Coachella Valley Independent February 2023

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 Dennis Wodzisz

Contributors

Max Cannon, Kevin Carlow, Melissa Daniels, Charles Drabkin, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Clay Jones, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Kay Kudukis, Cat Makino, Brett Newton, Greg Niemann, Dan Perkins, Theresa Sama, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor

The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month. All content is ©2023 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.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, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, CalMatters, DAP Health, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, and the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

A decade and a half ago, when I was the editor of the weekly newspaper in Tucson, Ariz., I put together a business plan to start a new weekly newspaper in the greater Palm Springs area, called—you guessed it—the Coachella Valley Independent Those plans would not come to be, thanks largely to the Great Recession. Fortunately, the Independent would come to be—not as a weekly, but as an online publication with a monthly print edition—more than four years later, when my husband and I decided to take the figurative leap.

I recently dusted off that old business plan and gave it a look. While most of the features I planned for the weekly version of the Independent eventually made their way into the online/monthly version of the Independent, several didn’t—like a regular golf column, for example. There was also, as described on Page 14 of my business plan, “a society/ charity page or section (my tentative title: ‘Do-Gooder’).”

While the Independent has covered many local nonprofits and their associated charity events over the years, we’ve never had a regular section dedicated to such things. That is, until now: On Page 20 of this print edition, and at CVIndependent.com, you’ll find our inaugural Do-Gooder coverage.

Do-Gooder will consist of three parts, two of which we’ve launched right away. First off, we’re publishing at least one feature each month on a local nonprofit, written by Independent staffers and contributors. Second: Local nonprofits will be able to publish, for free, their own pieces online (as long as they meet our standards). In print, we’re running the Independent-produced feature(s), and excerpts from the pieces provided by nonprofits. (If you work for a nonprofit and want information on how to do this, drop me a line.)

Down the line a bit, we’ll launch the third part of Do-Gooder: Society-style coverage from selected nonprofit events around the valley.

It’s no coincidence that we’re launching Do-Gooder just weeks after the local daily suspended its Desert Scene section due to budget cuts. In the wake of the elimination of Desert Scene, a number of folks—representatives of local nonprofits, event promoters and others—reached out to the Independent to ask if we planned to fill the gap.

The answer: Yes, indeed we are.

It should be noted that Julie Makinen, The Desert Sun’s executive editor— someone for whom I have great respect, as she’s managed to keep The Desert Sun viable despite the idiocy of its parent company, Gannett—is trying to get together enough money in local donations to bring back Desert Scene. I don’t fault her for doing this, though I fault Gannett for putting Julie in this predicament.

Regardless of whether she succeeds, we’re dedicated to Do-Gooder—and to continuing to fill as many gaps we can in local coverage as Gannett continues its death spiral.

—Jimmy Boegle jboegle@cvindependent.com

OPINION

OPINION HIKING WITH T

BY THERESA SAMA

What are your goals for 2023? Are you thinking of resetting and recharging with the help of outdoor adventure? If that’s your intention, there are plenty of trails throughout the Coachella Valley—including three new trails that have opened within the last five years.

The Kim Nicol Trail is a 5.6-mile moderate loop with an elevation gain of around 950 feet, according to AllTrails.com. It’s a fairly new trail that opened in 2018, in memory of Kim Nicol, a biologist and regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Nicol’s career was devoted to protecting endangered species and open space in the Coachella Valley. At the time of its opening, it was the first new major hiking trail to be established in the Coachella Valley in more than a decade.

The trail, near Desert Hot Springs, is off the beaten path, located at 20th Avenue and Corkhill Road, in Desert Edge. You may not see anyone during this hike (as with any hike, it’s best to not go alone)—but you may see the endangered Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, according to the article “Everything Is Connected on the Kim Nicol Trail” by the Friends of the Desert Mountains. The terrain is very sandy, at times with thick, soft sand; the lizards love that. The hike has a steep incline, but you will be rewarded with the amazing natural geology of the rocks and, at the top, with 360-degree views of the

open desert and the surrounding hills and mountains. Dogs on leashes, horses and bicycles are allowed. I’m excited to check this trail out soon!

There’s another new trail that’s on my to-do list: the East Indio Hills Badlands Trail. It’s about a 5.5-mile, moderately challenging loop that traverses the San Andreas Fault. HikingGuy.com offers a great guide for this hike, featuring turn-by-turn directions with pictures, descriptions and a video tour. He says the trail has 900 feet of total climbing, with a max elevation of 540 feet (though AllTrails. com has a slightly lower elevation).

From what I understand, after reaching the badlands (the coolest part of the hike), there’s a rock climb before descending into the slot canyon. The canyon narrows and then opens up to another rock climb with some switchbacks, followed by a bit of an open incline before reaching the high point on the ridge—where you will have panoramic views of the desert, from the Salton Sea to Mount San Jacinto to the San Gorgonio Mountains. Then the trail starts downhill and descends into the canyon and back to the desert area.

The trail was established in 2020 and is located just off Interstate 10, at the north end of Golf Center Parkway and the eastern end of Avenue 42. After starting along the edge of the Golf Club at Terra Lago, you will walk through a boring, flat sandy area before reaching the badlands. It’s important to follow the trail markers and stay on track, as you can easily veer onto a number of side trails. The badlands is described as a magical area, filled with ancient rock formations. Even seashells and other remnants of times long ago can be found, from when ancient Lake Cahuilla filled

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

the area. This is certainly a unique and diverse trail that has a bit of climbing, rock-scrambling and hiking through some thick sand. Dogs on leashes are welcome. I can’t wait to get my feet in the sand and on the rocks of this trail—and report back on my experience.

The newest trail, Long Canyon Trail, is about a 10-to-12-mile stretch (one way) that leads into Joshua Tree National Park. The trail is very sandy and rocky and has a gradual elevation gain of more than 1,200 feet. The trailhead is located on the eastern edge of Desert Hot Springs, about one mile north of where Long Canyon Road meets Hacienda Avenue. I did about 3 miles of this trail before it officially opened in late 2021—and those first 3 miles were not that exciting. However, from what I’ve read, if you go far enough (at just more than 4 miles), you can find the ruins of an old cabin, Chuckawalla Bill’s cabin—or the Rock House. This is where Chuckawalla Bill lived back in the 1930s; the story can be found in the book The Man From the Cave by Colin Fletcher. The cabin seems to be a popular turnaround point on a notso-populated trail. I need to check it out so I can report back on my adventure. Who’s with me? Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on this trail.

All three of these trails have limited to no shade, so please be mindful of weather conditions and the time of day when planning your hike. Always take a buddy and more water than you will need (at least 1-3 liters)— and be safe.

A big thank you goes to Friends of the Desert Mountains, Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, the Bureau of Land Management and many other organizations, donors and volunteers for all they do in the preservation of the precious land, the maintenance, and building these new trails for us all.

Friends of the Desert Mountains offer a wide range of educational nature walks, interpretative guided hikes, full moon hikes and so much more. The organization also offers a list of open and closed trails in the Coachella Valley that’s worth checking out before you start your hike. Finally, the Friends and the city of Palm Desert will be hosting the annual Coachella Valley Wildflower Festival on Saturday, March 4, at the Civic Center Park in Palm Desert. This is a free and fun event for the whole family event that celebrates wellness, recreation, safety and the outdoors. For more information and visit www. DesertMountains.org.

It’s a new year, so it’s a fine time to explore new trails

The Kim Nicol Trail opened in 2018 in memory of a biologist and regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Theresa Sama

OPINION OPINION

THE GIRL CLUB

BY KAY KUDUKIS

Meet Melissa Dollman, a researcher, archivist and film buff who loves the retro vibe

Mitchell, S.D., home of the famed Corn Palace, is the birthplace of Palm Springs resident and film archivist Melissa Dollman.

WE'RE #1 FOR A REASON

Mom was 20, and Dad was 18 when Melissa arrived. As often happens with young parents, their relationship did not last. Mom remarried, and that’s the man Dollman calls Dad. Dad was a trucker, and the family skipped around South Dakota a lot before state-hopping, in order: California, Indiana, Tennessee, back to Indiana, Iowa, then San Diego, and back to Orange County for junior and senior year. Dollman attended 13 different schools.

Biologically, Dollman is Austro-Hungarian on her bio-dad’s side; Mom is Bohemian and Indigenous American. I ask about percentages, and Dollman patiently explains that’s a white-

people thing; Indigenous Americans find that rude. Their Nativeness is defined by involvement within the tribe, not percentages. So don’t ask about that.

Dollman has that knowledge not necessarily because she was told as a child (Dollman tells me she is “of the diaspora”), but because she is involved in Tribesourcing Southwest Film, a collection of nearly 500 films in the American Indian Film Gallery housed at the University

art when it came to selecting a high school elective. The rest of her classes were college prep, history, French and German.

She blew off the SATs for a six-week romp in Europe, after which she returned home, packed up and moved to Nebraska—which seems like an odd choice after Europe—to live with her cousin. But the cost of living was cheap, and at 16, she’d enjoyed a summer there with her cousin. Working at Target paid their bills with party money to spare.

Washington, D.C., for a job with Discovery Communications. Just more than a year later, she was working at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library.

While in Massachusetts, she met fellow archivist Devin Orgeron. He was married; she was dating some guy. Later, after his 20-year marriage exploded—it had nothing to do with his and Dollman’s friendship—they eventually discussed their mutual attraction.

of Arizona. Native Americans watch them and provide content narratives.

ASK US ABOUT OUR 0% FINANCING

Some films, made by white people, show sacred ceremonies that are not for non-Native eyes, because as history and my questions prove, we don’t have any boundaries. Those films are removed.

Dollman played clarinet, the instrument responsible for her mother’s scholarship, and while she made second chair, she chose

She answered an ad for Citizen Action, and environmental organizations became Dollman’s jam. Clean Water Action in Colorado was her next adventure before she moved to Fresno.

“We actually passed some rad legislation in Nebraska, Colorado. … We did amazing things,” she says with quiet satisfaction.

She considered living in Europe, but instead moved to San Francisco for another position with Clean Water Action. It was there that grassroots gave way to more permanent roots.

“I quit canvassing so that I could go back to school. You would work late, party, get up late, and go to work,” she says. “There was no room for school, so I had to refocus.”

Classes weren’t free; that went away under Reagan’s 1960s governorship. Although community college classes were inexpensive, you needed an income, so Dollman worked at Real Food Company and hit the books. It took a while, but her grades got her a two-year scholarship to UC Berkeley.

She was accepted in art and history. Dollman wanted to narrow it down further to study just American art; they said no. She asked if there was a program at UC Berkeley where she could do that; they told her American studies.

“You can do just about anything,” she says. “So I continued with art practice, and cultural landscape studies and cultural geography.”

When that chapter was written, she was 30, and bound and determined to put her degree to good use. But her first job ...

“I was basically an executive assistant,” she says. No one goes to college to be an executive assistant.

She was with a man she would eventually marry, and they discussed her attending grad school. She wondered: Did her dream job really exist? After endless Googling, she found a program working with films and video called Moving Image Archive Studies. It was real!

UCLA was grueling. She got her master’s degree, but that, combined with her husband’s new 80-hour work week, exposed the cracks in their marriage. Divorced, she moved to

Orgeron suggested she move to North Carolina with him, and she did, but finding a job was a struggle. She was told she was overqualified for every job for which she applied. Dollman considered her options. In graduate school, they’ll pay you to teach, she thought. They’d pay me to do research … and I’ll come out the other end with a doctorate

In 2021, Dollman received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in American studies with a focus on film/media/PR, women’s studies and digital humanities.

She and Devin were now married, and they decided to move back to California. He’d spent a great deal of his childhood in Palm Springs and loved it. Dollman, an avid vintage shopper, loved the retro vibe, too. They purchased a midcentury-modern home and filled it with like-minded, tasteful, fun ephemera. And their pet bunny.

They created Deserted Films (desertedfilms. org), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Palm Springs history through home movies. The couple recently hosted a screening of Coachella Valley-specific ephemera, Holiday Oddities, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, selling more than 90 tickets.

An in-demand speaker, Dollman is also working on a future iteration of her dissertation, Changing Lanes: A Reanimation of Shell Oil’s Carol Lane, about the first living trademark. (Lane was like Betty Crocker, but for the modern, motoring girl.)

What we want to be when we grow up rarely remains the same. Dollman aspired to be a teacher, then an interpreter, then she didn’t know—so she lived out loud until she learned about what she could not be taught: Herself.

Her story involves her grandfather being disowned for marrying a Native American. Despite centuries-long, small-minded prejudice and humble beginnings, Dollman painted her own landscape and created a future out of preserving the past. That’s pretty badass if you ask me.

Learn more at melissadollman.com.

Devin Orgeron and Melissa Dollman at the recent Deserted Films event at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.

A PPP MYSTERY

Have you ever heard of Desert Payroll Solutions? It is “a cannabis payroll company with cannabis payroll software and cannabis HR services” based in Palm Springs, says the company website’s metadata description.

According to the company’s Paycheck Protection Program application, it had a lot of employees back in 2020—185 of them. Based on those employees, the company was approved for a $1,370,560 loan on June 15, 2020, from the pandemic-era forgivable-funding program meant to keep people employed during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s not clear whether the loan was forgiven, or paid off, or if it’s in the process of being paid

off. A database of PPP loans maintained by journalism organization ProPublica says the status of the loan to Desert Payroll Solutions is “not disclosed.”

According to FederalPay.org, Desert Payroll Solutions was large, as far as payrollservices companies receiving PPP funding go: “Nationwide, 3,833 businesses in the ‘Payroll Services’ industry received a total of $572.25 million in PPP loans. … PPP recipients in this industry report an average of 16 employees, 91% lower than Desert Payroll Solutions LLC’s reported 185 employees, and received an average PPP loan of $149,296, 89% lower than this company’s loan of $1.37 million.”

Given all this, the Independent decided to look into Desert Payroll Solutions—but there’s not a lot of information online about the company. The “industry news” section on the company’s website hasn’t been updated since 2019. The company’s articles of organization on the California secretary of state’s website show that the company came to be in 2016; the sole manager listed on the most recent statement of information, as filed with the state, is Lauri Kibby.

We couldn’t easily find any DPS employees to talk to, because a search on LinkedIn for “Desert Payroll Solutions” returns no results. (By comparison, a search for “Coachella Valley Independent,” a company with two employees and about 20 independent contractors, returns 15 results in the “people” section alone.)

While the public-facing Desert Payroll Solutions website makes no mention of cannabis as of this writing, the site’s metadata description—which is picked up by search engines like Google—describes DPS as “a cannabis payroll company with cannabis payroll software and cannabis HR services.” It’s worth noting that according to SBA guidance, both “direct marijuana businesses” and “indirect marijuana businesses,” which “aid in the use, growth, distribution, enhancement or other development of marijuana,” were not eligible for PPP funds.

We had a lot of questions. Therefore, the Independent reached out to Kibby to ask her

more about Desert Payroll Solutions and the PPP loan. We sent her emails, and left her voicemails at the number for Endourage, a Colorado-based company for hemp-based therapeutics where she is the co-founder and chairwoman. We received no response as of our press deadline.

The address listed for Desert Payroll Solutions on the company’s most recent statement of information, filed with the state on Aug. 29, 2022, is 3540 N. Anza Road, in Palm Springs. At that address is a warehouse complex, and in front of the property, there’s a free-standing sign that reads “KG Executive Plaza,” which bears the logo of a business called Kings Garden Inc. (KGI).

Kings Garden is a cannabis company. The KGI website includes a mission statement which says, in part, “Founded in 2015 and based in Coachella Valley, Kings Garden Inc. is California’s preeminent cannabis cultivation, processing, distribution and manufacturing company, specializing in premium grade boutique products at an unrivaled commercial scale.”

The corporate database Crunchbase says about Kings Garden: “Now one of the largest producers in California, Kings Garden prides itself on having organized a highly experienced cannabis management and operations team, while being fully compliant and licensed across the state of California.”

Kibby, on her LinkedIn page, lists herself as the co-founder of Kings Garden Inc., with her tenure at the company lasting from June 2015 to December 2021. Kings Garden and Desert Payroll Solutions have something else in common besides Kibby and the location: Michael King. He’s listed as the CEO of DPS on the company’s most recent statement of information filing, and he lists himself as the principal CEO of Kings Garden Inc. on his LinkedIn page.

In October, MJBizDaily reported that Kings Garden was having financial issues: “In July, privately held Kings Garden—headquartered in Palm Springs and a holder of cultivation, manufacturing and distribution licenses— defaulted on $2.3 million in rent and related

fees owed to Innovative Industrial Properties (IIP), a San Diego-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that’s a major player in cannabis, regulatory filings first cited by a Twitter user reveal. A subsequent lawsuit filed by IIP— which leases more than 8.5 million square feet of commercial real estate to some of the nation’s biggest cannabis companies—against Kings Garden was settled out of court on Sept. 11 ‘to the mutual satisfaction of both parties,’ according to more recent filings.”

Kibby is a well-known figure in the Coachella Valley due to her community involvement. She volunteers her time as the vice chair of the DAP Health board of directors, and she previously served as a board member at the Mizell Senior Center.

On the business side, she’s quite busy. According to her LinkedIn profile, she’s a managing partner of CDI Ventures LLC, which she started in 2009, and she founded real estate-development company Selene International LLC in 2013. As mentioned above, she’s the co-founder and chairwoman of Endourage. She’s also the developer of the stalled Dream Hotel project. Back in November 2017, Kibby staged a ground-breaking and splashy press event for the project near the Palm Springs Convention Center, telling the audience the

project would be completed by the end of 2019. Last summer, Kibby made the rounds to assure residents the hotel would indeed happen, after the city of Palm Springs put her and several other developers of stalled hotel projects on notice. Deputy City Manager Flinn Fagg confirmed that legal action could be taken by the city if the Dream Hotel doesn’t materialize soon.

Late last year, Kibby became involved with yet another project: On Dec. 5, the Independent received a press release calling attention to the launch of the “PickleClub” project.

“An ownership group, led by local entrepreneur Lauri Kibby announced today that a new indoor pickleball facility and social club—PickleClub, is targeting a June opening in Palm Springs,” the release began. “The group is deep into discussions with the Planning Commission (of the city of Palm Springs) and anticipates breaking ground in April. The group has its sights set on national expansion after the Palm Springs launch.”

As Kibby works on the PickleClub project, questions remain regarding some of her other business projects, including the languishing Dream Hotel project—and Desert Payroll Solutions, with its 185 employees as of 2020, and its $1.37 million PPP loan.

by Kevin Fitzgerald

Cannabis HR company Desert Payroll Solutions received a $1.37 million loan based on 185 employees. A LinkedIn search for the company shows zero results.

This building at 3540 N. Anza Road bears the signage of the Kings Garden Inc. cannabis cultivation business. The same address is listed on company filings as the principal address of Desert Payroll Solutions LLC. Kevin Fitzgerald

CIVIC SOLUTIONS

by

In the last half of 2022, the city of Palm Springs finally took some steps toward progress in the movement to secure reparations for Black residents.

In November, the Section 14 Survivors group refiled a notice to the city of Palm Springs detailing more specifics about how residents and their descendants were harmed by the city’s razing of homes in a one-square-mile area during the 1950s and 1960s. The group secured new legal counsel and started a nationwide push to get the word out about its efforts.

This year, the group’s efforts are broadening to include more community conversations and outreach. Civil rights attorney Areva Martin, who began working with the Section 14 Survivors

group late last summer, said there’s more foundational work to be done outside of the government and legal processes.

“This is history, and we’re trying to capture it, and it hasn’t been captured in this way,” she said.

In February, the group plans multiple events in conjunction with the Palm Springs Black History Committee to commemorate Black History Month. In addition to participating in the annual parade and meeting with clergy, the group will host a public testimonial forum where survivors— some for the first time—will share their recollections of their homes and experiences living on Section 14.

Not only is this a way for the survivors to process their own healing around what happened to their families; it adds new perspective to the historical record, Martin said.

“There are so many people who have heard

or read or may have misconceptions about what the Section 14 community was,” Martin said. “We’ve heard very pejorative terms used to describe that community, and we want people to be disabused of any misconceptions they may have about the people that lived there.”

The Section 14 Survivors group organized following increasing discussions in the last two years regarding the city’s role in removing communities of color from the one-square-mile area known as Section 14 in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, city policies restricted people of color from living in certain parts of the city. The area—on reservation land belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians—was home to many people of color who worked in the city’s hospitality industry, as well as carpenters, laborers and domestic workers who helped fuel the city’s rise. Some residents ran their own businesses, and some built

their homes themselves.

The city took over the land in pursuit of commercial enterprises, resulting in the dislocation of residents and destruction of property. Many of Palm Springs’ Black residents moved to the neighborhood now known as Desert Highland-Gateway Estates, in the northern portion of the city.

The monetary damages for the destruction, based on estimates from economist Julianne Malveaux, could range from $400 million to $2 billion.

The city formally issued an apology for its actions in September 2021, about a half-century after the California attorney general referred to the city’s actions as a “city-engineered holocaust.” Otherwise, little action was taken until late 2022 amid the push from the Section 14 Survivors group, when the city issued a request for proposals for a firm to help develop a reparations program. A contract could be awarded in the coming weeks.

Martin said having survivors speak their truth may also help the broader community understand why the reparations effort is under way.

“I think it’s very easy for people to think that they are against something when they have just read or heard one side of a story, or been fed one narrative. But hopefully, when people hear the truth, when they hear these oral histories, it will soften hearts, and change minds, and bring people together,” she said.

Martin said another major goal for the first half of 2023 is locating more survivors and descendants. On this front, she hopes to see awareness spread beyond Palm Springs, given how many people may have left the area.

These efforts started with a successful Los Angeles press conference in November. Right now, the group has contact information for around 600 survivors and descendants, Martin

said. But given the size of the affected area, there could be thousands more, Martin said.

“We’ve had people reaching out to us, saying, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about the story I saw on social media,’ or, ‘I saw an interview on ABC,’” Martin said. “So you know, that’s a part of this effort to continue to nationalize the story so that we can reach more people who may have been impacted.”

What’s happening in Palm Springs could reverberate throughout the nation. Martin is also in touch with the state’s Reparations Task Force and other civil rights attorneys working on similar issues across the country.

“The (reparations) movement is picking up steam and gaining traction in all parts of our state and throughout our nation,” she said.

In January 2021, the city of Evanston, Ill., instituted a housing-assistance program that stemmed from a reparations program to address historical discrimination against Black residents. The city of San Francisco has a commission working on reparations efforts, as does Asheville, N.C.

But every city’s story is different, and each push will take its own uncharted course through courts, city governments and community conversations. The work is far from over, and it’s far from easy, but Martin said it’s essential to achieve justice.

“There are forces throughout our state and country that would rather we hide and deny and whitewash and distort that history,” she said. “And that’s why it’s so important that we not allow those voices to ever win, or to ever become the prevailing voices, because if we don’t acknowledge our history, we are doomed to repeat it.”

For more information, visit facebook. com/PalmSpringsSection14Survivors or Section14Survivors.com.

Melissa daniels

The Section 14 Survivors group plans to do more public outreach in 2023

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/

Homes were burned by the city during the effort to clear Section 14. Photo courtesy of the Palm Springs Historical Society

CV HISTORY

by Greg Niemann

The Coachella Valley is a trough formed by the upthrust of mountains during seismic upheavals. The famed San Andreas Fault runs through the valley, going southeast to northwest just north of Interstate 10. Northwest, several streams tumble down rocky canyons off the eastern escarpment of Mount San Jacinto, forming palm-lined pools before disappearing into sand and gravel. Tahquitz, Andreas, Murray and Palm Canyons provided for the Cahuilla Indians—and the settlers and visitors who followed.

In addition to the canyons, hot springs well out of the ground, nurturing broad areas with

fan palms, palo verdes, mesquite trees, and smoke trees.

The indigenous and ubiquitous “palm” of Palm Springs is the Washingtonia fan palm (Washingtonia filifera). Found in California’s canyons and in isolated desert oases, the native Washingtonia, with its bright green fan fronds, thrives in the sun with its roots in ground water.

The most notable hot springs became the future site of downtown Palm Springs, right where the under-construction Aqua Caliente Cultural Plaza is today, at the corner of Indian Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way.

The large, tree-shaded hot mineral springs was home to a band of Cahuilla Indians. The hot springs were called Sec he (sometimes spelled Se khi or Sechi, meaning boiling water) by the Native Americans, and Agua Caliente (hot water) to the Spaniards who later stumbled upon them. The Cahuilla Indians drank from the springs and found sustenance nearby.

George Wharton James described these Cahuilla Indians in his 1914 book California, Romantic and Beautiful: “A brave, hardy, rugged lot of aborigines used the wonderful … spring of hot water at Palm Springs as their health resort, gathering their big-pitted native dates from the palms of Palm Canyon, collecting their acorns from the mountain slopes and making their mush, flour, bread, tortillas, drink and candy from the beans found on the mesquite trees which dotted the desert’s face on every side.”

The Agua Caliente tribe actually dreaded the winter cold more than the blistering days of summer. For this reason, they considered their hot springs to be important, as it was the place where they gathered for social interaction.

Captain Juan Bautista de Anza missed visiting the site of Palm Springs in 1774 and 1776 by taking a more southern route through Anza. So, too, did Capt. Pedro Fages in his 1772 and 1782 explorations of what would become Southern California. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the Palm Springs area was visited by white outsiders.

The first recorded event of a white man in the Palm Springs area was the 1823-24 expedition of Brevet Capt. José Romero, sent by the Mexican government to find an overland route from Sonora to Alta California.

Romero’s diary, written by his assistant, Commander Lt. José Maria Estudillo, noted on the day before they reached the hot springs, Dec. 28, 1823, that there would be no water or pasture for the horses until “Agua Caliente” was reached. While it was the first recorded evidence of the springs and the Spanish name for “hot water,” it implies that they somehow had knowledge of the existence of the hot springs beforehand. In 1826, it was reported that Spanish padres visited the desert Cahuillas at Agua Caliente.

Over the next 20 years, numerous white men crossed the desert, but no known records mention of the hot springs. In 1845, there is a record of a B.D. Wilson and his party of 60 men meeting Chief Cabezon at Agua Caliente. Wilson and his posse were sent by Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, into the area to pursue a couple of renegade Indians. Chief Cabezon turned them over to Wilson at the hot springs.

In 1853, young Lt. R. S. Williamson and the Smithsonian Institution geologist William P. Blake led a government survey to find a railroad route to the Pacific Ocean and the 3-year-old state of California. Both wrote about their arrival at the oasis of “Palm Springs.”

Lt. Williamson, of the U.S. Topographical Engineers, wrote: “December 15, 1853. The greater part of the valley is entirely dry and sandy and almost as forbidding as the desert. The monotony is broken by a clump of palm trees on the north of the trail and a green bank from which springs issue known as ‘Palm Springs.’

“The water was sulphurous and gave off a slight quantity of sulpherated hydrogen gas. A slight efflorescence quantity of nitro was seen on the surface of the ground around the pools. The water, however, was not so strangely charged with these ingredients as

to be unpleasant to drink, especially after having used the stagnant and muddy water of the desert. I found its temperature, under the shade of a palm tree to be 80; air 70 … .”

Blake’s description was more social than scientific: “This place was evidently a favorite camping ground for the Indians. When we arrived, many Indian boys and girls were bathing in the warm spring … .”

While a few pioneers began to settle in the San Gorgonio Pass, Palm Springs and the lower desert area remained occupied only by Native Americans. They would occasionally put out the welcome mat to share their oasis with the infrequent white men who stumbled upon their land.

Later, the therapeutic value of the springs gave rise to the growth of the area. In the 1920 book Our Araby, J. Smeaton Chase had this to say about the natural oasis: “The Hot Spring … itself is as natural, no doubt, as any time this five or ten thousand years; and you may get as weird sensation in taking your bath, and as healthful a result afterwards, as bygone generations of Cahuillas have enjoyed. The water, which is just comfortably hot and contains mineral elements which

render it remarkably curative, comes up mingled with quantities of very fine sand … and you will come forth with a sense of fitness and fineness all over to which only a patent medicine advertisement writer of high attainments could possible do justice.”

In 1887, Dr. Welwood Murray located the first Palm Springs hotel as close as possible to the springs, which he leased from the Indians for $100 a year. A small rickety tworoom bathhouse was built and used until 1916, when it was razed it to build a newer structure. The city of Palm Springs literally grew up around the springs.

Decades later, in 1959, the Agua Caliente began construction on Spa Hotel on the site around the springs. It was demolished in 2014 to make way for the soon-to-open Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza and Spa.

Sources for this article include: California, Romantic and Beautiful by George Wharton James (Page Company Publishers, Boston, 1914); The Cahuilla Indians by Harry C, James (Westernlore Press, 1960) and Our Araby, Palm Springs by J. Smeaton Chase (Pasadena Star News Publishing, 1920).

The hot springs played a large role in the creation of Palm Springs

The Agua Caliente tribe bathhouse that was built in 1916. Courtesy of the palm Springs Historical Society

FEBRUARY ASTRONOMY

By Robert Victor

Evenings in February feature a striking array of three bright planets: Venus, Jupiter and Mars. (Saturn disappears into bright twilight within first few days.) The length of the three-planet lineup shrinks from 93° on Feb. 1 to 68° on the 28th. In the year’s brightest planet pairing, Venus will pass 0.5° to the north (right) of Jupiter on March 1. Follow the pair for several evenings before and after, to watch for daily changes. On Feb. 19 and March 11—10 days before and after their March 1 conjunction—Venus and Jupiter are 10° apart. Five days out, on Feb. 24 and Mar. 6, they’re separated by 5°. Binoculars provide fine views of the moon, pairings of planets (such as Venus-Jupiter around March 1), star clusters (such as the Pleiades and Hyades in Taurus, the Great Nebula in Orion’s

Sword, and Andromeda Galaxy) and even an occasional comet. Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3)—discovered in March 2022 by the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory— was predicted to reach magnitude 5.4 in late January and early February. It will pass closest to Earth, at a distance of 26 million miles, on Feb. 1.

The comet appears about 10° from Polaris on the night of Jan. 29 (on a line from the North Star toward the Pointer Stars of the Big Dipper) and the evening of Jan. 30 (on a line from the North Star toward Omicron in Ursa Major, marking the nose of the Great Bear on detailed star maps). For six nights, from Jan. 29-Feb. 3, the comet shifts more than 6° daily, moving toward Capella. On night of Feb. 1, Comet ZTF, plying the wilderness of the faint constellation Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, is just east of the midpoint between Polaris and Capella. On the evening of Feb. 5, the comet passes within 1.6° to the west of Capella. Moving through the nearby compact isosceles triangle called the Kids, by the next evening, Feb. 6, ZTF passes only 0.2° west of Zeta Aurigae, one of the baby goats. By the evening of Feb. 8, in a moonless sky, the comet, now moving less than 4° per day, has passed within 0.7° west of Iota Aurigae, the 2.7-magnitude star nearly halfway from Capella toward Aldebaran. On the night of Feb. 10-11, the fading comet, moving 3° per day, will pass about 1° east of Mars. On the next night, Feb. 11, ZTF passes the descending node of its orbit and plunges through the ecliptic, the plane of Earth’s orbit, from north to south. On evening of Feb. 14, the comet passes 1.5° east of Aldebaran. By now, the comet has “slowed” to 1.9° per day, and is expected to have faded to 7th magnitude.

Follow the moon in evening sky from Feb. 1-6 and 20-28 and observe its gatherings with planets and bright zodiacal stars: Pollux and Castor in Gemini, near a waxing gibbous moon on the evenings of Feb. 2 and 3; and Regulus, heart of Leo, near the moon, just

past full, from nightfall until dawn on nights of Feb. 5 and 6. Try to see zodiacal light— dust in the plane of the solar system—in dark, moonless sky at end of evening twilight Feb. 8-20.

The moon returns to early evening sky on Feb. 20. The best view of the young moon in the contiguous 48 states is right here in the Southwest, where the moon sets longest after sunset. A very thin crescent may be seen with the unaided eye in excellent sky conditions.

Venus pairs up with an easier crescent moon, low in the western sky at dusk, on Feb. 21; and Jupiter, within 2° of an even fatter crescent moon, on the next evening, Feb. 22. The gatherings with the two brightest planets, 8° or 7° apart those evenings, will present an excellent photo-op!

On the evening of Feb. 26, the nearly first quarter (half-full) moon will lie in Taurus, between two clusters of stars, the Hyades and Pleiades, and not far from Aldebaran. On Feb. 27 during the 9 p.m. hour, the southern edge of the moon will miss Mars by little more than one moon-diameter. Seen from the Arctic, the moon will occult Mars.

Follow the moon in the morning sky from Feb. 4-18, and catch it near Regulus on Feb. 6, Spica in Virgo on Feb. 11, and Antares in Scorpius on Feb. 14.

Regulus is at opposition on night of Feb. 18-19. As the Earth passes between the sun and Regulus, the star appears 180° from the sun. Spaceship Earth is then moving away from a point 4° south of the Pleiades in evening sky, and toward a point 3° west of the head of Scorpius in morning sky.

Don’t miss the monthly conjunctions of moon and Venus; during the current evening apparition of Venus, the best of these will occur on June 21. In coming months, watch Venus chase Mars through the evening zodiacal constellations until Venus gives up the pursuit. Watch for these planets’ conjunctions with Pleiades, Aldebaran and

Planets

and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight

For

February, 2023

This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico. Stereographic Projection Map

Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon. Feb.1: 42 minutes after sunset. 15: 40 " " " 28: 40 " " "

Beta in Taurus; Pollux and Castor in Gemini; Beehive in Cancer; and Regulus in Leo. When will Venus finally catch up to and pass Mars? With Pollux and Castor, watch for three events for each planet: (1) When the planet forms an isosceles triangle with the “Twin” stars. (2) When the planet passes closest to Pollux. (3) When Castor, Pollux and the planet lie in a straight line. For Mars, the three Gemini events will occur April 22-May 16; for Venus, May 21-June 1. All these events will be illustrated in Sky Calendar.

Illustrations of many of the events described here, including nightly views leading up to the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, appear on the February 2023 Sky Calendar. Subscriptions and a sample issue are available at www.abramsplanetarium.org/ skycalendar.

The Astronomical Society of the Desert

will host a star party on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center, and another on Saturday, Feb. 18, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For dates and times of these and other star parties in 2023, and maps and directions to the two sites, visit astrorx.org.

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still produces issues occasionally, including the February 2023 edition. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the wonders of the night sky. Robert Miller, who provided the twilight chart, 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.

by Robert D. Miller

Comet ZTF has a rendezvous with planet Earth during the first half of the month

It’s time again for fans of all things mid-century modern to descend upon the desert for Modernism Week, the annual architecture and design celebration hosted in the Coachella Valley. The “week” is 11 days filled with events, screenings, exhibitions, tours and more, happening Feb. 16-26.

One of the week’s highlights is a series of tours of the world-famous House of Tomorrow in Palm Springs. Some may know the house as Elvis Presley’s “Honeymoon Hideaway,” as Elvis celebrated his marriage with Priscilla Presley there in 1967.

The house, however, is notable beyond its association with Elvis: It’s a star on its own, as a waterfall, its unique shape, arches, large windows and its architectural pedigree make it a perfect house to be put on display during Modernism Week. There are multiple time slots available for the tour, from Thursday, Feb. 16, through Tuesday, Feb. 21.

“The House of Tomorrow first opened to the public during the fall (preview) Modernism Week, and it was a big hit,” said Paulina Larson, the director of marketing for Palm Springs Life, which is producing the House of Tomorrow tours. “We’re very fortunate to have the house be open again to the public, because we didn’t know the house would ever be open again. Having the ability to have it in

the February tour is such a special thing for people in the desert.”

The house has been a tourist destination since Elvis got married; for years, the home hosted Elvis themed-tours. In 2020, however, the house was purchased by a new owner, who renovated and restored it.

“This is the time when people will be able to see it restored, and it will really appeal to a mid-century modern enthusiast,” Larson said.

Even before Elvis showed up for his honeymoon, the House of Tomorrow was a highlight among Palm Springs’ mid-century modern homes. It was built as the home of the Alexander family, of the Alexander Construction Company, which built many other mid-century modern homes in the area.

“The home was built in 1960 by architect William Krisel, and it was a custom-made home for Helene and Robert Alexander,” Larson said. “It’s been really interesting to be able to see the dramatic, original features that are in the house today. I think anybody who has the opportunity to preview it is going to see it in most of its original state. It has an original terrazzo floor, incredible windows and ceilings, a fireplace and a built-in sofa. I think all those things are just like stepping into a time capsule—that’s also a piece of art.”

Larson said Modernism Week offers a unique and special opportunity for people to see the “gem of a house.”

“Having worked the tours there, it’s just so popular. People from all walks of life come and see the house, even from the exterior,” Larson said. “So to have the ability now to welcome people into the house to see it, I think it’s very special. … If you want to see it, now’s the time.”

Larson said these tours focus more on the house itself than The King.

“They’d (previously) done honeymoon Elvis house tours, but they weren’t in this format, and the house hadn’t been restored,” Larson said. “It wasn’t attracting an architectural crowd. It was more of a, ‘Oh, come see where Elvis had his honeymoon’ tour. This is more for an architectural enthusiast. They are going to see the house in the best format possible and be able to appreciate all of the elements that went into restoring the home.”

It can be tricky to preserve architecturally significant homes. Thankfully, Larson said, the home’s new owners understand how the house is a true work of art.

“The renovations have been really great, because you’ve been able to see the vision that William Krisel had,” Larson said. “I think over the years, when nobody was really looking at these homes as

architectural gems, there were a lot of changes that were made. You see that all through Palm Springs. They were either torn down, or there were additions made to them, where they added a garage, or where they added another room. They were really messing with the original footprint, so being able to see the home how it had been originally designed is pretty cool.”

Larson promised that tour attendees are in for a real treat.

“It’s a self-guided tour, but we will have someone in there providing information,” Larson said. “… The house is very large itself, so you can start the tour from the inside or from the outside. You’re able to see all the rooms in the house, and you’re able to see the exterior, so it’s a pretty fantastic tour.”

Modernism Week takes place from Thursday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 26. The House of Tomorrow will be open for tours from Thursday, Feb. 16, through Tuesday, Feb. 21. Tickets are $55 for the 30-minute tour, or $100 for the hourlong tour and reception. For tickets and more information, visit modernismweek.com.

Tom Boatright has been selected as one of the featured artists at the March edition of the La Quinta Art Celebration, taking place at the city’s civic Center Campus from Thursday, March 2, through Sunday, March 5.

Ranked as the top arts event in the nation by Greg Lawler’s Art Fair/Sourcebook, the Art Celebration has strict criteria for applying artists: They must have exhibited previously in galleries, and they must be able to create their own outdoor gallery. Submissions are judged by independent jury members. About 200 artists are selected among more than 1,100 applications.

Event director Kathleen Hughes said Boatwright’s paintings need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Event T-shirts will feature wild horses painted by Boatwright in his abstract-impressionistic style.

“Tom’s art images in the digital application were not as breathtaking as his large-scale paintings are in person,” said event director Kathleen Hughes. “When I met him at another art event, I immediately knew that our art patrons would connect with Tom.”

While Boatwright’s works are highly regarded by critics and private collectors, with his paintings on display in hundreds of homes and commercial spaces, Boatwright didn’t plan on being an artist.

“It happened on a whim. I picked up a

brush, and just started painting on canvas,” Boatwright said. The experience led him to an awakening—and the world around him became more vivid and intense.

“It opened my vision; I saw a deeper world, more vibrancy of colors, deeper personal emotions, a stronger connection to nature and to the things around me,” he said. “It was scary, because I couldn’t pull myself out of it; it was all-consuming.”

This transformation happened in 2008, when the Palm Springs-born Boatright was working in corporate IT.

“After only two weeks, my friends were surprised to find all my paintings lined up in my garage,” he said.

Boatwright said he’s had no formal art training, and that he seeks inspiration in local landscapes.

“I love the desert—the sunlight, the way the light changes throughout the days and evenings, the Santa Rosa Mountains and the barrenness of it,” he said. “Such beauty.”

Hughes lauded Boatwright for his ability to create art intended for a specific place. Most of Boatwright’s works are commissions rather than direct sales.

“Tom has the ability to look at a wall in your home and create a piece of art that speaks to you, and is perfect for that specific place,” Hughes said. “His contemporary paintings have energy, and I am impressed at how he mixes metals and iridescence to the raw oils and acrylics to create such vivid colors.”

When he receives a commission from a client, Boatright takes a unique approach: He creates three paintings, he said. Two are based on the client’s vision, with the third based on his own vision.

The client then picks among the three paintings.

“It is a very collaborative process,” he said, explaining that he provides each painting with a

certificate of authenticity that discusses the energy, intention, color palette and vision. “Typically, I get ‘artist’s license’ on the three to create what I vision in the project.”

Where do these visions come from?

“My visioning comes from working with the client, hearing their story, seeing the space the piece goes in, (and) taking all that in, with the emotion and energy, and creating the three (paintings) that way,” he said.

Art consultant Phyllis Johnson said Boatright's paintings “express the music of his soul.”

“His exhilarating passion for his work brings the beauty of love and peace into our world,” Johnson said. “His colors and images

are vibratory, imbued with divine light, and express a deeper meaning for our lives.”

The La Quinta Arts Celebration will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 2, through Sunday, March 5, at the La Quinta Civic Center, 78495 Calle Tampico. Tickets, valid for all four days, are $25. For tickets or more information, visit www.laquintaartcelebration.org.

Thomas Gleeson CLU ChFC, Agent

Insurance Lic#: 0K08021

225 S. Civic Drive, Suite 1-1

Palm Springs, CA 92262

Se habla Español

“Regal” by Tom Boatwright.

“Vibrant” by Tom Boatwright.

describes the Joshua tree as “twisted, spiky trees straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.”

Unfortunately, this beautiful tree (it’s a member of the agave family, actually) is being threatened by climate change. The hotter, drier weather is decreasing the amount of ideal habitat for the plant, and the California Fish and Game Commission is currently deciding whether to list the Joshua tree as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act. As people await the decision, which has already been delayed several times, artists are using their works to stand up for the Joshua tree.

The annual Intersect Palm Springs art and design fair is returning to the Palm Springs Convention Center, from Thursday, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 12—and one of the special exhibitions this year is Investigations: Zombie Forest, a multi-artist, multimedia showcase of works focused on the Joshua tree. It is being curated by artist, educator and activist Sant Khalsa, and Andi Campognone, director of the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, Calif. The two have

been friends for more than 30 years.

“I live in Joshua Tree, and living here, it’s very difficult not to be aware of the plight of the Joshua trees, which are being impacted by climate change, development, fires, industrial solar and wind energy—all of that,” Khalsa said during a recent Zoom interview. “I went to Andi and proposed to her the idea of doing an exhibition, bringing together artists, science and indigenous scholars and conservationists for a very multidisciplinary project. She said yes; she lives in the Mojave Desert as well, and she’s as committed to defending the natural world as I am.

“When you walk around a Joshua tree forest, or you drive through a Joshua tree forest, you can see that the trees don’t look good. They’re alive, but they’re dying.”

Investigations: Zombie Forest is a preview of what is to come for the collaboration between Campognone and Khalsa: A full Joshua tree/ Mojave Desert exhibit is slated for MOAH in 2024.

“This multidisciplinary show fits the museum’s mission, which is (about) activating communities through engagement,”

Campognone said. “The exhibition itself is not just about the life of the Joshua Tree, but also inspiring our community to be engaged enough and to love a subject enough to want to preserve it. … Intersect said, ‘We would like you guys to come in, because we’re also looking at other subjects that are about activating your community, or activism.’ We thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’ This is an opportunity to get the community involved in understanding what this looks like, from a political standpoint, from a native standpoint (and) from an artistic standpoint.”

The California Fish and Game Commission is slated to consider whether to list the Joshua tree as endangered or threatened on Wednesday, Feb. 8— just before the start of Intersect Palm Springs.

“We’re not editorializing one point of view,” Campognone said. “This is an exhibition that’s presenting multiple points of view. … It’s just about

educating everyone about all of the angles and all the perspectives of what the Joshua tree is going through politically, environmentally and even aesthetically. That’s what this art exhibition for Intersect is all about: It is really a beautiful exhibition giving the Joshua Tree a chance to be the star of the show.”

Khalsa said she hopes the varied types of art will help viewers understand how complex both Joshua trees and the Mojave Desert are.

“You have painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, embroidery, some textiles and bookmaking, and it’ll all be integrated together,” Khalsa said. “We’re not into separating media at all. This is really more content- and idea-based. … The Mojave Desert is a very fragile ecosystem. A lot of people look at the Mojave, and they think it’s just empty, and they don’t understand how it’s a very, very complex and fragile ecosystem that we need to protect.”

Like the Joshua tree’s appearance, these artistic depictions will be unconventional.

“You’re going to see some presentations of the Joshua tree, and the landscape is very different from what people will normally associate with the landscape aesthetic,” Campognone said. “There are also some really non-traditional uses of paper and paint, and it’s not going to be your traditional landscape, black-and-white Joshua Tree photograph. You’re going to see some really interesting presentations. I want to say it’s really sexy,

"Tangled Web" by Danielle Giudici Wallis.

"Paradigm Shift" by Marthe Aponte.

because it really is, but that’s probably the wrong thing to say. It is a really, really stunning and beautiful show.”

Added Khalsa: “To me, it’s more of a very seductive show, and I think it’s because the artists are all so passionate, and so concerned, and also so well-educated about the science of what’s going on, and the cultural heritage related to the Joshua tree. They’ve made artwork that really seduces the viewer to look and consider all of the issues involved here.”

Even though most of Joshua Tree National Park is undeniably beautiful, the Mojave Desert region and its dying plants aren’t always pretty. Correspondingly, Khalsa described how this exhibit is the opposite of “nature porn.”

“The artists are really trying to un-layer a lot of the complexities,” Khalsa said. “Joshua trees are very unique and iconic. You mention Joshua trees to anyone all over the world, and they have that image of a Joshua tree. … There are not a lot of those images in Zombie Forest. It’s more expressive, and it’s more realistic.”

Khalsa and Campognone said Zombie Forest is a “nice fit” for the diverse audiences that Intersect Palm Springs attracts.

“This is going to appeal to the collector; this is going to appeal to the student, the first time art-fair attendee, and also the veteran art-fair attendee,” Campognone said. “This is a really unique subject, and also the works are really unique, and I think people are going to be really interested in it. This isn’t just, ‘Go to the museum, and look at some artwork.’ … This exhibition is revolving around the idea of activism and whatever that means to the individual viewer or the participant.”

At noon on Sunday, Feb. 12, Campognone and Khalsa will host a panel dedicated to using art as a form of activism.

“The subject of that panel will be art and art engagement and activism, and what that looks like,” Campognone said. “… If the Joshua tree is not their bag, (people) could still come to the talk and learn about how art can be part of their life in terms of changing their neighborhoods, changing culture, and using art as that mechanism for change.”

Khalsa said she’s happy that this project blends science and art.

“I’m an artist who has worked with scientists for over 30 years, and artists and scientists have a lot of similarities in the way that they work, because both scientists and artists are problem-solvers,” Khalsa said. “We often think that art and science are really different, but I think this project really shows that they’re all working toward very similar goals. … We have several of our artists who are actually collaborating right now with the top scientists who are doing research on what’s going on with Joshua trees in terms of climate change.”

Intersect Palm Springs starts with an openingnight preview from 5 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9, and continues from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 12, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros. Tickets range from $25 for a one-day pass to $100 for an all-access pass. For tickets or more information, visit intersectpalmsprings.com.

The Nonprofit SCENE

February 2023

DO-GOODER

ART, LITERACY, LIFE

By CAT MAKINO

Tools for Tomorrow is changing the lives of children in Coachella Valley. The local nonprofit provides art education with a literacy focus via its afterschool programs at public elementary schools.

TFT is hosting a fundraising gala, “A Night at the Moulin Rouge,” at the Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage on Monday, Feb. 27.

interact with other kids, forgot how to have a conversation; they interrupted or even forgot how to line up at school,” Hecht said. “They watch the news and are worried about war, COVID and sickness. There are kids who lost their parents.”

Olive Crest, known for its dedication to preventing child abuse, to treating and educating at-risk children, and to preserving the family “one life at a time,” will host its third annual Invitational Golf Tournament at the Classic Club, located at 75200 Classic Club Blvd., in Palm Desert, on Monday, Feb. 6.

USC national football champion and Olive Crest trustee Darnell Bing will once again serve as event chair. He will be joined by other USC football legends.

Event registration will begin at 9 a.m. The tournament will feature a shotgun scramble format, an awards reception and a silent auction featuring unique sports memorabilia and exclusive travel packages.

“The idea for this Olive Crest Golf Invitational was the brainchild of Darnell Bing,” said Walter Mueller, director of development for Olive Crest. “Darnell envisioned this event as a way to not only raise funds for at-risk and disadvantaged youth, but also to bring visibility to the services and lifesaving programs Olive Crest offers. Darnell also wanted to reach out and include some of his former USC teammates in this event, as a way to introduce and educate them to the needs of youth within the foster care system.”

A golf foursome is priced at $1,200, and event sponsorships range from $500 to $15,000. To register, go to www.olivecrest. org/ie/golf-tournament-2023. For additional information, contact Walter Mueller at 951–686–8500, ext. 4301, or Walter-Mueller@ olivecrest.org.

Desert Arc has announced it will host its fifth annual Champions of Change Recognition Awards Luncheon, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the Grand Ballroom at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa in Rancho Mirage, at 11:30 a.m. This event honors local companies and individuals in our valley who champion Desert

In the United States, 7.6 million children are alone and unsupervised after school, according to the Afterschool Alliance. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, more than 11 million kids in the United States live below the federal poverty line. In the Coachella Valley, more than 80 percent of public school students are eligible free-lunch programs, meaning their families are either at or near the federal poverty level, according to TFT.

Tools for Tomorrow aims to change the patterns of after-school life for kids in grades 3 through 5. Now established in 17 Coachella Valley elementary schools, TFT provides a safe place for kids to express themselves via an arts program with a literacy focus. Over the years, more than 19,000 children have gone through TFT, with 25 to 30 from each school participating at any one time.

However, TFT is in just a fraction of the valley’s elementary schools. TFT teachers are paid, and arts/crafts materials are not free, so it costs between $10,000 and $12,000 to set up TFT at a school for a year.

Writer and artist Rachel Druten founded

TFT in 1998, starting with four schools in Desert Hot Springs.

“The classes build character and a vision of what (the kids’) lives can become,” Druten said.

Druten remembers a 7-year-old boy who participated in a TFT program. “He stuttered and couldn’t even put a sentence together,” she said. “Our teachers worked with him for two years, and not only did he stop stuttering; he wrote a play in which he starred.”

Since TFT has now been in existence for 2 1/2 decades, some TFT alums are now adults. “Some students have come back and even taught for us,” Druten said.

Via lessons in creative writing, art, music and drama, children learn both artistic and social-interaction skills. Andrea Hecht, executive director of TFT, said the program is needed more than ever during these stressful times. The COVID-19 pandemic took a large toll on children’s mental health. Depression and anxiety in children have doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to medical journal JAMA Pediatrics

“(Some students helped by TFT) didn’t

Hecht and the teachers at TFT aim to provide care and encouragement for these children, giving them power and plans for the future that otherwise they might not have.

Growing up in Desert Hot Springs, third-grader Jose Munoz couldn’t wait to go to his TFT after-school program. His mother Rosa explained how Jose was helped by the program.

“It was difficult for me. I worked and couldn’t always pick him up after school, and he was bored with the babysitters,” Rosa said. “But he always looked forward to going to TFT.”

Jose said TFT helped him gain selfconfidence. “I emceed at a school event and told a lot of jokes,” he said.

Jose talked about the role music had in the program.

“We even made some (instruments) of our own with boxes,” Jose said. “The teachers played a lot of music for us. When I heard it, I loved it and wanted to play music. I chose the saxophone.”

Jose is now in the eighth grade. He plays in his school’s band and wants to eventually become a doctor.

A significant chunk of TFT’s funding is slated to come from the organization’s fundraising gala. This year’s theme is “A Night at the Moulin Rouge.” The event will honor Jeff McDonald and Charles Thomas, owners of the Roost Lounge and founders of Roost Foundation. The foundation has donated thousands of dollars to various nonprofits, including the Keisha D Scholarship Fund, Angel View, the Cathedral City Senior Center, Tools for Tomorrow, the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City, Martha’s Kitchen and the FIND Food Bank.

“This has been the most gratifying time of my life,” said McDonald. “I’m grateful that people see the work Charles and I are doing and know that we’re making a difference.”

“A Night at the Moulin Rouge,” a fundraiser for Tools for Tomorrow, will take place at 5 p.m., Monday, Feb. 27, at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, at 32250 Bob Hope Drive, in Rancho Mirage. Tickets are $250, $150 of which is tax-deductible. For tickets or for more information about Tools for Tomorrow, call 760601-3954, or visit www.toolsfortomorrow.org.

Tools for Tomorrow students make music at Bella Vista Elementary School. Photo courtesy of Tools for Tomorrow

Tools for Tomorrow wants to help kids at more Coachella Valley elementary schools

The USC legends who participated in last year’s Olive Crest tournament.

The Nonprofit SCENE

Arc’s mission.

“Desert Arc’s annual Champions of Change Recognition Awards Luncheon is a very inspirational event, as it brilliantly showcases our mission in motion with heartwarming stories about people with disabilities who participate in our programs,” said board chair Damian Jenkins. “It’s an amazing opportunity for our nonprofit human services agency to recognize and honor other individuals and organizations in the larger community who champion our vital cause.”

Emcee of this year’s luncheon is Brooke Beare, Emmy Award-winning journalist, who is a board member and immediate past chair of the Desert Arc board.

“Desert Arc has been making a difference in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disability since 1959. There are currently 714 individuals who participate and benefit from our comprehensive array of programs and services throughout Coachella Valley, Morongo Basin and outlying desert communities,” said Richard Balocco, president/CEO of Desert Arc.

Individual luncheon tickets are $100 per person, with sponsorship opportunities ranging from $1,500 to $10,000. For additional event information, call 760-404-1368 or visit DesertArc.org.

Mama’s House is the only residential home within the Coachella Valley providing shelter to these vulnerable women and their children, offering an extensive one-of-a-kind program of HOPE, thus impacting families, communities and generations.

This year’s HEARTbeat of Love Luncheon, benefitting Mama’s House, will be co-chaired by Jan Lupia and Patricia McDonnell. The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Feb. 11, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort and Spa, 44400 Indian Wells Lane, in Indian Wells. Dr. Benjamin S. Carson will be the keynote speaker for this year’s luncheon.

On Friday evening, Feb. 10, Mama’s House will host an exclusive VIP Reception and Dinner for major donors held at a private location at 5 p.m., with Dr. Ben Carson in attendance.

“We have wanted to have Dr. Ben Carson with us for a number of years, though the timing was never right, until now,” said Jan Lupia, founder and executive director of Mama’s House and the HEARTbeat Luncheon co-chair.

Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., is founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute, whose mission is to promote the four founding principles of our country: faith, liberty, community and to pursue common sense solutions. Dr. Carson most recently served as the 17th secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sponsorships range from $1,000 to a $100,000. Contact Jan Lupia at 760-406-3413, or at 844-232-8622, ext. 6, or email her at Janlupia@themamashouse.org. Individual tickets are $175.

The Artists Council’s major juried ACE Exhibition Sale will hold its opening reception on Friday, Feb. 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Artists Center at the Galen, 72567 Highway 111 in Palm Desert.

Enjoy music by DJ Minus and catering by Lulu California Bistro in the gardens at the Galen. KESQ’s Patrick Evans will emcee the awards ceremony.

Opening reception tickets ($25) should be purchased in advance at artistscouncil.com. ACE continues through March 19, with free gallery admission at the Galen Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, visit artistscouncil. com, or call 760-565-6130.

One of the best things about the Steinway Society of Riverside County (SSRC) is that it’s not just about classical music, despite its “high-brow” name.

When it was established in 2002, Ruth Moir

and her founding group of community leaders received permission to use the Steinway name, but never received any funding from the famous grand-piano company. SSRC is all about kids—learning to play music, learning to love music, and learning to become musicians, on keyboards and ukuleles, leading to any instrument that sparks their connection to music, rhythm and soulful expression.

For the past 20 years, SSRC has brought music and inspiration to children in schools with in-person piano and ukulele labs, live age-appropriate concerts, music education and appreciation programs for all school-ages. Today, SSRC is looking to expand to every elementary school in the Coachella Valley.

To help make that happen, this year’s fundraiser, Bravo Children in Music, will be held on Sunday, Feb. 19, 11 a.m. at the Classic Club, 75200 Classic Club Blvd., in Palm Desert. It honors one of the Coachella Valley’s most respected musicians, radio-show hosts and music-event producers, Jimi “Fitz” Fitzgerald. Adding to the fun and festivities, singer/actress/radio host Joey English serves as mistress of ceremonies.

Tickets to the event are $160 per person, or $1,800 for a VIP table; they are available at www.steinwayriverside.org, or by calling 760341-4130.

The Muses & Patroness Circle, the women’s leadership council of McCallum Theatre, will celebrate its 35th anniversary with their always eagerly-awaited annual fundraiser, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 5 to 9pm at the Vintage Club, 75001 Vintage Drive West, in Indian Wells.

This year’s theme is “How Sweet It Is: Celebrating 35 Years of Heart, Soul and Muses.” The event is being co-chaired by Diane Dykema and Rosalind Hack.

“How Sweet It Is” will be an evening of glamour that starts with a cocktail reception with DJ Modgirl spinning the hottest retro tunes, as well as a photo booth, delicious hors

“How Sweet It Is” co-chairs Rosalind Hack and Diane Dykema. David A. Lee d’oeuvres and more. Following the reception, guests will move into the main ballroom at the Vintage Club to enjoy a sumptuous dinner, live auction and music and dancing by LA Party Dolls performing the tops hits of the ’60s girl groups and Motown eras.

Single tickets are $450. Sponsorships are available for as little as $1,250 and come with an invitation to a very special Sponsor Party, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 4 to 7 p.m.

“This is going to be an event you will not want to miss,” said June Benson, president of The Muses & Patroness Circle. “We are going to celebrate eight of our founding members who are still active in the organization, which is beyond extraordinary.”

For more information, or to purchase sponsorships or tickets, please visit bit.ly/3ZDOoWt, or contact Brooke Stuessy at 760-776-6186, or bstuessy@mccallum-theatre.org.

—Submitted on behalf of the nonprofits by Pamela Bieri, Suzanne Fromkin, Jeffrey Norman and Madeline Zuckerman.

SAVE 15% Water your yard during non-daylight hours

We’re in a drought. We all need to reduce our water use by 15 percent.

Water your yard during non-daylight hours. More water will reach the roots, less water will evaporate, and you’ll save water.

For more ways to save, visit CVWaterCounts.com.

ARTS & CULTURE

BACK WITH MORE DATES!

By MATT KING

The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival is a Coachella Valley staple—but the pandemic forced it to take an unplanned hiatus. COVID-19 meant no fair at all in 2021, and in 2022, another event, Thrillville, took over the Riverside County Fairgrounds during the usual February time slot.

Finally, it’s back: From Friday, Feb. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 26, experience the 75th Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival. The carnival games, rides, fair food, exhibits, dates and more will all be there, even though the festival is under new management. For more information and tickets, visit datefest.org.

Last July, Pickering Events took over management of the Riverside County Fairgrounds. During a recent phone interview with events manager Chris Pickering, he expressed relief about the County Fair’s return.

“They snuck in under the wire in February (2020) there and were able to have it before everything shut down,” Pickering said, “We’re excited to be back. One of the big ways we’re coming back is by still being presented by Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. They’ve been a longtime presenting sponsor. … That means 10 nights of grandstand entertainment, and the full facilities open, as well as the return of competitive exhibits. You can go online right now and enter to win a blue ribbon at the fair in all of the traditional competitive exhibit categories.”

Pickering said his team wanted to not only bring back the County Fair and Date Fest, but improve on it as well.

“One of the things that we heard is that there need to be more dates at the Date Festival, so we really wanted to deliver on that in a big way,” Pickering said. “We were originally set up as the celebration of the date harvests, so we are requiring each of our food vendors to have at least one date item on their menu. There’ll be a variety of date treats for everyone to try. … If you go to our website right now, we actually have a whole page on date recipes, and right at the top there, it’s got three embedded TikTok videos that have over 2 million views, each on these amazing date treats that you can make at home. My personal favorite is the date Snickers.”

In the past, all of the concerts, monstertruck rallies and dirt-bike events held in the arena were free with admission. This year, however, they will require a separate ticket.

“If you buy in advance, you can buy (arena event tickets) with your gate admission included, and that’s going to be at that same discounted rate at which you would normally get your gate admission online,” said Pickering. “… We’re doing reserved seats, so people

won’t have to sit in line for hours waiting to get the very best seat. They can go in and out throughout the day. A lot of our weekend entertainment is actually centered around all-day activities, like a 3 to 9 p.m. show with five different acts performing; that way, people can come in, see a show for a little bit, and go out and experience the rest of the fair without being worried that their seats not going to be there for them.

“New this year, our box seats in the arena are all going to include VIP lounge access (with) air-conditioned restroom trailers, a private no-host bar, a couple of phone-charging stations, and shaded outdoor lounge furniture seating areas just outside the grandstand. You won’t see the show from there, but since we have these all-day activities, it’s going to be a great area to come and hang out and recover from the day at the fair.”

When I spoke to Pickering, he and his fellow organizers were seeking submissions for the junior exhibits in art, photography and more.

“We have all of those competitive exhibits up and running for accepting entries right now,” Pickering said. “Because we were kind of late in the game getting on board in July and learning the facility and getting these up, there are still some of those last-minute rules and regulations getting published on there, but the entries are all open now. The junior (exhibit) building is going to be full; it’s the largest ‘mom’s refrigerator.’ Every kid’s artwork will be in there.

“We still have the fine art and photography in the Queen’s Gallery. We still have the model railroad, the quilts and the crafts, and hobbies, and all the collections, too—and the gem and minerals and the woodcarving.”

Pickering said they worked to make the County Fair both better and as affordable is possible

“We always want to try to make it more than anyone could do in one day, and that’s why we offer a super-discounted season pass,” Pickering said. “Regular gate admission is $15

at the gate, but if you buy in advance online, there is a season-pass option for $30 that’ll get you in all 10 days of the fair. For our hyperlocal audience … that’s really going to be the option for you to keep coming back and seeing more and more.

“We have a lot of grounds entertainment that is free with your fair admission. Some fan favorites that are coming back are the pirate ship with Capt. Jack Spareribs, the sea lion splash, and a new BMX stunt show on the weekends. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there’s going to actually be a money cornhole tournament. We’re also going to have the all-Alaskan racing pigs, and we’ll have a beergarden stage, with live music throughout the fair as well.”

Pickering said he anticipates a large turnout—in part because people missed the

fair the last two years.

“For those who didn’t come in 2020, they certainly thought they had another chance, and they wish they had come,” he said. “… The fair is sometimes where you see friends you haven’t seen for a while, and we love seeing friends introduce each other to other groups of friends. It really is the gathering place in the center of the community.”

The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival will take place Friday, Feb. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Riverside County Fairgrounds, 82503 Highway 111, in Indio. Advance admission is $10, or $15 at the gate; season passes are $30 in advance, and carnival wristbands are $30 in advance. For tickets or more information, call 760-863-8247, or visit datefest.org.

The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival celebrates 75 years—and its first iteration since 2020

The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival is back for the first time since 2020.

FOOD & DRINK

by Cat makino

In the mornings, the aroma of fresh roasted coffee hangs over Old Town La Quinta—thanks to the Yes Please café and dessert shop, which is a labor of love for its owner, Gina Mallano.

She opened the café in Old Town La Quinta in the summer of 2022. Outside, there are tables, heaters and umbrellas, with views of the Santa Rosa Mountains; inside, there are small tables, neatly placed.

Her career in food started when she was 26, while working at a corporate job in San Francisco, with benefits and a nice office. When a co-worker asked Mallano what she wanted to do with her life, she began to think: “This can’t be my life, sitting in an office for the next 30 years.” She quit

her job and enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco while working other jobs to pay for the tuition and support herself.

Her work history now includes hotels, restaurants and production kitchens; she’s also done food research and recipe development.

“I’ve worked in the hospitality industry since I was a teenager, so it was a natural change of career,” Mallano said. “I’ve worked in every aspect of the restaurant business—front of the house and back of the house—including waitstaff, cocktail waitress, bookkeeping and hostess.”

When her husband was appointed a Riverside County deputy district attorney in Indio,

they moved to La Quinta—and she decided to realize her dream of opening a café.

The Old Town La Quinta spot is now a popular destination for local residents and snowbirds. Mallano quickly collected a number of regulars, who praise the coffees and housemade baked goods, including buttermilk biscuits and huckleberry scones.

Mallano said she has always enjoyed cooking for friends and family, and hosting dinner parties.

“It was always me who cooked during holidays. My friends even nicknamed me Monica, after the character in Friends,” Mallano said.

Yes Please has forced Mallano to confront her shyness. She has always felt shy, she said, and meeting and greeting customers has been a challenge. She blamed her shyness on her family’s frequent moves as a child.

“I attended 14 different schools because of my father’s Air Force career,” she said.

Running a café poses various other challenges, too. Staffing can be a problem; Mallano said one of her employees once walked out in the middle of a Friday shift, meaning she had to roll up her sleeves and fill the vacant slot in the kitchen. Online reviews can make or break a food enterprise as well; a one-star gain in Yelp ratings can boost revenue between 5% and 9%, according to a Harvard Business School study. Fortunately, the reviews so far have almost universally been raves.

“They have farm-to-table fresh ingredients and scrumptious in-store baked goods,” said local Maryann Ridini Spencer, a screenwriter and TV producer. Her favorites: The berry scones with an almond milk cappuccino.

Be aware that Yes Please usually fills up around 9 or 10 in the morning. The café has become so popular that starting in February, it will now remain open until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Yes Please is located at 78065 Main St., Suite 100, in La Quinta. For more information, call 760-2961425, or visit www.yespleaselaquinta.com.

Photo courtesy of

ON COCKTAILS

BY kevin carlow

It’s that time of year again, when “dry January” is ditched in favor of spring flings. Whether you’re celebrating with a special someone, or you want a little time with strangers at a dark cocktail bar, here are some of the most alluring drinks as we await pool weather. Let’s start with one of my favorites, and one that I write about on occasion to spread the word: the Clover Club. Dating (probably) from the 1890s and the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, it was one of the top tipples before Prohibition. Regardless of who created it, the Clover Club is one sexy drink. Pink in color, with a luscious egg white texture, it’s perfect for dessert after a romantic

dinner, or just a Tuesday night at home. You’re going to probably get it made with grenadine at a bar—hopefully a housemade one—but you can also make this drink at home fairly easily. You’ll need raspberry syrup, but don’t buy one. The raspberry syrup is basically muddled raspberries in sugar, two parts by weight of sugar to berries, with one part cold water. I like to leave it overnight, but a halfhour is probably fine. You can always strain into a bottle and shake it to bring the syrup together.

2 ounces of gin (or 1 1/2 ounces of gin and a 1/2 ounce of dry vermouth)

1 egg white

3/4 ounce of lemon juice

1/2 ounce raspberry syrup

Separate the white and add to a shaker; build the rest of the drink, and shake it without ice, then with ice; strain into a coupe glass.

If you want, you can up the sweet and sour ingredients, as I often do. The vermouth seems a little unnecessary to me, so I generally omit it. I often place a few drops of Peychaud’s bitters on the top and swirl for color, but a few berries on a pick look great, too.

The Brandy Alexander, or “Alexander #2,” appears in Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930, but it most likely was around for a while before Craddock ever made one. It’s a heck of a cocktail name (or a showgirl alias), and an underappreciated classic. It has a vibe that is both golden age and also vaguely mid-century; I can imagine them being whipped up in a sunken living room in the 1960s. Luckily, they are easy to make, too! Here’s the Savoy version:

1/3 crème de cacao

1/3 brandy

1/3 cream

Shake well, and strain into a cocktail glass. I would definitely dry shake to aerate the mix before adding ice. Nutmeg, freshly grated, is the preferred garnish. The proportions hold up from the OG recipes— three ounces total. Don’t cheap out on the ingredients, but there’s no need to use a fancy cognac; spend on the creme de cacao instead. Nothing says sophistication like a martini,

especially if you’re drinking at a fancy joint. It doesn’t necessarily scream “classy,” though, if you’re spilling a glass of 6 ounces of corn vodka and olive juice, with blue cheese and olives between your teeth. Oh, there is nothing wrong with that—but if you’re first getting to know someone, or trying to find someone to get to know, try this “original” version instead.

2 ounces of Plymouth gin 1 ounce of dry vermouth

Dash of orange bitters (optional)

Stir; strain into a coupe; add lemon twist.

Is this really the “original”? We don’t really know, but it’s kind of caught on. Plymouth is

both a brand and type of less-aggressive gin (if vodka is usually your thing), but a London Dry is great, too. The vermouth will mellow the martini, so if you’re gin-adverse, maybe do 50/50 until you acquire a taste for it. The lemon twist should be expressed over the top and the sides, as well as the stem, for a fresh aroma on your drink—and your hands.

Want a little more Marlboro Man in vibe? What about switching up your Manhattan habit for a Rob Roy? First created at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1894 and named after a Broadway show, it is rarely ordered today. Much like the other Scotch cocktails of note (the Blood and Sand and the Rusty Nail), it has a classic macho feel, but without the toxic “bro” vibes. You don’t have to be a tough guy, or a guy at all, to enjoy a Rob Roy on a cool night. The cherry garnish shows that you also have a soft side, so don’t do a twist with this one.

2 ounces of blended Scotch

1 ounce of sweet vermouth

1 dash each of Angostura and Peychaud’s

bitters

Stir; strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a cherry.

There are some pretty smoky blended Scotches out there, but this should be a balanced cocktail. Save the Band-Aids-and-campfires stuff for something else, like poker night.

Want something a little less rich? There’s nothing wrong with just going for a highball with Scotch—or try a highball with the whiskies coming out of places like Japan, Taiwan and India. Why? Because you’re very cosmopolitan, but not high-maintenance, and everyone knows it now.

1 1/2 ounce of whisky

Mineral water

Build over large cubes in a tall glass, lightly stirring. Garnish with thinly-sliced lemon.

However you decide to spend your time, even if it’s just with the dog, you’ll feel great sipping any of these cocktails!

Kevin Carlow can be reached at inahotdryplace@gmail.com.

Now that dry January is over, sip on a classic cocktail … or three

A Clover Club cocktail.

VINE SOCIAL

By Katie finn

Truth be told, I’m the kind of dolt who, most of the time, hears about local events they’ve happened. I’ll casually turn on the news and see a reel of people gleefully enjoying themselves at some fun festival and think to myself, “How did I miss this?” There’s usually a

Well, not this year, friends. I decided to be a little more proactive and emerge from my hole

focused on women’s health and graceful aging. There is no doubt that this event offers a lot of bang for your buck; it draws thousands of attendees year after year. Learn more at www.

the Desert Cancer Foundation. This event is the offspring of the hugely successful LAWineFest, which just celebrated its 17th year and is known for creating a laid-back, fun-filled wine experience in a beautiful sunkissed location. Yep, I’d say Desert WineFest will be right at home here in the valley. Get details at www.desertwinefest.com.

known as A Passion 4 Pinot—which, as you can imagine, is a tasting dedicated to the glorious pinot noir grape. Some 75 of some of the greatest producers in North America are slated to gather together at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort and Spa for a day of sampling decadent food and beautiful wine. This year, the grand tasting was slated for Saturday, Jan. 28, from 2 to 5:30 p.m., featuring top producers like DuMOL, Williams Selyem, Tongue Dancer, and Peake Ranch just to name a few. This is always my favorite wine event in the valley, and it is worth every penny for admission. From the food, to the breathtaking venues, to rubbing elbows with some of the greatest winemakers in the business, no detail is overlooked—and you’re guaranteed to have a great time!

For the truly-pinot passionate, the festival also hosts limited dinners featuring specific pinot noir-producing regions like the Russian River Valley and Anderson Valley (although both dinners were sold out at the time of this publication) and a limited buffet luncheon on Friday, Jan. 27, focusing on the pinot noirs from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Learn more at palmspringspinotfest.com.

Next on the agenda is the Greater Palm Springs Food and Wine tasting, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Classic Club in Palm Desert. This one-dayonly event is filled with iconic local restaurant participants like Mastro’s Steakhouse, Wally’s Desert Turtle and Wildest on El Paseo. Wineries include well-known producers such as Duckhorn, Daou, Lone Madrone and Mark Ryan. The $45 general-admission ticket not only gets you into to the tasting, but also gives you access to the Desert Woman’s Show—an indoor expo showcasing beauty products, fashions and accessories from some of the desert’s best-known boutiques, plus fashion

The new kid on the block is the Desert WineFest, held at the Civic Center Park in Palm Desert from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, and noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26. A blend of wineries, craft breweries, food trucks and artisan merchandise from small boutiques will all be presented to sample and purchase, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the local YMCA and

The Grand Poobah of wine and food events here in the valley is the Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival. Held in huge, air-conditioned event tents Friday, March 24, through Sunday, March 26, you would never know you’re standing in the parking lot of the Gardens on El Paseo. This three-day gastronomic extravaganza offers attendees bites from local restaurants, tastes from worldrenowned wineries, and goodies from specialty merchants. Two separate tents feature live cooking demonstrations hosted by celebrity chefs like Gale Gand, Tyler Florence and Curtis Stone, plus many others. If you’re a food and wine super-nerd (meant as a compliment!), you can snag tickets to the celebrity chef reception

Friday night, where you can meet and mingle with some of the Food Network’s culinary stars, or kick the weekend off by grabbing a seat at the James Beard four-course luncheon. During this 2 1/2-hour feast, celebrity chefs will prepare your gourmet lunch with wine pairings and share insight into their recipes, the ingredients and how the dishes come together. There’s even a wine-and-cheese pairing seminar and a Sunday brunch with bubbles! Yes, you might need to be rolled out of there by the end of the weekend, but you definitely won’t be hungry. Or sober. Visit www.palmdesertfoodandwine.com for more information.

So let the gluttony begin, and don’t forget to buy a bigger pair of pants. There will be plenty of time to get that beach bod back, but first … there’s wine.

Katie Finn is a certified sommelier and certified specialist of wine with two decades in the wine industry. She can be reached at katiefinnwine@ gmail.com.

Get out the bigger pants, and find a designated driver— because it’s wine-festival season!

adies and gentlemen … start your engines: Season is here! With COVID-19 (somewhat?)

CAESAR CERVISIA

JASON DAVID HAIR

By brett newton

nother year has passed us by, so it’s time to take what has become my customary look at

This has always been a tricky task—especially in 2020 and 2021, for obvious reasons, but now we are all out and about again, spreading communicable diseases like it’s 2019. It’s also tricky because of the challenge of trying to find a way to write about craft beer in the desert

Why do I care about being positive? It’s partially because of a suspicion I have that there are people who think I’m being a curmudgeon. I maintain that I just call it how I see it, and

yourself where it stands among the valley’s

similarly generic, whether they were labeled “West Coast,” “hazy” or “double IPA.” I had a couple of lagers that were unimpressive and somewhat flawed. There was a blood orange wheat ale that was only all right. The best thing I had that day was the food and a fruity seltzer slushie.

say much about due to my associations with them. I have a complex history with Coachella Valley Brewing Co., and today, I’m much less excited about the company than I was when I invested in it at its inception. It is a different place, and in my admittedly biased opinion, I think it has lost much of its personality. However, head brewer Eric Beaton is quite capable, so I recommend you go decide for

Next up is my place of work: Babe’s Bar-BQue and Brewery. I won’t say much because of the conflict of interest, but I will say I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished since I began working there in October 2021. Again, I say: Come by, and decide for yourself.

Now on to the breweries I can fully evaluate.

Last year saw the addition of Luchador Brewing to our corner of Southern California, when the Chino Hills brewery opened its second location in Cathedral City. My first impression, when I went a week or so after its opening, was not good: The IPAs all tasted

The good news is that things seem to be improving; I recently tried a brown ale that was much, much better than anything I tried the first time around. I usually give a brewery a grace period when it opens for various reasons, and I have hopes that Luchador is finding its way. The location itself is very cool, with tons of lucha libre decorations and TVs showing all kinds of wrestling. You can be sure there will be more on Luchador in this column down the line.

The next two breweries are places I have not had high opinions of in the past—Desert Beer Company and La Quinta Brewing Co. I hadn’t been to either brewery in many months, so in the interest of fairness, I recently went and tried a selection of beers at each.

I began at DBC and asked for

recommendations from a former co-worker. He gave me a couple, and I picked the other two for my flight. The pilsner was very fruity and a little sweet (this is not to style), while the wheat ale with peaches wasn’t even as fruity as the pils; that said, neither were bad beers in and of themselves. The unfiltered IPA was solid and reminiscent of old-school IPAs in that it was piney, citrusy and resinous, with a hefty bitter backbone. But the standout was the schwarzbier—it was excellent. There wasn’t much dark fruit, but the roasty chocolate flavor was great, and the beer finished very well. I will definitely have a full pint in the future. This was an auspicious start to the evening.

Next was La Quinta Brewing. I picked four beers to try and hunkered down. In the past, I’ve been met with many disappointments … but on this day, the brewery redeemed itself: I was stunned, in the best way possible. The barrel-aged Koffi Porter was a bit overbearing as far as the barrel character was concerned, but it tasted good. The Märzen was solid; the Tan Line Brown Ale was back to its former glory—toasty and well-balanced. The best beer of them all was the Cactus Prick Hazy Pale Ale. It wasn’t hazy at all—but this was a positive: It was full of passion fruit aroma and flavor, was crisp, and left me wanting more. I ended up with a pint of it as I pondered how great these La Quinta Brewing beers were overall.

Las Palmas Brewing remains a gem in downtown Palm Springs that I visit for a beer whenever I’m out that way and have time. I dedicated whole columns to both Las Palmas and Taproom 29 at Spotlight 29 Casino, so I won’t spend too much time on them other than to say they are both still worth a visit.

So it turned out that I was needlessly worried about my ability to be positive about the local breweries. The ones I worried most about have stepped up their games considerably—and I couldn’t be happier.

I fully believe in the adage that a rising tide raises all ships. More good beer can spur everyone else on to greater heights of brewing—and we can all win. As long as the beer speaks well for the valley, we have a chance of one day creating a really good beer culture, much like San Diego and Portland did decades ago. It can be done—but only if we hold high standards for our local craft beer.

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

There are finally reasons for optimism about the local craft-beer scene

FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT

This month, it’s tortilla soup for lunch, and a Cajun

boil for dinner

By Jimmy Boegle

WHAT Tortilla soup

WHERE John’s Restaurant, 900 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs HOW MUCH $7.95 CONTACT 760-327-8522; www.toasttab.com/johnsps/v3 WHY It’s warm deliciousness. When I thought of John’s Restaurant before my recent visit, good and inexpensive food came to mind. So did ordering at the counter … a great old-school diner vibe … competent if not exceedingly friendly service … and the experience of dining at a Palm Springs institution.

All those things still come to mind after that aforementioned visit—and now, so does surprisingly fantastic tortilla soup.

I met my friend and colleague Dennis there for a recent weekday lunch. He was craving chicken salad; I was craving breakfast. (This is not unusual; I am always craving breakfast.) Since John’s offers both of these things, it was a perfect fit. As we ordered, I made the last-minute decision to add on a bowl of tortilla soup— and, boy, am I glad I did.

My biscuits-and-gravy breakfast was just fine; Dennis’ chicken-salad sandwich was OK. My soup was the undisputed highlight of the meal (other than the conversation, of course).

Tortilla soup is one of my absolute favorites; if it’s on a restaurant menu, chances are I’m ordering it. Far too many tortilla soups aren’t actually tortilla soups, though; instead, they’re hearty chicken soups, with the only real tortilla element being fried tortilla pieces thrown on as a garnish.

John’s version, however, was tortilla soup Pieces of chicken joined various veggies (onions, pepper, etc.) in a tomato-y, tortilla-y broth, all of which was topped with cheese and the requisite fried tortilla pieces. It was perfectly seasoned—and offered welcome warmth on a cooler-than-usual January day.

John’s Restaurant has always been a fine option for a budget-friendly, no-frills, decent meal. I am happy to now know it’s a fine option for one of my favorite soups as well.

WHAT The twosome dinner

WHERE Mr. Claws, 67555 E. Palm Canyon Drive, No. F120, Cathedral City

HOW MUCH $40

CONTACT 760-424-8844; www.toasttab.com/ mr-claws-67555-e-palm-canyon-dr-ste-f120/ v3/

WHY It’s messy and marvelous. I always counsel inexperienced journalists to avoid absolutes—using words like “best” or “only” to describe something. Why? You can only say for sure that, for example, your favorite restaurant hamburger is the best in the Coachella Valley if you’ve tried every restaurant hamburger in the area.

Keep this in mind when I say: Mr. Claws offers the messiest dining experience in the Coachella Valley. It’s possible another restaurant offers an experience that’s just as messy, but there’s no way for the messiness on offer at Mr. Claws to be surpassed.

Mr. Claws opened last year in the space previously occupied by New Fortune Asian Cuisine, and the restaurant’s specialty is the seafood boil. Before the food arrives at the table in a plastic bag (delivered, interestingly enough, by a robot kitty on wheels), each diner receives a plastic bib. I strongly encourage wearing that bib.

On our recent visit, we ordered the twosome dinner—a two-pound seafood boil meant for two. You pick two seafood offerings (we went with crawfish and head-on shrimp over mussels and clams), the seasoning (we went with the house-special Crazy Claw sauce) and the spiciness level (we picked medium). The meal also includes two halfcobs of corn, potatoes, sausage and eggs.

Your only option is to eat with your hands. Let the mess begin!

It was definitely a delicious mess. The Crazy Claw sauce was tangy and just a bit sweet, and all of the seafood was cooked perfectly. Our one quibble: The food was not at all spicy, but it was so tasty that we didn’t mind much.

If you like seafood, I highly recommend Mr. Claws. Just make sure you don’t wear fancy clothes—and be prepared for a delicious mess.

By charles drabkin

THE BUSY SEASON BRINGS FOOD FESTIVALS APLENTY

The desert is well into the high season, and the amount food news is a bit overwhelming. So many new venues are opening; there are food festivals aplenty; and more!

As for one of those food fests: Taste of Jalisco is returning to Cathedral City from Friday, Feb. 3, through Sunday, Feb. 5. The weekend includes a carnival, a craft market, tequila tastings, Mexican cuisine, a car show and daily entertainment. Admission to the vendor market and access to the festival is free; tickets, sold onsite, are required for carnival rides and games. Food offerings and tequila tastings are all priced separately. Find details at tasteofjalisco.com.

As for another: St. George Greek Orthodox Church, at 74109 Larrea St., in Palm Desert, invites you to be Greek for a day at the 25th annual Palm Desert Greek Festival, on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 18 and 19; admission is $3 plus the price of food. Choose from a full menu of Greek delights, including grilled octopus, moussaka, spanakopita, pastries, wine, beer and coffee. The festival also includes a specialty food store so you can take a little bit of Greece home. Check out pdgreekfest.org for the full menu and all the details.

IN BRIEF

Before we get to all the openings, some sad news: Brickworks American Bistro + Pizza, at 155 S. Palm Canyon Drive, closed its doors as of the new year, reportedly due to a lease expiration. I hope the hard-working staff can find new employment soon. … The second location of El Patio, the popular Palm Springs Mexican restaurant, has opened in La Quinta, at 78370 Highway 111; learn more at instagram.com/elpatiolaquinta. The owners also have stakes in two other popular Mexican eateries: Salsa’s Restaurant in Cathedral City, and Felipe’s in Palm Springs. … Keedy’s Fountain and Grill, at 73633 Highway 111, in Palm Desert, is planning a second location at Avenue 50 and Jefferson St. in Indio. The menu will be the same—with the addition of a full bar! Watch keedysfountaingrill.com for updates. … The Shops at El Paseo, at 73061 El Paseo, in Palm Desert, is home to a new upscale Mexican eatery: Molé. It’s the second iteration of the Sedona, Ariz.-based restaurant that combines generations of family recipes with modern culinary techniques. Seafood potato croquets, Suadero enchiladas and red quinoa salads grace the menu; molecomida.com. … Just down the street is the new Hideout Kitchen and Bar, specifically at 73595 El Paseo, Suite 2208. Hideout joins the evergrowing El Paseo restaurant scene with bar food like chicken and waffles, smoked mac and cheese, and habanero bacon jam salmon. Hideout is open for all three meals; hideoutelpaseo.com. … Just a little further down the street is the new Francium Chocolat, at 73880 El Paseo. With beautiful bonbons, chocolate-covered nuts, macarons and more, what’s not to love? Find their page on Facebook for the most up-to-date information. … Heyday Burger is moving to 1550 N. Palm Canyon Drive, the former home of JJ’s Mexican Oasis. An opening is expected in mid to late February; keep an eye on their social media, and in the meantime, continue to enjoy their burgers at the Hilton Palm Springs; theheydaypalmsprings.com. … You’ve loved it at the Certified Farmers Markets for years, and Cherry’s Famous Rugelach now has a brick-and-mortar location, at 27800 Landau Blvd., in Cathedral City. If you have never had rugalach warm out of the oven, you are in for a treat. Watch www.facebook. com/cherrysfamous for updates. … Three restaurants with menus based on Latin cuisine have opened in Palm Springs in the last month! The California-based mini-chain Sol-Agave has opened at 246 S. Palm Canyon Drive (solagave.com/palm-springs); the long-awaited Reforma bar, restaurant and nightclub is at 333 S. Palm Canyon Drive (reformaps.com); and Low Desert Modern Mexican is in the former Smoke Tree BBQ spot at 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive (lowdesert.net). … If you need more Mexican food, Casa Blanca—with locations in Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City and Palm Desert—is set to take over the space at 140 S. Palm Canyon Drive, where Revel Public House just closed. Learn more at casablancamenu.com. … Moving on to Desert Hot Springs: Sushi Bella is back, at 13440 Palm Drive. It closed mysteriously about eight months ago. Welcome back! Call 760-219-1533 for more. … If you like frozen yogurt, you will love Lizzy’s Premium Frozen Yogurt, at 66040 Pierson Blvd., in DHS. This self-service shop offers a variety of frozen yogurts, gelatos, Italian ices and toppings; lizzyspremiumfrozenyogurt.com. … Spaghetti Western Saloon has opened at 50048 Twentynine Palms Highway, in Morongo Valley. The owners were both raised in Rome and have loved spaghetti Western films since they were children. The restaurant features Roman-style pizza, the eponymous pasta (with bacon and tomato sauce), gelato and a skillet brownie; spaghettiwesternsaloon.com. … Also new to the high desert: Más o Menos, at 66031 Twentynine Palms Highway, in Joshua Tree, is a coffee shop and bar with a few sandwiches during the day, and a plan to host pop-up restaurants; masomenosjt.com.

Got a hot tip? Let me know: foodnews@cvindependent.com.

The PS Walk of the Stars honors Hal Blaine, one of the most recorded drummers of all time THE VENUE REPORT: THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS, AIR SUPPLY, DEVOTCHKA—AND MUCH MORE!

THE LUCKY 13: MEET Lindsay Clark, BASSIST FOR PRIMER AND GARB the lucky 13: Get to know Angel Chavez, COACHELLA EXPERT AND DESERT UNDERGROUND PRODUCER

SOUL FOR THE CULTURE

Thee Sinseers, performing at Pappy and Harriet’s, meld sounds to attract a multi-generational audience

MUSIC

A DRUMMING GREAT

By matt king

As you walk down Palm Canyon Drive or Tahquitz Canyon Way in downtown Palm Springs, you’ll find stars dedicated to icons like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and countless others. There will be some names you don’t recognize—and the newest star to be awarded is going to a rather unknown name with a huge musical legacy.

At 2:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 6, the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars will be cementing the

memory of Hal Blaine into Palm Canyon Drive. Hal Blaine was a drummer for the world-famous “Wrecking Crew,” a group of studio musicians who were hired to play on many of the greatest songs of the ’60s and ’70s. Blaine’s work is on iconic tracks like “Be My Baby,” “Good Vibrations,” “A Little Less Conversation” and so many others. He’s thought to be the most recorded drummer of all time, and his discography feels like a never-ending scroll.

Blaine’s star pays tribute to the drummer who spent the last years of his life in Palm Desert, as he passed away at the age of 90 in 2019. His nephew Michael Kravitz and friend Ingrid Fasching, who runs a Hal Blaine Facebook group, teamed up to honor the late musician.

“One day, my wife and I were in Palm Springs visiting, and we were walking down the street, just kind of sightseeing,” Kravitz said during a recent phone interview. “I’ve been there a million times, but I was just looking at all the stars, and I’m thinking to myself about my uncle. Honest to god, my phone rings, and it’s Ingrid, and she says, ‘Your uncle needs a star in the desert.’”

Fasching said that perfectly timed call was not the only “coincidence” regarding Blaine.

“You’ve got to wonder if there is some divine thing going on,” she said. “… I happened to see that Buddy Rich had a star in Palm Springs. When I saw it, I thought to myself, ‘Hal deserves a star, too.’ Look at what he’s done in his career, and not only that; he was an extraordinarily wonderful human being—very kind, very gracious, very generous and very giving.”

Fasching said Blaine lived in Palm Desert for nearly 20 years after he retired. The drummer was attracted to the Coachella Valley after moving here temporarily in 1988; during his stay, he met Sally Ehrens, a woman who built some of Palm Springs’ first hotels.

“Sally was one of the forefathers of the Palm Springs area; she and her husband built a lot of condos, apartments, hotels, etc.,” Fasching said. “At the time Hal met her, she had a hard time getting around, and she asked Hal to drive her around to places, which

he did. She showed him a lot of the area, and he really fell in love with it.”

The Walk of the Stars is just the latest honor for Blaine. He’s received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A lot of Blaine’s recognition didn’t come until after the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew showcased his talent and résumé.

“The funny thing is, the majority of those (awards) didn’t occur until after he was 70 years old, because once The Wrecking Crew movie came out, he started to get recognition for what he had done,” Fasching said. “Before that, he was mainly only known by insiders in the music world or a few select people. Him, Earl Palmer and James Jamerson were the first sidemen inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

Remarkably, Blaine was on every Grammy Award Record of the Year winner from 1966 to 1971.

“A lot of times on the bandstand, they’d say, ‘You played it just like the record,’ and he said, ‘Well, I did the record,’” Kravitz said. “He’s like in an island by himself. No one has ever done what he’s done, in the sense that he had six Record of the Year awards in a row, from Herb Albert’s A Taste of Honey, Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, The 5th Dimension’s Up, Up and Away, Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Then a few years went by, and he got another one for Love Will Keep Us Together.”

Another highlight in Blaine’s career came when Glen Campbell reunited with the few remaining Wrecking Crew members for one more song.

“The director of the documentary (Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me) contacted Hal; Hal got a hold of Joe Osborn, and he got Don Randi, and they got together and recorded ‘I’m Not Gonna Miss You,’” Fasching said. “That was in 2013. Hal was 84, and he recorded and sounded just like he did back when he was in his 30s. He was still playing his drums even at his birthday party at 90 years old. They got a Grammy (for Best Country Song) in 2015 for that song.”

Even though Blaine’s drumming will stand the test of time, Kravitz and Fasching hope that this honor will celebrate his character as well.

“He was always giving to people in the valley,” Kravitz said. “He had a friend in Palm Desert who has a jewelry store, and I remember we were in the store one day, and the guy had a customer. Hal and I are talking, and in walks this lady, and she was wanting to sell a piece of jewelry to the owner. The owner just kept telling her to wait, and then, of course, Hal and I started talking to this lady, and before you knew it, he just whips out five $100 bills and buys it from the lady to help her out.”

Added Fasching: “And not only that, he was

going to give it as a gift to a dear friend of his, Don Lombardi, a partial owner of DW drums. He’s always been good to Hal. Don signed Hal when Hal was 86 years old as an endorser, and he did it out of his love for Hal, because he was just a wonderful human being. After Don Lombardi gave him those drums, Hal wanted to do something for Don, and that’s when he bought that necklace to give it to Don.”

Hal Blaine’s Palm Springs Walk of the Stars ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 6, at 100 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. For more information, visit walkofthestars.com.

The PS Walk of the Stars honors Hal Blaine, a Wrecking Crew member and one of the most recorded drummers of all time

Hal Blaine. Rob Shanahan/robshanahan.art

FebrUARY 2023

By matt king

VINTAGE SOUL

By matt king

hee Sinseers are an R&B/soul outfit out of Los Angeles that could be a group of ’50s/’60s

Everything from the beautiful voice of singer Joey Quiñones, to the instrumentals, to the backing vocals scream “vintage blissful soul”; even the production quality offers some subtle grain and classic reverb. Check out “It Was Only a Dream” and “Seems Like.”

Coachella at some point, for sure.”

Part of the band’s success is due to their intermingling of cultures. Thee Sinseers are a perfect fit alongside old-school Chicano love songs, beloved by so many across Southern California.

and not have a limitation of a genre style, or a stamp of restrictions,” Quiñones said. “I’m excited to be able to have the support from the label like that to push us and have confidence in the music that we’re producing on our own. We manage ourselves; we travel and tour-manage ourselves, and we produce and write and record ourselves. We’re kind of a fully efficient little machine that’s getting their gears running, so it’s cool to have the support from a label to say, ‘Go ahead and go full steam.’”

Hunter Hayes

Happy February! Here’s a selection of what the Coachella Valley entertainment scene has to offer this month. Stay safe!

Acrisure Arena is hosting a slate of diverse events. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, and 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11, enjoy an evening of bona fide bull riding with the PBR: Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour. What usually is an ice-hockey rink will transform into a bull-riding-bonanza; tickets start at $21. The Harlem Globetrotters will bring their basketball fun to town at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21. Tickets start at $30. At 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24 and 25, the Eagles will perform two sets each night—one with their greatest hits, and one with Hotel California in its entirety. Remaining tickets start around $250. King of Norteño music Ramón Ayala is making a special appearance with Banda Machos for a night of Mexican greatness at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26. Tickets start at $39. Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, Palm Desert; 888695-8778; www.acrisurearena.com.

Fantasy Springs is hosting some fine music and comedy. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, ’70s soft-rockers America will take the Fantasy stage. Tickets start at $39. Enjoy the sonic journey of Hunter Hayes at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11. Tickets start at $39. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 17, you’re in for a night of oldies and blue-eyed soul with The Righteous Brothers Tickets start at $39. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson is headed to town for a night of laughs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18. Tickets start at $39. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24, get down to the funky R&B grooves of music legends the Commodores. Tickets start at $49. Enjoy a local visit from television, movie and standup star George Lopez at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25. Tickets start at $59.

consistent for the past 10 years. We’re able to good relationship that we have, and the labels

Thee Sinseers are no stranger to the desert; The Altons), and Chella in Indio (alongside Ed

“The support behind the genre that we’ve been lucky to tap into has been really strong,” Quiñones said. “This is the first time I’ve been in a band where the fan base ranges from 3 months to 75 years old, and everybody can find something to enjoy about it.”

Quinones said most of the band members come from punk-rock or ska backgrounds.

“So we’re used to mosh pits and fights and sweaty kids jumping up and down—and you don’t see that at our shows,” Quiñones said. “You see people connecting. It’s not that they’re bored; they’re conversing, and they’re connecting. It’s a really cool thing to see the different people. We get a lot of the younger kids coming from Echo Park and Hollywood and stuff like that who are into the Daptone Records scene, and then you see all the cholos and cholas on their date nights, and then their grandparents and their kids. It’s cool to see all the different people connect.”

The Sinseers have only a few singles streaming currently, but the band members are working hard on their debut full-length.

“Right before the year ended, we finished recording our first full-length album as Thee Sinseers, and it was kind of in sync with the same time we were doing my solo record as Joey Quiñones, so we’re going to have two records coming out this year, with lots of opportunities to travel and tour, and we’re really excited about that,” Quiñones said. “I think they were talking about a springtime, early summer kind of release. Of course, vinyl plants are backed up right now with all the major labels, so we’re going to be expecting the vinyls later in the year after that.”

The debut album has been a long time coming—because Thee Sinseers wanted to make sure they got it right.

fans and friends and family who are out there and stuff. The goal is always trying to get into

The melding of cultures found in the band’s music is owed in part to Colemine Records.

“They (Colemine) gave me the freedom to kind of produce the records that I wanted to,

“We recorded the album in late 2019, and, of course, that’s when everything kind of shut down, and there were plans for us to market it and travel and tour around it,” Quiñones said. “When live concerts shut down, it didn’t really make sense to put out a product that we couldn’t really promote … so we put it on the shelf. Throughout those two years, a lot more songs were written; a lot more ideas came out; and through performing a lot of those quarantine sessions for different shows, we realized that if we’re going to do this again, (we should) go back in fresh, and redo the stuff that we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that we’re all happy with it and not rush it. I think Colemine has been really cool and patient with us, letting us take the time to get that right, because there are a lot of people expecting a lot of things.”

Thee Sinseers and The Altons will perform at 9:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. The show was listed as sold out as of our press deadline. For more information, call 760-228-2222, or visit pappyandharriets.com.

Thee Sinseers.

Thee Sinseers, performing at Pappy and Harriet’s, meld sounds to attract a multi-generational audience

The Venue REPORT

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-342-5000; www. fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage has the goods, as always. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 4, witness the legendary Johnny Mathis in person. He started his career in the late ’50s! Tickets start at $95. The comedy and magic duo of Penn and Teller bring Vegas to the valley at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10. Tickets start at $45. Australian ’80s rock outfit Air Supply heads to Rancho Mirage at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11. Tickets start at $40. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 17, catch country duo Crystal Gayle and Johnny Lee. Tickets start at $40. The Rancho Mirage Legends of Sports Speaker Series is continuing with NFL legend Emmitt Smith at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21. Tickets start at $60. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www. hotwatercasino.com.

Agua Caliente in Cathedral City is offering some fine February festivities. At 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 4, enjoy the second annual Caliente Doo Wop Sock Hop, featuring a costume contest and live sets by The Dreamboats and DJ Modgirl. The event is free, but you must RSVP. Pregame before Super Bowl Sunday at 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11, with BrewFest, featuring live entertainment, food and a selection of brews! The event is free, but you must RSVP; a $25 beer-tasting wristband is available. Canadian country singer Lindsay Ell will rock the Agave Caliente Terraza at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25. Tickets are $20 to $25.

Agua Caliente Cathedral City, 68960 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City; 888-999-1995; www.aguacalientecasinos.com/cc.

Agua Caliente in Palm Springs continues a packed schedule with three residencies—and a special Mardi Gras-themed event. Desert Blues Revival Wednesdays offer the return of the Gand Band Chicago Blues Caravan (Feb. 1), the modern blues of Bill Grisolia

Band (Feb. 8), a special Mardi Gras-themed set by Madame LeRoux and Krewe with The Gand Band (Feb. 15), and a vintage soul and R&B revue dubbed Lookout! featuring The Groove Empire Orchestra and a series of guest vocalists (Feb. 22). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $10, available at eventspalmsprings.com/blues. Jazzville Thursdays bring the trailblazing pop/jazz of M-Pact (Feb. 2), the return of the Rat Packreminiscent Nutty (Feb. 9), the swing of the drummer/vocalist-led Brian Cabrera Quartet (Feb. 16) and a tribute to jazz legend Dexter Gordon by the Chuck Johnson Quintet (Feb 23). (We should also mention a special Saturday show at the Palm Spring Museum of Art’s Annenberg Theater featuring Lizzy and the Triggermen on Feb. 25.) Shows take place at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $15, available at jazzvillepalmsprings.com. Caliente Comedy Fridays bring a series of laughs with Dean Delray (Feb. 3), Jade Catta-Preta (Feb. 10), Michael Lenoci (Feb. 17) and an LGBTQ comedy showcase headlined by Daniel Webb (Feb. 24). Shows are at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $7.99, available at www.eventspalmsprings. com/caliente-comedy. Finally, celebrate Mardi Gras in the desert with Party Gras, happening at 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18. Tickets are $20 to $25. Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 888-999-1995; www.sparesortcasino.com.

The McCallum Theatre is offering music, plays and more! At 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 1, celebrate local history with Palm Springs Legends, a night of acts that pay tribute to stars who spent time in the valley. Tickets start at $40. Viral song-re-workers Piano Guys return to the desert for three performances: You can catch their musical reinventions at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11. Tickets start at $65. Grammy/Emmy winner Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band will grace the McCallum stage at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15. Tickets start at $35. At 7 p.m., Wednes-

day, Feb. 22, McCallum regular Steve Tyrell returns once again for a night of classic pop standards. Tickets start at $40. The On Your Feet! musical celebrating the history and music of Emilio and Gloria Estefan will have five performances in Palm Desert. You can catch the show at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24, 2 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26. Tickets start at $60. At 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 28, experience the Netflix documentary Our Planet Live in Concert when a live orchestra performs the score while the documentary is screened. Tickets start at $45. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert; 760-340-2787; www.mccallumtheatre.com.

Pappy and Harriet’s features a ton of reasons to experience one of the greatest live music venues around. At 8 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 1, enjoy a night of psychobilly with Reverend Horton Heat, featuring surf rockers The Surfrajettes. Tickets are $30. Blues-rock badassery compliments of Black Joe Lewis will shake up the dust bowl at 9:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 3. Tickets are $20. At 9 p.m., Monday. Feb. 13, psychedelic trio Bitchin Bajas will visit Pioneertown. Shane Guerrette also performs; tickets are $20. Eclectic multi-genre outfit DeVotchKa will rock the indoor stage at 9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 16. Tickets are $32. Western music and the Pioneertown Palace are a perfect combination when Riders in the Sky perform at 9 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 19 Tickets are $30. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, check out the versatile rock ’n’ roll of The Sadies. Tickets are $17.50. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-2282222; www.pappyandharriets.com.

The shows at the Purple Room Palm Springs are mostly sold out, with an exception. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, and Saturday, Feb. 11, pianist/singer Billy Stritch will honor the music of Broadway’s Cy Coleman. Tickets are $55 to $60. All ticketed shows

Oscar’s is featuring a few great events alongside their regular programming. At 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 3, Alexander Rodriguez will perform Unsung Midler, an evening of lesser-known Bette Midler music. Tickets are $25. Mike Flanagan (saxophone), Lauren Scales (vocals) and Chris Grasso (piano) team up to celebrate music from legendary collaborations that span the decades, at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 6. Tickets start at $35. A night of laughs will begin at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18, with comedians Jiaoying Summers, Aidan Park and Mario Adrion. Tickets start at $29.95. Oscar’s Palm Springs, 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs; 760-3251188; oscarspalmsprings.com/events.

Black Joe Lewis

include dinner reservations. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-322-4422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.

John Taylor

MUSIC

LUCKY 13

by matt king

NAME Lindsay Clark GROUPS Primer, Garb

MORE INFO Lindsay Clark splits her bass duties between two great projects. One is the experimental and electronic Primer, based out of Los Angeles; the other is Garb, the slow-core band from the Coachella Valley. You can see Garb live when the band performs at Rippin247, a trading card store in Palm Desert, on Friday, Feb. 24.

What was the first concert you attended?

I’m pretty sure it was Christina Aguilera, early 2000s, in Lansing, Mich. I don’t remember the music so much, but I remember wondering how she changed outfits so quickly.

What was the first album you owned?

Pieces of You by Jewel. I used to put on a white dress and sing “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “You Were Meant For Me” in front of my mirror when I was 6 or so. My sister accidently sat on that CD in my dad’s green minivan, and I was devastated.

What bands are you listening to right now?

I’m not really listening to anything specific. I listen to preset radio stations like a lunatic, and if there aren’t any bangers, then it’s the classical station.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? Maybe I’m not so into the hyperpop thing,

but also I’m not even sure what that is. Maybe I am hyperpop.

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

It would be insane to see Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy live. On my nostalgic bucket list is Modest Mouse.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Post Malone. Just a little auditory treat.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I don’t have a favorite venue. I will say, though, the ones with kind sound techs have a special place in my heart.

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

“It’s so lonely at the top, so won’t you come and get on top of me, it’s Gucci,” “Have It All” by Gucci Mane.

What band or artist changed your life?

Cat Power was one of the first artists who inspired me in middle school to sing, play guitar and write music in general. I think it was having a female musician to look up to and thinking, “I want to do that.” In terms of changing or shaping my life, my dad, Reggie, raised me and my sister on Beach Boys, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and Heart; he really emphasized playing Heart’s version of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” at full volume and telling us that these girls did it better. I

don’t know if he actually thought that or just wanted to encourage us, but their version does rip. He also took us to see the Rolling Stones and Robert Plant when I was 10. Thanks, Dad.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? I’m asking Satomi Matsuzaki, “What’s your biggest pet peeve about Greg Saunier?”

What song would you like played at your funeral? “Close to You,” but the Haruomi Hosono version.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? For You, Tatsuro Yamashita.

What song should everyone listen to right now? “Ajisai,” Sunny Day Service.

NAME Angel Chavez

MORE INFO Angel Chavez works hard to support the local music scene in myriad ways. He’s attended Coachella for 10-plus years, and has dedicated his YouTube channel to documenting, reviewing and offering tips for survival at the festival in recent years. He hosts a podcast where he interviews local bands, and has even thrown a few Desert Underground events featuring local rappers, bands and Mexican acts—during which he professionally records their sets. For more information, visit instagram.com/coachellaangel.

What was the first concert you attended? Not sure, but I remember Los Tigres del Norte when I was a kid.

What was the first album you owned? The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem.

What bands are you listening to right now? Turnstile, Arcade Fire, and Mago de Oz.

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

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

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? Singing in the car.

What’s your favorite music venue? The Empire Polo Club.

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

“I been working 8 days a week / I don’t even know what the fuck today is,” Big Sean, “Paradise.”

What band or artist changed your life?

Kanye West. I saw him live in 2011 for the first time, and I became a huge fan. Kanye has always been motivated with his music and his ego about believing in yourself. Kanye also says if you are a fan of Kanye West, you are a fan of yourself. I love that. We must believe in ourselves before other people.

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

“When are you coming back to Coachella, Daft Punk?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“The Last Goodbye” by ODESZA.

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

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Baby’s World” by Mills the Gawd.