Coachella Valley Independent September 2016

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT | SEPTEMBER 2016

VOL. 4 | NO. 9

Clean

Water

Many residents of the eastern Coachella Valley don't have access to safe drinking water.

Castulo Estrada is working to change that. | Page 15

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SEPTEMBER 2016

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CVIndependent.com

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 3

SEPTEMBER 2016

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

Editor/Publisher Jimmy Boegle Assistant Editor Brian Blueskye cover/Cover Story design Mark Duebner Design Contributors Gustavo Arellano, Nicole Borgenicht, Max Cannon, Kevin Fitzgerald, Bill Frost, Bonnie Gilgallon, Bob Grimm, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Brane Jevric, Bert Johnson, Keith Knight, Marylee Pangman, Erin Peters, Dan Perkins, Sean Planck, Guillermo Prieto, Anita Rufus, Jen Sorenson, Christine Soto, Robert Victor The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month.

All content is ©2016 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The Independent is available free of charge throughout the Coachella Valley, limited to one copy per reader.

Additional copies may be purchased for $1 by calling (760) 904-4208. The Independent may be distributed only by the Independent’s authorized distributors.

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

There are many alternative-newspaper editors out there who would take one look at this month’s cover story and instantly declare that I, your humble editor, am a total moron.

Stories about water-district boards, as a general rule, don’t sell newspapers. (Thank goodness the Independent is free, right?) So why, you might ask, did I decide to put a story about a water-district board on one of the only 12 covers the Independent has in year?

The answer is simple: This mundane-sounding story is really important.

It’s important for Coachella Valley residents to know that until two years ago, white people basically made up the entire board of the Coachella Valley Water District, the valley’s largest water agency, even though a third of the residents within the CVWD are Latino. It’s vital to know that many people within the CVWD boundaries don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water—largely because these people were never on the minds of the CVWD board members.

It’s crucial for the public to understand that while positive changes seem to finally be coming to the Coachella Valley Water District, there’s a lot of work to do—and it’s the public’s job to make sure that work actually gets done.

So … that’s why Kevin Fitzgerald’s excellent-if-not-so-sexy story on Castulo Estrada and his work on the CVWD board is on the cover this month. (Thank goodness designer Mark Duebner is talented enough to come up with a compelling piece of cover art, no matter the story!) Check out Kevin’s story on Page 15.

In completely unrelated news: It’s Best of Coachella Valley time again! Voting is now open in the first round of our annual readers’ poll. For more details, turn to Page 21, or just head to CVIndependent.com to vote.

Be sure to follow the rules; for example, you have to vote in at least 15 categories; you need to put down your full name; and you need to provide a real, working email address. (If our test email bounces, we delete the ballot!) If we see more than a handful ballots coming from the same IP address, we’ll investigate to make sure the electronic ballot box is not being stuffed.

First-round voting takes place through Monday, Sept. 26. After that, the top three to five vote-getters in each category will advance to the final-round vote, which takes place throughout October. The winners and placement of the other finalists will be announced at CVIndependent.com on Monday, Nov. 28, and in the December print edition. Email me if you have any questions!

Welcome to the September 2016 print edition of the Coachella Valley Independent. As always, thanks for reading.

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

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SEPTEMBER 2016

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 5

SEPTEMBER 2016

OPINION OPINION

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS R

BY ANITA RUFUS

ancho Mirage resident Bill Marx is known both for being the eldest son of Harpo Marx (the mute, harp-playing Marx Brothers star) and for his own talent as a composer and performer. He and his wife, Barbara, are among those named in bold print as attendees at many local charity functions, and Bill is often a featured performer, combining his piano-playing talent with comedic stories about growing up Marx.

Raised in Beverly Hills, Bill became his father’s prop man at age 12 and his arranger/conductor by the time Bill was 16.

“Dad couldn’t read a note of music,” he says. “I’d write the notes in letters, and he could feel the rhythm and harmony.”

Bill’s dad decided that Beverly Hills was “too pretentious” and moved the family to the desert. Bill went on to study at the Juilliard School in New to ‘invent’ Susan Marx as a separate person.

York and then settled in Los Angeles. While Bill’s “Mom broke into the Old Boys’ Club here, at father helped him hone his musical talent, most a time when an outspoken feminist Democrat people don’t know how much his mother, Susan was not the norm,” Bill says. “She had an opinion Marx (pictured here with Bill), influenced who on everything and wasn’t afraid to share it. She he is as a person. was the first woman on the board of College of Bill moved permanently to the desert in 1992. the Desert and served on the board of the Palm “I wanted to look after my mother, and I Springs Unified School District. She even ran for took over the trusteeship of my dad’s estate and state Senate, endorsed by the local papers, and professional identity,” says Bill. “But instead of lost by only about 1,000 votes.” looking out for her, she had to look after me, as Susan Marx had always been interested in my shaky second marriage broke up. I thought education and preferred to give her support I could always go back to living in Los Angeles, without fanfare. “Once, they wanted to honor but when we started being together without my mom by changing the name of a middle school,” dad, (my mom and I) developed the best damn says Bill. “Mom didn’t want her name on a absurd relationship, so I decided to stay.” building, but she said she didn’t mind them Susan Marx was something of a trailblazer putting a small plaque on the door of the school in the Coachella Valley. She had been in movies library. She was just like that.” and was a Ziegfeld Follies girl before she married When Susan died in 2002, Bill had already Harpo. They became parents to four adopted established himself in the desert, along with children; Bill is the oldest.

Barbara, whom he met in 1994.

“When dad died, on their 28th anniversary in “I had ‘de-citified’ myself,” he says. “Besides, I 1964, she had no ‘role’ to fulfill anymore,” says was doing Marx trustee work and playing a lot Bill. “She had no desire to remarry, although she down here.” was courted by lots of wealthy guys. She decided While Bill is known for playing jazz and

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

Bill Marx honors his famous family name by giving back, sharing his talents standards at various local venues and charity events, most people don’t realize the extent of his musical accomplishments. He is a classical composer whose work has included writing for movies, television and ballet; he’s also created concertos performed in major venues. He is the curator of the Marx Brothers’ legacy, and well known as a local “celebrity.”

“Celebrity isn’t what you create,” Bill says, with typical humility. “It’s what other people create about you. It’s my name value that has counted, more than who I am. I always knew I had a magical name, not just because of my dad, but also because of my mom, but she always said it was important that I get known not just for being my father’s son. I figured that when you have talent, you can use that talent rather than just giving a check or volunteering your time, so the best way I could help others was also my way of fitting into society down here.”

Bill has been using his talent for a greater purpose for more than 20 years. He has actively supported numerous causes, including ACT for MS, established by his old friend, local columnist and personality Gloria Greer, who died in 2015.

“Mom had said to me early on, ‘There’s one person you need to know here, and that’s Gloria Greer.’ She asked me to be on the ACT for MS board, and I have been ever since.”

Bill currently performs for the public twice a week at AJ’s on the Green in Cathedral City.

“I was given the gift of music, and I like to keep testing my capability,” he said. “It keeps my brain alive, and I love the camaraderie and interaction with the audience. I had nothing to do with the gift I was given, but I do have to honor it. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

Bill has a large group of local followers, including other performers, who often show up when he is appearing. I was recently in the audience when jazz singer Diane Schuur, now a local resident, jumped up onstage with him and blew away the audience.

Bill has advice for young people: “It’s not enough just to have a door opened, even though it helps: You have to deliver. Set out to do something, and see it through—finish it. Don’t think of it as creativity; think of it as self-discovery. Everybody has a unique means of self-expression within them; it’s about how they choose to express it that makes the difference.

When it comes out, it becomes unique to the one doing it.

“Trust your own instinct to find your talent.

That’s the gift. I was just lucky enough to know what mine was.”

Lucky for us, Bill Marx is still discovering new ways to explore his gift and share it.

Anita Rufus is also known as “The Lovable Liberal,” and her radio show airs Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on KNews Radio 94.3 FM. Email her at Anita@ LovableLiberal.com. Know Your Neighbors appears every other Wednesday at CVIndependent.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

OPINION OPINION

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

THE POTTED DESERT GARDEN

BY MARYLEE PANGMAN

T

rust me: These hot days are getting shorter. The summer equinox was way back on June 20; that is when the sun started its journey north.

As we think of the sun’s journey, it’s time to start thinking about how the sun affects our potted desert gardens.

We know that our climate changes from long summer days, with daytime temperatures of 115-plus, to long winter nights, where temps regularly dip down to 30-45 degrees. In some areas, temps may drop even lower.

The sun is shifting from its northern angle in the summer, and moving more southerly now.

Plants that were getting a lot of sun over the summer, if kept in the same location, may have much less sun. Some plantings on the more northern side of the house will eventually be in complete shade.

Note where your winter sun is so that your plants that do well in the shade are not blasted with rays. You also want to make sure your sunloving plants, fruits and vegetables are getting enough sun during the cooler season.

I know this sounds like a science experiment,

but if you pay attention as the sun travels from season to season, your plants will thank you.

They really do want to please you!

Hints to Help Your Plants During the Changing Seasons 1. Put pots that you know will need to be moved regularly on pot dollies. Plants may need to be moved not only for the shifting sun, but for protection from the cold, too.

2. To make it easy to move wheeled pots, try

As the seasons change, check to see how much sun your plants are getting

to keep them on flat surfaces with no steps or gravel to traverse.

3. Move plants before you water them so they are lighter.

4. Don’t put off moving sensitive plants.

Sunburn and freeze damage don’t improve over time. Parts of plants suffering from these ailments will need to be pruned.

Tips for Your Next Flower-Shopping Trip 1. Know your pots—sizes, colors and sun/ shade.

2. Know your desired color scheme.

3. Grab a cart at the nursery, as well as an empty flat or carton.

4. Place your selections on the flat. Step back, and look at it.

5. Stare at it, and be sure it sits right with you.

6. If something seems off, take out one plant. Look at color combinations, textures and heights. You may have too many small, flowered plants with small leaves, and that can

complicate the arrangement.

A 24-inch pot with one central planting will need approximately 14 4-inch plants. If you select gallon plants, they can replace three or four smaller ones. I urge you to use 4-inch plants and not six-packs.

Important: When you go shopping and bring your plants home, water them well, and plant as soon as possible—preferably on the same day. If you have to wait until the next morning, place them in the shade to rest until then.

Marylee Pangman is the founder and former owner of The Contained Gardener in Tucson, Ariz. With more than 18 years of experience, she has become known as the desert’s potted garden expert. Marylee’s book, Getting Potted in the Desert, is now available. Buy it online at potteddesert.com; it’s now available on Kindle.

Email her with comments and questions, or requests for digital consultations, at marylee@ potteddesert.com. Follow the Potted Desert at facebook.com/potteddesert.

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www.theboreygroup.com Make sure you are watching the amount of sun your pots are getting as the days grow shorter—and the temperatures get lower.

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 7

SEPTEMBER 2016

OPINION OPINION

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ASK A MEXICAN!

Why do Mexicans sit in their running cars for hours at a time?

AT REVIVALS

BY GUSTAVO ARELLANO

D

EAR MEXICAN: I’m a gabacho living in a barrio. It took a year after we moved in (we’ve been here for five years now), but I grew accustomed to the bicycle-horn-honking guys selling churros out of grocery carts, the tamale lady selling out of a stroller, the couple selling new clothes out of a panel van, the fruit/vegetable guy who really just sells crappy chips, and the everyother-day yard sales. Don’t get me wrong; I love the “micro-economics” of it all; it’s kind of like living at the ballpark. If you sit there long enough, somebody will show up with something to eat.

I’ve started to not jump every time I hear the “Tijuana Doorbell.” A LOT of trash gets thrown into the street and my yard, much of it from the crappy chips the aforementioned fruit guy sells. The trash and the honking still piss me off, but I’m used to it. The cholos, ’copters and potholes—old news.

What I just can’t get my head around is this: Why do so many Mexicans—men and women—sit in their cars for hours at a time?

Or start the car and then walk away for a halfhour? The car’s just sitting there—ON—and nobody’s around. The sitting around might be attributable to not having any privacy at home; I get that. But starting your car and just sitting there or walking away?

Señor Gabacho Con Questiones y Mariscos DEAR MR. GABACHO WITH QUESTIONS AND SEAFOOD: Ever heard of carburetors?

That’s what real cars have in their engines, and you need to warm up said carros in the morning in order for them to run. Mexicans have always preferred real ranflas, so even when we eventually get weak-ass fuel-injection cars, we still warm up cars as a form of habit.

While this might seem like a weak answer, it’s based on precedent: Look at that classic Mexican habit of not flushing away toilet paper full of caca.

DEAR MEXICAN: I’m a 64-year-old white guy.

I’m one of your readers and a Facebook amigo.

I’m a huge fan of Tejano music, which led me into appreciating Mexican music. Then, of course, there are Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys, who can (and do) play anything. Then there’s that whole Depression/World War II diaspora that had a

hand in the Oakland/Bay Area horn funk bands of the ’60s and ’70s, and, of course, the whole damn Escovedo family up there in NorCal. Boy, did I get off base. My question is: Am I a gabacho?

Green Goes the Gringos DEAR GABACHO: Did you ever hear that joke Chris Rock said about black people and “niggas”? That’s how it is with white people and gabachos. The Mexican frequently gets accused by gabachos of being racist toward white people, when that’s not the case at all.

Some of my best friends are white people— hell, one just installed a door for me the other day, and I even let him use my bathroom!

This column takes on the gabachos of the United States, though. It’s gabachos who think Mexicans are destroying this country, and gabachos who want to elect Trump, yet profess their enjoyment of Mexican food. White people hate gabachos as much as Mexicans, which is why they don’t have a problem with the Reconquista. Gabachos, on the other hand?

Better stock up on the Tapatío as a peace offering, ’cause you’re gonna have to make nice with us muy soon.

So you, sir, ain’t no gabacho: You’re just a plain ol’ gringo.

Catch the Mexican every Wednesday at CVIndependent.com. Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net; be his fan on Facebook; follow him on Twitter @ gustavoarellano; or follow him on Instagram @ gustavo_arellano!

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SEPTEMBER 2016

NEWS

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FINALLY FREE

The California Innocence Project gets Kimberly Long’s murder conviction overturned

BY BRIAN BLUESKYE

K

imberly Long was the subject of the Independent’s June 2015 cover story, “Guilty Until Proven Innocent”; she was in prison after being convicted of murdering her boyfriend.

Long insisted she was innocent—and her case caught the attention of the California Innocence Project.

“I know I’m going home,” Long told the Independent last year. “It’s just a matter of time. … I know I’m coming home, and I have the utmost faith in the California Innocence Project—and faith in God.” Long’s faith was rewarded: On June 10, Riverside Superior Court Judge Patrick Magers reversed Long’s conviction, ruling that Long’s public defender did not provide adequate representation. She was released on bail, after being in prison since 2009.

“I couldn’t believe it was actually happening,” Long told the Independent in a recent interview.

“Being released from the jail, walking out to fresh air and no correctional officers, it was a different kind of feeling. It’s been absolutely fantastic since that day.”

However, Long’s freedom is not assured: Prosecutors may try her again, for what would be the third time.

On Oct. 5, 2003, Long spent the day barhopping with her boyfriend, Oswaldo “Ozzy” Conde and their mutual friend, Jeff Dills.

Around 11 p.m. that night, they returned to their home in Corona and got into a fight.

Long left with Dills to cool off, she says, and when she returned home a few hours later, she found Conde on their sofa—he had been brutally murdered.

Long was tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury, with nine of the 12 jurors voting to acquit. Her second ended in a guilty verdict for second-degree murder— even though the judge stated he would have acquitted her.

CVIndependent.com

Alissa Bjerkhoel, Long’s attorney from the California Innocence Project, explained what comes next for Long.

“After we get a conviction reversed, prosecutors have two options, and they can do one or both,” said Bjerkhoel. “The first thing is they’re going to appeal the decision. They’re going to do that, and it’s going to put Kim in this legal limbo for about two years or so, until the appeal is resolved. Then after that, they have the option to put her on trial again for a third time. Right now, they’re telling us they’re going to do both. We’re hopeful that might change in the future, but they seem to be taking this conviction reversal a bit hard.”

Still, for Long and the California Innocence Project, the verdict reversal was a pleasant surprise. Bjerkhoel told me last year she expected Long’s case to be an uphill battle.

“I was worried at first, because we’ve lost this case so many times,” Bjerkhoel said. “And we’ve lost it with really unfortunate decisions.

We’d say she didn’t do it, and the evidence showed she didn’t do it, but unfortunately, we’d hear, ‘You don’t meet our standards,’ or, ‘Our hands are tied, and that’s that.’

“The standards to get your conviction reversed in California are crazy. We were really lucky the judge we had was the original trial judge: (Magers) was familiar with the case and all the evidence, and sat through two trials already. … (That) really benefitted us, because he was the most knowledgeable about the case and knew how problematic it was. We tell Kim she’s a lucky one: ‘You’re one who got out, and it’s hard to do.’’’

Despite Bjerkhoel’s concerns, Long said she’s confident about her future.

Kimberly Long (center) with her California Innocence Project legal team. COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA INNOCENCE PROJECT

“I don’t even see myself standing trial again, and I don’t even see a negative outcome in this case from here on out. I don’t see it happening,” Long said. “In my head, I see it as already over with, except for this little part.”

Long said she’s lucky compared to some of the other people the California Innocence Project has helped exonerate.

“I haven’t spent as much time in prison as others have,” she said. … “Technology probably changed a little bit, but I think what’s different is the fact my kids are older now, and I’m trying to find my purpose in life today. Many years ago, I was a mom, and I was helping them do their homework, taking them to baseball practice and whatnot. Now it’s not like that: They’re 18 and 23, and they have their own lives. Now I’m a 40-year-old woman trying to find my place in life.”

Long is facing problems that all ex-inmates go through.

“It’s just trying to get re-established. If you want to work again, you need a vehicle to do so—plus you need to have health insurance,”

she said. “There are so many things you need to re-establish in your life. I was very independent before, and now I’m dependent on people, and that’s a very hard place to be.”

Even though she currently has no conviction on her record, Long said she’s still finding it hard to find employment.

“I actually went for a job interview to be a paralegal, and what I ran into is that there is a big gap on my resume,” said Long, a former nurse. “That’s what everyone wants to know about: why I’m not working as a nurse, and why I want to be a paralegal. I’m not a good liar, and I can’t lie about it. I ended up having to tell this guy everything about me. Needless to say, I didn’t get a call back, and that part is rough. I’m looking at ex-felon job sites when I’m not even an ex-felon.”

Meanwhile, Bjerkhoel and her team are working to keep Long free.

“We knew about the hearing since last fall,” Bjerkhoel said about the June 10 court date.

“We did the hearing; Kim was released, and now we’re going into the appeal process.”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 9

SEPTEMBER 2016

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

A TAXING QUESTION

Palm Desert’s City Council wants visitors to pay a little more

BY BRANE JEVRIC

T

he city of Palm Desert is rising up against the state’s tax takeaways by asking its residents to raise a fee on visitors—and this is all unfolding in the shadow of a well-publicized scandal involving the former city manager.

According to city officials, the state of California has taken about $40 million away from the state every year in redevelopment funds. So on July 28, City Council members unanimously voted to place a measure on the November ballot that would increase the local transient occupancy tax (in other words, the hotel tax) from 9 percent to 11 percent, to replace a small fraction of the $40 million the state takes every year. That 11 percent would be on par with what other valley cities charge.

They nicknamed it Measure T. That may sound somewhat familiar to Palm Springs residents, who in 2011 passed something called Measure J. However, the similarities in the ballot initiatives end there: Palm Springs’ Measure J increased the sales tax by 1 percent, while Measure T will affect only people staying at the city’s hotels and motels.

Some of that Measure J money was used for downtown redevelopment in Palm Springs, and was at the center of the high-profile FBI raid at the City Hall which also apparently targeted then-Mayor Steve Pougnet.

Palm Desert Mayor Bob Spiegel was adamant that his city would not end up having any such problems if residents pass Measure T. “I don’t think it is appropriate or relevant to talk about challenges facing other cities,” Spiegel said. “Palm Desert has earned a well-established reputation for fiscal responsibility and good stewardship of public resources.”

Spiegel said certain steps would be taken by the city to prevent any possible misuse of the funds generated by the proposed Measure T. “Measure T is subject to strong accountability provisions, including independent audits, public oversight and local control of funds that cannot be taken by state,” Spiegel said.

While Spiegel claimed Palm Desert has

a “well-established reputation for fiscal responsibility and good stewardship of public resources,” it is worth noting that the Palm Desert City Council earlier this year gave former City Manager John Wohlmuth a severance package valued at nearly $300,000 after he allegedly showed a nude photo of a co-worker to his colleagues at City Hall.

City officials claimed they approved the severance package to avoid being sued by Wohlmuth.

Anyway, back to Measure T: Spiegel said the Measure T funds would help the city deal with rising public-safety costs.

“For the first time in Palm Desert’s history, public-safety costs have exceeded 50 percent of our annual budget,” he said. “Measure T will provide a dedicated local source of funding.”

Palm Desert contracts with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for lawenforcement services.

“We work closely with the (sheriff’s department) to address the community’s needs,” said Justin McCarthy, Palm Desert’s interim city manager. “If, in consultation with them,

additional deputies are required, we would recommend adding them.”

McCarthy, who is being paid $119 per hour until a new city manager is hired, said Measure T would generate approximately $2.2 million annually.

Palm Desert is home to 12 hotels with 2,171 rooms. There are also numerous timeshare properties that will be affected by Measure T, depending on their vacancy.

“The city has three vacation ownership (timeshare) properties that function like hotels: Marriott Shadow Ridge (1,093 rooms) Westin Desert Willow Villas (268 rooms), and Embarc Palm Desert—Intrawest Resort (88 rooms),” said Palm Desert spokesman David Hermann.

According to Hermann, the three timeshare properties function as hotels when the units are

not booked by owners.

“The resorts advertise the rooms on online travel sites, etc.,” he said. “And when guests pay their bill, the resort collects the transient occupancy tax along with the charge for their lodging.”

Measure T would obviously bring in even more revenue with additional hotel development—and city officials say two new hotels are under construction.

“Hotel Paseo is a boutique hotel being built next to The Gardens on El Paseo,” Hermann said. “It will have 150 rooms. The brand is the Marriott Autograph Collection, and the hotel is expected to open in September of 2017.”

A Fairfield Inn, near Interstate 10 and Cook Street, has a projected October 2017 opening date.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

NEWS

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¡FUERA TRUMP! A

By bert johnson

t Mexico City’s historic central square, or zócalo, Jose Adan Garcia Canales was busy balancing a small pipe organ on a wooden peg. He turned its crank, and the instrument let out a shrill tune reminiscent of circus music. Garcia’s partner strolled amid the shoppers, tourists and vendors with a hat in hand, asking for change.

The organillero, or organ-grinder, is one of many in the capital’s massive unofficial economy. He’s a man of the people, with his fingers on the pulse of the city, and that’s why I asked him about one of the most pressing issues in Mexico today: Donald Trump.

What does the everyday Mexican think of “The Wall,” or Trump’s plan to send the millions of undocumented immigrants from Mexico living in the United States back to Mexico, among so many other contentious proposals?

Garcia’s response was to the point: “They’re very radical,” he said in Spanish. “I don’t like them.”

I interviewed a number of Mexico City residents—from teachers to musicians to fellow journalists—about Trump, and asked whether the demagogic candidate had changed their perception of America.

Responses varied. While the organillero didn’t believe Trump would win the election, some predicted Trump would take it all in November.

Others hinted at a conspiracy between Trump and Mexico’s president. A few bluntly compared Trump to Hitler. And some likened his campaign to a stunt, instead of an honest attempt to win the White House.

One common theme emerged from all of these interviews: Trump has to go.

Or, in Spanish: ¡Fuera Trump!

‘He’s Like a Clown’ Fabiola Valdez Gutierrez, interpreter Fabiola Valdez Guierrez is a Spanish-English interpreter—but her message for Trump needs no translation: He will never build “the wall.”

She actually believes that, if he were in fact elected and did try to push the wall, a litigious private sector on both sides of the border would stop his plans in the courts.

“Mexican companies have American partners that would likely lose money as well, and I cannot see the federal government trying to solve all the possible lawsuits that will be surfacing” because of the wall, she explained.

Valdez understands issues north and south of the border. She works with clients in the United States and other English-speaking countries.

She also has family in America and, in 2003, spent a summer in Texas and Arizona. So, for her, the border is personal.

Like many people I spoke to, Valdez was cynical when it came to Trump and his bombastic style. “He presents himself as a great business success, but a lot of reporters have caught him lying,” she explained. She thinks his No. 1 motivation is to further his Trump brand CVIndependent.com

with scandals and constant media attention.

But “his message is so full of ignorance that it is a joke to think that his proposals are serious,” she said.

Is there anything new about Trump’s brand of bigotry? Valdez doesn’t think so, calling it a byproduct of “a racist America that is still palpable and very alive, present in a lot of cities.”

The only surprise is that’s he’s a legitimate major-party candidate, she said—one supported by extremists who “won’t recognize the multiculturalism in their own country,” and who want “to go back to an America that never existed.”

Despite her concern about Trump and his supporters, she said that his vision is basically a punchline in Mexico.

“He is like a clown,” she explained. “Nobody has real concerns or fears about him becoming president. At least not in my social circle.”

‘We Are Poland, and Trump Is Germany’ Federico Campbell Peña, journalist A TV journalist who works for Canal Once, or the “Mexican PBS,” Federico Campbell Peña has followed Trump’s campaign from day one.

And he is certain that Trump, whom he calls a “unique species,” will win.

That’s a disconcerting prognostication from a man who also recently wrote a self-published book, Stop Trump: Una cronología abreviada, or an “abridged chronology.” However, Campbell doesn’t want Trump to move into the White House; his hope with the book is to inspire Mexican leadership to develop a plan to deal with the possibility of a Trump presidency.

The writer partially attributes Trump’s appeal in America to the scandals that have beset Hillary Clinton. But he also believes that global instability is setting the table for a Trump presidency.

“ISIS is helping Mr. Trump,” he explained,

People in Mexico City definitely have some choice words for ‘The Donald’ “and also the police attacks.”

If Trump becomes president, Campbell predicted that he would immediately enact a series of “publicity policies,” such as building the border wall, to prove his might.

Another demonstration of power Campbell expects in Trump’s hypothetical first year is the cessation of diplomatic relations between Mexico and America—as crazy as that sounds.

“We are not going to have ambassador(s) in D.C. and in Mexico City,” he predicted.

How does it feel to be Mexican and hear Trump’s vitriolic message?

Campbell was blunt: “We feel as (though we are) Polish in 1938, when Adolf Hitler reached power in Germany. … We are Poland, and Trump is Germany.

‘Se sabe Que no va a Ganar’ Brillyl Sanchez, customer service Brillyl Sanchez sat in a Quaker-run hostel and community center in central Mexico City, where he sometimes practices English with ex-pats and hostel guests. Sanchez, who is gay, admitted that the current groundswell of global reactionary conservativism, including Trump’s overwhelming popularity, feels not only regressive, but also dangerous.

“I hope that he doesn’t win,” he said with the utmost sincerity.

“It’s the first time that I’ve heard a candidate who talks like this, so openly, about problems … without making a sound judgment about the causes,” he explained.

Sanchez brought up the “taco bowl” episode: On Cinco de Mayo this year, Trump tweeted a picture of himself at his desk with a sad-looking tortilla shell—a classic example of Americanized “Mexican” food—and the caption “I love Hispanics!”

“It’s very weird,” Sanchez lamented. “It’s a comedy.”

Sanchez thinks the motive for Trump’s slapdash campaign is obvious: “I think that Donald Trump only wants to draw attention.”

He sees Trump’s extremism as a side show.

“Se sabe que no va a ganar,” or in English: It’s known that he is not going to win. Sanchez speculated that instead, the entire campaign is about creating a high profile to earn more cash.

But Sanchez said that, as a gay man, Trump’s response to incidents such as the Orlando shooting was wildly irresponsible and disrespectful. “I think that was, like, very misguided,” he told me. “Who’s he helping, really?”

This Mexico City graffiti says it all. bert johnson

‘God Help Us!’ Jose Luis Diaz Calderón, university professor Jose Luis Diaz Calderón described Trump frankly: “Nosotros la vemos como si fuera algo muy parecido a Hitler.” To translate: “We see it as something very much like Hitler.”

But the professor at Instituto Politécnico Nacional, a public university with several campuses in Mexico City, also thinks that Trump’s bark will be louder than his bite if he’s actually elected president.

“It’s understood that, in a campaign, (Trump) can say a thousand things (in order) to win votes,” he explained. But if Trump wanted to pursue a hard line with Mexico, his influence would be limited by pre-existing agreements between the two governments, the counterweight of the U.S. Congress, and state laws along the border.

He reminded me that Mexico has been the United States’ partner for 150 years. This means that, according to Diaz, the country is an essential intermediary between the United States and other Latin American nations. In other words, Trump would need Mexico.

Mexico also has deep economic ties to the United States. Not only do U.S.-based firms use cheap Mexican labor, but Mexico, with roughly 120 million residents, represents an important consumer market. (Think “Mexican Coke.”)

“For us, the worst thing is that there’s a mass (of people) who support the proposals of Donald Trump,” he said. “Today, if you ask any Mexican, they’ll say, ‘God willing, Hillary Clinton will win.’”

Interestingly, this anti-Trump sentiment is shared across the political aisle in Mexico, from supporters of the conservative Peña Nieto to those who sympathize with the striking teachers. They’re all saying it: “‘God help us if Donald Trump wins!’”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 11

SEPTEMBER 2016

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

CHECKPOINT!

BY BRANE JEVRIC

M

any drivers loathe DUI checkpoints—especially drivers who have had a drink or two.

And that’s exactly the point: Drivers shouldn’t be behind the wheel when intoxicated.

Arrests for driving under the influence can cost people more than $10,000 in fees and fines, plus jail time.

But that’s a small price to pay compared to the cost in lives due to DUI accidents. In 2014, nearly 10,000 people were killed by impaired drivers in the United States—with more than 800 of those deaths here in California.

On Friday, Aug. 12, I was allowed to tag along while the Palm Springs Police Department conducted a DUI checkpoint in the 2900 block of North Indian Canyon Drive. Sgt. Mike Villegas, the lead officer of the Traffic Division, was my host.

The night started with a 7 p.m. briefing at mean the driver is suspected of driving under the police station. Villegas introduced me to his the influence; in this case, the driver didn’t team of 11 detectives, officers, dispatchers and have a valid driver’s license. community officers.

Enderle issued him a citation, while Torres “Be professional; be courteous; and be safe!” called the man’s relatives to come and pick up Villegas told his team before they embarked on him and his car. Torres spoke in Spanish to what was, for most of them, their second shift the driver, who quietly sat a chair, seemingly that day. Funding for the checkpoints comes remorseful. Torres is bilingual; his parents from a grant from the California Office of came from Mexico.

Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic “My papa was working as a gardener; my mom Safety Administration. was cleaning houses, and I always wanted to be a Two hours later, the DUI checkpoint was cop,” Torres said. He’s on his second shift for the completely set up, with a primary screening day, working the DUI checkpoint as overtime— area, traffic cones, reflectors, generators, a DUI eventually working 17 hours that day. enforcement trailer, and a secondary screening At 10:45 p.m., Enderle stopped another area with tables, chairs, another trailer and driver without a valid driver’s license. This several police cruisers. time, the screening approach was more By 9 p.m., Officer Art Enderle, Officer rigorous—because the driver had a prior DUI. Barron Lane and Det. Miguel Torres had spread Enderle gave him a blood-alcohol breath test. out at the path created by traffic cones. The “Blow, and blow again,” Enderle said as the cops would introduce themselves, ask for the driver sat in a chair. The driver took the test proper documents, and check to see if drivers without complaint and passed. were drinking that night.

Standing by is Jamie Webber, of American It took only about 15 to 20 seconds to Forensic Nurses, Inc. She’s a phlebotomist who screen a car and its driver, so the line moved has worked for 26 years with law enforcement, fast. Some of the drivers already had their doing everything from blood draws to Taserlicenses in hand before they were stopped at dart removals to DNA collections. the checkpoint.

“Some time ago, we were on Tahquitz Villegas came over and half-jokingly blamed (Canyon Way), and a drunk driver actually Facebook for a quiet night so far. “Right now, crashed into a car in front of him at the DUI friends tells friends on social media where our checkpoint,” she said. “He was so drunk and checkpoint is and how to avoid it,” he said. didn’t even see the checkpoint. After we At 9:26 p.m., Enderle, after checking the pulled him out of the car, he asked, ‘What documents of a driver, yelled out: “Runner!” happened?!’”

“Runner,” in the jargon, means a driver who’s Back on Indian Canyon, well past midnight going to the secondary screening area. on what had become Saturday, Aug. 13, a The protocol requires a community officer to driver of a luxurious Porsche Panamera nearly drive the car there while the driver is escorted drove through the checkpoint. on foot. However, this does not necessarily “Stop! Stop!” officer Lane yelled. When the

One night at a DUI operation in Palm Springs

car finally stopped, Lane determined that the car reeked of marijuana. Both the driver, a woman, and the passenger, her son, were escorted to the secondary screening area on foot and then separated.

PSPD veterans Lane and Enderle conducted a DUI screening on the woman. Lane moved his point finger left and right in front of her face, asking her to follow his finger with her eyes. Lane then asked the woman to walk along a straight line, while Enderle stood behind her. The woman was unstable—but it appeared that the instability was because of a physical disability rather than intoxication.

The woman was not arrested.

Villegas said the male passenger, a juvenile, admitted having a small amount of marijuana in the car. The minimal amount of marijuana was located during a search, and the young man was issued a citation for marijuana possession.

I briefly talked to the driver of the car. “I was so embarrassed by it,” she said about her son’s citation.

Around 1 a.m., Villegas and his team began to close down the checkpoint before gathering everyone and reciting the night’s data: “All 527 vehicles that passed through the checkpoint were screened. Eight cars were sent to secondary screening for further investigation.

There were four citations issued, but no DUIs.” Villegas said it’s a good sign that there were no DUI arrests that night: It means drivers were obeying the law.

But obviously, not everybody obeys. Villegas later tells me that from January through June of this year, Palm Springs police had arrested 132 drivers for driving under the influence, and there had been 46 DUI-related traffic collisions.

In those collisions, two people lost their lives.

Det. Miguel Torres (right) speaks to a DUI suspect, while Officer Barron Lane (left) checks a car in the secondary screening area. brane jevric

CVIndependent.com

12 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

SEPTEMBER 2016

NEWS

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

SEPTEMBER ASTRONOMY

An entire lunar cycle can beStars watched, fromMid-Twilight start Planets and Bright in Evening FortoSeptember, 2016 finish, this month This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

O

By Robert Victor

ur evening twilight chart for September, depicting the sky about 40 minutes after sunset, shows brilliant Venus remaining low, creeping from west to west-southwest and gaining a little altitude as the month progresses. Its close encounter within 2.5 degrees north of Spica on Sept. 18 is best seen with binoculars to catch the star low in bright twilight.

The brightest stars in the evening sky are golden Arcturus, descending in the west, and bluewhite Vega, passing just north of overhead. Look for Altair and Deneb, completing the Summer Triangle with Vega. The triangle of Mars-Saturn-Antares expands as Mars seems to hold nearly stationary in the south-southwest as the month progresses, while Saturn and Antares slink off to the southwest.

The morning twilight sky is rich with stars as the Winter Hexagon, made up of stars from Orion, his Dogs, the Twins, the Charioteer with Mother Goat, and Taurus, the Bull. Tracing out the Hex, starting with Sirius, the brightest star, going clockwise, we encounter Procyon, Pollux (and nearby Castor, not quite first magnitude, starting as a thin crescent moon very low in the and therefore not bright enough to be plotted west at dusk on Sept. 2, and waxing through the on the morning chart at CVIndependent. first half of the month, until it becomes full on com), Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel and back to the 16th. Next, we can follow the waning moon Sirius. Inside the Hexagon lies Betelgeuse, in the morning sky through Sept. 29. There Orion’s shoulder. The Summer Triangle’s are many striking events, starting with a close Deneb sinks into the northwest. Regulus, pairing of Jupiter and a young crescent moon Leo’s heart, emerges into the east-northeast on Friday, Sept. 2. Early that evening, get to a early in the month and is well up in the east by place with an unobstructed view toward west month’s end. By Sept. 22, emerging Mercury by 25 minutes after sunset, and look for Jupiter approaches within 15 degrees below Regulus. and the crescent moon, about 5-6 degrees to Brightening rapidly, in its best-of-year morning the lower right of Venus. Binoculars will help! appearance, Mercury reaches peak altitude just From the Coachella Valley, the moon occults, or before month’s end. Can you spot the secondcovers, Jupiter that afternoon, from 2:50-3:44 brightest star, Canopus, before month’s end? p.m., but the event will be impossible to see in It’ll be easier in October, when the star reaches the daylight, as it occurs only 18 degrees from its high point in the south (only 3 degrees up!), the sun. four minutes earlier each day, in ever-darker Watch the moon pass planets. By Saturday. morning skies. Choose your vantage point Sept. 3, the moon is easy to spot, about 6 carefully, with no high mountains nearby to degrees to the upper left of Venus. On Sunday, your south.

Sept. 4, look for Spica 5 degrees to the moon’s There are two new moons in September: on south (lower left). Binoculars will help. Wait Sept. 1 at 2:03 a.m., and on the 30th at 5:11 p.m. for the sky to darken some, but don’t wait too That means that this month, we can observe a long, or Spica and the moon will set! Don’t complete cycle of the moon from start to finish, miss the moon sliding past the beautiful

CVIndependent.com

September's evening sky chart.

ROBERT D. MILLER

N

Deneb Vega Jupiter

E

Arcturus

1

W

1 Venus 8

Altair

15 22

Spica 29 Saturn 1 8 15 22 29 Mars 1 29

Fomalhaut

Evening mid-twilight occurs triangle of Saturn, Antares and Mars on the when Sun is 9° below horizon. evenings ofSept.

Sept.

8 and 9.

1: 41 minutes after sunset.

The full moon 15: on 40 Friday, " " Sept. " 16, comes 30: 40 "after " sunset. " up within 15 minutes It’s fun to watch moonrises, and on the next five nights, the moon rises about 40-50 minutes later each night.

Beginning Sept. 17, you can shift your viewing times to mornings, about an hour before sunrise, and catch the moon passing by bright zodiacal stars: Aldebaran in Taurus on Sept. 21 and 22; Pollux and Castor in Gemini on Sept. 24 and 25; and Regulus in Leo on Sept. 27 and 28. On the moon’s final morning, Sept. 29, the old crescent moon will appear low in the east, just 2 degrees below Mercury.

A tip for telescopic observation of the moon in daytime: When the moon is within two days before or after half full—this month, late in the afternoons of Sept 7-10, near

S

Antares

Stereographic Projection first quarter phase, and on mornings of Sept Map by Robert D. Miller 21-24, near last quarter phase—insert a single polarizing filter into a low-power eyepiece of your telescope. Next, while viewing the moon, rotate the eyepiece until the surrounding blue sky appears darkest, increasing contrast of the moon against the sky for wonderful views of lunar craters! (Threaded polarizing filters and threaded eyepieces can be obtained from Orion at telescope.com.) I often enjoy setting up my telescope at schools before the school day begins on mornings in autumn, on days when the moon is near last quarter phase and high in the sky.

Robert C. Victor was a staff astronomer at Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. He is now retired and enjoys providing skywatching opportunities for school children in and around Palm Springs.

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 15

SEPTEMBER 2016

A Seat at the Table

By Kevin Fitzgerald

Until late 2014, the poorest areas of the Coachella Valley did not have true water-district representation.

Then along came Castulo Estrada.

T

he eastern Coachella Valley is the home of some of the poorest areas of California. Many residents don’t even have access to safe drinking water—thanks largely to years of institutional indifference.

This horrifying truth can be blamed in part on the fact that the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) was electing each of its five members at large: While each representative had to live in the “directorial division” he or she represented, voters within the entire CVWD—ranging from portions of Cathedral City, Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs southeast all the way to the Salton Sea—selected each member.

Even though a third of the voting-age residents of the CVWD are Latino, back in 2014, the entire board was white.

After civil-rights lawyers threatened to sue the district, the board moved to change the voting process, and in 2014, CVWD constituents voted to change future elections: From that year on, the residents of each directorial division would select their own representative.

That fall, Castulo Estrada, a resident and employee of the city of Coachella with a civil engineering degree, was elected as the Division 5 director. Since his arrival, Estrada has adamantly injected the voice of his constituency into all aspects of the operations of the Coachella Valley’s largest water agency.

“The fact that I was elected to the board of directors a year and a half ago has allowed us to voice concerns in a much louder way,” Estrada said in a recent interview.

Estrada explained why he felt qualified to represent the serious needs of his constituents at our valley’s eastern end.

“First, this is my community,” Estrada said. “This is where I grew up. I did come from a disadvantaged community. I used to live in Oasis with my parents under the same conditions that a lot of these folks now find themselves in.

“Second, (when elected), I was already working for the utilities department here in the city of Coachella,” Estrada said. “I went to college and studied civil engineering, so I had an educational background about water, waste water and flood control. When I came back to work for Coachella, I focused on water issues. I was involved in a lot of the regional efforts through the Coachella Valley Regional Water Management Group, which is basically a collaboration among the five water agencies in the valley. That’s how I got a glimpse into what the CVWD was doing in the unincorporated areas.”

Estrada glimpsed an effort that he—along with many of his constituents, including those involved with East Valley nonprofit organizations such as Building Healthy Communities and Pueblo Unido—deemed insufficient.

“A lot of us are trying to bring about some changes here in the east side in terms of the availability of potable water people now have,” he said. continued on next page CVIndependent.com

16 \\ COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT

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A Seat at the Table

continued from Page 15

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fter Estrada was elected to the board, he got right to work.

“When a new board member is elected, there’s an opportunity to form another committee that didn’t exist (previously),” he said. “So, knowing what our objectives were, I did form a new committee in December 2014.”

Estrada soon learned that working within the system can be a tedious, time-consuming process.

“Finally by the beginning of (2016), we had come up with the name Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Committee (DCIC), and we began meeting regularly every month,” Estrada said.

“Now our DCIC goals and mission are set with two long-term and 10 short-term goals as well as three immediate actions.” (See the sidebar for an example of one of these “immediate actions.”)

“On July 19, we took these objectives to our first meeting with the CVWD Task Force, which is charged with making sure that all these goals are accomplished. ... General Manager Jim Barrett is working with engineers for water, or for sewers, the environmentalists, and any other CVWD staff required to meet the goals. We wanted to involve all these key people, because we don’t want to have a committee just for the sake of having a committee. We want it to be effective.”

Part of the outcome of that meeting was a name change for the committee to reflect its new reach and wider umbrella of participants. Now called the CVWD and Disadvantaged Communities Task Force (CVWD-DCITF), Estrada and board President John Powell—who back in April insisted on becoming the second required director on the committee—are excited about the possibilities ahead.

“These challenges have not really ever been a directive of the CVWD in the past,” Powell said.

“We (the CVWD) really just serve our customers, and as people apply for new service, typically, they pay for it (through the developers). That model has really left out those folks who don’t have that type of upfront development plan and the financing to go with it. So you have communities with excellent services, while right next to them, you find communities that don’t have any water, sewer or flood-control services. Now we have made a new priority, really due to the leadership of director Estrada, that has elevated this particular topic for the board to consider.”

The officially adopted mission statement for the newly minted CVWD-DCITF is: “The mission of the CVWD and Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force is to secure access to safe, affordable drinking water, wastewater and flood control services in historically disadvantaged Coachella Valley regions through strategic planning, funding procurement, needs assessment and reporting—all in collaboration with community members and stakeholders.”

Estrada said it’s vital that the new task force meet its goals.

“There are a lot of folks out there living with a contaminated well that they use for cooking and showering,” Estrada said. “We want to take it a step further and make it a CVWD mission to do more.”

Saturday, October 15, 2016, 10 AM - 3 PM

E

strada’s board responsibilities don’t end with helping those East Valley residents who lack proper water and sewer services.

During the June 14 CVWD board meeting, when some of the hotly contested CVWD water-rate increases were passed, Estrada became frustrated with what he called “maneuvering” by representatives of more-affluent West Valley customers—and he is not being shy about that frustration.

CVIndependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 17

SEPTEMBER 2016

Getting Ready The CVWD is working to make sure life-changing projects are ready to go when funding becomes available As the work of Castulo Estrada and the CVWD and Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force truly gets started, it’s worth looking at one “immediate action” goal “The Coachella Valley Regional Water Management Group (CVRWMG) obtained a grant a few years ago of about $500,000 to work with (nonprofit organizations) to run a survey across the Coachella Valley,” Estrada said. “People went door-to-door to identify where the disadvantaged communities surviving without safe accessible water and sewer service existed. As a result of their report, communities were identified. ... So by using that work and overlaying it with current CVWD utility infrastructure maps, we’re able to start chopping off some of the low-hanging fruit.”

This process has resulted in a priority project for the CVWD’s new task force: The hook-up to proper water infrastructure of multiple mobile-home parks along Avenue 66 in the Thermal-Mecca area, which account for between 300 and 500 living units.

“There’s about $1.1 million in Round 1 funds that have been directed to the CVRWMG in our region from California Prop 1 (the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014),” Estrada said. “The CVRWMG, which is made up of the five local water agencies, has undertaken a process of reviewing various projects which have been submitted by all of these agencies. We’re trying to obtain about one-third of that $1.1 million to go toward the development of our projects.”

These state grant funds would enable the CVWD to complete preliminary engineering and environmental requirements, and acquire any necessary permits. The strategy is for the CVWDDCITF to have projects to present that are “shovel-ready” when implementation funding becomes available.

“When all of this preparation work is done,” Estrada said, “potentially there may be other grants we could qualify for from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that could equal $3 million to $5 million or more. So when we hear of funds being available, we’ll be able to submit the plans— and boom, we can qualify.”

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—Kevin Fitzgerald

“Our vote (back in June) tabled the question of what the new fixed-rate level would be,” Estrada said. “(The vote) required the board to strive for a less-drastic rate structure than the one put forward in the original rate-increase proposal. The revenue we collect through monthly billings is to keep the current system operating and provide water at the actual cost of the service to each existing customer. ... We have current existing water and sewer systems on the east side of the valley in Mecca, Thermal, Salton City and Bombay Beach. There are projects that need to be supported in these areas in order to maintain a quality service level. That’s what the recurring revenues are meant to support.

“Most of the pressure to reduce the fixed-cost portion of the monthly bills was coming from the landscape-customer class, which includes (homeowners associations) and golf courses, and actually makes up a very small percentage of the CVWD’s total customer base. So if we accept their objection and reduce their rate below the actual cost of the service provided to that class, then funds available to support the necessary projects across the valley—and in the east-end communities in particular—may have to be cut back.

“That’s the source of my frustration and concern. There are no golf courses or HOAs in Thermal, or Mecca, or Oasis, or Bombay Beach. So if the result is to cut the revenue coming from this one customer class by lowering their rate and thus eliminating necessary projects on the east end of the valley, that makes me sad.”

Could water politics such as this water-rate issue derail the good that can be achieved for struggling East Valley residents via Estrada’s CVWD-DCITF mission?

“We need right now to survey the situation and figure out where we are, and where we can reasonably go,” said Powell, the board president. “You know, it really takes leadership. This is how things get done in the world. Somebody needs to make it a priority. I think the fact that we now have our first Latino director on our board, and he’s a very capable person showing great leadership skills—along with others in the community, like Sergio Carranza of Pueblo Unido Community Development Center, and members of our CVWD staff—(shows) this effort is in really good hands.”

Estrada expressed confidence that his efforts will lead to much-needed changes within the CVWD. “I’m really happy, and a lot of the community is really happy to see that the CVWD is willing to hear our concerns and has shown that they want to participate and help us out,” Estrada said.

“I think that’s what we’ve wanted for a long time. Just as the CVWD has put so much effort and attention into addressing the concerns of the golf-course communities and the HOAs’ concerns, we’re happy to know that the issues of the folks out here in the East Valley are now being considered as well—at the same level.”

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ARTS & CULTURE

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INSPIRING MORE ART

The Coachella Valley Art Scene settles in at the Westfield Mall as it seeks out member supporters

BY BRIAN BLUESKYE

T

he Coachella Valley Art Scene (CVAS) has come a long way since founder and executive director Sarah Scheideman started the whole thing as a blog in 2008.

Since its humble beginnings, the organization has left a unique footprint on the Coachella Valley with its arts-related events. The 111 Music Festival, in collaboration with the Sunline Transit Agency, places local bands inside buses; the musicians perform as the buses travel down the road. Last year, CVAS put on its first Street festival at the Westfield Shopping Center in Palm Desert. The group has been a part of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for multiple years, and after operating a gallery in Cathedral City that closed in 2016, CVAS moved to the Westfield Shopping Center.

Today, CVAS continues to evolve. In fact, when I went to interview Scheideman at the location inside the Westfield mall, known as “MAKE,” the group was in the process of moving to a smaller, less-prominent storefront, giving up the “MAKE” space for the seasonal Halloween and Christmas stores that occupy it during the fall and winter months.

Scheideman said she’s delighted with the relationship that the Coachella Valley Art Scene has with the Westfield mall.

“It started when they had the idea for the ‘First Fridays’ events,” Scheideman said. “They wanted to have art and music on the top floor of one of the parking structures. They wanted to have something that could cater to their audience here at the mall. They wanted to partner with an organization to really take on the art aspect and the direction for it. After they did some research and visited our old gallery, they met us and asked if we wanted to do some art pieces. It seemed like a great

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fit. It started out with us producing the Street festival, but then they really believed in what we did and continued it. It’s been an organic and harmonious relationship.”

When CVAS was given the keys to the nowformer “MAKE” location in the mall, the group had one week to prepare and open. Now the smaller space, called StreetHQ, is its latest temporary home. Scheideman expressed a positive outlook about the change.

“It’s totally understandable,” she said. “It’s kind of fun for us, because we can take a break from having a space so big and go back to something smaller, then we can revisit … and do what we’re doing in here better. … After about three months, we’ve found out how to work within a mall setting, and it’s been a learning experience.”

CVAS has now been a nonprofit organization for more than a year, and that transition has not been easy. The group recently established a board of directors and rolled out a new membership program with

CVAS recently departed its MAKE space for a smaller storefront at the Westfield mall, but will return to the larger space after the holidays.

three tiers: members can contribute $10, $30 or $100 per month. Donors who commit $100 a month will have the opportunity to become board members of the organization.

“We have a board of directors right now, but it’s very small,” Scheideman said. “… We’re fairly new to building a structure for (being a nonprofit) and all that. But we’re going through and involving a whole new board of directors, initiating a membership program, and developing our organization to serve our community the best that we can.”

Scheideman said it’s often been difficult for CVAS to generate revenue, given the organization’s focus.

“We like to feature upcoming and young artists and stay focused on trying to inspire the younger and millennial generation to stay here in the Coachella Valley and keep creating art. It’s hard to make money off of that,” Scheideman said. “When you’re creating culture like that, money isn’t really a main focus. As soon as we opened the gallery in Cathedral City, we realized the essence of what we were doing was community service.”

While Scheideman praised CVAS’ homes inside the Westfield mall, she said she hopes CVAS one day has a permanent space.

“The mall has been a great opportunity, because it gave us the ability to expand beyond our online presence,” she said. “But the dream would be to have a location where we can have more art shows and a venue that would be

open later at night. That’s what would make a permanent location nice to have.”

The new location in the mall will serve, in part, as a three-month-long promotion for the second annual Street festival, which is focused on hip-hop culture, spoken word and poetry; mark your calendars for Nov. 4. CVAS is also getting ready for the third annual 111 Music Festival, and for the return of a classic Coachella Valley Art Scene event.

“We’re in the process of trying to bring back Doo Wop in the Desert, which is our retro Valentine’s Day-themed party that we did that featured all ’50s doo-wop music, with the costumes, the décor and the whole thing.

We had been doing that for about five years until we stopped doing it last year, but we’re bringing it back and making it better this year.”

After a turbulent year, Scheideman said she’s looking forward to further establishing CVAS’ presence.

“After the three-month activation of Street, we’d like to move back in here (to the HERE space), and we really want to have better programming,” she said. “We want to have classes. … We also want to develop poetry and literary scenes here in the desert.”

For more information on the Coachella Valley Art Scene, visit www.thecoachellavalleyartscene.com.

Full disclosure: Brian Blueskye has done freelance work for CVAS in the past.

SEPTEMBER 2016

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19

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ARTS & CULTURE

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FAR FROM A CONCLUSION E

By nicole borgenicht

l Paseo’s CODA Gallery has always presented works with a colorful, positive energy—making visits to the gallery continuously exciting.

Today, CODA is on the move: It will be reopening in September in a new space two blocks east of its former home.

Sam Heaton has been the gallery director since January, although his experience dates back 20 years—as a gallery owner and director, and as Heaton plans to highlight many styles of an artist representative, with further experience art in the new environment. CODA is known in art sales, marketing, publishing and privatefor blending mediums and styles while always collection management. retaining a vivid eloquence, humor and/or

El Paseo’s CODA Gallery celebrates 30 years with a new director—and a new home

deftness that will be on display at the new location, opening Sept. 15. Two hot 2016 works are the Ben Steele pop retro-impressionism oil on canvas “Developing Dots,” and a Giuseppe Palumbo new surreal-minimalistic bronze entitled “The Edge.”

We recently chatted with Heaton via email.

What is the short history of Coda Gallery?

CODA Gallery was founded in 1987 by Connie and David Katz, beloved philanthropists and art collectors who were passionate about the arts, especially the artists they represented. (The year) 2017 marks the gallery’s 30th anniversary, so it is an exciting time for CODA to be moving to a beautiful new location.

Where is the new gallery space?

Located in the heart of El Paseo, the new CODA is just two blocks up from the old space, on the corner of El Paseo and Lupine Lane. The majority of the new location’s block is being entirely remodeled, and the gallery footprint has never existed before. Newly opened neighbor businesses include Blaze Pizza and Habit Burger, and Saks Off Fifth is scheduled to open in September along with CODA. With Mastro’s Steakhouse and the Apple Store across the street, it is already a bustling area on El Paseo.

How will the new Coda Gallery be unique?

The new 8,000-square-foot gallery will have an architecturally stunning interior to showcase CODA’s awe-inspiring collection of art, including a magnificent corner rotunda. Stateof-the-art LED lighting will optimize viewing of the gallery’s many paintings, photographs, sculpture, ceramics and glass. In addition, CODA will have many opportunities to feature sculpture in outdoor spaces around the gallery.

“Developing Dots” by Ben Steele (cropped).

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What changes will you implement in terms of the gallery direction?

CODA is very proud of its long-standing reputation as a warm and friendly gallery that is comfortable and accessible to art-lovers and collectors of every level. Relationships with clients are personal. The gallery shows a wide variety of contemporary art by established, mid-career and emerging artists. Some of the artists shown in the gallery have been with CODA since the beginning, but CODA is continually on the lookout for quality work by talented artists.

Next season’s exhibitions and artist receptions are currently being planned. …

CODA will continue to participate in El Paseo’s First Friday Art Walk, which begins (for the season) on Nov. 4, with new programs to make the evening more fun and memorable.

CODA’s public grand opening will be held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when the gallery will honor the gallery’s best artists who have played a major role in CODA’s 30-year success.

Talk a little bit about your personal plans and why this is an exciting time.

I was thrilled to become gallery director of CODA on Jan. 1, to help with the design and transition to the new location. In addition to … the gallery’s new physical presence, many changes are being planned and implemented with CODA’s virtual online presence as well.

It’s an exciting time to be at CODA. We look forward to the next chapter, welcoming people to the new gallery, and hopefully another 30 years of making people happy with art.

CODA Gallery, reopening Sept. 15, is located at 73400 El Paseo, in Palm Desert. Art may also be viewed by appointment. For more information, call 760-346-4661, or visit www.codagallery.com.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21

SEPTEMBER 2016

Arts

Best Art Gallery Best Indoor Venue Best Local Arts Group/Organization Best Local Band Best Local DJ Best Local Musician (Individual) Best Local Visual Artist Best Movie Theater Best Museum Best Outdoor Venue Best Producing Theater Company

Life in the Valley

Welcome to the Coachella Valley Independent’s third annual Best of Coachella Valley!

Voting in this readers’ poll, to determine the best of the valley’s best, will take place in two rounds: • The First Round of voting will take place online at CVIndependent. com from Monday, Aug. 29, through Monday, Sept. 26. This round consists of fill-in-the-blank voting. The voting is up to our readers, and our readers alone—there are no pre-determined “finalists” or candidates.

• The top three to five vote-getters in each category will move on to the Final Round of voting, which will run online at CVIndependent. com from Friday, Sept. 30, through Monday, Oct. 31.

• The winners and other results will be announced at CVIndependent.com on Monday, Nov. 28, and in the special Best of Coachella Valley section in the Independent’s December 2016 print edition.

Rules: • Only one vote per person, per round, please! We’re watching IP addresses, so be honest.

• Ballots without a full name AND a working email address will be thrown out and not counted.

• Each person must vote in AT LEAST 15 categories for the ballot to be counted. Don’t have an opinion on at least 15 categories? Get out more!

• If you do not have an opinion in a certain category, leave it blank!

• Stuffing the ballot box is a no-no. Interested parties can engage in simple campaigning—like putting up signs, linking to the ballot or using social media to encourage fans/customers to vote—but anything beyond simple campaigning is a no-no. Any businesses, groups or individuals suspected of stuffing the ballot box may be disqualified, at the discretion of the Independent publisher.

• If you have questions, call 760-904-4208, or email jboegle@ cvindependent.com

Best Alternative Health Center Best Farmers’ Market Best Local Activist/Advocacy Group/Charity Best Gym Best Public Servant Best Yoga Studio Best Bowling Alley Best Sex Toy Shop Best Auto Repair Best Car Wash Best Plant Nursery Best Pet Supplies Best Annual Charity Event Best Place to Gamble Best Local TV News Best Local TV News Personality Best Radio Station Best Local Radio Personality Best Bookstore Best Retail Music/Video Store Best Comics/Games Shop Best Hotel Pool

Fashion and Style

Best Clothing Store (Locally Owned) Best Resale/Vintage Clothing Best Furniture Store Best Antiques/Collectables Store Best Jeweler/Jewelry Store Best Hair Salon Best Spa in a Resort/Hotel Best Day Spa (Non-Resort/Hotel) Best Florist Best Tattoo Parlor Best Eyeglass/Optical Retailer

Outside!

Best Best Best Best Best Best Best Best Best Best

Urban Landscaping Public Garden Place for Bicycling Recreation Area Hike Park Outdoor/Camping Gear Store Bike Shop Sporting Goods Public Golf Course

For the Kids

Best Playground Best Place to Buy Toys Best Kids’ Clothing Store

Best Restaurant for Kids Best Place for Family Fun Best Place for a Birthday Party

Food and Restaurants

Best Casual Eats Best Caterer Best Diner Best Organic Food Store Best Delicatessen Best Custom Cakes Best Desserts Best Ice Cream/Shakes Best Date Shake Best Frozen Yogurt Best Bakery Best Barbecue Best Burger Best Veggie Burger Best Sandwich Best Pizza Best Wings Best Bagels Best Smoothies Best Buffet Best Coffee Shop for Coffee Best Coffee Shop for Hanging Out Best Tea Best Breakfast Best California Cuisine Best Brunch Best Chinese Best Greek Best French Best Indian Best Japanese Best Italian Best Sushi Best Seafood Best Steaks/Steakhouse Best Thai Best Vietnamese Best Vegetarian/Vegan Best Upscale Restaurant Best Outdoor Seating Best Late-Night Restaurant Best Mexican Best Salsa Best Burrito

Spirits and Nightlife

Best Beer Selection Best Local Brewery Best Place to Play Pool/Billiards Best Cocktail Menu Best Gay/Lesbian Bar/Club Best Happy Hour Best Dive Bar Best Margarita Best Martini Best Nightclub Best Sports Bar Best Wine Bar Best Wine/Liquor Store Best Bar Ambiance

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SEPTEMBER 2016

BENEFITTING THE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE DESERT

The

CENTER STAGE 2016 presents

CENTER

THE CENTER’S SEVENTH ANNUAL

FRIDAY October 28

@ The Riviera Resort and Spa Reception/Auction 5:30PM Dinner/Showtime 7 PM

AFTER PARTY & DANCE @ 9PM

emcee

KATE CLINTON

singer-songwriter

STEVE GRAND

FOR TICKETING INFORMATION: visit www.thecenterps.org or call 760-416-7790 CVIndependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 23

SEPTEMBER 2016

FOOD & DRINK

WELL RED B

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

A chat with Bruce Davis, wine specialist at Bristol Farms

By christine soto

ruce Davis has a reputation around the valley for knowing his stuff when it comes to wine.

After one conversation with him, I understand why the wine specialist at Palm Desert’s Bristol Farms has this sterling reputation.

Davis, like a lot of great wine people, loves to tell stories. He casually connects wine history with the present without being didactic. He considers himself an educator—although he says his customers cry mercy when he gets too detailed about, for example, soil types. To him wine, is a grocery. “It’s supposed to be fun,” he says.

Davis grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has worked off and on in the grocery business since he was a teenager. He got a taste for wine thanks to the roadside tasting booths in Napa, which he passed en route to his inlaws’ cabin in Clear Lake. He’s been drinking and selling wine since the ’70s and has seen the progression of the items on store shelves from Gallo’s Hearty Burgundy and jug wine through the explosion of the varietal—chardonnay, cabernet and pinot noir—to today. He sees the pendulum swinging back, both on the producer and consumer side—away from big, high-alcohol wines toward more acid-driven, low-alcohol wines made from diverse varietals. Bristol Farms’ inventory reflects this: Half of the inventory in the wineshop-within-a-grocery-store is imported, mostly from the Old World.

To chat with Bruce Davis and taste his wine picks, I recommend one of Bristol Farms’ wine dinners, which take place on Thursdays, starting in October and going through the season. It costs just $20 for dinner and four or five wine tastes.

I’d normally bring a bottle of wine to enjoy while we talked, but since it was 10 a.m., and Davis was at work, coffee and water had to suffice—though I did buy a couple bottles, based on Bruce’s recommendations, to take home.

How did you get your start in wine?

I moved to Lake Tahoe in 1979 and started working for (grocery-store chain) Raley’s.

They had a very large wine selection, and the company that provided us a lot of our high-end products sponsored me to go to Napa, where I went to Mondavi and Beaulieu Vineyard and learned an incredible amount. We tasted a ton of wines—different vintages and varietals—and learned about wine-making techniques. That went on for about six years, and meanwhile, I became very much a consumer. I had a cellar with 200 bottles and experimented with aging.

I then worked in real estate for many years before “retiring” to Rancho Mirage in 2000.

Around that time, Jensen’s opened a La Quinta store, and I answered an ad (looking) for a wine steward. From there, I went to the Palm Desert location and worked there until 2014.

How is working at Bristol Farms?

I’ve been at Bristol Farms for two years, and I’m never leaving here. I’m not going to open my own wine shop. I’ve been offered other jobs, but I have a lot of support from the store, and the company is very aware of the symbiotic relationship between wine and food—that wine is food.

How do you select the wines at Bristol Farms?

We have a corporate director of wine and spirits and a buyer who does all the buying companywide. (Bristol Farms has 12 locations.)

They’re stored in a warehouse that I buy out of.

It’s large enough that I have everything I need there—it’s huge. We have thousands of items.

It’s changing all the time based on vintages and buyer trends.

What is a trend that is taking hold?

One trend that is really, really hot is rosé.

The same with sauvignon blanc—if someone is stuck in their sauvignon blanc box, I’m going to point them to a verdicchio, verdejo or albariño.

Any of those varietals from Italy or Spain are beautiful wines. For myself, I’m a huge fan of arneis.

Another thing I try to do is give people is information so they can make a decision.

Often times, people won’t understand it if I put the information in wine terms, but they will understand if I use an analogy. I use two analogies very regularly: human beings and cars: the age/stage of a human being—for example, a teenager, or middle-aged person. And makes and models for cars: Is a wine a Smart Car, or a 7 Series BMW? They’re both cars; they both have a motor and a steering wheel, and they both get you from point A to point B, which is the reason you got in the car in the first place, but beyond that, the pleasure that is derived from being in that car is very different. It can range from ordinary to ethereal.

What’s are you drinking right now?

Scotch. (Laughs.) But if I’m drinking wine, my wine of choice is pinot noir. It’s just beautiful, and it goes with everything. I’m a big Santa Lucia Highlands fan. Of all California (American Viticultural Areas), it’s my favorite for pinot. If I was going to get put on a desert island …

Hey, that’s my next question! … and I had to choose one varietal for the rest of my life, it would be pinot noir.

Lisa Tussing

What are you loving in the store now?

A wine that I’m really taken with is the Orin Swift Mannequin. You’ll recognize the label, because it has about 15 mannequins on it, which is all you see. It’s technically a chardonnay, because it exceeds the 75 percent rule, but it’s referenced on the label as a “white wine,” and there are four or five other varietals blended in. That, to me, is a phenomenal wine; I’m a big fan. I’m also really loving garnacha (grenache) from Spain right now.

Your favorite wine book?

The Oxford Companion to Wine. It’s a doorstop, but if one wants to learn about wine, check that out and just peruse it.

Where do you like to go out in the desert?

My wife and I like to go to Kaiser Grille, or Le Vallauris if it’s special, or Jillian’s if it’s special.

Ristorante Mamma Gina. My favorite Mexican is Salsas Restaurant in Cathedral City— phenomenal.

Your favorite thing to do besides drink wine (and Scotch)?

My passion is tennis. I played this morning for two hours before I got here. My wife and I both play tennis four to five days a week at Mission Hills. My other passion is golf.

Palm Springs native Christine Soto is a co-owner of Dead or Alive wine bar in Palm Springs. She can be reached at christine.soto@gmail.com.

Finally, right?

Yeah! It’s interesting, because when I was at Jensen’s, the rosé selection I had there was probably only 11 bottles, and I probably sold 10 cases a year. The rosé selection I have here is closer to 50 to 60 bottles, and I sell 50 or 60 cases—maybe even more! I have promoted rosé, and the company has promoted it, too.

What is your sommelier/education strategy?

A lot of people allow themselves to get locked into varietals, and I’m constantly trying to get them out of the box. … Maybe they’re stuck on chardonnay. So the first thing I’ll say to them is, “You know, have you tried a Rhone white?

Let’s find a Côtes du Rhône that’s a marsanne, roussanne, viognier blend, and (by drinking it), you can then understand the beauty of those grapes and how they blend together, and that they can make a very refreshing, interesting wine that gets you out of your chardonnay box.”

Bruce Davis: “A lot of people allow themselves to get locked into varietals, and I’m constantly trying to get them out of the box.” COURTESY OF BRISTOL FARMS

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FOOD & DRINK

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

the

BEER GODDESS

By Erin Peters

I

t’s no secret that the scorching-hot weather can extend well into September and October here in the Coachella Valley. However, locals don’t need to fret or sweat—because crafty beach cities with more-moderate temperatures are less than a couple of hours away.

I recently spent some time in Orange County’s beach cities—looking for some of the best places to enjoy craft beer, of course. Here are some of my findings.

The Laguna Beach Brewery and Grille is under new ownership, and I’m loving the Taco Tuesday specials—two tacos for $5 or $6, depending on whether you get fish, carne asada, chicken or pork. The inside bar and floor have a sleek look thanks to concrete and marble, and a handsome copper tank from Czechoslovakia sits near the kitchen. While it’s not filled with local suds yet, it should be serving beer in about six months. In the meantime, you’ll find taps from Laguna Beach Beer Company and several other local breweries. Chef Guillermo Sandoval comes from the Hilton Los Cabos Beach and Golf Resort; serving classic, contemporary and regional Mexican dishes comes naturally to him. Try pairing the delicious south-of-the-border fare with craft beers from Tijuana and Baja.

Newport Beach’s best-kept affordable dining secret is, of all things, a speakeasy-style tavern tucked away in the back corner of the city’s Whole Foods. Yes, really. If you’re not content with the 15-20 beers on tap at the Back Bay Tavern, grab a bottle from the Whole Foods store, and have them open it at the bar. Prices are indeed reasonable, and the place has a decent happy hour, with $2 off drinks and appetizers from 4-7 p.m. weekdays.

Crow Bar and Kitchen in Corona Del Mar boasts a creative craft-beer selection from

Take a day trip and enjoy the glorious bars and restaurants of Orange County

breweries like Pumpkin, Russian River and Paradox Beer Company. The restaurant buys as much produce as possible from independent, local farms based on seasonal availability, giving this American gastropub a gourmet touch.

Also located in Corona del Mar, SideDoor puts the “gastro” in gastropub. The menu offers a little bit of everything. From the charcuterie station, the prime rib chili cheese fries and duck-liver pâté to the warm gooseconfit salad and butternut squash with wild nettle pesto, the food at SideDoor will thrill casual foodies. The pub cycles through its draft-beer selection often, with choices like Sierra Nevada Kellerweis and Ballast Point Watermelon Dorado. The seasonal small plates are portioned for sharing, and the menu changes daily.

For Great American Beer Festival Awardwinning brews, head to Newport Beach Brewing Company. The second brewery to open its doors in Orange County—back in 1995, in case you were wondering—resides in the historic Cannery Village on the Balboa Peninsula. Fondly known as BrewCo, the brewery adheres to the Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law), using only water, hops and barley in the production process.

Bonus: BrewCo is just two blocks from the beach.

If you find yourself in Huntington Beach, head to the Speakeasy. Check out “Tap Tuesdays,” with $4 select draught beers all night. Just a little more than two miles away, Johnny’s Saloon has one of the best beer selections in town. It’s been voted one of the

top dive bars in Orange County for years. Like an aging punk rocker, the dark, unpretentious pub sings to a different tune, with 181 craft whiskeys and 100 craft beers. Also: Slater’s 50/50 isn’t to be missed, especially if you’re a meat-loving craft-beer drinker like me. The restaurant’s namesake is its 50/50 patty— made of 50 percent ground beef, and 50 percent ground bacon. Pair a burger with one of the 100 beers on tap; after all, it’s always a good day for a burger and a beer. Every year, Slater’s 50/50 taps more than 1,000 different craft beers, which is saying something.

If you feel like heading west of Los Angeles rather than south, mark your calendars for late September and consider the BAM Fest, Beer, Art and Music Festival, in Santa Monica on Saturday, Sept. 24. With 18 open studios, arts activities and exhibitions—and, of course, beer from 42 breweries—the event is fun, and it supports a great cause: Proceeds help the 18th Street Arts Center, one of the top artists’ residency programs in the country.

Of course, one of the best things about getting away is coming home—and Coachella Valley residents are blessed to live in a place with fabulous pool parties, chill bars and impeccably designed hotels, as well as a wider craft-beer selection than ever before.

We’re lucky. Southern California residents have an amazing amount of variety and choice when it comes to craft beers—and in a matter of just hours, you can enjoy a cold one by the pool with views of palm trees and mountains and on the sandy beaches of Orange County.

Either way, there is good living where there is good beer.

The Newport Beach Brewing Company was the second brewery to open its doors in Orange County—back in 1995, in case you were wondering. ERIN PETERS

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COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 25

SEPTEMBER 2016

E U R O PA

RESTAURANT

Palm Springs’ most enchanting dining experience

Monday Summer Special ALL DAY HAPPY HOUR Tuesdays Divas On Fire and Latin Dancing Wednesday Karaoke Thursday Symara Stone Live Acoustic Music & STING Variety Cabaret Friday Flirt Fridays Happy Hour Dance / GoGos Saturday Super Saturdays Bingo Dance / Go Gos Sunday Sunday Funday Bust Board Games, Beer Bust, Beer Pong, Pool Darts & More

Our award-winning restaurant, nestled in the historic Villa Royale Inn, offers the exquisite cuisine of sunny, southern Europe accompanied by fine imported and domestic wines, warm, attentive service and an incomparable ambience of firelight, fountains and bougainvillea.

For an intimate rendezvous or a joyful celebration, there’s simply no place like EUROPA.

(760) 327-2314

(800) 245-2314

E U R O PA

RESTAURANT at the Villa Royale Inn

1620 Indian Trail, Palm Springs, CA 92264

The Coolest Bar on Arenas!

Serving dinner throughout the year. Available for private banquets.

Reservations recommended.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT

the

FREsh gRound . handcRaFtEd

We head to Palm Desert for French fare, and Indio for Korean

By Jimmy Boegle

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WHAT The Croque Madam WHERE Bouchée Café and Deli, 72785 Highway 111, Palm Desert HOW MUCH $12 CONTACT 442-666-3296; www. boucheecafeanddeli.com (menu out of date) WHY The cheese ties everything together.

Breakfast is my favorite meal … when it’s done well, that is.

When it’s not done well, breakfast can be boring—or even offputting. We’ve all ordered a basic “American breakfast” at a restaurant before, and instantly regretted it when we received a piece of dry ham, greasy and uninspired potatoes, and underseasoned eggs.

But when it is done well … wow.

The breakfast I recently enjoyed at Bouchée Café and Deli was, indeed, done well. Never mind that the croquet madam is actually on the lunch menu; seeing as this delight includes classic breakfast ingredients like ham (which is decidedly not dry), cheese (imported Gruyere!), egg and bread, in addition to Dijon mustard and a mornay sauce (more dairy!), this is a breakfast dish. Right?

All of those ingredients combine to make a sandwich-ish thing that is both soft and crispy at various points; flavorful yet packed with subtlety; and bright yet somehow earthy at the same time.

The thing that ties all of these ingredients together is the cheese: When it’s cooked like it is in this dish, it manages to go perfectly with everything else. The saltiness allows it to stand up to the ham, for example, while its softness manages to complement the bread and the egg, and the sharp flavor of the high-quality import matches nicely with the mustard.

After eating the croque madam and the simple yet pleasant side salad, you won’t feel full—but you will feel satisfied.

That is, you’ll feel satisfied until the next morning, when you stare at your breakfast, whatever it may be, and realize it isn’t going to taste as good as yesterday’s croque madam did. Sigh …

WHAT The Bi Bim Bap WHERE JOY Asian Cuisine at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio HOW MUCH $17 CONTACT 760-342-5000; www. fantasyspringsresort.com/prod/dining/ dining.php#joy WHY So many flavors and sensations!

Once upon a time, casino food was looked down upon. I grew up in Reno, Nev., home of the Club Cal Neva, which for years advertised a 99-cent ham-and-eggs meal on billboards far and wide. And, yes, you get what you pay for.

Of course, things have changed since those days, when casinos were pretty much limited to Nevada and Atlantic City. Today, casinos can be found most anywhere—and they’ve upped their game, no pun intended, when it comes to food. In fact, some of the world’s best restaurants are found in casinos. The same can be said about the Coachella Valley: I’ve recently discovered that one of the area’s best Asian restaurants can be found inside of Fantasy Springs.

JOY offers a pan-Asian menu, and on my inaugural visit there, I was happy with every dish that I tried.

The kimchi?

Amazing. The war wonton soup? Packed with flavor. And the bi bim bap?

One of the best preparations of this dish I’ve ever had.

What made the JOY version of this Korean classic so gosh-darned yummy? Well, there is the well-seasoned beef. (My only nitpick is that I wanted a little more.) Then there are the tasty mushrooms and vegetables.

And last but oh-so-certainly not least is the rice, oh that rice—pillow-soft in some parts, and delightfully crispy along the sides of the blazing-hot bowl.

Regular readers know I am not thrilled with the Asian food on offer here in the Coachella Valley. Well, I am feeling a little better about things after the first of what will most likely be many visits to JOY. My mouth waters at the mere thought of that bi bim bap; it was truly excellent.

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Restaurant NEWS BITES October 21-23, 2016

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February 16-26, 2017

Tickets on sale November 1 at noon

By Jimmy Boegle COMING SOON: UMAMI SEOUL KOREAN BBQ AND JAPANESE CUISINE We have a good-news, bad-news situation here.

First, the bad news: Thai Kitchen 1, which was located at 67555 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Cathedral City, has closed. Thai Kitchen 1 was one of my favorite Thai restaurants in the valley, and I learned the restaurant had closed the hard way: When I called the restaurant to get some takeout, I got that dreaded message: “Beep beep BEEP! We’re sorry. You have reached a number has been disconnected or is no longer in service.”

Now, the good news: The folks who owned downtown Palm Springs’ Wasabi for many years are opening Umami Seoul Korean BBQ and Japanese Cuisine in that spot.

“How did we come up with the name Umami Seoul?” the restaurant’s website asks. “We wanted to combine both our Japanese and Korean influences into one. Umami means savory in Japanese, using and challenging all of your senses to create a truly ‘umami’ experience. Seoul is our hometown city in Korea and the place that has inspired all of our Korean cuisine.”

The online menu promises various appetizers, sushi rolls and Korean specialties. Yum! The restaurant should be open any day now; heck, it may be open by the time you read this. Stop by, or visit www.umamiseoul.com and www.facebook.com/umamiseoulps for updates and more information.

PHO 533 EXPANDS, ADDS A SPRING ROLL BAR About a year and a half ago, Chad Gardner—known for his fantastic Dash and a Handful Catering business—purchased longtime old-school Vietnamese restaurant Pho 533, located at 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive.

What a difference 18 month makes: On Tuesday, Aug. 30, Pho 533 was slated to emerge from a month-long closure as a completely different place.

First, Gardner has doubled Pho 533’s size while also revamping the menu. Second, he’s added a cocktail bar. Third, he’s added a 10-seat spring roll bar.

Yes, that’s right … a spring roll bar.

We’re writing this column before the reopening, so we have not yet seen the new space with our own eyes. However, we’ve been following the progress at Pho 533’s Facebook page (www. facebook.com/Pho533). I recommend you do the same, or visit pho533palmsprings.com for more information.

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IN BRIEF Fans of the Augustine Casino’s restaurants—Café 54 and the Menyikish Bar and Grill—take note: The entire casino will be closed from Monday, Sept. 19, through Sunday, Oct. 16. The Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians is taking that time to do a full-scale remodel of the 14-year-old facility, located at 84001 Avenue 54, in Coachella. Visit www.augustinecasino.com for details and updates. … Coming soon: The Big Rock Pub, to 79940 Westward Ho Drive, in Indio. Expect “a blend of classic rock and classic cuisine.” Visit www.thebigrockpub.com for more info, including details on Big Rock’s job fair, taking place Sept. 6-9. … Congrats to the good folks at Rio Azul Mexican Bar and Grill, at 350 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, who on Aug. 28 celebrated the one-year anniversary of the restaurant’s popular Sunday Desert Divas Drag Brunch! For just $14.95, it’s an amazing deal.

(Be sure to bring dollars to tip the divas, too!) Visit rioazulpalmsprings.com for more info. … Get ready to enjoy German beers and eats—and support a great cause while doing so! From 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, through Sunday, Oct. 2, Eight4Nine Restaurant and Lounge, at 849 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, will be holding an Oktoberfest celebration—and 30 percent of all Oktoberfest proceeds will go to the March to Equality, billed as “the most expansive virtual march in history supporting full LGBT equality.” Visit marchtoequality.org for more details. … Please extend a hearty Coachella Valley welcome to Andrew Cooper, the new executive chef at the La Quinta Resort and Club, at 49499 Eisenhower Drive, in La Quinta. He’ll oversee the food and beverage program at all of the resort’s bars and restaurants, including Morgan’s in the Desert. Cooper’s 15-year career includes a lot of time at various Four Seasons resorts, most recently the Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado in Santa Fe, N.M. More info at www.laquintaresort.com. … Popular build-yourown-pizza joint Pieology Pizzeria has opened its first valley location, at 42500 Bob Hope Drive, Suite D, in Rancho Mirage. Head to www.pieology.com for details. … Coming soon to the old Sam’s Sushi location at The River, 71800 Highway 111, in Rancho Mirage: Fox and Fiddle, a British-style pub. There are a bunch of Canadian locations of Fox and Fiddle; visit www.foxandfiddlecalifornia. com for more info. … Keep your eye open for changes at Matchbox, on the second floor at 155 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. It’s under new ownership; a new name and menu should soon follow. … We’ve been hearing nothing but raves about Cie Sichuan Cuisine, which opened a couple of months ago at 45682 Towne St., in Indio. We’ll give a more detailed report after we’ve had a chance to check it out; in the meantime, find menus and more info at www.facebook.com/ ciesichuancuisineofficial.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 29

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The Flusters Continue an Amazing Year With the Release of the Band’s Debut EP BrosQuitos Are Biting: The Newly Signed DHS Band Is Getting Ready to Release a New Record The Blueskye report: brian confesses his love for “No Diggity” THE LUCKY 13: Get to Know a Subourbon Outlaw and a Kick-Ass Local Skateboarder

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FAR FROM EXTINCT

Dinosaur Jr. is celebrating yet another critically praised album

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ANOTHER FIRST

By Brian Blueskye

I

t’s been a remarkable year for The Flusters. The band has taken the stage at both Coachella and Echo Park Rising, after being voted the “Best Local Band” by Independent readers.

Now the band is releasing its first EP. On Friday, Sept. 30, the Flusters will celebrate the release at The Hood Bar and Pizza with The Yip-Yops, Brightener and a special performance by Cakes and Brains.

During a recent interview in their new practice space in Palm Desert, guitarist/vocalist Doug Van Sant, guitarist Danny White, bassist Mario Estrada and drummer Daniel Perry all talked about the new EP. “It took three days to record—two days in North Hollywood, and one day in Palm Desert,” Van Sant said.

Added White: “There were also about two months of pre-production in getting the songs right.”

Much of the recording was done at ReadyMix studios, with Paul Horabin in North Hollywood, while the vocals were recorded with Will Sturgeon, of Brightener, in Palm Desert; he served as the mixer and co-producer.

“He’s really easy to work with,” Van Sant said of Sturgeon. “I’d be interested to see how he’d work with a band that didn’t have as complete

The Flusters

of a vision as we did. His producing was less vision creation and more nuts and bolts. When it comes to the fifth corner of the sound you hear in the EP, he produced it fully and wrote all the keyboard parts.”

White said all the pre-production work meant the band was truly ready when it came time to enter the studio—and even then, the

The Flusters continue an amazing year with the release of the band’s debut EP

recording process was trying.

“We learned it was very tiring,” White said.

“I actually had a caffeine overdose and had to sit down for two hours because I thought I was going to throw up or die. We were so fried and trying to find the energy to get this stuff done within the two days we had to do it.”

Estrada said the band underestimated how tough the recording process would be.

“We’d be playing all day and thinking, ‘We’ll play; we’ll do everything during the day; and we’ll go out at night,’” he said. “We finished the first day, and we went out once just to get pizza together. We were that fried.”

While Daniel Perry is The Flusters’ current drummer, Chris O’Sullivan was the drummer during the recording process. Van Sant said they decided to keep O’Sullivan’s drumming on the album.

“It would be manipulation by omission to not credit him, and I’m not here to do that, and we’re not here to do that,” Van Sant said.

“There’s zero ill will toward Chris. He did an excellent job on the album and was in the studio with us the entire time, doing his thing. … We’re not shy to give praise to people who had anything to do with this record.”

The title on the EP art is simply Extended Play No. 1. That hints at the fact that The Flusters are already working on the second EP. Perry said he’s enjoying the band’s writing process.

“It’s so comfortable, so easy, and so fluid,” Perry said. “Mario and I have known each other for quite a long time. We’ve jammed together before and have a sense of how each of us plays. He already knows how Doug and Dan work; I just kind of adapted to it. Their style is what I actually grew up on—that dream/surf feel. It’s everything that embodies me as a musician. I’ve never felt so fluid with a band like I do with these guys.”

However, the writing process is not always easy and fluid.

“It gets heated in this room sometimes,” White said.

It’s clear all of The Flusters’ hard work has paid off. The band has had some nice out-oftown shows and is gaining respect within the Los Angeles independent-band scene. The Flusters have found a kinship with Haunted Summer, who shared the stage with The

Flusters at Chill Bar last November during the George Zander benefit show put on by the Independent.

“Beyond the artistic part, they’ve become really close friends,” White said about the members of Haunted Summer. “Anything we get to do with them, we love. We’re huge fans of them as musicians and people, and John Seasons has gone above and beyond for us. We are extremely grateful for that and for them to care and be fans of theirs.”

Van Sant said The Flusters have achieved success because the members work together as a team.

“It’s all done by delegation. Everybody in this band has a job beyond their instrument,” Van Sant said. “Danny is a great liaison to our Los Angeles circuit. Mario has a great relationship started with the East Valley.

Daniel is good with gear management and knows a lot about electronics, sound, music and production.

“I’ve taken the manager’s reins. (At night in bed, I ask myself), ‘Have I done everything today that I possibly could do with the hours in the day with this band?’ If I can’t answer that, I can’t sleep. I have had many sleepless nights: ‘If the bass trap over there in the corner falls down because it’s too hot, it has to get fixed now, not tomorrow—right fucking now!’ The other guys have been on the ass end of that mentality from me, and I’m sure it hasn’t been pleasant.”

As for the album release show on Sept. 30: It’s going to include something that should bring back memories for anyone who has followed the Coachella Valley music scene over the years—a reunion of local band Cakes and Brains.

“People are going to get the flashbacks and say, ‘I remember those guys from high school!

They’re still doing stuff? Let’s go check them out!’” Perry said. “I know I would. It would give me the nostalgia feels and want to experience that again. Their shows were so fun.”

The Flusters will perform with Brightener, The Yip Yops, and Cakes and Brains at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30, at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. Admission is free.

For more information on the Flusters, visit www. theflusters.com.

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FAR FROM

EXTINCT W

Eleven years into the band’s ‘temporary’ reunion, Dinosaur Jr. is celebrating another critically praised album

By Brian Blueskye

hen Dinosaur Jr. reunited in 2005 after an eight-year hiatus, the members intended to play together for a little while and again head their separate ways.

More than a decade later, Dinosaur Jr. remains together. The band will be appearing at the Desert Stars Festival at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24.

Dinosaur Jr. released its first album, Dinosaur, in 1985, and all of the band’s albums since— including Green Mind, Where You Been and Without a Sound, which were recorded with limited or no involvement from Lou Barlow and/or Murph—have received some degree of critical acclaim.

In 1997, frontman J. Mascis decided to retire Dinosaur Jr. However, in 2005, Mascis acquired the rights for the band’s first three releases from SST Records so he could re-release them on Merge Records. That process began a dialogue between the three original members—and sparked the reunion.

Eleven years have passed since that reunion, and to nobody’s surprise, Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, released by Dinosaur Jr. on Aug. 5, is receiving praise from critics and fans alike.

During a recent phone interview with drummer Murph, he said he remains shocked by the acclaim the band seemingly always receives.

“I’m really surprised,” Murph said. “We just keep refining our sound, and J’s getting better and better at songwriting. Everybody is honing their craft. We’ve gotten better playing together, I’m getting better as a drummer, and I think everything is subtly improving over time.”

Even though the band’s 2005 reunion was welcomed with open arms by critics and fans, it wasn’t easy at first for the three members to play together again.

“The first couple of records we did, it was really stressful,” Murph remembered. “We didn’t really plan on doing this. J was going to re-release three records; we were going to tour for a year and a half behind those records and

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call it a day. We didn’t really plan on going for this long and doing all of these records.

“When we started recording, there was a lot of pressure to make it good and succeed at it.

If our relationships weren’t better today, we wouldn’t be able to do this. There would be no way. If we had the old baggage—the tension that we used to have—it would be unbearable, and we wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Murph elaborated on that previous “baggage.”

“It was all personality quirks,” he said.

“We’re all really different people, and we’re all strong egos. We have different ways we live, and it was hard when we’d travel. It’s still hard. When you’re getting in each other’s space, it can be really hard—especially when people aren’t willing to compromise, and you want to stay the way you are. When you travel together, you have to be able to compromise on different things. You can’t live like you’re at home all the time.”

The members of Dinosaur Jr. particularly

Dinosaur Jr. Levi Walton

enjoy performing at festivals.

“I think festivals are great, because you get to go to different places, and you have a mass audience,” Murph said. “There are a lot of people there who are there for other bands, so you can walk away with new fans. I think it’s all an upside, and it’s a great thing.”

That’s not to say that Dinosaur Jr. doesn’t ever feel out of place.

“The only time when I feel it’s odd is when we play an extreme emo festival, where it’s all, like, 20-year-olds and emo bands, and we’re obviously like the grandfathers showing up,” Murph said. “That’s awkward, but it’s still fun, and the kids are still psyched to see the show.”

While Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not is receiving positive feedback, Murph said the process of creating the album was a bit unorthodox.

“This album was weird, because we didn’t really have any material,” he said. “I was kind of freaking out, because J was like, ‘I don’t have any songs.’ We actually started reworking a song from J’s other band that he had written. He had half a song, and we started with that, and it got the ball rolling. As soon as the process started, it just started churning out like a factory. Once that happened, J was recording demos in one room, and Lou and I were trying to keep up and learn them in another room. We were tracking in the morning, and it was crazy—but it was great. It opened up the floodgates, and then the record was done.”

Murph explained why every Dinosaur Jr. album ends up being a surprise to him.

“I didn’t hear any lyrics or anything, so I didn’t get a sense of what the songs are going to sound like,” he said of Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not. “It was even more of a surprise when I heard the finished product. Me and Lou aren’t there when J does vocals. We’ve already left at that point, and we’re not there, and he’s recording the vocals by himself. We don’t really know how it’s going to sound until we hear the finished product. He and Lou both are pretty self-conscious and don’t want people around when they’re doing vocals. It’s usually just them and the engineer on the days that they do vocals. It’s always been like that.”

Murph admitted that there is one Dinosaur Jr. album that is a personal favorite.

“I really like Where You Been, even though Lou isn’t on that one,” he said. “That was when things were really tight, and we had this amazing studio called Dreamland in Woodstock, N.Y., which is an old massive church with this wooden room. The drums sounded insane. Production-wise, that record is one of my overall favorites.”

Dinosaur Jr. will perform as part of the Desert Stars Festival, which takes place Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. Weekend passes are $125.

For tickets or more information, visit www. desertstarsfestival.com.

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BROSQUITOS ARE BITING

The Blueskye REPORT september 2016

By Brian Blueskye

The newly signed DHS band is getting ready to release a new record

D

By Brian Blueskye

esert Hot Springs’ BrosQuitos is going places: Thanks to an indie-rock sound that is as melodic as it is catchy, the band has signed a record deal and will soon be putting out a new record.

During a recent interview at his home in Desert Hot Springs, frontman James Johnson took me into the space where he practices with Max Powell (bass), John Clark (lead guitar) and Hugo Chavez (drummer). It’s a nice spot—but it does not have air conditioning.

“It’s brutal during the summer,” Johnson said.

On the walls are old records by artists such as Gordon Lightfoot and Eddie Rabbitt. There’s even a copy of Handel’s Messiah.

“I have Beatles records I will not put up, because they’re from the 1960s, and they’re in really good condition,” Johnson said. “These are some of the records I thought were scratched and couldn’t play anymore. There are some soundtracks for things, like The Amazing Spider-Man, from the first cartoon they ever made. My grandma has gone through the runners-up to Brightener this year. each and every one of these records with me, and “The first competition we went through was we sat and listened to them. I got this whole box, bad,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t bad as far as how and it brought up a lot of nostalgia for me.” the competition went and how they organized Johnson started the band about four years it, but for us, it was a major loss. … At the time, ago. He conceded that it has not been easy—and we had a lead guitarist who wasn’t working out, that, yes, there has been some drama. and the music was just not harmonizing well “Our name has been around for about four with what we were doing. We had to force him years,” he said. “We’ve been in and out of and all of that energy into a competition. It was members, and that’s something that’s been the something where we thought we had it all and story with us. … We feel we have progressed into went into it egotistically—and we lost. something that’s going to be decent. I started “We went home that night and pretty much out in this room and didn’t really have any gear. re-evaluated our careers. We asked ourselves We didn’t even have a drum set, and now we what we really wanted: ‘Do you want to have have two drum sets, and we’re full of gear. nights like this every other night?’ We dropped a “We started the current formation of the couple of members after that. One member got band last year. We realized that the name face of engaged and went in that direction, and we went what I was doing was the songwriting—and the in this direction—and came back again and won way I was writing was something I really wanted second place behind Brightener.” to stick to.”

Johnson offered some words of advice for The BrosQuitos have gone through the any musicians who are considering entering Tachevah contest twice now—and finished as Tachevah.

The Brosquitos. brian blueskye

“If you want to get your band into it, you need to make sure you’re ready. It’s going to be something that’s very brutal and anxietydriven, and you need to make sure your music is ready, unless you want to get offended,” he said. “You can easily just disappear with all of those acts you play those shows with.”

I asked Johnson whether he felt that losing Tachevah—or any other contest—reflected negatively on a band.

“I feel like at times, it can be (negative),” he said. “As much as people are going to get pissed at me for saying that, and saying, ‘It doesn’t matter if you win or lose,’ it does matter. If you lose, you need to re-evaluate what you’re doing and why you lost. In a sense, losing can be better than winning, because you can reprogram yourself to what you need to focus on, and what your drive is. If you win, it could pump your ego too much, and the next time around, you could be too pumped up and ready to go. I think you need to have an equal balance of winning and losing, and that goes both ways.

I’m sure Justin Bieber feels like he’s a winner.”

The BrosQuitos recently released a single, “Here or Anywhere,” from the upcoming album.

“We recorded our album at LunchBox Studios with David Franklin. … He has a beautiful studio in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere,” Johnson said. “Hugo (Chavez), our drummer, got into a horrible fire accident and had to record the album with gauze all over his hands.

“When we release this, it’s going to mean a whole lot to us.”

That aforementioned new album will soon be released on DownPour Records. After talking about the messy breakup that the Yip-Yops have dealt with over the past year after signing with and then breaking from Hood and Associates, Johnson said he feels DownPour is leading his band in the right direction.

“We’ve been taken to Capitol Records, been given tours of Conway Studios twice, and we have a producer from Conway Studios who’s remastering our tracks,” he said. “We’ve been blessed this past year … and they’ve been paying for a lot. It’s a very small label in California. Everyone was a little intimidated when we signed, but I think they’ve all seen the progression afterward.”

For more information on the BrosQuitos, visit www.thebrosquitos.com.

Cheech and Chong

As we begin to (hopefully?) enjoy slightly cooler temperatures, there are a lot of hot events taking place ’round these parts throughout the month of September.

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino has a great schedule this month. At 8 p.m., Friday, Sept.

2, iconic comedy duo Cheech and Chong will be performing. Their marijuana humor made them a huge deal—and their jokes have stood the test of time, as many younger people are now laughing at their special brand of silliness. Oh, yeah, Dave’s not here, man. Tickets are $29 to $59. At 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9, Toto will take the stage. There aren’t too many bands whose members can claim 200 Grammy nominations and performances on 5,000 albums between them. Toto just might be one of the most underappreciated bands of all time. Tickets are $29 to $59.

At 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 16, there will be a double bill featuring Counting Crows and Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas. Both Counting Crows and Matchbox 20 were huge hits on adult-contemporary radio in the ’90s, and Thomas was featured on Santana’s hit single “Smooth” in 1999; it’s one of the most successful singles of all time. Tickets are $49 to $119. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-342-5000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa has one event that you won’t want to miss: At 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, ’80s pop icon Cyndi Lauper will be performing. Lauper is probably best remembered for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” although she’s had other hits through the years, including “True Colors.” Her career reached a whole new level in 2013 when her hit musical Kinky Boots took Broadway by storm. Tickets are $75 to $95. The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

Spotlight 29 has some fine offerings in

continued on next page

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THE FUTURE OF AESTHETIC MEDICINE

SEPTEMBER 2016

The Blueskye REPORT continued from Page 33

By Shonda Chase, RN Co-owner and aesthetic director of Revive Wellness Centers Palm Springs and the South Bay area of Los Angeles

This month, we’re revealing the future of aesthetic medicine.

I love using the Waze map/ travel app for two different reasons. First, Waze saves me travel time. Once, I thought I knew a better route than Waze, and I didn’t follow directions. That choice cost me 25 minutes of travel time: Waze knew about an accident and tried to help me avoid the traffic. If I had only listened!

The second and more important reason I love using Waze is that it’s my “crystal ball,” showing me when I’m going to arrive at my destination.

In 1899, some French artists projected what they thought life would be like in the year 2000; you can see what they came up with above.

This postcard forecasts that technology will do the work while women enjoy the results.

This reminds me of the VIVA treatment I’m performing in the picture below. It delivers radio-frequency energy to the deep dermis and signals to the body to rejuvenate its own skin. All the patient has to do is get the treatment.

As we begin the fall season of rejuvenation, here are four medical breakthroughs that I’m looking forward to having for you in the near future.

• Topical Topokine® will act on fat cells to shrink under-eye bags.

• Anterios will relax wrinkles without Botox injections.

• Volbella is a new injectable for fine lines. It will last about a year.

• New topical polymers will instantly provide an “invisible” second skin with SPF. You apply it in the morning, choosing the level of tinting, so you can look as tan, or as light, as you want. It will also smooth fine wrinkles and tighten skin. At the end of the day, you just peel it off.

Next month, we’re going to share some more secrets about what’s in our future to help us look better and younger. Until then, keep the secret!

Read the entire article at www.revivecenter.com/blog.

Email your individual appearance and aging questions to Ms. Chase at Shonda@revivecenter.com.

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The Band Perry

September. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 3, comedian Rodney Carrington will perform.

Carrington has many other talents beyond comedy: He’s a singer and an actor, too. He’s released nine successful comedy albums.

Tickets are $35 to $55. Another fantastic show will happen at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23, when new-wave band Squeeze stops by. The group is known for hits such as “Cool for Cats,” “Up the Junction” and many others. The band recently recorded a new album, Cradle to the Grave—its first album of new material in 17 years. Tickets are $45 to $65. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella; 760775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.

Morongo Casino Resort Spa continues to attract big names. At 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9, the ’90s Remix Tour will be coming through, featuring Blackstreet, Ginuwine and Dru Hill. Confession: Blackstreet is one of my guilty pleasures. I secretly loved “No Diggity” in high school … and probably didn’t hide that fact so well. Ginuwine and Dru Hill lit up the R&B charts in the ’90s. This is one show you’ll want to go see. Tickets are $55 to $65.

At 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 16, country hit-maker The Band Perry will be performing. Siblings Kimberly Perry, Reid Perry and Neil Perry took the country world by storm in 2010 when they released their self-titled debut album, and have played sold-out shows around the world ever since. Tickets are $45 to $65.

At 10 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23, Micki Free of Shalamar will take the stage. Shalamar was a highly influential dance music group during the late ’70s and ’80s that had several hit singles. Free also won a Grammy Award for his contributions to the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. If you’ve seen Chappelle’s Show, you’ve probably heard Charlie Murphy’s story about his friends playing a game of basketball against Prince and the Revolution—and Micki Free. Tickets are $40. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-2524499; www.morongocasinoresort.com.

Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace one can’t-miss event coming up. At 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30, Shooter Jennings will

be performing. Shooter Jennings, the son of Waylon Jennings, has had an interesting career. While he’s recorded alternative country music, he also recorded a bizarre conspiracy theory-related album titled Black Ribbons.

His most recent release, Countach, is an entire album covering the songs of electricmusic pioneer Giorgio Moroder, which has a guest appearance from… Marilyn Manson?

Yeah … . Tickets are $25. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-365-5956; www. pappyandharriets.com.

The Date Shed hasn’t released a full schedule of events yet; it remains to be seen whether the venue will branch out, or just keep booking the same acts over and over again. Speaking of returning acts, at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, punk/reggae band The Expendables will be back at the Date Shed.

Then group has been around since 1997 and has shared the stage with bands such as Slightly Stoopid, NOFX, Less Than Jake and many others. Tickets are $17. The Date Shed, 50725 Monroe St., Indio; 760-775-6699; www. dateshedmusic.com.

The Expendables

SEPTEMBER 2016

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 35

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SEPTEMBER 2016

MUSIC

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

Jared Huss. Orlando Welsh

the

LUCKY 13 Get to know a Subourbon Outlaw and a kick-ass local skateboarder

By Brian Blueskye

Eddie Airada

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

Techno.

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

The Ramones.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

The new Blink-182 album, California, with my boy Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio on guitar and vocals.

NAME Eddie Airada GROUP Subourbon Outlaw MORE INFO Back in July, Subourbon Outlaw played a show at The Hood Bar and Pizza. The band sounded fantastic—the members’ hard work showed during the entire performance.

Currently, the band is writing new music and recording an album. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/subourbonoutlaw.

Subourbon Outlaw’s drummer is the one and only Eddie Airada.

What was the first concert you attended?

The Warped Tour in 2006.

What was the first album you owned?

The Ramones, Leave Home.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Social Distortion, The Transplants, Tiger Army, Rebelution, Alkaline Trio, and Pennywise.

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What’s your favorite music venue?

The Fox Theater in Pomona is pretty cool.

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

“And that’s the word that I believe in. So I keep on tryin’. That’s the time I get to where I’m goin’. Anyway, that’s the day marked on my calendar,” Nick 13, “Someday.”

What band or artist changed your life? How? Mike Ness of Social Distortion, with his lyrics.

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

To John Bonham: “Can you teach me your ways?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Angel’s Wings” by Social Distortion.

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

Fuck, I don’t know that I can pick just one. I’ll say all three albums from The Transplants, because that shit is a mixture of my favorite styles of music.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“7 Days a Week” by Don Carlos.

NAME Jared Huss MORE INFO Jared Huss is not a musician; instead, he’s arguably the most bad-ass skateboarder here in the Coachella Valley.

Want proof? Check out this amazing shot here by photographer Orlando Welsh of Huss riding a rail atop a freeway overpass.

What was the first concert you attended?

Coachella 2008.

What was the first album you owned?

Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, the censored version.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Nirvana, Lou Reed and John Frusciante.

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

Country music.

What musical act, current or defunct,

would you most like to see perform live?

GG Allin, but I would be in the very back row for sure.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Enya.

What’s your favorite music venue?

Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace.

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

“Dream Baby Dream,” Suicide.

What band or artist changed your life? How? Bill Hicks, because I believe his comedy provides an answer.

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

I would ask Kurt Cobain: “How did you really die?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Bury Me a G,” 2pac.

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

Fugazi, 13 Songs.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

Richard Strauss, “Also Sprach Zarathustra.”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 37

SEPTEMBER 2016

OPINION COMICS & JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Across 1 The Donald’s first wife 6 Band on Butt-head’s T-shirt 10 Elementary school basics 14 “Say that thou ___ forsake me”: Shakespeare 15 “The Owl and the Pussycat” poet Edward 16 ___ Cynwyd, PA 17 Beyond saving 19 “The Heat ___” (Beverly Hills Cop song) 20 Zurich peak 21 Stephen of The Crying Game 22 It’s often done with soil or fish tanks 24 Suffer a mosquito attack, say 26 Inkling 28 Snapple stuff 29 Hip or Nap follower 30 Feline foot 31 Admitted as a guest 33 He was joint FIFA Player of the Century along with Pele 37 Cube creator Rubik

38 Bygone auto 39 Info 44 Martini and ___ (winemakers) 45 Plumb of The Brady Bunch 46 Judith with two Tonys 49 1099-___ (bank tax form) 50 Michael of Arrested Development 52 Herb-flavored 28-Across 54 He’ll pour you one 56 Slippery fish 57 Frying pan sound 58 It really isn’t butter 59 Cellular tissue that makes up all glands 63 More than want 64 “Other” category, for short 65 Recent NFL Hall of Fame inductee Brett 66 Investigators: Abbr.

67 “No question!”

68 11- or 12-year-old

spectrum 3 Took on 4 Abbr. on a bad check 5 Centipede creator 6 Kelp, for example 7 Susan Wojcicki, for YouTube 8 Quayle or Marino 9 Brunch offering 10 Not that much 11 Binary 12 Surround, with “on” 13 Band with the album Abraxas 18 Abbr. after a former military leader’s name 23 Attempts, with “at” 25 Boxers alternatives 26 Unaccustomed as ___ ...

27 The Rock’s real first name 30 Not so well off 32 Aphrodite’s beloved 34 Beethoven’s Third, familiarly 35 African antelope 36 Costar of Bea and Betty Down 39 Board game where 1 Conventioneers’ clip players guess what ons three things have in 2 One end of the visible common

40 Puff the Magic Dragon’s land 41 Address of the Boss’s band 42 Zoologist’s eggs 43 Hard to pin down 47 Nutritional supplement brand in cans 48 Flunkies 51 Axis, to the Allies 52 “___ Interwebs” (sarcastic name for online sites) 53 “___ My Heart in San Francisco” 55 Body ___ (piercings, earlobe stretching, etc.)

56 Do art on metal, e.g.

60 Black coffee go-with 61 Happiness ___ Warm Puppy 62 Scientist’s formulation ©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@ jonesincrosswords.com) Find the answers in the “About” section of CVIndependent.com!

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SEPTEMBER 2016

CANNABIS IN THE CV

Supporters of the Independent Program Newspapers today are charging more and more for their content.

However, the work done by the award-winning Coachella Valley Independent has been—and always will be—available to all, free of charge.

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However, we here at the Independent really, really appreciate them!

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BEHIND

SCHEDULE T

BY SEAN PLANCK

he pro-cannabis movement has had quite a few recent state-level victories—both here in California and elsewhere—but the anti-prohibition movement and the development of the cannabis industry continue to be crippled at the federal level by the Drug Enforcement Administration, as the agency desperately tries to retain relevancy by preserving the failed War on Drugs—and the revenue that goes with fighting it.

But before we talk about that, let’s look at the good news happening at the state level.

Here in California, the State Assembly passed civil-asset-forfeiture reform legislation by a 69-7 vote on Aug. 15. The legislation—which has gone through numerous amendments— glided through the Senate on Aug. 24, and is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown. He is expected to sign the bill into law.

Information from the U.S. Department of Justice and California’s Attorney General’s Office shows that most asset-forfeiture cases involve cash and property valued less than $40,000. Currently, assets can be seized before any criminal conviction. Supported by the ACLU, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Institute for Justice, the Ella Baker Center and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Senate Bill 443 would require that a conviction be gained in the underlying criminal case before seized cash and money with a value of less than $40,000 can go to bolster law-enforcement coffers.

“If Gov. Brown signs this bill, it will be one of the most far-reaching civil-asset forfeiture reforms in the country and will once again demonstrate that states are taking the lead to protect people’s due process and property rights,” said Lynne Lyman, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a news release. “This important legislation will drastically reduce the opportunity for police to take money from and otherwise harass poor people, immigrants, people of color, and small businesses that work primarily in cash.”

The bill was delayed last year by lawenforcement lobbyists who claimed the loss of revenue would result in lower standards of crime prevention. The revised bill is the result of extensive negotiations between proponents and law-enforcement representatives.

Republican Assemblyman Donald Wagner called the effort and resulting bill “the model of lawmaking.”

Excise Tax Shelved by Senate Appropriations Committee In another cannabis victory here in California, a bill to put a 15 percent excise tax on medical marijuana has been killed by a Senate panel following claims by patient advocates that its passage it would put an undue financial

burden on medi-pot patients.

AB 2243 was shelved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, in part because a 15 percent tax on cannabis is part of Proposition 64, to be voted on by Californians on Nov. 8; the ballot question would legalize the recreational use of cannabis in the state if passed.

Authored by Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), the bill would have charged up to $9.25 per ounce of flower product, $2.75 per ounce of leaf and $1.25 per ounce of immature plants.

Wood says the excise tax is needed to cover the costs of enforcing new licensing for the cultivation, transportation and sale of medical cannabis. This seems like a fairly hollow justification for a huge tax burden to fall on patients—in light of how much money law enforcement stands to save by not enforcing draconian cannabis-prohibition laws.

California NORML and Americans for Safe Access were among the opponents to the bill.

These are just a couple California examples of the marijuana progress being made on the state level. Medical cannabis has been legalized in 25 states. Recreational use is now legal in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington D.C. (Well, it’s sort of legal in the District of Columbia. Residents have voted for legalization, though Congress— which controls Washington, D.C.’s budget— prohibits retail sale for recreational use there.)

California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine will all vote on recreational use this November, and medicinal use will be on the ballot in Arkansas, Florida and Missouri.

Then There Are the Feds …

Back in May, the DEA indicated it would again consider moving cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2. The move would lead to wider access to marijuana by researchers, and would

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 39

SEPTEMBER 2016

CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

While states continue to open doors for marijuana, the feds just keep saying ‘no’

open traditional banking avenues to cannabis businesses that are now off limits due to federal prohibition.

After months of anticipation, the Drug Enforcement Agency—following (sarcasm alert) what was surely careful and balanced analysis, and consideration of the will of the people—decided to leave Cannabis on Schedule 1, alongside heroin, GHB, bath salts, mescaline and Ecstasy.

The classification indicates the drug has no medicinal purpose, and the DEA stands by this assertion—in spite of hundreds of credible studies and tests proving the plant’s medicinal benefits.

Who cares if marijuana can increase revenues in state coffers, reduce the prison population (We’re No. 1!), increase funding for school construction and budgets, and help with back pain/cerebral palsy/arthritis/ social anxiety/PTSD/cancer/insomnia/eating disorder/etc./etc.? So what if state after state is following the will of the people and embracing cannabis?

When will the DEA give up the ghost on cannabis? The time for the agency to take any kind of leadership on the issue has long since passed, and it’s time for the feds to follow the findings of science and the will of the American people—or at least get out of the way.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

Deals available ONLY in the Independent Market as of Sept. 1:

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Look for more deals to be added during the month!

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