories are in paint. Both parks have always been places of imagination and wonder for Poole, and the work reflects her passion for nature, as well as animals and their forms in reality and fantasy. Some are traditional scenes such as an erupting geyser or mountainscape. But some of the paintings are studies of smaller parts of the landscape, like algae maps in stunning colors, or tree bark with amazing textures. “[The show represents] studying beauty in scale,” Poole said. “It’s a reminder that seeing that panoramic landscape isn’t the only thing that’s amazing about Yellowstone; there are also the little things.” Poole’s been an artist since she was old enough to hold a pen. As a kid, she took all the classes she could at the Art Association of Jackson Hole. She also took advantage of every program offered at school. The classes helped her establish a strong foundation, and
Oil work by Poole of Yellowstone’s Grotto Geyser. also made her realize art was something she could pursue as a career. She didn’t start working with oil paints until her sophomore year of college. Her painting class was an immersive lesson in oils, and a departure from her comfortable mediums of pen and ink and watercolor. Oil painting allowed her to play with and change how she thought about color. “Some [paintings] are truer to mood than others,” Poole said of the work in the show. “Some are bending reality a bit.” In the images capturing trees against the skyline, Poole played with colors in the sky. The series of dead, skeletal trees were also experimental, as she discovered what simply felt good to paint. At the same time she was experimenting with oils, Poole was also trying her hand at landscape work. “A lot of it was pushing paint around and seeing what happened,” she said. “Don’t worry, I kept my failed attempts out of the show.” The show does feature a series of animal tracks in the sand and snow. Some are from memories she has of finding wildlife footprints while exploring the parks. One year, while skiing to Fairy Falls in Yellowstone,
she saw wolf tracks in the snow bigger than her hand. “They were very big tracks,” she said. “I did not have little hands.” She loves the idea that animals are always around, sometimes leaving only clues that indicate you are sharing the same landscape with them. Poole worked from photographs and memory. The work took her back to her childhood in the valley and gave her a deeper appreciation of Jackson. “Many are representational,” Poole said. “They are abstractions of feeling as much as they are a direct rendering of something.” It was cathartic, but also made her a little homesick. There isn’t the same type of open space in Providence, Rhode Island as there is in Jackson. Poole finishes college this spring. She hopes to return to the mountains to pursue work as an illustrator. “The one thing I do know,” she said, “is I want to work back West.” PJH Emily Poole’s art hangs at Cowboy Coffee until April 27.
THIS WEEK: April 20-26, 2016
WEDNESDAY APR. 20
n The Faces of America & Diversity in the National Parks 5:30pm, Wort Hotel Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307699-2680 n Resume and Interview Skills Workshop 5:30pm, CWC-Jackson, Free, 307-733-7425 n Great Reads for Girls Book Club 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Victor, Free, 208-7872201 n Barbara Trentham Life Drawing 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307733-6379 n Cribbage Club 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Light Catching Pendants & Earrings 6:00pm, Multi-Purpose Studio, $75.00 - $90.00, 307-733-6379 n Beginning Throwing Hustle 6:00pm, Art Association, $225.00 - $270.00, 307-7336379 n Wednesday Community Dinner 6:00pm, Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, , 307-734-0388 n Planetarium Program 6:30pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-413-4779 n Spring Feet-ver: MELT Method 6:45pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $25.00, 307-699-7480 n Tavern Trivia 7:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886 n National Theatre Live: A Streetcar Named Desire 7:00pm, Center for the Arts, $12.00 - $20.00, 307-733-4900 n KHOL Presents: Vinyl Night 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, Free, 307-733-1500
THURSDAY APR. 21
n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Intuitive Readings with Jennifer Pepper 8:00am, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $30.00 - $125.00, 307-699-7480
n Free Day in Grand Teton National Park 8:00am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307-739-3399 n Communication and Presentation Skills Training 8:30am, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, $50.00, 307-739-1026 n Bridges Out of Poverty Workshop 9:00am, Teton Springs Lodge and Spa, $50.00 - $75.00, 208354-0870 n Tech Tutor 10:00am, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 ext. 218 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Storytime 10:30am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Storytime 11:00am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Teton Toastmasters 12:00pm, Teton County Commissioners Chambers, Free n Cribbage 1:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Driggs, Free, 208-354-5522 n Cancer Support Group for Patients, Survivors, and Caregivers 3:00pm, St. John’s Medical Center Chapel, Free, 307-7396195 n Metal Stamping: Gr. 3-5 3:30pm, Art Association of JH, $45.00 - $54.00, 307-733-6379 n Culture through Clay 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $150.00 $180.00, 307-733-6379 n Weight Management Support Group 4:00pm, Jackson Whole Grocer, Free, 307-739-7634 n Humanists of Jackson Hole Exploratory Meeting 5:00pm, Jackson Whole Grocer Community Room, Free n Life Re-Imagined Workshop 5:30pm, Senior Center of Jackson Hole, Free, 307-733-7300 n Mental Health Support Group 6:00pm, Board Room of St. John’s Medical Center, Free, 307-732-1161
APRIL 20, 2016 | 15
SEE CALENDAR PAGE 18
Compiled by Caroline Zieleniewski
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Free Day in Grand Teton National Park 8:00am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307-739-3399 n Old Bill’s Fun Run 2016 MANDATORY Kick off Meeting 8:30am, The Center for the Arts, Free, 307-739-1026 n Strollercize 9:00am, Teton Recreation Center, $10.00, 307-739-9025 n Story TIme 10:00am, Valley of the Tetons Library Victor, Free, 208-7872201 n Tech Tutor 10:00am, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 ext. 218 n Lap Sit 11:00am, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-787-2201 n Beginning Throwing Daytime 11:00am, Ceramics Studio, $165.00 - $198.00, 307-7336379 n Genealogy: Ancestry the Basics 2:00pm, Teton County Library Computer Lab, Free, 307-7332164 n Chess Club 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library - Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Contemporary Sculpture 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $40.00 - $48.00, 307-733-6379 n Chess Club: Grades K to 12 3:30pm, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 x118 n Hand and Wheel: Grades 4-8 3:45pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $150.00 $180.00, 307-733-6379 n English Riding Lessons 4:00pm, Heritage Arena, $65.00, 307-699-4136 n Self-Reflective Video 4:15pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $115.00 $138.00, 307-733-6379 n Game Night 5:00pm, Snake River Brewing, Free, 307-739-2337
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
16 | APRIL 20, 2016
MUSIC BOX
Swingin’ the Showroom and Hot Summer Tix Jazz Foundation of JH going strong, Pink Garter and Center Theater announce upcoming shows. BY AARON DAVIS @ScreenDoorPorch
L
ook around for relics of the 1930s and you’ll find little that packs the girth of human emotional punch as big band-era jazz. While the genre was entering new phases
Les Claypool and Sean Lennon are Claypool Lennon Delirium, dropping in at the Pink Garter July 25. of sophistication, the development of swing had a central purpose that rallied communities. Unlike other forms of music at the time, swing was something you could dance to. It was such a formative time for music culture, but also blurred the lines for race relations when racial integration was not yet accepted by society. Benny Goodman’s multiple interracial bands of 1935 pushed that envelope. Years later, jazz remains a symbolic fist pump of American energy and resilience. Here we are more than 80 years later and the Jazz Foundation of Jackson Hole’s Big Band is enjoying one of its strongest eras since forming in 1992. It was initially an off-the-cuff idea. Now the all-volunteer, 18-piece ensemble now has several rotating vocalists, and maintains professionalism while providing an outlet for players of varying demographics. “We have really strong membership right now,” said Big Band leader Jason Fritts, who has been directing since 2004, less a two-year hiatus. “There have been instances over the years where certain songs had to be sacrificed because of attendance, but that’s not the case these days. We have great
vocalists Tasha Ghozali, Jay Wright (who also plays sax), and Henry Williams, and [we] make space for powerful ballads for each of them to really shine on. The repertoire has always depended on who we have, but there’s always that up-tempo swing side of the song list.” As the honeymoon phase of the renovated Silver Dollar Showroom fades, its first spring off-season finds several new groups gracing the stage. While there’s been a handful of Dixieland and jazz combos in the venue over the years, the Jazz Foundation’s upcoming two-night run further breaks the mold of country, rock and Americana dance bands that frequent the historical watering hole. And while there will be plenty of gems from the jazz standards book, expect some modern arrangements as well. “The Wort is big on dancing and so are we. We always try to get the dance crowd going and some of the contemporary tunes like Cherry Poppin’ Daddies’ ‘Zuit Suit Riot’ are good for that,” Fritts said. “Eddie Buchanan has also arranged some great songs for us like ‘Crazy,’ ‘Vehicle’ by Ides of March, and Squirrel Nut Zippers’ ‘Hell.’”
THURSDAY Salsa Night (9 p.m., The Rose)
Jazz Foundation’s JH Big Band will get the joint swinging at the Silver Dollar Showroom this weekend. These days, big bands are the cornerstone of the curriculum for many college and university jazz programs in the U.S. and Canada. Since around 1970, this post-bop educational era has produced both career musicians and players that simply love the camaraderie, power, and feel of a big band. It’s a good thing that founder Ron VanHorsen, along with his friends Mr. Blackford and Martin Hagen, had the impetus to start such a group in Jackson. The band is always welcoming guests and potential new members to its rehearsals on Wednesday nights, 7 to 9 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. “It’s been a real pleasure conducting this group,” added Fritts. Jazz Foundation of JH Big Band, 7:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Silver Dollar Showroom. Free. 732-3939.
Hot summer tickets Our two local theaters have announced a few shows with early advance ticket sales. Being staged at the Pink Garter Theatre, there’s already a buzz on the street for The Claypool Lennon Delirium (July 25, $45; on sale now). The fusion of
abstract talents features the product of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, multi-instrumentalist Sean Lennon, along with the freak stew bassist that is Les Claypool. Also slated for the Garter is L.A.’s Fitz and the Tantrums (Aug. 31, $53-$63; on sale now), bringing danceable pop hooks with hopped-up tempos. Get more information at PinkGarterTheatre.com. The Center for the Arts recently announced monster vocalist and folk-rocker Brandi Carlile for it’s annual fundraiser at Center Theater. Carlile headlined Sunday of Targhee Fest last summer. Tickets go on sale at JHCenterForTheArts. org and in person at noon on May 11. Cost is $395 for orchestra seating, $295 in the first two rows of the balcony, and $195 for the balcony seats in the third row and beyond. PJH
FRIDAY Jazz Foundation Big Band (7:30 p.m., Silver Dollar), Chris Moran, Bill Plummer and Mike Calabrese (7 p.m., The Granary), Freda Felcher (Town Square Tavern) SATURDAY Jazz Foundation Big Band (7:30 p.m., Silver Dollar), DJ Grizzly (Town Square Tavern) SUNDAY Stagecoach Band (Stagecoach)
Aaron Davis is a decade-long writer of Music Box, a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, member of Screen Door Porch and Boondocks, founder/host of Songwriter’s Alley, and co-founder of The WYOmericana Caravan.
RABBIT ROW REPAIR WE SERVICE THEM ALL …
COMING THIS JUNE.
T H E H O L E C A L E N D A R .CO M
4 2 8 0 W. L E E P E R • W I L S O N • 3 0 7 - 7 3 3 - 4 3 3 1
APRIL 20, 2016 | 17
E M A I L S A L E S @ P L A N E TJ H .CO M
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
YOUR SUMMER GUIDE TO ALL OF THE HAPPENINGS IN THE HOLE!
TUESDAY One Ton Pig (Silver Dollar)
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
18 | APRIL 20, 2016
FRIDAY APR. 22
n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Intuitive Readings with Jennifer Pepper 8:00am, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $30.00 $125.00, 307-699-7480 n Free Day in Grand Teton National Park 8:00am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307739-3399 n Storytelling and Content Development: Make Your Message Resonate 8:30am, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, $50.00, 307-739-1026 n Portrait Drawing Club 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307-733-6379 n Strollercize 9:00am, Teton Recreation Center, $10.00, 307739-9025 n Bridges Out of Poverty Workshop 9:00am, Teton Springs Lodge and Spa, $50.00 $75.00, 208-354-0870 n 3rd Annual Crazy Horse Snowmobile Hillclimb & Bonus Skiing Weekend 9:00am, Grand Targhee Resort, $5.00 - $10.00, 307-353-2300 n Clay and Sculpture 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $190.00 - $228.00, 307-733-6379 n Free Wine Tasting 4:00pm, The Liquor Store & Wine Loft, Free, 307-733-4466 n Earthday Public Film Screening 5:00pm, Center for the Arts, Free, 307-733-7016
SEE CALENDAR PAGE 21
KELLY HALPIN
n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307734-1535 n Improv Class for Adults and Teens 6:00pm, Black Box Theater, $200.00, 307-7333021 n Comparing Financial Aid Award Letters 6:00pm, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n Intermediate Throwing 6:00pm, Art Association, $170.00 - $204.00, 307-733-6379 n Bacchus & Brushes 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $45.00, 307-733-6379 n Spring Gardening Seminar 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-354-5522 n Pre-K Spanish Class 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $5.00, 307-733-6379 n Sustainability Series Presents:The Road to Zero Waste 6:00pm, Spark JH, Free, 303-483-8207 n Gong Meditation: Nutrition for Your Nervous System 6:45pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $20.00, 307-699-7480 n JH Community Band Rehearsal 7:00pm, Center for the Arts Performing Arts Wing, Free, 307-200-9463 n Salsa Night 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500
GET OUT
On and Off Road in Utah Getting out and getting in an ‘adventuremobile’ to Jackson’s cheap spring getaway down south. BY BREE BUCKLEY @bree.buckley
I
wouldn’t call myself a 4x4 enthusiast. I grew up with four-wheelers, but my fear kicked in at age 10 when my dad and I rolled the thing over. I also have dabbled in snowmobiling, but that fear sprang up when a date went wrong and we tomahawked down the slope, bodies first, sled tumbling after us. But the luxury of living out of a 4x4 “adventuremobile” for a week reinforced my enthusiasm for living on the road and off-roading. So, as we all know, we are entering mud season in Jackson Hole. In lieu of the season change, I conveniently rearrange my work schedule to jet off to the Utah desert as often as possible. And when I say jet, no flying is involved. I generally jump in my 2007 Subaru and putz through the open West, adding miles onto my aching 178k odometer, and dreaming of one day driving a reliable, spanking new car. When I learned about the opportunity to trade my stressed out engine for Jeep’s adventuremobile, I immediately abandoned my Subaru in Salt Lake City and fled to the desert in 4x4 style.
TOP: Kelly Halpin manages to find the energy to jump after a strenuous scenic hike. LEFT: Kelly Halpin, Savannah Cummins, and Scrappy take a break after climbing. RIGHT: Queen of the Hill or queen of the Jeep. We were two climber girls and one Husky Terrier (yes, that is, in fact, a type of dog) on a quest to find the sandstone huecos, burly cracks, and velcro limestone walls that every climber dreams of after a snowy winter of powder slashing and mogul maneuvering. And while camping often gives you the illusion that you are a minimalist, we girls do not travel light. Alas, we always find a way to arrange our excess of climbing gear, outfit options, camping kitchen, chairs, coolers, dogs, and computers (sadly, pit stops for Internet are key when you climb and work at the same time) into the back of a car. Lucky for us, this time we didn’t have to pack sleeping quarters. They were already conveniently attached to the roof of our car. Our first destination was St. George, a southern Utah city that is geared more towards the retired, fast food-loving hotel dwellers than rambunctious, free-willed youngsters like ourselves. St. George is also a short distance from Zion’s big walls and the beautiful Las Vegas-area Red Rocks Canyon, making it a must-stop on any climbing road trip. The city hosts two camping options: Snow Canyon and Moe’s Canyon. While Snow Canyon hosts a breathtaking camping venue, equipped with bathrooms, picnic tables, and fees, we decided to put our Jeep to the test and camp in Moe’s Canyon—a desolate, undeveloped field that is best described as a not-so-scenic site for high school parties and shattered glass bottles. Moe’s boasts no campsites and no facilities, but our Jeep lived up to our expectations. Unlike the sleepless night endured by the
Princess and the Pea, I slept like a Queen on a rooftop mattress. For the next two days we pummeled down 4x4 dirt roads to access transcendental canyons of high-quality limestone, leaving us in euphoric states of giggling at the end of each climbing day. And while I felt like we’d be the only party at the crag after driving 45-minutes out of town down a hellaciously uneven rocky road, who did we run into but another group from Jackson. Birds of a feather, I’ll tell you! Next on our list was Zion National Park, a quick one-hour drive from St. George. Living in a national park town myself, I refuse to pay the escalated price of lodging in a tourist trap town. But to our content, we found free BLM camping in an area west of the Springdale entrance of Zion National Park. Once again, we ate a hearty meal, set up camp with ease, and slept like princesses in the comfort of our rooftop throne. At sunrise, we drove into Zion, hiked a strenuous half-mile to a scenic overlook, and bopped around like tourists. We later took our Jeep to a river outside of Zion, scrambled down a 4th-class canyon wall, and found an undercover beach. We relaxed in the sun before heading back to Salt Lake City to pick up my grumbling Subaru. While our trips the to the desert are short and have my odometer spinning skyward like the national debt, they’re always worthwhile. A long weekend in the desert sun allows me to return to my mountain mecca of a hometown with sand-covered ankles, sun-kissed skin, and a new energy for the changing seasons. PJH
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
APRIL 20, 2016 | 19
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
20 | APRIL 20, 2016
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Voyage of the Gerpir An abandoned fjord hides Iceland’s majesty. BY ANDREW MUNZ
L
iving out here in Neskaupstaður, Iceland, nine hours from Reykjavík, I’ve come to embrace the idea that the most beautiful places in Iceland are those hidden away and difficult to reach. The hotel I work at has recently purchased an old fishing boat named Gerpir, which can hold about 30 to 40 people, comfortably. It’s about 15-meters long and has a cozy cabin beneath the deck with benches, tables, and a kitchenette. Gerpir is now part of the Hildibrand Hotel family and will be bringing guests into the fjord, Norðfjörður, throughout the summer. Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of joining our staff and bosses on a quick fishing tour into the fjord. We’d been spotting two humpback whales—a mother and a calf—for the past few days, and were eager to get some good photos of them. Iceland doesn’t have any indigenous land mammals (the Arctic fox’s origin is still up for debate), so spotting whales can be a big event, even for the Icelanders. We hopped into the boat and began sailing east in the fjord towards the Atlantic Ocean. Heavy cloud cover made for a chilly adventure, but we were bundled up tight and
A view of Norðfjörður, as the author explores Iceland’s hidden fjords by sea. far too focused on whale searching to notice. Northern fulmars soared past our boat, curiously flying just feet from where I was standing on the deck. Our eyes were peeled for blows and black backs, and we prayed that the whales hadn’t abandoned us in the few hours since we’d last seen them. But the expedition was fruitless as the calm waters revealed nothing but eider ducks, black-headed gulls and more fulmars. We switched off the engines and proceeded to dip our fishing rods into the fjord to see if we could catch some dinner. Icelanders have a fishing birthright, meaning they are able to fish as much as they want, as long as their catch is not being resold. Fishing companies have far more regulations and quotas they need to abide by, but if you’re just a fellow trying to feed his family, you can fish to your heart’s content. As we pulled wriggling cod from the sea, the clouds opened up and the sun brought the sea to life. Shimmering reflections bounced off the sides of the boat and shadows of the circling fulmars fell across the deck. We may not have found any whales, but there wasn’t a frown in sight. Before heading back to the harbor, we decided to make a trip into the next fjord south of us, Hellisfjörður, or the cave fjord. Sailing around the bend was awe-inspiring, as the ocean swells crashed against the cliffs with thuds that can only be described as thunderous. It felt like Jurassic Park and I nearly expected our elusive whale to reappear right then and there. The massive mountain towered above us and soon we had exited our
populated fjord and achieved utter isolation. The wind died down. The birds dissipated. The swells began to soften. In the early twentieth century, a whaling station operated out of the fjord. They pulled in around 3,000 whales before ultimately shutting down sometime before 1950—the exact year has faded from general knowledge. All that remains there is a vague skeletal structure on an abandoned beach. We shut down the engines and bobbed in the waves. I couldn’t help eagerly taking in the 360-degree view. Other than the remains of the whaling station, there wasn’t a single sign of human life. We were alone. Steaming coffee and tuna fish sandwiches were passed around. Cigarettes were bummed. Two inquisitive puffins landed in the water next to us. And it was at that moment I realized how thrilled I was to be living in this part of the country. Yes, it’s sometimes annoying to be so cut off from the rest of Iceland. And I’m often asked why I chose to live in such a remote place in Iceland when I could have easily reaped the city comforts of Reykjavík. Bobbing there in Hellisfjörður, I could have shouted my answer to the world. But, like a fallen tree in the woods, there was no one around to hear me. A half-mile in the distance, I spotted a blow from our whale friends. I smiled, bringing the coffee cup to my lips, telling no one. PJH
n Hullabaloo 5:30pm, Colter Elementary School, $1.00, 307-690-4468 n Friday Night Meditation 6:00pm, Zendler Chiropractic, Free, 307-699-8300 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n Creative Silver Metal Clay 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $230.00, 307733-6379 n Back To Basics Camp Barn Dance, Dinner, and Raffle 6:00pm, Teton County Fairgrounds Exhibit Building, $10.00 - $20.00, 307-730-2267 n Chris Moran, Bill Plummer and Mike Calabrese 7:00pm, The Granary at Spring Creek Ranch, Free, 307-7338833 n Jazz Foundation of Jackson Hole 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Free Public Stargazing 9:00pm, Center for the Arts, Free, 307-413-4779 n Friday Night DJ featuring E.R.A 10:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n Freda Feltcher 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, 307-733-3886
SATURDAY APR. 23
SUNDAY APR. 24
n Free Day in Grand Teton National Park 8:00am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307-739-3399 n 3rd Annual Crazy Horse Snowmobile Hillclimb & Bonus Skiing Weekend 9:00am, Grand Targhee Resort, $5.00 - $10.00, 307-353-2300 n Taize 6:00pm, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Free, 307-733-2603 n Stagecoach Band 6:00pm, Stagecoach, Free, 307-733-4407 n Creative Silver Metal Clay 6:00pm, Art Association, $230.00, 307-733-6379 n Center For Meditation Monthly Meeting 7:00pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, Free, 307-699-7480
MONDAY APR. 25
TUESDAY APR. 26
n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398
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n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398
n Mediation Training 8:00am, UW Extension Office/ 4-H Bldg, $225.00, 307-7333087 n Kindercreations 9:30am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $85.00 - $102.00, 307-733-6379 n Art Education: Little Hands, Little Feet 11:00am, Art Association Borshell Children’s Studio, $16.00. 307-733-6379 n Little Hands, Little Feet 11:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $85.00 - $102.00, 307-733-6379 n Story Time 1:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Maker Monday’s 3:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Victor, Free, 208-7872201 n After School Kidzart Club 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $195.00 $234.00, 307-733-6379 n Handbuilding Plus! 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $150.00 $180.00, 307-733-6379 n English Riding Lessons 4:00pm, Heritage Arena, $65.00, 307-699-4136 n Professional Practice in the Arts Instructor: Jenny Dowd 5:00pm, CWC-Jackson, $118.00, 307-200-6155 n Suicide Prevention Training 5:30pm, St. John’s Medical Center Moose Room, Free, 307264-1536 n Library Book Club: “Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow” by Maria Coffey 5:30pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 n Printmaking 101 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $225.00 $270.00, 307-733-6379 n Beginning Painting: Acrylic 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $130.00 $156.00, 307-733-6379 n Beginning Throwing Hustle 6:00pm, Art Association, $225.00 - $270.00, 307-7336379
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Intuitive Readings with Jennifer Pepper 8:00am, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $30.00 - $125.00, 307-699-7480 n Free Day in Grand Teton National Park 8:00am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307-739-3399 n 3rd Annual Crazy Horse Snowmobile Hillclimb & Bonus Skiing Weekend 9:00am, Grand Targhee Resort, $5.00 - $10.00, 307-353-2300 n Adult Oil Painting 10:00am, The Local Galleria, $25.00, 208-270-0883 n Collage -Daytime 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $45.00, 307-7336379 n Rolling Into Readiness 10:00am, Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, Free, 307-733-2164
n FUZZY HORSEcharity show 12:30pm, Heritage Arena at Teton County Fair Grounds, $5.00 - $20.00, 307-699-4136 n Genealogy: Ancestry the Basics 1:00pm, Teton County Library Computer Lab, Free, 307-7332164 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $10.00 - $12.00, 307-203-2551 n El Divino Femenino: Círculo de Lectura 3:00pm, Teton County Library, n Crochet Chica: Tab-Bags 3:00pm, Teton County Library Children’s Area, Free, 307-7332164 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n Creative Silver Metal Clay 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $230.00, 307733-6379 n Jazz Foundation of Jackson Hole 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n DJ Grizzly 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, 307-733-3886 n Jameson Black Barrel Music Series featuring Freda Felcher 10:30pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
22 | APRIL 20, 2016
n Mediation Training 8:00am, UW Extension Office/ 4-H Bldg, $225.00, 307-733-3087 n Public Speaking and Storytelling Workshop 8:30am, Teton Springs Lodge Snake River Room, $20.00 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library, Free, 733-2164 ext. 118 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n Bubble Play 11:30am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n Spin 12:10pm, Teton Recreation Center, $8.00, 307733-5056 n Video Editing & Uploading 3:00pm, Teton County Library Computer Lab, Free, 307-733-2164 n Afterschool Monthly Workshops - All Sessions 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $180.00 - $216.00, 307-733-6379 n Semi-Private Painting + Drawing: Grades 3-8 3:45pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $20.00 - $24.00, 307-733-6379 n Intro to 3D Modeling & 3D Printing 4:15pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $100.00 - $120.00, 307-733-6379 n Teen Creative Writing Club 5:00pm, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Group in Spanish 5:00pm, Moose-Wapiti Classroom, St. John’s Medical Center, Free, 307-739-7678 n Wyoming Native Plant Society, Teton Chapter: Wyoming Ecology: 20 Years of Remarkable Changes 6:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 781-2599819 n Language Exchange 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-354-5522 n Drawing 101 6:00pm, Art Association, $130.00 - $156.00, 307-733-6379 n Analog Photography Basics 6:00pm, Art Association, $195.00 - $235.00, 307-733-6379 n Intermediate Instagram for Business 6:00pm, CWC-Jackson, $40.00, 307-733-7425 n Canine Good Citizen Class 6:00pm, CWC-Jackson, $125.00, 307-733-7425 n Playwright’s Collaborative for Adults 6:00pm, Black Box Theater, $300.00, 307-7333021 n One Ton Pig 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939
CINEMA Going Bro Richard Linklater affectionately skewers young dude-hood in Everybody Wants Some!! BY SCOTT RENSHAW @scottrenshaw
I
t may not seem like a particularly difficult thing to make a movie about young, American, mostly white guys. Certainly multiplexes are filled with movies made mostly for young, American, mostly white guys, so you’d think that the film industry would have a pretty solid handle on who they are. But there’s a catch: How do you acknowledge the reality of often insufferable dude-hood without making the experience of watching them equally insufferable? For more than 25 years, Richard Linklater has shown a unique gift for telling stories about brash, secretly insecure, yet pretending-their-every-utterance-is-brilliant young guys—from Slacker to Dazed and Confused, from Before Sunrise to Waking Life. Even his protagonist in Boyhood eventually became one of these fellows. And Linklater has always managed to show compassion for their immature bravado, even as he lets them talk their way into seeming fairly ridiculous. Everybody Wants Some!! lets a lot of guys do a lot of talking, and it’s a pretty delightful experience watching them do it. Set over the course of four days in August 1980, it begins with the arrival of freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) on the campus of fictional Southeast Texas University just before the start of the school year. A pitcher on the baseball team, Jake moves into one of the houses occupied solely by the players, and meets his new teammates, including wisdom-spouting Finnegan (Glen Powell), cocky pro prospect McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), hyper-intense transfer pitcher Jay (Juston Street) and fellow freshman Plummer (Temple Baker). On its most basic level, this is a “hang-out movie” in the spirit of Dazed and Confused, finding most of its charm and humor in the characters’ episodic adventures and youthful ramblings. The cast of mostly unfamiliar faces is almost uniformly terrific, allowing Linklater simply to let their interactions—whether getting high together, picking up women or practicing
on the baseball diamond—reveal their quirks and foibles. Linklater also bathes Everybody Wants Some!! in its period setting, taking particular advantage of the funky musical crossroads that was 1980. At the ass-end of the disco era, Jake and his buddies head out for a little polyester-clad dancing; during the birth of Urban Cowboy Western bar boom, they line-dance and ride mechanical bulls; they collide in a mosh pit to a punk rendition of the Gilligan’s Island theme; riding around in Finnegan’s car, they sing along to every word of The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” While the soundtrack is certainly bound to have a nostalgic appeal to Gen X-ers, the reason for setting the story in this particular year feels like more than cynical calculation. Everybody Wants Some!! sets up its characters as little more than the raw material for potential adult lives, with everyone trying on different personalities and roles to see what fits. Jake can be the guy trying to hook up for a one-night stand at a party, but he can also be the guy who connects more deeply with a freshman named Beverly (Zoey Deutch) in a way that might surprise even himself. “It’s not phony,” Finnegan says at one point when his teammates razz him for spouting astrology jargon as a means to pick up a woman; “it’s adaptive.” Linklater uses not just a time of life, but a historical time before pop-culture narrowcasting, when any number of adaptations
seemed like possibilities. Of course, those are all possibilities for a bunch of (mostly) white, (mostly) middle-class guys in the privileged campus position of athletes on the school’s only winning team, so it would be easy to view Linklater as too indulgent of his characters’ laddish behavior. But the decision to focus on a group of college jocks feels as deliberate as the time frame, capturing the most bro-ish of bros in the wild. Everybody Wants Some!! acknowledges, as Jake notes at one point amidst the seemingly infinite games between the players, that “everything around here is a competition”—and that competition sits at the heart of so much young male dysfunction and insecurity. The perpetual battle to be the alpha dog among other alpha dogs can be both funny and sad, and it’s one of Linklater’s unique gifts as a filmmaker that he can serve up the ideal balance between the two.
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! BBB.5 Blake Jenner Zoey Deutch Glen Powell Rated R
TRY THESE Animal House (1978) John Belushi Tim Matheson Rated R
FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM
Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Blake Jenner, J. Quinton Johnson and Temple Baker in Everybody Wants Some!!
Dazed and Confused (1993) Jason London Wiley Wiggins Rated R
Waking Life (2001) Wiley Wiggins Ethan Hawke Rated R
Boyhood (2014) Ellar Coltrane Patricia Arquette Rated R
THE RISING SUN
n LanternFest Sat Miller Motorsports Park, 2901 Sheep Lane, Tooele, 3:00pm n Mae Daye’s School for Girls Sat Club Jam, Salt Lake City, 6:00pm, $5.00 - $50.00 n Stage Kiss Sat Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm, $30.00
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WEEKEND OF MAY. 6 Who’s up for a road trip? There’s plenty to do down south in Salt Lake City next weekend. Whether your interests lie in music, theater and the arts—or something a bit more downto-earth—here’s what’s going on in the Beehive State. (Visit cityweekly.net/events for complete listings.) So hit the road! But be sure and bring a snack—because, now and then, everybody craves something salty.
WEEKEND OF APR. 22
WEEKEND OF APR. 29
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WEEKEND OF MAY. 13
n A Call to Place: The First Five Years of the Frontier Fellowship Fri Rio Gallery, 300 S Rio Grande St, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, Free, 801-245-7272 n A Real Rockwell?: Cover Art from the Saturday Evening Post Fri - Sun Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Abstract Expressions Fri - Sat Evolutionary Healthcare, 461 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Accidental Astronauts Fri - Sun Clark Planetarium, 110 South 400 West, Salt Lake City, 12:30pm n Ace Kvale: Himalayan Cataract Project Fri Gallery MAR, 436 Main St., Park City, Free n Aeron Roemer: A Place Far Away from Here Fri Mestizo Institute of Culture & Arts, 631 W. North Temple, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, Free n Albuquerque Isotopes at Salt Lake Bees Fri Smith’s Ballpark, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, 3:33am n Appropriate Fri, Sat, Sun Good Company Theatre, 260 25th street, Ogden, 8:00pm, $17.00 n Ballroom Dance Co. Blackpool Premiere Showcase Fri Harris Fine Arts Center, 1 University Hill, Provo, 7:30pm n Blaqk Audio & Night Riots Fri In the Venue, 219 S 600 W, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $0.00 - $18.00 n Branding the American West: Paintings and Films 1900-1950 Fri - Sat Museum of Art, North Campus Drive, Provo n Brewskis Fri Brewskis, 244 Historic 25th Street, Ogden, 9:00pm n Build, Sculpt, Play Fri Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Ave, Park City, 2:00pm n Cara Despain: Seeing the Stone Fri - Sat CUAC, 175 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Connie Borup/Don Athay Fri Phillips Gallery, 444 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City, Free n The Count of Monte Cristo Fri, Sat, Sat Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n Curtains Fri, Sat, Sat CenterPoint Legacy Theatre, 525 N. 400 West, Centerville, 7:30pm, $12.00 - $24.50
APRIL 20, 2016 | 23
n Brian Posehn Fri, Fri, Sat, Sat Wiseguys Downtown, 194 South 400 W., Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $20.00 n Odysseo by Cavalia Fri, Sat, Sat South Town Mall, 10450 South State Street, Sandy, 6:30pm, $40.00 - $110.00 n Paul Crow: Here Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City, Free n Peter and the Starcatcher Fri, Sat, Sat, Sat Hale Center Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, 7:30pm, $30.00, 801-984-9000 n Stupid Fing Bird Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun, Sun Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, Salt Lake City, 6:00pm, $15.00 - $42.00
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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
n Jimmy Pardo Fri, Fri, Sat, Sat Wiseguys Downtown, 194 South 400 W., Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $15.00 n The Nijinsky Revolution Fri, Sat, Sat Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $19.00 - $87.00 n Odysseo by Cavalia Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun South Town Mall, 10450 South State Street, Sandy, 6:30pm, $40.00 - $110.00 n Paul Crow: Here Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City, Free n Peter and the Starcatcher Fri, Sat, Sat, Sat Hale Center Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, 7:30pm, $30.00, 801-984-9000 n Seussical The Musical Fri - Sat Empress Theatre, 9104 W. 2700 South, Magna, 7:30pm, $10.00 n Stupid Fing Bird Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun, Sun Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $15.00 - $42.00 n Downtown Winter Market Sat Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande Street, Salt Lake City, 10:00am n The Life & Times of Beethoven Sat Abravanel Hall, 123 W South Temple, Salt Lake City, 11:00am, $6.00 - $18.00, 801-355-2787 n Utah Pizza Party Sat Hellenic Cultural Center, 279 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $20.00
n The Count of Monte Cristo Fri, Sat, Sat Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n Peter and the Starcatcher Fri, Sat, Sat, Sat Hale Center Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, 7:30pm, $30.00, 801-984-9000 n Stage Kiss Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm, $30.00 n The Marriage of Figaro Sat Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $48.00 - $89.00
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
24 | APRIL 20, 2016
BEER, WINE & SPIRITS
Bourgeois Bargains France’s Cru Bourgeois offers great value from Bordeaux. BY TED SCHEFFLER @critic1
W
hen eating in restaurants in France (see p. 32), you’ll find the sought-after, savings-sucking, prestigious Grand Cru Bordeaux wines such at Château Latour, Château Haut-Brion, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Margaux and their Burgundy brethren in high-end Michelin 2and 3-star restaurants. But most 1-star or no-star eateries—and everyday bistros and brasseries—can’t afford to stock those wines. Neither can I. And so, I tend to turn to Bordeaux’ Cru Bourgeois wines when I’m in the mood for bargain French Bordeaux. Of course, one person’s bargain is another’s splurge. But let me put it this way: You can buy 44 bottles of Château Loudenne Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux
($28) for every single bottle of Château Latour Grand Cru Bordeaux, which sells for roughly $1,250. Yes, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, but when was the last time you thought, “This apple is 44 times better than that orange I ate last week”? And in fact, the comparison is more apples to apples, since we’re merely talking about different classification of Bordeaux. Without getting into too much technical detail, the Bordeaux Cru Bourgeois classification is sort of like being the middle child of the family. These wines don’t have the opulence or splendor of Grand Cru Bordeaux wines, but they are rated and given the Cru Bourgeois classification on a yearly basis, based on quality. As opposed to most other wines in the French classification system, with Cru Bourgeois you’re not “in the club for life.” Each Château’s wine is evaluated with every new vintage, the current vintage being 2012. There are 267 Cru Bourgeois wines classified in the 2012 vintage. One way to think of this “middle child” situation is to look to other countries. For example, Spain’s Gran Reserva category is similar to France’s Grand Crus: They are the expensive, top-tier wines. But Spain also has the Reserva category—comparable to Cru Bourgeois—which is far superior in quality to everyday Crianza, but still within reach of most consumers. You’ll find a similar scenario in Italy, where from low to high in
IMBIBE quality and cost, Chianti wines are classified as Chianti, Chianti Classico and Chianti Reserva. Although they typically sell for under $40, and some for much less, Bordeaux’s Cru Bourgeois wines are all grown on a single Château, and offer the pedigree of a classé wine at a fraction of the cost of Grand Crus. These economical wines are approachable and well-made, but probably not wines to ponder at length, nor are they wines in need of cellaring for decades. Most are perfect to drink young, right out of the bottle upon release—although, at Cru Bourgeois’ budget-friendly prices, you could afford to buy a few bottles of a vintage and put some away to see how they age. A perfect example of affordable Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux is Chateau Landat 2012 ($22). Chateau Landat was listed as a wine-growing estate in 1881 (Haut-Medoc) and registered as Cru Bourgeois in 1908. The 2012 vintage was honored with Cru Bourgeois status. It’s elegant, soft, harmonious and, frankly, delicious. A traditional Bordeaux
blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60 percent), Merlot (35 percent) and Petit Verdot (5 percent), aged for 12 months in oak, Chateau Landat is a slam-dunk with steak frites, rack of lamb and a good partner for the cheese course. Obviously, I can’t list all 267 of the 2012 Cru Bourgeois, but here are a few well-worth your attention and your coin:
Château Aney—Haut-Medoc ($29.75) Château Bernadotte—Haut-Medoc ($17.45) Château Bibian—Listrac-Medoc Château Charmail—Haut-Medoc ($34) Château Fleur La Mothe—Medoc ($25.58) Château Greysac—Medoc ($24.73) Château La Cardonne—Medoc ($30) Château Larose-Trintaudon—HautMedoc ($33) Château Loudenne—Medoc ($28) Château Meyre—Haut-Medoc ($25) Château Rollan de By—Medoc ($36) Château Tour Prignac—Medoc ($19) À votre santé! PJH
Featuring dining destinations from buffets and rooms with a view to mom and pop joints, chic cuisine and some of our dining critic’s faves!
ASIAN & CHINESE TETON THAI Serving the world’s most exciting cuisine. Teton Thai offers a splendid array of flavors: sweet, hot, sour, salt and bitter. All balanced and blended perfectly, satisfying the most discriminating palate. Open daily. 7432 Granite Loop Road in Teton Village, (307) 7330022 and in Driggs, (208) 787-8424, tetonthai. com.
THAI ME UP
Use the code “Planet” and get
15% off your order of $20 or more Order online at PizzeriaCaldera.com or via our app for iOS or Android.
11am - 9:30pm daily 20 W Broadway 307 - 201 - 1472
Home of Melvin Brewing Co. Freshly remodeled offering modern Thai cuisine in a relaxed setting. New tap system with 20 craft beers. New $8 wine list and extensive bottled beer menu. Open daily for dinner at 5pm. Downtown at 75 East Pearl Street. View our tap list at thaijh.com/brews. 307-733-0005.
CONTINENTAL ALPENHOF Serving authentic Swiss cuisine, the Alpenhof features European style breakfast entrées and alpine lunch fare. Dine in the Bistro for a casual meal or join us in the Alpenrose dining room for a relaxed dinner experience. Breakfast 7:30am-10am. Coffee & pastry 10am-11:30am. Lunch 11:30am-3pm. Aprés 3pm-5:30pm. Dinner 6pm-9pm. For reservations at the Bistro or Alpenrose, call 307-733-3242.
THE BLUE LION
CAFE GENEVIEVE Serving inspired home cooked classics in a historic log cabin. Enjoy brunch daily at 8 a.m., dinner nightly at 5 p.m., and happy hour daily 3-5:30 p.m. featuring $5 glasses of wine, $5 specialty drinks, $3 bottled beer. 135 E. Broadway, (307) 732-1910, genevievejh.com.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
A Jackson Hole favorite for 38 years. Join us in the charming atmosphere of a historic home. Ask a local about our rack of lamb. Serving fresh fish, elk, poultry, steaks, and vegetarian entrées. Live acoustic guitar music most nights. Off Season Special: 2 for 1 Entrees. Good all night. Open nightly at 5:30 p.m. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the off season. Reservations recommended, walk-ins welcome. 160 N. Millward, (307) 7333912, bluelionrestaurant.com.
ELEANOR’S
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Serving breakfast & lunch Sun-Wed 8am-3pm Serving breakfast, lunch & dinner Thurs-Sat, open at 8am. 145 N. Glenwood • (307) 734-0882 WWW.TETONLOTUSCAFE.COM
APRIL 20, 2016 | 25
Breakfast Lunch & Dinner
Enjoy all the perks of fine dining, minus the dress code at Eleanor’s, serving rich, saucy dishes in a warm and friendly setting. Eleanor’s is a primo brunch spot on Sunday afternoons. Its bar alone is an attraction, thanks to reasonably priced drinks and a loyal crowd. Come get a belly-full of our two-time gold medal wings. Open at 11 a.m. daily. 832 W. Broadway, (307) 733-7901.
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
26 | APRIL 20, 2016
REOP
ENIN
G MA Y 12T
H. FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT PIZZAS, PASTAS & MORE HOUSEMADE BREAD & DESSERTS
Celebrating 50Years of Fine Dining! ALPENROSE • ALPENHOF BISTRO 307.733.3242 | TETON VILLAGE
FRESH, LOCALLY SOURCED OFFERINGS TAKE OUT AVAILABLE Dining room and bar open nightly at 5:00pm (307) 733-2460 • 2560 Moose Wilson Road • Wilson, WY
A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965 THE LOCALS
FAVORITE PIZZA 2012, 2013 & 2014 •••••••••
$7
$4 Well Drink Specials Trio is located just off the town square in downtown Jackson, and is owned & operated by local chefs with a passion for good food. Our menu features contemporary American dishes inspired by classic bistro cuisine. Daily specials feature wild game, fish and meats. Enjoy a glass of wine at the bar in front of the wood-burning oven and watch the chefs perform in the open kitchen.
LUNCH
SPECIAL Slice, salad & soda
HAPPY HOUR Daily 4-6:00pm
307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE
ITALIAN
Local, a modern American steakhouse and bar, is located on Jackson’s historic town square. Our menu features both classic and specialty cuts of locally-ranched meats and wild game alongside fresh seafood, shellfish, house-ground burgers, and seasonally-inspired food. We offer an extensive wine list and an abundance of locally-sourced products. Offering a casual and vibrant bar atmosphere with 12 beers on tap as well as a relaxed dining room, Local is the perfect spot to grab a burger for lunch or to have drinks and dinner with friends. Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30am. Dinner Nightly 5:30pm. 55 North Cache, (307) 201-1717, localjh.com.
Under the Pink Garter Theatre (307) 734-PINK • www.pinkygs.com
MANGY MOOSE
Mangy Moose Restaurant, with locally sourced, seasonally FRESH FOOD at reasonable prices, is a always a FUN PLACE to go with family or friends for a unique dining experience. The personable staff will make you feel RIGHT AT HOME and the funky western decor will keep you entertained throughout your entire visit.
www.mangymoose.com
Lunch 11:30am Monday-Saturday Dinner 5:30pm Nightly
LOCAL
Serving organic, freshly-made world cuisine while catering to all eating styles. Endless organic and natural meat, vegetarian, vegan and glutenfree choices. Offering super smoothies, fresh extracted juices, espresso and tea. Full bar and house-infused botanical spirits. Open daily 8am for breakfast lunch and dinner. 145 N. Glenwood St., (307) 734-0882, tetonlotuscafe.com.
TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens
Reservations at (307) 733-4913 3295 Village Drive • Teton Village, WY
Local is a modern American steakhouse and bar located on Jackson’s historic town square. Serving locally raised beef and, regional game, fresh seafood and seasonally inspired food, Local offers the perfect setting for lunch, drinks or dinner.
Owned and operated by Chefs with a passion for good food, Trio is located right off the Town square in downtown Jackson. Featuring a variety of cuisines in a relaxed atmosphere, Trio is famous for its wood-oven pizzas, specialty cocktails and waffle fries with bleu cheese fondue. Dinner nightly at 5:30 p.m. Reservations. (307) 734-8038 or bistrotrio.com.
LOTUS CAFE
45 S. Glenwood
For reservations please call 734-8038
TRIO
The deli that’ll rock your belly. Jackson’s newest sub shop serves steamed subs, reubens, gyros, delicious all beef hot dogs, soups and salads. We offer Chicago style hot dogs done just the way they do in the windy city. Open daily11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Located just a short block north of the Town Square at 180 N. Center Street, (307) 733-3448.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Dinner Nightly at 5:30pm
Available for private events & catering
FULL STEAM SUBS
Mangy Moose Restaurant, with locally sourced, seasonally fresh food at reasonable prices, is a always a fun place to go with family or friends for a unique dining experience. The personable staff will make you feel right at home and the funky western decor will keep you entertained throughout your entire visit. Teton Village, (307) 733-4913, mangymoose.com.
SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT America’s most award-winning microbrewery is serving lunch and dinner. Take in the atmosphere while enjoying wood-fired pizzas, pastas, burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts. $9 lunch menu. Happy hour 4 to 6 p.m., including tasty hot wings. The freshest beer in the valley, right from the source! Free WiFi. Open 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. 265 S. Millward. (307) 739-2337, snakeriverbrewing.com.
SWEETWATER Satisfying locals for lunch and dinner for over 36 years with deliciously affordable comfort food. Extensive local and regional beer list. Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. features blackened trout salad, elk melt, wild west chili and vegetarian specialties. Dinner 5:30 to 9 p.m. including potato-crusted trout, 16 ounce ribeye, vegan and wild game. Reservations welcome. (307) 7333553. sweetwaterjackson.com.
CALICO A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965, the Calico continues to be one of the most popular restaurants in the Valley. The Calico offers the right combination of really good food, (much of which is grown in our own gardens in the summer), friendly staff; a reasonably priced menu and a large selection of wine. Our bar scene is eclectic with a welcoming vibe. Open nightly at 5 p.m. 2560 Moose Wilson Rd., (307) 733-2460.
MEXICAN EL ABUELITO Serving authentic Mexican cuisine and appetizers in a unique Mexican atmosphere. Home of the original Jumbo Margarita. Featuring a full bar with a large selection of authentic Mexican beers. Lunch served weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nightly dinner specials. Open seven days, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. 385 W. Broadway, (307) 733-1207.
PIZZA DOMINO’S PIZZA Hot and delicious delivered to your door. Handtossed, deep dish, crunchy thin, Brooklyn style and artisan pizzas; bread bowl pastas, and oven baked sandwiches; chicken wings, cheesy breads and desserts. Delivery. 520 S. Hwy. 89 in Kmart Plaza, (307) 733-0330.
PINKY G’S The locals favorite! Voted Best Pizza in Jackson Hole 2012, 2013 and 2014. Seek out this hidden gem under the Pink Garter Theatre for NY pizza by the slice, salads, stromboli’s, calzones and many appetizers to choose from. Try the $7 ‘Triple S’ lunch special.Happy hours 10 p.m. - 12 a.m. Sun.- Thu. Text PINK to 71441 for discounts. Delivery and take-out. Open daily 11a.m. to 2 a.m. 50 W. Broadway, (307) 734-PINK.
PIZZERIA CALDERA Jackson Hole’s only dedicated stone-hearth oven pizzeria, serving Napolitana-style pies using the freshest ingredients in traditional and creative combinations. Five local micro-brews on tap, a great selection of red and white wines by the glass and bottle, and one of the best views of the Town Square from our upstairs deck. Daily lunch special includes slice, salad or soup, any two for $8. Happy hour: half off drinks by the glass from 4 - 6 daily. Dine in or carry out. Or order online at PizzeriaCaldera.com, or download our app for iOS or Android. Open from 11am - 9:30pm daily at 20 West Broadway. 307-201-1472.
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L.A.TIMES “MUSICAL VARIATIONS” By Garry Morse
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016
ACROSS
80 Game show host for 50 years 86 __ garden 87 Capital of Kazakhstan 89 Earthen building material 90 Before, in verse 91 1990s TV judge 93 FLAT 97 Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend 100 Tough as __ 101 Some deposits 102 FLAT 106 Incidentally, in texts 108 Kindle reading, briefly 109 Online search results 110 Ill-fated 2006 Kentucky Derby champion 114 Fighting 115 FLAT 120 Connections 121 “Sweet is the breath of __”: Milton 122 Bordeaux bye 123 Time being 124 Dost possess 125 60-Across, e.g.: Abbr. 126 Fall plantings 127 Boss mocked by Nast
DOWN
The Year We Make Contact” 84 Fish-eating flier 85 Stds. of conduct 88 Plush carpet 92 Academic expert, facetiously 94 Like Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 2” 95 Folder aid 96 Hardly intellectual 98 Impulse-conducting cell 99 Proofer’s finds 102 Not o’er 103 __ vincit amor 104 Direct 105 PC port 106 “Phooey!” 107 Nine Inch Nails founder Reznor 110 A/C units 111 Tops 112 Political contest 113 Pigged out (on) 115 “Enough details, please” 116 Chocolate pet 117 Student’s email ending 118 Van Gogh work 119 First st. admitted to the Union after the Civil War
APRIL 20, 2016 | 27
10 Church area 20 Naan relative 30 One of eight teams that never won a World Series 40 Like many fleet autos 50 Cacophonous 60 He frequently toured with Joel 70 Architectural add-on 80 Sneaky 90 Comical Caesar 10 Slogan ending? 11 Layer of bricks 12 Political surprises 13 Welcomes 14 Teacher’s deg. 15 President before Millard
16 Ma Rainey, notably 17 Draw a bead on 18 Dodger teammate of Robinson 24 Preacher’s subject 25 Lady in a lea 29 Increases 31 Devil’s wear, in a 2006 film 32 Dispirit 33 Bird’s beak 34 Shampoo, e.g. 35 Cozy home 36 Maritime safety gp. 37 Whaler’s direction 38 Deco designer 39 Latin lambs 42 Smack 43 Architectural order including circular column tops 44 Mushroom in Japanese cuisine 45 Violinist’s supply 47 Bridget Fonda, to Jane 48 Noble __ 52 “Milk” Oscar recipient 53 One of a cube’s dozen 56 Receive 57 Look for water 59 Strictness 63 Faux felt 64 Put on 65 Tabulae rasae 67 Life of the party 68 Radio code opener 69 Backup option 70 Sweets 71 Jewish spiritual leader 74 Parish officials 77 Hebrides native 80 Herb in pesto 81 “Strange as it may seem ... ” 82 Shows of respect 83 Dullea of “2010:
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
10 Kitchen cover 60 Outlaw played by Tyrone in 1939 11 Speculate 15 Letter-shaped beam 19 With 62-Across, many a sonata 20 Skateboard maneuver 21 Copied 22 Living __ 23 SHARP 26 Student’s complete file, to a teacher 27 Enters carefully 28 Hardships 29 Trees whose fruit yields a moisturizing butter 30 Author Rand 31 SHARP 36 Some U.S. Army transports 39 Palmer with trophies 40 Nasty smiles 41 SHARP 46 Mole’s activity 49 Cause of an allergic response 50 Pilot maker 51 Unwelcome sign for a 49-Across owner 54 Actress Vardalos 55 Western, calendar-wise 57 Medicated 58 Cravings 60 Tech sch. overlooking the Hudson 61 Signing, perhaps 62 See 19-Across 63 Ruth around bases 66 NATURAL 72 Tests for advanced-deg. seekers 73 Didn’t feel well 75 Drawn: Abbr. 76 Sense of self 78 Burning up 79 Old enough
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SALES@PLANETJH.COM OR CALL 307.732.0299
Out of your mind and in the presence of now. Be here now We hear a lot about presence, being in the now, and being present. These are three related aspects of long standing wisdom teachings. But what exactly do they mean? Why is being present so desirable, and also so challenging to attain?
Unspoken dimension
OLLOW US
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
28 | APRIL 20, 2016
What is Presence?
ON FACEBOOK FOR THE LATEST PLANET HAPPENINGS! @
Presence is the unspoken dimension of who we all are. Presence is the “being-ness” of who we are beyond thought, judgment, personal bias, and doing. Some describe this as the soul, pure awareness, or one’s higher self. Presence engages all our senses and allows us to be fully aware against a background of vast, intelligent stillness. Presence is a form of alert stillness. Coming from presence is the (only) way to experience life, people, events, or circumstances as they really are. All other aspects of our human makeup are laced with and colored by preconceived notions, beliefs, fears and judgments. What typically happens in everyday life is that, unknowingly, we “bring to the party” all our baggage, and then unconsciously spread it all over everyone and everything. Once that happens we cannot see what is; we only see and react through the blinders of our stories and projections.
Charismatic energy Charisma is not the same as presence. The energy of charisma has magnetic charm. It has a stage presence with plenty of wattage and a “ta-da, here I am” vibe reflecting the power of the personality, which is organized by the ego. The ego has gotten a bad rap. There is nothing inherently wrong with ego. It has an important function in defining our individuality. However, the scope of the ego is very limited and fear-based. This is why everyone’s ego aspect collects judgments, insecurities, conflicts, etc., and then keeps the drama going by thinking everything in life is personal.
Being in the now is being out of your mind The mind is always anticipating the future or reflecting on the past. Another way to say this is that the mind is either thinking about the last word or guessing what the next one will be. The past is over and the future is not here. This is why it is said
that the present, the now, is all that we have and all that really exists. Being distracted from the present by the machinations of the mind means a huge part of you is not here. If the mind is running the show, it makes it impossible to fully focus your interest or attention or love on anyone or anything, including yourself. The mind does not comfortably hang out in the present.
Being present is a gift Being present is intentionally putting the mind and the ego personality temporarily aside, so that the presence of your soul can show up in the now. This is how you can fully see, listen to, feel, and know the essence of who you are, of who another person is, and to experience life events without projections. The greatest gift you can give another person is your presence, and your presence is the source of your inner peace.
Heart is where the action is The built-in connection to presence/soul/higher-self is an open human heart. By nature, an open heart is compassionate, inclusive and non-judgmental. Living through the lens of the heart is the link-up to our presence and the greater cosmos. It is via the heart that presence flows naturally into this reality, where its wisdom can guide life on all levels. A heart-centered focus includes the higher mind, and with heart/soul in the driver’s seat of life, the ego, mind, and personality are comfortably in the passenger’s seat where they can be called upon when appropriate.
Ways to still the mind and open the heart Meditation and yoga are two examples of time-tested practices intentionally designed and proven to still the mind and open the heart, allowing the pure awareness of who we are to guide our lives. Music, art, dance, and being in nature are among many other the ways to connect with presence. Sometimes professional help is also a part of the mix. And there are many extraordinary teachers, workshops and books to show the way.
Be inspired… The state of presence offers the freedom to experience life as it is, and to respond from the heart in the moment. You cannot experience presence with thought! However, you can always feel the beauty, enjoy the uplift, and revel in the mystery of presence. PJH
Carol Mann is a longtime Jackson resident, radio personality, former Grand Targhee Resort owner, author, and clairvoyant. Got a Cosmic Question? Email carol@yourcosmiccafe.com
WELLNESS COMMUNITY
These businesses provide health or wellness services for the Jackson Hole community and its visitors.
Offering integrated health and wellness services for a healthy body, happy mind, & balanced spirit
Personal Training Special! Purchase 5 sessions for $275! Get fit with FIVE 60 minute training sessions offering specific attention to meet your personal fitness goals.
120 W PEARL AVENUE • MWWJH.COM • 307.699.7480
Deep Tissue Sports Massage Thai Massage Myofascial Release Cupping
Trust The Expert Mark Menolascino
www.fourpinespt.com
Oliver Tripp, NCTM Massage Therapist Nationally Certified
253-381-2838
180 N Center St, Unit 8 Jackson, WY 83001
732-1039
MenoClinic.com | Wilson, WY
TO ADVERTISE IN THE WELLNESS DIRECTORY, CONTACT JEN AT PLANET JACKSON HOLE AT 307-732-0299 OR SALES@PLANETJH.COM
APRIL 20, 2016 | 29
Anti-Aging from the Inside-Out Regain Your Energy Balance Your Mood & Hormones Fix Your Low Thyroid Find Your Food Sensitivities Fix Your Leaky Gut Lose the Fat Have Great Sleep Naturally Try Hyperbarics for Oxygen
No physician referral required. (307) 733-5577•1090 S Hwy 89
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
MD, MS, ABIHM, ABAARM, IFMCP
Professional and Individualized Treatments • Sports/Ortho Rehab • Neck and Back Rehab • Rehabilitative Pilates • Incontinence Training • Pelvic Pain Rehab • Lymphedema Treatments Norene Christensen PT, DSc, OCS, CLT Rebekah Donley PT, DPT, CPI Mark Schultheis PT, CSCS Kim Armington PTA, CPI
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
30 | APRIL 20, 2016
REDNECK PERSPECTIVE SATIRE
Higher Education, Lower Consummation Scientific Merican: Do they make lab coats in camo? BY CLYDE THORNHILL
A
merica needs skilled teachers in the sciences and, as an expert on astrophysics, I am hoping to land a teaching job at the new Hog Island school. Just last month, The Hog Island Journal of Astrophysics named me one of the top 25 physicists in the southern third of the trailer court. (Don’t laugh! Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty recently had a full-page ad bragging about it being in the top 250.). I have spent a lifetime studying the universe. I have used the affects of gravity to roll start my pickup. I’ve used photons to dry off after getting drunk during the fishing derby and falling into Jackson Lake. And I have examined the stars on numerous occasions long after closing time. (In Hog Island, we call tequila, “oil of the intellectual machine!”) I am particularly knowledgeable about Newton’s law of universal gravity: Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Let’s say you have a beer belly and a Ford 350. We’re talking some serious mass! Hot chicks,
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on the other hand, typically drive Subaru’s and, by definition, lack beer bellies. So the attraction of hot chicks to beer-bellied, truck-driving rednecks is not so much a lack of judgment on the part of the hot chick, but an irresistible natural gravitational movement following the law of universal gravitation. The closer they get, the greater the attraction until the science of physics is replaced by the principles of biology. A supernova is an astronomical event that occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a star’s life. Its destruction is marked by one final massive explosion. Think of pizza, beer, and chicken wings. In their final evolutionary stages, after being consumed and partially digested, their end is also marked by one final massive explosion, the results of which can force inhabits of surrounding areas to vacate the entire planet, or at least move to the other end of the trailer. One of astrophysics’ most important questions is, “Where did the universe come from?” The prevailing cosmological model for the universe is the Big Bang theory, which states the entire mass of the universe was compressed to zero volume and then exploded. However, those who carefully scrutinize the facts have their doubts. “It’s not logical,” said Ben Green, a physicist from Hoback Junction and leading expert on fluid dynamics specializing in Bud Lite. “You can’t compress an aluminum beer can to zero volume, no matter how much you jump on it. So how are you going to get the whole stinking universe to squeeze to the size of a grain of sand? To tell you the truth, I think the universe comes from Wal-Mart. And the way things are going, I think it was made in China!” I sincerely believe students will leave my classroom with a different and perhaps unique perspective on the universe! PJH
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “The writer should never be ashamed of staring,” said Aries writer Flannery O’Connor. “There is nothing that does not require his attention.” This is also true for all of you Aries folks, not just the writers among you. And the coming weeks will be an especially important time for you to cultivate a piercing gaze that sees deeply and shrewdly. You will thrive to the degree that you notice details you might normally miss or regard as unimportant. What you believe and what you think won’t be as important as what you perceive. Trust your eyes. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) The ancient Greek geographer Pausanias told a story about how the famous poet Pindar got his start. One summer day, young Pindar decided to walk from his home in Thebes to a city 20 miles away. During his trek, he got tired and lay down to take a nap by the side of the road. As he slept, bees swarmed around him and coated his lips with wax. He didn’t wake up until one of the bees stung him. For anyone else, this might have been a bother. But Pindar took it as an omen that he should become a lyric poet, a composer of honeyed verses. And that’s exactly what he did in the ensuing years. I foresee you having an experience comparable to Pindar’s sometime soon, Taurus. How you interpret it will be crucial. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “I measure the strength of a spirit by how much truth it can take,” said philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Measured by that standard, your strength of spirit has been growing— and may be poised to reach an all-time high. In my estimation, you now have an unusually expansive capacity to hold surprising, effervescent, catalytic truths. Do you dare invite all these insights and revelations to come pouring toward you? I hope so. I’ll be cheering you on, praying for you to be brave enough to ask for as much as you can possibly accommodate. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Göbekli Tepe was a monumental religious sanctuary built 11,600 years ago in the place we now call Turkey. Modern archaeologists are confounded by the skill and artistry with which its massive stone pillars were arranged and carved. According to conventional wisdom, humans of that era were primitive nomads who hunted animals and foraged for plants. So it’s hard to understand how they could have constructed such an impressive structure 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza. Writing in National Geographic, science journalist Charles C. Mann said, “Discovering that hunter-gatherers had constructed Göbekli Tepe was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-Acto knife.” In that spirit, Cancerian, I make the following prediction: In the coming months, you can accomplish a marvel that may have seemed beyond your capacity.
Choice Take away a woman’s right to choose and she’s left to take matters into her own hands.
IT’S PRO-CHOICE OR NO-CHOICE. Paid for by the KCR Coalition for Pro-Choice Kristyne Crane Rupert | www.naral.org.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “Difficulties illuminate existence,” says novelist Tom Robbins, “but they must be fresh and of high quality.” Your assignment, Sagittarius, is to go out in search of the freshest and highest-quality difficulties you can track down. You’re slipping into a magical phase of your astrological cycle when you will have exceptional skill at rounding up useful dilemmas and exciting riddles. Please take full advantage! Welcome this rich opportunity to outgrow and escape boring old problems. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) “When I grow up, I want to be a little boy,” wrote novelist Joseph Heller in his book Something Happened. You have cosmic permission to make a comparable declaration in the coming days. In fact, you have a poetic license and a spiritual mandate to utter battle cries like that as often as the mood strikes. Feel free to embellish and improvise, as well: “When I grow up, I want to be a riot girl with a big brash attitude,” for example, or “When I grow up, I want to be a beautiful playful monster with lots of toys and fascinating friends who constantly amaze me.” AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) In one of his diaries, author Franz Kafka made this declaration: “Life’s splendor forever lies in wait around each one of us in all of its fullness—but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.” I’m bringing this promise to your attention, Aquarius, because you have more power than usual to call forth a command performance of life’s hidden splendor. You can coax it to the surface and bid it to spill over into your daily rhythm. For best results, be magnificent as you invoke the magnificence. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) I’ve got a controversial message for you, Pisces. If you’re addicted to your problems or if you’re convinced that cynicism is a supreme mark of intelligence, what I’ll say may be offensive. Nevertheless, it’s my duty as your oracle to inform you of the cosmic tendencies, and so I will proceed. For the sake of your mental health and the future of your relationship with love, consider the possibility that the following counsel from French author André Gide is just what you need to hear right now: “Know that joy is rarer, more difficult and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
Go to RealAstrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.
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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Uh-oh. Or maybe I should instead say “Hooray!” You are slipping into the Raw Hearty Vivid Untamed Phase of your astrological cycle. The universe is nudging you in the direction of high adventure, sweet intensity, and rigorous stimulation. If you choose to resist the nudges, odds are that you’ll have more of an “uh-oh” experience. If you decide to play along, “hooray!” is the likely outcome. To help you get in the proper mood, make the following declaration: “I like to think that my bones are made from oak, my blood from a waterfall, and my heart from wild daisies.” (That’s a quote from the poet McKenzie Stauffer.)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “I gladly abandon dreary tasks, rational scruples, reactive undertakings imposed by the world,” wrote Scorpio philosopher Roland Barthes. Why did he do this? For the sake of love, he said—even though he knew it might cause him to act like a lunatic as it freed up tremendous energy. Would you consider pursuing a course like that in the coming weeks, Scorpio? In my astrological opinion, you have earned some time off from the grind. You need a break from the numbing procession of the usual daily rhythms. Is there any captivating person, animal, adventure, or idea that might so thoroughly incite your imagination that you’d be open to acting like a lunatic lover with boundless vigor?
PR
| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) In myths and folklore, the ember is a symbol of coiled-up power. The fire within it is controlled. It provides warmth and glow even as its raw force is contained. There are no unruly flames. How much energy is stored within? It’s a reservoir of untapped light, a promise of verve and radiance. Now please ruminate further about the ember, Leo. According to my reading of the astrological omens, it’s your core motif right now.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) In many cultures, the butterfly is a symbol of transformation and rebirth. In its original state as a caterpillar, it is homely and slow-moving. After its resurrection time in the chrysalis, it becomes a lithe and lovely creature capable of flight. The mythic meaning of the moth is quite different, however. Enchanted by the flame, it’s driven so strongly toward the light that it risks burning its wings. So it’s a symbol of intense longing that may go too far. In the coming weeks, Libra, your life could turn either way. You may even vacillate between being moth-like and butterfly-like. For best results, set an intention. What exactly do you want?
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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |