Coachella Valley Independent November 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT | NOVEMBER 2020

VOL. 8 | NO. 11

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NOVEMBER 2020

Eisenhower IS HERE

Eisenhower Family Medicine

They have the same eyes, smile, and taste in movies. And the same family physician.

FROM PEDIATRICS TO GERIATRICS, Eisenhower Health’s Centers for Family Medicine can meet nearly all of your family’s medical needs in one convenient location. A physician trained in Family Medicine treats routine illnesses, helps patients manage chronic conditions, and makes sure everyone keeps up with recommended screenings and immunizations. Our team has seasoned faculty physicians and talented residents working side by side, so patients get twice the attention and expertise. Better yet, our doctors are backed by the extensive resources of the Eisenhower Health network, including excellent specialists and our renowned Medical Center. So get your family an Eisenhower family medicine physician — and make staying healthy a family affair.

Find the right doctor for you by calling 760-773-1460 or visiting EisenhowerHealth.org/Family today.

La Quinta ~ Palm Desert EisenhowerHealth.org/Family CVIndependent.com

760-773-1460

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 3

NOVEMBER 2020

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

Editor/Publisher Jimmy Boegle staff writer Kevin Fitzgerald coveR and feature design Beth Allen Contributors Kevin Allman, Max Cannon, Kevin Carlow, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Andria Lisle, Brett Newton, Dan Perkins, Guillermo Prieto, Anita Rufus, Andrew Smith, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor, Madeline Zuckerman The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month.

All content is ©2020 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader.

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

The Independent is a proud member and/ or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, CalMatters, Get Tested Coachella Valley, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, and the Desert Ad Fed.

Palm Springs Pride has played an important role in the Independent’s history.

The 18th story published at CVIndependent.com, eight years ago now, was a brief photo piece about the 2012 festival—published when the website was still in beta, and we were more concerned about having content to build the site around than people actually seeing what we produced.

The 2013 festival was the first major event at which the Independent had a presence. We gave out logo reusable grocery bags—along with copies of our first Pride Issue, which was our fourth print edition overall.

In the years since, the Independent has had a booth at every Palm Springs Pride festival, as the celebration moved from Palm Springs Stadium, to the streets of downtown Palm Springs, to that odd area sort of in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum, back to the streets of downtown Palm Springs. We’ve given out logo frisbees, refrigerator magnets, fidget spinners, chip-bag clips, Palm Springs Craft Cocktail Week shot glasses, and thousands of copies of each year’s Pride Issue.

This year, however, that won’t be happening. While both Palm Springs Pride, largely in a virtual format, and our annual Pride Issue are still here, we can’t currently gather because of this damned pandemic.

Sigh.

It’s often said that change is the only constant in life, and a lot of things have certainly changed in 2020—and who knows what the last two months of this year will bring?

I do know that the end of 2020 will be bringing some exciting changes to the Independent. I’m proud to announce that in mid-December, if all goes according to plan, we’ll be launching a brand-new, stateof-the-art, beautiful website. We’ll also be making some design tweaks to the print edition, starting with the January 2021 edition.

But before all of that happens, we’ll be announcing our amazing slate of Best of Coachella Valley winners—online on Monday, Nov. 23, and in our December print edition. But again, there will be change there as well: We can’t have our winners’ party like we always have in the past, so we’re looking at doing either a virtual celebration or perhaps a drive-in party. Watch for details on that as we figure them out.

While we here at the Independent are certainly embracing change, I really hope that in November 2021, we’re all back on Palm Canyon Drive for the Palm Springs Pride festival, gathering joyously like before.

Welcome to the November 2020 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com CVIndependent.com

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NOVEMBER 2020

OPINION OPINION

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS S

BY ANITA RUFUS

teve Stockton says that his best decision in life was getting married and having a family.

However, his work as an optician—which allows him to change people’s lives by giving them the ability to see clearly—is just as important.

Stockton, 59 and a Palm Desert resident for the past year, works for OneSight (onesight.org), a nonprofit organization “committed to eradicating the global vision care crisis in our lifetime.”

According to the organization’s website, OneSight has helped more than 9 million people in 46 countries since 1998.

“I was in Costa Rica,” Stockton says, “and went back there after 10 years for the anniversary of our OneSight program there. I saw a woman I had helped on that earlier trip, and she for vision aids, makes eyeglass adjustments, still had the same pair of glasses that had and educates patients about eyewear. He was transformed her ability to see. For a little boy licensed by the time he was 23. from Ogden, Utah, to be able to make that “I had originally intended to major in difference, around the world, is the proudest psychology, but I had a friend who was accomplishment in my life.” studying nursing and encouraged me to Stockton was raised in Ogden and Kaysville, consider becoming an optician,” he says.

Utah. “My mom was the light of our family,” “Funny, I had always loved drawing eyes. Once Stockton says. “She was an incredible woman, I completed my studies, I fell in love with the the person who brought our family together. job—working directly with people and helping I was always able to go to her and tell her them see better.” anything. She would just hug and love us, no Stockton’s first job was with an optical matter what. Her message was, ‘There’s no one company in Denver, and he is still in contact better than you are.’ with friends he made during that time.

“Mom was a third-generation Mexican Stockton later began working with LensCrafters American, whose father was a very religious and soon became a general manager. In 1988, man. He would sit down and preach the gospel the company started collecting used eyeglasses to us in Spanish. I do believe in a higher being, with the idea of giving them to children who and what I hope for is one day to be able to see couldn’t afford them. That ultimately led to my mother again. the formation of OneSight, which is now an “Mom and my birth father got divorced. independent nonprofit.

She remarried when I was about 10, and my In 1997, mobile eye clinics were being ‘dad’ adopted my older brother and myself. put together, and Stockton became a clinic (Stockton also has a younger brother and a manager, leading the expansion of clinics sister.) He was a really good role model for around the world. us. He, my mom and dad all had a friendly “I originally drove a van around the U.S., relationship.”

Canada and Mexico,” he says. “To help people After graduating from high school, Stockton be able to see, cook, sew and read—it’s attended college in Ogden, but then moved to wonderful to have had that opportunity.

Colorado to study to become an optician—a In 2018, I became program manager with professional who measures patients’ eyes

CVIndependent.com

Meet Steve Stockton, a man who makes a difference by helping people around the world see clearly

Steve Stockton.

OneSight.”

The organization’s mission is to bring eye exams and glasses to people who lack access to vision care. They see more than 3,500 patients every week, at mobile clinics all over the world.

“We do comprehensive eye exams at the clinics,” Stockton says. “We have up to 15 optometrists, and a team of about 50 from all over the world. We do eye exams and make glasses right onsite.”

What brought Stockton to Palm Desert?

“My husband, Danny, is a teacher. We had been living in Arizona, but salaries for teachers are much higher in California, and we liked the desert. My job is mobile, so I just need to be near an airport.

“We have an incredible daughter, Kylie, 26, from Danny’s first marriage, who is engaged to be married next year. Kylie was 5 when Danny and I got together, and we raised her up until her high school graduation. I’m looking forward to being a grandfather one of these days!”

What’s something others might not know about him? “One thing I really love to do is

draw—animals, people, eyeballs,” he says with a laugh. “I work in colored pencils and charcoal, and I’m always doodling.”

Stockton loves to travel, and obviously travels a lot for his job. “Danny and I went to Thailand along with his mother, and I was able to give them the experience I’d had when I was doing clinics,” he says. “They got to see what I’ve seen—meeting people and forming relationships.

“We do clinics through the Fresh Air Fund (freshair.org) at summer camps and see about 2,600 kids in four weeks.”

The people who work for OneSight believe that when the world sees better, the world lives better—and Steve Stockton has definitely made the world a better place by helping other people see clearly.

Anita Rufus is also known as “The Lovable Liberal.” Her show The Lovable Liberal airs on IHubRadio. Email her at Anita@LovableLiberal. com. Know Your Neighbors appears every other Wednesday at CVIndependent.com.

NOVEMBER 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 5

Fostering a spirit of community and solidarity

Presented By

Visit our Facebook page for Contest details. @GayDesertGuide @PSPride

CVIndependent.com

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NOVEMBER 2020

OPINION PETS

FRONTIER KITTIES A

BY PAUL KOUDOUNARIS AND BABA THE CAT

merica was still a more callous world than not for cats. But our status was in the process of being forever changed by some of history’s bravest and most determined felines.

The United States offered itself as a land of opportunity, but the overcrowded cities and squalid slums of the East Coast fulfilled that promise for precious few. Once again, the more stouthearted of your kind began to migrate, risking the gamble of a new life in the huge westward expanses. Traveling over the Rockies, pioneers started breaking ground on new farms and towns, and even if the terrain was harsh and unforgiving, it was land they could call their own, in a place where the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and the endless horizon carried the promise of freedom.

But the frontier also offered something with less appeal: mice, and plenty of them, over opportunities for those with enough grit to regions so vast that nothing less than the earn a pawhold in society. And many were paws of experts could be relied upon. We were the cats who rose to that challenge, and in desperately needed in the American West! the process redefined public opinion about Once more we answered the call, and as the felines. Take for example a big tomcat named 19th century wore on, cats slowly began to Tom from Salt Lake City. He had been living appear in the hinterlands. But from where with a man named John West until, one fine were these intrepid felines coming? Some had day, Tom took a certain flounder which Mr. traveled with wagon trains, among humans West believed belonged to him. (Then as now, who had the foresight to bring a cat along. the debate over who owns the food within Others migrated up from Mexico, having the household was a common matter of arrived in Central and South America aboard contention between cats and humans.) Rather Spanish galleons, and staking their claim to than negotiate the matter peaceably, Mr. West the American Southwest as they traveled became so enraged that he trapped Tom in a northward with Spanish missionaries. And still more blazed their own trails, true pioneers bag, which he then hid under a seat on a train headed to California! Some 337 miles later, who migrated further and further from the in Caliente, Nev., the train’s staff heard Tom’s large cities of the Eastern Seaboard and mewing and rustling. Having discovered the eventually crossed the Mississippi. poor cat, they compounded his plight—he had As with the generations of seafaring felines no ticket, so off he went. who had colonized the new land, the cats of the But as I have told you, cats on the frontier frontier were by nature strong and clever. And were of their nature clever and strong, and Tom they were also valuable commodities, especially knew what he had to do. That house in Salt popular among cowboys, who packed months’ Lake City was his as much as it was Mr. West’s, worth of supplies and for whom the predations and he would be damned if he would give it of field mice could spell disaster. Virile and independent, they nonetheless needed our help. up. He turned eastward and began walking.

He crossed mountains and deserts, suffering And while you may not see this in your Western films, many cowboys traveled with us across the through brutally hot days and frigid nights in a terrain where dangerous predators roamed. plains, and I’ll have you know they paid a hefty And even though the path was unknown to price for our services. him, three weeks later he appeared nowhere Consider that in the Arizona territory in else than on the very doorstep. He was worse the 1880s the fixed price for a cat, any cat at for the wear to be sure, but he wanted one all, was $10. This was a princely sum at a time thing and in fact demanded it: dinner. Mr. West when a month’s wages might barely exceed could be nothing but impressed, and he gave $20. But it was dictated by the market itself: Tom dinner, and in addition swore never again There simply weren’t enough of us to fill the to put him out. Tom had showed himself the demand. Meanwhile entrepreneurs in the bolder of the two and earned a permanent and Midwest were tripling their money by buying rightful place in the home. cats up in bulk and shipping us to the Dakotas Meanwhile Cy Warman, a poet who had by railcar, and up in Alaska we were worth worked for the railroads in his younger days our weight in gold—literally so, as desperate and was nicknamed the Bard of the Rockies, miners paid for their felines with gold dust. recalled the story of another pioneering feline.

You might ask if catching mice on the While employed by the Western Line, he had frontier wasn’t just the same old servitude. taken in a stray black female cat who had been I can’t deny the truth of that, but this was a residing in the rail yard, and having traveled new kind of world where traditional roles and countless miles together, they had grown mores didn’t always hold, thereby creating CVIndependent.com

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

An excerpt from the new book ‘A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History’ quite attached. On the day Warman left the company, he determined to bring her with him into retirement. She was found on the train, sleeping atop the coal stack. He called to her and she responded with an arched back and familiar purr, then stood up and began to make her way over. But midway between him and the train, she suddenly stopped her stride and stood stock-still. There followed a moment of indecision as the rail yard filled with a palpable anxiety, finally to be pierced by a pitiful meow.

The cat’s eyes fixed on Warman, and after another pause that must have seemed a day, she made an about face and returned to the train without looking back.

The black cat knew her human was leaving (we always know!), and she knew a choice must be made. That it was difficult, we cannot doubt, but as appealing as a comfortable life with a caring human might be, she was a frontier cat. She chose the train—a dirty coal pile over a comfortable bed, the feeling of speed and power rather than days lazing on a porch, the unbroken expanse over a welltended garden. She chose to ride, the wind whipping her whiskers. And so she did, at least for the next couple of years, until one fateful day when the train derailed. The engineer was found dead, his body broken, and a few feet away the cat was found, her body also crumpled and lifeless. Where she had come from and whom she had been before the rail yard, no one knows. But the men of the line

all knew who she became, America’s (and the world’s!) one and only railroad cat.

She had chosen her own path through life, having died as she had lived, a pioneer even among pioneers. But that was the nature of the frontier! Life was not easy, but it was a place where old identities were forgotten and new ones formed. Bonds grew under the lonely Western sky, and in that great expanse an ancient idea was born anew: cats as companions. Two frontiers were being simultaneously conquered by felines out west, not simply the one shown on maps, but also the one bordering human hearts. Think about the railway men and that fine black cat! Never would they imagine they would be hurtling down the line with a feline conductor! Getting to know and understand her, sharing a laugh and a meow over the smell of burning coal.

Think of the cowboys who traveled with us across the endless terrain as we sat perched behind their saddle horns. Along those empty trails they likewise learned our ways, and can you doubt that on a starry night by the campfire they might strum their guitars and offer a song to a feline friend, who in return offered a contented purr?

Excerpted from A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History, by Paul Koudounaris and Baba the Cat. Published by Henry Holt and Company, November 2020. Copyright © 2020 by Paul Koudounaris. All rights reserved.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 7

NOVEMBER 2020

¡VOTE NO! A LA PROPOSICIÓN 23

TECHNOLOGY AND THE SEASONS OF BEAUTY

By Shonda Chase, FNP Nurse Practitioner, Co-owner, Artistic Director and Advanced Aesethetic Injector at Revive Wellness Centers in Palm Springs and Torrance, and Medweight, Lasers and Wellness Center in Irvine

N Angel De Los Santos Paciente de Diálisis

NoProp23.com/espanol Miles de pacientes que dependen de diálisis para sobrevivir se oponen ya que agregaría requisitos innecesarios y costosos

→ Reducirá peligrosamente el acceso al cuidado de diálisis que impactará a 80,000 Californianos que dependen de diálisis para mantenerse con vida.

Nuevas regulaciones burocráticas cerrarán cientos de clínicas y aumentarán los costos de atención médica por $320 millones cada año → Al menos 300 clínicas serían críticamente afectadas, resultando en recortes, cierre de clínicas, y reducción de acceso al cuidado de diálisis a los pacientes más necesitados.

Desplaza a doctores y empeora la escasez de médicos en California

→ La Asociación Médica de California se opone ya que sacará a miles de médicos de hospitales y clínicas donde se necesitan, y los colocará en trabajos burocráticos.

Obligará a las clínicas de diálisis a reducir servicios y cerrar, y enviará a miles de pacientes enfermos a la sala de emergencia → Los médicos de sala de emergencias se oponen porque reducirá la capacidad para lidiar con el coronavirus y crearía tiempos de espera más largos para otras emergencias.

Anuncio pagado por NO a la 23 - Detenga la Propuesta Peligrosa y Costosa de Diálisis, una coalición de proveedores de diálisis, enfermeras, médicos y pacientes.

Los principales financiadores del Comité son DaVita Fresenius Medical Care US Renal Care Detalles del financiamiento en www.fppc.ca.gov

ot too many years ago, we had “seasons” for many of the different medical aesthe�c treatments we performed. Here are some of the treatments we would avoid during certain �mes of the year: CoolSculpting for Permanent Fat Reduction in Summer: CoolSculp�ng o�en has visual and physical down�me issues. The risks of bruising last weeks, and frozen fat “bu�er s�ck” visuals caused us to hold back on CoolSculp�ng during the summer season, when two-piece swimsuits are usually worn in public places.

Laser Hair Reduction: When a pa�ent wasn’t careful with their sun management, we would have to reschedule them. Or, we would have to turn the laser energy down so much to protect them from skin inflamma�on that we’d run the risk of not having the treatment be effec�ve.

Filler Injections Right Before Weddings, Reunions and Special Events: Experienced, advanced injectors have a lower risk of puncturing a blood vessel. S�ll, I’ve turned down injec�ng many pa�ents who have a special event in a few days or a week, because I don’t want to risk them ge�ng a telltale bruise.

But now, improved medical technologies make almost every aesthe�c procedure and cosme�c surgery available any �me of the year.

Here are some new medical devices and techniques that let us treat pa�ents almost any�me: Secret No. 1: Radio-frequency permanent fat-destruc�on devices like TruSculptID and Evoke can treat pa�ents any �me with no bruising or down�me. FYI, all device treatments take 12 weeks for full results and can significantly brighten and �ghten skin.

Secret No. 2: The new thread li�s can instantly turn back the clock 10-15 years with li�le risk of bruising.

Secret No. 3: Botox or Newtox injec�ons can be done any�me, but results take up to 14 days for full results.

Secret No. 4: PICO Laser Genesis can improve melasma any �me as long as the pa�ent is using sunblock daily.

You can call any of our offices for your free consulta�on if you want to know whether now is a good �me to improve your appearance. Our Revive Wellness Center loca�ons are in Palm Springs, 760325-4800; and Torrance, 310-375-7599. Our Medweight, Lasers and Wellness Center office is in Irvine: 949-586-9904.

Un�l then, keep the secrets.

You can email your individual ques�ons to Shonda Chase FNP, or Allan Y. Wu MD, Revive’s cosme�c surgeon, at shonda@revivecenter.com.

CVIndependent.com

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NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

KEEPING THE WATER FLOWING O

by kevin fitzgerald

n April 2, with COVID-19 establishing itself as both a financial and fatal threat, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order prohibiting water shutoffs by local water agencies.

The order applied to all homes and small businesses in the state, protecting them from losing their access to water due to the nonpayment of service fees.

“This executive order will help people who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring they have water service,” Gov. Newsom said at the time. “Water is critical to our very lives, and in this time, it is critically important that it is available for everyone.” revenue hasn’t really changed much,” Evans Today, nearly seven months have passed said. since then, and the state is still mired in the Is the shortfall in customer payments pandemic—so questions are beginning to arise causing a cashflow problem for the CVWD? about how much debt is being accumulated, “We have a reserve fund called the ratenot only by the state’s water providers, but by stabilization fund,” Evans said. “It’s very customers who can’t afford to keep up with specific for (an unusual occurrence) like this. It payments.

An Oct. 15 article from CalMatters reported: ensures that we have funds if there’s a major change in revenue. The intention there is to “The State Water Resources Control Board regulates all public water systems in California, prevent a big spike in consumer rates in order to compensate for a catastrophic change in serving close to 85 percent of the state’s revenues due to some crazy situation like a customers. The board hasn’t required the pandemic. So, I think we’re fine, because we utilities under its purview to report specific have that reserve available.” data about how the pandemic has had an To date, CVWD has not yet needed to tap impact on their finances, nor has it tracked into that reserve. ratepayer debt. Initial efforts over the summer One reason why cashflow hasn’t yet to collect some of that information from become a major issue for these local water water providers through a voluntary survey providers is the valley-wide customer-payment fell short” when only 10 percent of the state’s assistance program in which they’ve all opted approximately 2,900 public-water systems to participate, administered by the United Way responded. of the Desert. According to the United Way The Independent spoke to representatives website, The “Help2Others” (or “H2O”) program from two of the largest Coachella Valley helps eligible residential customers avoid waterwater agencies to assess the impacts of this service shutoffs due to nonpayment. Agencies moratorium on their operations. To their across the Coachella Valley offer between $50 credit, the directors at both the Coachella and $100 in annual credits.

Valley Water District (CVWD) and the Desert (To find out about the program, visit www.

Water Agency (DWA) voted on their own to unitedwayofthedesert.org/help2others.) enact water-shutoff moratoriums in March, “We have experienced a 200 percent increase weeks prior to the governor’s order. in demand for participation in the assistance “Right now, we have 510 accounts, out of program,” CVWD’s Evans said. “That’s actually a total of 23,492 active accounts, that are kind of good news, because that means severely delinquent, which means they’re somewhere between five and nine months past customers who are having trouble paying their bills, instead of just letting it accumulate, are due,” said Ashley Metzger, the outreach and reaching out for customer assistance to get conservation manager at the DWA. “Also, we have about 1,240 accounts that are delinquent, help to pay their bill.”

Currently, both agencies contribute meaning at least two to five months past due. “non-rate” revenues to the H2O program, So, overall, we have 1,750 past-due accounts.” and at times, other ancillary revenues Katie Evans, the director of communication have been directed there, including waterand conservation at the CVWD, was less vendor contributions, public donations and specific, but said the impact of the shutoff contributions from employees of the agencies moratorium has been “exactly what we themselves. expected.”

“Our fund was actually started using “Every year, we generate around $1 million employee contributions and money from in late or delinquency fees. So we’re now vendors,” DWA’s Metzger said. “It helps lowanticipating that won’t happen (for the 2020income customers when they need it. Also, 2021 fiscal year). In the meantime, other CVIndependent.com

Two of the valley’s largest water agencies say a statewide moratorium on shutoffs has not caused financial problems—yet

what we really liked when we set up the program is that the United Way can connect our customers with other social services and resources, so that it’s more of a holistic approach.”

Looking ahead at the financial picture, Metzger reports some positive developments at the DWA in the July-September period— the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

“We’re actually tracking under budget for expenses, which is good,” she said. “Year-todate, in our operating fund, expenses were 12 percent under budget, while our revenues are (tracking) 7 percent over budget projections.”

That good news didn’t happen by accident, though. The DWA’s fiscal 2021 budget was being prepared when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and the extent of the potential financial losses became apparent quickly.

“Our general manager, Mark Krause, told us all: ‘I don’t want to see a wish list. I don’t want to see a want list. I want to see a need list,’” Metzger said. “Basically, he said that if there’s

(an expense) that isn’t imperative to do this year, then we don’t want to do it this year.”

Over at the CVWD, Evans reported: “The 2021 fiscal-year budget maintains current rates for domestic water, (as well as) canal and construction meter charges, and includes no increases in staffing for the district.” The operating budget decreased by 3.8 percent ($11.1 million) year over year, while the capital-improvement budget saw a 23.2 percent ($29.4 million) cut.

Still, there is much uncertainty about what the future holds regarding the longer-term costs and the potential debt problems lurking beneath the surface. No specific date has been set by the state for ending the moratorium.

As for when the moratorium ends, Metzger offered some words of comfort.

“It’s not as if the day that the moratorium ends, we’re going to shut everybody off,” she said. “We’ll work with people to set up payment plans so that they can get (their finances) back in order.”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 9

NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS REFORMING JUVENILE JUSTICE F

by elizabeth aguilera, calmatters

or decades, California teens who committed the most-serious crimes—robbery, assault, murder—were sent to state juvenile prisons to serve their sentences.

Now that is about to change.

A controversial new law that takes effect next year will dismantle the state’s current juvenile justice system and transfer responsibility for convicted youth back to counties.

Orchestrated this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom in a swift move, the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice will no longer accept newly convicted young people after July 2021—leaving counties with less than a year to plan for where to house the state’s most-serious young offenders.

It’s still unclear how much the state will Opponents say they were stunned by the actually save by closing the division, because speed of the decision, and how little input was it has promised to reimburse counties for solicited from counties, probation officials, keeping the youth in custody, and to support youth advocates and others affected by the their housing and rehabilitation needs. dramatic overhaul.

The overhaul, however quickly it came, has “We were caught off guard when the been batted around for years as critics pushed administration put this policy into the works,” for reform. Formerly known as the California said Karen Pank, executive director of the Youth Authority, the division has a long history Chief Probation Officers of California. “This of controversy. In the 1990s, the agency is the first time I’ve seen something so big get was in the hot seat for reports of excessive through like it did, so quickly.” punishment, abuse and violence. Lawsuits Even some advocates of the plan agree it against the state brought change in how youth was passed quickly, is not fleshed out, and were treated. could result in more youth being sent to adult At its peak in 1996, the system housed prisons because counties are not prepared.

10,000 inmates and operated 11 facilities, from But the plan—while not perfect—will Los Angeles to Stockton to Ione in Amador keep youth close to home where they might County. In the years since, the division has benefit from family and community support, been shrinking because youth crime decreased, proponents contend. and the state began limiting the use of state “If you are taken from SoCal and moved to facilities to only those who had committed the Stockton, that impacts your ability to maintain those relationships, and it is a big deal for young most-serious crimes.

Today, the division houses 750 youths at people who are still going through phases of three facilities—two in Stockton and one development,” said Chet Hewitt, president and in Ventura County. The fire camp for young CEO of Sierra Health Foundation. “Oversight offenders in Pine Grove will remain open. of the local programs is going to be important The new plan will not change life for those now. There should be no difference whether you currently serving their time. They will stay are in San Francisco or Fresno county.” in state lockup until their sentences are over, A spokesperson for the Division of Juvenile or they transfer out at 25. Only when the Justice declined to be interviewed. last youth is out of custody will the division actually close entirely.

A turbulent past Youth who would have been sent to state By the time Newsom signed this into law custody after July 2021 will ideally be housed on Sept. 30, the state’s Division of Juvenile in their home county and provided with Justice was already in upheaval. Last year, Newsom decided to move the division from the support and rehabilitative services, according to the new law. In cases where counties cannot Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation do this, the law allows them to contract with to the Health and Human Services Agency. nearby counties.

Then along came the pandemic—and the state budget was thrown into free fall. With A big hand-off to counties dwindling revenues, Newsom included the Under the new law, counties must create their system’s closure in his May budget revision, own plans for how to deal with this population. which focused on budget cuts and eliminated The state is retaining some oversight with or significantly trimmed nearly all the creation of an Office of Youth and Community expansive ideas he had proposed in January.

Restoration and an ombudsman position to For now, the Division of Juvenile Justice oversee the grants that will go to counties. will stay under Corrections until it completely Some youth advocates say they are shuts down.

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The governor’s plan to shift care of serious offenders to counties has some advocates concerned

concerned about the differences that will emerge as 58 different counties, varying in size and resources, create their own approaches.

“There will have to be some centralization of counties—because some youth will need some services that are not available in every county,” said Mike Males, senior research fellow at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

Some larger counties may be able to absorb the young offenders more readily with programs already in place. For example, Los Angeles County has the largest juvenile-justice system in the country. By contrast, Alpine County, population 1,100, does not have a juvenile hall—or an adult jail, for that matter.

Instead, it contracts with nearby El Dorado County for both services.

Some counties are also skeptical about the vagueness of the state’s funding formula.

Money will not be granted in a flat amount per youth, but will instead be based on various factors, such as how much the country has relied on state facilities previously for youth incarceration.

The final plan has serious shortcomings that “do not set counties and youth up for success,” said Darby Kernan, deputy executive director of legislative affairs for the California State Association of Counties, in a statement.

The association, along with Urban Counties of California, Rural Counties Representatives of California and the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California, have opposed the plan.

Former inmates, differing views California youth advocates Frankie Guzman and Chet Hewitt have been there. Guzman spent years in California’s juvenile-justice system in the 1990s for armed robbery. Hewitt served time decades ago as a teenager in New York’s Rikers Island for gang activity.

But they see this issue differently.

Guzman was arrested at 15 and spent six years in and out of state facilities. When he was intermittently free, he attended community college, which he says helped him find a better path.

He acknowledges the division has a terrible track record with violence, abuse and neglect, but he said that has improved since his time there. Guzman worries that without a state juvenile prison system, young people who commit the most serious crimes will get sent to adult prisons.

“There is nothing in the plan to mitigate transfer to the adult system,” said Guzman,

now an attorney and director of the California Youth Justice Initiative at the National Center for Youth Law. Guzman said the state has dramatically decreased the number of youth being tried as adults, but now worries that trend could be reversed if there is no alternative between county juvenile hall and adult prison. In 2008, 1,201 youth were tried as adults, compared with only 66 in 2019, according to the W. Haywood Burns Institute, which analyzed California Department of Justice data.

Hewitt was 16 when he was convicted, spending seven months behind bars. He graduated from high school in Rikers Island.

“There was not a single redemptive or rehabilitative component in any of it,” he said.

“All you could do is come out more harmed than you went in.”

His community, he said, is where he found redemption. “They didn’t view me for what I did; they viewed me for what I could be,” he said. The state system “was not producing the kind of outcome we hope for kids.”

Hewitt went on to become president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation. He supports the system’s return to local counties, so youth can be near family and community, he said.

But even Hewitt said he sees the potential pitfalls of having each county devise its own plan. Meanwhile, the funding is murky.

According to the bill and the legislative analysis, the state estimates it will spend nearly $39.9 million in the first year and, by 2024-25, the state will funnel $208 million annually to counties. In addition, a one-time $9.6 million general fund distribution will be used to create the new office and help counties develop local plans.

The jury is out on whether counties can do better, Males said.

CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics.

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11

NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS

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PUNCHING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC

M

Legendary boxing trainer Lee Espinoza and star pupil Citlalli Ortiz keep on fighting as best they can

by kevin fitzgerald

ore than 40 years ago, Coachella resident Lee Espinoza started training local youngsters in the art of boxing—while also teaching the character traits required to form the foundation of a successful career, like discipline, determination, good health practices and mental focus.

For more than 20 years, the Coachella Valley Boxing Club building, on the north edge of the park on Douma Street, has served as Espinoza’s headquarters and schoolhouse. It’s where he has supervised or hosted the training of pugilistic luminaries including former pro world champions Pancho Segura, Julio Diaz, Sandra Yard and Randy Caballero. directly to ask what steps she could take to But this past spring, as the COVID-19 qualify for the 2018 Youth Olympics. pandemic swept into the Coachella Valley, “They said that if Team USA let me,” Ortiz Espinoza—who is slated to be inducted explained, “I could fight in the Continental into the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame— Tournament (at 155), and if I won there, I reluctantly shuttered his boxing refuge. could automatically go to the Youth Olympics.

“The governor told us that we had to close So I told Team USA what AIBA had said, but it, and so we did close it for a while,” Espinoza they still didn’t want to do it. I kept trying said during a recent phone interview. ways to convince them (to let me fight at 155 While the gym is closed, the aspiring pounds in these two tournaments), but finally champs of today are relegated to training outdoors in the heat of neighboring Bagdouma I told them that I wanted to go with Mexico, who keeps telling me they want me to fight Park, or in the garages and backyards of their for them. I told Team USA that I only had one family homes. While Espinoza isn’t involved chance to fight in these tournaments, because in this day-to-day training, he makes sure the I’d only be 18 once.” equipment from his gym is available to anyone But Team USA had even more bad news who needs it. for Ortiz. “They told me that I’d have to wait Among the young fighters who are training for two years before I could fight for another at the gym—when gyms are allowed to be open in Riverside County, which is not the case country.” Ortiz said. “But I said that Mexico as of this writing—are several men and women told me that Team USA could make a deal with them if the USA would say that I wasn’t who have won national and world amateur going to fight for them anymore, and sign an championships under Espinoza’s mentoring. agreement. They told me they wouldn’t (give One such decorated amateur is 20-year-old me permission). They said that they’d rather Citlalli Ortiz of Coachella. have me fighting for the USA then against it.”

The Independent first met Ortiz back in At that point, Ortiz decided to link her 2016, as she was preparing to enter the Desert fortunes to the Mexico national boxing Showdown boxing tournament at the Fantasy team and begin the two-year prohibition on Springs Resort Casino. In the four years since competing for Mexico internationally. But then, Ortiz—who already held titles as the there was little competition to be found in 2016 Junior and Youth National Champion, Mexico for a woman boxer in 2018. the 2016 Junior Olympic Champion and “That’s when I became a little inactive,” winner of the 2016 WBC Belt at the Beautiful Ortiz said. “While I was waiting for those Brawlers Show—added the Gold Medal at the years, I started fighting a little in Mexico, and 2017 Women’s Youth World Championships I kind of made a comeback in 2019. I ended up and became the 2017 USA Youth National winning the nationals in Mexico, and I won the Champion and the 2017 Mexican National Olympic trials for Mexico. Then, in March of Champion in her 152-pound weight class.

2020, I was already on my way to Argentina to But 2018 brought a host of unexpected fight in the pre-Olympic trials when COVIDobstacles. The notoriously chaotic influence of 19 struck. I’d been living in Mexico for a few international boxing politics entered her life and career when Team USA Boxing inexplicably months, but when COVID happened, I just had to go home (to the U.S.). Now I’m stuck decided not to include her on their team (deciding) whether to turn pro or staying competing at the 2018 Youth Olympic games, amateur and waiting for the Olympics.” considered a necessary stop on the road to Is she ready to get back in the gym yet? the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Ortiz—who had “Lee (Espinoza) told me that the gym had established dual citizenship in both the United re-opened,” Ortiz said before the Oct. 20 States and Mexico—went so far as to contact re-closure of gyms, “but I started working, the International Boxing Association (AIBA)

Citlalli Ortiz smiles with her father and trainer, Alex, during the 2018 Mexico Nationals. Courtesy Of Citlalli Ortiz

so I couldn’t go yet. With my dad (her father, Alex Ortiz, is her manager and trainer), I’ve been training from like 6 to 10 a.m., and then I come home, eat and take a nap before I have to go to work. So there hasn’t been time for me to go to the gym. But I had a day off the other day, so I was able to go see Lee and find out how things are going.”

Ortiz shouldn’t look for Espinoza at the gym come March 14, because—the pandemic permitting—he’ll be in Los Angeles enjoying the banquet and induction ceremony staged by the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame. The banquet was originally scheduled for Oct. 4, but was delayed until March.

Espinoza will join a group of inductees that includes world-class boxers Oscar de la Hoya, Michael Nunn, Gabriel Ruelas, Rafael Ruelas, Johnny Tapia, Robert Diaz and Sue “TL” (Tiger Lilly) Fox, as well as referee Richard Steele.

“A long time ago, I got a call and they said I was going to be inducted.” Espinoza said.

“Then they sent me a flier. So that’s it. Oscar (de la Hoya) is going to be there and is getting inducted, and a lot of other people I know are going to be there, too. You know, they started selling tables (for the banquet), and we sold seven tables. And they said, ‘Oh my god, Oscar de la Hoya only sold five.’”

Espinoza said he knows the championshipcaliber women boxers face even more

challenges than the men.

“Right now, they don’t have anything going on,” Espinoza said. “There are no shows, no nothing. You know the ladies have nothing.

But they’re all still working.”

How does Ortiz feel about her boxing future?

“You know, most of the time, I just think I should stop,” Ortiz said. “But after all I’ve been through, I keep on it—you know, I keep going. I believe that some boxers who didn’t have that mentality would say, ‘I’ll just stop,’ after all these challenges. But I don’t want to be saying to myself, ‘I was so close, and I just let it go.’ I’ve been practicing for 12 years and competing for five. So sometimes I think I just want to hang up the gloves and let it go. But I can’t do that.”

Her hopes of competing at the Olympics have not been extinguished, either.

“With the pandemic going on, no one is sure if the Olympics will even happen next year,” Ortiz said. “And if they don’t take place for another couple of years, then I feel like I still have a chance. So it’s kind of weird that I see the pandemic, in my boxing career, as having created a chance that I can still go to an Olympics, which I always wanted to do. But in my personal life, it’s been another obstacle. All those months, I couldn’t train or work—and things start catching up to you.”

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NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS

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UNSUNG HEROES A

by madeline zuckerman

fter growing up in Washington State, Marcia Flagler lived in numerous interesting locales, including Bangkok, Thailand, before settling in Northern California, where she enjoyed a career as a high school home economics and foods teacher.

When Marcia and her husband decided to retire about eight years ago, they moved to the Palm Springs area. Full of energy, Flagler knew she wanted to do some volunteer work, but wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to do. She looked up the local branch of her Chi Omega Sorority—which annually supports Olive Crest, a leader in the prevention and treatment of child abuse.

Since 1973, Olive Crest has transformed in addition to other valuable life skills. the lives of more than 130,000 abused, “I jumped right on this because it was right neglected and at-risk children and their up my alley!” Flagler said. “I am really into families. Olive Crest today serves more nutrition, so this was such a perfect fit for than 3,500 children and families each day me. After cooking the food, the kids would throughout California, Nevada and the Pacific eat what they had prepared. Working with the Northwest. older kids gave me a chance to be around 18Flagler contacted Olive Crest, Desert and 19-year-olds again, which was not much Communities, and talked to Angela Allen, the different than the kids I had taught in school.” development manager. Both quickly realized Flagler has been working with Olive Crest that Flagler’s home-economics background for more than six years now, and continues would be an amazing fit for the organization’s to take on additional roles. About three years Operation Independence program, which ago, Flagler stepped into the role of volunteer provides foster youth who are 18 to 20 coordinator, and she now spends her time years of age with the support and training preparing memorable birthday celebrations necessary to become independent and for the Olive Crest kids. She thoroughly successful adults. Flagler began teaching these enjoys making personalized birthday cakes young people cooking and nutritional classes, for the kids, and oversees some of the other

RESULTS ANNOUNCED NOV. 23!

CVIndependent.com

Olive Crest volunteer Marcia Flagler uses her food and teaching experience to help at-risk children and their families

Serenity, who is in Olive Crest’s Transitional Housing Program, smiles with Marcia Flagler, Olive Crest’s volunteer coordinator. Courtesy of Olive Crest

volunteers, who bring balloons and design birthday cards for these special celebrations.

During this past year, Flagler began working closely with Olive Crest’s community involvement coordinator, Tatyanna Voorhies, to start a tutoring program for Olive Crest’s elementary and middle school kids in the Coachella Valley. These kids are in Olive Crest’s Wraparound Program, which implements a team strategy to “wrap” an at-risk family with support, coaching and mentorship. Each member of the family is assigned with an age-appropriate “partner,” whose primary purpose is to walk side by side with that family member through their crisis—and to equip them with tools and resources that will help them communicate and have healthy interactions.

“Ever since I got involved with Olive Crest, I have been really impressed with what the organization does for at-risk children and their families,” Flagler said. “These kids come into their lives with the deck stacked against them. Everything that Olive Crest does is so very necessary, with their programs and services creating such an impact on these children’s lives. I am so impressed with the entire Olive Crest staff, and it really is obvious they all care so much. Having been a teacher, it just feels good to be involved with the kids and to help out.”

Flagler and the other volunteers have also taken on myriad other projects, including the annual Thanksgiving dinner for the kids. They are gearing up for that right now, and need the community’s help through donations of food items for families who

would otherwise struggle to get a holiday meal on the table. The volunteers will also soon begin getting ready for the annual Olive Crest Christmas-gift effort, during which each youngster in Olive Crest programs can wish for a gift up to $30 in value. Olive Crest then goes out and asks the community at large to “Be the Miracle,” providing items or cash donations to make the kids’ wishes come true.

“Marcia has been a blessing for Olive Crest,” Voorhies said. “Her hard work and dedication toward our children have made a huge impact on so many lives. The influence she has had on the teens through her cooking class is amazing. She is such a pleasure to work with, and has so much passion for helping our youth. She is a true gift to our volunteer program, and we are so amazed by her leadership skills, and compassion for others.”

Flagler said she plans on being an Olive Crest volunteer for years to come. “I do not see stopping anytime soon!” she said.

Olive Crest always needs volunteers, and people can volunteer in any way they would like—they can baby-sit, provide childcare, read to children, provide transportation, etc.

Some volunteer activities are very handson, while others are not so hands-on—and volunteers are needed throughout the year.

For more information on Olive Crest, contact Tatyanna Voorhies at tatyanna-voorhies@ olivecrest.org or 951-686-8500, ext. 4018.

Madeline Zuckerman is the owner and president of M. Zuckerman Marketing and Public Relations. Olive Crest is a client of her firm.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13

NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS

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The bright outer planets are on display Planets and Bright Stars Evening Mid-Twilight during theinevening, while the inner For November, 2020 planets appear in the morning twilight This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north,

NOVEMBER ASTRONOMY A

but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

N

By Robert Victor

ll three bright outer planets are in fine display during evenings in November 2020. Bright Jupiter is in the southwestern sky at dusk, with Saturn nearby, and the pair drawing ever more attention as the gap between them narrows; and bright, pumpkin-colored Mars, climbing high in the east-southeast, while beginning to fade.

The beautiful Pleiades star cluster is up all night just before Thanksgiving. Sirius, the brightest star, reaches its high point in the south around 3 a.m. on Nov. 13, backing to 2 a.m. on Nov. 28. The inner planets—Venus, and for most of month, Mercury—are prominent in the east-southeast morning twilight glow.

Standard time resumes on Nov. 1, the first Sunday of November. Remember to set your clocks back one hour. The result: Darker early-evening Tangled in a silver braid. (by the clock) skies for sky watching, making —Alfred Lord Tennyson, in Locksley Hall the evening sky more accessible to younger children with early bedtimes. But we’ll get This is an apt description of what you can earlier sunrises, too, so morning sky watching witness, and binoculars provide wonderful become less convenient in November. views of the Pleiades! Rising in the eastOn Sunday morning, Nov. 1, the moon, just northeast, within 14 degrees below the cluster, past full, remains in view for more than 45 is the star Aldebaran. Although this star minutes after sunrise, and longer each morning. marks the eye of Taurus, the Bull, the name, Daytime moon watch: Follow the waning translated from Arabic, means “the follower” moon daily at 8 a.m., and you’ll find it nearly (of the Pleiades). The Pleiades and Aldebaran full, 9 degrees up in the west-northwest on are at opposition to the sun on Nov. 21 and Nov. 3; half full (at last-quarter phase) and Dec. 1, respectively, as our planet Earth passes nearly 60 degrees up in the west-southwest between those stars and the sun. In 2020, our on Nov. 8; and a 10 percent crescent 50 fast-moving planet overtook Jupiter and Saturn degrees up in the southeast to southin July, and Mars in October, resulting in those southeast on Nov. 12. Using binoculars at 8 planets taking their turns at opposition. a.m. that morning, can you spot Venus in the Planets and seasonal stars at dawn: Venus daytime, 4 to 5 degrees below and slightly to is in the east-southeast to southeast, getting the left of the moon? lower as the month progresses. Mercury Planets and seasonal stars at dusk: Bright appears to the lower left of Venus and Jupiter is in the south-southwest to southwest, brightens quickly early in the month, while with Saturn 5.1 to 2.3 degrees to its upper approaching 4 degrees to the lower left of left, building anticipation before their very emerging Spica in a quasi-conjunction on Nov. close conjunction on Dec. 21. Mars is well 2. Venus passes 4 degrees north (to the upper up in the east-southeast, getting higher as left) of the same star in an actual conjunction November progresses. Stars: The Summer on Nov. 16. Mercury reaches its greatest Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb moves altitude in morning twilight on Nov. 10 and west of overhead, chasing both Antares in the stays 13 degrees to the lower left of Venus for southwest and Arcturus in the west-northwest 10 mornings, Nov. 9-18. This is a very favorable below horizon early in the month. Fomalhaut apparition of Mercury, and an easy chance to is climbing in the southeast to south-southeast, see our solar system’s innermost planet! while Capella climbs upward from the Stars at dawn: Sirius, the brightest star, is northeastern horizon. Aldebaran appears very in the southwest, getting lower as the month low in the east-northeast before month’s end. progresses. All of the bright stars of winter In deepening twilight on evenings in late evenings have crossed into the western half November and early December each year, of the sky. Note Orion’s shoulder, reddish not very far above the horizon in the eastBetelgeuse, and his foot, blue-white Rigel, northeast to east, watch for the appearance of with the Hunter’s three-star belt midway the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a beautiful star between. The belt extended in one direction cluster nearly 450 light years away: points to Sirius, and in the opposite direction past Aldebaran to the Pleiades. Procyon Many a night I saw the Pleiades completes the nearly equilateral Winter Rising thro’ the mellow shade, Triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse. Capella Glittering like a swarm of fireflies, is about midway between Orion’s belt and the

November's evening sky chart.

ROBERT D. MILLER

Capella

Aldebaran Arcturus Deneb Vega

E 1

Mars 8 15 22 29

Altair

1 Fomalhaut

Evening mid-twilight occurs

North Star. when Arcturus in the eastSun is 9isO ascending below horizon.

1: 41 minutes after sunset. northeast toNov. east, while Spica climbs past Venus 15: 42Regulus " " is "very high in the into the southeast.

30: 42 " " " southeast to south.

The moon in November: In the morning sky, catch the waning crescent moon above Venus on Nov. 12; and to the lower left of Venus and above Mercury on Nov. 13. In the evening, see the waxing crescent moon to the lower right of Jupiter and Saturn on Nov. 18, and to their left on Nov. 19. On the evening of Nov. 25, watch the waxing gibbous moon pass 5 degrees south of Mars. For illustrations of most of these events, and of the planet-planet and planet-star pairings mentioned above, see the November 2020 Sky Calendar, which I designed and wrote, as the free sample at www.abramsplanetarium. org/skycalendar.

At full moon on the night of Nov. 29-30, part of the moon will pass through the penumbra, or the dusky outer portion of Earth’s shadow.

W

Saturn 8 15 22 29 29 1 8 15 22

Antares

Jupiter

S

Stereographic Projection

At deepest eclipse, at 1:43 earlyD.Monday Map a.m.

by Robert Miller morning, Nov. 30, the northern limb of the moon will appear only slightly shaded. This shallow dip of a portion of the moon into a barely detectable shadow is not especially noteworthy, but if you do watch it, you’ll find Aldebaran, red-orange eye of Taurus, within 5 degrees to the left of the moon. A much more impressive lunar eclipse will occur on the morning of May 26, 2021.

To check for eventual resumption of star parties hosted by the Astronomical Society of the Desert, visit the club’s website at www. astrorx.org.

Wishing you clear skies!

Robert Victor was a staff astronomer at Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. He is now retired and enjoys providing informal sky watching opportunities for folks in and around Palm Springs.

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NOVEMBER 2020

creating connections A chat with Mike Thompson, the CEO of the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert, on expansion plans, financial stability and lessons learned during COVID-19

In November 2016, Mike Thompson, the CEO of the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert, joined his staff and the organization’s board of directors

to officially welcome the public to the Center’s new home—the McDonald/Wright Building, located at 1301 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs.

“The Center has a big vision to truly be a community center for LGBT people living in the Coachella Valley,” Thompson told the Independent in 2015, when the purchase of the building on behalf of the Center, by John McDonald and Rob Wright, was announced. “We’ve already outgrown the space we’re in.”

In the years that followed, the Center and its supporters spent millions of dollars turning the building into a true community hub for the Coachella Valley’s LGBTQ residents—so much so that the Center needed to recently embark on more construction, to expand the usable spaces within the building.

Then came COVID-19. Four years after that triumphant ribbon-cutting, the Center’s doors have now been closed to the public for more than seven months.

By Jimmy Boegle

CVIndependent.com

I recently spoke to Thompson about the sudden and shocking conversion he and his staff had to make from operating a physical community center, to running a largely virtual, online community center. We also talked about the building’s ongoing construction; preparations to eventually reopen; and the Center’s efforts to bolster its offerings to LGBTQ residents valleywide—especially in the eastern Coachella Valley.

The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert has put a lot of time and effort, justifiably so, into this big, beautiful building. However, since March, you’ve had this big, beautiful building that people can’t go into. Talk to me about the task of taking the Center from physical to virtual.

We like to say that while our doors are closed, our hearts are open. We understand that we have a responsibility in caring for our community, and we will be slow in reopening our physical doors. So we’re taking this time when our doors are closed to prepare the space for when it can be reopened.

What does that actually mean? We’re fitting all our community rooms to be able to accommodate both in-person participants and virtual participants. In every community room, there will be two monitors. One monitor is on the facilitator, and then other is projecting back the in-person participants. So anyone that joins remotely can feel that he, she or they is part of the physical space.

We’re reallocating how the space is used, because we are moving our Behavioral Health Clinic from 750 square feet to 2,800 square feet on our second floor. It’s going from four therapy offices to 10 therapy offices, plus two group-therapy spaces. That frees up a space on our third floor that will be a conference room. … We found ourselves competing with our own programming for space use, because everybody was using the Center—which is what it was designed for. … We’re making sure we’re able to accommodate people, both in person and virtually, because we know when we do reopen, there will be reduced capacity.

We’re undergoing an extensive construction project where people couldn’t even access the building if they wanted to. So, actually, if there’s any silver lining in this downtime, it’s that it has allowed us to really focus on all the construction without the interference of risking the safety of our staff or guests with our doors being open.

How much of this was planned before COVID, and how much of this has been planned since COVID? The entire reconstruction was planned pre-COVID. In fact, we were beginning about the time that the shutdown began. Now, how we plan for the future—that’s all a result of COVID. We’re putting UV lighting in our (heating and cooling) system, to make sure the air that is circulated through the Center is as clean and healthy as possible, so that when people come here, their risk is mitigated. We’re trying to eliminate as many touchpoints as possible. Urinals and water fountains—all that stuff is going to be new and touchless. We’re even going to a QR code. …

When you come in, you scan your QR code that lets us know that you’re here, but only after you’ve come up to a body-temperature kiosk.

So, let’s say you want to come to this Eisenhower presentation on a Wednesday night (after we reopen). We’re only going to let X number of people into the space, so we’ll ask you to go online and fill out a form; it will reserve your spot. Once we’ve identified that the physical spaces are allocated, we’ll then direct people to sign up for the virtual participation. … So, after people come in and use their QR code, if something were to happen during your time here, we can now track everybody that’s been here during a particular time of day.

So that could be used for COVID-19 contact tracing, for example?

Exactly.

When do you anticipate the construction being completed?

We’re saying the end of January, but actually, in the second-floor clinic, they’re painting the

NOVEMBER 2020

baseboards, so the second-floor project is almost done. … New elevators are going in at the beginning of the year as well.

Let’s say Feb. 1 is the date that construction is done. Do you anticipate being able to open your doors by then? I know I’m asking you to predict the future.

Given that the majority of our members and clients are in groups that are most vulnerable (to COVID-19), we want to make sure that we’re not too quick out of the gate. We’re going to follow our health-care professionals and city officials about when they believe it is safe to reopen. … We talk about how there’s our physical well-being that we need to care for—and follow protocols and precautions—and then there’s also our mental health and well-being.

What’s the balance? How do we meaningfully create opportunities for people to connect?

Do you worry that the formalities—the temperature-check kiosk, the QR codes, the distancing, the fact that fewer people might be able to come to the Center for that Eisenhower lecture on a Wednesday night—could hinder the “community” part of the community center?

I hope not. I’m encouraged because on these virtual programs that we have going, people are able to join us from any number of places. We’ve got people from Seattle, and Chicago, and Wisconsin, and Northern California who are joining. I was on one last week with a small group of people, and one of the gentlemen was older, and he said, “I’ve been able to do more since the pandemic than I was prior, because my physical condition just didn’t allow me to do so many things. Now, I feel more connected than I did before, because I can sit in on a new number of things virtually.” So I think we have to be mindful that “connection” means different things to different people.

So how do we create the most meaningful opportunities possible? The thing that I’ve heard people miss the most is the monthly Center Social. … You can’t re-create that virtually. I don’t know that there is a replacement for that.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15

That’s awesome and heartbreaking at the same time.

It is. I still get emotional. … We already had this program ready to launch before the pandemic; we’d been kind of massaging it, but the pandemic accelerated our … buddy program.

That whole idea is: How do we get personal with people? These 7,000-plus people that get our newsletter every week—how do we talk to them in a way where it feels personal, that whatever their need is, they feel they can reach out to us and ask us for help? So that’s, I think, our biggest lesson here—not to get distracted by a building project. We need to be innovative in the way we do programs and to remember that, at the core, it is about relationships.

I know the Center in recent years has been making an effort to reach out further into the Coachella Valley’s LGBTQ community—especially in the east valley. What steps has the Center has made to keep reaching out to the east valley?

We’ll be making more announcements about that soon, but I can say this for now: We recently announced our domain name has changed to TheCenterCV.org to better represent the scope of our work across the Coachella Valley; before, it had been TheCenterPS.org. Not only is that representative of our current work, but our future work, because we’ve got our eye across the valley to make sure that queer people, wherever they are in the Coachella Valley, have access to our programs and services.

Let’s talk about the financial aspect of this. Your two big fundraising events this year, Red Dress/Dress Red and Center Stage, have been cancelled. First, are they going to come back? Are they going to be different? Second, talk about the financial impact the cancellations have had.

The only event that we are going to do virtually is our Wreath Auction. We didn’t want to do Center Stage in a virtual format, because we wanted to maintain the integrity of that event for when we bring it back. Certainly, we want to do the same with the Red Dress Party, because you can’t replicate that in a different format. … So rather than think about events in the short term, we’re focusing on individual philanthropy. We’ve got a broad and deep donor base, and the majority of our fundraising right now is all targeted individual fundraising. We’ve got our Ocotillo Club, which is our annual and monthly sustaining donor group. They have been consistently generous and faithful, which has been great. In fact, we’ve had a number of new Ocotillo Club donors step in. We’ve also had Ocotillo Club donors increase their level of giving because they had the capacity to do so.

As a community center, we wanted to be really careful. We’ve not publicly had our hand out since the pandemic, because we wanted to make sure that people feel safe and secure first. Now we will be asking for money at points along the way, but we’re going to be doing it differently.

Certainly, programs like our Community Food Bank have gotten a big increase in support, (and we’ve gotten) gifts targeted or earmarked for our Behavioral Health Clinic, because those are two things that people know there’s a demand for during this time.

So financially, the Center is doing OK? We’re in a good, stable place. Even with this construction project, it was paid for before we even started the project. I don’t feel vulnerable at this point. We don’t know what the future is going to hold, but today, I’m comfortable with the decisions that we’ve made, how we’re doing fundraising, and how the community responded.

Tell me about some of the lessons you’ve learned from this pandemic, and how those lessons might lead to better things in the future.

We have said all along that our work has to be relationship-focused … and we’re constantly reminding each other that nobody’s more important than the person in front of us right now.

We made a format change in our weekly newsletter; we’re looking at that as an opportunity to engage people just by the questions that we’re asking. At one point early in the pandemic, we were asking people: Do they have access to food? If they said no, then we made sure that they became a client at our Food Bank if they could benefit from that. If they needed people to bring them food—if they couldn’t get to the grocery store for whatever reason—we would make sure that people could get it to them.

The one question that we asked that broke my heart was: Do you have somebody to talk to everyday? The people who responded “no”—that auto-generated an email that said, “Would you like somebody to call you?” So those people who then said “yes,” I personally called. My shortest phone call was probably 25 minutes. They averaged 40 to 45 minutes.

CEO Mike Thompson said he hopes construction on the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert’s building will be completed by the end of January.

CVIndependent.com

16 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

NOVEMBER 2020

Offering

Refuge Desert Support for Asylum Seekers delivers critical aid to undocumented LGBTQ immigrants

In 2013, there were approximately 267,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants in the

By Kevin Fitzgerald

United States, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. We were unable to find more-recent data on this community—and were also unable to determine the number of LGBTQ detainees held currently in the 211 detention centers operating in the United States, privately owned or under the aegis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

However, there is anecdotal evidence that sizeable numbers undocumented LGBT immigrants are, in fact, being held in abusive conditions throughout our country.

This reality first caught the attention of Ubaldo Boido and his partner, Craig Scott, when they were living comfortably in Los Angeles with their dog, Twink. They moved to Palm Springs in September of last year.

“We got involved with the Los Angeles chapter of Democratic Socialists of America,” Boido said during a recent phone interview. “They have an immigration-justice committee that wanted to go down to Tijuana to visit shelters because of the immigrant caravans at that time. So, I went along, (and while there), we visited an LGBTQ shelter I’d heard about in Tijuana. That’s when we realized that this was something that really hit close to home for us. This was our LGBTQ community coming to this border-crossing point seeking refuge from persecution. We met Jamaican women, people from Honduras and someone from Brazil. We listened to these horror stories about the violence that people go through in other countries just for being queer. It was something that lit a fire in both of us, and we said, ‘How can we help? We’ve got to help.’ So we did that for a year, and then we moved here and decided to continue doing the same work.”

So it was that Desert Support for Asylum Seekers (DSFAS) came to be.

“We wanted to help people understand the process (of seeking asylum) so that they could then figure out ways to support (these undocumented immigrants),” Boido said. “We discovered there was an immigration detention facility in Calexico (the Imperial Regional Detention Center), and we decided we would begin by supporting people there. Now that’s what Desert Support for Asylum Seekers does. It’s about pen pals, visitation coordination and then helping people when they get released with transportation, shelter and food. We’ve enrolled several people at College of CVIndependent.com

Desert Support for Asylum Seekers co-founders Ubaldo Boido (left) and Craig Scott (third from left) pose with asylum-seekers Luis (second from left), a gay man from Honduras, and K. (right), who is deaf and mute.

the Desert for ESL (English as a second language) classes, and kind of helped them get acclimated to the community here.”

Other, more-established nonprofits like the TODEC Legal Center provide important assistance in our region, while DSFAS has focused attention on other real-world assistance. However, it didn’t take long for Boido and Scott to realize this challenge required more attention and outreach than just the two of them could manage.

“We wanted to create this volunteer group,” Boido said. “Let’s be honest: Most people are interested in helping children in these circumstances. Now, that’s not a bad thing, and I’m not suggesting it is. I’m simply saying that children light a fire under straight people. … But for us, it’s always been about this LGBTQ thing—but we didn’t want to limit (the reach) of DSFAS, because we wanted to see how big of a volunteer group we could create. Since then, the group has really championed people from all walks of life, and we love that. Still, Craig’s and my calling has been about helping LGBTQ migrants.”

Once volunteers began joining in, DSFAS started to fulfill its core missions more demonstrably.

“My partner, Craig, went down to Calexico with a group,” Boido said. “They scheduled a visitation, met several of the detainees there and started a pen-pal visitation coordinator group.

Our name started to spread like wildfire (within the detention center), and word of our efforts spread. We started to get lots of pen pals, and we got a lot of people reaching out and asking how they could support us. So right now, we have a list of about 60 to 80 volunteers who are actively writing letters to people in Imperial Regional.”

Still, the most-challenging support scenarios had yet to surface.

“The detention center was dropping people at the downtown Calexico Greyhound station,” Boido said. “Even after the station was closed, (Border Patrol was) leaving them to fend for themselves. So we started this coordinator group to pick up people and get them on a bus, or get them here to Palm Springs where we could get them on a flight.

“One night, we got a call about a guy from Honduras who was gay and had just won the status called ‘withholding of removal.’ But he didn’t have anywhere to go to live. They asked us if we would be willing to house him, and we agreed to let him stay on our couch for a while. It was supposed to be for two weeks, but he stayed for almost seven months. It was both a challenging and an amazing experience. Since then, he’s moved to Los Angeles, gotten his work papers and has started his life. That experience changed our whole perspective. The truth is, when you’re LGBTQ, you come here with nobody, and you’re (often) actually fleeing your family, because they’re usually the ones persecuting you and helping the police come after you.”

Boido and Scott have realized they need to obtain a bigger home where they can house LGBTQ immigrants in need of assistance.

“Since the guy from Honduras, we’ve housed a transgender woman from Russia who moved to New York City, and another person who is still living in the Palm Springs area,” Boido said.

“So this migrant home we want to create, that we call The House, is a safe space for our queer family coming from all over the world. We want to focus the energies that we’ve generated through DSFAS and create a little niche for the LGBTQ folks who we love and want to support on their journeys.

“We decided to launch this (GoFundMe) campaign. … We’ve had offers for homes, and we just want to push forward to raise more funds and create this space. Ideally, we’re interested in making it a safe house so that people can come, short-term or long-term, and have a place while they go through their immigration process. We’re just really excited about it.”

As the first year of DSFAS’ work draws to a close, how are the founders coping with the demands of dealing with the U.S. government while trying to help victims of persecution start new and happier lives?

“Being honest,” Boido said, “this is hard work, and it’s emotionally draining. There are days when I ask myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ It’s not like there’s a huge payoff, and we’re getting a big check. But watching that transgender woman come here and seeing her try on a dress and wear makeup for the first time, and really own her transwoman self, it changes you. It really changes you—and I can’t go back. I can’t un-see how we helped somebody, and how we’ve listened to the stories of where they’ve come from and what they’ve been through.

“The GoFundMe campaign is about getting a bigger house, so that we can house more people,” Boido said. “And, hopefully, from there, we can form into a nonprofit officially. But the urgency is now. What we’ve noticed is that, yes, we can house somebody, but for that one person, there are 40 or 100 more still imprisoned in a horrible, horrible place. They’re treated like criminals, stripped of their belongings, and they have to wear a blue jumpsuit all the time. They eat rotten food. You can’t believe the horror stories that we’ve heard. They are unimaginable. You wouldn’t believe that this is what the ‘land of the free’ is doing to people who are trying to get here.”

For more information on Desert Support for Asylum Seekers, visit www.facebook.com/ DSforAsylumSeekers. For more information on the GoFundMe campaign for The House, visit www.gofundme.com/f/247ckfculc.

NOVEMBER 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 17

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19

NOVEMBER 2020

ARTS & CULTURE

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE

SETTING THE STAGE T

The shows go on, virtually, at CVRep’s Theatre Thursdays—and the company hopes to soon bring in-person shows to the Cathedral City Amphitheater

By jimmy boegle

here has been almost no programming from the Coachella Valley’s theater companies since the pandemic arrived and ruined everything in March—with one notable exception: CVRep, and its Theatre Thursday virtual shows.

And if the California Department of Public Health gives the OK, CVRep—in conjunction with Cathedral City—could become the first local theater company to bring live productions back to the Coachella Valley, starting in December.

Ron Celona, CVRep’s founding artistic director, explained during a recent phone interview that because the theater company is now the proud owner of its own building—the CVRep expected two or three sponsors a month. Well, Playhouse, in Cathedral City—he couldn’t I’m wrong. We’re getting five to 10 sponsors a just wait out the pandemic without doing month,” Celona said. “The sponsorship is $500 anything. a month, and they’re thanked at each week’s “This is a year where I can’t even break event. They also rotate on our marquee we even,” he said. “I have to make money just to have on Highway 111.” support the building. So that’s what took us As for CVRep’s hoped-for return to live to the current plan.” shows: Celona initially looked at doing That plan started with the launch of CVRep’s full planned season at the Cathedral Theatre Thursday in April. Every nonCity Community Amphitheater, which is holiday Thursday at 6 p.m., CVRep produces adjacent to the CVRep Playhouse. However, a show, via Zoom, free of charge, with the COVID-19 made that cost-prohibitive. participating artists donating their time “With the Equity rules, whether a show be and talent. The shows range from staged indoor or outdoor, the protocol requires that readings of plays to musical performances to every actor, and everybody that also comes monologues and more. in contact with that actor, be tested once a “Theatre Thursday does two wonderful week. So that’s the crew; that’s the makeup things: It keeps CVRep in the forefront of artist, and so on,” Celona said. “We do sixour patrons’ and followers’ (minds), to know week contracts for plays. And Equity requires that something is available from CVRep on a a 24-hour turnaround, which means you can’t weekly basis,” Celona said. “The other thing go to the county; you have to go to a private is, it keeps the artists active. They can work by doing a monologue or a dance or a piece. … lab—and then you need written results.

“As for other expenses involved in doing a Many artists launched their Zoom experience production: I need a dressing room. So that with us and then went on to support other means I would need to have a trailer, like theater companies.” an RV—a portable dressing room. I would Celona said attendance at the shows has need a storage unit for the set and the props varied wildly, from a high of 200 people, to a and everything to come off and on for each low of 60 or less. performance. And at the amphitheater—this “There is no guarantee. That’s the is true even for the one-night events we’re difference between a ticket for a show: going to be doing—we need to bring in portYou know how many people are coming a-potties, and they need to be sanitized and that night,” Celona said. “But there is no cleaned throughout the night.” guarantee in the virtual world; all of these Instead of the full productions, CVRep and shows are free of charge. However, we do ask Cathedral City decided to partner on a series for a donation during the program, and each of those aforementioned one-night events. person receives a thank-you after; the email Celona hopes a holiday show will kick things has a donate button on the thank-you. So we off on Dec. 12. Events would follow on the do receive donations each week.” first three Saturdays of January, February While donations from supporters and and March (with the exception of that third attendees of the virtual Theatre Thursday weekend in March, which we’ll explain in a shows have helped CVRep’s financial moment.) Tickets will be $25 per person— situation, the organization was still losing much less than a typical CVRep show ticket. money each month—until sponsors stepped If the outdoor shows do take place, Celona in, Celona said. said, social distancing and many other “We started in August doing monthly precautions will be in place. sponsorships, and I’m thrilled to tell you, I

Ron Celona, CVRep’s founding artistic director, said sponsorships of the Theatre Thursday virtual shows have helped keep the company in the black.

“The proposal that we created for the city of Cathedral City included our 23-page safety manual,” Celona said. “(Attendees) will be taken to pods, if you will—circular or square pods that hold a table for two or four. Each pod is about 10 feet apart for social distance.

Everyone will be required to wear masks to come into the venue, and they must wear their masks the entire time, unless they’re eating. When the doors open, they’re going to have an hour and a half before the show.

People could either bring their own meal, or they could buy, so to speak, a box lunch, but it will be a dinner. Once that food goes away, then they need to put their masks back on to watch the show.”

Celona said his plans include a oncea-month jazz show, a Latinx series and a Broadway style revue. Then there’s that third weekend in March.

“We’ll be culminating in March with something very exciting: It will be our first Shakespeare festival,” Celona said. “Instead of one night, it’ll be a Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the third week of March. It will include two Shakespeare plays performed in rotation. … Our goal is that it kicks off an annual Shakespeare

festival that CVRep produces.”

As you may have noticed, these plans include a lot of “ifs.” The reason: As of now, live performances like this are not allowed by the state. Therefore, CVRep and the city of Cathedral City have written a letter to the state Department of Public Health, asking for a waiver.

“One of the strongest points is the venue holds 2,900 people,” Celona said. “The maximum number of people that we will allow to see a show is 225 people—much less than 10 percent of capacity.”

Beyond the hoped-for amphitheater performances, Celona also has hopes that maybe, just maybe, the company can return to the CVRep Playhouse for one full production to close out the 2020-2021 season.

“The only thing we left in the budget is what was supposed to be the final production of this past season, Native Gardens,” Celona said. “I have it in the budget to produce it in April, inside the playhouse. If that turns out not to be legally allowed, then we just cancel the production.”

For more information, visit cvrep.org.

CVIndependent.com

20 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

NOVEMBER 2020

MOVIES & TV

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MOVIES

NOW SHOWING AT HOME A

By Bob Grimm

fter a long period that once included Steven Spielberg announced as its director, The Trial of the Chicago 7 has finally seen the light of day, with writer Aaron Sorkin also directing, and a decent cast including Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne and Mark Rylance. Unfortunately, the cast can’t overcome a rote script.

The 1968 Democratic Convention was a real mess. Police clashed with protestors in Chicago, and seven people—including Abbie Hoffman (Cohen), Tom Hayden (Redmayne), Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong)—ended up on trial for allegedly masterminding the madness.

Sorkin’s film re-creates the trial with a particularly strong performance by Rylance as defense attorney William Kunstler, going against prosecutor Richard Schultz, played by likes of Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison and, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Frank Langella plays prickly Judge Julius Hoffman—and the whole my personal fave, Little Nicky. (Nothing in Sandler comedies beats Henry Winkler thing winds up being a standard courtroom covered in bees … nothing!) drama, with some pretty bad wigs.

Hubie Halloween was directed by Steven The riots are shown in flashback sequences and are far more effective than the courtroom Brill, who also directed Nicky and Mr. Deeds. Is it one of the best dumb Sandler movies? Well, scenes, which are hampered by predictable no. It’s somewhere in the middle—not as and schmaltzy dialogue. Langella’s role is a good as Gilmore; just as good as The Waterboy; mixture of every tight-assed judge you’ve and definitely better than painful shit like The seen on screen before, while Levitt resorts to Ridiculous 6 and Jack and Jill. huffiness as Schultz. Only Rylance manages Sandler plays Hubie, a safety-obsessed, to rise above the clichés in the courtroom.

Halloween-loving town resident with a speech pattern similar to the one he fashioned for The Waterboy. Halloween is coming; Hubie wants to help keep things safe with his super-Thermos—and he has eyes for Violet Valentine. Considering that Violet is played

by Julie Bowen, who also played Sandler’s love interest in Happy Gilmore, who can blame him? Bowen looks happy to be back in Sandler-land.

Hubie is the subject of a lot of ridicule, with kids throwing food and metal objects at him while he rides his bike, and adult bullying from the likes of Ray Liotta, Tim Meadows Cohen does his best as Hoffman, but and Maya Rudolph. The plot offers up a he’s dragged down by a goofy wig and an couple of scary subplots including a crazy even goofier accent. The film never really neighbor (Steve Buscemi) and an escaped engages, in part because it lacks grit and mental patient à la Michael Myers. wildness. As a result, The Trial of the Chicago Sandler and Brill tee up a lot of dumb 7 is homogenized moviemaking at its most gags, and many of them land. The dialogue— boring. especially during a rather nasty exchange in The Trial of the Chicago 7 is now streaming a barn—had me laughing hard at times, and on Netflix. the film never drifts into the lazy territory that Sandler films often do. In fact, Hubie ood news, Sandler fans! You can file Halloween is legitimately scary in spots. But his latest “stupid” movie in the file best of all, it’s good-natured and fun, and “Stupid Sandler Films That Are Fun and never ugly.

Not Torturous!” It’ll go in that file with the

G

CVIndependent.com

‘Enola Holmes’ and ‘Hubie Halloween’ are fun; ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ wastes a great cast

One last note: If you don’t laugh at the many novelty T-shirts June Squibb sports in this one, well, you have a dead heart.

Hubie Halloween is now streaming on Netflix.

M

illie Bobby Brown shines as the title character in Enola Holmes, a bubbly, fun detective yarn that gives the little sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) her own vehicle. Let’s hope it’s the first of many such mysteries.

Brown, who has been gloomy in most of her biggest roles thus far (Stranger Things, Godzilla: King of the Monsters), gets to show she’s a full-force movie star with complete control of the camera. The movie has her talking to the camera, à la Ferris Bueller, at many turns, and it works like a charm. The film’s mysteries, involving Enola’s missing mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and a runaway boy (Louis Partridge), are fine as starters, but the film is more of a place-setter for future installments than anything else.

Cavill adds class as Sherlock, imbibing his few scenes with plenty of oomph, but never stealing them from the movie’s true star.

Brown—who has already proven that she has major dramatic chops, which are on further display here—has impeccable comic timing. I see pure comedies and musicals in her future.

It’s a fair guess to say sequels will be in order, because this is too much fun to stop here. (The film was intended for a theatrical release, but it was sold to Netflix due to the pandemic.) Brown (who has another Godzilla movie and a new Stranger Things season coming up) has another franchise, and this is the one that will show what she really brings to the party. Watch with the whole family, and enjoy.

Enola Holmes is now streaming on Netflix.

S

ome movies are made to make viewers miserable. It’s what they set out to do, and if done well, cinema geeks such as myself will

tip our hats to them.

The Devil All the Time is one of those movies. It’s an ugly film—and it’s supposed to be. I understand that a lot of people do not need this sort of movie in their lives right now. I, for one, found it a mildly rewarding viewing experience, even though I had to take two showers afterward.

The film starts in World War II, where soldier Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgard) makes a discovery that will pretty much fuck him up for the rest of his life. Upon returning stateside, he tries to live the American life: He gets married to Charlotte (Haley Bennett) and has a boy named Arvin (Tom Holland, when the character grows up). Try as Willard might to live a good, pious life, tragedy strikes multiple times.

Arvin grows up with a decent-enough head on his shoulders despite the trauma, and has a strong bond with his stepsister, Lenora (Eliza Scanlen). When a creepy preacher (Robert Pattinson) moves to town, things— rather predictably—go bad again.

Meanwhile, in another subplot, a sadistic couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough) drives around picking up hitchhikers and asking them to do some strange things. There’s also a corrupt sheriff (Sebastian Stan), the brother to the woman doing the strange hitchhiking things. There are a lot of other characters in the mix as well.

Bottom line: The film has way too much going on. It needed to be a miniseries rather than a single 138-minute film. That said, Holland and Pattinson are especially good, and the film is worth seeing for them.

Skarsgard, Keough, Clarke and Scanlen all do just fine, but the movie is way too crowded.

To reiterate: If you are looking for a good time, this movie won’t provide it. It’s bound to go down as one of the film year’s biggest bummers—intentionally, of course.

The Devil All the Time is now streaming on Netflix.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21

NOVEMBER 2020

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CAESAR CERVISIA W

BY brett newton

e are more than seven months into lockdown—and my job in the taproom has changed considerably.

My asthmatic taproom manager wisely self-quarantined immediately—what a strange twist of fate that I can say “self-quarantined” and have it be an unremarkable phrase—while all taproom events and parties ceased to exist. Therefore, I am often by myself behind the bar.

I’m not sure how common my experience is, but my work has changed—and I want to talk about it.

After Gov. Newsom’s stay-at-home announcement in mid-March, the taproom changed drastically. With my manager out and my the same way—and many who continue to feel cohort behind the bar, Mikki, in her own selfthe same way. (Never mind nurses and doctors quarantine due to her husband having been on the front lines.) potentially exposed at his workplace, it was In order to provide a good picture of what my up to me for a couple of weeks to hold down job turned into, I have to try and convey what the fort. Beer was only available to-go at that my job was before. That is to say, it was pretty time, so my job mainly consisted of alternately fun as jobs go. Not that it didn’t have trying filling crowlers (to-go 32-ounce cans filled from moments, but I once worked on a roof in Palm the tap and sealed on site) and sitting down, Desert when the temperature was 128 degrees listening to the music I wanted to, and reading in July. I ran around the greater Los Angeles a lot. It also consisted of worrying about every area setting up bouncy houses for a few months. single interaction I had with every customer, I played jazz guitar for hungry country-club concern over every surface they touched, and people, and I delivered liquor and sandwiches in making a game plan in case any anti-science Hollywood (yes, I met celebrities often; they are imbeciles waltzed into the place looking for mostly tiny people), among other weird jobs. So beer—and probably trouble. It also fell to me to being a Cicerone at a brewery taproom has been deliver any orders called in to local residents. near the top of the “fun” job list.

I will not lie: It was a stressful time for me.

Alas, much of what made it fun has There were many hospitality workers who felt disappeared for the moment, to varying

More than seven months into the pandemic, the jobs of service-industry employees aren’t getting any easier

degrees. I have no idea when it will be busy, for example. This creates a strange semianxious feeling, because it can go from dead to me being absolutely buried. This would be mitigated by having co-workers, but outside of a half-hour each week, I have no co-workers upon which to lean.

Another less-than-stellar aspect is the needlessly awkward state regulation that a meal must be on the same ticket as any beer consumed on premise. This often disappoints customers who are unfamiliar with this— which is a large portion of them—and it leaves me having to explain the situation many, many times a shift. I say “needlessly awkward,” because the customer can order food through the delivery system we have set up with a local restaurant and, theoretically, throw it in the trash in order to drink beer in-house. There are only so many times I can repeat the same spiel about how it works and why before I tune out—or worse, I grow disdainful for the task.

All of this sits on top of the underlying realization that we are still neck-deep in a pandemic that has the very real potential to end lives. Combine that with the influx of tourists (whose mask-less visages I’ve encountered regularly on the local Bump and Grind trail in Palm Desert), some of whom are

from places that never took the virus seriously, and you may begin to see where I’m coming from in all of this. My tolerance of antiscience conspiracy mindsets, and just plain absentmindedness when it comes to protecting those around us, was low to begin with and has now reached what I assume is its ultimate nadir for me. Unfortunately, if social media has taught me anything, it’s that there’s always another nadir.

Please don’t get me wrong here: I’m awfully grateful to be employed (albeit parttime with the kindness of tips and partial unemployment), and I know many people are facing a far worse fate than I. It’s also nice to see the faces of regulars and visitors who are just grateful to be out of the house.

I also have to mention that I’ve only had to bounce one older couple, because the woman refused to put her mask back on while she was trying to figure out our food service. (I felt sorry for her husband who was superapologetic.) Therefore, my fears of dealing with misinformed Facebook-group-addicted ignoramuses have largely been for naught. But the truth is that COVID numbers are climbing again, and when I see recent pictures of a full stadium in New Zealand, or read news reports on how places like Tokyo—the most populous city in the entire world—are containing it far better than we are, I become indignant that we have turned some ridiculous corner in this country where caring for your fellow citizens by wearing a mask and social distancing is a bridge too far for too many Americans. No matter how much some of us have sacrificed, it is made meaningless again and again, thanks to the selfish babies whose battle cry is, “MUH FREEDOM!” It’s like in school, when the entire class is punished because of one idiot’s misdeeds. We seem to be doomed to go back to square one, over and over, until we’ve either all caught the virus, or there is an effective vaccine (and that’s assuming there will not be a swath of anti-vaccine morons to ruin it for the severely immunocompromised among us who can’t take the vaccine—a rather large assumption).

I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Welcome to the taproom. If you’d like to drink on site, you have to order food …”

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

CVIndependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 23

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FOOD & DRINK

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VINE SOCIAL JASON DAVID HAIR STUDIO

A

By KatieLOVE finn YOUR

HAIR

lot of interesting conversations happen in a wine shop when customers aren’t around.

Sometimes we sit with wine-sales representatives and have a friendly game of oneupmanship regarding who had the better meal with the better bottle of wine on Saturday.

Sometimes the conversation is a bit more, ahem, colorful, and we discuss politics, and tariffs, and Country Club and Cook Street the infuriating notion that restaurants will always get better prices than retailers.

Palm De sert I recently had one of the most thought-provoking discussions I’ve had in years at the wine shop. An experienced wine importer and different styles. The first one was bright 760-340-5959 former general manager of one of the mostand fruity with a slight tart and underripe famous restaurants in California had just edge, after being fermented in stainless steel; www.jasondavidhairstudio.net presented an incredible lineup of wines he the fruit came from young vines. The other hand-picks from various countries to distribute aglianico was from older vines, fermented in the U.S. We tasted a sensational gruner and aged in French oak. We marveled at how veltliner/dry riesling blend called Tatomer different the outcomes were based on just a Hinter der Mauer from the Central Coast of few choices the winemaker made—almost like California. He said it was a Gemischter Satz. comparing two siblings who grew up in the I said bless you. same house but are completely different from It was explained to me that a Gemischter one another.

Satz is an old Austrian custom of planting We swirled and sipped and chatted about different but complementary grapes that are the regions and the producers, telling stories of then all harvested and fermented together. It our favorite wines and experiences from these was my first time having a Gemischter Satzplaces. That’s the beauty of wine: It connects style wine, and even though this one was not people. And the next thing ya know, the from Vienna, it had that signature crisp and conversation took another turn—and we were zippy acidity, with beautiful white flowers and on to a much-more hot-button topic. a layer of exotic fruits. You’d better believe it’s Our importer friend began telling us going to find a home in the wine shop. about a wine-industry comrade who will only Next, he poured us a couple of wines drink pinot noir. Now, he’ll drink pinot noir from Basilicata, Italy. Both were Aglianico from anywhere, but he prefers Burgundy. del Vulture, but they came from different Occasionally, he’ll accept a gamay, and in rare vineyards and were fermented in two totally instances, he’ll imbibe a chardonnay. But

A philosophical question—is it better to only drink what you know you like, or is it better to try new and unknown things? that’s where the buck stops. Cabernet? Not a chance. Sangiovese? Nope. How about an enchanting blend from the Cotes du Rhone?

Forget about it.

So, there we were, having just tasted three obscure wines that are beautiful and thoughtprovoking. We all began to contemplate: Is this guy missing out on the wonders of the wine world? Or is he becoming an expert on what he loves?

It was an interesting perspective. On one hand, I could understand; who wants to consume anything they don’t enjoy? Life is too short to voluntarily make yourself miserable.

Besides, COVID has provided enough misery for even the most-masochistic people to be satiated.

But then I began to think about our palates.

I began to think about my kids. I began to think about people who won’t eat certain things, because they taste “yucky.” Sure, everyone is entitled to their food and beverage preferences, but I also know that the more you expose your taste buds to certain flavors, textures and spices, the less “yucky” they become.

When I was a kid, I hated onions. I didn’t like how they took a dish that was supposed to be rich and creamy and added an unexpected “crunch.” Worse yet, I couldn’t always see them (those translucent little bastards!) so when an onion snuck onto my fork and made its

way into my mouth … well, let’s just say that instead of getting to enjoy mac and cheese the way God intended, my mother went and ruined everything with an onion. The grand irony is, of course, that now I cannot fathom cooking anything without onions. But that’s because my palate matured. The older I got, and the more exotic dishes I ate, the more I appreciated all the different textures and flavors. Wine is no different.

How could you possibly know how much you like one wine if you’ve never had anything with which to compare it? How could you, as a winelover, deny yourself the hedonistic pleasure of discovering new flavors? It’s what I live for. I’m a flavor-craver. I taste everything. No, I don’t love everything, but I taste it.

They say everyone starts out drinking sweet wine—Boone’s Farm, or Ripple, or Mateus, or Bartles and Jaymes. Then we “graduate” to reds with high alcohol content and syrupy sweetness that masquerade as dry red wines.

From there, everyone moves forward a little differently. But one thing is for certain: The person who tastes more is going to have a better palate than someone who is stuck on one wine.

Our conversation about Mr. Pinot Noir ended with some pretty cool analogies. My co-worker likened it to someone who would rather watch the same re-run television show every night than go out and see a live performance. I thought about steak. Could you imagine declaring that you were only ever going to eat steak for dinner? And not a variety of cuts, but you were only going to eat filet mignon? No rib eyes. No carne asada.

No slow-braised beef short ribs over creamy mushroom risotto when it’s cold and rainy outside. It makes me sad just thinking about the depravation.

In short, we all agreed that the only way you can truly become a master of something as complicated as a beverage that can have 20,000 aroma compounds is to expose your nose to as much as possible.

So, here’s to all the wine warriors out there who continue to sip and explore and find their new favorite. I raise my glass to wine thrillseekers. To those about to taste something new, I salute you.

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

CVIndependent.com

26 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

NOVEMBER 2020

FOOD & DRINK

FINDING FERNET L

BY ANDRIA LISLE

ast week, a co-worker flabbergasted me with a thank-you gift for doing something that I considered a routine part of my job. It was a truly unexpected, generous gesture—and what she gave me was a surprise, too.

At first glance, I sized up the tall, sparkly gift bag and assumed it contained a bottle of wine, always a welcome present. When I opened it, however, I found a large bottle filled with a coffee-colored liqueur that, when I unscrewed the cap, smelled leathery, minty and herbaceous all at once.

That’s how I came to fall in love with Fernet-Branca.

The aroma that emanated from the bottle London. Today, it’s making a comeback— reminded me of both root beer and iced likely due to its simplicity and its complexity. tea—if the drinks were filtered through my The classic Hanky Panky only has three grandfather’s aftershave. Its taste, which I ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces of gin (I used waited to get home to discover, was astringent Beefeater’s), 1 1/2 ounces of sweet vermouth, and almost uncomfortably bitter. It reminded me of some dark spoonful of medicine served by my childhood physician, and I screwed up my face as I swallowed. Then I poured a second glass of the amaro liqueur—which, according to most bartenders, is best served neat. I tried to discern the flavor profile, but with 40 herbs, roots and spices on the ingredient list, it’s complicated.

Unlike most apertifs and digestifs, Fernet-Branca is very low in sugar. It’s also one of the only amari liqueurs to be aged for a full year in oak barrels, a process that adds intensity and complexities to the final result. Distilled in Milan, Italy, since 1845, its ingredients include the familiar and the exotic: Chamomile, peppermint, saffron, myrrh, Chinese rhubarb, aloe ferox, angelica, colombo root, cinchona bark and orris root are just a sampling of the herbs that go into the mix using both hot and cold infusion processes. The actual recipe is known by only one man, Niccolo Branca, the great-greatgrandson of Bernardino Branca, who invented the liqueur and originally promoted it for its health benefits, allegedly battling flatulence, overeating, gas pains and hangovers.

Today, Fernet-Branca remains popular in Italy, as well as in Argentina, where it’s drunk with a Coca-Cola mixer. The liqueur is catching on in Germany, where the preferred drinking method is Fernet-Branca and Red Bull. On this continent, it’s most frequently consumed as a bracing shot. It’s also turning up as an ingredient in many craft-cocktail recipes.

I was intrigued by a cocktail I found online called the Hanky Panky—a version of which can be found at Truss and Twine in Palm Springs (which is currently closed, alas). The drink, a version of which is pictured here, first appeared in 1925, making its debut at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in CVIndependent.com

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

Fernet-Branca is bitter, herbaceous, a hit in Argentina—and making its way into many craft cocktails and 2 dashes of Fernet-Branca. You simply stir the liquids with ice in a mixing glass or cocktail shaker, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish the glass with a twist of orange peel if you like, and sip.

I also sampled what Argentines refer to as “ferne con coca” or “Fernecola”—an icepacked glass with a few fingers of FernetBranca topped with sugary Mexican Coke.

While the sweetness of the cola hardly subdues the bitterness of the liqueur, the bubbles make the drink particularly intoxicating. During World War II, a FernetBranca distillery opened in Buenos Aires— today, it and Milan remain the only places

in the world where the liqueur is made.

The International Wine and Spirits Record, which monitors the world’s beverage-alcohol market, not long ago declared that Argentina consumes three-fourths of the world’s FernetBranca.

But be warned: Fernet-Branca is not for everyone’s tastes. I recommend taking the liqueur for a test-spin before committing to a full bottle. Ask your favorite bartender to pour you a shot or order a Fernet-Brancabased cocktail if you see one on the menu.

A version of this piece was originally published in the Memphis Flyer.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 27

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By Matt king

hile many bands struggle to develop a sound that is both unique and comfortingly familiar, L.A. Witch seems to do it with ease.

L.A. Witch is a power trio from Los Angeles whose music hits you like a 90-mph slap to the face. The band includes Ellie English on drums, Irita Pai on bass and Sade Sanchez on guitar. Each member contributes to a sound that stretches among rock ’n’ roll, punk, psych and garage rock. we’d be down to continue experimenting and The band in August released Play With Fire, trying it out.” a follow-up to the group’s self-titled debut Pai said the absence of an audience was in 2017, and 2018’s Octubre EP. The album strange. is packed tight with jams that, well, feel like “For me, the only thing that was weird about you’re playing with fire. Each track sizzles into it, because sometimes we really feed off of the the next, with Sanchez’s piercing guitar and energy of the crowd, was finishing a song and vocals backed by lightning-quick and heavyhearing nothing but a dragon roaring,” said grooved back beats from Pai and English, Pai. “Our friend Gregg Foreman, who produced shining bright on tracks like “Fire Starter,” our Octubre EP, played guitar with us, and he “I Wanna Lose” and “True Believers.” I spoke brought this psychedelic light that we used for with them over Zoom about their recollections of recording the album, which have been hazed due to this Dumpster fire of a year.

“We hadn’t put out an album for a while, so it was like, ‘All right, you guys need to put out an album,’” English said. “We had to write it in a month and record it the next month. It was a very short time span for figuring it all out. I think we recorded it last year?”

Added Sanchez: “I remember recording in February. I’m not sure, really. Like, ‘Damn, was it really that long ago?’”

Added Pai: “This year has just been so long.

It honestly feels like we did it yesterday.”

In years prior, the band was almost constantly on tour—while 2020 has left the band with a brand-new album, but no tour.

L.A. Witch decided to test out the current trend of streamed shows with an album-release concert filmed in September at Gold Diggers in Los Angeles.

“I actually kind of liked it,” Sanchez said. “I thought it was going to be really weird, and we were hesitant to do it right away; we kind of jumped on it a little bit after there had been some other bands doing it. We said, ‘Fuck it,’ and tried it, because it would be the closest thing we’ll get to a release show. We did it at Gold Diggers, and they have a really amazing spot—a hotel, a studio—and the guys who work there are super rad.

“For me, when I was playing, it felt like a real show. I don’t know if that was a mental thing, where I was knowing that people were going to watch it. There are some mistakes on there. I don’t know if people can hear it, but there’s a rawness to it. We tried to make it fun and brought out a dragon prop we bought at Costco. It was kind of cool and interesting, and L.A. Witch. Marco Hernandez CVIndependent.com

The members of L.A. Witch discuss their Coachella Valley ties, the lockdown and their new album, ‘Play With Fire’

a prop, but it was also a sleep machine that played cricket noises. We’d finish playing, and I would hear literal crickets. Other than that, it was really fun, and the sound was amazing.”

As is the case with many SoCal bands, L.A. Witch has a Coachella Valley connection, beyond playing at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club a few times. I learned about it when I found an L.A. Witch single in a Chicago record shop, turned it around and saw a familiar name—Jason Hall, a desert dweller deeply involved in the local music scene. He runs Ruined Vibes, a 7-inch-vinyl boutique-record label. Ruined Vibes’ first release as a label was, coincidentally, L.A. Witch’s first release on vinyl. I recently spoke to Hall about his history with the band.

“My friend Brent went to Levitation—back

then, it was called Austin Psych Fest—and the band played there,” Hall said. “It was the year 13th Floor Elevators reunited, and it was crazy. It was also super-rained out and muddy. I was living in Austin at the time, and everyone wanted to go, but it was really tough to get there and also to find parking. Brent braved through it, and said, ‘Man, you need to see these girls; they’re insane. They’re so good.’ I instantly looked them up, and it was early on in their career, so there was really only one video on YouTube. I heard it and was like, ‘Holy shit!’ I saw that they were playing this place called Hotel Vegas in Austin two weeks later, so I went to the show and got to hear a whole set.”

Pai said the story of how the band met Jason was “crazy.”

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“It was one of the many times we played at Hotel Vegas in Austin, and this guy comes up to us and says, ‘I really love your music, and I really want to put out your single, a 7-inch, because you guys really need to be on vinyl,’” Pai said. “We thought that was pretty cool.”

Hall said he was floored by the band’s performance.

“I had been toying with this idea of making a 7-inch-only record label, and every release would have this crazy thing that’s never been done before to make it highly collectible,” he said. “It was from both my love of music and the fact that my dad was a DJ for a radio station in the ’80s, so vinyl has been a part of my life since I was born. I asked L.A. Witch if they would be down to do it, and that it would be my first release. They were into the idea, but told me to talk to their manager. I talked to their manager; things progressed; and we ended up releasing ‘Drive My Car.’” As for making the record “highly collectible,” Hall worked with the band on a unique photography idea.

“We did 400 black copies, and 100 white with grey smoke, so it looked like a smoke cloud,” said Hall. “That was going to be our special edition, but once they told me they were going on tour, I asked if there was any chance I could supply them with Polaroid film, and they could snap 100 Polaroids. It was random shit, whatever they wanted to do, and they did that. That was the ultra-exclusive.”

Pai talked about the aftermath of one of the photos.

“I saw one on eBay one time. It was just a Polaroid of me, and I thought it was so awkward,” she said.

Soon after the release, L.A. Witch began their uptick toward success. Both the band and Hall said their collaboration came at the right place, at the right time.

“We got really lucky with that whole thing, because at the time, we didn’t have anything out,” Sanchez said. “I don’t know how many years we had been a band, but we definitely were still pretty young, and we didn’t have a label or anything.”

Hall said the collaboration would not have happened today.

“L.A. Witch has progressed so far. They’re still incredibly humble and sweet, and every time I see them, they hop offstage and give me a giant hug,” he said. “The only reason I released it was sheer luck. They were new; I was brand new. It was complete timing.”

The “Drive My Car” single helped lead them into getting signed with a major label, Suicide Squeeze Records.

“We were really just touring a bunch for a while after that,” Sanchez said. “Then we met David Dickenson from Suicide Squeeze. He came to one of our shows, and it was a really shitty and terrible show. We had to do our own

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC sound—there was no sound guy—and there wasn’t even a stage. I was like, ‘Of course this is the show that a label is going to come check us out.’ … I was so bummed out, and thought we weren’t going to get signed. Then we got an email from our manager, and he said that David was stoked and wanted to talk.”

I chatted with the band about the fact that the days of a young band relentlessly touring until finding success may not return for a while.

“This time forces you to think outside of the box and be creative,” Sanchez said. “A lot of people are tuning into visual stuff, and now more than ever, people have time to search for new music, or learn to play an instrument. I just talked to the dudes at Fender, and for a while, I had heard they weren’t doing so well— but now they’re doing so well that they can’t keep up with production. People finally have the time to learn how to play guitar.

“It’s weird for bands like us who had to play every shitty venue in L.A. and wherever in the U.S., but now people are looking for stuff. …

I don’t think it’s a bad thing; it’s just one of those things that you have to adapt to.”

For now, the group is finding pleasure in playing music with no schedule.

“Normally, I wouldn’t have this much time to be able to write or learn new things, so I’ve learned some new recording programs and have been playing guitar,” Sanchez said. “It’s nice to be able to write and not feel rushed, and that I’m able to take my time with a song and not have to worry about going on tour soon.”

Added Pai: “I feel like it’s more fun. There’s no pressure; you’re just playing to work stuff out, and you don’t have to worry about practicing for a recording or a tour.”

Bands everywhere are struggling to safely meet during the pandemic. The members of L.A. Witch said they were in the same boat.

“We didn’t see each other for a long time during quarantine,” Sanchez said. “We were hesitant about doing photo shoots, because we were concerned about each other and each other’s families. Once we all got tested, we slowly got comfortable with having our masks off and being distanced from each other.

Obviously, during a show, you have to share a very tight space, but we all got tested before that. It was really hard in the beginning, and we haven’t really had the chance to set any practices. We also lost our rehearsal space, which makes things a little bit harder. It’s all been hard—and probably will be until the end of 2021. Hopefully that means a lot of bands will have time to come up with some really cool shit. We’ll be able to really appreciate how much music means, and what it does for a community and for yourself.”

For more information, visit lawitch.tumblr.com.

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THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM T

By Matt king

he title of “successful musician” is often elusive. Many bands and musicians try and try, yet they never reach a level they’d consider “successful.”

Then there’s Bob Gentry, who has had not one, nor two, but three periods in his career that most would consider “successful.” The Palm Springs resident is known from his days in the ’90s rock group Moisture; a solo career in the 2000s; and a comeback starting with a brand-new EP, which was slated to be released on Oct. 28. too old for it—but you’re really never too Back on the Horse is Gentry’s first release old to write and perform. I came to the since Seconds in 2010. The debut single “20 desert, started a new life and started doing Years to Life” shows off Gentry’s singerphotography. I took all the stuff I learned songwriter roots, as the track is twangy, poppy from being an independent musician. If and all-together smooth. I chatted with Gentry you’re a musician, you have to be a graphic over the phone about his unique career. designer, photographer, editor, etc. You need “I started when I was a kid; I was always to know how to do every single thing there is. around music,” Gentry said. “My stepdad I started shooting houses and things around played the banjo and played crazy bluegrass Palm Springs. Occasionally, I’d meet people stuff. I got hooked on The Beatles, and it all who knew my old life and ask, ‘Didn’t you do just kinda stuck with me. As far as learning, music?’ I kinda wouldn’t say much about it, I don’t really remember learning to play, but and I didn’t really want to revisit it. It was there were always instruments around. I do kinda painful; you spend your whole life saying remember learning guitar, because it was that you’re a musician, and then someone pretty tough, and I remember my fingers were suddenly asks you what you do for a living, and killing me. you don’t know how to answer. I felt like I lost “I met some guys I grew up with, and they my whole identity; I didn’t know who I was.” all wanted to be in a band and make music. We Gentry’s “retirement” from music ended in played shows and snuck into clubs.” the strangest of circumstances.

A Google search for Moisture (be careful!)

“A year or so ago, I got a message from a will provide you with a pop-punk punch of random stranger on Facebook asking me if I tunes from Gentry’s early days in Detroit. have any new music,” said Gentry. “I didn’t “I think for everyone, music is therapy, so think much of it and sent over a track. Turns I just started writing, and a lot of the times, out the guy was the head of a label, Kirk the songs started out as little folky songs in Pasich, and he wanted to talk. I wasn’t really my bedroom,” Gentry said. “When the band sure if I wanted to. I met up with him, and he would get their hands on it, suddenly, it’d be brought along a Grammy-nominated producer. a power-pop song. It was great to collaborate “They didn’t have to sell me pretty hard—I with them, and we got to a point where things still wanted to do it, but I kept saying, ’Are were happening. you sure? I’m just some 40-something-year“The Detroit scene was really good, but then old guy now.’ They liked my music and didn’t it stalled out, and the guys wanted to do their care about anything own thing, and started having kids. I moved other than that. So I took the record deal; we out to California and formed a band, and recorded an album; and here I am pushing it. started it back up out here. I made a few TV They’ve got a machine going, and they care shows and struck a few deals back in the early about their artists. It’s been surreal.”

2000s.”

Back on the Horse was recorded before Gentry then got to a point where the music COVID-19 arrived. world was moving faster than he was.

“We planned on releasing an album in 2020, “The music industry has changed; I don’t but everything got pushed back a little bit,” really know how it works anymore,” said Gentry said. “What’s out right now is an EP, a Gentry. “I did it for so long that I got burned prequel to the album that will probably come out on it. It was tough. Internet streaming out next year.” kicked in, and they don’t even make CDs While Gentry has twisted and turned anymore. It was tough to navigate the music through each phase of his career, he said all of industry for me; I wasn’t sure how to do it as them have been unique and welcome. an independent artist.

“They’re like different chapters,” Gentry “I moved to Palm Springs, and said I was said. “I still go back and listen to my old music; done with music. I told myself I was getting they’re like scrapbooks. I miss the band thing,

Palm Springs’ Bob Gentry revives his music career with a new EP, ‘Back on the Horse’

getting to collaborate with friends and people you care about. Sometimes the song turns into something you wouldn’t expect. I miss that a lot. Now I’m doing that with a producer, which is kinda the same thing. The producer on the record is Dave Darling, who has done a whole bunch of stuff. He’s really helped shape the direction of it, like he’s the other band member.”

Gentry is also grateful for the pauses he’s had in his music career.

“I think you need breaks, no matter what,” said Gentry. “Sometimes you don’t really have a choice, so when breaks come, you have to take them. I got really lucky when I was in my 20s and 30s; a lot of things fell into place. My last band, we were doing a show, and someone in the audience walked up and handed us a deal with Universal to our A&R guy, like it was out of a movie. It happened again. This is my fourth ‘deal’ thing. I’ve either been really lucky or really unlucky.”

Gentry admitted that he’s in a different headspace now.

“This time is different, because I have a different outlook,” Gentry said. “If this was all happening when I was much younger, I would be feeling like I’m going to rule the world, but I don’t feel that way now. Someone believes in me enough to let me record music, and they’re releasing it. I’m getting to do what I love. Do I expect some huge return? No. The return for me right now is just getting to play music.

Anyone who’s doing music to be rich and famous nowadays is in the wrong line of work.

“One thing about music: Even if you die, music will last. That’s one of the reasons I love it so much. To leave a mark, there’s no better reward than that. If I could write something that someone’s listening to 100 years from now, I win.”

Gentry’s style of music has shifted, too.

“The stuff now is more singer-songwriter stuff,” said Gentry. “I’m definitely not gonna be onstage biting the head off of a bat like I might’ve been doing was when I was younger.

It’s gonna be very chill. A lot of the times in the bar/club scene, people are just there to drink and have fun. Playing shows where people are there to listen is what I’m aiming for.”

Playing shows at all is the thing Gentry looks forward to the most.

“I haven’t done it in so long,” Gentry said.

“The last show I did was at the Greek Theatre, opening for Ringo Starr. I thought that was a good place to end, opening for a Beatle. … I was apprehensive getting back into it,

Bob Gentry.

because I didn’t know if I could emotionally invest myself in self-promoting, writing and performing. It’s harder when you get older— not that I’m a fossil; I’m 49 years old. When I was younger, I thought that there was no way I’d be doing it when I was 40, and here I am pushing 50.”

The album cover for Back on the Horse features a deserted merry-go-round. I was curious to hear the story about the picture.

“I shot at Suzanne Somers’ house in Palm Springs,” said Gentry. “On her property, there was this old, broken-down merry-go-round.

That was one of the shots I took, and I loved it.

It’s cool, and it’s got so much dirt on it. I’d love to know the story of it. It wasn’t something that I went out to shoot; it just happened to be on one of the jobs I was on. It fit into the Back on the Horse title, with music being like a merry-go-round—and here I am, trying to get back on it.”

For more information, visit bobgentry.com.

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A MUSICAL RAMPAGE S

By matt king

ome bands try to reinvent the figurative wheel; some try to master that wheel. And some bands ditch the wheel altogether—and do something completely different.

The latter description fits Tumbleweed Timemachine, a three-piece band that calls the Joshua Tree area home. Usually, “three-piece” means guitar, bass and drums, but this three-piece features something a little different: The band is Skyler Fell on accordion and vocals, Steven It gives us a way of being able to play many Carthy on the upright bass, and Ryan Mussen different genres and types of music; we’re not on guitar. stuck in one genre only, because we’re timeTumbleweed Timemachine is set to perform travelers. We can hop from place to place at our at the Mon Petit Mojave drive-in venue in whimsy.”

Joshua Tree on Saturday, Nov. 7. The band Videos of the group’s performances reveal describes its music as a mix of “folk and punk,” techniques not used by many bands in 2020. and I recently talked to Fell and Carthy about “Sometimes we play acoustic-style with no the band’s music and upcoming show. amplification, which is pretty special,” Carthy “We like to play a lot of dark-carnival said. “We’re able to pull off performing just originals, country-twang tunes, and also some busking-style” Eastern European klezmer music,” Fell said.

Added Fell: “Yeah, we’re able to show up “It’s accordion, standup bass and guitar. We at a venue and just play. We don’t need any approach the songs from different genres with microphones or anything. With that being said, the instruments that we have. We’re really we do love playing with all the city lights and inspired by a lot of folk punk and folk music.” everything, too.

The unique name made me want to learn “We started the band about a year and a more about the group. As per the band’s half ago. We play gigs all over the high desert, Facebook page, Tumbleweed Timemachine is and we usually have a regular gig at the Joshua a “time-traveling high desert accordion-based Tree Saloon, every first Saturday. We’re really musical rampage.” looking forward to the upcoming show at Mon “I made it up,” Fell said about the name.

Petit Mojave. The last time we played a live “Just pulled it out of my ass. I think it gives a show was in March, at the Joshua Tree Saloon. good desert vibe with ‘Tumbleweed,’ and I’m We did also go busking in Pioneertown after also really into time travel and time machines.

Tumbleweed Timemachine.

Tumbleweed Timemachine keeps things simple as the band prepares to wow a drive-in audience

that. I heard that they opened a new saloon up there, the Red Dog, and we’re really looking forward to playing there. We also regularly play at Pappy and Harriet’s.”

The band has not yet released any professionally recorded music—but that’s not due to a lack of trying.

“We had a great plan for recording,” Fell said. “It was for March—but then the lockdown started. Our recording plan was really derailed by COVID. We’re hoping to get back into recording soon, and also producing a music video. Making a music video is going to have a huge impact right now, because so many people are at home and are interacting through video. We want to have a rustic, high desert music video that includes all of us, our instrumentation and my horses.

“I have three amazing horses; one’s a wild mustang that I’ve had for 16 years. I have a really cute paint mare that I got to train myself; her name’s Fiona. I just got a new horse named Max Wildfire, who came to me from a wildfire in Sonoma County, where I pulled him and his family out of the wildfire. It was an intense experience.”

The members of the band got their starts playing in various places and genres.

“I’ve been playing music since I was a kid,” Fell said. “I started out playing the 3/4-sized banjo in a jug band at my local church. I took some piano lessons as well. I’ve always had music in my soul. I love to play and sing, and the accordion has such a versatile range of what you can play. Our guitar-player, Ryan, got his start playing in metal bands, so that would be his influence. My most recent influence would be my band Thee Hobo Gobbelins, a really awesome folk-punk band based out of the Bay Area. We played live shows every weekend for almost the last 12 years.”

Added Carthy: “As for me, I started playing when I was a kid. I mostly played electric bass before I picked up the upright. I used to take lessons for upright bass when I was a kid, but this is my first time playing in a band with the upright bass. I used to play in New York City in a ska band. That was a lot of fun—a lot different from what we play now, but there were some klezmer influences in there, too.”

It was luck that brought them all together, they said.

“Being in Joshua Tree, I was out rambling around the desert,” said Fell. “I love hiking and walking my dogs out here in the wilderness.

I was walking down my road, and I ran into Steven. He’s my neighbor, and we chatted. I

met Ryan, and he was originally my masseuse.

One time, after a massage, he rocked out on guitar for me, and he sounded amazing. When I found out that he was such a great player, I asked him to come and join my band. I was hoping to find a new trio when I moved here— and it magically happened.”

The band members are looking forward to their first live performance since the lockdown.

“I’m stoked to play there, and I’m really glad that the venue organizers are paying special attention to creating culture in this COVID vacuum,” Fell said. “They’re doing a real service to the community and to the people, bringing them live music during COVID. It’s really hard to find such an amazing place as an outlet for musicians, as well as for all the live-musiclovers to come and experience a concert out in nature. It’s a healing experience for all. It’s also the perfect time of year to play shows, and this is the only CDC-, COVID-compliant venue in the desert, as far as I know.”

While many people are hesitant about the logistics of enjoying a drive-in music show, Fell and Carthy said they were just happy to be performing again.

“I think it’s gonna be like people are carcamping—sitting in their cars, on their hood, hanging out by their cars,” Fell said. “It’ll be like a parking-lot party in a beautiful place. I’m sure people don’t really want to sit in their car to see a show, but it’s a great alternative to no show at all.

“I absolutely love playing for an audience; there’s nothing like it. The energy that you get from your audience and give to your audience— the love, the excitement, the dancing—it’s really the best, and I’m hoping this will have some inkling of the magic that brings. I have superhigh hopes, and I think it’s really awesome to bring musicians together in this time. … We’ve been doing a few video shows, and it’s been fun, but I’m sure this will be cooler.”

The future for this group of time-travelers seems bright.

“We’re planning for more drive-in stuff, more online stuff, and we’re starting to book festivals that will hopefully be happening next year,” said Fell. “We just got a spot at Trapper Creek Bluegrass Festival in Alaska in May— fingers crossed we’ll be able to go.”

For more information about Tumbleweed Timemachine, visit www.facebook.com/ apocalypseaccordions. For more information about the shows at Mon Petit Mojave, visit www. jeremielevisamson.com/drive-in-concert.

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the

LUCKY 13

Meet Slipping Into Darkness’ new guitarist, and the frontwoman of Grins and Lies by matt king I would’ve loved to have seen Jimi Hendrix live. He was a force of nature and reinvented the guitar and music like nobody had ever done before. I also would’ve loved to have seen Buddy Guy, Buddy Miles and Jack Bruce playing together in 1969.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

“The Muffin Song.” It drives people crazy when I play it, and they look at me funny, but it’s better than “noise.”

NAME Emanuel Cazares GROUP Slipping Into Darkness MORE INFO Slipping Into Darkness is one of the longest-running bands in the Coachella Valley—and while some members have come and gone, that signature sound remains the same. The band recently acquired guitarist Emanuel Cazares and used him to complete the follow-up to 2014’s Shurpadelic, called Second Wind for Our Love; www. slippingintodarknessband.com.

What was the first concert you attended?

Probably Coachella in 2011 or 2012. I sneaked in one of those years and got to see a few artists I was into at the time.

What was the first album you owned? it was Eminem’s The Eminem Show. I remember buying my first CD/album at Record Alley at the Palm Desert mall when Record Alley used to be on the top floor.

What bands are you listening to right now?

I’m listening to a lot of soul/funk stuff right now from labels like Big Crown, Daptone, Motown, Stax, and Colemine. Bands I dig are Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Lee Fields, Jr. Walker and the All Stars, Otis Redding, Booker T and the M.G.’s, Brainstory, Holy Hive, Budos Band, The Altons, and Orgone.

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

I don’t want to sound like a hater, but I don’t get “noise.” It makes zero sense to me.

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

What’s your favorite music venue?

I haven’t really been to too many, but probably House of Blues in San Diego.

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

“My sandpaper sigh engraves a line into the rust of your tongue. Girl, I could’ve been someone,” the opening line of “Baby Blue” by King Krule.

What band or artist changed your life?

Jimi Hendrix changed me musically and showed me rock/blues. I have studied a lot of artists who Hendrix would listen to when he was growing up. That, in a way, helped me develop my style on guitar. Mac DeMarco showed me that any musician can record at home with very basic recording gear, and there was no need to go to a fancy studio and lay it down there.

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

I would ask Hendrix how he wrote “Little Wing” on guitar, or how he came up with the intro. To me, that song sounds so modern and ahead of its time.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Second Wind for Our Love” by Slipping Into Darkness!

NAME Stevie Jane Lee GROUP Grins and Lies MORE INFO Stevie Jane Lee may very well be one of the desert music scene’s secret weapons.

While some may know her from a few shows with Nick Hales, she recently started a new band, Grins and Lies, which only played a few shows before the shutdown. In that handful of shows, the band displayed doomy rock with powerful belting vocals from Lee. The group is currently recording its debut album; www. facebook.com/grinsandliesband.

What was the first concert you attended?

Besides sitting in on my dad’s shows growing up, I believe the Steve Miller Band was my first legit concert.

What was the first album you owned?

It’s hard to remember the very first one, but I think it was either Prince’s Purple Rain or Sade’s Love Deluxe.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Oceans of Slumber, The Great Discord, Evergrey, Dommin, Anathema, Twelve Foot Ninja, The Gathering, Leprous, Tesseract, Avatar, Red, Eths, and a bunch more.

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

Well, I don’t know about everyone, but pop country … mumble rap … ’80s hair metal, ha ha.

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

I had some Lacuna Coil/Apocalyptica tickets before all this madness started. I really hope I still get to see that show at some point. Also, I never got to see David Bowie.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

I really love Darren Hayes’ solo stuff (the singer from Savage Garden). Not my usual style, but if it sounds good to me, I listen to it.

What’s your favorite music venue?

The Royal in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got to play Metal Fest there one year, and I got to see Psychostick. It has awesome inside and outside stages right next to a river.

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

“Past all thought of ‘if’ or ‘when,’ no use resisting, abandon thought, and let the dream descend,” from “The Point of No Return” from Phantom of the Opera.

What band or artist changed your life?

There are a lot, but I would have to say Slipknot, Mudvayne, and Entwine were the first bands that really got me going down the rock/metal path that took over my whole life.

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

That is a hard question. With my current favorites, I would ask Fia Kempe (The Great Discord) what her songwriting process looks like. Does she write songs and bring them to the band? Do they play, and she comes up with stuff on the spot?

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Falling,” Lacuna Coil.

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

Probably Feathers and Flesh by Avatar. I just can’t think of anything that is a better combination of everything I love.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Eigengrau,” The Great Discord.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Mashed Potatoes” by James Brown for sure!

Gotta get people movin’, not make them more miserable.

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

It’s a Mother by the hardest-working man in music, Mr. James Brown.

CVIndependent.com

38 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

NOVEMBER 2020

OPINION SAVAGE LOVE

NO HOPE LEFT B

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

I’ve given up on finding a good relationship, and I’m considering ending my life; what should I do?

BY DAN SAVAGE

orrowing Gen Z’s love for labelling everything: I’m a 46-year-old homoromantic asexual Canadian faggot. For me, that means I’d like to love and be loved by another man, but I’d hate having sex with him. To add a vexing complication, I also need some sort of power imbalance. Ideally, I would fall somewhere between being a man’s sub and being his slave. I’ve been searching for this since I came out in my early 20s. I’ve tried everything—online, bars, hobby groups, friends, hookups. Vanilla relationships, single Masters, dominant couples, sex workers. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on both men and therapy, but here I am, busted, miserable and alone. The point is that no one—and I mean absolutely no one— wants what I want. My dream dude doesn’t exist. that are rich and rewarding while we look It’s easy to tell someone to move on, that there for our dream dude(s). Because then even, if are other fish in the sea, etc., but sometimes your we’re unhappily single—or we find ourselves sea is a puddle, and you really are the only guppy. unhappily single again—we would still have I’m considering ending my life before the meaning and pleasure in our lives. And that end of the year. I can’t shake the deep sadness, makes it easier for us to live in the hope that, disappointment and misery that I feel—and this should all the planets align, it could still happen isn’t even touching on my current unemployment or for us or happen for us again. (Please note: I’m newly chronic health issues. qualifying “single” with “unhappy” here not What would you do if you were in my shoes? How because all single people are unhappy—which does one switch off the built-in romantic drive? is absolutely untrue—but because this single person, SADASS, is unhappy.)

Sought A Dom Accepting Sad Singlehood I have to assume it has happened for you once or twice, SADASS. While none of your I’m sorry you haven’t found your ideal man, relationships with any of the vanilla guys, SADASS, or the right dominant couple, or a single Masters, dominant couples or sex vanilla guy you could love and a dominant workers you’ve met along the way turned sex worker you could see on the side. Not into long-term connections, there had to everyone finds their ideal mate/position/ have been some good times and real—if not situation, despite our best efforts, which is why lasting—connections over the years. Instead of it’s important that we build lives for ourselves seeing those relationships as a string of failures

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because they all ended, SADASS, you should see them as a long series of successful short-term relationships. And while you may regret that none lasted for years or decades, there’s nothing about being partnered that immunizes a person against regret. If you were still with one of those vanilla guys, you might always regret not meeting a Master; if you were with a Master or a dominant couple, you might regret—from time to time—not having a more egalitarian relationship.

Although you say you are not interested in having sex, SADASS, your interests are erotically charged. If your erotic-if-not-sexual fantasies are causing you distress—if you want to switch off your built-in romantic/erotic drive—antidepressants often lower and sometimes tank a person’s libido. For most people, that’s an unwelcome side effect, but you may find it a blessing—at least for now, SADASS, while you’re dealing with your health and employment issues. It’s an extreme move, but it’s far less extreme than the one you’ve been contemplating, so it might be worth discussing with a sex-positive, reality-aware therapist.

Finally, please don’t end your life. The world is a far more interesting place with you in it.

And while finding a romantic partner is never the solution to our problems, I’ve heard from countless people over the years who found something close to what they were looking for in their 50s, 60s and even 70s. But it can’t happen for you if you aren’t here for it.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255.

I’m bisexual man who works on a military base with so many hot men. But how the hell do I even get a quick cock to suck without getting fired for coming on to the wrong guy? Or beaten up? How do I approach someone who could be interested? It’s been forever since I’ve had a guy!

Don’t tell me to try Grindr. I already did, and most of the guys on there are not my style, and the two who were blew me off. I wish I was totally straight or totally gay, because the bisexual world is really depressing!

Basically I’ve Got Unfulfilled Yearnings Totally gay guys get blown off on Grindr and Sniffies and Recon all the time. Totally straight guys get blown off on Tinder and Farmers Only and Christian Mingle all the time.

I’m not minimizing the unique challenges bisexuals face—biphobia is real—but everyone faces rejection, BIGUY. And while some gay guys don’t wanna date bi guys, you aren’t looking for

a date. You’re looking for a dick to suck.

So get back on Grindr. When you see a hot guy on the street, on the subway, or on your military base, quickly open Grindr—or Scruff or Sniffies or Recon or all of the above—and if they’re on there, too, send ’em a message. If they’re interested, they’ll write back. If they aren’t, they won’t. And if you’re worried a guy won’t let you suck his dick if you tell him you’re bisexual, and you don’t mind blowing guys who might be biphobic, don’t disclose your bisexuality on your profile.

And you know … back when men picked each other up in bars … you had to make eye contact with a lotta guys before you locked eyes with the right guy. If you made eye contact with a guy who wasn’t interested—if you weren’t his style or his type—he wouldn’t make eye contact with you again. That’s essentially what a guy is doing when he “blows you off” on Grindr: He’s taking a quick look, deciding you’re not for him, and looking away—the exact same thing you’re doing to guys who aren’t your style or type.

I’m a 60-something straight woman. A few years ago, a longtime male friend and I, both in very unhappy relationships, did what I’d never done in my life: We cheated on our partners. We both ended our other relationships, and the resulting two years have been wonderful. My guy is smart and funny, and the sex is very, very, VERY good. We don’t live together and see each other on weekends.

Now for the problem: I think he voted for Trump.

While he’s a political conservative, he’s not crazy, and he has some reasonable viewpoints that I can tolerate, even if I disagree. But not Trump. I don’t think a good person votes for Trump. Practically speaking, it doesn’t matter, because we live in solid blue Washington state, and all our electoral votes will go to Biden, but I’m not sure I can fuck someone who voted for Trump. But if I end things with him, there’s a good chance I’ll never have sex again. I don’t think there are many opportunities for 65-year-old average-looking women, even ones with healthy libidos. Thoughts?

Update: Before I could even hit send on this email, Dan, I found out that, yes, he voted for Trump. I’m sickened! Do I end it?!?

OH FUCKING HELL Yes you do, OFH, and you tell him why: Elections have consequences. Better a trusty vibrator than an unworthy Trump voter.

Read Savage Love every Wednesday at CVIndependent.com; www.savagelovecast.com; mail@savagelove.net; @fakedansavage on Twitter.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 39

NOVEMBER 2020

OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

“Rhymes at the Zoo”—a group effort for Take Your Kids to Work Day (No. 831, May 2017)

By Matt Jones Across 1 Sound of a punch [E] {I created this puzzle In collaboration with my then-9-year-old twins.

Clues followed by an [S] were written by Sid, and clues followed by an [E] were written by Ella.} 5 Green paper that you pay with [E] 9 They make up stairs [E] 14 Make goo-goo eyes at 15 Tennis’ Arthur ___ Stadium 16 Like some dirt bike tracks [S] 17 Fearsome cat that spends moolah on Lamborghinis and mansions? [S] 19 Former “Come on down!” announcer Johnny 20 “I ___ open this jar. Can you help, Daddy?” [E] 21 Monkey that eats curtains? [E] 23 “Gimme ___! ... What’s that spell? Ella!” [E] 24 There are 100 in a century (abbr.) [S] 26 Something a toy poodle says [E]

27 Rat-a-___ [E] 28 Something that people say in awe [E] 30 Pookums [E] 35 Scaly creature that likes to eat frosted sweets? [S] 37 Ninja Turtle that wears red, to his friends [S] 40 Getting from ___ B 41 Kid that can have a cellphone [S] 42 Bird that smokes and does vandalism? [E] 47 Sneaky little animal [E] 48 ___ gin fizz 49 Kid who is “epic!” [S] 52 The ___ on the Shelf [S] 54 Sid: “I’m not ___ years old anymore.” Me: “No, I mean ___ as in ‘I ___ some food.’“ 55 Palindromic Turkish title 56 Water animal with flippers that makes barters 24/7? [S] 61 Wants really badly [S] 63 Go off-script (sorry, Ella, it doesn’t mean “get more pounds”) 64 Slow animal that grows wings and gets in your clothes? [E] 66 She was a princess “long ago” [E] 67 “The coolest kid in the universe” [E] 68 Lake that sounds scary [E] 69 Me: “How about the clue ‘Used needles,’ Ella?”

Ella: “No, new needles.

You have to use them because it affects the fabric more than you expect.”

70 Martens and McStuffins, for instance [S] 71 Air France fliers, once

33 “I Like ___” (’50s political slogan) 34 “Hallow” ending 35 Someone who might cook meatballs for you [S] 36 Animal that’s cute, fuzzy, lazy and gray [E] 37 ___ for “Ricky Bubwick” Down (apparently a name that 1 Type of wild “kitty-kitty” Sid just made up) :) [E] 38 Everyone [S] 2 Type of lizard in “Sing” [E] 39 Toilet paper layer 3 Horse’s mesh protection 43 Turns evil or moldy [E] against pests, maybe 44 Remote control car 4 Sinn ___ (Irish political part [S] movement) 45 Tag situations? [S] 5 Spike thrown in the road 46 Looks rudely to stop robbers [S] 49 Enjoys, as food [S] 6 “___ was saying ...” [E] 50 “Understood” [S] 7 Like show horses’ feet 51 Marks that are lines [S] 8 “___ Danger (Nickelodeon 53 Popular [E] show) [E] 56 Parents “who do puzzled 9 Quaint stores (you’d think, goodness” [S] based on how they’re 57 Brickell whose band is spelled) the New Bohemians 10 Piece that goes on the 58 “There ought to be ___” floor [S] 59 It may be parallel [E] 11 Queen in Arendelle [E] 60 Olympic hurdler/ 12 Water drop sound [E] bobsledder Jones 13 “Auld Lang ___” 62 Drinks that are alcoholic 18 Something said in an [S] “argument party” [S] 65 “Waterfalls” trio 22 Teacher’s helper [E] 25 Region with Legoland, © 2017, 2020 Matt Jones informally [S] 29 Dislikes [S] Find the answers in 31 Poker money the “About” section of 32 “Call Me Maybe” singer CVIndependent.com!

Carly ___ Jepsen [E]

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40 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

NOVEMBER 2020

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