Coachella Valley Independent August 2019

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT | AUGUST 2019

VOL. 7 | NO. 8

The Candidate, the Publication and the Lack of Disclos ure A ‘CV Weekly’ cover story on Palm Springs City Council Candidate Alfie Pettit may run afoul of state and federal guidelines

BY KEVIN FITZGERALD H PAGE 12

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AUGUST 2019

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263 Cathedral City, CA 92234 (760) 904-4208 www.cvindependent.com

Editor/Publisher Jimmy Boegle staff writer Kevin Fitzgerald coveR and feature design Beth Allen Contributors Stephen Berger, Max Cannon, Kevin Carlow, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, John M. Glionna, Robin Goins, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, ValerieJean (VJ) Hume, David Kenniston, Andy Lara, Matt King, Keith Knight, Mikah Meyer, Brett Newton, Dan Perkins, Guillermo Prieto, Anita Rufus, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month.

All content is ©2019 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader.

Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling (760) 904-4208. The Independent may be distributed only by the Independent’s authorized distributors.

The Independent is a proud member and/or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, CalMatters, Get Tested Coachella Valley, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, and the Desert Ad Fed.

On Saturday, July 13, I was sitting in a conference room at the Hotel Boulderado in Boulder, Colo., during the 2019 AAN Awards Ceremony, the finale of the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia conference.

The ceremony honored the amazing and inspiring journalism done last year at alternative newspapers across the United States and Canada— including the Coachella Valley Independent. For the fourth time in five years, we earned an AAN Award, this time an honorable mention in the Column category, for Anita Rufus’ fantastic “Know Your Neighbors.”

As I applauded my friends and colleagues who were going up to accept the various awards, I was watching my cell phone—because I was expecting a call from staff writer Kevin Fitzgerald, with an update on the story we’ve featured on this issue’s cover.

People might assume that I took delight in the Independent publishing and reporting this story, because it deals with possible wrongdoing involving a competitor, of sorts, to the Independent. But that couldn’t be further from the truth: While I am proud of the story, which you can read on Page 12, the content depresses me.

I love the Coachella Valley. This is the first place I’ve lived in that I chose; fate, in some form or another, led me to all of my prior homes. I also love journalism; I wouldn’t have put up with the mediocre-at-best wages and long hours for almost 2 1/2 decades so far otherwise. When I combine these two loves … the state of journalism in the Coachella Valley makes me very, very sad.

I am not talking about The Desert Sun; while its diminished state compared to what it once was is alarming, there are still good journalists there doing some fine work. I am also not talking about Palm Springs Life, which is fantastic as far as city magazines go … although its “prestige” content is clearly not meant for people who don’t make six-figureor-more incomes, aka the vast majority of us.

I am talking about other publications in the valley, where original reporting and competent writing are nigh impossible to find. The best of the bunch is CV Weekly, the aforementioned competitor, of sorts; within CV Weekly’s pages, one can indeed find some good writing and well-intentioned work, especially regarding support of the local music community.

Unfortunately, CV Weekly also regularly sells editorial content—particularly cover stories— and does not disclose that these pieces are actually paid for by the subjects. Not only is this a disservice to CV Weekly’s readers; it’s an unethical practice that every serious journalism organization would condemn. And when that content is posted online without disclosures, it’s a violation of Federal Trade Commission guidelines.

On a personal level … the practice is also quite unfair to those of us who try pretty darn hard to do things ethically and honestly.

A great community like the Coachella Valley deserves strong journalism … which is why the Independent is here, even if our efforts are modest and imperfect.

Welcome to the August 2019 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent. As always, thanks for reading, and don’t hesitate to contact me at the e-mail address below.

—Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com CVIndependent.com

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OPINION OPINION

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS H

Meet Cardriner Bowden, a fierce ‘diva/goddess’ and retired educator who loves to serve her community

BY ANITA RUFUS

ow do you tell the story of someone who describes herself as a “diva/goddess”— especially when one of the first things she says is, “I can’t imagine anybody would be interested in my life,” in an apparent contradiction?

Let’s start the story of Cardriner (Car-dree-ner) Bowden in 1963, three years after the famous sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., an attempt to integrate public spaces. Bowden was a freshman at a historically black college, North Carolina A&T State University, where Jesse Jackson was also a student.

“One day I was told, ‘We’re going to integrate the theater today,’” she recalls. “I didn’t have anything to do that day, so I went. We stood at the back of the line, thinking if they started interview, and before I could even get back to arresting people, we wouldn’t get arrested, the sorority house, where I was staying, the and would have time to get out of there. They principal had called to tell me he was hiring reversed the line, so we got arrested first. I me. I told him I didn’t even have a car or the was in jail for 11 days. It was actually a lot money to buy one, and he called me back to of fun. We were singing and dancing. Those say he had talked to the teacher’s credit union not arrested were outside the fence. It didn’t and told them to approve a loan for me.” really feel like jail.

Bowden pointed out that Clinton was the “Of course, whenever I applied for a job, I place where John Wilkes Booth went after had to list that I had been arrested. They look shooting Abraham Lincoln. “It’s where Mary at you really funny. But then they’d ask about Surratt was hanged as Booth’s accomplice. it, and once I explained, it became OK. It The principal of the high school, during my wasn’t held against me.” first year teaching there, wouldn’t make me Born and raised in Goldsboro, N.C., come to night meetings, because the Klan Bowden was an only child whose father died when she was just 6 weeks old. She was raised might be looking for me.”

After teaching for six years in Maryland, partially by her grandmother, but also lived Bowden made her way to California in 1972 for a time with an aunt in Washington, D.C. to get married.

“The school there was the biggest I’d ever “He was a guy from my hometown who seen,” Bowden says. “I’d come from a place had been in the military. After he was where I used to know everybody. The family discharged, he wanted to stay in L.A., my mom worked for (in Goldsboro) was and I agreed to relocate,” he says. “I came white, and they were very nice, but Goldsboro out during Christmas break and took the wasn’t the kind of place I wanted to be in. exam administered by the Los Angeles I remember there was a billboard on the Unified School District. I had already taken highway that said, ‘The Grand Dragon of the and scored high on the National Teacher KKK welcomes you to Wayne Country, North Examination. When L.A. hired me, the first Carolina.’ … The black women were teachers year, I started as a substitute teacher at a or nurses or worked in the homes of white school in Watts. The other teachers were so people. I couldn’t see graduating from college impressed that at the end of that first year, to go back there to live.” they had a vacancy, and I was hired.

After spending summers working in “They saw potential in me, and said I Washington, D.C., Bowden left North Carolina should go into administration. I never had to move there after graduating from college any discipline problems in my classrooms, so with a degree in education in 1966.

I became dean of student counselors at Locke “I didn’t really want to teach, so I became High School, but I needed a master’s degree a secretary at the Veterans Administration,” to go into administration, so I enrolled at Bowden says. “But I knew I really didn’t Loyola Marymount University. I’ve always belong there. I decided to teach, and got a job learned that when you do good work, they in Clinton, Md., teaching typing, shorthand reward you.” and business machines at the high school Bowden went on to become an assistant level. I was one of the only two African principal; a coordinator for Angel Gate Americans they’d ever hired, but I was young Academy working with at-risk middle school and knew I could deal with what I would students; an operations administrator encounter in a white school. I remember that handling everything from complaining a child of the pilot of Air Force One attended parents to difficult events like school that school! shootings; and assistant director of violence “I actually had to rent a car to go to the

Cardriner Bowden.

prevention and intervention at the Board of Education offices.

Bowden, then divorced, decided to retire in 2007.

“I’d always loved the Palm Springs area,” she says. “When I was working, I’d come down in the summertime when hotel rates were cheap. I wanted to be in an active-adult community, and decided that Del Webb’s Sun City in Palm Desert fit the bill. It’s ironic that all the work I do here is actually away from Sun City.”

Bowden volunteered in the Eisenhower Medical Center boutique for six years; was a volunteer usher at McCallum Theater from 2008-2017, and serves on the board of the theater’s Muses and Patroness Circle; volunteers at Well in the Desert and is on the nonprofit’s board; advises Thermal high school students with their annual choreography festival; is vice-chair of the public safety commission at Sun City, helping residents by working with local police and fire departments to provide safety programs; and for six years was women’s fellowship chair at Friendship Church, organizing luncheons and obtaining speakers. Oh, and every year, she is Mrs. Santa Claus when Well in the Desert presents their Christmas meal with toys for the children.

“I see people who are homeless and struggling, and realize that could have been me,” Bowden says. “My mom instilled in me that I needed a solid education so I could

always take care of myself. Everybody who comes through the shelter has lost a job, or been in a bad relationship, or someone died, and they become homeless. If I can say something to change how they feel about themselves, or help them see there can be a better future for them … listen, I worked hard and was fortunate. It’s not too late for anyone. You should never give up.”

I ask: How did she get such an unusual name? Bowden laughs. “I was the first grandchild on my mother’s side, and my mother told my grandma she could name me.

Grandma then told one of her friends she could name me. I have no idea where the name came from or what it means, but I’ve certainly never met anyone else with that name.”

I’ve never met anyone else with the grit, charm, wit and dedication of Cardriner Bowden. She says she’s crazy, and laughs about her “mouth” and how it can get her into trouble—but she makes a difference, never shies away from confronting a wrong, and is fierce while always being kind and loving.

If that doesn’t describe a diva/goddess, what does?

Anita Rufus is also known as “The Lovable Liberal.” Her show That’s Life airs weekdays from 9 to 10 a.m. on iHubradio, while The Lovable Liberal airs from 10 a.m. to noon Sundays. Email her at Anita@LovableLiberal. com. Know Your Neighbors appears every other Wednesday at CVIndependent.com.

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OPINION OPINION

LGBT OUTSIDE N

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

The outdoor-rec industry can help shift the culture from homophobia toward inclusion

BY MIKAH MEYER, HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

ature doesn’t care if you’re gay, I’ll often hear in reaction to articles by myself or my outdoorsy LGBTQ peers. And it’s true: Nature doesn’t care if I’m gay.

But people do.

A few ago, I finished a world-record journey to all 419 National Park Service sites. For three years nonstop, I lived in a van, hiked trails everywhere from American Samoa to the Arctic Circle, and accomplished an outdoors journey no human had ever done before. But comments about the trip have included things like, “Well now I need to be careful in the bathroom at national parks,” and, “Why do you have to shove your lifestyle down our throats!” A sponsor terminated our partnership halfway through the project, saying over the phone and in writing that I was doing have told me is their “dream trip.” too much LGBTQ outreach.

This happened in June, of all months, the A camping website called The Dyrt posted one month when my social media feels like an interview with me on Facebook featuring an explosion of rainbows due to worldwide a thumbnail photo in which I’m holding a Pride festivals. When historic anniversaries rainbow flag in front of Yosemite’s Tunnel like the Stonewall uprising and marriageView. The comments were so inflammatory equality decisions are remembered. And when that the publishers decided just hours later seemingly every corporation, from Listerine it was inappropriate to leave it up. They later denounced the hateful comments and reposted to Disney, is releasing products that celebrate these culture-changing moments. the story with a call for civility—which was Yet, as the rest of America chases this unheeded. A rainbow flag incited such anger “Pink Dollar,” the outdoor-recreation industry from a community of nature-lovers that they seems less interested in the near $1 trillion ignored what so many outdoor enthusiasts in purchasing power of the U.S. LGBTQ community. Or the shift in culture evidenced by the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2019 “Pride Night” was the team’s highest attended game in seven years. Or—as I can attest after seeing Tinder photos from every corner of the United States during my parks journey—the vast market of gay men hoping to look cute in athletic clothes on top of a mountain.

Some in the LGBTQ community argue that corporate Pride promotions are simply “rainbow washing” to increase profits. But as someone who didn’t meet an openly gay adult until I left my home state of Nebraska at age 19, while 14 years later can get married in any state across the U.S., I’ve seen the progress our culture has made. And I believe companies had a large part in it.

In an age when corporations are afforded some of the same rights as individuals, financial power plays a significant role in our society, from politics to cultural acceptance.

When Marriott, a company started and owned

by Mormons, is willing to sponsor Pride festivals and has an entire annual #LoveTravels campaign aimed at making LGBTQ travelers feel welcome, even people in so-called “flyover states” are influenced by ideas more progressive than they might see at home.

In the same way, the outdoor recreation industry has the power to help build a future where LGBTQ outdoors fans are seen the same as everyone else. In that world, other Mikah Meyer. nature enthusiasts’ reactions to a photo of a

flag-bearing hiker would be the same whether it was an American flag or a rainbow one. If outdoor companies follow the example of the rest of corporate America, they could use their influence in a way that both helps their bottom line and improves the lives of outdoor lovers.

As civil rights leader Marian Wright Edelman said, “It’s hard to be what you can’t see.” The backing of inclusive values by outdoor brands will help nature enthusiasts like the Eagle Scout who wrote me via Instagram to share that he’d never had an outdoorsy gay role model until learning about my national parks record.

Better representation will invite more people to experience our great outdoors. While LGBTQ discrimination still causes vastly higher rates of suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth than their straight peers, this moment in time gives me hope.

When I started my national parks journey in 2016, the outdoor recreation industry had never had a Pride Month ad. Now, several companies and nonprofits sponsor an annual LGBTQ Outdoor Summit; an outdoors-themed

drag queen, Pattie Gonia, is commanding attention from brands; and REI (which I work with to help promote LGBTQ inclusion in the outdoors) received the Kenji Award at 2019’s Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in part for their “Outside With Pride” apparel.

This promotions and inclusion work of the past three years has expanded the tent of who sees themselves in outdoors culture, meaning we’ve come one step closer to a goal: A hope that one day, the readers of an article about a gay man visiting all of America’s national parks won’t care about the sexual orientation of the adventurer. After all, if nature doesn’t care that I’m gay, why do people?

Adventurer Mikah Meyer (mikahmeyer.com) was recently named one of NBC’s “Pride 50” for groundbreaking work with LGBTQ communities.

He is a regular speaker on topics ranging from epic outdoors experiences to the benefits of inclusion for businesses and individuals. He is based in Minneapolis. This piece originally appeared in High Country News.

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CENTER Helping LGBTQ People Along Their Way Wherever you are in life’s journey, find connections and programs at The LGBT Community Center of the Desert.

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NEWS

FEEDING INTEREST IN INDIO by kevin fitzgerald

T

he Grub Plug food truck was parked by the Oasis Street curb in front of the College of the Desert’s Indio campus late in the day on a Tuesday.

The city of Indio’s Community Development Department (ICD) was offering the first 120 visitors to their Indio Specific Plan open house—taking place in the college’s main-building lobby—a free food-truck meal, along with the chance to learn information on how to start a food-truck business of one’s own. All the ICD team wanted in return was for each visitor to walk through the display of a half-dozen white boards placed on easels, depicting photos and artist renderings of residential, entertainment-venue and business building options. Visitors were asked to place a colored dot on the images they most liked or disliked.

Judging from the lengthy lines both inside and next to the Grub Plug truck, the marketing This time, we wanted to make (the experience) strategy was a success, as Kevin Snyder— more interactive, so we produced these Indio’s recently hired community development illustration boards.” director—and his team look to create a master If you visit downtown Indio today, you’ll plan that will guide the redevelopment of experience an often-attractive neighborhood Indio’s struggling downtown area. with a traditional Southwest/midcentury“In the planning profession, we do things modern architectural look—and a sleepy, more in a visual (context),” said Snyder, a deserted feeling. Snyder and his team are veteran of similar challenges in cities across planning to change that whole vibe. northern California, Washington, Oregon and “For many, many years, downtowns Arizona. “At our first open house, we had a were the hearts of communities. But then, few pictures up, and we just talked to people who came in, and wrote down their comments. through changes in market forces and land

Opens August 16!

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The east valley city uses a food truck to garner input on a new downtown revitalization plan

use, particularly during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, a lot of that activity moved to other parts of communities like malls and shopping centers,” Snyder said. “It’s been a pretty common occurrence, not just in Indio, but across the Coachella Valley, California and the nation. In a lot of communities, there’s been a strong desire to bring downtown back to a place of prominence, where the community can engage with each other to shop, dine, recreate and come together in kind of an historic part of the community. This current Indio Downtown Specific Plan is really an attempt to take the focus to a different level on the key attributes that our city has: It’s walkable, and it’s a grid system.

“Most of the communities in the Coachella Valley have downtowns that are not grid systems, but because we are one of the oldest communities (in the valley), we have the opportunity to develop that grid system for our downtown. The plan envisions multiple activity areas where you can go and listen to music, or watch movies on an inflatable screen, or go grab a bite to eat, or shop in a small boutique retail outlet. There’s interest in having people live downtown. We have some interesting opportunities to look at multifamily apartments, perhaps in a mixed-use orientation where you have retail space on the ground floor with living (space) above. Because we are the eastern capital of Riverside County, we have county personnel here; we have the city work force; and we have the Indio branch of the College of the Desert—so we have roughly 6,000 employees in that immediate downtown area. We’ve talked to developers who do multi-family development. They’ve done some preliminary looks at marketrate rental numbers, and they think (the opportunity) is viable, that they could charge rents here and make money.”

Will downtown redevelopment include low-income housing units—which are sorely needed in the eastern end of the valley?

Snyder’s answer was not exactly encouraging.

“In recent conversations with our City Council and the Planning Commission, that same question came up. Our interest right now is in getting market-rate rental units,” Snyder said. “We believe that’s going to be the first push into this marketplace. Now that doesn’t mean that potentially there couldn’t be affordable housing in the downtown area, but right now, we really want to focus on creating that market-rate opportunity so that the private sector sees value in investment.

The first people who invest in revitalizing

Potential approaches to various types of downtown venues, businesses and apartments were on display at the Indio Specific Plan open house. KEVIN FITZGERALD

downtown areas are often pioneers who, by having made that investment and taken that risk, show others that it’s worth it, and that they can make money. I worked in a community where we had one party come in and build a 124-unit market-rate apartment complex, and five years later, there was over $100 million in investment money coming into that community.

“When we talked to the council and the commission, we said that these could be four- or five-story buildings, and they were comfortable with that. When you’re dealing with downtown areas, you’re dealing with different footprints. You can’t spread out like you can in other parts of the community. You have to build up.”

How long does Synder think it will take for this new Indio downtown to come to fruition?

“If I knew that, then I’d be playing the lottery all the time,” Snyder said with a laugh.

“But I have said publicly that I think we’re probably looking at five to seven years. If you come back to downtown Indio then, I think it’s going to have a different vibe, a different feeling, a different physical presence.

Right now, many communities have a goal of making an 18-hour downtown, where, from the morning until 9 or 10 at night, you get an opportunity to have multiple things going on.

“Indio is the place I want to be. I think it’s a great place, and it has lots of great opportunities to envision a different future—and I get the benefit of working with a great team.”

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NEWS A SANCTUARY FOR GUN OWNERS T

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

Needles takes a jab at ‘liberal’ Sacramento by declaring itself a haven for firearms

by john m. glionna, calmatters

he whole business began with a backyard barbecue.

Tim Terral, a 50-year-old cable-company worker and recently elected city councilman in Needles, on the rural eastern edge of California, planned a cookout for some buddies who live just over the state line in Arizona.

Nobody wanted to come. Under California law, they couldn’t bring their loaded firearms across the state line, so they all decided to stay home.

“They’re ex-military,” Terral explained. “I guess those guns are like security blankets.”

But for Terral, the incident was more ammunition for simmering resentment among many of the 5,000 residents of the San Bernardino County town that’s 550 miles and an entire at somebody,” is soliciting support from political culture away from the state capital in various state border towns—including Yreka, Sacramento.

Truckee, Blythe and Eureka—to support Like many inland Californians, Needles interstate reciprocity with legal gun owners residents say they’re held hostage by state who possess concealed-weapons permits legislators who are too liberal and want too outside of California. much control over their lives. They gripe about “When Sacramento passes a new law, they strict gun laws that, they say, trample their look to San Francisco and Los Angeles. They constitutional right to keep and bear arms. don’t come looking to small towns like us, So Terral fought back. He spearheaded and it’s time we made our opinions known,” a resolution, passed in July by the council, said Williams. ‘We realize changing state law that declared Needles a “Second Amendment is pretty far-fetched, but you’ve got to start Sanctuary,” a place where both California gun owners and those visiting from out of state can somewhere. You’ve got to stand on principle.”

Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, a Republican expect lenient enforcement on Golden State’s representing the largely rural 33rd District that rules governing, for example, ammunition and includes Needles, supports the town’s gunconcealed-carry permits. sanctuary declaration. He plans to introduce Terral even chose wording to take a swipe a bill in December to give more local control at Democratic legislators in Sacramento, to rural gun owners and allow for interstate and in cities such as San Francisco and Los reciprocity with firearms laws.

Angeles, who have declared “sanctuary” Teresa Trujillo, Obernolte’s chief of staff, policies limiting the involvement of state said her boss supports more local control and local law enforcement in the pursuit of for the state’s rural residents—even though undocumented immigrants targeted by the Republicans are a decided minority in the Trump administration.

Capitol, and chances are low that gun-rights “With the gun resolution, I purposely proponents will get a carve-out. chose the word ‘sanctuary’ to take a stab at “These people have a different culture than all the liberals,” said Terral. “It was a little jab what’s in Sacramento,” she said. “They should in the eyes.” be able to govern themselves with certain Needles residents insist they don’t want a things and make decisions that are best for Wild West city where gunslingers rule. But their community.” they do want to make it easier for interstate Jim Stanley, a spokesman for Assembly travelers who pull off U.S. Interstate 40 for Republicans, agreed that rural residents feel food and fuel to avoid a felony arrest if a left out of California politics. traffic stop produces a loaded but legally “There’s a sense that the bigger cities kind registered gun from outside of California. They of run things around Sacramento,” he said. also want Sacramento to amend a recently “When people feel like they’re not being heard, enacted proposition that bans gun owners it’s natural to respond. It’s all about feeling you from bringing ammunition from other states, have a voice in the room.” effectively requiring the state’s gun owners to And when it comes to hearing voices around buy their ammunition in California.

Needles, people feel that adjacent states such Needles Mayor Jeff Williams, a former San as Nevada and Arizona better speak their Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, grumbles: language than Sacramento.

“I have to drive 140 miles to Barstow to buy “We’re like an island here in Needles, ammunition when right across the border in completely separate from California. The Arizona, there are a dozen gun stores.” closest city in the state is Blythe, and that’s Williams, who carries a Glock 45 9mm 100 miles to the south, along a two-lane road,” pistol, which he says “will throw a big brick

Needles Mayor Jeff Williams says his community, which has declared itself a “sanctuary” city for gun rights, feels more like conservative Arizona, which is just across the border, than liberal California. John Glionna/CalMatters

said Terral. “We feel more of a kinship to Arizona and Nevada. I can walk to Arizona in two minutes. I can see it from my front yard. I can’t see Sacramento.”

California’s state capital lies as far away from politically conservative Needles as Atlanta is from Washington. Nobody can remember the last time a Democrat was elected to any office here in a town that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 by a decided margin.

Two years ago, when many California coastal areas passed their local sanctuary policies on immigration enforcement, Needles took its own stand, declaring that the town was decidedly not a haven for anyone who crosses the U.S. border illegally. At Needles City Hall, pictures show City Council members posed in front of American flags, a nod to the pervading nationalism here. Needles residents like their wide-open spaces. And they like their guns.

At the Wagon Wheel restaurant, which sits across the road from the Giggling Cactus diner along I-40, men in cowboy hats dig into hearty cholesterol-laden breakfasts without asking about gluten content.

Waitress Robbie Tieman, a 15-year foodserving veteran here, is a gun owner who lives in Arizona. She probably wouldn’t bring her gun to work. Still, she doesn’t like anyone saying she can’t do it.

“People should be able to carry their guns wherever they go,” she said, refilling a visitor’s cup with coffee. “I know bad people carry guns, but I think they’d be less likely to rob a liquor store if they knew people inside were packing their own firearms.”

At 55, Mayor Williams is a slender man who dresses in a form-fitting suits. He’s a grandfather of 13 who wants Needles to stick around so his grandkids can enjoy it.

Needles remains a rail town through which 80 freight trains pass each day; it has also become a base for the state’s burgeoning marijuana industry. But Williams has seen his community lose half its population since the 1960s.

To survive, he said, the place needs all the help it can get, and restrictive gun laws are driving visitors—and their money—away from town. “They’re threatening the lifestyle we’ve built here,” he said.

For his part, Terral just wants California to take its mitts off his gun, and his rights.

“They don’t let you live your life,” he said.

“Legislators want their finger in every aspect.

Given the chance, they’d probably have our paychecks sent directly to Sacramento, and they’d give us back what they thought we needed.”

That pet peeve hit home recently, he said, when he attended a conference in a small beach community south of Los Angeles.

“I walked down the sidewalk and I saw all the signs. You’d couldn’t smoke, ride a skateboard or roller skate. It was all no, no, no,” he said.

He was glad to get back to Needles, “where I wasn’t watching where I walked in case I broke some law I didn’t know anything about.”

CALMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

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NEWS

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AUGUST ASTRONOMY

While Jupiter, Saturn and portions Planets and Bright in Evening Mid-Twilight of theStars Milky Way are out and about, For August, 2019 and Mars34are onnorth, summer break This skyVenus chart is drawn for latitude degrees

E

N

By Robert Victor

venings this month feature the gas-giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and on dark moonless nights, the Milky Way. Predawn skies include the bright stars we’ll meet again on winter evenings—and a brief visit by our solar system’s smallest planet, Mercury.

In the evening, bright Jupiter gleams in the south to south-southwest at dusk, while Saturn is in the southeast to south-southeast, 31 to 29 degrees east (to the left) of Jupiter. Note Antares, heart of Scorpius, twinkling to Jupiter’s lower right. Jupiter lingers 7 degrees from this red supergiant star from mid-July through first week of September; their least separation of 6.7 degrees occurs Aug. 8-15 as Jupiter ends retrograde on Aug. 11.

Follow the moon at dusk Aug. 2-15. On Aug. 2, the thin crescent moon is easy to see, though very low, a little north of due west. Don’t miss Pleiades. On Aug. 24, the fat crescent moon is a striking pairing of the moon and Jupiter, 2 degrees north of Aldebaran, eye of the Bull. within 3 degrees, at dusk on Aug. 9, and the On Sunday, Aug. 25, the 30 percent crescent moon and Saturn, just 3 degrees apart on moon occults third-magnitude Zeta Tauri, Aug. 11. By the evening of Aug. 12, the moon tip of southern horn of Taurus. From the has moved 9 degrees east of Saturn. On Aug. Coachella Valley, the star disappears behind 15, the moon, past full, is rising in the eastthe bright edge of the moon at 3:46 a.m., and southeast. The moon returns to the evening reappears from behind the dark, earthlit side sky as a crescent low in the west on Aug. 31. at 4:41 a.m. It’s best viewed with a telescope.

The year’s best Milky Way viewing after Absent in August are Venus, in superior evening twilight occurs through Aug. 2, and conjunction on night of Aug. 13, and Mars, in Aug. 20-Sept. 1. Go to a dark place to enjoy conjunction on Sept. 2. When passing beyond these with the unaided eye and binoculars: the the sun, Venus and Mars remain out of sight Cygnus Star Cloud, along axis of the Northern for longer than other planets, because their Cross or neck of the Swan, within the Summer motions most closely match that of Earth; Triangle; the Great Sagittarius Star Cloud, Venus is the next planet inward from Earth, above the spout of the Teapot; the Great Rift, and Mars is the next planet beyond Earth’s a dark lane of dust dividing the Milky Way into orbit. Venus goes faster than Earth and so two streams southward from Cygnus; Lagoon emerges from beyond the sun into the evening Nebula M8 (Messier 8), above the tip of the sky. Mars goes more slowly and emerges spout; star clusters M7 and M6, near the end into the morning sky. During the 2019-20 of the tail of Scorpius; and much more. school year, each participates in a spectacular As for the mornings: Mercury makes a gathering: Venus, with Jupiter and Saturn at brief visit to the a.m. sky. It brightens past dusk in late November-early December; and first magnitude (to +0.9) by Aug. 5 to become Mars, with Jupiter and Saturn at dawn in late visible low in the east-northeast morning March 2020. Stay tuned! twilight. During Aug. 5-10, it lingers 9 degrees Abrams Planetarium publishes a monthly Sky to the lower right of Pollux while brightening Calendar with an evening sky map. The calendar another magnitude to -0.1. Mercury reaches illustrates many of the present and future events greatest elongation, 19 degrees west of the described here. Subscriptions are $12 per year sun, on Aug. 10, and on Aug. 11, a line from at www.abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar for Castor to Pollux, 4.5 degrees apart, extended three printed issues, mailed quarterly. nearly 10 degrees, locates Mercury. Late in the For a preview of evening and morning month, Mercury sinks into bright twilight; planet viewing through August 2020, see superior conjunction beyond the sun will occur Jeffrey Hunt’s two-page graphic summary Sept. 3. The “Dog Star” Sirius, the brightest of moon and planet setting and rising times, star, emerges in the east-southeast morning relative to the times of sunset and sunrise, twilight before mid-August. Sirius rises 4 exact for Palm Springs, with this column at minutes earlier each morning, climbing higher CVIndependent.com. The graph of evening as the month progresses. Note Orion’s belt planet setting times shows the departure of points almost directly to Sirius.

Jupiter and Saturn in December 2019, and Follow the moon in morning sky Aug. 15-29: Venus improving until its very favorable On Aug. 15, the moon is full, setting in the evening appearance in March 2020, when it west-southwest. The moon passes last quarter will set 3 1/2 hours after sunset, followed by phase on Aug. 23, while 9 degrees south of its rapid departure from the evening sky in CVIndependent.com

but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

August's evening sky chart.

ROBERT D. MILLER

Deneb Regulus Vega

E

W Altair

Arcturus

Spica 1

Saturn 8 15 22 29

1

Jupiter 8 15 22 29

Antares

Evening mid-twilight occurs

May. The graph of morning-planet-rising times when Sun is 9o below horizon.

Aug. 1: 44 minutes after shows the gradual emergence ofsunset.

Mars before 15:2019; 42 " the" emergence " dawn in autumn of 31: 40 " " " Jupiter and Saturn in January-February 2020; and the sudden rise of Venus into predawn prominence in June-July 2020. The charts also make it easy to pick out the best dates to see Mercury in evening and morning skies.

Check the website of the Astronomical Society of the Desert at www.astrorx.org for dates and times of our evening star parties.

Sawmill Trailhead, our high-altitude site (elevation 4,000 feet—wear warm clothes), will have its next monthly sessions starting at dusk on Saturdays, Aug. 31 and Sept. 28.

Our primary, more-accessible location is at the Visitor Center of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument (on Highway 74, within four miles south of Highway 111 in Palm Desert). Monthly sessions there will resume on Saturday, Oct. 5.

S

Stereographic Projection

But don’t wait untilMap then!

You can preby Robert D. Miller register for one of the Stargazing Parties offered several times each month at the Rancho Mirage Library Observatory at www. ranchomiragelibrary.org/observatory.html.

(Click on Stargazing Parties, then sign up for their eNewsletter to receive registration information.) If you go farther afield, check out the Sky’s the Limit Observatory and Nature Center in Twentynine Palms, at www. skysthelimit29.org. Wishing you clear skies!

Robert C. Victor was a staff astronomer at Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. He is now retired and enjoys providing sky watching opportunities for a variety of groups in the Coachella Valley. Robert D. Miller did graduate work in planetarium science and later astronomy and computer science at Michigan State University and remains active in research and public outreach in astronomy.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11

AUGUST 2019

Skincare Treatments at 18|8 Fine Men’s Salon—Palm Springs

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e love the sun and heat in the desert! It’s one of the reasons we’ve chosen to make Palm Springs our home.

However, it can cause major damage to our skin if we don’t take care of ourselves and pay attention to the dangers.

The American Academy of Dermatology reports 1 in 5 Americans will develop some type of skin cancer in their lifetime. When UV levels are wreaking havoc on our skin, let 18|8 Palm Springs protect you from premature aging and sun damage.

Keep your skin healthy and vibrant with these skincare treatments offered at 18|8 Fine Men’s Salon in Palm Springs: SkinMetics Facial: On a time crunch? Try our 30-minute service that includes a deep cleanse, thorough exfoliation, detoxifying clay mask, and moisturizing sun protection, finished off with a relaxing hand and arm massage. Along with a steam towel treatment … it’s a great way to enjoy your lunch break, or a perfect add on to your haircut!

Signature Custom Facial/Hydration Gel Therapy: This 90-minute in depth treatment is perfect for our guests who want to begin a skincare regimen, but don’t know where to start. This is perfect for our guests who want to target specific issues such as acne prone skin, anti-aging concerns, sun damage, sensitivity problems or other skin conditions. We have partnered with PROFESSIONAL product lines that are intended to ONLY be used by Skincare Professionals during treatments that specifically satisfy your skin’s needs. With so many skincare lines, products, skin types and conditions … it can get overwhelming. You and our Skincare Specialist can formulate a plan to reach your goals.

Relaxation Facial: Our guests have called this treatment “an hour of bliss” and “more relaxing than a massage.” Let the aroma therapy relax you while in our private Skin Treatment Room. The soothing steam is not only for your relaxation, but perfect to soften and prepare your skin for a deep cleanse, exfoliation and thorough extractions. While the nourishing mask sets, enjoy a neck, shoulder and chest massage. Finish off with serums, moisturizers and sun protection filled with vitamins and ingredients to enhance your skin’s youthful glow!

Back Facial: Let’s not forget the most neglected part of our body … our back.

This 60-minute treatment has all the steps of our Relaxation Facial performed on the most difficult to reach area. Suffer from “Bacne” (back acne) or itchy dry skin? Treat it with a deep cleanse, exfoliation and extractions. Finish off with a relaxing back massage, mask and moisturization. Give yourself a “pat on the back”!

ScalpMetics: Hair or no hair … treat yourself to a ScalpMetics treatment! This deep cleanse is designed to get rid of build up from the environment, sweat and even what is left behind by hair products. After exfoliating the dead skin cells, relax while you get a scalp and follicle massage followed by a steam towel treatment.

Meet with our Skincare Specialists to answer any questions you may have to assist you in building your skincare routine. Skincare Consultations are always free!

We’re a sanctuary created for men by men. 18-8 Fine Men’s Salon is in the Kaptur plaza next to Koffi on Tahquitz Canyon Way. Call 760-904-0434 or visit eighteeneight.com/palm-springs-ca.

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12 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

AUGUST 2019

The Candidate, the Publication and the Lack of Disclosure A ‘CV Weekly’ cover story on Palm Springs City Council Candidate Alfie Pettit may run afoul of state and federal guidelines

BY KEVIN FITZGERALD

The 2019 Palm Springs City Council

election slate is not even set yet—that won’t happen until the candidate-nomination period closes Aug. 9—but one candidate, Alan “Alfie” Pettit, got an early start on his advertising by promoting his campaign via the cover story of the June 27-July 3 edition of the Coachella Valley Weekly.

The cover art showed Pettit—well-known locally as his drag alter ego, Arial Trampway—standing on top of his campaign vehicle. The cover featured a “Drag Out the Vote!” headline, a direct appeal for readers to “Elect Alan ‘Alfie’ Pettit” (via the text on the side of the vehicle) and his website address. The accompanying piece was an exceedingly flattering quasi-news story/endorsement of his candidacy.

The story was formatted and presented just like the other stories within the issue. What did not appear anywhere in print was a disclaimer saying that the content in question was paid for by the candidate’s campaign—nor was there any language at all disclosing that the story was actually a paid advertisement.

Therein lies the problem.

According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission (CFPPC): “Under California’s Political Reform Act … committees must include ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers on campaign advertising. A candidate’s campaign committee, a political action committee, a ballot measure committee, a political party committee, a major donor, and a person or entity making independent expenditures on candidates or ballot measures in California are all types of committees that are subject to disclaimer rules.”

Also, according to the California Election Code: “Any paid political advertisement that refers to an election or to any candidate for state or local elective office and that is contained in or distributed with a newspaper, shall bear on each surface of page thereof … the words ‘Paid Political Advertisement.’”

When I called Pettit, who is running for the Palm Springs City Council seat in the newly created District 3, he referred me to his campaign manager, Randy Economy, of Rancho Mirage.

Ecomomy said that the campaign was approached by Coachella Valley Weekly regarding the cover story.

“CV Weekly is a publication that people have the opportunity to buy advertorials (in), and as far as I’m concerned, we’ve done everything correct on our end,” he said. “To me, (the CV Weekly) is not an editorial publication. To me, it’s more of an advertising publication.

And I’m a campaign consultant who’s just trying to get my guy elected to office. Having the opportunity to be on the cover of CV Weekly, and I was approached by them to be able to do it … absolutely, I’m going to jump on that.”

CVIndependent.com

Photographs of the CV Weekly cover and story—actually a paid advertisement, but not disclosed as such—on Palm Springs District 3 City Council Candidate Alfie Pettit.

Why didn’t the layout contain the CFPPC’s mandated disclaimer?

“If the CV Weekly chooses to run their publication that way, that’s their prerogative,” Economy said. “We (the Pettit campaign) didn’t do anything against CFPPC rules as far as disclosure is concerned. It will all be included in our campaign (financial reporting) statements.”

According to CFPPC guidelines, Economy’s analysis is not accurate.

When contacted via phone, CFPPC Communications Director Jay Wierenga—while declining to comment specifically on the matter involving Pettit and CV Weekly—said that when purchasing a newspaper ad, it is the candidate or his committee’s ultimate responsibility to make sure the disclaimer accompanies the advertorial placement.

The article, as it was originally posted on the Coachella Valley Weekly website, also appears to violate Federal Trade Commission standards for online advertising. The FTC’s guide regarding native advertising (which includes advertorial-style stories) states: “A basic truth-in-advertising principle is that it’s deceptive to mislead consumers about the commercial nature of content. Advertisements or promotional messages are deceptive if they convey to consumers expressly or by implication that they’re independent, impartial, or from a source other than the sponsoring advertiser—in other words, that they’re something other than ads. Why would it be material to consumers to know the source of the information? Because knowing that something is an ad likely will affect whether consumers choose to interact with it and the weight or credibility consumers give the information it conveys.”

The online version of the Alfie Pettit piece originally displayed no disclaimer or notice that the piece was actually a paid advertisement, and still did not more than a week after it was published. However, after the Independent started making inquiries regarding this story, graphics were added to the piece, stating: “This article was paid for and approved

by Alfie Pettit.”

CV Weekly publisher and editor Tracy Dietlin had not responded to several phone calls as of our press deadline.

Combating a lack of awareness of the legal requirements governing paid political messaging is one of the objectives pursued by Wierenga. In our conversation, he mentioned his hope that news coverage of potential violations of California’s campaign-advertising laws may spur a citizen to file a complaint, which would be investigated by the CFPPC enforcement arm.

Any California voter may file a complaint with the CFPPC if they discover what appears to be deceptive political advertising at www.fppc. ca.gov/enforcement/file-a-complaint.html.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13

AUGUST 2019

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14 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

AUGUST 2019

CVI SPOTLIGHT: AUGUST 2019 Dinner and a Movie: The PS Cultural Center Launches the ‘Culinary Cinema’ Series

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riter/director Petra Haffter first visited Palm Springs in 1981, on a publicity tour for one of her films. She moved to Los Angeles from her native Germany not long after, and she often enjoyed getaways to the desert—even though the area, she says, had lost most of its former Hollywood sheen.

But that turned around—Haffter credits the arrival of gay couples with dual incomes and “great taste”—and a few years ago, she bought a house and moved to the Coachella Valley full-time. She’d planned to move here after retirement—she and her partner continue to commute to Los Angeles for work—but she decided to make the leap in part because of the area’s enthusiasm for high-culture elements like film and architecture, and its commitment to abundant and diverse cuisine.

“First of all, I’m a filmmaker. Second, I’m a foodie,” Haffter said in an interview.

When she moved to the desert full-time, she knew she wanted “to do something for the community, giving back with the experience I have—and the experience I have is filmmaking.”

She set out to develop an event “that includes dinner and a movie, but not as it usually is—connected to a festival or short event.” She found a partner in the Palm Springs Cultural Center, which produces the Certified Farmers’ Markets that operate at three locations across the valley, and happens to occupy the classic Camelot Theatre building, with its three screens and full restaurant and bar.

Thus, Culinary Cinema was born. The monthly series, each pairing dinner by a local chef with a food-related film on the third Wednesday of the month, launches Aug. 21 with the 2014 movie The Hundred-

Foot Journey, directed by Lasse Hallström and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. Helen Mirren stars as proprietor of a Michelin-starred restaurant in a small French village who goes to battle when an Indian family opens a competing establishment across the street.

“It’s one of my favorites of all time,” Haffter said. “It deals with two of the major cuisines of the world, French cuisine and Indian. So I thought it would be a very good entrée, to show that we are embracing diversity, and that we are accepting everyone at our table.”

Following each screening, guests will enjoy a dinner inspired by the accompanying film.

The venue for the post-screening dinner will vary; for the inaugural event, the dinner will take place on the Camelot Theatre stage, prepared by Chef Daniel Villanueva of Daniel’s Table.

“I thought for the very first one, it would be great when the film is over, as the curtain is closing, that we have this long table there, and we just can come have a glass of champagne and then walk to the table like we’re a family,” she said.

Family is a recurring theme in the films that have been announced thus far.

September’s selection will be the German film Mostly Martha, about a bullheaded chef whose orderly life begins to unravel when her young niece is suddenly placed in her care. Chef Teresa Attardi is known for her authentic family-style Italian food, which guests will enjoy after the screening at her Palm Springs restaurant, Il Giardino.

In October, private chef and recently repatriated Coachella Valley native Amanda Escamilla will bring her farm-to-table approach to Mexican cuisine to accompany the 2001 comedy-drama Tortilla Soup, about

A scene from The Hundred-Foot Journey.

three sisters and their aging father, a veteran chef slowly losing his sense of taste.

In November, the Vietnamese film The Scent of the Green Papaya (described in a press release by the Cultural Center as “so placid and filled with sweetness that watching it is like listening to soothing music”) accompanies a dinner by chef Chad Gardner at his restaurant, 533 Viet Fusion.

The international scale of the first four selections speaks to another theme Haffter hopes to infuse into the Culinary Cinema program: travel. After starting out in feature films, Haffter spent the better part of the past decade directing documentaries around the globe—an experience she values while acknowledging that for many people, extensive travel is not possible. But Haffter thinks some elements of foreign cultures can be imported through food.

“What is really original to a country is the taste of it,” she said. “Food means embracing the entire world.”

Tickets to the initial screening are free, and will cost $10 in the following months, while screening-and-dinner packages will cost between $85 and $120. Haffter is grateful for

the early support of local businesses—Savory Spice, Hot Purple Energy and Ferguson Bath, Kitchen and Lighting Gallery are sponsors— and hopes that others will follow.

“When local sponsors believe in us and help us, then the price (can) go down, and that would serve the people,” she said.

Haffter said she’s happy the series is beginning in August, generally considered the quietest month in the Coachella Valley.

“It may be a little risky, but we want to proclaim we’re not doing this just for snowbirds,” she said. “We are doing it for the Coachella Valley. We are doing it for moviegoers; we are doing it for foodies; we are doing it for people who want to travel without traveling.”

Culinary Cinema kicks off at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 21, with a free screening of The Hundred-Foot Journey.

After the film, a dinner prepared by Chef Daniel Villanueva will take place, and costs $120, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. For tickets or more information, visit palmspringsculturalcenter.org.

—David Kenniston

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15

AUGUST 2019

ARTS & CULTURE

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE

PATRONS OF THE ARTS By stephen berger

O

ver the past year and a half, it has been my privilege to visit, learn about and write about a number of nonprofit organizations in the Coachella Valley dedicated to the arts.

Someone once said that life without art is like food without salt. From Palm Springs to Coachella to the high desert towns of Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree, these organizations provide safe places filled with beauty, hope, joy and inspiration to thousands of people. They enrich our communities and create a fertile nest from art organizations in the valley that have which fledgling artists can take their first flight. received grants from you?

While some of the people involved in these The Cabot’s Museum Foundation (free organizations are wealthy, most are not. Who public arts programs); S.C.R.A.P. Gallery (the are the donors that help provide the funds for Student Creative Recycle Art Program); Tools the facilities, the teachers and the supplies? for Tomorrow (after-school program that One name kept coming up during my visits. promotes arts education); Children’s Discovery It was hard for me to miss, because we share Museum of the Desert (overall programming, the same name, but there is no relation: The which includes hands-on arts opportunities); H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation of the Ophelia Project (a comprehensive Palm Desert. enrichment curriculum that includes academic H.N. and Frances first met in Santa Barbara. development and arts for personal growth “Fran” was a school teacher, and “Nor” was an of teen girls, at most middle schools in the accountant. They shared a positive outlook valley); Boys and Girls Clubs—all clubs in the on life and the uncanny ability to turn dreams valley (programming includes arts); Family into reality.

YMCA of the Desert (programming includes They married in 1925. They borrowed arts); Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council money from a friend and took out a loan (programming includes arts); and All Desert to build their first house together. The Wellness Centers (a mental health center that experience changed their lives: They quickly includes art therapy). built a real estate and development company The organizations were each funded through that eventually spanned Southern California. the Coachella Valley Spotlight grant program.

Their next success came in the banking The Coachella Valley Spotlight is a partnership industry, when they founded Prudential between the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Savings and Loan. Nor died in 1988; Fran Foundation and Gulf California Broadcasting passed away in 1991. (owners of KESQ News Channel 3 and five The Bergers, despite their great wealth, other broadcast properties). Nonprofit never forgot where they came from. They organizations are selected to receive a $25,000 believed that opportunity was for everyone— grant from the Berger Foundation and media so they established the H.N. and Frances C. coverage during a designated month.

Berger Foundation, with the mission “to help people help themselves.”

How does the Berger Foundation’s Today, the foundation provides grants to support of the arts tie into the mission charitable organizations throughout Southern “to help people help themselves”?

California and the country, often in health care Some people may not have the ability to and education. purchase supplies or to pay for admissions to Catharine Reed is the program director of museums, for example, but through grantthe Berger Foundation. She has been involved giving, we can make more of these things with the foundation since 2008 and has more available to residents at little or no cost. This than 20 years of experience with multi-million- allows for an opportunity. It’s then up to an dollar nonprofit foundations. She responded to individual to use that opportunity to impact my questions via email. their own life.

I’m aware of the recent Spotlight grant given to the CREATE Center for the Arts and your support of the Old Town Artisan Studios, as well as your sponsorship of the free Second Sundays at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Are there other

What are the things you look for in an arts organization when you are deciding on grants?

No matter the type of services an organization is providing, the foundation board evaluates grant requests the same way.

The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation has helped thousands of people by supporting local creative nonprofits

Primarily, we look to see if an organization is established. We don’t often fund startup organizations. It’s important to us that an organization is sustainable on its own for basic operating expenses and that it is offering programs that are serving many and impacting people’s lives. If the basic structure of an organization is in place, and we can enhance it or help the organization add a program to its existing ones, then the foundation board sees value in that.

We also invest in the people behind the organization. If the leaders of the organization have a track record of success, then we are more comfortable that the funds will be used responsibly. Grantees must report the outcome and impact of grant funding, and most grants are to be used within six months of receipt, so we expect an organization to show us fairly immediate results that they are making a difference in the community.

Frances C. and H.N. Berger

Were Mr. and Mrs. Berger interested in art themselves?

Mrs. Berger was a school teacher, so all aspects of education were important to her.

vitality. When a lot of people are interested in the programs and services of an arts organization, then the significance and need is most clear.

Your website states that donations to the foundation are not accepted. Is the Berger Foundation funded solely from the personal fortune of the Berger family?

The Berger Foundation was founded on the personal fortune of Mr. and Mrs. Berger, who made wise investments throughout their lifetimes. Since 1988, when Ron Auen became president of the board, the foundation has increased its value many times over through a diverse portfolio of thoughtful investments.

Unlike other foundations, we have several working board members who are making investment decisions every day. That work means that the foundation is self-funded. A portion of the money made by the foundation is then distributed through grant-giving. By maintaining a solid investment portfolio, the foundation can continue to give. The foundation is responsible for its own financial health and its giving.

What message would you like to convey to our readers about the Berger Foundation and its charitable support for those less fortunate in our communities?

The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation looks for nonprofit organizations that can build on the grant funding we can provide.

We know there are many aspects to a healthy community, including health care and education, so we get tremendous satisfaction out of contributing to those building blocks that create a strong base in the area. Then, if we can enhance the community further through grants to arts, cultural, athletics and other elective activities, this creates a diverse community of people engaging in their interests, forming a healthy whole.

What also builds a strong community is each individual contributing whatever they can to continually improve the area where they live.

Part of the goal of the foundation board is that by giving, others will be inspired to give and to give back. Nearly everyone can contribute in some way, whether it’s donating money or volunteering time. It all helps create a more vibrant community and helps those who are less fortunate.

What would you like to see happen in the future with the arts organizations here?

For any healthy and growing community, it’s important for the arts to also grow and flourish. Having accessible arts programs available to all areas and economic sectors of the Coachella Valley is important to its overall

For more information, visit hnberger.org.

CVIndependent.com

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AUGUST 2019

FOOD & DRINK

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

ON COCKTAILS I

Some thoughts on what it means to be a bartender in the Coachella Valley in 2019

BY kevin carlow

’ll be honest: I’m not feeling very inspired this month.

My list of favorite cocktail places in the Coachella Valley hasn’t changed much this year.

With the exception of the Del Rey (sorry for not covering you yet—it’s coming), it’s pretty much still the same seven or eight places. While there is no shortage of earnest people trying, I would like to be able to get a proper negroni or daiquiri before I can get something with beet juice and cachaça. You’ve got to crawl before you can walk, people.

We’re also in the middle of a ton of retrogrades and astrological horrors … and while I am not using that as an excuse, I think many of you can relate. So this month, you’re getting a thought piece on what it means to be a bartender— specifically, a bartender in the Coachella Valley.

I realized two insane truths recently: 1) Some guy named “Joe Pizzulo” sang “Never Gonna Let You Go” when I was certain it was James Ingram. 2) I can host an event, and people will show up. Seeing a crowd actually turn out for something as weird my “Tarot Workshop” at the fabulous Dead or Alive bar in Palm Springs was great … and exhausting.

This got me thinking about bartending, and the role of the bar and the bartender. I had a bar in front of me at Dead or Alive—as I always do at work. Could I have addressed a crowd without a bar in front of me?

What is the bar? Is it a stage? Is it a barrier?

What is a bartender? What am I to you? When you look at me at the grocery store, like, “How do I know that guy?” it’s a little freaky. You don’t recognize me? Honestly, I talk to you three days a week for hours at a time. It must be like when I used to see a teacher out in public. She buys milk, too?!

The bar is like a sacred space, with the bartender as the shaman or priest. When one attends religious services, one (hopefully) leaves worldly problems at the door while walking into a sacred space. One does the same at a bar. The bar is a place of freedom and camaraderie, with the bartender being something like a friend—but a little removed,

like a priest, or an actor, or something like that. I suppose this is why I wave at you, and you think, “How do I know that guy?”

It can be a lonely life, but luckily, we have other bartenders. Bartenders mostly hang out with bartenders, or other service-industry folk—maybe chefs here and there, or the server or host we’re dating … anyone who “gets it.” Is it any wonder that so few of us can make it long in this business … and if we do make it for a while, we never leave? It’s both a support system and a vicious circle. We spend a lot of time absorbing energy from everyone who walks in the door, and the rest of our time drinking over-proof rum and burdening other bartenders. We’re mostly introverted, and the question is: Were we introverted before we started? In my case, I can say “probably” … I was definitely the fat, nerdy kid, but I have always had a big mouth.

Of course, being a bartender in the Coachella Valley can be a little … different.

Why does nearly every new-to-town entrepreneur seem to think you can bring in a consultant from San Francisco, an architect from Los Angeles and a manager from Brooklyn (who are all going to leave within six months) and succeed? Why not see what the local talent pool has to offer? There are many talented locals who would jump at the chance to take on a project. You want the good local

people to work for you? Well, we take care of each other around here. No disrespect to the consultants—a lot of you are friends— but not everything that is a hit in the Meatpacking District will be a hit here.

The Coachella Valley could also use a more-robust nightlife scene. The number of questions I get every weekend in the range of, “So, what is, like … fun to do around here?” is in the dozens. Perhaps the tendency to drink by the pool all day or have bottomless mimosas is the real problem. That’s a pretty wicked combination. The fact that people occasionally bristle when I suggest a “gay bar” on a weekday (even if it’s a welcoming little spot like Retro Room—come on, people!) doesn’t help.

But there is hope. We have a new music venue, The Alibi, bringing cool and exciting acts to town (which you can read more about

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in the music section), and an arcade and nostalgia bar called Glitch just getting rolling.

(They’re both working on their cocktail programs as of writing, this so forgive my not talking about their drinks.) I am also aware there are new venues slated to open all over the place in the fall and winter … and that’s just in Palm Springs proper! In fact, the number of events and things to do has never been greater. FOMO is a real thing these days, and I hope to contribute to that in a small way.

So … get out there, people! If you’re a young bartender, it’s time to shine. Make your mark!

The Coachella Valley needs you to step up— and I am just an email away if you’re in over your head.

Kevin Carlow is a bartender at Truss and Twine, and can be reached at CrypticCocktails@gmail.com.

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JASON DAVID

I

Do you refuse to drink chardonnay (or any other varietal)? If so, please read on …

By Katie finnHAIR STUDIO

LOVE YOUR HAIR

am always amazed by “I never/I only” wine-drinkers. I encounter them all too frequently when they come into the shop looking for a specific wine. I quickly discover that my suggestions for an alternative selection are futile when the customer informs me they will only drink this one wine.

Oh, how terribly boring. These wine-drinkers are like 4-year-old children faced with a new dinner option. “I don’t like it! I won’t eat it! What is it?”

Astonishingly, I even encounter a few wine professionals who fall victim to this ideology, Country Club and Cook Street although they are more likely to enter the “I never” subset (as in: “IDe never Palm sertdrink Napa cabernet!”) because they think they know better, or their vast years of experience have led them into some archaic belief system. sir; may I have another?”

760-340-5959 Maybe you know one of these “I never/I These styles are not as elusive as you may only” people. Or perhaps you are one of these think—but they are hiding in plain sight. For www.jasondavidhairstudio.net people. If that’s the case, stay with me … this every anti-chardonnay drinker, there is a bottle article is for you. of Dauvissat or Patrick Piuze Chablis or Ceritas The most-common wine manifesto I face is: Trout Gulch Vineyard chardonnay just waiting “I never drink chardonnay.” This is so rampant to be discovered. Even in Napa, the heartland of in the wine world that it’s hard for me to overly contrived chardonnay, Steve Matthiasson believe sometimes that chardonnay is still the is crafting an affordable, gloriously lean and No. 1 varietal in the country. The reasons why zippy incarnation called Linda Vista. And in people have abandoned chardonnay are usually Sonoma, the chardonnays of Lioco, Porter-Bass valid or, at the least, understandable—but they and Scribe are breaking the age-old California are also terribly short-sighted. interpretations. I implore everyone who has a As one woman at a recent tasting explained myopic view of this little grape to give it another to me: Those lean, crisp styles aren’t real go. (Or, as I say to my picky-eater kids: Follow chardonnay. I clutch the pearls; let out an audible the three-bite rule.) gasp; and try to stay calm. “No, no,” I say, almost What most people don’t understand about trembling at the misinformation. “The wine chardonnay is that it is a very neutral grape in you’ve come to associate with chardonnay is the terms of flavor. Its flavor profile is nowhere actual impostor here.” She is not alone in this nearly as overt as, say, sauvignon blanc or thought. In fact, most desert-dwellers I talk riesling. And yet this is the very reason it to have the same thought-process. How can I produces some of the most expensive wines blame them when every restaurant wine list in the world. You know them as Meursault, from here to San Diego (with some fabulous Montrachet and, of course, Chablis. You see, exceptions) offer six whites by the glass— chardonnay was chosen by the Cistercian and four of them are overly oaked, creamy, monks centuries ago to be planted in Burgundy carnival-midway explosions of buttered, fried, because of its propensity for high acid and its caramel-vanilla dipped flavors of somethingneutrality. What those smarty-pants monks or-other? There is no awareness that this same knew, even way back then, was that this land— grape can produce wines with razor-sharp acid, and each specific parcel of land—was unique bright mouth-watering citrus fruits, and a in its composition. They firmly believed that finish that makes your palate say, “Thank you, what grew on this plot of land was going to

taste different than what grew on any other piece of land. And that’s what mattered—the place. The grape was simply a catalyst to show what the land could do. The flavors and aromas of the grape shouldn’t outshine the flavors and distinct qualities that were inherent in the dirt—so they needed a grape that could be the bridesmaid to the more-important element.

But this is a double-edged sword, because just as chardonnay’s transparent nature was a bonus for the vignerons of France, it was also a tool for winemakers looking to make their mark in the new world. Chardonnay is easily manipulated and malleable to an eager winemakers’ every whim. When the masses demanded bigger, bolder, richer wines, chardonnay was an easy accomplice. All of a sudden, the market was flooded with wines that were stylistically so far removed from its ancestors that it was hard to remember they were ever even related.

If all of this isn’t reason enough to get you to abandon a negative viewpoint on chardonnay,

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then I’m left with no choice but to pull out the big guns. Yes, that’s right: I’m going to wineshame you. Hear me when I tell you that no experienced, knowledgeable wine aficionado would ever, ever disrespect the white grape of Burgundy. In fact, most wine professionals and sommeliers will tell you that this region and its noble grape are the Holy Grail—so revered that, in fact, it’s many sommeliers’ “stranded on a desert island wine.” Yours truly is included in that bunch.

I realize I’ve singled out chardonnay here, but there are many other “I never/I only” winedrinkers out there, and we’ll explore this more on another day. In the meantime, if you’re part of the ABC (anything but chardonnay) crowd, I hope you take away one thing from this: Wine is about so much more than just the grape.

Katie Finn is a certified sommelier and certified specialist of wine with more than 15 years in the wine industry. She can be reached at katiefinnwine@gmail.com. award-winning

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19

AUGUST 2019

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CAESAR CERVISIA I

Some not-at-all-lazy thoughts on Eureka!, rice lagers, multi-packs and that amazing new lounge in Beaumont

By brett newton

occasionally have so much on my mind when it comes to craft beer that I just have to write about it all in one column. I did this last year in what I describe as a less-lazy equivalent of Larry King’s defunct USA Today column.

Rice lagers are all the rage right now for some reason. … What is the deal with those beer multipacks? … How can Beaumont have a bottle-shop/craft-beer taproom and downtown Palm Springs not?

As repugnant as I find this kind of writing, there is some utility in this scattershot approach in that I get to dump all of my burning thoughts on current topics in the beer world while barely having to do any research. In other words, I get to have my lazy cake and eat it, too. So without further ado, let’s jump right in. (out of a usual four, that is; these are generally • Eureka! Indian Wells is pretty much my 12-packs that usually include three bottles go-to craft-beer watering hole. I like the staff each of four different beers). Samuel Adams, (Ari, you’re still the best!); the food is solid; I can get your Boston Lager EVERYWHERE. I it’s close to home; and it usually has some could be in the middle of the Mojave Desert, of the better beers on tap as compared to stumble across a random gas station, and other places. It is within that loving context reasonably assume I can get your Boston that I state the following to the higher-ups Lager. Whose idea was this, and why has it at Eureka!: Get your glassware game together! proliferated for so long?! I have seen multis As I understand the situation: Someone at with all core brands—that, I can understand. corporate HQ seems to have decided that the Still … I ask that everyone please join me price of any given keg determines the size of in not purchasing another multi-pack until the pour you get. This often leads to absurd breweries stop doing this. serving sizes and prices. No pilsner should • I am very happy for Beaumont for getting EVER be served in a 13-ounce tulip glass. Not a place like The Craft Lounge where people long ago, they were charging an absurd $15 can buy some nice bottles and try some great for a 9-ounce pour of a Modern Times Nova beers on tap, all in the same spot. But … how Colony sour ale! This was a 7 percent barreldid Beaumont get such a place before Palm aged blend of fruited sours. I don’t care if it Springs did? I’m tempted to leave this at was made with water from the Fountain of that—the Larry King inside of me wants to Youth; there is no way in hell I would consider (wait, that doesn’t sound right)—but I will paying that without at least a 13-ounce pour of add that I wouldn’t be so disappointed by this it. Why are accountants choosing glassware?! if it weren’t so typical. Why can’t we have nice It’s truly maddening, and Eureka! should be things? ashamed of themselves … but I doubt they can I would also like to take this opportunity hear this over the piles of money they make on to get out in front of anyone who is of a like everything else at that place. mind: A couple of people confronted me • A lot of people, especially brewers, are about a recent column regarding the state of expressing excitement over craft rice lagers the beer scene in the Coachella Valley with to me. Rice lagers are the Mexican lagers the complaint that I should do something of last summer in that it’s the current “in about it. Do you honestly think I’m not? One thing” to say you love. Listen, I know taste of the main reasons I took on the mantle of is subjective, and a well-made beer is a wellbeer columnist for the Independent is to try to made beer (especially with lager styles like whip up interest, put spotlights where I think this where there isn’t any place to hide if you they’re deserved (good or bad), and act as a bit botched the brew), but I have to say: Just of a lightning rod to push the scene forward. go drink your Modelo or Budweiser. That’s Do I think this has happened? I honestly clearly what you want. I’m going to stick to cannot say. I feel like I’m shouting into the pilsners to get that full, crisp, unadulterated void about these things at times, while at other lager experience. This doesn’t mean I think times, I feel honored that anyone is reading corn and rice have no place in craft beer— this and taking anything away from it. In any anything is game, but I think we can be more case, it isn’t all up to just me. Do you have creative than this, can’t we? ideas for what can be done here?

• Beer multi-packs suck. I can’t tell you how Next month’s column will be about a craftmany of them I have come across that have beer institution from the past that still has special, one-off beers that I would love to try, not been matched in this valley; I’m writing along with one or two common, flagship beers it in the hopes that it can rally people to the

Taps at The Craft Lounge in Beaumont. The Craft Lounge Facebook/Instagram

cause of creating more of a craft-beer culture.

Building a culture can be a slow and arduous task, but being in on the ground floor and looking around to nearby budding cultures is truly exciting. We aren’t even necessarily that far way, yet we seem to be leagues from something substantial nonetheless. It’s going to take some work and some similarly impassioned people to get there.

This is my message in a bottle. It’s just that the bottle has beer in it.

Brett Newton is a certified cicerone (like a sommelier for beer) and homebrewer who has mostly lived in the Coachella Valley since 1988. He currently works at the Coachella Valley Brewing Co. taproom in Thousand Palms. He can be reached at caesarcervisia@gmail.com.

VOTING BEGINS MONDAY, AUG. 26!

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FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT This month, we’re craving delicious, quality Mexican fare

By Jimmy Boegle WHAT The shrimp ceviche WHERE Tac/Quila, 415 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs HOW MUCH $16 CONTACT 760-417-4471; www.tacquila.com WHY It’s refreshing and tasty.

I had decidedly mixed feelings when I learned that Tac/Quila was going to be opening in the space most recently occupied by Watercress Vietnamese Bistro.

On the minus side, the Coachella Valley is not suffering from a dearth of good Mexican restaurants—taqueria, upscale Mexican, regional fare … it can all be found here. In other words, Tac/Quila would not be filling a defined culinary need in the valley.

On the plus side, Mark and Liz Ostoich know what they’re doing. The owners of Tac/Quila have proven themselves to be shrewd restaurateurs and fantastic members of the community with Farm, the mostly outdoor French restaurant in La Plaza the Ostoiches purchased in 2016. Given what they’ve done with Farm, I was curious to see what they’d do with a Mexican concept.

As for what they’ve done … they’ve knocked it out of the park with Tac/Quila. They’ve taken what was a somewhat clunky space and infused it with class, beauty and charm—and the menu is absolutely mouth-watering. Consider yourself warned: You’ll pay more at Tac/Quila than you will at the vast majority of other Mexican restaurants around the valley—but what comes out of the kitchen and is delivered to your table will most likely be worth it.

I met a friend at Tac/Quila for a recent lunch. (There’s not a separate lunch menu, so be prepared to pay dinner prices.) I decided to try the chicken tortilla soup ($11) and the shrimp ceviche ($16). The soup was quite good, if misnamed—it’s actually a chicken vegetable soup, with tortillas having nothing to do with it other than being tossed on top. The ceviche, meanwhile, was perfect—fresh, delicious and refreshing on a hot summer day.

Tac/Quila may wind up filling a local culinary need after all: While many good restaurants call the Coachella Valley home, there are few great restaurants—and Tac/Quila has the potential to become one.

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WHAT The enchiladas de mole WHERE Los Arcos Mexican Restaurant, 68718 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City HOW MUCH $10.95 CONTACT 760-992-5133; www.facebook.com/ LosArcosMex/ WHY It’s a sublime mix of sweet and savory.

Los Arcos Mexican Food opened back in 2015, on the side of the former IMAX theater at Palm Canyon and Cathedral Canyon drives. I’d heard good things, and I placed it on my mental “Restaurants I Need to Try” list.

Well, I thought I’d lost my chance: Last fall, Los Arcos closed its doors. The old movie theater was being turned into the brand-new CVRep Playhouse (and the theater company needed Los Arcos’ space), and while I am elated about everything CVRep has done with the new building, I was bummed I never got a chance to try Los Arcos.

Fortunately, Los Arcos was not closed—just on hiatus: A few months ago, it reappeared on the other side of what’s euphemistically called “downtown Cathedral City.” Not wanting to miss out again, I headed to Los Arcos on a recent Sunday for dinner.

I intended to order the chicken tortilla soup ($7.95) and the combo featuring a relleno, a taco and an enchilada (a downright reasonable $10.95). Alas, the restaurant was out of tortilla soup, so I had to settle for the combo—and it was quite good, albeit a step or two short of endorsement-worthy.

However … I knew my Monday was going to be crazy, so I ordered the enchiladas de mole (with chicken) to go, for lunch the next day. I was quite full when I got home, but I figured I must try one bite before the food cooled down.

After that one bite, I realized I had two things: 1) an endorsement-worthy dish, and 2) a test of self-control, as it was so tasty that I was inclined to keep going after that one bite. The mole was rich, sweet, savory and complex—everything a traditional chocolate mole should be.

I am glad Los Arcos is back from its hiatus.

If you like mole, then you should be, too.

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Restaurant NEWS BITES

By Jimmy Boegle COMING SOON: ASIASF PALM SPRINGS, TO THE FORMER HACIENDA LOCATION A San Francisco restaurant known for its “Cal-Asian” cuisine and dinner shows featuring transgender performers is opening a Palm Springs location in the space that was once the Hacienda Cantina and Beach Club, at 1555 S. Palm Canyon Drive.

While no formal announcement has yet been made, the owners of AsiaSF let the figurative cat out of the bag by promoting auditions for the Palm Springs location in four cities (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Rancho Mirage—at the Desert Rose Playhouse—and San Francisco) on four consecutive nights in mid-July.

AsiaSF opened in 1988 in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood, founded by Larry Hashbarger and Skip Young.

“The world-famous restaurant, cabaret and nightclub is an iconic entertainment landmark that has inspired over 1 million people from all over the world with great food and entertainment,” says the AsiaSF website. “AsiaSF has been a visionary pioneer in supporting the transgender community through empowerment by creating a safe space and unique employment opportunities that showcase our beautiful transgender stars, the Ladies of AsiaSF, who not only entertain but also educate and enlighten people about the transgender experience and human diversity.”

We hear that more details about the Palm Springs location will come out shortly. Whatever those details are … it’s fantastic news that the Hacienda space will soon be alive once again.

The Hacienda Cantina and Beach Club opened during the summer of 2014, but closed under a cloud of scandal in the fall of 2015, as the owner was indicted and charged in a bribery scheme involving then-Mayor Steve Pougnet. In 2016, Chris Pardo—the driving force behind the ARRIVE Palm Springs hotel—was linked to plans to build a hotel on the Hacienda property, but those plans fell through.

We’ll have more details as they develop. In the meantime, we recommend watching www. facebook.com/officialasiasf for updates.

NEW AND POPPING UP: NI-CHOME RAMEN If you’re a fan of ramen, you need to be keeping your eyes on the Wabi Sabi Japan Living Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WabiSabiJapanLiving. The owners have been taking over local restaurant spaces (like Peabody’s and Evzin Palm Springs) during times when they’re closed to offer a pop-up ramen restaurant that even has its own name: Ni-Chome Ramen.

Recent seatings have included a three-course meal plus sake and Japanese beer for the downright-reasonable price of $33. Who knows … maybe Ni-Chome Ramen will have its own home one day?

We’ve so far been unable to enjoy a Ni-Chome Ramen seating due to a terribly annoying series of schedule conflicts … but trust us: We’ll be at one soon, and you probably should be at one, too.

Visit that aforementioned Facebook page or www.wabisabijapanliving.com for more details.

IN BRIEF Coming soon to the space next to Heirloom Craft Kitchen, at 49990 Jefferson St., in Indio: Tu Madres Cantina and Grill. It’s the latest venture by Andie Hubka, the chef/owner of Heirloom and her original restaurant, La Quinta’s Cork and Fork. A post on the Cork and Fork says: “Our new concept is fresh, modern chef-driven Mexican fare and an amazing bar with a crazy tequila list and craft beer selection. Vegans and gluten-free guests will find plenty of options, too. We love Baja Mexico and are excited to bring home a taste of the culture and cuisine there.” Watch tumadrescantina.com for updates, and expect a fall opening. … Coming soon to Palm Desert: Little Bar, a speakeasy-style bar and restaurant at 73560 Highway 111. Watch www.little-bar. com for further developments. … Coming soon to 117 La Plaza, in downtown Palm Springs: Pineapple Express. We know this because we saw the “Public Notice of Application to Sell Alcoholic Beverages” sign in the window of the former Delicatesse space—but that’s all we know for now. Watch this space. … New in the former Greek Islands location at 139 E. Andreas Road, in Palm Springs: The Greek at 13, offering cocktails plus Greek and Italian fare. Learn more at www.facebook.com/thegreekps. … Returning to the Ace Hotel and Swim Club, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs: the eighth annual Craft Beer Weekend. Two-dozen-plus craft breweries will be on hand from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 3 and 4, along with entertainment and all sorts of revelry. A one-day pass is $50; both days will cost you $85. Get tickets and a complete list of participating breweries at acehotel.com/craftbeer.

This place is called a “bistro,” but I’ll call it what it really is — the best dang pizza I’ve ever had — Palm Springs Life

Downtown

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The Alibi—currently a work in progress—is helping revitalize the music scene in downtown Palm Springs The venue report: styx, Lance Bass (as your host), imperial teen, babyface—and a whole lot more!

Captain Ghost celebrates a new music video—and gets set to release its first full album Meet Cynna Luchia of Sticky Doll, and Right On, Right On’s “Uncle” Ben Crowson

www.cvindependent.com/music

Oh Sees bring a carefree attitude and 20-plus years of experimental rock to Pappy and Harriet’s

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THE NAME GAME

Photo by amdophoto

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MUSIC

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L.A. INFLUENCES IN P.S. O

By Andy lara

n the northern edge of downtown Palm Springs, a new music venue is on the verge of rekindling the music and nightlife scene that seems to have disappeared after the closure of Bar two years ago.

There’s one small problem: The venue isn’t fully open quite yet.

Until the venue finalizes its aesthetic identity, secures more seating and optimizes its kitchen and menu, The Alibi is in a “soft-opening” new owners initiated an extensive renovation. phase. Nevertheless, the venue is off to a General manager Anthony Molnar says he great start, with an experienced team working and his team—which includes accomplished together toward a common goal: making the Los Angeles music and restaurant industry northern portion of downtown Palm Springs a people behind The Echo, The Knitting Factory hip place to be once again. and Spaceland Presents—have a vision to Located at 369 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in the create a “culturally creative space for artists space that was for years known as Azul, the and musicians in the local community, and venue—directly across from the original Las provide a space for independent music.” They Casuelas, next door to the Nat Reed Gallery, hope to connect to the community organically and a hop, skip and jump away from the old by providing free, 21-and-older shows—and Bar space (which was previously the home of booking excellent music. Molnar says a dance the infamous JD’s Landing)—the building is floor is next. known for its beautiful patio, swing seats and The team hopes to further attract locals island bar. All of that is still there, along with a with an expansive and eclectic drink menu. pop-up hamburger stand from The Heyday.

The current incarnation includes craft beers As you walk inside the building, the first from local breweries, and exotic, yet affordable thing you see is the stage, and to the left cocktails. Bartender Angie Bloom said she of it, a raised lounge area. As for the décor: appreciates the extensive “tool box” she can Adorning the bar area are leafy, mature pull from to quench the thirst of parched houseplants, with dim romantic lighting and patrons. She is among the many excited and chandeliers installed here and there. The curious people who see The Alibi as a blank result: chill vibes all around. A grand piano canvas, full of potential. and a disco ball are tucked away in a back The venue’s current hours are somewhat corner, waiting to be relocated and repurposed. mysterious—for now, The Alibi is mostly Perhaps most importantly: The Alibi has a only open on weekends—but it is evident the stage, a proper sound system and—gasp!—a creative people working behind the scenes sound guy. All of these elements combine to want to deliver top-notch underground create for visitors a unique and chic night on experiences in a lounge-like setting. For the town. example, on Saturday, July 13, The Alibi hosted After taking over the old Azul location, the Jim White, the gothic Western folk musician,

The Alibi—currently a work in progress—is helping revitalize the music scene in downtown Palm Springs

playing a warm-up show for his performance at The Echo. Every second Thursday of the month, The Alibi is hosting goth/industrial/ EDM DJs. On Saturday, July 27, Lee Joseph was slated to spin garage and punk music (Joseph is the bassist for local musician Jesika Von Rabbit, who herself also DJ’d The Alibi’s first open night); and for Aug. 4, The Alibi booked Imperial Teen, a band that was big in the ’90s you might recognize for having a song in the movie Jawbreaker.

While the bar owners and managers have close ties to the Palm Springs community, their experience and sensibilities from also working in Los Angeles should result in eclectic, alternative and—above all—interesting music programming—something very refreshing to downtown Palm Springs.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ palmspringsalibi or @thealibipalmsprings on Instagram.

A band performs at The Alibi Palm Springs. andy lara

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MUSIC

The Venue REPORT

THE NAME GAME

August 2019 By andy lara

Y Styx

Although August is one of the slowest months for entertainment in the desert—and the second half of this particular August is especially dead—there are still many events, many places to catch a drink, and many bands coming through town.

Interestingly, most of the events this month are either ’90s projects (the kind of artists that will make you say, “Oh I remember them!”) or contemporary underground acts. Whether you like throwback pop or underground alternative rock, there is something for everyone across our vast, eclectic desert community.

Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage has the first notable event on the Venue Report this month: At 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 2, the legendary Chicago band Styx will take The Show stage. Tickets start at $65. Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

At 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 3, Spotlight 29 will host the Pop 2000 tour with host Lance Bass and performances by O-Town, Aaron Carter, Ryan Cabrera and La Quinta-native-turned-Hollywood-star Tyler Hilton. Unfortunately for those wanting to hear “Bye Bye Bye” or “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the event details say Lance Bass is only hosting and not performing. I know from experience that hosts don’t usually perform; I once went Wango Tango, crossing my fingers for the host, Britney Spears, to drop a surprise performance. Didn’t happen.

Nevertheless, the show will be interesting if you are nostalgic for the third wave of ’90s boy bands. Tickets start at $35. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 31, UB40 will arrive at Spotlight 29 for a performance as part of the British reggae band’s 40th Anniversary Tour. Tickets start at $35. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella; 760-7755566; www.spotlight29.com.

On Sunday, Aug. 4, The Alibi, downtown Palm Springs’s coolest new venue (learn more on Page 23), will welcome ’90s alt-rock continued on Page 26 CVIndependent.com

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Oh Sees bring a carefree attitude and 20-plus years of experimental rock to Pappy and Harriet’s

By matt king

ou may know the band as Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, OCS or one of several other names that have changed along with the lineup over the last two-plus decades.

However, one thing has remained constant: founding-member John Dwyer’s blistering guitar and crunchy vocals. Oh Sees, as we’ll call the band today, puts on one of the best live shows around—meaning that the group’s Friday, Aug. 9, show at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace is not to be missed … that is, if you can whopping 22 albums. get tickets, because it is currently listed as sold “It’s all I do. I don’t have a job anymore, out via the venue. because this is my job, but I really enjoy it,” During a recent phone interview, I asked Dwyer said. “I’m very lucky to have made this Dwyer—who said proceeds from the show happen. We have slowed down, though. People would be donated to an as-yet-undetermined always throw around the word ‘prolific.’ It’s local charity—whether he thought the band’s almost a detrimental tag—prolific, as in these name was important to its success. guys put out a ton of garbage.

“No. In fact, if anything, now we just change “The thing is that everybody works at the name to irritate reviewers and journalists, different rates. For a long time, though, with because they took such umbrage to it being more drug consumption, we were working moved around a couple of times,” he said. “I a lot more. Now that I’ve gotten older, we started my own label (Castle Face Records) so spend a little more time, and there’s more I could do whatever the fuck I want, because of a cooperative element to the songwriting with personnel and tone changes, we’d change process. It’s takes a little longer, because I’m the name around a lot. I’d talk to PR people, not alone writing. I prefer it this way, because and they’d ask, ‘How are people going to know it’s more fun, and it makes it more diverse.” it’s the same band?’ I say that if somebody’s Dwyer said he rarely encounters writer’s enough of an idiot to not know that this is the block; instead, he distances himself from same band, then I don’t want them watching projects when he begins to struggle. He cited a our band. That being said, our fans are smart solo project under yet another name, Damaged enough to follow the lead. I don’t know if it’s Bug, as an example. been a detriment or not, but honestly, I don’t “I’ve been working on a new Damaged Bug really care. It’s such a nonstory to me that it record for about two years now, which is pretty became a point of humor for us to slightly unusual for me, but it’s not so much writer’s change the name to irk Pitchfork.” block,” he said. “I’ve written 30 to 40 songs, OCS was at first Dwyer’s solo project, started but they’re just not done, so I’ve taken a break while he was in other bands with names such as Pink and Brown, Zeigenbock Kopf and Coachwhips. I was curious whether it was hard to turn his solo project into a full band.

“The very first (OCS) record is really long, almost three LPs into one record, and most of it is just improvisational noise stuff,” Dwyer said.

“It wasn’t hard at all to change it into something else, because it was always this amorphous, shifting, protean thing. I don’t know why I kept the name—that would be a better question, because nobody knew who the hell OCS was anyway, but it just sort of fell into place.

“It started when I brought in a guy named Patrick Mullins. He started playing drums for me. … Then he just started writing with me, and that planted the seed that it could be a full band. Twenty years later, it is what it is now, but we just got stuck with the name. People ask me what the name means, and I have no fucking idea. … I grew to like it. It took me 20 years to get there, though.”

Since 2003, Dwyer’s band has released a Oh Sees. luis amella

and switched gears onto a different project.

It’s important to take breaks. Our band takes breaks from each other for vacations or for other side projects, and then we come back.”

Dwyer said he’s constantly on the lookout for bands to add to Castle Face Records.

“I always try to watch every band I play with,” he said. “Before I had the label, I always watched for bands to play with, write with or just meet.

I have the easy job at the label. There’s a guy named Matt Jones who’s my partner at the label, a 50-50 kind of deal, and he does a lot of the heavy lifting with the bureaucracy of it—all the bullshit that I don’t want to deal with. I have the job of going around the world, playing shows and meeting bands. People send me shit all time, and we go through demos. I listen to everything people send us.”

One of the bigger names on the label is Ty Segall, who just performed at Coachella.

“Me and Ty are very good friends, but I don’t see any collaborations happening in the future,” Dwyer said. “If anything, I would provoke him to play further out into black space. … That dude is on his own trip—heavily. I do love his collaboration with Tim Presley, though.”

Oh Sees will perform with Earth Girl Helen Brown and DYNASTY HANDBAG at 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 9, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. Tickets are $30-$35, but are currently listed as sold out.

For more information, call 760-365-5956, or visit pappyandharriets.com.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 25

AUGUST 2019

MUSIC

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

POLITICS AND MUSICAL POWER C

By matt king

aptain Ghost, a four-piece alternative-rock band, is a growing presence in the Coachella Valley music scene thanks to the group’s powerful anthems and ballads—plus its political and perhaps even conspiratorial lyrics.

And then there’s that intriguing name. I sat down to talk with Bradley Burton (songwriter/ vocals/rhythm guitar), Nick Hales (lead guitar), Mikey Hendricks (bass guitar) and Corwin Hendricks (drums). all these scientists have to combat global “I took a sheet of paper and wrote down warming,” Burton said. “Their techniques names that came to mind. I had some really kinda frustrated me—raining all these metals good ones, but they were all taken—pretty down. To know that some of these metals are much every one,” Burton said. “Captain Ghost neurotoxins, and watching my kids go outside was one of the first things I wrote down. I and play knowing this stuff is coming down didn’t really like it at first, but when I found just pissed me off.” out there were no other bands named Captain Why was “Poison Skies” chosen as the band’s Ghost, I thought it was kinda cool. first single? “The deciding factor is I envisioned “Coincidentally, there is a book from the the video for it,” Mikey Hendricks said. “It’s ’50s called Captain Ghost, which I’d love to read a dual-concept video with nuclear-era World now. One of my first choices for a name was War II footage, spraying chemicals on plants— ‘The Promised Software.’” basically proof that the government has Mikey Hendricks said the band’s power and poisoned us in the past, and suggesting, ‘What exuberant stage presence have been helpful in makes you think they’re not doing it right growing a fan base. now?’ We went out and shot in Sky Valley and “The big thing about playing live shows, slapped free-domain footage of civil-defense especially out here in this tight-knit videos and duck-and-cover films on top of it.” community, is to just make it fun,” Hendricks The political lyrics continue on second single said. “Back in high school, I was in a band “Raise the Flag,” while the third single, “True playing house shows and generator parties in Blue,” is a love ballad. the middle of the desert, and the big thing was “I think it’s really important for an artist to jumping off of amps, swinging guitars around, have some personal songs. A lot of the topics and making it fun for all of your friends who on songs we’ve talked about are fairly new to were there every single weekend. The music me,” Burton said. “I’ve been writing songs for a doesn’t always hold itself or keep people’s long time, and they started out as personal and attention, so you just want to make it fun for selfish, either about me or about a girl. But as everyone and keep it interesting.”

I’ve grown up and educated myself, they took Corwin Hendricks added: “The music just has a turn in the current direction. I don’t always so much energy. It’s hard to not get into it.” want to be writing about social or political The expression and passion of the music things. It’s actually been an accomplishment slaps you in the face from the first few verses for me to get back into personal songwriting. of the band’s lead single, “Poison Skies.”

‘True Blue’ is a song about a relationship where “That song pretty much wrote itself you try to be true—but mixed with some endwhen I learned about what was going on times type of flair.” in the environment, and the plans that Burton explained how the band came to be.

“I’m originally from Orange County. My dad and I used to come out here on the weekends to Mission Lakes to play golf and crash golf carts,” Burton said. “In 2002, my dad moved out here, and I ended up moving with him, but I still had a band in OC that I would go back and jam with on the weekends. I was never in a serious band, always just jam or garage bands. … I lived in Vegas for a few years and then moved back to Indio, still writing songs—but I had a family, so that came first. Ever since my first child was on the way, I made it a priority to be a good provider for them.

“After I got a good career, I decided it Captain Ghost. Joey Zendejas

wasn’t what I wanted to do—my passion is music. I went into a studio and did a few songs, then got invited by a friend to play an acoustic show at Plan B. So I went and played a few songs, then stuck around for the band after, which was Upper Class Poverty (which featured Mikey Hendricks on bass, and Corwin Hendricks on drums). I was really impressed by their rhythm section, and after seeing them play, I thought that I needed some guys like that. We hung out that night, and I hit them up on Facebook.”

Hales came on board after the original guitarist left. “I was/am very busy, but once I heard the tracks, I was in,” he said.

Busy is an understatement: Hales is currently part of eight (!) bands, while Burton has a wife and kids.

“Yeah, we only get to practice on Sunday, and I work trade jobs, Brad’s got a Monday through Friday gig, and Corwin works weekends,” Hales said.

Mikey Hendricks added: “You have to keep

Captain Ghost celebrates a new music video—and gets set to release its first full album the money flowing in so you can keep buying strings. We’d really love for this to be full time and have it be able to support all of us. It’s not really hard for us to be doing what we’re doing right now, because we love what we’re doing.

Our upcoming album and release show will hopefully spark things to go further.”

Mikey Hendricks elaborated on the band’s plan of attack.

“Our immediate future is releasing our fulllength album on Aug. 17, which will feature Nick Hales’ mandolin debut, with a release show at The Hood that night. We’re then following that with a tour. This upcoming season, we hope to play a lot more shows and create more music for the next album.”

Hales summed up the plan: “Today, the valley. Tomorrow, the world.”

Captain Ghost will perform at 9 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17, at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. Admission is free.

For more information, visit captainghost.com.

Homemade NY Style Pizza • Burgers Hot Dogs • Sandwiches • Salads • Appetizers Beer • Wine • Cocktails Happy hour daily 2-7 p.m., all day/nite Tuesday Nightly entertainment • Open at 11:30 a.m. daily 74360 Highway 111, Palm Desert • (760) 636-5220 www.facebook.com/HoodBarAndPizza CVIndependent.com

26 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

THREE SECRETS ON HOW IMPROVING YOUR TEAR TROUGHS WILL IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

AUGUST 2019

The Venue REPORT continued from page 24

By Shonda Chase, FNP Nurse Practitioner, Co-owner, Artistic Director and Advanced Aesethetic Injector at Revive Wellness Centers in Palm Springs and Torrance, and Medweight, Lasers and Wellness Center in Irvine

J

uly’s column revealed eight secrets on how improving your lips with dermal fillers can improve your life. This month, we’re moving “up” to reveal how improving your tear troughs can help you look younger and more confident.

Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, lead singers of Li�le Big Town, are going to be 50 years old this fall. One of the reasons they look so much younger than 50 is they’ve both paid special a�en�on to their tear troughs.

We begin to lose a lot of midface fat a�er 30 —but you don’t need to “wear” that loss any longer. As you can see by their recent photos, they’re stage-, camera- and daily “life”-ready partly due to looking like they could be in their 30s.

Tear Trough Secret No. 1: We’ve all said, “If I knew then what I know now …” to reflect how much more confident we would have been “then” than we were. Tear trough rejuvena�on can help you with your self-confidence, because you “know now” and you look like “then”! You can’t help but feel happier when you’re more confident.

Tear Trough Secret No. 2: You should only consider having your tear troughs done by an advanced provider. They will know that there are only a couple of fillers appropriate for that area. Currently, I inject Restylane in that area. Also, I use a cannula to re-volumize tear troughs, because it’s the safest injec�on method around the eyes.

Tear Trough Secret No. 3: Karen Fairchild’s and Kimberly Schlapman’s results show the benefits of ge�ng what’s called a “Full Correc�on” in aesthe�c medicine.

So ask your provider what that would mean for you.

Next month’s Secrets will reveal all of the elements of a “Full Correc�on.” Un�l then, keep the secrets.

You can email your individual ques�ons to Shonda Chase FNP or Allan Y. Wu MD, Revive’s cosme�c surgeon, at info@revivecenter.com.

CVIndependent.com

Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds

band Imperial Teen; the exact show time has not been announced. The four-piece multi-instrumental band from San Francisco has an alt/grunge, instantly recognizable sound, with alternating male/female vocals.

The group’s most-famous song, “Yoo Hoo,” is featured in the cult classic film Jawbreaker, starring Rose McGowan. The video for the song features the Imperial Teen lead singer being tied to a bed and teased by the actress herself. Lucky guy! The event is free for those 21 and older. The Alibi Palm Springs, 369 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-6561525; www.facebook.com/palmspringsalibi.

Be prepared for a short drive up Interstate 10, because at 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 8, Morongo Casino Resort Spa is hosting a show by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. He’s mostly known for his production talents and for writing songs for many other people, including Madonna, so it’s interesting to see him embarking on a solo tour. Together, Madonna and Babyface released one of my favorite songs, “Take a Bow.” Here’s hoping Babyface plays it, or that Madonna will be there, or that she herself returns to the desert one day (insert cry face emoji). Tickets start at $49. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-252-4499; www.morongocasinoresort.com.

At 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 9, Pappy and Harriet’s will welcome Oh Sees. You can read an interview with the band’s leader, John Dwyer, back on Page 24, but I’ll add this: The group’s wild, exciting, antic-filled show is guaranteed to be worth the drive. The band puts on an in-your-face, loud performance that’s perfect for the outdoor stage at Pappy and Harriet’s. Want a hot summer night with some exciting, skuzzy, punk-rock sounds?

Cold beer? And views? Check. Check. And check. Tickets start at $30—but they were listed as sold out as of our press deadline.

You can get them on secondary-sales websites, but you’ll pay a lot more. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-3655956; www.pappyandharriets.com.

At 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino will feature a performance from Mary J. Blige. She has

many hits, and it promises to be a good throwback night. Tickets start at $79. At 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 23, Fantasy Springs will host another Grammy Award-winning singer, Boz Scaggs. You most likely have heard the song “Lido Shuffle” at some point in your life, but you somehow haven’t, do your ears a favor, and bless them with the song. Tickets start at $49. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-3425000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

At 8 p.m., Monday, Aug. 12, Indio’s Club 5 Bar—along with Ian Townley and Kylie Knight, Indio-based artists and musicians— will host Host Family, Flexing, The Teddys and Carlee Hendrix. Flexing is a touring band from Corvallis, Ore., that has a dark, angular post-punk sound with a female vocalist, reminiscent of Savages, as well as Editors. The group is coming down to Indio to support recent release Modern Discipline.

The Teddys is the new project from Indio’s Bryan Garcia, drummer for the recently defunct Town Troubles. Host Family is an up-and-coming indie band that is making big splashes in the desert and beyond, with a sound reminiscent of Beach Fossils or Mac DeMarco—a laid back, original and refreshing sound compared to the punk/metal that is popular in the desert at the moment. Carlee Hendrix is a talented local singer-songwriter from Bermuda Dunes; she hasn’t played a show in a long time, so anyone who attends is in for a real treat, as she has a wide catalog of acoustic and electric indie/pop songs from which to pull. This promises to be a unique night of underground music. Bring $5. Club 5 Bar, 82971 Bliss Ave., Indio; 760-625-1719; www.facebook.com/Club5Bar. At 7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 15, local event promoters Queer Cactus Presents will welcome El Paso, Texas-based indie rock band Sleepspent, as well as Palm Springs’ Host Family, Indio’s Blue Sun and Palm Desert’s Plastic Ruby, to play at Coachella’s newest bar, the appropriately-named Coachella Bar. This show promises to be an interesting night of DIY alternative rock bands. Coachella Bar; 85995 Grapefruit Blvd., Coachella; 760-541-9034; www.facebook.com/ events/335607437106254.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 27

AUGUST 2019

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AUGUST 2019

MUSIC

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the

LUCKY 13

Photo by Esther sanchez

Meet Cynna Luchia of Sticky Doll, and Right On, Right On’s “Uncle” Ben Crowson

By Brian Blueskye

Photo by brian blueskye

stuff makes me want to stab myself in the eye to distract myself.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

The Lunachicks. I only discovered them a few years ago, and I’m so bummed I missed out when they were still together.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Anything super-dance-able. I actually started performing when I was young as a jazz dancer, so if I hear a great dance-able song by Bruno Mars or Ariana Grande, I instantly love it.

NAME Cynna Luchia GROUP Sticky Doll MORE INFO Sticky Doll is planning on putting on its all-ages Sticky Fest again this October at The Palms in Wonder Valley— but you don’t have to wait until then to see this high-desert punk group in action: You can catch Sticky Doll at the three-day Idyllwild Strong Festival on Saturday, Aug. 17. For more on the festival, visit www. idyllwildstrong.com. For more information on Sticky Doll, visit www.facebook.com/ stickydoll.

What was the first concert you attended?

Some type of benefit, possibly for Christmas.

I was about 6 or 7 years old. I think Chicago played and possibly Cher.

What was the first album you owned?

Earth, Wind and Fire, a double live album. I don’t remember the album name, but it was white.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Sticky Doll most of the time, ha ha! But when I have time to listen to other bands, the Lunachicks, Alice and Chains and X. What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

That folksy, acoustic sound coming out of Seattle and Portland that you hear a lot in commercials. I love the Northwest, but that CVIndependent.com

What’s your favorite music venue?

The Cinema Bar in (Culver City). It’s tiny and mainly a locals hang out. It’s dark and comfy.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

We just did a scratch vocal of “Millionaire” by the Queens of the Stone Age, so, “Gimme toro, gimme some more.”

What band or artist changed your life?

There are a few since music is so emotional for me, but I’d say Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde. I feel in love with the album Free, and I try to mimic Johnette when I perform.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?

To Theo, the lead singer of Lunachicks: “When are you gonna get back together so I can go rock out at your shows?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Fantasy” off of that Earth, Wind and Fire live album. I’d want something upbeat and happy.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?

There are SO many. But I’d say Concrete Blonde’s Free.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Luxury Problem” by Lunachicks.

NAME “Uncle” Ben Crowson GROUP Right On, Right On MORE INFO I first saw Right On, Right On during a Battle of the Bands at The Hood Bar and Pizza. I didn’t know what to think at first. The band offered a little funk, a little country, a little bit of a jam-band vibe—and a whole lot of rock. For more info, visit www. rightonrighton.com. Behind the drums of Right On, Right On is “Uncle” Ben Crowson.

What was the first concert you attended?

My parents were kind enough to drag me to shows by such epic bands as The Monkees and the Beach Boys (with John Stamos on drums, no less). My first journey on my own was in 1993. A little band called Pearl Jam ventured out to the Empire Polo Club in Indio and put on the best show my 16-year-old ass had ever seen.

What was the first album you owned?

I distinctly remember wearing out the cassette reels of Van Halen’s 1984 … in 1984.

It was either that or the Neil Diamond classic Hot August Night sent to me accidentally by Columbia House.

What bands are you listening to right now?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention ALL of the local bands that are currently killing it with their new records, so I won’t mention any of them. As far as mainstream music, this is the part where the old man in me wants to scream that music sucks today, and ask why Foghat isn’t releasing new music … but I can’t. A favorite of our band is the Scott Pemberton Band out of Oregon.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

If pressed, I would have to say current, popular hip hop escapes me.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

I missed seeing Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia before he passed. Maybe the Beach Boys without John Stamos?

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

I grew up on musicals, but I don’t find any guilt in that. Have you ever heard me and my friends singing in unison to Jesus Christ Superstar? You should.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I just got back from The Gorge in Washington for those Dead and Company shows. It’s gonna be hard to top that. … Oh, and Schmidy’s. I miss Schmidy’s!

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

There’s so much more (good and bad) going on in my head, lyrics are the least of my worries.

What band or artist changed your life?

Pearl Jam has been a constant influence in my life, from early high school to present day.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?

I’d ask Eddie Vedder where he gets his Polaroid film and typewriter ribbons. That’s me subtly mentioning I have Polaroid cameras and typewriters …

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“The Long Road” by Pearl Jam, and get drunk, cry and tell exaggerated stories of my conquered loves and mountains.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?

Pearl Jam, Ten. Changed my life. 13 years old to current age. Hands down.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

Pick a night, and go to any of the local music venues around, and listen to the unbelievable talent we are blessed to have right now.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 29

AUGUST 2019

CANNABIS IN THE CV

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

VARIED STRATEGIES by robin goins

Hot Springs will, it also means the cannabis industry can be carefully incorporated into the city culture, thus avoiding over-saturation and allowing for manageable growth while the cannabis industry evolves.

At this point, cannabis businesses are not allowed in the cities of Indio, La Quinta, Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage—and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because surrounding or nearby cities have embraced cannabis, residents (and visitors) can still enjoy the benefits of the cannabis industry without dealing with the hassles and costs of regulating it in their cities.

Because the cannabis industry is so new, it’s also somewhat unstable—meaning there may be growing pains for the cities that have embraced marijuana. Voss cautions some organizations will be bought out; some will close; and others will try to sell their licenses

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while the industry adjusts. It is crucial, according to Voss, that each city “design their ordinances and codes around their ability to adapt in an industry that is constantly changing.”

There is no doubt that marijuana can help the Coachella Valley evolve from a seasonal tourist-driven economy into an area with a stronger year-round economy.

“Each city will eventually find its fit, which will only lead to an overall economic boom within the entire Coachella Valley,” Voss said.

“The industry is naturally designing its own characteristics for each city based on the needs, wants and use of cannabis by its residents.”

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ast month, I examined the economic boom expected in the city of Desert Hot Springs as a result of its decision to embrace the cannabis industry. It was the first Southern California city to allow legal cultivation—and economic opportunities from the cannabis industry are helping turning the city around.

As for the other eight Coachella Valley cities … almost half of them have yet to welcome any sort of marijuana businesses.

The five that have opened the door in some way to the cannabis industry understand that it can help create a diversified economy that is less dependent on tourism and the resulting serviceoriented businesses. Anyone who owns a business in the Coachella Valley knows that summers unoccupied shopping centers for such can be tough—but the new cannabis industry facilities, helping revitalize portions of offers more year-round business and increased Date Palm Drive, Highway 111 and Perez professional opportunities.

Road. Because Cathedral City had a lot of Dirk Voss, a lead cannabis consultant for vacant buildings—with existing utilities and Urban Management Strategies, is a former infrastructure—new marijuana businesses chairman of the Desert Hot Springs Planning were able to save money by locating there.

Commission. He was directly involved in the In other words, city leaders found a great approval processes for many of the cannabis way to utilize the city’s specific assets to businesses in the city and has watched the accommodate the cannabis industry. industry evolve throughout the valley. Voss The city of Coachella has taken a different said the cannabis industry can offer cities a approach, mandating that projects have a five“multiplier effect,” because the year-round acre minimum and be part of a master-plan economic stability of cannabis bolsters other development with specific cannabis zoning. business sectors, including entertainment, Voss said these mandates have presented recreation, housing and more. challenges to some interested cannabis Because Coachella Valley cities have each businesses, “especially since power has been embraced—or eschewed—cannabis in an issue. However, the city is evolving and different ways, Voss predicts each city will expanding its plan to get the best economic eventually have its own cannabis “flavor” development possible. The city has some or “culture.” For example, Palm Springs has catching up to do, but it is also in line to have approved lounges, which makes sense for the a culture of major cultivation opportunities in city and its downtown tourist culture. The the city.” city is positioning itself to become a cannabis Palm Desert, meanwhile, has taken a slow, tourist destination based on its distinct methodical approach to introducing cannabis assets, much like Desert Hot Springs has by businesses to the city—limiting the number promoting health and its mineral spas. of licenses to allow for slow growth. While In contrast, Cathedral City has positioned this means the city may not see the economic itself for large-scale cultivation. The city windfall that, say, Palm Springs and Desert has utilized vacant land and existing yet

N. La Brea

L

Each Coachella Valley city has approached the cannabis industry differently—and this is a very good thing

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30 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

AUGUST 2019

OPINION SAVAGE LOVE

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

PREFERENCE PROBLEMS

BY DAN SAVAGE

I

’m a man with a very liberal background. Recently, a girl I started dating—a girl from a similar background—mentioned that she has “a thing for black guys.” She also met my childhood best friend, a man of Korean descent, and commented to me that she found him handsome despite not typically being attracted to Asian guys.

The position that I’ve always held is that we’re attracted to individuals, not types, and it’s wrong to have expectations of people based on race—especially when it comes to sexualizing/fetishizing people. I think we should date and have sex with whomever we want and not carry prejudiced expectations into our relationships. I am worried she sees black men as stereotypes of athleticism, confidence and the other complicated constructions we’ve made about the black body, like black men having bigger dicks. I also worry that she might see me as less masculine and less well-endowed because of my race.

I eventually asked her about these issues, and we had a tense conversation. I tried to ask if she had ever checked herself for possible prejudice where her sexual desires are concerned, and she shut the conversation down by accusing me of trying to control her. I reassured her that I wasn’t trying to control her, but it is possible I was projecting the insecurity her comments stirred in me into the conversation. I’m trying to balance two components: my own insecurity and the possibility that she’s holding a legitimately prejudiced opinion that makes me uncomfortable.

Any advice?

Seeking To Interrogate Newish Girlfriend’s Statements

It’s a big leap from, “I have a thing for black guys,” to, “White guys aren’t masculine or wellendowed,” STINGS, and you made that leap on your own. So in addition to confronting your new girlfriend about her attitudes and assumptions … you might want to give some thought to your own?

That said, the things your girlfriend has said about black and Asian men are legit problematic.

When someone describes their attraction to a certain group, racial or otherwise, as “a thing,” that usually means they see members of that group as things—and in a society that dehumanizes black people, white people can easily come to see black people as objects.

As for her comment about your Korean friend: Prevailing beauty standards shape our ideas about attractiveness, and those standards are shaped by our rabidly racist culture. A person socialized to only recognize the beauty

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My girlfriend says she has ‘a thing’ for black guys, and doesn’t normally like Asian guys; is this wrong?

of men or women of European descent may not even consider—they may not even be able to perceive—the attractiveness of people who aren’t white. And then when someone of a different race does manage to make a blip on their sex radar, it comes as a surprise. But instead of reconsidering their ideas about attractiveness, a dumb fucking white person— even one from a liberal background—is likelier to say something stupid like, “I don’t usually find Asian guys hot, but your Korean friend is attractive,” rather than rethinking their assumptions about their desires. Declaring one Asian guy an exception allows someone like your girlfriend to have her racist cake (“I don’t find Asian guys hot”) and eat it too (“But this Asian guy is hot”).

It’s a shame your girlfriend reacted defensively when you tried to bring all this up, STINGS, but sometimes people react defensively in the moment and then keep thinking about it. My advice: Keep bringing it up—but it would help if you owned your own shit during these conversations (and you have some shit of your own) rather than just self-righteously going after your girlfriend for her shit.

I have to say, though, I disagree with you on one thing: People do have types, and there’s nothing wrong with having types. It’s a good idea to ask ourselves whether our “types” are actually ours and not just assigned to us by conventional standards of beauty (white, slim, young) or a thoughtless/fetishizing reaction to those standards (a desire to transgress with nonwhite, larger or older folks).

I’m a middle-aged African-American man. I’m single. I dress well; I’m fit; I cycle to work; I eat healthy, etc. I live in a basement apartment on a narrow street in a large city. My only window faces the street.

After showering, and pretty much whenever I’m home, I’m naked while walking around my apartment. A young white couple moved in across the street, and they have an unobstructed view into my apartment. At first, I would notice the woman standing at the window looking my way as I toweled off. Then the male as well. And when I masturbate, which I sometimes do after a shower, I noticed them both making several passes by their windows to look. Later, I noticed the male coming out late in the evening when the view into my apartment is at its optimum to watch me masturbate. He seems very interested. The woman will come outside and sit on the steps in the morning and look directly into my apartment at me while drinking her coffee. More than once,

she has run her hand up the inside of her thigh as she’s watching. Also I’ve noticed that their shades, which used to be closed most of the time, are always wide open with lights on so I can clearly see them in their apartment.

I’m sure the woman knows that I want her— and the male seems to be exhibiting bi tendencies (something I’m not interested in at all). In your opinion, are these two a voyeur couple or a submissive cuckold couple? How should I approach to seduce? If she’s sitting on her steps, can I go over and say, “Good morning,” to break the ice?

And what’s up with the guy?

Display Attracts Neighbors’ Glazed Looks Everyday I once dated a guy who was arrested in his own apartment at 10 in the morning for masturbating in front of an open window.

Granted, he lived across the street from a school (a university, not a middle school), and that may have had something to do with it. But he was a white guy, DANGLE, and considering all the ways African-American men are targeted by the police, I feel obligated to warn you about something you already know: Cops are always looking for an excuse to arrest or harass a black man, and your exhibitionism could attract the attentions of the authorities.

That said, DANGLE, if everything is as you describe it—if this isn’t a case of dickful thinking on your part—it sounds like this couple is interested. “Interest” is a spectrum, of course, and they could find it interesting to live across the street from a hot, in-shape exhibitionist, and difficult to look away, without actually wanting to be fucked (her) or be cuckolded (him) by you. But if they’re staring into your apartment while you walk around naked and throwing open the curtains so you can stare into theirs, I’d say the ice has already been broken. So say hello the next time you run into them on the street. Keep that first convo light, neighborly and nonsexual, and see where it leads. But if during that first convo, they invite you over for a beer sometime … well, that’s a Yahtzee. But even then, use your words; draw them out; make sure everyone is on the same page.

As for the guy: Maybe he’s bi. Maybe he’s a cuck. Maybe he’s the woman’s gay roommate.

There’s only one way to find out what’s up with him: Say hello, and get to know them.

Read Savage Love every Wednesday at CVIndependent.com; mail@savagelove.net; @ fakedansavage on Twitter; ITMFA.org.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 31

AUGUST 2019

OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

“I’m Feeling It”—it’s what’s on the outside.

By Matt Jones

or how the four theme answers are presented?

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10 Convulsive sounds 44 “Caveat ___” 14 Basalt, once 45 Ambient 1: Music for 15 2022 World Cup city Airports composer 16 DuVall of 21 Grams 46 I Am … ___ Fierce 17 Thin as ___ (Beyonce album) 18 Hunting lodge 48 The Prophet author decoration Kahlil 20 Author whose highly 50 Prefix meaning “egg” anticipated sequel The 52 Anguish Testaments comes out 54 Request at a hair in September salon, maybe 22 Good ___ (show 60 Someone born under that, despite online the sign Cancer, in petitions, is not on astrology Netflix) 61 Figure out 23 It’s not far from fa 62 Sister of Charlotte and 24 Israeli intelligence Emily agency 63 Snack served at 27 Part of DKNY some crossword 31 Maya Hawke’s mom tournaments Thurman 64 Allow to flow freely 32 Rodeo activity again 37 Bohemian Rhapsody 65 Distort star Malek 66 Campsite sight 38 Highest capacity 67 Clementine leftovers 39 Emotional ...

Down 1 Leader at a mosque 2 “She Used to Be Mine” singer Bareilles 3 Petri dish gel 4 ¡Three ___! (1986 comedy) 5 Fried squid 6 Don Draper et al. (with or without an “M”) 7 Smoky chimney deposits 8 Reaction from 1990sera Keanu 9 Bridge defenders 10 Doctorate pursuer, presumably 11 Muffin topper?

12 Unit of sweat 13 Lamentable 19 Sci-fi character who sings “Yub Nub” 21 Modified 24 Illness with swellings 25 Nebraska city on the Missouri 26 Marching band section 28 Colder and windier 29 Whirlpool Corporation brand 30 Impersonation with two “V” signs and hunched shoulders

33 Jeopardy! all-star Mueller 34 Prankish one 35 Word before interested or guilty 36 Like lovestruck eyes 40 Imbibes 43 Words said with a shrug 47 Nice with?

49 Like every era except this one 51 “Turn on the A/C!” complaint 52 Toy Story 4 co-star 53 Beckett no-show 54 Straight, No Chaser jazz pianist 55 Top-shelf 56 Aer Lingus land 57 Ye ___ Shoppe 58 NASCAR course shape 59 2020 Milwaukee conventioneers, for short 60 “Live ___” (Taco Bell slogan) © 2019 Matt Jones Find the answers in the “About” section of CVIndependent.com!

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32 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

AUGUST 2019

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