Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263 Cathedral City, CA 92234 (760) 904-4208 www.cvindependent.com
Editor/Publisher
Jimmy Boegle
staff writerS
Haleemon Anderson
Kevin Fitzgerald
coveR and feature design
Dennis Wodzisz
Contributors
Melissa Daniels, Charles Drabkin, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Terry Huber, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Clay Jones, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Cat Makino, Brett Newton, Greg Niemann, Dan Perkins, Theresa Sama, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor, Eleanor Whitney
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
Of all the things President Trump has done in his first few days back in office, I am most baffled—but not surprised—by his attacks on health.
His actions have shown a hostility toward science, openness, collaboration and, well, common sense. Consider:
• He withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, which the U.S. helped establish in 1948. He claimed the organization mishandled the COVID-19 crisis, among other complaints, but his primary rationale: We’re paying an unfair share. As NPR reports: “(Trump) noted that the U.S. pays WHO $500 million annually compared to China’s $39 million contribution.” (However, those figures are inaccurate and exaggerated.) That NPR piece also discussed the message that the United States’ withdrawal is sending: “‘It would signal an attack by the largest and most economically powerful country in the world on international health cooperation,’ says David McCoy, a public health researcher at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That cooperation, he argues, is essential for managing pandemics and other cross-border health threats.”
• He’s stopped the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from functioning, essentially, at least temporarily. The New York Times says: “The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the nation’s escalating bird flu crisis. Experts who serve on outside advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails on Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled. The cancellations followed a directive issued on Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who prohibited the release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by a presidential appointee or designee, according to federal officials and an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.” Why is he “clamping down” on science?
• Trump shut down an office intended to help the country prepare for the next pandemic. The Los Angeles Times reports: “He has … shuttered the Bidenera White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness, which was directed by Congress to streamline and coordinate the nation’s response to burgeoning pandemics, such as avian flu. Since the office’s formation in 2023, it has initiated multiagency coordinated efforts to ‘test’ the nation’s preparedness for novel disease outbreaks, and has provided advice and coordination regarding vaccine development and availability among various health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. A visit to the office’s website Wednesday morning showed a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error message.”
I could go on—I haven’t even mentioned the anti-science stances of some of Trump’s appointees, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—but the message is clear: Under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, power, politics and ideology matter. The well-being of Americans does not.
Welcome to the February 2025 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent—our annual Art Issue. As always, thanks for reading. —Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com
HIKING WITH T
COMFORT AIR
The new Chuckwalla National Monument includes some of the best desert hiking in Southern California
The new Chuckwalla National Monument, a portion of which is in the eastern Coachella Valley, just south of Joshua Tree National Park, was established by President Biden on Jan. 14. Including the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument (located in Northern California), also established by Biden on Jan. 14, 848,000 acres of land in California are now newly protected. The Chuckwalla National Monument will preserve more than 624,000 acres of lands with extraordinarily diverse ecological, cultural and historical values. The monument will be managed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.
Monument. The new monument includes Painted Canyon, sacred land that was once a village for Cahuilla tribal ancestors. Other ancestral homelands and cultural landscapes of the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan and Serrano people are now protected. More than 50 rare species of plants and animals reside in the region, including the desert bighorn sheep, Agassiz’s desert tortoise and the iconic Chuckwalla lizard, from which the monument gets its name.
WE'RE #1 FOR A REASON
ASK US
A neighboring tribe, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, led a multiyear campaign with a cohort of other tribes calling for the establishment of the Chuckwalla National canyons, which can be quite narrow—but most serene. Hiking options are plentiful and can range from an easy 2 miles to a moderate 4-plus miles with an elevation gain of nearly 800 feet. You can also make it a loop for a longer hike that takes about 2 hours to complete. To reach the trailhead, it’s a rough and slow 5-mile drive on the unpaved, sandy Painted Canyon Road, which is just off Box Canyon Road, at the north end of the Salton Sea, about 15 miles east of Indio. Follow Painted Canyon Road to the end, and you will see the parking area. Dogs are allowed but not recommended in the areas with ladders and ropes.
Painted Canyon Road turnoff. Continue ahead for 6 miles, and park off the pavement along the right-side shoulder of Box Canyon Road. No dogs are allowed on this trail.
ABOUT OUR 0% FINANCING
A great way to get to know the new Chuckwalla National Monument is to visit a few of the most popular hiking trails and places of interest:
• Painted Canyon and Ladder Canyon Trail, in the Mecca Hills Wilderness area, is a favorite among local hikers. These spectacular trails make for a most adventurous hike—although some of the trails are not suitable for everyone, according to AllTrails. This area involves rockscrambling, using ropes and climbing several ladders, some as tall as 12 feet, to explore the divine beauty of the colorful and unique slot
Awarded Best AC Repair Company
By Coachella Valley Independent
• Little Box Canyon Trail, off Box Canyon Road, in the Mecca Hills Wilderness area, is a mostly flat and easy 4.5-mile out-and-back through slot canyons with an elevation gain of just 275 feet. This trail might be a bit rocky in areas, but it’s mainly soft sand with a gradual slight incline. It’s great for beginners and should take about 1.5 hours to complete. To reach this trail from Highway 111, continue east on 66th Avenue; it will turn into Box Canyon Road at the
• Corn Springs Trail/Campground is a remote scenic fan palm oasis located deep in a canyon of the Chuckwalla Mountains in the northern portion of the monument. The oasis consists of more than 60 California fan palms, aka Washingtonia filifera, named after our first president, George Washington. These spectacular palms reach as high as 70 feet, providing nesting for birds and bats. Also, an extensive array of petroglyphs can be found near Corn Springs, dating back as far as 10,000 years. The campground is located about 10 miles from Interstate 10; take exit 201, and head down Chuckwalla Valley Road south to Corn Springs Road. Turn right, and follow that road 6.8 miles. Beyond the camping and hiking trails, this is a popular area for bird watching and more. Leashed dogs are allowed. This historical area has been operated by the BLM since 1968.
When visiting or hiking these sacred and protected areas—or any area, for that matter—remember to “leave no trace.” Learn more about the seven principles of “leave no trace” at lnt.org/why/7-principles.
Always be prepared, and know your route. These areas are very remote, with extreme temperatures and high winds. It’s a good idea to avoid these areas during the hottest months (July, August and September). Don’t hike alone, and always tell someone where you’re going. Wear a brimmed hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and layered clothing—and always bring more water than you should need, at least 2-3 liters per person, a liter per hour of hiking.
Painted Canyon Road and Box Canyon Road can be closed seasonally due to weather conditions, so check road conditions before planning your hike. Also, travel with a full tank of gas in these remote areas, as the nearest gas station may be several miles away.
Upcoming Events
Experience nature at its best with a trail run/walk at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument at 8 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 22. Join Friends of the Desert Mountains as they celebrate wildflowers, wellness and wildlands. Friends of the Desert Mountains is celebrating 38 years of conservation in Coachella Valley, and your participation will help them continue saving our desert. Wear trail-running shoes or hiking boots for this 2.5-mile run/walk that starts at the Randall Henderson Trailhead, located just
off Highway 74. All ages are welcome, but no dogs or strollers are allowed on the trail. The entrance fee is $35 per person and includes a T-shirt for those who sign up prior to Feb. 1; after that, registration is $40. Kids 12 and younger can register for free, but this does not include a T-shirt. Register and get more details at www.desertmountains.org/event/2025wildflower-trail-run-walk.
• Join Friends of the Desert Mountains yet again from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, March 1, for the 18th annual Coachella Valley Wildflower Festival at Palm Desert Civic Center Park, at 43900 San Pablo. This great event is free for all ages and offers shopping, information booths, local artists, enchanting wildflower displays, a raffle and fun times with live music. An interactive Kids’ Zone and a nature-inspired youth art contest will be featured; local food trucks and beverage concessions will be available, with a beer and wine garden for adults. This event helps promote education, environmental stewardship, land conservancy and an appreciation of the beautiful surrounding desert mountains. Learn more at www. desertmountains.org/event/the-coachellavalley-wildflower-festival.
Painted Canyon, in the Mecca Hills Wilderness area, is part of the new Chuckwalla National Monument. Theresa Sama
February 13-23
More Than 450 Events Over 11 Days
More Than 90 Talks, Films, and Performances
February 14-23 * Various Times and Locations
Start your Modernism Week Adventure at CAMP at Hyatt Palm Springs
February 13-23 * Open Daily
20th Anniversary Opening Ceremony Thursday, February 13 at 10 a.m. Free to the public
Check-in for All Bus Tours
Modernism Week Shop
Information Desk
Food, Drinks, Music and Daily Entertainment
Modernism Show Preview Party
February 14 * Palm Springs Convention Center
Keynote Presentation: Survival Through Design by Dr. Raymond Neutra
February 15 * Annenberg Theater
OPINION KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS
BY BONNIE GILGALLON
Tony Padilla is not a social butterfly, but he is the guy you’d want to sit next to at a cocktail party—charming, funny, cerebral and observant, he’s just a fascinating human being. Then there’s that delicious accent.
Born in Santiago de Cuba, Padilla’s father was a barber, and his mother a singer. Padilla grew up in the middle of the Cuban revolution; his parents were very protective, but Tony was aware of the gunfire and protests all around him. He learned early to distinguish the difference between a gunshot and a car backfiring.
Padilla is the oldest of six children, and the only one who was born in Cuba. When his parents came to the U.S., his father was drafted and sent to Monterey, Calif., for basic training
before heading off to Germany for his tour of duty. Padilla stayed behind with his grandmother in Cuba until the revolution was over, then joined the family in Germany. He taught himself English from a book his dad used, and admits, “I sounded like a robot.”
When the family returned to the U.S., 11-year-old Padilla took the Oath of Allegiance to become a citizen. The reality of life in America was very different from his expectations.
“In Europe, we were always dressed up,” he said. “I always had on a sportscoat, etcetera. But here in the States, it was jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes.”
Padilla was exposed to the world of performing at a young age, because his mother had been a singer in Cuba, but it wasn’t until high school that the acting bug hit. Padilla attended a junior college in Monterey, and was later accepted at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He performed in plays directed by William Ball, the school’s founder.
In the mid-1970s, on his way back from visiting a friend in Ohio, Padilla stopped in Chicago—and fell in love with the city. He decided to stay, and it was where he met Jim, his partner of 48 years. They started a company called Dover Metals, designing and selling food-display items like tea caddies, baskets and bowls.
In the late 1980s, shortly after the couple visited a friend in the Palm Springs area, Jim bought a house here, partly to give his ailing, elderly father a comfortable home in the sun. A few years later, they sold the company and made Palm Springs their home base, though they do spend summers in Carmel-by-theSea, to escape the extreme desert heat.
One day, on a stroll down North Palm Canyon Drive, Padilla noticed a building called The Galleria.
“It reminded me of an old arcade building in Europe. … I just loved it!” he said.
While the front of the building housed an art gallery, many spaces were empty, and
others were being used for storage. Padilla and his partner rented out a small space downstairs, and offered to buy the entire building if it ever went up for sale. In the mid1990s, after the building’s owner passed away, his wife offered the building to Padilla and Jim, knowing how much they loved it.
Today, the lower level is an upscale art gallery ran by Padilla and his partner, with paintings, sculptures, Japanese ceramics and glass beads from Italy. Both men have an artistic eye, and Jim himself is an abstract painter. Retail tenants hawk their wares in the other lower-level spaces. Upstairs is Padilla’s office, along with a second office and two apartments which are rented out.
Padilla’s prolific writing career began when he started churning out what he describes as “schmaltzy” poetry. “But I always wanted to be a man of letters—to have some gravitas,” he said.
He cites Edward Albee, and particularly his play The Zoo Story as a big inspiration. “It was so shocking at the time. I mean, this guy kills another guy over a park bench. It was a sensation both here and in Germany, and he reportedly wrote it in a week. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do, write something in a week that has that kind of lasting social consciousness.’”
Padilla said he believes the play Endangered Species is his best work. The story revolves around what people do when they find a live baby abandoned in a garbage can in New York City. Would you immediately rescue the infant—or choose not to get involved? The play offers some surprising answers. A friend in Italy produced it, then submitted it to the Schegge D’Autore (Festival of Italian Theatre) in Rome, where it won the International Award Medal.
Though Padilla has also had success as a director, he said writing is absolutely his first love: “I enjoy it more than anything else.”
As laid-back and soft-spoken as he is, Padilla admits that his pull toward writing and directing came from a desire to control things.
Meet Tony Padilla, a playwright who enjoys nurturing theater students and creating thought-provoking plays
“The writer is God—he creates the world; he creates the characters; he tells them what to say,” Padilla said. “The best combination is a good writer and a good director. You get those two together, and it’s heaven!”
Padilla writes mostly at night, sometimes with the TV on low as background noise. He carries a little notepad and always has ideas for new plays percolating in his head. He’s currently working on a follow-up to his recent Sherlock Holmes Confidential, as well as a serious work about transgender identification.
Padilla doesn’t mind hearing suggested changes to a new play he’s written. “I’m secure enough in myself that I can take the comment into consideration, and ask if it’s really of value to me or not,” he said.
Of the numerous honors Padilla has received, the Joan Woodbury-Michell Award from the Desert Theatre League is one that is close to his heart. The award is given to someone whose mission is to help theater grow here in the desert.
As the co-founder and artistic director
emeritus of Desert Ensemble Theatre, Padilla is particularly proud of his company’s training and scholarship program. They teach kids backstage skills, like lighting, sound and set design, stage managing, etc., which is a rarity in the valley. Some of their students have gone on to great success.
When asked what other era Padilla would have wanted to live in, he pauses, then answers: “In Harlem in the 1920s, because so much was happening. But only if I had money!”
As for his philosophy of life, Padilla doesn’t hesitate: “To leave this place better than I found it. I ask myself that a lot since I’ve gotten older: Have I just sucked it up? Or have I contributed anything?”
The answer to the latter question would appear to be a resounding yes.
Bonnie Gilgallon also writes theater reviews for Independent and hosts a weekly radio show, The Desert Scene, on Mutual Broadcasting. Her website is www.bonnie-g.com, and she can be emailed at BonnieGnews@gmail.com.
Tony Padilla, on suggestions and criticism: “I’m secure enough in myself that I can take the comment into consideration, and ask if it’s really of value to me or not.”
FEBRUARY 29 - MARCH 3, 2024 LA QUINTA CIVIC CENTER PARK
Join Us at the stunning lakeside setting of the La Quinta Civic Center Park, often called the most beautiful festival site in the country. 186 Artists will be exhibiting of which 31 are new to La Quinta.
Experience the finest in local culinary delights, Napa Valley wines, top-shelf spirits, Margarita Island and Live Entertainment throughout the park. The La Quinta Art Celebration takes place in March and November each year, marking the opening and closing of the area’s winter season.
#1 Fine Art & Craft Event in the Nation
– Greg Lawler Art Fair Source Book 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024
#1: Favorite Outdoor Art Festival
– Southwest Art Magazine Reader’s Choice Award 2023 BUY TICKETS NOW! www.laquintaartcelebration.org
PRESERVATION VICTORY
by Melissa Daniels
The wild, open deserts that make up the Coachella Valley’s backyard are officially under federal protection as part of the new Chuckwalla National Monument.
The White House on Jan. 7, announced that President Joe Biden would sign a proclamation creating the Chuckwalla National Monument. The area spans 624,000 acres of public lands
south of Joshua Tree National Park across Riverside and Imperial counties. It will be managed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.
It’s welcome news to a large cohort of activists, tribes, politicians and environmental groups who’ve spent years organizing, rallying and petitioning to gain protection for the region. Organizers with Protect CA Deserts, a diverse coalition of supporters leading advocacy efforts, issued a press release celebrating the designation. Some supporters planned hikes for the coming weekend.
“In this moment, my heart is filled with hope—hope for humanity and a future where we live in harmony with nature,” said Moises Cisneros, an organizer with the Sierra Club who has spent five years doing community outreach regarding the proposal.
The land is a unique place in the continental U.S.; the ground is a million shades of tan with a few hints of green, where spiky plants rise up under endless skies. The new national monument protects a number of spots beloved by locals, including Painted Canyon, Box Canyon Road and the Mecca Hills Wilderness area. It also includes the Orocopia Mountains Area, the Corn Springs Campground and parts of the historic Bradshaw Trail.
These places offer mental respites, Cisneros said. “It’s a calming, healthy and healing place—spiritually and physically.”
The Chuckwalla National Monument, when added to other protected lands, is part of what the Biden administration called the Moab to
Mojave Conservation Corridor, the largest corridor of protected lands in the continental United States, spanning nearly 18 million acres and stretching approximately 600 miles from Southern California into Utah.
While environmental groups and Indigenous leaders have been calling for the creation of the Chuckwalla National Monument for years, efforts intensified in 2024 with various op-eds, petitions and endorsements—especially after the election. The second Trump administration could bring major changes to public land policy, as Trump has talked about drilling on federal lands. Trump’s first term included multiple blows to conservation causes, like the rollback of the designation of most of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and the withdrawal from the climate-change-focused Paris Agreement.
But Chuckwalla has seen bipartisan support; members of the California Legislature on both sides of the aisle have supported resolutions urging Biden to designate the monument. On the federal level, Democrats Rep. Raul Ruiz, Sen. Alex Padilla and Sen. Laphonza Butler introduced legislation to create the monument last April, while numerous cities and chambers of commerce signed on in support. Historically, preserving public land hasn’t been a partisan issue; both Republican and Democratic presidents have used the Antiquities Act to create national monuments, going back to the first one created by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.
“Whoever’s in office (should) see this as a benefit to their administration, given what the community sees as important to their health,
After years of work, the Chuckwalla National Monument was finally designated by President Biden
economy and environment,” Cisneros said.
From a conservation standpoint, the designation will protect multiple historic and indigenous sites from future development, and preserve habitat for flora and fauna. The area is an important wildlife corridor, including roughly 50 bird species, desert bighorn sheep, the desert tortoise and the national monument’s namesake animal, the chuckwalla lizard.
But parts of the land had also been eyed for development, including large-scale solar projects. There are also ongoing projects regarding lithium extraction in the Salton Sea area. Rep. Ruiz said in a news release that “Chuckwalla National Monument will pave the way for the future of conservation and renewable energy.” Protect CA Deserts said the monument’s boundaries were specifically drawn to avoid areas that could be used for renewable energy development—and the monument’s designation is supported by some businesses in the renewable-energy industry.
“The areas leading to the Salton Sea and Imperial County could be so developed in 10 years that you won’t recognize them,” Cisneros said. “This could serve as a balance to that development, providing a regional, balanced approach to responsible development and sustainable protection for lands like Chuckwalla.”
The designation ensures the preservation of portions of the traditional homelands of the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mohave, Quechan and Serrano Indigenous nations. The monument push was endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians, and supported by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, the Colorado River Indian Tribes, and the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians.
“The desert is a rich tapestry of our heri-
tage; it’s a living, breathing testament to our people’s resilience, our history, and our spiritual connection with nature,” said Chairman Thomas Tortez Jr. of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians in a December 2024 news release. “Our footprints have been etched into the landscape since the beginning of time, and we continue to provide stewardship over these lands and advocate for their protection.”
There’s also hope the designation could bring an economic boon, in the form of more tourists. Joshua Tree National Park has exploded in popularity in recent years, setting a new record of 3,282,575 visits in 2023—up 7% from the year prior. Some tourism experts believe Chuckwalla could create a similar draw.
More than 300 businesses, business groups and chambers of commerce supported the designation, according to Protect CA Deserts.
Palm Desert City Councilmember Evan Trubee has long used the Chuckwalla lands for driving and hiking outings via his company, Big Wheel Tours. The business takes thousands of visitors from all over the world through the desert, Trubee said, and visitors typically want to see the places they’ve heard of before.
“If we offer the San Andreas Fault and Joshua Tree National Park, those are tours that sell themselves,” he said. “If they already knew about (Chuckwalla) before they even arrived, they’re going to book a tour in that area. They’re going to want to see and visit, because it made news and was in the paper.”
Trubee said the designation affirms what’s already known by locals: The vast landscapes of the California desert are unlike anywhere else.
“It’s about as exotic a landscape as you can find within the lower 48 states,” he said. “When you come to these places with almost limitless views, it’s remarkable. It’s almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Chuckwalla National Monument is a home of Munz's cholla, California's tallest endemic cactus. Bob Wick/Protect CA Deserts
WHAT’S NEXT?
by Haleemon Anderson
Lisa Middleton is taking a break from political life.
At her Palm Springs home, she appears energized after getting some much-needed rest during the holiday season. As she wrapped up seven years on the Palm Springs City Council (2017-2024), including a term as mayor, Middleton ran to represent the newly drawn 19th State
Senate District. In the general election, she got 45.2 percent of the vote, and was defeated by incumbent Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh.
Despite the loss, Middleton said she’s undeterred—and isn’t ruling out another run for elected office.
“My passion is not going to go away,” said Middleton, whose City Council term ended in December. “We’re trying to figure out just what alternatives there may be. I will possibly consider running for another office at some point in time. I haven’t made any firm decisions. I will also have some conversations regarding the possibility of appointed positions with the state government. It’s still very early. I’m still on the CalPERS board, so I have that direct involvement. It’s not as intense as being on City Council, so I’ve gotten a chance over the holidays to actually relax a little bit, which is kind of nice. But I care very deeply about Palm Springs and will continue to stay active.”
Middleton has been on the aforementioned California Public Employees’ Retirement System Board of Administration since 2019. The state organization manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.6 million public employees, retirees and their families.
Prior to her election to the Palm Springs City Council, Middleton served three years on the city’s Planning Commission. She has served on the boards of the Equality California Institute and the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert, and was the Center’s interim executive director in 2014. Middleton worked for the State Compensation Insurance Fund for more than 20 years, overseeing workers’ compensation and moving up the ranks before retiring as senior vice president for internal affairs in 2010.
She made national headlines with her election to the Palm Springs City Council in 2017, becoming the first transgender person elected to a political office in the state of California. Middleton made her gender transition in 1995, decades before she would run for public office, and she has been deliberate about keeping the focus on her leadership, not her identity.
“I’m very proud of who I am and what I’ve accomplished, and being a first comes with the responsibility to be a good role model,” she said. “But being transgender is a part of who I am; it’s not my full identity by any stretch of
the imagination. I was elected to be a responsible leader for the city of Palm Springs. The people of this community are committed to the proposition that everyone should be judged based on what they do, not who they are, and we’ve shown that over and over again with the people who we have elected, and how and what we expect of them.”
Middleton and her wife, Cheryl, have lived in Palm Springs since 2013. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.
As a City Council member, Middleton contributed to a period of unprecedented growth in Palm Springs. The city’s reserves grew from $32 million to $125 million, while police and fire department budgets increased significantly.
“Those are things that make a difference in the safety and quality of life of people who are living here,” she said.
The business sector benefited, too. City revenues grew from $110 million to $190 million in the past seven years. Middleton said she is “incredibly proud” of the council’s financial record during her tenure.
“We have added $100 million in reserves,” she said. “That is a remarkable accomplishment in terms of making sure this city is fiscally sound and responsible, and we’ve done it while being absolutely committed to the values of treating everyone with respect, of being a welcoming community to people across the spectrum, and holding true to our values that Palm Springs is going to be an incredibly inclusive community.”
Increasing the valley’s transportation network was a priority for Middleton during her council terms. She helped secure $50 million in state funding to build two “all-weather” bridges over the Whitewater Wash at Indian Canyon. The $75 million project is slated to end the frequent closures due to heavy wind and flooding on one of the most heavily traveled direct routes from Palm Springs to Interstate 10.
“Getting the funding for the bridge over Indian Canyon was absolutely critical,” Middleton said. “We’ve been trying for over 25 years to get that funding, and finally, it happened, because of the cooperation across the Coachella Valley. So I’m really pleased about that.”
She is a staunch advocate for bringing rail service to the Coachella Valley, seeing it as an
After an unsuccessful state Senate run, former Palm Springs City Councilmember Lisa Middleton ponders her future
important factor in connecting the area to other urban hubs.
“We’re still only bringing just a handful of people into the valley through rail,” Middleton said. “So, if you do the simple math, we’ve got over 10 million visitors coming into the valley each and every year by automobile. If you get out on Interstate 10 on a holiday weekend, traffic is at a complete standstill—and none of us moved to the Coachella Valley wanting to get stuck in the same kind of traffic that we thought we left in L.A., or San Francisco and San Diego and all those other places.”
Middleton thinks the valley can be an innovator in this space, much like BART and the Metro system have been game-changers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
“Historically, Amtrak in California (has) more riders than any place in the country, except for the corridor between Washington and New York,” Middleton said. “There’s more public transportation taking place in California than we get credit for. But too often, (it) has been primarily used just as a commuter tool, helping people get to and from work. We need to do much more to make it a choice for recreation and leisure, and that’s where the Coachella Valley comes in so critically, because what we can demonstrate by building rail into the Coachella Valley is that it can be a tool used by everyone, including individuals who have all the ability in the world to purchase and drive an automobile, but who choose public transportation to commute for recreation, because it’s a much more pleasant experience.
“We’re not there yet, but we’ve made more progress on bringing rail to the Coachella Valley in the last three to four years than had
been done in the previous couple of decades. I’m very pleased to have been a part of that effort.”
When asked about the accomplishment of which she’s most proud, Middleton didn’t mention the big-ticket projects she’s helped bring to fruition, or her record of advocating for progressive causes.
“The thing about being on City Council that has pleased me the most, personally, is how many people appreciate the way I’ve dealt with issues,” Middleton said. “Some of my most humbling comments have come from folks who will come up to me and say, ‘You know, I’m very conservative, and I frequently don’t agree with you, but I really appreciate the way you explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.’ That’s what we should be achieving— respect for our differences and respect enough for people to give them an explanation. One of the mottos I live by in terms of government is if you can’t clearly and precisely explain why you’re doing something, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.”
Middleton expressed confidence in the city’s new leadership. Former City Manager David Ready ran unopposed to fill Middleton’s District 5 seat, and health-care professional Naomi Soto bested four other candidates to claim the open seat in District 4, which had been represented by Christy Holstege.
“We have a very good City Council,” Middleton said. “I’m very pleased with the five members who are there. I’m extremely pleased that David Ready is following me on council. He and I have very different personalities, but very similar values and approaches to issues, so we’re in good hands.”
Lisa Middleton speaks to a group of Democrats in the Morongo Basin last July, during her state Senate run.
Photo/Lisa Middleton for State Senate
CONTINUING TO CONTRIBUTE
by Kevin Fitzgerald
Kathleen Kelly served for eight years on the Palm Desert City Council—two of them as mayor during the somewhat calamitous years of 2021 and 2023. In November 2024, some political observers were surprised when she lost her re-election bid to a relative political newcomer, Joe Pradetto.
On Dec. 12, the council bade her farewell, often tearfully and in heartfelt fashion.
“Kathleen has been such an asset to our community, and not only to the city, but to the region and to Southern California,” said newly appointed Mayor Jan Harnik. “She worked during COVID to protect our health and our safety in this community. … I thank you for making this a better community than I walked into in 1977. You’ve done a lot.”
Kelly was raised in Palm Springs. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Yale University and her law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, before settling in Northern California, where she taught for 17 years at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law and served as academic dean. She also worked as an arbitrator.
In 1978, Kelly became a part-time resident of Palm Desert, and in 1999, she purchased her full-time residence in the city, where she lives today with her mother, Mary Helen. Her father, Dick Kelly, served on the Palm Desert City Council from 1982 until his death in 2010.
During an interview with the Independent, Kelly said it was a “great privilege” to serve as Palm Desert’s mayor.
“I get choked up thinking about it,” she said. “In addition to growing up here, of course, I had a very close view of city government and regional government for the 27 years that my father was on the council, and I have great reverence for some superb traditions which have helped the city excel. And so, playing my part to honor and implement those traditions, in this time, was a great privilege.”
Over the years, Kelly has contributed her time and, in some cases, her financial support to local service organizations. As a member of the Palm Desert Rotary Club, the Historical Society of Palm Desert and the Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce, Kelly worked to improve the business environment in the city. She served as president of the Joslyn Center board, and has made meeting the needs of senior citizens in the Coachella Valley a permanent focus of her service work. As an ordained Episcopal minister, Kelly served two years as the interim leader of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, her personal place of worship. In 2012, when the Shadow Mountain Golf Club in south Palm Desert was threatened with
closure, Kelly helped lead a group of some 200 neighbors in a multi-year effort to preserve it.
Her first foray into direct city service came with her appointment to the Palm Desert Planning Commission, prior to her successful run for City Council in 2016. What was her most exciting and positive experience during her eight years on the council?
“It was quite unexpected that I ended up serving as mayor in 2023,” Kelly said. “Sabby Jonathan was to become mayor, but he opted not to run for re-election, and the next two people in line declined, so it came back to me pretty quickly. That turned out to be the year in which we celebrated the city’s 50th anniversary—and, of course, dealt with Tropical Storm Hilary. It was a great opportunity to feature for the public some of those traditions … which were responsible for Palm Desert weathering that storm comparatively well. We’d had storms in the late ’70s that literally created mudslides up to the rafters in parts of south Palm Desert, and that spurred the city to make excellent use of redevelopment funds to spend $60 million on flood infrastructure over time. So, the 50th anniversary really gave an opportunity to put the spotlight on that tradition of investing today for the expected needs of tomorrow.”
She pointed to Measure G, the recently passed sales-tax hike in Palm Desert.
“We don’t have the tool of redevelopment (funds) anymore, which gave cities the ability to shift some property tax from the state to infrastructure investments locally,” she said. “So, to provide the infrastructure we need as the north part of the city is built out, such as fire stations, parks, etc., a new source of revenue to accomplish (those goals) was essential.”
What was the most upsetting and frustrating experience she had on the City Council?
“Frankly, this re-election campaign was marked by partisan appeals and negative attacks to a degree that the city has never seen,” Kelly said. “Quite apart from the fact that (the election) didn’t result in my desired outcome, even if I had prevailed, that would make me sad, because I don’t think that tenor of public discourse is in the best interests of the community.”
Kelly faced two opponents in her unsuccessful re-election bid. While City Council positions
After two terms on the Palm Desert City Council, Kathleen Kelly looks back and ponders her 2024 election defeat
are supposed to be non-partisan, she said she believes partisan politics became a major consideration for Palm Desert’s District 2 voters.
“Given the current national political climate, people seemed far more inclined to be driven by party affiliation than has been true in past local elections,” Kelly said. “So if you look at the party affiliations of the three candidates in District 2 (last year), it’s not too hard to figure out what happened. The field consisted of two registered Democrats and one registered Republican (Pradetto). My two opponents really stressed party affiliation. I made what may prove to be a last-ditch effort to focus away from that, because I am proud of having kept national politics out of city service. I believe city service is a place where everyone can work together for a common cause. … But the current environment proved to be such that party affiliation was a highly determinative factor, and with two Democrats running against one Republican, there was a predictable outcome.”
During Kelly’s council service, the most divisive local governmental issue involved the move, forced by a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit settlement, from at-large City Council representation to district-based seats. At first, the city created one large district with four representatives, and a smaller district with one representative; eventually, the city started the process of moving to five districts, each with one representative. Kelly was an outspoken opponent of the move to five districts.
“I would point out two things: The first is that despite being an opponent, I was the person who suggested placing the issue on the ballot, so that the voters could express their preference,” Kelly said. “Secondly … the deliberations following that advisory vote happened (during) my second term as mayor. Even though the outcome was not my preferred outcome, I’m proud of the open and fair process that I facilitated, which ultimately produced a unanimous council vote in a circumstance which had been quite divisive. In all of those discussions, my theme was that there are pluses and minuses to both systems. I was frustrated that most advocates were really viewing districts as a panacea, and I wasn’t successful in shedding light on some of the potential detriments.”
She pointed to a current District 3 situation as an example of a detriment.
“The most controversial development proposal happening right now in the city is in a neighborhood between Shepherd Lane and Marriott Shadow Ridge,” she said. “The elected councilmember from that district (Gina Nestande) has had to recuse herself, because
she lives too close to the boundaries of the development. One of the things I tried to help people understand during these deliberations is when you impose districts in a city of our size, there’s a reasonably high probability that’s going to happen, because the districts are comparatively small. So, those folks end up in a circumstance where the one councilmember who needs their vote to get elected is not participating in the issue they care most about. That doesn’t strike me as a good thing.”
What does the future hold for Kathleen Kelly?
“I’ll have no difficulty continuing to contribute to my community in the same ways I’ve been doing for years: through my Rotary Club; through St. Margaret’s, my church; (and through) the Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce, which is a great way to support our local businesses. And then we’ll just see how things unfold, and where my skills can be put to good use.”
Kathleen Kelly: “I’ll have no difficulty continuing to contribute to my community in the same ways I’ve been doing for years … and then we’ll just see how things unfold, and where my skills can be put to good use.”
SATISFYING SETTLEMENT
by Kevin Fitzgerald
In October 2022, the residents of Lake Tamarisk Desert Oasis—located near Desert Center, some 50 miles east of Indio—learned that another industrial-scale solar installation was being developed, and this one was going to be right next door to some of their homes.
Called the Easley project, and owned by Intersect Power (IP), the proposed solar installation sparked the coalescence of a group of residents opposing the development plans, fearing both environmental and aesthetic damage. That group, Active Communities of Desert Center, aka AC/ DC, has insisted from the start that they are not against solar energy production, or any other type of renewable energy, for that matter. However, they felt strongly that Intersect Power was
not acting with concern about the project’s potential negative impacts on their community and their lives.
As the regulatory processes played out, the residents suffered from anxiety, depression and other physical ailments, while investing a few thousand dollars and thousands of hours of time into their effort to stem the bureaucratic tide that was threatening to overwhelm them. They watched, often feeling helpless, as various governmental entities rejected their proposals and backed the IP-preferred development plan.
Then, on Jan. 18, 2025, AC/DC welcomed what they considered to be miraculous news: Intersect Power and AC/DC’s legal representatives had reached a settlement agreement that addressed the most critical environmental and quality-of-life concerns.
A truce, it seems, has been declared.
The AC/DC statement about the surprise settlement reads: “Over the course of the last few months, Intersect Power and Active Communities of Desert Center, representing the Lake Tamarisk community, have continued to work together to identify solutions to the community concerns raised during the development process. We have reached an agreement that provides the community with an additional one-mile buffer from the Easley Solar Project, as well as a donation, through the Active Communities of Desert Center group, to be used toward infrastructure upgrades benefiting the broader Lake Tamarisk Community. We are happy to be moving forward in a positive way.”
History shows how rare such an amicable resolution between renewable-energy project developers and communities adjacent to those projects is. Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of the Basin and Range Watch organization, praised the result and the AC/DC team’s determination in an email to the Independent.
“Our friends in the community of Lake Tamarisk were very organized and never gave up,” Emmerich said. “It is very impressive to finally see a solar developer listen to local concerns and scale their project back to help protect the
community and local environment. We hope this sends out a clear message to other aggressive solar developers that small communities matter, and are strong advocates for smarter management of public lands.”
But up until Jan. 18, Lake Tamarisk residents were being exhausted by a struggle they felt was slanted strongly in Intersect Power’s favor.
Before the settlement, on Dec. 26, 2024, the group of resisters had submitted a final appeal to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the plan that had been defended mightily by Intersect Power. Along with the appeal, AC/DC was required to submit a request for a stay to be issued.
“This is it,” said Mark Carrington, AC/DC’s senior technical adviser, during an interview with the Independent held prior to the settlement announcement. “And you know, the odds are small. … Nobody’s gotten (a stay) on a renewable-energy project that I can see in the last four years. … But when you read our appeal, it is based on major errors in the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process. That’s what we’re actually appealing, that the decision was made on bad information, and part of that information was purposely withheld.”
Specifically, the appeal claimed misrepresentation of the project’s proximity to the community of Lake Tamarisk; a failure to address critical groundwater data gaps and cumulative impacts; and the improper reclassification of general public lands under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan through an “illegitimate ‘plan maintenance’ action.”
Throughout 2023 and 2024, the disagreements between AC/DC and Intersect Power had escalated steadily. An attorney, Frank Angel, of Angel Law, was hired to represent the residents’ cause, and the opposing parties presented their arguments, first to the Riverside County Planning Department, and then to the county’s Board of Supervisors, both of which had to approve the use of county lands includ-
After
two-plus years of stress and expense, Lake Tamarisk residents reach an agreement with Intersect Power
ed in the project. Next, the residents had to go before the BLM, which likewise had to approve the project’s use of federal lands.
Unfortunately, that resistance came at a high price. Not only did the group pay thousands of dollars to hire the attorney, make round trips from Desert Center to Riverside or somewhere in the Coachella Valley for meetings and hearings, and pay for other ancillary presentation-related expenses; there were physical and emotional costs as well.
“I had to start taking antidepressants again, which I had stopped taking years ago,” said Teresa Pierce, the chief executive officer of AC/ DC, during the recent group interview. “I was doubled over in pain several hours a day for a long time due to recurring stomach issues. Eventually, it started to kind of ease up, and I was able to go off my medicine. But as soon as we started this (latest) appeal process, my stomach has been acting up again. … This has put a strain on my marriage, because I’ve just spent more time with these people (on the AC/ DC team) than I have with my own husband. … Then, when (meetings and press interviews) are going on out here, he’s been the designated driver. He really stepped up to the plate when it was necessary. He’s given up his life for this, and given up his wife, so it’s put a strain on our marriage for sure.”
AC/DC technical adviser Vicki Bucklin said she didn’t suffer from physical health effects, but the process took a psychological toll.
“For the first year, my mother was ailing, and I couldn’t go outdoors when it was dusty, because we were dealing with the Oberon (solar project development’s construction),” Bucklin said. “And when I asked Intersect Power to do something about it, they said they’d help me put up shades, (because) there was glare in our windows, since we couldn’t sit on the porch in the afternoon. Those kinds of things were really stressful for me. … We were trying to educate Intersect Power, and help them develop their project without hurting us. But I couldn’t really get involved, because I didn’t want my mother thinking about this problem. I didn’t want to talk about it when she was around, and I was with her almost all the time. … I would look at emails (regarding the solar project) at night and miss my sleep.”
Carrington said people can only take a finite amount of stress.
“When you do one thing which consumes your life like this has, you do that at the expense of other things in your life that you would have been doing (instead), whether it’s sharing with other people or your family,” Carrington said. “So that’s a cost—and the physical costs of that much stress and
AC/DC administrative team members Vicki Bucklin, Mark Carrington and Teresa Pierce. The gray line in background is solar panels from another project.
constant thought on one subject eventually harms your body. Although I can’t draw a oneto-one correlation … the fact is, a lot more things happened in my life in the last two years, health-wise, than had happened for the previous 40 years.”
One of the most stressful days for the AC/ DC team was Aug. 27, 2024. On that day, stakeholders gathered before the Riverside County Board of Supervisors for a hearing on Easley Project environmental impact report and construction plan.
The AC/DC team made a strong presentation, pointing out discrepancies, errors or misrepresentations they felt had been made by the company Aspen Environmental Group (AEG) in their creation of the environmental impact report. On the proponents’ side, representatives from AEG, IP, labor unions and others spoke in favor of the project, each expressing a particular benefit that would result for them.
About three hours into the discussion, Riverside County District 4 Supervisor V. Manuel Perez courteously, but abruptly, interrupted the ongoing comments.
“To my colleagues here, and community folk—that includes all of you that are here and online, those representing Intersect, (and) those representing the community of Lake Tamarisk—I was prepared to make a decision today. But there are a few things that need to be taken care of, so I’m going to ask that we continue this item. Can we continue it to Oct. 1? Because I do have some questions.”
His call for a continuance seemingly caught the board chair, District 3 Supervisor Chuck Washington, off guard, and he moved quickly to bring the hearing back on track. Camille Wasinger, senior director of environmental and permitting at IP, walked to the public lectern and spoke up: “The primary reason we’re looking for a decision from the board today is to ensure that our project can adequately protect the desert tortoise. So, we have to complete desert tortoise clearance surveys prior to the start of construction, and there are only two twomonth windows during the year when those
clearance surveys can occur, and those clearance surveys have to be completed after a five-month process of constructing a desert tortoise fence. So, in order for this project to stay on schedule, we have to hit the April-May desert tortoise clearance survey window in 2025, and in order to do that, we have to start construction of that desert tortoise fence … in November. I would also just add that this project has been very extensively studied, under the EIR process. There have been over 90 days of public comment already. The facts and the science are not going to change. … I would strongly encourage the board to make a decision today.”
It seems that both Perez and Washington believed the vague threat from IP that the project could go away if it was not approved that day. They quickly moved to end the discussion and bring the matter to a vote.
The motion to approve was passed 5-0.
Bucklin said the hearing was especially frustrating because supervisors admitted they didn’t know anything about “Alternative C,” the project development plan created by the AC/ DC group, and selected as the environmentally superior or preferred option during the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review.
“That is Perez’s fault,” Bucklin said. “… He threw us under the bus, and it’s all for money. We know it’s all for money.”
Riverside County is poised to benefit from both the property taxes it will collect from IP for the roughly 1,000 county-owned acres included in the Easley project footprint, along with other revenue streams.
Now that a settlement has been agreed upon, the AC/DC administrative team has a message for all others who are confronted with gargantuan energy projects being developed in their locales: Fight to protect your way of life, your property and rights, and do not give up.
“Just to OK something because we think we’re saving the planet, but at the sacrifice of local communities when there’s no necessity to do that, makes zero sense and shouldn’t be supported,” Carrington said. “You can still (build) all the renewable energy that you want without harming communities.”
CIVIC SOLUTIONS NEWS
by Melissa Daniels
If a society is to be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable, it’s impossible to look at the sheer scope of the homelessness crisis and give our society a passing grade.
California has more than 187,084 unhoused people (including people in shelters and transitional housing), based on new federal data from the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. That’s up from 181,399 people in 2023. In Riverside County, the report tallied more than 4,249 unhoused people, up from more than 3,725 in 2023. In San Bernardino County, the number was even higher—4,255, up from 4,195 the year prior. This population includes thousands of children, some without the presence of an adult.
It includes veterans, people with mental illnesses, domestic-violence victims and people struggling with addiction.
The housing situation is bleak, and is being worsened by climate disasters—such as the devastating Los Angeles wildfires—and everincreasing costs of living that make stable housing and home ownership unattainable for many families. Fair-market rent based on HUD 2024 numbers put a one-bedroom at $1,611, and a two-bedroom at $2,010, in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area. Someone earning minimum wage, at $16.50 an hour, and working full-time takes home about $2,200 a month, leaving no breathing room to make ends meet.
Beyond the math, anyone who has logged onto a community Facebook group recently knows there are many families struggling to pay rent and stay housed. Trying to find an
apartment in the Coachella Valley or Morongo Basin for less than $1,500 a month is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Because of this crisis, the Independent this year will be focusing more of our reporting on the issues related to affordable housing in our region—and solutions to the problem. Some of the stories we’ll explore include the status of affordable-housing developments opening to residents. We’re hoping to explore policy changes that are needed to spur more development—and what can be done to bring the costs of housing more in line with our paychecks. Encouragingly, there are already new affordable housing developments on their way. Abode Communities is renovating the former Desert Extended Stay in Cathedral City to create permanent supportive housing with support from a state Project Homekey grant. The Rancho Mirage City Council
recently signed off on a plan to create up to 120 affordable-housing units on Peterson Road to add to the city’s affordable-housing stock. There are six other projects across Coachella, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and Indio that have received tax credits from the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, according to the housing advocates at Lift to Rise, that will lead to the development of 803 units.
Beyond the infrastructure, we also want to highlight the change-making organizations who are working to improve the situation day in and day out, and hear what they have to say about why the state’s homeless crisis is so persistent.
One such organization is a street-medicine team from the Wellness Equity Alliance that started operating in the Coachella Valley last summer. The nonprofit helps deliver healthcare services to unhoused and historically marginalized populations.
As of January, WEA has connected with more than 350 people, said Jennfier Art, the local deputy field team lead. It sends doctors and nurses to deliver health care in the field; community health workers diligently follow up with wrap-around services like documentation prep, hygiene kits or connections to other agencies.
“They do the most boots-on-the-ground work,” she said about the community health workers. “They’re out in the dirt, walking into camps, and really connecting with the patients. They build trust and bend over backwards trying to get each client the help they desperately need.”
The teams go wherever they are needed on a regular basis. That could be at shelters, in the trenches of water spillways, or in large areas
where communities of unhoused people have formed. From there, WEA has connections with county and regional services to help get people additional aid, such as the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and Jewish Family Services. It also partners with the Riverside University Health System and the Inland Empire Health Plan.
“We’re capable of getting help to those who want it very quickly,” Art said.
While WEA’s workers can offer mentalhealth services or work on harm-reduction plans, it’s ultimately up to the patients when, or if, they are ready to accept more help—and this is where the bigger challenge lies when it comes to truly decreasing the number of unhoused people in California. Art said one of the main issues underlying the homelessness crisis is that many people have both mental illnesses and substance-abuse disorders. It can be easy for such individuals to fall through the cracks of systems and end up on the streets.
This is where building trust comes in—and that means continuing the work of showing up.
“For many patients, we need to wait until they’re ready to make the change to get off the street,” Art said. “It’s really hard work— work that’s easy to throw away when times get tough. So we understand as much as we can, and we offer a safe place to land for those needing us.”
These stories are made possible in part by a grant from the IE Journalism Innovation Hub + Fund of the Inland Empire Community Foundation. To submit ideas, comments or questions to the Coachella Valley Independent about housing in the desert, head to tinyurl.com/ housinginthedesert.
A street-medicine team from the Wellness Equity Alliance started operating in the Coachella Valley last summer. courtesy of WEA
“If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”
~Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the U.S.
Like many other visionaries, Eisenhower Health believes in looking ahead and planning accordingly. Cancer rates in the Coachella Valley are projected to increase by 25 percent over the next decade, and Eisenhower Health is planning to meet the surge head on. We’re already well on our way. Construction is complete on the Mark and Paula Hurd Cancer Pavilion at our Lucy Curci Cancer Center. We are building multidisciplinary programs for breast, lung, prostate, gynecologic, gastrointestinal, blood and skin cancers and we’ll be able to provide prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship in one fully integrated, advanced facility. Our expertise enables us to deliver the majority of our cancer services here in the desert, while our affiliation with UC San Diego Health Cancer Network gives patients seamless access to more clinical trials, multidisciplinary tumor boards, and highly specialized care for complex cases when needed. At Eisenhower Health, we plan ahead to stay ahead — delivering top quality cancer care, today and tomorrow.
CV HISTORY
EEarly settlers struggled to bring an adequate water supply into the Palm Springs area
In the beginning, there was the mineral-laden, sulfur-tasting hot water that bubbled up from the springs local Indigenous residents called Séc-he. They had been drinking that water for by greg niemann
arly white pioneers in Palm Springs had to overcome a major obstacle as they settled in the desert: the lack of an adequate, consistent source of water.
many hundreds of years and felt they were healthy because of—not in spite of—it. The first white men in the area drank it, but usually from ollas which they filled and let sit a while to let the strong mineral taste dissipate. With the emergence of the village of Palm Springs, many settlers claimed therapeutic results from drinking the spring water. J. Smeaton Chase, in his 1920 book Our Araby, claimed: “Good results have been found to follow the use of the water of the hot spring, both for bathing and drinking, in cases of kidney disease.”
Additional water came from a small stream at the base of the mountain in Tahquitz Canyon which local Native Americans had lined with stone, leading to an 18-inch flow.
When John G. McCallum, the first nonIndigenous settler of Palm Springs, wanted to develop a village in the mid-1880s, he knew more water was necessary. He first went to the source of the springs in Tahquitz Canyon and, with the help of the Native Americans, enlarged the flow of water to 75 inches. (It was reported that some Native Americans avoided drinking that water because of the Tahquitz legend.)
To start an agricultural community, McCallum knew more water was needed. There was some water in nearby Andreas Canyon, but it belonged to the Indigenous people living there and was used by them. Then there was the Whitewater River, which tumbled down from the slopes of Mount San Gorgonio before disappearing into the sand. With an investment of $60,000 of his own money and the assistance of Native Americans, McCallum had a 19-mile flume built, bringing in water from the Whitewater River. It rounded the point of the desert (Windy Point) on big redwood flumes on high trestles, and tunneled through the mountain to an 8-mile-long stone canal, bringing water for citrus trees, grapes, alfalfa, apricots, dates and more—even though the flume constantly needed repairs due to damage caused by the wind and sand.
On Feb. 1, 1887, McCallum incorporated his Palm Valley Land and Water Company with 5,000 shares of stock valued at $100 each. The irrigation ditch flowed full, watering orange groves, melon patches and vineyards
on the 80-acre McCallum Ranch. Waterwheels were used to fill water-storage barrels.
Local Native Americans eventually got their share—but only after complaints from them to ensure they, too, would benefit from the water diverted across their land. The government declared that the company would have the rights to the water, as long as Native Americans were guaranteed free water for their 160 acres of land on Section 14, as well as an additional 160 acres, should that area be developed.
Then came the prolonged, devastating 11-year drought from 1894 to 1905. It eventually caused the Whitewater River to become only a trickle and forced most of the new settlers to abandon their lots and their dreams. Welwood Murray, who opened the Palm Springs Hotel in 1887, reportedly loved his trees and plants more than anything, and was so distraught that he diverted the last remaining trickle of flume water for his trees. This infuriated local Native Americans, who complained to Mr. Collins, then the Indian agent in Riverside—who issued a dictum stating that all the water belonged to the Indigenous residents.
The drought and Collins’ ruling led to a lot of anger and frustration. When a flash flood filled the flume, Native Americans, emboldened by Collins’ ruling, reportedly opposed the opening of sluices to irrigate the settlers’ land. Frantic for water, at night, colonists opened them by force, using crowbars and hammers. Settlers saw the agent’s decision as an uninformed action by a meddling government.
During the 1890s, McCallum was often gone from the valley, visiting his sick daughter May in Chicago; he left his son Harry in charge. As the drought continued, many ranchers fell behind in payments for the land and the assessments to keep the ditch in good repair. After McCallum’s death in 1897, his family was forced to sell their interest in the Palm Valley Land and Water Company to Los Angeles land promoter Ralph Rogers. Rogers convinced the Native Americans to help, and they made the necessary repairs to the ditch.
The initial water system changed hands several times after that. Today, Palm Springs’ water is supplied by the Desert Water Agency.
The Water Beneath
The entire Coachella Valley sits on an enormous aquifer. As early as 1853, Prof. William P. Blake, the geologist who accompanied the government railroad survey, predicted that artesian water would be found.
In 1888, the Southern Pacific Railroad successfully dug a few wells at Thermal and Walters (now Mecca) in the east valley—and from the start, fresh, pure water was found. By the early 20th century, the U.S. government had begun digging local wells in the Coachella Valley. Scores of wells were eventually dug with successful results.
In some places, the water would be at depths of 50 to 200 feet, or even deeper, and needed to be pumped; in others, the water pressure was so strong that gushes flowed above the ground.
In his 1914 book, California: Romantic and Beautiful, author George Wharton James talks about his Coachella experience: “In 1913 I put in a well on land I had purchased from the Southern Pacific Company. We went down in the neighborhood of 900 feet, and there came rushing out, with great force over the casing, a
flow of between 55 and 60 inches.”
In 1918, the residents of Indio and the east valley voted to establish the Coachella Valley County Water District (now the Coachella Valley Water District). They decided to bring in water from the Colorado River to supplement and replenish the great underground flow. It took 30 years, but in March 1948, the 123.5-mile-long Coachella Branch of the All-American Canal began delivering water. In 1969, the CVWD built a reservoir, named Lake Cahuilla, a 183-acre site in La Quinta that holds about 1,300-acre feet of water. Today, Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park offers camping, picnicking and fishing.
Sources for this article include The McCallum Saga: The Story of the Founding of Palm Springs by Katherine Ainsworth (Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1973); Our Araby by J. Smeaton Chase (Star-News Publishing, 1920); California: Romantic and Beautiful by George Wharton James (Page Co., 1914); and Coachella Valley’s Golden Years by the Coachella Valley County Water District (1968).
A portion of the McCallum Ditch. Courtesy of the Palm Springs Historical Society
FEBRUARY ASTRONOMY
Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight
For February, 2025
This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.
All of our solar system’s planets make appearances this month—and Venus is as bright as it ever gets
EBy Robert Victor
venings in February 2025 present us with a striking lineup of bright planets, and chances to attain sightings of all the planets of our solar system.
The three brightest planets are Venus, of magnitude -4.8 to -4.9, as bright as it ever gets, in the west-southwest, sinking lower toward the west as month progresses; Jupiter, magnitude -2.5 to -2.3, near Aldebaran and the Hyades cluster, high and crossing from east-southeast into the southwest; and Mars, magnitude -1.1 to -0.3, near the “Twin” stars Pollux and Castor, climbing higher in east. Of the stars, only the Dog Star Sirius, magnitude -1.4 in the southeast to south-southeast, and Canopus, magnitude -0.7 very low in the south, outshine one of these planets, Mars. The other planets easy to see with the naked eye are Saturn, of magnitude +1.1, 11° to 22° below
and a little to the left of Venus, but sinking into an ever-brighter twilight glow in last 10 days of month; and innermost Mercury, emerging from its Feb. 9 superior conjunction on the far side of the sun to become visible far below Venus and to the lower right of Saturn around Feb. 20. From Feb. 20-28, Mercury shines at magnitude -1.3 to -1.0, but for its first evenings, you’ll appreciate binoculars, a very clear sky and an unobstructed view of the horizon below Venus 30-35 minutes after sunset. Look for Mercury 28° below Venus on Feb. 20, getting 1.5° closer each evening, to Feb. 24, when it’s 22° below Venus. In the same span of dates, fainter Saturn can be seen 7.6° to 1.5° to the upper left of bright Mercury. Feb. 24, the date of the closest pairing of Mercury and Saturn, is best for seeing both on the same night, giving you a chance to see all five nakedeye planets simultaneously.
Follow the moon: The moon is above the horizon one hour after sunset each evening through Feb. 12, and can be spotted again about 40 minutes after sunset on Feb. 28.
In Palm Springs on Feb. 1, the moon, a 15 percent crescent, passes directly south, 55° up, at 2:51 p.m. Venus is nearly 2.6° to the upper right of the center of the moon’s disk, or 2.3° to the upper right of its limb. Binoculars and telescopes show Venus’ 37 percent crescent, 33 arcseconds in diameter. The closest separation of Venus and the crescent moon that day occurs at 4:24 p.m., when Venus is 2.2° to the upper right of the moon’s northern cusp. That evening at 6:28 p.m. (70 minutes after sunset), Venus is 2.4° to the lower right of the moon’s bright limb, with Saturn 11°-12° below them. With binoculars, look 4° to 8° to the lower left of Venus for a dipper-shaped asterism of six stars of magnitude 4.4 to 5.9. Tonight, 7.9-magnitude Neptune is 3.4° to the lower left of Venus. On Feb. 2, an hour after sunset, find Venus 15° to the moon’s lower right, and Saturn 12° below Venus. Now that the moon has moved out of the field, you can get a better look at the six-star dipper to lower left of Venus and revisit Neptune. Later tonight, Mars will be 4.5° from
Pollux. Since Pollux is 4.5° from Castor, the three objects will form an isosceles triangle. Feb. 3, one hour after sunset: Jupiter, ending retrograde, lingers 5.1° from Aldebaran for the rest of this week. By month’s end, the planet will shift only 1° east from tonight’s position. Feb. 4, evening: The moon will appear half-full later tonight. First quarter, when the moon is 90° or one-quarter of a circle east of the sun, occurs at 12:02 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Feb. 5. Feb. 8, evening: Mars is 9° to the lower left of 87% moon, with Pollux and Castor nearby. Feb. 9 at dusk: Enjoy a close grouping of the moon (93%), Mars, Pollux and Castor. Feb. 10 at dusk: Mars is 18° to the lower left of 98% moon. Keep watching the triangle formed by Mars, Pollux and Castor. Feb. 11 at dusk: Regulus, heart of Leo, the Lion, is 12° below the moon. Feb. 12 at 5:53 a.m.: The moon is full. One hour before sunrise, note Regulus, 7° to the upper left of the moon. One hour after sunset, find Regulus 2° to the upper right of the moon. Feb. 15 at nightfall: If you want to see all the planets in February, time is running out to see Neptune. It’s now within 31° of the sun, getting 1° closer each night. At end of twilight, it’s only 12° up. Look 10.5° to the lower left of Venus.
Feb. 16, one hour before sunrise: Spica is 12° to the upper left of the 86% waning gibbous moon. Predawn, Feb. 17: Spica is within 0.7° of northern limb of the moon, at 3:16 a.m. in Palm Springs. Use optical aid, or block the moon to see the star. They’re still very close at dawn.
Feb. 18 at dawn: Spica is 12° to the right of 70% moon. Antares is 34° to the moon’s lower left. Arcturus is high in the southwest, with the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair in the east. Feb. 20 at dawn: The moon is approaching last-quarter phase, half full, in the south. Antares, heart of the Scorpion, is within 10° to the lower left.
Feb. 24 at dusk: The Mercury-Saturn pair is within 22° below Venus. Use binoculars for faint Saturn, 1.5° to the upper left of Mercury. Most difficult to see is Neptune, 9° to the upper left of Mercury-Saturn. Uranus is 8° southwest of
Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon. Feb.1: 41 minutes after sunset. 15: 40 " " " 28: 39 " " "
Pleiades, and Jupiter is 5.4° from Aldebaran. Mars is 7.2°-7.4° from the Twins. In order from west to east are Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars, all spanning 117.5°, plus Earth under your feet—all eight known planets of our solar system! How many can you see?
Feb. 25 at dawn: This is your last easy chance to see the moon this cycle, 8%, low in the east-southeast to southeast. Dusk: Saturn is 1.8° to the lower left of Mercury, and the order of planets from west to east is Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, Mars, spanning 116.8°—but Saturn and Neptune are challenging targets.
Feb. 26 at dusk: Mercury is 19° to the lower left below Venus, while Saturn is 3° to the lower left of Mercury. The span of planets, Saturn to Mars, is 116.7°. Mercury is now easy to see, but Saturn is not.
Feb. 27: The new moon occurs at 4:45 p.m.
Feb. 28 at sunset and dusk: Remember to get out to look for Venus, 31° to the upper right of the setting sun just before sunset, and for a short while afterward, while the sky is still bright. As the sky gets darker, look for Mercury 16° to the lower left of Venus, and 2° to the upper right of a beautiful, slender 2 percent crescent moon.
The Astronomical Society of the Desert will host a star party on Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center; and on Saturday, Feb. 22, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For more information, including maps and directions to the two observing sites, visit astrorx.org.
Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky.
Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller
Fomalhaut
February's evening sky chart.
ROBERT D. MILLER
As more than 130,000 attendees revel in mid-century modernism during Modernism Week, it’s important to remember that it isn’t just architecture being celebrated.
The Palm Springs International Jazz Festival is part of this year’s Modernism Week’s programming, featuring jazz greats and rising stars of the genre. After a VIP reception on Thursday, Feb. 20, the festival will run from Friday, Feb. 21, through Sunday, Feb. 23. All of the concerts will be hosted at the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
During a recent phone interview with PSIJF artistic director Lowell Pickett, he explained how the festival got its start a little more than five years ago.
“(Michael Seligman) moved to Palm Springs after retiring; for 40 years, he was the producer of the Academy Awards,” Pickett said. “He also did other things, too. He produced Kennedy Center Honors, and he put together the only primetime show on network television that I’m aware of that’s centered around jazz. It was in the late ’90s, called A Celebration of America’s Music, and it was an all-star thing. He’s always had a strong love for jazz, and … Palm Springs seems like a natural spot for it. I felt for a long time that Palm Springs would be a natural spot for jazz. It’s close to the West Coast, but it doesn’t compete directly with Los Angeles and San Francisco and the San Jose Jazz festival. There’s such a rich tradition along the coast of presenting jazz.”
The first Palm Springs International Jazz Festival took place in November 2019.
“Tracy Conrad is very involved in architectural preservation in Palm Springs, and in historical preservation,” said Pickett. “… She and Michael worked together on this with a fellow named Derek Browell, who had done production work on a number of different pretty high-level live productions, like the Emmy Awards and then a lot of corporate events.”
The festival become part of the Modernism Week lineup last year. Pickett explained how he got involved.
“I met them a few years ago, and we joined up,” Pickett said. “I’ve had a long history in presenting music in general and jazz in particular, both in Minneapolis and in Phoenix, that goes back about 40 years. I’m pretty familiar with what’s going on the West Coast. I have been on the board of the Western Jazz Presenters Network for a while. … All these pieces just sort of came together and crystallized. Tracy had worked with Modernism Week a lot, so because of her involvement with Palm Springs Modernism Week, Mark Davis, who does a lot of the programming for Modernism Week, loved the idea of incorporating and folding the Jazz Festival under its umbrella.”
Modernism Week is centered around the beauty of mid-century modern architecture, but over the last few years, the programming has grown to include more and more musical events.
“Last year was the first time that it was on Modernism Week’s platform,” Pickett said. “They, of course, take over the theater in the Palm Springs Art Museum for about 10 days during Modernism Week and program it very heavily. (Last year), they gave the festival the last two days, Saturday night and all day Sunday, and we reached an audience: All the shows were full. We had Herb Alpert, Lani Hall, and The Cookers. … The name of it is the Palm Springs International Jazz Festival, so there has always been an international component to it, and Sona Jobarteh certainly provided that last year. She’s an astounding kora player from West Africa.”
This year’s festival has expanded to three days. Pickett shared details on each of this year’s shows.
8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21: Chucho Valdés featuring Irakere 50 and Arturo Sandoval: “Irakere was a legendary Cuban band that really transformed Afro-Cuban music,” Pickett said. “It brought modern components into a music that had this incredibly strong traditional base. Irakere just blew the doors off what the previous conception of Afro-Caribbean music had been, and it was founded by three primary people who have become well-known to worldwide audiences.
“Chucho Valdés … in Cuba, there’s something in the water down there. The musical education is astounding, and there’s this long
line of Cuban pianists who just seem to swallow a piano whole with their hands. Valdés is sort of the pre-eminent living player now in that tradition.
“Arturo Sandoval was one of the founders of Irakere, and he is well-known to worldwide audiences, because he very visibly defected from Cuba. Dizzy Gillespie assisted in that defection. (Sandoval) was one of the first, if not the first, high-profile Cuban musicians who defected. The Cuban music educational system doesn’t put strong walls up between different genres. It all becomes music—the blend of European classical traditions, Cuban dance music, American jazz and even American rock influences. … Arturo Sandoval is a trumpet player, one of the pre-eminent trumpet players in the world, but he also is a great keyboard player. He’s a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.”
Pickett said this opening-night show is “a big, big deal. The night adjoining our concert, which is in a 450-seat auditorium, they’re playing to 3,000 people in San Francisco.”
7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 22: Diane Reeves: “Diane Reeves is, without question, one of the greatest living jazz singers,” Pickett said. “The New York Times commented that she’s the most admired jazz singer since Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. ... She is at that level, absolutely—without question, one of the definitive jazz masters in music. Her quintet features Romero Lubambo, and he’s one of the pre-eminent Brazilian jazz guitar players. There’s a very, very close relationship between Brazilian music and jazz. … Romero Lubambo is a brilliant practitioner of that continued marriage between Brazilian music and jazz.”
3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 23: Cécile McLorin Salvant: “Diane Reeves was in a generation that carried forward that Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday tradition. … Then there’s a younger generation, and the first person to come along that really turned heads at that same level, and it was a few years ago, is Cécile McLorin Salvant,” Pickett said. “Three of her records won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocals. She’s a FrenchAmerican singer. She’s brilliant, and she’s a MacArthur Genius Award winner. They’re so-called Genius Awards that you don’t apply for. She brings another flavor to what’s going on in jazz right now, and she’s also one of the eminent artists in jazz right now.”
7:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 23: Charles Lloyd with guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Gerald Clayton, and bassist Reuben Rogers: “I’m not objective when it comes to Charles Lloyd, so I admit that I think he’s one a handful of the pre-eminent saxophone players on this planet right now,” Pickett said. “He’s 86 years old, and he first came to prominence in the late ’60s when he had a group called the Charles Lloyd Quartet that featured
Diane Reeves. Credit: Jerris Madison
Keith Jarrett on piano. He was one of the first jazz artists to sell more than a million copies of an album, and there was a piece called “Forest Flower” that became a big deal with people who were buying a lot of albums then in the pop world. He was based in California, and a lot of the San Francisco musicians of that time became enchanted with Charles. He performed at the Fillmore, and he was doing festival dates with people like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. It was so successful financially that the record company wanted Charles to replicate that … and Charles walked away from it.”
Pickett said that Lloyd continues racking up accolades today, including being named DownBeat magazine’s Artist of the Year in both 2023 and 2024.
“Artist of the Year is not for a lifetime body work; that’s for current work,” Pickett said. “No other artist I’m aware of has gotten that kind of honor with that many years in between, and it just underscores the continued level of creativity and virtuosity that comes out of this man.”
As for the musicians performing with Lloyd?
“The quartet includes Gerald Clayton, who’s one of the rising stars of jazz piano. In fact, at the inaugural San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival last fall, they commissioned a piece by Gerald that had its own presentation. It was a solo piano piece suite based on Jelly Roll Morton’s stuff.
inent jazz guitar players are Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Bill Frisell. Bill Frisell has a quality that’s unlike any other player. It’s a sound that’s immediately recognizable; it’s incredibly musical.
“Bill Frisell is on guitar. The three pre-em-
… There was a book written about Bill that came out at the beginning of COVID, and the subtitle is The Guitarist Who Changed the Sound of American Music.”
Pickett said his goals for the Palm Springs International Jazz Festival are to do more community outreach, and for the festival to become one of the West Coast’s signature jazz events.
“There is this incredible history in Palm Springs,” Pickett said. “Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Van Heusen—all sorts of musicians have spent time there. … (Today), there are a lot of musicians who are living in Palm Springs now or spending time there, both from the rock world and the jazz world. The same attributes that drew people 40, 50 years ago to the valley are still there now.”
The Palm Springs International Jazz Festival runs from Friday, Feb. 21, through Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum, at 101 N. Museum Drive, in Palm Springs. The Chucho Valdés show is sold out, but tickets to all other shows are available as of this writing, starting at $75 to $85; VIP all-access tickets are $1,000. Learn more at psjazzfest.org.
Chucho Valdés
Charles Lloyd
Local blues rockers Joan and Gary Gand, of the Gand Band, are honoring music legend and former Palm Springs resident Trini Lopez by helping create a museum. Since Lopez’s death in 2020 due to COVID-19 complications, the Gands have been honoring the accomplishments of their former neighbor, the folk singer and guitar player behind hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree.” Via music, movies, TV and his signature guitar, Lopez made a massive impact on music history, and spent the later part of his life in Palm Springs. He met the Gands in the 2010s and began performing alongside them; they also worked together on a documentary about Lopez’s life, My Name Is Lopez After his death, the Gands made sure My Name Is Lopez was completed, and produced The Trini Lopez Immersive Musical shortly after that. Now they’re taking their adoration for Lopez to the next level—by opening the Trini Lopez Museum.
During Modernism Week, the museum will be celebrated with a cocktail party at 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, complete with a free Shag poster for every guest; a chat with the Lopez family and team behind My Name Is Lopez; and a live music performance. The museum will be open with free admission during Modernism Week as well.
Gary Gand showed me around the museum before the grand opening, and told me stories about the dozens of photos, guitars, records and costumes. Attendees will be able to see Lopez’s gold records and a piano gifted from Frank Sinatra, while My Name Is Lopez will be screening in the museum nonstop.
“We own a couple of costumes, but a big batch of them in the back there were from the Lopez family,” Gand said. “When Trini passed away, some of his costumes went to the Grammy Museum and the Memphis Rock ’n’ Soul Museum, but the family retained the majority of them, so they picked out the nicest ones specifically for this exhibit.”
Gand said he has been working closely with the Lopez estate to fill out the museum.
“Robert Diaz (Lopez’s nephew), who’s my main contact, and his cousin Salvador have been the main keepers of the flame, so I’ve been working with them for the costumes and some of the other things,” he said. “If there’s anybody who came to the premiere of the movie, they saw these 6-foot-high lightup letters that spell out “Trini.” The nephews are going to be bringing those up. … We got some nice donations from some friends. Ronit Levy and Don Tuch donated some of the fanclub ephemera, a Time magazine, posters and things like that. They were very good friends with Trini for a long time, so they had a lot of great stuff. … We also had some donations from Sandy Reese and Will Wiegler. … They donated, for example, this menu that they found from Trini’s restaurant. (People) tried to franchise Trini’s restaurants. I think there were about seven of them in California at the time.”
Most of the items come directly from Lopez’s personal collection.
“We found a lot of this material in Trini’s warehouse,” Gand said. “When he was alive, we would go over to his warehouse and pull out the good stuff for the making of the documentary, My Name Is Lopez. … When he passed away, it was a little bit easier to deal with, because we had already gone through everything and picked out the stuff we liked.”
Some of the items in the museum are gifts from fans that Lopez cherished.
“I’m not going to call him a hoarder, but he had lots of stuff,” Gand said. “He saved lots of stuff, because he had a huge career. Somebody made this collage and sent it to him. This is a painting … and this used to be hanging in his living room. I couldn’t even fit it in my van. When his house got sold, it was still in the house. The real estate agent called me and said, ‘Hey, can you go over and get that thing? Because we never got it out of there.’ He didn’t have a truck big enough to move it, and we live next door, so I went in the house, put the thing on a moving cart, and rolled it down the street. I got it into the garage, and I’ve been hanging on to it ever since, not knowing what I was going to do. … It’s got Trini; it’s got his famous guitar, which we will have on display; it’s got tennis rackets; it’s got golf clubs, because he was an avid athlete and played golf and tennis all over Palm Springs. There’s a hammer; there’s the American flag, a lemon for ‘Lemon Tree,’ and there’s this Rolls-Royce, because he had two Rolls-Royces. I don’t know who that (artist) was, but they really understood Trinity’s whole psyche.”
The plan for a Trini Lopez museum started to come together after his death.
“After he died, and they were selling the house, they had
Gary Gand stands in front of the new Trini Lopez Museum. Photo/Matt King
Most of the items in the museum were part of Trini Lopez’s personal collection. Photos/Matt KIng
a garage sale. … The family inherited everything, so they were selling it at auction,” Gand said. “I bought one guitar, and then I bought another guitar, and while I was doing that, I thought, ‘If I could just get all of this stuff, I could curate a museum show, and we could tour that.’”
However, the museums where Gand hoped to take the tour were booked up for years due to the COVID-19 backlog, he said.
“I was over at Smoke Tree Ranch having lunch, and Tracy Conrad, who runs Smoke Tree (Ranch), was there, and she also (is president of) the Palm Springs Historical Society. I just off-handily mentioned, ‘I’ve got all this Trini stuff sitting here in Palm Springs in my warehouse. If you could find me a museum space at the Historical Society, we could do a Trini museum.’”
A few months later, Gand said, Conrad let him know she had a space— the former Agua Caliente Cultural Center space in downtown Palm Springs’ Village Green.
Lopez was an accomplished musician who is remembered for his impact on the music industry, but Gand also hopes the museum will allow people to learn more about Lopez’s character, and his place as a Latino legend.
stuff that they went through—they’ve been in rehab, they overdosed, and you’ve got Kurt Cobain; you’ve got Janis Joplin; you’ve got Jimi Hendrix. That story has been played to death, and we’re trying to show that there’s another story. Here’s a guy who went from rags to riches, and then he stayed there. He didn’t end up an alcoholic; he didn’t end up a drug addict. The guy lived to be 83. I mean, that’s hard to do in this industry. I think he’s really a heroic character, and I would like people to view him as such. … Young people, especially young Latino people, are a big part of the population here, and to understand who the granddad of rock ’n’ roll was—they should be proud of that.”
“We have a divide in America right now between what I’m going to call Red America and everybody else,” Gand said. “There’s a whole big focus on immigration, and the country doesn’t understand that the United States was built on the back of minorities, and we were all minorities at one point. … Everybody came here and made America what America is, and we just need a reminder that all these great things happen here because we’ve got this melting pot of all of these different nationalities that make America what it is.”
Gand said Lopez’s life is a perfect, all-American, rags-to-riches story.
“Here’s a guy who started out dirt-poor, living in a ghetto in Texas, and made it to the tip-top, and was an international superstar, in movies, television, and really got to do it all,” Gand said. “Most of the time, when people fixate on rock musicians, it’s (about) all the
Gand said working on the museum has allowed them to heal a bit after the loss of their dear friend.
“We miss the guy terribly,” Gand said. “We were his band for 10 years. Other than being married, there’s nothing more intimate than playing music with real musicians—not just jamming in your garage, but getting up onstage and entertaining people. There’s a kind of a group mind meld that happens when you’re onstage. … Making the documentary was really a high point in our lives, and then when he passed away, that was really a low point. This is part of the process of remembering him. … He’s talking to me right now on the documentary. I’m looking at him standing behind me in a costume. I’ve got his guitar over there. I can be here and remember being in his living room. All of the ephemera we have here was stuffed into his house, so whenever we’d go over there, we’d see a lot of it. It’s a chance to just be in Trini=land, and, for a while, forget what’s going on out in the real world.”
The Trini Lopez Museum Cocktail Party will take place at 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Village Green Heritage Center, at 219 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $75, and attendees must be 21+. The museum will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through Modernism Week. For party tickets or more information, visit modernismweek.com.
This painting, done by a fan, hung in Trini Lopez’s living room. Photo/Matt King
The spring La Quinta Art Celebration returns to the La Quinta Civic Center on Thursday, Feb. 27, with four days of festivities—music, fine food, libations and, of course, art—at what has become one of the Coachella Valley’s premier arts events.
Not only is the festival one of the topranked fine-arts events in the country, according to Kathleen Hughes, of Scope Events; it’s at one of the most beautiful festival sites in the country. The 14-acre campus sits in the heart of the city, adjacent to La Quinta City Hall and the library, and features a lake with a geyser stream, surrounded by a rolling grass park.
“It is a gorgeous site,” said Hughes.
Thousands of art-lovers are expected to visit the festival. They’ll experience original artworks by more than 180 juried, worldclass artists, including 30 artists who will be exhibiting for the first time. Oil painter Annie Flynn, a first-time artist to the festival from St. Louis, is the featured poster artist for spring 2025.
Most of the artists are from out of town— but the Independent talked to four local participating artists and asked them to describe the creative process behind the works they’ll be showing at the festival.
When Reese Schroeder (www. liquidoranges.com) left his job in Boston almost four years ago, and settled in the Coachella Valley sight unseen, he planned to continue doing what he’d done for the past 35 years: working as an architect.
“I had absolutely no idea about Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho, Indio,” Schroeder said. “I didn’t know anything about
California. I’d only been here one time on vacation, and I was moving here in support of family members, thinking, ‘Well, I’ll work remotely for the architectural firm back in Boston, and we’ll stay here a while, and we’ll probably move back home.’ As soon as I got here, I was just kind of blown away at the amount of art opportunities, artists, venues—everything.”
As luck would have it, Schroeder had been dabbling pretty heavily in art. “I’ve been doing digital painting for myself, in one form or another, since 1988,” he said. “I didn’t show it to anyone until 1996.”
Once he did, his work got noticed. He was asked to donate a piece to the American Institute of Architects in Dallas. His work was chosen for the Providence Art Club‘s national exhibition in Rhode Island.
“They’re the second-oldest art group in the nation,” Schroeder said. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’m on to something here.’”
to choose colors just like a water colorist or an acrylic or an oil painter would do. I can make things more transparent or more opaque, but the computer itself, it doesn’t create art. I don’t use AI, so I’m literally painting and drawing, just as I used to in art school, but now I use a stylus and a digitizer tablet.”
Schroeder retired from architecture in 2021. “I spent 35 years in the profession,” he said. “I became an architect because I loved to draw, and over the years, I realized my passion for drawing and art was greater than my passion for architecture.”
Schroeder’s work falls under the festival category of 2-D mixed media and digital art. He describes it as “digital painting,” similar to painting with a brush, but without the limits of the canvas.
“The computer does absolutely nothing in my process except give me a white screen that I can start drawing on,” he said. “It allows me
The serendipity of landing in an arts oasis is still sinking in.
“When we moved to the Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage area, I looked around, and I realized that I had landed in an incredible art community,” he said. “And that if I was ever going to do anything, this was going to be the place.”
Richard Curtner (curtnerart.com) owes the intricate word collages he creates to an exotic vacation … and a lack of resources.
While taking time
off from his construction-painting job, he traveled to the Dominican Republic, where he would meet his wife-to-be.
“I decided to stay and get to know her,” he said. “And it’s just a super-nice area, you know, perfect beaches and all that. It was so economical that I could work the summer
here in the States, and live the rest of the year over there without having to worry.”
But there was an issue: Curtner couldn’t find the art supplies he needed to keep working in his first medium.
“Part of the problem was finding the paints I needed,” he said. “They were expensive and hard to get, but I could find magazines relatively cheap. So that’s when I started getting into collage.”
Curtner got positive reviews from museums and galleries in the Dominican Republic for his early work. “They were saying that they had never seen anything like it. I just decided to keep going with it, keep perfecting it,” he said.
Curtner and his wife, Sardis, recently marked 24 years of living in the Coachella Valley. He calls his work “art for word-lovers.” His is an exacting process, with some unwritten rules he chooses to follow.
“Everything is found color,” he said. “(It takes) hours and hours, searching through magazines, just sorting colors and words, because it’s all found. I’m not creating any of it. It’s all the original paper. I could be looking for colors, but if it doesn’t have the right words, I can’t use it. And then every cutout that I use, every piece that I use in an artwork, has to have some kind of text on it.”
Curtner said he grew up immersed in art and literature. His mother recently found a collage he had done when he was 3 years old.
“I’ve always loved writing poetry and short stories as a way to express myself,” he said. “I don’t remember a time, even since early childhood, not painting or drawing, so it was a way to combine my two passions, the visual arts along with the literary arts.”
John Straub (myteenylife.com) learned about photography from his father, and he’s known his way around a dark room since his teens. He took that skill set and combined it with a love of cars, and before long, he was
"11:45" (Seattle) by Richard Curtner.
Monique Straub creates bold, colorful oils on canvas.
Richard Curtner creates intricate word collages.
shooting magazine covers and car shows.
He has the pandemic to thank for his transition to “fine art” photography.
“When (it) hit, everything stopped,” Straub said. “You can’t travel; you can’t do anything at that point. So I thought, ‘What am I going to do with photography?’ As a kid, I always enjoyed playing with little models. I thought, ‘You know, I can make these little stories, and then I can shoot them with my camera.’ That’s really how it started, to be honest with you.”
Miniature “people” inhabit his artful stories. In “Happy Hour,” a bathing beauty takes a high dive off a lemon-rind twist, headed into a blue martini. There is a mini ladder positioned for the climb up.
“The stories seem to put a smile on people’s faces,” Straub said.
He was pleasantly surprised at the positive reception for his work.
“My very first show, I wasn’t sure if people were even going to like them,” said Straub. “The thing that I enjoy is when people see them at a show, they get smiles on their faces, and they start cracking up and pointing. People really get a kick out of these things. I think it is because it’s happy art, that’s what it really comes down to.”
He said he has many repeat customers who have become collectors.
Straub will be showing his whimsical collection of My Teeny Life images at the La Quinta Art Celebration. He and his wife, Monique Straub, split their time between dual home/studio locations in La Quinta and San Clemente.
Monique (pronounced mo-nay) Straub (moniquestraub.com) is a native San Diegan. She has been a full-time artist for almost 35 years and transitioned a while back from pastels to oils to accommodate clients’ wishes for big works of art.
Her oil-on-canvas work is bold, colorful and tropical; its bold patterns would be
appropriate for the spring runway collection of a FARM Rio fashion show. Giant sunflowers, palm trees and date palms are depicted across vast landscapes; they almost seem to vibrate. Straub calls the style “Contemporary Bohemian.”
“I started out in soft pastel, which is like chalk, and developed my style and color palettes,” she said. “I (noticed), once I started showing, that folks like things very large. Pastels need to be covered with glass and (need) heavy frames to protect them, so that was very difficult to do in large scale. So, I changed over to oil probably 10 years ago.”
She did early work as a landscape estimator for a commercial landscaping company, which may explain the variety and detail of native flora in her work.
“Having a background in the landscape industry and always loving to garden and do things outdoors, I gravitate toward botanical and landscape paintings,” Straub said.
“Moving out to the desert here for the last two years, I focus more on desert landscapes. I do a number of shows on the coast, and
when I’m doing those shows, I change it up and do a little more floral and still-life paintings. It just pretty much depends on what location I’m showing a lot of times, and I will do things in a series. I like things outdoors and landscape, mostly.
Straub said she took classes in technical
illustration and commercial photography.
“I was a wedding photographer for a short time, so always something creative, but the oil painting and the pastel painting just really resonated with me, so I’ve stuck with that the longest,” she said.
Straub said getting to do the La Quinta festival at home with her husband is a special opportunity.
“It’s in the heart of the city,” she said. “it’s a beautiful rolling grass park with lakes and waterfalls, and it’s a very beautiful setting. That’s going to be really nice. We do several Southern California festivals, but we don’t tour across the country (anymore). La Quinta, it’s a very hard festival to get into. … We’re both very fortunate that we’re both in the festival.”
The La Quinta Art Celebration will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, through Sunday, March 2, at the La Quinta Civic Center, 78495 Calle Tampico. One-day tickets are $25; a multi-day pass, valid all four days, is $30. For tickets or more information, visit www. laquintaartcelebration.org.
Reese Schroeder creates digital paintings using traditional watercolor and acrylic painting techniques.
John Straub uses miniatures and his camera to create his whimsical My Teeny Life works, including "Happy Hour."
DO-GOODER
AHEAD OF HIS TIME
By CAT MAKINO
Acclaimed film director John Schlesinger is being honored at the Palm Springs Cultural Center with “My Husband Makes Movies,” a series of screenings on Mondays through March 17.
Michael Childers, Schlesinger’s partner and a renowned celebrity photographer, and David Ansen, former movie critic for Newsweek and the current lead programmer of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, are producing the series.
The movies that will be featured include Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) on Feb. 3; Cold Comfort Farm (1995) on Feb. 10; An Englishman Abroad (1983) on Feb. 24; Darling (1965) on March 3; and The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) on March 17. Each film will include opening remarks or an interview with someone who knew Schlesinger. The series is a fundraiser for the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
The London-born and Oxford-educated Schlesinger (1926-2003) was a filmmaker ahead of his time, said Dave Karger, a host on Turner Classic Movies, an entertainment commentator on NBC’s Today show, and the author of 50 Oscar Nights.
“He was unafraid to deal with topics and
issues that were considered taboo, so his films feel as vital and relevant today as they did decades ago,” Karger said.
David Kaminsky, a pathologist and documentary filmmaker who was a good friend of Schlesinger, pointed to Sunday Bloody Sunday as an example of Schlesinger’s courage as a filmmaker.
“When you look at Sunday Bloody Sunday, to my knowledge, it (includes) the first on-screen kiss between men,” Kaminsky said. “And it wasn’t done in a salacious way; it was done as the most natural occurrence between two people who loved each other—but he was courageous putting that up. It was about a man and a woman who were in love with the same man,
Michael Childers remembers his
partner, the late John Schlesinger, with the ‘My Husband Makes Movies’ series
Childers and John Schlesinger. and how they dealt with it. These relationships had not been (depicted in a mainstream film) before, so these are groundbreaking things.”
Schlesinger embraced the topics of Jewishness and being gay at a time when directors tended to avoid them.
“Schlesinger went right there on both aspects of his personality,” said William Mann, the author of Edge of Night: The Life of John Schlesinger. “He didn’t have to make the Peter Finch character in Sunday Bloody Sunday Jewish, but he did, and it’s in.”
Schlesinger’s career took off with Midnight Cowboy (1969), which won him Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
“It was a novel,” Mann said about Midnight Cowboy. “He read it and said, ‘I want to make this a movie.’ He saw the movie in his head. Some people say it was a gay story, but they weren’t gay lovers. John’s point was men showing affection to each other, which was not something you saw in the movies often.”
Mann said Schlesinger’s 38 years with Childers were the happiest years of Schlesinger’s life.
“(It) fulfilled a dream that he could actually have a relationship with another human being,” Mann said.
Childers said he was 23 when he first met Schlesinger.
“Actress Kaye Ballard, who was a friend of mine in Hollywood, called me and said, ‘Do you want to meet John Schlesinger? He’s in town. He’s very loud; he doesn’t know anybody here. He’d like to meet somebody young to show him around Los Angeles,” Childers said. “I said, ‘Yes, I’ll go meet him tomorrow for drinks at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel at 6 o’clock.’ The next day while prepping to get dressed, I read a magazine article saying that he (Schlesinger) was difficult on the set. I thought, ‘Shit this guy could be a nightmare,’ so I called an actor to come with me for protection. ‘One kick under the table means we’re both out of here.’”
During that date, Lee Remick walked in, Childers said; Schlesinger called her over, and she sat at their table. Then Frank Sinatra walked in—and also sat at their table.
“This was my first date with him, and I’m sitting there with this famous director, Lee Remick and Frank Sinatra, I thought, ‘This could be a great life.’”
Schlesinger and Childers continued to see each other, but they took things slow. “Then we went off to Carmel one weekend and fell in love, drinking chardonnay and walking on the beach at Big Sur,” Childers said.
Childers said they worked to push each other’s creative limits—without any pretense.
“He was so proud of our relationship,” Childers said. “He demanded that we’d be open, and he would drag me to Hollywood premieres in the ’60s. Two gay guys? You didn’t do that in the ’60s.”
Childers said he learned a lot from Schlesinger. “He pushed me. He wanted me to have a career and didn’t want me to stay about, like Beverly Hills housewives. He encouraged my photography, and I started to do breakthrough photography, very good stuff.”
In return, Childers made suggestions that contributed to Schlesinger’s movies.
Schlesinger suffered a stroke on New Year’s Day 2001, following quadruple heart bypass surgery three years earlier. He never fully recovered, and died on July 25, 2003.
“Of course we had rocky times, but we always patched it up,” Childers said. “We knew we were glued together. It was our destiny. We had a wonderful life together.”
“My Husband Makes Movies: A John Schlesinger Film Festival,” a benefit for the Palm Springs Cultural Center, takes place at 6:30 p.m., most Mondays, through March 17, at 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets to each showing start at $16.82. For tickets or more information, visit psculturalcenter.org.
Michael
The Nonprofit SCENE
February 2025
TOOLS FOR TOMORROW’S ‘SINGING IN THE RAIN’ GALA TO HONOR PATRICK EVANS
Guests will be “singing in the rain” when Tools for Tomorrow honors KESQ News Channel 3 Chief Meteorologist Patrick Evans at 5 p.m., Monday, Feb. 24, during the “Singing in the Rain gala, at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, at 32250 Bob Hope Drive.
Emceed by KESQ’s Karen Devine and directed by actress/author Joyce Bulifant (pictured), the dinner show will feature the singing Carothers Brothers and TFT’s Theatre Troupe. Funds raised will benefit TFT’s free after-school arts literacy program for children ages 7 to 11 throughout the Coachella Valley.
TFT will pay tribute to Evans, who broadcasts KESQ’s weather in the morning and hosts KESQ’s popular Eye on the Desert cultural program, as well as a radio show on 103.1 MeTV. Evans gives back tirelessly as a board member of Animal Samaritans, Read With Me, and Variety, the Children’s Charity of the Desert. TFT will present Evans with the Vision for the Future Award sculpture, created by Tony and Karen Barone.
Prior to the three-course dinner with wine, guests will enjoy a champagne reception and silent auction. There will be a boutique selling jewelry and Swarovski crystal-covered purses.
Founded in 1999, TFT’s Creative Clubs and Theatre Troupes will reach more than 1,000 children in 2024-2025 with their integrated program of art, creative writing, music appreciation and theater. TFT’s Theatre Troupe at Rio Vista Elementary School recently performed The True Story of Jack and the Bean-
stalk for an enthusiastic crowd of their fellow students and families. It was not only their first time in a play, but also the first time they had ever seen one. Despite learning setbacks from COVID, the Troupers memorized their lines, hit their marks, handled mistakes calmly and performed proudly in front of their supportive classmates—a great learning experience for all.
To become a gala sponsor, place a tribute ad or buy $250 gala tickets, visit toolsfortomorrow.org, or call 760-601-3954.
ACT FOR MS PRESENTS THIRD ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
ACT for Multiple Sclerosis (ACT for MS) is thrilled to announce its Third Annual Golf Tournament on Monday, Feb. 17, at the Palm Valley Country Club, at 39205 Palm Valley Drive, in Palm Desert.
The three-quarter-day event benefits desert residents living with multiple sclerosis. Qualified residents with this autoimmune neurological disease, for which there is no cure, receive quality-of-life support services free of charge or at very little cost, based on income.
The day’s events include a shotgun scramble, teeing off at noon, as well as a continental breakfast, social hour, buffet dinner with live entertainment by the John Stanley King Band, silent auction and awards. Limited to 144 players, registration is $275 per person, or $1,000 for a foursome. A dinner option for those “non-golfers” is $125. Sponsorships and T-signs are available. Doors open at 10 a.m., and golfers tee off at noon.
ACT for Multiple Sclerosis is a local nonprofit, now in its 26th year of serving residents of the Coachella Valley. Funds raised pay for wheelchairs, walkers, scooters and technology assistance. Funds raised from the golf tournament allow ACT for MS to deliver more than 280 sessions each month to 94 residents and their families. These services include weekly strength training, circulation therapy, chair yoga, mental health sessions and more. Quarterly educational workshops and social activities round out the offerings. Due to insufficient funding, Act for MS has a waiting list for these free services. Payment goes directly to service providers, not to the clients. All funds raised stay here, in the Coachella Valley, to support local businesses.
To register for the golf tournament, visit actforms.org, or contact Susie Morales at 760-773-9806 or office@actforms.org.
—Submitted on behalf of the nonprofits by Suzanne Fromkin and Ann Greer
Shann Carr and World Wide Whimsy would like to send a HUGE thank you to all the sponsors, participants and attendees who made Art in the Park in the DARK such a huge success! This event was more about doing art and being art than it was about a literal art gallery. Still, the laser shows and light installations were an endless feast for the eyes. This kind of community collaboration is what makes us all proud to live in the Coachella Valley, proud of who we are and all that we do.
ARTS & CULTURE
UNRETIRED WIT
By MATT KING
In late 2022, comedian Bill Engvall—best known for his “Here’s your sign” jokes, and for being part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour—announced his retirement.
That lasted about two years. Engvall is back onstage with his unique brand of clean, redneck-tinged humor, and at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21, the comedian will bring “Here’s your sign” jokes and more to The Show at the Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage.
During a recent phone interview, Engvall admitted that his retirement announcement sort of resembled a “Here’s your sign” moment.
“In hindsight, I probably should have just taken a break and not made a big announcement,”
Engvall said. “I did get bored. I found that I really missed the performing. I missed the fans, and I missed the venues I get to go to, like Agua Caliente there. I think what happened was I just got where I was doing too many shows. I’ve been doing this for almost 45 years, and I think I just kind of got burnt.
“By the way, musicians and comedians are really the only people who ever come out of retirement. You never hear about the 65-yearold garbage man who says, ‘I just missed it.’”
He said he and his wife, Gail, spent a lot of time together and played a fair amount of golf.
“When you both suck, it’s fun, but when one starts getting better, then it’s not so much fun,” Engvall said. “I’m not kidding you: In 12 months, my wife got three hole-in-ones. The first one was all like, ‘Hey, that’s great; we’ll go to the bar. We’ll celebrate.’ Then she got another one, and I’m like, ‘All right, you really got it going on,’ but when the third one hit, I called my agent and said, ‘Get me back out on the road.’
“It sounds hokey, but I really did miss it. I missed the juice of walking onstage. I’m just doing a real limited tour, maybe 20 to 25 shows a year, so that it’s not too much, and it still stays fun.”
Engvall said his current standup routine will satisfy fans of his famous material.
“It’s going to be a mixture of new material and some of the classic ones that people liked, because I always figured if we went to see Aerosmith on the way over, not one of us is going to go, ‘I hope they play all new stuff,’” he said. “It’s going to be a blast, and the audience won’t know any difference, even though I tell them, ‘Hey, if I seem like I’m stumbling around a little bit, just hang with me.’ As soon as you get that first laugh, you kind of settle in.”
Beyond golf, Engvall’s short-lived retirement included volunteering fails and precious moments with his grandchildren.
“I never really found anything that just turned me on,” Engvall said. “I thought maybe I’ll volunteer, but we spend half the year in Scottsdale (Ariz.) and half the year in Park City,
Utah, so it’s hard to get into a volunteering position when you’re like, ‘Hey, I would love to help you out, but we’re leaving in two weeks.’ We’ve got the grandkids now, which is great. That takes up a lot of our time when we go see them up in Denver. I think what we stumbled on here is the perfect existence: I’ll still get to play golf and still go see my grandkids, and I’ll still get to come out on the road and do shows for people.”
The comedian’s material has changed with age, but clean, self-deprecating humor about family life will always be a constant in Engvall’s act.
“As I’ve gotten older, one of the bits I’m working on is that I really worry about humanity,” he said. “I was scrolling through my social media, and some guy posted, ‘Did you know that the word dog spelled backwards is god?’ And he did an emoji of a mind blown. I go, ‘Is this it? Is this what we’re doing? This is our peak?’ That, and the fact that apparently, we can’t be sold something unless there’s some kind of animated cartoon character. We’ve got a lizard that sells us insurance. We’ve got a walking, talking box that tells me when to get my colon checked, and a ball of snot that tells me what I need to buy cough medicine. What happened to us? I blame it on the breakfastcereal people. They made it OK for us to associate Captain Crunch and Count Chocula with a sugar buzz that would blow most of the endorphins out the back of our head.”
Another Engvall comedy constant is relatability.
“One of the big lessons I learned from Blue Collar was you’ve got to keep the material relatable to the audience,” Engvall said. “If all of a sudden, I go, ‘We made $15 million on this; I guess my tax bracket is going up,’ they don’t want to hear that. They want to know you’re just like they are, and that’s been one of the keys to my success. … I say this with all due humility: I’m one of those guys you could see sitting at a bar or sitting at a restaurant, and people will feel free to walk over and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing, man? Love your stuff.’ The
Comedian Bill Engvall returns to the stage, including a performance at The Show at Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage
Blue Collar guys and I never took for granted where our bread was buttered, and it’s with the fans. We actually had talked about it—that when fans stop feeling like you’re one of them, they’re going to go find somebody else.”
While Engvall praises modern comics and their digital resources, he questions their staying power.
“God bless Nate Bargatze and Matt Rife,” Engvall said. “What I wouldn’t have given to have YouTube when we were coming up. The way you got known when I was coming up was you just banged it on the road for years, and hopefully you got a following. Nothing against these guys—they’re using the tools that are available to them—but … they get so big, so fast, is there any staying power? Can you keep doing this for 40 years? Some of them will. There are some really good comedians out there.”
Engvall compared viral comedians to one-hit wonder bands and musicians.
“You could put a video together in your basement, but can you back it up?” Engvall said. “Somebody gets one hit on YouTube or TikTok or whatever, but what do you have to follow that up with? I know that when I go onstage, I have a new joke that’s great, but also, I can back it up with 75 to 90 more minutes of just-as-good stuff. I remember one time, years ago, my little sister wanted to go
see John Denver. The opening act was Starland Vocal Band. Their big hit was ‘Afternoon Delight,’ and they must have played it five times.”
Engvall also issued a warning regarding comedy’s newest online trend: forced crowd work. Because comedians have gained viral attention due to short clips of them interacting with the audience, some comedians have started fishing for audience interjections during their act.
“Whatever you have to do to get your name going,” Engvall said. “Whether I agree with it or not is irrelevant. I just feel like if I was an audience member, and I paid 40 to 50 bucks a ticket to come watch your comedy show, I don’t want to sit there and watch you talk to a guy. I don’t care about that guy. It’s also a can of worms, and if you open it, you’d better be careful, because there are people out in that audience who are funnier than you. If you happen to land on that guy who’s hip and funny, and you look like an idiot, you know you’re done.”
Bill Engvall will perform at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21, at The Show at Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage, at 32250 Bob Hope Drive, in Rancho Mirage. Tickets are $84.50 to $199.50. For tickets or more information, call 800-514-3849, or visit aguacalientecasinos.com.
Bill Engvall.
ARTS & CULTURE
A CELEBRATED CAREER
By HALEEMON ANDERSON
In his memoir Better to Cry Now: Shaping the Flow of a Gay Black Man (Greenleaf Book Group, September 2024), Palm Springs resident Geoffrey Newman takes the reader on a journey through his storied career as a performer and educator.
The book reads like a curriculum vitae. The author adds crafts to his toolbox—and building blocks in his identity as a gay Black man—as the years go by.
Titled after sage advice from Newman’s mother, Better to Cry Now traces a life of breaking barriers, overcoming obstacles and finally finding acceptance and security. From his early days as one of the few Black students at what was intended to be an all-white school during the 1950s,
to becoming the dean of the arts program at Montclair State University, the book is a history ride through an era of great upheaval in America.
Although Newman was raised in an era when neither racial nor gender equality could be taken for granted, he found ways to navigate his intersectionality. Newman writes about his sexual awakening in candid—and even graphic—terms. Early in the book, he describes the discovery of an unspoken network of “bisexuals” who were content to live “perfectly heterosexual during the day and very homosexual at night.”
He’d been a natural actor since his first leading role, a skill that would make the compromise almost seamless: “I had a public persona and a private persona. ... I found that many others, especially performers, embraced this philosophy of duality,” Newman writes. “When I went off to college in Ohio, I continued to keep my two
worlds apart but lived each to the fullest: Black man acting white, gay man acting straight.”
During an interview with the Independent, Newman said that when he became a college professor, and his responsibilities grew, it became clear that he would have to live his truth. In Switzerland, while preparing a young Black student to take on a leading role, he had a revelation. “I would have never really (previously) believed it was almost critical that I not hide who I am, but I (learned to) lead with that, and if that’s a problem, then that’s their problem; that’s not mine.”
He talked about teaching at Howard University, where he’d previously been a student.
“(That) experience of teaching became very profound and life-altering,” Newman said. “It is such a melting pot of countries and ethnicities and cultures. … What I learned was that there wasn’t one way—there wasn’t living black or white, living straight or living gay. The more I taught students coming from different cultures, the more it reinforced how important that was. Those students brought all of that background with them, and I wanted to shape that into strengths.”
Though he never explicitly says it in Better to Cry Now, it’s clear Newman’s racial identity was always the more problematic truth to navigate. As the product of mixed-race parents and grandparents, color consciousness was a cause for anxiety: “I always worried: I am not white enough, and my hair is not straight enough,” he writes.
In the mostly white world of arts and academia, his ambiguous ethnicity allowed him to fit in. But when the civil rights movement took a turn toward more militancy in the mid-1970s, Newman had to make a choice. He decided to write scripts and produce shows that addressed inequality and gave his students a platform to bring those issues center-stage before national and international audiences.
He writes: “Thirteen years as a faculty member taught me something vital: One can find strength in adversity, learn from conflict and rise above and beyond obstacles. … I discov-
Geoffrey Newman’s memoir ‘Better to Cry Now’ traces a life of breaking barriers, overcoming obstacles and finally finding acceptance and security
ered a way to speak my truth through my art, found my voice as a person of color and continued to grow as a teacher.”
Writing the book took Newman back through time, from busking across Europe as an undergraduate; to graduate school at Wayne State University, one of the nations’ premiere theater programs; to performing on stages in Switzerland and Germany.
Newman would rise in academic circles at a dizzying pace. As a sought-after professor, he was recruited to launch a theater program at Wabash College in Indiana, before returning to Howard University, where he would be appointed chair of the drama department.
By the time he retired from Montclair in 2012, Newman had gained a roster of students, friends and colleagues that included Sammy Davis Jr., Lynn Whitfield, Howard Hesseman, Melba Moore, Phylicia Rashad and Mikhail Baryshnikov, to name just a few. The book has plenty of pictures from his days at the center of the entertainment world.
The reception for Better to Cry Now has been “overwhelming,” said Newman. In February, he’s scheduled to sign books at Just Fabulous in Palm Springs. A signing is also planned at Barnes and Noble in Palm Desert, and he’ll appear at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April.
Newman still holds the position of dean emeritus at Montclair’s College of the Arts.
He will return there in the spring to promote the book and has signings planned at his alma maters of Wabash College and Howard University.
Since 2012, after a lifetime of traveling abroad and across the Americas, Newman and his husband, Ed, have made Palm Springs their home. The couple will celebrate their 50th anniversary this summer.
Living here has been an eye-opening experience, Newman said. “The thing about Palm Springs, unlike any place we’ve ever been, is the inclusiveness of the environment. This is the first place we have ever been in our lives where we are not an anomaly.”
Newman said he was touched to see how friends and neighbors came out to honor his celebrated career when the book was released.
“The neighborhood association announced a signing event, and (everyone) came—straight, gay, white, black,” Newman said. “I didn’t have to go into a gay environment or a Black environment or a senior environment in order for that to happen.
“It’s really the only (place) I’ve ever been where it’s not clique-ish. It’s really a mixed bag of everything, and all of those people coming together really are accepting of each other. I don’t know if I would have found that so easily happening in New Jersey or Washington or any other bigger city—but that happens in Palm Springs all the time.”
Geoffrey Newman.
CAESAR CERVISIA
By brett newton
Another year has come and gone, and that means it’s time for my yearly summary of the state of the local beer scene.
What makes me an authority on such a thing? I’ve lived here for a long time; I’m a Certified Cicerone; and I still have the belief that the Coachella Valley can have a good craftbeer scene if there are enough people who care and work for it. (I will continue to point to a time when it had the start of a promising beer scene via a column I wrote about the late and beloved Schmidy’s Tavern.)
We’ll start with what’s new: Coachella Valley Brewing Co. has opened a taproom in Palm
Springs. Full disclosure No. 1: I’m a former CVB employee, and my time there ended less than amicably. My friend Mikki is working at the new taproom, and she’s awesome and knowledgeable about beer, so if you go and visit, say hello. This is separate from the beer, so judge for yourself.
Full disclosure No. 2: I had been an employee since late 2021 at Babe’s Bar-B-Que & Brewhouse before it died this summer. Before it became a mess at the end, the food was great, and the beer was better than it had been for a long time (when it was allowed to be), but what was the longest-running brewery in the desert is now gone. Babe’s is being resurrected in Indio, but not with a brewhouse (as far as I know). For now, add it to the pile of disappointments in the area of beer in the valley.
Another thing that is new, in a sense, is La Quinta Brewing Co.’s beers—and they’re good
now. That’s not to say there were never any good beers there, but the current beers are good and relevant to the craft-beer landscape as it is today. They hired a fine brewer from the Los Angeles area, Lloyd Johnson, who is passionate and knowledgeable about brewing and beer in general, and let him do his thing on their very nice, relatively new brew system.
My former colleague, Juan Higuera, once the head brewer at Babe’s, is now also working there. I first met Lloyd at the Palm Desert location before a Firebirds hockey game when I went in for a pint of one of their guest taps. I saw Juan in the back, met Lloyd, and was told they made a hoppy lager with Nelson Sauvin hops, apparently a first for LQBC. Even more amazingly, their festbier was clean and delicious. I’ve since tried the Koffi Porter (which was excellent), and I happen to know there is some of it maturing in Heaven Hill barrels. I’m finally optimistic about LQBC’s future.
Our (admittedly biased) beer expert says the state of the local craft beer scene is … troubled, but tentatively promising
The past year saw a positive sign with the Ace Hotel’s beer festival. It’s the area’s best beer festival, even though it’s held in the dead of summer (and this last summer’s “dead” was extra dead). Despite that, I hope the Ace doesn’t rest on its laurels. There is plenty of room to improve; they could trim some breweries that probably shouldn’t have been there, if sheer craft beer excellence is the goal.
Las Palmas Brewing is a bright spot, as always. I’ve rained praise down upon them here before, so if you haven’t gone, please go. Their saison and grisette are both great, and the people there are cool.
As far as beer bars go, I don’t know what to tell you; I honestly don’t go out for beers much here. Spotlight 29’s 29 Brews seems to be doing its thing well. Ed Heethuis, their former head brewer, has moved on, and from what I can tell, his assistant brewer, Jacob Jimenez, now brews, and the beers seem to be in order. I had a great Nelson-hopped lager at the casino’s new restaurant, Red Falcon. The charcuterie plate looked great, but there’s a catch: The lounge is located next to their dispensary, and you can smoke what you bought there inside the lounge. I’m not adverse to weed, but smoke does not mix well with food and drink for me. I’m old enough
to remember the joke that was “smoking sections” in restaurants and on airplanes, and those memories are not fond ones—but to each their own.
After my meeting with the guys in the local homebrew club in November, they invited me to their Christmas party, which took place at Desert Beer Company. I was happy to see a number of people who remember me and miss me from my days at CVB. The boys from the club brought some fun homebrews to sample. I was happy to see a smaller, tight-knit group when it came to the club, because when I left, it had become more of a drinking club, with many members not even bothering to bring homebrew to club meetings. I’m pleased it resembles something like the club I joined long ago.
In conclusion, the state of the union is … tentatively promising. That said, I want our collective standards to be higher. Don’t shoot to make the best beer in the Coachella Valley; shoot to make the best beer, period—and if you fall a little short, you’re still doing damn fine work.
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.
VINE SOCIAL
By Katie finn
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently issued a stark warning about alcohol consumption, sparking debates across dining tables and wine bars alike. While it’s always prudent to approach alcohol with moderation and respect, dismissing wine entirely feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater—or, in this case, the cabernet out with the cork.
In contrast, there are countless studies showing that wine, when enjoyed responsibly, offers more than just a pleasant buzz; it can enhance your health, elevate your mood and even spark romance. In fact, wine and romance go together like cabernet and steak, or rosé and a sunny
afternoon. With Valentine’s Day nearly upon us, whether you’re a serial dater, in a long-term relationship, or navigating the wild terrain of modern love, here are just a few reasons why wine can be your trusty sidekick.
COMPASS ROSE
Wine Lowers Inhibitions
Let’s be honest: First dates are nerve-racking. You’re trying to decide whether this person is your soulmate or just another mismatched Tinder swipe, all while attempting to appear calm, charming and not at all sweaty. Here’s where a glass (or two) of wine can help slow your breathing and take the edge off. Science even backs this up: Alcohol in moderation reduces social anxiety and increases feelings of relaxation. Just make sure to keep it classy, and avoid turning “one drink” into an “I said WHAT last night?” moment.
for sexual health and arousal. Additionally, a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that women who drank moderate amounts of red wine reported higher levels of sexual desire and overall sexual satisfaction compared to those who didn’t.
Complete your evening with some mood-enhancing additions like dark chocolate, figs or strawberries, and you’re practically writing your own romance novel.
Wine Encourages Socialization and Connection
important to be able to laugh at the misses. Maybe you ended up on a date with someone who spent the entire evening talking about their crypto portfolio. Maybe you accidentally ordered a wine that tastes like wet cardboard. It happens. Choose something different, and move on.
At the end of the day, wine and love share a lot of similarities. They’re complex, sometimes unpredictable, and best enjoyed with a touch of humor and someone special (even if that
someone is your best friend, your neighbor or your pet). Whether you’re raising a glass to a new romance, a long-lasting partnership, or just surviving the wild world of dating, remember: Every sip—and every moment—is worth savoring.
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.
COMPASS ROSE
Wine Is a Conversation-Starter
Call us today to schedule a complimentary consultation and get acquainted with an independent, Fee-Only financial planning & investment management firm located here in the Coachella Valley.
You know those awkward silences that make you want to crawl under the table or, worse yet, fill the time by bringing up that weird rash you had last year? Wine can save you. Even if your date turns out to be less interesting than your neighbor’s cactus garden, talking about the wine you’re drinking can fill the conversational void. “Oh, this malbec is from Argentina. Did you know they have some of the highest-altitude vineyards in the world?” Boom. Now you’re not only knowledgeable, but cultured.
Allow us to show you the benefits that result from a financial plan tailored to helping you achieve your goals.
Wine Enhances the Mood
Candles? Check. Soft music? Check. A bottle of your favorite red? Double-check. Wine has been associated with romance for centuries, and for good reason: The act of pouring, sipping and savoring feels inherently intimate. There’s even science to support the idea that certain compounds in red wine, like resveratrol, can improve circulation and set the stage for, ahem, a passionate evening. Research has shown that moderate wine consumption can increase nitric oxide levels in the body, which helps relax blood vessels and improve blood flow—an important factor
Wine is a staple in many Blue Zones—regions of the world where people live longer, healthier lives. In places like Sardinia, Italy, and Ikaria, Greece, moderate wine consumption is part of a balanced diet that includes whole foods, healthy fats and a strong sense of community. These long-lived individuals often enjoy wine with meals, turning it into a shared, joyous ritual. Scientists believe that the antioxidants in wine, such as flavonoids and tannins, may contribute to reduced inflammation and better cardiovascular health, both of which play a role in maintaining vitality as we age.
And let’s not forget Champagne, the sparkling elixir of celebrations and romance. Champagne is not only a luxurious choice; it also boasts surprising health benefits. It contains fewer calories per glass compared to many other wines and spirits. Additionally, studies suggest that the polyphenols in Champagne can enhance memory and support brain health. The bubbles themselves may even boost mood by creating a sense of excitement and joy—perfect for setting a romantic tone.
Wine Teaches
Patience … and Perspective
Love, like wine, takes time to mature. A great bottle isn’t made overnight, and neither are lasting relationships. The best things in life— and wine—require patience. Not every date will be a success, and not every bottle of wine will be stellar—but it’s
Call us today to schedule a complimentary consultation and get acquainted with an independent, Fee-Only financial planning & investment management firm located here in the Coachella Valley.
Allow us to show you the benefits that result from a financial plan tailored to helping you achieve your goals.
FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT
We enjoy Detroit-style pizza in Palm Desert, and Venezuelan fare in Palm Springs
By Jimmy Boegle
WHAT Salsiccia pizza
WHERE Black Cat Pizza, 72795 Highway 111, Palm Desert
HOW MUCH $22
CONTACT 442-282-8019; blackcatpizzapd.com
WHY It’s unique—and really good I’d never heard of Detroit-style pizza until a couple of years ago, when a Detroit-style joint opened in Reno, Nev., my hometown. When that place, R Town Pizza, started getting rave reviews, I gave it a shot—and instantly became a fan. Therefore, I was happy when I learned last year that Black Cat Pizza, a new Detroit-style pizza joint, would be opening in Palm Desert. After trying a couple of their pizzas, I’ve become a fan of Black Cat, too.
If you’re unfamiliar with Detroit-style pizza, here’s a primer: These are deep-dish pies, in the vein of Chicagostyle pizza, but they’re rectangular, because—as the story goes—they were originally made in automotive drip pans. After the cheese and the toppings are placed on the crust, sauce is added last, dolloped in “racing stripes” across the pie.
At Black Cat, the pizzas come in one size, around 8 by 10 inches or so. On our recent visit, to pick up a to-go order for lunch, we got a “Fungi,” with cremini mushrooms, fresh oregano and thyme ($22); and the “Salsiccia,” with pork sausage, Castelvetrano olives and pickled red onions.
While we liked the mushroom pie, the hubby and I decided the sausage pie was our favorite. The sausage was delicious, while the green olives added salinity, and the onions contributed both sweetness and acidity. Normally, when it comes to pizza, I am a sauce guy—I like a lot of it—and since the “racing stripes” don’t cover the entire pizza, bites around the edges don’t have sauce. However, I really didn’t mind, because the edge pieces have yummy crispy cheese. Mmm.
If you’ve never tried Detroit-style pizza, find time to visit Black Cat Pizza, because you really need to give it a shot—and if you are already a fan of this increasingly popular pizza genre, Black Cat’s fare will leave you pleased.
WHAT Arepa with shredded beef and cheddar WHERE PasteLitos, 186 S. Sunrise Way, Palm Springs
WHY Everything was excellent. It’s always a pleasure when I go to a restaurant and decide to do an Indy Endorsement, but I have trouble choosing what to endorse, because multiple items are worthy.
Such was the case on a recent lunch visit to PasteLitos.
A favorite at Palm Springs Village Fest, PasteLitos also offers its delicious Venezuelan fare in a tiny brick-and-mortar location five days a week. I placed my pick-up order via DoorDash and then made the short drive to Sunrise Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way to get it. When I brought the food home, we dove in—and boy, were we thrilled.
Should I endorse one of the delicious arepas, like the one filled with shredded beef and cheddar cheese? A grilled cornmeal cake was stuffed with oh-so-good shredded beef, microgreens, cheese and a fantastic green sauce. My only complaint was that I after I finished, I wanted another.
Or do I endorse one of the fantastic empanadas ($4.60 each)? We ordered several of them, and they are indistinguishable from the outside, so we didn’t know which one we’d be eating until we took the first bite. Our favorite was the one with shredded beef, but all of them featured the crispy cornmeal pastry that was so good, it almost made the fillings irrelevant.
In the end, I chose to endorse the shredded beef and cheddar arepa—but it was not an easy decision.
In addition to arepas, empanadas and a handful of other treats, the restaurant offers its namesake pastelitos—puff pastries with fillings both savory and sweet—as well as patacones, aka plantains with meat.
Given how fantastic everything we ordered was, we can’t wait to go back and try more.
Restaurant NEWS BITES
By charles drabkin
FEBRUARY IS PACKED WITH FOOD FESTS AND EVENTS
Taste of Jalisco returns to downtown Cathedral City for its ninth year, from Friday, Jan. 31, through Sunday, Feb. 2. You’ll find food vendors, tequila tastings, carnival rides, a craft market and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) performances. Admission is free, although there is a charge for the headliner musical performances in the amphitheater. Find out more at tasteofjalisco.com.
The third annual Lunar Festival will take place at The River, at 71800 Highway 111, in Rancho Mirage, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 8. Organizers say they’ve doubled the number of food vendors this year, and the event will include cultural performances, art and merchandise vendors. Find out more and reserve free tickets via Eventbrite.
The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival returns to the Riverside County Fairgrounds, at 46350 Arabia St., in Indio, from Thursday, Feb. 13, through Sunday, March 2. If you enjoy fair food, this is the place to be. You can also check out agricultural exhibits that include dates, citrus, livestock and more. General-admission presale tickets are $12; get them at www. datefest.org.
The 27th Annual Palm Desert Greek Festival occurs at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, at 74109 Larrea St., from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 15 and 16. Enjoy Greek delicacies including souvlaki, baklava and dolmathes, while checking out the church and celebrating Greek culture. Admission is just $5; food must be purchased separately. Visit pdgreekfest.org for all the information.
A new monthly Desert Dinner Series featuring themed menus and local community partners has launched at Maleza at the Drift Hotel, located 284 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. The February offering is a movie-inspired mezcal dinner on Wednesday, Feb. 26, with more in the series planned through May. Check malezapalmsprings.co for more information.
IN BRIEF
Kudos to Alice B. chef/owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, who have been helping World Central Kitchen feed first responders and evacuees during the Los Angeles wildfires; as of this writing, they’ve served more than 15,000 meals since the fires began. Donate at wck.org. … Our friends at The Palm Springs Post report that an In-N-Out Burger is in the works at 1801 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in the former Bank of America space in Smoke Tree Village. Watch this space (and the Post) for updates. … The Desert Sun is reporting that the operators of The Red Dog Saloon in Pioneertown and The Cooper Room in Yucca Valley have purchased the shuttered Lord Fletcher’s, at 70385 Highway 111, in Rancho Mirage; they said they plan to re-open the place, keeping its old-school charm; watch this column for more information. … The first Birba is in Palm Springs, at 622 N. Palm Canyon Drive; the second one is now the first full-service restaurant at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets, at 48400 Seminole Drive, in Cabazon. Load up on carbs for a day of shopping with pasta, pizza and cocktails. Get more info at birbaf10.com. … Now open: Cravings Coffee and Pastries, at 102 E. Amado Road, Suite A, in Palm Springs. As the name suggests, they serve coffee and pastries for your morning pleasure. We couldn’t find an online presence, so call 760-282-2494 with questions. … Toast’d in PS is supposed to be opening soon at 190 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in the former home of I Heart Mac and Cheese, serving breakfast, lunch and late-night bites. Watch toastdinps.com for updates. … The family behind The Tamale Spot, at 68444 Perez Road, Suite N, in Cathedral City had been selling tamales for years before deciding to open a brick-and-mortar location. They originally opened a few months ago, and then closed for everything but take-out to get their systems in place. They’re now open again, and the tamales I had were delicious. Find them on Facebook to learn more. … State Fare, at the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage, at 68900 Frank Sinatra Drive, has been revamped and remodeled. The seasonally inspired menu highlights Southern California’s cuisine. Also new is the chef’s display kitchen, a chef’s table and a private dining room. For more information, visit ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/pspps-the-ritz-carlton-rancho-mirage/dining. … Murasaki Kakurega, a new Manga lounge at 37209 Cook St., Suite 106, in Palm Desert, gives you the ability to sip coffee, tea or Japanese soda, and eat some Japanese snacks, while you read and shop for comics. Cool! Learn more at murasakikakurega.com. … Indio has a new Mexican restaurant: Isla Mujeres Modern Mexican and Seafood, at 83085 Indio Blvd. Its modern interior looks like it could be a lot of fun. I haven’t had a chance to visit yet, but the menu seems to encompass breakfast, lunch and dinner, with both traditional Mexican food and sushi available. Learn more at islamujeresindio.com. … Mariscocos Culiacan #2, in Desert Hot Springs, has closed after six years in business. However, the first location, at 51683 Cesar Chavez St., in Coachella, remains open and ready to serve you. Do you have a hot tip or news to share? Reach out: foodnews@cvindependent.com.
2 Restaurants Unlimited Flavors
Proudly Supporting and Serving Our Community
eight4nine.com 760-325-8490
williesrm.com
760-202-4499
MUSIC
PIONEERTOWN BATTLE
By matt king
For more than 40 years, Pappy and Harriet’s has enchanted the world. The tiny Westernthemed bar, restaurant and live music venue has turned Pioneertown into a hotspot for tourists, foodies and intimate shows by rock stars.
But for more than three years, Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Morgan Margolis, along with partners Stephen Hendel and John Chapman, have been battling the venue’s co-partners,
Joseph “JB” Moresco and Lisa Elin, over control of Pappy and Harriet’s. Moresco and Elin had been managing the venue, but on Dec. 18, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran awarded control to Margolis and his partners.
“After a multi-week jury trial, the jury unanimously found in favor of the Margolis group, awarding plaintiffs substantial damages for various breaches of contract and the taking of intellectual property,” said a Dec. 21 press release from Margolis and his partners. “The Los Angeles Superior Court followed suit by ruling in favor of the Margolis Group on all remaining claims, finding that the defendants engaged in ‘breaches of fiduciary duty,’ ‘wrongful conduct’ and ‘breached the Partnership Agreement in multiple ways.’”
The Independent spoke with Margolis over the phone.
“I’m thrilled to be finally vindicated in what has been a 3 1/2-year arduous battle over something that shouldn’t have been,” Margolis said. “It’s been very difficult for all of us.”
Moresco and Elin declined to comment, and instead sent a statement from their attorneys. It reads, in part: “JB Moresco and Lisa Elin have been battling a commodities trader out of New York, Stephen Hendel, for the past 3.5 years over control of Pappy and Harriet’s. Mr. Hendel has gone from commodities to buying up billion-dollar music catalogs and appears intent on taking Pappy and Harriet’s for himself. JB and Lisa contend that Mr. Hendel invested $2.45 million of the $3 million he promised into a partnership with JB and Lisa. When Mr. Hendel’s Knitting Factory Entertainment sought to move its Desert Daze Music festival to Pappy and Harriet’s, JB and Lisa said no for various reasons. … Within days, Mr. Hendel filed suit via his wholly owned limited liability company, S&H Desert Depot, LLC.”
Shortly after both sides entered into the partnership to purchase Pappy and Harriet’s from Robyn Celia and Linda Krantz in April 2021, friction began.
“I got into business with them because I thought it would be a good thing,” Margolis said. “We paid for everything because we
thought it would be a good thing. They were just supposed to operate the bar/restaurant; we were supposed to do the music, and it just turned into something I’ve never seen before in humanity, with my years in the business of dealing with bands and musicians and artists and relationships.”
One of the first controversies came when, according to reports, Moresco told people at the neighboring Desert Willow Ranch that guests could not park in the Pappy’s lot.
“Right out the gate, I started getting email complaints, calls and texts from neighbors and people who were coming up there,” Margolis said. “People were just hitting us on the website and writing in about problems they had with JB and Lisa right out the gate. I was like, ‘Wow, we’re two weeks in, and they’re already getting all these complaints.’ I would call them and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’”
Moresco’s declaration cited liability issues as the motive for his interaction with Desert Willow Ranch.
A witness to the scene, Courtney Bailey, told Los Angeles Times in 2022. “Somebody came and started screaming, dropping F-bombs and telling us that they’re gonna tow all of our cars and that we needed to get them out of there.”
The Times also reported that David Corso, the owner of various buildings along Pioneertown’s Mane Street, sent an email to Moresco, and was banned soon after.
Margolis said he confronted Moresco and Elin regarding their dealings with Pappy’s neighbors, asking: “‘Why are you banning David Corso? He’s not allowed to come in anymore because you have an issue with him personally? And you were banning this person and that person, and you’re fighting with your neighbors next door. Can you explain to me?’ And their answers were always like, ‘Screw those people.’ They were like, ‘Fuck them, those bullshit space cowboys, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ I was like, ‘What are you doing? Can you be friendly and work this out?’ We don’t ban people from our venues and our bars and restaurants. I don’t think we’ve ever banned anybody unless it’s been some massive violent attack. … We were having friction on how they were dealing with people, and then it escalated
After a 3 1/2-year legal fight, control of Pappy and Harriet’s is awarded to the CEO of Knitting Factory—who promises to mend fences with locals
from there. I won’t go deeper than that.”
Then came Desert Daze. The festival, run by Phil Pirrone, announced via social media in 2021 that the festival would make its post-COVID 19 comeback as “a series of … concerts at the majestic Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown” from Oct. 17 through Nov. 23. Court documents said that Moresco was “concerned about the effect of the Desert Daze shows” on the venue’s conditional-use permit, and fired Pirrone and the talent booker Bravo Entertainment LLC before the lineup was announced.
An emergency meeting of the owners’ group was called, and on June 18, 2021, Margolis, Hendel and Chapman voted to remove Moresco and Elin as venue managers and general partners. Instead, Moresco and Elin seized control, changing the locks and passwords.
Margolis and co. filed a restraining order
against Moresco and Elin, but it was denied, allowing the couple to continue operations leading up to the trial.
The statement from Moresco and Elin’s attorneys argues that during the trial, “Mr. Hendel’s counsel also was able to keep out almost all evidence of the plaintiffs, and previous owners, efforts to undermine the business following the filing of the lawsuit.”
During the course of Moresco and Elin’s ownership, various locals were banned from entering the venue, while others were blocked from Pappy’s social media pages, and various locals-focused events ended. The Pioneertown Palace’s website bio was also changed to include no mention of former owners Robyn Celia and Linda Krantz.
“Robyn and Linda … made Pappy’s what it is,” Margolis said. “… First and foremost, I want to get their history back. They were knocked out on Wikipedia; they don’t exist
Photo courtesy of Morgan Margolis
MUSIC
anymore. Look up Pappy and Harriet’s; Robyn and Linda don’t exist. They’re knocked out on the web. They were completely cut from the history of this venue, and these two women made this place. We were lucky enough to inherit the history here, and that’s what it was always supposed to be.”
Now that he and his partners have control, Margolis pledged to again make Pappy and Harriet’s a more welcoming place for locals.
“I just need to figure out what’s missing, like local nights, discount tickets for locals and free nights of shows,” Margolis said. “Those are all the things that I want to institute back, but I’m just asking everybody to give me a minute. I’m very methodical, and very immersed in trying to make things right and make everybody happy. I have to figure out what needs to be changed, and what needs to stay. … I think the prime thing is bringing back some of the locals’ nights that have been there. A lot of locals have been banned for no apparent reason. I want to understand why that happened. I haven’t been on the ground in 3 1/2 years. I haven’t been able to see my own bands that have been on our label that are playing.”
Margolis pledged to turn to locals for direction, stating: “I got to get the local flavor back. I want to take a beat, and then do a community forum, and sit down and go, ‘Hey, hit me
with what you think is missing and how we can help it.’ I’ll do the best I can to get a lot of this in play. Can I get it all? No, but I will do what I can to bring back some of these things.
“I’m not going to be perfect,” he said. “I kind of joked and said, ‘I hope we live up to this expectation.’ We’ll do the best we can. It’s going to be in the hands of locals. Will we be buying the talent? Yes. Will the new GM be local? Yes. Will they be answering up to my team? Of course, but not in a negative way.”
The statement from Moresco and Elin’s attorneys said: “JB and Lisa have spent nearly four years working to improve and grow Pappy and Harriet’s into one of the most respected and successful restaurants and music venues in the high desert, and globally during a time when there has been significant closures of outlets in the hospitality space. … While we have the greatest respect for the court and the jury, we strongly believe both got it wrong. While this began as a mismanagement case, it ended with Mr. Hendel’s attorneys successfully keeping out any evidence of JB and Lisa’s extremely successful management of Pappy and Harriet’s during their tenure.”
The statement also said Moresco and Elin are appealing the decision—meaning the battle over the legendary Pappy and Harriet’s will continue.
Thousands of Coachella Valley Independent readers and News Channel 3 viewers voted in this year’s Best of Coachella Valley readers’ poll—and they selected the Purple Room as the winner of Best Bar Ambiance and finalist in four categories:
Tues-Wed-Thurs 4 - 6 PM
WEEKNIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
TUES-WED-THURS 6:30-9:30 PM
WEDNESDAYS
MUSIC
TRUE TO PUNK ROOTS
By matt king
The hardcore scene has been growing in the underground venues of the Coachella Valley, so it’s only fitting that the scene will soon host a legendary hardcore band in one of the desert’s smallest performance spaces.
Ignite, a powerhouse hardcore band from Orange County, is playing in Indio for the first time ever. Since 1993, the band has been a big part of the melodic hardcore sphere; thanks to break-
through albums like A Place Called Home and Our Darkest Days, featuring former vocalist Zoltán “Zoli” Téglás, Ignite is now considered legendary. Téglás’ Hungarian heritage allowed the band to be vocal about topics such as war, communism and freedom.
The band has gone through a number of changes since 1993, with bassist Brett Rasmussen remaining as the sole founding member after the departure of Téglás in 2020. Rasmussen and the current lineup of Ignite will perform at Music House Indio on Thursday, Feb. 27.
During a recent phone interview, Rasmussen discussed how Ignite became familiar with Hot Stuff Booking, run by local hardcore frontman Sage Jackson, who is bringing Ignite to Indio.
“The first connection was through the band Berthold City; my good friend Andrew (Kline), who plays guitar in Strife, sings in that band,” Rasmussen said. “They played (at Music House) a few months back and said it was really fun and awesome. I’m always on the lookout for new places to play that we never have tapped into, so I was super-excited when he said, ‘Yeah, it was fun. The kids were cool, and the promoter was rad.’ I connected through my other buddy who lives out there, Bill, who works with Coachella. He’s been a huge hardcore fan for years and years, so he connected me with the kid Sage who books the shows.”
The members of Ignite still relish the opportunity to perform in small-capacity rooms, even after playing stadiums and festivals.
“I love it,” Rasmussen said. “I think this is the best way to grow more. Even in Europe, we’ve played big stuff with giant bands over there, but then our agents are like, ‘Hey, there’s this new venue in the small city,’ and I’m like, ‘Let’s do it.’ All that translates to fans following, making the scene healthy, and making our scene grow. I’m a big believer in playing the smaller scenes, smaller markets, when you can. … When we first started going to Europe back in the ’90s, and we’d go and play these deep Eastern countries … where bands weren’t going, you could just see how grateful people were that bands were coming. My mantra is, ‘Let’s go play these places and stoke people out
and have a good time and grow the scene.’”
Even though the hardcore genre has been booming, the DIY ethos and punk roots remain. Hardcore bands can still work their way up the figurative ladder via connections, and staying true to one’s roots.
“Bands do get big; you’ve got your Hatebreeds, your AFIs, your bands along the way like Knocked Loose and Turnstile that have gone through and become these bigger bands—but it’s all the same path,” Rasmussen said. “It’s all just putting your dues in, playing small shows, making connections, and having a good rapport with people. All that stuff is the same, no matter what year it is.”
Hardcore, as it stands now, is a loose term, and can include a wide spectrum of sounds. Rasmussen discussed how the definition of “hardcore” has changed over the years.
“My first idea of hardcore was Minor Threat, Uniform Choice, and stuff like that,” he said. “… There are some bands that sound more punk; some bands sound more metal, and metalcore—and that’s a pretty big spectrum for hardcore. There are a lot of different subgenres within hardcore, so I don’t think there’s any one defining sound. There’s always that debate, where it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s not hardcore,’ and it changes. … I think it’s in the eye of the beholder.”
There are still many misconceptions about the genre and lifestyle, Rasmussen said.
“I think it can get a bad rap at times, because I don’t think people understand what happens at shows,” Rasmussen said. “It looks like this violent, crazy fight that’s going on, and there definitely is some bit of violence and aggression, depending on what show you go to, but I think it can be misconceived (about) what it is. It’s usually a pretty positive thing from our experience. We’re a little bit more on the positive side, rather than the brutal, heavy-ish side. … The people who are involved in the scene are always very smart and insightful, and it seems like it’s intelligent kids who want to make a positive change in the world. It’s never come across to me as this knucklehead scene with a bunch of dumb kids.”
Hot Stuff Booking’s dedication to hosting hardcore in the Coachella Valley has led to
The band Ignite brings legendary hardcore to an intimate Indio venue
criticism and conflicts with venues and city officials—something that’s all too familiar in the hardcore world.
“It’s always been a challenge to put on hardcore shows, even when we first started touring,” Rasmussen said. “We’d go down in the South and be playing really strange venues and warehouses, and people would put on shows where they could kind of get away with it, because that’s just the DIY ethic of hardcore.”
After decades of Ignite being focused on albums, Rasmussen said that due to the changing times, the band will try to release a few songs a year.
“We’re always writing, and it’s a little bit different now, which is interesting,” Rasmussen said. “We are an album band for sure … but our record label is like, ‘Hey, if you guys just want to put out two songs, you guys are more than welcome to do that.’ Our label is really pushing the idea to a lot of bands on their roster to just make sure you don’t disappear for two or three years. We put out a single this past year. It was a really fun song to do. We had a guest vocal—the singer from Comeback Kid sang on the song—and our label was really psyched on that. … The idea is just to keep releasing stuff as often as we can.”
The ultimate goal for Ignite is to keep growing, and to have new material to take on tour.
“We’ve had some long gaps in between albums over the years, and it’s definitely not
a good thing for touring and for keeping fan bases,” Rasmussen said. “A lot of people forget about you, and if you go back to a city that you played seven years before, and you haven’t had a record come out … you can get a drop-off, so it’s important to stay active.”
Ignite is one of the biggest bands that Hot Stuff Booking has been able to host. Rasmussen said he wanted to make sure the show is a success.
“When we talked to Sage, I was very adamant about, ‘Look, you set the price; you set the bands,’” Rasmussen said. “We don’t want to come in and make it something that’s not cool for the local kids. I go, ‘Whatever you set the price, we’ll work with whatever it is,’ because I don’t want to come in and disrupt and be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to play this show in a 100-cap room, where these young kids are used to paying a couple bucks to go see show, and now we’re going to put on a $40 show.’ That just wouldn’t work, and that’s not the point. The point is to have an awesome show, stoke out the kids, and have us be stoked—so whatever it takes to make that work.”
Ignite will perform at a show starting at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, at Music House Indio, at 82777 Miles Ave. Pop Free, Jack-Knife, Darasuum, Bronca and Deviated State will open. Tickets are $15 online (plus fees) and at the door. For tickets and more information, visit Eventbrite.
Ignite.
MUSIC
EMOTIONAL BOXING JAMS
By matt king
AGarb is set to release ‘TKO,” a concept album about frontman Carrick O’Dowd’s great-grandfather
lot has changed for Garb since we caught up with them in June 2022—but the band is still crafting genre-spanning, emotional rock jams that straddle the line between reflective and vague.
Although three-quarters of the band lives in Los Angeles, vocalist/guitarist Carrick O’Dowd remains in the desert, and has been working on the band’s latest release, TKO. The seven-track heat-
er, slated for release on Feb. 15, is filled with moments that will satisfy the most diverse of music fans, from the emotive rock and anthemic drive of “credential,” to the soft, lo-fi groove of “jack melrose,” and the punk aggression mixed with somber vibes of “the heel.”
During a recent phone interview, O’Dowd explained that TKO is a concept album.
“It’s about my great grandfather, who was a professional boxer in the 1920s,” O’Dowd said. “All the songs are told from his perspective—not necessarily that I had the resources to know exactly what was going on in his life, but I had to imagine it for myself. The interesting part about his boxing career is that he had more losses than wins, but wasn’t necessarily a bad boxer.” Track 6, “the heel,” explains this phenomenon. In professional wrestling, a heel is defined as the villain, meaning they generally lose to the hero.
“My great-grandfather, we deduced, was like the chosen loser of boxing matches,” O’Dowd said. “The whole record is a self-reflection, (on whether) you want to keep going when you’re getting beaten down, but you’re still getting the paycheck. Track two is ‘credential,’ and it’s him contemplating: Do I just keep doing what I do, or do I go back to school to get my teaching credential? (This) is something that I’m actually facing in my life right now. It’s like a
combination of looking through the lens of my great-grandfather as a professional boxer, and looking through my own life, and (figuring out) what I want to do.”
O’Dowd said he had help and support from his family while crafting TKO.
“I tried to put myself in his shoes and write from his perspective,” O’Dowd said. “… It’s my dad’s grandfather. For Christmas this year, (my dad) actually found archives. … He found a public stock image of him being interviewed for some boxing publication in the 1960s. It’s kind of cool how my family rallied around— even though it might be fabricated—this story that I’ve been trying to tell, even though it’s only a 17-minute record.”
Using his great grandfather as both a muse and a vehicle for his own emotions has helped O’Dowd find therapeutic moments in songwriting.
“I think that there are other people who are struggling way more than I am, but writing the story of TKO was definitely a therapeutic process, and it took two years to write,” he said.
While O’Dowd was hard at work on TKO, Garb has experienced both lineup and location changes.
“Our bassist, Lindsay (Clark), moved to New York, and we got a new bassist,” O’Dowd said. “Her name is Brooke Tannehill, and she’s fan-
tastic. Another thing is Nick Sacro—who is my best friend besides being the drummer in my band—he and I lived together for a little over a year in the desert, and then our rent went up, and we made a decision to move to L.A. He had a job lined up and a place lined up, and I wasn’t able to (move); I didn’t have those resources. The whole band, including Nic Lara, who was already out there, all moved to L.A., and I was left behind. It’s been, like, a transition period of being sort of in a long-distance relationship with my own band. I do intend to move out there at some point.”
Garb has been relatively quiet over the past year, appearing only in a small number of shows, as the other members of the band pursued other projects.
“Brooke’s involved in two other projects, including her own solo material, which is popping off,” O’Dowd said. “Nick Sacro plays drums for this artist named Jane Remover, who’s quite big, and Nic Lara has his own project called Marni. Over the past, like, year and a half, everyone’s been focusing on their own stuff, and I’ve just been cooking in the kitchen working on TKO. … In 2023, we played a lot of shows, and we did a small tour with a band called Cryogeyser. This year, we are back, and we are doing more shows, because we’ve got a record to support.”
O’Dowd said the desert will never leave the members, even if all the members leave the desert.
“If you look in our Instagram bio, it says Coachella Valley/Los Angeles, California,” O’Dowd said. “I view us as a hybrid band. I still view this as a desert band, because three of our members are from the desert. Brooke is from Virginia, but I met her in the desert, so the desert is ingrained in Garb. We can’t shake that, and we still love the desert. It’s not that we’ve pushed the desert away; it’s that we’re very involved in the L.A. music scene.”
Garb will be celebrating the release of TKO in L.A., but fear not: The band is set to make their first desert appearance in two years in May.
“If anybody wants to make the trek out (to L.A.), we’re actually doing a record-release show the day the album comes out,” O’Dowd said. “It’s going to be at Non Plus Ultra in L.A. … We are playing in the desert in May, which is very exciting. We’re excited to come back and play some more shows. The record comes out Feb. 15, and I hope everyone enjoys it.”
For more information, visit garb.bandcamp.com or instagram.com/ggaarrbb.
FebrUARY 2025
By matt king
Kodo
Happy February! It’s the month of love, so we hope you love all of the great entertainment the desert has to offer. It will be heart to choose which events to go to.
Acrisure Arena has one concert of note: At 7:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, cumbia and ranchero vocalist Chelo brings her farewell tour to the Coachella Valley. Tickets start at $59.05. Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, Palm Desert; 888-695-8778; www. acrisurearena.com.
Here are some highlights from a very busy month at the McCallum Theatre. At 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 3, celebrate Mardi Gras music and the history of Louisiana with New Orleans Songbook. Tickets start at $43. At 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 10, experience Kodo, an evening exploring the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko. Tickets start at $63. Tickets are moving fast to see Ones, a live band performing the No. 1 hits from the Beatles, alongside the Desert Symphony, at 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 13. Tickets start at $103. Catch the emotionally moving, Tony Awardand Grammy Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21; 2 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 22; and 2 and 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 23. Tickets start at $78. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert; 760-340-2787; www. mccallumtheatre.com.
Enjoy some classic music at Fantasy Springs! At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, you’ll
Garb.
see that ’60s hitmakers Tommy James and The Shondells are still kickin’ and rockin’! Tickets start at $52.50 At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, country pop outfit Lady A (you may remember the group as Lady Antebellum) returns to Indio to bring the yee-haw to you! Remaining tickets start at $122.50. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21, Mexico standup comedy icon Sofía Niño De Rivera serves up Spanish laughs. Tickets start at $52.50. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28, popstar Andy Grammer, behind hits like “Honey, I’m Good” and “Keep Your Head Up,” heads to town. Tickets start at $52.50. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-342-5000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.
Spotlight 29 is keeping rock alive. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, Aaron Lewis (the voice of metal band Staind) goes country alongside The Stateliners, and will bring a heavy twang to Coachella. Tickets start at $49.10. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, ’70s rockers Cheap Trick celebrate five decades of poppy hardrock hits. Tickets start at $64.55. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella; 760775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.
Morongo offers a mix of music. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, regional Mexican act Los Huracanes Del Norte celebrate the beauty of Norteño music. Tickets start at $149.06. At 5 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 2, Hong Kong singer Frances Yip is set to perform. Tickets start at $88.25. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, ’90s R&B star Brian McKnight brings the lovin’ jams on Valentine’s Day. Tickets start at $171.72. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, Montell Jordan and Shai team up for an evening of soul and R&B. Tickets start at $57.25. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-2524499; www.morongocasinoresort.com.
Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage is stacked with February fun; here are a few highlights. At 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, synthesizer master and electronic music pioneer Howard Jones will visit the desert alongside ’80s pop artist ABC. Tickets start at $58.58. At 8 p.m.,
The Venue
Saturday, Feb. 8, legendary soul singer and Motown leader Smokey Robinson is set to perform. Tickets start at $95.22. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, the king of norteño music, Ramón Ayala is making a special appearance. Tickets start at $68.90. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, Australian ’80s rock outfit Air Supply celebrates 50 years. Tickets start at $48.78. At 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28, Italian operatic pop trio Il Volo heads to Rancho Mirage. Tickets start at $84.38. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888999-1995; www.aguacalientecasinos.com.
Residencies roll on at Agua Caliente in Palm Springs. Desert Blues Revival Wednesdays bring Tex-Mex blues from Tremloco (Feb. 5), local favorites The Gand Band performing love songs from Motown and Memphis (Feb. 12), the rockin’ and rollin’ Laurie Morvan Band (Feb. 19) and a Black History Month tribute to Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin and Nancy Wilson from Sacha Boutros, Leah Stewart and Sweet Baby J’ai (Feb. 26). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets start from $17.85 to $24.25, available at eventspalmsprings. com. Carousel Thursdays bring some heavy hitters like ’60s icons Canned Heat (Feb. 6), a tribute to Amy from The Winehouse Experience (Feb. 13), a swingin’ soundscape from the Jennifer Keith Sextet with Eddie Clendening (Feb. 20) and the jazzy pop voice of Lynda Kay (Feb. 27). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets start from $17.85 to $24.25, available at eventspalmsprings.com. Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 888-999-1995; www. aguacalientecasinos.com.
Here are a few highlights from the Pioneertown Palace, Pappy and Harriet’s. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, indie sensations The Hayds head to the high desert. Tickets are $20. At 9 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 2, experience darkwave in the cold desert night with Cold Cave. Tickets are $32
in advance. At 9:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, surf punks Agent Orange will turn Pioneertown into mosh-pit pandemonium. Tickets start at $20. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 8, cultureand music-blending artist Ozomatli returns for another intimate show. Tickets are $45. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, the Sam Grisman Project honors the work that Sam’s father, David, made with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Tickets are $25. Check out the website for a complete list of shows. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-2282222; www.pappyandharriets.com.
Oscar’s features several shows alongside the great residencies. At 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, catch the farewell tour of Electra, a 45-year veteran of drag. Tickets start at $44.95. At 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 13, enjoy a performance from Broadway, jazz and
cabaret performer Jack Donahue. Tickets start at $35. Most Oscar’s shows include a food/drink minimum. Oscar’s Palm Springs, 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs; 760-325-1188; oscarspalmsprings.com/events. The Purple Room has fun for every weekend. The ever-popular Judy Show has tickets available, as of this writing, for 7 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 9, and Sunday, Feb. 23. Tickets are $45.70. Award-winning vocalist Ben Jones will perform in Palm Springs at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21, and Saturday, Feb. 22. Tickets start at $50.85. Vocalist Karen Mason honors Broadway songwriter Jule Styne at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, March 1 Tickets start at $50.85. Shows include dinner reservations two hours before the show. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-322-4422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.
Ben Jones
MUSIC
LUCKY 13 the
Get to better know two musicians whose bands are about to drop new albums
by matt king
NAME Efrain Martinez-Aguilar
GROUP Sweatcult
MORE INFO Indie-rock outfit Sweatcult is bringing haunting melodies and chord-burning instrumentation to Indio. Sweatcult has captivated a diehard fan base thanks to their fresh take on indie, experimenting with somber vibes and longing on “If U Wanna Stay,” hightempo rock with darkwave vocals on “Internet Hugs,” and soft, hip-hop-tinged sounds on “Shatter.” The band will make their way to Little Street Music Hall, at 82707 Miles Ave., in Indio, at 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 22. For tickets or more information, find the show on Fanimal. Efrain Martinez-Aguilar is the lead singer.
What was the first concert you attended?
Cafe Tacvba when I was in middle school. That’s still one of the best performances I’ve seen.
What was the first album you owned?
Demon Days by Gorillaz. It was the CD to start my physical-media collection.
What bands are you listening to right now?
The Smile, Her New Knife, Beach Bums, a lot of SahBabii, and a lot of Broken Social Scene.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
Probably phonk remixes of literally any song you can think of. I really thought it was cool at first, but now it’s just unnecessary.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
If Sex Bob-Omb were a real band, I think I’d really love to see them.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
Kero Kero Bonito. Sometimes they’ll come up
on shuffle, and my bandmates will be in my car with me, and I’ll lowkey be embarrassed by it.
What’s your favorite music venue?
The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco is absolutely beautiful. Hopefully we get to play there someday.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
“I’m slowly drifting to you, the stars and planets are calling me. A billion years away from you, I’m on my way, I’m on,” M83, “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea.”
What band or artist changed your life?
I’d consider it a bit of a cliché, but watching the movie Control and then getting heavily into Joy Division changed my life for sure. I take heavy inspiration from Ian Curtis and his writing.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
Frank Ocean: It’s about to be 10 years since the last album. Bro, when are you dropping?
What song would you like played at your funeral?
I think my funeral would be a good excuse to make everyone listen to Oneohtrix Point Never. Probably the song “A Barely Lit Path.” Yeah, that’s fitting.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
Well, damn, if I had to choose one over death, then I’d probably choose Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol. It’s a perfect album with no skips.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
We just released three new singles, so I’ll give you three to listen to: Look up “Shatter,” “Spite” and “Sunday” by Sweatcult on whatever platform you listen to music on; they’ll most likely be there.
NAME Pat Kearns
GROUP The Kearns Family, host of the Local Music Showcase on Z107.7
MORE INFO The desert’s Pat Kearns continues to add to his music career. After rockin’ with
his band Blue Skies for Black Hearts and producing The Exploding Hearts‘ critically acclaimed Guitar Romantic album in Portland, Ore., he came to the desert to craft folky acoustic ballads alongside his wife, Susan, under the name The Kearns Family. The duo’s debut album, Together and Alone, due Jan. 31, is filled with Western storytelling jams, perfect for a drive up the high desert into nowhere. Kearns also is the host of the Local Music Showcase, a weekly radio show on Z107.7, and owner/engineer at Goat Mountain Recording.
What was the first concert you attended?
Very first, when I was too young to decide what I was doing for myself, was the Beach Boys. They played a set in between doubleheader Portland Beavers baseball games. The first real concert that I chose to attend was The Del Fuegos at Starry Night in Portland. I was about 14 years old, and the club was 21-and-over, but my friend’s sister was friendly with the owner.
What was the first album you owned?
With my own money, I bought Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ I Love Rock ’n Roll. I rode my bike to Fred Meyer, our local grocery in Portland. I bought my first singles there, too, by The J. Geils Band, and Hall and Oates. I was 11 or 12.
What bands are you listening to right now?
I’m hooked on the song “Defense” from the forthcoming Panda Bear record. We have the Carter Family playing at home quite often. Bob Dylan is a staple, too. I recently had the pleasure of mixing an album for Johnny Franco and His Real Brother Dom, and the songs from it are constantly playing in my head when I’m between sleeping and waking. I look forward to the day that album is released, and everyone else can experience it, too. Chalino Sanchez is a favorite, and Townes Van Zandt is always in the shuffle as well.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
The latest Beyoncé record, Cowboy Carter, but I’m not ruling it out. Sometimes I don’t connect with something when I hear it until much later. To my ears now, it’s a jumble of confusion trying to hit all of the so-called mainstream country marks along the way.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, not a rehash. I would do anything to see the original lineup of either of those bands.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
I’m going to have to say 1968-1973 bubblegum music, stuff like The Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, and Ron Dante. I also love all of the music for commercials that behind-the-scenes bubblegum impresario Joey Levine wrote. Who doesn’t remember “This Bud’s for You,” “Sometimes You Feel Like a
Nut” or “Oh, What a Feeling. Toyota.”
What’s your favorite music venue?
I like great concert sound and good sight lines to see the stage. I haven’t found that yet where I live in the high desert, so we tend to go see music at the smaller and more local venues like The Palms and FurstWurld. When the weather cooperates, an outdoor show at Pappy and Harriet’s can be nice.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
I’ve been mesmerized by Bob Dylan and The Band’s “Clothes Line Saga” lately. That man, Bob Dylan, is simply brilliant. Who else could write a song about doing laundry and chores, and make it entertaining, strange, funny, uniquely American and musical?
What band or artist changed your life?
Elliott Smith. I began my career as a recording engineer at the same time he began making solo albums. He demonstrated that you didn’t have to rock hard all of the time. Elliott co-founded Jackpot Recording with Larry Crane, where early in my recording career, Larry took me on as a house engineer. That studio and my experiences there taught me skills I use every day now.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
That’s a tough one. I imagine I would be tonguetied if I ever met any of my idols, although I have met Roly Salley, and we’re friends. I usually ask him what he’d like to drink.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
“I’m a Pretender” by The Exploding Hearts, from their album Guitar Romantic, feels appropriate to me. I engineered, mixed and produced the recording. It changed my life and continues to have an influence on me, and I imagine they’ll be waiting for me on the other side.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
Any Dylan record between 1963 and 1967. You can pick it! That’s an astonishing sevenrecord run.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
I would love it if you would listen to “The Funny Thing About Keeping Moving” by The Kearns Family.
OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD
“The Best of 2024”—let’s look back, one more time. By Matt Jones
It comes to mind
Presidential nickname
About to run out
Sonnet division
Reaction to some
Additional
Rodeos and Axioms, e.g. 16. Miranda July novel that made The New Yorker’s “The Essential Reads 2024” list
18. Netflix “true story” miniseries that was No. 2 on The Guardian’s “50 Best TV Shows of 2024” 20. Quaff made with honey 21. Build up 25. Jason who’s one half of Jay and Silent Bob 28. Screw up 30. Andean wool source
31. Wood-chopping tools
32. Iconic toy store ___ Schwarz
33. Onetime office notetakers
34. Dinghy propeller
35. Poker-themed roguelike deck-builder nominated for The Game Awards’ 2024 Game of the Year
37. “___ Been Everywhere”
38. Marvel mutant with cold powers
40. “___ Meninas” (Velazquez painting)
41. Slumdog Millionaire actor Kapoor
42. Reserved
43. Attached document, sometimes
44. Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew
45. Tailless breed
47. Growing business?
49. Country crossover album that made many “Best of 2024” lists
54. Character paired with Wolverine in a 2024 title, the highestgrossing R-rated film ever
57. ___ del Fuego
58. Where eye color comes from
59. Penn who’s not opposite Teller
60. Pants length measurement
61. ___ see ew
62. Greek letter found within other Greek letters
63. “Don’t change that,” to an editor
Down
1. “___ little too late for that”
2. Paint badly
3. Organic catalysts
4. Sky blue shades
5. Permanent QI panelist Davies
6. Not as shy
7. Grey’s Anatomy star Pompeo
8. “Skip to My ___”
9. Hockey star Bobby
10. Isle of Dogs director Anderson
11. Member of the fam
12. Out sailing
14. Personnel concern
17. Was defeated by
19. Best possible
22. Froglike, to biologists
23. Film appropriate for all ages
24. Art studio props
25. “Little Red Book” ideology
26. Bet at Churchill Downs
27. ___ American Band (1973 Grand Funk Railroad album)
