Coachella Valley Independent October 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT | OCTOBER 2020

VOL. 8 | NO. 10

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CVIndependent.com

OCTOBER 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 3

OCTOBER 2020

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

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

All content is ©2020 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.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

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

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

Covering elections in the Coachella Valley is not easy.

Why, you may ask, is it such a challenge? Because there are so many darned layers of government here. There are water boards and school districts and water districts and other districts and etc. … plus there are nine city councils—and all nine of them are having elections this year.

So … how does a smaller newspaper like the Independent cover all of this? Regrettably, we can’t cover all of it—but we will cover as much as we can. Two of us here cover politics regularly: Myself and Kevin Fitzgerald, our staff writer. However, my plate is quite full with other things, which means most of the coverage falls on Kevin’s plate.

In 2020, we’ve decided to focus on the city council races, and we’re going to get to as many of them as we can with our Candidate Q&A series. Here’s how that works: We come up with a list of questions, tailored to each race, that we ask each of the candidates, via phone interviews. Then we publish the candidates’ answers, in their entirety, with only very minor editing for style and clarity.

Simple, right? Well, yes, it is simple— until you get to the transcription part, when it gets quite daunting, because some of these candidates talk a lot.

As I write this, we’ve done Candidate Q&As with the contested council races in three of the valley’s nine cities. We did Rancho Mirage earlier this year, since Rancho Mirage runs its city election differently than all of the other cities (because, well, it is Rancho Mirage). In recent weeks, Kevin has interviewed the candidates in Palm Springs and Palm Desert; you can find a portion of those interviews in this print edition, and the interviews in their entirety at CVIndependent.com.

Through Election Day, we’ll be doing more interviews with the candidates from the other cities, so watch CVIndependent. com for those. I am not sure we’ll be able to get to all nine cities by the time Election Day arrives—after all, we’re also covering other stories as well, because, as you may have noticed, a LOT is going on, including a raging pandemic—but we’re going to do our best.

I hope you find the Candidate Q&A interviews—as well as the rest of our coverage in this October print edition and at CVIndependent.com—enjoyable and enlightening. As always, thanks for reading, and don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or feedback at the email address below.

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

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OCTOBER 2020

OPINION OPINION

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS W

BY ANITA RUFUS

hen we patronize a service business, if the person with whom we interact is polite, pleasant, personable and a true professional—it makes a huge difference.

That describes Desert Hot Springs resident Randy Ralke, who holds down the fort at Post’n Ship in Rancho Mirage (www.postnship.com).

Although he’s originally from Minneapolis, Ralke describes himself as a true “valley boy.”

He moved to the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles with his mom and three siblings after his parents divorced.

“My mom had a friend,” he recalls, “who had moved out a year earlier, after her husband had gone to a retreat of some kind, had a heart attack and died. She encouraged my mom to make dealership. Unfortunately, he had an alcohol the move.” problem, and my folks divorced.

Ralke is a natural redhead, which got him “I was very close to my mom. She was bullied as a kid. a pretty funny person, and I think that’s “I was always seen as different,” he says. where I got my sense of humor. Friends have “Kids would use lots of nicknames, and it suggested I should pursue doing comedy, and hurt. But it’s also what made me become I’ve always wanted to write as well, but I’ve funny as a way to cope. Plus, it was an always gotten into other things. We lost my advantage at an amusement park—my mom two years ago at age 89; I took care of parents couldn’t lose me!” her for the last nine years of her life when she After high school, Ralke attended Pierce increasingly fell to dementia. I’ve always been College. diligent about handling things, and it’s been “I was kind of a professional musician,” he a difficult adjustment for me after all those says. “I played drums and percussion, and I years of caring for her. I’m still not quite back admit I was too young at college. I had great fun, but I never graduated. I did work at music on track.”

Ralke moved to the Coachella Valley from stores for many years. In fact, there’s one in Los Angeles about a year and a half ago, Reseda called Kaye’s Music Scene, where I after a brief stint in Florida working with his worked for a long time, and it’s still there. I sister after their mom’s death. (“I hated the actually started working at about age 8 or 9 Florida weather!”) He’s been the guy behind with three different paper routes. It meant I the counter running Post’n Ship, and he’s a always had money in my pocket. lifeline for customers who have mailboxes, “Of course, if I could have had my dream receive packages, buy stamps, get faxes, make job, I would have been a professional baseball copies, or want to purchase cards, gift items player. I did play Little League for a while. I or even fine linens. was the catcher; I now know that’s why my “We ship things all over the world,” says knees are bad. Actually, my prize possession Ralke, “and I have customers who will, for is a signed baseball my dad gave me from the example, buy a box to pack clothing to donate Minnesota Twins. … Harmon Killebrew’s to needy children in Nigeria. A lot of the signature is on it, but it doesn’t have Rod people in this area are older and need some Carew’s, because he was involved in finding extra attention, and sometimes it requires a a bone-marrow donor for his daughter and wasn’t there that day. I’ll leave that baseball to lot of patience. I’ve also gotten to know the postal workers and delivery people and really my son, or a grandson if I get one.” appreciate what they do and how hard they Ralke’s son, William, 30 and an Iowa work.” resident, was named after Ralke’s father.

What does Randy Ralke do for fun? He “My son was lucky: He didn’t get the likes mystery stories, listens to ’70s and ’80s red hair,” jokes Ralke. “But he did marry rock, and is a science-fiction movie-lover. His a redhead, and his daughter, my amazing granddaughter, Trinity Rose, is a redhead. (My face lights up as he recalls, as a kid, waiting 10 hours in line at the Egyptian Theatre in ex-wife and I) weren’t sure we would be able Hollywood to see Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. to have a child, and having my son was the “Fast forward to when I took my son to the best decision ever, even though the marriage opening of Star Wars: Episode I. I took him out didn’t last. of school, and we spent the day in Westwood “My dad and his brother were in their and finally got to see it that same day.” father’s pharmacy business, but after (their One of the things on Ralke’s bucket list is father) died, they didn’t really want to be in travel. “My oldest brother has traveled quite a that business. My dad ended up running a car CVIndependent.com

Meet Randy Ralke, a prime example of a service employee who often brightens his customers’ days

Randy Ralke.

lot, and that’s what I’d like to do. I’d love to go to Europe; our family has German and Czech roots. I would also like to play music again sometime. Plus, I think it would surprise people to know I think I have a really good voice. I used to do backup with the singers I worked with, but I’ve never recorded.”

Too many people take service employees for granted—but Ralke is proof that they can often become a light in a customer’s day.

“I think what makes me who I am is that I

do have humor and personality,” Ralke says.

“I try to make things better and smoother for anyone who comes in. It’s sometimes a challenge to make people laugh, but it’s always worth it to me.”

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

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 5

OCTOBER 2020

¡VOTE NO! A LA PROPOSICIÓN 23 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 más de 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.

VOTE NO A LA PROPOSICIÓN 23 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 CVIndependent.com

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OCTOBER 2020

OPINION PETS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

S.O.A.R. TO THE RESCUE I

BY CARLYNNE MCDONNELL

never win anything—other than that one time when I won a lifetime supply of Saran Wrap.

That’s why I was so thrilled last year when I won a raffle at one of the most-enjoyable fundraisers for animals in our valley, Society’s Outkast Animal Rescue’s Mutt Margaritas.

Of course, large gatherings aren’t possible now due to COVID-19, so S.O.A.R.’s seventhannual Mutt Margaritas went online this year—and it’s crucial that the fundraiser was effective, because all of the money raised goes to help animals in the Coachella Valley and Slab City, near the Salton Sea. S.O.A.R. was founded in 2014 by Janeen Hudson Bahr and Belinda Zaparinuk. Trust me when I say that founding an effective rescue organization involves a lot sweat and tears, with countless do more by providing funding and care for hours of labor. I asked Bahr, a Coachella Valley animals here in the desert than the rescues resident for more than 55 years, what made coming in from outside of the valley. them decide to found S.O.A.R. “We felt that by everything being donated “I became a volunteer for the Riverside or volunteered, 100 percent of what we County Department of Animal Services when were raising was going right back into our the Indio shelter closed, and I saw a need for community,” Bahr said. local rescues to help with the huge number of One of the most important things S.O.A.R. animals that were entering the shelter system,” has done is build Molly’s Miracle, a spayBahr said. “At first, we were funding freedom flights—and realized that as soon as we loaded neuter trailer that allows more large dogs to be spayed and neutered at a time. Molly’s Miracle up a plane and emptied the shelter, it filled is leased to the Animal Action League, which right back up again. We needed to do more.” provides the veterinary staff.

Bahr and Zaparinuk realized that they could

A look at one of the valley’s mostamazing animal-assistance organizations

“The statistics are excellent,” Bahr said. “In the almost three years since she was put in service, including six months of down time due to COVID-19, Molly has fixed 3,000 animals.”

S.O.A.R. does a lot of work in Slab City, adjacent to the Salton Sea. S.O.A.R. initially provided beds, blankets, toys, puppy pools, thousands of pounds of dog food and vaccines for the numerous animals that reside there.

S.O.A.R. also funded the first several spay-andneuter clinics at Slab City, and now Molly’s Miracle goes down there three or four times a season to continue to spay and neuter.

S.O.A.R. also helps with the community’s extraordinary Doggie Christmas celebration, and helped create a nonprofit to make sure the resident animals receive medical treatment, inoculations and food.

Andra Slaburbia, one of the hardest-working Slab City animal mothers, said S.O.A.R. has been vital at helping both the humans and animals that call Slab City home.

“I call S.O.A.R. our Slab City dog godmother organization,” Slaburbia said. “S.O.A.R. has helped save many, many Slab dogs’ lives, by helping us have enough parvo/combo vaccines to help address our sadly, very real, parvo problem; by having Molly’s Miracle, the mobile spay/neuter clinic, come to our community to ensure a rigorous spaying and neutering of our animals; by supplying emergency dog food and

such things as kiddie pools, so our Slab dogs can weather the torturous summer heat at our off-grid conditions; and last but not least, by being our doggie Santa Claus for our Slab Doggie Christmas celebrations.”

At the county’s Coachella Valley Animal Campus, S.O.A.R. funded a 5,000-squarefoot play yard, including agility equipment and a shade structure. The organization also sponsors adoptions by veterans and others from CVAC, and provides Christmas cheer and presents to the campus’ animal residents.

Last year, S.O.A.R. even paid for bulletproof vests for the five Riverside County Sheriff’s Department canine officers not already protected, at a cost of $1,700 each.

In 2017, S.O.A.R. started the Lucky and Huey (L&H) Fund, after trying to help save a sweet but sick rescue puppy from CVAC. Thanks to matching grants, the fund has helped more than 135 people with their vet bills and more.

S.O.A.R. does so much good in the community; to help them in their mission, visit www.facebook.com/SocietysOutkasts.

Carlynne McDonnell is the founder and CEO of Barkee LaRoux’s House of Love Animal Sanctuary, a senior animal sanctuary and hospice in the Coachella Valley. She has been rescuing animals since she was 4 years old.

S.O.A.R. volunteers stand next to the Molly’s Miracle spay-and-neuter trailer.

CVIndependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 7

OCTOBER 2020

We’re Expecting!

Oh Baby, Our Maternity Center Is Due This Winter.

Eisenhower Health is growing a welcome addition: a new obstetrics service line. Construction is almost complete on the 50,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Maternity Center, to be housed in the Eisenhower Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion on our Rancho Mirage campus. Set to open by early 2021, it will include: ~ 14 labor, delivery, recovery, postpartum (LDRP) rooms ~ 8 private bed, newborn intensive care unit (NICU) ~ 2 operating rooms ~ 4 obstetrical emergency rooms ~ 7 postpartum rooms We’ve recruited fantastic physicians, nurses, and staff who specialize in obstetrics, lactation and newborn care. We couldn’t be more excited to launch our new addition — in true Eisenhower style, we’re sure it will exceed expecations! We look forward to helping our community’s expectant parents bring new life to the Coachella Valley.

Are you expecting? Online registration will be accepted in late 2020 for births in the new year.

Learn more and sign up for updates at EisenhowerHealth.org/babies.

Rancho Mirage

EisenhowerHealth.org/babies CVIndependent.com

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OCTOBER 2020

Register Today!

Two-Day Virtual Event

PRESENTED BY

CVIndependent.com

October 23 & 24 Register to Walk or Donate at DesertAIDSWalk.org

OUR COMMUNITY IN ACTION

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 9

OCTOBER 2020

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

PICKETING FOR SAFETY M

Local hospital workers, negotiating a new contract with Tenet, say the company isn’t doing enough to protect patients and employees

by kevin fitzgerald

embers of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) picketed at each of the three Tenet-operated hospitals in the area in late August—claiming that employees need to take life-threatening risks every day to care for local patients battling COVID-19.

The members formed picket lines at the Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree, before moving to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, followed by Indio’s JFK Memorial Hospital, on consecutive days.

“The overlying reason is that we are in a contract negotiation right now, and at the same hat and shoe covers—I would put that stuff on time, we are fighting to make sure that all before I went into the patient’s room. Then, of our workers are safe and have enough when I finished doing what I had to with that PPE, or personal protective equipment,” said patient, I’d come out of the room and take union member Gisella Thomas via telephone. everything off. Then, for the next patient, “Tenet is my employer. I’ve been a respiratory I’d put on all fresh, clean, new PPE—gowns, therapist for 48 years, and I’ve worked at gloves, the whole bit.

Desert Regional for 10 years. I’m not a spring “Today, I’ll use the same N95 mask, with chicken anymore. I feel unsafe, not just for a surgical mask over it, for the 12 hours that myself, but for my co-workers, too. If you have I work. Over my 48 years, if I would have co-workers in other facilities who died because done that, (hospital administration) would they didn’t have a face mask or other PPE, you have fired me. Any hospital would have said, want to make sure that doesn’t happen in our ‘You’re endangering the patients. This is not facilities here. right. You cannot do this.’ Now, everybody “We (at Desert Regional) have not had a goes from patient to patient and has the same death yet. We don’t want that to happen, and PPE and the same N95 mask in front of their we want to make sure that we’re safe and face for the entirety of their shift. Granted, all protected.” the federal agencies are saying that this is OK Tenet spokesman Todd Burke, in a now—but why was it not OK for 48 years, and statement issued during the pickets, said: now it is OK? This is the question I ask as a “While we value all of our employees who health-care worker.” are represented by the SEIU-UHW, we are Thomas said she’s concerned not just for disappointed that the union is taking this herself, her co-workers and her patients; she’s approach. We have only been bargaining with also concerned for her friends and family away the union on a successor contract since May from work. and will continue to negotiate in good faith “When I come home (from work), I strip all in hopes of reaching a successful resolution. of my clothes off in the garage,” she said. “I We are proud of the professionalism and try not to touch anything and take a shower dedication demonstrated by our caregivers and immediately. I’m trying to make sure that staff during this unprecedented pandemic.”

I don’t take anything home to my family, Later in the statement, Burke noted: “Any but also out into the community—and I’m employee, physician or vendor entering the not the only one. Everyone does this. So we hospital is required to wear a face mask. To want to make sure that the provisions in our prevent potential exposure, all physicians, pandemic/epidemic clause state that there nurses and staff who care for suspected or has to be enough PPE to do what we were confirmed COVID-19 patients are required to supposed to do for the last 48 years. wear the appropriate PPE, including N95 face “There has to be enough PPE (on hand) for masks and face shields or goggles. Employees 45 days. If they’re stocking enough, then why are provided a new N95 or face mask with is there not enough? Now we’re six months each shift.” into a pandemic, and we’re still doing the same That policy, as described by Burke, is part of bullshit, excuse my language. It’s like, ‘Come the problem, Thomas said. on! Give us a break. Why can’t you guys pick “We’re asking that there be a pandemic/ it up here? How can you expect us to come to epidemic clause added to our contract that work and do our job? Why can’t you provide us assures every worker that there are provisions with the safety we need to protect our lives?’” so that we are safe, and there’s enough PPE According to Burke’s statement: “We can for us at all times,” Thomas said. “For 48 safely care for our patients with the supplies years, when I saw a patient where I needed we currently have. Our team is actively protection—like gowns, gloves and a mask, a

Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs was picketed by employees calling for safer conditions. Jimmy Boegle

sourcing around the world for additional supplies. We are committed to protecting the health and safety of our patients and staff.”

Thomas said that while she understands hospital administrators are dealing with an unprecedented pandemic, her frustration has grown in recent months—especially regarding a lack of transparency.

“I’m sure that (Tenet administrators) have their own frustrations and issues in terms of providing us with the PPE that we need,” she said. “But unfortunately, Tenet is not dealing with their health-care workers in a forthright manner. They don’t even let us know who among our co-workers have caught COVID-19.

So, some of us have been exposed and had no idea until we get sick.”

One may assume that she and her co-workers get tested for COVID-19 on a regular basis, given they’re in close contact with infected patients, but Thomas said that’s not necessarily the practice at the local Tenet facilities.

“There is an option available for us to get tested, but they don’t really encourage us to get tested,” Thomas said. “Unfortunately, once you are tested, if you test negative, and then later on you have some symptoms, they don’t like to re-test. Or, if there’s somebody who tests positive and has been out, when they need to come back, there’s no more re-testing. After 10 days (of self-quarantining) it’s like, ‘OK, you should be good. Just come back to work.’”

In mid-September, the Independent checked back with Thomas to see if the picketing actions had any impact.

“Yes, some stuff is happening,” Thomas said. “But, on the other hand, we’re dealing with corporate America, and they’re going to do what they’re going to do. We’ve gotten additional bargaining dates, a lot more than we had before, and they run all the way through the month of October. That’s a good thing.

“But have they offered any real concessions?

I’d have to say no. In 90 percent of our proposals that they’ve returned to us, they didn’t agree with any of it. That included our pandemic/epidemic (contract clause) proposal. We’re very serious, because we want to make sure that we protect our members— the frontline health-care workers—which, in essence, protects the patients and the community as well.”

Thomas reiterated that some of her fellow union members at other hospitals in California have died from COVID-19. According to a joint tracking project coordinated by The Guardian and the Kaiser Health News media outlets, as of Sept. 9, at least 12 health-care workers had died in California.

“It shouldn’t have to come to that. Nobody gets a job so that they have to go home in a casket,” Thomas said.

She added that the SEIU-UHW would go as far as a strike, if necessary.

“A strike is really the last resort, because it’s not good for our patients, and it’s not good for our union members, because we lose money,” she said. “The hospital won’t lose money.

They’ll make their money. We just really feel that they need to start listening to us, and start bargaining in good faith with us.”

CVIndependent.com

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F

OCTOBER 2020

Differences You Will Make

by Voting Yes on Prop 22

lexible working hours— that’s undoubtedly one of the main benefits of passing Proposition 22 in the next election.

About 1 million drivers are in California, many of them Latino, single parents, drivers who have loved ones with caring needs, and/or students in need of part-time employment because of insufficient income. These are some examples of the benefits of having flexible work hours.

In addition, another advantage of voting Yes on Proposition 22 is preserving millions of jobs, for which a high percentage are held by Latinos.

From the start of the pandemic, millions of California residents have lost their jobs. Many found driving platforms like Uber and Lyft offered a much-needed income.

According to a study, if Proposition 22 fails to pass this November, about CVIndependent.com

PAID ADVERTISING

By Angel Guerro 900,000 app-based drivers would be left out of the independent driver business.

Only about 100,000 would keep their jobs working eight hours a day.

This also undermines the argument that app-based driver jobs do not pay taxes, because if jobs are cut back from an existing one million to 900,000 jobs, the unemployment rate would drastically increase, with less taxes received.

When comparing both scenarios, is it more important to have 100,000 people on payroll taxes, or leave 900,000 drivers unemployed? Most of these drivers are Latinos and African American.

Proposition 22 allows appbased drivers to choose their health insurance through Covered California. If Prop 22 fails, those same employees have to receive the health coverage that their companies offer, usually with insurance companies they already

do business with.

In other words, health benefits would be provided for those 100,000 drivers who are employees, but those health insurance plans would be more beneficial for the insurance companies, not for the workers. And what about the other 900,000 drivers? They won’t have a job or health benefits.

A vast majority of restaurants are currently closed or offering limited service—such as take-out and delivery—and cutting back on 900,000 app-based jobs would only worsen the situation for these businesses.

After months of closure, most restaurants do not have the resources to offer exclusive delivery service.

Therefore, restaurants rely heavily on platforms like Uber Eats in order to continue their business. If Proposition 22 fails to pass, hundreds of small Latino businesses will be collateral

damage.

Passing Proposition 22 in November is not only pivotal to the success of our economy, but also for the protection of app-based drivers. Under Prop 22, drivers will be protected from harassment and discrimination, and will be provided a certain level of insurance in the event of accidents or disabilities.

Proposition 22 provides financial stability to appbased drivers; flexible schedules for hundreds of individuals who have control over when, where and how long they work for; and support for small businesses.

The author and this space were paid by NO on 22-Save App-Based Jobs & Service: a coalition of on-demand drivers and platforms, small businesses, public safety and community organizations.

Committee major funding from Uber Technologies, Lyft, and DoorDash.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11

OCTOBER 2020

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

PRIDE REIMAGINED O

Palm Springs Pride’s Ron deHarte talks about this year’s mostly online celebration— and explains the planned car caravan

by jimmy boegle

n the weekend of Nov. 6-8, there will be no festival in downtown Palm Springs. There will be no parade. However, Greater Palm Springs Pride will go on—mostly online, like almost everything else has since COVID-19 reared its unbelievably ugly head in March.

However, there will be a few events with an in-person aspect … sort of. The Front Runners’ 5k run, a fundraiser for the LGBT Center of the Desert, will take place—but instead of everyone running together, the participants will pick their own time and route. Pride-themed movies will be screened at the Palm Springs Cultural Center—outside, on the new drive-in screen, with attendees in their cars or socially distanced.

City is organizing a really large one (on Oct. And then there’s the possible car caravan— 11), so we’ll watch that very closely. which, when it was first announced, caused (The idea) is the old political protest—the Palm Springs Pride President and CEO Ron caravan where people drive through the city deHarte no small amount of grief after certain and raise awareness and honk their horns locals, perhaps not understanding the concept, and be visible, be heard and capture media freaked out on social media. attention. That’s the idea behind the car We recently spoke to deHarte about the caravan: We could give people from the same plans for 2020 Greater Palm Springs Pride. household the opportunity to come out for a couple of hours; make a poster with their Tell me a little bit about the re-imagined political statement on it, or a message of love; Pride this year. and they could maybe decorate their car a So many cities have gone virtual for their bit, and come and drive on our open roads. It pride events. What we’re trying to do is a would be a free event for people to participate combination of online activities that people in. We would do it during a scheduled time can participate in from the comfort of their period and follow a scheduled route, giving home, and true activities where you can be people who don’t have a car or aren’t able to active, like the Front Runners’ 5k run, which participate the ability to see what’s happening is always very popular. But this year, instead by staying home and watching a livestream. of waking up on Saturday morning and The idea is not in place for spectators. It’s on joining 500 other people, you go and you do open roads. There’s no parade, no marching your 5k run or walk at your leisure, on your bands, no dancing queens—none of that. … It’s own. You’re still able to raise money; we can a solo experience, but at the end of the day, any raise money for the Center. That’s one way caravan we organize in Palm Springs is going to where people are still able to get out of their get a lot of media attention—and that’s part of house, and be a part of something bigger, but what this political protest caravan is all about. not have to sit and watch something that’s a It’s raising awareness and getting attention. livestream online.

The drive-in movie nights are another way What steps are you taking to make sure where people can be safe and social distance, but come together and watch a couple of Pride- this doesn’t attract crowds?

First, I want to remind everyone that nothing themed movies on Friday and Saturday night. is set in stone. This is still an idea that’s being Then we have some more of the traditional worked on, and it’s not finalized that it’s going things that people would see, but via to happen. We will take it day by day, because if livestream. The (Interfaith Pride Kabbalat) our COVID-positive numbers don’t get better, Shabbat will be livestreamed on Friday night. and the situation changes for us, we’re going Our flag-raising ceremony—we traditionally to evaluate everything we’re doing. If there’s have done a big media event as we unfurl the a slight chance that people are not going to flag from the Stergios (building) tower (at be safe, then we will not go forward with Desert Regional Medical Center). Well, this whatever plan we’ve got in place. year, we’re going to do a livestream so people We’ve been talking to the city, a special-event can watch the flag unfurlings, not only at the Stergios tower, but downtown and at City Hall. planning team, about the safety measures that need to be in place—like the possibility of not promoting the route. There are positives Let’s discuss the caravan, since that’s the and negatives to that, but that’s definitely thing everyone seems riled up about. something that we’re looking at—to not We have put forward an idea for the caravan. promote it publicly, and only make it known It’s not set in stone. We’ve watched what’s when the participants arrive in the morning to been done in 17 other cities; actually, Salt Lake

Palm Springs Pride President and CEO Ron deHarte.

get in their lineup. People have to register ahead of time, so they know that they’re not allowed to have party trucks, party buses or party limos.

They’re agreeing that they are coming from the same households. They are agreeing that they will be wearing masks. They will agree that they’re not to come to the check-in, get out of their car and start to party. They’ll have an assigned parking space; they will go to their assigned parking space, and when it’s time to roll out at the step-off moment, cars will exit the parking-lot area in sequence.

On the route, there are no closed streets, with regular traffic signs and regular traffic signals; regular laws have to be followed along the route. We’ve asked for permission to end the route in front of City Hall. People will come in one entrance; they will hand off their poster or signs that they made. … That statement sign will be given to a team of three or four folks that are making a design that will be visible on the lawn of City Hall, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. This art installation (would be) a collected community statement. But once they hand off their poster, no one gets out of their cars. Again, there’s no speaking; there’s no entertainment. They just keep driving through and exit the other side of the parking lot at City Hall.

We’re not creating assembly points. … This is being made for TV. The idea is to really show people who are at home, not participating; they can tune into YouTube or the livestream on Facebook. There are not going to be things for people to see—but if somebody was to go sit alongside the road, there are going to be at least 10 miles of roadway where anyone

who is conscious of what’s going on in society today can social distance themselves. … We’ve even proposed that we have additional police support that day to help discourage folks from gathering. But we just don’t see (people gathering) happening. It hasn’t happened in the 17 cities that we’ve been modeling from. It didn’t happen in Chula Vista, which is I think the closest model for us to follow.

Some people are concerned that because Palm Springs Pride is putting together a weekend slate of events, that will encourage people to come to Palm Springs and party—because, well, this is Palm Springs.

Well, there’s plenty that is happening in town today, where there are activities taking place. …

I think other than the caravan, everything that we’re talking about is already happening right now in Palm Springs. We’re not proposing something that’s any different than what’s happening today in Palm Springs—and people are already coming to Palm Springs.

Next weekend, they’re going to be here. The following weekend, they’re going to be here.

We’re not promoting to Los Angeles, or San Diego, or Long Beach to come and celebrate Pride in Palm Springs, because we don’t have anything for them to come and physically celebrate. There are no parties. There are no pool events. Even our proposed tea dance is virtual—so you can go and dance in your home. … We just don’t see people driving here to participate in these virtual experiences.

For more information, visit apps.pspride.org.

CVIndependent.com

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OCTOBER 2020

NEWS

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IN PLACE OF SCHOOL G

by kevin fitzgerald

ov. Gavin Newsom in July ordered all of the state’s school campuses to remain closed in counties where COVID-19 case rates remained too high, according to the state’s criteria.

That list included Riverside County—and as of our press deadline, almost all local schools remained closed for in-person instruction.

“We fully anticipated re-opening in the first week of July at all of our facilities,” said Desert Recreation District General Manager Kevin Kalman during a recent phone interview. “Then Riverside County had its infection rates start rising again. So what we had geared up for, and had been prepping our team for, all changed overnight. This ED-REC/Connect (ERC) program became the best activity we could think of to Then on Sept. 16, an additional location was be truly relevant and helpful in this time. This opened at the Mecca Library, in order to help pandemic is everybody’s problem—and our meet the serious needs of east valley working goal is to be part of the solution.” families and their student children—and the Since mid-August, the ERC has sponsored 10 students accepted at the Mecca location well-equipped, supervised distance-learning will have their tuition fees waived, due to the hubs at various locations, primarily in the support of the Community Action Partnership eastern Coachella Valley, including sites in of Riverside County, the Riverside County North Shore, Mecca, Thermal, Indio, Palm Library System, and the Desert Recreation Desert, La Quinta and Bermuda Dunes. As Foundation/Desert Recreation District. At other of Sept. 15,, 66 students were enrolled in the locations, weekly resident tuition prices are $75. program, with a maximum capacity of 140.

“When we first rolled out the program,

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The Desert Recreation District sets up a network of distance-learning hubs to support eastern Coachella Valley students

we didn’t have some of our funding partners on board yet,” Kalman said. “So, while the (registration fee) was very reasonable for a full day of childcare, we knew it was priced at a point where we weren’t going to be able to get some families into the program. But the Regional Access Project, which previously had given us a grant for certain communities to provide programming, authorized us to re-allocate that funding specifically to this program, because all our other programs are really not running (due to the pandemic).

That was a huge help. Basically, it brought the fee down by half. Then, likewise, the county authorized us to re-allocate some Community Development Block Grant funding that was for youth programming in the unincorporated areas of the eastern Coachella Valley to this program. Then, our board further subsidized (tuition) for the rest of the valley to make it more reasonable.

“Now, the most anyone would pay is $75 per week, and along with that, our foundation offers a scholarship program which could bring it as low as $37.50 per week.”

Students in kindergarten through the sixth-grade can participate, and they can be registered by the week, or for extended periods. At all locations, the program begins at 7:30 a.m. each weekday and runs until 5:30 p.m. No class will contain more than 10 students, with two adult educator supervisors.

“The first half of the day is spent online in the classroom with their respective teachers,” Kalman said. “Each student brings their school-district-issued laptop, or iPad, or whatever it is that their particular school district is using. Our staff is there to assist the children in logging in, making sure that they’re connected when they’re supposed to be connected, and helping them with any technical issues they may have. Also, they assist the students with any questions or issues they have with their lessons that aren’t answered by the teacher online.

“Next, they have lunch,” Kalman continued, adding that students must bring their own lunch. “And then the afternoon program is like our typical afterschool program, where they participate in sports and enrichment, crafts and other activities.”

Safety is a top priority at each of the program’s distance-learning hubs.

“Only 10 students are in each class, because we have such great restrictions to make it a safe environment,” Kalman said. “It will be the same 10 kids every day in each of these different classrooms, and only those same 10

Desert Recreation District General Manager Kevin Kalman: “We hope this will be a short-lived program, and that the kids will be back in their classrooms sooner rather than later.”

kids, along with the same two staff members.

That way, there’s a reduced chance of any infection being brought in from outside.”

Each participant is given a temperature check before entering each day, and maskwearing and social-distancing guidelines must be observed.

“Parents aren’t even allowed into the facility,” Kalman said. “Basically, it’s curbside drop-off and pickup.”

Still, even with all the planning and effort expended to run the program, Kalman said he looks forward to the day when it comes to an end.

“We hope this will be a short-lived program, and that the kids will be back in their classrooms sooner rather than later,” Kalman said.

When does Kalman think local students may return to their classrooms?

“I don’t see it happening before the holidays,” he said. “It could change, but what I’ve heard is that it’s not likely to happen before next spring. So everybody is kind of scrambling to adapt. Hopefully, as we move forward—and people realize that this isn’t just a short-term thing, but we’re going to have to cope with it for a while—it will get taken much more seriously by all families. I think there is so much beyond just the instruction that (students) get out of school, and that’s what they’re missing.”

Families who are interested should call 760347-3484, or visit myrecreationdistrict.com.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13

OCTOBER 2020

NEWS

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OCTOBER ASTRONOMY

This month brings us a blue

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight moon—on Halloween, no less!

For October, 2020 This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

O

N

By Robert Victor

ctober presents two full moons, on the first and last day of month, as well as Venus in a close pairing with Regulus before dawn on Oct. 2 and 3; a close approach and the peak brilliance of Mars; Jupiter closing in on Saturn; and four close pairings of the moon with bright planets.

Mars, visible during nearly all of October’s nighttime hours, presents its closest and brightest (peak magnitude -2.6) approach to Earth until 2035. Mars reaches its least distance of 38.57 million miles from Earth (light travel time: 3 minutes, 27 seconds) on Oct. 6, and reaches opposition on Oct. 13, as Earth overtakes the red planet. Mars even outshines Jupiter for most of month.

On Oct. 13, it’s early summer in Mars’ southern hemisphere, and little remains of the south polar cap, since the warmth of the sun has degrees apart). Regulus marks the heart of caused most of the cap’s frozen carbon dioxide Leo, the Lion. Venus goes 1.2 degrees per day, to sublimate into the Martian atmosphere. or 6 degrees each 5 days, eastward against But Mars’ most-prominent dark feature, Syrtis the stars. Observing Venus and Regulus daily Major, first recorded in 1659 by Christiaan through Oct. 7 an hour before sunrise can be Huygens, is in good view for 12 consecutive quite engaging, as the changes from one day to nights, 36 minutes later nightly. The dusky the next will be easy to notice. triangular expanse of dark volcanic basaltic While you’re out on those mornings, rock passes most closely north of the center follow brilliant Mars, dropping a little lower of the Martian disk on Oct. 7 at 9:28 p.m.; day by day, in the west-southwest to west; Oct. 8 at 10:04 p.m.; Oct. 9 at 10:40 p.m.; and the brightest star, blue-white Sirius, in the continuing about 36 minutes later daily until south-southeast to south; and the moon, Oct. 19 at 4:05 a.m., when Mars is getting low starting when it pops into view as full, low in in the west-southwest. Of those dates and the west on Oct. 1, an hour before sunrise. In times, Mars appears highest in the south on next two weeks through Oct. 15, watch the the mornings of Oct. 13 and 14. moon move west to east through the zodiacal Also in the evening sky, Jupiter (magnitude band steeply inclined to the horizon, waning -2.4 to -2.2) and Saturn (+0.5 to +0.6) are and passing, in order, Mars; the Pleiades, or paired in the south to south-southwest at Seven Sisters, star cluster; Aldebaran, eye dusk, east of the Teapot of Sagittarius. In midof Taurus; Castor and Pollux, twin stars of October, our Spaceship Earth races away as Gemini (in mid-October, Spaceship Earth is each appears 90 degrees east of the sun—first racing toward these twin stars); Regulus, heart Jupiter, on Oct. 10-11, and then Saturn, on of Leo; and Venus. Also visible in October’s the following weekend. Both are shrinking morning sky is Orion, the Hunter, high in the in apparent size—Jupiter faster, because it’s south to south-southwest. His striking threecloser. By October’s end, the extent of Saturn’s star belt points in one direction to the Dog rings begins to exceed Jupiter’s equatorial Star, Sirius, and in the other, to Aldebaran and diameter. It’s a good month to notice the the Pleiades. Local sky-watchers can try to shadow of Saturn cast upon its rings. With see Canopus, shown on our morning twilight binoculars, note the kite-shaped asterism map at CVIndependent.com and passing due Territory of Dogs, 2.1 by 1.1 degrees, within 7 south, just 3 degrees above our horizon in the degrees to the lower left of Saturn.

Coachella Valley. It’s the star next in brightness Countdown to their great conjunction: after Sirius and reaches its high point in the Jupiter and Saturn are 7 degrees apart on south four minutes earlier each day, some 22 Oct. 7; 6 degrees on Oct. 21; 5 degrees on minutes before the Dog Star.

Nov. 2; 4 degrees on Nov. 13; and 3 degrees The moon near bright planets: On night apart on Nov. 23. Jupiter-Saturn will appear of Oct. 2, shortly after 8 p.m., the moon is 1 within a degree Dec. 12-29, and will be just 0.1 1/4 days past full, and its center passes only degree apart on Dec. 21, their tightest pairing 1.4 degrees south (to the lower right) of Mars. between 1623 and 2080.

The moon and Mars gradually spread apart The brilliant morning “star” Venus for rest of night, until sunrise on Oct. 3, when (magnitude -4) rises in the east about three you’ll find Mars about 4 degrees to the lower hours before the sun. Don’t miss the close right of the moon. On Oct. 13 and 14, during pairings of Venus and the star Regulus on the hour leading up to sunrise, Venus appears Oct. 2 (0.5 degrees apart) and Oct. 3 (0.7 7 to 8 degrees from a waning crescent moon.

October's evening sky chart.

ROBERT D. MILLER

Capella

Deneb 8

E

Vega

Arcturus

15 Mars 22

W

29 Altair

1

Mercury 8 Saturn 1 8 15 22 29 Fomalhaut

Evening mid-twilight occurs

From sunset until later on Oct. 22, when Sunan is hour 9O below horizon.

1: 39 minutes after sunset. find JupiterOct. 5 degrees to the upper right of a 15: 40moon, " " nearly " half full, and fat waxing crescent 31: 41 " " " Saturn within 4 degrees to the moon’s upper left. From sunset until an hour later on Oct. 29, find Mars about 5 degrees to the upper right of a nearly full moon.

On Saturday, Oct 31, the full and so-called “blue” moon occurs at 7:49 a.m. This is the second full moon within the same calendar month, and so designated a “blue moon” by one definition. But by a prior definition, this not a blue moon, and the next will actually be on Aug. 22, 2021. The earlier definition of a blue moon is the third full moon of four within an astronomical season. There will be four full moons in the summer of 2021—on June 24, July 23, Aug. 22 and Sept. 20, so the third one, on Aug. 22, will be a blue moon.

The small apparent size of Halloween’s full moon (called a “micro-moon” in some media

1 8 15 22 29 Jupiter

S

Antares

Stereographic Projection

accounts) is a consequence the moon’s Map byof Robert D. Miller passage through apogee, the most distant point in its orbit, on Oct. 30 at noon, 252,522 miles from Earth.

The Abrams Planetarium’s monthly Sky Calendar now has more than 3,000 subscribers nationwide. I originated the Sky Calendar in October 1968 and produced the October 2020 issue. For more information, visit www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

To check for eventual resumption of star parties hosted by the Astronomical Society of the Desert, visit www.astrorx.org. As of now, the parties have been cancelled through 2020.

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.

CVIndependent.com

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OCTOBER 2020

Palm Springs residents in two of the city’s five newly created districts will select representatives in this November’s election—meaning the city will finally turn the page on its transition away from at-large elections, as mandated by the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

In District 5, nobody filed to run against incumbent Lisa Middleton, meaning she will return to the City Council, barring any upstart write-in candidacy.

In the District 4 race, incumbent Christy Holstege is facing two challengers: Dian Torres, a local health care worker; and certified public accountant—and former Palm Springs City Councilmember—Mike McCulloch.

The Independent recently spoke to the three candidates running for the District 4 seat.

We asked each of them the same set of questions, ranging from what future city budget cuts could await residents, to the health of the city’s relationships with small businesses.

To read their complete responses, edited only for style and clarity, at CVIndependent.com.

Here, you’ll find their answers to two questions. lots and areas outside. We’ve closed a portion of Palm Canyon (Drive) to have a pedestrian experience so there can be more social distancing, and so that businesses can move outside.

Moving into 2021, we need to make sure that our residents stay safe and stay healthy.

When a vaccine is released, we need to work in partnership with the county to make sure that our residents can get tested, get access to good medical care, and get access to the vaccine. We need to work to rebuild our economy after the hit that the economic crisis has caused.

Christy Holstege Attorney, Palm Springs City Council incumbent What is the most important single issue facing the city of Palm Springs in 2021?

The most important issue facing the city in 2021 is facing the global pandemic and keeping our residents safe, as well as ensuring our recovery from both the health crisis and the economic crisis that we’re facing as a city and as a community. We’ve been working for almost the last seven months on both these fronts, and I’m proud that we were the first city in Southern California to issue a shelter-in-place order. We did that before the state of California did, and that’s because our residents in Palm Springs are particularly at risk for COVID-19. I’ve worked on leading the task force for reopening and ensuring that we do that safely. I’ve worked directly with local businesses to ensure that they can keep their workers safe, keep their customers safe, and stay open, if possible. So we’ve worked to expand their footprint into parklets, parking CVIndependent.com

Given the economic uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, it’s possible the city may need to make further budget cuts in the future. If that became necessary, what cuts would you propose?

We’ve all been personally affected by the economic crisis, and the city is no different.

Initially, we had projected over a $75 million deficit over the last fiscal year and this upcoming fiscal year. However, it’s very difficult to make projections during this time, and actually our (city income) numbers are much, much higher than we initially expected as our worst-case scenario. We’ve worked really hard to build our reserves and have almost doubled them over the last few years to where we had over $40 million sitting in reserves for a rainy day like this. So I’m proud of the work that we’ve done in responding to this immediate economic crisis, while still retaining key services for our residents.

We’ve retained city staff who provide services directly to residents, like parks and recreation services, public safety and all of the services that are important to our residents.

Looking forward, we’ve moved to a “rolling budget” model, since it really is impossible to predict a year out at this time, because no one knows what the economic situation will be a

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15

OCTOBER 2020

year from now. So I asked, and we successfully moved to a “rolling budget” model where the council will get an update each month at council meetings for the public. That way, we can assess where we are in terms of revenue and spending, and make quick changes if we need to. So my hope is that, in that way, we can plan accurately. If we do need to make further cuts, we’ll know that ahead of time, and we won’t need to do it in one sitting, in a way that might not be accurate six months from now.

So, regarding what we’d need to consider cutting, we’ve already made a lot of creative solutions instead of cutting staff. We issued an early retirement program to have city staff retire if they were able to. We froze positions instead of laying off people, and we actually moved to different models of providing services that have saved the city money. In the future, if we do have to make additional cuts, we will have to look at staffing levels for the city, but ensuring that we protect and preserve the most important services for our residents.

Mike McCulloch Certified public accountant What is the most important single issue facing the city of Palm Springs in 2021?

The city is facing a $75 million budget deficit.

In last year’s budget, the council transferred into the general fund from other funds, about $14 million. That money will not be available again this year, so it’s going to be even more difficult going forward to try to get a balanced

budget. That’s the No. 1 issue, and what I bring to the table that I think is lacking with the current council members is that I’m a CPA with an economics degree from UCLA, a master’s in business administration from UCLA, and I’m a certified public accountant who’s been practicing in Palm Springs since 1987. That’s over 30 years that I’ve been a small-business owner in Palm Springs. With that background and experience, I’m an expert in financial matters, and I can bring that to the City Council, where it’s desperately needed.

Given the economic uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, it’s possible the city may need to make further budget cuts in the future. If that became necessary, what cuts would you propose?

Well, I think one of the things that we have to do is prioritize our spending. I’m a big supporter of public safety—the police and fire departments. Those (areas) need to be prioritized. Recently, one of the things the council did that I disagree with is that they spent $3 million to finish off the park downtown. While we all want to have the park built out according to its original design, now is not the time to make that expenditure.

We currently have over a dozen unfilled police and fire department spots, where we had police and fire fighters before, and do not have them now. I would have spent that $3 million to keep the police and fire departments fully staffed, so that we will have someone to respond in an emergency.

We’re in the COVID-19 crisis, and in any crisis, there’s opportunity. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Winchester House, but that’s a house where the Winchester heir kept on adding rooms, because she thought it would keep the spirits away. So she ended up with this house having doorways that lead to nowhere, and stairwells where you step right off into space. I think that because the city government has been cobbled together over decades, it’s not as efficient as it could be. So I think we can start from the ground up to rebuild a modern City Hall, with a

vision for 2020 and forward, where we can have much more efficiency, and remove redundancies in there which will save us money. We can re-think the entire structure of the city and create an efficient model that can operate with fewer personnel. I’m not talking about the physical plant—which I guess is a nightmare due to a lack of money for maintenance, which is kind of a problem for the people working there—but I’m talking about the whole city organization, and I think there are a lot of things that can be done to operate more efficiently within a budget. It’s not necessarily about cutting things, but I’m looking for a more efficient city government.

We don’t have to fire people, because they’re already furloughed, or they’re going to leave by attribution. So we can re-organize (our operations) in a more efficient manner that will save us money.

Dian Torres Health care worker What is the most important single issue facing the city of Palm Springs in 2021?

I have to say it is more than just one. I have two: housing and the budget. Given where we are right now, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic that’s happening, it is very important that we take care of our community, as a lot of people are being displaced.

In my opinion, this is really very important, because it’s the community here that really

holds us up. I mean, we get tourism and all of that, but we can’t forget about the people who live here and make up this community.

Given the economic uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, it’s possible the city may need to make further budget cuts in the future. If that became necessary, what cuts would you propose?

This is going to be a pretty hard one, and not very well received or liked, but I’m going to say it anyway, because I’m a straight shooter: First off, I would ask the city leaders who are making an incredible amount of money— their salary is over $200,000—to take a pay cut. I think it would be a due diligence to the community to know that these people are in, and that they care about community. In the interim, it can be for a (specific) timeframe, but I think that until we can get settled, it makes absolutely no sense that these people are getting paid what they’re getting paid while other people are suffering. The inequities are just not right.

That should be first and foremost, because I think that by doing that, it would really mend a lot of what has happened in the community since 2014. That’s the elephant in the room.

I believe that people are still very wounded by the deceit that went on, and I think that it has been really glossed over. And there’s leadership that’s still in (their positions) and being paid who were here when this whole thing came out. It’s beyond me how that could have been happening, and no one saw it. It took an outsider coming in to really recognize it. I mean, come on. Let’s have a little integrity. This is something that happened to our community.

For leadership to not take responsibility and then continue to ask the people to sacrifice, it’s no wonder that we are in the dire straits that we’re in. Where and how do people feel really safe, and trust again? What is leadership really doing to indicate that they are, in fact, for the people and the community?

I’m not a politician. I’m just a citizen. I’ve never run for political office. I’ve only ever volunteered, and I’ve been on the periphery.

I always did kind of the work that no one else wanted to do. I live here now full-time. Prior to this point in time, I’ve never really been able to (run for office) due to work, and then moving, but now that I’m here, I’m invested in our community. I hope to be the change that this city needs in leadership.

CVIndependent.com

16 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER 2020

For the first time, Palm Desert residents in November will vote for their City Council representatives by district … sort of.

After two residents sued the city last year, alleging that the city’s at-large voting system violated the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, the council approved a new system. One large district, including the vast majority of the city, will be represented by four council members; it’s now called District 2. A second, smaller district, called District 1, will have one representative.

In November, District 1 residents will choose between two candidates: Karina Quintanilla, one of the aforementioned plaintiffs in the Voting Rights Act lawsuit, and incumbent Susan Marie Weber. District 2 residents will choose between four candidates for two seats: incumbents Kathleen Kelly and Gina Nestande, and challengers Evan Trubee and Steven Moyer.

The Independent recently spoke to the candidates, asking them each the same set of questions, on topics ranging from the new district voting system to law enforcement in the city.

Read their complete responses, edited only for style and clarity, at CVIndependent.com.

Here, you’ll find their answers to one question:

What are your top three priorities for the City Council in 2021?

Karina Quintanilla Site coordinator for Think Together My priorities are districting, growing higher education and public health.

Regarding districting, the importance of representation, and the equitable distribution of our votes across Palm Desert—that’s a conversation that’s been had many times now, I believe. A lot of the residents I met with while I was gathering petitions (to run for the City Council) had questions about the settlement and how we got to the two districts. Now, they understand that Lorraine (Salas, the second litigant in the case) and I settled because we knew there were going to be challenges with CVIndependent.com

implementing the process, so we wanted (to create) a first opportunity for everybody to come, get the microscope out and look at the process and scrutinize to see how we could do it better the next time. We wanted everybody to have more of an even say.

Today, as we move forward on this pandemic, we need to be sure that we have equal representation. We keep saying that we’re all in this together. Yes, we’re in this together—but we are not in the same boat.

My boat looks very different from somebody else’s, and we need all these communities with all of our little concerns to have an equal voice in what happens with the resources moving forward, and how we identify the priorities as a city.

Now, talking about growing higher education opportunities in Palm Desert: I worked at Cal State San Bernardino, and I remember hearing that the nursing program got off the ground years ahead of schedule because the community said they work looking ahead and could see that a nursing shortage was going to get critical. So they made sure that funds were available through philanthropists and commitments from the cities who felt they had to make that happen.

So, the health sciences building wasn’t even complete—and there was already a cohort of nursing students. I had the privilege of working with those students who are now in the field themselves, saving lives. Some of them are doctors of nursing, as is my

sister. She has worked in a couple of medical facilities here in the desert.

With higher education comes the ability to diversify our economy. Right now, we have so much tied up in hospitality and tourism, and everyone is taking losses. So, growing our higher education capabilities will mean that we have different fields available. Right now, some of the highest-paying jobs available in the region are in cannabis—but we don’t have the biologists, the chemists and others that are needed (by this new valley industry) growing in our own backyard. Instead, they often come from out of the area. They get their master’s degrees and acquire good jobs with good salaries, when we could grow this talent at home. We are letting our brightest students leave to pursue their higher education, while we have to pay high wages to attract people who have lived in other urban areas who relocate for jobs that we can’t fill here.

We know that Cal State right now has said that they are not ready to approve any (new four-year) programs—but when they say they’re ready, we have to put ourselves in the position of having addressed housing inequality. Right now, students can’t afford to live in Palm Desert, and we can’t give them the kind of housing that makes it easy for them to work a part-time job and focus on being a student. We can’t stick our heads in the sand. If we’re going to grow our university, we’re going to need faculty for it, and they will come with families, in many cases, and we’ll need places for them to live close by. So we need to be forward-thinking in how we allocate our physical resources and where we allot land, because we need housing to be accessible to Cal State. Also, I think that supporting the city’s infrastructure, to be sure we have more accessible public transportation, is very important.

Public health is another of those major priorities. Having experienced (COVID-19 infections) within my own family, I wonder how my neighbors are coping. People get fooled (into complacency) by the wealth of their zip code, but I believe that there are a lot of people struggling to get by everywhere.

We have to be aware that our neighbors may be struggling, and not everybody knows how to get help. This may be the first time that somebody is experiencing this kind of financial distress. Maybe they made it OK

through the last recession. You know, maybe they had two incomes before, and the spouse passed away, so this is their first time trying to make it on a single income. We have to be genuinely more compassionate, and I think that Palm Desert just needs to do more for her residents.

I’m very happy to see that some businesses are open around town, and have signage saying that masks are required and (they) have the right to refuse service. But there needs to be signage citywide. It is of great concern to me that we have access from Highway 74, from Interstate 10 and from Highway 111, and we don’t see anything that welcomes our visitors and says, “Please be careful, and wear a mask.” It doesn’t have to be a political issue. It doesn’t have to be a freedom issue, as people are making it (out to be). It’s a public-health issue. It’s a compassion issue. It’s a “love thy neighbor” issue. People who come from out of town may not know what our policies are. They may be here for business for the first time, so they don’t know what Riverside County’s policies are, let alone from one city to the other.

I grew up in Thousand Palms, and they have signs. That was wonderful for me to see.

When you get off on Monterey (Avenue), and you head north, Thousand Palms has a sign that encourages people to wear a mask and to be distant. That helps protect a beautiful little community with a lot of essential workers, where I still have family. Palm Desert can clearly afford to put up these signs. But we don’t have that clear signage, and we’re one of the cities that’s been hit the hardest by COVID-19.

When I think of what will happen with the viral load that we have in the community if we open too soon, it concerns me very deeply.

Eventually, we have to reopen completely, and that’s not a matter of if, but just when. What’s within all of our control is how we move forward as a unified community so that we can do this with fewer mortalities. We have to think of all of the kids, all of the teachers and all of the first responders. You know, if we really are going to glorify their profession, then let’s respect that they are on the front line and they are at the most risk. We’re not giving them the respect they deserve in any way, shape or form by replacing (the word) “essential” with “disposable” workers.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 17

OCTOBER 2020

of it stronger, and I would name those two fronts as the most important fronts.

Keeping El Paseo pleasurable has to be on the list, because it’s such a key part of driving the financial resources for the city and for our quality of life. Whether people choose to spend money on El Paseo or not, many people just enjoy walking there. So facilitating outdoor dining is a key priority.

I’m a consistent advocate for more housing choices. One of the great attributes of Palm Desert is that we are a diverse community, and many demographic categories including economic wherewithal are at play, so I do want to see more housing available at all price points.

Kathleen Kelly Incumbent

Susan Marie Weber Palm Desert City Council incumbent; sole proprietor of an accounting business I kind of look at things objectively. I’m an accountant, so I look at things (to see) are they in balance—debits and credits, and so forth. That’s always allowed me to look at things objectively to try to determine what’s best. I think that’s one of the things I bring to the council, while maybe other people on other councils might not have that capability.

And I don’t take things personally.

So my top three priorities, and mostly what we’re working on right now, is pretty consistent with what’s going on in the city— and that is how we can work on housing.

Housing seems to be an issue right now. So what can the city do to help facilitate more housing? Now, the state has stepped in and given us some directives. We call them “unfunded mandates,” because they tell us, “Here is what you will do as a city, but good luck on trying to figure out where the money

comes from.” So, one of our issues is how to create what we all call “affordable housing,” so that people who are just working in our city can actually choose to live here and not have to drive back and forth. That’s probably one of my main objectives right now.

The other one (deals with the fact that) our city has an extraordinary amount of what we call committees and commissions. These are opportunities to participate in the city, and my goal is to get more people involved in that. So when I meet somebody, and they say they really like our city, I immediately (suggest) that they go to our website, click on the committees and commissions, and find out what makes you happy and participate in that. For example, you may have noticed the project going on around San Pablo Avenue.

We have an Art in Public Places Commission that is very much involved in selecting the art that’s going to go there. Also, they select the art that goes all along El Paseo, for which our city has become rather famous. So, everybody has a passion, and serving on one of our committees or commissions is a way that they can have their passion and get involved in the city. I like people to be involved. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and saying that you don’t like what’s being done, come on over, and let’s get you to work and find out what you can do to contribute to make it better.

So, those are two things that I think are most important right now. We had 100 residents show up for Envision Palm Desert (a strategic-planning effort). Our city is comprised of community involvement, and that’s what I think makes our city as great as it is. Everybody asks me, and I do think that our city is the best in the valley. I’m not kidding. It’s the best financially run. It’s the best (in terms of) commitment from our community. It’s just the best all around.

Some of that has been dictated for us. We positively, absolutely have to manage the COVID-19 pandemic well. That means, to my way of thinking, recognizing first and foremost that the community’s health interests and the business community’s financial interests are totally in sync.

Commerce cannot thrive unless people feel safe using commerce. That really requires a broad-based community embrace of the recommended safeguards, such as facial coverings and social distancing. So, if I am re-elected, my top priority will be to try to offer unifying leadership around that issue, and to continue to be engaged with our excellent finance team at the city to shepherd our reserves well, to get us through this.

Thankfully, prior councils have left our city on a solid financial footing, so that we are able to weather this without diminishing services— but the same kind of exacting care that they took has to be continued.

Moving past that, even though we are in a crisis, it’s critical to identify some issues where strategic investment has to be made for the future. I would put two (items) at the top of that list. The first is working to improve broadband width, not just for Palm Desert, but for the whole Coachella Valley. This pandemic has exposed our dependence on the internet, so that’s a topic for which we need regional effort. We also need regional effort around diversifying our economy, so that we’re not just hospitality-dependent. Again, this crisis has exposed the problems of being so dependent on the hospitality industry.

That’s why I and others on the current council worked very hard to bring about the iHub, the innovation hub across from the CSU (Cal State University-San Bernardino satellite) campus to spark cyber-security startups. That could also be a source of other career options for CSU students. So we don’t just want to survive the pandemic; we want to come out

Steven Moyer Lawyer I think everyone is, or should be, concerned about two issues, which I really see as one, and that is public health and the economy.

I think everyone wants to see the small businesses in Palm Desert re-open, but they’re not going to be able to do that if our residents and the people who work in those businesses aren’t healthy. As far as the publichealth aspect of it, I’d like to see the city doing more. I respect everybody’s individual right not to wear a mask or to distance, but I’m suggesting to everyone that when they go out, they wear a mask and they distance, because that’s going to allow our small businesses to re-open. I would like to see the city do more about encouraging people to do that. I don’t think we’ve seen enough of that.

Secondly, we have the issue of the economy.

In that regard, in order for the City Council to help, there are a number of things it can continued on Page 19

CVIndependent.com

18 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

THREAD LIFTS HAVE BECOME VIABLE OPTIONS TO DERMAL FILLERS

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

O

ne of the results of the pandemic is people are paying more a�en�on to wellness—and “wellness” includes: “How good do I look?”

My prac�ces are experiencing a wave of pa�ents coming in for fillers as the pandemic restric�ons lessen. But as with fantas�c hair color, great filler and neuromodulator (like Botox), results take �me and mul�ple treatments to accomplish.

Secret No. 1: Let’s get the bad news out of the way: A�er age 35, everyone loses about a teaspoon of volume per year.

Secret No. 2: The good news is we can replace that volume loss with about five syringes (equals one teaspoon) of filler every year and keep you looking great. I prefer to do fillers, plus Botox or Jeuveau, in 2-3 sessions over 1-2 months. A�er that, I’ll want to see you every 6-12 months for filler, and every 3-4 months for Botox.

Super Secret No. 3: Thread li�s have significantly improved to the point where I can accomplish the equivalent of 5-8 syringes in one session.

The addi�onal details about thread li�s are as good as the Super Secret. I can provide instant results in an hour or two (depending on the amount of restora�on needed) at about the same cost as fillers.

Threads significantly increases collagen and elas�n, and they can last 18-24 months. There’s li�le chance of bruising, or no down�me with thread li�s. That’s why threads are my go-to solu�on when a pa�ent has lost weight (which we know will happen as we become less home-bound).

The two photos here are of one of my pa�ents who wanted you to see her results. The a�er (bo�om) picture was 5 minutes a�er we completed her treatment. The photos might be difficult to evaluate in print, but you can see them close-up and “personal” on our website: www.revivecenter.com.

Call any of our offices for your free consulta�on if you want to know if thread li�s would be right for you. Our Palm Springs number is 760-325-4800.

Un�l next month, 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 info@revivecenter.com.

CVIndependent.com

OCTOBER 2020

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19

OCTOBER 2020

continued from Page 17 do. One is to make the permitting of new businesses easier. I think we can continue the San Pablo makeover, although it may be necessary to revisit some of the segments of that project during this time of a recession. I think we should be giving El Paseo a facelift to help the small businesses there. By closing off a couple of blocks and making it into a walking mall, we could have outdoor dining and sales, which would require changing some of our ordinances on a temporary basis, at least. We could install some nice public restrooms for our Southern California visitors, not just our local visitors. Coming from Los Angeles or Orange County or San Diego, people are driving for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, and they usually like to visit a restroom after that kind of a drive. With the restaurants and other businesses that have restrooms being closed, there’s no place for them to go. Also, we need to make sure that we have adequate parking. But if closing off a number of blocks is not a direction that the City Council wants to go in, another approach might be something that I saw recently in Culver City. They closed lanes of traffic, and on the interior street side of the lanes closest to the sidewalks, they installed white plastic barriers and moved outside dining into that area. They put up some nice potted plants and umbrellas, and there were a lot of people sitting outside eating, and they were distanced. That’s something that could be done next week. For those restaurants or shops who have space behind their buildings in parking lots, (the City Council) could make accommodations for them as well.

For No. 2, I think we should extend the ban on short-term rentals into residential areas that currently aren’t covered. I’ve been contacted by a number of people living in Palm Desert who are dissatisfied by the fact that they were left out.

Third would be focusing on making the Cal State University-San Bernardino satellite (campus) into a four-year university so that we can have an educated workforce and provide more jobs. Any city of our size that can have a four-year university is going to provide themselves with a good economic boost.

Gina Nestande Mayor of Palm Desert; real estate agent My No. 1 top priority is to continue to make sure that we’re doing everything possible as a city to keep our citizens safe in terms of COVID, and to help and support businesses by making sure that they have the supplies that they need. It would be wonderful if we get a vaccine or better medications to fight the COVID, but since right now we really don’t, that would be a top priority.

Following that, for the economic health of our Palm Desert businesses—especially the restaurants that have had to go through a second shutdown, and the hair and nail salons—I want to continue to spur economic development and make resources available for when they can re-open, which we hope is sooner rather than later.

We have some economic programs in place right now. We have an emergency loan program where we’re disbursing $1 million to our Palm Desert businesses. Also, we haven’t voted on it yet, but it’s a priority of mine to give $900,000 to our hotels like the J.W. Marriott (Desert Springs Resort and Spa). When people come to the desert, they typically stay for a couple of nights, say Friday and Saturday, and then they go back on Sunday. What we’re going to do is subsidize (a promotional offer) where if somebody comes for two nights, then they can get a third night free, paid for by the city, although they still

will have to pay the (transient occupancy tax) on that free night. I serve on the marketing committee (for the city), and research shows that if people stay a third night, they are more likely to perhaps stay for the whole week. So what we want to do is be able to drive customers to our restaurants, to our nail salons and to all of our businesses. So we’re trying to do what we can to support businesses in Palm Desert.

My third priority is the California State University-San Bernardino satellite campus. I want to help nurture and support expanding the degree programs offered there. Just recently, they had a graduation of 400 students. That’s amazing, and we’re very proud of that. We’re adding a cyber-security program, for example, and we’re expanding hospitality (programs). We want to grow technology programs out of this university, and our city has donated money to help with this expansion. So that’s my third priority, and it’s one that is looking to build the future of Palm Desert. One day, we hope it will become a stand-alone campus and it will just be Cal State-Palm Desert. But we’ve got to grow the student body, and we’ve to grow the degree programs in order to make that happen.

the short term rental rule, and maybe even look at—and this is a can of worms, and I don’t really want to go there—but maybe look at some of the loopholes that were created in the current ordinance, because it did not cover the planned residential communities. In other words, it restricted short-term rentals in R1 and R2, but planned residentials were left out of it, almost like HOAs, even though many of these planned residentials don’t have CCRs that prohibit short-term rentals. I’ve talked to several residents, and it’s becoming a bit of an issue.

The current regulations need to be protected, and maybe enhanced. We’ll see. But the feedback that I’m getting is that there are some pretty unhappy residents in those PRs. Second, I want to make sure we maintain our economic strength and foundation.

We’re going to lose quite a bit of (transient occupancy tax) revenue, and we need to be judicious about keeping a balanced budget.

This year turned out pretty well, but we’re going to have to be pretty disciplined on the budget so we don’t run into trouble.

And we need to think about diversifying the economy away from tourism so much, and try to cultivate more local businesses that don’t necessarily have to do with tourism.

Third, I would say, is to make sure we keep the pressure on advocating for the four-year university, meaning that Priority One foundation that’s been set up and that the city’s giving $150,000 to. My point is that even if the state of California, which is looking at a budget deficit, put the building of another four-year university on the back burner, I think we should keep the pressure on our lobbying efforts in Sacramento to make sure we stay on their radar.

I just want to make sure to get this in: We can’t forget supporting the College of the Desert. Let’s keep the four-year university as an emphasis, but not at the expense of supporting College of the Desert.

Evan Trubee Owner of Big Wheel Tours Not necessarily in order, I would say the top three issues are making sure we preserve

FINAL ROUND VOTING SEPT. 28OCT. 26 AT CVINDEPENDENT.COM CVIndependent.com

20 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER 2020

ARTS & CULTURE

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE

A VIRTUAL LAUGH RIOT A

By stuart cohn

nyone need a good laugh? A chuckle? A giggle?

If you answered “no,” we want whatever mind-altering substances you’ve been taking. But if you’re like the rest of us, subsisting on a daily diet of COVID-19-induced gloom, you’ll be relieved to know that the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival is on its way, albeit virtually, from Oct. 11-18.

The Palm Springs International Comedy Festival will feature competitions in the categories of stand-up, improvisation, sketch, feature film, short film, TV pilot, web series, animation and music. Winners will receive awards and cash prizes. The festival will also bestow honorary awards all-online version when it became clear that on the legendary Judy Tenuta (PSICF Lifetime there really was no other choice.

Achievement Award), comedian/actress Luenell “It was a strange decision,” said Cruz. “First (PSICF Breakthrough Award) and comic/host/ of all, we didn’t know what we were going to do. actor Selene Luna (Diversity in Comedy Award).

I had a feeling this was coming, because I have During the inaugural event last year, the friends who work in the medical field and knew festival drew participants from all over the in February this was going to be a problem. We world to Hotel Zozo. Prizes were awarded to didn’t see any way to do it in Palm Springs in Kathy Griffin and Illeana Douglas, as well as the summer, so we originally postponed the the motion picture Book Club, and more than live event until September … and then that 100 comedians participated in the standup started getting closer. By July, so many people competition. But with the world shutting down, had already submitted films to us. Short of festival director Paul Cruz—after delaying the refunding their submission money, we knew we festival several times—pivoted this year to an

CVIndependent.com

The Palm Springs International Comedy Festival returns— virtually, of course—in October

had to try to figure out something else.”

Once Cruz decided the festival was going to go virtual, he knew he wanted it to look great.

“As a producer, I’m a little picky about how I want things to look,” he said. “There’s only so much you can control about other people’s production values, but we are going to advise people, especially the standup performers, to look their best, make sure their lighting is good, tell them not to have a mess behind them, hang a curtain, use a virtual background, and check their internet speed.”

Those tips are going to come in handy— because the virtual nature of this year’s festival exponentially increases the opportunity for participants to be seen.

“It’s going to be much easier for major casting professionals to just log on to the festival rather than enduring the weekend traffic from L.A. to Palm Springs,” said Cruz. “We have tons of celebrity judges and comedy club bookers and network casting people participating in the festival this year. That’s going to be great visibility for our artists.”

Cruz said the standup competition will be live via Zoom, while films and industry Q&A panels will be stream online. The schedule had not yet been posted as of our press deadline, but Cruz encouraged interested audience members to go to www.PSICF.org to sign up for the newsletter to receive announcements.

“If you sign up for our newsletter, you can possibly win a VIP pass,” said Cruz. “Plus, you can learn about some tickets that will be sold at early bird prices.” Ticket-buyers will receive a link to access the live or streaming content.

For much of his career, Cruz worked in casting, working on such films as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, For the Boys, The Addams Family and City Slickers, as well as TV shows including L.A. Law, Thirtysomething, Models, Inc. and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. More recently, Cruz produced the critically acclaimed indie film Archaeology of a Woman, starring Academy Award-nominee Sally Kirkland and Tony Awardwinner Victoria Clark. He recently produced three soon-to-be-released stand-up comedy specials, starring Tony Tripoli of E!’s Fashion Police; comedian Renaldo Evans, the winner of the inaugural Palm Springs International Comedy Festival; and this year’s Diversity in Comedy Award honoree Selene Luna, directed

by Margaret Cho..

As an actor, Cruz appeared in The Soloist with Jamie Foxx, as well as the HBO series Arli$$, and had a recurring role in the NBC primetime series Spy TV, among a host of other theater,

The legendary Judy Tenuta will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s virtual Palm Springs International Comedy Festival.

commercial and music-video credits. He splits his time between Palm Springs and Los Angeles.

Ironically, Cruz said he would be terrified to do standup comedy, but has always gravitated toward comedy roles.

“I’ve always loved comedy, because it’s gotten me through the tough times in my life,” Cruz said. “Humor has always been a healing thing for me.”

Cruz’s favorite credit was decidedly unfunny: He said he is most proud of the work he did on Voices From the List, a 2004 documentary film produced for the 10th anniversary of the release of Schindler’s List. Cruz was a researcher on the film and got to work with executive producers Steven Spielberg and James Moll, who was one of the first people to encourage Cruz to produce his own projects.

“It was devastating to work on that project, so intense to hear first-person stories from the Holocaust,” Cruz said. “It was extremely emotional but incredibly powerful.”

However, comedy is what’s on his mind now.

Cruz is hoping that his first post-pandemic project will be to bring his comedy club back to Palm Springs.

“There should be a more-thriving comedy scene in Palm Springs,” said Cruz. “We were doing comedy supper-club shows at Hotel Zoso.

Once this whole COVID nightmare is over, I want to make that a successful ongoing thing for the community.”

The Palm Springs International Comedy Festival will take place virtually from Sunday, Oct. 11, through Sunday, Oct. 18. Tickets, which will go on sale around Oct. 1, will range from $10 for an allday pass to $40 for a VIP all-access pass. For more information and updates, visit www.PSIFC.org.

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OCTOBER 2020

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OCTOBER 2020

MOVIES & TV

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MOVIES

NOW SHOWING AT HOME C

By Bob Grimm

harlie Kaufman (writer of Being John Malkovich) directs and writes the adapted screenplay for I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a nice puzzler of a movie that will have you debating its plotline with friends for days.

Young Woman (the amazing Jessie Buckley) is going on a strange date with her strange boyfriend, Jake (the equally amazing Jesse Plemons). They take a road trip in a snowstorm to meet Jake’s parents, even though Young Woman—as the title of the film suggests—is apparently thinking of ending things with Jake.

They have bizarre conversations during which their moods change in a snap, and their visit with the parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis, relishing the chance to play in Kaufman-land) is even weirder—but their stop at an ice cream shop in the middle of a There’s a never-ending joy to Sudeikis blizzard is off-the-charts nuts. It all comes to a and his Ted, and it’s never one-note. Ted, conclusion that absolutely requires you watch in England and out of his element, is going the film again, with that second viewing being through marital problems back home, and is a completely different experience. terrified of many things under the surface.

This is one of those movies, like Barton His performance is multi-dimensional, as Fink and Mulholland Dr., that doesn’t make is Waddingham’s—as is most any actor’s much sense while it is happening, but it comes together with post-movie thought. It’s also one performance on this show.

Brett Goldstein is the grumpy player with of the year’s best, with the four stars all worthy a heart; Phil Dunster plays the team prima of year-end awards. donna; Juno Temple comes out of nowhere I’m Thinking of Ending Things is now as the prima donna’s not-to-be-messed-with streaming on Netflix. girlfriend. Each character is written with the kind of nuance that brings surprise after surprise; there’s nothing hackneyed here.

I’ve seen the entire first season, and it’s an across-the-boards winner, the sort of vehicle the underrated Sudeikis rightly deserves. Good news: Apple TV+ has already renewed the show for a second season, so this won’t be the last we see of Ted. Ted Lasso is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

W

hile the trailer for Ted Lasso makes it look like a lame coach comedy à la The Mighty Ducks or Kicking and Screaming, this new Apple TV+ series is so much more.

That’s mainly because it has Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis at its center as the title character. He’s an American college football coach hired by Rebecca (the amazing Hannah Waddingham), a scheming English soccer-team owner, to coach a game he knows nothing about. Her plan is to sabotage the team, beloved by her ex-husband, by putting it into the hands of a doofus. Ted proves to be anything but.

CVIndependent.com

‘Ending Things’ and ‘Lovecraft Country’ are crazy good; ‘Ted Lasso’ is just good

I

t’s been nearly 30 years since Bill and Ted of San Dimas, Calif., went to hell, played Twister with Death, and supposedly saved the world with a sorta-crappy song that was actually performed by Kiss.

Now, after many failed attempts, we’ve finally gotten Bill and Ted Face the Music, in which the middle-aged dudes are grappling with parenthood, marital troubles and a killer robot.

Was it worth the wait? Yeah, sure.

If that doesn’t seem like a resounding endorsement, that’s because it isn’t. This film sometimes feels flat, with Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) at the helm, and the writers of the first two films returning for a third go. Alex Winter

In the end, Face the Music is the weakest Bill and Ted film to date, but it’s still a worthy chapter, and I’m happy it exists.

Bill and Ted Face the Music is available on demand and via online sources including iTunes and Amazon.com.

I is back as Bill, and he basically steals the film from Keanu Reeves as Ted, who doesn’t seem to be feeling the joy this time out.

I thought they’d saved the world with “God Gave Rock and Roll to You,” but apparently that’s not the case. The film begins with Bill and Ted performing at a wedding; their career is a mess after Death (William Sadler) quit Wyld Stallyns, and their many albums failed to chart.

Enter Kelly (Kristen Schaal), the daughter of Rufus (played previously by the late George Carlin), who shows up in a time-traveling pod. Reality as we know it is collapsing upon itself, and if Bill and Ted don’t come up with a universe-saving song, everything is going to go away. Bill and Ted, shortly after leaving marriage counseling, get back in the timetraveling phone booth and visit themselves in the future in an attempt to steal what could be the already-written universe-saving song.

This leads to some relatively funny stuff, with future Bill and Ted being their own worst enemies. (They are both assholes, and Ted drinks too much.) The best sequence involves the two future dudes all jacked and tattooed in prison. In an attempt to help their dads, daughters Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving) travel through time as well, assembling a band consisting of Louis Armstrong, Mozart and Hendrix.

Death shows up in the second half—and that’s when the film really kicks into gear, because Sadler hasn’t lost a step. Anthony Carrigan, so great in HBO’s Barry, chips in as Dennis Caleb McCoy, the killer robot. This character seems to be going nowhere at first— but then Carrigan puts a weird spin on Dennis and makes him memorable.

Parisot seems a little lost at times with his direction. Thankfully, Winter is totally on point as Bill, while Reeves is mostly OK, although he sometimes loses that affable, happy Ted charm and is a bit of a bummer.

“Future Ted,” who is a complete jerk, features Reeves at the top of his game.

’m two episodes into HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and I’m not entirely sure what’s going on yet with this nutty show—but I sure do like it.

From the creative minds of Misha Green and Jordan Peele comes this twisty, screwy and scary series that mixes 1950s racism in America with H.P. Lovecraft-style horror.

Atticus (Jonathan Majors), a Black veteran returning from war, goes on a search for his missing father with his uncle (Courtney B. Vance) and childhood friend (Jurnee Smollett, my new favorite actress).

Their search leads them to Lovecraft Country, a Southern region rife with racism (as was H.P. Lovecraft himself), and, as you find out at the end of Episode 1, crazy beasts right out of a Lovecraft story. It’s an insane mix; one moment, people are dancing to the blues in a crowded Southern street. In the next, they are fighting crazed vampire-like monsters in a secluded cabin.

Again, I’m only two episodes in, so this could all go downhill from here, but I don’t think it will. The show has that “message with the madness” vibe that Peele provided with Get Out. It also looks terrific, from its period settings to its excellent monster effects.

The show is very well-acted, with Majors, Smollett and Vance providing excellent leads, along with some other stars I won’t reveal here.

This show is airing on both HBO and its new streaming service, HBO Max, which is proving to be a sweet venture. I’ll take this moment to also endorse the HBO Max-exclusive film An American Pickle, starring two Seth Rogens.

HBO Max is proving to be worth the money.

Lovecraft Country is currently airing Sundays on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 23

OCTOBER 2020

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OCTOBER 2020

FOOD & DRINK

END OF AN ERA F

BY andrew smith

or more than a half-century, Lord Fletcher’s has stood as a landmark on Highway 111—so it was with great sadness that we learned in August that the restaurant would not reopen. It was especially sad for me—because I worked there, and I had grown rather fond of the place.

Lord Fletcher’s had always closed for summer, but COVID-19 meant the closure happened extra-early this year, in March. The scheduled reopening in September seemed more and more unlikely the closer it got, but the expectation was still when rather than if.

Michael Fletcher, the owner, reached out to the staff a few days before the story hit the news.

Around the restaurant, we’d heard quiet rumors that the family was open to offers. That made sense; Michael is in his 60s, and there was no memorabilia that includes a grandfather clock, apparent succession in place. He did mention swords, lances, tapestries and centuries-old a couple of factors privately, but I’ll just say etchings. The expansive collections of Toby that although the family could have weathered jugs and horse brass leave barely an inch of the financial effects of the pandemic, COVIDwall space uncovered. It’s a literal museum 19 accelerated a decision which was likely that brings a new discovery to even the mostimminent. frequent visitors.

Opened by Michael’s father, Ron Fletcher, Ironically, the portrait of Frank Sinatra, in 1966, the restaurant established itself framed and mounted behind his favorite table, as an intrinsic piece of local history. It was always attracted the most attention. Michael inspired by the countryside inns of his English Fletcher has hundreds of stories to tell, but the homeland. At the time of its opening, it was most notable is about the night that Sinatra a bold project, isolated and far from Palm and Alan Shepard jumped behind the bar to Springs. However, it thrived, quickly attracting perform a duet of “Fly Me to the Moon.” You a wealthy and star-studded clientele. get a sense of how deep the relationship ran The iconic exterior might seem a little when you learn that Ron and Michael were dated, like a good, old English pub—and gifted front-row seats to a Sinatra show in therein lies the charm. Inside, with its London. Sinatra arrived onstage, halted the central fireplace, exposed brickwork, carpets applause and then took a knee, telling the and thick wooden tables, Lord Fletcher’s Fletchers that on this night, they were his portrays warmth, comfort and authenticity. guests. Frank was a regular for more than 30 It is supplemented by a treasure trove of years. Barbara Sinatra continued to return for

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Remembering the legendary Lord Fletcher’s—a favorite of Frank Sinatra, and a classic prime rib destination many years with friends to reminisce.

Lord Fletcher’s golden era boasts an extensive list of celebrities. Lucille Ball had her own table, and other regulars included Bob Hope, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Walter Annenberg, George Hamilton, Steve McQueen and Gerald Ford. More recently, Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode at the restaurant, accompanied by Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age. We got the occasional celebrity in the restaurant during my time, but the golden era had faded to nostalgia.

While several remaining customers had been regulars since the opening, much of the clientele had passed away. There was revitalization and new life thanks to the modernism movement; as younger tourists flocked to the desert to witness its midcentury architecture, they also sought out the Sinatra experience. Therefore, the restaurant always remained profitable, but it wasn’t at the bustling levels of its heyday.

Just like the décor, the menu changed very little over the years. The salad, which was tossed tableside, got one small tweak about 40 years ago: The regular bacon bits were replaced by soy bacon bits. It was always amusing to hear newcomers convinced by their senior hosts when trying to modify the salad: “You take the salad the way it comes! It’s delicious!”

There was Sinatra’s favorite, the delectable braised beef short ribs, as well as harder-to-

find items like the chicken and dumplings, cooked in and served from the pot.

The main attraction, even more than Sinatra, was the prime rib. It was widely acknowledged as the best in the valley. I remember one party of late-night diners showing up unannounced. They’d told their cab driver they were going out for prime rib; the cab driver insisted on making a detour and brought them to Lord Fletcher’s. On another occasion, I waited on a couple in their 20s.

They stood out, as it was rare that I had to ID someone for a drink. During our conversation, they informed me that they were prime rib afficionados. They made all their travel arrangements around prime rib restaurants, and they were in the Coachella Valley for the sole purpose of visiting Lord Fletcher’s.

They left with the highest praise, putting Lord Fletcher’s ahead of renowned spots like Lawry’s and House of Prime Rib. The bartender, “Sir” Andrew, had worked at Lord Fletcher’s for 17 years. He was only the third bartender in 54 years. He was noted for his skills and his ability to remember everyone’s regular libations. Such was the generosity of his pours that you never ordered a double, and rarely ordered a second. The signature Royal Brandy Ice had been the creation of the first bartender—a mixture of brandy, creme de cacao and praline ice cream. Sinatra had the recipe pinned on his fridge. If he couldn’t make it to the restaurant, his driver would swing by to pick up a tub of the ice cream.

Andy’s longevity behind the bar was exceeded by Chef Terry, who had worked in the kitchen since 1977. I also had the pleasure of working with an English waitress, Sam, who’d been at Lord Fletcher’s since 1972. Although officially retired, Sam still came in to help during the busiest shifts. Sam sadly passed away in 2019, making Sonny the longestserving waitress. Sam trained Sonny when she first started in 1983.

While we employees could share his generosity and hospitality, Michael’s stories and memories were the real soul of the restaurant. That’s something that could never be replaced.

Modernization is inevitable. We’ve seen it with the passing of ownership at places like Mr. Lyon’s. At Lord Fletcher’s, the building has its own quirks and limitations that will necessitate a little renovation. Regardless, I hope that it sees a swift resumption of affairs, with a respect for its history and endearing charm. I’m sure that the rest of the Coachella Valley wishes the same.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 25

OCTOBER 2020

FOOD & DRINK

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

VINE SOCIAL JASON DAVID

Fall has arrived in the desert—so that means it’s the perfect time to enjoy delightful, robust reds

HAIR STUDIO

I

By KatieLOVE finn YOUR

HAIR

t’s fall in the desert. Businesses are gearing up for season. Restaurants are training their staff and hiring new faces. Golf courses are being reseeded to unveil new, lush green fairways. Retail shops are stocking up in anticipation of the snowbirds’ arrivals. The airport will soon be packed full of people escaping the northern winter doldrums in exchange for Palm Springs’ idyllic temperatures.

Country Club and Cook Street Or not. Maybe that was then. Maybe those standard-operating procedures no longer apply.

Palm De sert Maybe the freefall into the unknown continues.

In any case, life goes on. In my house, we’re of homemade chili, braised short ribs and 760-340-5959 talking about Halloween and what that will pot roasts, paired with full-bodied cabernets, look like this year. I asked my husband, “Does velvety syrahs and rich red blends. If you, like www.jasondavidhairstudio.net it really look any different than the last seven me, are ready to ditch the light, bright whites months?” But actually, real life is downright in favor of brooding and intense reds, here are terrifying, and everyone is already wearing a few wines I suggest drinking to snap you out a mask, so as far as I am concerned, 2020 of your own summer/COVID doldrums. has been one long and super-icky version of At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Halloween from which I can’t seem to wake up. Elisabetta Foradori can really do no wrong, Fall was always my favorite time of the year in my book. In the summer, I drink her skinin the desert. There was always a collective contact pinot grigio called Fuoripista like water. sigh of relief when the temperatures finally Her nosiola, a gloriously concentrated white dropped: We had survived another summer, wine bursting with citrus, raw almonds and and the blissfully perfect days among our fresh cream, is magic with fresh springtime scenic backdrop would soon be in that fare. And in the fall? Well, that’s when we break spectacular technicolor filter. You wake up out the teroldego. This is an indigenous grape one day, and the sky is so bright blue, and the in the Dolomites, where she calls home. The mountains are so chiseled, and the grass is so grape had been badly abused and mistreated, green, and the fronds of palm trees sparkle in but Elisabetta knew better. She knew how to the sunshine. It doesn’t look real. Thankfully, resurrect this grape from relative obscurity and we still have all that. a general unpleasantness to create a wine that Oh, and we also have comfort food and is so delicious and layered and drinkable that heavy, dark, robust wines to look forward to. you’ll ask yourself: Where this beauty has been That’s where I’ve set my sights—on bowls all your life? Think Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. All it takes is someone who sees potential and has the know-how. You get the picture.

Teroldego is a grape that offers up intense dark and rich black fruits with a suede-like texture on your palate. It’s both invigorating and comforting at the same time.

While we’re talking about northern Italian wines that are ideal for fall, I need to introduce you to lagrein. Yes, it’s obscure. Yes, it can be a little pricey. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

It’s a wine from the far northern portion of Italy, called the Alto Adige, that is intensely concentrated, feels like velvet on your tongue, and tastes like dark-chocolate-covered cherries.

Think you might like it? Duh. There are a handful of producers making insanely delicious lagrein—but finding it is the challenge. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad; no one else has, either. Some producers worth seeking out are the famous monks of Abbazia di Novacella. This Augustinian order makes some of the best Italian wine on the market.

Their lagrein is deeply colored and beautifully perfumed on the nose, with hints of pepper

and just-baked blueberry pie.

I also fell in love with the lagrein of St. Michael-Eppan. Coming from the foothills of the Alto Adige, this weighty red coats your palate with an intoxicating mix of savory herbs, wild boysenberries, licorice and that tell-tale chocolate finish. I decided there was definitely not enough wine at the end of the bottle.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my ideal smoky, gamey, meaty, cooler-weather wine: pinotage. That underrated grape from South Africa, which—as I mentioned last month—has a reputation for being an utterly awful wine, is one of my fall favorites. Trust me when I tell you that if you have a negative opinion of this wine, it’s because you just haven’t had the right one. In the course of the last month, I’ve tasted several producers of this red-headed stepchild of a wine, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised at its reinvention— and the fact that we are now starting to see the great incarnations of these wines reach our shores. Painted Wolf winery creates a

pinotage called “The Den” from the Western Cape region, and it strikes the perfect balance between weight and depth, while being bright and juicy. However, the Lievland pinotage from Stellenbosch is unquestionably the best example of this grape I’ve ever tasted. Pinotage is a cross between pinot noir and a grape the South Africans call hermitage—we know it as cinsault—and the Lievland manages to put the flavor profiles of both these components in the spotlight. It’s elegant and silky with bright red fruits like a pinot noir, while also being spicy, floral and smoky, which is classic cinsault.

So maybe we’re still at home. Maybe we’re on the couch, in our jammies, still eating takeout. Maybe there won’t be any snowbirds this year. Who knows? But the good news is: There is still wine.

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

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26 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER 2020

FOOD & DRINK

ON COCKTAILS M

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A report on my quest to learn about ‘midcentury-modern’ drinks and concoctions

BY kevin carlow

idcentury-modern cocktails. “Palm Springs golden era” cocktails.

Is there such a category? I get asked this all the time.

Tiki first comes to mind. It began as a mix of escapism and cultural appropriation— that’s not a dig, as I grew up eating at “Polynesian lounges” and love Tiki—but it became a subculture in its own right. But what were Americans drinking when they weren’t at Trader Vic’s or Don the Beachcomber?

Margaritas were all the rage, of course, while Ol’ Blue Eyes favored his Jack Daniels; martinis were awfully dry by that point; and the old fashioned was fruit salad. But there must have been some other interesting stuff out there, right? super-popular Brown Derby? Nothing says It seems that nobody has really done the Old Hollywood drinking like “Brown Derby,” heavy lifting on this era, so as a bar manager because the drink was named after the movieand cocktail writer, I am mostly on my own— star hangout. Word around the campfire, by and the best research I can do begins with way of Robert Moss, is the drink was cribbed my own memories. The bartenders I “trained from earlier books and renamed. Such is the with,” like there was training back then, were peril of cocktail trademarking. Wherever and all older guys, so it makes sense that the whenever it was invented, it’s quite likely that drinks they made were likely popular in the the Palm Springs set was knocking them back ’50s and ’60s. in the mid-20th century. Heck, Dale DeGroff How about a sloe gin fizz? The closest I re-popularized it after seeing it in a book could get to finding any “history’ on this one called Hollywood Cocktails from the 1930s. was Sipsmith Gin’s promotional page, which Sadly, this one went out of fashion at some states that the drink was popular in the ’60s. point, probably due to the scarcity of fresh Cool. The Savoy Cocktail Book has a “Sloe Gin juice at bars, as drinks became more costCocktail” which sounds like an absolute horror: effective and, well, lousier. It’s easy to make It was two parts sloe gin, and one part each at home, and it’s a go-to cocktail for my bar French and Sweet vermouth; hopefully the sloe guests looking for something different: gin was drier back then! Beyond that, I found nothing from before the middle of the century 2 ounces of bourbon with a recipe, but it’s in every Mr. Boston guide 1 ounce of grapefruit I had “growing up” as a barman. It’s a pretty 1/2 ounce of lemon juice drink, and when well-balanced, it’s pretty tasty, 3/4 ounce of honey syrup too. I basically make it like a Tom Collins, just Shake; serve up with a grapefruit twist. with sloe gin: Since we’re at it, here’s a David Wondrich 2 ounces of Plymouth Sloe Gin discovery of a drink from midcentury 1 ounce of lemon juice bartenders, the “Airmail.” Keep that honey 3/4 ounce of simple syrup syrup handy! It’s kind of a French 75 variation, Build tall, or shake and dump into a Collins which is kind of a Collins variation, which is … glass; top with soda. well, they’re all delicious.

Ironically, I was going to say that’s not the recipe from Mr. Boston … but it pretty much is now; they’ve come a long way. Notice there’s no egg white in there; I’m pretty sure that’s because bars had stopped using eggs behind the bar by then, or used sour mix with the latest miracle of science: Powdered egg white already included for the modern bartender! I was always taught to make it with sour mix, because we never had fresh ingredients back in the early ’00s. Crazy. Sometimes we’d add some regular gin, too (which is still a good move), since the only sloe gins available were the cheap, artificial ones. Was that a fizz, though? Not on your life.

What about that famed and currently CVIndependent.com

1 1/2 ounces of gold rum 3/4 ounce of lime juice 3/4 ounce of honey syrup Shake; strain into a coupe; top with dry sparkling wine. No garnish.

I would be remiss if I forgot the rusty nail, that “grampa drink” that I absolutely had to know how to make when I first started, because the old guys would test me. It might have been called something else previously, but it’s been the rusty nail since the ’60s, and that’s the era we’re talking about. It’s another case of why good drinks need great names to catch on. This one is so easy, it’s criminal: Just stir Scotch and Drambuie (Scotland’s

A midcentury-inspired cocktail called the Indigo Child. Kevin Carlow

esteemed honey and herb liqueur) in a glass with ice. I used to make it with a 2-to-1 ratio, respectively, but these days, I would probably go with 2 ounces of Scotch and 3/4 of an ounce of Drambuie. I would pick a nice, smoky blended malt for this; save your Islay single malts, or you’ll lose the Drambuie. And don’t use a mellow commercial blend; you want some body and peat!

I am going to continue digging into this under-loved era of drinks. There are plenty more of note, but I have already covered many of them recently—the mai tai, the margarita, the Army Navy, etc. I am inspired

by the simplicity of many of these drinks as I continue to do research for the midcenturyinspired drink program I am putting together at the Cole Hotel in Palm Springs. Finally—a chance for everyone else to critique my inventions!

I’m pretty excited about tackling the challenge of updating some of these forgotten midcentury drinks, so feel free to come over, and let me know how I am doing—while following all applicable ordinances, of course.

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

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 27

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FOOD & DRINK

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CAESAR CERVISIA L

BY brett newton

et me tell you about a drink—a wine, technically—that is older than our species. It’s not made from grapes, and the bulk of the work to make it isn’t even done by humans, but by honey bees.

Yes, I am talking about mead.

The honey bee separated from its parent species around a million years ago. Worker honey bees collect pollen and, more importantly, nectar. Nectar is a sugary substance that fuels the bees, with the surplus being converted into honey via osmosis, to store and feed the entire colony. While yeast is omnipresent in the environment and is as hungry for that sugar as the bees are, the osmotic pressure of honey niches in what evolutionary philosopher Daniel makes fermentation by yeasts and bacteria Dennett has termed Design Space, often in almost impossible: Think of honey as a the form of an “arms race.” While doing my desert for yeast cells. This, combined with research, I came across this fascinating tidbit: smaller contributing factors, makes sealed Some yeasts evolved to become osmotolerant. honey immortal—it can be safely consumed This means that the yeast can perform in thousands of years after it was made. environments that are high in sugars and low But evolution has a funny way of finding in water. I bring this up, because it seems that

Mead is technically wine—but there’s much for beer-lovers to appreciate about the ancient beverage

these osmotolerant yeasts became the yeasts that humans eventually unwittingly (because yeast wasn’t identified until the 19th century) harnessed to make beer and wine.

The first humans to stumble across mead would have likely done it by accident. An essay on the website of Medovina Meadery in Colorado (authored with the help of Dr. Garth Cambray, founder of Makana Meadery in South Africa) suggests an interesting scenario: “The origins of mead can be traced back to the African bush more than 20,000 years ago. Feral bees were well established; elephants roamed the continent, and weather patterns were seasonal. … (These weather patterns) would eventually cause hollows to rot out the crown of the Baobab and Miombo trees, where the elephant had broken branches. During the dry season, the bees would nest in these hollows, and during the wet season, the hollows would fill with water.

Water, honey, osmotolerant yeast, and time, and voila—a mead is born.”

As nomadic tribes spread out of Africa and into the Mediterranean, they took bees with them, and mead would become a conscious (and treasured) process. The first known recipe for beer is the Hymn to Ninkasi in ancient Sumer, and it includes honey—likely because unmalted grain is not as efficient for brewing, and the sucrose and fructose in honey would work just fine for those purposes. Ancient Greece referred to it as ambrosia, “the nectar of the gods.” It’s referenced in ancient Chinese, Indian and Egyptian documents, some of which date back 4,000 years. Norse mythology and culture is littered with its mention. Think Beowulf and the slaying of Grendel inside Heorot, the great mead hall of King Hrothgar. Yes, mead was a very big deal for a very long time.

Sugar cane was brought back to Europe by Marco Polo, and honey became less and less of a source for sugars (outside of the monasteries that required beeswax and used the honey to make mead as a by-process). Then came industrialization. The Medovina essay says: “Prior to the mechanized extraction of honey, the honeycombs were simply crushed to remove the honey. This left loads of honeyladen, crushed beeswax which could most easily be processed by rinsing the honey out of the wax with warm water. And what became of the honey water? Mead, of course. Mechanized extraction meant less left over comb and less honey water for mead-making, and a general decline in the craft.” Mead has become a highly artisan concern ever since.

This would be a very sad column if it ended there. Thankfully, mead is in the midst of a comeback, of sorts. Homebrewers have led this charge, thanks to their curiosity about all things fermentable.

My first mead experience was the serviceable Chaucer’s Mead (out of Santa Cruz) I picked up in the wine aisle at a grocery story.

Some of my more mind-blowing experiences with mead have come thanks to my oft-cited friend and brewer, Chris Anderson.

“For me, mead-making was merely the next natural evolution in fermentation exploration,” he says. “It came after 20 years of beer-making, and at a point where I was feeling like I had tried just about everything in brewing. It’s extremely easy to make mead, but it does require a bit of patience for the lengthy aging process, which can take a year or more.”

Anderson’s tropical mead was my favorite— and he went all out on it.

“It was kind of a joke, but it was special,” he explains. “I opted for Christmas Berry and Lehua honey, both from Hawaii, and Miele Amaro (bitter honey) from Sardinia. The fruits that I employed were all grown on our property on Oahu: passion fruit, papaya, mango and pink guava. This was by far the best mead that I have ever made, and it garnered gold in the few competitions that I entered it in.”

If you have not experienced meads, it is a bit easier to do than it was even a couple of years ago. Locally, Golden Coast Mead in Oceanside is a couple of hours away from the Coachella Valley (and a great place to go to escape the last gasps of summer here). Moonlight Meadery out of New Hampshire has been making wonderful meads for years, which can be found on select craft-beer shop shelves and purchased via their site for shipping.

A personal favorite that I have not yet had a chance to visit resides in Arizona, Superstition Meadery. They make an incredible mead called Peanut Butter Jelly Crime, and yes, it tastes like the liquid version of the best PB&J you’ve ever had. They’ve gotten into hazy hopped meads recently, and the results are delicious.

However you can find it, mead is worth trying out—and hopefully, it will be made more interesting with the knowledge I’ve imparted here.

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.

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Joshua Tree’s Esjay Jones uses her connections as a producer on her new genre-fusing project, (We Are) PIGS The Alibi Palm Springs looks for ways to keep the music playing during the pandemic The lucky 13: meet a young drummer-turned-producer for sondy studios the lucky 13: Meet the gifted guitarist for Black Water Gospel, Eevaan Tré

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The Osees bring live music back to the desert, sort of, with a filmed set at Pappy and Harriet’s

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CONSTANT CREATION O

By Matt king

ne of the most exciting shows I’ve ever seen was the Oh Sees concert in August of last year at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. The hour and a half spent in the mosh pit was one of the most frantic, fun and sweaty experiences of my life.

A little more than a year later, the band returned to Pappy and Harriet’s for another show … but as you probably guessed, COVID-19 forced this concert to be presented differently.

The Osees—the “h” and the space are them to promote it and gave us a budget to on hiatus, in the latest name tweak by the shoot it. We jumped at it, because the band has band—recently announced a partnership with mostly been just sitting around, but everyone the Austin-based music festival Levitation to is keeping themselves busy, taking on other perform a multi-camera, full-length live show projects or taking classes online. I’ve been as part of Levitation’s new online concert insanely busy, but that’s just to keep the wolf series, known as the Levitation Sessions. The from the door. Staying busy right now is the band recorded a full set of music at Pappy and best way for me to deal with trying to not be Harriet’s, and the show was slated to premiere depressed from the way things are.” at 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26; it will remain Rob Fitzpatrick, the co-founder of available for streaming through Oct. 8.

“Everybody is making do,” said Osees founder John Dwyer. “We’ve accepted that we’re not going to be playing any shows this year. I’m one of those people who refuses to cancel anything earlier than it needs to be canceled, but I’m also realistic. I’m not superinterested in playing socially distanced shows.

I’d rather just wait it out, but obviously, a big part of our band is playing live.

“This is the first year in 24 years that I haven’t toured. Overall, it’s been a pretty wretched year worldwide. The only thing that anybody with a reasonable heart and mind has in common right now is that it’s been a trying year for everybody.”

Dwyer is known for his love of creating, and he’s already released several albums this year, including Protean Threat, the 23rd studio album by the Osees.

“We’re putting out so much this year that by the time we come back around to playing shows, people will be sick of us,” said Dwyer.

“That being said, I’m happy to try to do some virtual stuff. We’ve done a handful of things already, and this one we just did at Pappy and Harriet’s will be one of the first ones—a little pay-per-view thing. The band needed to get paid after doing a bunch of free, charity-related stuff, so we gave it a try. The band jumped at the opportunity to get together, and we did four days of rehearsals beforehand to learn a bunch of new material. It almost felt like we were doing covers, because we’ve never played these songs before.

“We go way back with Levitation. We’ve been playing there for years through all our different variations and name changes. They’re cool and really square as far as treatment goes, which I really like. They offered us a deal with The Osees. Oliver Halfin CVIndependent.com

The Osees bring live music back to the desert, sort of, with a filmed set at Pappy and Harriet’s

Levitation, explained how the new series of sessions came about.

“The idea was to figure out a way to salvage the album cycles for some bands on our label that we’ve been working with for many years,” Fitzpatrick said. “We also wanted to figure out a way to pivot as a business and a music community and still be able to create some commerce, which is needed for art. I started this very DIY and never had any support other than what we can dream up and sell.

That’s really my approach with Levitation, and when we’ve had hard times before, it’s been about thinking how we can make it work and rethink it.

“I’ve seen other folks doing livestreams, and there’s definitely an element of artists

performing in their pajamas—and through some friends, I heard that some of those were making some money. We’ve looked into doing proper livestreams for the festival, but we were always busy with the task of putting on the in-person event, and never really put much into it. A lot of the groundwork has been there for a long time, and my original background is in web developing, so I’ve been looking at how to do this in an interesting way from that perspective. That’s how we came up with the idea for limited-edition merchandise, which will benefit both us and the artist.”

Fitzpatrick and his team wanted to make sure that they were producing a quality show, so they decided to pre-record the sessions.

“As time has gone on, more and more artists

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are doing fuller productions for their prerecorded stuff,” said Fitzpatrick. “Part of us wanting to do a pre-recorded show comes with the fact that the sound is incredibly important to the presentation. Doing livestreams with all these guitar pedals and stuff is pretty tricky. … We wanted to be able to invite bands from all over to do this, and some aren’t even able to be in the same room, so these really had to be pre-recorded. There’s also some creative opportunities. … You can take it a little further with some interesting intros and segues. We’re essentially commissioning a film from artists. … Some artists are filming in their practice space; some are filming outside, like the Osees are; someone’s working on doing one in an old church, and another one’s working on doing one on a mountain. My dream would be to develop this to have a budget to commission a band to do their own live show at Pompeii, and see what that would look like.”

Fitzpatrick promises that the Osees show will be nothing short of amazing.

“John is such a great dude, and he’s the biggest artist that we’ve done this with so far,” Fitzpatrick said. “For him to take a leap of faith with us is huge. It’s a big icebreaker for other conversations. Osees have been a pioneer for so many of our festivals and events that we’ve presented. It’s a very big deal to have Osees as part of this from all angles. I’m a big fan of the music and of the guy. John has never changed.

He’s the same dude and has an insane work ethic. It’s a joy to work with someone like that.

“It’s such a special set that John and the band put together. He didn’t want to do something that wasn’t going to be unique.”

I was curious why Dwyer and the gang chose Pappy and Harriet’s as the venue.

“We love that joint,” Dwyer said. “We’ve played there a few times, and they’re always real cool with us. They’re like Levitation—the barbecue and venue version of the festival filled with people we’re familiar with and that we like working with. Also, for location, we figured we could shoot right out in the dirt in the parking lot with the sunset behind us, and we went from dusk ’til nighttime.

“When we got there, it was 107 degrees, and we set up a bunch of umbrellas over our gear. Right when we were ready to start soundchecking, the power went out. We had to hire a tow-behind generator off of some guy, and he drove the generator up to us. As soon as he got there, the power came back on, so it was just one of those classic interesting desert days. Nobody panicked when it happened; we thought, ’Well, fuck, the entirety of Yucca Valley is without power right now,’ and everyone else was drinking a beer in the shade, saying, ’Don’t worry; we got a guy.’ Pappy and Harriet’s is probably one of those spots that has a guy for everything.

“We hadn’t played in so long, so after we

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC drove back to L.A. and unloaded everything, I felt like I had gone to a festival, gotten drunk, sobered up, played a set and everything— when really, I was just cooked from being in the heat all day. I slept like a baby that night.”

Osees fans will be interested to know that the show includes seven songs never before performed live, along with some live staples.

“I’m planning to do something else down the road with another set of songs that we haven’t played live,” Dwyer said. “I think that’s the key—to mix up the set with stuff people want to hear, stuff they’ve never heard, and stuff we’ve never done live. We have so much material that we’ve never done live, and I get emails from people complaining that we don’t play any old material, so I’ve been dipping back into the catalog and relearning songs that just didn’t work live. With this new band I have, they can play anything I throw at them, and everything we tried to play for this thing, we nailed.

“I get it if someone who’s familiar with us doesn’t want to pay to see this thing, but there’s material they’ve never seen live that may add some extra oomph to get them interested. The other thing that’s kind of nice about the virtual thing is that the ticket is only $4. And who knows? Maybe this thing will end up free at some point. YouTube is a pirate ship, and I’m up there playing whack-a-mole with people who’ve posted full albums of ours.”

To add to Dwyer’s already impressive 2020 discography, a new release by the Osees is set to debut Oct. 16. Metamorphosed contains some leftovers from the band’s 2019 album, Face Stabber.

“That album (Face Stabber) is just such a behemoth, and was too much to listen to for some people,” Dwyer said. “It was The Deer Hunter of records. There’s a lot of material that wasn’t throwaways, but just didn’t fit with the aesthetic of the record. I saved those for another EP, and it took a while to get enough material for it. Then we went down to play a festival in Hermosillo in Mexico, and part of the deal for playing the festival was that we’d get to spend a day at the beach and have a day of studio time there. We went in there and just jammed, and got two pretty great tracks.

I brought them home to my studio and did vocals here. It’s three tracks from the Face Stabber session and two tracks from Mexico, broken down into a record. It was supposed to be an EP, but it turned into a 40-minute album.

That’s just the way it goes with us; we have constant creation.”

The Osees: Levitation Sessions premieres at 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26, and will be available through Thursday, Oct. 8. Ticket prices vary, including various albums and merchandise, but start at $3.98 plus a fee of 80 cents. For tickets or more information, visit events.seated.com/live.

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SHIFTING ROLES M

By matt king

ost musicians dream of one day collaborating with their idols—but only a select few will have their dreams come true.

The ever-talented Esjay Jones is one of the fortunate ones. Now based in Joshua Tree and Los Angeles, Jones first made waves in her home country of South Africa as part of the band Stealing Love Jones. After No. 1 singles in South Africa, Jones shifted into a producer role, and over the past decade has engineered music relationships I’ve made during years of being for acts such as Sean Kingston, Nile Rodgers, in the music industry. We’ve really been able Jeffree Star and Alien Ant Farm. to create something positive out of all of this While still an active producer, Jones recently negativity in the world. returned to the frontwoman position with her “These past five months have been the new project, (We Are) PIGS, which combines busiest I’ve ever been in my life. People are hip hop and metal. Jones introduced the trying to find creative outlets to seek positivity project to the world with a cover of Slipknot’s and joy, and keep them out of depression. I’ve “Duality,” a unique take on the original had a lot of artists ask me to help them with featuring Jones’ singing/screaming over a production or songwriting. I’ve been working heavy guitar and bass, backed by trap drums. with a lot of interesting artists, and it’s been “I’ve been working on this PIGS project really cool.” for about three years now,” Jones said. “I’ve PIGS is Jones’ personal project, and she been spending a lot of time working on other makes it very clear that it’s hers—and hers artists’ projects, so it’s been on the back burner alone. this whole time. COVID has opened up a “When it comes to the PIGS project, it’s a perfect opportunity to finish up some songs little bit more introverted and selfish,” she that have been in the demo stage for so long. said. “I don’t really care about what other I was able to bring a lot of people on board people think. This is something I want to do who had some extra time as well, through the to satisfy my musical ability. I want it to sound

Esjay Jones. Evan Doheny

CVIndependent.com

Joshua Tree’s Esjay Jones uses her connections as a producer on her new genre-fusing project, (We Are) PIGS

great, but it’s not my job to make it a radio hit, like what a label would do. For example, a label would hire me to come produce a record, and give me some bands they want it to sound like. My job at that point is to find a balance between what the label wants while still keeping the artist’s vision of the song. It’s a very delicate dance. A lot of bands and artists have to compromise to get to a certain stage.

“Do I think that this PIGS project is going to blow up, and I’ll be touring the entire world?

No, but I feel that I’ve paid my dues enough to where I can put this out without anyone having a say in it. However, if I was a younger artist really trying to start a successful band, I would take every piece of advice a label or other musicians would give me so that I can better myself. At this point, I’m just having fun with my friends and seeing where it goes.

The response has been awesome. I think Slipknot’s ‘Duality’ is a song that should never be covered, but we gave it a try—and there has been a ton of positive feedback.”

A lot of Jones’ friends are other people’s musical heroes. Notable collaborators on the PIGS project include Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D., Brian “Head” Welch from Korn, and Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins.

“Throughout my career as an artist, a songwriter and producer, I’ve learned how things should be molded and how things should sound,” said Jones. “I feel like the songs are in a really strong state, and when we sent them to Billy, he heard one he absolutely loved and hopped on it, after making a few tweaks. If it wasn’t for the coronavirus, he wouldn’t have had time to even listen to it. I really got lucky, and it’s really a compliment to be at a point in life where people can look at your work and want to get behind it.

“I’ve been playing in bands since I was 12, and have been a professional musician since 18, so I’ve been building relationships over the past 20 years. I’m only now leveraging those relationships and inviting people to do a song together. I think it’s important not to pounce on artists. My recent work with the Grey Daze project allowed me to meet a lot of really influential musicians and artists and become friends, which has led to the invitation of hopping on projects. It’s been really great to see those relationships blossom.”

Grey Daze was the late Chester Bennington’s project prior to Linkin Park.

Bennington had recorded vocals for a full album, and earlier this year, Jones was asked to produce that album.

“The responsibility that we had toward Chester, his friends and to the band was heavy,” Jones said. “It’s been an incredibly overwhelming and wonderful experience. I am so grateful, and it all feels like a dream. I’m just this kid from South Africa whose journey led to being in the room with a band that opened so many doors, and having them reach out to me after hearing some of the Alien Ant Farm stuff I produced. … It’s really overwhelming to be a part of such a ridiculous project.”

Apart from the PIGS project, Jones recently started a new video series titled “Live from the Coop!” in which she plays live music in front of her chicken coop. She has Cristin Davis, guitarist of Grey Daze, to thank for this.

“Through working on the Grey Daze project, their guitar-player, Cristin Davis, invited me to come produce an EP for his side project, Enemy Airwave,” she said. “I went to his house in Arizona, woke up one morning, went downstairs and found a sign that said: Beware of the chickens. He and his wife rescued two baby chickens from the side of the road that were being attacked by cats at 3 in the morning. I decided to smuggle them across the (state) border and bring them home. Now I have six chickens, and it’s been really cool. I’ve never been one for meditating, but for some reason, every morning, I wake up at 5:30 and go into the coop with a cup of coffee and hang out for an hour.

“Did you know that chickens are the closest living relative to the dinosaur? When I’m sitting with them and looking at them up close, it’s almost like a scene out of Jurassic Park.”

From chickens back to PIGS: Jones said the right opportunity would have to present itself for her to consider playing a show with this project.

“Do I wanna be living on a bus and touring the country? No, but maybe if we were offered some cool slots,” she said. “I’m working on a new single for a project with Crazy Town, and another one with P.O.D. If they asked us to do a few dates on one of their headline tours, and the days made sense, then we would absolutely do it. It’s not something that I would want to start from the bottom again, like when I was 20 playing in my band in South Africa, touring the country with five boys in a van. I don’t know if I’m prepared to do that all over again.

“But if someone like the Foo Fighters asked us to do three weeks with them in a crappy bus, then I’d probably say yes.”

For more information, visit www.esjayjones.com.

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A CONSTANT CHALLENGE B

By matt king

efore COVID-19 arrived, the valley’s music scene was celebrating the relatively recent introduction of a space for music that combined local talent with bigger bands on tour— right in the heart of Palm Springs.

The Alibi Palm Springs is one of the newest and best music venues in the desert. It has hosted local acts like The Flusters and the Yip Yops, as well as national acts such as Best Coast and The Midnight Hour. For a while there, amount of venues for cover bands and dance it was like the Coachella Valley had our own nights, and we wanted to bring a different little slice of L.A. kind of programming.”

“My business partner, Melanie I talked to Garo about the Best Coast show (Tusquellas), and I have been in the L.A. in February—which was the last concert I music business for many years, and we attended before the pandemic. were originally looking for a spot in L.A.,” “That was such a fun one,” Garo said. “It said owner Elizabeth Garo during a recent was a very big deal for us to do that show, phone interview. “A friend of Melanie’s told and I was very thrilled that they chose to play her about this beautiful, amazing, historic The Alibi. It certainly let us see that we can building in Palm Springs that was available. do underplays for bands that size, and that We saw it and thought, ‘This is it!’ It wasn’t the room can handle it. I had many plans our intention to be in Palm Springs, but when of getting more of those underplays; then we saw the building, it compelled us to bring COVID hit. But once things are back up and the model to Palm Springs, and it seemed to running, we will hopefully be able to do more make sense. We noticed that there were a fair shows like that.”

The Alibi Palm Springs looks for ways to keep the music playing during the pandemic

Like every live-entertainment venue right now, The Alibi is struggling. However, Garo said she and her team remain determined.

“It’s been really difficult on business,” she shared. “We closed down in March and were looking at a pretty healthy spring for programming. Like every small venue, it’s been a challenge. I will say the community’s been really supportive of us and has been cheering us on to keep going, so that’s what we intend to do. We’ve developed a small crew of locals, and they’ve been very positive and look forward to us opening.”

The Alibi is part of the National Independent Venue Association, which has been lobbying Congress regarding the Save Our Stages legislation (www.saveourstages. com). Many venues across the country are struggling to find the money to survive until concerts are able to take place again. This is an issue Garo is very passionate about.

“We’ve been involved; we’ve been putting it in our email blasts and getting the word out, trying to gather signatures,” said Garo. “I’ve worked with a Save Our Stages captain here in L.A., and she and I have been writing to Congressman (Raúl) Ruiz just so he’s aware of

the bill, and trying to get his endorsement.”

Until concerts can happen again, The Alibi is focusing on food and drink, and working on launching a series of paid livestream concerts.

The venue just re-opened its famous patio for outdoor dining Thursday through Sunday, and is also serving food and cocktails to-go.

“We’ve been doing food with Hoja Blanco, who is our food vendor,” Garo said. … “We are looking into the process of doing some livestreaming performances, which would be on the off nights. We are just doing some research and trying to get equipment together, seeing how to make it work.

“We’d like to highlight the local stuff, but there’s an expense to it. We want to make sure it’s the right artist that will generate some ticket sales to help offset the cost of the production. I think we’re going to be able to do a combination of the two, both local and underplays. We also want to be able to stream any kind of corporate meetings or weddings as well. We are in the early stages of figuring out what can be done.”

For more information, visit www. thealibipalmsprings.com.

The Alibi Palm Springs just reopened its patio for outdoor dining.

CVIndependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 37

OCTOBER 2020

MUSIC

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

the

LUCKY 13

Meet a young drummer-turned-producer, and one of the valley’s most-gifted guitarists by matt king What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“Runnin down a dream, that never would come to me. Workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads. Runnin down a dream,” Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream.”

What band or artist changed your life?

Rush changed my life, because it was the first music I ever really listened to, and it got me into playing the drums, because Neil Peart always gave me a challenge to conquer.

NAME Luke Sonderman GROUP Minor Emergency MORE INFO Local-music aficionados may know Luke Sonderman from his days in Minor Emergency and other bands formed by the Academy of Musical Performance.

However, this young drummer and his brother, Jake, recently started a new venture—a recording studio. Sondy Studios offers different plans for recording and producing both bands and individual singer/ songwriters. Visit sondystudios.com for more information.

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

I would ask Dave Grohl how he hits his drums to sound so open and loud.

What was the first concert you attended?

Sammy Hagar and The Circle.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“D’yer Mak’er,” Led Zeppelin.

What was the first album you owned?

Rush, 2112 In Concert, on purple vinyl.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, and Led Zeppelin.

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

Rap. I don’t get what is so impressive about rapping. There is no singing involved.

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

I’d really like to see the Foo Fighters live.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Listening to Poison.

What’s your favorite music venue?

The Date Shed.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Home Sweet Home,” Mötley Crüe.

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

The B-side of Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin.

NAME David Morales GROUP Black Water Gospel, Eevaan Tré MORE INFO Some of the valley’s most prominent rock and R&B groups sound a whole lot sweeter thanks to David Morales.

His guitar-work skill level is matched only by his work ethic, as you couldn’t go far without seeing Morales on a bill (pre-pandemic, of course).

What bands are you listening to right now?

I tend to “jump around,” musically. I’ve been listening to Lianne La Havas’ new self-titled record. She’s pretty amazing; I’m really a fan of what she does. I’m also a huge fan of Anderson .Paak; he is just an all-around artist/musician. He raps; he sings, and he can hold a groove down on drums, like you wish you could! Also, I always go back to Pedro the Lion, an indie-rock band from the ’90s/2000s.

The singer, David Bazan, is one of my favorite writers. The way he can paint a picture with his lyrics has always amazed me. P.S.: D’Angelo is one of the most underrated artists of our time!

ian cush

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

A musical trend that is finally fizzing out is mumble rap. I just can’t get behind a lot of it; there is some that I can appreciate, but for the most part, it’s a NO for me!

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

Well, at this point, we’re six months into a global pandemic, so any live music would be nice, to say the very least. But to be honest, I would love to see Stevie Wonder perform live.

He is at the top of my list, without a doubt … then I could die happy!

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Rascal Flatts. I don’t really listen to a lot of their music, but my girlfriend loves them, so I hear their music from time to time, and from a writing and musicianship aspect, they are top-notch!

What’s your favorite music venue?

My favorite music venue has got to be the Troubadour. Hands down, it’s such a great and historic place to watch live music.

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

“Childbirth is painful / We toil today grow our food / Ignorance made us hungry / Information made us no good / Every burden misunderstood,” David Bazan, “Hard to Be.”

What band or artist changed your life?

It may sound funny to some, but Limp Bizkit and Korn made me want to play music. I remember watching the Family Values Tour with Limp Bizkit, Korn, Orgy, Rammstein and Ice Cube on VHS—and knowing music is what I wanted to do! Growing up, my dad played guitar, so he taught me the basic chords, and I kept learning. It is one of my greatest passions.

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

No particular question. but I would’ve loved to sit in the studio with the Beatles.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Fields of Gold” by Eva Cassidy.

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

Off the Wall by Michael Jackson.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Another Life” by D’Angelo and the Vanguard.

What was the first concert you attended?

I believe it was Pedro the Lion at the El Rey Theatre, 2004-ish.

What was the first album you owned?

My cousin had a booth at the Indio swap meet, and he sold cassettes. (This was in the early ’90s, by the way). The first cassette I ever bought with my own money was an Old School Mix Tape that had some classics in there.

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38 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER 2020

OPINION SAVAGE LOVE

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

PREMATURE COMMITMENT

BY DAN SAVAGE

I

’m a straight man who’s been dating a woman for not quite four months. In the beginning, things were light—but things started to get heavy quickly.

Two weeks in, she revealed her very serious abandonment issues and then began asking me whether I really loved her, demanding reassurance that I wasn’t going anywhere and that she wouldn’t be “just a single chapter” in my life. After a month, I met her 7-year-old son, her parents and her ex. Then we had a pregnancy scare. She told me that if she were pregnant, she would keep it, because then I would have to stay. That alarmed me. I voiced that we’d been dating for very a short time, and this wasn’t a good time for either of us to have a child. She wasn’t pregnant, As I explained to a reader in a similar situation: luckily. Even before this incident, my body had “We need someone’s consent before we kiss started to manifest signs of anxiety—upset them, suck them, fuck them, spank them, spoon stomach, sleepless nights, loss of appetite, etc. So, I them, marry them, collar them, etc. But we summoned up all of my courage (conversations like do not need someone’s consent to leave them. this are extremely difficult for me) and told her that Breakups are the only aspect of our romantic I couldn’t do this anymore. She started to cry and lives where the other person’s consent is begged me to give her a second chance. I wound up irrelevant. The other person’s pain is relevant, spending the rest of the weekend at her place and of course, and we should be as compassionate agreed to stay in the relationship. But I didn’t feel and considerate as possible when ending good about it. When I finally got back to my place, I a relationship. (Unless we’re talking about felt anxious, confused, hollow and hopeless. I tried dumping an abuser, in which case safety and to end things again after speaking to my therapist, self-care are all that matters.) But we don’t need but she won’t take no for an answer and constantly someone’s consent to dump them.” brings up the promises I made her about loving her.

Voice that it’s over, PRESSURE, and then I hate this, and I feel terrible for her son. Any refuse to get drawn into negotiations about thoughts on how to dismantle this thing? Or do I whether it’s over. It’s over. If she needs to cry on just need to run? someone’s shoulder, she’ll need to call a friend.

And if she brings up the promises you made Passionate Reassurances Extracted So Soon Undoes after she “revealed” her abandonment issues Relationship Exit weeks into this relationship, apologize for not

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Affiliate Chamber

My girlfriend of four months won’t let me end the relationship; what can I do?

being strong enough to resist her obvious—if possibly subconscious—efforts to manipulate you. She shouldn’t have asked you to swear your undying love after you’d known each other for such a short time, and you shouldn’t have made the promises you did. You failed her and yourself by not telling her it was too soon for that shit—too soon to say “I love you,” too soon to know whether she would be a chapter in your life, too soon to meet her son (!), her parents (!!) and her ex (!!!).

Demands for premature reassurances of everlasting love, like all demands for premature commitments, are intended to make exiting the relationship more difficult—not for the person making the demands, of course; they’re always free to go. They make it more difficult for the person those demands are being made of. While I’m not calling your girlfriend an abuser, demands for premature commitments are often red flags for abuse; being asked to make a premature commitment after a few weeks or months—by moving in together or adopting a dog or (God forbid) getting married—makes it infinitely harder for a person to leave once the mask slips, and they see the abuser lurking behind it. Again, I don’t think your girlfriend is an abuser, but she weaponized her insecurities (“It’s nice to meet you; now let me tell you about my abandonment issues!”) to extract what amounts to a premature commitment from you. And she involved her son in that effort, which is really unconscionable. While that’s on her, PRESSURE, not you, you should’ve refused to meet her son so quickly and seen her desire to introduce you to him as a red flag.

Learn the lessons, PRESSURE: When someone you’ve only recently started dating says, “Will you love me forever?” the correct answer is never, “Of course I will!” The correct answer is always, “I think you’re a wonderful person, and I want to keep seeing you, but we can’t know—at this stage—what the future will bring.” If they respond by saying, “You know what? You’re right,” keep seeing them.

If they respond by melting down and bringing up their abandonment issues, well, they’ve just demonstrated that they aren’t someone you would want a future with.

I’m a 32-year-old straight man dating a 31-yearold straight woman. We’ve been seeing each other for eight months and became “Facebook official” (if that’s still a thing) in June. We are both in our first serious relationship after being divorced from relatively long marriages. (Me: eight years, two kids. Her: 10 years, no kids.) My question is: When

does suspicion—suspicion of cheating—become something you should bring up? I tend to spill everything that’s going on in my life, which she says she appreciates but isn’t used to doing. She’s a very independent person, which I’ve never experienced before. It’s refreshing to know that my partner has her own friends, but there are moments when I get stonewalled. Sometimes I get vague answers or no answers about where she is or who she’s with.

She often tells me she “accidentally” turned off her notifications. Sometimes she will say she’s staying in, and then I later find out that she went out.

Maybe I’m taking things way too seriously, considering the amount of time we’ve been together, but I feel I have to take things seriously since kids are involved.

The Absent Girlfriend The uncharitable read: Your hunch is correct, and your new girlfriend is being cagey about where she’s going and who she’s with, because she’s cheating on you.

The charitable read: Your new girlfriend is 31 years old; she was married for 10 years; and you’ve been dating for eight months. Assuming her marriage didn’t end five minutes before you met, TAG, your girlfriend married very young. Which means she spent her entire adult life—most or all of her 20s and possibly a chunk of her teens—having to answer to a spouse.

She only recently begun to experience the kind of autonomy most of us get to enjoy before we marry and settle down (if we marry and settle down), TAG, and she may be reluctant to surrender it.

She may also have different ideas about what being “Facebook official” means. Does that mean you’re monogamous? If it does, does she define monogamy the same way you do?

Some other questions: Was going “Facebook official” your idea or her idea? Did you ask for a premature commitment?

You obviously need to have a conversation with your girlfriend—if you can get her on the phone—about your expectations and definitions. If you expect her to let you know where she is at all times and who’s she’s with, TAG, make that clear. But if that is what you expect, well, here’s hoping she dumps you.

Because even if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with you, your girlfriend would still be entitled to a little privacy and her autonomy.

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

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 39

OCTOBER 2020

OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

“Battle of the Alternative Bands”—predictions on who would win. (No. 464, Apr. 2010)

By Matt Jones

39 Wash against, as the shore 40 Cutesy-___ 41 Four Holy Roman Emperors 43 “Drop Band A on Band Across B? Band B wins, no 1 Maggie Gyllenhaal’s contest” brother 46 1920s design style 5 Tallahassee’s st.

47 Suffix for orange or 8 Earthy yellow shade lemon 13 Fix text 48 Gaelic tongue 14 ___ Boot 49 Ben-___ (movie 15 Weasel out (on) classic) 16 “You’d think Band A 51 Shaker ___, OH would hold up, but it’s 53 Furthest degree flimsy. Band B wins” 55 Fertile Crescent locale 19 Like some computer 57 Golfer Aoki errors 59 Did some diamond 20 Blood type for just inspecting? more than 6 percent of 64 “Band B wins, because the U.S. pop. it’s pointy and doesn’t 21 They follow B digest well” 22 Unable to work, 67 Early actress Langtry perhaps 68 Dir. opp. WNW 24 CPR pro 69 Scientific American 26 Comp. storage sites Frontiers host Alan 27 Forever, it seems 70 Didn’t dine out 31 “Charter” tree 71 Slippery When ___ 33 Diamond Head locale (Bon Jovi album) 35 “Band B wins, since 72 Spotted Band A only has a tolerance for booze”

Down 1 Constantly napping member of The Wiggles 2 Song from Sarah McLachlan’s Surfacing 3 Highland Games garb 4 “At Last” blues singer ___ James 5 Prez on the dime 6 Kitschy ’70s plug-ins 7 Part of AARP 8 “___ the fields we go ...”

9 Mad Money network 10 Job search insider 11 Spurred (on) 12 Hull wreckers 15 Stringy cleaner 17 Footballer Manning 18 “Isn’t that something?”

23 ___ Lobos 25 California/Nevada attraction 27 The whole thing 28 Burrito add-on, for short 29 Fashionable sandal 30 Drive-thru drink with a plastic dome 32 Villainous surname in the Super Mario Bros. series 34 Request to the dealer

36 Manufacturer of electronics for kids 37 What automobile interiors may drown out 38 Geologic time periods 42 Sault ___ Marie Canals 44 Candle type 45 He might heal your hamster 49 “Se ___ español” 50 “___ wisely” 52 Reptilian warning 54 Clueless response 56 Obesity drug Orlistat, over the counter 58 Not too many 60 Business degs.

61 Stripper’s fixture 62 The Neverending Story author Michael 63 Jimmy of meat products 65 Half of an eternal balance 66 Movie studio filming site © 2010, 2020 Matt Jones Find the answers in the “About” section of CVIndependent.com!

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40 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER 2020

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