Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263 Cathedral City, CA 92234 (760) 904-4208 www.cvindependent.com
Editor/Publisher
Jimmy Boegle
staff writerS
Haleemon Anderson
Kevin Fitzgerald
coveR and feature design
Dennis Wodzisz
Contributors
Melissa Daniels, Charles Drabkin, Katie Finn, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Terry Huber, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Clay Jones, Matt Jones, Matt King, Keith Knight, Cat Makino, Brett Newton, Greg Niemann, Dan Perkins, Theresa Sama, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor
The Independent is a proud member and/ or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, CalMatters, DAP Health, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, and the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the future of the Independent, and local journalism in general. I’ve been to three different journalism conferences. I’ve filled out at least a half-dozen grant/funding applications. The buzz word common throughout all of the conference programming and all of these funding initiatives is sustainability: How can localnews publishers set ourselves up for success—and put us in a position where we’re likely to still be around, and hopefully growing, five, 10 and 20 years down the line?
But for the last week, thanks to our good ol’ print deadline, I’ve been focused on content—the journalism that we do—and it’s been a fantastic reminder (not that I needed one) of why what we do is important, and why we need to find ways to make sure we can keep doing it.
In this print edition, there are no big investigative pieces (though we do those on occasion), but there are numerous pieces that inform and tell the stories of our community—stories that, for the most part, may not be told otherwise (especially given the tenuous-at-best future of corporate-owned dailies).
In this one 40-page issue, you’ll find stories on a local animal sanctuary, and on an upcoming fundraiser to benefit cancer survivors. Our cover story looks at the local roller-skating community. We have news on restaurant openings and closings, and how the valley is dealing with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing local governments to ban homeless encampments. We share details on upcoming outdoor events, a three-weekend tour of artists’ studios, recommended beers to enjoy during Oktoberfest, and a popular annual series of concerts that raise funds benefiting people with autism. We profile a great local band that’s releasing a new EP with a strong message on oppression and culture. We offer extended Q&As with the candidates for city council seats in Palm Springs and Palm Desert. We even share news about a brilliant comet that will be visible in our nighttime skies.
I could keep going—there’s a lot more great stuff in this issue that I have not mentioned yet—but I think I’ve made my point. Back to those discussions and initiatives about sustainability: They all focus on the fact that local news organizations need to find new and better ways to bring in more revenue. We’re working on that here at the Independent, of course, and one of the things we definitely need to do is convince more readers that what we do is worth paying for—even though we give all of our content away for free, both online and in print.
If you’re a reader who financially supports the Independent on a regular basis: Thank you. If you’re not, and you both 1) find value in what we do and 2) can afford to help us, I humbly ask you to do so. You can find details at CVIndependent.com/supporters—or you can simply mail us a check to the address to the left, below our logo.
In other news: The final round of voting in our 11th annual Best of Coachella Valley readers’ poll is now under way!
The daily just so happens to be running its best-of poll right now as well. (We’ve always done our poll this time of year. The daily hasn’t; they moved theirs so it now overlaps with our timing. Go figure.) Our poll is 1) different and 2) a whole lot better. One reason why is we ask readers to vote once, and ONLY once, in each round.
Please, between now and Oct. 20, head to vote.cvindependent.com to pick your favorites among the fantastic slate of finalists. Again, vote only once, please! Welcome to the October 2024 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent. Thank you, as always, for reading. —Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com
HIKING WITH T
TEnjoy a variety of outdoor events now that cooler temps are finally here
hanks to cooler temperatures, those of us who are desert-dwellers can finally come out of the air conditioning and enjoy the great outdoors again.
Being back in season means the return of outdoor events—and for a few of them, some training may be involved.
• The Palm Springs Aerial Tram Road Challenge 6k takes place at 6:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 19. Participants start at the Tram Road gate near the Palm Springs Visitor Center and climb 3.7 miles, with roughly 1,800 feet of elevation gain, to the finish at the bridge just below Valley Station. Registration (which costs $54 for adults in advance) is open until race day. Get more details and register at tramroadchallenge.com.
chapter of International Front Runners, an informal network of LGBTQ running groups around the world. Since 2016, the Palm Springs Pride 5K Run and Walk has raised more than $200,000 for local charities.
One week later, on Saturday, Oct. 26, the DAP Health Equity Walk takes place at Ruth Hardy Park in Palm Springs. Thousands will come together and “Walk Out Loud” to the slogan of “Because Health Care is a Human Right.” This popular fundraising event, sponsored by the Desert Care Network, is family- and pet-friendly. This event includes a Health and Wellness Village sponsored by Walgreens; it opens at 7:30 a.m., with the walk starting at 8:45 a.m. The proceeds support the diverse individuals served by DAP Health across 25 locations from the
Coachella Valley to the San Diego coast. The walk is about three miles through beautiful Palm Springs and back to the park. You can walk as a team or individually; learn more and register at HealthEquityWalk.org.
• The following week, from 8 to 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 2, is the Palm Springs Pride 5K Run and Walk. Runners and walkers of all ages and abilities come together to raise funds for local LGBTQ+ organizations and promote inclusivity in our community and sports. This annual event is hosted by the Palm Springs Front Runners and Walkers (psfr.org), a local
The run and walk begins at the intersection of West Chino Drive and Belardo Road before meandering through the beautiful and historic Old Las Palmas neighborhood. The beautiful, mostly flat, 3.1-mile course is on paved streets. There will be volunteers on the course to cheer you on and keep you moving in the right direction. To learn more, view the course map and register (for $40), visit www. palmspringspriderun.com.
• A great place to enjoy outdoor activities in the eastern Coachella Valley during the fall and winter months is Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park. This serene “hidden gem” is a 710-acre park located near La Quinta, at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains. It’s owned by the Coachella Valley Water District and operated by RivCoParks (Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District). It’s six miles southeast of Old Town La Quinta.
Lake Cahuilla, a 135-acre lake, offers camping, and it has an easy 2.4-mile scenic path around the lake, called the Lake Cahuilla Park Trail, with magnificent vast views of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Dogs are welcome but must be leashed and are not allowed to swim in the water. For more information—including activities, park hours, camping reservations, fee schedules and more—visit rivcoparks.org.
Lake Cahuilla is the starting point of the only Ironman here in the Coachella Valley: the Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta (www.ironman.com/im703-indian-wells) Participants swim the cool, calm waters of Lake Cahuilla; bike a flat and fast course that includes the Thermal raceway; and run from the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens through the beautiful, lush golf course of the Indian Wells Golf Resort. All three elements provide spectacular views of the desert and surrounding mountains. This year’s event is slated for Sunday, Dec. 8.
A couple of my running buddies from the Los Angeles area come out and participate in this local Ironman every year, and they absolutely love it. One friend, Lisa Acosta, has been doing Ironman triathlons for more than 14 years, and since discovering this one in 2021, she hasn’t missed a year.
“It’s a fun year-end race to bond with my Tri club peeps. Even my coach joins us, and we all stay in the same timeshare condos that coach belongs to,” she said.
When Lisa first participated in 2021, she did it as an individual race, but since 2022, her club has created relay teams where they race each other, which makes it more fun. I asked Lisa to tell me about her favorite part of the race: “It’s the bike ride, which starts after the swim in Lake Cahuilla and travels across picturesque flat county roads before hitting the Thermal raceway, which is a lot of fun to do. Then we head through the city of La Quinta on our way toward the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, which is where the bike ride ends, and the run starts, and the race ends. … (It’s) a nice venue to end a triathlon indeed!”
I won’t be participating in this year’s Ironman, but I’ll probably be out there supporting my friends—and I’ll definitely be participating in some of these other events. It’s a good time to get out and enjoy the cooler weather that our desert has to offer this time of the year—and to get some needed exercise. Don’t forget to make it FUN! Just remember: Even though it’s cooler, we’re still in the desert, and we need to stay hydrated. Bring more water than you will need—at least a liter of water for every hour. Wear sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses!
Lisa Acosta and Mike Milford pose for a picture at Lake Cahuilla as they await the swim to begin the 2022 Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta.
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS
BY BONNIE GILGALLON
The Coachella Valley is filled with animal lovers of all kinds. There are a number of dogfriendly restaurants, and several shelters for our furry friends without a home—but some of those shelters don’t want to deal with older dogs with health issues.
Carlynne McDonnell and her organization, Barkee LaRoux’s House of Love, welcome them with open arms.
McDonnell was born and raised in Houston, and her love of animals started early. Her family lived in a somewhat distant suburban area and had lots of animals—cats, dogs, chickens and fish. McDonnell went to college and majored in marine biology, but did not complete school, because options for women in that field were limited then. At one point, she wrote an article on animal
euthanasia in Galveston.
“At that time, it was horrifying the way they did things,” she said.
McDonnell moved to New Jersey, where she met her husband, Alex, a civil engineer who mostly worked on railroads and transportation projects. Originally a public policy wonk, Carlynne McDonnell turned to environmental remediation work in New Jersey. Later, the couple moved to Northern California, then the Claremont area, and then finally Palm Springs.
McDonnell said she always wanted to have an animal sanctuary, but it’s not realistic for most people. There wasn’t enough room at their home in a gated community, so they started looking for property to purchase— and she finally found the perfect property in Sky Valley, in a location where there is little between them and the mountains of Joshua Tree. They’ve been there about six years now.
It has a small house geared for the comfort of dogs. The living room couch is really a dog bed, and there are pee pads all through the house; it’s a great space for animals to have a wonderful life in their later years. There is a special room for them to go to the bathroom, since they’re not allowed outside—because it’s too dangerous. There are coyotes, owls, hawks and other predators around.
“We live right next to ‘critter highway,’” McDonnell said.
The place has a covered porch called the Zen Room. McDonnell said they do not take any chances when it comes to safety: There is a special mesh fence that goes three feet down into the ground to prevent snakes from coming in.
McDonnell said she’s always been drawn to senior dogs. Many people don’t want to take on the burden of a senior dog, especially one who is sick; the care can be expensive, longterm and emotionally taxing.
“The younger dogs seem to bounce back much easier and are more readily adopted,” she said.
When it comes to euthanasia, McDonnell said they always do right by each dog,
and work closely with the veterinarian to determine what is best for the animal. “It’s the quality of life, not the quantity,” she said.
While what they do is not easy, McDonnell said she and her husband enjoy it, calling it “an act of love.” They get so much back from the senior dogs, who really appreciate the love and care—and sometimes they are very funny. They have a relatively new arrival, a Cocker spaniel, who likes to take one of McDonnell’s shoes to bed and sleep with it.
“We give these dogs whatever they want— period,” McDonnell said.
The dogs usually come from shelters. The longest-tenured Barkee LaRoux resident received care and housing for five years. The McDonnells occasionally decline to take a dog, because they don’t have room, or because the dog’s health issues or physical limitations are too much for them to handle. The facility does not take younger dogs, because they don’t mesh well with the older dogs with health issues.
How a dog is introduced into the fold depends on their personality. If they are anxious, they’re isolated at first, and the whole process is gradual. If they’re ready, they’re added into the mix right away. Sadly, about 90% of the dogs Barkee LaRoux takes in have been abused.
How does she handle it when a dog dies?
“I made a vow to myself that no dog would see me cry when they are about to leave this world,” McDonnell said, explaining that she doesn’t want the dogs worrying about her sobbing as they are making their transition— and she never forgets that she has other sick senior dogs that need her love and attention.
The name of the organization, Barkee LaRoux, came from the very first dog McDonnell and her husband adopted in Southern California. Her name was Bella, and she had multiple medical issues. “She was a very sassy poodle we nicknamed Barkee LaRoux, because it sounded like a French stripper. Many of the dogs talk a lot, especially at feeding time. We thought Barkee LaRoux would be the perfect name for the
Meet Carlynne McDonnell, founder of Barkee LaRoux’s House of Love—and an angel for sick and senior dogs
organization.”
McDonnell admitted that she does have favorites. Currently, it’s Dorothy, a terrier/ chihuahua mix who likes to curl up on the couch next to her while she’s reading. Dorothy has dementia and is blind. How does one know a dog has dementia? They’re quite vacant. When the dog just stands around and clearly doesn’t know where it is, McDonnell and her husband have to start thinking seriously about euthanasia. She said quality of life has to be more than 51%, and that they always consult with a vet regarding the right time.
The greatest expense Barkee LaRoux has is veterinary bills. The nonprofit organization relies totally on donations, which can be challenging, because Barkee LaRoux has to compete with other local animal organizations for those donation dollars.
When asked about her philosophy of life, McDonnell said, “Everyone—both animals and people—deserves a good death. Leaving this world and everything you know and love is traumatic. Everyone should feel love on that
journey, and that’s why I do what I do.”
McDonnell said she believes we are here to help each other. “If you see someone who’s disadvantaged, it’s incumbent upon all of us to reach out and help,” she said.
“Barkee LaRoux is my thing. I want to get the word out so more people will donate, and we can keep doing the vital work we do. We are engaged with these dogs from the moment they come into our arms until the moment they leave them—and they are in our arms when they go to heaven.”
McDonnell thinks that dogs are an excellent judge of character when it comes to humans. If a dog meets someone and is standoffish or even a bit hostile, there’s usually a good reason. She’s often had the experience of having a stranger’s dog come up and lick her hand, with the owner saying: “He never does that!”
McDonnell stated firmly: “That’s because dogs KNOW!”
For more information or to donate, visit www. baarkeelaroux.org.
Carlynne McDonnell: ““Everyone—both animals and people—deserves a good death. Leaving this world and everything you know and love is traumatic. Everyone should feel love on that journey, and that’s why do what do.”
HANDLING THE UNHOUSED
by Haleemon Anderson
Coachella Valley’s government officials and homeless advocates are still sorting out the ramifications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson
The 6-3 decision focused national attention on homelessness and gave law enforcement permission to remove encampments even if there is no available shelter space. Within a month of the June 28 decision, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state agencies to remove encampments on public property—and told cities and counties to do the same, or risk losing state funding.
Palm Springs enacted a sweeping new homeless-encampment ban in July; the city of Indio
followed with similar restrictions soon thereafter.
Greg Rodriguez is the deputy director of government affairs and community engagement for Riverside County’s Housing and Workforce Solutions Department. The collaborative agency coordinates planning and funding for public safety and homelessness and helps steer the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG). Rodriguez said CVAG is addressing the Grants Pass ruling; the Sept. 18 CVAG joint meeting of the Homelessness Committee and the Public Safety Committee included a staff recommendation to create a “model ordinance” for the entire Coachella Valley to address homeless encampments.
Indio Councilman Waymond Fermon, a member of both of the aforementioned CVAG committees, said this discussion is crucial.
“We all have to be on the same page here in the valley,” Fermon said. “With our efforts to mitigate chronic homelessness and transiency, if other parts of the community are lax, (unhoused people) will pick up and just move.”
Still, Fermon said Indio is determined to approach the situation with compassion. He thinks the recently passed city ordinance gives Indio another tool to do that.
“It allows us to take the encampments
down when there are just chronic homeless individuals who are reluctant to receive care or resources,” Fermon said. “I think we have a humane obligation to get these folks to resources. Our goal is not to be punitive. We just want to ensure we’re doing everything in our power and exhausting our resources to get these folks help.”
In Palm Springs, even with the no-camping ordinance, city officials are taking pains not to stigmatize homeless people, according to Rodriguez.
“I give huge props to the police department and the chief,” he said. “They’ve been doing really great work over the last few years, in partnership with the county. If there are not shelter beds available, they won’t cite people just for sleeping. There’s a little bit more compassion in that aspect, and the Navigation Center, I’d say, it’s a tool that will help us clear out encampments.”
The Palm Springs Navigation Center’s early-entry facility opened in March with around 60 beds for temporary shelter. Clients must sign in at the Access Center near City Hall every afternoon for a bed. They are shuttled to and from the navigation site, where they receive dinner and, in the morning, a light breakfast and access to a shower. Qualifying for a transitional space is the next step, after which they can access
Local leaders are trying to get all Coachella Valley cities on the same page following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments
services, including job referrals, counseling and, if needed, substance-abuse care.
Touted as “a game changer” by Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein to KESQ News Channel 3 earlier this year, the 3.64-acre facility is nearing completion. Located in north Palm Springs on McCarthy Road, the center will have full wraparound services for qualifying homeless individuals, including the overnight shelter and 80 units of transitional housing.
The $40 million price tag, paid for with state, local, county and federal funds, suggests the center isn’t likely to be duplicated around the valley—but if successful, it could become a model for future homeless initiatives throughout the country.
In 2023, the point-in-time count for Palm Springs found 239 unsheltered persons, an increase of 8 percent from 2022; the only city in the county with more homeless individuals was Riverside, with 605. Riverside County’s District 4, which encompasses the Coachella Valley, had 755 unsheltered persons.
Numbers were up across Riverside County, with 3,725 homeless individuals counted.
Rodriguez explained that a large network of nonprofit and government agencies is engaged in serving the homeless population. Palm Springs contracts with Martha’s Village and Kitchen to run the Navigation Center; Continuum of Care coordinates Riverside County service providers; Indio partners with the county, as well as the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and Martha’s Village.
When Grants Pass became the law of the land, the county had already been managing homelessness resources and trying to keep encampments to a minimum, according to Rodriguez. He said there was no immediate need to do anything different in Coachella Valley in response to the ruling.
“We’ve (been going) after grants from the state,” Rodrguez said. “The first one was for the Santa Ana River bottom in the Riverside area. We have another one under way in the San Jacinto River bottom. We worked a little bit with Palm Springs on their applications, and we’ll be working with Desert Hot Springs on theirs.”
The CVAG Homeless and Public Safety committees are primarily composed of leaders from the city of Blythe, the local Indigenous tribes and the nine valley cities. They operate as a funnel for the work of the various committees and direct staff on recommendations approved by the committees.
“Part of the (protocol) we have for the county speaks specifically to increasing
the number of shelter beds, and increasing the number of transitional and permanent housing (units), because they are all part of the tools needed to address encampments,” said Rodriguez. “We already did a presentation to Continuum of Care at the county level. The one at CVAG will be the first one (with) more city leaders and public safety officials. But, just to emphasize, even with the ruling, we still are maintaining our encampment protocols at the county level.”
This collaboration is key to meeting the needs of the homeless, Fermon said.
“We have nonprofits and faith-based community organizations that we’re working with, because our goal is to get folks to services. We’re still approaching things from a holistic (perspective), and what I mean by that is with compassion. However, we see that, with respect to the chronic homeless individuals we have in our community, most of them are due to substance abuse issues, mental health issues and alcohol.”
Having full-service agencies in the loop is critical, Rodriguez said. Some chronically homeless individuals are resistant to help; it can take multiple interactions to get to trust the system.
“I know some jurisdictions talk about a 24-hour notice or 72-hour notice (to remove encampments), but it’s just not really a sufficient amount of time to get people connected to the services,” Rodriguez said. “I will say one thing that has changed in the valley is that Palm Springs, even with that ordinance, specifically (said) that they don’t want to criminalize (people). The Navigation Center, I’d say it’s a tool that will help us clear out encampments, because we’ll have emergency shelter beds there, and then the transitional units and full wraparound services.”
Illustration/Dennis Wodzisz
“As
~Marty Massiello, CEO/President
Eisenhower Health is proud to be a community health system in every sense of the word. Not only do we serve our community, but we are actually owned by the community. That means we answer to you. So we carefully assess local health care needs, look ahead at trends and statistics, and plan services accordingly. We consider it our responsibility and our honor to care for the residents of the Coachella Valley. Over the last 20 years, Eisenhower Health has reinvested $1.2 billion to expand and enhance our continuum of care. Examples include:
• Establishing a network of Health Centers across the valley for primary and specialty care
• Investing in state-of-the-art technology in robotic surgery, imaging, and more
• Developing a Graduate Medical Education program to train expert physicians for the future
• Continually expanding services in key areas like cardiovascular, cancer, orthopedics, and behavioral health
When it comes to caring for the Coachella Valley, we’re all in. And we’re all yours.
REOPENING SOON
by Kevin Fitzgerald
For loyal customers of Papa Dan’s Pizza and Pasta in Palm Desert, there is hope in the air as this year’s holiday season approaches: You could be enjoying your favorite pizza or pasta dish on the day after Thanksgiving, or certainly by Christmas Eve.
“We finally have started construction,” said Ira Mosley, owner for 40 years of this Coachella Valley culinary institution on Country Club Drive in Palm Desert. “Right now, they’re in the demolition stage of removing some walls and bathrooms and ceilings and all the garbage on the floors from prior tenants. They’re getting the building prepped for actual construction. The final plans for the kitchen were approved last week, so those are now getting ready to go to the city.
The plans for the restaurant’s to-go counter, bar, all that kind of stuff, hopefully will be done this week.”
He added with a laugh: “They’re still telling me that at end of November or maybe early December, we should be ready to go. But you know how that stuff goes.”
On April 14, the building at the eastern end of the Plaza de Monterey Shopping Center which had served as the only home to Papa Dan’s since 1984 burned to the ground as the result of an arson incident. Mosley wasted no time in securing a new location at the opposite end of the same mall in a building that had been long vacant. At that time, he said he hoped to re-open by October, but inevitable delays involving the architects’ plans, obtaining the necessary permits and gutting the interior have pushed back his re-opening.
“Unfortunately, we had to change architects, because the ones that were supplied by the insurance company were recommended out of Los Angeles—and to say that they were expensive doesn’t even come close,” Mosley said. “So I decided not to use them, and then we had to choose someone out here. There was some delay, but it’s going now. All I can tell you is, it’s going.”
Shortly after the fire, Mosley expressed concerns about how his employees were going to support themselves. He was relieved then to know that all of his employees would be paid for 60 days after the closure—but how have those members of his operation fared in the months since that salary support ran out?
“There are six managers who are actually being paid until we reopen,” Mosley said. “The rest are on unemployment and are doing OK. I’ve been in contact with a good part of them, or if I haven’t, then my general manager has. We set up a GoFundMe page for the employees back at the very beginning. A couple of them have called (to say) they couldn’t make their rent, or couldn’t do this, and couldn’t do that just on the unemployment payments, so I gave them money from that GoFundMe, and they’re doing fine.”
Mosley said that most of his employees
want to remain with Papa Dan’s, despite months of unemployment. “For some, we’ve spent 30 years together, and they don’t want to go anywhere else. So, I said, ‘Good.’ Because, between you and me, opening a new restaurant with all new employees would be a nightmare worse than dealing with the insurance companies.”
When the staff is back and the doors are open again, what can Papa Dan’s afficionados look forward to at the new location in terms of interior ambience and the menu?
“Obviously, 40 years later, there’s going to be a difference in some design,” Mosley said, “but part of the biggest problem with the architects was they kept giving me plans that looked very corporate. It looked like Chili’s or Carrows or somebody else, but I think they finally got that I want it to look like it did before. I know it can’t be exactly the same, but (I’m looking for) that Old World, close, homey, crowded, slightly darker and very mellow and noisy feel. Obviously, when you build stuff new to look old, it still looks new, so we’re doing our best to get it as close to the old place as we can.”
As for the menu, Mosley plans to stick with what made Papa Dan’s popular.
“We had a huge menu, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s going to stay the same,” Mosley said. “Yes, there are some new items that will go on which we do yearly anyway, but I don’t really plan on changing it. It’s been that way for all these years, and people like the stuff, and the food is good. I’ve probably gotten a hundred emails from customers saying, ‘Since you’ve been gone, we’ve tried, like, half a dozen other pizza places in the valley,’ but they said it’s just not the same.”
The Papa Dan’s team has had some catering jobs in recent months, which have kept them in touch with some customers, and allowed them to practice their skills while bringing in some revenue.
“Recently, we did a catering in Sun City for 250 people,” Mosley said. “This was something we had committed to prior to the fire, and it was for a function that they were having at Shadow Hills. It was actually the third or
Papa Dan’s fans could have a slice in hand around Thanksgiving if all goes as planned
fourth one we’ve done during this summer. Monterey Country Club has graciously offered me use of their kitchen to do these, and that’s what enabled us to keep our commitments, so these people didn’t have to go searching for another caterer. In fact, I just got an email this morning from a lady who’s having a wedding next April. That’s a long way off, and she asked, ‘Do you think you’re going to be ready?’
And I replied, ‘Yes. I will.’”
Mosley said both his construction company and the city of Palm Desert have been doing all they can to get Papa Dan’s open again.
“I think the city is kind of pushing a little,” he said. “They’ve been unbelievably cooperative. A couple of plans we’ve had to turn in got approved almost instantaneously. They are not charging me for any fees on any of the plans. The City Council and the mayor have told the Planning Department to expedite anything that comes through for me, and to put it at the top of the list. They want me back open by season as well. According to them, and I hate to say this, I’m a ‘living legend.’”
Another beloved restaurant, D’Coffee
Bouteaque, was also destroyed by that April fire. Just a few storefronts away from Papa Dan’s, owners Mona and Nestor Rodriguez had created a unique coffee, breakfast and lunch hideaway. The numerous fans of the spot have been waiting for word about what the future would hold—and on Sept. 11, the owners posted on Facebook that they had found a location where they could re-open their shop, but that they weren’t going to share details until arrangements had been settled. (The Independent reached out to ask for more details, but no reply came prior to our press deadline.)
Back at Papa Dan’s new space, Mosley is pushing ahead, but he recognizes the challenges before him and his team.
“Some of the equipment’s already been ordered, like the ovens and stuff, that takes six to eight weeks to get,” Mosley said. “The hoods have been ordered, which have to be custommade. Everyone is telling me it’s a go. They said that even if they have to work day and night, they’re going to make sure it gets done—and we will see. Promises are promises.”
Papa Dan’s owner Ira Mosley stands in front of the location where his 40-year-old pizza and pasta establishment is slated to re-open later this year. Kevin Fitzgerald
CANDIDATE Q&A
by Kevin fitzgerald
In 2022, Palm Desert residents went to the polls and expressed their desire for the city to move from two electoral districts (with four of five council members representing one large district, and one member representing the other) into five districts, each with their own representative.
Eventually, the City Council adopted the five-district system, and on Nov. 5, the newly created District 3 will elect its first representative—and the election comes as an explosion of development in the district is raising concerns about a lack of public safety services, middle and high school options for families with children, nearby grocery stores and public-transportation
services.
Stephen Nelson has lived in District 3 since 2019, and he now serves as the president of the Genesis at Millennium Palm Desert Homeowners Association. He serves on both the city’s Public Safety Committee, and the Resource Preservation and Enhancement Committee. Nelson is a graduate of Bowling Green State University (with a degree in business administration) and the Harvard University professional development program. His career that has revolved around software, cybersecurity and telecommunications, but Nelson also cares for his elderly mother and two minor nephews. According to Nelson’s most recent campaign-contribution filing, through June 30, he had received $9,475 in contributions and had $7,890 on hand. His campaign website lists nine endorsements, most notably from Rep. Raul Ruiz, Palm Desert Mayor Karina Quintanilla, Indio City Councilmember Waymond Fermon, Equality California and Democrats of the Desert.
Gina Nestande moved to Palm Desert in 1996 and is an incumbent Palm Desert City Council member. The mother to seven children in her blended family, Nestande earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Missouri, and a master’s degree in business from the University of San Diego. As of June 30, Nestande reported $10,249 in contributions as well as a personal loan to her campaign in the amount of $32,000. Her cash on hand was $10,649. Her campaign website lists “supporters” including Palm Desert City Council members Jan Harnik and Evan Trubee, retired City Council member Sabby Jonathan, CalFire and the International Association of Fire Fighters organizations.
After starting her college education at age 17, Anyse Smith graduated from George Washington University, earning a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. From there, she went on to study at the Paris Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi, completing her master’s degree in international law and diplomacy. Her campaign website mentions that, upon Smith’s return to California, she entered
a period when she was “grappling with issues of drug and alcohol dependence that led to a period of incarceration, homelessness, and numerous hardships. However, her story is one of triumph over adversity. Anyse sought help and emerged victorious, graduating from the Gateway Program at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission in spring 2014.” Since then, she has earned a law degree at California Desert Trial Academy in Indio, and became a licensed attorney. Today, she is a professor at the Desert Trial Academy and serves on the Board of Governance of the Riverside County Continuum of Care. Her campaign-disclosure filing shows that, through June 30, Smith had received $55,179 in contributions and had $26,092 in cash on hand. Smith’s website displays endorsements from organizations including the National Organization for Women of Riverside County, Democratic Women of the Desert, United Steelworkers Local 7600 and others.
The Independent recently spoke with each of the candidates and asked them the same set of six questions. Here, we have space for answers to two of those questions; for all questions and their answers in their entirety, visit CVIndependent.com. The candidates’ answers have been edited only for clarity and style.
Stephen Nelson
How long have you been a resident of District 3, and why are you running to become the first Palm Desert District 3 City Council member?
I have been a resident of District 3 since September of 2019. And in terms of why I’m running for office, that, you know, is a multipronged approach. Our side of the city is new. We had no representation on the at-large council at all. There was nobody who lived north of Fred Waring, right? So the unique environmental issues … were unknown to the council. So, out of sight, out of mind. I always reference that, during the windy season here—which is getting longer and longer— one morning, I found myself trying to exit
Three candidates compete to become the first representative of the Palm Desert City Council’s new District 3
our community on Dinah Shore Drive, which is our northernmost border. Now, I’ve been to the Giza Pyramids in Cairo. I found it easier to drive in the desert near the Giza Pyramids than to drive out onto Dinah Shore. That’s how much sand there was. We could not get out of our neighborhood, and there were no sweepers. There was just no remediation for us at all. We were just kind of stuck.
We had to let people get trucks, you know, to make pathways for those of us who don’t have trucks. We were kind of on our own, and I found that to be odd. So, that was my first foray into calling City Hall, and I said, “You know, we need some help up here.” When you’re in Chicago, and you know the bad weather is coming, they have the snow-shovel people cued and ready, like an army. That way, people aren’t encumbered. But here, they allowed the encumbrance to happen, and then they’re like, “Well, we don’t have enough vehicles,” and they didn’t have enough street sweepers, you know. And it literally took an act of Congress to get us out of here.
So when I called City Hall, I spoke to public works or something. And then I had to get the mayor (at the time, Kathleen) Kelly, and tell her. I’m on our HOA board as president, and I said, “Look, we’re stuck up here, and I need some help. My owners can’t get out.”
And I said, “We’ve got 166 families up here that can’t exit the community because of the amount of sand.” Thankfully, and I still thank her to this day, she got some people up here to dig us out, and it was four feet of sand on our western wall.
So, that was one of the many reasons that I said, “Some things have got to change.” The city is growing quite fast, and it’s because of people like me who came from Los Angeles,
San Francisco and the like, who have schoolaged children, and who are still going to work every day. So, we have requirements. We have to be at work at a certain time. We need the city operating at our pace. And it was clear to me at that point, and later down the line, that they did not have those things in place. My dad always said, “Stop complaining. What are you going to do to resolve the issue?” He’s no longer with us, but my mom seems to echo him and channel him regularly. She is my manager. You know, she lives in the community, too, so she’s one of my owners. So, she said, “You need to get this resolved. Stop complaining. You got to fix it, so go do what you have to do to fix it.” And that’s how I came to run.
What’s your favorite relaxation activity in Palm Desert?
One of my favorite things to do in Palm Desert is, I go to a coffee shop. I’m going to give myself away now, because people are going to find out about it. Anyway, I go to a coffee shop that’s right on Highway 111. It’s one of the newer coffee shops that have come to town. They make coffee from this specific country, and I didn’t know they were a coffee-producer country. But the way in which they couple the coffee and make almost like a dessert drink is special. There are strawberries in it, like actual strawberry puree and actual cream that they whipped. I think matcha goes in it, too, and then the coffee. I didn’t think that combination would be good, but I was encouraged to try it. And now I go there so much, it’s like I have to make a line item for it on my budget, which is a bad thing, But it’s a very relaxing coffee shop. And from time to time, people will just get together and start having discussions about just anything, so you meet people who you
Stephen Nelson, Gina Nestande and Anyse Smith.
NEWS CVINDEPENDENT.COM/
wouldn’t have met, you know, because you’re in your car all the time. Some people bike up to the shop; some people walk; others take cars, and we come from all parts of the city, and we have really good conversations while having delicious coffee.
Gina Nestande
How long have you been a resident of District 3, and why are you running to become the first Palm Desert District 3 city council member?
I know we have just gone to districts, but actually I’m really running for the city of Palm Desert. I know we’re in districts, but I plan on representing what’s best for all of Palm Desert. I’ve been on the council for eight years now, and I will say I thought long and hard about serving eight years and then moving on to a new chapter in my life. However, I had so many people in the community, and even on the council, asking me if I could commit to another term. So, I thought about it long and hard and decided to continue the work that I had been involved with for the past eight years. Some things have been completed, while other things are still a work in progress.
What’s your favorite relaxation activity in Palm Desert?
It is jogging. I’ve been an avid jogger since I started when I was 19 years old, and I’ve not stopped since. I might be a little slower, but I love jogging. Like this morning, I was out at 5 a.m. jogging. So that’s what I do. Sometimes, though, because I’m getting older, I’ll add some walking, and then, usually, I’ll go to the Palm Desert mall. It’s a great place to be inside where it’s cool, and you can walk around.
Anyse Smith
How long have you been a resident of District 3, and why are you running to become the first Palm Desert District 3 city council member?
To your first question, I first moved to the city of Palm Desert in 2014, and when I moved to the city of Palm Desert, I was living in what would now be considered District 2 prior to the redistricting. So, I’ve lived in the city of Palm Desert, and in unincorporated areas of Palm Desert, since then. I moved to
north Palm Desert late last year, prior to the redistricting that took place. That was a move I was very happy about, because I wanted to be closer to the freeway, of course, because I drive a lot for work. North Palm Desert, you know, is a growing area. It has a lot of amenities and services, but it definitely needs more. And now, as a north Palm Desert resident, I’m looking forward to working on behalf of my neighbors to ensure that the same amenities and the same services that we see in other parts of the city will also be here in north Palm Desert.
And then to part two: Why am I running?
I’m running for Palm Desert City Council to represent north Palm Desert residents, because I believe that north Palm Desert needs a strong voice and advocate on the Palm Desert City Council. I, myself, am an educator. I teach at our local law school here in the city of Indio. I’m also a public-interest attorney, which means I work to expand access to justice for generally underserved communities. And I’ve been an advocate, a community advocate, in the Coachella Valley now for over 10 years. Advocacy is what I do. It is what is in my heart, to work on behalf of the community, to make sure that everyone has a voice and a say in determining the future of the place that we call home. That is why I’m running: to be an advocate for north Palm Desert residents.
What’s your favorite relaxation activity in Palm Desert?
I do enjoy playing tennis, and going to Civic Center Park and walking around. I do that with my father when it’s not so hot outside. We go, and we just walk around and around at Civic Center Park. I really just enjoy being outside. The desert is such a beautiful place, and Palm Desert is such a beautiful place where we can enjoy being outside, and hiking, and really just tapping into nature. So, when the weather allows, I really enjoy just being outside.
I also play golf. So, I’ll play golf with my father sometimes. I don’t play good golf, so I’ll make that point. It’s not good golf, but I’ve got my clubs, and I get out there. So, I enjoy doing that with him as well. It’s a very nice opportunity for families to come together and be outside, and it’s also good for the overall health of the community, and that’s something that I very much enjoy.
CANDIDATE Q&A
by Haleemon Anderson
On Nov. 5, Palm Springs voters in District 4 will elect a new City Council representative among five candidates, replacing outgoing councilmember Christy Holstege.
The candidates are slated to participate in a candidates’ forum, held by ONE-PS, at 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Demuth Park Community Center, at 3601 E. Mesquite Road. Ernest Ceceña is a compliance manager for a mortgage firm. He lives in the Tahquitz Creek Golf Neighborhood and has chaired the neighborhood organization for three years. Joe Jackson chairs the neighborhood organization in Los Compadres and is a former chairman of the city’s Sustainability Commission. He credits his management expertise to 30 years
of running a large church in Minneapolis.
Anna Nevenic, a registered nurse, is a community advocate who focuses on issues of public health and health care. She lives in the Tahquitz Creek Golf Neighborhood.
David Rios is a real estate agent and interior designer. He is a member of organizations including the Desert Business Association and the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Naomi Soto is board chair of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. A former chair of the city’s Measure J Oversight Commission, Soto lives in the Sonora Sunrise neighborhood.
District 4 is located on the southeast side of the city. It includes the neighborhoods of Araby Cove, Araby Commons, Los Compadres, Melody Ranch, Rimrock, Sonora Sunrise and Tahquitz Creek Golf.
The Independent recently asked each of the five candidates the same slate of six questions about issues that face District 4 and greater Palm Springs. Here, we have space for answers to two of those questions; for all questions and their answers in their entirety, visit CVIndependent.com. The candidates’ answers have been edited only for clarity and style.
Ernest Ceceña
What experience would you bring to the Palm Springs City Council? What sets you apart from the other candidates? I spent 30 years in the mortgage-banking industry in a financial oversight capacity. Through those 30 years, (I was an) analyst, auditor (and) accountant. I currently serve as a compliance manager. You’re probably familiar with the ongoing investigation into Queer Works, where $700,000 of the city’s community money has become missing. The city manager will be presenting to the City Council … for stricter oversight. It’s been part of the strategy plan (for) good governance for some time now, but it looks like it needs to be beefed up a little bit. I fully support the ideas the city manager will be bringing. Those oversight skills are something I bring naturally to
the City Council.
I chair my neighborhood (organization). Palm Springs is broken out into 52 different, organized neighborhoods. I chair (the Tahquitz Creek Golf) neighborhood and represent about roughly 900 people here in Palm Springs. So, with that, I’ve worked with the community. I understand their concerns. I’ve had to fight for issues that they felt were important, and that (involve) working with City Council, working with city staff and relaying that message back to the communities.
I love my community. I like to work with them. I have a track record, and I think I do it well. I’m on my second two-year term now, and I’ve brought a lot of positive results to the neighborhood, really ensuring my neighbors’ quality of life. I’m looking to expand that by now representing a district, and a city.
What is your ideal night out in Palm Springs? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
My husband and I stay in and do a lot of cooking. We like to monitor our cooking, so going out for dinner is a big treat for us. We don’t experiment much; when we find a restaurant we really like, we want to ensure we’re going back, and we’re having a good meal. Right now, our favorite restaurant is Eight4Nine. It’s beautiful; we love the food and the service. So, going out for an early dinner at Eight4Nine, and then maybe heading to Arenas (Road) to meet up with some friends for a few drinks to catch up. It’s ideal, especially right now. Running a campaign, I don’t always have time to do dates.
Joe Jackson
What experience would you bring to the Palm Springs City Council? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
My primary city involvement was 6 1/2 years on the Sustainability Commission, where I also served three years as chair. In addition to that, within (my) first year of moving to Palm Springs, I was recruited to be the vol-
Five candidates face off to become Palm Springs’ new District 4 City Council representative
unteer coordinator for the city’s 75th anniversary celebration, back in 2012 and 2013. In that role, I met hundreds of city residents. My most recent volunteer role in the city was with my Los Compadres Neighborhood organization, as a member and chair of that advisory board. So, those are my primary city involvements. Beyond the city right now, I’m also on the board of a small water company up in San Bernardino County. Interestingly enough, before moving to Palm Springs at the end of 2011, I did spend 24 years in Minnesota, and so I do have friends who know (vice presidential candidate) Coach (Tim) Waltz. My work life was primarily in nonprofits, as an educator and a nonprofit administrator. I ended my career as an administrator doing financial oversight, personnel management and facility operations for a very large United Methodist Church in Minneapolis. It was a 3,000-member church with a 100-yearold building, so it was a lot to manage, and a wonderfully progressive congregation.
What is your ideal night out in Palm Springs? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
My ideal night out would be a great dinner at a restaurant in Palm Springs—dinner with friends and then a walk down Palm Canyon Drive, window-shopping. And let me add: I prefer to do that when the temperatures are 85 and below.
Anna Nevenic
What experience would you bring to the Palm Springs City Council? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
I am very knowledgeable about the issues because I am observing every aspect of the needs in the community. I go to many conferences (for) nonprofits or organizations who are addressing either homelessness or health-care issues. Being a registered nurse, I have seen
certain needs that are very important, and I’m interested in increasing the revenue (to address these issues). I want to have more transparency, because there could be lots of waste with the present City Council. Many people I talk (with) are not happy, because they’re not transparent. And as I have said, there are resources that are being wasted unnecessarily that could be used to improve the infrastructure and do other things that we need.
I’m a compassionate nurse who sees problems and, you know, mental illness and depression among young people. I like to (be) involved, to work together with all these sectors, you know, the school system, the nonprofits, on how to be efficient in preventing the problems with our youth. So, it’s a village. It takes a village. We have to really cooperate and work together. This is why I believe that I will be the best-equipped to do that, because with one person, in one city alone, there are many issues that are connected. You know, it’s not just that it’s affecting Palm Springs itself. So infrastructure has to be improved and, as I say, use these savings by being more frugal.
What is your ideal night out in Palm Springs? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
Well, I volunteer for everything. I am a professional volunteer for the tennis tournaments, film festivals, for golf, for the food expo. I volunteer in the schools in the after-school programs. I am there for all these things, because you get involved in the community when you go to these events. I like to travel, so I do go to Los Angeles a lot, for my social life, and when it’s hot. So, I do make a difference. Volunteers contribute a lot to the local economy. I am always helping people, giving advice, either to senior citizens, or wherever I meet people. They always have questions about something. So I am, every day, making a difference in somebody’s life, in some ways.
Ernest Ceceña, Joe Jackson, Anna Nevenic, David Rios and Naomi Soto.
NEWS
David Rios
What experience would you bring to the Palm Springs City Council? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
The clear separation between myself and other candidates is that I came to Palm Springs in 2012 as an interior designer and a real estate agent. Coming here, working with the development of new projects, working with the city infrastructure and having that background of 28 years of understanding development and design, really elevates me, (along) with my years of experience being a licensed agent.
I’ve worked with tribal land, also commercial spaces, and really understand our zoning. In addition, having my own small business in Palm Springs, there’s no other candidate who understands the pain or suffering that we take on and endure during the time frame of developing a business here. It’s been inspirational. It’s been challenging, still being able to survive, even through COVID and through the hardships of getting financing. So, that’s a clear indication of the separation that makes me stand out, being a business owner, having to deal with incidents with the unhoused, dealing with tourism dropping from how it was maybe a few years ago. That affects me individually.
The second part that really separates me is … a sense of community in terms of hands-on working with the general public, working with our nonprofit organizations, our volunteering and being relatable to the entire city. There’s not a nonprofit organization that I don’t volunteer (or) raise money for. I’m a really big face for the city, from the north side to the south side. And that’s hours of volunteering, or money given back or fundraising or cleaning up. That’s the clear definition. When you hear David Rios, you already know he’s tied and connected into the whole city.
What is your ideal night out in Palm Springs? Where are you going and what are you doing?
Oh, it’s a tour of Palm Springs. We are just filled with so many little gems. I go to the boutique hotels, and I go into their bars; I go into their little restaurants. I have a drink; I have a little appetizer, and I’m off to the next one. I end my night at a beautiful Melvyn’s, or the Purple Room, where I’m able to see live entertainment that embodies Palm Springs. It’s relaxation. It brings me back to an old time period of when Palm Springs was originally developed. I love hearing classical music. I love hearing a pianist. I love to hear vocals. That’s what really suits David Rios, that’s giving back to our small businesses and giving an experience of Palm Springs like no other. I let people know these little hotels that are off the hidden path; these are the
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS
gems of Palm Springs. Spend some time with them. Give them money, but really experience the different elevation of their designs, the concept on their drinks, and feel the energy of what they’re all conveying, because they’re all different characters. So that’s what you’re giving friends and family, you know, that understanding and just having a little taste of Palm Springs, if you will.
Naomi Soto
What experience would you bring to the Palm Springs City Council? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
Well, it’s a crowded race, but I’m really proud of the experience and perspective and service that I have shown the city. I am a public health professional. I have been working in public health for 20 years. I am a working parent, and I’m a feminist organizer, so just in general, I really care about issues in terms of campaigns and City Council runs and other work in politics. Public service is a core value for me. I have just recently completed a six-year term on the Measure J Commission where I ended up as the chair the last two years and vice chair right before that. So, I have deep experience and understanding of the machinations of City Council and understand how some of the budget decisions and infrastructure decisions are made. During my six years on Measure J, I oversaw over $120 million of infrastructure spending in Palm Springs, so I look forward to bringing over that kind of commission experience, as well as my other life experience in public health.
What is your ideal night out in Palm Springs? Where are you going, and what are you doing?
So that’s a very funny question. I say that because I’m usually having a day out, not a night out. I have two small children; my daughter is 4. My son is 2 1/2. There are a lot of families like that, in that same life space as me. If I were to think of a Saturday, or a weekend, we are often hitting the farmers’ market, hitting the playground, going to a pool—sometimes our pool; sometimes it’s a friend’s pool. Sometimes we get day passes and go to some of the hotels, and they’ll have playgrounds and slides and stuff like that. I try to find a restaurant that is a little family-friendly when we can; it’s not easy. We do a lot of takeout and taking it home, and I say that all in jest, just because I’m really connected with a lot of families here in Palm Springs who are interested in finding places to spend time with their kids. I really care a lot about multi-generational experiences that you can have. Anytime I can find some place where I can go with my parents and my kids, it’s a great Saturday.
Sunday, October 13 - 5:30 PM
Garden Party
A benefit for AAP – Food Samaritans Presented by Eisenhower Health
a
tickets are $200 per person and include hosted bar, abundant hors d’oeuvres by Eight4Nine, and valet parking
visit aapfoodsamaritans.org or call 760-325-8481
address
Featuring
special performance by Debby Holiday
CIVIC SOLUTIONS
by Melissa Daniels
Since 2018, Coachella Valley resident Becki Robinson and a group of volunteers from Courageous Resistance of the Desert have registered more than 1,500 voters via drives held at the Mary Pickford Is D’Place Theater, the Cathedral City Library and Palm Springs VillageFest. The nonpartisan drives help people register to vote, update their information or change their party affiliation. For Robinson, getting just one person signed up at these events makes them worth the effort.
But this year, Robinson has a focus on one specific group: People who have been convicted of felonies. More than once, someone has told the volunteers they can’t vote because they have
a felony conviction, or are on parole after serving prison time. But under California law, they are probably eligible to register to vote.
“Many would like to register, but the lack of clear information and fear of being arrested again keeps them from doing so,” Robinson said. “They deserve to know that they, like everyone else, have the right to vote once they’ve served their time.”
California voters in November 2020 passed Proposition 17, which restored the right to vote to people with felony convictions; after they finish serving their prison term, they can re-register. An estimated 50,000 people have regained voting rights thanks to the law. In 2022, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 504 to require the Secretary of State to provide county elections officials with information on who would be eligible to re-register going forward.
Despite these laws, Robinson believes many people remain unaware—and disenfranchised.
“I haven’t met a single person who has received the notice they were supposed to get from the state saying their voting rights were restored,” she said.
Here’s how the process is supposed to work: The California Secretary of State (SOS) receives weekly reports from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) of people who have been released from prison, and who is on parole. The Secretary of State cross-references the names with voter-registration records to find matches. It sends that information to counties, which are supposed to send a notice to individuals explaining how to re-register.
But there’s another group of names sent to the counties: a list of people released from prison who do not come up as a match in voter-registration records. SOS spokesperson Jordan Reilly said counties are encouraged to send notices to these individuals, too, but they’re not required to do so. The SOS does not receive any confirmation from counties that notices have been sent. All county clerks and registrars of voters received a letter about
this process in March 2023.
Riverside County, according to state records, has received information about 286 “matched voters” since April 2023. It has also received 2,767 names of people who do not match voter records.
The Independent asked Riverside County for further information on how many letters it has sent. Public information officer Elizabeth Florer declined to provide a copy of those reports, citing personal information, but confirmed that the registrar receives the aforementioned reports from the state. “Our process is we send a letter to those persons,” Florer said in an email.
Florer also said the county’s outreach team runs voter-registration and education drives, where it includes information about the felony-related registration rules.
Robinson has doubts that anyone is receiving such letters, and she wonders why more attention hasn’t been paid to this issue, given the stakes of modern elections. The last presidential election in 2020 saw nearly 81% participation among registered voters in California—but just less than 71% of the eligible population voted. Robinson wants to see that at 100%, or as close to it as possible.
“All of us have a right to vote, and we also have a responsibility to vote,” she said Disenfranchising voters with felonies—and confusion around the registration process—is certainly not unique to California. The Sentencing Project, an advocacy organization working to create a more humane and equitable criminal-justice system, recently published a report called “Out of Step: U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective.” It said the U.S. restricts more than 4.4 million people from voting because of a felony conviction. That puts our country in the minority of other large nations: 73 out of 136 countries with populations of 1.5 million or more never or rarely deny a person’s right to vote because of a conviction. In the U.S., only Maine, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico allow everyone—including people in prison— to vote.
Local volunteers are spreading the word about voter registration to people formerly incarcerated for felonies
Though states are increasingly allowing people to re-register when they are no longer in prison, The Sentencing Project said there’s still confusion, as well as a lot of obstacles. People may not know what laws have changed, or ongoing legal challenges can muddy the waters. More practically, corrections officers may not tell the citizen returning to society about the voting-rights restoration, or the paperwork can be a burden.
“Due to this legal instability, and the fact that different states have vastly different laws for voting-rights restoration, even election officials tend to be confused as to eligibility rules, which itself can exacerbate voter confusion,” the report said.
As of January 2024, about 93,900 people were incarcerated in the state. The CDCR has a budget of about $14.3 billion, or roughly 6.2% of the overall state budget. If the very same people who are living in that system are unable to re-access the election system, our democracy is failing to incorporate the perspectives of those who have lived under the rule of government in ways many of us have not.
The issue is even more critical when considering the ongoing marginalization, racial disparities and discrimination that exist in the justice system.
“The right to vote, and the legitimacy of the democratic system in the United States, should not depend on its criminal legal system, which is built out of and perpetuates structures of discrimination,” The Sentencing Project report said.
In lieu of a system that does not revokes someone’s right to vote in the first place, advocates need to inform the community as part of broader get-out-the-vote efforts.
In the coming weeks, Robinson’s group will be in the lobby of the Pickford theater every weekend, Tuesday and Wednesday. Their table includes information from the Secretary of State’s office about the felony-related registration rules, as well as other election-related materials, like where to find ballot-drop boxes.
“Our goal is to ensure that anyone eligible to vote knows that they can come to our events, and register to exercise their rights,” Robinson said.
The Courageous Resistance voting-registration drive will take place from 1 to 7 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Mary Pickford Is D’Place Theater, 36850 Pickfair St., in Cathedral City. To register, pre-register or check your voter status, visit registertovote.ca.gov.
Emily Vogt and Becki Robinson during a registration event at the Mary Pickford Theater. Photo courtesy of Becki Robinson
CV HISTORY
BOffice of Indian Affairs agent Clara True advocated for the Morongo tribe and helped repair relationships
y the early 1900s, the relationship between some Native Americans and white settlers in Southern California had deteriorated to the point where the government knew a strong mediator was needed. In a surprise move, they called upon Clara True—a female Indian agent whom her boss at the time called “the best man for the job.” by greg niemann
True got the appointment in 1908—after 25 years of governmental bureaucracy, complete with studies, commissions and fact-finding regarding the problems between white settlers and the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Indians.
In the early 1880s, the U.S. Congress sent author/activist Helen Hunt Jackson (who would pen Ramona based on her experience) and activist Abbot Kinney to document the situation on California reservations. Their report on the difficult conditions was not immediately acted upon.
In the late 1880s, the Office of Indian Affairs ordered white squatters on the Morongo Indian Reservation to be removed by the county sheriff. The squatters sued the government, and given the political climate at the time, they had a good chance of winning. Congress then finally acted on the recommendations made by Jackson and Kinney and established the Mission Indian Commission.
The commission, which consisted of Albert K. Smiley, Charles Painter and Joseph P. Moore, visited Southern California in 18901891. The commission found a troubled situation in the Banning area, with about 100 Cahuilla Indians of the Morongo Band being exploited by about 300 white settlers. Commissioner Smiley commented that strong racial prejudice in the area would virtually prohibit any legal justice for the Indigenous residents— and indeed, nothing happened. For the next 18 years, relations got even worse.
Indian agents were non-existent or ineffectual. Tensions were high, with many whites considering Native Americans “good for nothing.” Liquor had become a serious problem among the Indigenous residents, and their lands were unsuitable for farming due to a lack of water.
The Office of Indian Affairs (OIA; it was renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947) had started offering then-unprecedented opportunities for women—mostly white, with some Native American women who had been educated in boarding schools—to work as teachers, nurses and field matrons. Thus, many women found a new calling: Reform work regarding the situation faced by Indigenous residents.
A lifelong reformer
Clara D. True (1867-1935) was born in Kentucky, went to college in Missouri, and spent
more than 50 years of her life working as a reformer on behalf of Native Americans. In the 1890s, she was stationed as a boarding school teacher on the Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, eventually serving six years as principal.
From 1902 to 1907, True worked as the teacher in the day school at Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. She and superintendent Clinton J. Crandall were the primary officials of the OIA for the Pueblo, also serving as de facto health officials, demographers, arbiters and legal consultants—as well as the eyes and ears of the government. Their experiences and records were released in a 2011 book by Adrea Lawrence, Lessons From an Indian School, published by the University Press of Kansas. By 1908, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Francis E. Leupp faced a dilemma: He had to turn around the untenable situation on the Morongo Reservation. He reviewed his field staff and concluded, “The very man to do the job was Miss Clara D. True.” He later said, “I gave her a man’s work, and she has done it better than any man who has been in there for 30 years.”
True arrived in desolate Morongo, looked around—and decided to resign on the spot. Fortunately, she reconsidered and went on to become one of the most productive Indian agents of the era.
Working out of her headquarters on the Morongo Reservation in Banning from 1908 to 1910, she was also placed in charge of the Chemehuevi Reservation in Twentynine Palms and three other reservations. While the earlier Smiley Commission recommended that land be set aside for the Indigenous residents at Twentynine Palms, True was the first Indian Affairs employee to visit there. She obtained a surveyor to establish proper legal boundaries, ending disputes over the local water hole and protecting valuable water rights. She wrote to the OIA, noting that at Twentynine Palms, “the few Indians have for several years not known their exact rights and have suffered cattle depredations by Americans who claim that the spring is not on Indian land.”
She also discovered that the tribal cemetery was outside of the reservation, on land belonging to the railroad. She initiated plans for the government to acquire the cemetery land for
them by trade with the railroad; the deal was finalized in 1911.
On the reservations, the feisty agent fought not only the bootleggers who supplied the Indigenous residents, but also all alcohol sales. She even enlisted the aid of nationally renowned saloon-breaker and prohibitionist William “Pussyfoot” Johnson to help her drive booze-peddlers from the area.
Agent True tried to ensure peace during the massive September-October 1909 manhunt for Willie Boy, a Paiute-Chemehuevi resident who was accused of murder. Fearing a possible revolt, she espoused caution in the apprehension of Willie Boy.
Not involved with suffrage
According to someone who knew her well, True was “a short, dynamic, little old maid.” The national issue of the day was the vote for women, but Clara True herself said she was no suffragette and wouldn’t vote if she could. True set out to help, and she was able to assist Native Americans in sustaining themselves. She taught new methods of irrigation, and had them create tunnels and ditches. They were so successful that they created a labor shortage: With so many Indigenous residents busy working their own fields, white farmers had to bring in Native Americans from outside reservations to help.
Clara True also made a huge impact in her two years as the Indian agent in repairing Indigenous/white relationships. She spoke Spanish and conversed with Native Americans using that language. Her immediate supervisor once described her as “a woman of 40 years of age, small in stature but strong and wiry, with an indomitable will and courage, thoroughly able to handle the Indians and all questions arising in connection with her work.”
While stationed at Morongo, she was also credited for rescuing some Native American girls from a life of vice: “I robbed the Los Angeles Red Light and got back the girls, many of them Sherman Institute-educated but gone wrong from a bad start. … I made Southern California pretty safe for Indians.” Her friend Marah Ellis Ryan—an author, actress and activist considered an authority on Native Americans—agreed that True “did stop the sale of slave Indian girls at $10 each—formerly a habitual traffic across the (U.S.-Mexican) border.”
In 1910, True returned to New Mexico to settle near the Santa Clara Pueblo, where she owned and managed a series of ranches until her death.
One old photo of Clara True shows her with a group in a desert camp. Her longsleeved shirt with bandana, long skirt and boots seemed appropriate for the climate and the era—but the oversized straw sombrero dwarfed the diminutive woman. A close-up photo shows what was under that sombrero: friendly, with compassionate eyes and a strong determined jaw.
She didn’t think she needed the right to vote. Instead, she made a difference all by herself.
Sources for this article include Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt by Harry Lawton (Malki Museum Press, 1960); The Chemehuevi Indians of Southern California by Ronald Dean Miller and Peggy Jeanne Miller (Malki Museum Press, 1967); The Chemehuevis by Carobeth Laird (Malki Museum Press,1976); “The Chemehuevi” by A.L. Kroeber in his Handbook of the Indians of California, 1925; Los Angeles Herald, June, 3, 1909; Clara True and Female Moral Authority by Margaret D. Jacobs (University of Nebraska, 2002); “The Native Americans of Joshua Tree National Park: An Ethnographic Overview and Assessment Study” by Cultural Systems Research, Inc. 2002.
Clara True. Nell Murbarger Collection, courtesy of the Malki Museum
OCTOBER ASTRONOMY
Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight For October, 2024
The month brings a potentially bright comet—and the possible eruption of a nova!
This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.
GBy Robert Victor
ood news about Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS): After being lost in the glare on the far side of the sun for several weeks, the comet was again seen in mid-September by observers in Australia, who report that its brightness should provide an impressive show in October.
The comet will pass closest to Earth on Oct. 12, at a distance of 43.9 million miles. The comet is visible in the mornings, rising in twilight 7-8° south of east, just more than an hour before sunrise through Oct. 4; binoculars should give the best views. The comet will be 12° to the upper right of a rising, 1 percent crescent on Oct. 1. It seems likely that there’ll be a surge in the comet’s brightness, caused by forward scattering of
sunlight by cometary dust grains, as the comet passes halfway between Earth and the sun, while appearing within 4° to the upper left of the midday sun, on Oct. 9. Will Comet C/2023 A3 become visible in the daytime, as Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) was in Palm Springs on Jan. 14 and 15, 2007?
To try for a daytime naked-eye or binocular sighting, stand in the shade on the north side of a building at 12:33 p.m. in Palm Springs, and be very careful to block the sun entirely with the top of the building. Then look 4.3° to the upper right of the (hidden!) sun’s midday position on Oct. 8; then on the next day, Oct. 9, look 3.9° above and slightly to the left of the sun’s position; and look 7.2° to the upper left of the sun on Oct. 10. Let’s hope for a very dusty comet to make these observations possible!
You can also try looking during sunrise and sunset on Oct. 9, 3.6° to the upper left of the rising sun, and 4.5° to the upper right of the setting sun. Again, be absolutely sure the sun is completely covered! The conjunction of comet with the sun on Oct. 9 will be followed a few days later by a favorable emergence into the western evening sky, as the comet climbs higher and farther away from the sun nightly. The comet’s daily eastward shift against background stars is 5.6° on Oct. 11-12, and then 5° on Oct. 14-15, slowing to 4° on Oct. 17, and 3° on Oct. 20. It’s down to 2° per day on Oct. 24, and just 1.5° on Oct. 27.
Predictions of a comet’s brightness can be notoriously uncertain! A forecast by comet researcher Joseph Marcus, reported by Bob King on the website of Sky and Telescope, cautiously predicts magnitude -4.8 at peak brilliance on Oct. 9; magnitude +0.2 on Oct. 13; magnitude +2.5 on Oct. 17; and magnitude +3.6 on Oct. 20.
In other news: Keep checking the Northern Crown, Corona Borealis, for the once-in-a lifetime eruption of the recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis. The brightest star in the Crown is 2.2-magnitude Alphecca, or Alpha Coronae Borealis. It’s easy to spot, nearly 20°
east-northeast of Arcturus, and one-third of the way from Arcturus toward Vega. (Vega and Arcturus are 59° apart.)
In reasonably dark skies, seven stars in the bowl-shaped crown are usually seen. Here’s a list of the seven stars, in order from west to east, counterclockwise around the arc, with their magnitudes: Theta (magnitude 4.2), Beta (3.7), Alpha (Alphecca, 2.2), Gamma (3.8), Delta (4.6), Epsilon (4.1) and Iota (5.0). Note the three stars along the southern edge of the crown—Alpha, Gamma and Delta—lie in a nearly straight line. When the “Blaze Star” T Coronae Borealis becomes visible, it will extend that line another 2.2° past Delta, so there will be four stars—Alpha, Gamma, Delta and T— arranged in a nearly straight line. Check often, because T CrB won’t remain near peak brilliance very long before it quickly fades.
A quick summary of our usual topics, the visibility of the moon and planets: At dusk, look for brilliant Venus, of magnitude -4, low in the west-southwest to southwest, and Saturn, of magnitude +0.7, well up in the southeastern sky. Watch the moon pass a few degrees south (to the lower left) of Venus on Oct. 5; pass Antares on Oct. 7; and hopscotch past Saturn on Oct. 13-14. Venus goes 3° north of Antares on Oct. 25. A telescope shows Venus’ tiny disk now in gibbous phase; the planet will be much more interesting to follow in January through March as it draws closer to Earth and displays half and backlit crescent phases. As Earth pulls ahead of Saturn, we see the rings temporarily opening to 5.0° or more from edge-on from Oct. 19-Dec. 5.
As morning twilight begins to brighten, Jupiter, of magnitude -2.6 in Taurus, and Sirius, of magnitude -1.5 in Canis Major, dominate. On Oct. 9, Jupiter begins 10° of retrograde motion, entirely bracketed between the stars Aldebaran and Beta and Zeta Tauri, the tips of the horns of the Bull. Mars, at magnitude +0.5 to +0.1, is in Gemini nearly all month before crossing into Cancer. At month’s end, the red planet still ranks below Capella and
Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon. Oct.1: 39 minutes after sunset. 15: 40 " " " 31: 41 " " "
emerging Arcturus in brilliance, but overtakes Procyon and ends about equal to Rigel. Mars passes 5.7° south of Pollux on Oct. 19, the first of a triple conjunction between them in 202425. Watch Mars nearly align with the Twin stars on Oct. 29 and 30: A line from Castor to Pollux, 4.5° long, extended about 7°, will locate Mars. Follow the waning moon in the morning: Look for the old moon low in the east at dawn on Oct. 1. After full, watch the moon pass widely north of Aldebaran on Oct. 20; pass north of Jupiter and very close to Beta Tauri on Oct. 21; move through the field of Castor, Pollux and Mars on the mornings of Oct. 23 and 24; and pass closely north of Regulus on Oct. 26. On Oct. 30, look for the star Spica rising below a thin crescent moon beautifully illuminated by earthshine on its upper, non-sunlit side. On the following morning, Oct. 31, look again about 40 minutes before sunrise for an even thinner old moon rising to
the lower right of Spica.
The Astronomical Society of the Desert will host a star party on Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center; and on Saturday, Oct. 26, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For dates and times of other star parties, and maps and directions to the two sites, visit astrorx.org.
The Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar is available by subscription from www.abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar. For $12 per year, subscribers receive quarterly mailings, each containing three monthly issues.
Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky and other wonders of nature.
Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller
Fomalhaut
October's evening sky chart.
ROBERT D. MILLER
Despite the lack of a proper roller-skating facility in the Coachella Valley, deeply passionate people have come together to form a group focused on roller skating. Check that: They’ve come together to form at least four groups focused on roller skating. Whether they’re skating on a basketball court, on the streets of Palm Springs, or inside a hangar at the Palm Springs Air Museum, these (mostly) women on wheels have found ways to explore their love for skating.
If you’re looking for a good introduction to roller skating, look no further than Just Us Girls Skating (aka JUGS). The group focuses on roller-skating basics, as well as an intro to dance skating. The group meets at 7:30 p.m. most Wednesdays at Freedom Park, at 77400 Country Club Drive, in Palm Desert—and on Wednesday, Oct. 30, they’ll hold a special Halloween skate. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/justusgirlsskating.
UGS representative Frances Olalde said the group started during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
attention of some more seasoned roller veterans.
“Our group of skaters really caters to a lot of beginner skaters—people who used to skate maybe when they were younger, but haven’t done it in years, or they are intimidated to do the park skating or the street skating,” Olalde said. “We were very beginner skaters, and then some other skaters who were more advanced said, ‘Hey, we’ll help you guys; let us come over and we’ll help you out.’”
The JUGS group started traveling out of town to meet other skaters and gain experience at venues better suited for them than a basketball court.
“Those people at the other roller rinks would find out we were coming an hour and a half or two hours to the roller rink, and they started to take us under their wings, and they’re like, ‘We’ll come down to the desert, and we’ll help you guys,’” said Olalde. “We were wanting more dance skate, because there’s nothing in the desert for dance skating. Little by little, we started having a lot of people come down and teach. People from Chicago, from Santa Monica, they all come down and give us classes. Word got out, and then we just started to get bigger. … Little by little, you start to see that there are a lot of people who really want to roller skate.”
Olalde said she’s proud of how people have gotten their start in the roller community through JUGS, and then branched out to the more advanced groups in the desert.
“As they start to come with us every Wednesday, you start to see their development, how they’re building their confidence, and they’re starting to get more brave,” Olalde said. “Some of our skaters started off not knowing how to skate … and they’re now derby skaters; some are now doing park skating. … All the other girls from the other groups skate with us and invite us to skate with them, so we’re a mixture of everything. We have beginners; we have advanced; and everybody helps out one another—because we all start out beginners.”
JUGS will participate in Skate El Paseo Pink at 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19.
$10, and kids 10 and under get in free. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/ coachellavalleyderbygirls.
President and team member Ginny Broderick said the lack of a proper roller rink in the desert led to the team’s partnership with the Air Museum.
“I joined in 2018, and we didn’t have a home venue then, so all of the games were away games, because finding a place to skate and play bouts because of the amount of room you need is really hard,” Broderick said. “We were able to partner with the Palm Springs Air Museum, and they gave us one of the hangers. That has been such a blessing for us, because it’s big enough to lay down the track.”
The local roller community grew significantly during the pandemic—as evidenced by the massive crowd at last year’s season opener.
“The line was out the door, and there were hundreds of people I had never seen,” Broderick said. “The valley just shows up for us every game, and there are always at least a couple hundred people, usually 200-300 people, who come to the games, and they’re very excited. They wear our merch; they have cheers, and it’s so exciting. They’re the biggest games I’ve ever been a part of. Whenever we travel and we go to away games, the venues never seem to be quite as big as the one we have here. I have heard the teams who come to play against us, and they’re just amazed: ‘I cannot believe your crowd; I can’t believe your venue. This is the coolest ever. Please invite us back.’”
Every member of the Coachella Valley Derby Girls is also a promoter, an advertiser and a derby-track installer, in addition to being a skater-athlete.
“Obviously you want to look for something to do, because there’s nowhere to go, nothing to do—so I just started skating here in my backyard,” Olalde said. “A couple of girls who we were all friends with got their skates, and then we just kind of just started skating together, just us girls. Little by little, we started getting more friends to join our group, and then before you knew it, it was starting to kind of grow on its own.
“I’m a registered nurse. My friends were probation officers, police officers, teachers, so they were all career-goal-oriented, and they wanted to still roller skate, but they didn’t want to roller skate too hard, where you have to drop down in bowls. Since we don’t have a roller rink here in the desert, we just do it at basketball courts.”
As the group began hosting meetings with other new skaters, they attracted the
Adrenaline-seeking
skaters and fans of high-impact sports need to check out the Coachella Valley Derby Girls, the desert’s flat-track, full-contact roller-derby team. Sometimes they travel to face teams around Southern California; other times, they play home games at the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam Hangar at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Their final home game of the season is at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26. Tickets are
“The team does all of the work,” Broderick said. “We set everything up ourselves, and we promote on social media; we sell tickets; we do pre-sales for the crowd. ... We recruit the vendors, and we have merch for the team. Just (recently), we were able to set up a track crew, so we’ve got a whole crew now that we’ve trained to lay down the track before the game, and that’s just going to be their job now, to help us out so that the team doesn’t get so exhausted before the game.”
Broderick said the Coachella Valley Derby Girls are happy to be a part of a growing and diverse group of local skaters.
“We all try to mutually promote each other,” Broderick said. “I know some of our girls skate with the JUGS girls, and Frances’ husband was actually a sponsor for the derby team last season. They do come to the games, and we give shoutouts on social media to each other.
“There is no competitiveness between this group and that group; we just want to promote roller skating in the valley. If recreation is your thing, and that’s what you want to be a part of, please do it. If you like to hit people and get a little feisty, come over and see us.”
Coachella Valley Derby Girls
Roller
skaters looking to hang out with like-minded desert folks, explore the beauty of Palm Springs on wheels and enjoy some great local coffee should check out Cruise N’ Coffee, which usually meets once a month for a skate around town. For more information, visit instagram.com/ cruisencoffee.
Cruise N’ Coffee’s Deserae Gomez explained how her group’s distance-skate differs from the other events the CV roller scene has to offer.
“We like to cruise around in Palm Springs, and it’s basically my way of just getting people to meet each other, so that they can make those connections,” Gomez said. “As you get older, you do start to realize that you don’t always hold on to the same friends, because we grow as human beings, and we change our likes and change our hobbies, so it’s nice to have this monthly meeting where people can meet, and friendship blossoms.”
Gomez, like many others, got her start with the JUGS crew.
“That was such an awesome experience to meet those girls who wanted to bring Venice vibes here in the desert, because everybody wants to learn how to jam-skate,” Gomez said. “I started doing that, and then I transitioned once I felt comfortable in building my fundamentals. I transitioned into the skate park, and I got a lot better and more comfortable with speed. … I would go to work, and sometimes, before I would go to work, I would throw my skates on and cruise around Palm Springs. I had done that a few times
just to get some physical activity in, because it’s really good cardio, and the architecture in Palm Springs is just so beautiful that you can’t help but want to skate around in the neighborhoods and look at everything. I started doing that, and then a few times, I started taking people with me. I started getting my friends to come out with me, and I had a few girls who I would go to the skate park with … and they started joining me.”
The meetups became monthly, and Gomez began teaching amateur skaters about street awareness and community.
“The most important thing is learning how to be safe while doing this activity in the street, and give you the confidence to be like, ‘Hey, I’m tired of being inside all day; I’m just going to throw my skates on and go for a little cruise really quick around my neighborhood,’” Gomez said “People who started with saying, ‘I’m so nervous,’ are now constantly saying, ‘Thank you so much for showing me how to do this; I just cruised my neighborhood.’ … It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve enjoyed contributing to our community, because the end goal is for everybody to be happy. I feel like we’ve pretty much accomplished that, and I absolutely love it.”
Cruise N’ Coffee’s diverse attendees have added even more vibrancy to the growing community of desert skaters.
“It has brought people from all creeds and colors and from different locations,” Gomez said. “We get people from the Inland Empire and the high desert. We’ve had people from Murrieta drive down to come and cruise with us. It’s been super-beneficial, just to our community, and it’s something that I personally wanted to do to help people— because at the end of the day, I love hanging out with people.”
Cruise N’ Coffee is planning a Halloween cruise, starting at the downtown Palm Springs park at 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 26.
Drop into a bowl with Community in Bowls (CIB), a group focused on skating in empty pools, half pipes and bowls. Their next scheduled meet is their fifth annual Ghouls in Bowls Halloween event on Friday, Oct. 24, at La Quinta X Park, at 46170 Dune Palms Road, in La Quinta. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/cib_palm_springs.
CIB administrator Gabriela Pallini said the local Community in Bowls group formed as a chapter of a worldwide organization.
“CIB stands for Community in Bowls, but originally it was Chicks in Bowls, and it started in New Zealand,” Pallini said. “You can find chapters worldwide in most major cities. A little over a year ago, CIB as a company disbanded, so we no longer have a boss telling us what we can do and what we can’t do, but we decided to keep the name, because we felt like Communities in Bowls best represented us, because everyone in our group is so different. We’re mostly focused on skating at the skatepark, and doing transitions like skateboarders would—bowls, grinds and things like that. We do have meetups pretty regularly, at least once a month, to get everyone together, and sometimes they’re focused on teaching brand-new skaters how to get comfortable at the skate park, and etiquette, and things like that.”
Pallini runs CIB with Casey Keding, someone she credits with helping grow the local roller scene.
“She works over at the La Quinta X Park and Palm Springs Skate Park, and she’s in charge of the quad events over there,” Pallini said. “She kind of took me under her wing and taught me very basic stuff, and then when I felt comfortable enough, we both were
teaching people, and it was fun. We’ve had a bunch of people filter in and out, and not just roller skaters, but rollerbladers, skateboarders, scooter kids and bike people. We’re trying to be cool with everybody, and everybody’s growing, and everybody’s having fun. It’s cool to support everybody out there.”
CIB, like the other groups, has experienced an increase in participation.
“Right now, we’ve probably had the most turnout that we’ve ever had, even though I would say that these action sports are kind of on a decline,” Pallini said. “We have a pretty good group of people who meet up and attend our meetups. Collectively, Deserae (Gomez, who is also part of CIB) and a couple of the other girls we skate with have traveled to other places to connect with other groups. Earlier this year, we went to something called Moxi Camp at Woodward West. It’s a huge indoor and outdoor skate park facility (in Tehachapi, Calif.), and they host camps throughout the year. All wheels are welcome there, but at Moxi Camp, it’s quad only, and it’s run by Michelle Steilen, who owns the Moxi brand, which is a roller skate brand. We connected with a bunch of people, so we’ve actually collaborated with other skate groups in Los Angeles or in Phoenix. We have a bunch of friends in Arizona now, and we’ve had meetups with them. It’s a really cool way to connect and meet other people.”
As the scene has grown, so, too, has a sense of positivity and community.
“I feel like, for me personally, when I started skating, the community was so small and so spread out, so it felt not as welcoming as it does now,” Pallini said. “It’s a really positive environment, for the most part. Personalities are all different, and you occasionally get people who don’t like what you’re doing or don’t like how you’re doing it, but it never really has affected us. I feel like, for the most part, we’re a huge, positive addition to the roller-skate community.”
on next page
A Just Us Girls Skating meet-up.
Members of Community in Bowls. continued
Whileeach of the local groups focuses on doing different things on roller skates, all of them have a common desire: Getting a roller rink in the Coachella Valley.
“We’re trying to get a lot of people together to support the dream,” Olalde said. “We’ve been to a couple of park meetings, one for Indio, and I think there was also one we went to for Cathedral City. We’re trying to get petitions to start a roller rink somewhere. It doesn’t have to be an indoor roller rink; it can be just an outdoor slab … for roller skating.”
The community has felt shut down by city governments, and priced out by insurance needs.
“I reached out to a lot of community leaders, the mayors for all the different cities, and no one’s really interested in it,” Olalde said. “They shut down the street in San Diego maybe once a month or something, and you can go down and skate. We’ve sent them a lot of things like, ‘Hey, this would be really cool if we could do this in the desert,’ like when they have Second Saturdays in Indio, and they shut down the street. … I’m like, ‘Since the street is already closed, do you mind if we went and skated there?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, no, because you need insurance.’ There are people who will welcome us in, but we don’t have the funding for insurance and liability insurance, and they want a lot of things like that, which we can’t do.”
Although the Derby Girls love their unique home court at the Air Museum, a permanent rink would be even better.
“We’ve had people reach out to us and say they’d love to build a roller rink, and obviously we support that, but it’s been a while since anybody’s contacted us and said their intentions are to make a roller rink,” Broderick said. “We would love that, and obviously we’d be big supporters of it.”
Gomez said a desert roller rink would be a safe meeting place for a burgeoning community.
“There are so many benefits to just having something like that here,” Gomez said. “I love going to the skate park, and I love being there with my friends, but the skate park is also very crazy. When I’m at the skate park, kids want to go skate, but they’re too scared. I feel like something that’s flat ground, rinkstyle, would be perfect to accommodate those younger kids … but the only option they have is a skate park or a basketball court. … There are a lot of skaters here who just want to be safe and just want to practice. If we go to a tennis court, we have to be wary of when we go and if there are people there, because we might run into a situation where there is someone who’s very unhappy that we’re skating there. We do our best to respect what we can when it comes to the community itself, and we try to accommodate, but it seems very unfair to the skaters, because then we’re just like, ‘Well, what do we do? Where do you expect us to go?’”
Pallini said that if she won the lottery, she’d build “an indoor roller rink attached to a skate shop, and I’d put a ramp out back.”
“It would be great to have a place that is firstly indoor, so that the kids have a place to escape the heat and just exercise and get together and learn new things and build confidence,” Pallini said. “But that takes a lot of money, and the city is not going to help us with the rink. Having an outdoor rink would mean that there’s a safe place where they can do it. Just Us Girls Skating meets up on basketball courts, but … if people want to play basketball, then they’re kind of in the way, and basketball tends to be a male-dominated area, and it doesn’t feel safe when you’re mostly women trying to do something that mostly women do. There are plenty of men in the skating groups, too, and nonbinary people, but it’s harder when you’re invading a cis-man space.
“It would be nice to have a place where everyone can feel safe, and people can bring their kids—and you don’t have to be worried about being hit by a car when you’re skating in the street.”
A Cruise N' Coffee gathering.
The Nonprofit SCENE
OCTOber
2024
PSUSD FOUNDATION’S ‘ONE NIGHT OUT RIO’ TAKES PLACE ON SATURDAY, OCT. 5
In 2022, the smash party hit “One Night Out Havana Nights” kicked off event season with rhythmic vibes, classic cars and cigars; then in 2023, “One Night Out Bollywood” dazzled with a whirlwind of vibrant colors and the hilarious hijinks of legendary Bollywood.
Now get ready for “One Night Out Rio,” a fantastical fete of fabulousness based on the greatest show on Earth—Carnival. Guests will experience Brazil’s national cocktail, the caipirinha, plus an array dishes by Lulu Catering; enjoy dance with Heart of Samba featuring the irrepressible moves of Bruno from RuPaul’s Drag Race Pit Crew; see flying art aerial performers; and shake their tail feathers to the global beats by DJ Alf Alpha. “One Night Out Rio” will take place from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
The annual “Party with a Purpose,” hosted by The Foundation for Palm Springs Unified School District and the PSUSD Alumni Committee, is a friend-raiser that connects the community to student needs in the community.
General admission is $40; VIP admission is $100 with a special invitation to a reception at 6 p.m., with live entertainment.
To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit www.OneNightOut.net.
DESERT ARC ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT OF PRESIDENT/CEO RICHARD BALOCCO
The board of directors of Desert Arc have shared the news that Richard Balocco, the organization’s president/CEO, plans to retire on Jan. 31, 2025.
“For the past 17 years, Richard has guided our nonprofit, human social services organization and stewarded our mission to enhance the quality of life and create opportunities for people with disabilities,” said Damian Jenkins, chair of the board of directors.
Founded in 1959, Desert Arc now serves nearly 700 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the desert communities of the Coachella Valley, Morongo Basin and Palo Verde Valley.
In 2007, upon his retirement from an executive position in Silicon Valley, Balocco was recruited by Desert Arc for a short-term assignment to work on a financial restructuring plan. Three months later, he took the helm as president/CEO. He successfully implemented a financial plan to rescue a then-struggling agency, and transformed Desert Arc.
For more information, call 760-404-1368, or visit www.desertarc.org.
—Submitted on behalf of the nonprofits by Jo-Anne Ebensteiner and Madeline Zuckerman
DO-GOODER
FOCUS ON HEALING
By Cat makino
Cancer doesn’t always have to be a killer. Just ask Elia Valdez. She graduated from the California State University, San Bernardino, then went to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Paint El Paseo Pink raises funds for the Desert Cancer Foundation— and raises awareness as
well
“I left my job in New York City where I was a merchandiser for top brands in the fashion industry,” Valdez said. “I was stressed and burned out, and I wanted to go home, be with my family and chill out.” She returned to Cathedral City, where she was raised, six years ago.
In the fall of 2021, she was diagnosed with aggressive Stage 2 aggressive breast cancer. She was laid off from her retail job in the middle of her treatment—a mastectomy and post-operative chemotherapy—and lost her health insurance. At $735 per month, the replacement insurance was unaffordable.
Enter the Desert Cancer Foundation (DCF). The nonprofit helped Valdez by paying her insurance premium. “It reassured me that I didn’t have to worry about finances, and I could focus on getting better,” she said.
Even so, treatment was not an easy process. “At first, I didn’t know what to expect at my first chemo session. Not knowing was hard,” she said. “After, I had constant nausea, body aches, and my hair fell out. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t even walk to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich.”
After her second session, she made mashed potatoes, because she thought they would be easy to eat. “But I couldn’t eat them,” she said. Today, she can’t stand the smell of them.
Another dark period came when Valdez learned she would never be able to have children. “The chemo killed everything—the good, the bad—and they couldn’t freeze my eggs,” she said. “l cried in my car. It was hard for me to grasp. I always wanted a family.”
But she survived, and she credits her family and friends, the DCF, the Lucy Curci Cancer Center Support Group at Eisenhower Medical Center, and her stubbornness for getting her through it. After seeing others in her support group become cancer-free, she felt heartened.
“It was like a reassurance that it’s possible. I remember thinking that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Today, Valdez is cancer-free and works at a high school. “I have my life back,” she said. “I’m in a better place now.”
On Saturday, Oct. 19, she will march in a sea of pink along El Paseo in Palm Desert with approximately 2,500 other survivors and supporters of cancer patients. The 18th annual Paint El Paseo Pink event will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., and is a fundraiser for DCF. Over the past 30 years, the nonprofit has worked with local medical organizations to pay
for treatment for 8,800 local men and women, valued at $115 million.
“Valdez is an inspiration. Anybody who I meet at the foundation who is going through their cancer journey is an inspiration, because it proves what we do is make a difference,” said Mark Scheibach, executive director of the Desert Cancer Foundation. “They (cancer patients) don’t have to worry about their financial burden for treatment; they can focus on healing. We pay for the cancer treatments such as chemo and radiation, and help them navigate—whatever they need.”
DCF is the only local nonprofit making direct payments to local medical providers on behalf of cancer patients who otherwise could not afford access to vital care, according to Scheibach. The organization was founded in 1994 by oncologist Dr. Sebastian George, and Art and Cory Teichner.
DCF is funded via grants, donations and events such as Paint El Paseo Pink, Corks and Cuisine, and the Dr. George Charity Car Show. “There’s no limit to how many we will treat as long as they present all the necessary documentation,” Scheibach said.
He described Paint El Paseo Pink as “a pep rally that celebrates life. You get beads, one for each year you’ve survived cancer. I have two beads. And there are pink ribbons representing those who didn’t survive.”
The event also raises awareness. According to the American Cancer Society, there are 4 million breast cancer survivors in the country. Many more forms of treatment are now available, and between 1989 and 2019, the death rate from breast cancer has dropped 42%, in part due to increased awareness and earlier detection.
Even though progress is being made against the disease, much work remains to be done to help those, who like Valdez, have heard these words: “I’m sorry to tell you that you have cancer.”
Paint El Paseo Pink takes place on El Paseo in Palm Desert at 7:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 19. To register or get more information, visit desertcancerfoundation.org.
The Desert Cancer Foundation helped Elia Valdez pay for her breast cancer treatments after she lost her insurance. “It reassured me that didn’t have to worry about finances, and could focus on getting better,” she said.
October 24-27
More Than 50 events
Tickets and Information modernismweek.com
Modernism Week Featured Home Tour: The Shag House Daily
The artist Shag has reimagined this midcentury Modern home, creating a fully immersive tour experience that will make visitors feel as though they have climbed into a life-size Shag painting.
House of Tomorrow Home Tour
Choose from Six Unique Double Decker Architectural Bus Tours
Daily Tours October 24-27 | Various Times
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The
Sinatra’s
Charles
Twilight Architectural Bus Tour
Bella da Ball’s Bus Tour
Clinton Meyer
David
Lee
Boudreau
Andrew Cabral
ARTS & CULTURE
ART ACROSS THE DESERT
By Melissa Daniels
The largest open studio tour in Southern California is kicking off its 23rd year of celebrating the Morongo Basin’s art community.
This year’s Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours features 188 artists across 133 studio locations, scattered from Morongo Valley all the way up to Landers and east to Wonder Valley. With mediums ranging from painting to ceramics, from landscape sculptures to home furnishings, the artists who participate open their studios to the public and showcase works for sale during the first three weekends in October.
Organizers from the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council (MBCAC), the local nonprofit that
organizes the tour, told the Independent that 53 or so artists are new to the tour this year.
“I like to say there’s art for every taste and every price range,” said John Henson, the art tour coordinator at MBCAC. “It’s so broad and diverse, and that’s really important for visitors.”
The tour coincides with the arrival of cooler fall temperatures—ideal for cruising the highway with the windows down. Studios are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and for the first time this year, there’s a corresponding musical component. Art Tours After Dark will feature more than 70 performances from local musicians across 16 local venues, including local restaurants like Spaghetti Western and the Joshua Tree Saloon, and smaller, off-the-beaten path venues like the Joshua Tree Distilling Company.
Henson said many people ask the artists where to hang out after the studios shut down, so it made sense to create an accompanying event series.
“Our mission is to support the whole cultural community,” he said.
Tour attendees can enjoy seeing the ways in which artists integrate their work into their space. Whether a workspace is a large oneroom studio, a converted barn or an enclosed patio, each is as different as the artists themselves.
“Part of the experience is just getting to check out the high desert and the whole scene, see how people live up here and their homes and studios,” Henson said.
For those who are attending for the first time or want to make the most of the event, here are some tips from Henson and the Independent on navigating the Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours.
Scope Out Potential Stops Ahead of Time
The biggest piece of advice Henson has is to plan ahead. The tour has an accompanying guide—available as a free catalog, online or in
an app—that explains a little about each artist and shows three photos of their work.
“There’s everything; it’s just about picking what you’re interested in,” he said. “For anybody interested in art, there’s probably more than they have time to see.”
The app, which can be found in the Apple and Google Play stores, features a list of all participants that can be filtered by mediums, location and weekend—meaning if you want to check out what sculpture artists are open in Joshua Tree on Weekend 2, you can easily do so. Users can also add artists to lists if they want to save their information to check out later or make a plan.
Another way of checking out the scene is to hit up the collective show that features a single piece from many participating artists. This year, it’s held at the Hi-Desert Artists gallery in Yucca Valley from Sept. 27 through Oct. 21.
Be Mindful of Directions
While studios may look clustered on a map, the actual distances may be farther than anticipated. It’s at least a 40-minute drive from Morongo Valley heading east to Twentynine Palms, meaning it could be challenging to hit artists in various locations in one day. “When people get up here, they realize it’s really spread out,” Henson said.
Many participating artists will put up signs directing visitors to their studios at key locations. This being the Morongo Basin, though, some studios may be on dirt roads or unnamed turn-offs. The artist profiles in the catalog and the app will say if something isn’t “GPS friendly” and provide turn-by-turn directions. Additionally, not all artists participate during all three weekends. Henson, who has done the studio tours for nine years, advises all attendees to double-check the calendar.
Introduce Yourself and Talk to the Artists
Henson estimates studios get an average of 15 to 20 visitors a day. The artists who participate
A guide to navigating the Highway 62 Open Studio
Art Tours
often rely on the art tours as a meaningful opportunity to meet new patrons and publicize their work.
But beyond that, it’s a way to build community and meet new people. Even if the artist seems shy or quiet, chances are that’s just their personality; Henson said the artists participate with the intention of meeting people. He’s had conversations with visitors to his studio that last well longer than an hour.
“Everyone is doing this with the full intention of welcoming visitors,” he said. “Visitors should not at all be shy about introducing themselves to an artist or walking up to them.”
Henson also said artists are a great resource to ask about other studios to visit or local places to check out.
Explore the Area
Last year, the event generated more than a half-million dollars in sales for local artists,
and many local businesses rely on the influx of visitors who head into town for the art tours.
Henson is hopeful the Art Tours After Dark series will encourage people to stick around and enjoy the high desert. He encourages visitors to check out shops and restaurants—not to mention the vast, arid expanse of Joshua Tree National Park or other outdoor areas.
“A lot of people come from Los Angeles, and there’s a lot of good art in L.A.,” Henson said. “But there’s nothing like this—getting out to drive through the beautiful landscape and visiting studios.”
The Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, from Oct. 5-20. The information hub and collective show is located at Hi-Desert Artists, 55635 Twentynine Palms Highway, in Yucca Valley. The tour and show are free, with art for sale. For more information, visit mbcac.org.
Rachel Rickert, a painter based in Joshua Tree, often paints outside.
ARTS & CULTURE
KDIFFERENT VIEWS OF ARCHITECTURE
By Nicole Borgenicht
athleen Strukoff began painting beautiful vistas as a 12-year-old in New Mexico. Today, she’s a well-respected artist with a studio in Palm Springs’ Backstreet Art District. She attained her master’s degree in business administration at the University of New Mexico. Strukoff often visited her mother in Cathedral City, and in 2020, she moved with her husband to Palm Springs because she “fell in love with the vibe and the scenery. It felt to me like a place that embraced creatives.”
Her studio is in the back of Kee Gallery, which Strukoff co-owns with fellow artists Ernesto Ramirez and Erich Meager; the first letters of each of their names gives the gallery its name.
“In November, we are going to have a special show ‘11 Artists on 111’ to celebrate our one-year anniversary,” she said. “We are doing this to support the artist community and not charging the artists, but asking them to donate a portion of any sales to the middle school art program at Desert Art Center.”
Giving back to the educational community is important to Strukoff. Painting Palm Springs’ midcentury-modern architecture is one of Strukoff’s favorite things to do, so it’s appropriate that for the past two years, Strukoff has been involved with the Palm Springs Modernism Committee, visiting schools and revealing the symmetry between art, design and architecture as part of PS ModCom’s Building Educational Architectural Models (BEAM) curriculum.
“In 2024, PS ModCom awarded scholarships to four Palm Springs Unified School District students at a $2,500
scholarship per year named in honor of Robert Imber, an architectural historian and founding member of PS ModCom, who initiated the organization’s college scholarship program,” said Joan Gand, the chair of PS ModCom’s Education Committee. “Kathleen is part of a team of two volunteer teachers who kick off the program by presenting a threeday class to art students about architecture, design and modernism. This introduces the students to another world, in most cases, that they never knew existed.”
Strukoff said she’s always amazed at how creative the students become in building their models. She also enjoys watching “the evolution of some of the students who get so excited about design and architecture, they want to go to college and pursue that avenue,” she said.
She also enjoys teaching these students about painting.
“Sometimes I do a little painting class with the students to help them on a project, and it’s magical to see what that does,” she said. “… It’s also way for me to give back in a small way with my artistic talents. Some of the students even create little paintings to put on the walls of the house they design. The program takes place mostly in the art classes, so they are art-oriented young people.”
DATE EVENT
Artist/teacher Kathleen Strukoff depicts midcentury modern buildings in a whole new light
Events 2023
Strukoff is the artist-in-residence for the Palm Springs Vintage Market, which takes place the first Sunday of the month from October through May.
Sept 10 Riverside’s Inland Empire Pride Festival 2023
Strukoff’s architectural paintings feature magical representations of iconic Palm Springs houses and buildings, featuring a sense of color with gorgeous light. She said she’s sometimes commissioned to make a painting of a private home.
Sept 20 2023 Business Expo & Taste of Palm Springs
Sept 20–24 Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend
“Often, those are surprises for a spouse’s birthday or special occasion, so I am participating in a stealth operation, including ‘stalking’ their house to get pictures that I can use of their house to create the painting,” she said. “I had one client who was distracting her wife while I was skulking around the yard to take photos.”
Sept 22-24 Gay Days Anaheim
A natural educator, Strukoff also teaches classes at her gallery and at The Springs clubhouse in Rancho Mirage.
Sept 23 8th Annual Aging Positively Conference
Oct 5-8 JoshuaTree Fall Music Festival
Oct 6
“Little paintings there capture the community of that scene,” she said. “As a colorist, I always push the color a bit and almost never paint a blue sky, but instead use a different color that conveys a mood. People tell me that I capture a place and time that usually creates an emotional reaction for them. Some will tell me that the way I use color makes them be able to smell and feel being at that place.”
“It is so exciting to see how different everyone’s end result is when we are painting the same scene—and I want them to embrace that individuality,” Strukoff said.
Singing with the Desert Stars
Learn more at kathleenstrukoff.com.
Kathleen Strukoff.
ARTS & CULTURE
FROM THE U.K. TO THERMAL
By MATT KING
Exciting things are happening out in Thermal, as Coachella Valley High School recently started a collaboration with United Kingdom media personalities Barry Tomes and Monica Price.
TomesPrice Production will work with the Digital Design and Production Academy (DDP) at CVHS to produce episodes of The Monica Price Show. The talk show featuring musicians and celebrity guests will have a home in the desert for the remainder of the school year.
So … how did these U.S. personalities find their way to the California desert?
“I’ve been going to Palm Springs itself since 1984,” Tomes said during a recent phone interview.
“… A few years ago, I was in Palm Springs, and I went to an amazing place called Pappy and Harriet’s, and I saw this young band. I was with Monica Price, and her daughter was also performing on that showcase. Afterward, we all got up and said, ‘Wow, that band had blown us away,’ so I went to the young guy, and I said, ‘Look, here’s my business card. You’re a little bit young to talk to me without your parents, but I’m more than happy to chat to your mom and dad or whoever.’
“That started an amazing relationship with Pescaterritory, which was a great band we worked with for a while, and Jason Zembo, the singer and guitarist. His dad, John Zembo, was the gentleman who called me,a so we started a good friendship over a couple of years, and one thing that came out to me was that John Zembo was very passionate about his job. … He’d been working at the school for 35 years.”
John Zembo, a science teacher at CVHS, invited Tomes and Price to speak to students.
“I thought, ‘Why are they going to be interested in a 67-year-old white guy from England, other than the fact he’s from England, and they’ve probably heard of the queen or something?’” he said.
Tomes said he was impressed by the students at CVHS.
“These kids are well-organized, and they’re really passionate,” he said. “They want to learn, so we had these two seminars, and I really enjoyed it, and they loved it. … We talked about England and the music business and how media works, how TV works, and why I am in America, 6,000 miles from home, and they all really absorbed it and took it in.”
Tomes was planning a concert in Idyllwild that weekend with Pescaterritory, and he invited the school’s DPP Academy to document the concert for some on-site experience. (Full disclosure: I performed at this event with my band Empty Seat.) Mother Nature did not make things easy: Rain caused the outdoor stage to flood in the middle of a performance, and the concert eventually had to move inside to a movie theater. What resulted from this
experience is Altitude 5400, a short film created in partnership between Tomes and the CVHS DDP Academy. It is available to watch on xptvhub.com.
In the process, Tomes said he fell in love with the area.
“I love Mexican culture anyway, and I met the mayor in Coachella, and I had lunch with him, and I was talking about my passion for the area, and that tourism could make him so much money,” he said. “Coachella is known all over the world for two weeks of the year when the festival’s on, and every newspaper reports it, but then you don’t hear about it for the rest of the year. We talked about various ideas, and I went back to the school toward the end of the term, and I said, ‘Look, I’d love to work with you.’ Monica Price came back with me to visit them. I said, ‘We’d love to make one of the Monica Price TV shows here, and I’d love to work more with the kids and just encourage them to aim for their goals and go for the stars.’”
Beyond producing episodes of The Monica Price Show, Tomes also intends to get students work placements in the U.K. and at Tomes’ television company, Rockefellas TV, based in Corona. He also plans to work with students to make a documentary focused on Día de los Muertos.
“The Monica Price Show has been broadcasting on and off for 10 years,” Tomes said. “What we hope to do is to film broadcast-able episodes at the school, and they’ll be broadcast both in the U.K. and the U.S., but also, it’s on every app. … Because it’s about media and production, I intend to do at least a couple of my US10 Radio shows from the school. The idea is that all the artists on the show are American artists, but what I will do is a special episode with only artists from the valley.
“They’ve got a great department there. They’ve got a lot of room; they’ve got green screens; they’ve got about two or three areas to film, so we’re not stuck to space. We’re not stuck for enthusiasm, and we’re not stuck for ideas. … I really can’t believe we’re doing it. I’m
CV High School’s Digital Design and Production Academy partners with U.K. media experts to give students real-world experience
so chuffed.”
Monica Perez, the DDP Academy’s head teacher, has been helping students grow their creative abilities for many years. (Being a former student of Perez and the DDP Academy, I can attest to this.) Perez said the collaboration with Tomes and Price should further elevate the level of education.
“These first few weeks, what we’ve been doing is setting up the staging, setting up the format, and showing students what works in terms of what you see on camera versus what you need to have pre-prepared before you go to production,” Perez said. “(Tomes and Price) have been very instrumental with trying to find different business partners to help donate some equipment, some time and some expertise, and so it’s really a collaborative effort between us and them, and then some of the business partners that they’ve gathered, to show the students the many different avenues of being in the industry.”
Perez said students are excited about these opportunities.
“Since we are on the eastern side of the Coachella Valley, (students) understand that they don’t get as many opportunities as our friends in the western side of the Coachella Valley,” she said. “The fact that they’re being given this attention means they’re really open to learning and growing, because they know that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be working with people on an international show.”
Perez and her students plan to complete six episodes of The Monica Price Show and the Día de los Muertos documentary by the end of the school year.
A few students talked to me about their excitement.
Luis Hernandez, senior: “I think working with Barry is pretty great, because it gives me a more real-world experience into the film industry, because now there’s someone—a complete stranger who I don’t know—who is directing me and my crew. It’s good, because it helps me understand what I’m going to be up against when I work with more people, and working with Barry has been absolutely, absolutely great. I learned about filming on-site when we filmed the Idyllwild video. … I want to pursue film and animation, so it’s an insight of how I’m going to be working with other people in the future.
Alejandro Cobos, senior and DDP vice president: “These are really influential people who are coming in from a whole place that 90% of us have never even thought that we’d meet someone from. … Everything moves really fast, and at first, it was overwhelming, but now we’re getting really used to it. Now, we work a million times more as a team because of their influence and what they’ve done for us. … We know that they’re here to bring out more of what we are, and who we are as a people, to the rest of the world. We see it as an honor, and as Coachella is still a developing city, it’s a great thing to have more attention … that we really are something that is developing and that we like to be taken seriously as a city.”
Destiny Cordova, CVHS junior: “This collaboration means a lot to us, because it’s getting our small-town school out there in the world. I feel like CVHS is a very small school. Nobody really knows about it, and the things they do know are just what’s put on the news about our school. I feel like this project truly helps us by putting a name on our school and putting a name on the students.”
DDP students pose for a picture after filming a mock episode of The Monica Price Show.
FILM & TV
KNOCKING DOWN CULTURAL DOORS
By MATT KING
Alocal film and music festival is using the arts to break down stereotypes.
The NVISION Latino Film and Music Festival utilizes both song and the screen to emphasize Latin pride. For almost a decade, the festival has put Latino and Latina culture on full display as it both empowers Latin artists and fights back against stereotypes in American culture. The festival will run from Thursday, Oct. 10, through Saturday, Oct. 12 at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Filmmaker and music photographer Danny Hastings (who is responsible for Wu Tang Clan and Eminem album covers) co-founded the festival, formerly known as The Official Latino Film
Festival, in 2015 in New York.
“I think hip hop taught me a very valuable lesson—that if a door closes in front of you, you either knock the door down or create your own room, and that has been, pretty much, how I got this started,” Hastings said during a recent interview via Zoom. “After the ’90s, I started making films. I’m American Latino, which means that I grew up here, and everything that made me who I am is very American—but at home, we speak Spanish.
“I live this culture duality that a lot of American Latinos go through. It’s a blessing to be able to be bicultural, but sometimes it’s a double-edged sword, in the sense that sometimes you’re not American enough on the American side, and you’re not Latino enough on the Latino side. We used to say something that I stopped saying a while ago: ‘ni de aquí; ni de allá.’ That means ‘not from here, and not from there,’ but I switched that to ‘de aquí, de allá’—‘from here and from there.’ It’s a more positive outlook on everything.”
As Hastings embarked on a film career, he learned that including Latinos in his films caused “roadblocks.”
“My films weren’t Latino enough, because everybody spoke English,” Hastings said. “… Even though the characters were predominantly Latinos, it wasn’t considered a Latino film, and then when I tried to post it or sell it to a network, it wasn’t American enough. So instead of complaining, I was like, ‘What could be a good solution?’”
Hastings decided to create a film festival he would like to attend—with a focus on American Latino films.
“We’re 20% of the population in the U.S., yet we only see 4% represented on the screen,” he said. “We’re a major part of the country, but we’re not being invited or represented. I wanted to see how we can come up with a solution. That first year, I got 500 submissions. Each year became bigger and bigger and bigger, and I took it to the point where I was like, ‘I can’t carry this by
myself anymore.’ It was nine years by myself with a small team of people, and it was a very beautiful labor of love. That’s when the NTERTAIN team came and merged with us.”
This year marks the first year of that collaboration with NTERTAIN, a Latinfocused talent agency that is helping the festival support creatives in new ways.
“NTERTAIN is one of the largest Latino companies in the music space,” Hastings said. “I think they have brought a new focus and vision. … We’re basically investing in the community by helping filmmakers find solutions to production problems. We’re having a film award of $10,000 for the winning film, among others, and that’s something that we couldn’t do before.
“I think that Latinos are now taking matters into their own hands—sort of like that saying that says, ‘Grab the bull by its horn’—and not expecting people or the
The goal of the NVISION Latino Film and Music Festival is ‘empowering Latino artists and culture’
industry to be like, ‘OK, now you’re accepted.’ … The focus is changing the narrative. That’s our main slogan—changing the narrative all across the board. We don’t settle for stereotypes anymore; we want to see the characters we want to see. We’ve always been the villain or the drug dealer or the cartel, but I surround myself with doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and they’re all Latinos.”
There are hubs of Latin vibrancy all across the United States, but the Coachella Valley captured the heart of Hastings, turning the New Yorker into a desert resident. After the third year of the festival, Hastings said he noticed there were more West Coast attendees than New Yorkers in the crowd. The idea for a West Coast edition of the festival became a reality when Hastings received a call from the city of Coachella.
“I came in October … and October is beautiful over here,” Hastings said. “The weather was beautiful; the food was great; and the people from Coachella are some of the most hospitable and beautiful people. The mayor was like, ‘We’ll bring you over here, we’ll fund it,’ and I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ … Now we’re in Palm Springs at the Art Museum. The Art Museum saw the work that I was doing, and they fell in love with it. We did it one year there, and man, everybody
came through. There’s a lot of love in the room, and that’s why we’re here.”
On top of the fantastic lineup of films, there is a series of panels and talks to give even more resources to aspiring creatives.
“I love the team that we have,” Hastings said. “It’s such a positive crew of intelligent individuals from all walks of life putting this together at a beautiful space that has a lot of energy, art and community.”
What about the music portion of the NVISION Latino Film and Music Festival?
“We’ll be doing some showcases for special attendees and some of the VIP holders,” he said. “Sofia Reyes is doing a beautiful performance, and Alex Ponce is an amazing singer/songwriter. He’s doing a little showcase at one of the gardens in the museum, surrounded by all that art. We’re going to have some local music showcases as well at Reforma, one of the happening clubs in Palm Springs.”
The NVISION Latino Film and Music Festival will take place from Thursday, Oct. 10, through Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 North Museum Drive, in Palm Springs. Screening tickets start at $14.99, or $19.99 for a block of shorts. Use the code NVISION50 for half off. For tickets and more information, visit nvisionfestival.com.
CAESAR CERVISIA
JASON DAVID HAIR STUDIO
By brett newton
LOVE YOUR HAIR
actually starts this year on Sept. 21. The reason: The weather in Munich is nicer earlier
Country Club and Cook Street Palm De sert
We have the opposite weather trend here in the desert, but the spirit of the celebration is the same—beer, food and music. Let’s take a trip through a couple of the styles synonymous with
760-340-5959
www.jasondavidhairstudio.net
malt for a lighter, more “sessionable” drinking experience. The flavor is slightly toasty, but not nearly as much as the Märzen; it has an
brewing from April to September, as the beer would spoil more easily—so the final batches were brewed in March and lagered in temperate underground cellars until it was time to party. Märzens are amber in color due to the 100% kilned Munich malt and have the aroma and flavor of browned bread due to the melanoidins in the malt, and a medium hop backbone with spicy, floral and/or herbal notes.
The festbier style is a much more recent phenomenon when it comes to the festivities, beginning around the late 1980s or ’90s— making it a very recent development in beer on the German timeline. It’s simply a paler version of the Märzen, using more pale pilsner
Let’s begin with the obvious: festival beers from Deutschland, and I chose a semi-random sampling of beers. Hofbräu’s Oktoberfestbier has the classic toasted bread flavor with floral, spicy hop notes, and it is dangerously drinkable at 6.3% alcohol by volume. I’ve had the pleasure of drinking ein Maß (“a measurement” literally, but what they call the dimpled glass liter mugs) of helles lager at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich years ago and fondly remember enjoying it with a huge pretzel. If something has changed, I can’t detect it.
Weihenstephaner is another venerated brewery in Bavaria where some of my favorite hefeweizens are made, and unsurprisingly, their festbier is an excellent and very quaffable example of the style. A little on the paler and
Märzen, festbier and other seasonal treats mean it’s time for Oktoberfest!
fruitier side than its Hofbräu counterpart, this one had the light toast and the floral hop quality indicative of the style.
My only disappointment in the German examples I picked up for this column was the Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen. The beer underneath seemed fine, but upon pouring it, I got a good whiff of skunk, presumably from light exposure. This is not the brewery’s fault, but it is important to note that this kind of thing can happen to a beer that must travel a long way—which is why I was pleased with finding a canned version of the aforementioned Hofbräu festbier, which prevents any skunkiness.
But fear not the skunk, for there are many American-made examples of these styles, and they are relatively easy to obtain. My first pick is Oaktoberfest from Firestone Walker Brewing. I’ve sung their praises many times in the confines of this column, and this brewery just keeps doing it right. According to their own tradition, they make a festbier and lager it in French oak barrels for the festivities, making this year’s release the 2023 Oaktoberfest. Amber in color, it drinks beautifully with a biscuit malt flavor and a crisp, dry finish. You can even get a bit of an oaky, slightly vanilla flavor as it warms, which may not happen, because it is highly crushable.
Next up from this year’s “haul” was Kern River Brewing’s German-style Märzen. Now, this beer wasn’t undrinkable or even bad, but from the pour, I knew something was up: What little head existed right after pouring vanished very quickly. It was also a bit sweeter than the other beers that I tried, but with a little more fruitiness, a hint of chocolate and the hallmark toasty character of the style; I ended up finishing it. This is unlike Kern River, based on my experience, so I’ll assume I got a bad can and will keep trying their beers.
Last and definitely not least was Mother Earth Brewing’s Oktoberfest German-style lager. According to their website, this is meant to be a cross between a festbier and a Märzen. You may be familiar with Mother Earth from their Cali Creamin’ series of cream ales, which basically keeps their tanks full beer-wise and financially, but every time I’ve reached for one of their beers, I’ve had a great experience—and this one’s no different. It offered lots of biscuit malt, toasted bread, a touch of honey and almond, and a bit of earthiness from the hops. This was my surprise favorite, but it really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.
Honorable mention goes to the Josefbräu Oktoberfest contract-brewed for Trader Joe’s by Gordon Biersch (unless something has changed that I’m unaware of). Any of the seasonals under this name are excellent, and a six-pack of 12-ounce cans runs you all of $6.99, which is the deal of all deals.
These beers will get you off to a good start if you’re feeling the Oktoberfest spirit. There are also many, many more German and domestic versions of these styles that are potentially worth trying out there. If I missed your favorite, let me know.
It’s also worth mentioning that there are some great Oktoberfest celebrations spread throughout Southern California (the large one in Big Bear, for example), so if you feel the need to celebrate in person, a quick Google search should get you something for whatever level of festival you’re seeking. Just beware: Some places will serve generic, macro-brewed beer, which would make a good Bavarian cry. And you don’t want to be crying at a party, do you?
Brett Newton is a certified cicerone (like a sommelier for beer) and homebrewer who has mostly lived in the Coachella Valley since 1988. He can be reached at caesarcervisia@gmail.com.
Legacy Honorees John McDonald & Rob Wright
FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT
This month, it’s all about delicious ingredients wrapped in tortillas!
By Jimmy Boegle
WHAT Breakfast burrito
WHERE Goody’s Café, 5001 E. Ramon Road, Palm Springs; also two locations in Palm Desert, and one in Thousand Palms
WHY It’s deliciousness offered all day. I admit to being occasionally perturbed when restaurants don’t offer their breakfast menus all day. Yeah, I get it—prep and waste and time and etc.—but that doesn’t mean I like it.
Thankfully, there are a handful of places that offer good breakfasts during dinner time, including Goody’s Café, the four-location local mini-chain with a large menu of dinerstyle offerings, sub sandwiches and Mexican entrées. While not everything on the menu is a home run, some items are—including, first and foremost, the stellar breakfast burrito. Ham. Bacon. Sausage. Hash browns. Cheese—and an impressive three eggs, all wrapped in a large flour tortilla, with some salsa on the side. That’s all there is to this large burrito, but, really, what else does a breakfast burrito need? The meats add salt and a variety of flavors and textures; the hash browns provide earthiness and a little bit of moisture. The cheese contributes creaminess, and the eggs are simply a delight: Pro tip: Ask for an extra salsa or two, as dribbling it on the burrito as you devour it provides a helpful amount of moisture—and some nice spice, too.
One other great thing about the breakfast burrito, and the rest of Goody’s offerings as well: They’re easy to acquire, thanks to Goody’s four locations, presence on multiple delivery apps, and extended hours (all locations open at 5 a.m. and stay open until 9 or 10 p.m.).
Hooray for the opportunity to enjoy a delicious breakfast … for dinner!
WHAT Philly cheese steak wrap
WHERE Wrap Houz, 555 S. Palm Canyon Drive, No. A109, Palm Springs
HOW MUCH $14.99
CONTACT 760-666-4700; wraphouz.net
WHY It was an exceedingly pleasant surprise. Sometimes, menu items surprise you—like the amazing burger at a seafood restaurant. The delicious espresso at the cocktail bar. Or the fantastic salad at the burger joint.
We can now add to that list: the splendid Philly cheese steak wrap at Wrap Houz.
Wrap Houz is, for the most part, a Mediterranean restaurant—mostly for takeout and delivery orders, although there are a couple of tables for people who want to dine in. The offerings include wraps and “platterz” with falafel, kofta, shawarma, gyro and kebab, and sides like hummus, baba ghanouj and grape leaves, which are all things one would expect to find at a Mediterranean spot.
However, I recently decided to try Wrap Houz’s Philly cheese steak wrap—and you don’t need to consult your Rand McNally atlas to know that Philadelphia is nowhere near the Mediterranean. Boy, am I glad I took a chance.
The hot, melty mixture of grilled steak, onions, mushrooms, peppers and provolone cheese, all wrapped in a grilled tortilla, was perfect. 10/10, no notes.
This is not to say that Wrap Houz’s Mediterranean offerings are in any way subpar—in fact, everything we’ve tried has been quite good (although we wish the gyro was more of the thinly sliced variety). Their grape leaves, in fact, are worthy of an endorsement-within-an-endorsement.
I admit that I had unfairly low expectations for Wrap Houz, due to its dive-bar proximity, the counter service and the overly cutesy name. Be smarter than me, and don’t judge the figurative book by its cover: Wrap Houz is making some of the best Mediterranean food in the valley … and a fantastic Philly cheese steak wrap, too.
Restaurant NEWS BITES
By charles drabkin
CHECK OUT SOME SPECIALS THAT ARE PRETTY SPECIAL
King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club, at 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, has started offering two new deals. Enjoy bottomless fried chicken every Sunday from 3 to 8 p.m.; for $28, you get endless fried chicken, cornbread, mashed potatoes and green beans. Reservations are highly recommended and can be made via OpenTable. King’s Highway also offers its Pit Stop Lunch, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; for $20. you can get half of a club sandwich plus a Caesar or arugula salad, and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. Learn more at www.instagram.com/kingshighwaydiner.
Both local Tommy Bahama locations are offering special end-of-summer menus through Nov. 17. The Palm Springs Marlin Bar, at 111 N. Palm Canyon Drive, features “Tacos and Tequila,” while Palm Desert’s Tommy Bahama Restaurant and Bar, at 73595 El Paseo, No. 2200, introduces “La Comida and Tequila.” You can view the special menus on each restaurant’s page at www.tommybahama.com/restaurants-and-marlin-bars.
RESTAURANTS CLOSING AND FOR SALE
I Heart Mac and Cheese, at 190 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, and Impala Bar and Grill, at 333 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, have both closed. Good luck to everyone involved.
Also: Websites that list restaurants for sale show that both Palm Springs locations of Jus Chillin are available, so if you are looking for an ice cream/frozen yogurt business or two in downtown Palm Springs, there are opportunities!
IN BRIEF
The high desert boasts a new brewpub: 29 Palms Beer Co., at 73565 Twentynine Palms Highway, in—you guessed it—Twentynine Palms, offers a selection of beers made on-site, breakfast, and a selection of hot dogs and burgers for lunch and dinner. I am a huge fan of sour beers, and I’m looking forward to trying the raspberry-flavored Delly Jonut next time I am up there. See the menus at www.29beercompany.com. … Cactus to Clouds joins Nine Cities Craft, PSP Coffee House and Half Moon Empanadas at the Palm Springs International Airport. It recently opened in the outdoor atrium in the Sunny Bono Concourse, and it serves craft cocktails and light bites. Since there’s no webpage of their own or even a Yelp site that I could find, I will have to post their menu on my Instagram feed next time I fly out. Remember: Even if you aren’t flying, with the Stay and Play pass, you can still hang out past the security checkpoint if you plan ahead. Learn more at FlyPSP.com/StayAndPlay. … A new restaurant is offering some cuisine not found much elsewhere in the Coachella Valley: Saffron Restaurant and Lounge is bringing Persian food to Palm Springs, specifically next to the Twist Hotel at 1107 N. Palm Canyon Drive. For those unfamiliar with Persian cuisine, it offers a lot of herbs, spices, rice, meats and vegetables, featuring kebabs, stews and rice pilafs, all balanced with sweet, sour and savory flavors. Learn more at SaffronPS.com. … A bakery and café with locations in Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles International Airport has opened in Palm Desert. The menu at La Provence Patisserie and Cafe, at 72785 Highway 111, includes Mediterranean salad, panini and house-made soups, as well as made-from-scratch cakes and pastries. Find out all the details at laprovencecafe.com. … Also in Palm Desert: The city will soon be getting a Detroit-style pizza place—Black Cat Pizza, at 72795 Highway 111, in the former home of Haus of Pizza. If you are unfamiliar, Detroit-style pizza is a thick, rectangular pie with a chewy crust, crispy edges and layers of cheese that caramelize against the pan; typically, the sauce is ladled on after baking. There was no word yet on an opening date as of this writing; watch instagram.com/blackcatpizza_pd for updates.
MUSIC
COMPASSION THROUGH MUSIC
By matt king
Few annual events in the Coachella Valley have been successful and meaningful enough to continue for nearly two decades—but thanks to the work of local musician Josh Heinz, the Concert for Autism is returning for year No. 17.
Numerous local musicians will be donating their time and talent to raise funds for the Desert Autism Foundation across four events and venues. On Friday, Sept. 27, the kickoff event will
occur at the Big Rock Pub; Sunday, Oct. 6, is the Acoustic Afternoon for Autism at Coachella Valley Brewing Co.; Friday, Oct. 11, is the lead-up event at The Hood Bar and Pizza; and Saturday, Oct. 19, is the main event at the Tack Room Tavern.
Nearly 30 bands (including my bands Empty Seat and Salton City Surf Club) will perform this year. Headlining the main event is The Pedestrians, a local band formed in 1993, performing their first show in nine years.
“I was in Memphis back when The Pedestrians first started,” Heinz said during a recent phone interview. “Once I moved here and I got into the music scene, and especially when I met Armando Flores (also of Blasting Echo), I started to go see him play with The Pedestrians, where I was just like, ‘This band is awesome.’ It’s just a great mix of fun and funk. … The great thing about The Pedestrians is they have a slew of original songs that make people dance and have a good time. It’s not a cover act; it’s all original material, and it’s unique.”
Lead singer Mike Lewis moved to Oregon nine years ago, starting the hiatus. After a move back to the Coachella Valley by Lewis, and some begging from Heinz, the band is reuniting. Heinz said he has received many messages from friends who intend to return to their youthful ways for this year’s main event.
“People who used to stay up until 1 in the morning, now they’re going to bed by, like, 9:30,” said Heinz. “I’ve had a lot of those people saying, ‘Oh, we can’t wait for this; we’ll stay up for this.’ I think it’ll be great for the younger people who never got to see The Pedestrians, to see what they do, and feel their energy and feel the vibe again. I’m a rock ’n’ roll guy, and that’s what I listen to most of the time. Their music breaks down barriers in the sense that their crowds will have every type of person you can imagine. They just have a very broad, fun appeal.”
This year’s Concert for Autism lineup mixes event mainstays with newer bands in an effort to introduce the long-running benefit to younger music fans.
“I want to honor the people who have supported me for years, and I feel like there’s a place for both the older generation and the
newer generation,” Heinz said.
He listed a few highlights.
“I’m excited about Tourists,” he said. “I listened to their new record, and I think it sounds great, and they seem like super-nice guys. Jetta King, she’s been in the scene for a while, but she’s still on the younger side of things, and she’s fantastic. She’s played quite a few times on the acoustic stage, and she would always say, ‘If I get a full band, can I play the main stage?’ I was like, ‘Heck yes.’ We have The Holy Corrupt and Destroy Nothing at the Hood event, and they’re great. I love Miguel Arballo and what he does. With the acoustic stuff, I just met Lorna Louisa Adams, the young girl who plays ukulele, and I saw her at CV Brewing on one of the Sunday Acoustic Afternoons. I think she’s really good.”
Heinz is making one exception to the event’s locals-only lineup: At the main event, 2023 American Idol contestant Adin Boyer will perform.
“He got to go to L.A. but he didn’t make it to the finals, and he’s on the autism spectrum, and he was very vocal about it,” Heinz said.
“There are some great clips from him being on the show, with Lionel Richie praising his songwriting and stuff. They had some pieces on the show about him and his journey as a musician with autism, and they had interviews with him and his mom. … This was just too good of a story to pass up. I think he’s talented, and I want to highlight him, being a musician on the autism spectrum.”
Every year, Heinz’s wife, Linda Lemke Heinz, has a few of her music students who are on the spectrum perform.
“That’s always something really special,” Heinz said. “She’s picked up a couple more students this year, and the students are excited about doing some songs. We’ll have about 20 minutes where she has two or three (students) get up and each do a song. As much as it’s about the local music community, it’s also about trying to do something good for the autism community. It’s always a very moving moment.
Every person involved in the event is donating their time, from the musicians to the crew.
“Our head sound guys, Jeff Mazer and Greg Little, they’ve been doing sound since we did
The Concert for Autism returns for its 17th year to raise funds for the Desert Autism Foundation
the seventh and eighth one, all the way back at Schmidy’s Tavern,” Heinz said. “If I had to pay for professional sound people to do that main event, I’m sure it would cost me over $2,000. They donate their time, and they donate their gear, so it’s an amazing thing that they do, and that they’ve done it for so long. We’re at the site at 8 in the morning, and we don’t leave until 2 in the morning the next day. It’s a lot to ask, and I’m so grateful for everybody who volunteers and helps out.”
Heinz wanted to give a special shoutout to the event’s main sponsor, Variety Children’s Charity of the Desert.
“They do a ton of great charitable work in different types of programs all throughout the valley, and they wanted to be the presenting sponsor this year,” he said. “They wanted to throw their weight behind the event and really help families and kids on the autism spectrum by being our presenting sponsor. We’re very grateful for that.”
Since mid-2023, Josh Heinz and Visit Greater Palm Springs have been working to make the Coachella Valley a Certified Autism Destination.
“We’re trying to push that initiative to get businesses and organizations to get training and certification through a teaching and credentialing firm called IBCCES, which is the International Board of Credentialing and Con-
tinuing Education Standards,” he said. When enough businesses get certified, the valley will become a Certified Autism Designation.
“It’s a tool we can use to market the whole Coachella Valley as a safe place for people to come if you have someone on the spectrum,” Heinz said. “We have options, things to do and places to go where people have more understanding and more empathy about autism, and how to better serve those on the spectrum and their families and give them good experiences. The Desert Autism Foundation is what we raise all this money for, and we are setting aside some funds to help businesses do the certification, because it obviously costs some money to take the training and get the certification.”
The Concert for Autism’s kickoff event will take place at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27, at the Big Rock Pub, 79940 Westward Ho Drive, in Indio. The Acoustic Afternoon for Autism will take place at 1 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 6, at Coachella Valley Brewing Co., 30640 Gunther St., in Thousand Palms. The lead-up event will take place at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11, at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. The main event will take place at 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19, at The Tack Room Tavern, 81800 Avenue 51, in Indio. A donation is requested at the events. For more information, visit concertforautism.com.
Concert for Autism organizer Josh Heinz (in the blue shirt) performs with Dufreign at last year’s event.
MUSIC
BEYOND MOSHING
By matt king
PBronca mixes English and Spanish to deal with topics of oppression, code-switching and culture wars—and puts on a raucous live show
unk-rock band Bronca is one of the hottest bands in the desert—for all sorts of very good reasons.
Featuring Eric Freeman on drums, Jairo Bravo on guitar, Josaphat Sical on vocals, Mario Estrada on bass, and Leopoldo Juan Treviño on guitar and vocals, Bronca performs energetic live shows with raucous stage energy, and frontman Sical almost always hops into the crowd to sing
the band’s action-charged lyrics to the crowd.
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, Bronca will release debut EP totlanawatil, featuring 10 straight minutes of fast riffs and cultural commentary. Every song mixes English and Spanish to deal with topics of oppression, code-switching and culture wars.
I chatted with most of the Bronca crew recently at Del Taco.
“There’s a lot of identity-crisis stuff on it, about being challenged from the outside world to change, and the struggles of that shit,” Treviño said; he is the founder of the band and the primary songwriter. “I wanted to broaden it a little bit so that everybody could relate to it, as opposed to just it being my own point of view.”
Treviño made sure each member was on board with the band’s outspoken nature before joining the band. The other musicians related to the topics and feelings Treviño wanted Bronca to express.
“We’re minorities, so I feel like (Treviño’s) lyrics are a mindset,” Sical said. “He has a way of getting a message across, but still keeping it understandable.”
Totlanawatil is a word in the Nahuatl language (spoken by Mexicans, Aztecs and Nahuas) meaning “our history.” Treviño explained that the album name stems from his life-changing discovery of the origins of the language.
“All of us here, regardless of speaking Spanish or not, we all get challenged because of how we look and where we come from,” Treviño said. “At home, we’re told this is who we are … but as soon as you start to venture out, which you have to as a growing adolescent, you go to school, and you get told you don’t look how you’re supposed to look. I’m a history major, and I’ve studied history for so long, but I already knew that my people aren’t native Spanish-speakers, and my people aren’t also native English-speakers, and here I am, having to try to fit the mold of a Spanish person, a Spanish-speaker, learning English. I was an English learner my entire life, and once you’re an English learner, you’re labeled for the rest of your life regardless of how well you speak it. I went from that perspective of not speaking English well enough, to then speaking English
too well, and not Spanish speaking well enough, and now speaking Spanish better. I realized I was being torn between two languages that really shouldn’t even be mine anyways. I don’t even know that much Nahuatl, and I’m trying really, really hard to learn a lot of it, which is why I added a lot of that stuff in there.”
The EP’s final track, “El Guardia,” ends with a Nahuatl poem.
“I included the poem in ‘El Guardia,’ ‘the guardian,’ because we have a responsibility to preserve our history, or else we lose ourselves,” Treviño said. “That’s the whole point of that story, and that’s why I made that whole song in Spanish. It is tailored toward the Spanish-speaking crowd, but the message is the same: If your history is erased, you are erased.”
Other moments in totlanawatil deal with the struggles faced by Mexicans in America. Treviño explained why he kept a “wrong” lyric in a song on purpose.
“The beginning of one of the lyrics was supposed to be the word ‘arremedar,’ which is, ‘You’re mocking me,’” he said. “I know that’s the word, but I grew up saying the word ‘remiden,’ and it’s not even a real word, but it’s a very SoCal Mexican-American thing to do, which is you say words that are not even Spanish or English. I grew up saying that word, because it was something my mom would do a lot. She would just make up stupid words in not even Spanish or English. That’s part of that identity crisis, too—just accepting that you’re never going to be able to make everybody happy, especially when they have some fucking twisted version of who you’re supposed to be.”
Bronca’s shows always attract a crowd, thanks to the tenacious, fiery music, and their audience-engaging stage presence. As the band releases the EP, they hope people will see beyond the mosh pit and understand the true message of the band.
“I feel like once this is out, then they’ll understand the meaning, and then those who can reference that hopefully will sing along to our music,” Bravo said. “It’s cool to see what they’re doing right now … but I hope that once this is out, they will see what the meaning is.”
Some audience members have already caught on, thanks to the empowering ad libs
from Treviño and Sical, and the always-present United Farm Workers of America flag placed on an amp.
“It’s a pretty good mix,” Freeman said. “You can see who’s just feeling the music, and then there are a few people on the side who are actually stopping and listening to what (Sical) is saying.”
Treviño makes a point to uplift and inspire a certain group of people at every gig—the “no sabo kids.” “No sabo” is an incorrect translation of “I don’t know,” and the term “no sabo kid” has been used to represent Latinos who aren’t fluent in Spanish.
“I’ve been talking a lot about that at shows, and people really relate to that and will be like, ‘Dude, that’s sick; thank you for saying that,’” Treviño said. “Maybe once the album comes out, we might have some people misinterpreting certain things, like the crazy Republicans who love Rage Against the Machine. …. In the recordings, you can hear what he (Josaphat) is saying. We worked really hard to make sure.”
While Bronca may be too loud and crazy for some, and too politically charged for others, the band hopes people can leave their live shows changed.
“I would hope that people leave with a new mindset, or a new point of view,” said Sical. “I want them to leave empowered—like, ‘Hey, bro, stand up for our culture; don’t let them remove it. Don’t just be a pawn.’ I also want people to have a good time.”
Learn more at instagram.com/broncacvhc.
king
Boo! And happy October! There are many great events happening throughout the desert this month; here’s a preview.
Acrisure Arena has music … and basketball! At 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4, and 6:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 6, enjoy some NBA Preseason action with a double-dose of Los Angeles Lakers basketball. The team will face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Tickets start at $98.20. Guitar virtuoso and blues icon Eric Clapton will bring hits from Cream and his solo career to the desert at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 10. Tickets started at $195.57 as of this writing. At 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, 1990s rockers Weezer will celebrate their landmark album Weezer (aka the Blue Album) by performing it in its entirety alongside other hits. Tickets start at $53.40. At 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13, Mexicana singer/songwriter Ivan Cornejo is set to perform. Tickets start at $144.55. Regional Mexican act Codiciado brings viral Spanish jams to the 760 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 20. Tickets start at $32.20. Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, Palm Desert; 888-695-8778; www.acrisurearena.com.
The McCallum Theatre is back in action with a few shows. At 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11, and Saturday, Oct. 12, comedian Randy Rainbow combines musical theater and political spoofs for an evening of non-stop humor. Tickets start at $68.99. Enjoy some honky-tonk jams from Terri Clark at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26. Tickets start at $45. Poking fun at politics and the election is the group Capitol Fools, bringing the laughs at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 27. Tickets start at $43. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert; 760-340-2787; www.mccallumtheatre.com Fantasy Springs this month offers Spanish,
Terri Clark
October 2024
By matt
Bronca. Ken Larmon
country and comedy. At 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13, Latin legends Los Tucanes De Tijuana will perform. Bring your dancing shoes! Tickets start at $62. Ahead of his performance at Stagecoach in 2025, country star Conner Smith will rock the Lit Lounge at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 14. Tickets are $27.50. At 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18, Riley Green will grace the Fantasy Springs stage with some country tunes. Tickets start at $62.50. Mix country, rock and blues with Elle King at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19. Tickets start at $42.50. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26, laugh the night away with funnyman Cedric the Entertainer. Tickets start at $82.50. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-3425000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.
Spotlight 29 features some sweet headlining events amidst their Fall Music Series of tribute bands. At 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11, R&B king Billy Ocean will help you re-live the ’80s. Tickets start at $33.65. Comedian and actress Iliza Shlesinger returns to the Coachella Valley at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12. Tickets start at $49.10. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26, comedian Rene Vaca will head to Coachella. Tickets start at $26.85. You must be 21 or older to attend Spotlight 29 shows. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella; 760-775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.
Morongo has music galore—and one comedian. At 9 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4, Mexican singer and former Grupo Límite star Alicia Villarreal will pay a visit. Tickets start at $68.25. Rapper and actor, and former child star Bow Wow will be performing at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5 Tickets start at $57.25. At 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 10, indie sensations from the 2010s, Fitz and the Tantrums will perform many radio hits. Tickets are $42.50. Vibe to 2000’s hip hop with Ying Yang Twins and Yung Joc at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18. Tickets start at $57.25. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19, actor, comedian and TV host Joel McHale will perform. Tickets are $68.25. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-252-4499; www.
morongocasinoresort.com.
Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage features a stacked October; here are some highlights. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, comedian and late-night legend Jay Leno will leave you in stitches. Tickets start at $75. Singer/songwriter Jim Croce’s son A.J. Croce brings the famous Croce Plays Croce tour to the desert at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 25. Tickets start at $25. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 26, check out some badass blues rock from icons ZZ Top. Tickets start at $75. Witness guitar greatness from Joe Bonamassa at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 30. Tickets start at $79. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www. aguacalientecasinos.com.
Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage features more great residency shows! Desert Blues Revival Wednesdays feature American rock from Rumble King (Oct. 2), electrifying blues from Julieann Bemis (Oct. 9), emotional, soulful, early blues from Abby Girl and the Real Deal (Oct. 16), blues-guitar star Laurie Morvan (Oct. 23) and funky blues from Zavala Sol (Oct. 30). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets for most shows start at $17.85, available at eventspalmsprings.com. Carousel Thursdays showcase dynamic jazz from NUTTY (Oct. 3), the evil swing of Marquis and the Rhythm Howlers (Oct. 10), a night of tributes titled Sweet Baby J’ai’s Master of Melody: A Tribute to Singers Who Shaped History (Oct. 17), renowned jazz vocalist Elena Gilliam (Oct. 24) and a night of vintage, sinister swing from Lizzy and the Triggerman (Oct. 31). Shows are at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $17.85 to $23.18, available at eventspalmsprings. com. Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 888-999-1995; www.sparesortcasino.com.
Here are a few highlights from a busy October at Pappy and Harriet’s. Heavy-rock duo Death From Above 1979 will perform their debut album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine front-to-back on Friday, Oct. 11, when the
clock strikes midnight. Tickets are $32.50. At 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13, Japanese psychedelic rocker Shintaro Sakamoto will visit Pioneertown for a truly unique performance. Tickets are $48.06. Irish rockers The Young Dubliners will paint the desert green at 9 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 24. Tickets are $35. Check out the
website for a complete list of shows. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-228-2222; www.pappyandharriets.com.
Oscar’s in Palm Springs is stepping up their entertainment game, and here are some highlights from a full calendar. At 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2, step into the drag court with an entertaining show called Bea Arthur Is Judging You! Tickets are $49.95. Just a few tickets remained as of our deadline to see Stormy Daniels share clips, conversations and stories from a crazy life at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4. Tickets are $79.95. At 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11, enjoy Barbra & Liza, a tribute show to Streisand and Minnelli from Steven Brinberg and Rick Skye. Tickets start at $44.95. Offering hints of Fats Waller and Jerry Lee Lewis, pianist and singer Mike Maimone will perform a wildly engaging and fiery show at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 29. Tickets are $10. Most Oscar’s shows include a food/drink minimum. Oscar’s Palm Springs, 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs; 760-325-1188; oscarspalmsprings.com/events.
The Purple Room is back into high gear with tons of great shows! At 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, Janis Siegel and Yaron Gershovsky bring Grammy Award-winning vocal and keyboard skills to town. Remaining tickets are $50.85. Singer Chadwick Johnson honors ’70s songwriters at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5. Tickets start at $45.70. Spend a musical evening with Broadway, cartoon and TV favorite Nicolas King at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11. Tickets start at $45.70. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, pay dues to Frank Sinatra when Richard Shelton honors the king of crooners. Remaining tickets are $45.70. At 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19, pianist and singer Billy Stritch will share his favorite songs and stories. Tickets start at $61.15. All ticketed shows include dinner reservations two hours before showtime. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-3224422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.
Shintaro Sakamoto
MUSIC
LUCKY 13 the
Get to know two great local vocalists on opposite sides of the sound spectrum
by matt king
GROUP the crushedvelvets
MORE INFO Indio native Dani Meza is living proof of the healing power of music. More than a decade ago, his soulful, R&B-inspired sound via former projects Blackstrap Molasses and Dani & The Scarlett Fevers garnered regional attention—but the music stopped in 2016, when Meza suffered two strokes and an aneurysm. After a long road to recovery, Meza returned with a calmer and more subdued vibe through his new band the crushedvelvets. The crushedvelvets are set to release their sleazy, soulful and slightly funky debut LP, I Planted, Apollos Watered, But God Kept Making It Grow, on Saturday, Oct. 19. That day at 7 p.m., the crushedvelvets will host an album-release show at Little Street Music Hall in Indio. Admission is $10. For more information, visit instagram. com/thecrushedvelvets.
What was the first concert you attended? Coachella in 2005 in my hometown of Indio. Going from local shows to this made an impact and cemented the trajectory of my music career.
What was the first album yaou owned?
Bob Dylan Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert. An art teacher in high school introduced me to his music. I went out to buy some of his music, and the cover drew me to this one. There’s nothing like hearing Bob stomp his boots to count a song in.
What bands are you listening to right now?
I’ve been listening to a lot of older stuff like D’Angelo, Roxy Music and Moondog. I’ve recently found it hard to personally find inspiration in new music—not to say that the new music I’ve listened to is bad. I keep being
drawn back to the music that I’ve listened to before, and it is the music that inspires me to create.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
Trap music. I like music of all kinds as long as it makes me feel something, but trap music doesn’t move me in any way.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
T. Rex! He (Mark Bolan) found his formula in the studio that no one has come close to. Along with that, he had a completely different approach when he performed. He was an entertainer who knew that recording and the stage were two different worlds.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
1960’s yé-yé music. It may be considered ’60s pop, but it was more specifically French ’60s pop. They made it attractive. There are a lot of jazz overtones and strings.
What’s your favorite music venue?
El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. I once saw the Black Lips with the Night Beats as the opening act there. It was a wild and unforgettable night.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
“If I don’t do it, somebody else will,” Dr. John, “Such a Night.” I’ve taken this on as a personal mantra and reminder. Someone is always at your heels waiting to do what you are doubting yourself with.
What band or artist changed your life?
Marvin Gaye. The first time I listened to his What’s Going On album, it left me wanting more after it finished. It was my introduction to concept albums, and I became obsessed with them and writing this way. I love being lost in a story or idea.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
I would ask Bob Dylan when we can see the uncut 1966 documentary with complete live performances! As a musician who has been
hugely influenced by that documentary, I would love to see the gems captured in those performances.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
I’ve always thought Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s “Air à Danser” would be my exit music. It captures the way I feel about death— neither somber nor joyful about it; it’s just transitioning for others who you leave behind.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
Right now, I’d say Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde I have a lot of good memories with this album that have recently been resurfacing. My mom and I would listen to this album on drives. I listen to and am influenced by so much music that this answer will likely change by next week.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
Nick Lowe’s “I Read a Lot.” Russ Tolman played it on the first airing of his recent radio show on KDRT. It struck a chord in me, and I had it on repeat for the rest of the night. I only share songs with people that strike me. Beautiful chord changes.
NAME Skylar Berry
GROUP Layer:0
MORE INFO Our local music scene got even heavier when Layer:0 joined the fold. Vocalist Skylar Berry and guitarist Zach Rivizzigno have been crafting political and thoughtprovoking metal/punk jams that can be described as progressive grindcore. Berry’s vocal performance is intense and filled with chaotic screaming, yet the lyrics are filled with poetic techniques dealing with themes of resistance. Check out their seven-track, nineminute epic, The Dead Are Not Silent. Layer:0 is set to perform at 6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17, at Music House Indio, 82777 Miles Ave. Tickets are $10 at the door. For more info, visit www. instagram.com/layer.0_band.
What was the first concert you attended?
I think it was a Skillet concert that my parents dragged me to when I was around 10 or so.
What was the first album you owned?
Sonic Adventure 2 Original Soundtrack on CD. I still have it, and it goes hard to this day. I don’t care what anyone says; I will defend this album with my life.
What bands are you listening to right now?
Omerta, OLTH, Cel Damage, Lefty Fish, and Valeska Suratt.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
The Y2K club-pop resurgence trend that’s going on right now. It’s great, and I love it; I just haven’t found myself to ever be in a mood to seek it out.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? OLTH or Gingerbee. They go insane live, and I missed the chance to see them at The Che Café (in La Jolla) both times they were there.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
Sonic OSTs. See above.
What’s your favorite music venue?
The Che Café. Layer:0 wouldn’t be a band if Zach and I never saw SeeYouSpaceCowboy and onewaymirror there.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
A lyric that’s running around in circles in my head? One that’s in my mind, like all day, all the time? One that’s in my head, staying “Rent Free”?
What band or artist changed your life? SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Seeing them live with Zach was legitimately life-changing for me. I thought I’d have to give up on a lot of my dreams and goals after coming to terms with my identity, but seeing Connie (Sgarbossa) and the guys live, I was like, “Oh wait, what am I thinking? I’m allowed to do this!”
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
Sean Kennedy from OLTH: “How the f*** do you make that noise? And can you teach me?”
What song would you like played at your funeral?
“Sweden” by C418. I am not kidding. Let this be my public will.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Manipulator by The Fall of Troy. It’s got a little bit of everything I like in it.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
“End Up on the Screen” by Lefty Fish. I listened to this for the first time literally, like, an hour ago, and I’m obsessed.
NAME Dani Meza
Michael Hernandez
OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD
42. Trample
44. Heat sensor on the range?
50. Party spoiler
51. Take to court
52. Son ___ Critch (Canadian sitcom)
53. Like ungulates such as pigs, hippos, and giraffes (but who’s counting?)
57. Concoct
59. German definite article
60. “Let me blow off some steam,” or the reason for five other Across theme answers?
62. Verb ender
63. “Hot in Herre” rapper
64. Tough-to-find character
65. Printers’ dash lengths
66. Evening Shade narrator Davis
67. Tajikistan, previously, for short
Down
1. Convinced to shell out more
2. It comes before “lands” or “world”
3. Coy comeback
4. “Spring ahead” clock abbr.
5. “___ of little faith”
6. Topple
7. Giveaway gift
8. Person who waits
9. Urban center
10. Tons
11. Say it isn’t
13. 1961 Nobelist Andric or comedian Graham
14. Forgiving 18. Italian grandma
22. Middle-earth inhabitant
25. Words after “as” that, on their own, look grammatically incorrect
28. Baron ___ Rightoften (playable character in the 1984 Trivial Pursuit arcade game)
29. NHL player in Edmonton
30. Many charity golf tournaments
31. Sturgeon eggs
32. The ___ Squad
35. Comedian Margaret
36. 54, in Roman numerals
37. Glacier breakaways
39. Keyboarder’s base (index fingers on F and J!)
40. ___ Punch Man
42. Last word of an HBO megahit
43. Have reservations
45. Smoking alternative, ages ago
46. Pizzeria owner Jim who founded a frozenpizza manufacturing company
47. Linen closet items
48. Money in an online wallet, e.g.
49. Jurassic Park predator
53. Falco who appears in the Avatar sequels
54. Type of diagrams appreciated by Kamala Harris
55. Squiggly fish
56. Salami source
58. Longoria on the current season of Only Murders in the Building
