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JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2016

Six Western women bravely tell their abortion stories.

By Giuliana Serena

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2 | APRIL 27, 2016

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JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 16 | APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2016

10 COVER STORY VOICES OF CHOICE Six Western women bravely tell their abortion stories.

Cover illustration by Derek Carlisle.

4 OPINION

18 GET OUT

8 THEM ON US

20 WELL, THAT...

14 CREATIVE PEAKS

28 COSMIC CAFE

16 MUSIC BOX

31 HOROSCOPES

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April 27, 2016

By Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey

A

pril draws to a close this week and May will arrive this coming Sunday, signaling that the spring season is half over and summer is now only about six weeks away. Weather-wise, there is no great distinction between late April and early May in Jackson. We still run the risk of seeing it snow to the valley floor, but there are also equal chances that we could see sunshine and highs of 70-degrees. If it were up to me, I’d chose the latter.

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This time of year, “cool” temperatures would be when it gets down to 20-degrees, and teens would be considered “cold” temperatures. Venturing down into the single digits this time of year is unheard of...almost. On May 2, 1988 the morning low temperature was 5-degrees. That is the coldest day ever recorded in the month of May in Jackson.

“Normal” overnight low temperatures this time of year would be in the upper 20s.

Average high temperatures this week are just a couple of degrees above what they were last week; upper 50s vs. mid 50s. But, like I said, we could see 70-degree readings popping up by May 1. It is highly unlikely it would hit 80-degrees this week, since the all-time record high this week is 79-degrees, from May 1, 1985. Or, it could be like it was on May 1, 2011 when the afternoon high temperature in town was only 36-degrees.

NORMAL HIGH 57 NORMAL LOW 28 RECORD HIGH IN 1985 79 RECORD LOW IN 1988 5

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.14 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 2.7 inches (1963) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 4 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 24 inches (1967)

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APRIL 27, 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

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GUEST OPINION A Big Win for Wolverines An even bigger win for wildlife management based on science, facts, and data.

BY CRAIG BENJAMIN

W

olverines are the ultimate Jackson Hole animal.

Their wide, flat, snowshoe-like feet and frost-resistant fur make them adept at living in high alpine environments. Though they weigh in at less than 40 pounds, and usually hunt snowshoe hares, marmots, and squirrels, they are deceptively ferocious. They have been known to take down elk and moose, and even fight off wolves and bears. A male’s typical territory is comparable to half the size of Rhode Island.

There’s a story of one wolverine that smelled a dead mountain goat carcass under 20 feet of avalanche debris and dug down, through the concrete-packed snow to get to it. Another was tracked climbing 5,000 vertical feet in Glacier National Park in 90 minutes. When mountain climbers attempted to retrace this route, they spent an entire day trying to figure it out before giving up; it was too burly a path for humans.

A male was first tracked in Yellowstone headed to the Red Desert where it eventually turned up in Rocky Mountain National Park—500 miles away in Colorado.

Its Latin name is Gulo Gulo, which means gluttonous glutton. It’s also known as the mountain devil, the quickhatch, the carcajou, and the skunk bear. Naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton in the 1920s described wolverines as having, “a personality of unmeasured force, courage and achievement.” A Wyoming Game and Fish Department research biologist recently gave them a one-word description: badass.

The wolverine is the largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family. It once roamed across the Northern tier of the United States, as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies, and into Southern California’s Sierra Nevada range.

Unfortunately, their unique pelts made them prized by

PR

trappers. Trapping, combined with habitat loss, has reduced the number of wolverines in the continental United States to no more than 300, most living in small, fragmented populations.

The wolverines’ fragile future is inextricably linked to the greatest challenge of our time: climate change.

Like most of us who thrive in Jackson Hole, wolverines depend on snow. They select areas that maintain deep snow through late spring, when pregnant females dig their dens into the snowpack to birth and raise their young. Every one of the 562 verified wolverine den sites in North America and Scandinavia were spotted in snow. Further, 95 percent of worldwide summer wolverine observations, and 89 percent of year-round wolverine observations, fell within areas characterized by persistent spring snowpack.

As a result of climate change caused by our burning of fossil fuels there is less snow in the Rockies, and researchers forecast that in the coming decades wolverines in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming may disappear with the snowpack altogether. It is anticipated that wolverines’ denning habitat will shrink 63 percent by 2080.

This is why in 2013 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed wolverines receive threatened status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). They explained that “climate warming over the next century is likely to significantly reduce wolverine habitat,” and that without interventions, the wolverine’s survival “is in doubt.”

Then everything went catawampus. Officials in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho vigorously objected to listing wolverines under the ESA. They raised questions about the science, while warning that listing wolverines could have dire economic effects on recreational activities, development, and trapping on large swaths of alpine terrain already locally managed for wolverines in their respective states.

In response to these objections, and to ensure its decision was based on the best available science, FWS convened a nine-person independent panel that looked at the science, facts, and data, and recommended wolverines be listed as threatened.

With this recommendation in hand, FWS inexplicably reversed course and withdrew the proposed listing for wolverines, citing uncertainties about the science. In response, over 20 conservation and wildlife organizations, including the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, filed legal challenges against this decision. We pointed out that FWS disregarded well-established scientific evidence, including the

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recommendations of its own scientists, in reaching this decision.

Then on April 4, 2016—in a huge victory for wolverines and wildlife management based on science, facts, and data—U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen overturned the FWS decision to not list the wolverine under the ESA. Christensen ordered FWS to reconsider its position, saying the agency had “unlawfully ignored the best available science by dismissing the threat to the wolverine” due to “immense political pressure.”

Christensen described the wolverine as a “snow-dependent species standing squarely in the path of global climate change,” and that, “if there is one thing required of the service under the ESA, it is to take action at the earliest possible, defensible point in time to protect against the loss of biodiversity within our reach as a nation. For the wolverine, that time is now.”

This is about more than protecting a “badass” animal, or managing wildlife based on science, facts, and data instead of political pressure. This is about our moral obligation to protect our children, which means preparing for and tackling climate change now.

The science is settled. Climate change is happening, we are causing it, and it is already having devastating consequences like monster wildfires, super storms and historic droughts. Instead of ignoring science and sticking our heads in the sand, let’s fight ferociously (like wolverines) for a better future where we’ve broken our addiction to fossil fuels.

Let’s take charge of our future and show the millions of people who visit our home every year that if cold, isolated, fossil fuel-dependent Jackson Hole can live in balance with nature, the rest of the world can do it, too. If a wolverine can dig through 20 feet of snow for a meal, and climb 5,000 vertical feet in 90 minutes, then anything is possible.

You can have your honey badger. In Jackson Hole, we’ll take the wolverine. PJH Craig Benjamin is the executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. Email comments to editor@planetjh. com.

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ANGUS ANGUS M. THUERMER JR./WYOFILE

THE BUZZ

Nest Contention

LEFT: An osprey tries to dislodge a Canada goose from an osprey nesting platform. RIGHT: Amy Brennan McCarthy displays a scale model of the tilting osprey nest platform at the Teton Raptor Center where she is executive director.

Goose excluder to aid osprey, power companies.

the vents on more than 6,000 vault toilets from Alaska to Texas, keeping owls and other cavity-drawn birds from becoming trapped and meeting an ignominious end.

BY ANGUS M. THUERMER JR. (WYOFILE.COM)

Geese nest first

B

irders, conservationists and just plain folk have celebrated the successful comeback of osprey following the banning of DDT in the U.S. in 1972. In recent decades the proliferating piscivorous raptor has carried an attendant problem along with its comeback; it often builds its nests on power poles.

The result can be costly outages and lost birds. Which is why power companies and birders started installing obstacles on problematic power poles and erecting osprey nesting platforms nearby.

But that successful program brought its own unintended consequences. Canada geese nest earlier than osprey. They occupy the platforms first—the elevated structures keep them safe from predators—and won’t be chased off when osprey eventually migrate back. In case you never thought about it, geese won’t naturally nest in trees because they can’t grasp twigs and branches with their webbed feet. So they find the platforms a perfect home.

At the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson, the nonprofit team is testing a simple solution. The goose excluder platform for osprey nests pivots on a hinge. In the weeks when geese are starting to nest and before osprey arrive, nest-minders pull a cable to tilt the platform about 45 degrees.

No self-respecting goose would nest at such an angle, even if she could keep her eggs from rolling off, said George “Porgy” McClelland, a member of the center’s board of directors. Once geese are excluded from the osprey platforms and ensconced in their natural environments, osprey nest-minders release the tension on the cable and the platform returns to its horizontal position.

All of which seems like no big deal, which is only half correct. The solution is simple and more an example of problem solving than sophisticated engineering. But the goose excluder could bring widespread benefit considering the cost and inconvenience of power outages and the expense of erecting platforms that don’t work for osprey.

The tilting platforms, which are still being tested, also highlight the success of a little nonprofit that uses science, ingenuity and dedication to help avian wildlife. If the goose excluder works, it could become as successful as the Teton Raptor Center’s Poo-Poo Project, an effort that has screened

Invading geese (don’t worry, the goslings survive their leap to the ground) first attracted center director Amy Brennan McCarthy’s attention a few years ago when her group was operating WOW—the Wilson Osprey Webcam focused on an osprey nest. But it became the WGW when a chin-strapped honker took over the site.

In the Wilson vernacular with which McClelland describes natural events according to the sporting calendar, “the geese are back before the Town Downhill and the osprey come back after the hillclimb.”

McCarthy started getting phone calls.

“Why,” her supporters cried. “What can we do about it?”

No harassment by the 3-pound osprey could dissuade the tough, 10-pound Canada goose. “The geese, they just hunker down,” McClelland said.

Worries compounded when an osprey-goose nest platform battle took place along the heavily trafficked Highway 22 between Jackson and Wilson. “That’s when it blew up,” McCarthy said of the avian drama. When geese win these confrontations, the osprey may revert to a power pole for nesting. On Highway 22, there are now separate goose and osprey platforms.

But doubling up on platforms didn’t seem like a solution.

Center staffers and volunteers researched and brainstormed.

In Montana, orange cones are placed on osprey platforms for the crucial weeks in the spring. But that requires deploying a cherry picker—for $200 a trip—twice a season.

Center workers thought of retractable domes that could shield the platforms for a few weeks. Another concept—it could be called the goose gooser—would have raised spikes through the bottom of the nest and platform to temporarily dissuade nesting.

Bryan Bedrosian, senior avian ecologist with the center, came up with the concept for a tilting platform, McClelland said. McClelland, a building contractor with interests in renewable energy projects, refined the design. “I just tweaked it and ran with his idea.”

The latest model sits on a steel frame that tilts up on an off-center pivot. A cable runs down the platform pole to a ratchet that raises one end of the platform with a few turns of the handle. When tension is released, the platform returns naturally to the horizontal plane. There are now four in Jackson Hole.

Outages cost money, are inconvenient

The goose excluder has benefits beyond osprey. In the Lower Valley Energy service area in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho, workers have erected almost 200 regular osprey nesting platforms. Afton Boy Scouts build the platforms for less than $100 in materials, said Rick Knori, the utility’s director of engineering. Setting them on a pole can cost up to $1,500.

They are worth it. Replacing a power pole when a nest shorts energized lines and causes a fire, can cost $5,000, plus inconvenience.

While the Raptor Center’s tilting nest seems to have solved all the problems, the group is proceeding cautiously with its project. Staff members and landowners will monitor the four tilt nests for success. Refinements are expected.

“It will continue to evolve,” McClelland said.

As it does, it could become a conservation and financial success akin to the Poo-Poo Project. The Poo-Poo Screens keep birds that seek out cavities from becoming trapped in the vault toilets so common at campgrounds. The center has 170 partners in 18 states that are buying the $30 screens, some at bulk discounts.

The screens are a successful product because they were refined to perfection. Vault toilets are designed with 12-inch diameter plastic vent pipes that meet federal (this is not a joke) Sweet Smelling Technology standards. Vent pipes that diameter keep vault toilets olfactorily tolerable.

Simply covering their openings with chicken wire is an inferior solution. A $100 “rock fence screen”—designed originally to keep out pebbles that kids through up into the vent pipes—had ventilation and other problems. The Raptor Center’s Poo-Poo Screen is elevated a bit above the top of the pipe and can be installed by a person with four screws.

“People can get a cordless drill and go up there and do something,” McClelland said. The Poo-Poo Project encourages community action and education, part of the center’s mission. At the Hardeman Barn in Wilson, the center also rehabilitates raptors.

The Raptor Center could have another successful project with the goose excluder. If so, it would become another effort that grew from public involvement as much as anything else.

Center workers didn’t discover the vault toilet problem themselves—somebody sent them a photograph of a bedraggled owl trapped in a toilet.

“It was six years ago we got this picture…” McCarthy said.

PJH, WyoFile.com

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THEM ON US

By JAKE NICHOLS

Priceless powder In honor of Earth Day last week, and in consideration of computing the monetary value of snow to Jackson Hole, Teton Gravity Research crunched some numbers to come up with a price tag for creating a ski day sans Mother Nature. If global warming trends continue and folks at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort were forced to rely solely on what manmade snow they could produce to eke out a ski day, what would that look like?

Let’s just say, thank goodness we get the natural stuff. Ski.curbed posted the story on April 25 with the headline: “A Manmade powder day at Jackson Hole would cost $59M.” That’s right, it would take $59 million worth of 2,723 snow guns pumping out 108,900,000 cubic feet of snow to blanket the entire mountain with 12-inches of pow.

TGR teamed up with Vermont Energy Investment Corporation to make the calculations.

Still crazy after all these years They were ahead of their time in days gone by. Before any upstart skier even thought to duck a rope and huck a cliff, the fabled Jackson Hole Air Force (JHAF) were carving out the most unlikely lines. The legacy left by JHAF members like “Captain” Benny Wilson and Dave “The Wave” Muccino is brought once again to life in the new film “The New Old-School” (freeskier.com/videos/new-old-school-trip-jackson-holes-memory-lane).

The 14-minute Locals Project video starts off with time-lapse photography of the valley’s magnificence. It features tons of rad skiing in places the majority of JHMR skiers never see…and probably don’t want to. Freeskiers Sam Schwartz and Morgan Mcglashon shred the crags and cliffs where JHAF members once laid first tracks.

JHAF pushed the limits of how far and how big some freeskiers were willing to go.

Now, new-schoolers carry on the tradition, tracking out areas even JHAF crazies never thought possible.

The story and video is in Freeskier’s latest post.

Sheriff switch OK

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Over the hill, the contentious political season hasn’t escaped Teton Valley voters, but it’s not Trump, Sanders, and Clinton that have dominated headlines of late. It’s their county sheriff, Tony Liford, who has made the news in Idaho papers like the Post Register and Idaho Reporter.

Liford switched his party affiliation at the filing deadline after serving as Teton County, Idaho’s sheriff for eight years as a Democrat. County Clerk Mary Lou Hansen struck Liford’s name from the Republican primary ballot after discovering an obscure 1997 law which required incumbents to file for party switches at least five days before the deadline.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst agreed with Hansen’s decision to remove Liford but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction last week that would put Liford back on the ballot.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale said, “…it sounded like strained logic” in her 23-page ruling. The judge commended Hansen for a commendable job attempting to interpret the law but ultimately she said, “[Hansen’s] interpretation must yield in favor of the Constitutional rights at issue.”

Sex-Ed speaker stirs it up School district trustees are currently embroiled in a controversy over the cancellation of noted Christian abstinence speaker Shelly Donahue after some in the community protested her upcoming talk at the high school.

Objection over Donahue’s qualifications and affiliation with religious factions prompted several vocal community members to pressure the board to cancel Donahue in the interest of maintaining a separation of church and state.

Donahue appeared last year at Summit High School without issue. TCSD No. 1 board of trustees will discuss the matter at their regularly scheduled meeting tonight. The story played out in local papers and appeared on Wyoming Public Radio.

Jobless rate jumps in Wyoming

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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.

Wyoming’s unemployment rate continues to climb as energy extraction companies are facing increasingly tough times. Massive layoffs at Black Thunder and North Antelope Rochelle coal mines, along with the announcement on April 13 that the nation’s largest coal mine, Peabody Energy, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, spurred another jump in unemployment.

The state’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.2 percent in March—a 1.3 percent increase compared with last year and the highest jobless rate in Wyoming since 2012.

Last month’s report marked the first time since 2000 that the Cowboy State’s unemployment rate was higher than the national average.

Casper Star Tribune also reported that April’s numbers may be worse still. PJH

The Internet’s Promise Fulfilled (for Men, Anyway)

NEWS OF THE

WEIRD

Japan’s Tenga toy company appears to be first on the market with a virtual reality bodysuit (for use with the Oculus Rift “Sexy Beach Premium Resort” 3-D game) containing a genital stimulator and the sensation of “groping” breasts—sending “impulses all over the wearer’s body to make it feel like another human being is touching them,” according to one reviewer (who expressed dismay that the bodysuit might put sex workers out of business). Said Tenga’s CEO, “In the future, the virtual real will become more real than actual real sex.” Because of societal pressures, women are expected to be a less-robust market for the device than men.

Grown-Ups

In March, one District of Columbia government administrative law judge was charged with misdemeanor assault on another. Judge Sharon Goodie said she wanted to give Judge Joan Davenport some files, but Davenport, in her office, would not answer the door.

Goodie said once the door finally opened, an enraged Davenport allegedly “lunged” at her, “aiming” her thrust at Goodie’s neck. n Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Durham has such a reputation as a “dog” around women working at the capitol that the house speaker issued a directive in April relocating Durham’s office to a less-populated building across the street. Further, Durham is allowed access only to certain legislative meetings and to certain staff (i.e., no free-ranging among female staff members).

After interviewing 34 people, the state attorney general said he believed that Rep. Durham’s unwanted sexual approaches and commentaries were impeding legislative business.

Awesome Governments!

Chinese courts (according to figures reported by Amnesty International in March) dispense justice so skillfully that more than 99.9 percent of cases result in convictions (1,039 acquittals in 1.2 million cases last year).

Leading Economic Indicators

n New Jersey is a big state, but when just one man decided to move away, the state legislature’s budget office director warned that the loss of that man’s taxes might lead to state revenue problems. Billionaire hedge-

n Among the names chosen for Internet start-up ventures (although—face it—the more sensible names are already taken): Houzz (home design and remodeling), Kabam (online interactive game company, formerly “Watercooler Inc.”), Klarna (e-commerce company that pays the store for your purchases and then collects from you), MuleSoft (makes software to integrate applications) and Kabbage (makes small-business loans online).

Wired magazine reported in February that those ventures, and two dozen other inexplicably named startups, are all “unicorns”—with investors pledging at least $1 billion to each one.

The Job of the Researcher

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Researchers already knew that masked birch caterpillars “rub hairs on their rear ends against a leaf to create vibrations,” according to an April National Geographic report, but a forthcoming article by Carleton University biologists describes that “drumming” as actually part of their “sophisticated signaling repertoire” to attract others—not for mating but for assistance in spinning their protective silk cocoons. The researchers’ “laser vibrometer” detects sound likely inaudible to humans, but when the caterpillars feed, it’s clearly, said one researcher, “Chomp, chomp, chomp, anal scrape.

Chomp, chomp, chomp, anal scrape.”

Police Report

According to surveillance video, a man broke into a Five Guys restaurant in Washington, D.C., in the middle of the night on March 18, cooked himself a cheeseburger and fled. n Ellis Battista, 24, was arrested for the February breakin at Bradley’s convenience store in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in which he took only a pack of cigarettes—for which he left $6 on the counter. (However, he also damaged the door getting in.)

Undignified Deaths

A 69-year-old man was killed on March 17 while awaiting emergency care at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina. He had been seriously injured in an earlier accident and was in the waiting room when a 59-year-old driver’s car crashed through the hospital doors and fatally struck him. n A 55-year-old man was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 23 when a 15-foot trailer came loose and crashed into him on a sidewalk. The deceased, who had a lengthy criminal record for sexual assault, might have avoided the trailer if he had not been distracted by watching pornography on his phone as he walked.

Least Competent Criminals

Amanda Schweickert, 28, was charged with a felony and three driving offenses in March in Springville, New York, when deputies noticed that her rear license plate was just a piece of cardboard painted to sort of resemble a New York plate (but more likely suggesting the work of an elementary school art class). (New York also requires a front plate, but Schweickert had not gotten around to that yet.)

Thanks this week to Steve Dunn, Neb Rodgers, and Larry Neer, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

APRIL 27, 2016 | 9

“Who’s a Good Dog?”/”Yes, You Are”: Some are just blessed with doggy charisma, say owners who showcase their pet’s charm on “personal” social media accounts, and now specialized marketers scour those sources to match the most popular pooches with advertisers seeking just the right four-legged companion for their image. As The Wall Street Journal reported in April, entrepreneurial dog owners have rushed to create popular Instagram accounts and Facebook posts (and now, even to put their photogenic pups on a live-streaming app called Waggle) to catch agents’ eyes (and, they hope, lead to four- and five-figure paydays from such advertisers as Nikon, PetSmart, Residence Inn and Heinz).

fund manager David Tepper evidently pays a bundle, and the budget office director pointed out that the state’s reliance on personal income taxes means that even a 1 percent drop in anticipated tax could create a gap of $140 million under forecasts.

TRAIL CLOSURES STILL IN EFFECT!

Please respect wildlife and stay out of closed areas.

Know before you go: JHAlliance.org/DontPoach

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n During its first 33 years (through 2012), the U.S. government’s applications for secret search warrants to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have been approved all but 11 times out of 33,900 cases. (FISC defenders say that is because all requests are finely honed by guidance from the judges, but of course, both the Chinese and U.S. numbers, and reasoning, are, by designation, unverifiable.)

By CHUCK SHEPHERD

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

10 | APRIL 27, 2016

ou know someone who’s had an abortion. No doubt about it. In fact, if you’re a woman living in America, there’s a one-in-three chance that you will have at least one in your lifetime. It’s that common.

Not sure if you know someone? It makes sense that you wouldn’t know whether professional colleagues, casual acquaintances or distant relatives have experienced one or not—it’s one of “those things we don’t talk about,” along with sex and menstruation and fertility and the kinds of information that actually helps avoid the need for abortion (but I digress). What you may not realize is that the same social stigma keeps even those closest to you—your mother, sister, partner, daughter, close friend—from telling you, as well.

And why haven’t they told you? Women are routinely judged, shamed and labeled regarding choices they make about their bodies, sexuality and autonomy; the way we treat abortion in our society is a prime example. This very stigma is what needs to change. Women have abortions. Good women have abortions. And their stories need to be heard.

In an effort to do just that, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU) invited me to host its annual Roe v. Wade anniversary celebration, with a focus on storytelling. And this past Jan. 23, on the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationally, we did just that: We threw a party to tell and listen to abortion stories.

Six women, from all walks of life and with varied experiences, took the stage that night. It turned out to be more beautiful and powerful than I could have hoped for. It was most certainly a night to remember for everyone involved.

The intention was to shine a light on these particular stories, experience them together as a community and then share them far and wide, so they can reach those who need to hear them most.

What you’ll find in the pages ahead are excerpts of the stories told on stage that night.

Y

Six Western women bravely tell their abortion stories.

By Giuliana Serena Photos by Erin Wyness

From the editor’s desk

Recently, I received an email from a distraught woman requesting my help. She told me her friend (perhaps it was her?) had made the decision to have an abortion. That the woman had done her research, considered all her options, but ultimately she made the toughest choice of her life. Yet, despite being clear on the trajectory now set before her, she struggled to find unbiased information and a local abortion provider (there are just two in the valley, and another that performs the service but doesn’t advertise it). The adversity she faced, the woman said, deeply exacerbated her already distraught, fragile state.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard of the obstacles local women face when considering such a personal decision. I tasked a reporter to dig up information on what women in Jackson Hole endure when considering an abortion. What my reporter and I encountered was dogged reluctance across the board. Local organizations and abortion providers were hesitant or altogether unwilling to talk to us. This area’s hushed abortion culture is hurting local women in a state that is even less friendly for women’s reproductive rights. NARAL Pro Choice America gives the Equality State a “D” for the options it offers women.

Wyoming, NARAL notes, is among states restricting abortion coverage to women that are on Medicaid and other public healthcare programs.

The state also has a “refusal law,” which typically allows hospitals, health care providers, pharmacists, and insurance companies to refuse to provide, pay for, counsel to, or even refer patients for medical treatment.

As women’s rights crumble in places like Afghanistan and India, where victims of rape are punished, here in the United States, presidential candidate Donald Trump has said women who seek abortion should be “subject to punishment.”

Ironically, Trump is espousing the same ideals championed by some of the people he demonizes. But while Trump’s maniacal diatribes are laughable—or just plain shocking—to most of us, they represent a rising level of ignorance and sexism that we cannot brush off or glaze over.

This week The Planet is running the story “Voices of Choice,” originally published in this paper’s sister publication, Salt Lake City Weekly. Although NARAL Pro Choice America gives Utah an “F” for the reproductive rights and services it affords Utah women, the state’s thriving SLC metropolis has a populace that is finding courage to share their stories. I hope that some of these courageous voices will help strip away the stigma that discourages us from talking here.

– Robyn Vincent

A Roe v. Wade Party

It’s a dark and cold night in late January, and Publik Coffee Roasters on West Temple is aglow, filled to the brim with nearly 400 lively guests eagerly anticipating an evening of community and storytelling while enjoying cocktails and appetizers.

The feeling is electric; people are genuinely excited and happy to be there. It’s a good party. Any fears whatsoever of it being odd to have a party and tell abortion stories is long gone.

Once we’re ready for stories, everyone has a seat and a hush falls over the crowd.

It’s a time for reflection about what each one of us believes. You probably have deeply held beliefs about abortion. Speeches and vitriol from someone with an opposing view is unlikely to sway you; in fact, they might just have the opposite effect.

But stories? They have the power to change us. When we hear someone speak from the heart, with conviction and vulnerability about their lived experience, we are much more likely to be moved. So, it’s brave to be the one telling a story, and it’s brave to really listen (or read one), especially if it challenges your deeply held beliefs.

Joi 39, Digital Media Consultant

“I have a confession to make: It is really hard being a robot living amongst all you humans,” Joi said.

“That is to say that I am, by default, a hyper-rational, non-emotional kind of person. But I’ve developed a lot of coping mechanisms to deal with it for myself, but mostly for all of you. I practice how to act like a normal person, and I’ve gotten quite good at it. Some people actually consider me an extrovert, or a people person.

“So when I found out that I was pregnant, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I was 28 years old, living the ideal Chicago urban life … at the beginning of what has turned out to be a really successful career.

“I was in my dating phase that I affectionately call my “’80s Bully Phase” because they were all tall, blond and jerks. If you can picture the blond guy from The Karate Kid—yeah, that was my type.”

What Joi and the “’80s Bully” had in common was that neither wanted commitment. Joi was at the beginning of an upward trajectory and didn’t want to be tied down by relationship or family quite yet.

It was fall, and she didn’t feel right. She was overeating and feeling nauseous. She had just switched from the pill to NuvaRing, and wasn’t using backup protection in the interim. Her friends thought she was just stressed, but she knew she was pregnant and went to see her gynecologist.

Her doctor confirmed her suspicion but because of the religious affiliations of the hospital she had to seek treatment elsewhere. She made an appointment with the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic.

The actual experience of the abortion was relatively simple for Joi. She was expecting to be greeted by protesters, but the streets were clear. The clinic felt safe and welcoming, and she appreciated the care they showed her. The staff took her through a psych evaluation and provided a volunteer companion during the procedure. All in all, she said, it ended up feeling like a typical doctor’s visit. In fact, it didn’t stop her from taking off for a weekend getaway with the responsible “’80s Bully,” who picked her up when she was done.

The most transformative part of Joi’s story came about a week after the procedure when she gathered her girlfriends together to tell them what she had done. She had been dreading it, as some of her friends were conservative leaning, and one in particular was

JOI

struggling to conceive.

“I have a really bad habit of speaking super nonchalantly about topics that other people find very traumatic. I didn’t want to accidentally mention it in casual conversation and upset any of them. So, I put out some wine and cheese, raised a glass, and braced myself to tell them what I had done,” she said.

“I had an abortion,” she announced.

At first, they stared blankly. Then they asked some questions, but none were horrified as she had feared.

She was taken aback at first, and then the stress just melted away and they spent the rest of the evening talking casually about reproduction, politics and their experiences. Some had stronger emotions than others, but they were totally accepting of Joi’s ambivalence.

“And what they really, really clarified for me was I

DelAnne 37, Full-time mom

DelAnne took the stage to share what was the most tearful story of the night. With her toddler daughter, Presley, in her arms, she sang a song from her childhood: “When I grow up, I want to be a mother and have a family. One little, two little, three little babies of my own/ When I grow up, I want to be a mother and have a family. Four little, five little, six little babies of my own.”

She continued, “No matter what I say today, [Presley] is my reason for supporting Planned Parenthood. And my reason for supporting everyone’s choice.”

DelAnne decided she would be a mom when she was three years old. Raised in an LDS home, she knew she would wait to start her family until being married in the temple.

In her senior year of high school, she was an honors student, had the lead in a musical and was in a great relationship with her boyfriend of three years. He wasn’t LDS, and he knew she wanted to wait until marriage. He didn’t pressure her into having sex.

But one fateful day, in a fit of hormonal rage after a fight at home, she called him up and told him they were going to have sex. And they did. Only afterward did it even occur to her they hadn’t used protection.

In school, they’d both had abstinence-only education, and she had never even seen a condom.

Still, DelAnne knew she needed to take action and had heard about Plan B, also known as the “Morning-After Pill,” which is most effective when taken within 72 hours after intercourse.

It wasn’t available over-the-counter at that time, so her boyfriend couldn’t pick it up for her.

Because of her work schedule, she was well into Day 3 before she made it to a pharmacy.

After a few days, when she still hadn’t gotten her period, she knew she was pregnant.

She and her boyfriend wanted to get married someday and “do it right,” as she says, and have a family. To have the best chance of making that happen in the future, they chose to have an abortion. She initially wanted to go to the Planned Parenthood clinic, but they wouldn’t let her boyfriend join her in the room for the el nne

D A

Chelsea 40, Account-Development Specialist

procedure, so they went to another facility. Once there, her boyfriend came back with her, but they sent him out for the initial exam and never let him back in.

“It’s the closest thing that I’ve experienced to what I can only imagine sexual assault is like,” she said. “Nobody explained anything.”

It was so upsetting to her, in fact, she experienced post-traumatic stress syndrome and became suicidal. Getting through all that, she and her boyfriend eventually did get married, though they separated and divorced a couple of years later.

“And we got pregnant again right when our divorce was final. And I was suicidal. So, I made another choice and, that time, my choice was to live because I knew that if I didn’t survive, it wouldn’t matter.”

She had a second abortion, and she and her husband went their separate ways. Still, she wanted nothing more than to be a mother.

Eventually, she remarried, and at 35, with steady employment and health insurance, decided she was finally ready to start a family. Then she got pregnant. She experienced what is often called a “missed” or “silent” miscarriage, known medically as a “missed abortion.” Essentially, the fetus is no longer viable, but her body didn’t expel it. And though the process would likely complete on its own within several weeks’ time (but, in some cases, it needs intervention regardless), she didn’t feel mentally or emotionally stable to wait. She asked her doctor for a pill to help move it along.

“And he looked at me so weird,” she said, “and now I realize, it’s because, technically, I was terminating another pregnancy.”

But that’s what DelAnne ended up doing.

“And now,” DelAnne said, “I have Presley. And her pregnancy was really hard. I barely made it through. But every single choice I made, including the day [I took] that pill to [getting] my miscarriage out, it made [Presley] who she is. And damn, I’m grateful. So, thank you everyone for sticking up for everyone’s choices, my daughter’s choice.”

DelAnne ended with another song, dedicated to her daughter: I set out a narrow way, many years ago.

Hoping I would find true love, along the broken road.

But I got lost a time or two, wiped my brow, kept pushing through.

Because I didn’t see how every sign pointed straight to you.

Because every long, lost dream led me to where you are, And others who broke my heart, they were like Northern Stars, Pointing me on my way, into your loving arms.

This much I know is true, That God blessed the broken road That led me straight to you.

options. I’d had my faithful IUD removed about a year earlier, and I told him it was his turn, it was the man’s turn to be in charge of the birth control.

“He did not want to have a vasectomy,” she continued, “which, of course, brought up, ‘Well, what if we get pregnant?’ And I said, ‘I really hoped that I would have another child one day.’ And he said, ‘I’m not really sure what I want,’ which means, I heard: ‘It’s OK if we get pregnant.’”

APRIL 27, 2016 | 11

CHELSEA

On their one-year anniversary they had unprotected sex and Chelsea became pregnant. She was ecstatic. He wasn’t. He didn’t want the baby.

“I was devastated. My whole world ended. Reality ceased to exist. This isn’t like when you drop the glass in the sink and it breaks into three or four pieces, and you can pick it up and throw it away and move it on. It’s fine.

This was dropping your favorite bottle of perfume and it shattering all over the floor, and you find pieces in corners months and years later, and the smell is forever ruined.”

They argued for a couple of weeks and, eventually, he told her that he couldn’t promise they would stay together. She felt strongly she did not want to raise a child without support nor did she want to give a child up, so she had the procedure done. They never talked about it. A few months later he moved out and she built up a really big, emotional wall around herself.

“I was very angry,” Chelsea said. “And I grieved a lot for my two boys, for the loss of self, for the self of future, for the loss of reality. And then one day, I was scrolling through Facebook, and I saw that Gov. Herbert had made an executive decision to defund Planned Parenthood in Utah. And I was furious.

“I tore down that wall. And I said, ‘No more.’ This is my choice. My abortion was my choice. This is my life, not my mother’s. And that is the day that I was born.”

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

“For a very long time, I lived with a dichotomy of two selves,” Chelsea began. “On one hand, I was very curious about the world. I loved fantasy and wanted to know the answer to every ‘why’ question. And I firmly believed that I would be invited to live on the first space station or on the moon one day. On the other hand, I wanted to be the good girl. And I learned how to be her by watching my mom. I was going to grow up to be a mom. I was going to have kids. I was going to get married and have the perfect little house and the perfect little life.

“At 18, I was married. By 19, I was pregnant. But by 25, I was divorced twice with two sons, no family support and nowhere to go. I gave up my two sons, and I went on the road. I answered all of those ‘whys,’ and I traveled the country. I met wonderful people, and I saw lots of amazing things.

“And then about five years ago, I found myself back in Utah. I was on good-girl territory [and] was going to do it right this time. This was going to be the Second Coming of Chelsea. I met the perfect guy—he had the scruffy beard and the little nerdy glasses. He was enough of a sarcastic jerk that I knew I could be totally honest with him. And, as the relationship progressed, we discussed birth-control

didn’t need to feel guilty about not feeling guilty,” she said.

“I realized that day that while some people have very, very strong emotions that are very, very valid surrounding their decision to terminate, there’s a lot of people who are like me, and our stories don’t really get to be heard that often.

“Because I’m not actually a robot,” she finally admitted.

“I’m a normal person just like all of you.”

Leah 19, Student and Planned Parenthood Organizer

Leah’s story begins when she was just 14, living in Manhattan’s Upper West Side—a high-end part of town. A junior at a magnet high school (she’d skipped two grades), she was adamant about going to college, certain that it would get her everything she needed in life. Her parents had split—her mother lived in another state, and her father spent most of his time with his long-term girlfriend. Even though she was quite young, she mostly took care of herself.

“By the time I was in third grade,” she told the audience, “I could go to and from school by myself, and go home with my friends and make my own social calendar. By the time I was 10, I had smoked weed for the first time. By the time I was 11, I got drunk with my friends for the first time. And when I was 13—like most of my friends as far as I knew—I had sex for the first time.

“But now, I’m pregnant. I’m just another teen who’s knocked up, and I’m a statistic who does not want to be one. I know what I need to do, I know that I need an abortion.”

Leah went to a friend for advice. “‘It’s really easy,’” her friend told her. All she needed to do was go downtown to Planned Parenthood. “‘Tell them you’re a student … you do drugs … you make no money—it’s fine. You just need to be honest with them if they’re going to help you.’”

The next day, instead of going to school, Leah took the downtown train to the Margaret Sanger Center. She filled out her personal history form, “with [an] honesty I did not know I still had in me,” she admitted. “Yes, I’m a drug user; yes, I smoke. Yes, I have felt unsafe before with people I’ve been in relationships with. And I went through a lot of doors that day based on the answers to those questions.

“So, yes, I had a non-traumatic medical procedure of an abortion,” Leah said. “And in addition to that, I talked to a nice woman who gave me patches so I could stop smoking.

I also talked to a nice man who was the first person to really make me think about my drug use. And I got into a crisis intervention, adolescent drug treatment program that I didn’t even need parental consent for, that I could start downtown. And I had safe places to go that another woman told me about. And at the end of all that, they even gave me a medical excuse note so I could go back to school.

“I moved on. It was tough for a while. Things didn’t get better for a little bit, but then they did, and it kept getting better. And it keeps getting better. I got out of that relationship, I got off those drugs, and I graduated high school. I used the money that I had been saving to go to Chile, and I learned Spanish. Then I finally got my dream, and I

started at Westminster College.

“And it did really launch me into the life that I was looking for. Salt Lake City had all of the resources that I wanted, and I started my public-health program.”

Leah got involved with Planned Parenthood and created a Students for Choice chapter at her school. She then started interning at the Planned Parenthood affiliate and, just before Christmas 2015, was named to the National Board of Young People serving the Planned Parenthood Federation.

“I’m just so grateful that Planned Parenthood thought that I, at 14, was a person worth preserving. I’m just so lucky to have such a fulfilling life that they brought within my reach … a life that I get to share with a beautiful woman and something that I just didn’t think was going to be possible for me as a young teen,” Leah said.

Kara 26, Clinical Assistant

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

12 | APRIL 27, 2016

LEAH

KARA

About her mother, Kara says, “Sofía Vergara’s character [from Modern Family] is my mother to a ‘T.’” “My mother is Gloria,” she said, “but she’s also very LDS. So not only did she always put the fear of God in me, but she also was very superstitious; she believed in black magic. I believed that anything that I did, any sin that I would commit, not only was I going to be damned to hell, but I would have bad luck for the rest of my life.

“Growing up, I was really awkward. I had a back brace, I wasn’t very cute, I couldn’t talk to anybody, and I just loved reading and ... music.

“So when my mom sat me down in my back brace to talk about sex,” Kara says, “I was completely mortified. And not only that, she couldn’t say the word ‘sex;’ she called it ‘chakachaka.’”

Kara didn’t get a very comprehensive education about sex.

Eventually, she got out of her back brace and she blossomed, though she still felt awkward inside. After high school, she met someone who took her breath away.

“He was like the hot guy from all the movies, and he finally learned that the nerdy girl was cool and, like, kind of cute,” she said.

They started dating and were immediately infatuated with one another. “We’re gonna be together forever,” she thought.

It wasn’t long before they had sex. And as quickly as things got serious, they got dangerous, though she didn’t realize it at the time.

He became paranoid, incessantly calling and texting her.

She said it went from, “Hey, why aren’t you answering me?” [to] “You’re sleeping with somebody. You’re such a slut,” to “‘Babe, I love you so much. Please just answer my call, I want to be with you forever.”

One day, he showed up at her house and demanded she get in his car. They began arguing and he stopped abruptly, “So

you’re going to end things with me?” she recalls him asking.

“I’m trying to be brave and stand up for myself and, as he’s saying that, the hairs on my neck and my arms kind of stand up,” Kara remembered. “Before I can finish saying, ‘Yes,’ he totally backhands me and breaks my nose. And all I remember in that moment was just a pop, and a flash of white. And the next thing I knew, we were still driving around, and I was kind of in shock. I just have blood everywhere.”

The next morning, it’s clear her nose was broken. Her lip was busted, and her face was black and blue and swollen. Her family knew exactly what happened. Over the course of the next few days, she started getting sick and decided to take a pregnancy test. When the test came back positive, Kara was heartbroken—not only to be pregnant, but also to be tied to an abuser she wanted nothing to do with anymore. She was emotionally distraught and didn’t know what to do.

A couple of days later, she was lying in bed after school, staring at the ceiling, when her mother appeared by her side.

“She grabbed my hand, and she just looked at me. She said, very calmly, ‘Kara, I know that you’re pregnant. You are my daughter. I hurt when you hurt. And I love you because I know you.’”

Kara was dumbfounded by her mother’s insight. She hadn’t told anybody nor had she taken the pregnancy test at home.

She stormed out of the house and met up with her boyfriend.

She told him she was pregnant. He responded by punching her in the stomach, saying he didn’t want her to have the baby anyway. Kara reluctantly returned home. With one look at her mother, she knew what would happen. Her mother took her to have her abortion, and she forever cut ties with her exboyfriend.

“Thanks to my mother, she gave me a voice when I didn’t have a voice,” Kara said. “Thanks to the amazing clinic, staff, that made me feel human for the first time in the six months since I had started seeing that guy. I’ll never be more grateful for anything in my entire life.”

Kara now works at Planned Parenthood.

An audience enrapt in stories

36, OB/GYN physician

Epilogue

As our night comes to an end, we are reminded of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go in securing women’s basic right of autonomy and decision-making power over our bodies. In the current political climate, and with critical court cases being argued across the country, those of us advocating for women’s rights have our work cut out for us.

I myself was truly grateful to be a part of it and—if you’ve read this far—that we have been able to share a piece of it with you. It simply would not have been possible without our brave storytellers and enthusiastic audience, the organizational efforts of Planned Parenthood, especially Kate Kelly and Emily Andrews, Elna Baker of This American Life and The Moth for coaching our storytellers at our workshops in December, and Leah Hayes, author of “Not Funny Ha Ha,” for her visual storytelling workshop.

As for final words, I’ll leave you with the closing remarks from PPAU president/CEO Karrie Galloway, “Make sure the sex you have tonight is good, safe and consensual.”

PJH Giuliana Serena is a ceremonialist & ritesof-passage facilitator (MoonTimeRising.com), and “Beekeeper” and co-founder of The Bee: True Stories from the Hive (TheBeeSLC.org).

Learn more about Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and get involved at PPAU.org.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

GIULIANA SERENA

APRIL 27, 2016 | 13

Leah T. was the final storyteller of the night. As a physician providing abortion services to Planned Parenthood, she offered a unique perspective.

“So once I finish the abortion,” Leah said, describing the care she gave to one particular patient, “I told her what I typically tell all of my patients: ‘The procedure is done, everything went really well, and you did really great.’ And then [this patient] burst into tears.”

Up to that point, Leah’s day had been pretty typical—waking up, drinking coffee in the kitchen, scrolling through Twitter. She read tweets with messages like, “thanks for all you do,” and “you’re my ‘shero,’” and “I hate you, you baby killer. #butcher.”

That’s all par for the course for Leah T. Every day as she arrives at work she’s confronted by the familiar faces of protesters who stand outside the clinic. Some have signs that say, “Pray to End Abortion” and “Stop the Murder;” some have small children in tow, even in rainy, 40-degree weather.

But she drives past and goes inside. She’s greeted with smiles—actual smiles— because everyone working at the clinic loves being of service. She sits at her computer and looks over the day’s schedule. It’s made up of “abstract things, like how many weeks and what kind of procedure,” Leah says.

Through the course of her day, the names of strangers become real people as they enter her office, sharing real stories of their lives with her. “It’s an amazingly unique privilege,” she says, “and I love it. It’s fantastic.”

After seeing a number of patients, she found herself with the one who burst into tears. And at that moment, her heart sank, and she wondered, “What have I done? What’s just happened?” She asked her patient if she was all right, or in pain.

Through tears, her patient reassured her, “You know, I’m OK. It’s not you, it’s them.”

Leah knew who her patient was referring to: the protesters outside. Before she could respond, the young woman continued, “They don’t know me. They know nothing about my situation. How dare they judge me for doing what’s best for me and my family?”

Leah replied, “I really commend you for doing that, and for being here and doing what’s best for you. I think that that’s an amazing thing. Take your time. Go ahead and get dressed; we’ll take you to the recovery room.”

The young woman left, and Leah continued to see other patients. At the end of the day, she drove past the same protesters as before, knowing she would see them again, if not on the sidewalk, then on her Twitter feed, or at the Planned Parenthood rallies, or in the legislative offices. The very next day, she got up as usual, and sat with her coffee to scroll through Twitter.

One tweet stood out: “LeahTorresMD abortionist is a sick, evil, twisted person with no conscience and no savior. You will burn in hell for murdering babies.” The poster added: “…and because you don’t value life, I don’t value yours. So forgive me if I don’t cry if you are ever killed by another murderer.”

Most of her friends are frightened by such statements, but Leah sees them differently. She knows that trolls want to shame her with the fear of damnation.

But Leah isn’t dissuaded in the least. “In the end,” she says, “this vitriol, this hate, it strengthens my resolve to provide the compassionate care that people not only need, but they also deserve.”

CARA STOTT

Leah T.

Leah T.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

14 | APRIL 27, 2016

the latest happenings in jackson hole

CREATIVE PEAKS In-house and Homemade

BY KELSEY DAYTON

I

t is a rite of passage for every dancer at Dancers’ Workshop and it was something sophomore Hailey Barlow thought about for years. She contemplated the music, the movement, and even the inspiration.

Starting their sophomore year, members of the Junior Repertory Company choreograph their own dances set on fellow company members. They also shoulder all the work of putting on a full production from the lightning design to the advertising.

That effort comes to fruition this weekend in the New Dances/New Choreographers show, this year called “Reflections,” that runs this weekend.

“We really focus on making dancers complete artists,” said Cady Cox, co-director of the Junior Repertory Company.

Cox said it’s rare for dance students in high school to have opportunities to choreograph. For those that plan on pursuing dance after high school, the experience gives them an edge. It benefits all the dancers, giving them perspective on what it’s like to be on the other side of a production and helps them hone in on their own style.

“You become a better dancer when you are also a choreographer,” Cox said.

Students learn the basics of choreography in class before working on the performance pieces. The show features a pointe piece, several modern and contemporary pieces and even an acro dance piece showcasing the dancer’s flexibility.

This year many of the dances are introspective, Cox said.

Caroline Kucera, a sophomore at the Jackson Hole Community School, choreographed a piece inspired by self-deprecation, and how being hard on oneself can have toxic effects, Kucera explained. The contemporary piece features five dancers and movement Kucera describes as having a “heavy” quality to it. The dancers will perform in front of a mirror and at one point use it to size themselves up.

It was something all the dancers in the piece could relate to on some level, and she thinks it will resonate with the audience.

Choreographing the piece gave her a new

DANCERS’ WORKSHOP

pjhcalendar.com

Dancers learn what it takes to stage a production, beginning to end.

Members of the Junior Repertory Company are selling prints they created on canvas, like this one of the seniors in the company, Bean Shindell, Sydney Bryan, Noelle Huser, and Dylan Anderson. skill set beyond learning just how to put movement together. She learned to make decisions, trust her gut, and take control of her rehearsals, she said.

Dancers also learn important skills applicable beyond dance, like how to write a press release and create an advertising plan, as well as lighting design and choosing music, said Lyndsey Larson, co-director of the company.

The students also created a photography fundraiser this year. They took photographs and printed them on canvas. The dance images are for sale and proceeds will benefit the company. The prints on canvas start at $100, and small photographs cost $25.

Studio No. 2 at Dancers’ Workshop opens at 5 p.m. Friday. It will be set up like a gallery with the photographs of the dancers on the walls for sale. Refreshments will also be served. In addition to the student pieces, the company will perform an athletic, high-energy piece created by guest choreographer Lawrence Jackson at 8 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m.

Saturday. The senior dancers of the company will also unveil a surprise piece they created together.

As for Barlow, as a sophomore at Jackson Hole High School this year, she finally got to create the piece she’d thought about for years. Like she imagined, she decided to create a piece for only a few dancers. She also went with the style where she envisioned

putting her dancers on pointe.

The piece is a contemporary trio and while the three dancers are on pointe, the style is far from traditional ballet, she said.

Her regular classes throughout her career at Dancers’ Workshop inspired the piece.

Classes provide evaluations noting where students are excelling and how they can improve. Barlow received the same correction for years.

“They said, ‘take a risk, go beyond your boundaries,’” she said.

She stretched herself, taking creative risks as she created the piece she says is fast and dynamic.

While she’d envisioned her piece for years, she was surprised at how quickly the process moved and how complicated it can be creating movement to convey an idea “I always imagined it simpler—like a leap and a kick,” she said. “Now, not so much.

I have a lot more empathy for choreographers.” PJH

New Dances/New Choreographers “Reflections, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday at Dancers’ Workshop Studio No. 1. $10 students, $25 adults.

THIS WEEK: April 27-May 3, 2016

WEDNESDAY APR. 27

n Money Smart 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Victor, Free, 208-7872201 n Kindergarten Information Nights 6:00pm, Jackson Elementary School, Free, 307-733-2164 n Wednesday Community Dinner 6:00pm, Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, , 307-734-0388 n Donation Dry Needling Clinic 6:30pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, Suggested $15.00, 307-699-7480 n Tavern Trivia 7:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886 n Mastery & Energy Healing - An Important Path To Wholeness 7:00pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, Free, 307-699-7480 n Introduction to Transcendental Meditation 7:00pm, TM Center, Free, 307690-5727 n Auditions for Annual Series of Shorts 7:30pm, 545 N. Cache, suite 3, Free, 307-203-9067 n KHOL Presents: Vinyl Night 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, Free, 307-733-1500

THURSDAY APR. 28

n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Joint Replacement Class 8:00am, Moose Wapiti Classroom in basement of St. John’s, Free, 307-739-6199 n Mediation Training 8:00am, UW Extension Office/ 4-H Bldg, $225.00, 307-7333087 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 Lunchtime Learning: Medicare 12:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 n Introduction to Transcendental Meditation 12:00pm, TM Center, Free, 307690-5727 n Cribbage 1:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Driggs, Free, 208-354-5522 n High/Middle School Mountain Bike Team Event 3:00pm, Stilson Lot, Free, 307413-1998 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 Mosaic Madness 4:15pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $60.00, 307-7336349 n Dinner with a Doc/Dinner with a Doc 5:00pm, Senior Center of Jackson Hole, $8.00, 307-733-7300 n Central Wyoming College Jackson Chamber Mixer 5:00pm, Center for the Arts, Free, 307-201-2309 n TRA Classical Expo and Open House 5:30pm, Timber Ridge Academy, Free, 307-200-9564 n Collograph 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $35.00, 307-7336379 n Stained Glass - Design with Light 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $160.00, 307733-6379 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n Improv Class for Adults and Teens 6:00pm, Black Box Theater, $200.00, 307-733-3021 n Humanists of Jackson Hole Exploratory Meeting 6:00pm, Jackson Whole Grocer Community Room, Free n Intermediate Throwing 6:00pm, Art Association, $170.00 - $204.00, 307-7336379 n Equality State Policy Center Happy Hour 6:00pm, The Spence Law Firm, Free, 970-690-4354

APRIL 27, 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 Mediation Training 8:00am, UW Extension Office/ 4-H Bldg, $225.00, 307-7333087 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 Beginning Throwing Daytime 11:00am, Ceramics Studio, $165.00 - $198.00, 307-7336379 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 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 Tips for Jackson Hole Gardenes 6:00pm, Teton Recreation Center, $15.00, 307-739-9025 n Beginning Throwing Hustle 6:00pm, Art Association, $225.00 - $270.00, 307-7336379

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | APRIL 27, 2016

MUSIC BOX

Double Dub and Keyed-up Piano Easy Star All-Stars and Tatanka reggae it up, while BYU-Idaho hosts Alpin Hong.

BY AARON DAVIS @ScreenDoorPorch

W

e all have those certain albums from our younger days that coexist with moments in our lives. They connect us to a generation, and years later those same songs are now timeless reminders of how good it can get. When all the stars line up to produce such a work of art, it can be invigorating as a musician to become intimate with

LEFT: Easy Star All-Stars put rock classics to reggae. RIGHT: Newer reggae jam band Tatanka has dominated download charts. the compositional elements of a masterpiece.

New York City-based Easy Star All-Stars have made a name for themselves by putting a reggae spin to some of the greatest albums of all time—Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Radiohead’s Ok Computer, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Dub Side of the Moon is one of the most popular reggae albums of the last decade and has led the band to six different continents while establishing an international following.

“I probably had heard the entire album straight through, but I really can’t say for sure that I did. I wasn’t someone who said, ‘Hey, let’s go listen to Dark Side of the Moon right now,’” admitted Michael Goldwasser to Live Music Daily. He is a founding member of the band and produced Dub Side of the Moon. “I was somewhat skeptical at first because I didn’t get into making reggae music to do covers of classic rock albums.

We figured the only way to really move into this space with any kind of purpose and legitimacy would be to take an

entire album. The tempo to Dark Side Of The Moon is pretty laid back; a lot of reggae is too, so we didn’t have to take a big leap in tempo.”

Easy Star All-Stars originally formed as a collective of rotating musicians that provided backing to artists that recorded under the Easy Star record label, formed in 1997.

They have released two studio recordings of original music— Until That Day EP (2008) and First Light (2011)—though the niche of recording and touring on well-established compositions had already taken hold.

Show opener Tatanka is coming up on the flip side of the coin. Following the 2010 release of Sounds in Technicolor EP, which has racked up more than 20,000 downloads, 2014’s self-titled debut took the Denver quartet to a new level.

Tatanka rose to number one on the iTunes Reggae Chart and number four on the Billboard Reggae Chart, while the band earned a nomination for Westword Magazine’s “Colorado Reggae/Jam Band of the Year” in 2015. They often incorporate

WEDNESDAY Open Mic Night (Wildlife Brewing in Victor) FRIDAY Easy Star All-Stars with Tatanka (Pink Garter Theatre), Alpin Hong (Barrus Concert Hall in Rexburg), Whiskey Mornin’ (Silver Dollar) SATURDAY Whiskey Mornin’ (Silver Dollar), WyKnotts (Town Square Tavern), Switchback (Bull Moose in Alpine)

It’s not so much what he plays but how he plays it. Alpin Hong brings a physicality to the ivories that must be seen to be appreciated.

Caribbean influences along with electronic, dub and BritAmerican reggae styles. Check out the group’s new single, “Rise.”

Easy Star All-Stars with Tatanka, 9 p.m. Friday at the Pink Garter Theatre. $20-$23. PinkGarterTheatre.com, 733-1500.

The physicality of music Whether performing complex arrangements with one hand, using his knowledge of popular music for comedic effect, or engaging young students with classical music, animated pianist Alpin Young was born for the stage. His voltage is kept high, which explains his forays into extreme sports, martial arts, video games, and, of course, an extensive education in classical music. Among his accomplishments is an orchestral debut with the Kalamazoo Symphony in his native Michigan, a White House performance, and many competition victories including Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2001.

“I have been told that people have enjoyed watching me play as much as listening to me because of my movements,” Hong told The Press-Enterprise. “It’s interesting to note that some of my teachers and judges actually tried to suppress my physicality when I was younger, claiming that it distracted from the performance. But now people are drawn to my concerts because of them.”

Alpin Hong, 7:30 p.m. Friday at Barrus Concert Hall in Rexburg. $6 for BYU-Idaho students, $12 for general public.

BYUI.edu/tickets, 208-496-3170. PJH

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.

mosaic music of

APRIL 27, 2016 | 17

Special art display

by Teton Plein Air Painters

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

a

TUESDAY Bootleg Flyer (Silver Dollar)

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | APRIL 27, 2016

n JH Community Band Rehearsal 7:00pm, Center for the Arts Performing Arts Wing, Free, 307-200-9463 n Auditions for Annual Series of Shorts 7:30pm, 545 N. Cache, suite 3, Free, 307-2039067 n Salsa Night 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500

GET OUT

n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Portrait Drawing Club 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307-733-6379 n Periscope: Live Video Broadcasting for Your Business!

9:00am, Wort Hotel, $40.00, 516-302-6362 n Strollercize 9:00am, Teton Recreation Center, $10.00, 307739-9025 n Workers’ Memorial Day 10:00am, Jackson City Council Chambers, Free, 307-331-7751 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 “Junior Repertory Company - On Stage” 5:00pm, Dancers’ Workshop, Free, 307-7334900 n Friday Night Meditation 6:00pm, Zendler Chiropractic, Free, 307-6998300 n Jackson Youth Hockey Ball 2016: Spring into the Stanley Cup 6:00pm, Spring Creek Ranch, $75.00 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307734-1535 n New Dances/New Choreographers “Reflections” 6:00pm, Dancers’ Workshop Studio 1, $10.00 $25.00, 307-733-4900 n Pam Drews Phillips Plays Jazz 7:00pm, The Granary at Spring Creek Ranch, Free, 307-733-8833 n Whiskey Mornin’ 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n New Dances/New Choreographers “Reflections” 8:00pm, Dancers’ Workshop Studio 1, $10.00 $25.00, 307-733-4900 n Easy Star All-Stars 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, $20.00 - $23.00, 307-733-1500 n WyKnotts 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-7333886

SATURDAY APR. 30

n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 20

ELIZABETH KOUTRELAKOS

FRIDAY APR. 29

Utah State of Mind Smiles abound in St. George—a haven for friendly folk.

BY ELIZABETH KOUTRELAKOS @EKoutrelakos

I

had the opportunity for a brief road trip last week but the weather looked heinous.

Given that it looked rotten in all other directions within a 10-hour drive, my friend suggested St. George, Utah as a destination. I gave in to my perplexed attitude and thought, “Why not?” I’ve only driven by the town once and remembered it being a blink of strip malls on I-15. However, after spending a few days in the area, I realized what a wonderful and nice destination St. George really is.

Upon my arrival, the first couple hours were a bit extreme. It took some time to acclimate to the drivers of St. George. They were completely unpredictable, stopping often with their cars halfway in the road and halfway in the gas station pullout. The turning area is elevated ever so slightly, and it seemed that people preferred to creep over the bump in the path at a snail’s pace. Anywhere, even a green light, was a possible stopping zone, making defensive driving skills an absolute necessity. After a couple training rounds I got used to the unpredictability, even joining with the drivers in their efforts. Once I got to

TOP: Great car camping outside of town. BOTTOM LEFT: Prolific exploration of nooks and crannies.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Limestone crags abound. interact with the people outside of their cars, the town quickly grew on me.

Wherever we wandered, whether it was a gas station or a grocery store, the townspeople there were the nicest people I have ever met! Everywhere was like the Four Seasons.

The friendly values were even reflected in the plethora of free camping sites just one mile outside of town. Climbing was a goal for the trip, so we used the site as a base camp and ventured to other places to climb.

We explored Snow Canyon State Park (in any other area besides Utah it would likely qualify as a national park) and paid the six-dollar entry fee. The attendant stepped out and asked, “Are you guys going climbing?”

We affirmed our tentative plan, so she whipped out a map and told us exactly where to park, where to find the best climbing access, and also gave us information about what areas were currently closed due to nesting birds.

“Have a wonderful time out there,” she said as we drove away.

We got to the base of a short, multi-pitch climb and quickly discovered that there were other people climbing as well. They greeted us with smiles, and asked about our intentions to climb the route. At this point, we were expecting a long wait, or having to go to a Plan B, but no, the niceness continued.

“We don’t want to hold you guys up,” they said. “We have some visiting friends that want to top rope this too. Why don’t you guys just go ahead of us?”

Never in my life have I experienced such kind and selfless climbers. I began

wondering what was in the water.

A long day of glorious climbing worked up our appetites, so we splurged on Thai food. Dirty and sweaty, we made our way to Benja’s Thai Garden. Our hunger prevailed over making time to shower. The hostess greeted us warmly when we walked up.

“Thank you so much for coming in! I was admiring your beautiful dress from the window,” she said.

I kind of felt like the entire town was filled with encouraging friends I had simply yet to meet in my life.

We also explored a limestone climbing area in the Utah Hills. There were a few other people there and, unlike Jackson, where people grimace when strangers approach the “local crag,” the people at the crag welcomed us. They asked us what kind of climbs we were looking for, and directed us to great warm-ups at a grade that we were looking for.

As the locals warmed up on 5.13’s, their positive energy encouraged us on our 5.9. Even the extreme athletes here have no judgment on people of differing ability levels.

During this peaceful time exploring a plethora of limestone, sandstone and basalt cliffs, I began to wonder what Jackson would be like if people acted like they do in St. George. “Hey! Welcome to town. Come to my secret powder stash!” could be as common as, “What did you ski today?”

I’m not exactly sure what makes some towns more welcoming than others but it sure does feel nice to be a visitor amongst nice locals. PJH

See Greece like a local.....

September 26-October 5, 2016 9 Nights hosted by

the Planet’s publisher JohN saltas!

EMAIL JBRIGGS@CITYWEEKLY.NET TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT!

APRIL 27, 2016 | 19

Save time and money with our hosted trip. We know the language and know what to see and what to skip.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

ATHENS, NAXOS, SANTORINI!

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | APRIL 27, 2016

n The Road to Preparedness 72 hours and Beyond 8:00am, Teton County Emergency Operations Center, Free, 307-358-1920 n Adult Oil Painting 10:00am, The Local Galleria, $25.00, 208-270-0883 n Rangeland Science and Local Agriculture Workshop 10:00am, Teton County 4H/ Extension Office, Free, 307367-4380 n ¡Día! Celebrate Children, Culture & Books 11:00am, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $10.00 - $12.00, 307-203-2551 n New Dances/New Choreographers “Reflections” 4:00pm, Dancers’ Workshop Studio 1, $10.00 - $25.00, 307733-4900 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n New Dances/New Choreographers “Reflections” 6:00pm, Dancers’ Workshop Studio 1, $10.00 - $25.00, 307733-4900 n Jackson Hole Juggernauts Roller Derby vs. Pocatello 7:00pm, Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 - $10.00, 307-690-1982 n Concert: “A Night at the Movies” 7:00pm, Center Theater, Free, 307-200-9463 n Whiskey Mornin’ 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n DJ Era 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886

SUNDAY MAY. 1

n First Sundays 9:00am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, 307-743-5424 n A Mosaic of Music 3:00pm, Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church, Free, 307-690-9798 n Taize 6:00pm, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Free, 307-733-2603 n Stagecoach Band 6:00pm, Stagecoach, Free, 307-733-4407 n The Studio Project 8:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, Free, (307) 733-6379

n I Choose to Dance 10:00pm, Transformative Fitness, $20.00 - $120.00

MONDAY MAY. 2

n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Linn Ranch Archaeology Camp 8:00am, Linn Ranch, $120.00, 307-733-2414 n Kindercreations 9:30am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $85.00 - $102.00, 307-733-6379 n Little Hands, Little Feet 11:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $85.00 - $102.00, 307-733-6379 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 Chance Meeting 5:00pm, The Rose, Free n Printmaking 101 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $225.00 $270.00, 307-733-6379 n Beginning Throwing Hustle 6:00pm, Art Association, $225.00 - $270.00, 307-7336379 n DIVE! Documentary Screening 6:00pm, Teton County Library Ordway Auditorium, Free, 720470-0769 n Meet, Make & Roam 6:00pm, Roam, $5.00, 804380-6728

n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Bubble Play 11:30am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Spin 12:10pm, Teton Recreation Center, $8.00, 307-733-5056 n Animals in Art 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $50.00, 307-7336379 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 The Clay Surface: Color & Pattern 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $115.00, 307733-6379 n Language Exchange 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Drawing 101 6:00pm, Art Association, $130.00 - $156.00, 307-7336379 n Analog Photography Basics 6:00pm, Art Association, $195.00 - $235.00, 307-7336379 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, 307-733-3021 n Bootleg Flyer 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-733-2190

TUESDAY MAY. 3

n Fitness & Dance Classes 7:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Linn Ranch Archaeology Camp 8:00am, Linn Ranch, $120.00, 307-733-2414 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library, Free, 733-2164 ext. 118

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM.

ANDREW MUNZ

WELL, THAT HAPPENED

The Swashbuckler The awkward geek transforms into a courageous adventurer.

BY ANDREW MUNZ @andrewmunz

F

or the past four years, I’ve been calling myself an “Aspiring Viking.” I’ve even somehow managed to bypass Facebook’s strict display-name policy, and have had the nickname appear in parentheses, as if it were my maiden name. While I certainly don’t aspire to do any raping or pillaging, the idea of embracing adventure and becoming a seafaring wanderer has appealed to me greatly.

And I attribute my penchant for exploration to my much younger self—the awkward kid who loved climbing trees, using sticks as swords, and playing with action figures in the forest.

I was a swashbuckling book nerd with few friends and a proclivity for trouble.

Now that I’m stationed in Iceland, that sense of adventure is fully alive and surging.

But even though I’m learning the language and eating lamb in every form (eyeballs and all), I’ve questioned whether or not I could ever actually “achieve” Viking status. What does being a Viking mean, and what exactly am I striving for?

For every maturing young person, identity is a key word. Not only does identity define who you are to others, but it’s also an important trait for self-reflection. It’s human nature to yearn to know who we are, and where we place in the grand scheme of things. My adventures to Iceland have awoken a part of me I didn’t know I possessed: a courageous, adventurous side that throws caution to the wind and asks questions later. I’ve come a long way from swinging a stick.

Being so far away from Jackson—a land of adventurers—has also made me reflect on what I wanted out of life that my hometown couldn’t provide. So many people hone in on Jackson as the ultimate adventurer’s getaway.

I get the draw. Not only is the scenery beautiful and accessible but the townsfolk are open,

A midnight sun bleeds through the Icelandic flag on a whale watching boat in Iceland.

curious and caring. Outsiders are welcomed with open arms (unless, of course, you want housing; good fucking luck), and there is a strong sense of community. It’s the perfect place for a twenty-something looking for a comfy, paved backroad detour from the pressures of career, family, and growing up.

I realize that I could have become more of an adventurer in Jackson; maybe gone to the climbing school, applied for wildlife guiding jobs, done some gnarly heli-skiing, etc. But I think because those paths were so close to home, they didn’t have the appeal that, say, becoming an Icelandic whale-watching guide had. While so many people see the multiple opportunities Jackson offers as “good enough,” my mind was always wandering elsewhere: higher mountains, rockier coasts, colder lakes. And now that I’ve tasted Iceland, my insatiable attitude wants even more.

“The Adventures of Tintin” books by Hergé will always reign supreme as my favorite adventurer stories. Tintin was just a simple, baby-faced journalist with a curious dog who traveled to every corner of the world. He’s faced off against Al Capone’s gang, infiltrated opium dens in the Orient, and even outlived the infamous Curse of the Pharaohs, all the while sailing to distant lands and crossing paths with the world’s worst villains. Tintin is everything I’ve ever wanted to be, and that influence has carried on into my fiction writings.

I’ve been asked repeatedly by Jacksonian friends, “How long will you be in Iceland?”

And my answer has always been, “Until I’m not.”

Freeing yourself up for adventure is crucial to a happy life. And I don’t just mean putting some time aside for a vacation here and there. True adventure can only be attained if you stay malleable and jump at opportunities when they’re placed in your path. Eat the sheep eyeballs when they’re served to you.

Take a trip across the ocean by boat. Scare yourself. That’s achieving Viking.

As kids, we possessed the ability to look at a simple stick and have it transform into a rapier or a lightsaber the moment we gripped it. That sense of imagination and wonder doesn’t have to fade. It’s still a part of your identity as much as it’s a part of mine. We just have to remember to embrace it. PJH

CINEMA Hardcore Values Green Room packs a tense thriller with characters facing a truly edgy reality.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW @scottrenshaw

W

Patrick Stewart (center) and goons in Green Room Much of what follows takes place in that room, as the terrified musicians come to realize that nothing good lies just outside their lockable door. Saulnier builds his claustrophobic horror in a manner reminiscent of movies from Assault on Precinct 13 and The Purge to this year’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, depending on false starts and bold risks to avoid a sense of stasis. He also knows how to use his winceinducing bits of graphic violence for maximum impact, finding watch-through-your-fingers uses for machetes, box cutters and attack dogs.

Saulnier also knows how to work the moments when he’s not shocking the audience, displaying filmmaking gifts that have grown since his 2013 indie breakout Blue Ruin.

He demonstrates some ruthless narrative efficiency, like capturing the passage of time by cutting from the opening five seconds of a song on a vinyl record to that same record with the needle in the runout groove. He’s even bold enough to have Amber start talking about why she’s a white supremacist, yet let those words serve merely as background noise while others search for a way out of the room, understanding that her backstory doesn’t really matter.

That last example is just a part of Green Room’s general approach to character development, which is unconventional to say the least. In some ways, the fact that the “villains” are white supremacists is irrelevant to the progression of the plot, except that Saulnier wants to make the antagonists scarily

methodical rather than an ignorant, purely physical threat. Stewart, at times, feels like an odd choice for the main heavy, proving less interesting than the club manager, Gabe (Blue Ruin’s Macon Blair), an enigmatic mix of true believer and pragmatist.

Green Room probably works best, however, because of the characters Saulnier places in that room. From the opening scene in which we see their van having plowed through a corn field because the driver fell asleep at the wheel, to their guerrilla missions to siphon gas so they can keep their road trip rolling, it’s clear that The Ain’t Rights are living their idea of a punk life. They’ll tell an interviewer that their “desert-island bands” are Misfits and The Damned, but that’s not the same story they tell one another when they’re facing a terrifying new reality. Green Room excels as a horror movie that can jolt an audience out of their seats, but it’s also about the horror of realizing that, while you might try to convince the world you’re hardcore, there are things—and people—out there that are much harder. PJH

OLLOW US

GREEN ROOM BBB.5 Anton Yelchin Patrick Stewart Imogen Poots Rated R

TRY THESE Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) Austin Stoker Darwin Joston Rated R

The Strangers (2008) Liv Tyler Scott Speedman Rated R

The Purge (2013) Ethan Hawke Lena Headey Rated R

Blue Ruin (2013) Macon Blair Devin Ratray Rated R

@

APRIL 27, 2016 | 21

ON FACEBOOK FOR THE LATEST PLANET HAPPENINGS!

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

hile Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room is a movie so unsettling and brutal that it almost feels cruel to recommend it, one of the most nerve-wracking moments comes before all bloody hell breaks loose. Our protagonists are a Washington, D.C.-based punk quartet called The Ain’t Rights—Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Tiger (Callum Turner) and Reece (Joe Cole)—and they’re playing an impromptu gig at a rural skinhead bar in the Pacific Northwest after their original gig has fallen through. But, not content to take their money and get out of Dodge, they decide to poke their hosts—by playing a cover version of Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.” Green Room has gotten plenty of attention for Saulnier’s chops at manufacturing pure, lowdown genre intensity, and that attention is certainly deserved. Yet while he takes an approach to his characters that is in many ways minimalist, this isn’t exactly a movie where the warm bodies exist simply to be dispatched in creatively unpleasant ways.

Buried in this crackling siege thriller is a story about kids posing at living on the edge, until they find themselves in a situation where they can see what the edge really looks like.

And it looks pretty awful once the members of The Ain’t Rights make the mistake of walking back into the club’s green room, just in time to see that a member of another band has just been murdered. The club’s owner, Darcy (Patrick Stewart), isn’t about to have the club turned into a crime scene for a police investigation, since he’s running a heroin-dealing operation out of the basement. The witnesses—also including Amber (Imogen Poots), a member of another band—just can’t be allowed to complicate things.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | APRIL 27, 2016

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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 Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm, $30.00 n Golden Gloves National Tournament of Champions Sun Salt Palace Convention Center, 100 S West Temple, Salt Lake City

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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. 29

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 F*ing Bird Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun, Sun Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, Salt Lake City, 6:00pm, $15.00 - $42.00 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

WEEKEND OF MAY. 6

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

WEEKEND OF MAY. 13

n The Count of Monte Cristo Fri, Sat, Sat Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n The Marriage of Figaro Fri - Sun Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $48.00 - $89.00

WEEKEND OF MAY. 20

n 2016 Higher Laws Master Your Power Within Fri - Sat South Towne Expo Center, 9575 S. State Street, Sandy n 2016 Salt Lake Offroad Expo Fri - Sat South Towne Expo Center, 9575 S. State Street, Sandy n 2nd Annual Crazy Pants Golf Tournament Fri Golf, 3300 W Clubhouse Dr., Lehi, 7:30am, $100.00 $175.00 n 3D Printer Coaching Fri Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City, 1:00pm n 4-H FARM SAFETY Fri - Sat Box Elder County Fairgrounds, 320 N 1000 W, Brigham City 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 Acoustical Society of America (Convention) Fri - Sun Snowbird Resort, Highway 210 Little Cottonwood Canyon, Snowbird n Atish Fri Fort Buenaventura, 2450 A Avenue, Ogden, 11:00pm n Ballroom concert - auditorium Fri - Sat Orem High School, 175 S 400 E, Orem, 7:00pm n Beachmen + Space Suits For Indians + Love Math + Patrimony Fri Kilby Court, 741 Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $6.00 n Branding the American West: Paintings and Films 1900-1950 Fri - Sat Museum of Art, North Campus Drive, Provo n Brian Snapp: House of My Brother/House of My Sister Fri Art Barn/Finch Lane Gallery, 1340 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Build, Sculpt, Play Fri Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Ave, Park City, 2:00pm n Canyons Music Fri Lighthouse Lounge, 130 E 2500 S, Ogden, 9:00pm n Cara Despain: Seeing the Stone Fri - Sat CUAC, 175 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Cody Jinks with Whitey Morgan and the 78’s Fri In the Venue, 219 S 600 W, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n Convention of Statesmen Fri - Sat UCCU Center, 800 W. University Pkwy, Orem, 8:00am, $149.95

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APRIL 27, 2016 | 23

n Michael Handley: Unfurling Fri - Sat CUAC, 175 E. 200 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Mini Riders Show Fri W&M Butterfield, Herriman, 4:00pm n Mother’s Day 5K: This One’s for You Mom Fri - Sat Hyrum Gibbons Mt. Logan Park, 1400 E. 350 S., Logan, UT, Cache County, Logan n Mother’s Day 5K: This One’s for You Mom Fri - Sun Provo Library, 550 N University Ave., Provo, 1:00pm n Music in the City Fri Brigham City Fine Arts Center, 58 South 100 West, Brigham City, 7:30pm, $12.00 n Music Together® Spring - 10 weeks session Fri - Sat Imagination Place, 1155 East 3300 South, Salt Lake City, 9:15am, $209.00, 801-463-9067 n Nic Courdy: Metaphornography Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City n The Night Spin Collective Fri Area 51, 451 S. 400 West, Salt Lake City, 9:00pm, $5.00 - $7.00 n No Girls Allowed!: Flip Out with Big Nate Fri Sandy Library, 10100 South Petunia Way, Sandy, 4:00pm n ONE80 GAY FRIDAY’S Fri ONE80, 180 W. 400 S., Salt Lake City, 9:00pm, $7.00 $15.00, 801-688-8401 n The Painted Veil Fri Rio Gallery, 300 S Rio Grande St, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, Free, 801-245-7272 n Pentagram at The State Room - Presented by The Heavy Metal Shop Fri The State Room, 638 S State Street, Salt Lake City, 9:00pm n Peter Yarrow Fri, Sat, Sun Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main St, Park City, 8:00pm, $29.00 - $45.00 n TECH N9NE Fri The Complex, 536 W. 100 South, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $34.00 n Teen Sketchbook Fri Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Ave, Park City, 3:30pm n Thomas Jack Fri Park City Live, 427 Main St, Park City, 8:00pm n Timpanogas Symphony Fri Box Elder High School, 380 S 600 W, Brigham City, 7:00pm n Tom Russell: An American Colorist Fri - Sat Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City, Free n Totally Tie Dye Fri Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Ave, Park City, 4:00pm n Trailside Bike Park Shred n BBQ Fri Park City, 5:00pm n Walking Belly Dead Fri Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $15.00, 801-266-0473 n We are Stars Fri - Sun Clark Planetarium, 110 South 400 West, Salt Lake City n Whitey Morgan - In The Venue 21+ Fri In the Venue, 219 S 600 W, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n 2016 Zions Bank Ogden Marathon Sat Historic 25th Street, 25th street, Ogden, 5:00am, Free n 4th annual Victorian Tea at The Whitaker Sat The Whitaker - Centerville’s Heritage Museum, 168 No. Main Street, Centerville, $0.00 - $14.50 n 5K Run Walk & Roll 2016 Sat John R. Park Building, 201 Presidents Cir, Salt Lake City, 6:30am

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n The Count of Monte Cristo Fri, Sat, Sat Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Fri Hale Center Theater Orem, 225 W. 400 North, Orem, 4:30pm n Empress Theatre, Joseph & The Amazing technicolor Dreamcoat Fri, Sat Empress Theatre, 9104 W. 2700 South, Magna, 7:30pm n Everything Food Blogger Conference Fri - Sat The Gateway, 90 4th W, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, $57.00 - $497.00 n Everything Food Conference Fri - Sat The Gateway, 90 4th W, Salt Lake City, 8:00am n Flowers Scavenger Hunt Fri - Sat Taylorsville Library, 4870 S 2700 W, Taylorsville, 10:00am n The Full Monty Fri, Sat, Sat The Grand Theatre, 1575 S State St, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $18.00 - $26.00 n Golden Gloves National Tournament of Champions Fri - Sat Salt Palace Convention Center, 100 S West Temple, Salt Lake City n Hand Me Up Consignment Sale Fri - Sat South Towne Expo Center, 9575 S. State Street, Sandy, 10:00am, Free n Heath Harmison Fri - Sat Wiseguys Ogden, 269 25th St., Ogden, 8:00pm, $10.00 n IMAX: National Parks Adventure Fri - Sun Clark Planetarium, 110 South 400 West, Salt Lake City n Infinity Fri The Prospector Theater, 2175 Sidewinder Drive, Park City, 7:00pm n Innovations 2016 Fri - Sat Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $95.00 - $115.00, 801-869-6900 n Ivanhoe Knight Fever Fri, Sat, Sat The Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $16.00 n Jennet Thomas: The Unspeakable Freedom Device Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City n Jim Jacobs: Append Fri Art Barn/Finch Lane Gallery, 1340 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, Free n /klōTH/ Fri Alice Gallery, 617 E South Temple, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, Free, 801-245-7272 n Laughing Stock Improv Fri - Sat The Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, 10:00pm, $8.00 - $16.00 n Lewis J. Crawford: Constructs Fri Art Barn/Finch Lane Gallery, 1340 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, Free n Living Traditions Festival 2016 Fri, Sat, Sun Washington Square Salt Lake City & County Building, 450 South 200 East, Salt Lake City, 5:00pm n Local Music Set Fri - Sat A Bar Named Sue on State, 3928 E Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, 10:00pm n Lunar Transit Spring Festival Fri Fort Buenaventura Park, 2450 A Avenue, Ogden, 10:00am n Maryann Webster: Narrative Works Fri Art Barn/Finch Lane Gallery, 1340 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, Free

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

24 | APRIL 27, 2016

ANNIE FENN

THE FOODIE FILES

Spring in a Bowl Perk up your grain bowls with healthful, seasonal, yummy ingredients.

BY ANNIE FENN, M.D. @jacksonfoodie

H

ey guys, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s spring. And although I still reach for my favorite elk stew recipe on cold, wet days, my palate is mostly ready to move on with the seasons.

Spring days like today—complete with not-too-windy bike rides, bluebird sightings, fish rising, and sublime corn skiing—are perfect for making a big bowl of crunchy, fresh, spring-like food.

Grain bowls are what I make when I cook for myself. I’m talking about a one-dish meal packed with whole grains, veggies, protein, crunchy toppings, and drizzled with a spicedup sauce. Leftovers are key to assembling an interesting, yummy bowl, so it pays to have a few key ingredients on hand for quick assembly when hunger strikes.

First I grab my favorite bowl—a ceramic piece by Alex Marshall purchased at Mountain Dandy. It’s my only bowl of a certain perfect grain bowl size, and I bristle when anyone else in the family tries to use it. Then I rummage through the fridge and pantry. With some luck I’ll have a batch of my favorite grains on hand: farro, millet, forbidden rice, barley, or quinoa (which, we all know is a seed, but let’s just pretend it’s a grain).

Why grains? I happen to love the toothsome texture of whole grains, and they make the perfect bed for building a bowl meal. Three servings a day of whole grains are recommended for anyone who wants to prevent dementia. (Raise your hand if you want to fend off Alzheimer’s disease.). And they satisfy my spring hunger like no plain old salad can.

Lookforstonegroundwholegrains(notthefactorymilledones) in the bulk section or wherever Bob’s Red Mill products are sold.

LEFT: This farro grain bowl with turmeric tahini sauce and Vertical Harvest tomatoes pairs well with lunch on the deck.

TOP RIGHT: Spring greens from the Aspens Market greenhouse on Teton Pass in my favorite bowl from Mountain Dandy.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Build a better grain bowl with crunchy colorful toppings like Quick Pickled Radishes.

Cook up a batch on the weekend with enough leftovers to supply your grain bowls all week long. While you’re at it, mix up a few great sauces.TheTurmericTahiniDressingisacurrentfavorite,especially since Jackson Whole Grocer started carrying fresh, good-quality turmeric in the produce aisle. And the Vietnamese Salad Dressing is an old favorite. The spicy, not-too-sweet sauce is used in my VietnameseLayeredChickenSalad(recipeontheblog),butit’sgreat for grain bowls too.

With a fridge stockpiled with grains and sauces, your grain bowls have endless possibilities. Even though we are not exactly swimming in fresh, local produce yet, there are signs of spring trickling into grocery stores. If you see greens from Vertical Harvest or Aspens Market (grown in their own greenhouse up on Teton Pass) be sure to get some. The arugula is especially tender and spicy—perfect for eating raw.

My grain bowls usually contain a handful of greens, veggies, and something pickled, like the Quick Pickled Radishes I make myself, or Curried Carrot Pickles from Roots Kitchen and Cannery.

Protein is key for a well-rounded grain bowl. Slices of leftover steak or chicken, a piece of grilled salmon, a few squares of tofu, or a handful of rock shrimp can be cooked up in seconds. With all the other great ingredients in your grain bowl, a small amount of protein goes a long way, making grain bowls good for your budget as well as your health.

A few interesting toppings will complete your fabulous grain bowl. Have you tried sprouted lentils? Or spicy roasted chickpeas? A handful of nuts is always welcome. I especially love hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, walnuts and toasted pecans. Strips of crispy nori (seaweed sheets) are perfect atop Asian-styled bowls. I’m working on a savory granola made with oats, olive oil, espresso powder, sea salt and just a touch of maple syrup. I envision sprinkling it on breakfast grain bowls made with quinoa and almond milk.

Food just tastes better when eaten from a bowl. It’s true!

Psychologists have found that eating from a bowl makes you feel more satisfied and full, especially if that bowl is filled to the brim.

That must be why I am partial to my small, deep bowl from

Mountain Dandy. It also makes my lunch portable on fickle spring days. I take my grain bowl out onto the deck to eat in the sunshine, then bring it back inside to the sofa when it starts to snow.

Recipes

Quick Pickled Radishes: Warm 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a pan until dissolved. Cool and pour over 8-10 sliced radishes in a mason jar. Wait 15 minutes and eat; keeps for up to 3 weeks in the fridge.

Sprouted Red Lentils: Place 1/2 cup lentils in a jar with 2 cups fresh water and cover with cheesecloth. Sprouting takes about a day. Rinse sprouted lentils in fresh water and keep in the fridge for up to one week.

Turmeric Tahini Sauce: Whisk together 1/4 cup tahini, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 tsp ground or 1 teaspoon freshly grated turmeric, and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper. Season with Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Thin with water to make a thick but pourable sauce. Keeps up to 1 week in the fridge.

Vietnamese Salad Dressing: Whisk 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon hot toasted sesame oil, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon grated ginger, and 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion or shallot. Keeps up to 1 week in the fridge. PJH

After delivering babies and practicing gynecology for 20 years in Jackson, Annie traded her life as a doctor to pursue her other passion: writing about food, health, sustainability and the local food scene. Follow her snippets of mountain life, with recipes, at www.jacksonholefoodie.com and on Instagram @ jacksonholefoodie.

Use the code “Planet” and get

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TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

Under the Pink Garter Theatre (307) 734-PINK • www.pinkygs.com

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 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.

Dinner Nightly at 5:30pm

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.

Lunch 11:30am Monday-Saturday Dinner 5:30pm Nightly

45 S. Glenwood

HAPPY HOUR Daily 4-6:00pm

Available for private events & catering

307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE

For reservations please call 734-8038

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| 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.

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.

ELEANOR’S OFF SEASON SPECIAL

Good all night • Open nightly at 5:30pm Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays through the off season

733-3912 • 160 N. Millward Make your reservation online at bluelionrestaurant.com

APRIL 27, 2016 | 25

2ENTREES FOR1

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 27, 2016

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.

Reservations at (307) 733-4913 3295 Village Drive • Teton Village, WY

www.mangymoose.com

Breakfast Lunch & Dinner •••••••••

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

FULL STEAM SUBS

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.

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.

LOCAL

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.

LOTUS CAFE

REOP

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.

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ALPENROSE • ALPENHOF BISTRO 307.733.3242 | TETON VILLAGE

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965

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for an extra $5.99/each

(307) 733-0330 520 S. Hwy. 89 • Jackson, WY

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. 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.

Dramatic Alto Adige Italy’s northernmost wine region.

BY TED SCHEFFLER @critic1

L

ike many other Italian wine enthusiasts, I relish the Italian white wines from Alto Adige. And so, I (and, I assume, others) am baffled by the lack of those wines in Utah. I could be wrong, but with a pretty thorough search of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control website and product inventory, I could only find two producers of Alto Adige wines generally available here: Lageder and Tiefenbrunner, which I’ll get to later. You might be able to find Alto Adige wines in restaurants here and there, but if you really want to get to know these wines, you’ll have to special-order them.

Italy’s Alto Adige wine-growing region is comparatively small—about 13,000 acres.

But the region is also one of the wine world’s

BEER, WINE & SPIRITS most dramatic. Tucked away in northernmost Italy—just below Austria—you’ll find vineyards in Alpine valleys as high as 3,600 feet in elevation. The region is characterized by a mild, Alpine-continental climate, which boasts more than 300 days of sun per year and an average temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The Alps protect vineyards from cold winds, while air currents from the Mediterranean and Lake Garda help warm the wine-growing zones.

German is the primary language spoken here, not Italian. And, like the language, the wines from Alto Adige are quite Germanic in character.

Francis Fecteau, wine expert and owner of Libation Inc., recently shared an Alto Adige fun-fact with me: Despite the Alpine aspect of the area, it boasts wide (and wild) temperature swings. “Tropical plants grow on the valley floors while there are glaciers a few thousand feet up,” he said. The fun fact is that Alto Adige actually has the highest number of days in Italy where the temperature exceeds a certain point. “It’s a wonderful diurnal temperature swing.”

Well, what about those wines? The most popular white wine varietals in Alto Adige are Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc/Pinot Bianco, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and, to a lesser extent, Müller Thurgau, Kerner, Veltliner, Sylvaner,

IMBIBE Riesling and Moscato Giallo.

Alois Lageder produces some of Alto Adige’s most ravishing wines, and has done so since 1823. You might not think of Pinot Grigio as “ravishing,” but many from Alto Adige are outstanding—and in my opinion, some of Italy’s very best. Flowery aromas and spicy notes accompany Alois Lageder Pinot G rigio 2014 ($15.99), a rich, powerful Pinot Grigio with a tinge of smoke. I’d drink it with lightly smoked fish or poultry dishes and appetizers. Alois Lageder Chardonnay 2014 ($15.99) has bracing acidity—a food-friendly Chardonnay—with tropical fruit notes. It’s excellent with roasted chicken or just to sip by itself. Alois Lageder Pinot Bianco 2014 ($14.99) is light, fine and fruity, with peach and apple scents. It’s a versatile wine that pairs well with a range of lighter salads, seafood and pastas, and also works

well as an apéritif.

Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio 2014 ($16.99) is a classic example of Northern Italy Pinot Grigio.

It’s delicious just to enjoy on its own, but it also pairs exceedingly well with seafood and chicken dishes. The stony minerality of this medium-bodied wine would even lead me to sip it with raw oysters on the half-shell.

I recently had the opportunity to taste my way through a trio of Kettmeir wines from Alto Adige, and was duly impressed.

Steel-fermented Kettmeir Pinot Grigio 2014 ($20) was marvelously dry and a perfect companion to steamed mussels with chorizo, while Kettmeir Pinot Bianco 2014 ($20) reminded me that Italian Bianco can be bold, not bland.

And for an out-of-the-box apéritif, serve your guests Kettmeir Müller Thurgau 2014 ($20), with gorgeous peach notes and hints of nutmeg. PJH

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Earth Day A cosmic perspective on our living planet.

Design coherence The famous and often repeated wisdom, “as above, so below,” has its origins in ancient Greek history. The meaning is that what’s true in the design of largest elements of creation (the macrocosm) is also reflected on a smaller scale throughout the cosmos (the microcosm). The same design coherence goes both ways, from the tiniest structures to the largest, from subatomic particles to galaxies and beyond.

A living sentient being With the awareness of the macro-micro design of creation, indigenous cultures, global wisdom traditions, philosophers and now some scientists consider the Earth to be a living, breathing, and sentient organism. Like a human body, the Earth (referred to as Gaia after the Greek goddess who embodied the Earth) is an intelligent, self-regulating interactive system that maintains conditions necessary for its own survival, and for the survival of life on and in her.

Noted scientists Carl Sagan and James Lovelock co-authored a paper in the 1970s exploring the idea of the planet as a conscious, intelligent being. One fact their paper highlighted is that the luminosity of the sun has increased more than 30 percent over the four-plus billion years Earth has been here. The implication is that the entire Earth should have been a totally frozen planet early on.

But it never was. Just as we are intelligently designed to maintain a consistent internal temperature over the course of our life span, the planet also maintains its homeostasis, and prevails.

Does the Earth have a soul?

We have physical bodies through which our souls can experience life in this physical Earth reality. The design coherence of the “as above, so below” principle, begs some important mind-expanding questions. Does the Earth also have a soul, in which it can experience itself through the planetary body? And like our soul, does the planet’s soul also link into the same universal energy continuum?

Though not yet validated, scientifically, metaphysicians throughout the ages hold that the Earth does have a soul. Its properties are analogous to, and yet different from those of a single human soul. In the big picture (and perhaps one day to be proven by science) it is considered that the special frequency of the Earth’s soul, and the physical reality it has created, is what draws all of our souls to this planet. Our souls are connected to the soul of the Earth and to the greater cosmos.

Humanity’s intended role From this big picture metaphysical perspective, this Earth was created so that nature would provide everything necessary for all its inhabitants to thrive and to evolve. As part of the privilege of participating in life here, we were given the honor to play an important role in the wellbeing of the planet. We were to serve as loving stewards of the living planet. This steward can be thought of as an overseer who makes sure the higher order, best interests, and integrity of the planet are maintained.

Ancient wisdom teachings now supported by scientific research explain why and how we are equipped to fulfill such an important function.

1. All life is one interconnected living matrix. (Whether or not we like or believe this is not a determining factor to that fact.)

2. The quality of our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, emotional states, and actions directly affect the entire matrix of life here.

3. Only heart-centered states of being—including compassion, kindness, collaboration, unity, love, and actions contributing to the greater good of all—carry the energy frequencies, which sustain and continuously upgrade our own wellbeing (body, mind, and spirit) and that of Gaia.

4. Conversely, all expressions of negativity vibrate at a lower frequency, which tears us down as individuals and as a collective, and disconnect us from being in alignment with our integral role supporting the highest destiny for the planet and all of its inhabitants.

High stakes The combination of our continuing destruction of planetary ecosystems and the low frequency level of our collective fearbased consciousness is rapidly separating us from Gaia and from our intended role as stewards. Regardless of how it may appear on the surface, the Earth is rapidly evolving. And she will continue to do this with or without us.

Free will and a positive choice The Earth, and all of us on it, does not have to transition to a higher state of being via catastrophic geological events and human atrocities. We now know the energy of everything we think and do affects the matrix. We know that operating from the heart is the only way to elevate us to the consciousness level to accompany the Earth as she moves forward on her own soul path. We know that embodying loving states of being and doing contribute positively to the unprecedented opportunity to take a quantum leap for humanity and for the Earth.

Ultimately, we have the gift of freewill. Individually and collectively, we have a big choice in front of us. In this critical timing, it’s important to remember that our human consciousness is very powerful, and every heart matters. 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

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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

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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 |

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SUDOKU

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.

No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

L.A.TIMES “FLOSS” By Kathleen Fay O’Brien

SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016

ACROSS

10 Some “No Passing” road sections 60 Journalist Roberts 11 Tests with printed patterns, briefly 15 “Phooey!”

19 1814 treaty site 20 Dadaism pioneer 21 Worn item that actually originated in Ecuador 23 Perfect apartment deal?

25 Saying “Break a leg,” say?

26 “TMI!” 27 __ Authority 29 Minor adjustment 30 Descendant of Sperry Rand 32 Likely to pry 34 “Phooey!”

38 Traditionally red structure 41 Roller with leaves 43 Situation of intense scrutiny 45 Preview to a view, for short 46 Plumbing school basic?

49 Islands staple 50 “__ here!”

52 Glide on powder 53 Portent 55 N.L. lineup absentees 56 Highly values 58 The 114th began in 2015 62 “Roundabout” rockers 63 Flip over 66 It has all five black keys in its scale 67 Singer Mann 69 Black, in verse 71 Traditional wisdom about hustlers?

73 Go like hotcakes 74 Ernie Banks epithet 76 Karnak’s country 77 “Please help me out” 80 Sound of fear 81 Sunday dinner entrée 84 Little shooter

87 Traitor 88 Scottish hillside 89 Lager alternative 92 Working 93 Top-billed 95 Astronomers’ monthly reading?

100 CD-__ 101 Canton natives 103 Key part of Bruce Wayne’s wardrobe 104 10001 letters 105 “M.O.” rapper 106 Many a reception 107 Emulate Cher in the ’70s 110 __ law 113 Valley where David fought Goliath 115 Came out 119 Song about a yellow ribbon?

123 Hooting, mostly?

125 Relax 126 Backs (away) 127 Ottoman Empire founder 128 Banned apple spray 129 Part of Q.E.D. 130 Cher’s former partner 131 Storage facilities

15 Most gloomy 16 Sushi fish 17 2015 N.L. MVP Bryce Harper, e.g.

18 Old AT&T rival 22 Was serious about 24 Abbr. for people with only two names 28 Raced 31 Desires 33 Rd. atlas listings 35 Supply at the thermometer factory?

36 Chapel Hill athlete 37 Eponymous Fox weekly news show 38 Anger 39 Biblical prophet 40 Beet-flavored drink?

42 Stylish 43 Betting favorite, often 44 People 46 Cry 47 Radiation units 48 Like a June day, to Lowell 51 Reeves of “John Wick” 54 Codebreaker’s org.

57 “May I approach” court conferences 59 “Awake and Sing!”

DOWN dramatist 10 They’re usually broken 60 Patriots’ org. before use 61 Goo amount 20 Mom-and-pop enterprise 64 Croatian capital 30 Ward of Hollywood 65 Companion of 40 Evasive strategy 50 Dutchman who painted “The Ares 68 “Again ... ” Surprise” 69 “Nature” author 60 Frozen pizza brand 70 Live partner 70 Rock to refine 72 Tax season VIP 80 Hiker’s burden 75 “I need a short 90 Schoolyard retort break” 10 Infinite 78 Belmonts 11 Some 45-rpm records frontman 12 Showing one’s claws, so to 79 Kin of -trix speak 82 Golfer’s choice 13 Nibble 83 Luggage danglers 14 Wise one

85 Loads 86 “Goodness!”

90 Texas Air Force base 91 He played Emile in Broadway’s “South Pacific” 94 Racecar safety feature 96 Agcy. that aids start-ups 97 Guy 98 Stumped 99 “Piece of cake” 102 Annually 104 “I have time” 106 Togo neighbor 108 Every, in an Rx 109 The 5,922 of a Taj Mahal model 111 Natural balm 112 Mark indicating a musical phrase 114 Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears __” 116 Phone download 117 “Goodness!”

118 TV sites 119 Ipanema greeting 120 Confine to bed, maybe 121 Mauna __ 122 Banned bug spray 124 Novelist Deighton

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY RABBIT ROW REPAIR

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19) The oracle I’m about to present may be controversial. It contains advice that most astrologers would never dare to offer an Aries. But I believe you are more receptive than usual to this challenge, and I am also convinced that you especially need it right now. Are you ready to be pushed further than I have ever pushed you? Study this quote from novelist Mark Z. Danielewski: “Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You’re in a phase of your cycle when you’ll be rewarded for your freshness and originality. The more you cultivate a “beginner’s mind,” the smarter you will be. What you want will become more possible to the degree that you shed everything you think you know about what you want. As the artist Henri Matisse said, if a truly creative painter hopes to paint a rose, he or she “first has to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” What would be the equivalent type of forgetting in your own life?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “Am I still a hero if the only person I save is myself?” asks poet B. Damani. If you posed that question to me right now, I would reply, “Yes, Gemini. You are still a hero if the only person you save is yourself.” If you asked me to elaborate, I’d say, “In fact, saving yourself is the only way you can be a hero right now. You can’t rescue or fix or rehabilitate anyone else unless and until you can rescue and fix and rehabilitate yourself.” If you pushed me to provide you with a hint about how you should approach this challenge, I’d be bold and finish with a flourish: “Now I dare you to be the kind of hero you have always feared was beyond your capacity.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22) “We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible,” declares psychotherapist Thomas Moore. I agree. Our mental health thrives when we can have candid conversations with free spirits who don’t censor themselves and don’t expect us to water down what we say. This is always true, of course, but it will be an absolute necessity for you in the coming weeks. So I suggest that you do everything you can to put yourself in the company of curious minds that love to hear and tell the truth. Look for opportunities to express yourself with extra clarity and depth. “To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion,” says Moore, “but it involves courage and risk.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “Everyone who has ever built a new heaven first found the power to do so in his own hell.” That noble truth was uttered by Libran philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and I bet it will be especially meaningful for most of you during the rest of 2016. The bad news is that, in the past few months, you’ve had to reconnoiter your own hell a little more than you would have liked, even if it has been pretty damn interesting. The good news is that these explorations will soon be winding down. The fantastic news is that you are already getting glimpses of how to use what you’ve been learning. You’ll be well-prepared when the time comes to start constructing a new heaven.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “Zugzwang” is a German-derived word used in chess and other games. It refers to a predicament in which a player cannot possibly make a good move. Every available option will weaken his or her position. I propose that we coin a new word that means the opposite of zugzwang: “zugfrei,” which shall hereafter signify a situation in which every choice you have in front of you is a positive or constructive one; you cannot make a wrong move. I think this captures the essence of the coming days for you, Scorpio.

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

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “We have to learn how to live with our frailties,” poet Stanley Kunitz told The Paris Review. “The best people I know are inadequate and unashamed.” That’s the keynote I hope you will adopt in the coming weeks. No matter how strong and capable you are, no matter how hard you try to be your best, there are ways you fall short of perfection. And now is a special phase of your astrological cycle when you can learn a lot about how to feel at peace with that fact.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) How do plants reproduce? They generate seeds that are designed to travel. Dandelion and orchid seeds are so light they can drift long distances through the air.

Milkweed seeds are a bit heavier, but are easily carried by the wind. Foxglove and sycamore seeds are so buoyant they can float on flowing water. Birds and other animals serve as transportation for burdock seeds, which hook onto feather and fur. Fruit seeds may be eaten by animals and later excreted, fully intact, far from their original homes. I hope this meditation stimulates you to think creatively about dispersing your own metaphorical seeds, Capricorn. It’s time for you to vividly express your essence, make your mark, spread your influence.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) “It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves,” said philosopher Simone Weil. I hope that prod makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, Aquarius. I hope it motivates you to get busy investigating some of your vague ideas and fuzzy self-images and confused intentions. It will soon be high time for you to ask for more empathy and acknowledgment from those whose opinions matter to you. You’re overdue to be more appreciated, to be seen for who you really are. But before any of that good stuff can happen, you will have to engage in a flurry of introspection. You’ve got to clarify and deepen your relationship with yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education,” said writer Mark Twain. That’s excellent advice for you to apply and explore in the coming weeks. Much of the time, the knowledge you have accumulated and the skills you have developed are supreme assets. But for the immediate future, they could obstruct you from learning the lessons you need most. For instance, they might trick you into thinking you are smarter than you really are. Or they could cause you to miss simple and seemingly obvious truths that your sophisticated perspective is too proud to notice. Be a humble student, my dear.

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.

APRIL 27, 2016 | 31

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) “Show me a man who isn’t a slave,” wrote the Roman philosopher Seneca. “One is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear.”

Commenting on Seneca’s thought, blogger Ryan Holiday says, “I’m disappointed in my enslavement to self-doubt, to my resentment toward those whom I dislike, to the power that the favor and approval of certain people hold over me.” What about you, Virgo? Are there any emotional states or bedeviling thoughts or addictive desires that you’re a slave to? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to emancipate yourself. As you do, remember this: There’s a difference between being compulsively driven

WE SERVICE THEM ALL …

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) I watched a video of a helicopter pilot as he descended from the sky and tried to land his vehicle on the small deck of a Danish ship patrolling the North Sea. The weather was blustery and the seas were choppy. The task looked at best strenuous, at worst impossible. The pilot hovered patiently as the ship pitched wildly. Finally, there was a brief calm, and he seized on that moment to settle down safely. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you may have a metaphorically similar challenge in the coming days. To be successful, all you have to do is be alert for the brief calm, and then act with swift, relaxed decisiveness.

by a delusion and lovingly devoted to a worthy goal.

32 | APRIL 27, 2016

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