Planet JH 5.25.16

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | MAY 25-31, 2016

Staging Peace How a Jackson director is helping people relinquish prejudice and hate in some of the world’s most infamous conflict zones.

By Meg Daly

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

2 | MAY 25, 2016

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JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 20 | MAY 25-31, 2016

9 COVER STORY

STAGING PEACE How a Jackson director is helping people relinquish prejudice and hate in some of the world’s most infamous conflict zones.

Cover photo by Jackie Lessac.

4 OPINION

18 GET OUT

6 THE BUZZ

23 FOODIE FILES

14 CREATIVE PEAKS

27 COSMIC CAFE

16 MUSIC BOX

30 SATIRE

THE PLANET TEAM

ART DIRECTOR

COPY EDITOR

Cait Lee / art@planetjh.com

Jake Nichols

PUBLISHER

SALES DIRECTOR

CONTRIBUTORS

Jen Tillotson / jen@planetjh.com

Craig Benjamin, Rob Brezsny, Meg Daly, Aaron Davis, Annie Fenn, MD, Carol Mann, Andrew Munz, Jake Nichols, Scott Renshaw, Ted Scheffler,

Copperfield Publishing, John Saltas EDITOR

Robyn Vincent / editor@planetjh.com

SALES EXTRAORDINAIRE

Caroline Zieleniewski / caroline@planetjh.com

Chuck Shepherd, Tom Tomorrow, Jean Webber, Jim Woodmencey

MEMBER: National Newspaper Association, Alternative Weekly Network, Association of Alternative Newsmedia

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May 25, 2016

By Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey

“E

lk Fest” and the Mountain Man Rendezvous are behind us. “Old West Days” is coming up this Memorial Day Weekend. If you were to ask any local who has lived here more than 10 years what kind of weather do we usually have in Jackson Hole in late-May for these events, they would answer with one word, “Rainy”. Not every year, sometimes we luck out. We did not this past weekend, but there is still hope for this coming weekend.

SPONSORED BY GRAND TETON FLOOR & WINDOW COVERINGS

Yes, that was snow we saw falling from the sky this past weekend, briefly, and mixing with some rain. Again, we don’t always get snow this late in May, especially not in town. However, on May 30th 1978, we actually accumulated 2 inches of snow on the ground in town. Average low temperatures are now just above the freezing mark this week. However, the record low temperature for this week is 16-degrees, which happened on May 30th, 1979.

During the past week, every single daily record high temperature, between May 20th and May 25th, was established back in 1934.

Those are records that still stand today, 80-some years later. This week, between May 26th and May 31st, all of the record high temperatures are from 2003. The hottest of those days was on May 29th, when it reached 90-degrees in Jackson. That is also the earliest in the year we have ever made it to 90-degrees in town.

NORMAL HIGH NORMAL LOW RECORD HIGH IN 2003 RECORD LOW IN 1979

66 33 90 16

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.8 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 4.8 inches (1967) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 1 inch RECORD SNOWFALL: 14.5 inches (1942)

Carpet - Tile - Hardwood - Laminate Blinds - Shades - Drapery Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm Open Tuesdays until 8pm 1705 High School Rd Suite 120 Jackson, WY 307-200-4195 www.tetonfloors.com | www.tetonblinds.com

MAY 25, 2016 | 3

Jim has been forecasting the weather here for more than 20 years. You can find more Jackson Hole Weather information at www.mountainweather.com

WHAT’S COOL WHAT’S HOT

THIS WEEK

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

JH ALMANAC

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

4 | MAY 25, 2016

GUEST OPINION Gimme Shelter From ‘crisis’ to ‘emergency,’ housing in Jackson has an even bleaker future if we don’t act now.

BY CRAIG BENJAMIN

I

t’s a frightening feeling not knowing where you’re going to live. But it’s nothing compared to the crushing despair of losing your home.

Three years ago my wife Stacy and I decided to move home to Jackson Hole—the place we met, fell in love and got married—to raise our two children. Finding a job was easy.

Actually, it was easy to find two. But where the heck were we going to live?

When I came to town for a recon mission, I asked an old friend who had grown into one of the best realtors in town to show me some places in Teton Valley, thinking they would be the only houses we could afford. Before we crested Teton Pass I had already made my decision—there was no way this was going to work. The whole point of moving here was to give our kids a sense of community, and splitting our lives in two different states wasn’t going to accomplish that goal.

Incredibly, and almost too absurd to be true, we ended up buying back the house we owned in west Jackson from the friend we had sold it to seven years earlier. Both times we bought our house it was the lowest-priced single family home in Teton County. But there was a catch. I started work in early June and we didn’t close on our house until mid-July.

Where the heck was I going to live?

Stacy and the kids would go stay with her family in Minnesota until our house was ready, but I would move our stuff out, start work, and get things set up. I reached out to every old friend I had trying to find a room, a couch, anything for my first six weeks back in Jackson. I found an old friend’s van in his driveway. I slept in that van for two weeks.

For the next month he and his wife had a room available and they welcomed me into their home. I am forever grateful for their hospitality.

Nearly all of us have our stories of struggling to find housing in Jackson Hole. We’ve slept in our cars, on friend’s

couches, on Shadow Mountain, or up Curtis Canyon. We wear it like a badge of honor. It’s like a rite of passage. Yeah, it’s hard to live here, always has been and always will be, and those of us who have struggled to make it work in this incredible place are damn proud of it.

Here’s the thing, over the past few years it’s gone from hard to nearly impossible. Luck, friends, and hospitality just don’t work when there’s simply nowhere to live.

Rent increases at Blair Place.

Evictions at the Virginian Apartments. A new Marriott and luxury condos replacing housing affordable to people who work here. Over the past year hundreds of hard-working families in our community have lost their homes and literally have nowhere to go. And it’s about to get worse, much worse.

This summer thousands of people will flood into our valley to work. While you may not notice it living in our Jackson Hole bubble, the rest of Wyoming and most of America are struggling right now. Lots of hard working people need work, and we have jobs. Oh, do we have jobs.

We have ten pages of help wanted ads. We have more than two jobs for every person who lives here, and this counts children and retirees. And we have almost nowhere for any of these workers to live.

We’re not just talking about seasonal ski bums and river rats, or temporary J-1 workers. We’re talking about families who have lived and worked here for decades. Families with kids in our schools who have fought and sacrificed to make this incredible place their home. And they’re getting pushed out, every day.

Our housing crisis has become a full-fledged emergency.

It hit me in the face reading a friend’s Facebook post the other day: “I know we all know someone directly caught up in the Jackson Hole housing crisis. My best friend is neck deep. In two weeks he is living in his car with a high school student and an awesome dog. This amazing father is not a transient, lazy or any of that. He is a 24-year valley resident.

Never ever missed a day of work in his life. OCD clean type.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can’t let our community get torn to shreds. We’re better than this. It’s time for action to address our housing emergency.

Here’s what we should do.

First, let’s throw everything on the table and have a community conversation about policy solutions that can make an immediate impact. Obviously there are serious issues to resolve before implementing policies like allowing workers’ RVs on public and/or private land. But if we engage in an honest discussion about the benefits and challenges of potential solutions, we’re bound to come up with something constructive.

Second, let’s move forward with housing our middle class by adopting the approved District 2 (downtown Jackson) land development regulations.

The “workforce housing incentive” built into these new land use rules will benefit local small businesses as they work to house and keep their hardworking employees, and will keep downtown vibrant and the heart of our town. This innovative workforce housing incentive will encourage and empower the private sector to build employee housing on-site. The streamlined, predictable, and simplified regulations will encourage appropriate commercial redevelopment as well.

Best of all, these approved regulations won’t pour gasoline on our housing fire because they align with our Comprehensive Plan and limit new commercial and lodging development to the more than five million square feet of existing development potential (which analysis shows is more than enough for two decades). When you’re in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging.

Third, let’s get serious about aligning our public investments with our values, and vote to approve dedicated funding for housing affordable to people who work here (along with investments in transportation choices and protecting wildlife)—on the sales tax measure this November.

Look, we all know it will always be hard to live here, but let’s do everything we can do make sure it’s not impossible.

PJH

“We have more than two jobs for every person who lives here, and we have almost nowhere for any of these workers to live.”

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE SUMMER CALENDAR.

LOOK FOR IT THIS JUNE.

T H E H O L E C A L E N D A R .CO M

Craig Benjamin is the executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

Send comments to editor@planetjh.com.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

MAY 25, 2016 | 5

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

6 | MAY 25, 2016

THE BUZZ Power of the Penny Electeds devise a sales tax structure they hope will pay for slide while also funding housing and transportation.

BY JAKE NICHOLS @SteadyJake

T

own and county leaders have placed their bets—the ante: two pennies worth of taxes—and they are all in, all or nothing, with a carefully crafted tax strategy that amounts to a swing for the fences. Tasked with raising capital for community priorities including housing and transportation initiatives, along with mitigating an unstable butte seeping its way toward Broadway, government officials have come up with what they believe is a homerun way to foot the bill.

Electeds’ hopes are riding on a scheme that will touch residents for both causes without raising taxes. The cost will be the demise of a proven revenue-raising tool in SPET (special purpose excise tax) and a forfeiture of approximately $6 million. Voters will decide on a tax for Budge slide in August, and have the option of taxing themselves again in November for housing and transportation solutions.

The plan is complicated but worth understanding. After establishing a Community Priorities Fund (CPF) that includes housing and transportation at its core, elected officials split on just how to tax citizens to build houses and buy buses.

An added general penny of sales tax is more perpetual in nature than a one-time SPET initiative, but the former lacks the accountability and specificity of the latter. General sales tax also flows into town and county coffers as general revenue, which can be used any way government sees fit. Town and county officials have a strong record of spreadsheet integrity that has made sure money earmarked for Cause A actually gets to Cause A, but some worry the “blank check” nature of the tax will allow current or future councilors and commissioners to get jiggy with it.

How SPET works Before explaining the shifty solution elected officials have come up with, a refresher course in SPET might be beneficial.

State statute allows counties to ask voters to tax themselves one or two cents on a dollar for specific projects or undertakings that lie outside the “ordinary operations of a local government.”

Teton is one of the few counties in the state that has used this tax so effectively and so often it has been in effect for decades without ever lapsing. The penny simply rolls over every couple of years when the revenue generated by the tax comes close to satisfying the total amount of current wish list items.

The penny tax generates about $10 to $12 million a year, depending on how much stuff people are buying. Electeds have tried to keep the total amount of SPET ballot items at or under $40 million. As tax collection nears an amount that will satisfy all SPET projects, town and county leaders prepare a new batch of items.

The catch is this: When voters hit the polls to check yes or no on SPET items, they are in effect voting yes to a sales tax increase. Granted, the penny has never gone away in the past three decades, but if all SPET ballot items were shot down, sales tax would drop one cent to five percent in Teton County. It’s a handy arrangement that has been levied on

taxpayers—many of whom are unaware or unconcerned about the extra “Lincoln” seized at the cash register.

The plan Electeds decided to put mitigation of the Budge landslide on the August ballot under SPET. Given the polarizing and contested nature of the disaster, some in the process expected a “gimme” item to be added to SPET to ensure the special excise tax didn’t go away. Remember: if no SPET item receives a green light (at least 50 percent of the vote), a penny of sales tax disappears. In the past, town and county leaders have sometimes opted to add a “slam dunk” initiative to SPET— something like a Pathways project has always been useful— just to guarantee that tax revenue kept pouring in.

In 2008, when electeds wanted money to cover design costs for a bus barn and library expansion, in addition to funds for town sidewalks, they sexed up the ballot with Pathways on Highway 22. The 2012 SPET ballot looked even more foreboding, stacked with big-ticket items including the purchase of a 10-acre plot on North Cache from the Forest Service ($13.5M), which failed, and a capping of the leaching landfill ($14.5M).

Once again, it was Pathways to the rescue. Phase II of their Highway 22 project was easily digested by voters with 68 percent of the populous opting to finish the path for a mere $4.3 million.

But last month, electeds left Budge slide hanging. Come August, voters will decide whether they want to tax themselves to fix the mess above Walgreens but, more importantly, they have the opportunity to end the SPET cycle as funds generated by the tax are expected to be completely paid out to the five 2014 SPET items right around the time they head to the polls for the primary.

Bye bye, SPET With the move, government guaranteed the end of SPET. It will die slowly or it will die quickly, but it will go away. If voters pass Budge for the $6 million price tag, the SPET item will be paid off by February or March of next year, at which time the penny of tax will expire and another $6 million of anticipated SPET revenue that could have been generated through next summer will be lost. If voters don’t pass Budge, the SPET penny terminates immediately.

The move surprised commissioner Smokey Rhea. “At the very beginning, the town and county did talk about something else besides Budge on the ballot,” she acknowledged. “But for whatever reason—I have no idea why—it never got discussed.

We know we would stand to lose about six million dollars, so why would we do that?”

Commissioner Paul Vogelheim also wanted to see something else added to SPET. He thought money to Fire/EMS to finish a spruce up of Station 1 in Jackson was needed and would be very palatable to voters.

“The county was in favor of an additional item on SPET— Fire/EMS is one voters have always funded—but the mayor shut the door on that,” Vogelheim said.

With the deadline to finalize a SPET list for an August ballot fast approaching late last month, Mayor Sara Flitner steered her peers toward a Budge-only special excise tax. And she has her reasons.

“I don’t want to lose SPET. I tried to go at the community priorities fund through SPET,” Flitner said. “But I didn’t want to get cute and try to gussy up what is a safety priority with something else. We live in a world where we really have to separate needs from wants. We’ve got to fix Budge. And there is a lot of community feedback about keeping the tax rate the same.”

Flitner and others are concerned about selling the general penny sales tax in November. It will be easier to swallow, some electeds believe, if the expiring penny of SPET simply slides over to general sales tax, which will hit the books in April 2017 if passed this fall. The marketing ploy has made at least one political activist a bit skeptical.

“I’m very concerned our local government is not being

straight-forward with us regarding their attempt to kill SPET,” Judd Grossman said. Grossman recently announced his intent to run for town council. “They are trying to sell us this ugly tax [general] under the assumption it will solve our housing and transit problems, and doing away with a successful tool in SPET. This is a cynical plan, a reckless plan. I don’t know what’s in their hearts but that’s the way it looks to me.”

Luxury tax

Councilor Jim Stanford admitted some electeds did not want to talk about going above six cents of sales tax. He and others offered a compromise: a SPET bridge to April 2017 that would keep the tax rate the same until the general penny kicked in.

Commissioner Natalia Macker sees the penny shift as a means of better identifying community needs versus community wants.

“The community has to pay for what it wants. We don’t get things for free, bottom line,” Macker said. “Elected officials are tasked with taking care of our community’s needs. Wants are extra. SPET has been around for my entire life and it is one tool available to us but I don’t think it’s the right tool for housing and transportation. Putting Budge on SPET isn’t about playing some kind of game and letting SPET lapse. SPET has been around for my entire life and there are things I hear about that could also be on the SPET ballot that I want, too. But we have to be disciplined and that’s hard sometimes.”

Town administrator Bob McLaurin dismissed notions that the tax proposals hitting polls in August and November were intentionally designed as a marketing ploy. Rising costs of providing even the most basic of services to a growing community hit with a massive influx of tourists twice a year, combined with sagging state revenues, is prompting a shift in thinking.

It takes a full six cents of sales tax to run the town and county.

The community can no longer afford the luxury of funding “wants” like Rec Center expansion, hospital additions, and a Wilson beach. They would have to be paid for by a future return of SPET, and an added seventh cent of sales tax.

McLaurin said, “If you want a CWC [Central Wyoming College campus] and a Rec Center, you have to go to seven cents. Services have grown so much that six cents can’t carry the whole burden anymore. We are putting our needs in a sixth cent and putting our wants in a seventh cent.”

Is wildlife a priority anymore?

Representatives from St. John’s Medical Center (hoping for a new Living Center), Central Wyoming College (desiring a Jackson campus), and the Children’s Museum (needed a new space) were understanding about being left off the SPET ballot this go-round. If they or anyone else wishes to resurrect SPET next year they’ll have to do the heavy lifting of selling the public on a sales tax increase.

The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance had been backing a $10 million SPET initiative for wildlife crossings. Executive director Craig Benjamin said his focus is now on pushing that agenda for inclusion in the CPF. “It’s disappointing that our local elected representatives chose not to provide Teton County voters with the opportunity to approve capital investments that align with our values through the specific purpose excise tax on the August ballot,” Benjamin said. “Protecting wildlife is our community’s highest value and the core of our shared vision of a better future.

Recent public opinion research shows Teton County voters overwhelmingly support investments in protecting wildlife.

That’s why our local elected representatives should allocate a small percentage of the community priorities fund to protecting wildlife.”

Commissioner Mark Newcomb has made conservation one of his key issues. He is hopeful his peers will be open to adding that topic to the conversation soon.

“I don’t think that discussion is over yet. I’m hoping to bring that up at our meeting on June 6, and get conservation added to the community priorities fund,” Newcomb said. PJH

THEM ON US

By JAKE NICHOLS

Manhunt leads to grizzly discovery The manhunt for a father-son team on the lam from Utah ended in Sublette County Wyoming where authorities arrested Flint and Dereck Harrison on kidnapping charges. The story didn’t end there, though. A missing Utah Transit Authority rail worker, Kay Ricks, was found dead by Lincoln County sheriff’s near Kemmerer, Wyoming five days after he disappeared following a known visit from the Harrisons.

Authorities believe the wanted pair snatched Ricks and his company truck in order to make their getaway to Wyoming. FBI agents doing an aerial sweep near Half Moon Lake where Dereck Harrison, 22, was nabbed after his father, Flint, 51, surrendered, spotted Ricks’ truck in a heavily wooded area. Ricks’ body was found along the route police believe the Harrisons may have taken to their hideout.

Ricks’ death is being ruled a homicide but to date no evidence has been found to link the Utah escapees to his death. The Harrisons waived their expedition rights and have been transported back to Centerville, Utah. Several regional news outlets carried the story.

Meth in a cup case ABC News coverage last week included the case of Jon Freiberg of Casper, Wyoming. Freiberg is accused of spiking the drink of Richard Serafin, 46, with methamphetamine last August. Serafin died from cardiac arrest as a result.

Freiberg, 53, pleaded not guilty last week in District Court on one felony count of involuntary manslaughter as well as a slew of other charges. Freiberg is being held in the Natrona County Detention Center.

Wyoming behind Trump Wyoming’s all-Republican congressional delegation is behind the Donald. Sens.

John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, along with Rep. Cynthia Lummis, announced they were backing the real estate mogul Donald Trump for president.

Lummis, who initially endorsed Sen. Rand Paul in the primary, said she still has some reservations over Trump’s treatment of women.

“I also get the impression, however, within his corporate and business life that women have a role and that he treats them as equals with the men in his organization,” Lummis told the Star Tribune. “I don’t think he treats anyone as an equal to himself.

But within his group of close advisers and business associates … he treats men and women pretty equally.”

Barrasso is the only member of the state’s delegation to have actually met Trump.

He said Trump brought up two issues important to Wyomingites: energy and the Affordable Care Act. Enzi likes Trump’s business background.

“You don’t become a success in business without weathering the downs,” Enzi said. “American business is having a down with the worst job report in years. Under President Obama I expect that it will get worse, not better. We don’t want more of the same.”

Highway deaths down

Still dangerous to be gay in Wyoming

Visit our website

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.

MAY 25, 2016 | 7

Freelance writer Nathan Martin contributed a compelling argument in defense of gay rights for Writers on the Range last Friday. It was carried by the Albuquerque Journal. Martin recounted his own brush with anti-gay violence while living in Rock Springs in 2001. Things in Wyoming haven’t changed much, he wrote, not even after Matthew Shepard’s story went national in 1999.

Martin lived in Buenos Aires, Chicago and New Orleans during the past decade where he witnessed some homophobia but nothing like what he encountered when returning to Wyoming last year. Martin recalled the brutal attack of Trevor O’Brien in Gillette last December. The incident may have led the 20-year-old gay man to take his life in March 2016.

“Forty-five states have passed [Hate Crime] laws that empower state-level authorities,” Martin wrote. “Wyoming is not one of them. It is time we changed that.” PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Authorities in Wyoming are citing proactive efforts by Highway Patrol, especially during winter months, as reason for a sharp decline in fatal crashes on state roads so far this year. More troopers are patrolling state highways. Traffic volume is also down through April. They could be contributing factors as well, WHP Capt. Shawn Dickerson told the Trib.

Eighteen people have died in crashes in Wyoming since the start of the year. That’s compared to 46 fatalities at this time last year. Dickerson said fatal wrecks pick up during the summer travel season. WHP will participate in a national campaign beginning June 5 encouraging motorists to buckle up.

For all MEETING AGENDAS AND MINUTES WEEKLY CALENDAR JOB OPENINGS SOLICITATIONS FOR BIDS PUBLIC NOTICES AND OTHER VALUABLE INFORMATION

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

8 | MAY 25, 2016

NEWS OF THE

WEIRD

By CHUCK SHEPHERD

Medical Milestone

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced they had recently (a first, they claimed) transmitted high-speed digital data through slabs of pork loin and beef liver. The signal cleared the muscle and gristle so cleanly that it permitted streaming of high-definition video—enough to watch Netflix, said the lead researcher. (Actually, the advance is crucial in that it allows a patient to swallow a transmitter and for physicians to monitor inner workings of the body in real time and externally control implanted devices such as cranial sensors and defibrillators.)

New World Order

Can’t Possibly Be True

Texas School Blues

Religious leaders associated with the “quiverfull” ministry announced intentions for a November retreat this year in Wichita, Kansas, at which parents will meet to plan “arranged” Christian marriages for their prepubescent daughters, to maximize the future couples’ childbearing potential—supposedly the No. 1 priority of all females. Quiverfull activist Vaughn Ohlman has written that female fertility is optimal during their teens (actually, just after age 12) and drops off in their 20s.

The local district attorney, queried by The Wichita Eagle, said such marriages are legal as long as all parties consent—but Ohlman has maintained that the Bible does not require the bride’s consent if her father has given his. n Apparently, Japanese taste buds easily become bored, for manufacturers seem eager to create extravagant food combinations to satisfy them that might prove daunting to most Americans. The latest exhibit: the familiar Kit Kat chocolate-coated wafer—but with the taste of ripe melon and cheese (specifically, “Hokkaido Melon With Mascarpone Cheese”). As Japanese foodies know, Kit Kats in Japan come in at least 15 coatings, according to a 2013 review by Kotaku.com, including Edamame Soybean, Purple Sweet Potato, Hot Japanese Chili, MatchaGreen Tea, Wasabi and Red Bean Sandwich.

Gynecologists interviewed by The New York Times for an April report said they were baffled by the recent increase in teenage girls demanding cosmetic surgery on the external folds of their vulvas—since there is rarely a medical need and the safety of the operation on young girls has not been demonstrated. Some doctors called the “need” just an extreme example of teen girls’ beauty obsessions and suggested the presence in some girls of the psychiatric malady of “body dysmorphic disorder,” in which a person imagines or exaggerates a physical characteristic. (The phenomenon is different from the “vaginal rejuvenation” requested by older women, especially after childbirth, because that involves tightening internal tissue.)

Houston’s KHOU-TV revealed in May that the French teacher at the Houston school district’s Energy Institute High School doesn’t speak French (but did take one year of it, in high school). n The Sheldon school district near Houston admitted in May that a 7-year-old student at Sheldon Elementary had written her own successful “please excuse Rosabella early” note (using lettering typical of 7-year-olds) and was allowed to go home instead of attending her after-school program. n School police at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Houston threatened to arrest a 13-year-old girl during the last school year because they were unaware that the girl’s $2 bill (cafeteria payment) was valid U.S. currency.

Police Reports

In April, police in Brighton, Ontario, responded to what was reported by neighbors as a domestic dispute, involving shrieks like, “I hope you die!” They found only a man “arguing” with his pet parrot (who the man said was “beaking off” at him). No arrests were made.

n The Daily Pakistan newspaper, covering the Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi in April, reported that a judge in Courtroom III asked a constable if he knew how the grenade entered into evidence worked. Rather than assume that an explanation was requested, the constable pulled the pin to demonstrate, and the resulting explosion injured the constable, a court clerk and another police officer. The constable is said to be facing severe discipline as soon as he recovers.

n Kayvon Mavaddat, 28, was arrested in Natick, Massachusetts, as police enforced three arrest warrants. He had been on the loose until May 6, when he politely (inadvisedly) held open a door at Natick Mall for a police officer who, in that brief moment, thought he recognized Mavaddat. Checking his cruiser’s computer, he found the warrants, went back inside and arrested Mavaddat.

Latest Religious Messages

Timothy Trammell, 36, was arrested on several charges in Jonesville, South Carolina, in May after a sheriff’s deputy spotted him spray-painting a car that was not his. According to the deputy’s report, Trammell had just finished angrily painting “C-h-e-e-t-e-r” (sic) on the car (belonging to a woman, identified in a WSPA-TV report as his girlfriend).

Great Britain’s prisoners claiming to be adherents of the ancient Celtic pagan religion are allowed, under rules from the National Offender Management Services, to be excused from jailhouse routines to celebrate four festivals, including (of course) the Festival of the Lactating Sheep. Although “Skyclad,” or naked worship, is forbidden, prisoners can wear the silver pagan ring (to avoid “distress”) and are permitted their own chalices, crystals, “worry beads,” pentagram necklaces, hoodless robes and flexible twig-wands. n An Israeli man (unidentified in press reports) petitioned the Haifa Magistrate’s Court recently for a restraining order against God, pointing out that the Almighty has exhibited (according to a May Times of Israel report) “a seriously negative attitude toward him,” especially over the previous three years. The judge rejected the petition even though God was not present to argue against it (or at least His presence could not be detected).

Parental Values

In the latest ruling on a familiar theme, a court in Modena, Italy, ordered a father to continue paying living expenses for his son, age 28, who had meandered through a degree in literature but now has decided to seek another, in experimental cinema. (Almost two-thirds of Italians aged 18 to 34 still live with their parents.) n In Beijing, an elderly couple secured a court order in March forcing their 36-year-old daughter finally to move out after she had refused for years. The couple admitted to the Beijing Morning Post that they might have pampered her excessively over the years, even lending her the equivalent of $23,000 to buy a house. (Still, she stayed.)

Cavalcade of Rednecks

Updates

In April in Oslo district court, Norway’s most notorious terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik (77 killed in 2011), prevailed in his complaint against prison treatment and was awarded the equivalent of about $41,000. The prison (part of a system generally regarded as the world’s most inmate-friendly) was found to violate Breivik’s human rights by restricting his outside contacts and excessively restraining and strip-searching him. (He had also complained of poor food choices.) n The Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, among the system’s most troubled (in personnel issues, falsifying reports and overdependence on patient opiod use), is reportedly working on a “100-day plan” for reform and recently posted a job opening—for interior decorator ($77,000 position, doctoral degree) to, presumably, improve everyone’s attitude.

Thanks this week to Dan Bohlen, Greg Hoggarth, Stan Kaplan and Robin Daley, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

Staging Peace

How a Jackson director is helping people relinquish prejudice and hate in some of the world’s most infamous conflict zones.

By Meg Daly /

@MegDaly1

W

hen the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1974, the infamous ruler Pol Pot envisioned returning the country to a primitive agrarian society. To do so, the regime began a campaign of genocide and forced labor that would last for five years. An estimated two million Cambodians were executed. Ethnic minorities, intellectuals, and artists were specifically targeted.

One artist who survived was Arn Chorn-Pond. Born into a family of performers and musicians, Chorn-Pond was just nine years old when he was separated from his family.

He was forced to fight the Vietnamese alongside thousands of other child soldiers. The Khmer Rouge exploited his musical talents and forced him to play music during mass executions. He later escaped and found refuge in a refugee camp in Thailand.

Jackson-based performer and theatre director Bob Berky met Chorn-Pond on a recent trip to Battambang, Cambodia. “He’s a beautiful person, with many ghosts around him,” Berky said.

Berky was in Cambodia with the current generation of young performing artists for a Global Arts Corps project. Though the young Cambodians hadn’t endured what people like Chorn-Pond had, they too felt the ghosts of their country’s history all around them.

A multi-national organization comprised of performers, directors, musicians and human rights activists, Global Arts Corps was founded by Wilson residents Michael and Jackie Lessac in 2009. The nonprofit uses theatre to expand reconciliation in recent conflict zones.

Lessac has earned international praise for Global Arts Corps, including the support of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The organization’s productions have secured top honors at prestigious international theatre and film festivals. Though numerous international organizations exist to address reconciliation and peace, few have the vision and approach of GAC. Lessac asks performers and audiences to delve into what it means

MAY 25, 2016 | 9

JACKIE LESSAC

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

An image from the production, See You Yesterday, which embarks on a four-stop tour in Rwanda this summer.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

10 | MAY 25, 2016

to be human. It is in the grey areas between “good” and “bad” that he and GAC have the most transformational impact. While they may not save the world, they do have the power to perhaps change intractable hearts.

“Look, one show is not going to make ISIS throw down their guns,” Lessac said.

“Nothing like that is ever going to happen.”

But what does happen, according to Lessac, is the permission to see beyond rigid beliefs and protective “masks” humans wear in the world.“Our work shows that I can drop my mask and I will not die,” he said. “Many of us fear that we will die if we drop our masks. People are subconsciously afraid of empathy.”

Old stories, new beginnings This spring, the Lessacs traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to see the culmination of Global Arts Corps’ latest project. For five years, theatre artists like Berky have been working with a troupe of young circus performers to create a play about the Khmer Rouge and its legacy. See You Yesterday features high-energy acrobatics and fine-tuned ensemble work to tell the story of the performer’s families’ experiences.

“They created a show based on their imagination about what their elders went through,” Lessac told The Planet. “It’s their memory of a history they never lived.”

A six-minute video of a rehearsal (found at globalartscorps.org) shows the troupe’s extraordinary talent and passion. Scenes of torture, coercion, and courage are portrayed in inventive physical theatre. Much of the subject matter has been shrouded in silence between the generations.

“The Global Arts Corps don’t prepare the scene for the artists,” one performer said on the rehearsal video. “Every scene is from the artists themselves.”

Berky explained: “We try to teach out of a sense of commitment and generosity.”

One of the powerful aspects of working for GAC, Berky noted, is the deep level of commitment and care. Cast, trainers, and crew often grow family-like ties. Berky thinks of one young Cambodian performer as his surrogate son, a bond that transcends culture and language. “We became very attached to these people,” Berky said. “They are very dedicated performers and very open-hearted people.”

Jackie Lessac, executive producer for Global Arts Corps, says their work is uplifting rather than depressing, despite the atrocities explored in rehearsals.

“It’s the joy of going on an adventure of uncertainty to find something dangerous but accessible,” she said. “To be a part of that process in itself can be joyful, but it is also a great pleasure to watch. To see young people throw themselves into learning new things without hesitation and without fear of ‘getting it wrong.’ To watch their growth as free thinkers.

“One of our young Cambodian performers was interviewed for a blog,” Jackie Lessac said. “He said that before he started work on this production he was never interested in what his parents and grandparents said when they spoke about the Khmer Rouge. But after working on this production, now when they speak, he listens. Isn’t that what we all want?”

Hatred is a failure of imagination Lessac began his career in theatre in the 1970s, after graduating with a Ph.D. in developmental and perceptual psychology. He founded the Colonnades Theatre Lab in New York City, which received numerous awards and acclaim. He then worked in Hollywood directing films and TV, including Taxi, Newhart, Grace Under Fire, The Drew Carey Show and many others.

“The beauty of what theatre does in a conflict situation is that it forces people to rehearse things they don’t believe in,” Lessac said. “The craft of theatre has inside of it the way to get inside of you. So you have empathy for other people.”

Lessac works closely and intensely with his actors. His expectations are high, but so too is his respect and compassion for them. “The resiliency and skills need to already be in the actor,” Lessac said.

“If I am a trained actor, I have already trained myself to look at, say, a rape scene, with curiosity, not fear. Pain is something you investigate. Rage and hate needs to be rehearsed and understood.”

Therein lies the specific gift theatre offers. Ordinary people don’t walk around rehearsing rage in order to understand it. Most of us don’t think about rape as something we are curious to learn more about and understand from inside both the victim and perpetrator’s perspectives.

Lessac likes to quote novelist Graham Greene, who wrote, “Hatred is a failure of imagination.”

When Lessac brings together groups of people who have in the past been enemies, he invites them to take another try at imagination. Can they imagine their enemy’s face when it was the face of a baby? What does it take for a rift in the hatred to appear?

Director Michael Lessac and actor/trainer Andrew Buckland in a workshop in Battambang, Cambodia.

Lessac’s next project will address the timely yet ancient tensions between Muslims, Jews and Christians. Though he would like to work in the Middle East, logistics will be easier in France, where he is already beginning to assemble a cast.

Diplomats and other influential leaders, he hopes, will begin to take note of Global Arts Corps. He believes people need to stop accepting that war and conflict are inevitable.“Human nature is just an excuse. It’s a way to say, ‘It’s not my fault,’” Lessac said. “An actor knows, ‘It sure as hell is my fault.’”

In Global Arts Corps, Lessac says, they disprove the ‘human nature’ argument.

JACKIE LESSAC

A vision for change

Lessac watches a rehearsal in Battambang, Cambodia, with local school children.

Global Arts Corps grew out of the Truth in Translation tour, which included performances and grassroots dialogue with communities.

Lessac says that sharing plays and dialogue between war-torn countries is the basic premise of Global Arts Corps’ work. “We are taking the Cambodian show to Rwanda,” he said. “We took the Irish show to a racially charged neighborhood in Boston.

“Our particular approach to theatre has a lot of tools that can be a genuine part of education,” he continued. “It has to do with perception, change of perception, and empathy.”

Over the several years of touring with Truth in Translation, the Lessacs took 200 hours of film footage, which led to a feature length documentary, A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake. Released in April 2014, the documentary follows the South African cast as they travel to Rwanda, Belfast, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In each location, they perform the play and engage with the public to hear their stories of conflict, hate, hope, and sometimes forgiveness.

They wanted to explore the question: “What happens if one country that has come out of violence talks to another country that has come out of violence?”

MAY 25, 2016 | 11

JACKIE LESSAC

Rehearsing foreign beliefs

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

The seed of Global Arts Corps sprouted a little more than a decade ago when the Lessacs traveled to South Africa to hear the stories of the translators for the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The TRC was assembled in the mid 1990s after the abolition of apartheid. Modeled on restorative justice, victims were invited to give statements in public hearings. Perpetrators could also give testimony. This public airing of atrocity, pain, guilt, and anger was part of South Africa’s intent at finding reconciliation and moving forward as a country. As Nelson Mandela is said to have asked his newly Democratic country, “Can we forgive the past in order to survive the future?”

Because South Africa has 11 different languages, translators were needed during the TRC so that victims and perpetrators could communicate. Michael Lessac became curious about the translators. They were tasked with being conduits for so much emotion and so many horrible stories. This idea of holding other people’s stories inside oneself, and sometimes having to speak your enemy’s words, captured Lessac’s imagination. An idea for a theatrical work emerged.

Lessac gathered a talented group of South African actors and writers and developed a script based on the TRC interpreters. He used actual testimony from the TRC hearings, stories from the real translators, and experiences of the South African actors themselves.

Renowned South African musician Hugh Masekela created songs and music for the production. In 2006, the groundbreaking musical Truth in Translation was performed for the first time.

This seminal production garnered awards and acclaim in South Africa and around the world. The play has since been produced in numerous countries, including sites of recent conflict such as Northern Ireland, Rwanda and the Western Balkans.

“It is a marvelous and powerful exploration into events that transformed South Africa,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu told The Belfast Telegraph when the play was staged in Northern Ireland.

The Scotsman named Truth in Translation one of the top three plays in the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival: “It is a show courageously committed to showing humanity exactly as it is, profoundly flawed and often breathtakingly brutal, but not entirely lost.”

Cast members were transformed by the experience as well. Performer Sibulele Gcilitshana said that being part of Truth in Translation “made me understand anger and fighting, and made me ponder when does one put down the burden that your forefathers carried on this earth.”

Actor Nick Boraine said for him, acting in Truth in Translation allowed him to investigate whiteness. “Once you understand what your ancestors were about, you can be proud of them but also realize they were really off track in many ways. There was huge sacrifice and cost to what they did. It was an incredible gift to go on a journey of exploration and realize that I didn’t have to do what my ancestors did.”

See You Yesterday choreographer Belle Sodhachivy Chumvan (second from right) and cast members as Chumvan’s mother Nou Sondab talks about the Khmer Rouge.

Energized at home & abroad One day Lessac hopes to work with local students. “I would love to do the exchange program with Jackson Hole kids,” he said. “Both the Latino population as well as the wealthy kids who don’t always know what’s going on in the world.

“I know this is a strange thing to say,” he continued, “but the children of the wealthy are deprived in the extreme because they never get to think about or look at a lot of things.

We somehow have made the case that our children should be protected. I think that’s the quickest way to destroy the education of our population.”

According to Nick Boraine, who is now associate artistic director with GAC, Lessac brings a patience for process that is unique. For kids in Jackson, having time to fully explore their experiences with race and class could be a gift in itself.

“Michael is old-school,” Boraine said. “He comes out of the 70s New York City theatre tradition where process was everything. What is extraordinary to what Michael brings is time. He never says things can be done quickly.

“I remember as an actor, working on Truth in Translation, it was such a privilege to have that kind of time to unpack your country’s past and your ancestral past,” Boraine said. “It takes a long time to be honest with yourself and your cast members. The mistake that a lot of people make is that they come in and want to do it as quickly as possible.”

The Lessacs moved to Jackson in 1993 while Michael was preparing to do another movie. “The studio went bankrupt while I was scouting locations,” he said. So the couple decided to use their sudden free time to visit friends at a ranch in Jackson.

“It didn’t take more than four hours before we decided that we had to be here,” Lessac said.

They also have a home in New York City, and an extensive travel schedule. He acknowledges that his Jackson home provides an escape from the pace of urban life. But escape troubles him less than entitlement. “What is important is that we don’t escape by wrapping entitlement around us,” Lessac said. “That means that you have wrapped yourself in a wrap of denial.”

At 75, Lessac shows zero signs of slowing down. This summer he and Jackie will take See You Yesterday on a four-stop tour in Rwanda. “We will perform in two Burundian refugee camps occupied by people who have escaped over the border to Rwanda to seek

Several See You Yesterday cast members show off their acrobatic skills in rehearsal.

JACKIE LESSAC

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

12 | MAY 25, 2016

Lessac said the goal of this cross-cultural dialogue and exposing a country’s wounds rather than covering them up was not to document atrocity. Instead, he hoped to reveal “unexpected and unknown ways of reconciling.”

In a quietly powerful scene in the documentary, a young Rwandan woman speaks during a student talkback session with the cast after seeing the play. Noted white South African journalist Max du Preez, who is traveling with the company, asks the Rwandan students if they have advice for him on coping with how he, as a white person, is seen as a perpetrator.

The Rwandan woman, who is from the Tutsi ethnic group, responds, “You must understand that when you kill the parents of someone, they will hate you. You won’t change your name; you won’t change your face. But don’t try. Give them a chance of seeing you.

“I give you an example,” she continued. “My parents were killed in the genocide. My brother was killed in the genocide. So I really know. I think forgiving is accepting what happened to you, and realizing that bad people exist and that anyone can be bad, because we are human. I know some Hutu people. I love them very dearly. They are my friends at school ... I talk about them when they are there. I say, ‘I hate the Hutu people.’ But they allow it. They understand that’s how it must be. They understand me. And I love them.”

Lessac says the concept of forgiveness was more on display in Rwanda than any other place he has visited, except South Africa. As with his actors, Lessac does not generally ask people to embrace forgiveness. Theatre, he says, provides a way of rehearsing something you don’t believe in.

“What I look for in actors is that they are deeply committed to their craft,” Lessac explained. “That they are committed to knowledge of themselves and others. They have to want to see things through other people’s eyes. They have to have sense of humor and sense of music.”

When all those qualities exist in his cast members, Lessac says it leads, fruitfully, to people exploring things they didn’t think they believed in. “I’m not asking them to believe in forgiveness,” he said. “I’m asking them to rehearse it.”

The documentary gets its title from the answer often given for why babies are killed during genocide and conflict. The adage, “A snake gives birth to a snake,” encapsulates the way hatred is passed on from generation to generation.

Lessac finds hope in changing young people’s perceptions. He says his experience working with youth in Cambodia convinced him that Global Arts Corps could affect young people. Initially, some performers were reluctant to explore the past. They wished instead to look forward. But over time, they came to see the value of understanding their country’s violent history.

safety for their families from a genocide many believe is brewing in their home country,” Lessac said.

Boraine noted that this will be the first time GAC presents a production in a current conflict area. Brundians are fleeing the threat of genocide right now. “It’s a major departure from where we’ve been before,” Boraine said. “We don’t know what the result will be. We are not sure how it will go down.”

Other work currently in progress includes Hold Your Tongue, Hold Your Dead, a play developed in Northern Ireland that brings together actors from opposite sides of the conflict and fragile peace in that region. The production will tour in 2017 to areas in the United States struggling with racial, ethnic and socio-economic tension and violence.

Additionally, Global Arts Corps is eyeing the creation a production with a cast of French Muslims, French Jews and French Christians.

“Someday I’d like to put 10 conflict groups onstage,” Lessac said. “Because they would be looking from so many different sides, an absurdity would surface and float upon the whole conflict. We would begin to see a mirror of ourselves in a way we’ve never looked at it before. That would be something brand new to bring to the table.”

Lessac has set a goal for himself to create an international “festival for radical reconciliation” by the year 2020. Though there are only a few theatre companies doing work similar to Global Arts Corps, there are some, including the organization Cambodian Living Arts, founded by Arn Chorn-Pond. Cambodian Living Arts was a co-presenter of the Phnom Penh performance of See You Yesterday.

When he saw the Phnom Penh performance, Bob Berky said it brought home the reason Global Arts Corps members are so dedicated to their work. “You really understood as an artist how powerful art is, how useful it can be.”

Lessac says the usefulness of their work is not about making people hold hands and kiss one another. He allows for a more realistic outcome. “Maybe reconciliation is not what everybody thinks it is,” he said. “Maybe we are not going to be friends. But at least we could agree not to kill each other’s children.” PJH

JACKIE LESSAC

Learn more about Global Arts Corps at globalartscorps.org.

Global Arts Corps associate artistic director Nick Boraine working with kids in Belfast, Ireland.

MAY 25, 2016 | 13

JACKIE LESSAC

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

14 | MAY 25, 2016

CREATIVE PEAKS Native Son Famed writer Sherman Alexie talks in Jackson, and to Native youth.

BY MEG DALY

S

tarting Wednesday at noon, free tickets are available for author Sherman Alexie’s June 13 appearance during the library’s Page to the Podium event. Tickets will be distributed online only and are expected to go fast. (See below for details.)

Alexie is one of those multi-talented writers who excels in several different genres, including poetry, novels, short stories, and films. He wrote the screenplay for the first all-Native American film, Smoke Signals (1998), which was based on his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. He won the 2007 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In 2010 he won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for War Dances. And that is just naming a few of his publication credits and awards.

Though Alexie wasn’t available for an interview, the motivation behind his creative output is no mystery. In a 2012 interview with musician Neko Case for The Believer, Alexie and Case talked about why they do what they do.

“I tell [my readers], ‘I write this shit for you!’” Alexie said to Case. “But a lot of writers won’t admit to that … They’ll get artistic or pretentious or, you know, talk about some ‘higher calling.’ The fact is, I want to move rooms full of people. I want to move someone sitting alone under a reading lamp.

I want to move someone sitting on a beach. I want to make them laugh and cry. I want them to see me and come running up to me and tell me how the books made them feel. I love that!”

Free your mind Speaking of speaking up, in addition to his public appearance, Alexie will be leading a private Q&A with several teens from the Wind River UNITY Council who are learning about freedom of expression. With help from former Planet co-publisher and co-founder Mary Grossman, the students are creating an entirely youth-led Native newspaper. Grossman recently started a nonprofit organization, Minds Wide Open, to teach freedom of expression as a human right.

“The Native youth want to be in charge of their own voice and narratives,” Grossman said. “They want to tell the world about who they are.”

As the former publisher of The Planet, Grossman has a wealth of experience to share in how to put together a newspaper. But her larger mission is really the importance of freedom of expression.

“We talk about honest reporting, and not silencing perspectives that might be offensive to someone,” she said.

The first issue of Wind River Youth Times will appear online only with an anticipated publication date in late June.

Grossman hopes to publish a print edition once or twice a year.

The teens, who Grossman describes as “brilliant,” are motivated and regularly take action in their community, their state, and at a national level. Their UNITY Council is part of a national organization that fosters Native youth engagement and leadership. They’ve organized efforts to combat drug and alcohol abuse, traveled to Cheyenne to talk

Upcoming Page to the Podium visiting author Sherman Alexie writes because he wants ‘to move rooms full of people.’ He will share his passion for storytelling June 13 at Center for the Arts. Teton County Library will release free tickets online Wednesday, May 25. with their senators and representatives, and have plugged into President Obama’s Generation Indigenous program, launched in 2014.

So Grossman is not working with shrinking violets. But there is an arena where sharing their voices feels more precarious, and that is talking with their elders.

“The kids are trying to figure out ‘How will we have our voice, but not offend our elders?’’’ Grossman said.

Alexie understands this dilemma well. He spent his early youth with his parents on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

But he left the reservation as a teen to attend a public high school in Washington State. He went to college at Gonzaga University and Washington State University.

Alexie told The Atlantic magazine that he couldn’t help feeling that he’d betrayed his people: “I was the first person in my family ever to go to college, leaving the reservation, leaving my tribe; feeling excited about going but also feeling like I’d betrayed the tribe. And knowing that no matter where I ended up, or what I did, I would always be there. Some large part of me would always be there on the reservation.”

Reflecting reality In Alexie’s semi-autobiographical young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character decides to go to a “white” school off the reservation.

The widely acclaimed novel is also widely banned. In a 2014 analysis of titles most frequently challenged or banned in the U.S., the American Library Association (ALA) noted Alexie’s book was in the top 10.

Teton County Library Foundation director Pauline Towers-Dykeman loves the book. It was her first introduction to Alexie’s writing. “It’s a bittersweet story about trying to figure out who you are. It resonates with teens and adults,” Towers-Dykeman said.

The controversy over the book’s instances of profane

language and references to masturbation, alcohol abuse, or death don’t worry her. “Sherman is an articulate spokesperson for how those kinds of things can be in literature,” she said. “Those are core ALA values of intellectual freedom.”

Grossman has secured sponsorship for the Wind River youths’ overnight trip to Jackson to hear Alexie speak. Their half-hour private talk with him will be an opportunity to see what a professional writer’s life is like.

Library adult program coordinator Leah Shlachter says it is important for students of color to have role models. “When you have an example of what’s possible, it increases your imagination about what you can do,” she said.

Shlachter has an MFA in poetry and credits her instructors of color for providing affirmation and support.

“When I was getting my MFA, it was important to me to have instructors who were writers of color,” said Shlachter, an enthusiastic admirer of Alexie’s poetry. “He has a way of being very sad and humorous at the same time. One line you are laughing and literally the next line you are starting to cry.”

Alexie has said he is passionate about writing realistically about life, especially for young people.

In 2011 he told the Wall Street Journal, “There are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged. They read because they live in an often-terrible world. They read because they believe, despite the callow protestations of certain adults, that books—especially the dark and dangerous ones —will save them.” PJH To obtain your free ticket to hear Sherman Alexie speak 7 p.m., June 13 at Center for the Arts during the library’s Page to the Podium event, visit tclib.eventbrite.com.

Only one ticket per library card number; a limited number of tickets are available.

THIS WEEK: May 25-31, 2016

WEDNESDAY MAY. 25

n Aortic Stenosis and Atrial Fibrillation - Options for Treatment and Management 5:30pm, Teton County Library, Free, 208-227-2778 n Barbara Trentham Life Drawing 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307-7336379 n Cribbage Club 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Stride Strong, Pedal with Power Workshop: Road Biking 6:00pm, Stilson Ranch parking lot START Bus Shelter, $15.00, 307-739-9025 n Tips for Container Gardening 6:00pm, Jackson Parks and Recreation, $15.00, 307-7399025 n Stride Strong, Pedal with Power Triathlon Workshop 6:00pm, Stilson Ranch Parking Lot @ START Bus Shelter, $15.00, 307-739-9025 n Wednesday Community Dinner 6:00pm, Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, Free, 307-7340388 n Donation Dry Needling Clinic 6:30pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $15.00, 307-699-7480 n KHOL Presents: Vinyl Night 8:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n Songwriter’s Alley Open Mic 8:00pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939

THURSDAY MAY. 26

n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Wilderness First Responder 9:00am, CWC-Jackson, $725.00, 307-733-7425 n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307-733-3316 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 Vertical Harvest Opening Day Ceremony 10:30am, Vertical Harvest, Free, 307-733-4599 n Wort Hotel’s 75th Anniversary Kick-Off Party 11:30am, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Growing Through Grief 1:00pm, St. John’s Medical Center, Free, 307-739-7482 n Summer Kick-Off Party, Book Fair, and Raffle!

3:00pm, Teton Literacy Center, Free, 307-733-9242 n Teacher Appreciation Party 3:00pm, Jackalope Toys & Gifts, Free, 307-201-5036 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Young Illustrators Awards 5:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-732-5402 n Cowboy Coffee Rental Showcase 5:00pm, Cowboy Coffee, Free, 307-733-7392 n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n Stained Glass - Design with Light 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $160.00 $190.00, 307-733-6379 n Outdoor Bootcamp 6:00pm, Mike Yokel Park, $18.00, 404-610-2932 n Summit on the Snake Spring Speaker Series - Owhyee Canyonlands Conservation and Recreation 6:00pm, Old Wilson Schoolhouse, Free, 307-734-6773 n Stretching for Summer Activites 6:00pm, Jackson Parks and Recreation, $15.00, 307-7399025 n Evening of the Arts 6:30pm, JH Classical Academy Campus, Free, 307-201-5040 n JH Community Band Rehearsal 7:00pm, Center for the Arts Performing Arts Wing, Free, 307-200-9463

MAY 25, 2016 | 15

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 18

Compiled by Caroline Zieleniewski

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n Invasive Plant Management Seminar 8:00am, Jackson Elks Lodge, Free, 307-733-8419 n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Strollercize 9:00am, Teton Recreation Center, $10.00, 307-739-9025 n Wilderness First Responder 9:00am, CWC-Jackson, $725.00, 307-733-7425 n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307-733-3316 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 Open Build 1:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-354-5522 n Chess Club 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library - Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n Chess Club: Grades K to 12 3:30pm, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 x118 n Drawing to Paint 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $50.00 - $60.00, 307-733-6379 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Jackson JR’s Community Golf Clinic 4:30pm, Snake River Sporting Club, $15.00, 307-200-3092 n Compassionate Communication Workshop 5:00pm, St. John’s Church, Hansen Hall, Free, 307-6906427 n Hidden Hollow Neighborhood Meeting – Open House 5:30pm, Davey Jackson Elementary School – Commons Area, Free, 208-419-5886 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Neuromovement: Get Your Groove Back 5:30pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $18.00 - $60.00, 307699-7480

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | MAY 25, 2016

MUSIC BOX

Shake-a-Day: Feb. 9 Shakey Graves returns with fellow Austinites Calliope Musicals.

BY AARON DAVIS @ScreenDoorPorch

F

or just a regular dude that’s turned into a big deal, Shakey Graves, a.k.a. Alejandro Rose-Garcia, is not that normal, creatively speaking. His hometown of Austin knows what’s up. The city’s mayor at the time proclaimed Feb. 9, 2012 as Shakey Graves Day, which the 26-year-old has utilized over the years as his own indie release date. For three days, he puts all of his music on Bandcamp for free downloads, and every year he releases a unique EP, unreleased

When an artist sells out a Jackson venue in the off-season, we take note. Enter Shakey Graves, playing at the Pink Garter Saturday. material, or live album. After the three days, the freebies disappear until the next year. Well played, sir.

“I think the way that my music has been absorbed is pretty much through Internet culture for the most part,” Rose-Garcia told The 13th Floor in March. “It’s less of album sales and radio play, and more of YouTube hunting and word of mouth, and I feel like that’s an inherently younger way of acquiring music in the first place.”

Shakey Graves performed last year on the Jackson Hole Live outdoor stage—solo and as a power trio. His solo tunes included a Gibson hollow body electric while singing and playing a suitcase kick drum that was positioned behind him and played with the heel of his foot. To this fan, that’s his bread and butter, and plenty engaging despite the chatty nature of the event, which is often a challenge for solo acts.

Once the rhythm section was added, his guitar tone became super-fuzzed and the adrenaline was on a punkish high while the crowd responded with their own energy. The quiver of rusty blues fingerpicking, indie rock, raw grunge, and alt-folk

all fit what is irresistible—his gruffly hip voice.

“I’ve always really loved guitar forward, twinkly loud music, so it’s definitely a little bit more in a psych-rock sort of vain right now, and more of a garage grunge music, so it’s like grungy-country-folk music,” Rose-Garcia explained. “I listen to a lot of psych right now. Some of the best stuff coming out right now are some amazing psych bands. [My music] always changes, hopefully, it’ll change until the day I die. It’s advancing into a different sound for sure.”

Shakey Graves first grabbed the attention of indie music fans with his 2011 album Roll the Bones, which became one of Bandcamp.com’s best-selling and most-streamed offerings. Presented in a lo-fi package, the songs were endearing to fans of such raw recordings. His 2014 sophomore release, And the War Came, took him from a fledgling Austin talent to nationally renowned, and the album remained in the top 10 of the Americana Music Association’s airplay chart for nearly a year. His latest release is the 2015 EP of B-sides and rarities, Nobody’s Fool.

WEDNESDAY Songwriter’s Alley Open Mic featuring Bo Elledge (8 p.m., Silver Dollar) THURSDAY Bogdog (10 p.m., Town Square Tavern)

Enjoy whimsical weirdness care of openers Calliope Musicals before Shakey Graves Saturday at the Pink Garter.

Most recently, he was recording at the late Levon Helm’s recording studio in Woodstock, New York after meeting Levon’s daughter, Amy, backstage at a festival.

“It just kind of all came together in a serendipity, magical sort of way and it was perfect,” Rose-Garcia explained. “So we rented a house out in the woods, and would spend nine to 12 hours every day in this magical barn, just acting crazy and living the Levon Helm Woodstock dream, which is just being ridiculously stoned and making the weirdest music that you humanly can.”

Opener Calliope Musicals is a cheerful, psychedelic party folk band, also from Austin. Their high-energy live performance focuses on involving the crowd and a squad of musicians will deliver vibraphone, tribal drums, bass, lead guitar and collective vocals. The band “exudes feel-good vibes that aim to swallow listeners and spit them out as happier versions of their former selves.”

With this Jackson date falling the night after a triple bill for Shakey Graves at Red Rocks with The Wood Brothers and

MONDAY JH Hootenanny (6 p.m., Dornan’s) TUESDAY One Ton Pig (7:30 p.m., Silver Dollar)

Aaron Davis is a decade-long writer of Music Box, a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, member of Screen Door Porch and Boondocks, founder/host of Songwriter’s Alley, and co-founder of The WYOmericana Caravan.

RABBIT ROW REPAIR WE SERVICE THEM ALL …

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MAY 25, 2016 | 17

Coming out June 2016

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

JH

Devil Makes Three, I think we’re in for an inspired treat of a show.

A big summer is planned at The Pink Garter Theatre, which just announced Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (Sept.

11) and Buckethead (July 15) as well as White Buffalo (June 15), Steven “Ragga” Marley (June 19), Blitzen Trapper (July 9), Grand Teton Music Festival presents Time for Three (July 20), The Claypool Lennon Delirium (July 25), and Fitz and the Tantrums (Aug. 31).

Shakey Graves with Calliope Musicals, 9 p.m. Saturday at Pink Garter Theatre. This event is sold-out. PinkGarterTheatre. com, 733-1500. PJH

SATURDAY Shakey Graves with Calliope Musicals (9 p.m., Pink Garter Theatre), Mike Hurwitz & the Aimless Drifters (7:30 p.m., Silver Dollar)

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | MAY 25, 2016

n Spanish for Fun, Work & Travel 7:00pm, CWC-Jackson, $105.00, 307-733-7425 n Gong Meditation: Nutrition for Your Nervous System 7:00pm, Medicine Wheel Wellness, $20.00, 307-699-7480 n Salsa Night 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500 n BOGDOG 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-7333886

GET OUT

n 35th Annual Old West Days 8:00am, Locations Vary, Free, 307-733-3316 n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, 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 Strollercize 9:00am, Teton Recreation Center, $10.00, 307739-9025 n Wilderness First Responder 9:00am, CWC-Jackson, $725.00, 307-733-7425 n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307733-3316 n Battle of the Kombucha 11:00am, Jackson Whole Grocer & Cafe, Free, 307-733-0450 n Clay and Sculpture 3:30pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $190.00 - $228.00, 307-733-6379 n Electronics/Tech 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-354-5522 n Free Wine Tasting 4:00pm, The Liquor Store & Wine Loft, Free, 307-733-4466 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 - $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Bar J Chuckwagon Supper 5:30pm, Bar J, $25.00 - $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 - $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Friday Night Meditation 6:00pm, Zendler Chiropractic, Free, 307-6998300 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307734-1535 n The Ballad of Cat Ballou 6:30pm, JH Playhouse, $35.00 - $65.00, 307733-6994 n Pam Drews Phillips Plays Jazz 7:00pm, The Granary at Spring Creek Ranch, Free, 307-733-8833 n Mike Hurwitz & The Aimless Drifters 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n DJ Party 10:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500 n Canyon Kids 10:30pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-7333886

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 19

ROBYN VINCENT

FRIDAY MAY. 27

Souls on Fire Jazz Fest illuminates the resilience of the Big Easy.

BY ROBYN VINCENT @TheNomadicHeart

O

n the hunt for the Gentilly Stage, where My Morning Jacket was performing, I hurried across the soggy grass as mud lodged deeper between my sandaled toes. Amid the sounds of New Orleans brass spilling into the air from one stage and acoustic guitar escaping another, I discerned a faint percussive rhythm that rerouted my trajectory.

In a wooden shack—set off from the labyrinth of large stages with walls of speakers, food tents with crawfish étouffée and fried plantains, and artisans slinging everything from fine art to African jewelry—a sweaty mess of men and women sat in a row slapping their hands against their drums, swaying in imperfect unison. The drummers had commanded a small cluster of people to their feet.

Dancing barefoot before the musicians, the possessed crowd seemed to be offering up alms to the gods of rhythm.

This unsuspecting drum circle set the tone for my inaugural New Orleans Jazz Fest.

Because while thousands of people were sitting mesmerized by Paul Simon’s enduring performance chops or My Morning Jacket’s moody rock, I found that some of the most memorable moments came from the least suspecting performers. People like Barbados drum carver and musician Larry Vaughn.

Tucked away in that unassuming shack, alternating between playing the drums with his group and jumping into the beguiled crowd, Vaughn encapsulated the kind of intimate performance that has become a rarity at large-scale festivals. But alas, Jazz Fest is not a typical large-scale music festival.

Moments after Vaughn’s performance, I found myself receiving a Big Easy dance lesson. Thanks to CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band, I learned how to dance to zydeco with a small crowd of revelers. Taking

Left: Festivalgoers dance to the drums of Mark Vaughn. Middle: CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana band school the crowd in zydeco. Right: Soul Rebels heat up the house at Les Bon Temp Roulé. a few cues from my fellow festivalgoers, I gingerly synced my hips and my feet, stepping each foot in and out of the gooey, muddy ground. Meanwhile, on the next stage over, former Fugees songstress Lauryn Hill was gearing up to belt “Killing Me Softly.”

“You got a great step,” one man told me in a heavy Louisiana patois. That was all the encouragement I needed to stay right where I was.

Much like the storied history of the Big Easy, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival comes with a rich history, too.

According to festival organizers: Mahalia Jackson, often coined the greatest gospel singer, returned to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970. While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square, she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the festival, came upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of second-line revelers through the festival grounds. Fest producer George Wein wasted no time handing Jackson a microphone. So she sang along with the band and joined the parade. And they say that unforgettable moment is how the true spirit of Jazz Fest was born.

When you’re in the Big Easy, something about the undying spirit of New Orleans works its way into you and wont let go. The first time I fell in love with New Orleans I was with 11 strangers from Jackson Hole. We were in Nola to help rebuild homes destroyed

by Hurricane Katrina. During our two-week trip, we peeled off New Orleans’ celebratory layers—after much of our own celebrating of course—to discover a very different place.

Beyond the pulsating 24-hour jazz joints on Frenchmen Street and inebriated tourists stumbling down Bourbon, New Orleans is rife with police corruption and violent crime, a place where gunshots are fired each night just blocks from the French Quarter; a place where people lost their families and their homes as a result of the federal mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina.

While I will proudly proclaim New Orleans as the greatest American city, I find that knowing the city intimately—in all its

glory, pain and anguish—has helped me foster reverence for its rawness and its indomitable residents, those who refuse to turn their backs on the Big Easy no matter the battle.

When the torrential downpours arrived on the last Saturday of Jazz Fest, festivalgoers could be found wading through thigh-deep puddles. It was the day that Stevie Wonder, Beck and Snoop Dogg were slated to perform. My audacious friend Jenelle by my side, I sprinted with half an umbrella through blinding sideways rain to investigate the rumors that the entire festival was slated for impending shutdown. Jenelle and I found our way to one of the music tents just before the festival did in fact shutter. Dripping from head to toe, we were a curious sight to dry folks sitting inside the tent who seemed completely unaware of the near hurricane conditions happening just outside. (I even detected a few gasps as I wrung out my dress.)

While throngs of people were pouring out of the fair grounds, we arrived just in time for the strut worthy jazz of Jamil Sharif, where an eraptured audience was transported to another time and place. Afterwards, organizers pulled the plug completely, but not without a Stevie Wonder standoff. Before he was reportedly ushered off the stage and back to safety, Stevie sang “Purple Rain” through a megaphone to the stalwart festivalgoers still holding out. (Check it out on YouTube.)

Back in the French Quarter, as we hopped through subterranean puddles, the hard rain unrelenting, I announced I knew a shortcut to the 200-year-old Spanish home my friends and I were renting. Instead I sent us on a detour.

Turning the corner, we almost collided with a brass band, the musicians slouched against a storefront taking shelter from the storm. Suddenly the band members awakened, like someone had flipped their switch.

I clumsily skidded to a halt and watched as the musicians breathed life into their instruments filling the street with boisterous jazz.

Yes, it’s the people of New Orleans who triumph with their undying soul; with each trumpet, tuba and saxophone, the Crescent City resonates with hope. PJH

WELL, THAT HAPPENED

Owning the Boomerang The Icelandic adventure comes to an end.

BY ANDREW MUNZ @AndrewMunz

E

ANDREW MUNZ

The author stands in front of Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavík on the eve of his Jackson return.

n Bar J Chuckwagon Supper 5:30pm, Bar J, $25.00 - $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Whiskey Experience 6:00pm, VOM FASS Jackson Hole, Free, 307-734-1535 n The Ballad of Cat Ballou 6:30pm, JH Playhouse, $35.00 $65.00, 307-733-6994 n Mike Hurwitz & The Aimless Drifters 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n JH Rodeo 8:00pm, Fairgrounds, $15.00 $35.00, 307-733-7927 n Shakey Graves 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, $20.00 - $23.00, 307-733-1500 n DJ Capella 10:30pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886

SUNDAY MAY. 29

n 35th Annual Old West Days 8:00am, Locations Vary, Free, 307-733-3316

n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307-733-3316 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n the Back of the Stacks: Cabin Fever Story Slam 12:00pm, KHOL Radio Show, Free, 307-733-2164 n Carnaval Dance on Town Square 3:00pm, Town Square, Free, n Bar J Chuckwagon Supper 5:30pm, Bar J, $25.00 - $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Taize 6:00pm, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Free, 307-733-2603 n Stagecoach Band 6:00pm, Stagecoach, Free, 307-733-4407 n I Choose to Dance 10:00pm, Transformative Fitness, $20.00 - $120.00, n Hospitality night feat. DJ-1 10:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 21

MAY 25, 2016 | 19

I don’t feel any sort of guilt retreating back to my hometown, although I’m sure I’ll receive a fair share of I-told-you-sos. With such a massive trip behind me, this return is a chance for me to ground myself, finish editing my novel, and begin planning out the next few years.

Those who know me well understand this pattern is no longer a surprise. I’ve left and come back so many times that it’s starting to feel like a Benny Hill hallway chase scene.

There’s plenty of other people who leave Jackson “for good” and return months later, and there’s really nothing wrong with that.

Jackson is a cushy environment with a strong community and plenty to do, so I don’t think anyone should be faulted for wanting to find comfort in it after a failed journey.

In my mind, I didn’t fail in Iceland, nor did the country fail me. This whole experience has been incredibly rewarding, and my four-year Icelandic obsession has opened my mind to so many opportunities.

Without it I would’ve never known how to spot a whale from 800 meters. I wouldn’t have eaten a sheep eyeball in the warm company of singing Icelandic families. There would be no trans-Atlantic ferry trip to Denmark, no grandmotherly drag queen interactions, no desperate attempts at speaking Icelandic.

I still wouldn’t know how to properly cook fish, make reindeer pate or bake bread. And I certainly wouldn’t have all these new wonderful, unique, important people in my life.

Had I limited myself to a single week-long vacation, none of these things would exist in my world. And if I didn’t leave them behind in order to cherish and appreciate them, then I would take them for granted in the long run.

Nothing pairs better with adventure than fear. And even though this particular adventure has come to a close, I know that I’m ready to open myself up to new ones. And yes, it’s practically guaranteed that I will continue returning to my family and friends in Jackson between them, no matter what I say. I’ll also return to Iceland again. What’s important is that I’m staying available to even the slightest prospect of a new escapade, and that absolutely thrills me.

Everyone has a boomerang story. I just happen to keep tossing mine. PJH

n 35th Annual Old West Days 8:00am, Locations Vary, Free, 307-733-3316 n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307-733-3316 n Aerial Tram Opens 10:00am, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, 307-733-2292 n Indians of the Greater Yellowstone Museum Opens for the Summer 10:00am, History Museum, 307-733-2414 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $10.00 - $12.00, 307-203-2551 n Carnaval Dance on Town Square 3:00pm, Town Square, Free, n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

veryone has a boomerang story…

By the time this column goes to print, I will be safe and sound back in Jackson Hole putting a period on the Great Icelandic Adventure. I’ve been traveling to Iceland and returning to Jackson ever since 2012, and it seems only fitting that I complete the circle and return home for a breather. I wish I had a better story to tell regarding my decision to leave the land of fire and ice. If only I could say some volcano exploded and I was forced to evacuate! The reality is admittedly less exciting, but for me, no less urgent.

Previous columns have depicted my struggles with ex-pat depression and trying to keep my spirits high in a place as remote as the little fishing town I called home. It’s always difficult to have something you love turn around and nip you in the ass, and living in Iceland was the ultimate backfire.

I didn’t plan on spending my entire life here, but I still had expectations of assimilating into the culture and staying here for a while.

But coming face-to-face with living abroad made me realize that I’m far too addicted to adventure to settle down and limit myself to a single country.

I left because I didn’t want to fall out of love with Iceland. I didn’t want it to lose its sheen and become just another place where I lived.

My final week before flying home gave me a chance to soak up Iceland as much as possible. I rented a car and went on a road trip from the east fjords to the west fjords, visiting friends along the way and checking out places I’d never visited. I’d concocted the perfect recipe of nostalgia and discovery, and managed to finish off my Icelandic journal in the airport as I waited to board my Denver flight. With the last page written, I was able to literally close the book on Iceland.

SATURDAY MAY. 28

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | MAY 25, 2016

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The Rule of Threes X-Men: Apocalypse doesn’t even try to be anything but more of the same.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW @scottrenshaw

T

here’s a snarky in-joke in X-Men: Apocalypse that ends up backfiring about as spectacularly as a snarky in-joke can. Taking advantage of the story’s 1983 time-frame, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg have a group of the mutant superheroes exit a theater showing Return of the Jedi, where Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) notes that “the third one’s always the worst.” It’s likely a dig at the generally reviled X-Men: The Last Stand as the wrap-up of the Singer-launched original X-Men trilogy, and maybe even a little knowing self-deprecation as this current incarnation of the comic-book team hits its own third go-round. Yet it comes in a movie with no apparent idea of how not to perpetuate that truism.

It’s hard to remember that 2000’s X-Men was in its way a pioneering movie, pre-dating Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the now-ubiquitous Marvel Cinematic Universe in establishing that there was an audience hungry for comic-book adventures brought to life.

But franchises inevitably face the dangerous question of, “Why should this story continue, other than because we would leave money on the table by not continuing?” All too often, the response is that it can be made

Sophie Turner, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Tye Sheridan in X-Men: Apocalypse. bigger. It can be made faster. It can be made just-plain-more.

X-Men: Apocalypse’s version of bigger-faster-more means that our mutant protagonists will need to save humanity from a villain who wants to destroy everything. You know, just everything—but especially bridges and recognizable world landmarks. That villain is En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), an ancient Egyptian quasi-god who awakens from a centuries-long slumber ready to eradicate pitiful, primitive humanity from the planet.

He’s got his traditional “four horsemen” as personal bodyguards and pavers of the way for apocalypse: Angel (Ben Hardy), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and even good old Magneto (Michael Fassbender), whose latest personal tragedy has refreshed his rage. Standing against them are Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and newer recruits including the aforementioned Jean Grey, Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Nightcrawler (Kodi SmitMcPhee). And let the melee begin.

Epic hero brawls have already been fairly ubiquitous in 2016 thanks to Batman v.

Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War, which achieved varying degrees of success at the cinematic equivalent of kids picking up their favorite action figures and smacking them into one another while going “PCHOW PEW-PEW-PEW.” X-Men: Apocalypse delivers its own slew of three-point-stance hero poses and “who would win a fight between …” moments, as Singer slings his characters around the CGI battlefields with the practiced ease of someone who knows which one-liners and set-pieces will play well to his audience.

There is, however, almost nothing new to see here, and almost not even the pretense that there’s anything new to see here. Once again, as has been the case for more than

a decade in this series, the central conflict is really between the world-views of Xavier and Magneto regarding mutants interacting with the human world; their relationship has become an infinitely reset-able cycle of “hello, old friend”/attempts to murder one another/“goodbye, old friend.” Lawrence’s Mystique continues to serve as the living rope for their philosophical tug-of-war, with Kinberg seemingly clueless as to how to exploit her potentially fascinating ambivalence over her actions in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Singer even recycles the most memorable single sequence in DoFP, giving Quicksilver another slow-mo showcase for his super-speed set to a pop radio staple. This barely feels like a new movie. You’ll flip past it on cable a few years from now, and have no clue which one it is.

By the time X-Men: Apocalypse trots out a big cameo appearance of a familiar character—already spoiled in the marketing campaign—it has become sort of painfully obvious that this franchise is running on fumes.

Its allegory for civil rights battles by a feared minority has become just a talking point, and remains the only idea these movies are interested in exploring. We get the point that “the third one’s always the worst,” largely because everyone involved is simply going through the motions, operating under the impression that it’s fine if you have nothing different to say, provided you’re willing to say the same thing even louder this time. PJH

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE BB Michael Fassbender Jennifer Lawrence James McAvoy Rated PG-13

TRY THESE X-Men (2000) Patrick Stewart Ian McKellen Rated PG-13

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Patrick Stewart Hugh Jackman Rated PG-13

X-Men: First Class (2011) James McAvoy Michael Fassbender Rated PG-13

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) Hugh Jackman Jennifer Lawrence Rated PG-13

PRWEB.COM

Old West Brew Fest 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Town Square

Enjoy a variety of beers from regional breweries. More than a dozen regional craft breweries will gather under one tent on Jackson Town Square offering their best beers to tasters and asking for their vote, with the coveted Golden Boot Award going to the brew with the most votes.

MONDAY MAY. 30

TUESDAY MAY. 31

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM

RE

W PO AN RT TE ER D

Have a knack for storytelling and the smarts to dissect and distill the valley’s issues du jour, from breaking news to thoughtful arts coverage?

Looking for flexible hours, the freedom to work independently and the opportunity to be an important voice in the community?

Now is your chance to join the small, energized team that comprises The Planet – Jackson Hole’s alternative voice and Wyoming’s only alt weekly.

EMAIL ONLY: A COVER LETTER, RESUME AND WRITING SAMPLES TO EDITOR@PLANETJH.COM

MAY 25, 2016 | 21

n 35th Annual Old West Days 8:00am, Locations Vary, Free, 307-733-3316 n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library, Free, 733-2164 ext. 118 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307733-2164 n Walking Tour of Jackson 10:30am, Center of Town Square, Free, 307-733-2141 n Page to the Podium Tickets 12:00pm, tclib.eventbrite.com, Free, 307-733-2164 n Spin 12:10pm, Teton Recreation Center, $8.00, 307-733-5056 n Writer 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-354-5522 n Joint Replacement Class 4:00pm, Moose Wapiti Classroom in basement of St. John’s., Free, 307-739-6199 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Teen Creative Writing Club 5:00pm, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-

733-2164 n Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Group in Spanish 5:00pm, Moose-Wapiti Classroom, St. John’s Medical Center, Free, 307-739-7678 n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Bar J Chuckwagon Supper 5:30pm, Bar J, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Language Exchange 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Driggs, Free, 208-3545522 n JH Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free, 307-733-3316 n Our Public Wild Lands: Treasures and Legacy 6:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 n Outdoor Bootcamp 6:00pm, Mike Yokel Park, $18.00, 404-610-2932 n The Ballad of Cat Ballou 6:30pm, JH Playhouse, $35.00 - $65.00, 307-733-6994 n One Ton Pig 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n 35th Annual Old West Days 8:00am, Locations Vary, Free, 307-733-3316 n Fitness & Dance Classes All Day! 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n Mountain Man Rendezvous and Traders Row 9:00am, Teton Conty Fairgrounds, Free, 307-733-3316 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n Maker Monday’s 3:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library Victor, Free, 208-7872201 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:15pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n Bar J Chuckwagon Supper 5:30pm, Bar J, $25.00 - $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $37.00 $45.00, 307-733-5386 n JH Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free, 307-733-3316 n Hootenanny 6:00pm, Dornan’s, Free, 307733-2415 n The Ballad of Cat Ballou 6:30pm, JH Playhouse, $35.00 - $65.00, 307-733-6994 n Spanish for Fun, Work & Travel 7:00pm, CWC-Jackson, $105.00, 307-733-7425

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | MAY 25, 2016

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 MAY. 27

n Innovations 2016 Fri, Sat, Sat Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $95.00 - $115.00, 801-869-6900

WEEKEND OF JUN. 10

n Newsies Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm n Bike Prom Pre-Ride Sat Pioneer Park, 300 W 300 S, Salt Lake City, 6:00pm n Salt Lake’s Urban Flea Market Sun Urban Flea Market in Downtown SLC, 600 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, 9:00am, Free

WEEKEND OF JUN. 17

n case / lang / veirs Fri Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, 6:30pm, $54.00 - $61.00 n Collect School Supplies for Stuff the Bus! Fri - Sun Columbus Community Center, 2531 South 400 East, South Salt Lake, Free, 801-746-2566 n Cougar Sports Live at Platinum Sports in Provo Towne Centre Fri Platinum Sports & Music Memorabilia, 1200 Towne Centre Blvd, Provo, 4:00pm n Crucialfest Fri, Sat Downtown Salt Lake City, 600 west 100 south, Salt Lake City, 5:00pm, $8.00 - $50.00, 801-867-3037 n Crucialfest 6: Form of Rocket, Elephant Rifle, Cicadas Fri The Urban Lounge, 241 S 500 E, Salt Lake City, 9:00pm, $12.00 n Damien Jurado & The Heavy Light / Ben Abraham at The State Room Fri The State Room, 638 S State Street, Salt Lake City, 9:00pm n Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID (musical) Fri - Sat SCERA, 745 South State Street, Orem, 8:00pm, $10.00 - $16.00, 801-225-2787 n Downy Doxey-Marshall: /klōTH/ Fri Alice Gallery, 617 E South Temple, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, Free, 801-245-7272 n Drew Lynch Fri Wiseguys Ogden, 269 25th Street, Ogden, 8:00pm, $20.00

n Food Truck Fridays Fri Station Park, 833 Clark Lane, Farmington, 11:00am n Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code Fri - Sun Natural History Museum of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, 10:00am, $11.00 - $13.00 n Ginger Wallace: A Retrospective Fri - Sat Weber State University Shaw Gallery, 3964 W. Campus Drive, Ogden, Free n Jennet Thomas: The Unspeakable Freedom Device Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City n Jennifer Seely: Supporting Elements Fri - Sat Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City, Free n Juneteenth Freedom & Heritage Festival Fri - Sat Weber State University Central Campus, 3848 Harrison Blvd, Ogden, 12:00pm n Laughing Stock Improv Fri - Sat The Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, 10:00pm, $8.00 - $16.00 n Lucy Peterson Watkins: Textures of the Wasatch Fri - Sun Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, 9:00am, $7.00 - $12.00 n The Most Lamentable Roman Tragedy of Titus Andronicus Fri - Sat Westminster College Dumke Auditorium, 1840 South 1300 East, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $15.00 - $18.00 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 On an On Fri Alleged, 201 Historic 25th Street, Ogden, 7:00pm n ONE80 GAY FRIDAY’S Fri ONE80, 180 W. 400 S., Salt Lake City, 9:00pm, $7.00 $15.00, 801-688-8401 n Orem Owlz @ Grand Junction Fri - Sat ESPN 960, 960 AM, Provo, 7:00pm, Free n The Painted Veil Fri Rio Gallery, 300 S Rio Grande St, Salt Lake City, 8:00am, Free, 801-245-7272 n Peter Pan Fri, Sat, Sat Hale Center Theater Orem, 225 W. 400 North, Orem, 7:30pm, $15.00 - $23.00 n Pirates of Penzance Fri, Sat, Sat The Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main, Salt Lake City, 7:30pm, $16.00 n Ready, Fire, Aim Fri, Sat, Sat Pickleville Playhouse, 2049 S Bear Lake Blvd, Garden City, Garden City, 8:00pm, $14.00 - $25.00 n Reebok Ragnar Wasatch Back Fri - Sat Hyrum Gibbons Mt. Logan Park, 1400 E. 350 S., Logan, UT, Cache County, Logan, 5:30am n Rock of Ages Fri, Sat, Sat, Sun The Ziegfeld Theater, 3934 South Washington Blvd., Ogden, 7:30pm, $17.00 - $19.00 n S A L EM R E A D Y C L A S S Fri Salem West Stake Center, 695 S 300 W,, Salem, 7:00pm, Free n Sacrificial Slaughter Fri Club X, 445 S 400 W, Salt Lake City, 8:30pm, $5.00 n SB Dance: SNaked Fri - Sat Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, 8:00pm, $18.00 n Snow Tha Product Fri The Complex, 536 W. 100 South, Salt Lake City, 7:00pm, $16.00 - $18.00

Beauty and the Beef Chef Paulie O’Connor converts Cowboy Steakhouse into a culinary powerhouse.

BY ANNIE FENN, M.D. @jacksonfoodie

B

ANNIE FENN, MD COWBOY STEAKHOUSE

Top left: Not your typical steakhouse fare—watermelon salad, pumpkin seed pesto, polenta croutons, chicken skin vinaigrette. Top right: Billy the Kid is a pasta carbonara with a silky sous vide egg sauce and tons of fresh herbs. Left: Bar food gets elevated with buffalo fried quail, celery root slaw, Jackson hot sauce. Middle: The Bone Marrow and Cheddar Fondue is one of the Cowboy Steakhouse’s mustorder starters. Right: The zabuton steak is an incredibly tender cut named after its shape, like that of a flat Japanese sitting cushion.

By the way: Diners can end their meal with good karma by ordering a Bucket of Beers for the kitchen staff off the dessert menu.

Chef Paulie is determined to make the new Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse a place where locals can feel at home.

For all his old OYG fans, he hopes to have an OYG night once a week to bring back some of those classic Italian dishes.

He’s renamed the bar The Den with its own nicely priced dishes like the Buffalo Fried Quail ($13), the Sweet Potato Falafel Burger ($17), and the Wagyu Steak Frites with Asian Chimichurri ($17). Soon he’ll be rolling out whiskey flights (three half-ounce shots paired with a small plate, like a foie gras scotch bonbon) and a Knife Club (buy a New West KnifeWorks culinary knife, get a discount on food or alcohol.)

Back in the days when Paulie was working at Il Villaggio Osteria and overseeing a number of restaurants for Fine Dining Restaurant Group, he admits he had a good position and a great boss in Gavin Fine. But a voice in his head kept telling him: “Don’t settle, don’t be afraid to risk everything and see what happens.” Now, as he juggles his multiple businesses—not just the newly wonderful Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse, but his OYG restaurant in Alpine, OYG catering, and his new venture at Caldera House in Teton Village coming this winter, I have to wonder if he’ll need to be cloned to keep it all going.

“I’ve been working for other people my whole life,” Paulie said, “but it’s more satisfying to be on my own. Each decision I make has a ripple effect on how my life goes.” And he constantly gives credit to his staff for all the great work they do.

It will take many more visits for me to try everything on Paulie’s extensive menu at the Cowboy. Next time I’ll probably order the Joe Pesce for old times sake—a throwback to the old OYG menu, Paulie prepares Corvina sea bass piccata style with a buckwheat salad, brocciolini and a Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette. I guess you could say Paulie has made a steakhouse fan out of me after all. PJH The Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse is open daily from 5:30 pm. OYG in Alpine is open Thursday through Sunday and just started offering Sunday brunch. OYG catering is available for private dining, corporate events, weddings and parties.

MAY 25, 2016 | 23

notions on the boardwalk, entered the Cowboy Bar amongst the throngs of men on guycation and dolled up women in Western attire, headed down the stairs to the basement and straight through the saloon doors of the Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse.

The restaurant was brighter than I recalled, yet still had that old Jackson feel of knobby pine and cowboy print upholstery. The first friendly faces to greet me were wine expert Jean-Paul Glaume and his wife Tilly, key staff members from Paulie’s OYG days. What a good sign that Paulie had gotten the OYG family back together after all these years.

Paulie’s big personality is evident on the Cowboy menu. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and has so many delicious possibilities it took my group of 10 women quite a long time to order. We wanted to try everything, from the Bone Marrow and Cheddar Fondue, served with wild mushrooms, buffalo bratwurst and crostini; to the Charred Baby Iceberg Salad; to the Billy the Kid, a bucatini carbonara with lamb pancetta, spring peas, black truffle, and a soft egg on top. There were vegetable side dishes that we loved, like the creamed spinach and the whiskey glazed carrots.

And there were steaks: wild game cuts, Allen Brothers prime beef cuts, and Snake River Farms Wagyu cuts. Some of the steaks are enormous, like the 18-ounce bone-in rib eye, big enough to share with four or five friends. “We are definitely pushing the boundaries by selling bigger steaks,” Paulie said.

My group chose to share two smaller steaks, the 10-ounce beef zabuton, and the 10-ounce skirt steak. Both were deeply flavorful and cooked to perfection. Since that dinner back in December just after the Cowboy Steakhouse reopened, I’ve been back with big groups, small groups, with my kids, on date night with my husband, and to the bar for a late night indulgence of foie gras and a glass from Glaume’s excellent list of wines.

On each visit it strikes me that the Cowboy Steakhouse staff just loves working with Paulie. In fact, mentoring young chefs is something he takes very seriously.

“It’s important the staff feels like they are really a part of it,” Paulie said. “We do a lot of tastings together to powwow over the dishes. A dish evolves when staff members get involved.”

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

efore I tell you about the Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse, its new owner and revamped menu, I should probably mention that steakhouse fare is not my cup of tea. Overpriced steaks, unimaginative dishes, gloopy overdressed salads, and throngs of tourists seem to be the norm, especially in Jackson. In general, I find the whole steakhouse experience to be disappointing and the food ho-hum.

But when I learned that Chef Paulie O’Connor had purchased the Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse, I had to check it out. Not only did O’Connor take over the business aspect of things at the steakhouse, he is also on the business end of a spatula—in the kitchen on a regular basis. This promised to be a very good thing.

O’Connor, or Paulie as everyone calls him, has been a beloved local chef since his days cooking at the Old Yellowstone Garage in Jackson under owners Cinzia and David Gilbert. For almost six years, Paulie cranked out dozens of now legendary Italian dishes to a loyal troupe of locals, myself amongst them.

I celebrated all of my birthdays there, watched my kids grow up from one all-you-can-eat Sunday pizza night to the next, and have fond memories of buying my nephew Alex his first legal drink at OYG’s bar (Campari, of course.)

When OYG closed in 2007, Paulie took over as executive chef at Il Villaggio Osteria. Once again, we locals were treated to Paulie’s incredible Italian food—handmade pastas, thin crust pizzas, innovative antipasti, perfectly executed seafood and steaks, and homey Sicilian desserts. During his time at Osteria, Paulie was nominated for a James Beard Award as a semifinalist for Best Chef Northwest.

I figured if anyone could make me fall in love with a steakhouse, it was Chef Paulie. And so I checked my preconceived

COWBOY STEAKHOUSE

ANNIE FENN, MD

ANNIE FENN, MD

THE FOODIE FILES

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

24 | MAY 25, 2016

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.

Dinner Nightly at 5:30pm 45 S. Glenwood Available for private events & catering For reservations please call 734-8038

SCOOP UP THESE SAVINGS

1/16TH COLOR AD 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

HAPPY HOUR Daily 4-6:00pm

307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE

• FREE PRINT LISTING (50-75 WORDS) • FREE ONLINE LISTING ON PLANETJH.COM • 6 MONTH MINIMUM COMMITMENT • $25 A WEEK CASH OR $40 A WEEK TRADE ON HALF OFF JH

CONTACT YOUR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE TODAY TO LEARN MORE

SALES@PLANETJH.COM OR 307.732.0299

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 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. Early Bird Special: 20% off entire bill between 5:30-6:0pm, Open nightly at 5:30 p.m. Reservations recommended, walk-ins welcome. 160 N. Millward, (307) 733-3912, bluelionrestaurant.com.

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.

®

Large Specialty Pizza ADD: Wings (8 pc)

Medium Pizza (1 topping) Stuffed Cheesy Bread

$ 13 99

for an extra $5.99/each

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

ELEANOR’S 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.

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

Eastern Accomplices Sake, wine and other pairings for a perfect sushi meal.

BY TED SCHEFFLER @critic1

W

hen pondering the question of what to drink with sushi it’s helpful first to chuck a few myths overboard.

First, sushi is not raw fish. Fish, raw or cooked, may be a component of sushi, but sushi actually refers to the rice, which is short-grain Japanese rice seasoned with sugar and vinegar. And so, a veggie roll that doesn’t contain fish is still sushi. Likewise, nigiri—thumb-size mounds of sushi with a single topping—can feature raw fish (and usually does) but doesn’t have to. Sashimi is raw fish, typically served with condiments such as soy sauce, wasabi and ginger. Since sashimi flavors are so delicate, it’s usually the first course served in Japanese restaurants.

Second, somehow the myth that sake isn’t

BEER, WINE & SPIRITS sipped with sushi has taken hold among the food intelligentsia of this country. The theory is that, since sake is rice-based, one shouldn’t drink it with rice. Huh? It is true that in Japan, sushi is most often accompanied by beer. But sake is also consumed with sushi. The reason that beer is more commonplace with sushi than sake is simply that the Japanese drink about eight times more beer than sake.

Warm or cold? I’ve heard people insist that one should only drink chilled sake with sushi, and I’ve also heard the exact opposite.

My suggestion: Have it your way. But here is something to note: Heating sake intensifies both its flavor and its dryness. For that reason, warm or hot sake is a good accompaniment for sashimi and delicately flavored sushi. As with pairing wines with food, acidity in the wine and fat content of the food are important to consider.

Let’s take, for example, sake with sake.

As well as referring to the fermented rice beverage, sake is also the Japanese word for salmon. Since salmon is a somewhat oily fish—that is, has a significant fat content—I’d opt for Ginjo sake, which is fairly light, and dry enough to help cut through the oily salmon. For the same reason, I would also recommend it with tuna. For California rolls or other sushi involving crab, I’d try to mimic the crab’s rich sweetness with a sake to match, such as a Junmai Ginjo, which typically has a touch of sweetness.

IMBIBE Having hopefully made the case for sake and sushi, I’ll admit that I prefer to sip wine with my sushi. It’s not a matter of right or wrong; it’s simply that I prefer wine. And, since dining in a sushi restaurant isn’t just about raw fish, I try to find a wine on the list that is versatile. After all, in addition to sashimi, nigiri and sushi rolls, most sushi restaurants also serve things like Kobe beef, tempura and various cooked foods that might even call for a robust red wine. A barbecued eel roll or a dish like Tona’s Asian-style baby back ribs could even suggest a big, brawny wine like Bucklin Bald Mountain Syrah.

Thanks to its crispness and acidity, Sauvignon Blanc is a wine that can cross a lot of sushi boundaries. Joseph Phelps Sauvignon Blanc 2013 has just enough oak to impart lusty creaminess and silkiness that is sure to sex up your sushi.

I also drink dry rosé wines with sushi, again since they are quite versatile, and range across various types of dishes and ingredients.

One of my current favorites is

Matthiasson 2015 Rosé, brimming with citrus notes that partner beautifully with ponzu and other citrusy sauces and sushi accoutrements.

Now, go out and make (or break) some sushi-sipping rules of your own! PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

MAY 25, 2016 | 25

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

26 | MAY 25, 2016

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL

20%OFF ENTIRE BILL

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner ••••••••• Open daily at 8am serving breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Good between 5:30-6pm • Open nightly at 5:30pm

733-3912

BYOB

160 N. Millward

145 N. Glenwood • (307) 734-0882

Make your reservation online at bluelionrestaurant.com

WWW.TETONLOTUSCAFE.COM

50% off entrees and sandwiches, through May 27th. *bring ad for discount

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

BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER 7:30-9PM 307.733.3242 | TETON VILLAGE

Napolitana-style Pizza, panini, pasta, salad, beer wine. Order online at PizzeriaCaldera.com FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT PIZZAS, PASTAS & MORE HOUSEMADE BREAD & DESSERTS FRESH, LOCALLY SOURCED OFFERINGS TAKE OUT AVAILABLE Dining room and bar open nightly at 5:00pm (307) 733-2460 • 2560 Moose Wilson Road • Wilson, WY

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965

11am - 9:30pm daily 20 W. Broadway 307.201.1472

THE LOCALS

FAVORITE PIZZA

OLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR THE LATEST PLANET HAPPENINGS!

2012, 2013 & 2014 •••••••••

$7

$4 Well Drink Specials

LUNCH

SPECIAL Slice, salad & soda

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

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

@

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.

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.

Put It Out There The truth about the Law of Attraction.

T

here’s plenty of buzz about the Law of Attraction. On the surface it seems that all you have to do is want something, ask the Universe to provide it and set an intention for whatever that is, and then like magic it shows up in your life. Alas, it’s not that simple.

The Law of Attraction is about the fact that our consciousness is in a constant feedback loop with the non-judgmental field of intelligence we call the Universe or the Universal Field of Consciousness. All of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions are forms of energy. The Universe supports us 100 percent by “reading and responding to” the energy frequencies of everything we “broadcast” into the matrix. Even our subconscious beliefs, which we are unaware of, are part of what is “read.” You might think of the Universe as an energy matching form of total support.

Therefore, based on the patterns of energy frequencies we are putting out, the Universal field of intelligence responds by bringing into our experience the kinds of events, people, opportunities, circumstances which match the combined energies of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions. We may interpret any of these as good or bad, however the Universe is entirely non-judgmental. The Universe literally rearranges itself to accommodate and reflect back to us the frequencies of our individual and collective energies.

Positive energy = Highest frequencies

Negative energies = Low frequencies Beliefs, thoughts and actions based on anger, hate, jealousy, dishonoring (of self and others), abuse, revenge, holding grudges and hurts are all lower frequency energies. In its benevolent and unbiased way, the Universe will match those energies and bring into your experience more things that reflect those same kind of energies.

Two simple, everyday examples

A traveler on his way to the next town sees an old wise man by the side of the road.

“What are people like in the next town?” asks the traveler.

“What were the people like in the town you just left?” asks the old man.

“They were unfriendly, cold and indifferent,” replies the traveler.

“Ah,” says the old man, “I’m afraid you will find the people in the next town are just the same.”

Later that day, another traveler passes the old wise man and asks the same questions.

“What are the people like in the next town?” asks the second traveler.

“What were the people like in the town you just left?” replies the old man.

“Oh, they were warm and friendly and helpful,” answers the traveler.

“They are just the same in the next town where you are going,” says the old man.

Not everything is explained by the Law of Attraction You might appropriately ask what about people who are poor, and people who are suffering—are they causing those experiences? Not necessarily. There are also reasons of karma being worked out, and there are reasons beyond our current comprehension.

Yet, when life dishes up lemons, it is the meaning we make out of those challenges which becomes what the Universe “reads” and then brings more of the same into our experience. You might ask yourself if, in tough times, you form a belief that there must be something wrong with you, that you are the victim; and then victim scenarios play out over and over. Or can you be the hero/ heroine of the things that happen in your life, and put that into the feedback loop with the Universe?

Perfection is not required No need to get paranoid about your every thought or belief.

Everyone has both positive and negative moments and unconscious patterns that may not serve us well. What you can do is to take stock of what you have in your life and what you don’t have in your life. Both are likely reflections of your beliefs. If there is something you really want in your life and it’s not happening, you might do some soul searching and/or therapy to uncover the belief(s) that might be giving unintentional instructions to the Universe. 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

MAY 25, 2016 | 27

• You decide to buy a new red car, a color you haven’t had before.

Your energy is broadcasting your fascination with red cars to the Universe. The Universe responds to your interest, and all of a sudden you start seeing red cars seemingly everywhere. You might even start noticing for the first time that there are lots of red cars showing up in TV ads. Or maybe a friend you haven’t

A zen teaching story

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Not surprisingly, the highest energy frequencies come from states of being (the combination of conscious and unconscious thoughts, beliefs, emotions, actions) which are loving, forgiving, compassionate, accepting, allowing, kind, and honoring.

These energies inform the Universe to match them with more of the same. More of the same can show up in any form, from the sublime to the absurd, or from the right job, the generosity of strangers, finding the perfect home, synchronistic meetings with people, enough financial resources, beautiful weather, beauty, or helpful store clerks.

seen in a while shows up with a new red car, too.

• You are pregnant, and baby related things are obviously what’s on your mind and in your energy field. The Universe matches your fascination, and then you start noticing pregnant women and women with infants everywhere you go. You might even wonder if there’s something in the water where you live! To your dismay, you might also notice for the first time ever, all the public service announcements on TV about birth abnormalities.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

28 | MAY 25, 2016

SUDOKU

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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.

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L.A.TIMES “POOL PARTY” By Pancho Harrison

SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2016

ACROSS

10 Keystone officer 40 Judicial seat 80 Frat house letter 13 Lowers oneself 19 Org. with a caduceus in its logo 20 1847 novel with the chapter “What Happened at Hytyhoo” 21 Rocking the stadium 22 Chinese restaurant offering 23 Lacking benefits, perhaps 25 Try 27 Pakistani language 28 Collars 30 “Spellbound” malady 31 Track runner?

34 Graduation hanger 36 Took a verse alone 37 Travesty 39 Romance novel emotion 43 Mostly shaved style 46 Removable engine 50 Oklahoma native 51 “Sorry, you __ me” 54 Suffix with proto55 Minuscule part of a min.

56 Mont. neighbor 57 Arcade pioneer 59 Lowest points 61 MTV’s parent company 63 Pickup spot 65 Old auto named for an explorer 69 Purina rival 70 Pacino title role 72 Germinates 74 Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-__ 77 “Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s __”: Anthony Bourdain 79 Undeveloped ability 83 Like some surprise endings 85 Sweater pattern 87 Mythical servant

88 Young Skywalker’s nickname 89 Pickup at a stand 92 Rapa __: Easter Island 93 One of TV’s Mavericks 95 Dockworker’s org.

96 Certain trait carrier 100 President, e.g.

102 “Modern Family” daughter 103 More agreeable 104 Sportscaster Ahmad 107 Bunch 110 Pond prohibition 114 “We’re headed for overtime!”

117 Really cool 120 Naysayer 121 Unscrupulously competitive 123 Orchestrator, perhaps 126 Maroon 127 Coffee maker brand 128 KOA patron 129 Night school subj.

130 Sights along old Route 66 131 Gelatin garnish 132 Many millennia 133 ACLU issues

DOWN

10 On the fritz 20 Astrologer Sydney 30 NBC-affiliated announcer in nine different decades 40 AI game competitor 50 “__ dreaming?”

60 Deli order 70 Compel by force 80 Bacharach collaborator Carole Bayer __ 90 Georgia O’Keeffe subject 10 Bond issuer: Abbr.

11 Podium tapper, at times 12 D-backs, on scoreboards 13 Phonies 14 “Chinatown” screenwriter Robert 15 The lord in “O beware, my lord, of jealousy!”

16 Soulful Redding 17 Prefix with scope 18 Room next to la cocina, maybe 24 Oral Roberts University city 26 Electrode shooters 29 Pricey watch 32 Reprobate 33 Nevada city on I-80 35 Open __ of worms 37 Former Calif. base 38 Belittles 40 City near Syracuse 41 Doomed Genesis city 42 Monorail transports 43 Ancient Dead Sea kingdom 44 Conductor Klemperer 45 Put-on 47 Compact automatic weapon 48 Reverent 49 Old AT&T rival 52 Salon sounds 53 Implied 58 Cellist’s need 60 Twice penta62 Flier’s option 64 Melee 66 Nimble 67 Big name in dental care 68 Control __ 71 Disneyland’s county 73 Ring pair 74 Wonder Woman accessory 75 Synthetic fiber 76 NBC musical reality show, with “The” 78 More accurate 80 Geraint’s wife 81 Shade of green 82 Go like crazy 84 Consideration complications 86 __ mill

90 Did a salon job 91 ’60s pop singer Sands 94 K thru 12 97 Wide-open space 98 Pastries made with choux dough 99 Switch add-on 101 Clio contender 105 Capital of Eritrea 106 Change course suddenly 108 To any extent 109 Trig ratios 110 Boy band with an acronymic name 111 Actress Stevens 112 Explosive trial 113 Lena Dunham HBO series 114 Footnote word 115 __ avail 116 Houlihan portrayer on “M*A*S*H” 118 Finish shooting 119 Decorative sewing case 122 Trade name letters 124 Classic roadster 125 Prince Valiant’s son

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

30 | MAY 25, 2016

JH

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O

nce upon a time, an adorable if somewhat clueless young couple lived in a far northern state where it was usually cold and miserable. Think of it as Frozen with a football team. One day, the young man said to his lovely wife, “Let’s go camping.”

“What the hell is camping?” the wife asked.

Now this couple had very little money and three kids under the age of three, which is probably why they had no money. The husband explained that camping was free; they would be outside, eat and sleep under the stars, roast marshmallows, be one with nature, and besides, he added, “it would be fun.”

By now you must have guessed the identity of this dumb couple, so I explained to my husband that I did not choose to have fun; that our marriage license did not say that I would be fun, and he knew this. But he also knew that I could not resist his blue eyes and that I would give in.

We had a 1960 Nash Rambler at the time.

It had reclining seats that could function as a bed, and we could sleep there. Unable to resist his charm, we dumped the kids somewhere and went camping.

Our destination was that garden spot: the Badlands of South Dakota. Out beyond the Wall Drug and the Corn Palace, it was a final resting place for dinosaur bones, whole T. Rexes, and all kinds of old stuff. I was hoping that there were no remains of previous campers.

In those days there were no freeways and no air conditioning. We arrived cooked in our Rambler but ready to become one with nature. We set up our American Motors campsite and waited to have fun. It didn’t take long. A truck full of campers arrived from Chicago. They had an entire kitchen

Here is Grandma camping in Kansas. She has the latest equipment—the horse is from Hertz Rent-a-Horse.

cabinet set up in the back of their truck and enough canvas to cover the campground.

Their leader had a bowie knife in his belt in case they were attacked by wild prairie dogs.

Not a bad idea. You never know.

Eventually a couple of guys came by with a tiny pup tent. Evening came on and we went to bed in our Rambler, but all would not be well. In that area, storms can blow up at any time. We awoke to banging and crashing hurricane winds and horrendous lightning. I opened my eyes to see that the ceiling of the Rambler was about an inch above my nose and I thought I was buried alive. Terror and fright filled the campground.

There was a big blast of lightning and we could see our Chicago campers frantically hanging on to their acres of canvas now billowing in the wind and rain. All we could see were their legs extending below what seemed to be a circus tent in full sail. Suddenly, the little pup tent next to us got up and ran away.

In the morning, all was gone.

After that, we went camping for years. No one would take our kids so we had to take them along. Other people had fancy camping stuff, but we always looked like the Joad family or the Beverly Hillbillies. Other people had camping toilets but we had to make that dark, spooky walk to whatever passed for a bathroom, knowing that lions, tigers, bears, and those guys from Deliverance lurked in the bushes.

Over the years, I became personally acquainted with most of the mosquitoes and many of the bears in ‘campingland.’ One grizzly bear even sniffed my head through the side of a tent. No one cared, but I paid them back by getting a migraine and throwing up all night. I thought it was fun, but they didn’t.

I find myself wondering if some day while they are digging up T. Rex remains in South Dakota, that they will also find the fossilized remains of a 1960 Nash Rambler with reclining seats and a Minnesota license plate.

Wouldn’t surprise me a bit. PJH

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19) To convey the best strategy for you to employ in the coming weeks, I have drawn inspiration from a set of instructions composed by aphorist Alex Stein: Scribble, scribble, erase. Scribble, erase, scribble. Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. Erase, erase, erase. Scribble, erase. Keep what’s left. In other words, Aries, you have a mandate to be innocently empirical, robustly experimental, and cheerfully improvisational—with the understanding that you must also balance your fun with ruthless editing.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being,” wrote Taurus memoirist May Sarton. That’s a dauntingly high standard to live up to, but for the foreseeable future it’s important that you try.

In the coming weeks, you will need to maintain a heroic level of potency and excellence if you hope to keep your dreams on track and your integrity intact. Luckily, you will have an extraordinary potential to do just that. But you’ll have to work hard to fulfill the potential—as hard as a hero on a quest to find the real Holy Grail in the midst of all the fake Holy Grails.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now,” said novelist Doris Lessing. “The conditions are always impossible.” I hope you take her advice to heart, Gemini. In my astrological opinion, there is no good excuse for you to postpone your gratification or to procrastinate about moving to the next stage of a big dream. It’s senseless to tell yourself that you will finally get serious as soon as all the circumstances are perfect. Perfection does not and will never exist. The future is now. You’re as ready as you will ever be.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) French painter Henri Matisse didn’t mind being unmoored, befuddled, or in-between. In fact, he regarded these states as being potentially valuable to his creative process.

Here’s his testimony: “In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows.” I’m recommending that you try out his attitude, Cancerian. In my astrological opinion, the time has come for you to drum up the inspirations and revelations that become available when you don’t know where the hell you are and what the hell you’re doing.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) “Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others,” wrote editor Jacob M. Braude. Normally I would endorse his poignant counsel, but for the foreseeable future I am predicting that the first half of it won’t fully apply to you. Why? Because you are entering a phase that I regard as unusually favorable for the project of transforming yourself. It may not be easy to do so, but it’ll be easier than it has been in a long time. And I bet you will find the challenge to reimagine, reinvent, and reshape yourself at least as much fun as it is hard work.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Norway is mountainous, but its neighbor Finland is quite flat. A group of Norwegians has launched a campaign to partially remedy the imbalance. They propose that to mark the hundredth anniversary of Finland’s independence, their country will offer a unique birthday gift: the top of Halti mountain. Right now the 4,479-foot peak is in Norway. But under the proposed plan, the border between countries will be shifted so that the peak will be transferred to Finland. I would love you to contemplate generous gestures like this in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. It’s a highly favorable time for you to bestow extra imaginative blessings. (P.S. The consequences will be invigorating to your own dreams.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) I believe that every one of us should set aside a few days every year when we celebrate our gaffes, our flaws, and our bloopers. During this crooked holiday, we are not embarrassed about the false moves we have made. We don’t decry our bad judgment or criticize our delusional behavior. Instead, we forgive ourselves of our sins. We work to understand and feel compassion for the ignorance that led us astray. Maybe we even find redemptive value in our apparent lapses; we come to see that they saved us from some painful experience or helped us avoid getting a supposed treasure that would have turned out to be a booby prize. Now would be a perfect time for you to observe this crooked holiday.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Sometimes the love you experience for those you care about makes you feel vulnerable. You may worry about being out of control or swooping so deeply into your tenderness that you lose yourself. Giving yourself permission to cherish and nurture can make you feel exposed, even unsafe. But none of that applies in the coming weeks.

According to my interpretation of the astrological omens, love will be a source of potency and magnificence for you. It will make you smarter, braver, and cooler. Your words of power will be this declaration by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani: “When I love / I feel that I am the king of time / I possess the earth and everything on it / and ride into the sun upon my horse.” (Translated by Lena Jayyusi and Christopher Middleton.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) In November 1916, at the height of World War I, the Swedish schooner Jönköping set sail for Finland, carrying 4,400 bottles of champagne intended for officers of the occupying Russian army. But the delivery was interrupted.

A hostile German submarine sunk the boat, and the precious cargo drifted to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The story didn’t end there, however. More than eight decades later, a Swedish salvage team retrieved a portion of the lost treasure, which had been well-preserved in the frosty abyss. Taste tests revealed that the bubbly alcholic beverage was “remarkably light-bodied, extraordinarily elegant and fantastically fresh, with discreet, slow-building toasty aromas of great finesse.” (Source: tinyurl.com/toastyaromas.) I foresee the potential of a similar resurrection in your future, Pisces. How deep are you willing to dive?

Go to RealAstrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “Never turn down an adventure without a really good reason,” says author Rebecca Solnit in her book The Far Away Nearby. That’s a thought she had as she contemplated the possibility of riding a raft down the Colorado River

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Russian poet Vera Pavlova tells about how once when she was using a pen and paper to jot down some fresh ideas, she got a paper cut on her palm. Annoying, right? On the contrary. She loved the fact that the new mark substantially extended her life line. The palmistry-lover in her celebrated. I’m seeing a comparable twist in your near future, Scorpio. A minor inconvenience or mild setback will be a sign that a symbolic revitalization or enhancement is nigh.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Proposed experiment: Imagine that all the lovers and would-be lovers you have ever adored are in your presence. Review in detail your memories of the times you felt thrillingly close to them. Fill yourself up with feelings of praise and gratitude for their mysteries. Sing the love songs you love best. Look into a mirror and rehearse your “I only have eyes for you” gaze until it is both luminous and smoldering. Cultivate facial expressions that are full of tender, focused affection. Got all that, Leo? My purpose in urging you to engage in these practices is that it’s the High Sexy Time of year for you. You have a license to be as erotically attractive and wisely intimate as you dare.

and through the Grand Canyon. Here’s how I suspect this meditation applies to you, Libra: There have been other times and there will be other times when you will have good reasons for not embarking on an available adventure. But now is not one of those moments.

32 | MAY 25, 2016

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |