Planet JH 12.28.16

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | DECEMBER 28-JANUARY 3, 2017

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2016

Imagining the unimaginable on a local, national and global scale.

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2 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

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JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 51 | DECEMBER 28-JANUARY 3, 2017

11 COVER STORY NEWSMAKER 2016 Imagining the unimaginable on a local, national and global scale.

Cover illustration by Cait Lee

18 MUSIC BOX

4 REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

20 CREATIVE PEAKS

6 THE BUZZ

23 FOODIE FILES

16 FREE SPEECH

28 COSMIC CAFE

THE PLANET TEAM PUBLISHER

Copperfield Publishing, John Saltas EDITOR

Robyn Vincent / editor@planetjh.com

ART DIRECTOR

STAFF REPORTERS

Cait Lee / art@planetjh.com

Meg Daly

SALES DIRECTOR

COPY EDITOR

Jen Tillotson / jen@planetjh.com SALES EXTRAORDINAIRE

Caroline LaRosa / caroline@planetjh.com

Annie Fenn, MD, Natosha Hoduski, Carol Mann, Sarah Ross, Ted Scheffler, Chuck Shepherd, Tom Tomorrow, Lisa Van Sciver, Jim Woodmencey

Jessica Sell Chambers CONTRIBUTORS

Rob Brezsny, Jessica Sell Chambers, Aaron Davis,

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

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December 28-January 3, 2017

By Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey

Jim has been forecasting the weather here for more than 20 years. You can find more Jackson Hole Weather information at www.mountainweather.com SPONSORED BY GRAND TETON FLOOR & WINDOW COVERINGS

It was on New Years Day 1979 that the official thermometer at the Jackson Climate Station bottomed out with a reading of minus 50-degrees Fahrenheit. Officially, that is the coldest temperature ever recorded here in town. Although, old-timers will recall, there were other thermometers around the valley that registered lower temperatures, as low as 63-degrees below zero, on that day. Nothing functions when it gets that cold!

The high temperature on New Years Day in Jackson 1979 only got up to 22-degrees below zero. That temperature was also a record for the day, and is also the coldest daily maximum temperature ever recorded in Jackson, ever. On the flip side, the record warmest temperature ever recorded in town during this week was a high of 52-degrees, on December 30th, 1933. That is 102 degrees warmer than it was on New Years morning in 1979.

NORMAL HIGH 26 NORMAL LOW 3 RECORD HIGH IN 1933 52 RECORD LOW IN 1979 -50

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.5 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 5.9 inches (1964) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 17 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 47.5 inches

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DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 3

Out with the old and in with the New Year this weekend. This last week of December and first week of January are not only among some of the shortest days of the year, but they also can be some of the coldest days of the year. In terms of averages, these are when our coldest days occur. In terms of records, these are also our coldest days.

Every once in awhile, a little more often than a blue moon, we end up with a warmer than normal spell around the New Year.

WHAT’S COOL WHAT’S HOT

THIS WEEK

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JH ALMANAC

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

4 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK No Home for the Holidays A story of darkness, light and perspective.

BY NATOSHA HODUSKI

I

t doesn’t feel like Christmas in Souda Camp as I cozy into my favorite corner of Muhammed’s Ikea container, where I’ve spent so many afternoons sipping tea and laughing.

His “home” is considered one of the “best inventions of the year, 2016” by TIME Magazine. I can’t help but balk at the epithet as he apologizes again, because he has not had electricity in his container since the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn attacked the camp more than a month ago.

Some of the stones they threw from the wall surrounding Souda knocked out the electric box on his end of camp.

This time last year I was hanging a nut cracker decoration on the 12-foot-tall Christmas tree at my parents’ house.

I think we were debating which Christmas classic movie to watch, and my younger sister kept insisting we watch Gremlins.

This time last year Muhammed was in Kurdish Iraq, finishing school. The Kurds are the largest group in the world without a country. They have not only been ostracized but have, for centuries, been the repeated victims of systematic ethnic cleansings and racially inspired violence.

At 20 years old, Muhammed has eyes that range in color from blue-green to brown, and he has a knack for making people feel understood and welcome. You would never know by his warm demeanor and soothing voice just how much he has endured to arrive on these frigid shores with their icebox “containers” and barbed wire fences.

Souda, phonetically, sounds like one of the Arabic words for “black,” Muhammed tells me as I sip tea so sweet I can feel my teeth decaying.

There’s something brutally poetic in a name like Souda, that reminds Muhammed of darkness as he uses his phone to

light the container.

When we’ve finished our tea, Muhammed begins the story of his journey to this moment.

He starts by describing a dark beach in Izmir, the city in Turkey across the Aegean Sea from Chios. “The first time, in Turkish [Turkey], I was in Izmir, I was talking with one mafia [smuggler] on the beach when I was trying to cross. Police get me.” Muhammed swallows hard over the memory. He has been going to English class every weekday since he arrived on the island, but he has only been here since September, so finding the right words to express himself isn’t easy. He tells me about the police station where he pretended to be Syrian because he feared for his life. Historically, Turkey has been no friend to the Kurds, and they are currently at war with them in the southern portion of the country.

Muhammed was thrown in a jail cell where he and several other refugees did not have water, food, a toilet, a place to sleep, or any privacy. He says the lights were always on, and there was trash piled waste-high in the cell. When he was pulled out of the cell for interrogation, the police tried to force him to clean the toilets just to humiliate him, but Muhammed refused.

After Muhammed’s refusal, the policeman took him to the other officers where they formed a ring around him. As punishment for his refusal, the ring of men began beating Muhammed. They then threw him back in the cell. After 24 hours the policeman brought him out again.

“You will clean the toilets?” he asked again.

“No, I will not clean the toilets,” Muhammed replied.

Outraged, the officers threw him on the ground and began beating him again. After they were done, one of the officers got out a live electrical wire they use during interrogations, and then he stabbed Muhammed in the back of the neck with it. The shock incapacitated Muhammed for five hours.

After the abuse, Muhammed was released back to the squalor of the Turkish refugee camps that double as detainment facilities. He had nowhere to go. Turkey was a prison, and he couldn’t go back to Kurdistan. Not when the European dream still beckoned him onward. Not after everything he had gone through, all of the sacrifices he had made, all of the anguish he had endured, so he waited for his chance to try to cross again.

After meeting with a smuggler, Muhammed once again set out for the Turkish coast where the police lay in wait for

SNOW PACK REPORT TIME TO HEAL I

n just a week, from the 20th to the 26th, another 20 inches of new snow with almost two inches of water added to the season total of more than 240 inches. This season’s snowfall began in early October and so far has produced high quality powder skiing. Short days, mostly cloudy skies and cold temperatures have kept the snow from melting, so even south aspects hold good cold snow.

At upper elevations up to 10 feet deep in the snowpack the October crust topped with faceted snow could still be found. If found this layer could result in a deep slab avalanche. During early to mid-December many large avalanches occurred on this layer. Although the snowpack is gaining strength as it grows in depth, the faceted snow takes time to heal and sometimes may never bond together.

Faceted snow is tricky to predict as it may appear strong and then suddenly fail.

refugees trying to flee Turkey. The police caught Muhammed again. They threw him to the ground and dragged him back to jail where they started their tactics all over again. When they were done beating him for the night, one of the officers threatened to shave Muhammed’s long hair.

“No, kill me, but please, don’t cut my hair,” Muhammed begged.

Noticing the effect it had on him, the officers once again produced the electrical wire, blazing it against Muhammed’s neck. The voltage knocked him out, and when he awoke, his hair was gone. “Turkish is not safe for live people,” Muhammed said, scratching his shorn head.

After his third attempt, Muhammed found himself in a rubber dinghy, crossing the four-mile gap between Turkey and Chios in the darkness of night, Souda looming on the horizon before him. Wet and cold, he was pulled from the boat, finally in Greece.

“When I come to Greece, I think I am safe,” he said, exhaling. “But Europa is a lie. This is not the name Europa.” The word “Europe” had meant freedom and possibility to him. It had meant safety and a future.

A woman miscarried her twins the night of the Golden Dawn attacks due to trauma. People were rounded up like cattle then thrown into prison without charge. Muhammed knows a little girl who has been diagnosed with PTSD after the attacks. These things appall him.

“I was arrested that night for two days,” he said.

The Greek police never formally charged him, but he believes his crime was being a refugee. He was stripped naked and beaten repeatedly to his humiliation and anger, and you can hear the pain in his voice as he explains why he came here.

“I want to go on, for studying, to Germany. I am coming here for my future self.”

And so he endures. For his future self.

This is what I think about this holiday season—the boy without a country and his future self: may it be warm and bright after so much Souda. PJH

After volunteering this fall at a Syrian refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios, reporter Natosha Hoduski was unable to stop thinking about the people she had met. So she packed up all her things in Jackson and returned to the island where she is currently working with refugees.

SPONSORED BY HEADWALL SPORTS

Two weeks ago in Utah a snowboarder triggered a deep slab avalanche. The failure in the snowpack was faceted snow above a crust. Warning signs, like shooting cracks and collapsing snow, were not observed since the problem layer was three to 10 feet below the rider’s feet. There was also a report of previous tracks on the slope. Luckily the rider was able to grab a tree and survived.

As another storm moves through the Tetons, on the 27th and 28th, it will continue to add to the early season snowpack. Most of the month has been cloudy and snowy, but a few clear nights created areas of surface hoar and facets in the snow’s surface. Rapid loading from snowfall and wind will cause these buried layers and new slabs to be reactive.

Check your local avalanche advisory and give the snowpack time to heal, especially with the deeper suspect layers.

– Lisa Van Sciver

January 2017

St. John’s Calendar of Events Most events are free unless otherwise noted.

Health Education

Support Groups Cancer Support Group for Patients, Survivors, and Caregivers

Teton Mammas

Led by cancer survivor Beth Snider, RN, OCN, and social worker Lynnette Gaertner, MSW, LCSW Thursday, January 5 Thursday, January 19 3–4 pm Eagle Classroom For information, call 307 739 6195

Memory Loss Support Group

For those suffering from persistent memory problems; family members and caregivers welcome.

Thursday, January 12 noon – 1 pm Professional Office Building Suite 229, 555 E. Broadway For information, call 307 739 7434

Teton Parkies (For those affected by Parkinson’s Disease)

Gather for mutual support, discussion of disease and therapies, and more.

Thursday, January 12 5 pm: Institute for EthnoMedicine 240 E. Deloney Ave 6:15 pm: Dinner at Pizza Artisan

Grief Support Group

tetonhospital.org/calendar

Joint Classes

Open to everyone interested in weight loss and those considering (or who have had) bariatric surgery.

Thursday, January 19 4 pm Boardroom St. John’s Medical Center For information, call 307 739 7634

Information for people considering or scheduled for joint replacement.

Tuesday, January 3, 4-5:30 pm Thursday, January 12, 8-9:30 am Tuesday, January 17, 4-5:30 pm Thursday, January 26, 8-9:30 am Tuesday, January 31, 4-5:30 pm Physical Therapy Room St. John’s Medical Center Please register by calling 307 739 6199

Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Group in Spanish

Auxiliary

In Spanish! ¡En Español!

Every Tuesday 5 – 6 pm Moose-Wapiti Classroom St. John’s Medical Center For information, call 307 739 7678

BRAIN

WORKS Upcoming February Events Diabetes Summit: A new breakthrough for living well with diabetes February 10

Dinner with a Doc: Featuring spine specialist Christopher Hills, DO February 23

Auxiliary Meeting

Thursday, January 5 Noon – 1 pm Moose-Wapiti Classroom St. John’s Medical Center For information, call 307 739 7517

Brain Works

Seven-week lifestyle class to improve brain health.

Tuesdays and Fridays, 3–5 pm Beginning January 17 $300 (Enroll with a friend or spouse and receive a $50 discount/person.)

Call 307 739 7434 by January 10 to enroll

Details to come Stripping for a Cure’s Strip and Strike Bowling Event February 28

1916 2016

625 E. Broadway, Jackson, WY

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 5

Led by Christina Riley, LCSW. Drop-ins welcome, but please call ahead.

Wednesday, January 11 Noon – 1 pm Professional Office Building Suite 114 555 E. Broadway Call 307 739 7482

Weight Management Support Group

This prenatal class prepares you for labor, delivery, parenting, and more.

Saturday, January 14 8:30 am–5:00 pm To enroll, please call 307 739 6175

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Thursday, January 26 4 pm Meet at Emily Stevens’ Park to walk or XC ski along the dike. Dinner to follow.

Contact 307 733 4966 or 614 271 7012

For newborns and their families.

Wednesday, January 11 1 – 2:30 pm Moose-Wapiti Classroom St. John’s Medical Center For information, call 307 739 6175

Childbirth Education Class

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

6 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

Passing the Blame The recent avalanche on Teton Pass has ignited community debate about the safety of motorists and recreationists.

BY MEG DALY

I

n the wake of the December 15 avalanche on Teton Pass, a discussion has ensued about motorist safety. Tempers tend to flare on all sides, particularly after law enforcement officials said they believe the event was skier triggered.

Many point fingers at skiers and snowboarders who are taking chances on high avalanche days. Others want WYDOT to issue more pass closures, yet the increasing number of Teton Pass commuters, many who have moved from Jackson to Idaho due to a historic housing crisis, make this option problematic. Some have suggested snow tunnels—a multimillion-dollar solution—that would protect motorists from avalanches.

The avalanche that dumped 20 feet of snow across Highway 22, sweeping one car in its path (remarkably, the driver did not suffer serious injuries) closed the road for 16 hours. Commuters en route to Idaho found themselves stranded in Jackson while others took a lengthy detour through Star Valley. Now people are asking what can be done to ensure something similar— or an event with more dire consequences—doesn’t happen again in a backcountry area that clocks about 100,000 ski runs a winter.

Sliding Time The avalanche occurred around 4:50 p.m. during blizzard conditions. Morning motorists woke up to only three inches of new snow on the pass. But by the afternoon conditions had shifted dramatically.

Jamie Yount, an avalanche technician with Wyoming Department of Transportation, said by 4 p.m. there was a precarious mix of blustery high winds and a foot of new snow.

That morning Yount and his colleague Brian Gorsage had already made plans to close Highway 22, but not until 3 a.m., December 16, when it would affect the least number of motorists, he said. The technicians spent the morning leading up to the avalanche in Hoback Canyon.

They were working on avalanche reduction there, which included clearing slides that

extended all the way to the highway. The canyon was closed intermittently for about an hour while the crew worked to clear the road. In the afternoon, aware of the changing storm conditions, the duo headed to Teton Pass to evaluate. They were on the west side of the pass when the avalanche hit and were able to respond immediately.

“Our biggest concern was getting everyone off that mountain,” Yount noted.

“There was a lot of traffic and a lot of disappointed people.”

Two Teton County Sheriff deputies happened to be on the pass commuting home to Victor. After they received an alert, the deputies turned around and quickly arrived on the scene.

Yount said several backcountry skiers remained at the site of the avalanche, talking with police officers and aiding in rescuers’ search for people who may have been buried. Teton County Search and Rescue concluded the search around 6:30 p.m. when they were able to determine no one had been caught in the slide.

That weekend, the sheriff’s office spoke with several of the skiers who were present during the avalanche. But officials were not able to glean enough information from the backcountry users who did cooperate.

If law enforcement had been able to link someone to the avalanche, a skier or snowboarder would have faced a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.

According to Sergeant Todd Stanyon, all indications signal the avalanche was skier triggered. “We just can’t definitively prove that,” he said.

Avy Uproar Planet Jackson Hole’s Facebook page exploded with comments in response to an article about the sheriff’s department closing its investigation last Tuesday due to lack of evidence.

“I started skiing the Teton backcountry in the late 80s when people seemed to have more brain cells and wouldn’t have considered skiing any slide path in such conditions,” one commenter remarked.

Another commenter blamed WYDOT. “This is such BS and if it was that heavy of a snowfall it is WYDOT’s [responsibility] to make sure the area has been bombed and closed so they can clean it up before motorists go over the pass. Blaming it on skiers is a bit much.”

However, Yount says this complaint is a misunderstanding of the department’s role. For one thing, he pointed out that WYDOT’s responsibility is toward motorists, not skiers. Also, the staff of two technicians has a large territory to cover. “It’s a dynamic thing. Conditions change a lot— day-to-day, hour-to-hour. We really are risk managers,” he said. “We are trying to provide a high level of service to the traveling public within the limits of how we

TIM HENRY WOODARD

THE BUZZ

Remarkably, the driver of the vehicle swept off Teton Pass due to an avalanche suffered only minor injuries. can conduct business. We can’t do some kinds of avalanche control when people are skiing.”

Teton Pass ambassador Jay Pistono, who can be found on the pass most days of the week talking avalanche safety with backcountry users and ensuring parking lot harmony, took part in the investigation.

“We know from the vehicle count at the parking lot and from talking to the skiers who did stay around that not all skiers were accounted for,” he said. However, at the time, the priority was searching for possible survivors in the debris and getting motorists off the mountain. “This was as close a call as you’re going to get and if someone had died … it would be a totally different situation.”

Of course the tricky thing about snowy mountain passes is that their behavior is not totally predictable. Avalanches happen regardless of the presence of backcountry users. Stanyon feels that WYDOT does a good job keeping the pass safe for motorists. But like Yount, he noted that WYDOT’s job is not to keep the backcountry safe for skiers and snowboarders. That’s the definition of backcountry itself—that conditions are wild and untamed. “Backcountry skiers have a responsibility to know the conditions, and there’s an expectation that people will make good decisions,” Stanyon said.

On the heels of the avalanche, Pistono raised the idea of constructing snow tunnels, or “sheds,” that would protect motorists from avalanches. “Would I like to see them up there next year?” Pistono asked. “Yes, but I understand there’s a lot involved.”

Pistono noted that snow sheds are used extensively in Europe and South America, and are gaining popularity in the US in states like Colorado. But the sheds are costly. The latest estimate was $20 to $25

million dollars from state coffers, and not all pass skiers and taxpayers think they are worth the cost.

Backcountry skier Gabe Klamer said the price of snow sheds would exacerbate an already strained state budget, not to mention being time intensive to install.

Instead, he feels WYDOT and the Forest Service should have the ability to close the north side of the road during times of high avalanche hazard. “The impact from the construction delays and costs of the sheds is not worth it … and would not outweigh the few days a year when Mt. Glory would be closed to human traffic due to avalanche hazard,” Klamer said.

Pistono stresses that snow sheds are only one ingredient of a larger recipe for pass avalanche safety. The selling point for snow sheds, he says, is that they would ensure safety for motorists in varying conditions. “I like the fact that with snow sheds, an innocent driver can go over the pass 24/7 without worrying about avalanches.”

But snow sheds or no sheds, Pistono says backcountry users still have a responsibility to make decisions that don’t endanger themselves and others. “It doesn’t mean you can go gonzo on Glory—you still have to think about what’s going on below you in terms of other skiers.”

As the popularity of backcountry winter sports has skyrocketed in the past decade, communities throughout the Rocky Mountain West are working hard to mitigate dangers for recreationists as well as innocent bystanders. Avalanche forecasters pay attention to what happens in the entire region. Drew Hardesty of the Utah Avalanche Center cited the Teton Pass avalanche as a cautionary tale in his December 19 advisory. “Think this won’t happen here? UDOT has their job to do, but the public needs to be a part

of public safety. The steep terrain above Little Cottonwood Canyon today may be prone for longer running human triggered dry and/or wet sluffs. Consider the consequences of your actions.”

In Washington State, everything from avalanche control to hitchhiking skiers has come under scrutiny. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s website, the Washington State Patrol petitioned WSDOT to post the avalanche zones from milepost 58 to 66 on U.S. Highway 2 to prohibit hitchhiking. “WSP troopers vigorously enforce this ban,” the site reads.

No such restrictions are in the offing on Teton Pass. But backcountry skiers lament the impacts of the rising numbers of recreationists. Rick Nansen has been skiing the pass for 47 years. “As time has passed, the sheer use has become an issue,” Nansen said. “Parking was never a problem up until 30 years ago. There were no close calls or finger flipping until about 10 years ago. Stories at the watering holes have gone from, ‘What a great day!’ to ‘I took more chances than you today.’”

Pistono was brought on as pass ambassador about 12 years ago (in the 1980s he unofficially held the position as a volunteer) to help smooth rising tensions on the top of the pass. His first mission was to coordinate better parking lot etiquette as well as encourage people to take more care with their dogs. The focus has since expanded to avalanche safety and the

danger backcountry users pose to each other and motorists.

Some advice Pistono shares with backcountry users these days? “If there is any avalanche danger, skiers should avoid Glory and Twin Slides,” he said. If people just paid attention to this message, Pistono says there would not be a need to explore other solutions. “If those runs are off limits, there are still plenty of runs to ski.”

“Whoever is skiing up there,” he continued, “better think long and hard about the risks and dangers they are posing to people below. There’s a few more things to think about [when you’re skiing the pass] than just fitting it in with your work schedule.”

Avalanche forecaster Bob Comey was quick to point out that backcountry users need to be experts on the snowpack and the potential for avalanches; they make their own assessments at all times, no matter what the hazards are.

If backcountry users are not thinking about jeopardizing other people’s safety when they’re skiing the pass, perhaps the idea of criminal charges may give some folks pause, he added. “The same incident on a clear day with multiple witnesses could have a different outcome,” Comey said. “If an avalanche was clearly triggered by a skier and witnesses can give the sheriff enough information, it could lead to a prosecution.” PJH SEND COMMENTS TO EDITOR@PLANETJH.COM

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 7

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

8 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

THE BUZZ 2 Female Fervor Local women gear up for Women’s March on Washington in DC and marches in Wyoming.

BY JESSICA SELL CHAMBERS

Hole organizing While still abroad, Friendsmith started pushing for a women’s march in Wyoming and contacted others through a Wyoming pro-women Facebook group launched after the election. “It lit a fire under me and I felt like I could

WIKIPEDIA

W

hen Jackson Hole ski instructor Augusta Friendsmith learned the results of the presidential election she was in Playa del Carmen obtaining her divemaster certification. She says she quickly found herself trading carefree vacation mode for panic. “Being in Mexico, I felt paralyzed,” she said.

Friendsmith says she worries what a Donald Trump Presidency will mean for not just women but also Latinos, African Americans, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community.

Her fears are not unfounded. Reports of hate crimes have spiked across the country since Trump’s election.

In New York City, as of December 14, the NYC Police Department has reported a 63 percent increase in hate crimes compared to the same period last year.

Two recent incidents, both involving Muslim women, received substantial press and attention from NY politicos like Mayor Bill de Blasio, who publicly condemned the crimes. One incident involved a man who shoved a New York City Transit worker down a staircase at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, screaming that she was a terrorist, The New York Times reported. Two days earlier, in Brooklyn, another man threatened an off-duty police officer with his pit bull, telling her and her son to “go back to your country.” Both women, NYT noted, were wearing hijabs.

Now people like Friendsmith and other locals say they’ve had enough and are ready to act. One way folks are getting involved is by attending the January 21 Million Women’s March in Washington DC and the Wyoming marches slated for the same day in Casper and Cheyenne.

In the wake of the election, word spread of a Women’s March on Washington slated for one day after Trump’s inauguration. The name is reminiscent of other powerful marches on the Capitol. Marches like the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where more than 200,000 people gathered to decry the political and social injustices faced by African Americans. The march, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, was an important factor in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The non-violent pro-women event, the WMW website explains, seeks to affirm human rights and to condemn misogyny and discrimination. The march is not necessarily to protest the president.

Following the lead of the WMW, similar events in cities across America have sprouted up. Women in Wyoming started planning marches in Casper and Cheyenne in solidarity with events across the country. Organizers estimate there are more than 100 events planned throughout the US.

The 1963 civil rights march, The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, is said to have played a key role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. have a purpose,” she said.

Back in Jackson, she contacted Wyoming event organizer Jane Ifland in Casper to help. Ifland, who has made organizing the Wyoming events her full-time job, expects the January 21 events to be the first of many powerful demonstrations. “My hope is others who have been silent or felt thoroughly marginalized will be emboldened and feel supported and participate,” she said. “No matter how many we may be, we have rights that this country has supported for more than 240 years.”

Ifland says people have come to event planning meetings and said, “I thought I was the only one who thought this way.” She hopes more balanced media coverage of events like this will “force the relevancy of the cause, so that opposition becomes the norm.”

Over their weekly women’s brunch, Friendsmith and her friends Anne Marie Wells and Sara Wemple decided to go to Casper and to organize efforts to bring other residents along. Feeling the need to support each other and women in general, the three women had started their informal meetings to discuss long-term activism. But in light of the election results, they felt compelled to do something more immediate.

Initially, Wells said they had wanted to have a march in Jackson but decided against it. “We felt having it in such a ‘blue’ county was more like preaching to the choir.”

Holding these events in small towns, and in red states, stands to make an impact, she said. “Especially, so people don’t just say, ‘it’s just all those urban women in DC’ [who feel this way],” she said.

Wells says the group is trying to gather women, and feminists of all genders to caravan to Casper. On the closed Facebook group the Jackson femmes are using to organize attendees, various tools to facilitate carpooling and lodging are provided. Given the swift attacks on Trump dissenters recently, Wells said the group is closed as a precaution to prevent harassment or trolling of its members.

Justina Lindeman teaches self-defense in the valley.

She launched the Jackson Facebook group Friday morning in an attempt to quell her own rising anxiety. “Talk is cheap and actions need to happen,” she said. The blue-belt in Brazilian Jujitsu wants to remind women they possess the power to change things. “We need to end this epidemic of bullying and violence and hate.”

Citing women around the world in far more perilous circumstances who stand up for themselves, others and

their rights, Lindeman added, “If these women can find it in themselves to stand up, risking so much more—their actual safety and their lives—for these rights, I’ll be damned if I’m just going to sit around and think about how thankful I am.” By attending a Wyoming women’s march, Lindeman hopes to build a sense of community and meet like-minded people, and to connect with and learn from others.

History shows that Lindeman’s goals are achievable when people come together. Women’s marches have been occurring since the beginning of the 20th century, when suffragists began rallying to get women the right to vote.

According to the National Organization for Women, “Marches build and rejuvenate the various movements for women’s rights by sending a message to those in power, and by forever changing the lives of participants.”

However, not everyone agrees on the efficacy of present day organizing for marches and rallies via social media. Social media can both facilitate and undermine political movements. Fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, Zeynep Tufekci was quoted in a 2014 Atlantic article, “Before the internet, the tedious work of organizing that was required to circumvent censorship or to organize a protest also helped build infrastructure for decision making and strategies for sustaining momentum.” With social media being a large organizing force for WMW, it is unclear whether people will cohesively move the cause forward.

Regardless, some have their sights set on the future of the movement. One local mom is motivated to go for her children. Sixteen-year valley resident and preschool teacher Angel Dillon said she’s going to the event in Casper to set an example that political engagement effects change. Dillon wants her daughters to know they have a voice and that, “their actions can give strength to those who may be afraid.” She says it’s equally important for her son to see women are powerful and deserve respect and equality.

Dillon believes women’s movements need men to show up in solidarity and she hopes many will attend the events across the country.

Even though the marches are women oriented, organizers have encouraged men to attend the events as allies.

Mike Yin is among local men with plans to attend the Casper march. He was initially hesitant to weigh in on his participation because he wants women to be the key focus. “This election has marginalized many voices and

empowered voices that are distinctly anti-women and anti-minority,” he said. “I want to lend my voice to fight the discrimination and marginalization of these groups and show that these kinds of policies are destructive to the progress we’ve made in the past 60-plus years.”

Pinedale resident Kendra Cross, who recently made a gallant but unsuccessful bid for the Sublette County Commission, said she is making the trip to Cheyenne because Wyoming has a lot of work ahead regarding women’s issues. “Wyoming ranks 51st in the gender wage gap, has no women leading legislative committees and has one of the lowest numbers of women’s representation in state legislature,” she said.

According to the National Conference of State Legislators, in 2015, women comprised only 13.3 percent of Wyoming’s lawmakers. The only state with less female representation is Mississippi, at 13.2 percent. Nationwide, women make up just 24.4 percent of all state legislators.

Equality State soldiers Native Jacksonite Amy Kathleen Ryan lived on the East Coast at one time. In order to return for the WMW, she will fly into New York City and take a 3 a.m. train to DC, the

last available ticket option. By going to WMW, she said she wants to resist “a new way of doing business in the political class that seems to be taking the power away from the people and from the press.”

Ryan says she is afraid for women and minority rights, the environment, and democracy. “No one who has any sense of history should stand by and let this happen to our country.”

While Ryan is not hopeful the march will change Trump’s mind, she thinks it’s important to show the world there are many Americans who do not subscribe to his methods or policies.

The WMW is expected to draw the largest turnout of any non-inauguration event. Its official Facebook page has more than 273,000 people listed as “interested” and 153,000 who say they are attending the event.

Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Ana Cuprill, who recently announced her intent to run for Democratic National Committee Secretary, is attending the march in DC. “I want to represent Wyoming at the national march and help build networks with folks who advocate for issues that will make a difference here in Wyoming,” she said.

DUD e , WHere’s my car?

The Town of Jackson’s overnight parking ban has gone into effect.

SO, if you want to void all kinds of hassles, listen up!

PARKING RESTRICTIONS

SHOVELING REQUIREMENTS Additionally, we would like to remind people: Town residents are responsible for keeping sidewalks shoveled.

• The TOJ assists with snow removal in the downtown core and along Broadway.

• Residents should not put their garbage cans out the night before, but rather after 7:00am on garbage days.

• Please keep trash cans, cars, and other obstacles out of the streets and off of the curbs.

This saves your property and makes the streets more clear of drifts and snow.

• Residents are also encouraged to help keep fire hydrants clear of snow.

BROUGHT TO YOU

BY THE FRIENDLY FOLKS AT THE TOWN OF JACKSON

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 9

it is illegal to park overnight on Jackson streets, including public parking lots, regardless of weather (rain, snow or shine). Crews begin plowing at 3am. Parked cars on town streets make the job of keeping roads clear of snow more difficult.

Consequently, cars left on town streets between 3am & 7am will be ticketed and may be towed by Jackson police. To retrieve your car, contact Ron’s Towing at 733-8697, 1190 S. Hwy 89. Overnight parking for 48 hours or less is allowed in the public parking structure at W. Simpson Ave. and S. Millward St. but not on other town parking lots.

SEND COMMENTS TO EDITOR@PLANETJH.COM

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Through April 15th, between 3:00am & 7:00am,

Idaho State University doctorate candidate in audiology Bailey Neuhaus will fly to DC with her mother, Anne O’Malley Neuhaus. She wants to be, “a voice that speaks up for the right to choose, equal pay, inclusion of all people regardless of background, race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, and so on.”

“We can’t go back on progress and hopefully by showing up on January 21, [Trump] will see that we aren’t going to back down,” she said.

However, Neuhaus fears the march will be stopped for some reason yet unknown. If Trump’s unpredictable actions, campaign, or transition are any indication that the unexpected could happen, Neuhaus’ fears may not be unfounded. While organizers of the Women’s March on Washingtonhave secured permitting for the event, the inauguration committee could potentially throw a wrench in plans. Regardless, if this number of people converges in DC for inauguration weekend the event stands to make history. PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

10 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

NEWS

By CHUCK SHEPHERD

OF THE

Holes Against Humanity

WEIRD

The rebellion against the absurdities of Black Friday this year by the organization Cards Against Humanity came in the form of raising money to dig a pointless hole in the ground. During the last week of November, people “contributed” $100,573, with Cards digging initially for 5.5 seconds per donated dollar. In 2015, according to an NPR report, Cards raised $71,145 by promising to do “absolutely nothing” with it, and the year before, $180,000 by selling bits of bull feces. (Asked why Cards doesn’t just give the money to charity, a spokesperson asked why donors themselves don’t give it to charity. “It’s (their) money.”) [NPR via KUOW Radio (Turnwater, Wash.), 11-27-2016]

Government in Action

New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation has completed its two-year project of assigning ID numbers (with arboreal characteristics) to every one of the 685,781 trees in the city’s five boroughs. More than 2,300 volunteers walked the streets, then posted each tree’s location, measurements, Google Street View image, and ecological benefits for the surrounding neighborhoods (rainwater retained, air pollution reduced). (Privacy activists hope the National Security Agency is not inspired by this.) [Architecture Daily, 11-28-2016]

The Continuing Crisis

A note in The New York Times in October mentioned a website that comprehensively covers everything worth knowing and wondering—about shoelaces. Ian’s Shoelace Site shows and discusses (and rates) lacing methods, how to mix lace colors, how to tie (comparing methods, variations and, again, ratings), lengths of laces (how to calculate, which formulas to use, what to do with excess lengths), “granny knots,” aglet repair and much more—neatly laid out in dozens of foolproof drawings for the shoelace- challenged (because no one wants to be caught in a shoelace faux pas). [Ian’s Shoelace Site, http://bit.ly/1mVIpDO] n Though the presidential election of 2016 was certainly more volatile than usual,

one reaction to the outcome was the apparent ease with which some in America’s next generation of college-trained leaders were sidelined by self-described emotional pain. The Wall Street Journal reported that special attention was given by administrators at Tufts University, the University of Kansas and Ivy League Cornell, among other places, where their young adults could “grieve” over the election and seek emotional support, such as use of “therapy dogs” in Kansas and, at the University of Michigan, the availability of Play-Doh and coloring books for distraction. [Wall Street Journal, 11-9-2016]

Ironies

The county executive in Cleveland, Ohio, complained in November of lack of funds (because the county’s credit is “maxed out”) for necessary renovations to its well-known sports and concert venue, the Quicken Loans Arena. n In November, after a companion asked Victoria Vanatter, 19, what blood-sucking was like, she let him slice her arm with a razor to have a taste, but the two then argued, and Vanatter allegedly grabbed a knife and slashed him for real. Police in Springfield, Missouri, arrested her after both people were stitched up at a hospital.

[Cleveland Scene, 11-30-2016] [Springfield News Leader, 11-18-2016] n Recurring: The most recent city to schedule a civic-minded conference with community leaders to discuss options for affordable, accessible housing in a meeting place that was highly unfriendly to the non-ambulatory was Toronto, in November. The first proposed site required a seven-step walk-up, but following complaints, officials relocated it—to a building whose only rest room was in the elevator-free basement. [Toronto Star, 12-7-2016]

Questionable Judgments

The Space World theme park in Kitakyushu, Japan, opened a popular (with visitors) ice-skating rink in November, but was forced to close it two weeks later for being hugely unpopular (with social media critics). The park had placed 5,000 fish and other sea animals in the ice deck of its “Freezing Port” rink so that skaters could look down as they glided along, gazing at marvels of nature (all dead in advance, of course, purchased from a fish market). Nonetheless, the park manager apologized for grossing out so many people and closed the exhibit (melting the ice and conducting an “appropriate religious service” for the fishes’ souls). [CNN, 11-28-2016] n The government-run Channel 2M in Morocco apologized for a segment of its

daily TV program “Sabahiyat” that featured a makeup artist demonstrating techniques for obscuring blemishes on women subjected to domestic violence. The

model being worked on had been made up with a swollen face and faked bruises. Said the host, “We hope these beauty tips will help (victims) carry on with your daily life.” (Bonus: The program aired Nov. 23—two days before International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.) [The Guardian (London), 11-27-2016]

Cunning Strategies

Shogo Takeda, 24, said he desperately needed a job at the elevator maintenance company in Yokohama at which he was interviewing (with the president) on Nov. 10, but somehow could not resist taking the man’s wallet from a bag when the president briefly left the room. (Takeda had dropped off his resume beforehand and thus was quickly apprehended.) n Mark Revill, 49, pleaded guilty in November to stalking the actor Keira Knightley.

He said he had become frustrated that his flood of love letters was being ignored and so approached the front door of Knightley’s London home and “meowed” through the letterbox. [Japan Times, 11-21-2016] [London Evening Standard, 11-21-2016]

Wait—You Mean This Is Illegal?

A substitute teacher at Sandhills Middle School in Gaston, South Carolina, was charged with cruelty to children in December after she, exasperated, taped two kids to their desk chairs for misbehaving. n A second-grade teacher at Landis Elementary in Houston was charged with felony cruelty after video showed her punching a serial troublemaker in the head as he fought her while she walked him to the principal’s office. n A high school teacher in Glasgow, Scotland, got in trouble in November for proposing in a journal that teachers be allowed to cuss back at students who cuss them. He wrote that limiting teachers to “Don’t call me that” sends the wrong message. [The State (Columbia, S.C.), 12-3-2016] [KTRK-TV (Houston), 11-2-2016] [The Scottish Sun (Glasgow), 11-19-2016]

Recurring Themes

Add goat horns to the “religious covering” items permitted to be worn in government identification cards. It took Mr. Phelan MoonSong of Millinocket, Maine, two trips to the BMV, but his ID, after his name change, was finally approved in December, based on his “Paganism” religion. n In December, a 21-year-old man became the most recent to fall to his death

during a roadside “pit stop.” Four passengers alighted from a car on the side of Interstate 15 near Escondido, California; two urinators returned without incident, and a third also fell about 40 feet but survived. [WGME-TV (Portland), 12-6-2016] [San Diego Union-Tribune, 12-7-2016]

The Passing Parade

In November, an arranged custody swap of a child from one grandmother to another in a Wal-mart parking lot near Dallas ended when both ladies pulled guns and started firing. One granny was hit in the neck and the other arrested after she also fired at an off-duty officer trying to calm things down. n A 22-year-old man pedaling a vending cart through downtown Victoria, British

Columbia, in November with large-lettered “420 delivery” on the carrier was stopped by police and found with a stash of marijuana. (Selling recreational cannabis is illegal, even though the man had conscientiously printed underneath the sign, “NO MINORS.”) [KDFW-TV (Dallas-Fort Worth), 11-30-2016] [Victoria Police Department release, 11-10-2016]

A News of the Weird Classic (February 2013)

Officials at Seaford, England’s, 12th-century St. Peter’s Church, which is renowned for its eerie quietness, created a 30-minute CD (in 2013) of “total silence,” first as a small-scale fundraising project, but later for general sales (since word-of-mouth had attracted orders from the noise-annoyed as far away as Ghana). Those who have heard it said they could make out only the occasional squeaking of footsteps on the wooden floor and the very distant hum of a passing car. Said one admiring parishioner, “People sometimes like to sit down and just have a bit of peace and quiet.” [Daily Mail (London), 1-27-2013] Thanks this week to Mark Hiester, Jay Sokolow, Damon Diehl, Mel Birge, Randy Baker and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

Newsmaker

2016

Imagining the unimaginable on a local, national and global scale.

BY JESSICA SELL CHAMBERS

- MIT LINGUIST AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER NOAM CHOMSKY FROM A 2010 TRUTHOUT INTERVIEW

H

power and public support can be seen from Europe to Asia. Nationally, an outsider with seemingly little chance prevailed. Locally, two political outsiders—Pete Muldoon and Greg Epstein—were victorious, for mayor of Jackson

Bernie Sanders

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 11

The Unimaginable in Jackson?

Globally, a rising trend of political outsiders amassing

called into question as potential conflicts of interest. Then a letter circulated around the valley that accused her of tampering with the investigation of 16-year-old Kayden Quinn Tapia’s death. It was dismissed as bogus by the Teton County Sheriff’s office.

Flitner’s camp responded with calls for civility.

Comparisons to national politicians were lobbed at Muldoon. Planning commissioner and Flitner supporter, John Stennis, called Muldoon, “Our own Donald Trump running for mayor of our town … a demagogue who does not understand public policy or the basic functions of government.”

Muldoon, however, aligned himself with former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the progressive populist. Indeed, the outsider effect was in full swing. Muldoon and two other vehement Sanders supporters won their races. Jackson native and Teton Gravity Research’s head of physical production Greg Epstein amassed the most votes for county commissioner.

Epstein came out of the political blue and won both the primary and the general election by a long shot. In the general he came in 431 votes ahead of incumbent Commissioner Natalia Macker (who won back her seat), and 1,172 more votes than the third place vote recipient,

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

ad more people focused on the impossible as possible, perhaps Donald Trump’s successful bid for POTUS would not be a surprise. What is clear is that from this point forward people must conjure the seemingly impossible in preparation for a Trump presidency.

Trump is the embodiment of the unimaginable outsider, the face of a resurrected populism that surfaced, persisted, and succeeded repeatedly this year. Like a punching clown, Trump rebounded through myriad selfplaced landmines all the way to the White House. However, Trump’s ascendancy should not simply be credited to his political outsider status. It is only one piece. And rather than focus on the nitty-gritty or the bizarreness of his tactics, folks need to turn their attention to Trump’s rejection of the political game in general.

The rules are being rewritten daily. Bracing for the future requires everyone to imagine the unimaginable.

So pull out your copies of Orwell and Huxley, because reality—on the local, national and global stage—has become stranger than fiction.

and Teton County commissioner respectively. It is worth noting, however, that these local outsiders are a sharp contrast to many of the national and global figures rising to power discussed in this story.

Incumbent Mayor Sara Flitner had the establishment on lockdown, or so many thought. She knew everyone, played by the rules, did everything right. She outraised her opponent by a long shot. Flitner had advised and served on numerous boards and commissions locally and statewide.

Flitner Strategies, her communications and consulting firm, advised clients in the same arenas.

Local writer and economist Jonathan Schechter noted that Flitner had several things in her favor—many years in the valley, the name recognition, and incumbency. Her bid, like Hillary Clinton’s for President, appeared a shoe-in.

However, others viewed Flitner as a leader who would steer the valley further down a path that wasn’t working.

Some felt she was too cozy with the business community to really hear the will of the people. Others didn’t feel a connection, an authenticity, or a fire with Flitner’s bid for reelection. Interestingly, these were some of the same complaints people filed against Clinton.

Her opponent, Mayor-elect Pete Muldoon, is a political outsider—a musician, a DJ, and a luggage slinger at the airport. He threw his name into the mayoral race having traveled zero distance on the established path. He had not served on a single commission or board. Instead Muldoon’s political experience came as an activist looking in—he had been involved in efforts like Occupy Wall Street, political blogging, and he wrote an opinion column for this newspaper that dissected local issues and politics.

Like the presidential race, the mayoral race got a little ugly, though to a much lesser degree. Muldoon’s run elicited fears from some of Jackson’s politically established and the business crowd, and vice versa for Flitner from working class people. An “anonymous tip” to a local newspaper brought questions over whether a crime Muldoon committed more than 20 years ago writing bad checks as a college student qualified as a felony.

(This would have disqualified him from holding office in Wyoming.) It was a goose chase with no goose at the end. Salacious details from a 2009 drug arrest involving Muldoon at Grand Targhee Resort were included in local newspaper coverage. Meanwhile, Flitner’s relationships with her previous clients, like commercial developer SR Mills, who stands to profit in the millions from a regulation Flitner voted in favor of before the town council, were

UNITED STATES CONGRESS - PUBLIC DOMAIN

“If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest, this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.

What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’?

There [in the Weimar Republic] it was the Jews.

Here it will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation ...

And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany.”

Trey Davis. And, former journalist and river guide Councilman Jim Stanford, often the council’s lone voice of dissent, defended his seat.

It has yet to be seen how outsiders like Muldoon and Epstein will shift local policy, especially with the valley’s seemingly constant opposition to change. Regardless, they bring a progressive air to the local political climate and a people focused approach.

DAVID J SWIFT

Pete Muldoon

CHRIS FIGENSHAU

12 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Sara Flitner

SARGENT SCHUTT

A World of Outsiders

The Democrats were the first group to witness the power of populism and outsiders. True Party outsider, Sen. Bernie Sanders, 75, was relegated to the realm of the unimaginable. However, nine months after the Independent Vermont senator announced his candidacy for president he was in a dead heat with Clinton at the Iowa Caucuses. The Washington Post reported Sanders’ progress as “absolutely stunning.

And a testament to how politics can—still—surprise and amaze.”

Despite his unconventional policy-heavy speeches, Sanders’ message resonated with more than 13 million voters, especially young people. By July he had “finished in a strong second place,” according to FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, a statistician and political analyst. Silver noted Sanders was the fifth place primary vote earner in history.

Much to the dismay of his centrist naysayers, Sanders seemed to have his finger on the populist pulse surging through the world. Shortly after Brexit, Sanders issued a warning in an Op-Ed in The New York Times. “The notion that Donald Trump could benefit from the same forces that gave the Leave proponents a majority in Britain should sound an alarm for the Democratic Party in the United States,” he wrote.

Sanders’ gaze had rightfully been fixed on Europe, where the rise of populism was weathered and worn. European countries have seen a rise in xenophobic, nationalistic parties for two decades, due to a number of factors like globalization, open borders, refugees, and post-colonial immigration. Some far-right candidates and their nationalist parties have amassed notable momentum. The Front National Party, which, a decade ago had no chance to win, has become a formidable player in France’s presidential election. Meanwhile, Germany’s nationalist party, Alternative for Deutschland, doubled its number of parliamentary seats from five to 10 this year.

But perhaps due to lessons learned from Brexit and Trump, some far-right figures such as Austria’s presidential candidate Norbert Hofer and Italy’s former prime minister Matteo Renzi have been defeated. Still, it’s hard to quell anti-immigrant, nationalistic, or exclusionary rhetoric post-election when far-right candidates are resonating with large chunks of the population. Even though Hofer lost his bid for president in early December, BBC reported he and his Austrian Freedom Party carried 46.7 percent of the vote.

Greg Epstein

Trump’s Hungarian Twin Trump seems to have come out of political right

field. But looking around the world, success of infallible candidates has been on the rise. Reactionary populism has been taking hold and these candidates are unaffected by what would derail the average politician. Hungary has seen the rise of a Trump-like politician whose tasteless language or life marred by scandal is readily normalized.

He offers like-minded solutions such as building walls or excluding religious minorities. Some warn these leaders are sowing the “seeds of fascism,” and yet they succeed.

In 2015, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán was one of the first world leaders to endorse Trump. Trump’s resemblance to him is striking. According to Foreign Policy, Orbán “openly champions the idea of ‘illiberal democracy’” and is anti-refugee in policy and rhetoric.

Like Trump, Orbán’s use of contemptuous language has made him wildly popular among supporters. A melange of Trump-like solutions, Orbán ordered the construction of a razor-wire-topped fence to prevent refugees from entering the country, adding that non-Christians would not be permitted to enter.

Often the state’s intrusion into the lives of citizens is

slow and unnoticeable. The free press is typically one of the first targets.

In 2010, one of the first measures taken by the legislature–controlled by Orbán’s Fidesz party–was to regulate the media by forbidding “imbalanced news coverage” or anything deemed insulting to a group, the majority, or public morality. While media outlets have yet to be closed, a more indirect control of information has resulted. For example, a journalist who alleged corruption within Orbán’s administration was fired from an outlet owned by corporate media giant Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile). The firing resulted in many more journalists quitting. Some have deemed this an example of Orbán’s indirect control of the media. The result is journalistic self-censorship in exchange for access to Orbán’s administration–a dangerous and cumbersome trade-off.

Another reach into the lives of citizens, Hungary’s government officials have been rewriting history curriculum and bringing relatively outdated and unknown right-wing authors into the classroom. They’ve also started appointing teachers. But education, teachers, and the press aren’t the only enemies. Orbán has demonized others explicitly or implicitly.

He has called into question the legitimacy of religious minority groups and non-governmental organizations using underhanded tactics and legislation. FP reported Orbán’s parliament passed a law requiring religions to receive official approval by parliament in order to receive tax breaks and other benefits bestowed upon religious groups.

Its Constitutional Court overturned the law but the message was clear: Christians welcome, everyone else is not.

Hungary’s Jobbik Party could be to Orbán what advisor Steve Bannon and the “alt-right” white-nationalist movement is to Trump. FP reports Jobbik is anti-Israel and Pro-Russia and constantly pushes the envelope, acting as a “scout” to explore “dangerous territory on migrants or relations with Russia in order to accustom Hungarians to extremist ideas–and thus make it safe for Orbán to express them.” Jobbik even submitted a bill requiring, like in Russia, that any NGOs receiving money from outside of Hungary’s borders be classified as “foreign agents.”

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact nature of the rise of these characters or their end goals, but some speculate disenchantment with democracy and capitalism over the last decade has made Hungarians more receptive to ideas and language they would have de facto rejected before.

Similar contempt for the status quo is sprouting in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. In Poland, The New York Times reports, the far-right Law and Justice Party has recently set its sights on the Constitutional Courts and institutions have been drastically weakened all in the name of populism. “Disdain for the rule of law and basic civil rights has drawn anguished criticism.”

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 13

Lee Jae-Myung

60 days of Park’s ousting and Lee is now in third place.

He’s just behind former UN Secretary-General Ban KiMoon who is tied with the progressive front-runner Moon Jae-In. Ban is running under the former president’s conservative party, Saenuri, in power since 2007. But the discontent with status quo politics in South Korea is evident. Progressive candidates are neck and neck with the conservative candidate.

Running on a platform more akin to Sanders than Trump, Lee advocates policies to reduce the income gap between rich and poor as well as plans to break up chaebols, the family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korea’s economy and have been riddled with corruption.

When Vice asked about the success of populist movements Lee remarked, “Populism is upholding the will of the people.” He chalked Trump’s win up to fighting against the establishment and without their support.

Regarding his label as the Donald Trump of South Korea, Lee rebuffed, “I don’t say irrational things or use coarse language.”

Even though Lee is one of the top three contenders and rising, he must first beat his other progressive frontrunner, Moon, in the Minjoo Party Primary. This year of any, he likely has a chance.

Viktor Orban

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

GETTY IMAGES

France’s presidential elections, slated for April 2017, will also reveal more about the trajectory of Western nations. The country’s far-right, pro-Russia presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, is running under FNP. Her father and former FNP presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, the original xenophobe, paved the way for her ascent and anti-other policies. Monsieur Le Pen, an Algerian War paratrooper, introduced outright xenophobic rhetoric to the national stage more than a decade ago when he lost to conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

But in the last decade, the FNP has gained traction.

Critics believe–or hope–France will go a different direction from its British neighbors to the north and its cultureless democratic sibling from across the pond.

However, a win for Le Pen would simply be par for the course. In a press conference the day after the US elections, Madame Le Pen congratulated Trump calling his victory a win for France as well. She too nodded to the Brexit and Trump results as an indication of a new world order, in a different way from Sanders and others. “What happened last night was not the end of the world, but the end of a world,” she said.

Maybe Le Pen is right, rejection of the status quo is blossoming and populism is growing. In South Korea an unknown is quickly becoming a player in the race for its highest office.

The self-proclaimed “Donald Trump of South Korea” is rocketing in popularity. Mayor of a small suburb of Seoul and leftist presidential candidate Lee Jae-Myung was a vociferous critic of the recently impeached president Park Geun Hye, railing against her predominantly via social media.

Vice News reported an election must occur within

GETTY IMAGES

FOTO-AG GYMNASIUM MELLE

Marie Le Pen

“No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. When our dictator turns up, you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American.”

- Dorothy Thompson

The Post-truth Era

Post-truth politics have taken hold all over the world, fitting tidily into a need for certainty and answers. Truth is inconsequential in such a world.

Oxford Dictionary’s 2016 Word of the Year is posttruth—an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

In September, The Economist argued, “Consider how far Donald Trump is estranged from fact. He inhabits a fantastical realm…” They called Mr. Trump the “leading exponent of ‘post-truth’ politics,” a reliance on assertions that “feel true” but have no basis in fact. In addition Trump has gone completely unpunished and instead has been rewarded as a hero who stands up to establishment.

The Economist highlighted the similar practices taking hold in Poland, Turkey, and Britain, to name a few.

The Washington Post reported on the situation in Poland where the nationalistic and anti-intellectualism Law and Justice Party promised to “drain the swamp” of Polish politics. “In merely a year, critics say, the nationalists have transformed Poland into a surreal and insular place—one where state-sponsored conspiracy theories and de facto propaganda distract the public as democracy erodes.”

President of the Warsaw-based Institute of Public Affairs Jacek Kucharczyk was quoted in the same article, “We are living in this post-truth environment where you can say and do anything and people don’t seem to care.”

In a November Al Jazeera Up Front interview Noam Chomsky observed, “The most predictable aspect of Trump is unpredictability. I think it’s dangerous, very dangerous.”

Trump too has normalized untruths to a point that fact checking him is irrelevant, especially to him and his supporters. His interest lies not in facts but messaging, duplicitousness, emotional appeal. Like a seasoned businessman, Trump is well versed in marketing techniques.

A new element of this ‘post-truth’ election—especially as it was indiscriminately propagated by Trump’s retweeting—was the proliferation of fake news.

Chomsky, when asked if he was worried about the influx of viral fake news, said it must be combated by education, organization, and by bringing people “to understand that they should use their critical intelligence to evaluate what they read whether it is in the mainstream media or some site that they’re looking up—there’s no other way.”

Chillingly, the truth of matters has become secondary and instead of lies being used to gloss over politically questionable decisions, they are being used to sow seeds of prejudice and fear and doubt in institutions. This is not to say questioning institutions or the press is not of value.

However, the public can no longer trust their own eyes or ears; everything and everyone is suspect in the post-truth world and evidence no longer matters.

Post-Truth and the Press A complicating facet of “post-truth politics” and its

Noam Chomsky

rampant infiltration into politics is the role of the press and its commitment towards “fairness.” In attempt to present all sides of a story, the press inadvertently legitimizes lies and those who tell them.

At the 2016 Committee to Protect Journalists awards ceremony, renowned journalist and correspondent Christiane Amanpour lamented on the role of the press in the post-truth world: “We must stop banalizing truth.”

In an attempt to present balanced, objective, neutral, and truthful news journalists have given stage to undeserving actors and their lines. Covering genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Amanpour learned never to equate victims with persecutors because doing so creates a false moral or factual equivalence. She said when reporters commit such an act they, “are party and accomplice to

DAVID SHANKBONE

chaos, confusion, and discrimination. So why are people so keen to get on board?

Dr. Arie Kruglanski, a social psychologist, grew up in a Jewish ghetto in Poland during World War II. His career has been centered on understanding how people form judgments, beliefs, impressions, and attitudes, and how these affect interpersonal relations, interactions in groups, and how they feel about “out groups” or people different from themselves. In 1989, he coined the term “cognitive closure,” the moment a person makes up his mind for certainty. In a New York Times interview, he said the need for certainty is different for everyone but it is essential to functioning. However, it can also be incredibly dangerous.

“During times of great uncertainty, everybody’s need for closure increases,” Kruglanski said.

According to Kruglanski, a person’s worldview has almost nothing to do with information or facts. Instead peoples’ politics are driven by their psychological needs.

He said people who are anxious because of uncertainty are attracted to messages that offer certainty. Donald Trump and leaders like him offer these messages in frightening times. Trump calls for a total shutdown of Muslims entering the US and the message is two-fold: Muslims are dangerous and Trump has the solution to protect people.

Kruglanski said the need for closure applies equally to conservatives and liberals. Both can be extremely intolerant, often about each other. “The polarization, the divisions it’s all part of the same psychological syndrome.

There’s no ambiguity, no complexity.”

He recalled Nazi Germany arising in the aftermath of great uncertainty suffered by the German people.

Speaking with a strong Polish accent he warned, “We all have the potential to become extreme. All of us have the potential to see things in black and white. That potential is hardwired in us.” However, Kruglanski also says people need to have principles and beliefs worth fighting for and taking action requires certainty, as with Nazi Germany.

“You need to fight fire with fire. You can’t fight fire with ambiguity and indecision.”

But deciphering the difference between extremism and a just fight is not easy, which is what makes certainty so dangerous. To complicate matters, the need for closure tricks the mind into establishing certainty without examining evidence carefully. Kruglanski said dismissing other points of view or ignoring information that is critically relevant to making a good judgment is problematic.

“That’s why we should be suspicious of our own sense of righteousness. The alternative is the abyss.”

MINISTERIO DE CULTURA DE LA NACIÓN ARGENTINA

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

14 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Making Sense of the Rise These rising populist stars are instigating discord,

Christiane Amanpour

the most unspeakable crimes and consequences.” Which is why she believes “in being truthful and not neutral.”

Amanpour’s suggestion that media ‘fairness’ is creating false factual equivalences is supported by media analyses.

Airtime was disproportionately skewed in the direction of untruth.

According to a study by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, the way major news outlets covered Trump in the early months, in spite of his low polling numbers, actually bolstered his support. “The volume and tone of the coverage helped propel Trump to the top of Republican polls.”

The study also revealed the Republicans media coverage outpaced the Democrats two-to-one. And during the general election, both Clinton and Trump received equal negative coverage. The study found “on topics relating to the candidates’ fitness for office, Clinton and Trump’s coverage was virtually identical in terms of its negative tone.” Had the press compared the magnitude of the allegations between candidates coverage could have taken a more accurate direction.

Valley Politicos Offer Their Take Local electeds had their own opinions on why Trump,

his bad behaviors, and his media coverage led him to the White House.

Similar to Kruglanski’s argument about people’s need for cognitive closure, Jackson Town Councilman Don Frank suggested that people in general were so forgiving of bad behavior due to desperation, a lack of understanding of policy, emotional manipulation and the idea that one person could save them. Frank says news has become entertainment and that misinformation was normalized and weaponized. “Folks are too time stressed to discover spin from facts.”

Councilwoman Hailey Morton Levinson agreed with Frank’s assertions about the public’s propensity for forgiveness. She thinks “people are willing to overlook transgressions if they are promised what they want.”

Levinson also said people do not dedicate enough time to reading and the result is the media has responded with “clickbait” and short reports.

Media critics would agree. A recent ProPublica article called upon reporters to convey the overarching trends of Trump’s actions instead of reporting on individual events.

His actions indicate dangerously shifting norms of how a president behaves.

Muldoon theorized it’s easier for journalists to use horse race reporting when news is on demand and the public is clamoring to consume the latest information, especially

Autocracy and the Multinational Corporate State While some people write off the need to be concerned

DBAXA - PUBLIC DOMAIN

Alexandra Fuller

up to the inability of reporters to imagine the unimaginable and instead cover the abnormal as though it was political business as usual. What has been demonstrated over and over throughout the last year is that the unimaginable can be reality, and that means people need to get creative when thinking about the future.

Local author and survivor of Rhodesian autocracy and war, Alexandra Fuller said she wrote her bestselling books about growing up in Ian Smith’s “Whiter brighter Rhodesia” because she wrongfully assumed her children would never know such an existence. Today she is no longer so sure. Since news of Trump’s win, Fuller says she has been out of sorts and alarmed that others are not panic-stricken.

Reflecting on her experiences in Rhodesia, Fuller said the three main indicators of dictatorship and civil unrest are the censorship of the media, the dehumanization of women and people of color, and the pockets of resistance sprouting up, all things she sees happening in the US. For Fuller, another major concern is that Ian Smith, Rhodesia’s white supremacist president, normalized hateful and violent rhetoric, laying the groundwork for the more extreme and violent president of present dayZimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. She fears Trump and his hateful rhetoric will make the next horrible leader that much more palatable to the American people.

If this seems far off, Fuller says it’s not. “It’s language that gets us into war—and the problem is everyone here is armed to the teeth.” Remembering her childhood plagued by racism and civil war, Fuller said it is imperative people “distinguish comforts from security.” Some things are necessary for survival and other things merely insulate certain groups with privilege. People can sacrifice comforts, and that should never be confused with security.

“By the time the Rhodesians had figured that out–they had fought to the bitter end, arming their little white precious

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 15

about Trump, most people suggest the opposite. Articles surface daily warning why the world needs to fear a Trump presidency or those of his presidential buddies, ranging from autocracy to nuclear war. When the various warnings are considered collectively, there’s no cohesive way forward, but one thing is clear: vigilance is essential.

Following the election of Trump, ProPublica published an article verbally lashing journalists for failing to effectively report on Trump’s ascendancy. They chalked it

“It’s language that gets us into war— and the problem is everyone here is armed to the teeth.”

- Alexandra Fuller

children, telling them to ‘die bravely.’”

Fuller warned, people–like frogs slowly boiling to death in an ever-warming pot–don’t notice they’re being seized until it’s too late. “Like in Kafka’s Metamorphosis,” she said. “At all costs you must stay conscious.”

Journalist Masha Gessen would agree. He wrote an article in the New York Review of Books based on his experience living and reporting under Vladimir Putin’s Russia entitled, “Autocracy: Rules for Survival.” He lists six rules: Rule 1: Believe the autocrat. When Trump was queried by CNN whether his antagonistic and aggressive relationship towards the press would continue while in the White House he replied, “Yeah, it is going to be like this.

You think I’m gonna change? I’m not gonna change.”

Believe them when they say they will do something.

They will.

Rule 2: Do not buy small signs of normalcy. There aren’t any. Racial coding, dehumanizing people, threats and inciting violence cannot be neutralized. Apologies do not make regular beatings okay.

Rule 3: Institutions will not save you. The Washington Post reports, “Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history,” out doing the presidential administrations of the Gilded Age, whose policies led to the Great Depression. Their positions serving as (multinational) corporate bigwigs weave an endless web of conflicts of interest that will inevitably corrupt the institutions they oversee.

Rule 4: Maintain your capacity for outrage and shock in the autocrat’s actions. Trump attacks individual citizens via Twitter, inciting hundreds and thousands of angry insults and threats from his foolhardy supporters against whomever he targets. That should never happen in a democracy. It is not normal, nor is it acceptable. Remain shocked and appalled and engaged.

Rule 5: Do not make compromises. They will never end.

Values are values; they may not be compromised. People are people, and you too could become an enemy. Rights are rights, regardless of who possesses them. Remain suspicious of your own sense of righteousness and need for certainty, but fight fire with fire and not ambiguity.

Rule 6: Keep an eye to the future, nothing lasts forever and people should have “dogged resistance.” Do not give up.

Do not disengage. Plug in. Turn on. Stay conscious. A dark future can become longer and darker without resistance.

No, Trump is not Mussolini, Hitler, Smith, Mugabe, Orbán, or Putin. But lessons can be learned from their echoes in the world and throughout history. As Gessen reminded, these men are not the same but “all of them are fascist demagogues who emerged from their own cultures and catered to them.”

Mid-century thinkers who were intimately acquainted with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany warned that modern capitalist societies create the preconditions for the rise of fascism. In order for Americans to imagine the future, they must first let go of the past and must accept that the US is not exceptional. They must imagine they have all played a role in delivering America to this moment in time. Only then will they be able to imagine the unimaginable and either work to create it or to fight against it. The alternative is the abyss. PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

in an election season. “What many of them do instead is resort to ‘balanced reporting, which often just means leaving falsehoods unchallenged…That isn’t journalism— it’s stenography,” he said.

On an optimistic note Muldoon added, “There are great journalists out there doing great work— locally and nationally. But most of what we refer to as journalism is little more than corporate media, and it’s failed us miserably.”

However, some local elected officials do not see a problem with Trump or the media. Wyoming State Rep. Marti Halverson (R-HD 22) challenged negative assertions made about Trump, his behavior, his campaign, and coverage by the media. “Politics and politicians have always been susceptible to engaging in actions and verbiage designed to rally voters to their side, and, always, things are done or said which are not liked by their opponents,” she said.

With regard to the language and comportment of Trump and Clinton throughout the election, Halverson encouraged people to review their history books, saying there was nothing new about this campaign, or any other in history. “There’s a maxim in the world of politics,” she said, “don’t engage if you can’t stand the sight of your own blood.”

Halverson is at least correct on one thing: history holds the key. The Conversation, an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delved into media coverage of two fascist leaders in the past in the piece, “Normalizing fascists.” The similarities between the past and present are alarming. Journalists in the 1920s and 1930s faced similar problems.

When Italian fascist Benito Mussolini came to power the media adored him–from 1925 to 1932, journalists wrote at least 150 articles about him that were mostly “neutral, bemused, or positive in tone,” the article noted.

There was hope that Mussolini’s fascist experiment would return volatile Italy to “normalcy.” Some writers, however, such as Hemingway rejected the normalization of the antidemocratic leader; another wrote a book on how the leaders were manipulating the press.

More of a problem, The Conversation reported, was that the media’s coverage of Mussolini normalized the more extreme rhetoric of Adolf Hitler. Like with Trump, the media dismissed Hitler as a clown, a “mere drummer boy.” As he gained power and was appointed chancellor, they said he would be checked by parliament, become more moderate, or be limited by his lack of intelligence or “futility.” A year and a half later he seized dictatorial power.

Toward the end of the 1930s, most US journalists had realized they had grossly underestimated Hitler and failed to imagine just how atrocious it could get. American History Magazine details that journalist Dorothy Thompson recounted in 1931 within about 50 seconds of meeting Hitler, she recognized, “the startling insignificance of this man who has set the world agog.” But by 1935 she had an important revelation. “No people ever recognize their dictator in advance,” she wrote. “He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship … When our dictator turns up you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American.”

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

FREE SPEECH •••••••••••

HAPPY HOUR

1/2 Off Drinks Daily 5-7pm

••••••••••• Monday-Saturday 11am, Sunday 10:30am 832 W. Broadway (inside Plaza Liquors)•733-7901

Talking Too Much How speaking up presents a different set of challenges for half the population.

HANNAH HAWKES PHOTOGRAPHY/FACEBOOK

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BY SARAH ROSS

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W

omen have a reputation for speaking too much. A Christmas photo that surfaced on the internet this year depicts a family of five posing in their holiday attire. The mother and two daughters have duct tape over their mouths, while the father and son smile, holding a sign that reads, “Peace on Earth.”

Proverbs across the world solidify the stereotype that women speak too much, and that most of what they say is inane chatter: “Women’s tongues are like lambs’ tails-they are never still.” - English “The North Sea will sooner be found wanting in water than a woman at a loss for words.” - Jutlandic “Where there are women and geese, there’s noise.” - Japanese.

However, research demonstrates that the opposite is true. Women are consistently interrupted and dominated in oneon-one conversation as well as in professional and public settings. In a cultural moment where the idea of “free speech” is salient, what does free speech mean when, in the most basic building blocks of speech, half the population are not comfortable expressing themselves, are never given the opportunity to do so, or are dismissed when they are?

The definition of free speech appears simple enough—the ability to speak without restraint or censorship from the government. We believe that we have free speech, but most of us don’t protest the government on a daily basis or publically remark on controversial issues. For the average citizen, where does free speech take form?

Dennis Lubwama, an architect from Uganda working in Jackson for the year, believes that people herald the value of free speech without considering what that entails. “People believe they have free speech,” he explained, “but there is so much hard work to do to make sure that speech is actually being used ethically and equitably.” Some of that hard work is within gender relations.

A study published earlier this year by the Journal of Language and Social

One of this season’s more thought provoking holiday family photos.

Psychology examined the conversations of 20 men and 20 women, and found that men interrupted woman 2.6 times over the course of a three-minute conversation, while women interrupted men just once. Work by Australian author Dr. Dale Spender suggests that men perceive that women are dominating the conversation when they speak just 30 percent of the time.

This tendency becomes exaggerated in public settings. According to a 2012 study conducted by Brigham Young University and Princeton, men take up 75 percent of the average professional meeting.

Similarly, in a 1985 study of Harvard classrooms, men spoke two and a half times longer than their female classmates when they had a male instructor. When the instructor was a female, women spoke three times as often. This suggests that men feel emboldened to dominate conversation when those in authority are also men. In a world where leaders are still predominantly men, this has huge implications.

In the 2014 book, The Confidence Code, two female authors studied women in leadership positions. Though women make up about half of almost all professional fields, leadership in most fields is still overwhelmingly male. As women gain access to leadership, they become quieter. When they speak up, they are perceived as overly aggressive, or called a “bitch.” According to the authors, “The more a woman succeeds, the worse the vitriol gets.” When a man walks into a room, “they’re assumed to be competent until they prove otherwise ... women, however, are assumed incompetent until they prove themselves.”

According to the Center for American

Progress, women make up 45 percent of associates in the legal field, but are only 19 percent of board directors and comprised just 2 percent of CEOS. Similarly, women make up 35 percent of physicians and doctors, but are only 16 percent of medical school deans. Only 19 percent of Congress members are women. And out of the 12,180 people who have ever served in Congress, there have been 307 total women, only 54 of whom were women of color.

The OpEd Project, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of by-lines by women asserts that men “narrate the world.” According to Time Magazine, 63 percent of bylines in print, internet, and wire news media are by men. Men made up 83 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors for the 250 most profitable films in the United States in 2014.

Issues of free speech often surface during highly politicized moments, such as when someone burns a flag, when the KKK hold a rally, when protesters occupy private land. However, what does it look like to defend free speech in quotidian life when most don’t participate in events such as these?

Perhaps it means reframing our perception of what speech is politicized and what speech should be defended. In our daily lives, we perpetuate the silencing of women in conversation, which translates into classrooms, boardrooms, Congress, and media. It is easy to assert the value of free speech, but difficult to ensure that this value actually has traction in people’s lives, that it means something to those attempting to use their voices. PJH

THIS WEEK: December 28-January 3, 2017

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29

n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-7336398 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n Beautiful World Holiday Pop-Up Store 11:00am, Jackson Town Square, Free, 307-413-5847 n Cure For The Common 3:00pm, The Trap Bar & Grill, Free, 307-353-2300 n Stackhouse 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Winter Wonderland - Ice Skating on Town Square 4:00pm, Town Square, $0 $8.00, 307-733-3932 n Raptor Night 4:00pm, Hotel Terra, Free, 307-733-2292 n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n 38th Annual Chanukah Party 6:00pm, Jackson Hole Jewish Community, 3077341999 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Snowed in for Christmas 6:30pm, Jackson Hole Playhouse, 307-733-6994 n The Center Presents Lukas Nelson + Promise of the Real 7:00pm, The Center Theater, $52.00 - $64.00, 307-7334900 n Aikido Classes 7:30pm, 290 N Millward, Free, 307-690-3941

n Major Zepher 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Salsa Night 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n Holiday Latin Dance Party 2016 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, Free, 307-733-1500 n Zoso - The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute 9:00pm, Town Square Tavern, $20.00, 307-733-3886 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30

n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-7336398 n Portrait Drawing Club 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307733-6379 n Open Studio: Portrait Model 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307733-6379 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n Beautiful World Holiday Pop-Up Store 11:00am, Jackson Town Square, Free, 307-413-5847 n Feathered Fridays 12:00pm, Jackson Hole & Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center, Free, 307-201-5433 n Cure For The Common 3:00pm, The Trap Bar & Grill, Free, 307-353-2300 n Screen Door Porch 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Winter Wonderland - Ice Skating on Town Square 4:00pm, Town Square, $0 $8.00, 307-733-3932 n Friday Tastings 4:00pm, The Liquor Store of Jackson Hole, Free, 307-7334466

December 29, 6:00pm E.Leaven Food Co. 175 Center Street • Jackson, WY Suggested Donation: $10 adults, $5 kids (Pay what you can) Includes latkes, wine, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, games, activities & favors.

Come to this action-packed party complete with kids Chanukah games and activities, wines and beers, great Israeli music and the poignant community candle lighting so bring a Hanukiah (menorah) and we'll provide the candles.

POTLUCK: BRING A MAIN DISH TO SHARE. SALADS AND SIDES NEEDED, BUT LESS SO. This will be the last chance to purchase a limited supply of Mountain Chai Chanukah gelt from Bet Sefer students or to pick your pre-orders up.

Any questions: info@jhjewishcommunity.org or 734-1999

REPORTER

WANTED THE QUALIFIED APPLICANT:

• IS PASSIONATE ABOUT NEWS, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, LONG-FORM NARRATIVES, AND COMMENTARY • DISTILLS COMPLICATED ISSUES FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION • WRITES WITH CLARITY AND CONTEXT • OBSERVES, LISTENS, AND ASKS THE RIGHT QUESTIONS • DIGS DEEPER TO FIND THE UNTOLD STORY AND THE ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE

EMAIL WRITING SAMPLES AND RESUME TO EDITOR@PLANETJH.COM.

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 17

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 20

n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

Compiled by Caroline LaRosa

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-7336398 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n Fables Feathers & Fur 10:30am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307-732-5435 n Beautiful World Holiday Pop-Up Store 11:00am, Jackson Town Square, Free, 307-413-5847 n Larry Myer 3:00pm, The Trap Bar & Grill, Free, 307-353-2300 n PTO 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Stargazing 5:00pm, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Free, 307733-2292 n SHREDtalk: A discussion about snowboarding with the industry’s top pros 5:30pm, Pink Garter Theatre, $9.00 - $13.00, 307-733-1500 n Barbara Trentham Life Drawing 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307733-6379 n Open Studio: Figure Model 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307733-6379 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Snowed in for Christmas 6:30pm, Jackson Hole Playhouse, 307-733-6994 n Trivia Night 7:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886 n KHOL Presents: Vinyl Night 8:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n The Bo & Joe Sexy Show 9:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

MUSIC BOX

A Mushroom Jazz Dance Party Iconic DJ Mark Farina at the Garter, Cure for the Common + horns and Nicki Bluhm joins Lucas Nelson.

BY AARON DAVIS @ScreenDoorPorch

T

here’s acid jazz, cool jazz, big band jazz and then there’s mushroom jazz—a psychedelic-minded electronic music subgenre mixing jazz, house and hip-hop nearly singlehandedly designed by DJ and producer Mark Farina in the early 90s. The term was coined from his 25-year, eight-volume Mushroom Jazz series of albums. Originally released on cassette in 1992 with a modest 50 copies, the latest compilation dropped this year to a worldwide audience.

It has turned the heads of old fogies, indie-leaning hipsters, hippies and jazz purists while penetrating a club scene shaped by aggressive drums ‘n’ bass and uptempo house music. All the while, Farina has existed in two types of rooms—mushroom jazz and a jazzy Chicago-meetsSan Fran house style that caters to the uptempo revelers, Farina will drop his first beats in Jackson Hole on New Year’s Eve at the Pink Garter.

“Being a longtime snowboarder and skier since ski club in high school in the 80s, I’m excited to spend five days in Jackson for the first time,” Farina said from Dallas.

It’s fascinating to ponder the time and place of electronic when Farina was cutting his teeth. It was the late 80s and mixtapes were all the rage. He was working at a record store where he met house music renegade, producer and DJ Derrick Carter (Symbols & Instruments) and other “in-the-know” aficionados that would eyeball the 10 or so copies of a single album that would fly off the shelf as quickly as they’d get priced. There were only records to mix, and a lot of times Farina would buy two of the same

An acceptable reason to brave the drunk rookies on New Year’s Eve: House music legend DJ Mark Farina plays at the Pink Garter. copies, as certain instrumentals were in the three-minute range. Today, there’s a 25-year library of electronic music at anyone’s fingertips.

Farina represents an era of electronic musicians that worked much harder to DJ—lugging crates of vinyl through asbestos ridden warehouses, and using actual synthesizers and drum machines to make music. Today many people use computers to do everything.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and the club scene has changed so much,” said Farina, who has spent much of his latter career based in San Francisco. “Music is more fast paced than it used to be, as in vinyl had a longer shelf life where a song would be around for a couple of months and you’d hear about it by word of mouth. Now there’s a new digital chart every week and the music cycle is short lived with maximum accessibility.”

“Anyone can make tracks now,” he continued. “When I started, you had to know somebody with a real studio and gear, take time to press it to record, and it took a bit of work. Now you can have your home setup, your own label, and put it out in the same day and play it that night at your gig. In terms of electronica back then, you were either playing house or techno, or there was hip-hop or soul/ funk classics, and that was it. “ Back in the day, Farina’s marathon sets would roll from 9 p. m. to 4 a.m. on a regular basis. He still prefers the longevity of a three-hour set in order to approach the peaks and valleys of dynamics with patience in mind.

With technological advancements in DJ and electronic gear, some things have gotten easier for Farina in terms of how he can access sounds and beats, though his artistic process remains intact.

“With making music, sometimes there’s not always a clear line of what the DJ is doing,” Farina answered when asked about technology role’s in modern DJing. “Are they DJing? Are they syncing? Are they playing some live stuff with Ableton? You have to be a little more observant, whereas in the old days, they were playing records and it was pretty clean cut.”

Today, Farina says he still keeps things somewhat old-fashioned, mixing with CDs and from a USB. “I use a Pioneer CDJ 2000 Nexus 2. It’s a great machine, no cheats

or sync options that you can find on some machines that you see newer DJs using. Regardless of the technology, you still have to mix and that’s where the art form is for me. There are advantages with the Pioneer as opposed to a turntable that would have been nice to have back in the day, like looping. Or, I’ll take a hip-hop a cappella and move it up to house speed but keep it to where the pitchedup vocals don’t sound all Tweety bird.”

Farina’s international acclaim can be narrowed down to the voyage that listeners didn’t know they desired when he hit the scene. Though what has kept both electronic connoisseurs and casual listeners engaged for more than two decades is a funky, energetic voyage that is exceptionally crafty and of course, psychedelic. Analog hip-hop drum patterns underlying instrumental jazz samples and sublime downtempo beats with flashes of vocal refrains— that’s Farina’s money spot.

“New Year’s is a different night than most,” Farina said.

“Now, with this whole new disco kind of sound in the last five years, I might play Mushroom Jazz stuff and go up to house and different tempos. More than anything, I like to feel out the audience and find a happy medium of playing the sounds that I want to play and trying to get the most out of what people are feeling that night.” Mark Farina with DJ Londo and DJ Eric Burba, 9 p.m. Saturday, December, 31 at the Pink Garter Theatre. $37-$50. PinkGarterTheatre.com, 307-733-1500.

Lost Legends get Cure

The go-to party in Teton Village will be highlighted by a tribute to Lost Legends of 2016 set by Montana’s “electro thunder funk” ensemble Cure for the Common. The Bozeman-based five-piece will stretch to eight with the addition of a three-piece horn section for what drummer/ vocalist Joe Sheehan is calling the band’s “most ambitious New Year’s Eve setlist to date.”

“We picked a selection of tunes from influential artists that we lost over the last year or so and some of the material is really complex, which has been keeping us busy,” Sheehan said. “It’s gonna be a hell of a night, and we’re branching out into artists like Prince. Over the last couple of years, we’ve had our fair share of big production

WEDNESDAY Latin Party with Calle Mambo (Pink Garter Theatre), PTO (Mangy Moose) THURSDAY Lucas Nelson + Promise of the Real with guest Nicki Bluhm (Center Theater), ZoSo: Tribute to Led Zeppelin (Town Square Tavern) FRIDAY 6 Foot 2 (Silver Dollar), Joe Rudd’s Goldcone and DJ Era (The Rose)

Nicki Bluhm joins Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real Thursday at the Center. shows in the region and it’s been refreshing to have these opportunities where we can get comfortable in our space and really stretch out. Music on Main in Victor last summer and Music in the Mountains in Big Sky—which we just recently released as a full live show—were a couple of moments that we were collectively stoked about.”

Cure for the Common, 9:30 p.m. Saturday, December 31 at the Mangy Moose in Teton Village. $20 at Mangy Moose Market & Cellars or at MangyMoose.com.

Nelson and Bluhm get Real Aside from New Year’s parties, it’s advised not to sleep on a rare bill that will feature guest vocalist Nicki Bluhm with Lucas Nelson and Promise of the Real. Nelson, son of Willie, has forged his career largely before our eyes here in Teton County. First, as a 17-year-old guitarist sitting in with his dad’s band on Labor Day 2006 at Snow King

Amphitheater, and later in Teton Valley as a matured, rippin’ guitarist with the ability to croon a ballad or jump off a speaker rack as a shoeless, shirtless, playing-withhis-teeth blues-rock veteran. This is a killer band that has climbed the ranks, most lately as Neil Young’s backing band. As for Bluhm, her freelance vocal skills in the last year have proliferated through the music of the Infamous Stringdusters, The Waybacks, and Ryan Adams.

Lucas Nelson + Promise of the Real with guest Nicki Bluhm, 7 p.m. Thursday, December 29 at the Center Theater. $54-$66. JHCenterForTheArts.org. PJH Aaron Davis is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, member of Screen Door Porch and Boondocks, founder/host of Songwriter’s Alley, and co-founder of The WYOmericana Caravan.

SATURDAY Sneaky Pete & the Secret Weapons (Town Square Tavern), Head for the Hills and Screen Door Porch (Knotty Pine), Mark Farina with DJ Londo and DJ Eric Burba (Pink Garter Theatre), Cure for the Common (Mangy Moose), Papa Chan Trio (Alpenhof) SUNDAY Songwriter’s Alley featuring Isaac Hayden and Low Water String Band (Silver Dollar), Hof Polka Band (Alpenhof) MONDAY Jackson Hole Hootenanny (Dornan’s) TUESDAY One Ton Pig (Silver Dollar), BOGDOG (Town Square Tavern)

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 19

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Snowed in for Christmas 6:30pm, Jackson Hole Playhouse, 307-7336994 n Pam Drews Phillips Plays Jazz 7:00pm, The Granary at Spring Creek Ranch, Free, 307-733-8833 n Free Public Stargazing 7:30pm, Center for the Arts, Free, 844-9967827 n 6 Foot 2 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307733-2190 n DJ N8 9:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-7333886 n Joe Rudd’s Goldcone and DJ E.R.A 10:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, Free, 307733-1500 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31 n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 $16.00, 307-733-6398 n REFIT® 9:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 $20.00, 307-733-6398 n GoPro Fall Line Camp 9:00am, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, 307-733-2292 n Fall Line Camp 3 9:00am, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, 307-733-2292 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 $21.00, 307-733-0277 n Beautiful World Holiday Pop-Up Store 11:00am, Jackson Town Square, Free, 307413-5847 n Winter Wonderland - Ice Skating on Town Square 4:00pm, Town Square, $0 - $8.00, 307-7333932 n New Year’s Eve Torchlight Parade & Fireworks 4:00pm, Grand Targhee Resort, Free, 800-TARGHEE n Kid’s Glowworm Parade 4:30pm, Teewinot, Free, 307-739-2788 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Family Friendly NYE 6:00pm, Spring Creek Ranch, $35.00 $60.00, 307-732-8103 n Torchlight Parade and Fireworks 6:00pm, Apres Vous, Free, 307-733-2292 n Snowed in for Christmas 6:30pm, Jackson Hole Playhouse, 307-7336994

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 21

CREATIVE PEAKS Sick Joke Teton Artlab’s visiting artist embraces revolting humor and 1980s sensibilities.

BY MEG DALY @MegDaly1

I

f you’ve ever seen the film Robocop, you’ll remember the character poor old Emil Antonowsky. A prominent henchman of Clarence Broddicker, Emil meets a grisly demise when he smashes into a vat of toxic waste that turns his skin into a smoking liquid mess.

For fans of the movie, Emil’s skin melting scene provides a piquant brew of disgusting humor, just the sort of sick joke artist Charlie Cunningham likes to mine for in his artwork. Cunningham is in town for the month of December as Teton Artlab’s latest visiting artist in residence. He will speak about his work during an open studio tour on Thursday, December 29 at the Teton Artlab.

The Connecticut-based artist is classically trained, but prefers to work with contemporary materials and themes to create his rather unsettling work. Emil is a recurrent character in Cunningham’s work, as are other figures from popular culture. A child of the 1980s, Cunningham has a particular affinity for pop culture

Artist Charlie Cunningham aptly calls these birds “The Shit Breakers.” The middle work is titled “The Coronation of Emil Antonowsky.” characters from the 80s and 90s. While he has been in Jackson, he’s made a charcoal portrait of Harry and Marv, the bandits from the film Home Alone.

“I feel like a lot of humor is undervalued in terms of its power,” Cunningham said. “For instance, I find it ironic that some of the best news we have comes from comedians.”

Cunningham says jokes can be looked at as a passive violation of a moral preconception. In other words, something is funny because it passively pokes fun at something that is not funny.

“The joke becomes a litmus test for moral sensibility,” he said.

The scene in Robocop where Emil meets his maker—he is mercifully run over by a member of his gang—is a notably funny part of the movie among fans. Morally speaking, watching someone be doused in toxic waste and then run over and popped like an overripe piece of fruit should not be funny. But in the context of the fictional movie, fans find the scene hilarious.

Cunningham is skilled in sculpture as well as drawing, though most of his work at the Artlab is 2D because it will be easier to ship home when the residency is finished.

He has been using charred wood from the woodstove at the Lab for his charcoal. With it, he created the Harry and Marv portrait as well as several other drawings that will be on display Thursday.

Two of the drawings riff on the theme of “trickle-down economics,” another

signifier of the 1980s. The Ronald Reagan era economic policy basically posited that freeing up restrictions and taxes on the rich would result in wealth “trickling down” to the poor. The term is also known as “horse and sparrow” economics, where the horse is fed a rich diet of oats and the sparrow is able to pick the oats out of the horse’s feces. Cunningham has two drawings of a sparrow perched on a pile of horseshit with an oat grain in its beak—a new spin on wildlife art.

“My work invokes contradictions within subjects both dubiously humorous and revolting,” Cunningham said. “I envision my art as the obligatory laugh and lingering uncomfortable fear following a misunderstood joke.”The deliberate irony in Cunnigham’s work is that it is inviting to the viewer. He painted a portrait of sparrows and horse poop that literally glimmers in the late afternoon sunlight flooding his temporary studio. His work often has a very tactile component to it, utilizing materials like colored foam and silicon. Sculptures and paintings beckon to be touched and yet repulsion is also there. A sculpted head of Emil adorns Cunningham’s studio wall; but if you touch it, will your hand melt as a result?

Learn more about Charlie Cunningham’s process and tour his studio—if you can stomach it—at 6 p.m. Thursday, December 29 at Teton Artlab. PJH

n New Years Eve with the Papa Chan Trio featuring Johnny C Note and Ben Winship 7:00pm, The Alpenrose Restaurant at the Alpenhof Lodge, Free, 307-733-3242 n New Year’s Eve Party 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-733-2190 n Silver Dollar New Year’s Eve Party 8:00pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Mark Farina 9:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, $37.00 - $50.00, 307-7331500 n Gondi Gala 9:00pm, Piste Restaurant, $75.00, 307-733-2292 n Head For The Hills - New Years Eve at the Knotty Pine 9:00pm, Knotty Pine, $15.00, 208-787-2866 n New Years Eve with Cure For The Common 9:30pm, Mangy Moose, $20.00, 307-733-4913 n Sneaky Pete & the Secret Weapons 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, $20.00, 307-733-3886 n New Year’s Eve at The Trap 10:00pm, The Trap Bar & Grill, $10.00 - $15.00, 307353-2300 x 1360 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1

MONDAY, JANUARY 2

n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-7336398 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n B.O.G.D.O.G - Band On Glen Down on Glen 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Hootenanny 6:00pm, Dornan’s, Free, 307733-2415 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n Toddler Time 10:05am, Teton County Library Youth Auditorium, Free, 307-733-2164 n White Lightning Open Mic Night 3:00pm, The Trap Bar & Grill, Free, 307-353-2300 n The Maw Band 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Winter Wonderland - Ice Skating on Town Square 4:00pm, Town Square, $0 $8.00, 307-733-3932 n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Cribbage 6:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-354-5522 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Aikido Classes 7:30pm, 290 N Millward, Free, 307-690-3941 n One Ton Pig 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n B.O.G.D.O.G. 9:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM

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Counseling: • Individual • Premarital • Marriage/Family • Anxiety, Stress

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2017 regular public meetings of the Board of Trustees All public sessions begin at 4:00 pm in the Boardroom at St. John’s Medical Center, 625 E. Broadway, Jackson, WY. Thursday, January 26 Monday, February 27 Thursday, March 16 Thursday, April 27 Tuesday, May 30 Thursday, June 22 Thursday, July 20 Thursday, August 24 Friday, September 29 Thursday, October 26 Friday, December 1 Meeting dates and times are subject to change.

Visit www.tetonhospital.org/board for meeting minutes, monthly financial statements, and updates to the meeting schedule.

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 21

n Dance & Fitness Classes All Day 8:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-7336398 n REFIT® 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $20.00, 307-7336398

Elizabeth Kingwill,

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

n First Sundays 9:00am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, 307-7435424 n Sleigh Rides 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, $15.00 - $21.00, 307733-0277 n NFL Sunday Football 11:00am, The Trap Bar & Grill, Free, 307.353.2300 n Major Zephyr 3:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Winter Wonderland - Ice Skating on Town Square 4:00pm, Town Square, $0 $8.00, 307-733-3932

n Stagecoach Band 6:00pm, Stagecoach, Free, 307-733-4407 n Great Until Late 6:00pm, Local Stores, Free, 307-733-3316 n Wine Tasting on a Budget 6:00pm, Dornans, 307-7332415 n Snowed in for Christmas 6:30pm, Jackson Hole Playhouse, 307-733-6994 n Songwriter’s Alley 7:00pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-733-2190 n Aikido Classes 7:30pm, 290 N Millward, Free, 307-690-3941 n Hospitality Night - Happy Hour 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n Sandee Brooks and Beyond Control 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

CINEMA

List We Forget…

Celebrating the best in film for 2016.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW @scottrenshaw

I

n case there weren’t enough high-profile deaths in 2016—Prince, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, democracy—this was also the year, we were told repeatedly in entertainment industry headlines, that cinema died. But around the margins of the franchises that tend to suck up all the media attention, there were plenty of wonderful movies—enough worthy ones that a top 10 list is merely the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking for a place to start catching up on some 2016 greatness, I hope this’ll do.

10. Moonlight: Writer/director Barry Jenkins explores an African-American life in three acts—from grade school to high school to young adulthood—in this beautifully shot, phenomenally-acted journey into hardwired cultural ideas of black masculinity.

9. Kubo and the Two Strings: Laika’s stop-motion features have always been a distinctive variation in the CGI kid-flick landscape, but this tale of a young boy on a quest to find the magical artifacts that can protect him makes a case for the transcendent, transformative power of storytelling itself.

8. Krisha: Trey Edward Shults used his first feature to create a star-making role for his aunt, Krisha Fairchild, as a 60-something recovering alcoholic trying to atone for her role as perpetual black sheep at a family Thanksgiving gathering, anchoring one of the great film portraits of an addict.

7. La La Land: It’s easy to scoff at Damien Chazelle’s attempt to revive a certain brand of melancholy movie musical, but this love story involving a would-be actress (Emma Stone) and a struggling jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) in contemporary Los Angeles becomes an unapologetic celebration of the idea of romanticism, and the euphoria that can be created by art that transports us.

6: Toni Erdmann: Even some people who love Maren Ade’s shaggy comedy—about a goofy music teacher (Peter Simonischek) trying to reconnect with his semi-estranged daughter, a corporate consultant (Sandra Hüller)—seemed to think it was another story about an uptight businessperson learning what really matters. There’s more complexity than that in the central

Other Top 10s: Eric D. Snider: It is often claimed that “Hollywood” (meaning “the movies”) is out of touch with reality. And maybe it’s true. After all, 2016 was a garbage year in real life but a terrific year for movies. It’s the first time my top 10 list has had two musicals on it. There’s hope for us yet!

1. Arrival 2. Moonlight 3. La La Land 4. Green Room 5. Sing Street 6. The Witch 7. Pete’s Dragon 8. Manchester by the Sea 9. The Nice Guys 10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Arrival

Left: Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson; Right: Adam Driver in Paterson. relationship—and it Hüller’s best-of-theyear performance—even as Ade constructs several of the year’s funniest set pieces.

5. Weiner: Hell yes, this plays even more tragically depressing now than it did when it debuted at Sundance almost a year ago. Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg turn their study of disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner’s comeback 2013 New York mayoral campaign into a portrait of political pathology, of both a general, and very specific, kind. That this particular man and his pathology might have changed the course of a presidential election makes the story even more darkly fascinating.

4. The Witch: Writer/director Robert Eggers doesn’t mess around with ambiguity: The witch feared by the movie’s characters, exiled from their 17th-century New England town for the father’s fundamentalist beliefs, most certainly exists. The key to Eggers’ study of evil and obsession with sin may be in the subtitle “A New-England Folktale,” because the monster here is also a lesson to those wrestling with something we don’t fully understand, but know in our gut is real.

3. The Handmaiden: Park Chan-wook’s

MaryAnn Johanson: It’s been a great year for films telling stories we haven’t seen a gazillion times before: new fantasy realms exploring grief, bigotry and the stifling pressures of conformity; long unsung real-life heroes finally getting their moment in the spotlight; complicated and cranky women making no apologies for themselves; harrowing examinations of the trials of the downtrodden; and even an escape into song and dance that is sharply sensible amidst its joyful fancy. In 2016, even our entertainment got grim and bitter, and felt all the more pertinent because of it.

1. Arrival 2. La La Land 3. A Monster Calls 4. The Lobster 5. Zootopia 6. A Bigger Splash 7. Miss Sloane 8. London Road 9. I, Daniel Blake 10. Hidden Figures

La La Land

typically lush visual style adds a socio-political edge in this adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, set in Japan-occupied 1930s Korea. The narrative—about a thief working to facilitate a con artist’s efforts to marry an heiress—feigns and dodges multiple times through multiple points of view, on its way to an unexpectedly resonant tale of challenging corrupt patriarchy.

2. Paterson: The deadpan magnificence of Jim Jarmusch remains an acquired taste, but there’s a special soulfulness to this story of a New Jersey bus driver (Adam Driver) who writes poetry he never shares with anyone. The cyclical rhythms of the protagonist’s days build towards something almost heroic about finding art in every possible moment.

1. Cameraperson: It’s not exaggerating matters to suggest that Kirsten Johnson has created an entirely new kind of film art here, combining snippets of footage from her 20 years as a documentary cinematographer into an essay with a hypnotic momentum.

Individual images are some of the most gasp-inducing in recent memory, all in service of a remarkable reminder of the real humanity behind every creative work. PJH

Andrew Wright: The discovery of inner power was a theme in some of 2016’s best movies, whether it was a little girl realizing her gifts in the beautifully rhythmic, intriguingly creepy The Fits, or a giant amoeba-lizard developing a horrifically staged knack for plasma ray destruction in Shin Godzilla. Nestled above the rest, though, is Zhang Yang’s Paths to the Souil, in which a group of Chinese villagers walk the snowy 1,000-plus miles to Tibet’s Holy Mountain, kowtowing with every step. In a sneakily impressive year, this almost indecently lovely, transcendent quasi-documentary shone the strongest.

1. Paths of the Soul 2. The Fits 3. Shin Godzilla 4. Elle 5. Hell or High Water 6. Green Room 7. The Witch 8. Tower 9. Manchester by the Sea 10. Arrival

Paths of the Soul

Microgreens, Macro Might Meet a local superfood that will enhance your health and excite your taste buds all winter long.

BY ANNIE FENN, MD @jacksonfoodie

A

Left: Chives on steroids—the Vertical Harvest rock chive microgreens. Middle: B​ ull’s blood beet microgreens growing in the VH microfarm. Right: Spicy microgreens pair well with caramelized wedges of butternut squash and pistachio pesto. in bulk at the winter People’s Market, Aspens and Pearl Street Markets.

I’ve come full circle with my microgreen crush, from cutesy, trendy garnish to everyday superfood. I’ll put on my doctor’s hat and recommend that eating a handful of microgreens a day is more beneficial than anything from a bottle. It’s like a shot of vitamins with a potent dose of flavor for your food.

Recipe: Chef Eric Wilson’s Microgreens Salad Eric Wilson uses all of the microgreens produced at Vertical Harvest. When I heard he made a killer microgreen salad, I tracked down the über busy private chef for the details. This recipe is translated from Wilson’s chefspeak description, which I’ve adapted for the home cook.

Serves two, easily multiplied 2 handfuls of mixed microgreens—Eric likes sunflower, pea greens, and daikon for some heat 1 handful of arugula 1 handful of frisee 1 endive, cut into thin slices 1 apple, cut into thin slices ½ cup pumpkin seeds (roasted with olive oil and sea salt) Parmesan cheese Dressing: Basil oil and apricot vinegar in a 3:1 ratio (substitute any high quality extra virgin olive oil with a fruit-based vinegar) ½ shallot, finely minced 1 tsp. whole grain mustard Mix dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake vigorously.

Toss greens, apple and endive with dressing to lightly coat. Top with pumpkin seeds and microplaned slivers of Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. PJH After delivering babies and practicing gynecology for 20 years in Jackson, Annie Fenn traded her life as a doctor to pursue her other passion: writing about food, health, sustainability and the local food scene. Follow her snippets of mountain life, with recipes, at jacksonholefoodie.com and on Instagram @jacksonholefoodie.

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 23

tiny package.

For those with more sensitive palates, sunflower micros are a good place to start. Their nutty, grassy flavor pairs well with just about anything you are likely to cook—as a topping for soups, as part of a salad of mixed greens, or stuffed into my favorite on-the-go breakfast sandwich: bacon, avocado and microgreens on a sourdough roll.

Microgreens with big personalities—like shiso, wasabi, and bull’s blood beet—are fun to experiment with. They add great contrast in flavor and texture when paired with a sweet and savory base, like roasted butternut squash wedges, creamy parsnip soup, and caramelized, roasted carrots.

Not only have microgreens won me over for their flavor profile and visual appeal, it appears they are also nutritional powerhouses. It’s no secret that I’m on a mission to discover ways to fill everyone’s belly with foods that are both nutrient-dense and delicious. Microgreens have been on my radar for a long time due to rumors that their nutritional profile is off the charts. Now science is starting to back up the claim that they’re an important superfood.

One study from the University of Maryland, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, measured four groups of vitamins and phytochemicals such as vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene. Scientists found the leaves from almost all microgreens had four to six times more nutrients than the mature leaves of the same plant.

Variations in nutrient density were found in different types of microgreens, when they were harvested, and the medium in which they were grown.

Microgreens cost more than their equivalent weight as a mature plant, but local farmers are working hard to bring the price down. As farmer Alex Feher of Huidekoper Ranch explained, one of the reasons they’re expensive is because they require high quality soil. “But that is also why they are so damn good for you,” he said. “The better the soil, the healthier the plants will be.” Feher sources certified biodynamic compost from Paradise Springs Farm in Teton Valley, Idaho. He calls it “black gold” and says it’s some of the best compost you can get.

The farmers over at Vertical Harvest have tinkered with their hydroponic growing medium for optimal nutrition.

Find Vertical Harvest microgreens sold in the tray they’re grown in at Jackson Whole Grocer, Lucky’s Market, Pearl Street and Aspens Markets, the winter People’s Market, and Market—the little store inside the greenhouse at VH. Find Huidekoper Ranch microgreens sold cut and bagged

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

t first glance, it’s hard to take microgreens seriously.

These cute, miniature versions of mature plants sprouted onto the scene as a trendy ingredient about five years ago. Since then we’ve seen an awful lot of restaurant dishes garnished with the ubiquitous sprinkle of microgreens, like a modern version of a parsley sprig. You can’t blame chefs for going crazy with these tiny, edible greens—microgreens are an easy way to add a punch of flavor and a ping of bright color to any dish.

But when I actually stopped to consider the microgreen as an ingredient beyond its role as a garnish, I discovered how crazy delicious and healthy they are. While taking a tour of the microfarm at Vertical Harvest—a room upstairs in our hometown hydroponic greenhouse devoted to growing these beauties—I tasted each and every one of their 17 varieties.

If you love spicy greens, the wasabi, daikon radish and red mustard microgreens will blow your mind with how much flavor is packed into each seedling. That’s really what microgreens are: plants picked in the seedling stage with two cotyledons, a stem and a tiny root. Microgreens go from seed to harvest in less than 14 days. But don’t confuse them with sprouts—seeds germinated in water just long enough to grow roots, a stem and underdeveloped leaves.

Speaking of, commercially produced sprouts should be consumed with caution. They are known to harbor menacing bacteria and have been linked to thousands of cases of serious food borne illnesses.

The spicy microgreens, on the other hand, are easy to love, but so are those belonging to the mint family—Thai basil, cinnamon basil, shiso red and shiso jewel. You know shiso as that serrated leaf that usually holds your nigiri sushi. It’s a minty, herbaceous, basil-like flavor. Now try a shiso microgreen and multiply that flavor times 20.

That’s the beauty of microgreens—maximum flavor in a

ANNIE FENN, MD PHOTOS

THE FOODIE FILES

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

24 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

BEER, WINE & SPIRITS

NYE Punch Panache Festive holiday punches to usher in the new year.

BY TED SCHEFFLER @critic1

L

ots of us will be popping Champagne corks on New Year’s Eve. It’s a tradition that isn’t going anywhere soon.

However, New Year’s Eve and other celebrations are exceptionally well-suited to punch-type drinks, especially when there’s a crowd. The self-serve aspect of holiday punch means that hosts and hostesses can focus on other essential tasks, like keeping Uncle Milt away from the tequila. Here are a few of my favorite punch bowls, includingsome non-alcoholic iterations.

While serving as bar manager at San Francisco’s Rickhouse bar, Erick Castro created his excellent Champagne Holiday Punch. It calls for a Creole Shrubb, which is an orange-flavored rum. If you can’t find it, just substitute any orange-flavored rum or a liqueur like Mandarin Napoleon. Likewise,

IMBIBE

you can trade out the genever for a gin such as London dry gin. Combine 6 ounces fresh lemon juice with 10 dashes of Angostura bitters, 12 ounces genever (or gin), 4 ounces simple syrup and 4 ounces Creole Shrubb (or substitute). Refrigerate for a couple of hours until chilled. When ready to serve, gently stir in 4 ounces of Champagne or other sparkling wine, 8 ounces club soda, large ice cubes and garnish with pods of star anise and pineapple slices.

Anyone who’s ever sipped a screwdriver knows the affinities that vodka and orange juice have for each other. Here is a holiday Vodka Punch, adapted by yours truly, that comes originally from Cara, The QuarterLife Cook and the Big Girls Small Kitchen web site. It’ll serve an army. Ideally, you’ll want to use fresh-squeezed orange, lemon and grapefruit juice. In a large punch bowl, combine 3 cups of plain vodka (try the local Jackson Hole Still Works’ Highwater Vodka or Grand Teton Distillery Vodka), 3 cups orange-flavored vodka, 4 cups (total) fresh lemon, orange and grapefruit juices, 1 quart seltzer, 2 cups simple syrup steeped with a handful of mint leaves, 2 cups sparkling wine, 3 tablespoons of orange bitters (like Beehive Spiced Orange Cocktail Bitters), and 6 cups of ice. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.

Here is a non-alcoholic punch recipe that I like for both kids and adults. The ginger ale in it gives this punch some celebratory zest, in lieu of having to use sparkling wine. To make Pretty Pink Punch, begin by dissolving 2 tablespoons of sugar in 3 cups of cold water in a punch bowl. Then add 2 64-oz bottles of chilled cranberr y-raspberry juice, a 46-oz can of chilled pineapple juice, and a 12-oz can of thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate. You can do all of this ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to serve. To finish and serve the punch, stir in 1 liter of ginger ale and garnish with lemon slices or raspberries.

This one isn’t really punch, but I love Rosé Champagne Cocktails.

Think of them as personalized punches.

It’s a cocktail that’s elegant in its simplicity.

For two cocktails, slice a sugar cube in half with a

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serrated or sharp, thin knife. Place half a sugar cube into the bottom of each of two Champagne flutes (I like to use old-fashioned Champagne coupes). Add four dashes of aromatic bitters (such as Bitters Lab Aromatic) to each glass. Then top the glasses with Rosé Champagne. Add a lemon twist garnish and you’re ready to rock.

I’m a big fan of whiskey in punch, and this Citrus-Irish Whiskey Punch recipe first appeared in Bon Appétit. It calls for oleo-saccharum, which adds “punch” to the punch; you can find easy recipes for it on the web. In a large bowl or pitcher, combine 1-2/3 cups Irish whiskey, 1-2/3 cups strong black tea, 1/2 cup fresh clementine or orange juice, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/2 cup oleo-saccharum, 7 dashes of aromatic bitters and 1-1/2 teaspoons of freshly grated nutmeg. Chill for three to eight hours and strain into a serving bowl. Garnish with lemon and orange slices and serve over ice with freshly grated nutmeg. Happy New Year! PJH

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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) 733-0022 and in Driggs, (208) 787-8424, tetonthai.com.

THAI ME UP ®

Large Specialty Pizza ADD: Wings (8 pc)

$ 13 99

Medium Pizza (1 topping) Stuffed Cheesy Bread

for an extra $5.99/each

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

ELY U Q I N U PEAN EURO

F O H ‘ E H

T

R DINNEAGE I H LUNCTETON VILL I T S IN FA BREAKE ALPENHOF AT TH

AT THE

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, walkins 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 Tues-Sat 5 p.m. and Happy Hour Tues-Sat 3-5:30 p.m. featuring $5 glasses of wine, $5 specialty drinks, $3 bottled beer. 135 E. Broadway, (307) 732-1910, genevievejh. com.

ELEANOR’S

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 25

Enjoy all the perks of fine dining, minus the dress code at Eleanor’s, serving rich, saucy dishes in a warm and friendly setting. Its bar alone is an attraction, thanks to reasonably priced drinks and a loyal crowd. Come get a belly-full of our two-time gold medal wings.

Open at 11 a.m. daily. 832 W. Broadway, (307) 733-7901.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

307.733.3242

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.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

26 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

FULL STEAM SUBS

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.

LOCAL

LOCAL & DOMESTIC STEAKS SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK @ 5:30 TILL 10 JHCOWBOYSTEAKHOUSE.COM 307-733-4790 THE LOCALS

Napolitana-style Pizza, panini, pasta, salad, beer wine. Order online at PizzeriaCaldera.com

FAVORITE PIZZA 2012, 2013 & 2014 •••••••••

$7

$4 Well Drink Specials

LUNCH

SPECIAL Slice, salad & soda

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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

TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

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

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 locallysourced 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

Serving organic, freshly-made world cuisine while catering to all eating styles. Endless organic and natural meat, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free 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. 140 N. Cache, (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.

MILLION DOLLAR COWBOY STEAKHOUSE

FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT

Jackson’s first Speakeasy Steakhouse. The Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse is a hidden gem located below the world famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Our menu offers guests the best in American steakhouse cuisine. Top quality chops and steaks sourced from local farms, imported Japanese Wagyu beef, and house-cured meats and sausages. Accentuated with a variety of thoughtful side dishes, innovative appetizers, creative vegetarian items, and decadent desserts, a meal at this landmark location is sure to be a memorable one. Reservations are highly recommended.

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

SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT

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.

1110 MAPLE WAY, SUITE B JACKSON, WY 307.264.2956 picnicjh.com

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

www.mangymoose.com

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.

TRIO

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.

ITALIAN 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.

SWEETS MEETEETSE CHOCOLATIER

Meeteetse Chocolatier brings their unique blend of European style chocolates paired with “Wyomingesque” flavors. Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit, Sage, Huckleberry and Sarsaparilla lead off a decadent collection of truffles, Belgian chocolates and hand made caramel. Sample Single Origin and Organic chocolates at our Tasting Station. Open Weekends, 265 W. Broadway. 307-413-8296. meeteetsechocolatier. com

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

DECEMBER 28, 2016 | 27

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

28 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

A New Day Mining health and happiness in the new year.

W

hat if all readers agreed that for the time period between now and January 15, we all make it a practice to choose love over fear, inclusion over separation, collaboration over competition, compassion over judgment. This applies to how we treat and respond to others and to ourselves. Let’s run the experiment and experience what kind of difference this makes in terms of how we feel as individuals, as family members, as friends and as a community. We all know how welcoming and safe and warm it is to walk into a room where people are kind and loving. Imagine this great feeling times billions of people being kind hearted here on Earth.

The science It’s mind blowing to grasp the importance of two scientific discoveries, which can directly upgrade everyone’s wellbeing and put us in the driver’s seat of our collective evolution. One scientific finding is that our consciousness is so powerful that the energies of our thoughts, emotions, beliefs and actions directly impact both our individual wellbeing and the quality of the entire matrix of life on Earth. The second finding, directly related to the first, is that we are all part of one interconnected, interactive living matrix on this Earth.

Therefore everything alive and the quality of everyone’s energy is influencing everything on our planet all the time. (For those who enjoy thinking big, the entire universe is one interactive matrix.) At the very least, the implications of these two findings give every person the “wow” (we really are that powerful ) and the “how” (change the energy of our thoughts) to upgrade our lives and evolve life on Earth.

More research Through MRI imaging, researchers have shown that negative thoughts and beliefs (based on fear, anger, jealousy and hatred) stimulate the areas of the brain promoting hostility, depression and anxiety. They’ve also proven that positive thoughts and beliefs (based on compassion forgiveness, kindness and love) set off

a cascade of positive hormones throughout the body resulting in feelings of empathy, calm and peace.

Here’s more interesting data—each person has an average of 60,000 thoughts a day, and incredibly, 95 percent are the same thoughts repeated every day.

According to researchers, an average 80 percent of those habitual thoughts are negative. Since we are all part of one interactive cosmic matrix, this information points to how we are all invisibly and unknowingly co-creating a negative energy field for our bodies and for the world. It is so exciting and so empowering to know that we are fully capable of redirecting our thought patterns for the greater good of everyone, if we want to do this.

Resistance There are parts of our psyche that likely resist taking full responsibility for our true power. It can be overwhelming to consider the extent of our influence, and it’s easier to continue playing small and to deny it.

Also, the findings about how everything in the universe is interconnected, sometimes referred to as “oneness,” can be misinterpreted to imply that then everyone is exactly the same and we should love everyone and everything. With that incorrect conclusion, our egos jump in with not wanting to be “one” with people, or events or phenomena we don’t know, don’t understand or don’t like. It can be both belief shattering and ego threatening to fully embrace and act on these metaphysical truths now verified by science.

communication with each other and combine together as one cohesive unit working collaboratively for the greater good of the one body. If and when something in the body is out of balance, other body systems automatically come in to help. Together all the cells combine to create something greater than the sum of the individual parts. The body works miraculously as one entity made up of incredible diversity. Not only are all physical bodies made of the same elements (we are all one), but at the same time, each body is totally different from the next.

Soul pairings This incredible body then is the perfect vehicle for the soul to pair with in order to experience the physical world reality we all share. Here’s the paradox again. We have the soul factor in common and yet each soul brings in its own unique history, natural talents, and learning lessons. This is the richness of the sameness and the infinite variety in creation. The center of any paradox, like the eye of a storm, is where it is all true and therefore there is no conflict. Think about it.

Let me know

The fact is that out of oneness there is incredible diversity. This is a paradox that describes the entire universe. There is one source yielding an infinite diversity of galaxies, star systems, planets, moons and more.

Each of these also has life forms in, on and around them, that fit their unique environments. Some we have discovered, and others we have not yet been informed of, experienced personally or perceived with our wonderful but limited physical senses.

For the next couple of weeks, if you are willing, practice choosing love, compassion, patience and kindness over fear. Let go of long held and outdated beliefs about yourself and anyone else that automatically pop in, and be open to new possibilities. When you are seduced by fear, or catch yourself in old negative thought patterns, get back to the high road without self-criticism and with grace and ease. Keep moving forward sourcing your own human kindness.

If you are willing to join me in this experiment, would you please email me about your experience; the address is below. What is it like to purposefully direct your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs and actions in a more inclusive and kind direction? What rewards and what challenges are you experiencing? With your permission, I will put your anonymous “reports” together in a future article as inspiration to others.

Our bodies, our example

Manifest what you imagine

The human body is a perfect example of the paradox of oneness combined with diversity. We have trillions of cells, which differentiate to form blood, skin, bones, muscles, tendons, joints, nerves, organs and organ systems. All our cells and all organ systems have their own unique specialties and functions. They even look different from one another. They are in constant

To conclude, I have changed one word in the chorus from my favorite song, John Lennon’s “Imagine”:

Oneness 101

“You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one, I hope today you’ll join us, And the world will be as one.” PJH

Carol Mann is a longtime Jackson resident, radio personality, former Grand Targhee Resort owner, author, and clairvoyant.

Got a Cosmic Question? Email carol@yourcosmiccafe.com

WELLNESS COMMUNITY These businesses provide health or wellness services for the Jackson Hole community and its visitors.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

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L.A.TIMES “WHAT HAPPENED THEN” By Don Gagliardo & C.C. Burnikel

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2017

ACROSS 1 5

Olympian queen Bad attention-getter in a crowded bar 9 Baker/literacy advocate Wally who hosted “Learn to Read” 13 Big name in romance novels 17 __ beverage 19 Goddess who saved infant Zeus from Cronus 20 Hair-raising 21 Big do 22 Fundraising items first sold in 1917 25 Additional decision-making factors 26 “Don’t move” 27 Person 8 Treats inspired by a coal miner in 1917 30 Sore spot 32 Flight parts 34 Valencian rice dish 35 Frame of Elmer, e.g.

37 Cpls., e.g.

39 “I get it now!”

40 Bach’s east 41 She plays Watson in “Elementary” 42 World Series winner in 1917 47 Hoppy brew, for short 49 More than help with 50 Fabled thorn victim 51 “Nice job!” reply 52 Bishop’s agent 55 Site with a Pill Identification Tool 57 Have choice words for 59 Modern problem solver 60 Some microbrews 62 “Fantastic Mr. Fox” director Anderson 63 Pile on 64 Column width unit 67 American citizenship grantee in 1917

71 Slant 72 Gp. once led by Charles Mayo 73 Book with entries 74 Black box, e.g.

76 Surgical knife 78 Desk accessory 81 Slow period 84 Split 85 Serving two purposes 86 Starting on 88 Sidestep 90 They may be checked at the door 91 America bought it from Denmark in 1917 94 Letters in early dates 96 Prefix with fiction 98 Middle __ 99 Granny 100 Hubbub 101 Words of concern 103 Stern with strings 105 UPS Store customer 108 Orphanage founded in 1917 110 Many antique radios 112 Crumbly English cheese 115 Tantrum-prone one 116 Subject of an act passed in 1917 119 Like some ducks?

120 Full of chutzpah 121 Philosopher Descartes 122 Dry runs 123 “What __?”

124 Sources of pliable wood 125 Column that’s beside the point?

126 “Immediately!”

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Fairy tale heavies Ready for publication Grandma Moses subject “O Come, __ Faithful” Code of conduct Moo __ pork Collectors’ goals

8 Shells from stands 9 “That’s terrible!”

10 Seriously injures 11 Dairy Queen Blizzard flavor 12 Online admins 13 Wonder-struck 14 Dunkin’ Donuts order 15 Yale nickname 16 Onetime Bahamian pirate base 18 Spice amts.

20 Only child, maybe 23 Teleprompter’s job 24 Tagged before reaching, as home 29 Restless folk?

31 “Ah ... okay” 33 Common meal for a tight budget 35 Looped in, briefly 36 Website with detailed instructions 38 Athlete’s refreshment?

40 Clearasil competitor 43 Lethal snake 44 Large group 45 Like noble gases 46 Table scrap 48 Short shot?

53 Musical with the song “The Gods Love Nubia” 54 Joey Votto’s team 56 Rail stop 58 Of __ : somewhat 59 Pays attention (to) 61 Software glitch 62 String of engagements 64 Like some ale 65 David Bowie’s love 66 Holiday sides 68 Change the price of 69 Traps during a storm, perhaps 70 Circles of light 71 Diva’s reward 73 “I’m starving!”

75 Star of David

displayer El Cantar de mío __: Castilian epic poem 78 Blue Bird vehicle 79 Volcanic flows 80 Member of a small ruling class 82 Hustler 83 Scottish pirate 85 Key & Peele, e.g.

87 Handles skillfully 89 Brit. medal 92 Flinch, say 93 “¿ votre __!”

94 Fielding error 95 Like Beethoven’s Ninth 97 2016 Conn Smythe Trophy recipient Sidney 102 Big name in beauty 103 Relative challenge for some 104 African capital 106 Lowdown 107 Fabled toy makers 109 “__ in this together!”

111 Kristoff’s pet reindeer in “Frozen” 113 Numerical prefix 114 Tree squirrel’s drey, e.g.

117 Slalom curve 118 Dallas-to-Memphis dir.

77

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) As I was ruminating on your astrological omens for 2017, I came across a wildly relevant passage written by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. It conveys a message I encourage you to memorize and repeat at least once a day for the next 365 days. Here it is: “Nothing can hold you back—not your childhood, not the history of a lifetime, not even the very last moment before now. In a moment you can abandon your past. And once abandoned, you can redefine it. If the past was a ring of futility, let it become a wheel of yearning that drives you forward. If the past was a brick wall, let it become a dam to unleash your power.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Naturalist John Muir regarded nature as his church. For weeks at a time he lived outdoors, communing with the wilderness. Of course he noticed that not many others shared his passion. “Most people are on the world, not in it,” he wrote, “having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.” Is there anything about you that even partially fits that description, Aquarius? If so, I’m pleased to inform you that 2017 will be an excellent year to address the problem. You will have immense potential to become more intimate and tender with all of the component parts of the Great Mystery. What’s the opposite of loneliness?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Seven Chilean poets were frustrated by their fellow citizens’ apathy toward the art of poetry. They sarcastically dramatized their chagrin by doing a performance for baboons. Authorities at the Santiago Zoo arranged for the poets’ safety, enclosing them in a protective cage within the baboons’ habitat. The audience seemed to be entertained, at times listening in rapt silence and at other times shrieking raucously. I’m sure you can empathize with the poets’ drastic action, Pisces. How many times have you felt you don’t get the appreciation you deserve?

But I bet that will change in 2017. You won’t have to resort to performing for baboons.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Donatello was a renowned Italian sculptor. His favorite piece was “Lo Zuccone,” a marble statue of the Biblical prophet Habakkuk. As Donatello carved his work-inprogress, he addressed it. “Speak, damn you! Talk to me,” he was heard to say on more than a few occasions. Did the stone respond? Judging from the beauty of the final product, I’d have to say yes. One art critic testified that “Lo Zuccone” is a “sublimely harrowing” tour de force, a triumph of “forceful expression,” and “one of the most important marble sculptures of the 15th century.” I suspect you will have Donatello-like powers of conversation in 2017, Aries. If anyone can communicate creatively with stones—and rivers and trees and animals and spirits and complicated humans, for that matter—it’ll be you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist, you are always working on a major art project: yourself. You may underestimate the creativity you call on as you shape the raw material of your experience into an epic story. Luckily, I’m here to impress upon you the power and the glory of this heroic effort. Is there anything more important? Not for you Leos. And I trust that in 2017 you will take your craftsmanship to the highest level ever. Keep this advice from author Nathan W. Morris in mind: “Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece, after all.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) French painter Henri Matisse (1869-1954) turned out to be one of the supremely influential artists of the 20th century. But he was still struggling to make a living well into his thirties. The public’s apathy toward his work demoralized him. At one point, he visited his dealer to reclaim one of his unsold paintings. It was time to give up on it, he felt, to take it off the market. But when he arrived at the gallery, his dealer informed him that it had finally been bought— and not by just any art collector, either. Its new owner was Pablo Picasso, an artist whom Matisse revered. I think it’s quite possible you will have comparable experiences in 2017, Virgo. Therefore: Don’t give up on yourself!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “The self in exile remains the self, as a bell unstruck for years is still a bell,” writes poet Jane Hirshfield. I suspect that these words are important for you to hear as you prepare for 2017. My sense is that in the past few months, your true self has been making its way back to the heart of life after a time of wandering on the outskirts. Any day now, a long-silent bell will start ringing to herald your full return. Welcome home!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) In accordance with your astrological omens for 2017, I’ve taken a poem that Shel Silverstein wrote for kids and made it into your horoscope. It’ll serve as a light-hearted emblem of a challenging but fun task you should attend to in the coming months. Here it is: “I’ve never washed my shadow out in all the time I’ve had it. It was absolutely filthy I supposed, so I peeled it off the wall where it was leaning and stuck it in the washtub with the clothes. I put in soap and bleach and stuff. I let it soak for hours. I wrung it out and hung it out to dry. And whoever would have thunk that it would have gone and shrunk, for now it’s so much littler than I.” SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Walk your wisdom walk in 2017, Sagittarius. Excite us with your wisdom songs and gaze out at our broken reality with your wisdom eyes. Play your wisdom tricks and crack your wisdom jokes and erupt with your wisdom cures. The world needs you to be a radiant swarm of lovable, unpredictable wisdom! Your future needs you to conjure up a steady stream of wisdom dreams and wisdom exploits! And please note: You don’t have to wait until the wisdom is perfect. You shouldn’t worry about whether it’s supremely practical. Your job is to trust your wisdom gut, to unleash your wisdom cry, to revel in your wisdom magic.

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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GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Gemini gymnast Marisa Dick has created a signature move that has never been used by any other gymnast. To start her routine, she leaps up off a springboard and lands on the balance beam doing a full split. The technical term for this bold maneuver is “a change-leg leap to free-cross split sit,” although its informal name is “The Dick Move.”

The International Federation of Gymnastics has certified it in its Code of Points, so it’s official. During the coming months, I expect that you will also produce one-of-a-kind

CANCER (June 21-July 22) I hope you will be as well-grounded in 2017 as you have ever been—maybe even since your past life as a farmer. I trust you will go a long way toward mastering the arts of being earthy, practical, and stable. To do this right, however, you should also work on a seemingly paradoxical task: cultivating a vigorous and daring imagination—as perhaps you did in one of your other past lives as an artist.

In other words, your ability to succeed in the material world will thrive as you nurture your relationship with fantasy realms—and vice versa. If you want to be the boss of reality, dream big and wild—and vice versa.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) According to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, “A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.” Let’s amend that thought so it’s exactly suitable for your use in 2017. Here’s the new, Taurus-specific version: “A messy, practical, beautiful type of perfection can be realized through a patient, faithful, dogged accumulation of the imperfect.”

To live up to the promise of this motto, make damn good use of every partial success.

innovations in your own sphere.

32 | DECEMBER 28, 2016

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |