Coachella Valley Independent July 2022

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JULY 2022

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 Dennis Wodzisz Contributors Max Cannon, Kevin Carlow, Melissa Daniels, Charles Drabkin, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Clay Jones, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Cat Makino, Brett Newton, Greg Niemann, Dan Perkins, Theresa Sama, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month.

All content is ©2022 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader.

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

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

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The damn thing finally got me.

While we will never know for sure, our best guess is that my husband and I were exposed at some point during a full day of air travel. It was a Saturday, and the airports were packed. Whenever we were around people and not eating, we wore masks. About 95 percent of the people around us didn’t.

We felt fine on Sunday and Monday. In fact, I had lunch with a colleague on Monday—and that night, four of our friends came over for dinner.

Tuesday morning, I woke up with a sore throat. I didn’t think much of it—due to allergies, I regularly have a mildly sore throat—until my husband told me that he, too, had a sore throat, and felt like he was “coming down with something.” So we broke out the at-home COVID-19 tests.

The positive line appeared almost instantly on mine. To double-check things (I thought perhaps I placed too many drops on the indicator), I took a second one, of a different brand. It, too, came up positive.

(Interestingly, my husband tested negative with the at-home test; he was able to get a PCR test later that day at CVS. The results arrived the next day—confirming he, too, was positive.)

The phone calls to my colleague with whom I had lunch, and the friends with whom we had dinner, were not fun. I felt guilty, like I had done something wrong.

They assured me I had not.

Later on Tuesday, I started to feel like crap.

By Tuesday night, I had a 101.3 degree fever and felt terrible. As I tried to go to sleep, my eyes burned, as if I’d rubbed them after slicing up a jalapeno. I couldn’t believe this was a COVID-19 thing … but sure enough, it can be.

As I went to bed Tuesday night, I was concerned about my ability to get this issue to press by our Thursday evening deadline.

Thankfully, the brain fog I had at times Tuesday was gone on Wednesday.

As I write this Thursday morning, my husband and I are both managing. This now feels like an average cold to me; it feels a little worse to my hubby. I am petrified to think how this may have gone had I not been vaccinated and boosted, and had my husband not been vaccinated and double-boosted.

By now, most Americans have had COVID19—and a whole lot of us will get it again, because the new omicron subvariants are quite contagious, and very good at evading immunity. According to Palm Springs wastewater tests, virus levels have been very high now for two full months.

Be safe. Get boosted. And you may want to consider wearing a mask when you’re indoors and surrounded by a lot of people.

Welcome to the July 2022 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent. As always, thanks for reading.

—Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com

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OPINION OPINION

HIKING WITH T I

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

How to avoid trouble while hiking in the desert during these months of extreme heat

BY THERESA SAMA

f you’re a regular reader, some of what follows may seem redundant from columns this time last year—but if you follow the local hiker-rescue statistics during the months of April through September, you will agree that some things need to be repeated, for safety’s sake!

Hiking in the desert during these months of extreme heat can not only be brutal; it can become life-threating in a matter of minutes. Even the most experienced hikers can find themselves in trouble.

Approximately 50 hikers a year are rescued from trails in Palm Springs and surrounding areas due to dehydration or injury, said Berenice Tratter, a Palm Springs Mounted Police Search and Rescue volunteer, in a video posted on the group’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/psmpsar) been times when she did not take proper on March 21. precautions and ended up getting in over her Temperatures rise quickly throughout the day, so it is a good idea to get out early and do head.

“It happens to most people I know who shorter hikes so you can be off the trails by spend time on the trails,” Marnie says. (I about 10 a.m. on the hottest days. The USDA admit that includes myself.)

Forest Service recommends avoiding hiking Hesson says she has lost count of the between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on hot days. number of overheated people to whom she I try to adjust my hiking schedule around has given water—including one woman in the heat. Sometimes, I do an alternative her 70s who was hiking with her husband in workout in the pool—treading water and Murray Canyon with just a small bottle of swimming laps—following my morning run. water and no hats on a 90-degree day in June.

Also, many surrounding areas, less than a “She was red faced and obviously exhausted two-hour drive away, offer hiking trails in as they walked by me,” Hesson says. “I noticed cooler climates. It’s a great time for desert the signs of heat exhaustion, gave them dwellers to break away from the heat. water, and suggested that the lady sit for a If you are going to be out on the trails, few minutes to rest. After re-hydrating, she please remember to always take more water was tired but felt better, and they headed than you should need—at least one liter down the trail back to their car.” per hour. It’s a good idea to wear a bandana I have had similar experiences. I once or cooling towel around your neck. Seek came across an elderly gentleman who had shade whenever possible; don’t be on the overheated while on the Palm Springs Goat trails during high heat hours; and always be Trails coming from Murray Peak. It was midprepared for the unexpected. Have a plan! In morning during the summer months, getting addition, don’t forget the 10 desert essentials hot—and he had run out of water. I gave him (www.desertmountains.org/ some water and hung out with him for a bit 10-essentials) suggested by Friends of the Desert Mountains. Following these guidelines to make sure he was going to be OK. Another instance happened in the can really make a difference—and quite Whitewater Preserve, where an elderly couple possibly save your life. was hiking the Canyon View Loop, but missed Even though I am an experienced hiker, staying on the loop at the split (which is easy I have found myself in trouble many times to do) and ended up on the Pacific Crest Trail (sometimes not related to heat) while out in the San Gorgonio Wilderness area, headed on the trails. So far, I have been extremely toward Morongo. They were more than a fortunate and have always made it out on my mile from the Loop Trail when I came across own. I credit that to always practicing safety them. My first thought was: How in the world and taking preventative measures to avoid a did they get here!? The gentleman was at the rescue. I hope this good fortune will continue bottom of a long hill, while the lady was about throughout my future hiking days. halfway up the hill, yelling at him and trying I spoke with a great friend and hiking to get him to turn back. He was on his knees buddy, Marnie Hesson, who was raised in when I got to him—in trouble. I sat with him Palm Springs and grew up exploring the for a bit and helped them get back up the hill mountains and nearby canyons. She knows and to the Loop Trail. to follow certain rules and take precautions People of all ages and experience levels can when spending time in nature. Hesson experience trouble while out on the trails; realizes that living and hiking in the desert like I said, I have been there myself. If you requires more caution than in most other ever encounter someone in distress, help that places—yet even she admits there have CVIndependent.com

A view of the area including the Wild Horse, Clara Burgess and Goat trails, coming down from Murray Hill. It can be very warm here by mid-morning—and there’s little to no shade, so a lot of hikers, bikers and runners get into trouble. Theresa Sama

person out; that is what we hikers do. Aside from having your essentials with you, don’t go out alone if possible—and if you do go out alone, tell someone when and where you’re going, and let them know when you arrive back safely.

Also, know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion (dizziness, headache and clammy skin) and heat stroke (dizziness, nausea, vomiting, a lack of sweat, confusion and disorientation).

If you start experiencing any symptoms, get out of the heat; drink water; and eat a snack. Stay calm! Don’t panic! Don’t try to

continue on if you’re exhausted; instead, seek shade, and stay put.

Correction In last month’s column, I inadvertently omitted the funding sources for the acquisition of Palm Hills and the Goat Trails.

Nearly 4,000 acres of land—including Palm Hills and the Goat Trails—was preserved thanks to facilitation by Oswit Land Trust, and funding provided by the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, and the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission.

I apologize for the error.

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NEWS

JULY 2022

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS MAKE THE EASY CHOICE

MAKING MORE MEALS THE #1 CHOICE COMFORT AIR

Mizell Center raises funds to expand its 70-year-old kitchen

by KEVIN FITZGERALD

A

ccording to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 54.1 million people in the United States were 65 and older as of 2019—up from 39.6 million in 2009. That population is projected to reach 80.8 million by 2040, and 94.7 million by 2060.”

Of course, not all seniors are financially well off—and that’s where the Riverside County Meals on Wheels program comes in, providing homebound and often financially insecure seniors with enjoyable, healthy meals.

The Mizell Center in Palm Springs operates its MOW program under a contract with the county. In addition to delivering those meals to the homebound, Mizell operates a daily county between 2010 and 2060—the highest congregate meal program at the building on projected growth rate in the state. The number Ramon Road and Sunrise Way. That’s also of seniors over the age of 85 is projected to where the kitchen that produces all of those increase by more than 710%. meals is located—and as the number of “We know that there are more seniors out meals continues to grow, that small kitchen is there who need our services,” Winter said. “In becoming more and more inadequate. many ways, we’ve been able to accommodate On April 10, Mizell kicked off a fundraising them in other aspects of our organization, campaign during the “Home at Last” event. but the meal program is limited by what we The goal: to raise $1.3 million to expand and actually can do. We were able to bump up to renovate Mizell’s kitchen. the 800 (needed daily meals), but I don’t know “The whole thrust of this kitchen how long we could have sustained that. Right renovation is to be able to feed more people, now, we’re making 650 (meals per day) work, more efficiently,” said Wes Winter, Mizell’s but it’s a small, crowded work environment executive director, during a recent phone interview. “We want to address food-insecurity for the staff. So part of (the expansion) is to increase our capacity to generate more meals, needs for seniors here in the Coachella Valley, but another part is to make safer and more and this is a way that we can do that. It will comfortable working conditions for the people give us a giant shove forward, so we’re very who are preparing all of those meals.” excited by this whole project.”

According to 2020 Census data at The 642-square-foot kitchen was originally CensusReporter.org, almost 110,000 people 65 built more than 70 years ago. The renovation years of age and older live within the boundaries would add more than 1,100 square feet to the of the Coachella Valley’s nine cities—so it’s kitchen—making it 1,776 square feet, to be likely there are far more than 650 seniors who exact. could use Meals on Wheels’ help. Some of “The need is there,” Winter said. “… During that remaining need is met through Mizell’s (the worst days) of the COVID pandemic, our congregate meal service, which takes place every numbers increased tremendously: We went weekday at lunchtime. During the earlier days of from about 450 meals per day to about 800 meals per day. That huge jump made it so clear the COVID-19 pandemic, the congregate meals were discontinued to protect both patrons and that our current kitchen just is not adequate staff—seniors could pick up pre-prepared meals for the job that we need to do. Now that instead—but in May, hungry patrons were COVID has calmed down a bit, the numbers finally welcomed back for in-person lunches. have dropped down to the 650 (meals per day) “At the end of last June, we opened building range, but we don’t anticipate that they’re HIGHEST QUALITY EQUIPMENT BEST PRICE GUARANTEED access to members only with vaccines, masks going to drop down below that. andLOCAL hand sanitizer,” Winter said, “Then, “AndEXTENSIVE we need a better kitchen. That kitchen 24/7 WARRANTIES SUPPORT several weeks later, we opened to another level, was built in 1951 as part of the old fire and then another, and another. Congregate station. While the rest of the building has had SAVE UP TO dining was the last place we needed to get to about 11,000 square feet added on to it, the (as part of our reopening). Now that COVID kitchen was never renovated. It has had new is relaxing, the whole point to a congregate equipment installed, but it’s the same tiny, meal program is that folks are dining together.

642-square-foot kitchen that it always was.

They’re gettingSYSTEM out of their homes, and they’re That’s just not sufficient to do the job that LENNOX SIGNATURE SERIES *SAVINGS AND RESULTS MAY VARY socializing, and recreating, and being part of a we’re being called on to do.” community. … Our goal has been to get back to According to California Department of as7much as we can.”

Aging projections, Riverside County will 6 0normalcy .320 . 5possibly 800 CALL TODAY FOR DETAILS! As of this writing, the Mizell Center has experience a 248% increase in the number c o m f o r t a c . c o m no COVID-19-related safety restrictions in of seniors age 60 and above living in the

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This 70-year-old kitchen at the Mizell Center is due to be renovated and expanded as soon as the required $1.3 million is raised.

place for members and visitors, although staff members and volunteers are required to be vaccinated. Mask-wearing is encouraged, but not mandated.

“Currently, the attendance numbers in the dining room are not what they were before COVID,” Winter said. “Some of that’s because of the time of the year now. Many of the snowbirds have already gone back to where they live the rest of the year, and some of it’s because folks aren’t necessarily comfortable dining in a congregate setting yet. Still, every few days, we see the numbers increase. Right now, we’re serving about 65 folks per day in the dining room, and we’ve been careful to keep the tables spaced further apart than they used to be. But I think at this time of the year, pre-COVID, we were serving about 80 people a day.”

Winter estimates that about $520,000 of the $1.3 million needed for the kitchen expansion has been raised. How will the remaining $700,000-plus will be raised?

“We are relying on the folks who know and have loved the Mizell Center over our 47 years,” Winter said. “We’re counting on them to jump in, and many already have. That’s how we got to the point where we’re at today. Also, we’ve thrown our hat into the ring for City of Palm Springs Measure J funding, and we’re hoping to hear about that in the next month or so. That could provide some significant help, and we’ll broaden the campaign out to the community, so that more local community members—who may not be able to participate at a major donor level, but would like to

be part of the campaign—will be able to participate.”

Winter said the expansion timeline should become clearer once Mizell learns about the Measure J funding.

“If it’s a ‘yes,’ then how much funding we will be granted will tell us more about when we’ll be able to move forward,” Winter said.

“And then we’ll have to sit down with the contractor and find out when the contractor can actually begin the job. Then we’ll need some time to move our kitchen offsite for the period of construction. … Then we’ll need to secure another space to make sure that there is no hitch in meal preparation and delivery.”

Winter said he’s hoping the bigger kitchen leads to bigger and better things beyond Meals on Wheels and the congregate meals.

“What we’re imagining is that, with the newer, larger kitchen, we will be able to prepare more meals, and we will need additional staff,” Winter said. “… Also, over the past couple of years, we’ve been asked by other organizations—who have some sort of a client base that they’d like to provide meals for—if we could prepare those meals, and if they could contract out with us to provide that service. Up until now, we haven’t had the capacity to do that—but with the new kitchen, we will be able to take that on. … We’re looking at all kinds of growth areas for our kitchen. It all depends on getting it done.”

For more information or to donate, visit mizell.org/kitchen-expansion-project.

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NEWS

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CV HISTORY B

The Moortens traveled the world as desertplant experts—and even helped with Disneyland

by greg niemann

ack in the 1950s, when Palm Springs locals thought of cacti, succulents and other desert plants, they automatically thought of Patricia and Chester “Slim” Moorten, owners and founders of Moorten Botanical Garden on South Palm Canyon Drive.

The Moortens not only provided the desert landscaping for many of the Coachella Valley’s rich and famous homeowners; they were responsible for landscaping the route of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

They were also called upon to create a desert setting for a new amusement park in Orange County that would be known the world over as Disneyland. tuberculosis he had contracted—and, at one Pat Moorten had become a can-do woman point, he was given three months to live. in Palm Springs who knew what she wanted.

Slim immediately left the movie business According to “The Patricia Moorten Story” and moved to the desert for his health. He

by Christopher Griffin in Profile Weekly started mining gold in what is now Joshua Magazine, she said: “I knew what I wanted Tree National Park. Moorten’s Mill site is still to do from the time I was quite young. As a noted attraction there, a short hike down a young girl I had built a very fascinating a wash from the park’s Cottonwood Visitor garden in Ohio, but I maintained that Center. Nothing remains but a few old pieces someday, I would build a botanical garden of of equipment scattered about. desert plants.”

After five years, mining took a back seat in The fact that Ohio has almost no desert terms of his interests. He collected different flora didn’t stop her. Born Patricia Haliday varieties of cacti from all over the desert, even in January 1920, she waited until she was 17 going down into Baja California. Moorten years old and hopped on a train that brought soon was making more money driving around her out West in 1937. She settled in Los selling cacti than others were making from Angeles to study botany and horticulture at mining. both USC and UCLA, making frequent forays His health improved, and he settled in out into the deserts. She once told The Desert Palm Springs, where he began selling plants Sun, “For me, the desert plants were the greatest challenge; they’re the highest form of in 1938. Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten lived another 42 years, until his death in 1980. plant life on Earth.”

He and his bride, Patricia, opened their In a day when few women were accepted first nursery, Museo del Desierto, on five in the professional world, Patricia became acres in downtown Palm Springs. In 1942, the a research botanist. While working at a Moortens, moved their cactus museum north botanical garden in Santa Monica, she met on Palm Canyon Drive.

Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten, a desert As more and more celebrities established landscaping contractor and designer. Patricia homes in the area, the Moortens were knew about Slim and his work with desert called upon to create landscaping for clients plants, and she arranged to be introduced. including Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Red Their passion for deserts brought them Skelton, Lily Pons and Walt Disney, with together, and they married in 1940. whom they developed a close association.

Slim was a real Western character—a In addition to all their work at Disneyland, former orphan from Washington state who, they were consultants for Disney’s The Living as a young man, made a living hunting, Desert movie. fishing and trapping. He also worked as a In 1955, they purchased three acres on lumberjack and on the railroad before leaving South Palm Canyon Drive. It included a the Pacific Northwest.

Spanish Colonial Revival two-story home In 1927, he relocated to Hollywood. He built in 1929 for Stephen Willard, a renowned was tall, very thin, and had an ability to force local nature photographer/artist. his body into all sorts of weird contortions.

There, in 1957, Slim and Patricia He was hired on the spot by Mack Sennett established what has become Moorten Studios, where he became one of the Botanical Garden, at 1701 S. Palm Canyon Keystone Kops.

Drive. Originally called Desertland, today’s As a stuntman and character actor, he Moorten Botanical Garden has more than worked in silent movies and early talkies, 3,000 varieties of desert plants and the including movies with Buster Keaton and world’s first “Cactarium.” The nature trail W.C. Fields. Unfortunately, his poor diet, passes cacti and plants from American and lean frame and long hours did not help the

worldwide deserts. The Willard/Moorten Home is the centerpiece for what would become a special place for weddings and other private parties and events. Several TV shows have been shot on the grounds and lawn of the home.

Patricia Moorten developed an international reputation for her work. She wrote the highly regarded Desert Plants for Desert Gardens, which was selected as an official guide to the Coachella Valley. She and her husband traveled the world, giving presentations and designing landscaping. For example, they were invited by Hilton Hotels to do the hotel grounds in Cairo, Egypt.

Patricia was also on the first tram car to ascend Mount San Jacinto in 1963.

Very active in pioneering civic organizations, Patricia Moorten was co-founder and board member of the Desert Museum (now the Palm Springs Art Museum). She was also on the board of the Palm Springs Historical Society and Palm Springs Women’s Press Club, and she served as president of the National League of American Pen Women. She spent time as a Palm Springs commissioner of parks and recreation, was an ambassador of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, and brought the PTA to the Palm Springs Unified School District.

Clark Moorten, their son, is himself an expert in desert plants of the spiny variety, and is now owner/operator of Moorten Botanical Gardens.

“My mom was a walking encyclopedia about Palm Springs,” Clark said. “For many years she enjoyed greeting visitors in her lovely desert garden setting, now a favorite wedding locale.”

Patricia Haliday Moorten died at age 90 on

Patricia and Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten. Photo courtesy of the Palm Springs Historical Society

July 7, 2010, of natural causes. She and her husband were both honored with stars on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

Sources for this article include “The Patricia Moorten Story,” Profile Weekly Magazine, by Christopher Griffin; Palm Springs Confidential

by Howard Johns, Barricade Books, 2004; Desert Plants for Desert Gardens by Patricia Moorten, Best West Publications, 1969; and The Desert Sun.

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10 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

JULY 2022

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

CIVIC SOLUTIONS A

by melissa daniels

bout 30 kids are typing away on laptops at round tables inside an air-conditioned classroom in the heart of the College of the Desert campus in Palm Desert.

Little round discs called “circuit playgrounds” are plugged into their computers. The devices blink on and off with red, green and blue lights in sync with siren noises going off in rhythmic patterns. Four young adults keep their eyes spotted for raised hands as the kids type combinations of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.

To the untrained eye, it looks like cats walked across these keyboards. But as these students learned this week, this is a coding language called Python that’s frequently used in computer field. They also get exposed to what programming. community colleges can provide. And, best of The CODe program at College of the Desert all for parents, it’s a free way for kids to get out provides free computer science and coding of the house during the long summer months. lessons to students age 10 to 18 during oneProfessor Felix Marhuenda-Donate has week summer sessions. been teaching at COD for more than 15 years.

Beyond the technical skills, students learn During his tenure, he has gotten to know most about job opportunities in the technology

Professor Felix Marhuenda-Donate instructs during a session of CODe at College of the Desert. Cynthia Serna/ College of the Desert

CVIndependent.com

The CODe program travels across the valley to teach students about coding, college

of the school districts across the California desert via partnerships and dual-enrollment programs. He noticed how some schools have more advanced computer information systems (CIS) programs than others, and wanted to devise a way to reach those underserved kids.

He always noticed when it came time to recruit COD students, many didn’t consider computer science as a potential career path.

“The answer was always middle school: You have to reach out to the younger kids and scaffold them up to college,” he said. “But there were some schools that weren’t offering it, because they couldn’t.”

Five years later, CODe has grown from only being offered at the COD campus to spending a week at spots all over the desert. One session is still offered on campus, while “CODe on the Road” sessions throughout the summer make it easier for working parents who live in farther reaches of the desert.

For the first time this year, the program is being offered at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs through a partnership with the Desert Highland Gateway Estates Community Action Association, which advocates for community interests in the historically Black neighborhoods.

Additionally, CODe will be offered at West Shores High School in Salton City for a week this August. Other sessions are planned in Desert Hot Springs, Coachella and Mecca/Thermal.

“We’ve got a lot of land to cover out here,” he said.

Getting the program to this scale has involved some trial and error. MarhuendaDonate said this year, he and his team have passed out fliers to help spread the word in lower income neighborhoods. Working families may not be as likely to see all the updates from Peachjar, the online announcement service used by many schools.

“We weren’t really getting parents who work all the time,” he said. “We have to meet them where they are.”

The program is funded by the College of the Desert Foundation, thanks in part to a donation from Edison International, and is relatively low cost: For about $40,000 a summer, the five weeks of sessions can reach roughly 225 students. Demand is surging: About 125 students applied for the first week of the session, though about 45 seats are available each week.

Marhuenda-Donate hopes his program can serve as a model for how to create pipelines for diverse tech talent. The industry is largely white and male; Deloitte Global estimates just

33% of jobs at large technology companies are held by women, with 25% in technical roles.

And in 2019, though Black people made up 14% of the American population, they held just 7% of tech jobs, according to career site Zippia, while 62% of tech jobs were held by white people, 20% by Asian people, and 7% by Hispanic/Latinx people.

“They’re not getting those chances,” he said of underrepresented populations.

The disparity is often caused by a lack of exposure to the “behind the scenes” of tech early on, Marhuenda-Donate said. By running the CODe program in underserved communities, he hopes to disrupt the idea that working in tech is for “geniuses in hoodies.”

Given the demand for tech workers, it makes sense to promote the idea of working in computer science: Data from CyberSeek shows that the sector includes about 1 million workers in the U.S.—but that there are nearly 600,000 unfilled positions.

More broadly, Marhuenda-Donate hopes to create a pathway for kids to realize that college and high-paying careers are possibilities, whether in coding, tech—or anything else.

“As cheesy as it sounds, (it’s about) getting them to realize college is a possibility for them,” he said.

On the third day of this CODe session, siblings Colin, Liam and Emma, worked to figure out the Python assignment. Colin was playing with the code for the circuit playgrounds to make different color and sound combinations. Emma, 10, had completed hers and was quick to show a visitor some pictures of her hairless cats, Babushka and Voldemort, on her phone.

Colin, her older brother, said he likes how the course gets more challenging each day.

With the confidence of a pro, he changed a “0” to a “255” in a few lines of code, and his circuit playground started flashing red instead of green.

It’s well past 9 a.m., and Colin said he’s glad to be here.

“If it wasn’t for this, I’d probably still be in bed,” he said.

Emma, though she wants to be a professional soccer player, said she likes having somewhere to go during the day.

Sounds like they’re learning something. As the great stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote: “What do I have to complain of, If I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11

JULY 2022

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

JULY ASTRONOMY O

The month brings a promising

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight meteor shower—and chances to For July, 2022 This sky is drawnWay for latitude 34 degrees north, view ourchartMilky galaxy but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

N

By Robert Victor

n clear summer evenings after nightfall, the Milky Way is impressive—and well worth a trip to a dark site! Bright stars and constellations serve as a backdrop for the moon’s progress through the zodiac, culminating with a super moon on July 12 and 13.

Once the moon has departed, other stars serve as foreground for Milky Way star clouds. A long lineup of four bright planets is in good view before dawn all month. The South Delta Aquariid meteor shower reaches peak in the predawn hours of July 30.

Evening sky: At end of evening twilight in July, the two brightest stars, both of magnitude zero, are golden Arcturus, high in the west-southwest; and blue-white Vega, high in the east-northeast.

A bluish first-magnitude star, Spica, appears 33 degrees to the lower left of Arcturus.

About halfway up from horizon to overhead 40 minutes after sunset on July 13. in northwest at nightfall is a familiar group of On July 14, the moon rises shortly before the seven stars—six of second magnitude, and one end of evening twilight. On July 15, the 91 perof third magnitude—the Big Dipper. Using its cent waning gibbous moon rises by 2 1/4 hours curved handle, “follow the arc to Arcturus and after sunset, within 7 degrees to the lower left drive a spike to Spica.” Completing the Summer of Saturn. On July 16, moonrise occurs 2 3/4 Triangle with Vega are two stars of first maghours after sunset, allowing a short interval of E nitude, Altair to Vega’s lower right, and Deneb dark skies for Milky Way viewing. to lower left. In the southern sky at the end of The moon returns to the evening sky late in evening twilight—up one hour and 40 minutes month. On July 29, a half-hour after sunset, try after sunset on July 16—is the first-magnitude for the 2 percent crescent, 6 degrees up in the red supergiant star Antares, heart of Scorpius, west-northwest, with Mercury 3 degrees to its the Scorpion. This beautiful constellation is in lower left. Fainter Regulus, 9 degrees to their fine display at nightfall in July. upper left, will be a challenge.

July opens the season for excellent viewing of Morning sky: On July mornings, we note the Milky Way at nightfall. Observe from a dark the Summer Triangle with its imbedded Cygplace when the moon is absent or no more than nus Star Cloud in the western sky. The Milky 25 percent full. The best dates this summer for Way runs nearly overhead, from Capella in Milky Way viewing from nightfall until three the northeast, through Perseus, Cassiopeia, hours after sunset are July 1-3, July 18-Aug. 1, Cepheus, the Summer Triangle, and down to the and Aug. 17-31.

Sagittarius Teapot, already about to set in the Follow the moon in evening sky: Look for southwest as July begins. Soon, the Teapot and Regulus, heart of Leo, in the west, 6 degrees to the galactic center will slip below the horizon. the left of the 15 percent crescent on July 2; and On July 1 as twilight begins, Saturn is direct8 degrees to the lower right of the 22 percent ly south, nearly halfway up from horizon to crescent on the next evening. It takes the moon overhead, while brilliant Venus has just risen in eight full days after new to attain first quarter the east-northeast. On the line joining are two phase—on July 6, when it’s half full and 90 other planets, bright Jupiter and red Mars. degrees from the sun. That evening, find Spica 9 The order of these four planets throughout this degrees to the lower left of the D-shaped moon. month from east to west remains Venus, Mars, Moving closer to Earth and speeding up, the Jupiter and Saturn. On July 1, they span an moon takes only another 6.7 days to reach full. angle of 105 degrees.

On Sunday, July 10, find Antares just 3 degrees Wait until one hour before sunrise, when to the lower right of the 90 percent moon.

Venus has climbed a little higher. Using binocSuper moon: The closest moon of 2022 ulars, look for Aldebaran, eye of Taurus, the occurs overnight on July 12-13. So, combined Bull, just 4 degrees south (to the lower right) of with the moon illusion—our satellite seems Venus. Wait a few minutes longer on July 1 and larger at rising and setting—the moon will 2, and then look for Mercury in the brightening seem largest at its rising in the east-southeast to twilight, 13 degrees to the lower left of Venus. southeast shortly before sunset on July 12, and On July 1, the five planets from Mercury to at its setting in the southwest to west-southSaturn span 118 degrees—but Mercury will be west in twilight shortly before sunrise on July visible for only a few more days.

13. Only marginally smaller, but visually more Beginning with the full moon of July 13, we’ll impressive, will be the full moon rising in the see a lineup of the moon and four planets in the east-southeast to southeast in twilight less than morning sky. One hour before sunrise is a good

July's evening sky chart.

ROBERT D. MILLER

Castor Pollux

Deneb

29 Mercury Vega

Altair Regulus

W

Arcturus

Spica

Antares

Evening mid-twilight occurs time to look. waning moon pass the whenWatch Sun isthe 9 below horizon. four planets Julyin1:turn.

46 minutes after sunset.

46the " 95 "percent " On July 15,15:see moon within 31: lower 44 " right " of" Saturn. On the 9 degrees to the

next morning, the 89 percent moon will be 9 degrees to the upper left of Saturn.

On July 21, the 41 percent fat crescent moon appears within 2 degrees to the upper right of Mars. The next morning, the 32 percent crescent moon will appear 10 degrees to the lower left of Mars, and within 10 degrees to the upper right of the Pleiades star cluster. On July 23, the 23 percent crescent moon appears 5 degrees below the Pleiades and 9 degrees above Aldebaran.

On July 24, find the 16 percent lunar crescent 9 degrees to the left of Aldebaran, and 22 degrees to the upper right of Venus. On July 26, the slender 5 percent crescent moon is low in the east-northeast, with Venus within 4 degrees to its lower right. In east to east-south-

S

Stereographic Projection

east, watch for Orion coming sideways, with Map byup Robert D. Miller bright stars reddish Betelgeuse and bluish Rigel, and a vertical three-star belt between them. Using binoculars, look 15 degrees lower left of Venus for Gemini’s “twin” stars, Pollux and Castor, 4.5 degrees apart.

On July 28, the moon is new at 10:55 a.m.

The South Delta Aquariid meteor shower reaches peak in the predawn hours of July 30.

The radiant is highest in the south, about 13 degrees above the first-magnitude star Fomalhaut and left of Saturn, around three hours before sunrise.

The morning of July 31, four bright planets span 143 degrees, from Venus to Saturn.

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968, and still produces issues occasionally. To subscribe, visit www.abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

CVIndependent.com

12 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

On May 24, the California State Water

Resources Control Board announced some of the strictest water-conservation rules in the state’s history, following an executive order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom to address the worsening drought across our state.

These regulations are the latest in a series of efforts by the state to deal with the drought, following four previous emergency orders issued by the governor in 2021 (and a somewhat non-specific call for residents to save water made by Newsom on March 28). The new regulations call for a ban on irrigating nonfunctional (in other words, merely ornamental) grass with drinking water, and a requirement that urban water suppliers—including our local Coachella Valley water providers—implement the Level 2 water-usage-reduction actions previously established in water shortage contingency plans, to prepare for a water shortage of at least 20 percent.

However, the Coachella Valley is not like the rest of the state—and the area’s water districts want you to know that. The reason: Despite a relentlessly warming climate and the lengthy drought, we have The Aquifer.

Ashley Metzger, the director of public affairs and water planning at the west valley’s Desert Water Agency (DWA), spoke to KESQ/ News Channel 3 for a recent report on the drought hysteria gripping California and most of our neighboring states.

“If we did nothing and just continued on using water like we do today, we would still have north of 100 years of water,” Metzger told KESQ. The rationale: According to DWA estimates, Coachella Valley sits on top of an aquifer containing some 40 million acre-feet of water in just the top 1,000 feet of what is believed to be a 13,000-foot-deep underground reservoir filled with water, rock and sand.

That statement by Metzger served as a valuable counterpoint to a recent Los Angeles CVIndependent.com

JULY 2022

Times front-page story, headlined “Water Hits Scary New Lows.” Reporter Ian James laid out the threat posed to California residents by the worsening drought conditions of the past three years.

“As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels,” the article began, before quoting from Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton’s comments made during a recent U.S. Senate hearing.

The piece goes on to state that “federal officials now believe protecting ‘critical levels’

at the country’s largest reservoirs—Lake Mead and Lake Powell—will require much larger reductions in water deliveries” to the seven states, including California, reliant on the river’s waterflow.

“A warmer, drier West is what we are seeing today, and the challenges we are seeing today are unlike anything we have seen in our history,” Touton said.

While water from the Colorado River is not a primary drinking-water source for those living in Coachella Valley, it is a valuable source of non-potable water used to irrigate the agricultural fields located across our valley’s eastern end. Also, a noteworthy portion of its output, brought to our region via the Coachella Canal, is used by the

Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD)—the largest water manager and provider at the east end of our valley—along with the DWA to replenish the water stored in the aquifer, which benefits our entire valley and the six water districts/agencies that manage our region’s water supplies.

Make no mistake: That Colorado River water makes a significant contribution to the local water supply, because aquifer replenishment is a critical long term component to the water-supply management strategies of all the valley’s water providers.

For example, the MSWD’s water shortage contingency plan explains: “Because (water delivery) production exceeds the recharge provided by precipitation and return flows, the agencies use imported water to recharge the groundwater basin,” before specifying that the imported water sources include the Colorado River water delivered via the Coachella Canal.

In years when local precipitation levels are normal or better, water runs into the valley via the Whitewater River in the west, and can be directed to recharge/replenishment facilities.

However, we still have The Aquifer.

Lawns like this one, at the entrance to the Rancho Mirage Country Club, may soon look less green, due to a state ban on watering ornamental turf with potable water.

Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald

The majority of the rest of California is not as fortunate. For example, cities in Northern California, such as San Francisco and Sacramento, rely heavily on precipitation and mountain runoff—and they are facing serious challenges in the warmer summer months ahead.

“We are extraordinarily lucky for two reasons,” Metzger told the Independent in a recent interview. “One is that we sit on top of this aquifer that can act as a huge drought buffer, and it affords us the ability to manage water in the long term and not have to panic if significant droughts or dry events do occur.

Secondly, because of decades of really wise

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13

JULY 2022

water management by my predecessors and in Coachella Valley, we are the folks before them, thought was given in a desert, so our water to bringing water in from other places to use always looks like it’s replenish our aquifer—so we have something increasing, especially in the really special, and we’re working really hard to summer months, because protect it.” it’s hot, and we live in a dry, But Gov. Newsom and state water arid climate. We do not get authorities are not differentiating between a whole lot of rain.” our region, with our more-favorable water “But, on the other hand reality, and the rest of the state. Even though and overall, our residents there is no practical method by which any have been doing a great of the water stored in our aquifer could be job. If you look at overall transported to areas of the state in more years, and not just the serious need, the water use restrictions rolling last two years, we’ve done out of Sacramento are basically standardized a tremendous amount statewide. of turf removals and Then there are accusations such as the transitioning to desert ones made in a May story by Jay Barmann at landscaping. We’ve been SFist.com, which paint the Coachella Valley saving water since 2013, as a haven for drought deniers and water which was the baseline spendthrifts: “As we learned in March, the real (for water usage savings water hogs in California are in the southeast, computations) during our desert-y quadrant of the state—the Palm previous drought (in 2015).

Springs area, the Inland Empire, and Imperial Historically, California has County—where water use shot up by 19% drought, and for many between January 2020 and January 2022, years now, many water perhaps driven by more residents living there agencies have looked at 2013 for the baseline. full-time during the pandemic.”

But recently, the state has been looking at Metzger didn’t care much for Barmann’s 2020 (for baseline standards), although that is quote. proving to be a really challenging year because “It’s not really controversial to me, because of the pandemic.” we’re the hottest place in the state, so it’s Metzger agreed that the 2020 baseline is kind of obvious problematic. that we would be “I kind of take issue the highest water with the 2020 baseline, users,” Metzger because of the fact that said. “I don’t think we’re a highly seasonal calling us ‘water and tourist-based hogs’ is all that economy,” Metzger said. nice or appropriate.

“And when you try to We have different compare something circumstances here. to March or April of It takes a lot more 2020, you’re going to water to keep plants be looking at night and and people and day, because nobody everything running was here. Back then, than it does in a the whole country cooler climate. … We was in lockdown, but do use a lot more specifically, snowbirds water per person, left. … Not only that, but we also use more but the visitors and director of public affairs and air conditioning per vacationers stopped person. The lifestyle coming. So it’s water planning at the Desert out here is just a bit interesting that they Water Agency, on criticism different.” selected 2020 as a Lorraine baseline; the pandemic of the valley’s water usage Garcia, the CVWD really skews the communications specialist, had a similar numbers.” reaction when the Independent asked her While we all can, and should, do our part about Barmann’s piece. to conserve water, the largest demand on our “I would say that we do have a tourist Western water supply does not have to do economy, and we did have an influx of people with our homes; instead, it has to do with the coming into our valley during (later stages of region’s massive agricultural industry. the) pandemic,” Garcia said. “So that definitely John Entsminger is the general manager of will increase water use. And, specifically here the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which

“We’re the hottest place in the state, so it’s kind of obvious that we would be the highest water users. I don’t think calling us ‘water hogs’ is all that nice or appropriate.”

—Ashley Metzger

The Desert Water Agency’s aquifer-recharge facility. Photo courtesy of DWA manages water supplies to the Las Vegas area.

In the aforementioned June 14 Los Angeles Times piece, he points out that roughly 80% of the Colorado River’s flow is used for agriculture.

“However, and there’s no way around this, cities alone cannot address this crisis,” Entsminger told the Times. “… I’m not suggesting that farmers stop farming, but rather that they carefully consider crop selection and make the investments needed to optimize irrigation efficiency. By reducing their use of Colorado River water, agricultural entities are protecting their own interests.”

The CVWD—whose territory includes much of the eastern valley’s farmlands— delivers about 260,000 acre-feet of water annually that’s imported from the Colorado River via the 123.5 mile Coachella Canal, a branch of the All-American Canal. The water district supplies more than 1,200 irrigation customers, including 62,648 acres belonging to agricultural businesses, plus lands used as golf courses. Also, as we’ve pointed out, some of that imported water is used for groundwater replenishment.

“For our agricultural customers, we mostly use our irrigation system that (feeds) from the canal,” Garcia said. “Currently, we do not have any restrictions (imposed on the canal water), but we did have a public meeting with our ag customers to see what their interest was in the Colorado River conservation program. We discussed that if (those customers) were to change over to another (less thirsty) crop, or not use some land for a certain period of time, we could offer an incentive to conserve water in those ways. There has been some interest, so that’s something that we’re pursuing right now in anticipation of restrictions being

imposed on the Colorado River non-potable water.”

Residential and non-agricultural

commercial customers are already under usage restrictions that have been imposed throughout the valley—although figuring out the specific restrictions enacted by each water district can be hugely confusing.

“Back at our April 12 board meeting, our board activated actions in Levels 2 and 3, so those have been in effect since then,” Garcia said. “We were trying to be proactive—and Level 1 measures are always in effect now.

The state officially adopted their emergency regulations on May 24, and they’ve asked us to consider actions of our own. We’ll be going to our board to ask them to officially adopt the rest of the actions that were not included in the first round.”

The most notable new statewide restriction is the prohibition on using potable water to irrigate non-functional/ornamental grass areas. Other restrictions in place within CVWD territory include a prohibition on spray irrigation during daylight hours (but dripline systems can still be utilized during the day); and a reduction in outdoor water budgets by 10%. Also, overseeding is discouraged; water runoff onto streets and sidewalks from irrigation is prohibited; broken sprinklers must be fixed within five days; water waste patrols will be increased; restaurants can serve water only upon request; the turf=conservation rebate has been expanded; and HOAs are encouraged to suspend code enforcement and fines for brown grass areas.

At the west end of the valley, the DWA continued on next page CVIndependent.com

14 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

JULY 2022

Aquifer continued from Page 13

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has mandated similar, but slightly different, water-conservation methods. For instance, the DWA website’s “Restrictions” page includes the daylight-watering prohibition, the restaurant water-service restriction, and the order to control spray irrigation from landing on sidewalks and paved areas. In addition, it specifically lists a prohibition on watering during, and 48 hours after, a measurable rainfall; and bans using running water to wash vehicles. Agency customers are also encouraged to not empty and refill swimming pools through Oct. 31.

All six “CV Water Counts” member districts/agencies have reportedly been working to coordinate their water conservation actions to reduce any confusion.

“Our experience during the last drought was really informative,” Metzger said.

“It was a huge challenge because of the fact that people live in one city, work in another city, pick their kids up from day care in a third city, and eat at a restaurant in a fourth city.

Everything is so interconnected that having different rules in these different places that don’t even match city lines and are just random water agency jurisdiction (boundary lines) made things really complicated—and it hampered our ability to do more cost-effective regional messaging. So one goal that we had was to collaborate, and for the first time ever, we did a regional urban water management plan that was completed in the summer of 2021.

Also, we took our water-shortage contingency plans and aligned them so that the elements that the customers have to implement in each area are, by and large, the same. That’s great, because we’re doing a $100,000 ad buy regionally on conservation messaging through CV Water Counts, and I don’t think that’s something we could have done if we didn’t take the steps necessary to align all these things.”

Enforcement policies also seem to vary across the different valley water-agency territories. For DWA customers: “There are citations that start at $50 for a single-family

home, and $100 for every other type of customer, and they increase per infraction,” Metzger said. “The first tickets that we give people are essentially ‘fix-it’ tickets. They can either show us proof of repair or apply for an incentive, and we’ll wave the first citation. If they don’t (take action), they’re going to get a citation fine on their bill.”

As for the CVWD? “Right now, we really want to work with our customers,” Garcia said. “We’ll do written warnings, and there can be fines, but we really want people to fix water wasting issues like broken sprinklers.

Again, it’s all about us working with all of our customers to get through this drought period and make sure that we reduce our water use.”

All six local agencies continue to offer water-savings incentives. Both the CVWD and DWA have raised their turf-removal rebates from $2 to $3 per square foot of turf that is permanently replaced with low-water-use options. Also, all of the agencies offer a selection of incentives involving smart irrigation controllers, low-flow toilets, washing machines and the like.

But make no mistake: More severe restrictions could be coming if the drought conditions persist statewide. Topping that possibilities list could be a limit on all outdoor irrigation to two or three specific days of the week.

“We’ve done what the state asked of us, which was to go to Level 2 and inform our customers about the state’s prohibition on watering non-functional turf … when it does not impact the health of trees and shrubs,” Metzger said. “We’re just working really hard to let people know what’s going on, and also that they shouldn’t panic. It’s really easy to hear about all of these things that are happening, and assume that we must be running out of water.

“It’s important that (customers) know it’s incumbent upon us to make sure they don’t run out of water, and it’s something that they have invested in. … We don’t need to panic.

We’re not in a crisis or an emergency here in the Coachella Valley in terms of any possibility that we’ll run out of water anytime in the next several years. That’s not where we are—and we’re lucky not to be in that place.”

John Entsminger is the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which manages water supplies to the Las Vegas area. He points out that roughly 80% of the Colorado River’s flow is used for agriculture. “However, and there’s no way around this, cities alone cannot address this crisis,” Entsminger told the Los Angeles Times.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15

JULY 2022

2022 EVENTS

DATE

EVENT

June 28

How to Become LGBTQ+ Certified

June 30

Palm Springs Art Museum's Summer Film Series

June 30

The Power of Story - How Gay Media Put Palm Springs on the Map

June 30

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino Fireworks

July 1–4

Agua Caliente Casinos 4th of July Weekend Celebration

July 2

Drone Show and Concert - Petty & the Heartbreakers

July 4

Palm Springs 4th of July Events

July 4

Palm Springs Cultural Center's July 4th Celebration

July 4

July 4th Celebration & Fundraiser for AAP – Food Samaritans

July 7–Aug 12

Taste of Summer Rancho Mirage

July 15–17

Out in the Vineyard: Gay Wine Weekend

July 16–17

San Diego Pride Festival/Parade

July 1–24

Roost Lounge's Christmas in July

Aug 12–14

Splash House August - Weekend 1

Aug 18–21

Big Bear Romp

Aug 19–21

Splash House August - Weekend 2

Sept 9

Out on the Mountain

Sept 15–25

Cinema Diverse

Sept 16–18

Gay Days Anaheim

Sept 17

Positively Aging Conference

Sept 21

Business Expo & Taste of Palm Springs

Sept 21–25

Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend

Oct 1

Pride Under the Pines

Oct 13–16

Modernism Week Fall Preview

Oct 15

Casual Concours

Oct 28–30

Leather Pride

Oct 30

Palm Springs Halloween on Arenas

Nov 4–6

Palm Springs Pride & Pride Parade

Nov 11–13

Palm Springs Women's Jazz Festival

Nov 18–20

McCormick's Collector Car Auction

Jan 5

Palm Springs Int. Film Festival Awards Gala

Jan 6–16

Palm Springs Int. Film Festival

Feb 16–26

Modernism Week

Feb 23–27

International Bear Convergence / IBC

May 12–14

White Party Global

Celebrating All the Colors

in the Rainbow

#ILoveGayPalmSprings CVIndependent.com

16 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

JULY 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

I REMEMBER STARS

By DAVID CHURCH

A

s the inventor of the phonograph, incandescent light and motion pictures, Thomas Edison is renowned for illuminating the darkness. But did his greatest invention ever see the light of day?

Hiding in plain sight between the lines of history, Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation imagines the Wizard of Menlo Park’s decades-long quest to penetrate the veil between life and death.

While a work of fiction, the novel is inspired by the mysterious circumstances of Edison’s actual, month-long disappearance in February 1918, and features a cast of imagined and historical characters, including his assistant John Dawkins; Mark Twain; Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Emily Auburn; President Woodrow Wilson; the Russian spiritualist Madame Helena Blavatsky; and the teenage George Gershwin.

The book—the first of a planned trilogy— recently received a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award as one of the Best Books in the category of Science Fantasy. Learn more at www. edisontrilogy.com.

A former advertising executive, David Church has written for publications as wildly diverse as Soap Opera Digest and Interview; authored an environmental children’s book, Larue and the

Brown Sky (illustrations by Toby Bluth); co-authored the award-winning cult musical Judy’s Scary Little Christmas (with James Webber and Joe Patrick Ward); and developed a variety of films for United Artists, CBS and NBC, including Psychic Housewife and Saving Grace. He first became fascinated with the idea of Thomas Edison as the unlikely hero of a historical novel when he accidentally discovered the Wizard of Menlo Park’s decades-long passion for creating a machine that would communicate with the dead.

David is a member of the Dramatists Guild

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CVIndependent.com

An excerpt from David Church’s ‘Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation’

and the Writers Guild of America, and lives and works in Palm Springs.

Here is an excerpt from Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation.

“Every failed experiment,” proclaimed Thomas Alva Edison, “is still a step forward.” It was a noble maxim and expressed with regular determination by its celebrated author. Yet, on those rare occasions of crippling doubt, his fine words seemed little more than a pose.

Edison prayed that today would not be one of those occasions. To be precise, the 73rd day of a relentless exploration into his latest invention, the fluorosight; a fusion of fluoroscopic screens and cathode ray lamps that corralled the new phenomenon of “unknown” or “X” rays in a quest to discover the cure for blindness.

Now on the cusp of his 40th year, Edison had re-invented the world time and again with an assembly of miraculous inventions, the most prominent being the phonograph and the incandescent light. In turn, he had been universally hailed as a genius, and while he reveled in the hurrahs, a nagging watch-cry of doubt never strayed far from his mind: The natural habitat of genius is failure. It was a lesson he had been hard taught, first as a boy whose eccentricities were judged to be those of an imbecile, then as an aspiring inventor who was mocked as a shiftless dreamer.

With his first successful creation, a telegraph repeater, he experienced a sudden reversal from derision to praise and grasped a keen understanding of the tenuous skin that separated the two. Destiny was arbitrary. The grindstone of failure was rarely leavened with success, and it had reduced many of his peers into sorry figures of resignation or even madness. But not him! At least, not yet.

Alongside a team of his most trusted assistants, including Charles Batchelor and the Ott brothers, John and Fred, he had toiled nonstop at the laboratory these past months with only a few hours each night devoted to rest on a nearby cot. It was his nature to drive himself in so dogged a fashion, but now his experiments were fraught with additional pressures. Outwardly he remained the same as before and refused to be seduced by the gross affluence that usually infects the nouveau riche. His only real interest in money was to make enough to make more inventions. However, he was no longer a mere tinkerer flirting on the edge of “what if?” He had realized his promise and the pressure to do right by his extraordinary gifts proved to be a crushing duty. What steadied his path was

a wary disposition that could best be termed as that of a “pragmatic optimist.” He expected nothing yet hoped for something.

Today, as on every day, he hoped for a breakthrough.

By sunset his hopes were diminished.

He had spent the day examining some three dozen subjects from a local home for the blind.

The afflicted had caned a path to his door to confront a gauntlet of fluoroscopes and willingly subject themselves to the eerie glow emanating from the electrified tubes as the X-rays parted the veils of their flesh.

Between sessions, adjustments were made to the amperage levels, equipment repaired, and the biography of the next subject reviewed for any unique characteristics. On occasion, the process ground to a halt when a subject jubilantly cried, “I can see!” Further investigation proved the opposite, for the subject had merely been captive to the desperate hope that the “Wizard of Menlo Park” could perform his magic on their behalf.

Edison was preparing for their next subject when a figure adorned in white appeared in the laboratory’s doorway. It was not an angel. It was Twain. Yes, that Twain. Mark Twain. The two friends—Twain the sage mentor, Edison the aspiring arrival—greeted each other warmly for they were bound by the common bond of success and the repercussions that came with the kudos. Twain had achieved popular acclaim for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, yet his critics dismissed him as a cracker-barrel scribbler of children’s books. As for Edison, the business combines of the world hailed him as a visionary, but had not yet determined how to harness his incandescent revolution for worldwide distribution—or how much they could get away with charging for it.

“Sam, you rascal,” said Edison. “What brings you here?”

“Our engagement,” snapped Twain gregariously. “Supper at Delmonico’s?”

“Oh … yes,” fumbled Edison. “My apologies … I forgot … as you can see I … well ... .” His attention was scattered. Then: “Here ... sit.”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 17

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CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE Intrigued, Twain took a chair as Batchelor briefed Edison on their next subject.

“Mary Bowen, 6 years, 7 months. Contracted rubella fever two years ago, incurred severe damage to both corneas.”

Edison nodded and continued to study her chart—so young—as Batchelor escorted the child into the laboratory. She was a petite brunette with a trusting smile, whose once-blue eyes were now scarred with puddles of milk.

“Hello, Mary. I’m Tom.” “Hello, Tom,” she responded politely in a tiny, unsure voice.

“I’m going to examine you now.” He guided her to a seat behind the tower of fluoroscopic screens where the Ott brothers gently strapped her in.

“You’re going to hear some very odd noises,” continued Edison. “You might even feel some sparks. But you’re perfectly safe and I don’t want you to be frightened. Do you understand?”

The child nodded stoically.

Edison smiled wanly and signaled his team.

“Begin.”

The surge of high-voltage current flushed into the dynamos and tentacles of electricity flexed menacingly throughout the room. The child gasped in fright and shivered as a violet glow began to emanate from the battery of fluoroscopic screens that surrounded her petite figure.

“Would you like me to hold your hand?” offered Edison.

“Yes, please.”

Edison took her palm in his and pressed it reassuringly as the amperage increased to an ear-splitting cacophony and a torrent of sparks erupted from the dynamos, dusting the room with hot flakes of hellfire. Electricity filled a series of Crookes tubes that were connected to a jumble of photographic plates. The plates came alive with a gray fog that sundered Mary’s flesh and illuminated the yearning sockets of the child’s dead eyes.

Twain observed the proceedings in silent concern. Edison and his men were more than exhausted, they were wounded; scant of breath and hollow-cheeked, their pale skin studded with dark, charring blisters. And this was only now. Who could say how their continued exposure to these strange rays might eventually manifest itself? While Twain admired Edison’s zeal in obliterating the boundaries of known science, he was also alarmed. The last prophet who had brought light to the world was Jesus Christ—and look what happened to him.

The experiment ended. The roar of current subsided and the screens withdrawn. The team waited in breathless anticipation as Edison held up a mirror to the child’s face.

“Mary, can you see?” asked Edison.

Mary paused, uncertain. She opened her eyes wide and strained desperately against the darkness. Then she retreated, lowered her head with a shame that had no cause to claim her, and hot tears tumbled down her cheeks.

“No.” The small voice hung heavy in the twilight.

Edison released the girl’s hand.

If any of the hundreds he had examined most deserved the gift of sight it was this David Church sweet child.

“Thank you, Mary. I wish I could have been of more service.” His voice broke on the word “service” and then trailed off. He ran his hands through his hair and was startled to find his palms littered with strands of dead follicles.

The child heard the hurt in his voice and, as she was being ushered out, stopped to place a comforting hand on his. “Don’t be sad for me, Tom. I remember stars.”

“I remember stars.” Her words cut Edison to the quick. He nodded feebly as she departed and then peered up at his men through eyes rheumy with regret. They’d been stricken by this last encounter and John Ott, usually his most stolid associate, ground his knuckles against his mouth to smother his dismay.

“Go home,” Edison softly ordered. The men did as they were told.

“You go on, too, Sam” he waved vacantly to Twain. “I’m not a suitable companion for dining.

Or anything else.” He gestured in disbelief. “I’ve gone dry.”

Twain gave his young friend a long, hard look and then gently offered: “Oh, surely not. The two most important days in a man’s life are the day he’s born—and the day he finds out why.”

“Empty, done, finished!” wailed Edison in defeat.

“You know why,” Twain firmly retorted.

“You’re a born inventor! Never forget it.” Then he winked mischievously. “Besides, I’ve arranged an amusement for this evening’s appetizer. A séance with Madame Blavatsky.”

Edison looked up sharply, intrigued. “The Russian medium. I’ve heard tell of her. She summons spirits?”

“Spirits and idiots,” amended Twain. “It’s all nonsense but do come.”

“I believe I will.” It was an impulsive decision that took even Edison by surprise. “Give me a moment to … .” He crossed to a sink and began the necessary ablutions.

“Certainly,” offered Twain. “But don’t tarry.

Who can say? Perhaps one of the Madame’s hobgoblins has a message from beyond for you.”

Naturally, it was a jest. But Twain didn’t realize the possibility of a missive from beyond was the only reason Edison had agreed to join him. Because he’d received just such a message once before.

Excerpted from the book Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation, with permission. Copyright 2021, David Church.

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VINE SOCIAL JASON DAVID

Should writers and sommeliers retire the words ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ when describing wines?

HAIR STUDIO

A

By KatieLOVE finn YOUR

HAIR

while back, I wrote a piece commenting on overly exaggerated wine descriptions, and how convoluted they can sound.

“Sophisticated and balanced with a hint of pretension. Elegant and silky with a feminine nuance reminiscent of the Old West. Forward and brazen with a left hook that will leave you Country Club and Cook Street speechless. … Words like fleshy, sexy, demure and even slutty are a wine writer’s way of reinventing Palmold De sert the wheel and keeping it interesting. Who wants to read the same descriptors of New Zealand sauvignon blanc over and over? Gooseberry, cat pee, fresh grass, blah, blah, blah. How many 760-340-5959 times can one read (or write) about caramel, delicacy, or even voluptuousness. As a woman, butterscotch and toasted oak? The flavor if I don’t possess these traits—if I’m flatwww.jasondavidhairstudio.net profiles haven’t changed; the times have.” chested, big-boned, and a little surly—would Oh, boy, have they ever. Who knew that I be offended at these adjectives? Should I be just several years later, wine writers would be offended? expected by some to censor the way in which “Masculine” wines are often described as we wax poetic about this deeply personal and being structured, aggressive, muscular and subjective thing we call wine? bold. If can we agree that being “masculine” Several wine industry professionals are on a and being male are two completely different mission to eliminate the words “feminine” and concepts, would the adjective hold as much “masculine” from the wine writer’s vocabulary. power over an individual?

The terms are accused of being outdated and The dictionary defines “masculine” and inappropriate, archaic stereotypes—offensive “feminine” as both adjectives and nouns. ways to describe a wine. The words “feminine” Interestingly, the dictionary does not have and “masculine” are said by critics to be at a definition for these terms as an identity. odds with the spectrum of gender roles, which Is it because they are mutually exclusive? is not necessarily tied to gender identity.

Could it be that the words to describe I sat and pondered this for a long time. traits traditionally considered feminine and I thought about the notion that the word masculine have nothing to do with the actual “feminine” denotes a softness, a sense of gender identity of the object?

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The idea that this verbiage is now considered sexist among some in the wine world prompted a conversation with colleagues regarding the words we are taught to use as sommeliers. We use these words to identify the characteristics, quality, age and value of the wines we taste. We use words like “body” to evaluate things like the mouthfeel, weight and concentration. When talking about the body of something, it seems natural to use adjectives to describe, oh, I dunno, a body. Adjectives like lean or brawny, lithely and supple come to mind. The term “full-bodied” is used daily by both professionals and consumers alike.

The conversation reminded me of an article that was written for wine–searcher.com back in 2020 by Vicki Denig, where she poses various scenarios of possibly insulting or offensive wine conversations. She writes: “Next time you’re tempted to use a gender-focused tasting descriptor, think about how you would react if someone characterized a wine as ‘white/Black,’ “gay” or “elderly” on the palate. If you’d find any of these terms offensive, then imagine how some of us men and women feel.”

The fact is, apart from most rose, wine is classified as white or black—not in the racially tinged way Ms. Denig uses, but then again, we’re speaking about an object, not a person. Blanc de blancs literally means white from white, and blanc de noirs translates to white from black. We have grapes like garnacha negra and pinot noir, which are the black grapes to white counterparts grenache blanc and pinot blanc.

We focus on vintages to determine whether a wine has peaked, if it’s still youthful, or if it is past its prime. We could argue this kind of ageism should be banned from wine-speak due to its insensitivity to the elderly, but we know that wine changes over time, and it would be a disservice to our customers if we didn’t acknowledge when a wine was at the end of its life. Similarly, we should inform a consumer when a wine is too youthful and either needs more time in the bottle or needs to be decanted.

I won’t even touch on the “gay” hypothetical.

What a wine does in the bedroom is none of my business.

Our thoughtful conversation segued into the structure of languages in other countries.

Most Latin-based languages assign a gender to their nouns. In Spanish, cabeza, which means head, is a feminine word. Is this because women are clearly smarter? Coraje, or courage, is a masculine word. Is this a coincidence, or should we look at the structure of these

languages as sexist and outdated?

In the Chinese language, they use the terms yin and yang. The dictionary states that yin, Chinese for “female” or “moon,” represents darkness, femininity, passivity and the earth.

Yang (“sun” or “male”) represents light, masculinity, activity and the heavens. These two concepts of duality are present in every aspect of the Chinese culture.

So … if numerous other languages and cultures clearly understand what “feminine” and “masculine” mean as a way to categorize or describe objects, why do we choose to view these words as having pejorative connotations?

I look at it this way: Wine is a lot like art and music. It has a way of conjuring up emotions, opinions and memories. The best ones have a uniqueness to them, and they can be thoughtprovoking, puzzling and exciting. When something non-human can be that captivating and expressive, those of us who share our experiences in writing have a propensity to give that something—wine, in this case—a human element. I love to anthropomorphize the wines that I find thrilling and try to capture their personality with my words. I think writers love describing tangible items in a way that sounds human, alive and full of mystery.

The purpose of a writer is to connect a reader with a thought, idea or concept, and to use language that is not only captivating, but engaging and relatable. As much as the lines of gender roles and identities have changed over the years, people still understand what these words imply.

I shudder to think that the idea of having feminine or masculine traits, no matter what your gender is, would be considered inappropriate.

We are living in an era when we are beginning to right past wrongs and fight the good fight. Today and always, I raise my glass to everyone who bravely brings these issues to light, and starts the conversation.

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.

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CAESAR CERVISIA JASON DAVID

After two years off, the Firestone Walker Invitational was back to show off some of the beer world’s best

HAIR STUDIO

I

By brett newton

LOVE YOUR HAIR

t had been three years since I—or anyone else, for that matter—attended my favorite beer festival.

Since 2012, Firestone Walker has been inviting its friends in the brewing industry to Paso Robles to sample beers from all over the world. On top of that, local food vendors hand out samples of their fare to help soak up the beer being poured. A couple of talks are usually Country Club and Cook Street scheduled, where attendees can listen to the brewers themselves talk about what they do, or a Palm particular style they love brewing—while being poured samples of De thesert beers being discussed. In short: It’s a beer nerd’s paradise. According to the collection of cute little tasting snifters in my 760-340-5959 cupboard, the first one I attended was in 2015.

Cerveceria Antares, from the Argentinian I have not missed one since. coast, had another lager to try—but with a www.jasondavidhairstudio.net After the expectedly long line to get in, twist. At 11% alcohol by volume, the 20 Años my friends and I grabbed our glasses—and eisbock was a hell of an introduction. The a little bamboo plate with a hole to hold said brewery actually celebrated its 20th anniversary glass—and we were off and running. A veritable in 2018, but the beer’s rich fruity malt flavors murderer’s row consisting of Green Cheek, and serious warmth in the finish allowed it to be Beachwood, Omnipollo, Bale Breaker (a brewery stored for four years with no trace of age.

I had not heard of before this) and Alvarado In a nearby booth and from a nearby Street were all in the shade and pouring tons country (Brazil), Cervejaria Bamberg takes its of great beer. I got a pour of Green Cheek’s name from the German city that specializes in Crushing Is Relative Czech-style pilsner, because rauchbier, for which grains are malted using I have full confidence in whatever they brew. direct wood fire. Their version of a rauchbier As I sipped, I said hello to an old was subtly smoked with a Brazilian wood, and acquaintance in Julian Shrago, head brewer of resembled the beechwood used in Bamberg Beachwood Brewing, whom I hadn’t seen in the traditionally. The bock underneath still shone three long years since the last festival. I also got through, though, so it was clear they took what a pour of Cactus Coolship, from Beachwood’s breweries like Schlenkerla do to heart. sour-brewing Beachwood Blendery. It’s a A barrel-aged sour ale with peach and maple spontaneously fermented ale with pineapple, syrup from Crooked Stave put me in a state of kumquat and apricots. I parted ways so as not impressed shock that those ingredients could to hold him up—and also because there was so work together so well, as I waited in line for two much festival left. incredible al pastor tacos from Los Robles Cafe.

Alvarado Street was next up, and I chose the Onward to the area where one of two Land and Sea Extra Pale Ale, which was packed talks was being held. Hosted by The Brewing with one of my absolute favorite hops, Nelson Network’s Justin Crossley, the discussion’s topic Sauvin. I skipped over Bale Breaker for the time was the latest in hops and their use. Throughout being, sampled a bit of a friend’s pour of a rich the discussion, beers were poured by various imperial stout with bananas (to which ice cream volunteers. The Bale Breaker Homegrown was added at Omnipollo), and moved along to Hazy IPA was offered while the brewer talked the next bank of tents. about Cellarmaker Brewing as his inspiration Pinthouse Brewing from Austin was next. for “West Coast hazies”—a hazy IPA with the Their Lasso West Coast Pils was my choice, mouthfeel and drinkability of a West Coast IPA. with two of their other offerings being hazy.

Later, my friend Rafa asked what each The “West Coast” or “California” pilsner seems member’s “desert island” beer would be, and the to be a new way of saying “India Pale Lager,” answers were split between IPAs and pilsners. which is (usually) just a German-style pilsner This is very telling, because both are difficult dry hopped with non-traditional Noble hops. styles to do very well—and are great measuring This one was dry-hopped with Strata and sticks for a brewer.

Amarillo, and I am glad I tried it, because Some other notables I sampled were Bagby I’ve only heard good things about Pinthouse Beer Co.’s extremely authentic schwarzbier; (including their pizza) and have never been to a gorgeous blend of 2016, 2019 and 2021 of Austin to enjoy their beer.

Lost Abbey Brewing’s gueuze, called Mother Then I rolled the dice with a kölsch from of All Gooze; Balter Brewing from Australia Portland-based Gigantic Brewing. Thankfully, had a killer XPA and a lager with aggressive the beer was delicious. So many lagers and New Zealand hops; and my favorite for barrellager-like beers! Please tell me this is becoming a aged beers (which I get to try at this festival full-on trend—because I’m all in. every year)—Deth’s N’ Roses, from Revolution

After two pandemic years, the mood was bright at the 2022 Firestone Walker Invitational. Brett Newton

Brewing, an imperial stout aged in Four Roses and Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for a combined five years. I repeated how much I loved their barrel program to Marty Scott, who oversees it all, and told him I will do so every year I see him there. Effusive praise is not even enough to repay the man for the olfactory experiences I’ve had at that booth.

On one of the interview panels mentioned earlier, Firestone’s head brewer, Matt Brynildson, explained why they started this festival. He said he was at first very reluctant to do it when approached by a local lawyer with

the idea. He would only agree if he could invite all of the breweries he wanted to, put them up, and treat them like royalty in a weekend full of events. (There are VIP events on the Friday and Sunday surrounding the fest.)

Another great Firestone Walker Invitational in the books, and it felt like it had never skipped a year.

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

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It’s summertime—so you may want to add some fruits and veggies to your spirits

BY kevin carlow

first learned to make drinks in a sports bar/nightclub in cowboy country near the Mogollon Rim of Arizona. This was the kind of place where you swept up lost teeth, broken glass and little plastic bags at the end of the night.

I was informed back then that men drank bottled beer, tequila and Jack-and-Cokes. For the ladies, we made “fruity drinks”—some combination of whatever cheap neon liquor was closest to the well; an infused vodka or rum; and grenadine or Chambord. There was no actual fruit anywhere near the process.

My next bartending venture was in Boston, more refreshing than that! a place similarly known for stereotypical macho You can also use cucumber to make a negroni drinking traditions—so is it any wonder I variation called the “Chin Up.” Dave actually never really embraced adding fresh fruits and turned me on to this one, too. Try as I might, I vegetables to my cocktails? cannot find the creator or history of this drink; Perhaps I should clarify … I do insist on fresh the almighty Google has failed me. Anyway, this juices in my libations. I love making syrups drink calls for Cynar, an artichoke-based bitter from herbs, berries and stone fruits. What I’ve from Sicily, and it’s a great way to switch up been avoiding over the years are drinks that use your Negroni habit. pureés, smashed-up fruit and muddled herbs; it’s just not my bag. However, in order for this 2 ounces of gin (same as for the cucumber column to be as comprehensive as possible, gimlet) it’s high time I addressed some of the better 1/2 ounce of Cynar (I like the 80 proof … duh) fruits and vegetables to use in cocktails, and the 1/2 ounce of sweet vermouth (Carpano right ways to use them—as the mercury rises Antica or Punt é Mes) here in the desert, and we chase those precious Pinch of kosher or sea salt electrolytes!

Two slices of cucumber I’ll start this list off with a vegetable: the Muddle the cucumber; add the rest of the humble cucumber. Is there anything more ingredients, and stir. Strain into a coupe, and refreshing in a cocktail? The cucumber has been garnish with a cucumber slice. a fixture of my bar programs for years, and I almost always have a couple in the cooler. I have Let’s stick with the cucumber, but add a said for years that the best original cocktail in strawberry or two! This is a drink called the the desert was probably the “Game Changer” at “Princess Cup” that I learned from my friend Truss and Twine in Palm Springs—a mix of gin, and former co-worker Kevin Zieber. Here is the lime, cucumber, onion brine and salt, invented recipe straight from him. by my buddy and former bar manager Dave Castillo. Sure, it’s a gimlet at heart, but the cucum1 strawberry ber, onion brine and salt make it a summertime 2 slices of cucumber delight for desert dipsomaniacs like yours truly.

Muddle into a tin, and add: It’s on my local Mount Rushmore, for sure.

2 ounces of white rum You can make something similar at home 1 ounce of lime juice with a simple cucumber gimlet—which is as 3/4 ounce of simple syrup close as I can get to giving you the recipe!

Shake; serve over ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with half a strawberry and a slice 2 ounces of gin (London Dry or something of cucumber. botanical like Hendricks) 1 ounce of lime juice Sticking with berries, my favorite ones for 1/2 to 3/4 ounce of simple syrup, to taste cocktails would have to be raspberries. You have Several thin slices of cucumber, added to tin options; you can certainly just muddle them Shake with ice; double strain into a coupe; straight into the tin, or do what I do—muddle garnish with a cucumber slice a pint of them into a liter of simple syrup, and strain for a beautiful cordial. Something like this The nice thing with this drink is it’s so was used in many nearly-forgotten cocktails. flexible. Feel free to add some basil, even just A classic summer drink that’s overdue for as a garnish. If you have some mint handy, add attention is the “Floradora.” Supposedly named that, and you have an “Eastside,” which is great after the “Florodora Girls” (sic), it’s more than tall with soda water and copious amounts of 100 years old and easy to make. The original mint for a garnish. Just try to find something calls for framboise liqueur; I like to freshen it CVIndependent.com

The Boca Linda. Kevin Carlow

with raspberry cordial.

1 1/2 ounces of gin (London Dry or Old Tom) 3/4 ounce of lime juice 1 ounce of raspberry cordial Build over ice in a tall glass. Top with ginger ale; garnish with raspberries and a lime wheel.

I’ve covered it before, but it bears repeating: The Clover Club is a classic, and my favorite sour variation.

2 ounces of gin (Plymouth or London Dry) 3/4 ounce of lemon juice 1 ounce of raspberry cordial 1 egg white Dry shake (no ice) for 10 seconds; add ice, and shake for 30 seconds. Double strain into a coupe; spear a raspberry for garnish.

One of the easiest fruits you can use for refreshing summer cocktails is the delicious and hydrating watermelon. This is actually one of the easiest juices to make, and I wonder why more bar programs don’t incorporate it. Buy the fattest watermelon you can carry; cut it into segments; remove the rind. Put it into the blender; strain it; and you have juice!

If you just want to get your party tipsy quickly, vodka and a squeeze of lime will do.

I like to add a nice, peppery mezcal instead of vodka or gin to counter the sweetness of the watermelon. If you make this ahead of

time, the juice will separate. A little trick is to pour off the clear juice and discard the pulp to make clear drinks that are more refreshing and interesting. Rather than adding citrus and sugar to watermelon, I prefer to add fresh herbs—specifically, basil and mint. Try it for your next punch when entertaining, with some sparkling wine.

I am even getting into the muddling game with an original for a new project, Bar Chingona, which I have been helping get running over the last few weeks. I call it the “Boca Linda.” (Don’t ask.)

2 ounces of mezcal 1 ounce of lime juice 1/2 ounce apricot liqueur 1/2 ounce of simple syrup Muddle a slice of serrano chile and four blackberries in your tin; add the ingredients.

Shake with ice; strain into a coupe; garnish with a blackberry.

Of course, there are so many drinks with fruits and vegetables as ingredients or garnishes, from the Bloody Mary to the Pimm’s Cup, the Sherry Cobbler to the Whiskey Smash.

The world is your oyster—but for now, I’d better get back behind the bar and under the air conditioning. Stay cool, everyone.

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

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21

JULY 2022

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y result expecta�ons rarely match my pa�ents’ expecta�ons. Why is that? Where do pa�ents get their unrealis�c outcome expecta�ons? Here are the Secrets to those ques�ons: Secret No. 1: Shows like Botched (now in reruns, but new to you if you have not yet seen the episodes) have the “magic” of TV to help everyone look be�er. Ligh�ng, makeup, wardrobe, camera angles, edi�ng and instant before and a�er photos make everyone’s results look even be�er on television.

Secret No. 2: My colleague is a part of the Botched talent team. He told me the producers have a produc�on schedule for each pa�ent of the months. This means that from the �me they get their surgery done un�l they film the “Reveal Results” is 12 weeks. Since the shows don’t iden�fy the amount of �me between the procedures and the final results, most viewers believe the results are just weeks apart instead of months. When more healing �me is required, the “magic” in Secret No. 1 takes over.

Secret No. 3: Real-world pa�ents do not have the advantages Hollywood provides. Most pa�ents, including us healthy aging providers, forget what they looked like before they begin medical treatments or procedures. Progress photos are a must to remind everyone of their results.

Secret No. 4: Finally, treatment results take �me to accomplish. There’s always a se�ling-in period with every treatment; one to four months is my standard “results” �me period, depending on what treatments our pa�ents receive.

So, give yourself plenty of �me to prepare for the special events coming up, including your birthday—because you never know when a camera is going to appear!

And remember, everyone in Hollywood are ge�ng treatments to look their best. You deserve to look your best too.

Our Revive Wellness Center loca�ons are in Palm Springs (760325-4800) and Torrance (310-375-7599); www.revivecenter.com.

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the

FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT We savor prime rib in Palm Springs, and Thai soup in Rancho Mirage

By Jimmy Boegle

350 S. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs Open at 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday Order at rioazul.pay.link CVIndependent.com

WHAT The prime rib WHERE Mr. Lyons Steakhouse, 233 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs HOW MUCH $40 to $64, size depending CONTACT 760-327-1551; mrlyonsps.com WHY It’s a steakhouse classic, executed marvelously.

Before we get to the details about the prime rib, I’d like to tip my figurative hat to the restaurants that—despite the insanity brought on by COVID-19, supply-chain shortages and inflation—are still doing their best to treat customers well, and give them good value.

I say this, because not all restaurants are doing so.

Take Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week, for example. During the 10-day event, which took place June 3-12, restaurants offered prix-fixe meals for a set price—ideally, at a bit of a discount—offering diners a chance to try out new places, and new items at familiar places.

Because of all the aforementioned challenges, some normal participants declined to take part in Restaurant Week this year— and that’s perfectly fine. A handful of other restaurants did participate, but offered ho-hum menus, or menus that gave no discounts. There were even rumors of a few places that charged MORE than normal for their prix-fixe menus.

This is not perfectly fine.

Then there are the restaurants who did participate in Restaurant Week, and did it right. Mr. Lyons Steakhouse is one of those restaurants.

I paid $49 for an amazing gazpacho (a Restaurant Week special that really needs to be added to the regular menu), the 10-ounce prime rib (normally $40 by itself—and the cut I received seemed more generous than 10 ounces) and a splendid bread pudding.

If the gazpacho were regularly available, it would have earned this endorsement, but the prime rib is a worthy second choice: It was tender, juicy and well-seasoned—exactly as proper steakhouse prime rib should be.

The service was also excellent, and the cocktails were top-notch. All in all, we had an amazing dinner. Thanks to Mr. Lyons for doing things right.

WHAT The tom yum gai with chicken WHERE Uncle Chai Thailand Street Food, in The Atrium, 69930 Highway 111, Rancho Mirage HOW MUCH $7 CONTACT 760-699-8884; www. unclecthailandstreetfood.com WHY It’s delicious, pure and simple.

When I walked into Uncle Chai Thailand Street Food to meet my colleague Matt for lunch, my heart sunk.

It was a little after noon, and there was just one other table occupied.

This interior restaurant space in The Atrium has developed a reputation, of sorts, as a place where restaurants open—and then promptly die. There’s not a lot of foot traffic inside this little mall, and there’s even less since CVRep moved to its permanent playhouse in Cathedral City several years ago.

After I was seated, however, the restaurant slowly began to fill—and by the time Matt and I were finished with our meal, Uncle Chai was hosting a decidedly decent-sized lunch crowd, especially for a Monday in June.

Two things give me hope that Uncle Chai will succeed here where others haven’t. One: This is not Uncle Chai’s first time at the figurative rodeo. This is the second Uncle Chai location; the first one opened in San Diego in early 2021. Two: All of the food Matt and I ordered was pretty gosh-darned good.

Uncle Chai’s menu is more limited than those at some other Thai joints—there are about a dozen and a half entrée offerings, along with a couple of salads, a couple of soups, four appetizers and one dessert—but the kitchen seems to be emphasizing quality over quantity.

The highlight of our meals was the tom yum gai soup with chicken, a hot-and-sour concoction featuring lemongrass, tomatoes, mushrooms, cilantro and lime leaves. Tom yum gai has long been a favorite of mine. (I’ve endorsed it at two other restaurants as well.)

It’s fairly easy to make a decent version, but rather difficult to make an excellent one—and Uncle Chai’s version is excellent indeed.

Try it out—and help Uncle Chai break the figurative Atrium curse.

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Restaurant NEWS BITES By charles drabkin IT’S TACO TIME! As summer heats up, I have tacos on my mind. In fact, I like tacos so much that other news outlets have seen my social media posts and started asking me about them!

Taco stands have started to fortunately pop up around Palm Springs. I have found them at Indian Canyon Drive and Stevens Road; at Sunrise Way and Vista Chino, next to the Walgreens; and at Indian Canyon Drive and Racquet Club Road. These trucks generally open in the evenings, around 7 p.m. Also, weekdays at Indian Canyon and Racquet Club from about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., there is a guy selling tacos de canasta (basket tacos)—pork, potato or bean. (The docuseries Taco Chronicles has an episode dedicated to this fantastic taco.)

If that is not enough tacos for you, Olga’s Tacos recently appeared on my radar with two locations—one at 3700 E. Vista Chino, in Palm Springs, inside the liquor store; and one at 72840 Highway 111, in the Shops at Palm Desert food court. These are seriously delicious tacos and are not to be missed; find Olga’s on social media.

Still, looking for more tacos?! Hoja Blanco, the much-acclaimed food truck, has opened a pop-up brick-and-mortar location inside the Flannery Exchange, at 750 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. When they first opened there, the Hoja Blanco folks focused on plated dishes, but are adding tacos as they get their feet under them; learn more at hojablancaps.com.

Got a hot taco tip? Let me know—because there is always room for tacos!

IN BRIEF Cross Road Grill has opened at 83103 Avenue 48 in Coachella, and is serving up grilled meats, sandwiches and salads. Owners bill the fare as a tasty mix of American and Mediterranean; crossroadgrill.com. … Coming soon to Indio, with details TBD: Gabino’s Creperie. Crispy crepes appear as if by magic at their window next to Kreme, at 170 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs; watch www.gabinos-creperie.com for updates. … New to Indio: Thai Hot Restaurant, at 81944 Highway 111, features foods from various regions of Thailand, including Isan dishes and an intriguing-looking German pork hock; thaihotrestaurant.com. … Also new to Indio: Valentinos Seafood Bar and Grill, at 83085 Indio Blvd., serving up a mix of breakfast, Mexican food and sushi; www.instagram.com/valentinos.sin. … Now open in Palm Desert, and coming soon to Indio: Nékter Juice Bar, at 73555 Highway 111, and soon at 42250 Jackson St. With 120 locations and 150 more in the works, this chain believes healthy should taste and feel good. The menu includes juices, smoothies, acai bowls, wellness shots and juice cleanses; nekterjuicebar.com. … Monster Shakes has opened a second location next to the Mary Pickford Theatre at 68718 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Cathedral City, serving Dole soft serve and a variety of ice cream sundaes, smoothies and frozen yogurts—all welcome as our temperatures soar; monstershakesps.com. … The mysterious case of Luchows Palm Springs (4771 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs) continues to cause excitement in the food circles. As you may recall, Dan Gore, the owner of Oscar’s Palm Springs, announced he’d purchased the restaurant back in May; rumor is that Luchows may be reopening for takeout sometime in July. Speaking of Dan Gore, he has another new restaurant in the making: Crème Palm Springs, at 777 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, in the Palm Springs space formally occupied by Blame It on Midnight. Crème promises “to tease and capture your tastebuds and create the excitement and ambiance you’ve been missing.” I can’t imagine Dan is getting much sleep these days; cremepalmsprings.com. … The Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs, at 100 W. Tahquitz Canyon Way, is shaking things up a bit. Chef Ysaac Ramirez, who took the helm last fall, has launched a new breakfast menu at Juniper Table (www.junipertable.com). True to his Southern comfort heritage, he has included a tomato tart, chicken and biscuits, and grits. Juniper Table’s dinner now also includes pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and a Caesar salad that stands out in a town filled with Caesar salads. The Americano cocktail I had one evening was also superb. … Roly China Fusion, at 1107 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, is bringing back its popular dim sum happy hour menu, from 4 to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; cocktails, selected beer and wine, and a variety of dumplings and small plates are on offer. Learn more at rolychinafusion.com. … Over the last few years, the Cole Hotel (at 2323 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs) has played host to various pop-up restaurants, including Sunny Boy Biscuits, Biscuit and Counter, and Cousins Main Lobster Truck.

Now it seems the Cole is the permanent home of Freddie’s Kitchen, helmed by Chef Frederic Pierret, a classically trained French chef from Alsace. The menu includes French classics like steak au poivre; freddieskitchenatthecole.com.

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

according to Yelp, Tripadvisor & OpenTable WE ARE ONE OF THE VERY BEST with 9,000 Sq feet keeping you safe is easy OPEN DAILY FROM 11AM - 3PM & 5PM - 9PM 849 N PALM CANYON DRIVE . PALM SPRINGS EIGHT4NINE.COM 760.325.8490 CVIndependent.com

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Les Claypool brings his Bastard Jazz musical-improv project to Pappy and Harriet’s Slow-core/garage-rock band Garb gets set to release sophomore album ‘stiff as a feather’ Meatbodies survive pandemic angst and health troubles to bring fuzzy garage music to The Alibi the lucky 13: Get to know AN Osees drummer, and Labia Minora’s vocalist/guitarist

www.cvindependent.com/music

Adryon de León combines funk, R&B and a little bit of blues in her solo shows

27 CVIndependent.com

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MUSIC THAT MUSICAL CONVERSATION

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Les Claypool brings his Bastard Jazz musical-improv project to Pappy and Harriet’s

By matt king

T

here’s no denying Les Claypool’s legacy. His captivating bass-guitar skills and peculiar vocal delivery helped make Primus one of the highlights of 1990s rock.

But there’s a lot more to Claypool than Primus. He continues to lend his unique musical wizardry to a number of other projects and sounds, including Oysterhead (with Trey Anastasio and Stewart Copeland), Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains (with Buckethead, Bernie Worrell and Bryan “Brain” Mantia) all these guys are available; you want to do and the Claypool Lennon Delirium (with a little mini tour?’” Claypool said. “It’s very, Sean Ono Lennon). His latest project is Les very casual. What’s wonderful about it is I Claypool’s Bastard Jazz, which you can catch don’t have to rehearse for it. I know these at Pappy and Harriet’s on Saturday, July 30. guys; they’re all monsters, and something During a recent phone interview, Claypool amazing is going to happen. Sure, there might explained how Bastard Jazz started as a onebe a couple of stumbles across the tightrope off—for Colossal Clusterfest, in 2017. there, but for the most part, some really cool “A handful of years ago, I was asked to shit comes out when we do it.” put something together for a festival in San Claypool is known for food references in his Francisco,” Claypool said. “I decided I wanted songwriting—and he indulged me with one to do an all-improv thing, and I’d been talking when I asked him about his constant drive to about doing it for a while. It ended up being experiment with new projects.

Skerik, Mike Dillon and Eric Harland. Gabby “It’s like if you love sushi, but you eat sushi La La came and sat in, and it was incredibly every night, you need a burger once in a fun. People started asking me to do it again, while,” said Claypool. “This is my burger.” and we’ve got Stanton Moore on board these With a number of different projects comes days, so now it’s Stanton and I, Skerik and a busy schedule. Claypool is seemingly always Mike—and we have no idea what we’re going on the road; how does he make time for to do before we go onstage. We just go on and everything? start that musical conversation.”

“It’s not my department,” he said. “I Most of Claypool’s live shows, no matter genuinely don’t know what’s going on; my the group, feature songs being stretched and wife knows the schedule better than I do. I jammed—but it had been awhile since he mean, I kind of have a rough idea. I know we’re played a fully improvisational show, he said.

(Primus) going to Europe in the fall, but I don’t “The very first Bucket of Bernie Brains know when we leave. I don’t even know where show we did years ago at Bonnaroo, that’s it starts—but I like that, because I’m so busy, exactly what it was,” Claypool said. “They and I’m so involved with so many things, not were supposed to play as Praxis, but just in the music world, but just in my life, that somebody couldn’t make it, so I said, ‘Well, I enjoy the blissful ignorance of the details hell, I’ll just do an improv thing,’ and so we of scheduling and whatnot. It’s just one less did it. It turned out to be a big project for compartment in my brain that gets cluttered.” me, and it was a lot of fun. That was the very Claypool has mentioned in other interviews first time I played a single note with Bernie that during the early portion of the pandemic, Worrell—in front of, like, 7,000 people; it was he didn’t craft music at all; instead, he worked incredible. For me, it’s incredibly liberating, on his property in Sonoma County. It was because you’re just letting go. There’s no all about the land for more than a year, until safety net, but the guys that you’re playing Primus started gearing up for their A Tribute with are such monsters that you have this to Kings tour, which has them performing confidence, no matter what happens. It’s like Rush’s A Farewell to Kings in its entirety. having the guards up at the bowling alley: The “We bought this old dairy, and we turned ball’s not going to go in the gutter.” it into a jam-rehearsal facility, so it’s just Skerik and Mike Dillon are frequent been balls to the wall ever since we started,” Claypool collaborators, as both have played Claypool said. “Once we started working on with Les Claypool’s Fancy Band and Colonel the Rush stuff and polishing that all up, I Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. started recording more things with Primus, Stanton Moore is the founding member of and recording some stuff with Lennon—and another great jam band, Galactic. me and Billy Strings are working on some “We started off as a show here, and then a stuff. I’ve been keeping pretty busy since the show there, and then my manager said, ‘Hey, spark came back, because during COVID, my

Les Claypool.

musical spark was pretty dead.

“People always say, ‘How do you do this?’

Well, if I’m not feeling it, I don’t do it. If you’ve got to force it, it becomes contrived, so when I’m not feeling it, I go and try to catch a fish, or I go work on a car, or I do something else. With COVID, it was just such a dark time. I just got way into the land and worked in the land with my excavator, and I did some painting. I had to become tired of something else so that I would crave doing music again.”

Performing material from Rush—a band of which Claypool is both a fan and a friend— has done more than just reinvigorate Primus, Claypool said.

“I think more than anything, playing the Rush material has inspired a lot of things,” he said. “It inspired us to actually work together, because we hadn’t really rehearsed quite like that ever, and it was intense. That inspired the Conspiranoid EP that we just released—

and I played a little keyboard on that, because I had to play keyboards on the Rush stuff.

“As far as affecting Bastard Jazz, that’s more just me getting together with some old friends and just blowing it out. It’s just balls to the wall, a very honest expression. There’s no preconceived anything.”

Well, there actually is one preconception for Bastard Jazz: Claypool is sticking to just one instrument.

“I like playing my regular old four-string bass and just kind of going for it,” said Claypool. “It’s my comfortable crayon, and my favorite crayon in the box.”

Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, July 30, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. Tickets are $40 in advance. For tickets or more information, call 760-228-2222, or visit pappyandharriets.com.

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D.I.Y. EMOTION

Slow-core/garage-rock band Garb gets set to release sophomore album ‘stiff as a feather’

By matt king

I

t’s common for a “new” desert band to seemingly pop up out of nowhere … even though that band has actually been making music for a while.

Such is the case with Garb, which has been around since 2017. The band picked up several shows in recent months and has released some new music ahead of stiff as a feather, Garb’s sophomore album due Sept. 9. The band—made up of Carrick O’Dowd (vocals/guitar), Nick Sacro (drums), Nic Lara (guitar) and Lindsay and I ended up getting really close, and we Clark (bass)—adds emocore vocals and went along a different path with our lineup, melodies to a mix of garage rock and shoegaze and we got really close with Lindsay Clark from instrumentation. Check out the two latest Host Family. She took over the role of bassist. singles, “life-alert” and “a lot / pictures.”

We also got close with Nic Lara, who has his During a recent interview with O’Dowd, he own project called Marni, and I always loved discussed his music history. everything he did. … Garb, in its current form, “I’ve been involved in music and the music was like a supergroup in a way. Me and Nick scene around the Coachella Valley since 2014,” Sacro started to write this new record, and said O’Dowd. “I was in a band before Garb then it started to fully become a band.” called Safety Net. We were a post-hardcore Many bands start locally and then work band, and we loved the do-it-yourself ethic. their way toward out-of-town gigs. In contrast, “During that time of playing music, I wasn’t Garb is trying to spread its music in multiple in the best headspace, per se. I had a lot of fun places at the same time. with that project, but after that, I ended up “We are based in the Coachella Valley, but going to rehab and went through treatment. most of the shows that we do play, and other After I got help, I thought I had lost all my bands that we associate with, are based in the capability of songwriting. My parents are L.A. area,” O’Dowd said. “The tightest band supportive, and they love me, but they didn’t connection we have out here is with Host like the music I made before, because it was Family, and we don’t sound anything like them. a little too heavy and a little too grungy; it Our genre, if you were to label it, would be like wasn’t something that they could listen to. slow-core space rock, or emo-indie rock sort of I definitely wanted to keep the same sort of stuff. There’s not anyone out here doing that. ethos of what we did as Safety Net, but make … But that’s not to say that the desert and it a little bit more radio-friendly, and a little other people here haven’t had an influence on more pop-friendly. It took me a year after I had my songwriting and my sound over time.” time under my belt with sobriety, and I just O’Dowd admitted that he’s had problems started recording songs in my bedroom; 2017 finding like-minded musicians here in the was when I started recording as Garb.” desert.

Listen to Garb’s discography in sequential “I’ve had multiple people over the years order, and you can hear the band’s growth in hit me up and be like, ‘Hey, I’d love to jam terms of both production and writing style. sometime,’ but for me, because I’m so fucking Then there’s the fact that what started off as weird, I don’t like jamming with people; I like O’Dowd’s personal project has now morphed to make friends with people, and see if we into a full-fledged band. vibe,” O’Dowd said. “I think every person that “I put a small, little three-song thing out, I ended up making music with and being in a but I deleted it because it was recorded really band with is some sort of divine thing, where bad,” O’Dowd said. “Then, I was working at we just happened to both be really good friends Guitar Center. I acquired some gear, and I and really good musicians. … Being in the recorded my first album, Terminal. Around desert, while there are music-lovers out here, that time, a few friends of mine heard it; one it’s very niche. It’s almost like the real hardcore of them was Carlyn Park. She was in our band music lovers out here hold on to desert rock so for a time; she is also in the band Waxy, and hard that sometimes, it’s hard to get a kickstart she approached me and offered to help me in the desert. out, so I started jamming with her. The other “… To help us progress, Nick and I make a person was Nick Sacro; he and I were in a band conscious effort to go and support other bands together in 2015 called Slow Paradise; that’s out in L.A. at least twice a month. (Thanks how he and I became friends. to) those meaningful connections that we’ve “(Garb) started off as a three-piece, and we gained with other people out there, they had just been playing the Terminal stuff. Nick want to listen to what we’re doing. We’re not CVIndependent.com

Garb.

successful by any means, but if you do want to succeed in music, and you’re a desert-based artist, playing shows outside of the desert is something you have to do, because then when you do come home, and when you do play in the desert, people will want to hear you. We just played at The Alibi, and we packed it out on a Tuesday; like, 80 people showed up.”

While O’Dowd mentioned that Garb’s unique sound can be isolating, he still sees it as a positive.

“We love that no one else is doing what we’re doing here,” he said. “I don’t necessarily want to play a show with other musicians that sound like us. I love a hodgepodge of different genres and different artists on one bill.”

Most of Garb’s songs are down-tempo and emotional; O’Dowd’s said he is indeed reflective in his writing.

“The No Business EP came to me because I went through a pretty sad breakup,” said O’Dowd. “I made a promise to myself that I’d never write about girls or write about love, because those are the two most cliche things you read about music. In 2019, I had to let myself feel that way. That’s what literally every album is about—something that’s happening in my life. … My music is very much a diary and a journal of what’s going on.”

That said, O’Dowd straddles the line between reflective and vague.

“The song ‘Headstand’ on Terminal, if you read the lyrics, it’s literally about me being psychiatrically treated. I was stuck in a hospital for 15 days, and I was just doing headstands on my bed the whole time,” he said. “There’s some literal stuff, and then there’s some stuff that I intentionally keep a little vague, just because I don’t want to discuss the most intimate details. … Sometimes I do need to let it out in a specific way, and with this new album, there are some serious things that I get across pretty cryptically.”

Even though Garb’s second album isn’t out yet, work is already under way on the third, which will feature more input from Sacro.

“The new stuff we’re writing is in its early stages, and it’s been completely collaborative,” O’Dowd said. “He’s definitely helped the writing process with a lot of drum stuff and stylistic choices. Something that we pride ourselves on, especially in our live show, is the dynamics of our music, and that’s something he definitely helped focus us on. As far as the writing process, after stiff as a feather, it’s a much more of a collaborative process between the two of us, because we’re so incredibly close.

We feel some sort of connection when it comes to music.”

For more information, visit garb.bandcamp.com or instagram.com/ggaarrbb

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MUSIC

SOUL UMBRELLA By matt king

T

he music business can be cutthroat, and in order to increase one’s chances at success, it’s best to stay versatile.

Adryon de León is a performer who has found success thanks to her versatility. For the last nine years, she’s split time between solo shows with a backing band, and performing as a lead vocalist for the unapologetically funky band Orgone. Check out “It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who to Sock It to)” to hear de León’s vocal the soul and R&B side of things.” power on funky display—and to hear her as Blues, R&B and funk all have similarities— a solo performer, catch her performance at yet can sound wildly different. De León Desert Blues Revival at Agua Caliente Palm explained how she approaches an Orgone show Springs at 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 20. versus a solo show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0“With Orgone, it’s kind of in-your-face, 6Jurotc raw—a little bit more direct, and a little During a recent phone interview, de León heavier,” de León said. “It takes up a different discussed how she got into music. center of my brain. Even though the music is “In school, I was into a lot of musical in the same umbrella, the soul umbrella, it’s a theater and choral, and I was kind of a bigdifferent part of my brain. It’s a little bit more band nerd,” de León said. “I joined a nonprofit nuanced. One really lends to the other, so when performance organization called Young I’m singing the Orgone stuff, or a heavier funk Americans, and that exposed me to a lot of set, there are still elements of that I would use different genres and styles. I toured with them in a more laid-back set, and vice-versa. They for a while, and once I settled back here in kind of trickle into each other, because, in me, Long Beach, I started really finding my stride one can’t exist without the other.” in soul and R&B. It’s kind of my wheelhouse, An Adryon de León solo show consists so the next event is going to feature more of of covers—but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily recognize them.

“They’re curated in a way that I kind of go into, and I share why they are important to me,” de León said. “Also, we kind of arrange the tunes so they’re a little bit different from how they were recorded. Personally, I don’t have a solo track yet; I’m working on that. I’ve been putting a lot of creative energy for the past nine years into Orgone, and I kind of just put my solo stuff on the backburner, but I’m slowly working with producers and stuff to get more material, and put out something on my own.”

De León has performed at the Agua Caliente Palm Springs before, as part of the Jazzville series, which has the same producers as the Desert Blues series. De León said she prides herself on the concoction of genres she can perform—but while she can sing the blues, “it’s not my main thing,” she said.

“When I was initially talking to Barry (Martin, who does booking for Jazzville and Desert Blues) about it, he said, ‘We built it as a blues night, but I know what you do,’ so I felt a little pressure come off, because I’m not a blues singer, and I made that very clear,” de León said. “When I’m approached for different gigs, I like to make it very clear what I do. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a gig and doing a certain set, and then on a set break hearing, ‘Do you mind if you do a little bit Adryon de León. more of this?’ I’ve had it happen to me before,

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The Venue REPORT

Adryon de León combines funk, R&B and a little bit of blues in her solo shows

JuLY 2022

so through trial and error, I really learned to be very clear up front.”

Because she performs a blend of genres, de León has to do some research before each show.

“Over my 20 years of putting together sets and arrangements, I’ve figured it out on the fly—but now I can apply all those lessons when I’m putting together a set for an evening,” de León said. “I know what questions to ask: ‘Where’s this crowd coming from? What previous acts have been there?’ etcetera. The set coming up in July, I’ll definitely incorporate some blues-ier tunes, but it’s going to be in the style of Aretha Franklin, or other artists like that, just to kind of make sure everybody’s pleased. I’m a Libra; I’m a pleaser.”

De León said enjoys the flexibility her solo performances give her.

“The Orgone stuff is mostly originals, and the covers that we do are heavily arranged for the band,” de León said. “I’d have to say I am more invested when I’m performing my own lyrics and melody. Having been in the studio, seeing a song to fruition, there’s just this different feeling. On the other side of it, when I do my own stuff with my cover groups, we have our own little arrangements of things. I hate using this term, but we just love to vibe on stuff and create onstage. It’s a completely different journey. I don’t have that flexibility with Orgone, because all of our stuff is arranged down to the dot. With this particular show that we’re doing, I have more freedom, because I call the shots.”

And as for the future of her music career, de León is looking forward to spending more time pursuing her solo work.

“They’re kind of hitting their stride as a studio band right now,” de León said about Orgone. “They started as a rhythm section, and they’re always going to be a rhythm section with special guests, myself included.

Their direction right now is kind of slowing down on the touring, (instead) working with other vocalists and perhaps getting in with major artists and being their studio band.

That said, that allows me a lot more time and creative energy for my own projects. I’ll be working Orgone when I can—but I think the focus really needs to be on my solo work.”

Adryon de León will perform as part of the Desert Blues Revival series at 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 20, at the Agua Caliente Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $10 to $65. For tickets or more information, visit www. eventspalmsprings.com/blues.

By matt king

Pepe Aguilar

Happy July! While several venues are in the midst of their summer slumber, the entertainment is heating up at other venues.

Stay safe; stay hydrated; and enjoy what the valley has to offer in July.

Fantasy Springs is bringing the Latin and country goods. At 8 p.m., Sunday, July 3, Mexican legend and Grammy winner Pepe Aguilar comes to town. Tickets are $39 to $99. More Latin icons will take the Fantasy Springs stage at 8 p.m., Friday, July 29, when Los Tigres del Norte will perform their norteño hits. Tickets start at $49. As for that aforementioned country: Catch a night of platinum country hits at 8 p.m., Saturday, July 30, with Brett Eldredge. Tickets start at $49. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-342-5000; www. fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage has— cliché alert!—something for everyone. At 8 p.m., Friday, July 1, witness the Low Key Comedy Show with sets by Trevor Wallace, Pablo Francisco, Annie Lederman and Matt Rife. Tickets are $19.99 to $50. Fans who love ’70s rock staple Heart can catch Nancy Wilson’s Heart (she’s a founding member of the band, of course) at 8 p.m., Saturday, July 16. Tickets are $25 to $60.

Billboard chart regular Richard Marx brings an evenings of his hits to town at 8 p.m., Saturday, July 30. Tickets are $25 to $65.

Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

The big three regular series continue to roll on at Agua Caliente in Palm Springs. For Desert Blues Revival Wednesdays, check out the multi-instrumentalist Jessica Kaczmarek Band (July 6), a seasoned blues guitarist with a band of blues brothers in the form of Lester Lands and the New Breed Band (July 13) and a blues rock soul jazz funk kinda continued on next page CVIndependent.com

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From Safety Net programs to Life Enrichment

The Venue REPORT continued from page 27

we are here for you visit us online at

www.thecentercv.org 1301 N. Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, CA 92262 & 1515 Sixth Street, Coachella, CA 92236

Patio and indoor dining takeout 4 to 9 p.m.

Tuesday-SUNday 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive (760) 778-6595 www.533vietfusion.com CVIndependent.com

vibe from Sayed Sabrina (July 27). Shows are every Wednesday at 7 p.m., Tickets start at $10, available at eventspalmsprings. com/blues. Jazzville Thursdays bring the triple-booking of the Kevin VDE Quartet, Lia Booth and Mark Kopitzke (July 7); the jazzy pianist-led Adam Hersh Quintet (July 14); the hard-swingin’ jazz octet Nutty (July 21); and a show celebrating the music of Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond by the Jason Fabus Quintet (July 28). Shows take place at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $10, available at jazzvillepalmsprings.com. Caliente Comedy Fridays bring the laughs with Don Friesen (July 8), Sammy Obeid (July 15), Jeff Leach (July 22) and Jason Stuart (July 29).

Tickets start at $19.99, available at www. eventspalmsprings.com/caliente-comedy.

Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 888-999-1995; www.sparesortcasino.com.

Take a trip up the mountain to Pappy and Harriet’s for some intriguing shows—and somewhat cooler temps! At 9 p.m., Sunday, July 3, punk-rock veterans T.S.O.L (alongside Voodoo Glow Skulls and No Consent) will certainly bring mosh pits to the desert.

Tickets are $25. Into Mexican garage rock from the ’60s? Check out Los Dug Dug’s at the Pioneertown Palace at 9 p.m., Thursday, July 14. Tickets are $22 in advance. At 9 p.m., Sunday, July 17, groove the night away with the electronic indie act Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Tickets are $20. At 9 p.m., Thursday, July 28, folk-rock duo Mapache will perform one acoustic set and one full band set. Tickets are $22 in advance. Pappy and Harriet’s

Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-228-2222; www. pappyandharriets.com.

Oscar’s in Palm Springs features a decidedly unique July calendar. Accomplished comedian and producer/star of the webseries Madonnalogues, Nadya Ginsburg brings her new standup show to town at 7 p.m., Friday, July 8. Tickets are $35 to $45. At 7 p.m., Monday, July 11, attend GLOW, an interview with the original members of GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling), and hear stories about their heyday. Tickets start at $34.95. At 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 26, book a dinner reservation (and make the suggested $20 donation to Hanson House, if you can) to attend what’s billed as Los Angeles’ longest-running weekly event, Legendary Bingo With Deven and Ned. Oscar’s Palm Springs, 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs; 760-325-1188; oscarspalmsprings.com/events.

The Alibi is booming in Palm Springs, bringing in some top-notch entertainment. At 6 p.m., Saturday, July 9, rock out with ’80s Latinpunks Cruzados. Tickets are $16 in advance.

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80—Seun is the son of Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti—will perform a night of African music with Fela’s own twists at 8 p.m., Sunday, July 10. Tickets are $30 in advance.

The synth-pop stylings of Jerry Paper will grace The Alibi stage at 7 p.m., Sunday, July 17.

Tickets are $20 in advance. Pay tribute to the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia with Jerry’s Middle Finger, performing at 8 p.m., Sunday, July 31. Tickets are $22 in advance. The Alibi Palm Springs, 369 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-656-1525; thealibipalmsprings.com.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 29

JULY 2022

MUSIC

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

PERSEVERING TO PERFORM

Meatbodies survive pandemic angst and health troubles to bring fuzzy garage music to The Alibi

By matt king

T

he pandemic has caused some of the most confusing times in modern history. For example: Even though concerts are back, the virus is still around—so who knows if any given show will actually happen?

Meatbodies is a band that knows all about the shifting landscape of the music industry.

Frontman Chad Ubovich has left his mark all over the garage-rock music scene, thanks to his work with Meatbodies, his bass-playing no control over that. We’re just there to play! I with Fuzz (alongside Ty Segall and Charles don’t think it makes any sense.”

Moothart) and his work as a producer.

It’s not just the smaller bands getting the Meatbodies’ sound is heavy, psychedelic, short end of the figurative COVID stick, either. garage-y, fuzzy and eclectic. Songs range “When Fuzz was touring America, we got from a mostly mellow psych journey (“Fools lucky that most of our entire crew, and Ty and Fold Their Hands”) to, well, an answer to the Charles, got COVID before we went out, so question: What if Devo went super heavy no one had to worry,” Ubovich said. “At the (“Mountain”)? same time we were touring, so was The Brian The band is slated to perform at The Alibi in Jonestown Massacre, and I was following their Palm Springs on Friday, July 22. posts. We were kind of mirroring each other— “With how things are in the world with the they were on the East Coast, and we were on pandemic right now, I think we’re realizing the West Coast—and we played a few of the that a lot of time has passed, and we have to same venues, but they were playing these get out there,” Ubovich said during a recent bigger venues. Anton (Newcombe, founder of phone interview. “Coming back into shows, it’s the Brian Jonestown Massacre) would be like, a little weird, and it’s been kind of a learning ‘All right, someone got COVID in our thing; curve. Sometimes, shows will be amazing, and we’ve got to cancel these shows.’ It was just sometimes, people don’t want to come out kind of everywhere. because of COVID. The one thing that you “I think maybe, if there was a little bit more have to do, especially if you’re in our position, of a precaution with mass gatherings, maybe is just keep playing. It’s not like all the shows something could be figured out, but right now, are going to be sold out, and there’s really no it’s settling all on relying on musicians to make way to gauge that for anybody, no matter how their date to play—but then they’re going big you are. It’s really just about not stopping, to get sick and have to cancel. I think we’re and keeping going.” going to have to implement some rule about Ubovich said most performing musicians everyone wearing masks when we go into a feel like they need to work now. venue, and that’s just all we can do.”

“We’ve been cooped up in the house for two Of course, musicians have to deal with years, and since basically all of America is just “normal” human illnesses, too—such as in opening up, the message is: Everyone, get to early January, when Fuzz had to postpone work,” he said. “We have to work; we have to the band’s tour after Ubovich contracted go out there.” pneumonia.

That said, touring is more challenging than “The beginning of this year was definitely ever, Ubovich said. one of the most interesting, new and “The problem is that there aren’t these psychedelic experiences of my life,” Ubovich mandates anymore on venues, or anything said. “I got pneumonia, but essentially, it was encouraging COVID prevention at all,” Ubovich from other things—which, most importantly, said. “If the musicians get sick during tour— was the house that I was living in. It was because, obviously, they’re going to be going condemned, and we didn’t know. I was living from town to town in massive areas with there for about eight years, and I ended up in massive amounts of gathered people—then the hospital. I was sick with pneumonia for two there are going to be these COVID moments, months prior, and finally, the doctors just kind and that’s what I’ve been noticing with a lot of told me, ‘You’ve got to go to the hospital.’ I of bands going on the road. They’re out there, did, and a month later, I got out, and I’ve been and then all of a sudden, they have to cancel. in recovery since.”

It’s this weird dance, and I would say no one Getting his health back has been Ubovich’s really knows what to do. We need to get out main priority. there, but it’s kind of up to us to not get “The moment I got into the hospital, a lot COVID or something—even though we have of family members and other people told me,

Meatbodies.

‘You’re gonna make so much art; you should write a book about this experience,’” Ubovich said. “I don’t know about that. Maybe people who have had hospital stays before can agree with me, but when you’re out, you’re out.

I never want to look back. Maybe my new songs will sound more free, but I don’t really know what I’m going to take away from that experience.”

Meatbodies’ latest studio album is the psychedelically haunting and shifting 333, which came out last year.

“During COVID, everybody was kind of in the midst of having so much time on their hands since they weren’t touring,” Ubovich said. “I made an album; I think Ty (Segall) made, like, five. Every time he was coming out with something, I’m like, ‘Wait so which one is this?’ There’s a lot more time to write and get content and create when people are trying to avoid going out—but we have to go out; we have to play; and we have to tour. It becomes a standstill if you just kind of never tour.”

The album 333 was, in part, a product of a positive COVID test—and wasn’t the album that Ubovich and his bandmates were originally recording.

“We were demoing and writing this album, and then COVID happened,” Ubovich said. “I was literally in the studio, doing the last mixes, and I think that week, I got word that the guy I was mixing with got COVID—then, boom, everyone’s (stuck) inside their house. I was going through all the demos, and I was like, ‘Let’s just put this shit out. Everything’s weird; no one knows what to do, so let’s just put this shit out.’ That’s essentially what 333 is; it wasn’t supposed to be an album. That other album is still in the works—and once again, I just decided to move the mixing to my studio at my house, and I was working on that, and then I got sick, so I’ve been taking a big break from it.

“I moved, so I need to create a new studio, and then I need to fire things up, and we’re going to listen to (the songs). I did listen to some of it on this last tour, and some of it is pretty fucking good.”

Meatbodies will perform with Spoon Benders at 8 p.m., Friday, July 22, at The Alibi Palm Springs, 369 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs.

Tickets are $15 in advance. For more information, visit www.thealibipalmsprings.com.

(833) HUMBOLDT Grower Direct WWW.833HUMBOLDT.COM CCL18-0003200 CVIndependent.com

30 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

JULY 2022

MUSIC

the

LUCKY 13

Get to know Osees drummer Paul Quattrone, and Labia Minora vocalist/guitarist Karla Anderson by matt king

Paul Quattrone.

Gabriel Edwards

“Funnel of Love”; Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song”; pretty much any Dolly Parton song).

What’s your favorite music venue?

RED ROCKS!

NAME Paul Quattrone GROUPS Osees, Warm Drag MORE INFO Independent readers are familiar with the garage-rock outfit known as Osees, as we’ve talked with frontman John Dwyer a number of times. One of the band’s two drummers is Paul Quattrone, and he’s a huge reason Osees’ shows are so high-energy; I’ve personally seen Quattrone on the drums nonstop for nearly two hours. He is also half of the experimental band Warm Drag. When he’s not performing, he’s often admiring the Yucca Valley scenery in his backyard on his Instagram. Osees recently released “Funeral Solution,” a metal-punk rager—less than two minutes long—off the band’s upcoming LP, A Foul Form.

What was the first concert you attended?

The Monkees’ 20th anniversary tour, 1986.

What was the first album you owned?

Van Halen, 1984.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Container, Armand Hammer, and Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou.

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

1990s rock, all of it. Except Ween.

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

Otis Redding with (the band) Can backing him up.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

45s played at 33 rpm (Wanda Jackson, CVIndependent.com

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

“So I went to the doctor, see what he can give me / He said, ‘Son, son you’ve gone too far/ ’cause smokin’ and trippin’ is all that you do’ / yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” “Fairies Wear Boots,” Black Sabbath.

What band or artist changed your life?

Suicide. They taught me the importance of minimalism and repetition.

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

Jimi Hendrix: Is it true you used to slice open your forehead and drop LSD into the wound, and that’s why you always wore a headband?

What song would you like played at your funeral?

Price Is Right losing horn, on repeat.

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

This will probably change in 10 minutes, but Funkadelic, Funkadelic (first album).

What song should everyone listen to right now?

Merzbow, “Woodpecker No. 2,” wait, no …

Bob Fryfogle, “Six Feet Under.”

NAME Karla Anderson GROUP Labia Minora MORE INFO There’s a new punk band in town, and Labia Minora is quickly making its presence known throughout the valley. After only a handful of shows, the band has already established a garage-punk sound—and a following. Karla Anderson plays guitar and is on vocal duty, packing more than enough screams and yells for a night of moshing.

You can catch the band’s next show Saturday, July 23, at The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert. For more, visit www.facebook.com/ labiaminoraofficial.

What was the first concert you attended?

My dad took our family to see Sons of the Pioneers in 1979. Even though I was only 3 years old at the time, I have some freakishly accurate memories of that night.

What was the first album you owned?

Not counting The Chipmunks and Mickey Mouse Disco records I played on my FisherPrice record player as a young child, my first album was The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

I used to lie on the living room floor with those big, brown, squishy-soft ’70s style headphones and listen to it over and over and over again on my dad’s record player.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Right now, thanks to Stranger Things, I’ve been revisiting Kate Bush. My Chemical Romance, VV, and Darren Hayes have all released new music. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t listen to Gin Blossoms, Juliana Hatfield, Babes in Toyland, or Katastrophy Wife.

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

What’s not to get? If it makes you feel something, then I totally get it.

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

I spend a lot of time regretting never seeing Tom Petty or Nirvana live. Before the pandemic, I had tickets to see both Justin Townes Earle and John Prine. Unfortunately, they both died in 2020, so I never got to see them. I would give just about anything to see Babes in Toyland one more time.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Darren Hayes (Savage Garden) and Ville Valo (VV/HIM). Even though I feel zero guilt, I sometimes feel like getting caught listening is sort of like getting caught masturbating.

Like, excuse me, I’m having a moment here. I’m usually not one for overstated love songs, but when they’re paired with Darren’s breathy falsetto and anima energy, or Ville’s deep mysterious voice and audible gasps that somehow work … I can’t help myself. I melt.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I love going to local shows. The Alibi, Coachella Valley Brewing Company, and Pappy and Harriet’s are the venues I tend to frequent the most.

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

“I dove down into the seaweed / Scared once before, but not anymore / As it twists and turns me away from the surface / Here’s my chance of letting it go,” “Seaweed,” The Gits.

What band or artist changed your life?

Babes in Toyland. In the early ’90s, I was in

college and dealing with some very intense personal stuff. It was around that time I first heard Kat Bjelland’s shrill scream. It was an exorcizing of all those demons inside of me. Something about the music gave me permission to let go. Songwriting became my cathartic ritual. I allowed myself the freedom to write and play anything I wanted. It could totally suck, and I didn’t care. That kind of freedom is something everyone should feel.

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

“Wanna hang out?” I’ve wanted to ask Darren Hayes that since the first time I met him back in 2004. He has the most lovable personality and smile, and I think he’s an amazing songwriter and artist.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Kiss Me Deadly” by Lita Ford. I’ve made this request well-known to my loved ones since 1989. I’m pretty sure it’ll happen.

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

Oh, man. I honestly have so many favorites for so many reasons. But since there’s a (figurative) gun to my head … New Miserable Experience by Gin Blossoms. Of all my favorites, it is the one album that, in 30 years, I doubt a single day has gone by without a listen. I still go to their shows every chance I get, and I still sing along to “Hey Jealousy” like a giddy 19-year-old fangirl.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Oasis” by Amanda Palmer. Especially now.

I absolutely love the confessional yet trivial delivery of the lyrics and performance. I feel it’s a double metaphor for how a young brain copes with experiencing sexual and reproductive trauma, and how our society trivializes these highly personal, traumatic events for political gain.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 31

JULY 2022

OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

“Even Steven”—or is it Stephen?

By Matt Jones

29. Last period of the Paleozoic Era 30. Venus’ sister 32. She, in Rome Across 33. The art of hand1. Swimmer’s stroke drawing national 6. Monastery superior outlines?

11. Las Vegas’ ___ Grand 37. Sightseeing trip Hotel 38. All in the Family 14. Cabinetmaker’s in-law Mike machine 39. Without slowing 15. City served by down or speeding up Dallas/Fort Worth 42. Co. that makes ATMs Airport and introduced LCDs 16. Dove sound 43. Palindromic plea 17. Book lover who at sea focuses on insects?

46. Iran, long ago 19. ___ Talks 47. ___ Khan 20. Music system 48. S’mores need, 21. Time before traditionally someone becomes a 49. Reason your 1990s best friend?

Hypercolor shirts 23. Twosome on might work later in Everybody Loves the decade?

Raymond or Friday 51. 1964 Hitchcock Night Dinner thriller 24. Wanna-___ 53. Brain activity meas. (pretenders) 54. Star player of an old 26. Exceed flip-phone game?

27. ’98 and ’99, but not 56. Issa of the upcoming ’100 “Vengeance” 28. Slumdog Millionaire 57. “Slithy” creatures in actor Patel Jabberwocky

58. “Hello” singer 59. ’60s activist org.

60. ABBA member, e.g.

61. Portended

an airport 30. Most confident 31. Paper that now owns Wordle, for short Down 33. Saturday Night Live 1. Stylish alien 2. Jurassic World 34. Scandalous acts Dominion 35. Lot to park and stay classification overnight, maybe 3. Site of the first 36. Service station modern Olympics offering 4. Rotor noises 37. They may tap a 5. Bury the ___ percentage 6. “Bored” NFT 40. Central positions character 41. Webpage option 7. Tells all under an invoice 8. Grammy winner 43. Fell from grace Erykah 44. Maryland state bird 9. Anxious 45. Appeared to be 10. Lethargic state 47. Solicited 11. Graham of The 48. Brother of Michael Hobbit and Preacher and Sonny Corleone 12. Handles gently, with 50. Building projection “on” 52. Melville mariner 13. Pfizer alternative 55. Ending for Japan or 18. Pattinson of The Sudan Batman 22. Desktop not meant © 2022 Matt Jones for the office 25. Terribly Find the answers in 28. Lion lair the “About” section at 29. Summoning, as at CVIndependent.com!

CVIndependent.com

32 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

2022 EVENTS CVIndependent.com

JULY 2022

DATE

EVENT

June 28

How to Become LGBTQ+ Certified

June 30

Palm Springs Art Museum's Summer Film Series

June 30

The Power of Story - How Gay Media Put Palm Springs on the Map

June 30

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino Fireworks

July 1–4

Agua Caliente Casinos 4th of July Weekend Celebration

July 2

Drone Show and Concert - Petty & the Heartbreakers

July 4

Palm Springs 4th of July Events

July 4

Palm Springs Cultural Center's July 4th Celebration

July 4

July 4th Celebration & Fundraiser for AAP – Food Samaritans

July 7–Aug 12

Taste of Summer Rancho Mirage

July 15–17

Out in the Vineyard: Gay Wine Weekend

July 16–17

San Diego Pride Festival/Parade

July 1–24

Roost Lounge's Christmas in July

Aug 12–14

Splash House August - Weekend 1

Aug 18–21

Big Bear Romp

Aug 19–21

Splash House August - Weekend 2

Sept 9

Out on the Mountain

Sept 15–25

Cinema Diverse

Sept 16–18

Gay Days Anaheim

Sept 17

Positively Aging Conference

Sept 21

Business Expo & Taste of Palm Springs

Sept 21–25

Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend

Oct 1

Pride Under the Pines

Oct 13–16

Modernism Week Fall Preview

Oct 15

Casual Concours

Oct 28–30

Leather Pride

Oct 30

Palm Springs Halloween on Arenas

Nov 4–6

Palm Springs Pride & Pride Parade

Nov 11–13

Palm Springs Women's Jazz Festival

Nov 18–20

McCormick's Collector Car Auction

Jan 5

Palm Springs Int. Film Festival Awards Gala

Jan 6–16

Palm Springs Int. Film Festival

Feb 16–26

Modernism Week

Feb 23–27

International Bear Convergence / IBC

May 12–14

White Party Global

Celebrating All the Colors

in the Rainbow

#ILoveGayPalmSprings