COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT | JULY 2020
VOL. 8 | NO. 7
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE The organizers of three local Black Lives Matter rallies discuss what moved them to march • PAGE 13
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SECRETS ABOUT WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT AFTER SOCIAL DISTANCING AND ISOLATION
By Shonda Chase, FNP Nurse Practitioner, Co-owner, Artistic Director and Advanced Aesethetic Injector at Revive Wellness Centers in Palm Springs and Torrance, and Medweight, Lasers and Wellness Center in Irvine ere are two medical aesthe�c insights as Southern California comes back from the depths of self-quaran�ne and the effects of social separa�on. When listening to the emo�onal effects the shelter-in-place orders have had on my pa�ents, I’ve asked them what treatments they want to get done first, now that they can. Their responses are almost universal: “I’ve watched my face ‘melt’ these past three months. I want Botox; I want my lips done; and I want my skin to look fresh again!” If you resonate with my pa�ents, you’ll be thrilled with my next two secrets. Secret No. 1: Kysse is the new dermal filler engineered specifically for lips. I haven’t been this excited about a new filler since Voluma came along to help restore volume loss due to aging. Kysse is a super-so� filler that can volumize lips and give defini�on to their borders. Don’t we all want be�er-looking lips that are so� and even more kissable? All of my pa�ents on whom I’ve previously used another lip filler immediately comment, a�er I do just half of one of their lips, about how so� Kysse is compared to their previous fillers! Some 98 percent of the par�cipants in the large Phase III safety study for the FDA, both men and women, loved Kysse. And even more indica�ve of Kysse’s benefits is that 90 percent of the par�cipants’ partners also loved the results Kysse accomplished—and 9 out of 10 par�cipants’ partners reported that they wanted to kiss their partners more o�en a�er their Kysse results! What more could you want in a treatment where almost everyone loved their results—and got more kissing from their partners as an addi�onal benefit? And Kysse lasts up to a year! Secret No. 2: Botox and Newtox produce the same visual results. The difference is that Newtox leaves a so�er feeling. Botox feels more “frozen.” A colleague followed up on 1,500 of her pa�ents for their opinion between the two neuromodulators, and 20 percent preferred Botox; 40 percent preferred Newtox; and 40 percent didn’t have a preference. The bo�om line is we have two good op�ons from which to choose. Now that we can begin dining together, we, and our lips, can look our best! Un�l next month, keep the secrets.
H
You can email your individual ques�ons to Shonda Chase FNP, or Allan Y. Wu MD, Revive’s cosme�c surgeon, at info@revivecenter.com.
CVIndependent.com
JULY 2020
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 3
JULY 2020
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263 Cathedral City, CA 92234 (760) 904-4208 www.cvindependent.com
Editor/Publisher Jimmy Boegle staff writer Kevin Fitzgerald coveR and feature design Beth Allen Contributors Kevin Allman, Max Cannon, Kevin Carlow, Stuart Cohn, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Carlynne McDonnell, Brett Newton, Dan Perkins, Guillermo Prieto, Anita Rufus, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month. All content is ©2020 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling (760) 904-4208. The Independent may be distributed only by the Independent’s authorized distributors. The Independent is a proud member and/ or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, CalMatters, Get Tested Coachella Valley, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, and the Desert Ad Fed.
As we move deeper into the toasty Coachella Valley summer during this ongoing pandemic, I ask all of you: Please, be careful, and take precautions. On one hand, June was an exciting month: In may ways, our valley came back to life. Stores, restaurants and bars have reopened. Traffic has returned to the streets. Tourists are here again—in significant numbers. On the other hand … June was terrifying. As we put this print edition to bed, Riverside County and the Coachella Valley both were experiencing all-time highs in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The governor, thank goodness, has stepped in and instituted a statewide facecoverings order, because of increasing case numbers—and to give cover to beleaguered local health officials who were becoming the targets of insane anti-face-mask ire. SARS-CoV-2 is still very much a danger. It continues to spread here in the Coachella Valley. It’s going to claim the lives of yet more of our neighbors. Meanwhile, the reopening process will succeed only if we all do our part: We need to wear face coverings whenever we’re near others. We need to wash our hands. We need to stay home and get tested if we feel ill—and perhaps we should get tested even if we feel fine, too. Meanwhile, here at the Independent, we’ll continue doing what we do—quality local journalism—as best we can. If you haven’t already signed up for our Daily Digest to be emailed to you five days per week, please consider doing so at CVIndependent.com. While the business climate remains challenging for the Independent and other newspapers around the country, we’re hanging in there—and we have three groups and entities to thank for that. First: I’d like to thank our advertisers— new, resuming and continuing. Readers, please thank them yourselves, and give them as much business as you can. Second: I’m proud to announce the Independent is a recipient of $5,000 from the Google News Initiative Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. Forgive me for tooting our own figurative horn here, but I’ll repeat what I said when we received $5,000 from the Facebook Journalism Project a couple of months ago: Not only is it evidence of the quality work we’re doing at the Independent; it’s a testament to all of the support and feedback we have received from you, our readers. Third: Speaking of reader support: Nearly every day, we receive at least one payment from a reader who has become a Supporter of the Independent, sending us anywhere from $5 to $500. Thank you to all of you who have supported us; if you’re interested in joining them, visit CVIndependent.com/ Supporters, or write me at the address above and to the left. When the pandemic has passed, we’re going to all get together for a fantastic celebration—I promise. Welcome to the July 2020 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent. As always, thanks for reading. —Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com CVIndependent.com
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JULY 2020
OPINION OPINION
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS W
BY ANITA RUFUS
hen Jane Williams was 16, her 13-year-old brother began using drugs and stealing money from the household. “For four years,” she says, “we lived with a lot of trauma. When my brother was 25, he was heavily involved in drugs and alcohol. He was on the phone with me when he committed suicide. I heard the gunshot. I thought at the time that it was nothing but cruel and horrible, but a therapist once told me that when someone knows they’re going to die, they often contact the people around them who will care. That made it easier for me to handle.” Williams also has twin sisters, nine years younger. Their mother and father both had master’s degrees in education. says. “When someone has been in the system, “My mom was a junior-high-school history especially with drug and alcohol problems, it’s teacher,” she says, “and she taught me to be gratifying to help them get their lives back strong, to be independent, and to learn to on track. They need to learn what they are think for and care for myself. I didn’t always capable of doing. Having lived the life I’ve live up to that. lived gives me the opportunity to help them “My dad, now deceased, was an understand they aren’t alone in their journey. elementary-school principal. My parents were I’m still in contact with some of them.” always working, so I didn’t spend that much In 1999, Williams was in an accident time with them. He didn’t talk to me all that on Interstate 10, hitting two cars that had much. I do remember sometimes sitting with stopped on the freeway—and then getting hit my father and just being—just being there from behind. with him. Before he died, he did tell me he “Why I lived, I have no clue,” she says. “The was sorry and apologized for not supporting angels were with me. The message that came me, with all we had been through.” was, ‘You have more to live in your life. We’re Williams, now 61, was born in Sweetwater, not finished with you.’ … Over time, my body Texas, but her parents relocated to the started to atrophy, and I suffered PTSD, which Imperial Valley when she was 4 years old. took about three years to get diagnosed. “I had been a sick child, and my parents “Two months after the accident, I started were told I’d benefit from the desert climate,” drinking … a lot. Over the time, from the she says. “They had friends who lived in accident until I retired, my body was falling Brawley, so we moved, and I lived in Imperial apart physically. I became someone who was Valley until 1978.” angry, isolated, even suicidal. I’ve now been in After graduating from Imperial High recovery and sober for six years, and I found School, Williams attended Imperial Valley a chiropractor who started stretching me and College, and then earned her degree in gave me the ability to walk again. I had to criminal-justice administration from San redefine myself, and there are relationships Diego State. within my family that have still not been “I moved to the Coachella Valley in 1978 healed.” with my first marriage,” she says, seemingly Williams decided to study to become an embarrassed to admit she’s been married esthetician and a massage therapist. twice—until I mention I’ve been married four “I went to work at a dude ranch in times, which she responds to with a hearty Wyoming for two years, and came back to the laugh. desert and bought a home in Indio in 2009,” “I have two sons, 39 and 37. My youngest she says. lives in Bermuda Dunes and is married with But Williams is now doing what she two children. He has a master’s in social considers her “calling”: She’s a shaman. A work and is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and also with ABC Recovery Center. shaman is generally thought to be a healer who can bridge the material and spiritual My older son lives in Fresno, and after 13 years with the Air Force, he now works for the worlds. “When I was 16,” Williams says, “I had Department of Defense.” Williams worked as a probation officer with a vision of seeing my best friend in a car accident. That same day, she had three Riverside County, and as a parole agent with separate accidents. In 2016, I went on what’s the California Department of Corrections. known as a ‘guided journey,’ where I felt I had She retired in 2001. entered a fourth dimension. On that journey, “I was always proud to be working with my I saw a man pass over, and then three days clients, and also with their families,” Williams CVIndependent.com
Meet Jane Williams, a probation officer and parole agent who retired—and became a shaman
Jane Williams: “What I’ve learned is that we tend to put our traumas in a box and store them away, but we have to bring them out in order to heal ourselves. I work with people to help them heal.”
later, my dad had his stroke and died. “I knew I had a gift, but I needed to study so that I could share that gift. I did some research, found ‘Be Heaven on Earth’ in Santa Cruz, and went to school there for three years. “What I’ve learned is that we tend to put our traumas in a box and store them away, but we have to bring them out in order to heal ourselves. I work with people to help them heal. On several occasions, when someone has been ready to pass over—to die—I’ve found I can help them, and their loved ones, through that process. I’ve actually seen their
souls going toward that open space where the light is. “We’re all connected to the earth, and everything in and on it. It’s our energy source—all interrelated, all interconnected. We just need to learn how to live within that reality. It can be truly beautiful.” Anita Rufus is also known as “The Lovable Liberal.” Her show The Lovable Liberal airs on IHubRadio. Email her at Anita@LovableLiberal. com. Know Your Neighbors appears every other Wednesday at CVIndependent.com.
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 5
JULY 2020
OPINION PETS
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION
FEAR OF FIREWORKS N
BY CARLYNNE MCDONNELL
othing is more identified with the Fourth of July or summer celebrations than the display of fireworks. I love the beauty of fireworks—the excitement and the celebratory nature. But as a caregiver of pets, I despise the private and sometimes illegal backyard fireworks, which often take a toll on animals. I can manage planned fireworks with calming medicine, clothing or loud music—but not the random, louder-is-better explosions that set dogs on edge and panic them to the point of danger. According to the American Humane Society, July 5 is the busiest day of the year for shelters finding companion animals that fled in fear—breaking chains, jumping fences and running or hemp oil, to calm them (and perhaps miles away in abject panic. yourself). Start at least a week in advance. Do Being prepared is important. There your research on the quality of the product are some basic steps to take to keep your before you buy. beloveds safe: • Provide a calming inside environment— • Microchip your animal, and make sure with music, blankets and, if possible, you. Set that your name and phone number are up to up beds and blankets in closets or under the date. Update your dog’s information on their beds as safe hiding spaces. Expect possible collar tags, too. accidents. Be calm yourself, as your anxiety • Make an animal-emergency binder that can create anxiety in your pet. If you can’t be includes your pet’s name(s), breed, weight, home, make sure pets can’t break a window or medical issues, prescriptions, veterinarian, open a door. microchip information and current photos. • Check your fencing and gates to confirm Good photos of every animal are especially that there is not an easy way out. You would be important for identification; make sure amazed at how strong terrified animals are. pictures and descriptions are as current as • Make sure you have a safe, confined possible. indoor space for your cats. • Talk to your vet if you know your animal • Walk your pets just before dusk/dark so is fearful of loud sounds in advance of a that they will not need to go out during the holiday. Your vet is the best source for advice and, if necessary, medication to help provide a fireworks. A pet can bolt from a leash, even if it’s never happened before. more calming experience. • Be on alert when outside after you hear • Consider using CBD oil, like VetCBD
Even though many Independence Day celebrations have been cancelled, fireworks can still be a threat to pets
fireworks. There may be more animals around than usual—and they may be agitated. Even if you take all these precautions, animals can get loose. Understand that your pet may be panicked and full of adrenaline, and may act more feral than domestic. If your pet goes missing, post on social media; tell people in your neighborhood; and ask people to report sightings. Babs Fry, founder of A Way Home for Animals, Inc.—and an extraordinary animal finder—recommends that you don’t walk around, because that will spread your scent, diminishing a key ingredient in bringing your pet home. Open your doors, and put dirty clothes outside. Ask your neighbors to help you look. Ask people to report sightings of your dog. Do not run after the dog or yell at it. Patience and calm are key. Make sure you know the names of the shelters in the area. If your dog or cat does not come home, contact the shelters, and look at their Facebook pages and websites. In our area, there is Coachella Valley Animal Campus (in Thousand Palms), the Palm
Springs Animal Shelter, Desert Hot Springs Animal Care and Control, the Humane Society of the Desert (in North Palm Springs), Loving All Animals (in Coachella) and Animal Samaritans. Post on Facebook pages in the community in which you live. Contact your veterinarian. You may come across stray animals. Be careful approaching them, but try to bring them to a safe place. The best place is an animal shelter, because some people do not use social media. If you can’t get the animal, please call animal control, and ask for help. Someone is missing their dog or cat. It’s important to keep your pet safe all year long—but especially during holidays. Show them love by giving them the protection they deserve. Carlynne McDonnell is the founder and CEO of Barkee LaRoux’s House of Love Animal Sanctuary, a senior animal sanctuary and hospice in the Coachella Valley. She has been rescuing animals since she was 4 years old.
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JULY 2020
NEWS
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS
‘A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE’ W
by kevin fitzgerald
hen the state closed down schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, an oftignored inequity in the everyday lives of Californians became glaringly obvious: A significant portion of the state’s population still lacks reliable broadband access. When families without reliable internet have children who can no longer go to a physical school, those students’ chances of educational success decrease dramatically. “In the Coachella Valley, we met with the superintendents of all three school districts early on in this pandemic, and the distance-learning issue was one of their top challenges,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, who represents much of the eastern Coachella Valley, and project became a U.S. Government General serves on State Superintendent of Public Accountability Office model example of a Instruction Tony Thurmond’s newly formed school “district that defied the odds,” as Bailey Closing the Digital Divide Task Force. “It put it. To make reliable broadband a given wasn’t from the standpoint of the teacher for the district’s 28,000 students, spread not being with the students; it was that over 752 square miles, the district found a they couldn’t even connect with some of the way to acquire broadband spectrum-usage families, because they don’t have the services. permission from the Federal Communications They can’t afford it, or the technology and Commission. infrastructure just isn’t available. “My assistant superintendent, Dr. Kelly “These are the families and the students May-Vollmar, deserves a lot of credit for who can least afford for their children not what’s happened,” Bailey said. “We were to be engaged, (which could) ultimately talking one day about how we’d never be able widen the achievement gap. Someone called to get broadband, and there was no way we this a civil rights issue—because without could get access to spectrum. How do you (broadband), you are severely disadvantaged.” even start there? Do you call Sprint and ask Steve Blum is the president of Tellus for some? That’s not going to happen. So, she Venture Associates, a California management said, ‘Why not just call the FCC?’ Long story and business-development consulting short, that’s exactly what happened. She was company for the digital media and brave and called the FCC to determine how telecommunications industries; he specializes you could acquire it. … Now, we can honestly in developing new community-broadband say that every student in our district should systems. have adequate broadband connectivity, “You’ve got two kinds of problems: long whether on their own or through (our term and short term,” Blum said. “The longnetwork). We have devices coupled with term problem is lack of infrastructure, and connectivity to provide an equitable learning that’s not something you can fix this week or and teaching model.” this month, probably not even this year. As The reality is less optimistic for the soon as the schools closed, and the students Coachella Valley Unified School District, were told that they’ve got to start doing their which includes the schools in much of work online, this problem just blossomed: It Coachella, a portion of Indio, Thermal, went from just being an annoyance to being Mecca and Salton City. Despite the recent a total lack of ability to participate in the distribution by the district of mobile-hotspot 21st century—and now, it’s an immediate devices to roughly 3,000 student households, problem.” there are still several thousand more that This problem is not being experienced have no reliable broadband connectivity. equally across the Coachella Valley’s three Those 3,000 hotspots were made possible school districts. Scott Bailey, superintendent because of an alliance formed by the city of of the Desert Sands Unified School District— Coachella and the school district. which includes schools in Indio, La Quinta, “The city of Coachella did not donate Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Bermuda Dunes any hotspots,” said CVUSD Superintendent and parts of Rancho Mirage and Coachella— Dr. Maria Gandera. “CVUSD bought them, points proudly to the district’s ability to but the city got a better deal (from Verizon guarantee reliable broadband connectivity Wireless) than we did, and they were kind to every student household, often via the enough to let us purchase at their price—and district’s own broadband network. Built I can tell you that they are being used. The at the cost of $590,000 for infrastructure hotspots are being loaned out to the families, development and hotspot devices, with and the district is picking up the cost of the an ongoing cost of $1,300 per month, this CVIndependent.com
Thousands of local students lack proper internet access—which makes distance learning all but impossible
service charges through Verizon Wireless. “Did they prove useful, and will they continue to prove useful? Absolutely. We’re continuing with summer school, and even students who are not doing summer school are still getting access to some district gradelevel challenges and contests, (along with) other fun activities for the students to do that will make them think that they’re not doing (school) work—but they are,” Gandera said with a laugh. “I can tell you that over 1.1 million websites were visited by those students, (and) over 24,700 educational apps were downloaded. They’ve accessed more than 35 terabytes of data using our hotspots as of the first week of June.” But Gandera has not forgotten about the thousands of students remaining, in her overall student body of more than 18,000, who don’t have one of those hotspots—or any other reliable internet access. “We are trying to find ways to get more hotspots and more devices (for) our students,” she said. “We estimate that about 40 percent of the households in our district did not have connectivity. We could probably use double the amount (of hotspots)—and we still might have some issues with connecting. I can tell you that we’re continuing to have conversations with different providers, not only about (additional) hotspots, but also looking for a long-term solution for our valley.” At the north and western end of the valley, the Palm Springs Unified School District—which includes schools in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Thousand Palms and Sky Valley—is also struggling to cope with the needs of at least 2,000 student households that are currently without reliable connectivity or personal digital devices. “I think that we’ve been fortunate in that, some four years ago, before I started (in this position with PSUSD), the district and the Board of Education took on the mission of having a 1-to-1 program,” said PSUSD Superintendent Dr. Sandra Lyon. “They had been very diligently ensuring that students in grades 3-12 had access to devices. Also, they were making sure that our students who didn’t have internet had an ability to get a hotspot from us that we pay for. “We give them a Chromebook and a hotspot. Normally, students would bring them to and from school on a daily basis, and our younger students wouldn’t have access. But throughout this coronavirus time, we’ve
Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia: “We’re not only talking about the student needs, but we’re talking about mom and dad having to work from home, or the small-business owner who has to change their model of how they deliver a service or a product. Internet connectivity is no longer a luxury or an amenity.”
tried to get devices into the homes of our families with young children who don’t have an older child (as well). So we’ve been running these ‘tech depots’ regularly, and giving out new hotspots if hotspots aren’t working, and taking back nonworking Chromebooks and issuing new ones. Right now, we have over 20,000 devices out there. “There are still a handful of our students for whom the hotspots aren’t helpful, because they’re in a place that doesn’t have a tower or other internet access. So, again, it’s been a challenge—but overall, we’re in a good position.” Online summer-school sessions are under way in all three valley school districts, as local educators make sure graduating students have their necessary course requirements completed, and support students who may have fallen behind during the school shutdowns. According to Dr. Lyon, in PSUSD schools, “We are providing access for all
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 7
JULY 2020
NEWS
students online using some of our LCAP dollars and COVID-19-related funding.” According to the California Department of Education website, the LCAP is a tool the state developed in 2013 “for local educational agencies to set goals, plan actions, and leverage resources to meet those goals to improve student outcomes.” “This is not something that we typically would do, but we really (wanted) to try to address some of the learning gaps happening for some of our students right now,” Lyon said. “If you go to our website, it will tell you exactly how to access math and English for our elementary and middle school students. It’s (lessons and activities) that they haven’t done before, because we wanted to make sure that we were giving new opportunities. Also, there are live teacher hours that accompany them as well. The teachers are there to tutor kids through the activities and to help if they’re struggling with any of the concepts. As for high school students, we’re primarily working with kids who need the summer credits to graduate, and credit retrieval to keep students on track for graduation.” However, that still leaves out the PSUSD students who have questionable ability to access the distance-learning strategies and programs. “We’ve also been giving out paper (lesson) packets and other materials to the parents of students who come in and pick them up,” Lyon said. “I do think that one of the things we’re finding is that some of our students who aren’t necessarily able to get online with us, they’re doing other things to stay in communication. Once the COVID-19 (impact) is better understood, we’ll know better how we’re going to bring kids back (to schools in the fall). Any of the students that we determine are further behind, we’ll work to get them back on campus.” A recent survey of 4,300 parents running households of PSUSD students shows that 28 percent plan on their children taking part in a 100 percent distance-learning strategy when fall classes return. “I think a lot of people who have multiple generations living at home,” Lyon said, “are still unsure and fear the older family members becoming ill.” But for those student households across our valley that remain without reliable broadband access, the problem won’t be solved before the ’20-’21 school year starts. “We need people to get these rural areas wired,” Lyon said. “The reality is that this is the world we’re living in, and the more that our homes and our neighborhood businesses are wired and have strong (broadband) access, then the better off our kids will be as far as being competitive in the work world. It’s so important.”
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS Expensive infrastructure investments will be needed to truly solve the problem. “The federal government has to step up first—and California supplements the federal money,” said Blum, of Tellus Venture Associates. “There are bills in the U.S. Congress to change these funding requirements, but none of them seem to be going anywhere, so I’m not getting my hopes up.” Assemblymember Garcia said the state has been distributing about $300 million in funding to locales in desperate need of reliable broadband service through the California Advanced Services Fund, which was established by the Internet for All Now Act of 2017. “My understanding is that we’ve already seen about $533 million worth of (funding being) requested,” Garcia said. “So, there’s definitely the need for this money to get pushed out. … What I’m discouraged about the most is that very few applications came from our District 56 area—even after making a really assertive effort to get folks in our cities and school districts looking at the program. So we’ve got to do a better job. We held workshops; we had the Public Utilities Commission come down to meet with folks about the challenges in our region. But I don’t believe that we had more than one application from our area or the Imperial Valley.” Blum said school districts need to do a better job of long-term planning. “Even if they came up with a COVID19 vaccine tomorrow, and got everybody vaccinated by the weekend, this broadband problem is not going to go away,” he said. “It’s only going to become more and more important to have broadband access. … The alternative is to sit and wait and hope that somebody like Charter or AT&T or Comcast is going to show up eventually and fix your problems. That could be a long, long wait.” Garcia said the pandemic has emphasized the seriousness of the broadband-access problem. “We’re not only talking about the student needs, but we’re talking about mom and dad having to work from home, or the smallbusiness owner who has to change their model of how they deliver a service or a product,” Garcia said. “Internet connectivity is no longer a luxury or an amenity. It’s a necessity for achieving not just economic opportunities, but we’re clearly seeing uses now in telehealth services, public-safety communications and smart agricultural technologies. So our challenge as this Closing the Digital Divide Task Force moves forward is not just to address the needs of our students, but the overall need to expand our infrastructure. This crisis is presenting an opportunity.”
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8 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 9
JULY 2020
NEWS
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS
SO LONG, ICE CASTLE I
Skaters and hockey-lovers mourn the closure of the ice rink—which was financially troubled well before the pandemic
by kevin fitzgerald
n May, the Desert Ice Castle announced it was closing for good, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. “It is with great sadness and regret that—due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and despite our best efforts to remain in business—Desert Ice Castle has no choice but to cease operations, effective immediately,” read the notice at Deserticecastle.com, where various equipment from the facility is now on sale. While the pandemic has caused many valley businesses to close—and will sadly claim many more before it’s all over—COVID-19 may have simply been the final nail in the figurative coffin of for six years. the Cathedral City rink. “I was disappointed. I was sad,” Reschke On April 13, 2018, the Desert Ice Castle said. “It was something to look forward to filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the United each week. After you’ve been playing with States Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of the same group of guys for several years, (it’s California in Riverside. The rink apparently settled with its creditors, staying open—but on hard) to have that taken away all of a sudden— especially now, when you’re looking forward to Dec. 13, 2019, Desert Ice Castle, LLP, owned slowly resuming normal activities. by Anthony Liu, filed both a Certificate of “I guess some of the writing was on the wall, Dissolution and a Certificate of Cancellation but I don’t think any of us thought when we with California’s Secretary of State Office. walked out of the rink the last time back in Regardless of the cause of the Desert Ice March, that would be it.” Castle’s demise, the closure left Coachella In order to keep playing, Reschke said he Valley hockey-lovers devastated. and his teammates will probably start making “I was really sad, and kind of emotional,” trips to Riverside. said Katie Evans, president of the Coachella “The Los Angeles Kings help operate a rink Valley Youth Hockey Foundation. “For me out there, and many players who lived here personally—speaking now as just a hockey and played at DIC have also played out in mom and not as the foundation president— Riverside,” he said. “It’s a little farther drive, my son has spent six years of his life in that but I’m sure we’ll figure out carpools. There rink. He’s made some of his very best friends were five teams in our league, so, from across in that building, and so have I. We’ve gotten the whole league, we should be able to get, to know wonderful people in our community hopefully, a couple of full teams to head out while we’re standing together against the there.” glass watching our kids play, and he has spent Evans said her group remains committed to wonderful moments on the ice and on the helping keep local hockey kids on the ice. bench there. He’s had birthdays there. We’ve “The foundation is here to support players celebrated Christmas with our teammates and their families.” Evans said. “So we’ll focus there. So the whole idea of that building not on continuing that effort, whatever needs being there anymore is just really sad. It’s to happen. If our players decide that they’re meant a lot to us. It’s been an important place going to go play in Riverside or Ontario, or in our lives, and we’re just really sad that it another rink that’s within driving distance, won’t be around anymore. we’ll do our best to support them. Maybe it “From the perspective of the Hockey will be by helping with the player fees, because Foundation or anyone who’s involved in now the parents would be spending lots of hockey locally, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Our money on gasoline. Or maybe someone needs a hockey programs (have been) so great here, scholarship, or we can help out again with gear. and we have so many wonderful coaches and “We’ll look at ways to continue to support players. We’ve already struggled to keep those our local players until there’s another facility programs robust. Now, of course, not having a local rink will (make it) difficult for players and that they can use here locally,” Evans said. “And we have high hopes for that. The (American their families to keep playing.” Hockey League) team that’s intending to come Adults who relied on the ice rink—the only and play in Palm Springs is a big deal. It would regulation-size hockey rink within at least 50 provide a facility again—the proposed Palm miles—for their skating enjoyment have been Springs arena home to the AHL team would left in the lurch as well. Justin Reschke, the include two ice rinks—and hopefully, (it will vice president of business operations for the bring) more attention to hockey as a sport. Palm Springs Power Baseball Club, has been a “And who knows? I don’t know how long it player in the Ice Castle’s Adult Hockey League
The building that housed the Desert Ice Castle is located on Perez Road in Cathedral City. Kevin Fitzgerald
will take to build that rink, but maybe another opportunity will arise where someone else builds a rink.” Unfortunately, the pandemic and the resulting financial crisis have cancelled sports (with fans), live entertainment and large events for the time being. In mid-June, the Oak View Group—the partner with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians on what’s
being called the New Arena at Agua Caliente— said the project was on hold, at least for now. Reschke said he is keeping his fingers crossed that the arena is eventually built. “It would be tremendous to have a new rink that’s a top-notch facility right here in the community of Palm Springs,” Reschke said. “That’s something that a lot of the players at the Ice Castle had a lot of interest in.”
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10 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT
JULY 2020
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11
JULY 2020
NEWS
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS
JULY ASTRONOMY G
It’s a great month for skyPlanets and Bright Stars inJupiter Eveningand Mid-Twilight watching, as Venus, For July, 2020 Saturn brilliance This reach sky chart ispeak drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico. N
By Robert Victor
ood news for evening viewers! Jupiter and closely following Saturn are rising about a halfhour earlier per week, so by the dates of their respective oppositions, on the nights of July 14 and 20, they reach peak brilliance and will have just risen at sunset. As darkness descends, the beautiful pair of giant planets will be in the east-southeast, in the deep blue part of the sky, opposite the sun’s direction. After their oppositions, Jupiter and Saturn will remain visible in the evening sky until early in January 2021. If you enjoy the cool of the morning, then centering your outings 60 to 90 minutes before sunrise will give you many planetary visual treats—including Venus reaching peak brilliance in the east. Starting July 1, Venus slowly moves across the Hyades star cluster until passing just 1 degree north of Aldebaran July 11 and 12. By then, Jupiter On July 4, an hour before sunrise, the and Saturn are nearly at opposition, so they’re moon is about to set in the southwest to westgetting low in southwest. southwest. Jupiter is 20 degrees to its upper Through a telescope—or even through left, with Saturn 6.2 degrees to the upper left of binoculars if you look around sunrise or in the Jupiter. daytime—Venus offers up crescent phases, 19 On July 5, the full moon is in the southwest, to 43 percent full this month, but shrinking in with Jupiter 7 degrees to its upper left, and apparent size as the planet recedes from Earth. Saturn 6.3 degrees to the upper left of Jupiter. In the evening sky: On July 1, bright On July 8, Aldebaran is within 2 degrees to Jupiter is just rising in the east-southeast at the lower left of Venus. Watch Venus shift about evening mid-twilight, and Saturn, just more a half-degree daily the next few mornings. than 6 degrees to its east, rises 20-25 minutes On July 11, one hour before sunrise, the 64 later. The waxing gibbous moon appears near percent waning gibbous moon is high in the Antares on July 1 and 2. On July 4, watch south-southeast, with Mars 5 degrees to its the full moon rising very close to sunset. After upper left. This morning and tomorrow, Venus nightfall on July 5, catch the moon between appears just 1 degree north of Aldebaran. Jupiter and Saturn, below the line joining the July 12: Find Mars 7 degrees to the upper planets. Jupiter and Saturn reach opposition as right of the 55 percent moon, approaching lastEarth overtakes them; for the rest of 2020, they quarter phase. are more favorably placed for evening viewing. July 14: Jupiter is at opposition, as Earth Elsewhere in the sky at dusk in July, watch passes between our solar system’s largest planet Antares reach the south, as the Summer and the sun. Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb climbs high July 16: Many spectacular sights this in the east. See golden Arcturus and blue-white morning! Get outside at least 75 minutes before Spica move through the southwest quadrant, sunrise, and begin with the 19 percent crescent chasing Regulus nearly to the horizon in the moon in the east. Brilliant Venus is within west-northwest. The moon returns to the 9 degrees to its lower left, with Aldebaran evening sky as a young crescent very low in 2.7 degrees to the upper right of Venus, and the west-northwest at dusk on July 21, and 6-7 degrees to the lower left of the moon. appears within 4 degrees above Regulus on July Binoculars will show stars of the Hyades star 22. The moon, nearly half full and approaching cluster between the moon and Aldebaran, first-quarter phase, appears near Spica on July and the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) cluster within 26; in gibbous phase above Antares on July 29; 8 degrees to the moon’s upper left. Jupiter and nearly full, between and below Jupiter and and Saturn are within 7 degrees, low in the Saturn, on Aug. 1. southwest. Mars is high in the south-southeast. July’s morning sky: On July 1, one hour July 17: The 12 percent waning crescent before sunrise, bright Jupiter is in the moon is a little north of east an hour before southwest, with Saturn 6.1 degrees to its upper sunrise, in spectacular conjunction with Venus, left. Mars is high in the southeast. Brilliant just 4 degrees to its upper right. Aldebaran is Venus is in the east-northeast to east, with 3.3 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Using the reddish first-magnitude Aldebaran, eye of binoculars, look very low in east-northeast 20 Taurus, 3.4 degrees to its lower left. Views of degrees to the lower left of moon for Mercury. Venus moving through the Hyades star cluster It’s of magnitude +1.1 and may be difficult to toward Aldebaran, all in one field of view of see low in the twilight. By July 21, Mercury binoculars July 1-12, will be spectacular. brightens to magnitude +0.4 while staying 23
July's evening sky chart. ROBERT D. MILLER
Castor Pollux
Deneb
Vega
Altair
E
Regulus
W
Arcturus
8
15 8
Spica
Saturn 22 29 15
22 29 Jupiter
Evening mid-twilight occurs
Antares
degrees to the lower left Venus, their least when Sun is 9O of below horizon. Julythis 1: 46 minutes after sunset. separation for apparition. 15: 45before " " " July 18, an hour sunrise, see the 31: 44 " " " moon and all five bright planets! The 6 percent crescent moon with earthshine on its dark side is low in the east-northeast. If you get out earlier, before the start of twilight, 1 hour 40 minutes before sunrise, with binoculars and good finder charts, you’ll be able to spot Uranus and Neptune. July 19: It’s the last morning to catch the old moon! If you have a good low horizon toward east-northeast, look for the 2 percent lunar crescent, just risen, 28 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Look for Mercury, magnitude +0.7, 23 degrees to the lower left of Venus, and nearly 6 degrees to the upper right of the moon. July 20: The five bright planets can be viewed simultaneously. Locally, Mercury (magnitude +0.5) and Jupiter (magnitude -2.7) are 5 degrees above opposite horizons about 55 minutes
S
Stereographic Projection
before sunrise this morning, so you’ll need to Map by Robert D. Miller seek out a place with unobstructed views. For the next week, Mercury brightens by about 0.1 magnitude daily, and the viewing time to find Mercury and Jupiter at equal altitudes shifts about 2-3 minutes earlier daily. The Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar now has over 3,000 subscribers nationwide. For more information, visit www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar. The next star party hosted by the Astronomical Society of the Desert, tentatively scheduled for July 18 at Sawmill Trailhead, might be cancelled to prevent the spread of COVID-19; visit www.astrorx.org. Wishing you clear skies! Robert Victor was a staff astronomer at Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. He is now retired and enjoys providing sky watching opportunities for folks in and around Palm Springs. CVIndependent.com
12 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT
JULY 2020
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13
JULY 2020
‘We’re Tired of This; We Need to Change’ Areli Galvez says the Young Justice Advocates organized a Palm Springs rally to forge unity in the valley
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By Jimmy Boegle
reli Galvez began her speech by asking the crowd to imagine George Floyd’s final moments—without ever mentioning his name. “Nothing is working,” she said, reading from her phone. “So you do what you do best when everything goes wrong: You call for your mom. You begin to yell, ‘Momma, Momma please!’ Yet you’re still stuck in the same position.” The powerful four-minute talk by the 16-year-old La Quinta High School student was one of the key moments of the “Enough Is Enough” Black Lives Matter rally and protest, at Palm Springs’ Ruth Hardy Park on Saturday, June 6. Around 1,000 face-mask-wearing people attended the morning rally, which was organized by Galvez and several other young women— including Hina Malik, Jazlina Morgan and Sadie Reese—who took on the name Young Justice Advocates. During a subsequent phone interview, Galvez explained how her group and the rally came to be. “We came together with one of our friends, and she decided that we should start a protest,” Galvez said. “We were actually going to do it the first Saturday (after) George Floyd died, but we thought it was too soon. Then we started planning more.” The group was originally going to have the event in front of the Starbucks Reserve on Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way, but they decided to move it when they realized how large the crowd could get. The group worked with the city and let the police know about their plans—collaborations which earned the Young Justice Advocates some criticism on social media. However, Galvez said the group never intended for the rally to be disdainful of all law enforcement, in any case. “We spoke to (Palm Springs police) to ask for a couple of them to be there for our own safety—because we are minors,” she said. “We’re all underage. (Our goal was) being together and having unity. … To have them there just showed unity.” The group made sure to get plenty of water, sunscreen and masks for people who showed up ill-prepared to march on the warm June day—as well as a proper sound system and a DJ to help with the atmosphere and the speeches. “Since there were so many other protests before ours, we looked at the guidelines of what to have and what to prepare for,” she said. “We asked for donations. We said, ‘Hey, everyone, if you can, please donate water, snacks and sunscreen.’ … When we started, we weren’t expecting so
many people to donate. Of course, we received so much water and so much sunscreen.” After leading several chants, the young women led the crowd in a march around the park, with most participants holding signs and repeating those chants. “No justice, no peace!” “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” “Black lives matter!” “I can’t breathe!” Later during the two-hour event came the Areli Galvez: “This is all for a reason. It was just so speeches by Galvez, her fellow Young Justice amazing to see everyone dancing and singing and Advocates and others. However, Galvez said being together, united. We’re all equal—and we her favorite moment of the day came when the were all equal and united at that moment.” DJ started playing music. “Everyone got together and started dancing. It was just such a beautiful moment that really made me think, yes, we’re going to make a change,” she said. “This is all for a reason. It was just so amazing to see everyone dancing and singing and being together, united. We’re all equal— and we were all equal and united at that moment.” However, Galvez said she isn’t always treated as an equal. “I have a lot of experience with racism when it comes to my school environment,” she said. “If I were to get into an altercation, I would get more of a harsh punishment than someone else, because of the way I look. It’s happened multiple times.” Galvez mentioned one incident in particular: During a basketball game, while Galvez went for a jump ball, the opposing player—a white girl—punched her in the face. While she did not retaliate, Galvez said, she was nonetheless punished. “It was on a recording, so there was proof that I didn’t hit her, that I didn’t start it,” she said. “But right after she punched me, I got tackled by one of our staff members at the school and put into a separate room—as if I was some animal or something. Then they told me that I wasn’t allowed to go back out into the game, and I was suspended from school for three days, and couldn’t play in about five to six basketball games. I had to have my mom fight for me, because so many people were there and saw that I didn’t start the issue, and I didn’t hit her back, yet I was treated as if I was an aggressor, or as if I did something wrong.” It’s experiences like that, Galvez said, that made her and her friends want to organize—and they don’t plan on stopping their work anytime soon. Galvez said they’re trying to organize a caravan protest so people at a higher risk of COVID-19 can make their voices heard, but first, the slightly renamed Young Justice Advocates were slated to put on a Juneteenth barbecue. (The reason for the slight name change: Due to “undisclosable reasons,” there are now two Young Justice Advocates groups.) Galvez said she and her fellow Young Justice Advocates of the Desert need to keep fighting for equality in the Coachella Valley. “We are all mixed. None of us are actually white or Caucasian,” she said. “We go through the issues of racism and being racially profiled all the time. We got together, and we were like, ‘We’re tired of this; we need to change. We need to come together. We need to show that we are equal and deserve all the same rights as everyone else.’” For more information on the Young Justice Advocates of the Desert, Galvez’s group, visit www. facebook.com/groups/252683602492267 or www.instagram.com/youngjusticeadvsofthedesert. For more information on the Young Justice Advocates, visit www.instagram.com/youngjusticeadvocates. CVIndependent.com
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JULY 2020
‘So Our Words Could Be Heard’ Coachella Valley Activists’ Angel Moreno says his group organized a Palm Desert protest to ‘wake up the people in the valley’
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By Kevin Fitzgerald
ince the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers on May 25, parks and streets around the country and world have become staging grounds for massive outpourings of frustration and anger over systemic racism. On Monday, June 1, a Black Lives Matter protest took place at Palm Desert’s Civic Center Park, organized by a self-described band of “newbie” community organizers who wanted their voices heard. Their Instagram account is called Coachella Valley Activists. The group originally called for an evening protest on El Paseo. However, on the day of the gathering, the group moved the event to Palm Desert’s City Hall-adjacent Civic Center Park—and moved the start time earlier in response to a countywide curfew. “For everyone, it was their first time staging a protest rally,” said Angel Moreno, one of the organizers. “Our team is more than 20 people. It’s a big group. But, actually, it started with an idea between my friend and me. All of our friends talked about how there should be a protest on El Paseo in Palm Desert, but nobody ever took the initiative to make one (happen). So we had the idea of making one, and he made a page (on Instagram). I helped set it up, and I was contacting everyone to spread the news to actually make a protest in Palm Desert. Everyone agreed, and shared and talked to people.” Moreno said his group wanted to “wake up the people in the valley” about the unacceptable things going on in the world. “A lot of lives are being lost, and a lot of police brutality is happening, and the police are not being held to account for it,” Moreno said. “This group is very diverse. We have white, Mexican, Black, Asian and gay (members)—and it hurts our African-American friends more. I’m Latino, and I do feel it, but it hurts to see them hurt. And now, even with everything that’s going on in the world, Latinos are getting abused by police and discriminated against. What’s happening right now is just really unacceptable, and we wanted to do this protest so our words could be heard.” When the group’s Instagram post announcing the protest started getting attention, various people and media sources—the Independent included—reached out and asked who the Coachella Valley Activists were. There was no response before the protest; we asked Moreno why. “That’s just because there were a lot of messages going on,” Moreno said. “We didn’t expect our page to blow up, but when it did, there were so many messages and comments, and we were really just overwhelmed. We tried to get to as many as we could, but only my friend and I have the account.” Moreno said he is happy the group decided to move the protest from El Paseo to Civic Center Park. After rioting and looting took place in cities around the country—and after a quickly retracted Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce Facebook post the night before inaccurately claimed “busses are arriving already with people”—concerned El Paseo business owners boarded up windows and braced for the worst. “It was a great thing that we changed the location, and not just due to the fact that everyone was asking us to please not do it on El Paseo because of all the businesses,” Moreno said. “We weren’t going to do anything, but then we thought, ‘Well, let’s move to another area, because we don’t want to cause any problems.’ Even though we weren’t going to (cause problems), people thought we were. So we wanted them to know that we heard them. That’s why we decided to move it. “Also, we were getting a lot of followers and people saying that they were going to come, and we knew we’d need a bigger area.” That surprising level of engagement, coming from an Instagram account just a few days old, continued to grow right up to the start time. “When my group and I first showed up,” Moreno said, “we saw protesters there already, even before the scheduled start time, which was really surprising. We said, ‘Oh my god, this is a CVIndependent.com
Angel Moreno (middle): “We want to be part of the change that’s happening right now, and we want the people in our cities to be heard. We don’t want to be silenced, and we just want peace. That’s all we want.” Courtesy of Coachella Valley Activists
whole lot of people.’ There were at least 150 people already there, and as time went by, it just kept increasing more and more. It was so amazing to see so many people. We didn’t expect it to be this big. Not at all. I mean, we were just amazed.” The rally itself was, by design, a free-form event. “Here’s the thing: We didn’t want it to be about ourselves,” Moreno said. “We didn’t want to say, ‘Hey, we’re the protesters, and we made this (demonstration).’ We didn’t want that. We wanted the people to be heard. Everyone could take a turn speaking and talking. It was just amazing how organized it was—for not being organized. It was truly amazing, because it was really peaceful. There was no violence at all. Everyone just took turns talking, chanting and speaking their truth. Eventually, we thanked everyone for attending, and then we started marching down Fred Waring past Monterey towards Highway 111.” Moreno described what happened as the 6 p.m. countywide curfew approached. “We turned around and went back to City Hall, because we wanted to keep protesting,” Moreno said. “Then, once it hit 6 p.m., which was the curfew time that came out that day, we told everyone that they should leave for their own safety. But a lot of people wanted to stay. We kept telling people to leave, because we didn’t want anybody to get hurt at all. We didn’t want the police to do anything. But, thankfully, people did stay after 6 p.m. … While I was being interviewed (on TV news) exactly at 6 p.m., the crowd kept going eastward on Fred Waring, and they stopped close to downtown Palm Desert. I was asked then if I thought all the (attendees) were leaving, or if they were going to continue to protest. I told (the news) they didn’t want to leave, because this was very important to them, and they wanted their voices to be heard. “I got interviewed for just a few minutes, and then we followed the rest of the group. That’s when the police started covering the street (around us), and we told people not to do anything stupid and just keep our distance. We had, like, six car lengths of distance (between the line of police and the group of demonstrators), and we weren’t doing anything. We were kneeling down and chanting when out of nowhere, the police threw a smoke grenade. First one, and then around four more of them started throwing (the smoke grenades). People took it easily, because it was just smoke. They backed up away from the police and tried to get out of the smoke. So, everyone wasn’t running or (being) violent or anything. They were just trying to move out of the way.” Moreno admitted the COVID-19 pandemic was indeed a concern. “But it would be hard to tell people to stay six feet away from each other, and also to be in formation (while demonstrating),” he said. “So we were concerned about the coronavirus, but we told people before the protest even happened to not touch each other, and that they should wear masks. We wanted people to be safe, but the protest was happening, and it was more important than the pandemic right now. I don’t think people are even thinking about the pandemic while they’re protesting, because they’re speaking out of anger. They’re speaking from their hearts.” What’s next for the Coachella Valley Activists? “Right now, we’re supporting other protests that are happening around the Coachella Valley. Also, we’re (gathering a list and) sharing the names of black-owned businesses. Because our page blew up so big, we now have a lot of followers in the valley, and we just want to share our platform with other groups. “I do want to say that we did this not for ourselves, but for everyone around the world,” Moreno said. “We want to be part of the change that’s happening right now, and we want the people in our cities to be heard. We don’t want to be silenced, and we just want peace. That’s all we want.” For more information, visit www.instagram.com/coachellavalleyactivists.
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15
JULY 2020
‘We Wanted to Create a Dialogue’ Erin Teran, co-organizer of Indio’s #NoMoreHashtags protest, says the community needs to mobilize and organize
A
By Kevin Fitzgerald
group of people—mostly born and raised in Indio—organized a rally on Tuesday, June 9, at Miles Park to fight for racial equality and urgently needed policing reforms. The group called itself We Are Indio—and called the event #NoMoreHashtags. One of the organizers was Erin Teran, a nurse at a local hospital. “There were five of us,” Teran said about the organizing group. “Three of us have grown up together. (Indio City) Councilmember Waymond Fermon and I have been friends since kindergarten, and April Skinner and I have been friends since we were really young, too. Our parents were even friends. They’re both people I talk to all the time, and we always support each other.” The other two members of the team are Maribel Pena Burke and Kimberly Barraza, Teran said. “When the whole George Floyd incident happened, I was so upset and emotional about it, because one of the things that Waymond and I talk about all the time is (his fear) that it could have been him, and that could have been his fate,” Teran said. (Fermon is Black.) “I think people forget that, and I just felt so emotional and sad. We just really wanted to do something. I think part of it for me was that it’s important I acknowledge the privilege that I have because of my white skin and blond hair. So I think it’s important that I’m standing with my friends and my community to say, ‘This isn’t OK.’” The rally was initially scheduled to take place on Monday, June 1—but just hours before the scheduled start time, Riverside County invoked a 6 p.m. countywide curfew. “Part of the group felt that we should just do it and hold (the vigil) anyway,” Teran said. “But we also wanted to be respectful. We felt that we needed to respect the policy (decisions) even when we didn’t agree with them. We did feel that we should have the right to go out and peacefully assemble, but sometimes you just have to do the right thing, even when you feel like it’s wrong, so we decided to go ahead and reschedule it. It took a lot of work, so it was very frustrating—but there were some positive things that came out of having to postpone the event. There were people who couldn’t come on the original date, who we really wanted to have participate. Once it got rescheduled, we were able to get some of those people. We had more time to do some things, like go out and write the names in chalk of (victims of police brutality) who had passed over the last years. That was something small, but for us, it was meaningful.” The We Are Indio team received some criticism after announcing the event. “Originally, I think somebody put out a flier that matched ours, and it said people shouldn’t attend this vigil, because it was being organized by white people and the police,” Teran said. “It was obviously upsetting to see that. I’m actually a Latina, but I have blond hair, and I’m very fair-skinned. I felt that we were trying to say that it doesn’t matter who you are: Right now is the time to stand up and have a voice, and to say that Black Lives Matter. It’s just such a really important cause to me. I know a lot of the stories that my friends have experienced, and it’s very emotional to hear those things. “I know some of the things that (Fermon) experienced as a young man. He’s been on the side of being in law enforcement, but he’s also been on the side of having the barrel of a gun pointed at him. When you hear those things, obviously, you want to stand up for your friends. But it’s more than just your friends. This is an issue nationwide, and it needs to be addressed. It’s been going on for far too long.” Teran said she asked Fermon what they should do about the negative feedback. “He said, ‘You know what? Just keep going. We know what we’re doing. We’re just going to focus on having a positive event in our community.’ And I think that’s what we did. I think we were able to accomplish that.” Indeed, Teran said she was pleased at the turnout. “Although I believe there were a couple of outsiders who did show up, we had a lot of people
(attending) who grew up in Indio, and they knew that our intentions were to have a peaceful gathering and to really be able to come together as a community,” Teran said. “Something so different about Indio is that we all grew up with a very diverse mix of friends. Although we all know that we have different colors of skin, it’s just something that we didn’t pay attention to. There are people who grew up with us who are now part of the police department, but when we come together, we come together as one. So when those outsiders (who may have had ill intentions) showed up, there were (attendees) who made it clear that’s not what we were looking for. It was great to see people coming up to speak to the City Council members, and I even saw some people go to talk with the police chief (Mike Washburn, who attended) about some of the issues that they were facing. #NoMoreHashtags organizer Erin Teran: “Going to a protest or a rally is so very important, because we That’s what we were trying to do. We wanted have to be able to assemble and have a voice—but to create a dialogue and have transparency and (talk about having) oversight over the young people have to understand that you need to policies taking place. We want to create an have a voice at City Council meetings and Board of environment where we can see positive change Supervisors meetings, too.” and look forward to the future.” As for that future: Teran said that people need to stay engaged. “We had several community members reach out to us to say, ‘We’ve got to keep this going. This was so wonderful,’” she said. “So one of the things we’ve discussed is trying to do some kind of community barbecue in the future. We definitely need to encourage members of our community to be out there and to have a voice. “It’s more important than just one day of action. Going to a protest or a rally is so very important, because we have to be able to assemble and have a voice—but young people have to understand that you need to have a voice at City Council meetings and Board of Supervisors meetings, too. You need to call in and comment to make sure that you’re heard. It can become very important in the decision-making process. We did have voter registration out at our event, and we kept trying to impress the fact that it’s not just important to register to vote—but it’s so important to come out in November and actually vote. Work on a campaign; make some phone calls; help to mobilize and organize, because we have to get those people out of positions of authority who are not willing to be transparent and work with the community.” Teran also emphasized how important social-distancing guidelines were at the vigil—and will continue to be moving forward. “For us, it was really important to follow the social-distancing guidelines—and I’m a very big advocate of wearing facial masks,” Teran said. “We took a lot of precautions cleaning, and each speaker or performer had their own microphone cover. We designated places for people to sit, so we really did follow social guidelines. I think it’s important for people to know that (COVID19) is a very real thing, and it’s very important to follow those guidelines.” For more information on We Are Indio, visit www.facebook.com/groups/2656275024692257. CVIndependent.com
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t may seem like nothing’s funny anymore—but producer/comedian Max Mitchell would beg to disagree. Max Mitchell’s Comedy and Magic Show was slated to make its debut on Friday, June 19, at the amphitheater at The River in Rancho Mirage. Boasting “the Coachella Valley’s hottest standup comedians and one cool magician,” the free performances are scheduled to continue on the first and third Friday of every month. magician. “It’s a live comedy show outdoors in an Mitchell is a prolific producer and comediamphitheater in the middle of a mall,” said an. In the Coachella Valley, he has produced Mitchell. “There will be general seating and comedy shows at Oscar’s, AJ’s on the Green tons of room for social distancing. We hope and Three Sixty North, as well as the Out for people will dress up, get out of the house and Laughs series at the Palm Springs Cultural come enjoy a fun night with some of the best Center. In Los Angeles, he has produced local talent around.” shows at Working Stage and has performed Mitchell and Shann Carr will be regulars, at the Comedy Store. On the road, he’s been joined by two different comedians and a seen at Second City Toronto, Yuk Yuks, Gotham in New York and other venues. He has also written several screenplays, stage plays and novels. Local favorite Shann Carr has been making Palm Springs audiences laugh for a long time. Known as the gay man’s lesbian, Carr has been entertaining audiences for decades while tirelessly raising funds for local charities. “I’m excited to get to tell stories and connect with people and connect them with each other, in a way that is powerful,” Carr said. “It’s something the pandemic had robbed us of—laughing out loud with friends. I’m jonesing to make a bunch of people laugh.” Mitchell recognizes that some may be reluctant to attend a comedy show during this new normal of social distancing and maskwearing. “The amphitheater is really large,” he said. “And behind it there is even more room on the mall’s plaza. It’s the perfect place to do shows under social distancing. We’ll be asking audiences to sit in their family groups and be six feet apart from any others. We are also asking audiences to wear masks. If they don’t, we may have to make them the butt of some of the comedy to get their attention.” Mitchell admitted there are challenges to presenting a comedy show at a time when people have been isolated for months, mainlining news of sickness, death, protests and destruction. “I’ve written quite a few new coronavirus jokes,” said Mitchell. “I try to stick to what I know. I’m gay, so I do gay jokes, marriage jokes, politics and generally make fun of this Max Mitchell: “I’ve written quite a few new coronavirus jokes. I try to stick to what I know. crazy place where we live.” I’m gay, so I do gay jokes, marriage jokes, The opportunity to do the show came up politics and generally make fun of this crazy pretty fast, Mitchell said, so he didn’t have a place where we live.”
“Rest assured, this is the safest place to see a show in the valley,” he said. “And if enough people come, we will be at this venue for a long time to come.”
lot of time to plan: Suddenly, he had a date— and started scrambling. “My first call was to my pal Shann Carr, who’s been doing standup comedy here for 20 years. We’ve done many shows together. Thank God she said yes,” said Mitchell. “Then I called people I know and have worked with before, so I know their work.” Mitchell reiterated that there’s plenty of room to social distance at the amphitheater at The River.
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By Bob Grimm
t seemed as if we were getting a little gift when Disney announced it was sending Artemis Fowl directly to its streaming service: A big-budget, Kenneth Branagh-directed adventure was coming directly into living rooms, because most theaters are closed. What a treat, right? No. As it turns out, the film is awful. You’ll realize within five minutes of viewing that this thing stood zero chance of captivating folks in movie theaters. It would’ve just pissed Not only is the storytelling poorly handled; them off and sent them home grouchy. So this the movie doesn’t even look good. The special was actually a blessing for Disney: It’s better effects are bad, and the costuming is strange— to just let people be grouchy in the comfort there are fairies in this movie that look sort of of their own homes, saving them gas and like Willem DaFoe’s Green Goblin from Spiderconcessions money. Man. The editing is haphazard, too. The movie, about the titular child protégé Judi Dench plays some sort of boss of the (Ferdia Shaw) trying to solve a mystery fairies, and she also employs a raspy delivery. surrounding his dad (Colin Farrell), makes Dench seems to be a harbinger of bad things zero sense from beginning to end. You know now: This is her cinematic follow up to Cats, Branagh has a mess on his hands when meaning she has the distinction of being in he employs the narrator angle—having a one of the year’s worst movies for two years character (a raspy-voiced Josh Gad, with his in a row. part filmed in black and white) staring into the Branagh usually puts together a good camera and explaining everything as the movie film, and his chance to do big-budget fantasy plays out. It comes off as a lame attempt to fix seemed like it would lead to great things. a crap movie with re-shoots. Instead, this fiasco leaves a big, nasty mark on Disney+ and Branagh. It’s easily the worst thing he’s ever done behind the camera, and there’s no chance for a franchise here—this is a one-and-done affair. Artemis Fowl is now streaming on Disney+.
P
ete Davidson—who barely registered on Saturday Night Live during the recently concluded season due to prior commitments and a resulting lack of screen time—comes roaring back with The King of Staten Island, another quality comedy from director and co-writer Judd Apatow. Davidson plays Scott Carlin, a thinly veiled version of himself. The film depicts a scenario
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‘Space Force’ and ‘King of Staten Island’ offer laughs; ‘Artemis Fowl’ is foul as good if it weren’t for the presence of Burr, Buscemi and Tomei, who provide the movie with a solid dramatic and comedic base. Will Davidson one day become a legitimate movie star? Maybe. He has The Suicide Squad, slated for release next year, on his slate, and he’s going to voice Marmaduke in an animated film. The King of Staten Island is available on various streaming services.
S of Davidson’s life in which he doesn’t get his big break on SNL and is, instead, an aspiring (and not very good) tattoo artist. As happened with Davidson, Scott’s firefighter father died on duty, and he lives with his mom, Margie (Marisa Tomei), and little sister, Claire (Maude Apatow). Davidson doesn’t have to stretch too much to deliver a convincing performance as a wisecracking, self-esteem-challenged, neurotic guy with a severe case of Crohn’s disease (from which he suffers in real life). He, in fact, nails the part, thanks to deft comic timing and solid dramatic chops. He holds his own against veterans like Tomei and Steve Buscemi, who plays a boss at the local firehouse. Davidson might not match them in every scene, but, hey, he’s a rookie, and he’s pretty damn good. The plot involves Scott hanging out with a motley crew of friends and contending with his mother’s new boyfriend, Ray Bishop, played by Bill Burr in a hilarious performance that takes Burr’s acting career to the next level. Ray has a Monopoly Man mustache and a suspiciously sunny personality, and Scott develops trust issues with him—leading to turmoil in the household and comedically rich strife. With this 136-minute long film, Apatow uses a grittier, messier visual approach, and it pays off, suiting the unpredictability of its central character and his scrappy Staten Island locale. The movie feels different from past Apatow ventures—so different that I didn’t even realize I was watching his daughter Maude (who is excellent, by the way) until the movie was over. Davidson’s performance is also bolstered by a supreme supporting cast that includes Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) as the love interest in a very unconventional love story. While the movie is good, it wouldn’t be nearly
teve Carell and Greg Daniels, both major parts of the U.S. version of The Office, take a satirical stab at Donald Trump’s hankering for a space army in Space Force, a pretty-good comedy series that I suspect will get better if it gets a second season. The series starts slow, with an uninspired first episode. However, the end of that episode has a funny moment that launches into what counts as the best show of the season—one in which Steve Carell’s newly installed Space Force general must solve a satellite problem using a chimp. The episode is funny—and I found myself fully engaged with the series. The premise provides Carell with a good, goofy base for his comedic strengths, but also provides some realistic family drama involving his Gen. Naird and his justifiably despondent daughter, Erin (Diana Silvers). Lisa Kudrow has a good if small role as his convict wife. Fred Willard, in his final role before his passing, is a total crack-up as Naird’s sickly father, who tries to conduct phone conversations while his wife is experiencing all kinds of difficulties next to him in bed. John Malkovich provides levity as the nerdy scientist guy, and Ben Schwartz gets some of the show’s bigger laughs as Naird’s marketing man. The cast finds its groove more and more with each episode, leading up to a cliffhanger finale that will leave a lot of folks hanging if the show’s second season doesn’t get green-lit. Space Force is now streaming on Netflix.
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19
JULY 2020
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21
JULY 2020
FOOD & DRINK
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BY brett newton
ll right, that’s it. I’ve had enough. I have to break free. No, you’ll still find me wearing a mask when I’m out; I am merely talking about finding things to write about related to the lockdown. I need to talk about something else— while simultaneously looking forward to the future. What better way to do that than talk about where I would love to travel when everything has settled down? Of course, beer is going to play an important part in deciding which places I choose—and I am accepting no limit to our imaginations. So grab your travel-size toiletries and your mosteasily removable shoes, and come with me. I’ll begin with the country whose beers Artois, I almost envy you in a strange way. For changed my perception of what beer could be: centuries, Trappist monks toiled to craft some Belgium. If you haven’t experienced Belgian of the most-refined ales in existence—and to beer outside of the parody of it called Stella this day, some of them still do. Saint-Sixtus
Brussels is one of the beer capitals of the world.
Our beer writer has spent the pandemic dreaming of travels to experience the world’s best beer
of Westvleteren is an abbey that is widely considered to brew some of the finest beer on the planet. You can go to their visitor center and sample some beer, but most people preorder it and pick up their limited supply in person. The Westvleteren 12 is their mostlauded ale. The 12 is Westvleteren’s quadrupel ale known as the “Belgian Burgundy,” and I’ve been lucky enough to sample it a handful of times. It is truly a work of art in a glass, and this would be toward the top of my wish list for visiting while there. Then there is Brussels, where the beer cafés have shockingly good beer selections (both on tap and especially in bottles), with knowledgeable staff—and cuisine made with the beer itself. There’s also one of my favorite breweries on the planet located there: Brasserie Cantillon. Jean Van Roy is the brewer, and he creates some of the finest lambics (spontaneously fermented and often sour ales); they are incredibly difficult to get a hold of. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Podge’s Belgian Beer Tours, founded by a man (dubbed Podge, of course) from the United Kingdom and run currently by his wife, Siobhan McGinn, who is uniquely qualified to lead tours in Belgium. “My late husband, Podge, and I wrote the definitive book on Belgian lambic beer Lambicland, and we are seen as experts on spontaneously fermented beer,” says McGinn. There’s still another layer to this onion: “The other popular tours are Beer and Battlefields tours in Flanders, as I have a master’s degree in British First World War studies, and my dissertation was on ‘Alcohol, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in Flanders in the First World War.’” As much as I adore lambics, I would have a very difficult time not going on one of the battlefield tours first. There are other tours as well. (“All our tours are individually designed and no two are exactly the same, but most popular is the LambicLand Revisted/Tour de Geuze tour every two years in May to coincide with the Tour de Geuze,” McGinn adds.) Now that I’ve spent most of my column singing the praises of Belgium, I have the difficult task of listing some more places. At the risk of rankling ancient ire on many sides, I will combine Ireland and the United Kingdom for my next trip. I have long wanted to do a complete tour of the isles centered on beer, and there’s never been a better time. Both countries have been touched by the craft-beer movement, but my love for beer
was kindled in part due to the old styles: the Irish dry stouts and reds, the various malty Scottish ales, and the highly drinkable cask ales and rich, aged barley wines of England. As much as possible, I would love to have a true pub experience that just cannot be had here in the States. It is worth mentioning that the newer craft breweries in both nations are making some brilliant beer as well—Porterhouse Brewing in Dublin and Beavertown Brewery in London are two whose quality for which I can vouch—but if I can get at some Samuel Smith on tap, I will be a happy boy. Of course, there are many areas in North America where one can devote a whole visit to craft beer. San Diego is obvious and close, and has many areas within its county limits where one could devote a single trip. Portland, Ore., is equally obvious and packed with food and beer experiences to delight even the snobbiest of beer lovers. There are also Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal, Tijuana, New York and Boston … and this fails to mention all of the jaunts that can be made to the breweries on the outskirts of major cities that have amazing rewards for those who make the effort. I can easily go on, but I have reached the point where I am merely torturing myself by thinking of all the possibilities. I’ve described in past columns my two-month stay in Bavaria more than 20 years ago, and I would love another chance to visit and revisit some places not only in Bavaria, but throughout Germany—with a glass of Kölsch in Cologne, some Altbier in Frankfurt, and Rauchbier in Bamberg. One could also explore recent trends in craft beer in Berlin—and more. Czechia would certainly fit into this picture, and then there are places with burgeoning craft-beer scenes like Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Australia … it’s all too much to type this out without going mad wishing I were there and not in my room. One day, when I’m reveling in my luck that I reached any of these places, I will look back to this and smile, thinking, “It was all worth the wait.” Until then, I sign off from the safety of my computer desk—and hope to see it all on the other side of this ugly moment in history. Brett Newton is a certified cicerone (like a sommelier for beer) and homebrewer who has mostly lived in the Coachella Valley since 1988. He currently works at the Coachella Valley Brewing Co. taproom in Thousand Palms. He can be reached at caesarcervisia@gmail.com. CVIndependent.com
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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 23
JULY 2020
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VINE SOCIAL JASON DAVID
Lodi doesn’t get the respect it deserves as one of the world’s most-significant wine regions—yes, really
HAIR STUDIO
J
By KatieLOVE finn YOUR
HAIR
uly is the month when we celebrate our independence—the time of year when we come together in sweltering heat to grill up hot dogs and wait patiently for the sky to illuminate with a dazzling display of color. But not this year. Not this July. Instead, most of us will be celebrating our freedom Country Club and Cook Street by staying home. Seems ironic. Palm De sert Because this is the month when we look back at how this nation was founded, I thought we could celebrate the grape that is uniquely Let760-340-5959 that sink in. Cinsault is a French varietal all-American, and the region where our that has been grown in the southern Rhone for winemaking roots (pardon the pun) were first centuries, but the oldest producing vineyard www.jasondavidhairstudio.net established. might be right here in Lodi. Whoa. If I were to ask you what the most historicalLodi can boast that it has more than 120 ly significant wine region in California was, you varietals planted in its sandy soils—grapes probably wouldn’t think of little old Lodi. Lodi like Aglianico, Tanat, Nebbiolo, Vermentino, wine country has this “red-headed stepchild,” and Picpoul—on vines planted by intrepid undesirable-neighborhood reputation. I get it. immigrants nearly two centuries ago. Germans The Central Valley of California does not exact- and Italians who ventured into the Wild West ly conjure up images of a bucolic, vine-terraced in the hopes of discovering gold soon realized countryside. Anyone who’s driven up Intertheir future would rely on their skills as state 5 can tell you that the areas surrounding farmers and viticulturists. But of all the grapes Fresno and Modesto don’t inspire dreams of a planted and cared for in this vast expanse of wine-soaked holiday—but Lodi is an underesfarmland, one reigns supreme: zinfandel. timated and overlooked gem. Lodi zinfandel is unapologetically This region offers its visitors an hedonistic. Rich, concentrated and high in unpretentious, rustic charm with a unique alcohol, these wines tend to have polarizing chance to taste history—an opportunity to see opinions surrounding them. Many sommeliers what vines look like that are 160 years old, and scoff at the over-the-top flavor profiles, while to step on soil that was resistant to an insect lovers of the bold California style can’t get that destroyed vines everywhere else on Earth. enough. One thing is for certain: Whether These are vines that are gnarled with fragile, you love or hate these Zinfandels, they are a twisted trunks, and fruit that is healthy and fascinating piece of our wine history. vibrant. Zinfandel has been proven through DNA Taking the time to learn about Lodi, how it testing to be a Croatian grape called Crljenak was created, what challenges it faced and how Kastelanski. Now how in the world did a the farmers and families learned to overcome Croatian grape that no one has ever heard them makes this place all the more endearing. of make its way to California in the 1800s?! This is a region that was destined to be No one knows for sure, but the speculation agricultural. Grapes that were planted there in is that it traveled from Croatia to Austria, the 1800s were all but forgotten about, yet the where it was called Zierfandler. Once it arrived area would become one of the most historically in Boston, like so many European names significant and culturally important wine that were misspelled and mispronounced, regions, not only in all of California—but in all Zierfandler became Zinfandel. of the United States, and even the world. This little grape flourished in the Central In a little area called Mokelumne, a Miwok Valley, and even during Prohibition, it was word loosely translated to mean “people the grape of choice for the home winemakers. of the river,” lies the Bechthold Vineyard. Fun fact: There was a loophole in the Volstead Planted in 1886, these 25 acres of gnarled, Act where families could produce 200 gallons head-trained vines make up the oldest, per year of fruit juice. Soon, wineries in Lodi continuously farmed vineyard in Lodi. These and the surrounding areas were selling bricks vines produce Cinsault grapes, and this little of concentrated Zinfandel with a warning on vineyard, planted 134 years ago, ungrafted the top: “Caution! The addition of sugar and a on its original rootstock, is not only still gallon of water, left in a cool cupboard for 21 producing fruit—but the vines are healthy days, will result in alcohol.” But you didn’t hear and thriving. What’s more, this might be the that from me. oldest Cinsault vineyard in the world. Fast-forward 100 years, it’s amazing that
A winery in Lodi.
these old-vine Zinfandels still exist. While some wineries survived Prohibition, many did not. The threat of phylloxera was avoided due to the sandy soils in which the insect cannot proliferate. They also survived World Wars, the Great Depression and a bulk-wine industry that left many thinking of Lodi as nothing more than a place that makes cheap swill. Old-vine Zinfandels were on the verge of being ripped out in favor of orchards or other cash crops when something miraculous happened: white Zin. That’s right … that sweet, pink, cheap wine saved the future of Zinfandel. When Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home tried to make a white version of Zinfandel, the fermentation got “stuck.” The result was a wine where there was still sugar present, and the skins had imparted a palepink hue to the juice. He made the decision to bottle and sell it anyway—and if you were born any time before 1980, you know that everyone, and I mean everyone, was drinking the stuff.
Just like that, Zinfandel was in demand again. It wasn’t long before world-class Zinfandels were being made from these once-forgotten about vineyards. Now, winemakers are experimenting with lighter, fresher styles that are lower in alcohol and downright refreshing. But the dark, brooding Zins with a silky texture and a powerful profile are still the style du jour. So this month, I encourage you to take some time to do your own exploring of a region and a grape that defines what this country is all about—perseverance, dedication and a sense of adventure. Something surviving against all odds and coming out better for it. The next time wine country calls, and you hit the open road, maybe you’ll stay on the 5. 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. CVIndependent.com
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A properly made Mai Tai can serve as an old-school escape from these troubled times
BY kevin carlow
nyone else feel like an escape right now? I have written about Tiki here and there in this column. Cocktails from Bootlegger Tiki in Palm Springs have been featured occasionally, and my colleague Patrick did a profile on The Reef—all well-deserved, but Tiki hasn’t come up substantially in two years now. So, I have been remiss in my responsibilities—this is a Tiki town, and I have left the subject woefully under-represented! Partly, that is out of respect. Tiki is its own subculture that goes beyond cocktails—it has its own clothing, music and lifestyle. Exotica, floral-print shirts, shorts, goatees and classic cars are things I am not into personally, but Tiki First of all, let’s get the controversy and people also spend their free time looking into some misunderstandings out of the way: A lost and ancient cocktails, and I can certainly mai tai does not have pineapple juice in it. It get into that! can have grapefruit juice in it, but then you’re Now that I’ve made it clear that I am not drinking the Don the Beachcomber recipe, a Tiki authority, I feel like there is one Tiki and not the Trader Vic’s recipe, (More on that drink that every bartender should know how in a bit.) It should never have a color that isn’t to make—the timeless mai tai. light brown to dark yellow; it should never
A proper mai tai doesn’t really look like this.
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have a cherry, or, heaven forbid, freaking “cherry juice”! I confess that when I first started making mai tais, what I was really making was some sort of poor-man’s scorpion. Who knows what manner of dusty, spiral-bound, written “circa the year I was born”’ cocktail book I got that recipe from, but it was probably from my dad’s old bar—and drinking mai tais at the many, mostly gone and sorely missed “Polynesian” lounges around the Boston area was no help whatsoever. I’m pretty sure they had the same book I had. Much like the daiquiri, the mai tai has taken a beating in the course of the drink “Dark Ages.” Truth be told, the mai tai is a sort of gussied-up daiquiri. Trader Vic—so the much-told story goes—around 1944 wanted to create a drink that would become a new classic. He had some 17-year-old Jamaican rum (the storied and now-$50,000-a-bottle Wray and Nephew 17) lying around and wanted to use it. He added fresh lime to some shaved ice, along with the rum, a little double-simple syrup, some curaćao and finally orgeat; he then gave it a shake. The resulting cocktail was so amazing it reportedly had a Tahitian house guest exclaim, “Mai tai-roa aé!” (“The best, out of this world!”). A legend was born. Funnily, I heard (and repeated) this story long before I ever knew how to make a Trader Vic’s mai tai. Here’s where it gets juicy: A fellow with the pseudonym “Don Beach” had a place in Hollywood called Don the Beachcomber, and he accused Trader Vic (also a pseudonym, by the way) of taking “inspiration” from a rum punch he had on the menu. It was wellestablished that Vic had borrowed heavily from Beach’s business model and aesthetic; the two chains were busy becoming the basis for what we now call “Tiki.” According to Jeff “Beachbum” Berry (what is it with these guys and the nicknames?) at BeachbumBerry.com, Don had a cocktail on his menu called the “Mai Tai Swizzle” between 1933 and 1937, so there is that. It is also totally possible that Vic made up his drink on his own; who really knows? Either way, Beach threw his hat in the ring and marketed his own mai tai recipe, and premixed versions of “the Original Mai Tai” to compete with Vic in the marketplace, prompting a lawsuit. Vic won the suit, and most bartenders (including this one) concede that whatever happened, Vic’s recipe is the better one. Here it is, from the man himself, by way of DiffordsGuide.com:
One lime 1/2 ounce of orange curaćao 1/4 ounce of rock candy syrup 1/4 ounce of orgeat 2 ounces of Trader Vic Mai Tai rum; or 1 ounce of dark Jamaica rum and 1 ounce of Martinique rum Cut lime in half; squeeze over shaved ice in a mai tai (double old-fashioned) glass; save one spent shell. Add remaining ingredients and enough shaved ice to fill glass. Hand shake; decorate with spent lime half, fresh mint and a fruit stick. I would go with 3/4 of an ounce of lime, as size and juiciness vary. Rock candy syrup is an old-timey way of saying a syrup with two parts sugar to one part water. Good luck finding the Trader Vic Mai Tai rum, but the dark Jamaica and Martinique work great. Mix as above, using the best orgeat you can buy (or make); there are really good craft versions available now, for the first time in modern history. Oh, and the Don Beach version? It’s good, too, but if the Trader Vic version is a trickedout daiquiri, this one is more of a Hemingway daiquiri. From Don the Beachcomber, 1933, via PostProhibition.com: 1 ounce of gold rum 1 1/2 ounces of Meyer’s Plantation rum 3/4 ounce of lime juice 1 ounce of grapefruit juice 1/2 ounce of Cointreau 1/4 ounce of falernum 6 drops of Pernod or Herbsaint 1 dash of Angostura bitters Shake well with crushed ice; pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned glass; garnish with four mint sprigs. Avoid the clear falernum on the market for this recipe; you’re gonna want something craft-made and spice-forward. Never mind that, though; unless you’re a serious cocktail geek, the Trader Vic recipe is all you really need. However, if you find yourself at Bootlegger Tiki in Palm Springs (once it reopens), once the site of an actual Don the Beachcomber location, it’s totally acceptable to push Vic aside for a day. Escape from life the way your grandparents did; either version is pretty “mai tai-roa aé”! Kevin Carlow can be reached at CrypticCocktails@gmail.com.
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 25
JULY 2020
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New single ‘We Were Young’ features The Flusters’ sound—with a synth-driven twist Live music has returned to some restaurants—even though the government says it shouldn’t be allowed The lucky 13: meet reborn by the sunshine’s drummer (also a familiar face from the record alley) the lucky 13: Meet the guitar player for frankeatsthefloor
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Two decades after the band began in L.A., Empty Seat becomes an ‘overnight success’ in the CV
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New single ‘We Were Young’ features The Flusters’ sound— with a synth-driven twist
By matt king
P
sychedelic, dreamy, trance-inducing music performed by four cool guys in suits has been The Flusters’ trade for more than five years now. The band’s unique approach to surf and indie rock landed the group a 2016 spot at Coachella, countless awards—and even a national tour. The band is now shifting gears just a bit with new single “We Were Young,” The Flusters’ first release since debut album Dreamsurf, which came out early last year. It’s a synth-driven, ’80s-style tune that would be perfect for an openingVanSant said. “This (new song) was the product credits sequence. However, this is still very of Mario starting a bass line, me laying rhythm much a product of The Flusters, as trademarks and vocals, Danny (White) hitting some beats, from the band’s unique sound, such as waves and (Daniel) Perry creating a beat electronically. of reverb and danceability, carry over into “We It was much more of a calling-all-corners-of-theWere Young.” band writing process. I spoke to Doug VanSant and Mario Estrada “The song is also very pop. I’ve been wanting about the new song. to write new-wave for as long as I’ve been “When we released Dreamsurf, all of those wanting to write surf music. It’s interesting to songs and our name had already been estabsee how everyone’s musical background is fitting lished in the valley,” VanSant said. “We were into that. It’s been a bit of unfamiliar territory getting hired for a lot of corporate-level things; for all of us, but it’s been a lot of fun progressing people liked The Flusters’ style and approach, as a band into the style.” even to cover songs. We were getting a lot of VanSant’s unique vocals and guitarist Danny L.A. gigs and corporate gigs, and were even a White’s style remain big parts of the new sound. part of the ‘Find Your Own Oasis’ video made “As much as this is a new style, it’s very by the (Greater Palm Springs Convention and) Flusters-imprinted,” VanSant said. “As much as Visitors Bureau. (“We Were Young”) has been we are a surf band, we go into a little bit of postplayed live a few times. We put together the rock and shoegaze; we’re a very washy, vibey recording this last year, and have been waiting band. Our songs are all over, whether we’re for the right time to release it. We figured we’d playing a sort-of indie, Band of Horses sound release it now, right at the start of summer.” like ‘Lake St.,’ or some straight Tarantino surf This new sound is the result of a more collabwith ‘When It’s Late at Night,’ or doo-wop style orative effort in creating The Flusters’ music. with ‘Everyday Dreaming.’ Now with ‘We Were “It was a new approach for us, because I had Young,’ we still have those Flusters sounds of brought a lot of the early Flusters ideas into washy and dream-surf-y; just now it’s filtered the band with stuff that I had half-started,” through a new-wave, pop approach.”
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The Flusters.
Added Estrada: “It’s something that’s changing and evolving while we’re playing. We all have different musical headspaces, and come from different areas of music. It all comes together to create this Flusters sound.” I was curious whether this single represents a transition for the band. “We’re not scared to fall out of what people know us as,” VanSant said. “For a while, we thought we had to write ‘Flusters’ songs, and not just songs. We just got to the point where we realized that we don’t have this glass ceiling holding us within one genre. It’s really cool to move from album to album through different genres, and to explore—if you are that type of band that comes from different genres and musical backgrounds, like us.” “We have another single coming that holds somewhat of the same style. I’ve been toying around with some funkier sounds that fall more into a synthesizer-driven pocket. We’ve all been writing on our own due to COVID, so it will be really interesting to see what happens when we meet creatively again. We’re not scared to throw in any left-field style, because we know we can pull it off. “YouTube musician Marc Rebillet said it best: ‘No one gives a fuck about your artistic integrity; just make shit!’ I like how unafraid he is, and I want to use that as a mantra in my writing. I want everyone in our band to be able to express their style, because we can make it work. It’s gonna be interesting to meet to write again, because I’m not afraid of rejecting any style from anyone.” A main part of the band’s image has been the black suits. In some of the band’s more recent pre-pandemic shows, however, The Flusters were beginning to simplify the look. “I’ve always thought that it was cool showing up to a venue, and everyone knowing who the band is,” said VanSant. “Dudes like Louis Cole who show up in their pajamas are great, and I respect them, but I’ve always enjoyed the showmanship aspect of music. The suits were to establish a theme and create this
multisensory experience with our live shows, music videos, etc. Now it will be interesting to go to the drawing board again, costume-wise, and see what our new style will be based on the new sound. We’re the kind of band that pays attention to those details. We have gone a little casual while we redesign our look to move in a progression—just as our sound has.” When VanSant is not leading the Flusters, he is often creating with Tracker Studios, his production company. “We are planning to do a music video—but things are a touch challenging to finish that project right now, obviously,” VanSant said. “It’s going to be made by my production company, Tracker Studios. We live in a world where music begs for a multimedia experience, and being able to do that with my studio means we’ll really be able to take off. “It’s good to have my seat in both pools; they work together like peanut butter and jelly. We own and operate a rehearsal space with a fully loaded back and frontline for local bands to come in and rehearse. We are for locals. by locals, and half the price of a typical rehearsal space. VanSant said the band directed proceeds from the first several days of sales of “We Were Young,” which was released on June 5, to socialjustice organizations. “It’s a very interesting time to have a single release scheduled,” VanSant said. “… It is really important for us as a band to take action and recognize what is happening right now, and to not distract from the point trying to be made by activists. … We take this situation very seriously. Our hearts go out to everyone, and we have decided that all the proceeds that (were) made from (the first weekend) of our song sales would be donated to several social-justice organizations, such as ActBlue, Equal Justice Initiative and the Loveland Foundation, to name a few. I say this not because I want to brag about how charitable we are; I say it because you should be fucking doing it, too.” For more information, visit theflusters.com.
COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 27
JULY 2020
MUSIC DISREGARDING THE GUIDANCE By matt king
O
n May 22, restaurants in Riverside County were given the OK to reopen for dine-in service; three weeks later, on June 12, bars were given the go-ahead. However, because the coronavirus continues to spread, the permission to reopen came with restrictions: Tables and/or seats have to be six feet apart. Masks are required when a customer is not at his or her table. And—according to the state guidelines—most entertainment is not allowed. and restaurants have been promoting live The state of California’s COVID-19 performances anyway. We reached out to Industry Guidance for Restaurants, Bars five of these restaurants—and received no and Wineries, last updated on June 5 and response from four of them: Palm Canyon being echoed by Riverside County, states: Roadhouse, Wildest Restaurant, AJ’s on the “This guidance is not intended for concert, Green, and Bernie’s Lounge and Supper Club. performance, or entertainment venues (which Only Lana Ristich, the owner of Chef George’s are not yet allowed to be open). Restaurants, Restaurant in Bermuda Dunes, returned bars and wineries must discontinue this messages from the Independent. type of entertainment until these types of “We decided to bring entertainment back, activities are allowed to resume modified or because now things are very slow,” Ristich full operation. All events or gatherings that said. “The season is over now. It would would bring together persons from different be a completely different story if this was households, such as private parties, must be happening in March, when we were so busy. cancelled or postponed until further notice.” Now, in June, it’s slow, so we decided to have Despite these guidelines, some local bars entertainment, which is usually only one guy
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Live music has returned to some restaurants—even though the government says it shouldn’t be allowed
or girl on the stage, because it’s not a big deal. No one’s dancing or doing anything like they were before; they’re simply having a good time.” Ristich said Chef George’s has limited the number of people who can be in the building, per the mandates. “We are from Serbia, and restaurants and hotels are all open all over Europe,” Ristich said. “Everyone’s having a good time; no one cares about the virus. American television spreads so much fear about the virus. I understand being careful, and all of our employees and customers wear masks, but you have to take it off to eat. If you have the virus, how are you going to protect yourself that way? It doesn’t make any sense. We are just adhering to the code, and our bar only fits about 20 people now.” Ristich said she believes that allowing live music back into people’s lives will help them deal with this new normal. “Virus is virus,” Ristich said. “I know
it’s killing people, but people still have to live their life. If someone is sick, they are not going to go out. Older people should stay home, but younger generations with better immune systems might get sick from something worse by just staying home. I’m not so crazy about COVID-19. Everything is going step-by-step, but I think everything is OK with music in restaurants. It’s good to see people in our restaurant listening to live music with a drink in their hand. It reminds me of the old times.” Meanwhile, other bars and restaurants that normally offer entertainment are following the state’s guidelines—and possibly sacrificing business by doing so. One such place is The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert, which in “normal” times is one of the busiest entertainment venues in the valley. “We are taking this extremely cautiously,” said Brad Guth, the owner of The Hood. “We take the guidelines very seriously for the safety of ourselves and the customers. The county is discouraging live music, so at the moment, we are not going to proceed with live music until we see what the case rate looks like in Riverside County. We’re planning to reintroduce karaoke and bingo within the next couple of weeks—with beer pong being the last thing we bring back. “We are going with what the county says to do regardless of what other places are doing, which has been hard for customers to understand. I take both my health and the health of my employees and customers very seriously. The county is discouraging large crowds, and we are doing the same. We’ve cut hours and limited space, and we just want people to be safe.” Guth said the fact that some places are allowing live entertainment despite the state’s guidance is confusing both customers and local performers. “It’s been very difficult to explain why we are following the guidelines to customers,” he said. “It’s inconsistent throughout the valley, as some places are having entertainment again, and some are not. … I just can’t, with any good conscience, put myself or my staff in danger. We’ve had incidents where people have been crowding the bar late at night when we’ve asked them not to, and it’s hard to control. “It’s almost as if we’re the police now. We don’t want to be the police; we just want to be an enjoyable place to go, and ensure safety for all.” CVIndependent.com
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ALT-ROCK REVOLUTION By Matt king
A
n alternative-rock band gained success seemingly overnight after winning the first round of CV Weekly’s CV Music Showcase last year—and Empty Seat was soon performing at various venues and winning local awards. However, these weren’t overnight successes at all: The band has actually been around since 2000. Empty Seat originally hails from the Los relationships with venues and people.” Angeles area. Erin Marie (aka Red, because of Villalobos said the group recorded “Won’t her hair) is the frontwoman and lead vocalist, Wait” last fall, and planned to release it soon with Anthony Ferrer on guitar, Danny after. Broussard on bass and Rickey Villalobos on “Time started passing, and things started drums. Their take on alternative rock features lagging, and we were very eager to get it Marie’s vicious and powerful voice as the out as soon as we could,” Villalobos said. “It driving factor. was planned to be released earlier, but with The band just released “Won’t Wait,” a new everything going on in the world, we decided single with an accompanying video, available that this would be the earliest we were able to via YouTube, that is very pop-punk and get it out there.” grunge-esque. Marie’s attackiang vocal lines Added Marie: “We had some issues … that clash with Ferrer’s guitar chords, creating an held us back, but it eventually did come out. all-around rock punch to the face. We wanted to release it alongside the video, “It’s been almost eight yearsa since we’ve so we matched the times up with when the written new music,” Marie said during a recent video would be finished. Now we are getting phone interview I had with the band. “We took ready to come out with another single. If an eight-year break before we started in the everything goes OK, our next single and valley last year. We had two old albums that accompanying music video will be out by we took off the internet, because our sound August.” changed. It’s important that we get this new The band is planning to adjust its release music out quickly so we can build some better strategy to stay relevant.
Empty Seat. Ceasar Rodriguez
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Two decades after the band began in L.A., Empty Seat becomes an ‘overnight success’ in the CV
“In the old-school days, you did an album, then tour,” Villalobos said. “Now it’s a single, then a music video, then another single, and repeat. That’s what I’ve seen from other artists nowadays—just dropping singles. You can drop the whole album, but not everyone’s gonna buy the whole album; everyone will just take their favorite tracks and move on.” Marie added: “In today’s age, dropping an album or EP with six to 13 songs all available right away causes some people to forget about it. People listen to all the tracks, and then within a week, it’s dark. When you do a single at a time, you constantly keep people’s attention. There’s always something new instead of just dropping everything at one time. “We’ve been a band for almost 20 years now, and we have a lot of songs not even recorded yet. We have a lot in our bag; we can drop one every six months or so for a while.” Empty Seat admits that some changes need to be made in their merch department, too. “I still see some physical CDs at shows, but bands that are more advanced have download cards,” Ferrer said. “As we start to play live shows again, I’d love to include those to get our singles out to people. It would also be cool to have vinyl records for sale. When you become more advanced, you need to add to
your merch to make things more exciting.” Ferrer said that the members of Empty Seat are willing to evolve their sound, too. “I don’t care what genre we play,” Ferrer said. “It could be punk, slow, etc. If it’s good, I’m going to try to get the band to work to make the song. There might be something new coming out of this that is different from our usual sound. It’s going to be interesting to see how we evolve. I can’t wait to kick some ass and play a great show again.” Marie added: “But it’s mostly about having fun. One of the reasons we’ve been together for so long is because we’ve been having fun. If you look like you’re having fun onstage, the crowd is going to have fun with you. The beautiful production on “Won’t Wait” is owed to local producer and friend of the band David Williams, of Melrose Music. “We recorded the song at Modern Fuzz Recording Studios in Pomona, and had David Williams master it,” Marie said. “For the next single, we’ll do the whole process with David Williams. We’re planning to start the first week of July. We met (David) when we first performed at the CV Weekly Music Showcase last year. He was one of the judges, and it was a huge coincidence that he has a studio in both Palm Springs and Los Angeles. We’re previously from L.A., so we had a lot in common that helped sparked up our friendship. He’s been one of the most supportive and nicest guys to us.” Ferrer added: “He’s in the video, too! He showed up for the taping of the ‘Won’t Wait’ video, which was super awesome. People didn’t have to show up and support us, but he came, and it was such a huge deal.” The music video is a performance of the song at Little Bar in Palm Desert, with Chelsea Sugarbritches, BB Ingle and other local luminaries spotted in the crowd. Spliced in is footage of Ferrer and Marie cruising the streets of Hollywood. “We wanted to be really supportive of the valley, and we got so lucky that Little Bar in Palm Desert gave us full control of the bar, with no cost and no strings attached,” Ferrer said. “We wanted to film here and really showcase that this is where we’re from.” Marie added: “We also have shots of Hollywood. We’re really a part of both scenes, and our drummer still lives out there. The video is really a representation of both sides of us.” For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ EmptySeatband.
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MUSIC
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the
LUCKY 13
Meet Reborn by the Sunshine’s drummer and FrankEatstheFloor’s guitarist by matt king What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? Everyone has the right to love what they want; music is subjective. It’s great that everyone has different tastes in music. I really don’t hate any genre. Music is a form of art, and it just depends on what speaks to you. What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? I’ve always wanted to see Wilco play live. Everyone and their mother has seen them, but I haven’t gotten the chance. What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? The Get Up Kids. Yes, I was an emo kid.
NAME Scott McLaughlin GROUP Reborn by the Sunshine MORE INFO Scott McLaughlin is nothing but a positive influence on the local music scene. When he’s not helping people at the Record Alley, he’s making music with Americana rock-group Reborn by the Sunshine. For more information, visit rbtsmusic.com. What was the first concert you attended? MC Hammer, because I was too legit to quit, and, yes, my twin brother and I had some parachute pants. My mom has pictures to prove it. What was the first album you owned? My first album was Weezer (Blue Album), which I stole from my older brother. I liked it so much that I bought the guitar-tablature book at Sam Goody and learned every song on it. What bands are you listening to right now? Between teaching music to elementaryschool kids and having a 3-year-old, I’ve been listening to a lot of the Frozen and Frozen II soundtracks … (help). I’m also weirdly obsessed with Etta James. Sometimes I can hit those high notes in the shower.
What’s your favorite music venue? I loved playing the Troubadour in Los Angeles. No one was there except my band and my parents, but it still was awesome. The best of the best performed there, and it just felt special to be on that stage. What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head? “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” from Frozen. What band or artist changed your life? Besides the Blue Album, which got me into learning the guitar, the Beatles really influenced my education with songwriting and music theory. You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? To John Lennon: “Was Yoko worth it?”
NAME Aleks Romo GROUP FrankEatsTheFloor MORE INFO When FrankEatsTheFloor— my band, I should disclose—came into the local scene a few years ago, the valley was introduced to Aleks Romo. His guitar-playing expertise has been a huge asset, as his styles range from intricate indie-rock lines to hardhitting punk chords. I should also disclose one more thing: On top of being an excellent guitar player, he is also my best friend. For more on FrankEatsTheFloor, visit www. facebook.com/FrankEatsTheFloor.
Brian Blueskye
What was the first concert you attended? Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band at Fantasy Springs. He kept asking the crowd, “What’s my name?” What was the first album you owned? Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. I got it at a thrift store in Coachella. What bands are you listening to right now? No Buses, Goodbye Honolulu, Mickey Darling, and Radiohead. What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? K-pop is something that bewilders me, and I don’t understand why there’s such a big following for it all of a sudden. “Gangnam Style” is still cool, though. What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? Mickey Darling. They haven’t had any shows as far as I can tell, but I’d love to go with friends. What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? Imagine Dragons. What’s your favorite music venue? Music Box in San Diego. What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head? “Then I’m screaming in my head / When I’ve got nowhere to go / And I’m falling into bed
/ On a high chemical low / And I know I’m bound to lose / When I feel the need to use / Why I’m full,” ”I’m Full,” by Wallows. What band or artist changed your life? PUP helped me get through a lot of hard times. Their energy uplifted me no matter the circumstance. You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? I would ask Kondo Styling from No Buses how he composes his music, and why he makes it in English with such metaphorical lyrics. What song would you like played at your funeral? “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters, and anything friends would relate to me. Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Remo Drive, Greatest Hits. Yes, that’s the name of the album. What song should everyone listen to right now? “Hurricane Jane” by Black Kids.
What song would you like played at your funeral? Probably a Reborn by the Sunshine song. Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga album. Reminds me of good times with good friends. What song should everyone listen to right now? Charles Bradley, “Changes.” CVIndependent.com
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OPINION SAVAGE LOVE
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RUIN HER FANTASY? BY DAN SAVAGE
I
’m a 32-year-old straight guy. My wife and I have been married for four years and together for nine. We have a great marriage, and all is well. We have been quarantining at home since March. During this time, we have been exploring things sexually, which has been really fun. We have also been talking more about our kinks and fantasies. One thing my wife really wants to try is an MMF threesome. I’ve agreed, and she’s been talking about how hot it will be to make this happen once quarantine is over. She is particularly turned on by the fact that this would be my first sexual experience with another guy. The only issue is, in reality, it won’t be. The truth is that when I was in high school, a guy friend and I fooled around a few times. I have no regrets, but those experiences only served to reaffirm that I preferred women. I never did anything with any other guy, and I never felt the need to mention these early experiences to my wife. She just assumed I’d never had a same-sex encounter. Now I feel like I’ve misled her or lied to her somehow. Should I tell her the truth, or just let her believe our MMF threesome would be my first time with a guy? Nervously Omitted Homosexual Occurrences, Mostly Oral If your wife reads my column, NOHOMO, then you’ve just told her the truth, and the advice that follows is moot. So here’s hoping she doesn’t read my column: You don’t have to tell your wife about the handful/mouthful of times you messed around with another guy in high school. If you’re like most straight guys with one or two cocks in your past, NOHOMO, I’m guessing you didn’t tell the wife because you didn’t want her to feel insecure or spend all her free time
corresponding with advice columnists about whether her husband is secretly gay. In fairness to the wife, NOHOMO, not every woman whose straight-identified male partner admits to a little same-sex messing around worries her boyfriend or husband is going to leave her for a dude (or all the dudes). But this worry is common enough to be something of cliché. A straight guy doesn’t even have to admit to having sucked one dick one time for his wife or girlfriend to worry he’s secretly gay; I get at least one letter every day from a woman who’s worried her husband is gay because he likes to have his nipples played with or his butt touched or because he has feelings. So while it’s not ideal that straight-or-mostly-straight guys don’t feel they can be honest with their wives about their long-ago and far-away same-sex experimentation, NOHOMO, it’s understandable that many straight guys err on the side of
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Should I tell my wife that I fooled around with a guy while I was in high school?
keeping that shit to themselves. But your question isn’t, “Why didn’t I tell her then?” but rather, “Should I tell her now?” And I don’t think you have to. She wasn’t harmed by this omission—you didn’t deprive her of information she was entitled to—and disclosing now would only serve to deprive her of something, i.e., the excitement she feels about being there to witness what she thinks is your first same-sex encounter. My wife questions my use of the word gay as being potentially offensive, and I’d like to get your take. I’m male, and my male friends like to flirt and joke about performing sex acts on each other. We’ve never actually carried through with it, but I consider myself on the “spectrum” and might be open to gay sex. My male friends and I say we’re being or acting gay (though we’re all practicing heterosexuals), and this is where my wife takes issue. For example, I might say, “We’re so gay!” in our conversations, but the word is used in a positive way. My wife makes the point that the word has a history of being used negatively, so may be considered offensive, and should only be used casually by people who are more legit gay. Should I stop using the word gay this way? Gay Poser Jesus, just suck off one of your male friends already, and then you have my permission to keep using “gay” as compliment, GP. I’m a 35-year-old seemingly straight man, but in the past year—roughly corresponding with the longest sex drought in the history of my adulthood—I’ve had recurring wet dreams where I suck myself off. Probably a dozen or so of these dreams, all up, and I very much enjoy both sides of the transaction. What do you think it means? Am I witnessing the stirrings of some latent bisexuality, or am I just desperate? Should I heed the call? Originally Unilateral Regarding Oral But Oneiromancy Reveals Opening Sexuality I usually don’t allow elaborate signoffs, OUROBOROS, but I’m making an exception for yours, because it’s brilliant. (To save my other readers the trouble of googling: “Oneiromancy” is the interpretation of dreams to predict the future, and an “ouroboros” is an image of snake swallowing its own tail, often used an infinity symbol.) That said, I’m not sure there’s really any call to heed here—other than a call to start doing the kind of stretching that would allow you to suck your own cock if you were to get limber enough, and your cock is long enough.
But a desire to suck one’s own cock—or even an attempt, successful or not—doesn’t mean a man is latently bisexual or gay. I assume you’ve been masturbating for more than two decades, OUROBOROS, and just as there’s nothing gay about all those handjobs you’ve given yourself, there’s nothing gay about the blowjobs you can only dream about giving yourself. I’m that rare gay man who doesn’t like sucking dick. It wasn’t hard for my VGL husband to find guys who wanted to blow him before quarantine, and for years, I didn’t ask about it, because I didn’t want to know the details. But I knew he had video on his phone of some guys blowing him that he sometimes watched, and I recently asked to watch one—and I was completely shocked. It wasn’t just a blowjob. He spat in the guy’s face, called him homophobic names, and was just generally brutal. The intensity and violence wasn’t something I’ve ever detected in my husband. When I pressed my husband, he shrugged and said, “That’s how a lot of guys like it.” I’m not sure what to do. Gay And Gloomy Guy Extremely Disturbed Do you disapprove of your husband treating someone that way, or are you disappointed that your husband has never treated you that way? If it’s the former, well, don’t watch any more videos of your husband throat-fucking his subby cocksuckers. If it’s the latter (and I suspect it is), GAGGED, then you’re going to need to figure out how to articulate that clearly—something you failed to do in your letter—so you can tell your husband you’d like it like that, too. Maybe you’d like anal like that? Dear readers: This is gonna feel a little weird stuck onto the end of this column, I realize, but I wanted to say something about protests all over the country and the world. While I haven’t been able to personally attend a Black Lives Matters protest—I have deeply shitty lungs, and I’m concerned about the coronavirus—I fully support everyone who has taken to the streets to protest the violence of systemic racism. While I can’t be at the protests, my husband and I made a donation to bail funds to help out people who were arrested at them. (Donate at actblue.com/donate/bailfunds.) Please keep marching; please wear your masks (they work!); and please—please—make sure you and everyone you know is registered to vote. Read Savage Love every Wednesday at CVIndependent.com; mail@savagelove.net; @ FakeDanSavage on Twitter; savagelovecast.com.
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OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD
42 I’m Gonna Git You ___ (Keenen Ivory Wayans film) 43 Clueless actress Across Donovan 1 “Interstate Love Song” 44 Powerful sphere band, briefly 45 “___ a Kick Out of You” 4 Fiddler on the Roof (Cole Porter song) dance 47 First name in the 2020 8 Frenzied campaign 14 Some old Chryslers 49 *Home of Indira 16 Former Georgian Gandhi International president Airport Shevardnadze 54 Prefix meaning “egg” 17 *Pioneering video 55 Nickname of a game company ’50s-’60s sitcom kid founded in 1972 56 Freudian error 18 Egyptian goddess of 59 Is untruthful with love 62 *Former TLC reality 19 Like almost all show about tattooists restaurant orders these 65 Candle material days 66 “Go easy on me” 20 Plate 67 Bequeaths 22 Lennon’s second wife 68 Show that moved from 23 *Japanese variation on Fox to ABC, familiarly a frozen dessert 69 “I just finished the 28 Like old wristwatches puzzle!” exclamation 30 “I know! Pick me!” 31 Turn bad Down 32 “Where ___” (song by 1 “Get a move on, Beck) Mittens!” 35 “Wow, cool!” 2 The Wizard of Oz dog 39 *Redundant-sounding 3 Down-to-earth title for an X-Files agent 4 ___ polloi “Take Two”—one of each to connect. By Matt Jones
5 Sash for a kimono 6 “Amazing” magician famous for debunking 7 PC character system used for some “art” 8 Laugh from Beavis 9 When Your Child Drives You Crazy author LeShan 10 Partner of paste 11 Lake between two states 12 Richie Rich’s metallic, robotic maid 13 Format for Myst, back then 15 Emulate Pavlov’s dogs 21 ___ Brothers Records (longtime label for “Weird Al” Yankovic) 24 Invention of new words 25 House Hunters cable channel 26 Did a Cuban ballroom dance 27 Cassowary’s cousin 28 Kennel noises 29 Chef Matsuhisa who co-owns a restaurant with Robert De Niro 33 Be really mad 34 Comm. from some translators
36 Characteristic of Schonberg’s music 37 “Boys for Pele” singer Amos 38 “It’s either hunt ___ hunted” 40 “Just joking around” 41 Publisher’s multidigit ID 46 Macaroni shapes 48 “Mr. Mojo ___” (repeated words in The Doors’ “L.A. Woman”) 49 Nick of Cape Fear 50 Dasani rival 51 Handle with skill 52 Fancy way of saying “feet”? 53 Covered with green creepers 57 Lost ___ Mancha (2002 documentary) 58 It’s seen near the hyphen 60 Traffic sign warning 61 Pull along 63 It may come after long 64 Blanc behind Bugs © 2020 Matt Jones Find the answers in the “About” section of CVIndependent.com!
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