Coachella Valley Independent January 2023

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

Editor/Publisher Jimmy Boegle staff writer Kevin Fitzgerald coveR and feature design Dennis Wodzisz

Contributors

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

The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month. All content is ©2022-2023 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling (760) 904-4208. The Independent may be distributed only by the Independent’s authorized distributors

The Independent is a proud member and/ or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, CalMatters, DAP Health, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, and the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

On the cover of this month’s issue, you’ll notice there’s a little graphic noting that we’re celebrating 10 years of existence here at the Independent It’s true. We have sort of a rolling series of milestones here. The first one came last October, when we hit the 10-year anniversary of our first story posted at CVIndependent.com. This month, we’re celebrating the “official” launch of the Independent online. In April, we’ll mark 10 years since our first print edition. And in October of this year, it’ll be 10 years since we started our monthly print schedule.

Part of me has a hard time believing it’s all true. A decade is a long time for any business to survive—let alone a news publication launched after the Great Recession. There were times, especially in the early days of our existence, when I didn’t think the Independent would survive a couple of years, much less 10.

But when I look back at everything that’s happened since the Independent was born … wow, it feels like we’ve been through several decades’ worth of insanity during that 10-year period.

Marriage equality came … and is, in some states, in jeopardy again. There was the Trump presidency, and the corresponding insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Roe vs. Wade was thrown out. Perhaps most significantly, there was— OK, is—the pandemic. In March, April and May of 2020, I was again afraid the Independent wouldn’t make it.

But we did (thanks in large part to you, our readers), and as 2023 arrives, the Independent is starting our second decade of existence—and we have big goals.

As you may have noticed, the local daily is dying. For the second time in recent years, local management is begging for donations and nonprofit support to bring back an employee position that was eliminated by higherups at Gannett, the multibillion dollar company that owns The Desert Sun. To be frank, the only logical path toward The Desert Sun’s survival involves Gannett selling the newspaper to independent ownership that’s dedicated to making sure it survives—but at the rate things are going, there won’t be much of The Desert Sun left in a few years.

That means local independent news sources like the Independent need to step up and do as much as we can to fill the gap. To that end, we’re looking into converting the Independent into a nonprofit news organization, structured so the Independent has more support and access to a broader range of funding sources—making it so our future is secure, and positioning us to grow.

We’ll keep you posted, of course, as this effort unfolds. In the meantime, thank you for your support—and welcome to the January 2023 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent.

—Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com

Cover photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

OPINION

OPINION HIKING WITH T

BY THERESA SAMA

It’s the perfect time of year to hike in and around Palm Springs. There are so many amazing trails, with so much nature and wildlife to see and enjoy—all while getting in a good workout and burning off a few extra holiday calories.

Among the most popular trails in the Coachella Valley are the North and South Lykken Trails, named in honor of Carl Lykken, an early pioneer who was the first postmaster of Palm Springs— and a man who had a love for hiking and riding. The combined sections of the two trails stretch about 9 miles from end to end. Both moderately challenging trails skirt the city of Palm Springs while paralleling, for the most part, Palm Canyon Drive/Highway 111 (North Lykken) and South Palm Canyon Drive (South Lykken). The trails go from just a few hundred feet above Palm Springs

to more than 1,500 feet above the city, along the base of Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.

South Lykken Trail, the longest of the two sections, is about a 4.5-mile stretch. The trailhead at the north end is located just south of downtown Palm Springs at the west end

of Mesquite Avenue. You should be able to find parking along Mesquite Avenue, but you may need to walk a bit to the trailhead. You can drive to the end of Mesquite and park in the Tahquitz Canyon Visitor Center parking lot, but you’ll need to pay the fee to go on the Tahquitz Canyon Trail Loop, currently $15 ($7

for children; free for military with ID).

The Tahquitz Canyon Trail Loop is just under 2 miles and can be completed in less than an hour. It is a fairly easy walk, with some rocks and steps to navigate. This trail is perfect for beginners and appreciated by hikers of all levels, as you’ll traverse through sacred yet magical scenery that seems to be a world away—and you may get to enjoy a 60-foot refreshing waterfall (which is likely during this time of the year) before looping back to the starting point at the visitor center. The center sits on a section of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation and features educational and cultural exhibits, as well as a display of artifacts. Ranger-led interpretive 2.5-hour hikes are offered daily and are free with paid admission, departing this time of year (October through June) at 8 a.m.,

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The South Lykken Trail is near downtown Palm Springs—yet it’s a world away from life’s distractions

10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Whether you take a guided tour or go on your own, you may want to first check out the theater room and view the video about the Legend of Tahquitz; it’s interesting and well worth the time. For more information, visit www.tahquitzcanyon.com/ canyon.

South Lykken’s trailhead is located just before the visitor center. Starting at more than 500 feet in elevation, it can be a moderate to strenuous climb as you switchback your way to the first picnic-table area, with an elevation gain of more than 1,000 feet. This area makes for a perfect rest stop. There are also a few places along the way where you can step off trail and take in the spectacular view while hearing the soothing sounds of the Tahquitz Canyon Falls above. If it’s your lucky day, you might see some of the endangered peninsular bighorn sheep that often hang out along this trail. If you do see bighorn sheep, please remember to be respectful by keeping adequate space; admire them from a distance so you don’t disturb them.

My friend and hiking buddy Texie Pastorok frequents this trail; she considers it one of her favorites in Palm Springs.

“Being out on the trail and experiencing the quiet of nature is like church for me,” she says. “It’s also a great workout and breakaway from life’s distractions. … One of the main things I like about this trail—aside from the 10-minute drive and being above the city in a matter of minutes—is that you can often catch a sighting of bighorn sheep. They are so beautiful and majestic. It makes my day when the bighorn sheep show themselves. I always feel very grateful and at peace during those times when I’m fortunate enough to come across them. I’ll stop and spend a few minutes watching them and thanking them for the opportunity. It’s a great way to start my day!”

Texie shared a couple of her favorite areas. One is near a bend in the trail where you can step off to see and sometimes hear the soothing water from Tahquitz Canyon Falls.

“Another area I like is up at the picnic tables,” she says. “It’s a great place to spend some time overlooking the city and enjoying an excellent view of Murray Peak.”

Dogs are not allowed on any of these trails. The Lykken Trails are both sun-facing in the morning and much of the afternoon, meaning there’s little to no shade, so please remember a hat and sunscreen—and always bring more water than you think you will need, even when hiking during cooler temperatures.

Have fun and be safe—and I hope to see you on the trails!

A bighorn sheep overlooking the streets just above Mesquite Avenue along the South Lykken Trail. Texie Pastorok

THE GIRL CLUB

BY KAY KUDUKIS

Meet Victory Grund, a woman dedicated to sharing the healing power of art

The woman who’s now Victory Grund got her first name because her dad was in the war (World War II), and Mom told him there “was a victory waiting for him at home.” She didn’t meet him until she was 4.

Victory was the eldest sibling of four, and she had a fairly normal childhood—until Victory was 6. That’s when she moved into an iron lung.

A refresher course: An iron lung looks like a hi-tech coffin, or a sleep chamber on a 40-year space mission—except your head is poking out. In Victory’s case, she was in it because she had contracted polio and was paralyzed from the neck down.

“Twelve kids went into that hospital the same day; 10 of them died,” she said. “The others all

had very, very severe residual effects.”

After spending 5 1/2 months in the iron

lung, she had to learn to walk, breathe and swallow all over again. When she was 8, March

of Dimes, the organization that paid for the lion’s share of her care, made her the poster child for polio in San Mateo County.

Fully recovered at 18, Victory visited her cousin, whose husband was a colonel on a Marine base. Victory was a big hit at the officer’s club; all the boys wanted a chance to chat her up … except for one good-looking Marine in the corner who was paying zero attention to her.

Of course, they fell in love; of course, they married. I would love to tell you they lived happily ever after—but his helicopter was shot down. Six weeks after saying “I do,” Victory was an 18-year-old widow.

She met and married a doctor 18 years her senior with three children. They were 13, 12 and 10. She was 23. The union produced two children of their own. There were struggles early on, and when Victory saw her step-kids courting danger, they rented a 47-foot cruiser with another family to take them out of the environment and on a vacation. They were cruising the waterfalls off British Columbia when they realized they’d run out of bread and beer, and pulled into a beautiful island port. Instead of finding a town, they found a “young life” camp for troubled kids.

Victory’s husband would return there as camp doctor with the entire family. The kids were angry at first. “By the end of the week, each had given their life to Christ and said, ‘I don’t need drugs anymore. I don’t want a life that’s going nowhere. I can’t thank you enough for bringing us here,’” Victory said. “They’re all young life leaders to this day.”

Cracks in the marriage became chasms, and after 25 years, they divorced. Her mother and father had divorced, too; she’d remarried a swell guy who Victory called “Dad.” Her birth father, well … he drank. A lot. He eventually skipped out on not just his family, but his life.

She was 49, and single, but that changed when she met Richard Grund. She married him a year later.

Victory, who moved to La Quinta in 1993, was in her late 50s or early 60s when her mother surprised everyone with their French half-sister, and arranged for everyone to meet. She was close in age to Victory, and a lifelong bond was formed.

Ten years into Victory’s marriage, her Mom and “Dad” moved in with them. “(They) lived with us for eight years,” Victory said. “Every Sunday, we would take them to Canard’s restaurant, and Mom and I would sit by the fountain. Our joy was taking care of them.”

When they needed more than Victory and

Richard could provide, they went into assisted living—and Victory succumbed to depression. Wine helped, but she knew she was genetically predisposed to alcoholism, so she stopped. Her depression deepened.

Richard shared his concern with an artist friend who invited Victory over to his studio. That friend gave her a lump of clay and said, “Make an oval around the stick.” He then gave her two smaller lumps and said, “Connect them to the bottom sides of the oval.” When she was done, she sat back and thought: Whadda ya know it’s a bust without a face. As she began to give it features, she felt the darkness fade, and a sense of peace washed over her. Can art heal others too, she wondered?

She went to the Boys and Girls Club of Coachella Valley and approached the afterschool program director, Maria Gonzalez.

“‘Hi, my name is Victory,’” she remembered saying. “I just wondered: Do they just do sports here? Or do you think they’d like to do art, like clay or anything?”

Very much, Maria said, but there’s no budget. Victory smiled and replied: “Could you get them to our studio if I opened one and provided classes?”

In 2009, Victory and Richard put in $30,000, and 100 friends donated $100 per month, and Old Town Artisan Studios opened. They grew so fast that they moved four times by 2016, so Victory raised money to purchase land and build. They couldn’t find the right location until a 16,000-square-foot former restaurant and homestead/hacienda came up for sale.

It was the old Canard’s.

Bungalows became homes for ceramics, pottery, sculpture, glass, mixed media, fabric art, painting, watercolor and pastels. The fountain became the Veteran Fountain, made up of more than 600 tiles painted by the children of Coachella, honoring the men and women who served—including Victory’s Dad and her first love.

What struck me most about Victory (besides her strength, endurance and leadership style) was her capacity to give, recognize and accept love.

She began her story: “When I was a little girl, I was deeply loved.” I can’t stop thinking about that. What if all little girls felt that way? Now imagine all of those deeply loved, badass girls growing up and ruling the world. What a Victory.

For more information about Old Town Artisan Studios, visit oldtownartisanstudios.org.

Victory Grund (left) with her first bust.

OPINION OPINION

TIME TO BUILD

BY JOY SILVER

The Coachella Valley needs more workforce housing to support our population

As the population grows and real estate developments continue to be built throughout the Coachella Valley and Riverside County, the need for affordable housing is more evident than ever before.

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California’s most recent regional housing-needs assessment process determined that a total of 45,271 new housing units are needed to accommodate anticipated population growth in the unincorporated areas of Riverside County, and there are 30,748 units (both highest-density residential and multiple-use areas) considered to be vacant or underutilized in the Coachella Valley alone. Thanks to amendments made in 2016 to rezoning and land-use designation requirements, these properties now have significant potential to be redeveloped into affordable

housing, and could help make a sizable dent in the region’s new construction need.

An increasing number of key California decision-makers are helping fight the good

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fight in attaining access to more affordable housing. Late last September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws that would open much of the state’s commercial land for residential development. Most of this land has access to metropolitan areas and ample parking space, making it a great fit for redevelopment into affordable housing. The long-lasting effects of this unprecedented move remain to be seen, but it’s a sure step in the right direction to remedy what Gov. Newsom calls the “original sin” of our state: the decades-old issue of housing and affordability.

The acceptance of affordable housing built for workforce residents—many of them essential workers—is often a struggle, especially in wealthier communities. Though many communities in the Coachella Valley are renowned for their upscale resorts and multimillion-dollar homes, the region is also home to countless working-class families and individuals who fulfill vital functions, including working in agriculture and hospitality, that support the valley’s overall population, such as agriculture and hospitality.

Low wages within these industries, ongoing economic uncertainty and the region’s significant affordable-housing deficit requires these individuals to regularly make compromises that affect their quality of life. The combination of these factors also exacerbates a growing inequality of access to employment opportunities for the region’s workers who can’t afford to live near their place of work or in areas where more jobs are available.

Farmworker housing is often substandard or nonexistent. In the Coachella Valley—one of the county’s most important agricultural regions—more must be done to increase the availability of affordable housing to the farming workforce that generates millions of dollars in revenue from the crops grown each year. Farmworkers have unique housing needs, because they earn lower incomes than many other workers and must move from one harvest to the next. Seasonal workers who are more likely to reside in the region permanently need fixed low-cost housing and larger units to accommodate their families.

Suitable housing types include manufactured homes as well as traditional single-family homes or multifamily apartments. To meet the needs of farmworkers, Riverside County has a number of programs for the preservation and rehabilitation of existing mobile home parks and individual units, as well as programs directed toward new construction.

On the hospitality front, data points from

the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership‘s 2021 annual report show that approximately 25% of Coachella Valley residents work in leisure and hospitality, and the average annual income per worker in that sector is less than $16,000. A recently approved 1,700-home development by a major developer and now under construction brought a national spotlight on an ongoing issue throughout the region: Most of the people who live and work in the area will likely not be able to afford to live there.

The demand for affordable housing will not lessen anytime soon, so it is imperative that leaders at every level work to devise innovative solutions that bring more quality affordable housing online as quickly as possible.

The Community Housing Opportunities Corporation (CHOC) has two communities currently under construction in the Coachella Valley: The Monarch Apartment Homes in Palm Springs, and Placita Delores Huerta in the city of Coachella. As the first community of its kind in the city of Palm Springs in more than 12 years, The Monarch Apartments are especially unique, and the 60-unit community is already serving as a catalyst for similar developments.

When completed, these communities will add a combined 170 units, a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments to accommodate a range of household sizes throughout the region. Design and architecture are significant features of CHOC communities, focused on integrating surrounding neighborhood design elements such as color palettes, moldings, benches and doorframes into our properties—a subtle yet effective tactic to reiterate to residents that they belong in the communities where they live and work yearround, regardless of economic status.

CHOC believes that affordable housing is key to self-sufficiency and is achievable with enriching, supportive programs that give pride to residents, stabilize families and improve local economies. To learn more, visit www. chochousing.org.

Joy Silver is the chief strategy officer for Community Housing Opportunities Corporation, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. She aids in the development of CHOC’s new and renovated communities, plans strategic initiatives and seeks new affordable-housing opportunities. She is also a member of Lift to Rise, a collaborative action network based in the Coachella Valley that is advocating for at least 10,000 affordable units to be built within the next five years.

MAKE THE EASY CHOICE THE #1 CHOICE COMFORT AIR

by Cat Makino

Feeling stressed? Fancy a coffee or scone while a cat curls up on your lap? Then the Frisky Business Palm Springs Cat Café is the purr-fect place for you.

The first cat café in the Coachella Valley opened in December, allowing customers to read, catch up on some work or simply relax—while enjoying the company of friendly felines. In the “cat lounge,” you can chill out on colorful comfy couches, or use tables and chairs in the company of cats roaming freely—walking, playing, making friends or sleeping. But mind your feet, because there are cats on the floor, along with cat toys, cat beds, scratching posts and more. Order your food and drink in the room next to the cat lounge. You are welcome to bring your

orders into the lounge—but don’t feed the cats! If you don’t want to share physical space with the cats, you can always watch them through the windows. You can also buy items such as cat-themed greeting cards, which are handmade by local artists.

Adriana Reyes, a morning visitor to the café, feels that cats can calm us, lower our stress level and offer companionship.

“Cuddling them helps me emotionally,” she said. “I work in the performing arts, which is stressful. Cats can sense when we’re tense, and they try to heal us with their purring. I came here before work; now I feel so relaxed and serene.”

The café also brings together cats from the Palm Springs Animal Shelter with people who can offer them loving forever homes.

“It’s a great opportunity for the cats to be highlighted there, since some people find it difficult or depressing to see hundreds of animals at shelters,” said PSAS executive director Dan Rossi. “It’s also an easier process for some people to go to a café where they have fewer cats to view, and have one-on-one facetime with them.”

In the café environment, the cats are not caged like they would be at a shelter, and they are therefore under less stress. They arrive at the café microchipped and vaccinated, spayed or neutered—in other words, medically cleared and ready to go to a new home.

On a recent visit, the feline population of Frisky Business included two black-and-white cats whose owner recently passed away. They were still anxious and huddled up together— with a big ginger and pure white cat napping nearby.

Shianne May, operations director at the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, introduced me to some other kitties.

“Eighteen-month-old Leita Ford is a very friendly, small, black-and-tan cat who was adopted but returned to the shelter because her owner had to move, and she couldn’t find affordable housing that takes pets,” May said. “Then there’s Penelope, a 2-year-old orange tabby whose owner passed away.”

She tells me about Ian, an 8-year-old grayand-white fluffy cat with beautiful green eyes, who came in from a mobile-home park as a stray cat.

“The manager of the park doesn’t want cats around,” May said.

You may also meet Baba, a 10-year-old who has been adopted twice, but has been returned to the shelter because he was too shy around humans—but he loves other cats.

But why did Claire Rogers and her partner, photographer Sonny Von Cleveland, decide to open Frisky Business? Rogers said she got the idea after visiting a cat café in Charleston, S.C.

“I saw so many stray cats in the area that I decided to open the café,” Rogers said. “I realized it was a great concept to help cats and at the same time do a job I love, so I put it in the back of my mind. I’ve always had a passion for cats, and when I realized there were so many stray cats in Coachella Valley, I knew Palm Springs was the place where I wanted to open it.”

Rogers was born in England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rogers, like many people, was forced by the pandemic to re-evaluate and make changes.

“During COVID, I couldn’t see my family, so I was looking for a place without Vancouver’s rainy and gloomy weather,” she said. “I’ve been visiting here every year since I was 19 years old. It has natural beauty and is mid-century modern. I love waking up to the sunshine, surrounded by the mountains, and it’s also only two hours (by plane) from Vancouver.”

Rogers said she has always loved cats. “I had my first cat, Garfield, when I was 6 years old. Since I was an only child, they were my companions, They are my fur babies.”

Rogers said she used to work as a high-level director at a large corporation—but the stress led to anxiety, depression, burnout and finally panic attacks, which lasted for 18 months.

“It was the darkest period of my life,” she said.

She then spent five years traveling around the world as a motivational speaker and mindset coach, talking about mental health and changing her life.

Claire Rogers (left) with Sanatra the cat and Melody, the woman who adopted him. Sonny Von Cleveland

Rogers and Von Cleveland, however, went through a lot of stress to finally get Frisky Business open. Not only was it a challenge to find a space that would allow cats; they had to deal with an enormous amount of red tape thanks to the city of Palm Springs.

“I kept hitting brick walls for 16 months, but finally found the perfect place,” Rogers says. “… It’s all about community and helping our

feline friends.”

Her goal is to get 1,000 cats adopted in the cafe’s first year.

Frisky Business Palm Springs Cat Café is located at 4781 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite F, in Palm Springs. Advance reservations are recommended. For hours, prices and more information, visit www.friskybusinesscatcafe.com.

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MAKE A FELINE FRIEND

CIVIC SOLUTIONS

by Melissa daniels

Black women expecting babies in Riverside County will be eligible for a new financialsupport program that’s part of a growing movement meant to address maternal health disparities.

Launched in June 2021 by the city of San Francisco and the nonprofit Expecting Justice, the Abundant Birth Project provided $1,000 a month to Black and Pacific Islander women during their pregnancy and for the first six months of their babies’ lives. The program was the first of its kind, with a goal of alleviating financial pressures facing women of color that could lead to poor health outcomes.

Come 2023, the program is getting bolstered with a $5 million grant from the state’s Department of Social Services. It will expand from 150 participants to 425 who live in Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, as well as San Francisco. Here, the Riverside Community Health Foundation will serve as the local partner to help Expecting Justice administer the program.

It’s a novel experiment that zeroes in on the connection between financial stability, systematic racism and maternal health.

“Ample evidence points to socioeconomic status as a fundamental determinant of poor health, and it is one key contributor to Black-white disparities in birth outcomes,” Dr. Zea Malawa, director of Expecting Justice, told the Independent. “Yet there is a paucity of interventions that attempt to directly alleviate poverty and financial stress as a

means to improve birth equity.”

Once the program is up and running, interested participants will be able to apply and be entered into a random drawing if they meet eligibility requirements. Selected participants will receive an income supplement of $600 to $1,000 each month via debit cards that automatically reload every month.

Data is not yet available on health outcomes from the first round, as just a third of the enrolled residents have completed it so far. The goal is that the extra resources will alleviate financial stress that mothers-to-be are experiencing so they can prioritize their well-being.

“We know that economic stress may be particularly acute during pregnancy, a period when income is volatile, and families experience changes in housing, employment, and health-care and child-care costs,” Malawa said. “For most of this country’s history, Black

families have been systematically excluded from economic opportunity, resulting in a significant and persistent racial wealth gap. As a result, Black families are more vulnerable to this economic stress during pregnancy.”

That stress can have devastating consequences. For example, Black women are twice as likely than white women to have a preterm birth, which can lead to death or lifelong health problems. And pregnancy-related mortality rates among Black women are more than three times higher than white women, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a news release that she hopes the program will become a “model to address racial birth disparities throughout the region and state, and across the country.”

Unfortunately, attempts like this to help others often result in unfair criticism in the divisive digital public square. In this case, news reports about the program yielded Facebook comments that reeked of white privilege and spewed racist connotations— like people saying it should be offered to anyone regardless of their race, or claiming it’s “discrimination” to not offer it to poor white mothers.

While it’s certainly true that people across many communities need social safety nets and basic health support in this country, criticizing this particular program for offering a targeted intervention fails to acknowledge the underlying inequity it is trying to solve.

Through redlining, school segregation and myriad institutional biases, our country has historically put economic roadblocks in front of people of color that can lead to negative health outcomes for their families. A program like the Abundant Birth Project has the ability to put resources where they can have the most impact.

And at a base level, it is unsettling to see people chide an attempt to help several hundred children get a better head start in life. It’s costing 0.0016% of the state budget. I’m an expectant mama, so maybe I’m sensitive to the topic, but shouldn’t we be rooting for the well-being of families?

It is true, though, that a $5 million program will only help so many households— but based on its findings, the Abundant Birth Project could inspire further changes to social programs that do wind up helping more families.

Malawa acknowledged that one program won’t change the realities of our society overnight. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

“No single solution will reverse the decades of systematic practices by government, financial institutions and employers based in structural racism that created and widened the income inequality experienced today by California’s Black communities,” she said, “Nevertheless, a paradigm shift is required to address longstanding maternal and infant health disparities.”

A new program to support Black mothers is coming to Riverside County

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CV HISTORY

by Greg Niemann

The Wild West had pretty much been tamed by the early part of the 20th century. In the areas around Palm Springs, relationships between the white settlers and the local bands of Native Americans were, at their worst, neutral. But then came the matter of Willie Boy. After he killed a man in 1909, lawmen were able to relive the days of yore as they formed posses to find the fugitive. The dramatic manhunt received press coverage across the country—and convinced some Easterners that the West was still living in savage times.

Willie Boy was a Paiute-Chemehuevi Indian, born in Twentynine Palms. He was raised by two

aunts after his parents drowned in a desert thunderstorm. He fell in love with Mabel, the 16-year-old daughter of Chemehuevi Indian Mike Boniface, and the couple ran away. (Some accounts called her Lolita, Carlota, Isoleta or Neeta, but her death certificate, or “Record of Funeral,” clearly says Mabel.)

Boniface, 60, known as “Old Mike,” brought her back at gunpoint, admonishing Willie Boy that because the young couple had a distant blood relationship, they were forbidden to marry.

Late in the summer of 1909, the Bonifaces went to the Gilman Ranch near Banning to help with the fruit harvest. Willie Boy also went and got employment there. He was apparently a good worker, even though four years before, he had been jailed in San Bernardino for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

Late on Saturday night, Sept. 25, 1909, two boys returned to the Gilman Ranch from San Bernardino with a bottle of whiskey almost three-quarters full. Apparently, sometime during the night, it rolled down to Willie Boy’s bunk; he discovered his bonanza in the morning. On Sunday, Sept. 26, apparently emboldened by the booze, Willie Boy shot Mike Boniface in the eye. He then grabbed Mabel, a rifle and some cartridges, and set out across the desert.

Accounts of the murder vary. One version had Willie Boy killing Old Mike while he slept; another reported a struggle over the rifle. The accusation that Willie Boy committed the murder, however, was never challenged.

Outraged, a posse led by the Riverside County sheriff quickly gave chase. This posse, and those which would follow, contained several Native American guides, including Yaqui John Hyde and Cahuilla tribesmen Henry Pablo, Segundo Chino and Willie Pablo.

Despite the warm trail, Willie Boy and Mabel slipped away from the pursuers. The posse camped near Whitewater, unsure whether Willie Boy went south into Palm Springs, or north toward his home turf at Twentynine Palms. In the morning, the posse discovered fresh tracks that indicated Willie

Boy had circled their camp while they slept.

The posse later followed the tracks through the Morongo Basin into the Mojave Desert, where they found indications that Mabel had been pushed and dragged over the sand. They finally came across her still-warm body in the desert—a gunshot wound in her back.

Willie Boy was now on his own. The first posse ended with them bringing Mabel’s body back.

Mabel’s death ignited the flames of journalists. Trying to outdo each other, they reported rumors and untruths, calling Willie Boy a “red-skin lady killer.” Stories circulated about him being responsible for almost every death and crime that occurred anywhere within hundreds of miles.

Other posses were formed, some led by the San Bernardino County sheriff. “Leadership” appeared to be determined by ego and politics rather than effectiveness.

Willie Boy circled through the desert, at one point slipping past posse members to visit his home in Twentynine Palms. Receiving no help, he went back into the desert, knowing where to find springs and waterholes.

On Oct. 7, on Ruby Mountain (in San Bernardino County), Willie Boy doubled behind his pursuers and laid a trap. As the posse approached, he started shooting. He killed three horses and seriously wounded lawman Charlie Reche.

In the middle of the manhunt, President William Howard Taft was on a cross-country speaking tour, and was at Riverside’s Mission Inn on Oct. 12, 1909. There, reporter E.A. Fowler of the New York Sun picked up on the Willie Boy story, realizing that it made for far better copy than boring speeches—especially when the pursuit stories left an implied threat that the president of the United States could potentially be scalped. Rumors ran rampant, with stories about imminent “Indian uprisings.” Scores of reporters descended upon the scene to feed upon the frenzy. Sensing a scoop, the Los Angeles Record sent a young reporter to join what would be the last posse.

Randolph W. Madison, 22, joined a group

led by Riverside County Sheriff Frank Wilson. They went first to Ruby Mountain, the site of the ambush and Willie Boy’s last known location. Some members of the ambushed party had said they heard a shot as they were leaving. It turned out to be a suicide shot: Wilson and his group found Willie Boy’s decomposing body on Friday, Oct. 15, 1909. He had one shoe off, having used his toes to pull the trigger aimed at his chest.

Willie Boy had put fear into many, eluding more than 75 pursuers in five organized posses. Some Native Americans had fled their villages, especially after some white settlers become incensed by the shooting of Reche. Indians fighting other Indians was one thing—but they should never shoot a white man.

While most newspapers reported more fantasy than fact, Madison got his scoop, and his stories were picked up across the country. He even wrote a story told from Willie Boy’s perspective. Madison presumed that the posse’s relentless pursuit made Mabel’s death inevitable; he speculated that Willie Boy shot Mabel rather than leave her to the enemy. Madison’s story ran in the Eastern press but was not printed anywhere in Southern California. Many Westerners vilified and ostracized the reporter for his story from the

murderer’s point of view.

For various reasons, the legend of Willie Boy grew. Years later, a plaque was placed on the site of the suicide, saying in eulogy, “Willie Boy, 1881-1909, The West’s Last Famous Manhunt.” A 1969 Hollywood movie, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, featuring Robert Redford and Robert Blake, immortalized the murder and pursuit.

Some Native Americans created their own fantasized versions of the Willie Boy story, told and retold in different versions. At the Morongo Reservation’s Malki Museum, I was told that many Cahuilla do not believe the “official” version of his death, instead believing that Willie Boy lived long after the manhunt and died an old man.

To a public thirsty for stories from the old Wild West, Willie Boy became a symbol: He was the last wild Indian.

Sources for this article include Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt by Harry Lawton (Malki Museum Press, 1960); The Hunt for Willie Boy by James Sandos and Larry E. Burgess (University of Oklahoma Press, 1994); The Chemehuevi Indians of Southern California by Ronald Dean Miller and Peggy Jeanne Miller (Malki Museum Press, 1967).

In 1909, a manhunt for a local Native American murderer captivated the nation

Willie Boy. Photo courtesy of the Malki Museum

JANUARY ASTRONOMY

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight

For January, 2023 This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

By Robert Victor

Evenings in January 2023 feature a spectacular array of four bright planets in a long line across the sky at dusk, shrinking from 130° on Jan. 1 to 104° on Jan. 22.

In the first three weeks, in order from very low in the west-southwest to well up in the east, they are Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. In a pretty conjunction of planets on Jan. 22—from sites with no mountains nearby blocking the view toward the west-southwest—Venus passes within 0.4° to the south (left) of Saturn. It will be fun to keep an eye on the pairing for several evenings before and after, to watch for daily changes. Nine days before and after the pairing, on Jan. 13 and 31, Venus-Saturn are 10° apart! After Jan. 22, the changed order of planets will be Saturn-VenusJupiter-Mars. Saturn will drop from view, sinking into bright twilight by early in February.

January’s evening twilights also feature an unusually large number of bright stars—11 of the 16 stars of first magnitude or brighter ever visible from our home latitude. The 11 stars are all shown on our evening twilight map for January. Castor, of magnitude +1.6, should not be counted in the total, but it’s plotted anyway, to help identify its brighter “twin,” Pollux, 4.5° away. In mid-January at dusk, we see the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair in the northwest to west; Fomalhaut, mouth of the Southern Fish, low in the southwest, to the left of Saturn and below Jupiter; Aldebaran, eye of Taurus, near Mars in the east; and Orion’s red Betelgeuse, with blue-white Rigel below (with his three-star belt between them). Capella, the “mother goat” star, is in the northeast to east-northwest, to the upper left of Orion; and the “Twin” stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, are below Capella and to the left of Orion. Finally, watch for the rising of Procyon, just north of due east, and the brightest star Sirius, in the east-southeast, in line with Orion’s belt extended downward. Sirius and Procyon are the “dog stars” of Canis Major and Canis Minor. These dog stars complete the nearly equilateral Winter Triangle with Orion’s shoulder, Betelgeuse, and they chase Orion across the sky. If mountains don’t block your view, you can catch Sirius rising before Altair sets just north of west, and you’ve got your 11 bright stars—six of them in the Summer and Winter Triangles, simultaneously. The waxing moon adds its beauty and presence to the planetary lineup at dusk through Jan. 6, and again Jan. 22-Feb. 5. Catch the moon near Mars and Aldebaran, eye of Taurus, on Jan. 2 and 3; and the full moon near Pollux and Castor, the “Twin” stars of Gemini, on Jan. 6.

Starting another two-week journey through the sky at dusk on Jan. 22, the very thin young crescent moon appears 7° below the VenusSaturn pairing; on the next evening, Jan. 23, the moon is 9° to the upper left of Venus. For the next week, until dusk on Jan. 30, the moon and four bright planets span 104° as our

satellite shifts more than 13° daily against the background stars of the zodiac. On Jan. 25, the moon is 2-3° to the lower left of Jupiter.

On Jan. 30 at dusk, the moon will dance with Mars. Skywatchers in the Coachella Valley will see the leading dark edge of the moon cover Mars at 8:38 p.m., an event best seen with good binoculars—or, better yet, a telescope. Start watching at least a few minutes early to allow yourself enough time to spot Mars in the glare of the 75 percent moon. The dimming, and subsequent brightening, when Mars reappears at the moon’s bright edge at 9:34 p.m. each take nearly a minute.

At dusk on Jan. 31, the moon will have moved 11° east of Mars.

Telescopic views: Only three months out from its passage on the far side of the sun, Venus still appears small and full. In January, Saturn is best seen early in the month, before it sinks low. On Jan. 22, Venus and the ringed planet will appear within 0.4°, easily fitting into the same low- or medium-power telescopic field. End-toend, the rings, tipped less than 13° from edgeon, appear nearly as wide as Jupiter, currently the most impressive planet for viewing. Mars is currently the closest planet to Earth, but because of its small actual size, its disk appears only about one-third of the size as Jupiter’s. It is now early spring in Mars’ northern hemisphere, and a 6-inch telescope at 150-power reveals a bright polar cap of frozen carbon dioxide.

In the morning sky in mid-January, find the “twin stars” Pollux and Castor sinking in the west-northwest; Regulus in the west, to upper left of the twins; golden Arcturus and blue-white Spica well up in the southern sky; Antares, heart of the Scorpion, in the southeast; and the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair in the northeast to east. Notice that in mid-January, you can observe the Summer Triangle both at dawn, in the eastern sky, and at dusk, in the western sky. Its stars are far north of the Earth’s orbit plane. Its stars are above the horizon all day and for longer

than the sun, making their appearance possible at both times. In mid-January, the Summer Triangle, visible at dusk, sets early, and rises in time to bring up the rear of the overnight parade of stars. Of all the other bright stars, only Capella in early June, and Arcturus in late October, are far enough north of the Earth’s orbit plane to have two separate appearances on the same night.

After passing inferior conjunction on Jan. 7, Mercury is faint for several mornings and overwhelmed by the dawn glow, but it flares up to magnitude +1.1 by Jan. 15, to 0.0 by Jan. 22, and brightens slowly thereafter. Mercury is highest in the east-southeast to southeast morning twilight on Jan. 24 and 25, and reaches greatest elongation, 25° from sun, on Jan. 30. Follow the waning moon mornings from Jan. 7 to Jan. 19 or 20. Catch the full moon near Pollux on Jan. 7; a gibbous moon near Regulus

on Jan. 10; close to last quarter phase (half-full) near Spica on Jan. 14 and 15; as a crescent near Antares on Jan. 18; 13° to the right of Mercury on Jan. 19; and, very thin and challenging in bright twilight, 9° below Mercury, on Jan. 20.

Robert Victor will present a preview of planetary visibility and sky events for 2023 on Friday, Jan. 6. It will be held at the Portola Community Center, 45480 Portola Ave., in Palm Desert. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for refreshments, and the talk begins at 7 p.m. The Astronomical Society of the Desert will host a star party on Saturday, Jan. 14, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center, and another on Saturday, Jan. 21, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For dates and times of these and other star parties in 2023, and maps and directions to the two sites, visit astrorx.org.

Evening skies feature an atypically large number of bright stars

Drive about 50 miles past Indio

on eastbound Interstate 10, and you’ll arrive at Desert Center, located in the Chuckwalla Valley.

It’s pretty desolate out here, but the area is home to the Lake Tamarisk Desert Resort, where several hundred residents live. They’re mostly older—Lake Tamarisk is designated as a 55-plus community—although some 60 school-age children live here, too. The residents share a deep appreciation and respect for the natural geographic beauty, the diverse wildlife and the peaceful nature of their self-described “oasis in a living desert.”

They are a hardy bunch, used to relying on each other and their own resources to manage their environment and the resort’s frequent infrastructure challenges. But in the last few months, this group has forged an even stronger bond as they find themselves confronted on all sides by utility-scale solar

installations—which are threatening to harm or even destroy their oasis.

According to a September 2021 report from the U.S. Forestry Department and the Bureau of Land Management, 14 such solar installations have been approved to be built in what is known as the Riverside East Solar Energy Zone (RESEZ). Within sight of Lake Tamarisk alone, at least five have either been completed or are under construction; all are at least partially operational. Several others are slated for construction, entering the BLM planning phase required before the building begins.

installation, owned by Intersect Power (a company that owns other solar installations in the area), had submitted a right-ofway application to the BLM. The BLM was initiating a “scoping process” to solicit public input about the proposed project.

The group of residents discovered, to their dismay, that some of the solar-panel arrays would come within 750 feet of their homes, which have been there for decades.

Department (which must approve the construction plans as well).

The issues unearthed by the Lake Tamarisk residents include increased levels of dust containing silica particles and other substances dangerous to human health; a dwindling water supply due to increased solar-company usage of the Chuckwalla Valley groundwater basin aquifer; and the potential for increased local temperatures due to the vast number of solar panels being installed.

The recent mobilization of this group of concerned residents was triggered when one resident, Matt Green, shared a letter of notification that he received from the BLM. Dated Oct. 7, the letter informed him, as a property owner in the Lake Tamarisk Desert Resort, that the Easley utility-scale solar

Maryel Green and members of her extended family are long-term residents of Lake Tamarisk. She wrote to the BLM, saying in part: “You are totally wrong if you think this problem only concerns properties adjacent to these sites. Solar fields are totally surrounding Lake Tamarisk and all the populated areas in Desert Center. It concerns every one; the ecology of the whole area is being destroyed. Tractors tear out every plant and tree, leveling every wash and natural watershed. The encroachment of the solar fields has made the environment unsafe and totally unhealthy.”

Lake Tamarisk residents discovered, to their dismay, that some of the solarpanel arrays would come within 750 feet of their homes, which have been there for decades. At

Others in the group began to research potential issues specific to their community. (For more information about the negative environmental impacts related to utilityscale solar projects in our California deserts, see the Independent’s May 2022 cover story, “Not-So-Green Energy.”) What they found has convinced them that some, if not all, of these RESEZ projects should be stopped, repositioned or decreased in their size by the BLM or the Riverside County Planning

Residents are also worried about a heightened potential for wildfires due to the miles of new high-voltage transmission lines built along Kaiser Road, which borders the community; termite infestations caused by the continuing disturbance of the desert landscape around them; and health threats related to electromagnetic fields created by the omnipresent solar panels.

Vicki Bucklin lives on the eastern edge of the Lake Tamarisk community. When she stands on her porch and looks to the east toward Arizona, she sees thousands of solar panels stretching into the distance. Not only is she sad that the beautiful desert vistas she’s enjoyed for decades are disappearing rapidly; an increase in dust exposure is a major concern for her and her mother, who lives with her.

A BLM study from May 2016, titled “Riverside East Solar Energy Zone Longterm Monitoring Strategy Final Report,” states: “PM (particulate matter) sources, associated

the entrance to the Oberon solar projects 1 and 2, the sign advises, "IF YOU SEE DUST COMING FROM THIS PROJECTS CALL" (sic) as a passing truck leaves a trail of dust behind it. Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

with solar facility development, include soil disturbances, unpaved road traffic in and around the SEZ, and wind-blown dust during both construction and operational phases.”

Later in the study, the BLM states: “PM can cause health effects and environmental effects, which include visibility impairments, environmental damage, and aesthetic damage (EPA 2015a). Health effects include premature death in people with heart or lung disease, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, and increased respiratory symptoms, such as coughing or difficulty breathing. The groups most susceptible to health effects from PM are the elderly, people with heart and/or lung disease, and children/infants.”

Bucklin said the amounts of blowing dust have already increased significantly.

“The issue about the silica dust is a serious problem that was caused by the solar projects that have already been installed by Oberon and the others, because they’ve defoliated the desert,” Bucklin said. “So when they drive by, the dust comes up. They do water it, but they don’t water it all the time. Now that they’ve taken out the vegetation, there’s nothing left to prevent the dust, and we’re seeing much more dust than we used to see.”

Bucklin and her neighbors are worried about their water supply, too.

A joint BLM and U.S. Forestry Department report from 2021, titled “Renewable Energy Impacts on Ground Water in a Desert Basin,” focused solely on the status of the Chuckwalla Valley aquifer. The report said that 10,257 acre-feet of water were being recharged into the aquifer each year, while the current outflow was calculated at 11,329 acre-feet. In

other words, more water is going out already than is going in.

The report continued: “Proposed solar projects in the basin … would extract approximately 12,780 (acre-feet per year) more if construction was concurrent, with total outflow more than double the basin inflow.”

Residents are also worried about the aging state of their community’s water-pumping infrastructure. Some fear that further damage could result from the strain caused by the solar companies’ use of the homeowners’ pumping facilities.

Teresa Pierce, a parttime resident for decades who is now living with her husband, Skip, in their desert home full-time, has become one of the most vocal and active resisters of the solar invasion.

“The biggest issue that we’re facing is the Chuckwalla Valley water aquifer is in overdraft right now, and (the solar developments) are literally pumping millions of gallons of water out of our aquifer, which has no way to replenish itself,” she said. “… We don’t have any rivers or streams. We do have the Pinto basin run-off underground, and one other (potential source), but with the

drought situation, they’re not contributing.”

Another concern among Lake Tamarisk residents comes up in comments written to Riverside County: heat.

Under the heading “Local Climate Effects,” they wrote, “A Physics World article noted how an increase in temperature occurs from the solar (installations). This could be from one to seven degrees Fahrenheit. This has a great impact on not only the people in the community but also the animals and flora and fauna. Higher living expenses will occur with the increased temperature (due to the need for more use of) air conditioning, and for dust abatement.”

Then there’s the issue with the solar companies’ need to install additional large towers along Kaiser Road, the main artery leading to Lake Tamarisk from Interstate 10, to support more highvoltage power-transmission lines connecting the solar projects with the Southern California Edison Red Bluff substation. Already, according to Pierce, high winds have at times caused the existing power lines to sway and touch, causing electric sparking.

Bucklin also said these lines are a potential danger.

“They put new powerlines in all along Kaiser Road. If we have an electrical line break that causes sparks, our water system is not capable of fighting a wind-driven wildfire in

this (residential) park,” Bucklin said. “Our fire station here has notified us of that. There’s no above-ground water reservoir, so we have to pump everything—and if there’s a powercaused fire, then the power will be shut off, and we will have no way to pump water.”

Some of these impacts could be mitigated if there were adequate funds available for the community to invest in renovating the infrastructure, which residents admit has fallen into a state of disrepair.

But for some time now, the Lake Tamarisk residents have had to rely on funding from Riverside County and the solar companies themselves to put toward infrastructure repairs or upgrades.

An article from The Desert Sun on May 2, 2014, stated that in 2011, the county began collecting fees from each of the solar companies operating the various projects in the Desert Center area. In just three years, the article said, more than $2.4 million had already been paid into the account by just one solar company—First Solar, which owns and operates the Desert Sunlight solar project 6 miles north of Desert Center.

The Independent reached out to Riverside County District 4 Supervisor V. Manuel Perez to inquire about the fees.

“Many counties in California that support solarenergy production are concerned that communities most impacted by utilityscale solar energy facilities may not directly benefit from these facilities,” Perez said. “To address this concern, some counties require and/or encourage community-benefit programs for utilityscale solar energy facilities. Funds collected under these programs are oft referred to as B-29 funds.

“There’s about $1 million already which has been re-invested back into that community,” Perez said about Lake Tamarisk. “For example, (they’ve had) the golf course, or the clubhouse, the irrigation system, the water system, and other repairs done in that region. So is that enough? Does that balance things out? I’m not exactly sure. It was pretty bold and creative for the county of Riverside to try to tackle this issue, and we drew a lot of continued on next page

“ If we have an electrical line break that causes sparks, our water system is not capable of fighting a winddriven wildfire in this (residential) park. Our fire station here has notified us of that. ”

—Lake Tamarisk resident Vicki Bucklin

Mark Carrington, Teresa Pierce, Skip Pierce and Lily the dog pose behind their home. The land behind them is slated to become a field of solar panels coming within 750 feet of their property. Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

Along Kaiser Road in Chuckwalla Valley, high-voltage transmission lines run north to south and present a wildfire threat from sparking potential during wind storms. Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

criticism back then.”

Supervisor Perez was not able to immediately confirm the current B-29 fee structure agreed to by the solar companies operating in Riverside County, nor could he say what funds were currently in the account. He did acknowledge that more should be done to stabilize and improve the quality of life for the residents in Lake Tamarisk and Desert Center.

“The (United States Department of Interior) goal is to be 100% carbonfree by 2035,” Perez said. “People want to reduce greenhousegas emissions. People want to restrict natural gas. So obviously, there needs to be some balance between conservation and how we use public lands. When we talk about the Department of the Interior, for example, they’re pretty proud of trying to reach those goals by building this type of large-scale solar project producing hundreds of megawatts. Now, as you’re hearing, they’re beginning to encroach on local communities like Desert Center or like Lake Tamarisk … so something’s got to give. We’ve got to find some balance to this. … I look forward to that scoping meeting and

participating, engaging with the feds and seeing what it is that they actually want to do to mitigate (the negative impacts) to ensure that we start taking care of people, and not necessarily just focus on the end goal.”

The Independent reached out to Elizabeth Knowles, director of community engagement for Intersect Power—the company that owns the Easley solar project that would come so close to the Lake Tamarisk homes—and asked if IP considered the concerns voiced by Lake Tamarisk residents to be justified.

—Lake Tamarisk resident Maryel Green,

BLM

“Since being made aware of their concerns, we have been in close contact with the Lake Tamarisk community and the surrounding neighbors to understand and address any questions and concerns they have,” Knowles said. “We will continue to work with them throughout the planning, construction and operations of the project.”

That offer of support may not be enough for many of Lake Tamarisk’s concerned residents. Cynthia Walker just put her home up for sale in response to the potential dangers and daily worries tied to the solar projects.

“It’s as if we don’t exist,” she said.

“ The ecology of the whole area is being destroyed. Tractors tear out every plant and tree, leveling every wash and natural watershed. The encroachment of the solar fields has made the environment unsafe and totally unhealthy. ”

in a letter to the

Green Acres Mobile Park is separated from adjacent solar fields by only a narrow dirt road and electrified fencing. Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

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Rancho Mirage ~ Palm Springs ~ La Quinta

ARTS & CULTURE

RETURN OF MOVIE MAGIC

By MATT KING

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is a Coachella Valley institution—yet due to that reason we’re all so sick of talking about, the festival has not included an in-person event since 2020.

Barring anything unforeseen, that will finally change in 2023. On Thursday, Jan. 5, the PSIFF will return with the star-studded Film Awards, followed by the first day of screenings on Friday, Jan. 6. Films will run until Sunday, Jan. 15, at various venues.

When I chatted last year with the festival’s artistic director, Lili Rodriguez, she talked about what was supposed to be a 2022 comeback. Then came the omicron variant-fueled COVID-19

spike, which led the festival to cancel in-person events out of an abundance of caution. This year, however, things are looking a lot more concrete.

“Last year, even as we were preparing, and as we were setting things in place, there was always that big question mark, because everything was still so new,” Rodriguez said during a recent Zoom chat. “We’ve had enough time to learn how to live with this; we’ve had enough time for people to get accustomed to wearing masks if they’re not comfortable. There are fewer unknowns this year. We were very prepared last year; it’s just the type of COVID that was spreading in late November and December (of 2021) was a lot more infectious.”

While the in-person events were cancelled, Rodriguez and her team are still proud of 2022’s festival.

“We feel like we had a sort-of festival,” Rodriguez said. “We had a lineup; we had a competition. Yes, we weren’t able to share the films with audiences, but we felt really good about the work that we did do, even if, sadly, we couldn’t put on the show. Our staff really dedicated months and months, and some of our staff dedicated almost a year.”

For the 2023 edition of Palm Springs International Film Festival, 134 films from 64 countries will be screened across the valley. While that sounds like a lot of movies, Rodriguez made it clear that their process consists of “quality, not quantity.”

“We want to make sure that we’re choosing the best films for this audience, and films that we’re proud to show,” Rodriguez said. “It’s never been a case of wanting to do more, wanting to be bigger; it’s more of finding the right things for the audience.

“There isn’t a big difference (this year) when it comes to the categories that we have. Last year, we did have some special sidebars with music and film-related things; this year, we’re back to just our regular sections, which are really solid sections. We have Modern Masters, which is for established directors who are still

making films, and we have New Voices New Visions for filmmakers who are early in their careers. We have Awards Buzz, which is the section for films that have (been) submitted to the Oscars for the international category.”

Rodriguez said the 2023 festival may be the most thematically diverse so far.

“There are no two movies that are similar to each other, and there really is so much in the lineup across genres,” Rodriguez said. “We have comedy and drama, like always; we have a ton of documentaries; we have sci fi; we have horror; we have a little bit of everything. It feels like a very robust and full lineup this year, even if we’re ‘only’ at about 134 movies.”

Some COVID-19 protocols remain in place this year, such as limited-capacity screenings and a spaced-out schedule.

“Of course, part of living in a COVID world means we’re thinking about how can we make it safer and more comfortable for people to come back into the theaters,” Rodriguez said. “We know that people might not be ready to run around and watch four or five movies a day, so we’re having three movies a day that you could comfortably watch. We’re at 75% capacity in the venues, so there’s plenty of room to spread around, and you won’t feel overcrowded by people. We’ve also scheduled the films so there’s a little more wiggle room in between the screen so that people can go grab snacks, etc. It makes it a lot more casual.”

The selection process for the popular festival can be taxing, so I was curious if Rodriguez is still able to enjoy a movie in her free time.

“I don’t think I ever get sick of movies, though it is a very physical activity,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of people think it’s all fun, and we’re watching a lot of movies, and it is, but it can be a very physical thing to do, both psychologically and emotionally. I’m not knocking it; it’s the best job I’ve ever had. There’s always that one movie that reminds you why you do the thing—that really special film that just makes it all make sense.”

One of those special films to Rodriguez will

be featured at the opening-night screening, 80 for Brady. The film stars Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin, who are all scheduled to attend the opening ceremony.

“Our opening-night film was probably the last film I saw, and the last film we invited,” Rodriguez said. “I couldn’t stop cracking up; I had so much fun. It’s brimming with joy and has a lot of heart, and it’s got a Mount Rushmore of actresses.”

One of the festival’s best aspects is the number of actors and directors who come to discuss their films. This year will also feature the documentary Shot in the Arm with director Scott Hamilton Kennedy and subject Neil deGrasse Tyson scheduled to attend; Alice, Darling with Anna Kendrick set to be here; Linoleum, with director Colin West and actors Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn set to attend; and many others.

“We wish we could have a filmmaker for every single film, because that is what makes film festivals so important and special,” Rodriguez said. “It’s the dialogue that comes out of watching these movies together. It not only answers some questions people might have about the film, but it might present you with a different way of looking at the film you just saw that you weren’t thinking of. It’s the most important part about doing film festivals for me, personally, and I think it’s what our audiences really enjoy as well.”

Local films are on display, as always, at this year’s fest.

“Last year, we had a lot of local films,

and this year, we have two local spotlights,” Rodriguez said. “We have Don’t Worry Darling, which, of course, was filmed in Palm Springs, and some of our audience might be familiar with it. How can we not spotlight it? It’s such a Palm Springs film. Then we have another great film called Racist Trees, a documentary that chronicles the trees on Tamarisk that came down in 2018. There’s a whole debate about what those trees signified, so it chronicles that whole issue. The filmmakers are coming down, and I know that we are going to have a large Palm Springs presence as well.”

Festival organizers are making a special effort to get students involved this year.

“We have started a student pass for college-age students. They can get basically a benefactor pass, which is about $500, for $100,” Rodriguez said. “It’s for as many films as you want to watch. I wish I could have had that opportunity when I was still in school. We also … have identified a number of films that will be free to high school students if they show up with their ID. They’re on the weekend, Friday night, or Saturday and Sunday, and we’re welcoming all high school-age students to come down and watch some films. They’re in the regular lineup, and they’re appropriate for students to watch, so they’re watching what a festival film looks like.”

The Palm Springs Film Festival takes place from Friday, Jan. 6, through Sunday, Jan. 15. For tickets, complete schedules and more information, visit psfilmfest.org.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is back with a full slate of screenings, stars and safety

80 for Brady will be the opening-night screening on Friday, Jan. 6.

ON COCKTAILS

BY kevin carlow

What we think of as cocktails today are not very old compared to the history of humanity. Do you think the martini is old? The martini would be on TikTok doing a viral dance when compared to the toddy. The margarita and mai tai would be playing with Paw Patrol toys compared to grog.

We’re not sure when the first person got drunk. The fact that animals often get drunk on spoiled fruit should offer us a pretty good idea of how ancient the act of getting drunk is.

Fruit is that most devious of foods: It wants you to eat it, if you’re the right animal. Meanwhile,

yeast decided to evolve to co-exist with the fruit trees. Of all of the things yeast could have specialized in, it was creating ethanol from the fallen (forbidden) fruit. The rest is, well, Genesis: “The dude blamed the chick; I heard the chick blamed the snake; and I heard they were naked when they got busted.”

In other words: We’ve gotten drunk under trees and talked to snakes for eons.

The earliest evidence we have of the consumption of alcohol in an intentional form comes from China about 8,000 years ago—a mix of honey, fruit and rice, among other things. This isn’t to say that the proto-Chinese invented drinking; there was just a large amount of well-preserved evidence there.

If they did invent drinking what we’d now call prison hooch or pruno, they sent the idea back pretty quickly to the Middle East and Caucasia by Neolithic standards. There is evidence of wine production just a handful of centuries later in places like modern Georgia (the country) and Iran. Georgia still has the claim on making the first wine. The Mesoamericans also got in on the action early in the game, with chicha. Like Americans to this day, they fermented corn to make alcohol. Like a few Americans today, they drank it in the morning and most of the work day. They also rubbed it on human sacrifices—they weren’t messing around in those days.

From there, we jump back to the Middle East for barley beer, and to those crazy young whipper-snappers in Ancient Egypt for herbal wine that was mostly used as medicine … apparently. The Bronze Age, however, seems to be where the party really got started. The Sumerians created the first beer that we might recognize, giving credit to their god of beer, Ninkasi. Some Mesoamericans decided that cacao was better than corn wine, and gave that a shot. Others started drinking pulque, the now-again fashionable drink of Mexico. Pulque was (and is) made from fermented agave and dates back more than 2,000 years.

You didn’t think I would leave out the Romans, did you? Contrary to popular opinion, most Romans weren’t drinking alcohol all the time. Most of them could only drink posca on

a regular basis, which was vinegar diluted with water. This still exists today as switchel, and it was a common “Gatorade” of the colonial world. Romans consumed a lot of wine as well, but they consumed it rather sensibly, with water mixed in. All of that stuff about them throwing up in “vomitoriums”? That was just a misinterpretation of the Latin word for exit.

As in some fancier places in America, beer was considered barbaric. Drinking wine unmixed might have become fashionable elsewhere thanks to the Macedonians, led by some guy named Alexander somethingsomething.

Lest you think I am leaving Africa out: There is a strong tradition of fermented beverages there going way back, generally made from

things like palm and sorghum. The sad history of colonialism and slavery, and the spread of Islam, make the waters a little muddy, as alcoholic beverages would go in and out of fashion with the regimes. Surely there is a tradition of even more ancient drinking, going back to the dawn of humanity, that has been lost to time. Southeast Asia and Indonesia were in on the game—the latter making a distilled red-rice wine called batavia arrack that would often be featured in punches, after Indonesians gained distilling technology from Muslim traders.

If there was anything good that came from colonialism, one could argue that it was the cocktail. Before the Western powers set out to claim the world in the name of the crown, drinking was a mostly local affair. Sure, wine-trading went back thousands of years, but unless you had some serious clout, you ended up with the dregs and the vinegar. The industrialization of spirits meant that even the poorest of people suddenly had access to really bad decisions, and the wealthiest had more options.

Brandy, before rum, became the darling of empires. It became popular when people

started distilling wine to make it easier to ship; the thought was that people could add in water when it arrived. The fact that it tasted nothing like wine when it got there wasn’t really a problem—and it also picked up all of those nice barrel-aging attributes. While rum would eventually take the place of brandy (and salt for the Romans) as cheap pay for the locals, it wasn’t long before we got drinks like the original julep, the milk punch and others that only the most esoteric hipster bartenders make these days.

From here, mankind invented things like grog (rum and water, with sugar added for seafaring officers) and punch (weak tea and strong spirits, sugar, spices and water). Finally, with the invention of refrigeration technology came the widespread availability of ice, and this young and plucky nation decided that ice is better than water. Oh, and that they also liked to avoid taxes by turning grains into hooch.

You know the rest of the story …

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

Humans have been consuming intoxicating drinks for almost as long as there have been humans

VINE SOCIAL

By Katie finn

I started reflecting back on 2022—the year that just came and went in a flash—and I realized that the community of wine-lovers in this dynamic little valley is really quite

Many years ago, before I had a retail shop, I sold wine to retail shops and restaurants around the Coachella Valley. I represented a really cool selection of wines from small producers, both here in California and from across the globe. I would get my sample box of wines to present to

from Argentina, or a Spanish albariño. I was names of the producers. They need the wine list to be comfortable, approachable and not

both) to travel the world. Visitors here come to bask in our sunshine and clear blue skies, from all over the world. The notion that the wines we offer have to be dumbed down for “these people” is more than a little bit insulting.

Over time, I was able to get wines like South African chenin blancs, Austrian gruner veltliners, and Chilean carménères featured in local shops and on wine lists. I would hold retail tastings and restaurant staff-education seminars as incentives for business owners to take the leap and have faith that the customers were savvier and more sophisticated than they believed.

gnon—from Bodegas Garzon in Uruguay. We fulfilled special orders for customers looking for schiava from Alto Adige in northern Italy; La Petite Ferme Rouge, a blend from Morocco; Terra Nostra Corsican rose; and a savatiano called Mylonas from Greece. Like, whoa!

about the wineries’ families and the regions’ histories.

While I made some progress with a few restaurants here and there, I usually walked away without a sale. That’s not to say that the buyers didn’t love the wines—they did. But that love was always followed by something to the effect of: “ … but we would never be able to sell it.”

I was told over and over again that “these people”—their customers—just want the basics … you know, chardonnay, cabernet, pinot noir. Back then, a wine list was considered avant-garde if it included a malbec

to sell themselves, because anything more than that would take work. Convincing a buyer to adopt a more-diverse selection was almost impossible. Not only was this smallmindedness frustrating from a professional standpoint; it also made finding a restaurant I actually wanted to patronize very difficult. Let’s just say I paid a lot of corkage fees. This idea that the residents of the Coachella Valley have braces on their brains and couldn’t possibly understand anything beyond pinot grigio seemed ridiculous to me. Our population is a mix of transplants, retirees, snowbirds and vacationers—including a lot of people who have either the time or the money (often

And savvy, you are! I was looking over my inventory list of the most popular wines of 2022, and my jaw dropped. We blew through dozens of cases of a Slovenian white wine called Pullus Halozan—a one-liter, screw-cap bottle of white with a mix of almost unheardof grapes. One of our top-selling red wines is a blend called Silk & Spice from Portugal, followed closely by a marselan—a grape created by crossing grenache and cabernet sauvi-

So, after years of me trying to convince wine-buyers to get out of their own way and ditch those tired, over-exposed wines in favor of the new and unknown, it turns out I didn’t need to do anything. It’s you guys—you adventurous and fearless wine explorers—who have blown the global wine doors open in this town. It’s you wonderful wine-lovers who bring your knowledge and discoveries to us.

Keep up the good work, my desert-drinkers, and don’t settle for a wine selection with training wheels. You’ve proven you deserve better.

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.

Coachella Valley winedrinkers are showing just how sophisticated they’ve become

CAESAR CERVISIA

JASON DAVID HAIR STUDIO

By brett newton

HAIR

he Props and Hops Craft Beer Festival has been put on by the Palm Springs Air Museum for a decade. The idea behind it was simple and interesting: Organizers invite breweries entertainment, and have a great event—all as vintage aircraft take off and land, with the airport

Brent Schmidman. Schmidman would be joined by the late Erin Peters (aka The Beer Goddess, a

at the time) even got a booth there to educate people on homebrewing and serve some of

airplanes. It was, as claimed on its website, “the premier craft beer event in the valley.” The local homebrew club (which I was a member of

If the story ended here, I would be a happy man. However, this is a column about beer. After missing some of the intervening years, I attended this year’s Props and Hops in my

This year’s Props and Hops Craft Beer Fest was great … except for the beer part

capacity as a certified cicerone at Babe’s BBQ and Brewhouse.

On the website for the 2022 event, much was promised. Some 20 breweries were listed by name, with the words “many, many more” underneath.

The logistics of the festival were wellhandled. Everyone knew where to set up; there was plenty of ice; all the staff members were helpful. However, only about half of the breweries mentioned on the webpage were actually present. Among the most notable absences were more than half of the breweries here in the Coachella Valley. I don’t exactly know the logistics of the festival, and what is required from each brewery to attend, but it seemed odd to not have four of the seven local breweries there. My biggest personal disappointment was seeing neither Firestone Walker nor their Barrelworks offshoot (which makes excellent sour ales) there as promised.

When the doors opened for the VIP hour from noon to 1 p.m., there were just 11 breweries in attendance, along with the booth for the Inland Empire Brewers (a homebrew club just outside the desert). It’s fair to say that if I’d paid for a ticket—never mind a VIP ticket—I would have been a sad panda.

Once the VIP hour had passed, and the general-admission ticket holders started pouring in, a few extra canopies and tables popped up—each of which was eventually occupied by one half-barrel keg. One was Blue Moon (which already had a table); another was a Pizza Port Brewing keg of Chronic Ale (a fine beer); and the third was a keg of a Stone Brewing beer I didn’t bother checking. They seemed like somewhat random kegs placed there as a sort-of apology for the lack of breweries in attendance.

Am I being a beer snob? Certainly. I

understand that the festival’s beers are not the only attraction here. Also, let me be clear that I have nothing negative to say about the Palm Springs Air Museum itself. It’s a great place, and I love seeing the old planes flying above me when I’m hiking around the valley. This is my assessment of the beer side of the beer festival—and on that side, the fest overpromised and underdelivered.

There were some good things about the beer side. For starters, 8 Bit Brewing out of Murietta brought four great beers; I liked the German-style pilsner best. Coronado Brewing brought only one keg, but it was a solid IPA. I tried a nice, dry Irish red ale at the IE Brewers’ booth. The newest Double Down DIPA from Babe’s debuted at the festival and was excellent (yeah, I am biased, as I helped plan it, but it features a hop without an official name that I adore, HBC 586). The new kid on the local block, Luchador Brewing, brought a brown ale with coconut and macadamia nuts that I enjoyed.

Again, none of these criticisms have any bearing on the Air Museum—and I’d love nothing more than for Props and Hops to succeed. My friend and former co-worker Justin Moeller returned to conduct the rare beer flights on the vintage planes; the music was great; the food I had from my friends at Big Easy Sandwich was great. Most importantly, the people who showed up seemed to have a good time.

But Props and Hops is a craft beer festival where beer is not focus—and you won’t see me spending money to attend until that changes.

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.

FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT

We have lunch in Palm Desert, and then a Thai dinner in Cathedral City

By Jimmy Boegle

WHAT The lunch special

WHERE D’Coffee Bouteaque, 73131 Country Club Drive, Palm Desert

HOW MUCH $16

CONTACT 760-636-1702; www.instagram. com/d_coffee_bouteaque_

WHY Tasty food in a charming space.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I walked into D’Coffee Bouteaque. All I knew was that it was a café/coffee shop, and that it’s been getting rave reviews over the year-plus it’s been open.

However, I can confirm that I did NOT expect what I discovered—one of the most charming and unique restaurants in the valley.

At D’Coffee Bouteaque, décor and vibe is just as important as the food and coffee.

The tables and chairs vary, including a cushioned seating area under a dome … with a monkey on top. You’ll find flowers, trees, shelves with old books and knickknacks, and more. There’s also a nice patio for people who wish to sit outdoors.

The coffee and food are not served in boring old dishes. Heavens, no: It will all arrive at your table on China and other colorful, gorgeous tableware.

But D’Coffee Bouteaque is not just about the décor: The drinks and food are fantastic. I ordered one of the specialty lattes, a Salted Caramel Dreams ($6.50), “made with a rich caramel sauce and a pinch or two of sea salt topped with signature whipped cream and a pretzel.” Yum.

For my lunch, I got the lunch special: a half-sandwich (a ham and cheese croissant, in my case) and a cup of soup (I selected French onion over the tomato basil) with a small house salad. Everything was splendid, especially the savory soup and the flaky, tasty croissant. My only quibble is that I wish the cheddar cheese on the sandwich had been a little more melted.

I didn’t expect to walk out of D’Coffee Bouteaque knowing that I had a new favored breakfast-and-lunch spot … but I did. It’s a whimsical space offering a delicious escape from the outside world.

WHAT The massaman curry with chicken

WHERE Desert Thai Authentic Thai Cuisine, 68718 E. Palm Canyon Drive, No. 103, Cathedral City

HOW MUCH $16

CONTACT 760-832-8561

WHY It’s delicious and hearty. Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines, so anytime a new Thai joint opens, I’m eager to try it out.

This brings us to Desert Thai Authentic Thai Cuisine, which opened a few doors down from Trilussa in late October. I normally wait a few months to try out a place after it opens, but I decided to break my rule in this case, because … well, Thai food!

The Cathedral City joint was busy when we arrived on a recent Saturday night. Desert Thai’s inside space is pretty small, but a nice patio area expands the seating options. We sat inside and began to peruse the no-frills menu, which takes up numerous pages of paper, some of which could be a bit cleaner. (The hubby had problems reading one page because it was stuck to the back of the page before it.)

We ordered all sorts of food; none of it was bad. Some of it, in fact, was quite good. The cook adds more sweetness than I’d prefer to many of the dishes—but when it comes to the curries, Desert Thai finds its figurative groove.

We got both the panang and massaman curries, and both were fantastic. We ordered the panang with pork, which was tender and delicious; to my palate, however, the massaman with chicken was just a touch above, thanks to the rich, peanuty sauce—and the addition of actual peanuts. Thanks to the carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and onions, not only was the dish delicious; it was warm and hearty, perfect for a chilly December night in the desert.

Desert Thai is doing quite well after being open for just six weeks; I can’t wait to try the restaurant after a few more months of settling in.

Retired or Veteran Officers: M.O.A.A. Wants YOU!

All retired or veteran officers of all 7 uniformed services are invited to join the Palm Springs Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (PSC-MOAA). The chapter meets every third Thursday of the month for lunch from October through June at the Elks Club in Indio.

The chapter supports the Junior Reserve Officer Training Cadet program in the local Coachella Valley high schools with college scholarships.

Contact Jim La Baugh (LTC US Army, ret.) for membership information: 949-212-1900

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

Restaurant NEWS BITES

By charles drabkin

THE NEW ARENA OFFERS PLENTY OF FOOD OPTIONS

The new Acrisure Arena has varied options to satisfy food cravings at various price points.

In the “picnic plaza,” those options include Big Chicken, co-created by Shaquille O’Neal, offering spicy chicken sandwiches; Pronto Pizza, by Giada De Laurentiis, featuring square-style pizzas; Tanner’s Prime Burgers; hot dogs by Koko’s Bavarian; and tacos from Casa Escobar, a Los Angeles-based taqueria.

Inside the arena on the main level, local favorite Fisherman’s Market and Grill serves up fish and chips; CV BBQ sells tri-tip and smoked pork; and Cathedral City’s E&E Pel’s offers their famous lemonade.

Of course, the food gets more interesting if you are willing to pay a bit more for club level seating, with options including hand-crafted sandwiches, gourmet hot dogs, and bowls inspired by Latin and Asian cuisines. There will also be a vegan “sloppy Jane” and a vegan ice cream cart in a nod to sustainability goals.

Learn more at acrisurearena.com/plan-your-trip/food-beverages.

MEANWHILE, AT THE AIRPORT …

In other large-venue food news: You will eventually be able to access more local eats at the Palm Springs International Airport.

Branches of popular local restaurants Trio and El Mirasol are slated to open by the end of 2024, along with a bar focusing on local craft breweries, and a new empanada stand. Buzz by BarFly will move to a stand-alone location in the middle of the Sonny Bono concourse, replacing a fountain and artwork.

The first stage of construction is set for February-October 2023, with the second stage slated for completion by the end of 2024.

IN BRIEF

For the first time ever, the Michelin Guide includes Palm Springs restaurants. The first eight to earn recognition are Bar Cecil, Boozehounds, Workshop Kitchen and Bar, Cheeky’s, 4 Saints, The Barn at Sparrows Lodge, Colony Club and Tac/Quila. Maybe one day, the guide will go further into the Coachella Valley beyond Palm Springs—and perhaps a restaurant will get Bib Gourmand recognition or even a star. … Desert Hot Springs is getting an outdoor barbecue and soul-food café. The Back Porch, at 64680 Pierson Blvd., will be open Thursday through Saturday, and will feature a bottomless mimosa brunch Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. … Kreem, at 170 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, has changed ownership. The new owners are committed to maintaining the same excellent quality. Good luck to former owner Bianca Simonian; I am sure your next endeavor will be equally as sweet. Get details on Kreem at www.kreempalmsprings.com. … Good news: The former home of Lord Fletcher’s, at 70385 Highway 111, in Rancho Mirage, is in escrow. The iconic restaurant, once a favorite of Frank Sinatra, has been shuttered since the early days of the COVID pandemic. I am excited to see what the new owners will do. … La Quinta’s The Beer Hunter Sports Bar and Grill will open a second location soon at 71959 Highway 111, in Rancho Mirage, at the former site of Roy’s Restaurant. This decades-old family-owned restaurant features an extensive beer selection, bar and grill fare, and a “Live Well” Menu that focuses on addressing food sensitivities and other dietary restrictions; learn more at thebeerhunter.com. … New to Palm Desert: Cowboy Cantina, featuring the cuisine of the American Southwest, is now open at 72620 El Paseo. Lunch and dinner are served daily; you can get brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and the bar is open until midnight. Details at cowboycantinapd. com. … Canyon Creek Mushrooms has opened a new facility at 77917 Wildcat Drive, in Palm Desert. Their delicious mushrooms and mushroom products can be found at most local farmers’ markets. I love making “crab cakes” out of their lion’s mane mushrooms, and their black pepper mushroom “jerky” is my favorite late afternoon snack. Follow www.facebook.com/CanyonCreekShrooms for updates. … Yes Please has opened at 78065 Main St., Suite 100, in Old Town La Quinta. This fastcasual concept serves coffee, breakfast, lunch, brunch and pastries. They bake fresh buttermilk biscuits and scones every morning—which sell out quickly. Find out more at yespleaselaquinta.com. … As a lover of coffee and Filipino cuisine, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new Varraco Coffee Roasters, at 73891 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. Varraco specializes in premium coffee from the Philippines—directly sourced and roasted to order—as well as Filipino pastries. They’re currently bringing in the goodies from Los Angeles, although they tell me they have plans to start baking them in-house as soon as possible. Find out more at varracoroasting.com. Got a hot tip? Let me know: foodnews@cvindependent.com.

Mac Sabbath melds Black Sabbath songs, McDonald’s characters and antifast-food lyrics

DRIVE-THRU METAL

MUSIC

A MUSICAL 180

By matt king

Marni, the solo project of Nicolas Lara, has largely been a mode of self-expression for the singer/songwriter, via acoustic folk jams—but just like everything else in the music industry, Marni has changed over these past few years.

Whiskey Girl is the latest release from Lara—a longtime Coachella Valley musician who just moved to Los Angeles—and it is an explosion of full-band-driven, dreamy indie. After

the sonically interesting intro “Emeryville,” the EP/album (we’ll get to that later) kicks off strong with “Airhead,” a slow-burning emotionally dreamy track that’s perfect for a late-night drive or the end credits of a coming-of-age flick. “Manic” sees Marni honing some of his acoustic-folk roots in his new indie style, while “Merry Go Round” combines electronic drums with slide guitar as the song heads for an explosive finale jam. Listen for yourself at alaraa.bandcamp.com.

During a recent phone interview with Lara, we discussed whether he considered the seven-track release an EP or an album.

“At first, I was considering it an EP, just because it was six songs and then the intro track,” Lara said. “I really like when artists have intro tracks to their albums or EPs or whatever, so I just made that one (“Emeryville”) in the car on GarageBand really quickly. I just wanted it to be something really weird and dumb … something that somebody will listen to and be, like, ‘Oh, this is kind of weird,’ and then skip to the next track. I don’t really care what people call it, to be honest. I call it both sometimes, an EP or short album.”

Whiskey Girl is impressive beyond being Marni’s first foray into full-band-oriented music.

“When I first started writing under the name Marni, I was influenced by a lot of things at the time,” Lara said. “My influences were very broad, and the genre that I was going for ranged from folk to ’80s new wave. … It was a whole bunch of different genres. For Whiskey Girl, I definitely was influenced by a certain sound. I went into it wanting a certain sound for a band. I think it shows some progression, for sure, because the sound is a lot more cohesive than it’s ever been.

“I’ve had bands and stuff before; they’ve always just been my friends’ (bands). I’ve never had a legit band that’s stayed the same people for one or more shows. My lineups have always changed. The music that I was listening to at the time was full band music with drums, guitar, bass and vocals. I really wanted to take a shot at that and really do it the right way and put some effort into it. … I wanted to come out to L.A., meet new friends

and form a band. I was kind of envisioning all that while I was making those songs.”

Lara said he was pleasantly surprised by the L.A. music scene.

“It’s a lot more close-knit than I thought it would be,” Lara said. “The Coachella Valley scene is very tight-knit, and everybody knows everybody. It’s very easy to get shows with people, and it’s just a community that supports each other. … Coming from that tight-knit community, I was very nervous and afraid that it would not be that way—but it’s actually just like it. The people who I’ve met out here, and the connections that I’ve formed with friends and stuff, are pretty cool. It just surprised me how well people support each other and how much everyone really does know each other out here. I’m really excited to be a part of this new scene and to really get that going.”

Whiskey Girl features emotionally driven tempos and guitar tones, and lyrics with themes of isolation and inferiority.

“I think most of the songs are written with a similar mood,” Lara said. “They’re all written from that perspective of someone looking inward at themselves and kind of analyzing who they are and their life. All of the songs besides the intro song and ‘Merry Go Round’ were written during the pandemic. It’s about realizing a lot of things about one’s self that are both good and bad, and just analyzing that and trying to come to terms with that.”

The pandemic certainly brought out a lot of those aforementioned emotions for many. Writing Whiskey Girl was a beneficial experience for Lara.

“Putting it all out on paper and just, like, getting it out there, I think, helps,” Lara said. “The recording process for me is super-fun and exciting. It’s good to get that feeling out on paper and to express that emotion, and then also, from there, have fun and get the recording done.”

Whiskey Girl was a collaboration between Lara, Nicholas Noble and Bennett Littlejohn.

“I was in a band with (Nicholas) in high school, and when I started writing Marni stuff and going out on my own thing, he was just learning how to record on Ableton,” Lara

Nicolas Lara.

said. “Anything I’ve ever put out, he’s put out, and he’s been a longtime producer, co-writer and collaborator with Marni. He’s definitely the man behind the scenes, and we recorded it all together at his house, then sent it to my friend Bennett. He helped bring it to life a little bit more, because he plays (a lot of instruments) on the record, and then Nick plays all the drums on the record.”

Bringing the songs to life with a real band was a daunting experience for the longtime solo singer/songwriter.

“At first, I was really nervous, because I hadn’t played in front of anyone in a while, and I haven’t shown anyone anything in a while,” Lara said. “… Everyone in the band

loves to play the songs, and it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I think the songs translate live really well. It’s fun to go from most of my life playing solo or doing that kind of thing, now to being in a band.”

Lara also spends time in the semi-local band Garb. In Garb, Lara plays guitar on songs that are mostly written by the vocalist and drummer. In Marni, things are reversed.

“(In Garb), I have a lot of time to really just sit back, be a guitar player, and kind of see what it is like to be in a band, and see everyone’s position in the band—how we all collaborate with each other and how it all meshes well,” he said. “Taking that experience into Marni has definitely helped me a lot.”

Marni’s Nicolas Lara talks about his new sound, new release and new music scene

JANUARY 2023

By matt king

DESERT SOUNDS

By matt king

he desert has long had some great open-mic spots. There was the Pappy and Harriet’s open mic (RIP), and the open mic at The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert. Of course, there’s also the Best of Coachella Valley-winning open mic at Oscar’s in Palm Springs. Now the newly remodeled AWE Bar in Yucca Valley is getting in on the open-mic game. It happens the second-to-the-last Sunday of each month, and is hosted by actor, musician and desert-

done this, and I wasn’t 100% sure. She wanted to start out by doing it once a month, and I thought, ‘Well, that sounds fun.’ I think if it’s anything like last night, we’re going to have to keep it going.”

in Yucca Valley

Happy New Year! Get your 2023 started off right with some great Coachella Valley entertainment!

Let’s welcome the newest big stage in town, the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert. Sesame Street Live! is performing three family-friendly shows, at 2 and 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 11, and 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 12. Tickets start at $23 to see your favorite childhood heroes (or your kids’) in person! At 7 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 15, Latin legend Pepe Aguilar will grace the brand-new arena. Tickets start at $39.50. Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, Palm Desert; 888-695-8778; www.acrisurearena.com

Fantasy Springs has some fun January offerings. Comedy and props combine at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 13, when Carrot Top takes the stage. Tickets start at $29. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, two icons of soul combine when The Temptations and The Four Tops share the Indio stage. Tickets start at $49. Grammy Award-winning pop-rock outfit Train brings its series of hits to Fantasy Springs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21. Tickets start at $59. At 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 27, music icon Engelbert Humperdinck brings legacy and song to the valley. Tickets start at $49. Get ready to dance with Latin sensations Los Huracanes Del Norte when they return to Fantasy at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 28. Tickets start at $39. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-3425000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage is starting the new year off with a diverse lineup. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7, pay tribute to one of rock’s greatest with One Vision of Queen starring Marc Martel. Martel was handpicked by the surviving members of

I talked to Quinn via telephone the day after sphere there, and several of the people are some

The tremendous response came as a shock to

For some bands, open-mic nights are a big first step. Not only do they allow a band to perform live; they provide opportunities for networking and more.

“It’s really been super-satisfying to see that over the years,” Quinn said. “One band that performed last night used to play at the Beatnik open mic, like, 15 years ago, when they were really just little kids—and that’s Brent and Brandon Simpson, who are Daytime Moon. It’s like seeing the kids growing up, and they’re so great. They’re playing shows all over the place now.

“We had another band (Sweetbeast) that was doing their first live performance last night. It was two women and a guy. It was rock ’n’ roll, but it was dreamy and beautiful. It was really so amazing to see that happen. I know that they’re going to be doing a lot more stuff and shows and records and everything, because they’re just so good.”

The open-mic night is also a great place for families to share their love of music with others.

“There was a father and daughter group called the Tomi Tom show; it was a father named Tom and his daughter named Tomi,” Quinn said. “She was playing ukulele, and he

was playing guitar, and they sang. When people talk about blood harmony, it’s a real thing. There’s something about people in the same family harmonizing together; I used to wonder about that with the Bee Gees, the Everly Brothers or the Beach Boys. There’s something really magical that happens when kinfolk sing together, so that was just super-beautiful and exciting.”

Quinn said open-mic nights can be a great “welcome back” to people who have been out of the music scene for various reasons.

“The man who plays drums with me is a guy named Jeff Boaz, and he had an accident where he hurt his foot, and wasn’t able to play for some time,” said Quinn. “He’s back to playing the drums now, so it’s really exciting to see people returning after time away. Last night, another guy named Lucky Johansen, who is a blues musician, came out. He is one of those people who played music more in bands when they were younger, and then, you know, went to live their lives and kids and their careers and all that stuff.”

Describing the desert music scene has always been tough for me. I was curious how Quinn would describe the scene from his unique perspective.

“It’s everything from Mario Lalli, heavy bottom and heavy rock, to super sweet,” Quinn said. “There was a woman who came in last night named Avi, from the Seattle area. She was driving by with her girlfriend and her mom. … They stopped in, and she just happened to have her ukulele with her. She did a Nirvana song on ukulele, with just a beautiful voice. Then there was a guy who just got up to do ancient tribal chanting with throat singing. The sound is all over the place. Then there’s my buddy Joe Garcia, who is kind of doing Leonard Cohen-esque sort of songwriting— really poetic imagery and that sort of thing. There are so many different things going on that it’s really funny. Linda Krantz from Pappy’s once described the Joshua Tree sound as a woosh. That’s the sound of the desert, but the sounds that people create here are pretty much whatever’s going on in the interior of their creative process. It seems like there’s room for everything, and that’s something that I really love.”

The next AWE Bar Open Mic will take place Sunday, Jan. 22, at AWE Bar, 56193 Twentynine Palms Highway, in Yucca Valley. Signups start at 6 p.m., and admission is free. For more information, visit www.awe-bar.com.

Sweetbeast made their world debut at the December AWE Bar open mic. Billy Folsom

AWE Bar

launches a monthly open-mic night hosted by Teddy Quinn

Neil Sedaka

MUSIC

DRIVE-THRU METAL

By matt king

Let’s say you walk into a concert venue—like Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace on Friday, Jan. 27—not knowing who you are about to see. The stage lights up; out comes the band, and they’re all dressed up as nightmare-fueled versions of McDonald’s characters. The Hamburglar is on drums. Something resembling Grimace is on bass. Mayor McCheese is on guitar—and then out comes a frightening take on Ronald McDonald known as Ronald

Osbourne. If things couldn’t get any weirder, Ronald lights a grill while McCheese starts to belt out a flawless version of a Black Sabbath song—except the lyrics have been changed to reflect the horrors of fast food.

You’re watching Mac Sabbath, described as “the best fast-food-themed Black Sabbath tribute band ever.” Catch the protest/parody band at Pappy’s on Friday, Jan. 27, with a double-dose of local rock from Flames of Durga and Fever Dog opening up the night.

Part of Mac Sabbath’s shtick is for the musicians to remain anonymous, so I set up an interview with the band’s manager, Mike Odd. It was, indeed, odd.

“There’s nothing normal about how this all went down,” Odd said during a recent phone interview. “I used to have my own oddities museum in East Hollywood called the Rosemary’s Billygoat Odditorium. I’ve kind of been this purveyor of weirdness and oddities and strange things for a long time now, and what happens when you put yourself into that sort of situation is the weird stuff just starts following you around—long after you stop seeking it. Even after I closed the shop and kind of went online with it, I would still get these strange calls, like, ‘Oh, come out to my shed, and take a look at my two-headed otter skeleton.’ I get this call: ‘Oh, you gotta come out to this hamburger franchise, in Chatsworth, and it’s gonna change your life.’

“I thought they’d probably try to sell me on a hamburger bun with the Virgin Mary toasted on there or something. I go down there, and it ends up being this secret kind of fight club, like a middle-of-the-night meeting in the basement of this burger franchise. There are all these people who are employees of this thing, and they have this band playing down there, who are mutated mascots, screaming about GMOs and Monsanto. This Ronald Osborne guy tells me it’s been this secret thing, and that they’ve only done it there, and that he’s choosing me to be the manager and bring it literally above ground because of stuff that I had written in the press about Black Sabbath. I sing for a band called Rosemary’s Billygoat, so I’ve been doing this sort of horror, theatrical, costume-rock

thing for, like, 30 years, so I guess, for some reason, they thought that I would be a good person to figure it out.”

Odd said that working Mac Sabbath, and Ronald Osbourne in particular, is abnormal.

“Seven years later, it’s become a full-time job dealing with this really strange individual who will not talk to anybody, and will not acknowledge any modern technology,” Odd said. “He insists that he time-travels from the ’70s, and he won’t listen to anything modern. When I’m trying to be the manager and trying to do normal things, like get them to stream or do MP3s, it just becomes madness.”

While the idea of Mac Sabbath may seem like the result of a bad drug trip, Odd insisted that the band is family-friendly.

“If you look deep into Mac Sabbath lyrics, it really is tearing into the fast-food industry, into the meat industry, into the government being connected, into this sort of conspiracy of poisoning people,” Odd said. “(Osbourne’s) really into getting that message to all ages of people, so because of that, he always talks about being a family band, and there’s no cursing or drug or sex talk or anything like that. It’s all something you can take your kids to—and in that way, he is a lot like a birthdayparty clown. His whole thing is to save the world from its current state of sustenance and music and get back to a time where rock was rock, and food was more organic.”

So what’s up with the grill and other stage accompaniments?

“If nothing else, I think it helps get it noticed,” Odd said. “When you go see them, it’s not like it’s some preachy food PSA. It’s a big, theatrical, arena-sized stage show squeezed into a club size-stage—and it’s very exciting. There are all the colors and craziness, which is just spilling over into the audience literally. It kind of fuses the band with the audience and gets people really involved. It’s really something to see. I mean, he’s literally flipping burgers on a smoking grill.”

Mac Sabbath’s show indoors at Pappy and Harriet’s may be the band’s most intimate yet.

“I think that is probably going to be pushing the smallest (venue) almost ever, since the bomb-shelter basement of the shall-remain-

nameless burger joint,” Odd said. “There was one very early show, maybe the second or third show that I was involved in, where I couldn’t fit the whole band on the stage, and just the drummer had to go on the stage.”

Mac Sabbath is billed as being the pioneering band of drive-thru metal.

“That’s Ronald’s whole thing!” Odd said. “He says, ‘We invented drive thru metal,’ and he’s always going on about Cinnabon Jovi, Led Zeppelin-N-Out, Chick-fil-AC/DC, or whatever it is, and I would cross it off as just Ronald being crazy. Then we’re in Cleveland one time, and Burger King Diamond comes out singing for this opening band, and Ronald is screaming at me and saying, ‘This is a travesty! How could you let this happen? You must be in on this!’ He goes, ‘I was talking to security, and they said they didn’t know anything about it, but I think they’re telling me a whopper.’”

Mac Sabbath’s song “Frying Pan” (a take on “Iron Man”) includes this lyric: “I once burned your meal / My old job was cooking veal / Now it’s a culinary crime / All our future is pink slime.”

“Drive thru metal is not condoning a drivethru lifestyle; it’s quite the opposite,” said Odd. “It’s just commenting on it and making you aware of it, and asking you to slow down and see what’s in your food, and investigate it, and be smart about it. There’s this one

chemical, I think, that is in most of the buns of fast food in America, and it’s only in America, because it’s banned in every other country. There’s a line in the song ‘Organic Funeral’ which is about the death of real food, and it’s azodicarbonamide. That one-word chemical has the same amount of syllables as an entire line in the Black Sabbath song—and it’s some kind of chemical that they use in yoga mats or something.”

Mac Sabbath, as you might guess, is not interested in typical forms of releasing music.

“The first thing that came out was a coloring book that had a flexi disc in it,” said Odd. “Osbourne’s very cognizant to try to do stuff that’s anti-industry in general—not just antifood industry, but anti-music industry. A coloring book with a flexi disc is something you’re not going to see a record company put out … but it’s something that does appeal to kids.”

As for Mac Sabbath’s next musical release? Odd said he hopes it’s “something I can produce without contacting Fisher Price.”

Mac Sabbath will perform with Flames of Durga and Fever Dog at 9:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 27, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. Tickets are $20, and the show is all-ages. For tickets or more information, call 760-228-2222, or visit pappyandharriets.com.

Meld Black Sabbath songs, parodies of McDonald’s characters, and anti-fastfood lyrics, and you have Mac Sabbath

Mac Sabbath. Jeremy Saffer

The Venue REPORT

Queen to lead a tribute tour. Tickets start at $40. Groove to some ’90s rock with Collective Soul, performing at The Show at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 13. Tickets start at $35. Returning yet again to Agua at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, it’s Theresa Caputo and her “Long Island Medium” experience. Tickets start at $75. For something different, Agua Caliente is hosting the Rancho Mirage Legend of Sports Speaker Series, beginning 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 23, with NHL legend Wayne Gretzky. Tickets start at $60. At 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 27, disco-funk outfit KC and the Sunshine Band heads to Rancho Mirage. Tickets start at $45. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

Agua Caliente in Cathedral City is hosting one ticketed event, and one free event—but you have to RSVP. The free event features local favorites The Dreamboats playing a rockin’ set at the Agave Caliente Terraza at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7. Again, the event is free, but you must RSVP. At 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, catch the Lucha Libre Mexicana perform a wildly entertaining series of wrestling matches! Tickets start at $15. Agua Caliente Cathedral City, 68960 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City; 888-999-1995; www. aguacalientecasinos.com/cc.

Residencies stay rockin’ at Agua Caliente in Palm Springs. Desert Blues Revival Wednesdays bring the Mississippi-born Steven Taylor Blues Band (Jan. 4), classic blues rejuvenator Tommy Peacock (Jan. 11), Long Beach guitar-star Laurie Morvan Band (Jan. 18) and the soul charm of 18KT Blue (Jan. 25). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $10, available at eventspalmsprings. com/blues. Jazzville Thursdays offer the groovy swing of the Pino Noir Quartet (Jan. 5), the piano-heavy Irving Flores Latin Band (Jan. 12), the smoky voice of the Angie Wells Quartet (Jan. 19) and the swing and jump blues of Alpha Rhythm Kings (Jan. 26). Shows take place at 7 p.m., and tickets

start at $15, available at jazzvillepalmsprings. com. Have some laughs on Caliente Comedy Fridays with Sierra Katow (Jan. 6), Brooks Wheelan (Jan. 13), Jeremiah Watkins (Jan. 20), and Daniel Eachus (Jan. 27). Shows are at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $7.99, available at www.eventspalmsprings.com/calientecomedy. Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 888-9991995; www.sparesortcasino.com.

The McCallum Theatre offers many reasons to visit Palm Desert this January—although many shows are already sold out! At 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13 and 14 the legendary Neil Sedaka will grace the McCallum stage. Tickets start at $65. For the I Love Lucy fans out there: A new play, Lucy Loves Desi, details the story of the beloved sitcom, and it’s coming to town at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 17. Tickets start at $25. At 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 19, the famous Monterey Jazz Festival brings its touring show to Palm Desert! Check our performances by Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian Sands and others. Tickets start at $45. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert; 760-340-2787; www. mccallumtheatre.com.

Morongo Casino is hosting a few shows worthy of hopping on the I-10. At 9 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, enjoy a “Ladies Night” with singers Sheena Easton and Taylor Dane. Tickets start at $39. In the mood for some classical music? Check out Christopher Wong at 5 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 22. Tickets start at $68. Country music singer Carly Pearce will perform at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 27. Tickets start at $282. At 9 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 28, relive the 2000s with the “Pop 2000” tour, featuring Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC with Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, O-Town, Ryan Cabrera and LFO. Tickets start at $39. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-252-4499; www. morongocasinoresort.com.

Pappy and Harriet’s is burning up with

events on the indoor stage as the Pioneertown nights freeze over. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7, celebrate the music of icons Jerry Garcia and David Grisman with Grisman’s son and the Sam Grisman Project. Tickets start at $17.50. Enjoy some soul and blues-rock with Tommy Castro and the Painkillers at 9:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 13. Tickets are $20. At 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, enjoy a tripledose of rock with Gilby Clarke and the Keef Richards, Frankie and the Studs and Johnny Zapp. Tickets are $20. Of Barenaked Ladies fame, singer/songwriter Steven Page will head for Pappy’s 9:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20. Tickets are $30. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-228-2222; www.pappyandharriets.com.

AWE Bar has some noteworthy concerts this month. At 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, enjoy an evening of modern country music from Gethen Jenkins and Eric Roebuck Tickets are $22.66. Enjoy some more country/ Western music with Melissa Carper and Kassi Valazza at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 19. Tickets are $15.87. At 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20, enjoy two sets—one acoustic and one electric—from folk rockers Mapache. Tickets are $17. The indie/shoegaze combo of Film School and MØAA head to the desert at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 26. Tickets are $13.60. You must be 21+ to attend. AWE Bar, 56193 Twentynine Palms Highway, Yucca Valley. www.awe-bar.com

The Purple Room in Palm Springs has a packed January calendar. At 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13 and 14, celebrate Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim with an evening of music sung by Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie. Tickets are $50 to $55. Stunning jazz vocalist Linda Purl is set to perform a Palm Springs show at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20. Tickets are $40 to $45. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, witness two Broadway stars joining forces when Alix Korey and Teri Ralston grace the stage. Tickets are $40 to $50. At 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27 and 28, John Lloyd Young is set to

perform both classics and originals. Tickets range from $55 to $60. All ticketed shows include 6 p.m. dinner reservations. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-322-4422; www. purpleroompalmsprings.com.

Oscar’s has two stand-out tributes alongside the regular programming. At 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 16, enjoy an evening with Robin Williams starring Roger Kabler. Tickets start at $44.95. At 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 23, pay tribute to Judy Garland with the help of impersonator Nancy Hays. Tickets start at $30. Most Oscar’s shows include a dinner reservation with a $20 food/drink minimum. Oscar’s Palm Springs, 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs; 760-325-1188; oscarspalmsprings.com/events.

Linda Purl

John Taylor

the

MUSIC

LUCKY 13

NAME NENE, aka Roy Weisner

by matt king

MORE INFO In early 2022, NENE debuted, and his first album, (NOT MYSELF.), was released in November. The album offers a great representation of his mix of post-punk, indie and hip-hop. With the rapfilled “WTF/ SANDS,” the experimental electronic banger “OFFGUARD” and the indie/ punk driven “LOVERBOY,” NENE is always throwing artistic left turns into his music. He is set to release new single “D.S.A.T.” on Jan. 1—and who knows what sound will be next? For more info, visit instagram.com/neneisalive_.

What was the first concert you attended?

If I remember right, it was actually Coachella fest. It was 2012, the year that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg headlined. I remember being front-row, and At the Drive-In performing before Dr. Dre went on. Their performance was crazy, and I saw body after body being taken out of the crowd. It was just too wild—and I loved it. My chest was bruised the day after from being up against the gate because of how crowded and tight it was. It was an experience. I swear I saw Jesus Christ being carried out by the crowd, too.

What was the first album you owned?

Back in middle school, the first official album I actually owned, and not burned or copied, was Silverstein, Arrivals and Departures, back when I was in my emo-kid phase. That album is still a classic in my opinion.

What bands are you listening to right now?

It really just depends on my mood and what sound I’m trying to go for next in my music; that can sometimes sound very bipolar, but

I love it. At the moment, I’m really obsessed with an alt/reggaeton artist by the name of Rosalia, specifically her newest album, Motomami. I have that on repeat. I’ve also been going back a lot to Danzig’s music. I plan on going back and listening to more Misfits music as well. I want to gather influence from Danzig’s voice and lyrics. I think he has a dope voice.

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

I’m still learning to love and/or like hyperpop and K-pop. I just can’t vibe with it yet for some reason. I think I like a song from 100 gecs, though.

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

I have a long list, but I really want to see Kendrick Lamar, Rosalia, N8NOFACE, The Smile or Interpol live.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

1990s club music, feel-good rock and acoustic love music.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I really like the sound at Bart Lounge. The stage was amazing at the Tamale Fest. But if there’s anywhere I’m looking forward to performing, it would definitely be with Desert Underground. I feel at home and welcomed at all the shows they throw, anywhere they’re at.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head? I’ve had my own lyrics stuck in my head from my upcoming single “D.S.A.T.”: “And Be yourself / Be your light / Be your mom / And Be your rights / NO DON’T.” Sometimes, if not most times, I try to decipher my own shit.

What band or artist changed your life?

Kendrick Lamar changed my life and perspective because of his impactful lyrics. Radiohead changed my life and perspective because of their unique sound. It just opened my mind as an artist and person. It made me question and realize how far we can go as artists with our art, and as people with ourselves.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? “Why???” to Kanye “Ye” West.

What song would you like played at your funeral? “Prickly Pear,” Portico Quartet.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Frank Ocean, Blonde. Please don’t shoot me.

What song should everyone listen to right now? “TURN OF EVENTS,” NENE, or “LOVERBOY,” NENE.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

NAME

Rickey

Villalobos GROUP Empty Seat

MORE INFO I must be transparent and say that I am a member of Empty Seat—I joined this year—but I have long known that Rickey Villalobos is one hell of a drummer. For two decades now, Empty Seat has created a mix of alternative rock that dabbles in blues, indie and punk—and Villalobos has the chops to cover all of those sounds and more. Villalobos is always in the pocket and plays with a lot of energy. Learn more at emptyseatofficial.com.

What was the first concert you attended? Warped Tour 1996 in Carson, Calif—great festival, all amazing bands! It was my first time seeing the Deftones live! I was blown away, to say the least, on their performance and sound.

What was the first album you owned? Back when I was younger, there was this record store called Music+, and I had $20 I’d earned working with my dad over the summer. I bought two cassettes from there: Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses, and Eazy-E, Eazy-Duz-It. Amazing sounds to my young ears for sure.

What bands are you listening to right now?

I still listen to what I grew up with and what I’m influenced by. A lot of those artists are still putting up great new music! Ice Nine Kills is cool; so is Night Verses. Turnstile is a great new artist!

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? A lot of new rap and hip hop. I think it just hasn’t influenced me like other artists have in the past. It’s difficult to understand this new hip hop.

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

Gonna try to catch Social Distortion soon! Oh, and I never got to see Rush live. I remember getting invited, but I didn’t make it. I wish I would have.

Punk rock has always been! I grew up playing and listening to punk-rock music and was very influenced by the attitude and what it stood for. That sound never gets old for me.

What’s your favorite music venue?

Probably the Viper Room in West Hollywood. It’s such a small venue, and the few times that I’ve played there, there’s just an incredible vibe and sound.

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

I say “Creep” by Radiohead. It’s always a winner.

What band or artist changed your life?

Definitely Nine Inch Nails. After I saw and was around the production and work that goes into that, I was moved. As a drummer, I saw how disciplined you’ve got to be to put on a show and performance and tour like that. I have yet to see a better live show. Trent is the man! Respect!

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

Jimmy Chamberlin from Smashing Pumpkins: I would ask if I could borrow one of his drum kits! He’s been one of my major influences ever since I learned how to play drums.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

Never thought about that one. I say “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones. Being Mexican, I really love this song by Antonio Aguilar called “Un Puño De Tierra (Pile of Soil).” Such beautiful lyrics.

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

Hands down, the White Album by The Beatles! It’s such a masterpiece to me.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Peace, Love and Understanding” by Elvis Costello. Oh, and “Take Back” by Empty Seat! Well … it’s coming soon! Listen to it!

Get to know multi-genre artist NENE, and the drummer for Empty Seat