Coachella Valley Independent September 2014

GO EAST! VOL.2 | ISSUE 9

ALL NIGHT SHOES AND THE HOOD WANT TO BRING A WIDER VARIETY OF MUSIC TO THE EAST VALLEY IN MUSIC—PAGE 26

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SEPTEMBER 2014

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 Editorial Layout Wayne Acree Advertising Design Betty Jo Boegle Contributors Gustavo Arellano, Phyllis Barber, Victor Barocas, Max Cannon, Annie Dawid, George Duchannes, Kevin Fitzgerald, Bill Frost, Bob Grimm, Alex Harrington, Valerie-Jean (VJ) Hume, Keith Knight, Robin Linn, Marylee Pangman, Erin Peters, Deidre Pike, Dan Perkins, Guillermo Prieto, Anita Rufus, Jen Sorenson, Robert Victor

The Independent is a proud member and/or supporter of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Local Independent Online News Publishers, the Desert Business Association, the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, artsOasis and the American Advertising Federation/Palm Springs-Desert Cities.

CVIndependent.com

COVER DESIGN BY WAYNE ACREE; PHOTO BY BRIAN BLUESKYE

The Coachella Valley Independent print edition is published every month. All content is ©2014 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.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.

Voting in the Coachella Valley Independent’s Best of Coachella Valley has begun (or is about to begin, depending on when you read this)! Turn to Page 24 for all the details, including rules, dates and a complete list of categories.

I am intimately familiar with “Best Ofs”; I ran them or helped run them in newspapers in Reno, Las Vegas and Tucson before I moved here to launch the Independent. I’ll be completely honest with y’all: I have mixed feelings about contests such as these.

On one hand, “Best Ofs” are mere popularity contests, and what’s most popular is not always what’s best. (For example, Taco Bell is popular, but only someone with mental damage would claim that Taco Bell’s food is truly great. In every “Best Of” contest I have ever done, Taco Bell gets some votes in the Best Mexican Food category. Ick.) On the other hand, “Best Ofs” themselves are popular: Readers and worthy businesses alike enjoy properly done “Best Ofs,” because they help spread the word about some of the community’s best businesses, places and organizations. Any time I travel to an unfamiliar city, I use the “Best Of” from that city’s alternative newspaper to help me pick where to go and what do to.

As I mentioned last month, our Best of Coachella Valley will indeed be properly done. Advertisers will have no say over who wins our readers’ picks, nor will the Independent staff: It’s the votes of you, our readers, who will decide the winners and finalists, period. (The staff will throw in some of our own picks—but they will be clearly marked as “Staff Picks” and will not in any way conflict with what readers choose.)

We’ll also do our best to make sure the contest is fair. We’re allowing readers to vote only once in each round, and we’re requiring that readers include a real email address with the ballot. We’re watching IP addresses, too, in an effort to eliminate as much ballot-box stuffing as we can.

Of course, this is our first Best of Coachella Valley, so there will be obstacles that arise. As always, if you or anyone else has questions about Best of Coachella Valley (or anything else related to the Independent, for that matter), my figurative door is always open: Call me at 760-904-4208, or email me at the address below.

Thanks in advance for voting in the Best of Coachella Valley—and welcome to the September 2014 issue.

Enjoy!

—Jimmy Boegle, jboegle@cvindependent.com

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 3

SEPTEMBER 2014

OPINION

KNOW YOUR

NEIGHBORS

Can Women Make the Difference Regarding Guns in America?

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

By Anita Rufus 55-year-old Michigan man recently shot through a locked screen door at a 19-year-old woman who was pounding on his door in the middle of the night, apparently drunk. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter, because his life was not being imminently threatened, and he had ample time to call 911.

In Long Beach, an 80-year-old man recently surprised two burglars inside his home. They beat him up, and when he was able to get to another room and get his gun, he shot at them, chasing them from his home out to the alley, where he shot the young woman as she was running away. He said afterward, “The lady didn’t run as fast as the man, so I shot her in the back twice.” The burglars were unarmed.

No decision has been made as of this writing about whether the homeowner will face any charges.

Can it ever be justified to shoot someone when they’re running away?

After pondering these recent cases, I happened to come across a Life Magazine from 1992, with the cover story: “If Women Ran America…” The story noted that at that time, there were only two women in the U.S. Senate, and that there had been only one female Supreme Court Justice in history— but what caught my attention was a story about efforts to market firearms accessories directly to women, something then considered groundbreaking.

I got to thinking about whether women might have reacted differently in the two aforementioned shooting events, and whether the direct marketing of firearms to women has made a significant difference. Although female gun ownership remained steady during the two decades leading up to 2010, it has since been surging. Women now constitute about 25 percent of gun owners, according to some sources.

Bruce Jernigan runs Yellow Mart in Indio, a store that carries, among other things, pink camouflage caps meant for women who want to look good while shooting. Accessories meant specifically for female gun enthusiasts run the gamut from pink pistol grips to bra holsters.

Jernigan, who has been involved in the gun industry since the late 1960s, remembers when marketing specifically to women began.

He attributes increased gun ownership by

women to two major factors: aggressive marketing by gun manufacturers, and more women living alone and feeling empowered to protect themselves.

“Guns are marketed specifically to women as an untapped customer base, and there are definitely a lot more women as customers now than in the past,” he says. “Society has changed, and women are more independent and more comfortable buying guns than they used to be.”

According to The Blaze website, “Gun manufacturers are trying to find the angle in their product line that will turn a predominately male-focused industry toward females” by using smaller sizes, color options, and elements that reduce user fatigue.

Here in the Coachella Valley, there have been special training sessions to make women more familiar with guns, and more comfortable when guns are in their homes. One local group, Women of Higher Caliber (is that a great name, or what?), calls itself a “social club comprised of women who enjoy shooting.” Its founders want women to learn about guns and practice in an environment “organized by and designed especially for women, and grounded in women’s attitudes about individual protection and peace of mind.” (Visit www.womenofhighercaliber.com for more information.)

However, there’s another side to the story of women and guns. According to Demand Action to End Gun Violence, “women in the U.S. are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other high-income countries,” and “the presence of a gun in domestic violence

situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.”

According to the Center for American Progress, “a staggering portion of violence against women is fatal, and a key driver of these homicides is access to guns. From 2001 through 2012, 6,410 women were murdered in the United States by an intimate partner using a gun—more than the total number of U.S. troops killed in action during the entirety of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.”

The Second Amendment is the only one in the Bill of Rights which has an introductory clause: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Why was it written so differently from all the others?

In 2008, the Supreme Court, for the first time in our history, held that the Second Amendment includes a constitutional right for individuals to keep a handgun in the home. The court made it clear, however, that reasonable restrictions could still apply.

I asked Bruce Jernigan what restrictions he thought made sense. He agrees with age restrictions already in place (18 for a long gun, 21 for a concealable handgun), and with denying purchase of a gun to a person with a felony criminal history or open warrants. As for mental-health restrictions, if we can find a way, then Jernigan is all for them.

“California is always on the cutting edge of new laws regarding firearms,” says Jernigan, “and restrictions based on mental health should be a priority.”

Training is encouraged, although not required, and testing is not necessary to purchase a gun—but is required, for example, to get a hunting license.

It’s almost impossible to have a reasoned discussion about guns in the United States. It’s hard to argue with pro-gun advocates who say, “If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons make people fat?”

This is an example of “false equivalency,” a logical fallacy used as a debate tactic.

People with pencils can write, and make mistakes, because the primary purpose of pencils is to write; people with cars can move from one place to another, even drunk, because

that is the primary purpose of cars; and people with spoons can eat too much, because the primary purpose of spoons is eating. People with guns can kill because the primary purpose of guns is to kill.

Considering that two-thirds of the world’s people live in nations that are less homicidal than the United States, and women are more pro-gun control than men, it’s worth wondering: What would happen with guns if women ran America?

KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS APPEARS EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY AT CVINDEPENDENT.COM. 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. CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014

OPINION

ASK A MEXICAN!

My Son-in-Law Was Barred From Entering the Country Because He Was Honest

!

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

By Gustavo Arellano EAR MEXICAN: I’m not Mexican, but my son-in-law is. He is intelligent, bright, enthusiastic and pleasant to spend time with. He came here, illegally, at the age of 18 with his aunts. He and my daughter are married, have a 3 1/2-year-old son, and have gone through the process of filing papers and paying fees so he could enter the country legally.

Last week, at the instruction of la migra, he went to Juarez, Mexico, to apply for his visa. He had his physical after waiting in line for nine hours. Then, on Wednesday, he stood in line for his 9:45 a.m. appointment from 7 a.m. until the consulate closed at 4 p.m. He was told to come back the next day. He showed up at 6 a.m. and was finally granted his interview.

One question that is asked: “Have you ever used drugs?” Being the honest person he is, and not wanting to be accused of lying, he answered truthfully: “Yes, I tried some with a friend about 6 months ago.”

He was told he was banned from the U.S., and to reapply in 2 1/2 years!

My daughter is beside herself with grief. She cannot afford to pay for child care without the help of her husband, so she will be forced to quit her job. My grandson believes his daddy doesn’t love him any more, because he won’t come home. And my son-in-law has learned this lesson: If you want to enter the U.S. legally, don’t admit to having done anything wrong— period.

My daughter and grandson now are in mental-health counseling, but their plan is to move to Tijuana, where a family member owns a home in which they can live. My daughter will commute to San Diego if she can find work. And for the next five years, while they go through the entire process over again, I will miss watching my sweet little boy grow up. I will miss having my only daughter and best friend with me, and I will miss having my loving son-in-law here, where he belongs, with his family.

I’ve written to my senators asking for intervention, and I’m going to get an appointment to see an immigration lawyer, but

CVIndependent.com

I’m not terribly confident. Do you hold out any hope?

Upset Mom DEAR GABACHA: Ever hear that canard by Know Nothings that Mexicans don’t want to enter el Norte the “right” way?

Your yerno is Exhibit Número 1 on why we don’t.

Throw in the stupidity of our drug war, and coming into this country legally is unjustly harder than trying to get your tía to write her tamale secrets down in recipe form.

Honestly, the best thing for your son-in-law is to cross over illegally, as undocumented folks nowadays seem to have more protection than those who try to do it the right way—and while I have no problem with that whatsoever, how fucked up is it that we’ve come to this?

Wait, that came off VERY conservative, so let me save my Aztlanista reputation … ¡A LA CHINGADA CON MURRIETA! DEAR MEXICAN: A news story some time ago mentioned that a Centers for Disease Control study shows that 96 percent

of all U.S. adults have had sex.

However, the same study showed only 88 percent of MexicanAmerican adults in the U.S. have had sex, the least of any ethnic group polled. This appears to buck the stereotype that Mexicans are somehow spicier in matters of the sack than the rest of us, and the uglier stereotype that they breed like rabbits.

Besides the possibility of the effects of growing up with pervasive, strict Catholic guilt, are there cultural, biological or genetic reasons why so many of your fellow mexicanos are not experiencing the joys of gettin’ it on with un amante of choice?

Gabacho Mariposa de Tejas DEAR GAY GABACHO FROM TEXAS: Another CDC report showed that Latinos were the ethnic group with the lowest rate of people who’d at least had oral sex before losing their virginity—39 percent, compared to 56.6 percent of gabachos.

Fact is, many Mexicans retain small-town puritanical values, which also explains why so many of our girls get pregnant.

I wish there was a joke in all this, but the only chiste here is the lack of sex education in the Mexican community—that, and a Pepito line showing the absurdity of it all, of course.

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!

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 5

SEPTEMBER 2014

OPINION

THE POTTED DESERT GARDEN

If You’re Not Using Your Outdoor Space That Much, Now Is the Time to Start

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/OPINION

By MARYLEE PANGMAN any of us became desert-dwellers because of the year-round sunny days and beautiful views. However, one of the first things I ask many desertdwellers is how they use their outdoor spaces (patio, courtyard or pool).

Way too often, the answer is, “Actually, we don’t use it!”

We’re too busy. It’s too hot. It’s too messy.

Well, the summer and the oppressive heat are starting to wane—so now is the time to create an outdoor space you love, and then get in the habit of using it!

If you’re not using your outdoor space, you may want to rethink your current arrangement. If your budget doesn’t allow for a major renovation to create your special oasis, a potted garden can provide you with an affordable solution that is beautiful and inviting year-round.

Pots with trellis and vine features can be used to “build” walls. You can also use trellises to form barriers from things you do not want to see (including the neighbors!).

For added interest, consider using a colorful mix of flowers and perennials to create a hummingbird garden, or select a beautiful hand-crafted container and a specimen plant to create “living art.”

As I mentioned above, transforming your patio does not have to be expensive. First, explore things you already have. Look for seating, pieces of art and accessories that will work outdoors. If you do not have containers or trellises in the right size, invest in a few that will help you build the space you want. Arrange

the different pieces in a way that feels good to you—and you have the makings of your own outdoor getaway!

I suggested to one of my clients, who has some beautiful potted plants outdoors, that they give themselves an “at home” holiday.

Even though these clients are retired, they are so caught up in “doing” that they often forget the very reason they moved to the desert: the lovely weather. I suggested that they take a weekend to relax: Turn off the phones; spend time in the pool; curl up with a good book— the very things they might do at a resort. With a little imagination, creativity and a couple of comfortable chairs, you can create a wonderful, cozy seating area, without investing in bricks and mortar, to enjoy on your “staycation.”

Studies have proven that living with plants and flowers is good for our health, and can soothe our souls. Share your special space with a friend or loved one, and it can be the catalyst for great conversation and relaxation.

I promise you: It’s worth a small investment of

time and money to create an area that calls to you. With the proper care and nourishment, that area will always be there for you.

MARYLEE PANGMAN IS THE FOUNDER AND FORMER OWNER OF THE CONTAINED GARDENER IN TUCSON, ARIZ. SHE HAS BECOME KNOWN AS THE DESERT’S POTTED GARDEN EXPERT. MARYLEE IS AVAILABLE FOR DIGITAL CONSULTATIONS, AND YOU CAN EMAIL HER WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS AT POTTEDDESERT@GMAIL.COM. FOLLOW THE POTTED DESERT AT FACEBOOK.COM/POTTEDDESERT. THE POTTED DESERT GARDEN APPEARS TUESDAYS AT CVINDEPENDENT.COM.

Pots, fountains, furniture and screens are all elements that you can use to make your own outdoor oasis.

CVIndependent.com

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CVIndependent.com

SEPTEMBER 2014

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 7

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS

OPEN SEAT

Democrat Karalee Hargrove and Elusive Republican Chad Mayes Compete to Represent Assembly District 42

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

By Kevin Fitzgerald ince 2008, Republican Brian Nestande has represented much of the Coachella Valley in California’s Assembly.

However, that will be changing this year: Nestande—the former chief of staff for the late Congressman Sonny Bono, as well as Bono’s wife, Congresswoman Mary Bono—is running for the U.S. House of Representatives against one-term incumbent Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz, who upset Mary Bono Mack in 2012.

So the field was wide open during June’s primary election for Nestande’s District 42 seat. The contenders included two well-funded and politically established Republican candidates—Chad Mayes and Gary Jeandron—and one Democratic candidate, Karalee Hargrove.

Jeandron, a former Palm Springs Police chief, and Mayes, the current chief of staff for San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford, each raised six figures-plus for the race. Meanwhile, Hargrove, a member of the board of the Morongo Unified School District, barely raised five figures. So it was a surprise to many that, in a district (including the high desert and much of the western Coachella Valley) where registered Republican voters outnumber Democratic voters by a little more than 8 percent (41.7 percent vs. 33.8 percent, as of May), Hargrove was the top vote-getter in the open primary, getting 37.8 percent of the vote. Chad Mayes, with 34.4 percent, finished second and is now facing Hargrove in the general election; Jeandron was eliminated, with 27.8

Chad Mayes. CHAD MAYES FACEBOOK PAGE

percent of the vote.

“I chose to run way back before the primaries because there was no Democrat and surely no woman running for this (office), so why not give it a shot?” explained Hargrove during a recent interview with the Independent. “I think we’ve been lacking leadership in this Assembly district, and that’s something that I can bring.”

Make no mistake, though: Hargrove remains a big underdog in the general election, and Mayes is acting very much like an elusive front-runner. The Independent reached out to Mayes via both telephone and email for this story. In response, we received an email from Joe Justin, a Sacramento-based political consultant with a history of working for Republican candidates.

He stated that Mayes would be unavailable to talk to the Independent due to scheduling conflicts.

On Mayes’ campaign website, we found this third-person analysis of what motivates Mayes to seek the District 42 office: “One overarching goal has defined public service for Chad Mayes: to bring a spirit of responsive servant leadership to every position he’s held.” Mayes was elected to the Yucca Valley Town Council in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006 and 2010.

Mayes was twice chosen by colleagues to serve as mayor during those years.

The candidates do share some mutual concerns. When asked what the most important issues are, Hargrove stated: “No. 1 is education. Second would have to be water, and third would be bringing jobs through renewable energy.”

The Mayes website lists campaign objectives as: “Deliver high performance government; fix failing schools; build a new jobs climate; step up the fight for local control.”

We asked Hargrove what specific actions she’d back to positively impact those issues. “With education, I’d like to see more money going to career technical programs,” Hargrove said. “I give out diplomas and wonder, ‘Well, this student isn’t enrolling in college, so what are they going to do?’ Also, we could get back some adult high school education funding, and for those adults who may not have their diploma, include them in the high-school courses and trade occupations we would offer.”

As for educational reform, Mayes’ site tells us, “California schools can regain their position as No. 1 again by giving

Karalee Hargrove. KARALEE HARGROVE FACEBOOK PAGE

parents a greater role and responsibility in their child’s education, returning local control to school boards, ensuring our schools are safe, and extending collegiate level choice to college-bound students and quality career technology courses that prepare graduates to compete for the best jobs.”

Returning to Hargrove’s platform, she told the Independent, “With the water issue, I’d really like to dig deep into how much water we’re using for agriculture. If 70 percent of water usage is going to agriculture, we need to focus on that first. Of course, conserving is huge, and I think the state of California is making good strides in that regard.”

Regarding job creation, Hargrove said, “I’d like to look at getting renewable-energy sources into the 42nd District while creating union, high prevailing-wage positions. Also, improving educational opportunities will help build the local economy.”

Regarding the same issue, Mayes’ website said: “We need to reform California’s job-killing regulations and reduce the tax burden to not only keep the jobs we have, but to expand and strengthen our economy.”

We asked Hargrove why she’s the best candidate for the office. “I know I’m the best candidate because I have not been bought by special interests or corporations,” Hargrove said. “I have worked a minimum-wage job. I’ve been a single mother. I am still a double full-time college student, so I get these real-life issues that people in the 42nd District deal with, and I feel I’m very comparable to them.

“I’m not doing this for any glory. I’m doing this to see that things get done. Once I accomplish my goals, I don’t intend to be in politics for 30-plus years.”

We don’t have Chad Mayes’ answer to this question. After all, he was not available for comment.

CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED The Goal of Joshua Tree’s Synchronicity Symposium: To Raise Attendees’ Consciousness

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

By Jimmy Boegle n January 2013, Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock spoke at a TEDx event in the London area.

Both of these speakers are familiar with controversy, thanks to their criticisms of modern science and their outside-of-themainstream ideas about consciousness.

However, these talks would catapult them into a whole new level of controversy: Their lectures—Sheldrake’s was titled “The Science Delusion,” and Hancock’s was called “The War on Consciousness”—were later removed from the main TED website, due to the speakers’ “questionable suggestions and arguments.”

This angered a lot of the speakers’ fans, including Gary Bobroff.

“They’re challenging assumptions in the scientific world that have no merit,” said Bobroff, a Jungian psychotherapist, about Sheldrake and Hancock.

He was so angered by what he perceived as censorship that he organized Synchronicity: Matter and Psyche Symposium, a conference that will take place at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center from Friday, Sept. 12, through Sunday, Sept. 14. The keynote speakers will be none other than Sheldrake and Hancock.

“When people are starting to get banned like that, it shows that the time is right for us to be learning these kinds of things,” Bobroff said.

What are “these kinds of things”? A publicity item for the conference declares: “Ours is the era of the conscious realization of the unity of psyche and matter. Today we are embodying consciousness with ever-greater awareness, subtlety and joy. With the reunion of earth and spirit in ourselves comes the end of the illusion of our distance from the world around us. On the growing edge of our cultural awareness lies the discovery that the split between body and spirit is only ever resolved through the heart.”

I asked Bobroff to clarify. He explained that

Rupert Sheldrake CVIndependent.com

Graham Hancock

events and our “inner state” often intersect in a meaningful way.

“We’re coming to understand that the world is patterned with meaning in a way that is available to us,” he said, adding that these patterns can be objectively recognized.

A lot of what Bobroff was talking about went over my head, I’ll admit. After watching the censored TEDx talks, however, I understand things a bit better—and I am certainly skeptical about some of the things they’re saying. (To see these talks, check out the online version of this story at CVIndependent.com.)

Still, Bobroff has a point when he mentions that so often in our lives, things seem to happen for a reason, and that things are often surprisingly interconnected.

I asked Bobroff if he picked Joshua Tree as the spot for the conference for any specific reason.

“It’s a place that has that kind of spiritual bent to it,” he said, adding that the Joshua Tree Retreat Center itself is a perfect venue for a conference of this nature.

Bobroff said that Sheldrake and Hancock aren’t the only speakers who will captivate attendees (although this is the first time since that now-infamous TEDx talk that they’ll appear at the same event, he added); for example, University of Virginia School of Medicine professor Jim Tucker will talk about his research on children who claim to remember past lives.

“I honestly think that most people who attend will come out on another level,” Bobroff said.

SYNCHRONICITY: MATTER AND PSYCHE SYMPOSIUM TAKES PLACE FRIDAY, SEPT. 12, THROUGH SUNDAY, SEPT. 14, AT THE JOSHUA TREE RETREAT CENTER, 59700 TWENTYNINE PALMS HIGHWAY, IN JOSHUA TREE. ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS $327.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.MATTERPSYCHE.NET.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 9

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS

‘A GREAT DISPARITY’

Artist Michael Weems Tries to Make Life Just a Little Better for the Valley’s Homeless Residents

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

By Brian Blueskye ichael Weems is an artist with an impressive collection, a successful gallery and a renowned résumé in the art world.

As of late, however, he’s had a focus beyond art: Helping the homeless. He’s asking his fellow Coachella Valley residents to assist as well.

Weems recently talked to the Independent about what led him to leave the corporate world and become an artist.

“I’ve been an artist for about 20 years now,” Weems said. “I had worked as a financial manager with AT&T back in Washington, D.C., for about nine years, and I was downsized with about 15,000 other people. When I was downsized, I visited a friend of mine on my first-ever trip to California. When I visited her in San Diego, she took me to a psychic who said to me, ‘You’re not going to be in the corporate world any more; you’re going to be an artist, and really well-known.’

“I thought it was the craziest thing in the world, because I had never taken an art class before, or done anything artistic since junior high.”

The psychic’s vision wasn’t crazy after all.

He bought a home in Baltimore after leaving Washington, D.C., and began to paint his own works to hang on the walls in his home. His friends saw them, he said, and began asking if they could buy them.

He eventually took a job with Tiffany and Co. “I wanted to work in jewelry, but they made me work in tabletop,” Weems said. “I worked with dishes, china, crystal, silver and things like that. They said, ‘If you do really well in this department, we’ll move you over into fine jewelry.’ I worked my butt off—I learned how to set a really beautiful table—and they moved me over to fine jewelry, where I stayed for about six months. And then I quit. It was so boring selling overpriced jewelry and diamonds to very wealthy people, as opposed to selling a beautiful tablescape.”

He realized that his interest in tabletop visuals and art went hand in hand, and he eventually combined the two—which is evident when you see his dishware in the Michael Weems Collection. He also taught himself how to edge and cut glass.

“My crystal was the official gift of the George W. Bush White House,” Weems said.

“The president would travel around the world to see Jacques Chirac, the king of Saudi Arabia, the president of Japan, and they would give my work as the official gift. It was so much

of an amazing thing, because I had only been doing it for a couple of years.”

After moving to the Coachella Valley, he went on what he called a “meditation” in the Whitewater area. This led to another new idea.

“I came upon this old truck that had gone down a wash,” Weems said. “It was all rusted and had the most beautiful patinas on it. Right there and then, I knew I was going to work with vintage cars and metal.”

He patented the concept that is displayed at Autoerotica of printing graphic images and putting them on parts of vintage cars. He also began crafting jewelry and light fixtures with the metal from the cars. His pieces have become well-known—and he plans to open another gallery in London.

Weems is blessed with success and a life of creativity—and he recently began to notice what he called “a great disparity.”

“I get to sit in the gallery where there’s air conditioning; there’s water; there’s food; and I have everything I need here,” he said.

“The gallery has done very well over the past couple of years, and I saw the huge disparity between me, sitting in this gallery, and people walking outside who are so hopeless, sad, hungry and hot. I’ve been given these gifts to make things—people buy them, and they love them—so I need to pay that forward. I took one day’s sales from the previous month, and I went out and bought items to put in bags.”

Residents who belong to the Palm Springs Neighborhoods Group on Facebook responded to a post Weems made asking for suggestions as to what to put in the bags. Items usually include water, protein bars, aspirin, socks, underwear, sun block, dog food for those who have pets, a frozen washcloth, and other items that are prepared by volunteers who also help Weems distribute the bags.

Michael Weems: “Out of everything we put in these bags, they love the white socks. They’re so appreciative that they’ll dig past the water, the food, the aspirin, the powder, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God! Socks!’

It’s like Christmas—fresh white socks.”

“A lot of people wanted to donate and somehow get involved,” Weems said. “It was wonderful, because the need was more than my money could (provide). It went far, but not as far as the need went. People also donated all sorts of things that are needed by the homeless.

“We’ve probably given well more than 500 bags since we started in the late spring. It’s very clean and simple: I just want to help people where they are. When I drive home at night, I take four or five bags with me, and if I see someone on the street, I get out and give them a bag, saying, ‘This is for you.’ That’s my place. I don’t involve religion in it. I don’t ask people to try and pray, and I don’t try to win them over to Jesus. That’s not my place.”

Weems has received a warm reception for his efforts.

“A lot of people paint them as drug addicts and being really mentally unstable, but many of the ones I’ve encountered aren’t like that at all,” Weems said of the homeless people he’s approached. “The people are so kind, and some have asked me, ‘Oh, you look really hot and thirsty. Do you want one of the waters in the bag?’ They ask me about my jewelry; they ask me about my gallery, or how I like living in the desert.”

However, not everyone has approved of Weems’ efforts. He cited one member of Palm Springs’ business community, whom he declined to name.

“One of them told me, ‘If you give out poison, I’ll donate, because we don’t need these people here, and it’d be better off if they were dead. Let me know when you do that.’ I’ve also had people come up to me in

local restaurants when I’m having dinner, and they’ll make jokes about it. They think there’s some magic network with homeless people, where they’re going to call their sister in Cincinnati and have her and her nine kids and five dogs come live here in the streets, because I’m giving out Costco water and socks.”

He said socks and sun block are the items he needs the most.

“Out of everything we put in these bags, they love the white socks,” he said. “They’re so appreciative that they’ll dig past the water, the food, the aspirin, the powder, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God! Socks!’ It’s like Christmas—fresh white socks. Sun block is also huge, and I’m running out of that.”

He plans on making his efforts a long-term project, and he’s created a GoFundMe.com account where people can donate.

“People ask me, ‘How can I help? Here’s my credit card. Charge me.’ I couldn’t do that through my business, so I set up a GoFundMe. com account,” he said. “There’s been a great response to it.”

Weems said he understands that not everyone can give money. People can offer their time, too.

“Just come by the gallery,” Weems said. “I’m here 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Tuesday and Wednesday, and all they have to do is just stop by. I’ll show them how to prepare the bags, and based on where they live, they can help me put bags together, and they can take the bags out around town.”

THE MICHAEL WEEMS COLLECTION/AUTOEROTICA IS LOCATED AT 384 N. PALM CANYON DRIVE, IN PALM SPRINGS. TO DONATE, VISIT WWW.GOFUNDME.COM/BWLWB4.

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NEWS

A SOMBER ANNIVERSARY

A Local Doctor Remembers Offering Care Near Ground Zero After the Sept. 11, 2001, Attacks

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

By Kevin Fitzgerald ept. 11, 2001, started off as just another day for Dr. Harry Marshak.

“I was working then at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in Manhattan, which is maybe two miles away from Ground Zero,” recalled Marshak, who now practices ophthalmic plastic and facial surgery in Palm Desert. “We were in the middle of surgery when a nurse came in and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Everybody thought, ‘Well, it’s just a small plane that must have gone into the building.’ But people kept coming in with reports, so (when) we were done with surgery, we went up to the roof.

“The tower that we could have seen had already fallen. Everyone was in shock. So the question was what to do next. The hospital had an emergency protocol which we went through—but we had only one, not-tooseverely injured fireman brought in. And then it was quiet.”

Marshak had been living in New York City for 11 years at the time of the tragedy.

“We were watching TV at the time, and there was a call out that they needed doctors at St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was the closest hospital to Ground Zero,” he said. “So, with some other doctors, I went over.

When we got there, they had discharged everybody from the emergency room. There were no patients. There were empty beds lined up in there. They had gurneys outside covered in sheets. They were expecting hundreds of patients, but there was nobody there.”

Marshak shook his head gently as he spoke. “Now, the inclination is to find where the need is. So next, I ended up at Chelsea Piers. The city took over these piers on the westside in the ’20s, and they had this emergency plan set up that went into action. There were maybe 50 folding tables set up as operating tables with some cushions, and they had surgical equipment. They were organizing teams of four doctors for each table: a surgeon, an anesthesiologist and two other medical professionals. We got assigned to these teams—and then we were waiting, and there wasn’t anybody there.

“But there was another room where people with minor injuries were just walking in or brought by ambulance,” Marshak continued. “I found all these people who had eye problems, because a lot of debris was getting in people’s eyes—fiberglass and chemicals were in the air—so I got involved in flushing out people’s eyes, and pulling things out of their eyes. I was the only doctor there with eye training, so I taught others how to flush out an eye. Some of the firemen had contact lenses and needed to get them cleaned out and put back in without losing them, so they could go back out and do their job. I mean, they were minor ailments, but if you didn’t know what you were doing, then you could do more harm than good.”

Marshak took a deep breath. “So I stayed there until pretty early in the morning (of Wednesday the 12th). Then I went home for a few hours, got up and went back. I took a bunch of supplies from that Chelsea facility, put them in my car and drove down to Ground Zero.

“It was kind of just chaos down there. I remember walking through thick muck on the ground. You would put your foot down, and it would just stick. It was debris and water from the CVIndependent.com

fire hoses. And the air—I was carrying a heavy box of irrigating fluid, and I was having trouble catching my breath because of the smoke and the difficulty walking. Finally, I found other doctors, and there were people to treat, but, again, it was minor injuries. Most of the people we were treating were rescue workers.”

After a moment’s pause, Dr. Marshak added: “After two days, what became clear was that when the planes hit, either you got out of the towers, or you didn’t. We hadn’t seen injuries directly related to the tower strikes. Almost none.”

As the week unfolded, both the determination of New York’s citizens and the impact of the terrorist attack on U.S. soil were revealed.

“Now the rescue workers weren’t just professionals—they were all these people trying to go through rubble and getting hurt,” Marshak said. “Just anybody in New York was coming down. People weren’t looting. They were trying to help, but people were getting hurt.

“We ended up in the American Express building, which was right next to the WTC complex. There were makeshift triage centers. Hospitals were sending in supplies. And then they started giving us masks, so we started handing out masks to everyone. As time went on, we’d get better masks, and then (even) better masks. We began to wonder: What have we been breathing in? But that’s the way it goes.”

Marshak said the scale of the violence perpetrated on Sept.

11 became more evident as the days passed. “A morgue was set up in the atrium of the American Express building. I recall the remains of maybe 20 or 30 people, and there were priests giving last rites.” Marshak said. “When you were walking around down there, you can’t imagine the size of the rubble. ‘The Pile,’ they called it. I mean, the enormity of the destruction was beyond words—to see a building on its side across the West Side Highway. Tower 7 was tilted over and still smoldering. There were people climbing up the side of the building to see if anyone

Dr. Harry Marshak: “After two days, what became clear was that when the planes hit, either you got out of the towers, or you didn’t.

We hadn’t seen injuries directly related to the tower strikes. Almost none.”

was inside. I mean, these were just civilians, you know. There was just so much destruction.”

Raised in the Los Angeles area, Marshak has now been a resident of the Coachella Valley for nine years.

“Before that day, I was complacent. I liked the ophthalmology and eye surgery that I was doing, but I wasn’t passionate about it,” the doctor said. “So I decided to do ocular or ophthalmic plastic surgery, which is reconstructive for the eyelid and the eye socket—basically, the upper two-thirds of the face. Also, how I approach medicine became more hard-core.”

He would soon leave New York for a fellowship at the University of Southern California, starting in July 2003.

“During my fellowship at USC, I was on call 24-7 for two years, and I operated almost every night in the middle of the night,” he said. “That’s what I wanted. I needed to immerse myself.”

And today? “People say that I’m a workaholic now. But I just like what I do, and I’m passionate about what I do now,” he said.

Why did he choose to set up his practice in Palm Desert? “I first came out here to do some training, and I saw the need for ocular plastic surgery out here. There are enough surgeons in L.A.” FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DR. HARRY MARSHAK, VISIT WWW.DRMARSHAK.COM.

SEPTEMBER 2014

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SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS

AUGUST ASTRONOMY Watch Mars Zoom Across the Sky This Month!

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

by Robert Victor ars forms colorful pairs with other objects in the southwest evening sky in September, as the red planet moves from just more than 5 degrees from yellowish Saturn on Sept. 1, to within 5 degrees of red Antares from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3.

Saturn, with its rings tipped 22 degrees from edge-on, is impressive through a telescope, if you catch it before it sinks low.

The crescent moon near a planet is an attractive sight. Catch a waning crescent near Jupiter at dawn on Sept. 20, and a waxing crescent very near Saturn on Sept. 27. On Sept. 27 and 28, Mars passes 3 degrees above Antares, and on the 29th, the lunar crescent passes above the red pair.

September 2014 at dusk: The five

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brightest objects in evening mid-twilight (ignoring Mercury, near magnitude 0, but very low in the west to west-southwest), are Arcturus and Vega (0.0); Saturn (+0.6); Mars (+0.6 to +0.8); and Altair (+0.8).

Saturn is in the southwest to westsouthwest, lower as the month progresses.

Mars starts this month just more than 5 degrees to the lower left of Saturn, and 18 degrees to the right of Antares, heart of Scorpius the scorpion. Watch Mars move!

On Sept. 5 and 6, look for a nearly vertical “fence” of three stars about midway between Mars and Antares; it marks the head of the scorpion. By Sept. 12, Mars is equidistant from Saturn and Antares, 11 degrees from each. On Sept. 17, Mars passes just a halfdegree north of second-magnitude Delta Scorpii, the middle star of the “fence.” Mars

Morning visibility map at mid-twilight.

ROBERT D. MILLER

Evening visibility map at mid-twilight.

ROBERT D. MILLER

passes 3 degrees north of Antares on Sept. 27 and 28, with a crescent moon nearby on the next evening. Compare color and brightness of Mars and Antares (“rival of Mars”) for several evenings around their closest approach. Mercury is highest at midmonth, but only 3 degrees up in mid-twilight from Southern California in this poor apparition.

It passes 0.6 degrees south of Spica on Sept. 20. Binoculars, very clear skies and an unobstructed horizon are needed to observe this event.

As for stars, Spica departs in the westsouthwest. Arcturus remains prominent in the west, and Antares sinks toward the southwest. Vega, the lead star of the Summer Triangle, passes nearly overhead, with Altair and Deneb remaining east of the meridian (north-south line overhead) at mid-twilight through September. Fomalhaut rises in the southeast at month’s end.

Moon in the evening sky is found near Mars and Saturn on Aug. 31; near Antares on Sept. 1; near Saturn on Sept. 27; and near Mars and Antares on Sept. 29. On evenings following the full moons of late summer and early fall, we usually get a “Harvest Moon effect,” when the moon rises not very much later each evening. But this year, the perigee on Sept. 7 and the low inclination of the moon’s orbit increase the daily time delay over what it can be for the Harvest Moon in most years.

September 2014 at dawn: The brightest objects are Venus, near magnitude -4, but in bright twilight and sinking out of sight at our mid-twilight viewing time during third week; and Jupiter, near magnitude -1.8 and climbing in the east. Next in brightness are Sirius, in the southeast to south-southeast, and Capella, nearly overhead.

The latter two are the southernmost and northernmost stars of the huge “Winter Hexagon,” in clockwise order, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux (and Castor, not shown),

Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel and back to Sirius. Betelgeuse, Orion’s shoulder, resides within the hexagon. Regulus, the heart of Leo the lion, follows the hexagon across the sky, as if to chase his next meal, with the twins of Gemini, Orion, two dogs, Auriga the charioteer, Capella the mother goat, and Taurus the bull as possible menu options.

Find emerging Regulus just 0.8 degrees south (to the lower right) of Venus on Sept. 5. The only other star of first magnitude visible in September’s dawns is Deneb in the northwest, the last star of the Summer Triangle to set.

Before morning twilight brightens, use binoculars to find the Beehive star cluster, 3 degrees above Jupiter on Sept. 1, widening to 8 degrees to the upper right of Jupiter at month’s end.

The moon in morning sky appears near Aldebaran on Sept. 14 and 15; widely (11 degrees) north of Betelgeuse on Sept. 16; between Procyon and Pollux on Sept. 17; south of Jupiter on Sept. 20; and within 5 degrees south of Regulus on Sept. 21.

Check the website of the Astronomical Society of the Desert (www.astrorx.org) for dates, maps and directions to our “star parties,” where everyone is welcome to look through our telescopes at the moon, planets and “deep sky objects.” Year-round monthly sessions begin at dusk at Sawmill Trailhead, elevation 4,000 feet. This month’s session will be on Sept. 20, if sky conditions permit. Our monthly star parties at the more-convenient Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument’s Visitor Center will resume on Oct. 4.

Enjoy 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.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 13

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/NEWS

SNAPSHOT

Images From a Musical August in the Coachella Valley

The summer’s second Splash House pool party/electronic dance music festival came to the Hard Rock Palm Springs, The Saguaro and the Hacienda Cantina and Beach Club for three days: Friday, Aug. 8, through Sunday, Aug. 10. Many hundreds of festival-goers enjoyed music from a variety of acts both local and national, including Trippy Turtle (pictured, in green). After the festival, organizers announced that Splash House would return for an as-yet-undermined number of weekends in the summer of 2015.

PHOTOS BY GUILLERMO PRIETO/IROCKPHOTOS.NET

The Hood Bar and Pizza held a Battle of the Bands competition every Thursday night during the month of August. (One of the judges was the Independent’s Brian Blueskye.) On Thursday, Aug. 14, Right On Right On (pictured) advanced to the final round by beating out Plastic, Elektric Lucie and Subourbon Outlaw. PHOTO BY BRIAN BLUESKYE

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SEPTEMBER 2014

⓯ Western Lit: Women—One Fictional, Another Real— Stand at the Center of Compelling Books ⓱ ArtsOasis Listings ⓱ September Theater Listings ⓲ In Movies: Now Showing at Home www.cvindependent.com/arts-and-culture

SIMPLICITY CREATES COMPLEXITY

Local Artist Cynthia King's Black-and-White Clayboard Works Make Viewers Fill in the Blanks

16

“Hills of California” by Cynthia King.

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SEPTEMBER 2014

ARTS & CULTURE

BEHIND THE CALAMITIES WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE

By Annie Dawid and Phyllis Barber n Katie Gale, anthropologist Llyn De Danaan chronicles the life of a 19th century Salish (Pacific Northwest Native American) woman who married a white man, gave birth to four children, became a successful oysterwoman, suffered greatly in a divorce settlement, and watched two of her children die of tuberculosis before succumbing to the disease herself.

An extraordinary life? Not really. An exemplary one? No. But Katie Gale represents more than an individual: She stands in for an entire generation of Native American women trampled under the boots of white expansion.

“Of this I am certain: Katie Gale was a refugee, a person displaced by war and threats of war from her country of origin,” argues De Danaan.

Katie’s tribe lived on the oyster-rich Washington coast “before the first non-Indian oystermen arrived in Oyster Bay with their finance.” values, dreams and aspirations that rapidly Katie’s life is also full turned a largely subsistence harvest to one of love and community, based on accumulation of wealth, investment all chronicled in and growth.” fascinating detail by De In the late 1800s, whites arrived in large Danaan, whose previous numbers, the beneficiaries of laws encouraging anthropological work homesteading. Joseph Gale and others claimed includes field studies vast oysterbeds. But lacking knowledge of the in Malaysia. The book area’s unique harvesting practices, the settlers is a masterpiece of were at a disadvantage—hence the high creative interpretation of number of intermarriages between white men extensive archival work, and Native women who knew how to manage as Gale left no diaries or tribal lands for sustenance. letters.

But subsistence living vanished when the Clearly, De Danaan is moved by Gale’s life 1893 depression struck. “Economic downturns and legacy. “Surely my life is as insubstantial, had never touched her people before. Only as ephemeral, as was Katie’s. I will become natural disasters could bring shortages. Now like her, another mostly anonymous wraith, a Katie lived in a world that was plummeted specter who will walk the shores with all the into near chaos by the national and even others.” international activities of marketing and But De Danaan underestimates her work;

Western Lit: Women—One Fictional, Another Real—Stand at the Center of These Compelling Books

this volume is well worth the contemporary reader’s immersion in another life and time. fter nearly two decades of literary silence, former mystery writer Bernard Schopen is back with Calamity Jane, a novel that asks serious questions about the West.

His protagonist, independent filmmaker Jane Harmon, returns triumphantly from Hollywood to Blue Lake, Nev., to showcase The Last Roundup, a documentary she’s made about the townspeople’s lives. Jane’s received “bouquets of encomium and accolades for her assessment of the rural West and the American desert, of what should be done in it and who should do it.” The Last Roundup even aired on PBS. Winnifred Westrom, the book’s narrator, is a former schoolmarm and closet poet who reassembles the story of Jane’s one-year sojourn in Blue Lake and tries to come to terms with this modern-day Calamity Jane (as the locals call her), who’s wreaked havoc on their lives at every turn. Winnifred has sympathy for the realities that Jane’s film portrays, but also “feels it at odds with (her own) sense of things.” After all, Jane arrived with “ideas and attitudes shaped by Out There teachers. … She took us in, made us material to be worked by her art and didn’t recognize us otherwise.” This emotional flaw keeps Jane from penetrating or even recognizing the barrier that stands between her viewpoint and that of the town.

Jane’s larger-than-life stories of two characters—Brock Walden, a Don-Juan-of-

the-West TV star who owns a local ranch, and Ione Hardaway, the pistol-packing manager of Walden’s livestock operation—miss the hidden details that don’t fit into her well-crafted narrative: the stuff of ordinary rural people who ain’t tellin’ their secrets to nobody.

“Out There,” the sensibility that shaped Jane’s version of the Wild West, collides with “Out Here,” the authentic Real West represented by the town. Schopen has taken a wise, smartly written, complex look at the everyday mysteries to be found, and perhaps solved, in a group of human beings with various passions, Achilles’ heels and a near-addiction to small-town gossip, which is often flavored with the truth. Can Jane, with her limited awareness of other people’s inner lives, ever understand what this land means to those trying to wring a livelihood from it?

These reviews originally appeared in High Country News (hcn.org).

KATIE GALE: A COAST SALISH WOMAN’S LIFE ON OYSTER BAY,

BY LLYN DE DANAAN (BISON), 336 PAGES, $29.95; CALAMITY JANE, BY BERNARD SCHOPEN (BAOBAB), 270 PAGES, $16.95

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ARTS & CULTURE

IT’S NOT A

Artist Cynthia King’s Black-and-White Clayboards Use Simplicity to Create Complexity

PARADOX

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE

By Victor Barocas oachella Valley artist Cynthia King keeps things simple.

Her website puts it succinctly: She “currently works in the simplest of mediums, black ink on a white ground, to create intricately detailed representational works of art. She creates fine lines and weaves them into an often familiar yet complex vision of reality. Familiar shapes are drawn, scratched off, and then reworked on clayboard numerous times until Cynthia is satisfied with the resulting image. Often, parts of the image remain unanchored and unfinished, leaving the viewer to fill in the negative spaces.”

Born in Ohio, Cynthia—she is often called Cindy—grew up and was educated in the Los Angeles area, graduating from UCLA. She lived in Yucca Valley before moving to Palm Springs in 2010.

The Independent recently spoke to her about her art.

What caused you to become an artist?

I’ve always wanted to be an artist. Being pretty much a vocal kid, I was given, at around age 4, a set of watercolors to keep me occupied and quiet.

Getting to pen and ink on clayboard took some time. Like most visual artists, I worked in oils, acrylics and drawing. I enjoyed black-andwhite etchings—a form of printmaking—but was turned off by the toxic chemicals and acids. And after trying computer art, especially black-and-whites, I came across pen and inks on clayboard. That combination remains my medium of choice, as my drawings tend to be quite intricate.

By the way, clayboard is a sturdy, hardboard with a clay and glue covering; it has a soft sheen and appears to be a bit off-white or eggshell.

Tell me about what you draw.

Here in the Coachella Valley and High Desert, I am best known for how I capture the desert life—as it is. My pieces are about a place at a point in time. They are expressions and interpretations. There are no narratives.

For me, the rocks, mountains and water, as well as native plants and botanicals, are fascinating and evolving. For example, returning to a place where I was drawing an hour earlier is a new experience: The different

“The Prom” by Cynthia King.

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position of the sun creates new shadows and highlights.

My vegetarian series (is composed of) still lifes. Here, I stage individual, pairs and groups of fruits or vegetables.

My still-life drawings are far more personal than my desertscapes. There is an intimacy, as there are only a few items on the entire piece of clayboard. Also, many people find (these works) a bit lighthearted, as they are frequently titled with people’s names, like “John and Martha,” or events, like “The Prom” (below).

Your technique seems highly controlled and exacting. Is that a fair assessment?

For many, my approach to drawing is totally compulsive and over the top. But it works for me. There are some commonalities to how I approach each drawing. For each piece, I strive for an organized complexity.

Each drawing emanates from a unique point on the clayboard. Once I begin, a mental picture of what the piece will look like emerges.

The rest is execution.

From that point of origin, I begin drawing with ink. I sometimes think that each line looks like a spontaneous, individually created doodle.

My approach is iterative. From my starting point, I begin to draw, then scratch away what doesn’t work, and redraw again. That this happens several times is fine. It produces the layered effect I desire. This is another benefit of clayboard: Clayboard, unlike paper, doesn’t absorb the ink.

Once a section is completed, I move on to the next space and continue the process. …

Each finished section, and ultimately the final drawing, has significant depth, texture and

Cynthia King: “My pieces are about a place at a point in time. They are expressions and interpretations. There are no narratives.”

subtleties. The frequently overlooked layering, caused by the scratching process, enhances these qualities.

For me, lines serve two purposes: With some drawings, lines define the form. I also use lines to create negative—or open—spaces. Negative spaces are a strategic element to my drawings.

With my rock, mountain and water series, open spaces can at times seem quite large. …

The viewer must pause and fill in the spaces on their own.

I employ negative spaces with my vegetarian, botanicals and natives series quite differently. Here, negative space becomes a backdrop that pushes the subject to the foreground.

Does your role as an educator add to your art?

This fall, I will be teaching a class on art at the College of the Desert. Additionally, this October, I will, for the Desert Institute, be teaching a course on clayboard in Joshua Tree. In addition to (the classes) allowing me to refine my style, the students are really an inspiration.

Here in the desert, you’ve received some recognition for your work. Can you tell me about it?

Over the past few years, I’ve had a number solo shows, like at Koffi Rancho Mirage, as well as a two-person show at (Nicole) Barosi Gallery.

Additionally, Archangel Gallery in Palm Springs included me in two group shows.

Also, the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Artists Council, for the second year in a row, accepted my submission for their annual artists’ show.

This year, the piece is titled “Hills of California.”

Being selected is a great honor as there are several hundred submissions every year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.CKINGART.COM. FULL DISCLOSURE: VICTOR BAROCAS HAS PARTICIPATED IN ART SHOWS WITH CYNTHIA KING.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 17

SEPTEMBER 2014

SEPTEMBER ARTS Film Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Film Festival A varied combination of feature films, documentaries and short films created by and/or about thematic issues related to the LGBT community is shown Thursday, Sept. 18, through Sunday, Sept. 21. Individual screenings $13; all-access $149.

Camelot Theatres, 2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs.

760-325-6565; cinemadiverse.org.

Comedy Comedy Night Palm Springs Shelagh Ratner, of Lifetime TV’s Prank My Mom, and Matthew Moore, of Caroline’s on Broadway in New York, perform at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20. $20. The Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-322-4422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.

George Lopez The multi-talented entertainer whose career encompasses television, film, standup comedy and late-night television performs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6. $39 to $99. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio.

888-331-5645; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Michael Walters as Dame Edna Get ready, possums! Back by popular demand, celebrity impersonator Michael Walters as Dame Edna returns to the Purple Room. Barry Humphries, the original creator of Dame Edna, calls Walter’s show “spectacular.” 5:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6; 5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7; 5:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12; and 5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 14. $25. The Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-3224422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.

Music Burger Records Presents Burger Oasis Burger Records heads to the desert for Burger Oasis, a full weekend of sundrenched vibrations and garage-rock sounds with live sets by the pool and in the Amigo Room. Music starts at 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6, in the Amigo Room; and goes from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6 and 7, poolside. Free; pool parties open to hotel guests only. Ace Hotel and Swim Club, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-325-9900; www.acehotel.com.

Fantasy Springs Rock Yard Concert Series At 7:30 p.m., full-throttle rock music fires up with a cover band to get audience members out of their seats. At 9 p.m., the tribute band takes over and plays audience favorites. At 10:30 p.m., the cover band comes back out and continues the live music until midnight. Friday, Sept. 6: Tribute to AC/DC. Friday, Sept. 13: Tribute to Led Zeppelin. Friday, Sept. 20: Tribute to Pink Floyd. Friday, Sept. 27: Tribute to Journey. Free. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio.

888-331-5645; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Friday Night Tribute Concerts Spotlight 29 Casino invites everyone to come out and enjoy Friday-night tribute concerts. Guests must be 21 years and

older. 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19: Van Halen. Friday, Sept. 26: Journey. Free. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella. 760-775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.

God Save the Queen: A Celebration of Queen The legendary band is given tribute at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept.

6. $20. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella.

760-775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.

Janelle Monae The soul/R&B singer performs at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12. $45 to $75. The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage. 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com/TheShow.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano The Grammy Award-winning ensemble performs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13. $25 to $45. The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage.

888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com/TheShow.

Peter Frampton The 1970s legend performs at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19. $50 to $70. The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage. 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com/TheShow.

Ramon Ayala The norteño legend takes the stage at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept.

13. $35 to $55. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella. 760-775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.

Special Events Beer Culture: Craft Beer Weekend The third annual Beer Culture: Craft Beer Weekend celebrates the microbrewers, hop heads, cask masters and maltsters who make the world a better place for beer-lovers. Friday night includes a five-course feast with beer pairings. Saturday afternoon is a pool party and barbecue with craft beer tastings and live music. Dinner at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12 ($50); pool party from noon to 10 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13 ($15, or $30 with beer-tasting). Ace Hotel and Swim Club, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-325-9900; www.acehotel.com.

Club Fore Kids Golf Tournament This fourth annual golf tournament, sponsored by the Palm Springs Hospitality Association, benefits the Boys and Girls Club of Palm Springs. Lunch and raffle prizes included. 8 a.m., Monday, Sept. 15. $195. Escena Golf Club, 1100 Clubhouse View Drive, Palm Springs. $195.

Palmspringshospitality.org/events.htm.

Desert Haiku Writing in Joshua Tree National Park Be inspired by the power and beauty of the desert setting to learn how to write haiku and other types of poetry in this writing-intensive field seminar. Participants will take brief walks and be introduced to the ecologic and cultural/historical richness of the desert. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13. $70 regular; $60 Joshua Tree National Park Association members.

Joshua Tree Visitor Center, 6554 Park Blvd., Joshua Tree.

760-367-5525; www.joshuatree.org.

Fine Art Photography in Joshua Tree National Park Immerse yourself in the wonders of Joshua Tree National Park and connect with the enchantment to be found there. The content of this workshop will focus not only on the mechanics of photography, but also on personal interpretation and expression. Bring camera equipment, camping equipment and enthusiasm. Friday, Sept. 19, through Sunday, Sept. 21. $170 regular; $160 for Joshua Tree National Park Association members. Oasis Visitor Center, 74485 National Park Drive, Joshua Tree. 760-367-5525; www.joshuatree.org.

Palm Springs Cultural Art, Food and Wine Festival The event provides cultural art, exotic foods, eclectic jewelry, music and wine. 10 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14. Call for admission information; VIP tickets $25.

Renaissance Palm Springs, 888 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way. 760-413-1125.

Party in the Pasture A four-day RV, tent-camping and country music festival features Southern California’s top country bands, along with Coachella Valley finalists from The 33rd Annual Country Showdown. Enjoy a barn-style dance floor, a hay-bale pool party, barbecue and more. Thursday, Sept. 25, through Sunday, Sept. 28. $100 and up. Shadow Hills RV Resort, 40655 Jefferson St., Indio. 760-360-4040; www.partyinthepasture.net.

Synchronicity: Matter and Psyche Symposium A landmark celebration with visionary leaders whose work has pioneered our understanding of the unity of psyche and matter. Embrace a heart-shaped world through science, art, psychology and embodied practice. The weekend features Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock. Friday, Sept. 12, through Sunday, Sept. 14. $327 to $347. Joshua Tree Retreat Center, 59700 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree.

Matterpsyche.net.

Visual Arts A Grand Adventure: American Art in the West The epic 19th-century landscape paintings of Yosemite and Yellowstone by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran introduced the American public to the grandeur of the West. By the turn of the century, a new genre of Western art had developed.

A Grand Adventure brings together 40 significant classic and traditional artworks from private collections. The artworks span nearly 100 years, dating from the latter half of the 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century. The exhibit opens Saturday, Sept. 27, and will remain on display through Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015. Included with regular admission prices. Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert, 72567 Highway 111, Palm Desert. 760-346-5600; www.psmuseum.org/palm-desert.

Backstreet Art District Art Walk Galleries and studios featuring modern and contemporary fine art are open the first Wednesday of every month from 6 to 9 p.m. Experience the thrill of interacting with working artists.

Find paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, photography and more, in one location. Free. Backstreet Art District, Cherokee Way and Matthew Drive, Palm Springs. 760-202-1208; www.backstreetartdistrict.com.

SUBMIT YOUR FREE ARTS LISTINGS AT CALENDAR.ARTSOASIS.ORG. THE LISTINGS PRESENTED ABOVE WERE ALL POSTED ON THE ARTSOASIS CALENDAR, AND FORMATTED/ EDITED BY COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT STAFF. THE INDEPENDENT RECOMMENDS CALLING TO CONFIRM ALL EVENTS INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE.

SEPTEMBER THEATER 2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter’s Night— From Desert Rose Playhouse Set in New York City in 1987, 2 Boys explores the sexual etiquette of one-night stands and is peppered with poignant, humorous and sly observations. The play contains nudity and sexual situations; at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 2 p.m., Sunday, through Sunday, Sept 7. $28 to $30. At 69260 Highway 111, Rancho Mirage. 760-202-3000; www.desertroseplayhouse.org.

The 39 Steps—From Theatre 29 Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, then add a dash of Monty Python, and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit. At 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, through Saturday, Sept. 13, with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Sept. 7. $12 regular; $10 seniors and military; $8 children and students.

At 73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms. 760-361-4151; theatre29.org.

Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins—From Desert Rose Playhouse This comedy is set in 1977 and focuses on 15-year-old Horace Poore’s sexual awakening, hastened by images of Olympic champion Mark Spitz and anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant; at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 2 p.m., Sunday, from Friday, Sept. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 19. $28 to $30. At 69260 Highway 111, Rancho Mirage. 760-202-3000; www.desertroseplayhouse.org.

CV Rep’s Children’s Outreach Production: Touchy Subjects Touchy Subjects addresses the important subject of sexual harassment in the school system, one of the most common forms of bullying in schools today. The play is performed by children’s peers. Two public performances take place at 2 and 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27. $10 adults; free to children younger than 17. At the Atrium, 69930 Highway 111, No. 116, Rancho Mirage. 760-296-2966; www.cvrep.org.

Seminar—From Desert Theatreworks Set in present-day New York City, this comedy follows four young writers: Kate, Martin, Douglas and Izzy; and their professor, Leonard. Tensions arise and romance falls between students; at 7 p.m., Friday; and 2 and 7 p.m., Saturday, from Friday, Sept. 5, through Saturday, Sept. 13. $25 regular; $23 seniors; $15 students with ID. At the Arthur Newman Theatre in the Joslyn Center, 73750 Catalina Way, Palm Desert. 760-9801455; www.dtworks.org.

Shattered Ceilings—From Theatre 29 Theatre 29 hosts this touring play that spotlights an array of remarkable women who made significant contributions to our nation through courage, imagination and conviction, despite obstacles of inequality. The project is designed to change the fact that only 2 percent of persons named in high school history books are women. At 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26 and 27. $15. At 73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms. 760-3614151; theatre29.org.

Sundays in Summer Series Jack Betts takes a musical journey through his acting career in On My Way Here, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 3. Jaci Davis, accompanied by the Derrik Lewis Trio, sings songs from Minnelli, Fitzgerald and Streisand at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 10. Ron Cohn celebrates his birthday with Live and Let Live at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 17. Juliana Hansen sings hits from Broadway, Disney and more at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 24. Husband and wife Broadway performers, Rachel Tyler and Matthew Tyler will bring their cabaret concert For Better, Or Worse, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 31. Each show is $11; cash only at the box office. At the Arthur Newman Theatre in the Joslyn Center, 73750 Catalina Way, Palm Desert. 760-325-2731.

The Who’s Tommy—From Palm Canyon Theatre In this famous rock musical, Tommy is traumatized into catatonia after he witness his father commit murder. As an adolescent, he discovers a natal knack for pinball, and becomes an international pinball superstar; at 7 p.m., Thursday; 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m., Sunday, from Friday, Sept. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 12. $36. At 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-323-5123; www.palmcanyontheatre.org.

True West—From Palm Canyon Theatre Austin, is a college-educated Hollywood screenwriter working on a screenplay while house-sitting for his mother. Enter his older brother, Lee, a drifter and a thief who has been living in the desert; at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, and Saturday, Sept. 20; and 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 21. $27 to 35. At 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-323-5123; www.palmcanyontheatre.org.

CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014

MOVIES

NOW SHOWING AT HOME

This Month Includes a Reason for ‘Twin Peaks’ Fans to Rejoice—and One of the Year’s Most Overrated Films

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MOVIES

By Bob Grimm Locke Lionsgate, Blu-Ray released Aug. 12 Here is one the year’s most overrated movies.

Critics have been loving Locke, starring Tom Hardy (aka Bane), but I thought it was a real snore.

Nearly the entire film is set inside a car as Ivan Locke, a cement foreman, is driving to see his sort-of mistress. A one-night stand has resulted in a pregnancy, and the woman is giving birth under emergency circumstances.

Ivan is also a family man with a wife and kid, and he is supposed to be home watching a soccer match. So, he calls them; they call him; the pregnant woman calls Ivan; Ivan’s boss calls while pissed ... you get the idea.

Hardy does as much as he can with the scenario given to him by writer-director Steven Knight (who also wrote Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things). For me, the film offers little in the way of surprise or excitement. It’s just Hardy weaseling his way through a series of phone conversations.

It’s stunt filmmaking, but on a sleepy level.

Hardy and his voice-actor counterparts do well enough, but the film never really goes anywhere—other than on a long, boring drive.

Special Features: You get an audio commentary from Knight and a short making-of doc.

Muppets Most Wanted Disney, Blu-Ray released Aug. 12 The 2011 return of the Muppets, while not the greatest of movies, did boast an enthusiastic Jason Segel and Amy Adams.

The music was fun, and most of the movie felt original, with a sense of purpose.

The Muppets Most Wanted, however, is a dud.

CVIndependent.com

As with 22 Jump Street, this is a sequel in which the big joke is how useless and unoriginal a sequel can be. Director James Bobin, who also directed the 2011 film, contributes to the script that uses the evildoppelganger gimmick for few laughs.

The movie picks up directly after The Muppets (it even has Segel and Adams standins viewed from the back; neither returned for this movie). An evil Russian frog, who looks exactly like Kermit (except for a mole), steals Kermit’s identity, while Kermit is carted off to a Russian prison.

The whole thing feels like Bobin and his co-writers were out of ideas, and the cast of human guest stars is a bit underwhelming.

Ty Burrell gets the most laughs as a detective investigating some robberies, while Ricky Gervais’ attempts at humor largely fall flat.

Tina Fey gives it her best as a Russian guard in love with Kermit, but even she seems a bit lost.

The music is flat, and the jokes are stale.

There have been no announcements about another sequel (this one underwhelmed at the domestic box office), so the Muppets have definitely stalled.

Apart from a pretty great joke involving Danny Trejo, there’s really no reason to see this.

Special Features: This “Unnecessarily Extended Edition” package includes three versions of the movie (extended, theatrical and the Statler and Waldorf cuts). The extended version has 12 more minutes that you won’t care about. There’s a blooper reel, a music video and a few other features.

Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery Paramount, Blu-Ray released July 29 At long last, the entire Twin Peaks series is out on Blu-ray—along with the inferior but still interesting prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The complete series—with both the American and European pilots—and the film come in a nifty collector’s box with a ton

of special features. Director/creator David Lynch oversaw many aspects of the Bluray’s production, and the transfer is visually stunning.

The show itself—a mystery about a murdered young girl named Laura Palmer, and the supernatural forces that took her— remains one of the most innovative and scary TV productions ever. Something like Twin Peaks would never make it to ABC, NBC or CBS these days.

The show was actually very funny at times, anchored by the quirky performance of Kyle MacLachlan as special agent Dale Cooper.

The absurdist humor is mostly lost in the movie, which is a dark, unpleasant film that accentuates the dark side of Twin Peaks and characters like Leland Palmer (Ray Wise).

However, more than two decades after its release, I can now watch the prequel and like it; I see its value now. As for the TV show, this is one of the few series that I can watch over and over again, and never grow tired of the experience.

Special Features: There’s much to uncover here, including newly filmed interviews with actors in character, directed by David Lynch.

It’s an interesting retrospective approach that gives us the unnerving experience of seeing Leland Palmer reminisce.

There are plenty of archival and new features, too, but the big reason to get this set would be “The Missing Pieces,” 90 minutes of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. These scenes include characters from the TV show, most notably Sheriff Truman, who were left on the cutting-room floor. There’s one scene involving Jack Nance and a two-by-four that would’ve given the film a much-needed dose of absurdist humor. Indeed, the scenes show Lynch had a better movie in his back pocket.

One problem: My copy of the Blu-ray contains an audio-sync problem on the deleted scenes; the sound doesn’t match up with the mouths. I’ve done some research and found out that I am not alone—many copies have this glitch. The glitch can be improved by messing around with your player’s audio settings, but it’s an annoyance fans will have to endure.

THE VIDEO DEPOT

TOP 10 LIST for AUGUST 2014

Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) 2. Need for Speed (Disney) 3. Blended (Warner Bros.)

4. Divergent (Lionsgate) 5. A Haunted House 2 (Universal) 6. Oculus (20th Century Fox) 7. The Quiet Ones (Lionsgate) 8. Muppets Most Wanted (Disney) 9. God’s Not Dead (Pure) 10. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (20th Century Fox)

SEPTEMBER 2014

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 19

⓴ SNIFF THE CAP: ROSE AND BUSTER'S IN YUCCA VALLEY •• THE INDY ENDORSEMENT: APPETITO AND DRAGON SUSHI •• RESTAURANT NEWS BITES: CHANGE COMES TO TRIO,

THE PURPLE ROOM, CACTUSBERRY AND THE HARD ROCK PALM SPRINGS

www.cvindependent.com/FOOD-DRINK

La Quinta Brewing Co. and the Other Valley Breweries Continue to Expand Their Offerings

A BEER BOOM!

22

ERIN PETERS CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014

FOOD & DRINK

the SNIFF CAP

Wine, Lennon and Song at Rose and Buster’s in Yucca Valley

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

By Deidre Pike esert-dwellers crave wine.

Rose Baker and her husband, Buster, suspected as much when they envisioned a wine bar in Yucca Valley.

The venue is no slick wine-country rip-off.

Rose and Buster’s Wine Tasting Room sports an eclectic vibe the couple calls “cowboy feng shui”—with Buddhas, cactus, dream catchers, Ganesha banners, mandalas, the headdresses of Southwestern tribes, craft beers, guitars and, of course, Northern California wines. Wines like Peterson Winery’s Mendo Blendo from Redwood Valley, Hop Kiln pinot noir from Healdsburg, and Rose and Buster’s own private-label wines, from cab to chardonnay, bottled at Vista Verde Winery north of Paso Robles.

The couple carries Tulip Hill’s sauvignon blanc, a summertime hit obtained from the winery’s Rancho Mirage tasting room. They’ve exhausted their supply, though, and can’t get more, so they eagerly await the next batch.

“I’m bummed out about that,” Buster says. “I hope they’re making more. I have enough reds to choke a horse.”

Travelers can’t miss the new “Wine Tasting” sign along the Twentynine Palms Highway through Yucca Valley. Before the Bakers came along, a Yucca Valley wine aficionado’s choices were limited to mass-produced grocery store wine—with its sixbottle discount and bland selection—or a drive to the nearest wine bars in Palm Springs. Tulip Hill Winery’s tasting room in Rancho Mirage is a 45-minute drive, and Temecula wineries are twice that.

The Bakers wanted to bring a big gulp of Northern California to Yucca Valley. Buster lived in Santa Rosa 18 years ago, when he moved west from Ohio. His friends worked for wineries and turned him on to old vine zinfandels. Love at first sip.

“On my days off, heck, I’d just get in the car, drive out to Kenwood and make about five stops before it was time to turn back,” Buster says, reminiscing. “The next weekend, I’d head to the Dry Creek area. In those days, that’s when Sonoma was famous for free wine-tasting. And only Napa charged.

“Now everybody’s charging.”

Sigh. Everybody’s charging.

It’s 91 degrees on a sunny Friday afternoon. Buster’s alone in the tasting room, but traffic is light. Hot afternoons, he says, make sangria a popular choice. Buster mixes his from Sangria Igardi, one of the only reds on offer not obtained from California. (The other is an Italian chianti.)

Buster adds fruit—and a splash of orange muscat. Chillicious.

“Believe me, on a hot day, people come in, and they like it a lot,” Buster says.

The bar offers a flexible flight of any four wines for $15— chosen from around 30 wines available. The fee includes a souvenir glass with the Rose and Buster’s logo. “And we give pretty nice pours, especially if my wife is pouring! She gets talking to people and gives away the store.”

Rose is from Guatemala. Buster describes her as a minimalist.

All the assorted bric-à-brac on the walls? That’s his.

“She is the yin to my yang,” Buster says.

The couple enjoys meeting folks from around the world who come in for wine. A trio from South Africa came through not long ago. They’d read about Rose and Buster’s on Trip Advisor.

Buster didn’t even know a review of Rose and Buster’s existed CVIndependent.com

on Trip Advisor. He’s busy juggling a lively Facebook page (www. facebook.com/roseandbusters), Yelp reviews and live streaming of music events at UStream.

Social media makes me thirsty.

What wine would Buster want if he were stranded on a deserted island—and could only have, you know, one last bottle? He names Manzanita Creek Winery’s Cloud Buster zinfandel from the Russian River Valley. It’s near Healdsburg.

Mmm. Old vine zin paradise.

What year?

He looks at the bottle he’s holding.

“2009.”

How did Buster Baker’s life journey bring him to the desert?

A cable-advertising pro in Sonoma County, Buster jumped at a better job in Los Angeles. That’s where he met Rose, and “it was love at first sight,” he says. The two married in 2008, went camping at Joshua Tree National Park to get outta the city, and ended up buying a house in Desert Hot Springs.

While scoping out kitsch at local antique shops, the two met their eventual landlord, who owns a consignment shop in Yucca Valley. He had some space opening up.

Epiphany struck.

“Something this desert needs is wine, a wine bar,” Buster recalls thinking. “I’d been spoiled living up there in wine country.”

The wine bar opened around Thanksgiving 2013. During the slow summer months, it’s only open on weekends. For the first year, because of its liquor license, the venue closes at 9 p.m.

This means live music starts crazy early at Rose and Buster’s.

Buster doesn’t mind for now, since it means getting home at a reasonable hour. “I’m an old dude.”

If pressed, Buster describes his own appearance as similar to that of a famed 1970s recording artist.

“I’m reminiscent of Leon Russell, (with) the long straight hair, mustache and beard,” he says.

Buster worked in the music industry while living in Ohio.

He sang in a band; emcee’d at the Cleveland Agora, a renowned music venue; and worked as a stringer for Entertainment Tonight, producing segments on the Jamaican World Music Festival and the first-ever Rock in Rio event. He’s met musical legends from Kiss to the Talking Heads, and has the photos to prove it. For a gift, Rose ordered him a coffee mug that displays

Rose and Buster opened their wine bar after Buster had an epiphany while shopping at High Desert antique shops. “Something this desert needs is wine, a wine bar,” Buster recalls thinking. “I’d been spoiled living up there in wine country.”

a 1971 shot of John and Yoko from a meeting in London.

A guy walked into the bar recently and saw Buster drinking out of the mug.

“Is that … ?”

“Yeah, and do you know who that is with him?”

“Is that … you?”

Relating the story, Buster laughs. “I was a lot younger then.

My hair was a lot darker.”

Buster’s the kind of guy who can narrate life adventures all day long—aka, an engaging bartender.

“If someone wants to come in and talk about how I met John Lennon, come on in,” Buster says. “I’ll pour you a glass of wine, and I’ll tell you a story.”

ROSE AND BUSTER’S WINE TASTING ROOM IS LOCATED AT 55834 TWENTYNINE PALMS HIGHWAY, IN YUCCA VALLEY. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL (760) 9024442, OR VISIT WWW.ROSEANDBUSTERS.COM.

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21

SEPTEMBER 2014

the

FOOD & DRINK INDY ENDORSEMENT

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

We Approve of Two Items With a Distinctly Asian Flair

By Jimmy Boegle

WHAT The Blistered Shishito Peppers WHERE Appetito Cal-Italian Deli, 1700 S. Camino Real, No. 2, Palm Springs HOW MUCH $4.95 CONTACT 760-327-1929; appetitodeli.com WHY They’re an example of delicious simplicity—with a side of adventure.

Appetito opened earlier this year in the longvacant space in the Koffi building across from the Ace Hotel, and has since been delighting foodies with its “Cal-Italian” fare, including panini, pasta dishes, pizzas and other goodies.

However, one of Appetito’s best menu items has its roots in neither Italy nor California— instead, it comes from Japan.

Shishitos are a long, thin, green pepper variety. They’re sweet, but you have to be careful when eating them: Every so often, you’ll come across a shishito that’s rather hot.

So, hey: Consider eating shishitos to be an adventure!

Eating shishitos is also delight. These peppers are thin-skinned, which means they react wonderfully to heat: The skin chars, or blisters, leaving tasty goodness all around the pepper.

There’s not much to blistered shishitos— just the peppers, salt, a little oil and perhaps another flavoring agent here or there. (On our recent trip to Appetito, I kept getting hints of citrus; whether that was the pepper talking, or whether the talented folks in Appetito’s kitchen added a squeeze of juice during the cooking process, I am not sure. All I know is that it was yummy.)

Another great thing about the peppers: the price. For just $4.95, you get a whole bunch of them. They’re perfect to enjoy before the main course (say, a porchetta sandwich that’s packed with perfectly prepared roasted pork)—or on their own, perhaps paired with a negroni or something else from Appetito’s full bar.

Enjoy!

WHAT The Dragon Roll with the allyou-can-eat sushi at Dragon Sushi WHERE Dragon Sushi, 68369 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City; also at 82451 Highway 111, No. 103, Indio HOW MUCH $22.99 for lunch; $27.99 for dinner CONTACT 760-321-5935; www.facebook.com/ pages/Dragon-sushi/194086770616660 WHY A variety of flavors and textures for one fair price.

Nevada may just be the all-you-can-eat (AYCE) capital of the world.

Several recent newspaper articles have confirmed that the cities of Reno and Las Vegas are havens for AYCE sushi; in fact, one of those stories speculated that every sushi joint in Reno offers an AYCE option. These stories throw out a variety of speculative reasons for this, ranging from the need for sushi restaurants to compete with the ample number of all-you-can-eat buffets, to a desire for sushi by cash-strapped college students (and both Reno and Las Vegas are indeed college towns).

I bring this all up for one reason: I, your humble food scribe, grew up in Reno, which means my formative years were spent gobbling up nigiri and various rolls without concern for individual prices. Alas, when it comes to sushi, the Coachella Valley ain’t Reno: Many of the area’s finer sushi joints don’t offer an all-you-caneat option, meaning that my AYCE-conditioned brain is confused and paranoid about pricing whenever I eat at one of these places.

However, an increasing number of local sushi restaurants are starting to offer AYCE options—such as the relatively new Dragon Sushi in Cathedral City. (The original Dragon Sushi location in Indio does, too.) This somewhat peculiar restaurant—it shares an entrance and space with La Tablita, a Mexican joint—offers a nice variety of appetizers, nigiri and rolls under its AYCE option. During a recent lunch, we sampled a number of goodies, and they were uniformly tasty—but our favorite was the Dragon Roll (what else would it be at a place called Dragon Sushi?), which is basically a California Roll with freshwater eel, eel sauce and crunch thrown in.

It was a great lunch—and my brain was spared confusion and paranoia. Here’s to the continuing spread of the AYCE sushi paradigm!

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SEPTEMBER 2014

the

FOOD & DRINK What Are the Area’s Three Local Breweries Up To These Days?

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

By Erin Peters ack when Palm Springs was a frequent destination for the truly hip, Frank Sinatra would hoist his Jack Daniel’s flag on the pole in his luxurious Movie Colony neighborhood. It was like a smoke signal to Frank’s cohorts—it was cocktail hour.

Today, the Coachella Valley is once again becoming a frequent destination for the truly hip—but in a younger way. There’s new blood pumping into the area, and instead of a Jack Daniel’s flag, the craft-beer flag is flying high.

Aug. 30 marks the first anniversary of Coachella Valley Brewing Company, and what a year it’s been. Most recently, CVB signed an agreement for statewide Arizona distribution with Young’s Market Company.

Head brewer and chief operating officer Chris Anderson attributes the company’s fast success to “quality beer matched with a quality brand—but most importantly, the hardworking team at the brewery.”

CVB has secured more than 100 tap handles in the Coachella Valley, and earlier this year was featured at the renowned Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (better known around the world simply as Coachella).

I asked David Humphrey, the company’s CEO, if he expected this rapid success.

“Hell no,” he declared. “Honestly, you’ve got to understand, I had no preconceived notions of how this was going to go.

“We made a lot of calculated, risky decisions—underline ‘calculated,’ I suppose—

ERIN PETERS CVIndependent.com

and just hoped that it worked, and so far, it’s totally blown away our expectations, and even other people’s expectations.”

One of those recent “risky” and “calculated” decisions is to start a sour program. Sours are a great option for hot-weather drinking, and they have a wine-like quality that may attract an even wider audience of drinkers.

Anderson has been preparing a wild yeast and bacteria blend that is almost 15 years in the making. Now that is calculated. It’s a blend of Roeselare, the Rodenbach strain, Cantillon, and Russian River sour yeast blends. It also includes Pediococcus Lambicus, three strains of Brettanomyces, and a lactic strain Anderson isolated back in Alaska while working at Midnight Sun. Framboys is a framboise made with raspberries and locally grown boysenberries; it will be released in November. Flame Rouges will be available in January; it will be brewed with red-flame raisins, re-fermented in cabernet barrels. Epineux Poire is a prickly pear sour, aged in port barrels, and will be ready around April 2015. All of these offerings will only be made available to CVB’s Fault Line Society.

On the non-sour side, CVB recently released its Whopper, a 10.4 percent alcohol by volume imperial chocolate milk stout that was aged in Old Fitzgerald bourbon barrels for six months, and brewed with 98 percent cocoa Callebaut chocolate, as well as Ecuadorian cocoa nibs. Dark Candi Syrup and Vermont maple syrup bring even more warmth for a sweetly decadent and Sinatraapproved beer.

The Harvester IPA was recently tapped.

Humphrey especially loved this batch.

“Harvester IPA turned out better than the

first time,” he said. “We use grapefruit that was picked a day or two beforehand, and the freshness is all about the Harvester. I think that’s the best IPA we’ve done.”

CVB is also busy getting ready for the Great American Beer Festival, held in Denver in October. Coachella Valley Brewing was specially selected to pour and was also picked to present a special “Farm to Glass” concept with a tasting for 200 people.

“It’s great to have good beer,” Humphrey said. “And it’s great to be able to do the ‘farm to glass’ local angle, but you know, you really worry: Are you going to be able to make it out of your own backyard?

“I think where we took our time is to really think about the brand. … I think that it comes down to great beer, but also having an iconic brand, that is something that’s going to be exportable.”

Just a bit east in Palm Desert, the folks at La Quinta Brewing Co. are busy with new releases, a new brewery club and expanded distribution—which is impressive, considering that the brewery is not yet a year old.

La Quinta Brewing just released a new imperial stout, coming in at 8.3 percent alcohol (80 IBU), that’s only available in the taproom. The brewery will also release a brown ale in mid-September, and the brewery’s popular Koffi Porter will be released any day now.

La Quinta Brewery is also starting to barrel-age for the first time, beginning with its porter. It’s aging in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels and will be available in the fall.

Of course, La Quinta’s popular usual suspects—the Sandstorm Double IPA, Poolside Blonde and Indian Canyon IPA— remain available. La Quinta’s also busy taking memberships for the Inner Circle club. The brewery only had eight slots left as of this writing, so hurry while there’s still availability.

La Quinta is in approximately 45 local retail stores, including Albertson’s, Total Wine, LQ Wine, Jensen’s and Bevmo.

Currently, the brewery is distributing within the Coachella Valley and Idyllwild, but should begin delivering beer outside of the valley within 60 days. La Quinta is currently in 115 bars and restaurants (with more than 160 tap handles), and in about 45 stores.

ERIN PETERS

More good things are coming: La Quinta installed two additional fermenting vessels in July, increasing the current production capacity to near 3,000 barrels per year. The brewery’s tap room will also be installing a new walk-in cooler behind the bar to increase the number of beers on offer.

Heading south to Rancho Mirage, the valley’s veteran brewery, Babe’s Bar-BQue and Brewhouse, has big plans for the remainder of the year.

Upcoming releases include Das Schwein (The Pig), a dunkelweizen available through late September. In the fall, keep a look out for Fall Amber Rye IPA, due in October. Babe’s annual Winter Nipster will hit taps around Thanksgiving, so make sure you drop in for this tasty colder-weather, seasonal brew.

Starting Sept. 4, Babe’s will host Thursday Night Football with Team 1010 Sports radio—and will tie in a segment called Beer Scene, discussing the growing Coachella Valley craft-beer culture.

The brewhouse is also attending the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Keep a look out for Babe’s and the other breweries at the Ace Hotel’s Craft Beer weekend on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 12 and 13. Join the local breweries and other popular craft brewers on Saturday afternoon for a pool party and barbecue with craft-beer tastings and live music. It’s ultra Palm Springs cool!

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SEPTEMBER 2014

FOOD & DRINK

Restaurant NEWS BITES

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/FOOD-DRINK

By Jimmy Boegle HARD ROCK REPLACES SESSIONS WITH SIMON KITCHEN + BAR Another celebrity chef is coming to the Coachella Valley.

Simon Kitchen + Bar, a restaurant under the direction of Kerry Simon, is slated to open in mid-September at the Hard Rock, located at 150 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. It’s replacing Sessions, which had occupied the Hard Rock’s restaurant space since the remodeling of the former Hotel Zozo.

“Palm Springs is hot right now,” Simon said in a news release. “I’m very excited to be a part of this laid-back, hipster getaway. The menu that I’ve developed for Simon Kitchen + Bar is a little edgy, a little fun and full of contemporary takes on the comfort foods we all love.”

As for that menu: It will include “an emphasis on sharing,” with “sandwiches, entrées and stone-oven flatbreads. Social plates include tempura green beans made with pepper jelly and cream cheese; bacon jam served with baked brie and toasted baguette; and ‘devil’s eggs’ complete with crispy pancetta and caviar.”

Sounds tasty to us. Simon should be a good fit for the Hard Rock; after all, Rolling Stone once called him the “Rock ’n’ Roll Chef.”

Watch www.hrhpalmsprings.com for updates and more information.

CACTUSBERRY GETTING A REMODEL AND A CONCEPT TWEAK Cactusberry, the popular frozen-yogurt shop in the Smoke Tree Village Shopping Center at 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, is going in a slightly new direction following a change in ownership.

Johnny Ramirez Jr. and Dale Sutherland are the new owners. After they got the keys, they closed the shop for remodeling. Ramirez tells the Independent they hope to reopen around Oct. 1.

“We are taking ‘Cactusberry Frozen Yogurt’ and expanding the brand, but keeping the same great tastes, as well as adding new items like gelato and frozen custard,” Ramirez said via email. “Our new name in honor of this expansion is ‘Cactusberry+ Frozen Treats.’ We hope to become the Coachella Valley’s go-to shop for frozen treats and drinks!”

Watch Cactusberry’s website (cactusberryplusps.com) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ CactusberryPlus) for updates and more information.

TRIO, PURPLE ROOM SHAKING THINGS UP JUST A BIT Trio and the Purple Room, the popular restaurants in Palm Springs owned by Tony Marchese and Mark Van Laanen, are both going through some minor yet welcome changes.

At TRIO, located at 707 N. Palm Canyon Drive, executive chef Van Laanen recently introduced weekly specials to complement the tried-and-true menu. Every week, TRIO is offering an all-day drink special and three new dinner dishes.

“We love pairing fresh ingredients with distinctive flavors, and we are thrilled to cook up these new specials,” Van Laanen said in a news release.

For example, the specials ending the week of Sept. 4 are seared Cajun ahi tuna and carrot cucumb er slaw with pickled ginger wasabi; a USDA New York strip steak with caramelized onions and sautéed wild mushrooms; and pan-roasted barramundi with mango pico de gallo and sweet saffron butter sauce. The drink special is the “TRIO Fizz,” featuring muddled orange, Absolut Mandarin, orange juice, lemon juice and soda.

Watch www.triopalmsprings.com for a list of specials throughout September.

Meanwhile, the Purple Room, inside Club Trinidad at 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, was slated to reopen after a month off on Thursday, Aug. 28. The slightly rebranded Purple Room Restaurant and Stage also has a new chef and a new menu; a “peek” was posted on the Purple Room Facebook page shortly before the Independent’s press deadline. The new menu includes a wide variety of modern cuisine, ranging from a Brussels sprout salad as a starter ($10) to filet Oscar ($36) and chicken paillards ($23) as main courses.

Head over to www.facebook.com/purpleroomrestaurantstage to get gobs more information on the Purple Room, including a list of upcoming shows.

IN BRIEF After a seemingly endless construction period, Pho Vu is finally open at 285 S. Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs. … The transformation is complete: The former Chop House Palm Desert has been converted into the Kaiser Grille Palm Desert. The moderately priced restaurant at 74040 Highway 111 is now open. … Tell your beer-loving friends in Arizona that offerings from Coachella Valley Brewing Company will soon be available there, thanks to a distribution deal with Young’s Market Company. … The Hacienda Cantina and Beach Club, which opened in June with the first 2014 Splash House, closed with the second 2014 Splash House in August.

However, management says the closure is only temporary, and that the Hacienda will reopen on Friday, Sept.

26. … The Bootlegger Tiki bar is slated to soon debut at 140 W. Via Lola, Suite 1101, in the back of the building occupied by Ernest Coffee. … Stuft Pizza Bar and Grill, which has been a La Quinta staple for almost a decade, recently opened a second location in the Westfield Palm Desert at 72840 Highway 111. Get more info at www. stuftpizzabarandgrill.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2014

•• Matisyahu Embarks on a New Journey •• Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker Prepare Their Campout •• How The Yip Yops Spent Their Summer Vacation •• The Hood Brings More Music to the East Valley •• Burning Bettie Expands Its Lineup, Its Horizons www.cvindependent.com/music

WAXY Heads for Australia and Europe to Spread the Desert-Rock Gospel

THE NEXT BIG THING?

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MUSIC

AFTER THE BEARD

Matisyahu Embarks on a New Journey After Leaving Behind Hasidic Judaism

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye n 2004, Matisyahu began to capture the curiosity of the music press and American audiences, thanks to his talent and his sheer uniqueness: He was a Hasidic reggae singer.

In the decade since, much has changed. He’ll be performing at Bhakti Fest in Joshua Tree on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Matisyahu was born Matthew Miller in 1979 and grew up in West Chester, Pa. He attended Hebrew school, and after taking part in a program during high school in Israel that offered young people the chance to experience their Jewish heritage, he dropped out of school.

“When I was 17 years old, I left home and hitchhiked around the country, mainly to follow the band Phish,” Matisyahu said during a recent phone interview.

“I went to a Phish concert when I was 16 and really fell in love with their music.

When I was 17, I worked at a summer camp, washing dishes in New Hampshire, and I was struggling; I was fighting with my parents and wasn’t interested in school. I knew I loved music, but I didn’t really have an outlet for it.

I wanted to have that experience I had after I went to that first Phish concert every day, so I just decided I would leave home with a bag of quarters in my pocket and a drum. I decided to experience life on my own terms.”

During his travels, he developed a drug addiction. After going through a rehabilitation program, he began to focus on music and Jewish studies, eventually blending the two together. At the age of 19, he joined the Lubavitch movement and began living the Hasidic lifestyle in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y., taking the Hebrew name Matisyahu.

In 2004, he released his first album, Shake Off the Dust … Arise, and began to tour the country, appearing onstage in Hasidic clothing—and he was not afraid to engage in stage-diving and crowd surfing. He became an instant hit and released a recording of a nowlegendary live performance, Live at Stubb’s, in 2005. He attracted a universal audience.

“I was hoping for that,” Matisyahu said. “I wasn’t raised that way. I was raised listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna, and I saw what big pop stars looked like, and that’s what I wanted—to be a big pop star. I was thankful that I was reaching audiences. I never expected only a small group of Orthodox Jews to listen to my music.”

Matisyahu released a successful follow-up album, Youth, in 2006, and remained a big draw on tour. However, the restrictive Hasidic rules made life on the road lonely for him. He couldn’t perform on the Sabbath; he was told he couldn’t crowd-surf because he’d be touched CVIndependent.com

by female audience members; and he couldn’t interact with female fans.

“The two years I spent before touring, I was living in yeshiva, studying Torah 14 hours a day,” Matisyahu said. “When I got a van and started going on tour, I was happy to be back out in the world. Those rules weren’t a question for me at the time, because I was dedicated to it 100 percent. It wasn’t fun, though. I wasn’t able to interact with the world around me. Even though I was on tour, I wasn’t able to go out to restaurants, so I would go to a family’s house to eat. I would spend the Sabbath at a rabbi’s house, and that rabbi might live in a small two-bedroom house with eight kids, and I’d be sleeping in the bedroom with his kids and having a limo pick me up and take me to a concert where there were 10,000 kids screaming, and it was sold out. It was a weird combination of things that never happened before.”

Fortunately for Matisyahu, he eventually found his escape.

“I started going for runs,” Matisyahu said.

“My memories of all these places are not the concerts I performed, but the runs that I would take. As I started running, that’s when I started having more experiences of the places I was going to.”

In 2007, a mentor nudged him to open up more. He eventually left Hasidic Judaism.

“I started reading psychology books by R.D. Laing, and I found a teacher that was of the Hasidic background and a brilliant guy, but a unique and creative thinker. I spent a lot of time with him studying. That sort of became my hobby and interest, and I started meditating and taking these long, slow, meditative walks. Around 2011 or 2012, I shaved my beard and began to erode the walls

Matisyahu: “Even though I was on tour … I would spend the Sabbath at a rabbi’s house, and that rabbi might live in a small two-bedroom house with eight kids, and I’d be sleeping in the bedroom with his kids and having a limo pick me up and take me to a concert where there were 10,000 kids screaming.”

and dogma.”

Gone is the Hasidic reggae singer; today, Matisyahu’s message is much more universal.

Of course, not everyone likes this newer, moreopen performer: After Matisyahu shaved his beard and began wearing regular clothing, he was immediately criticized by some Jewish fans.

He said his recently released album, Akeda, chronicles portions of the journey he’s been on since he left Hasidic Judaism.

“This is the first record where I’m not promoting any type of ideology. It’s really about my own experiences,” Matisyahu said.

“I’ve gone through a lot with changes I went

through, and the backlash I took from a lot of fans. I went through a divorce; I’ve had drugaddiction issues; and I’ve had a lot go on over the past few years as my life unraveled, and I put a lot of that into the music for (Akeda).”

MATISYAHU WILL PERFORM AS PART OF BHAKTI FEST AT 8:30 P.M., THURSDAY, SEPT. 4. THE FESTIVAL, WHICH RUNS THROUGH SUNDAY, SEPT. 7, TAKES PLACE AT THE JOSHUA TREE RETREAT CENTER, 59700 TWENTYNINE PALMS HIGHWAY, IN JOSHUA TREE. ADMISSION PRICES VARY, BUT LOCALS CAN PURCHASE A ONE-DAY PASS FOR $75; THERE ARE DISCOUNTS FOR CHILDREN, VETERANS AND OTHERS. VISIT BHAKTIFEST. COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

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MUSIC

GOTTA FIGHT FOR

YOUR RIGHTS

David Lowery, Prepping for the Annual Campout With Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, Battles for the Musician’s Fair Share

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye avid Lowery, the frontman of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, doesn’t think some musicians fully understand their rights.

“A lot of the younger artists don’t realize that the pay was considerably higher about 15 years ago,” he said. “It’s kind of like a onetwo punch. First, you’re affected by online piracy, where that knocked off about a third of our income, and then the thing that’s happened lately—and none of us saw coming—is that our share from online streaming services is so low.”

Lowery is bringing Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker to the bands’ 10th annual Campout at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, from Thursday, Sept. 11, through Saturday, Sept. 13.

During a recent phone interview with the Independent, the former Redlands resident said that while he loves streaming music, there is a big downside to it.

“I have Beats Music on my phone; my kids have it on their phones, and we listen to it and find it convenient,” Lowery said. “But between the services and the record labels, the artist is getting a really small premium from that revenue that comes from streaming. With Spotify being valued at $6 billion now, and Beats Music being sold to Apple—and that’s $3 billion there—it doesn’t seem right to us. It’s not that we’re against streaming; it’s the share

of revenue.”

He said that most people don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes regarding streaming music.

“It’s really hard to explain it to the general public. Basically, when the labels cut their deals with the streaming services, it looks like they trade in equity, given they own a part of Spotify,” he said. “Universal Records owns part of Beats Music, and Apple gave them a big payout. So, essentially, the labels traded our songs for … ownership in the services.”

Lowery conceded that the struggle between musicians and record labels is not new.

“There are these stories that go back to the ’50s about the blues band going to the record label and saying, ‘Hey, where’s my money?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we got you this Cadillac.’ The Cadillac was worth less than the royalties. By the way, this story about the Cadillac: It’s true, because my mother-in-law worked for Sun Records, and my father in law was a car-dealer, and that’s exactly how they met each other.

That really did happen!” he said with a laugh.

However, Lowery said there was a progression toward protecting artists and their royalties.

“There was a period in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s where the artists kind of finally worked it out,” Lowery said. “Between our unions and our songwriter groups, that were kind of like unions for songwriters, we could work out some pretty equitable pay arrangements—and we’re sort of back to square one right now.

It’s not like it can’t be worked out, but it’s not going to get worked out without us bitching, moaning, screaming and holding these people’s feet to the fire. That’s how it’s going to get sorted out. It’s not pretty, but that’s the way it’s going to go.”

At stake, Lowery said, is the standard of living for a lot of musicians, some of whom

struggle to make ends meet even after a hit song or record.

“They’ve seen their revenues fall from maybe having a nice middle-class existence to, ‘Oh, shit, I can’t even support my family on this!’ So, it’s tough times. It’s going to take guys like me, East Bay Ray from Dead Kennedys, John McCrea from Cake, and some (other) older musicians with a sense of what’s fair in this industry to speak out and explain this to people.”

He said the modern economics of the music business have led to some musicians deciding not to record new material, because it’s no longer economically beneficial.

“There are a lot of artists doing that,” he said. “I’m essentially an optimist for the longterm. Eventually, I assume these streaming services are going to have to start paying more to give people the incentive to make albums again. It’s going to have to work itself out.”

Camper Van Beethoven has recorded two albums in recent years: La Costa Perdida, which Lowery said is Northern Californiathemed, and El Camino Real, which is Southern California-themed. Cracker also has a new album in the works.

As for this year’s Campout, Lowery conceded he’s had some booking challenges, but he promised it’s still going to be a lot of fun.

“We had a few people who were in, and then they were out, and then someone bigger might come in, and we’ve delayed announcing a lot of details,” he said. Chris Shiflett from the Foo Fighters was going to come and do his country thing again, but he had to drop out. But we do have Brant Bjork from the Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age family. We have The Dangers from Riverside; we’ve got the various Camper side projects … and there will be local people like Jesika Von Rabbit, who’s going to do some stuff again. It’ll be great and just as good as last year.”

THE 10TH ANNUAL CAMPOUT WITH CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN AND CAMPER TAKES PLACE THURSDAY, SEPT. 11, THROUGH SATURDAY, SEPT. 13, AT PAPPY AND HARRIET’S PIONEERTOWN PALACE, 53688 PIONEERTOWN ROAD, IN PIONEERTOWN. TICKETS ARE $75 FOR A THREE-DAY PASS, OR $25 FOR ONE DAY. FOR TICKETS OR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CRACKERSOUL.COM.

Camper Van Beethoven CVIndependent.com

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MUSIC

PRACTICE, PRACTICE,

PRACTICE

How Young Tachevah Stars the Yip Yops Spent Their Summer Vacation

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye he Yip Yops won a coveted slot at the Coachella-related Tachevah block party back in April.

And then, the three teens seemingly disappeared, save a few shows here and there. Turns out they’ve had quite a summer vacation.

The band recently invited me to frontman Addison Van Winkle’s home in Palm Desert. The band practices in the pool house behind the Van Winkle family home—and these are the nicest digs I’ve seen any local band have for a practice space.

There’s air conditioning. There’s nice carpet, couches and top-of-theline equipment, featuring brand names like Fender and Gibson.

The band played two new songs for me; Van Winkle’s ever-present father, Tony, played the keyboards on one of them. Van Winkle’s vocals are somewhat similar to those of late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, and the band’s sound hints at ’80s alternative—but with an experimental touch that is not typically heard in music today. Van Winkle, 15, looks as if he’s in another world as he sways along, playing his guitar and singing.

Ross Murakami, 18, the group’s drummer, is a hard-hitter with impressive skills, and bassist Jacob Gutierrez, 15, gives offbeat songs even more of a personality.

Van Winkle said Murakami gave him the primary motivation to start the band.

“On a random day, we got asked by a family friend to come over, because their band was playing,” Van Winkle said. “It just happened to be Ross’ old band. I went over there, and I was the shy guy, kind of like a turtle, sitting there and not saying anything. When we were sitting there, my dad looked over at me and said, ‘It’s incredible how hard that drummer hits!’ You couldn’t take your eyes off of it.”

Van Winkle, a La Quinta High School student (along with Gutierrez), started the Yip Yops about year later.

“It was a week after I broke up with my old band,” Murakami said of the Yip Yops’ start. “It was weird timing.”

He soon became a Yip Yop. The band won a slot on the Tachevah stage—and the experience inspired them, they said. Gutierrez said he and Murakami zoned out and found a place where they played better.

“When you see everybody responding to what you’re doing, it makes you so much more inspired to play,” Gutierrez said. “… It was so crazy how fast the set went by.”

After Tachevah, the band members at first wanted to play more shows right away, but they instead decided to spend their summer vacation largely under the radar. They’ve practiced for at least several hours almost every day, and Van Winkle has written about 10 new songs, they said.

Where does the dedication come from?

Murakami and Gutierrez both pointed to Van Winkle.

“A lot of the latest songs, I’ve been programming on my computer,” Van Winkle said. “I’m in here constantly, until 3 in the morning sometimes.”

Murakami attested to that fact. “I bet most of the time, when Jacob and I aren’t here, Addison is here working on a new song.”

Do they ever wish they could be doing something else—like taking time off and enjoying their summer vacation?

“Sometimes, it gets a little boring,” Gutierrez said. “… It’s funny that my mom told me the other day, ‘This summer has been really entertaining.’ I’ve been at this house a lot. Throughout the week, when she’s at work, I’m at band practice. When she’s off work, she picks me up. When she goes to work, I go to work.”

Murakami, who has already graduated from high school, also works a part-time job at Hot Dog on a Stick in the Westfield Palm Desert.

“I just got promoted to ‘assistant hotdogger,’” Murakami said with a laugh. “I’m getting a lot more hours, and even with those long hours, I’m still here more than I am at work. I don’t have school in the picture, so the time I don’t spend here is pretty much at work.

This is my home away from home, I guess.”

The Yip Yops have been working on

new material, but they aren’t interested in recording an album to sell independently.

Instead, the band members said—without going into specifics—they’ve been sharing material with record companies, some of whom have expressed interest.

When it comes to the dream of being career musicians, the Yip Yops have ample support from Addison’s father, Tony Van Winkle.

“When it started out, I looked at it as Addison’s hobby,” Tony Van Winkle said. “As this trio came together, and seeing the talent they have, seeing the way they work together, and the commitment that they have, it didn’t

take long to realize that it was more than that.

They had a very strategic conversation about where they were going and (their goal of) getting onto the final bill for Tachevah. They set a goal for themselves—and they went out there and did it.

“I’m a bit surprised that they are as committed as they are, but I realize with Addison that he has to do this. It’s something that’s in him. He wants to get it out, and he wants to do this for a living.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE YIP YOPS, VISIT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THEYIPYOPS.

The Yip Yops are hoping to land a record deal, they say.

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MUSIC

DESERT ROCK

CHRONICLES

Robbie Waldman’s WAXY May Just Be the Next Big Thing to Come Out of the Desert

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Robin Linn obbie Waldman’s WAXY may be the next great American rock band to come out of our California desert.

Waldman has a lengthy local history, but he has used this project to truly hone his skills as a writer and performer. In its earliest incarnation, the ever-evolving band had a different feel and vibe: A group with a softer underbelly fueled by acoustic instruments has evolved into a full-blown desert stoner-rock band with a heavy rhythmic infrastructure, poetic lyrics and gorgeous hard-rock vocals offered up by Waldman.

With a collection of memorable, melodic, heavy psych-rock songs under their belts, the members of WAXY have worked their way to the top of the Coachella Valley’s original rock-music scene—which is no easy accomplishment. In fact, the band is about to embark on tours to Australia and then Europe.

The band’s most recent record, Without Any Explanation Why, is a true stoner-rock classic that features guest performances by some of the most pivotal artists to come out of this music mecca we call home: John Garcia (Kyuss, Vista Chino), Mario Lalli (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson), Gary Arce (Sort of Quartet, Yawning Man), Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal), Brandon Henderson (Pedestrians vs.

War Party, Parosella), Ed Mundell (Monster Magnet, Ultra Electric Mega Galactic) and Alfredo Hernandez (Kyuss, Queens of the

WAXY. SAMANTHA SCHWENCK CVIndependent.com

Stone Age, Brave Black Sea) all contribute their unique sounds to the recording.

Meanwhile, Robbie has been back in his studio (Unit A Recording and Art in Palm Springs; www.unit-a.com) banging out the next record, anticipated to be released in November.

“I’m of the philosophy that a recorded version of a song should be a complete vision for that song, and if you’re making an album, one piece of a larger puzzle,” Waldman said about the recording process. “I think it’s OK to double the vocals, even though that can’t really be done live. I think it’s OK to layer instruments and have small, intricate parts

SAMANTHA SCHWENCK

that would require 10 people to pull off live.

“In other words, my mindset when it comes to making records is: This is a timeless piece of art. … Splash all the color and shapes you can at the canvas, and see what you get.

Sometimes, you get magic; sometimes, you get mush, but the process is what’s key—trying to get what’s in your head out on the tape.”

I heard five new tunes from the upcoming record at a live show at Furst Wurld Theatre in Joshua Tree recently, and I was blown away. The show also included the premiere of WAXY’s new video for “Over Before It Began,” a first-rate production by Bon Nielsen and Blanton Ross. Robbie said more videos, to support the upcoming record, are coming in the near future.

Waldman has used a revolving cast of musicians to help him live out his musical fantasies within the framework of WAXY, including drummers Sean Landerra Carrillo (Lakota) and Mike “Pygmie” Johnson (Mondo Generator, You Know Who, John Garcia); bassist/guitarist Damian Lautiero (a huge part of the live WAXY sound); and keyboardist Jack Kohler (War Drum).

In September, WAXY will take off for Australia as a supporting act on the John Garcia solo tour. John’s latest self titled debut solo album (available on Napalm Records) is getting rave reviews from the press and fans alike.

While Waldman sees the recording process as making art, he views live shows differently.

“Playing shows is about the moment— different song orders, new songs mixed with old ones, etc.,” Waldman said. “Playing live also has the unique ability to move air: The sound actually hits you! There’s nothing like it when the kick drum is thumping you right in the chest. It’s like the difference between seeing a movie versus going to the theater and seeing actors onstage. One is a deliberate, enormous and repeatable act, while the other is different every time simply by its very nature. … When we play live, it’s always an adventure!”

Before John Garcia and WAXY leave for the land down under, desert fans will be treated to a live show by them at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert, at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 5. Also on the bill is space-rock jam-band Fever Dog. Admission is $15, and this show WILL sell out. It has been a good long while since Garcia fans have been able to see a live set here at home, and will be out in droves to hear his long-awaited desert performance—and many others will show up to say a temporary goodbye to what could be the desert’s next great band.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE WAXY, VISIT WWW. FACEBOOK.COM/WAXYOFFICIAL AND WWW.WAXY-MUSIC.COM. READ MORE FROM ROBIN LINN AT RMINJTREE.BLOGSPOT.COM.

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Deals available in the Independent Market as of September 1:

Shop at CVIndependent.com.

Look for more deals to be added during the month!

Want your business in the Independent Market? Call 760-904-4208, or email jimmy@cvindependent.com.

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MUSIC

GO EAST!

All Night Shoes and The Hood Want to Bring a Wider Variety of Music to the East Valley

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye he Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert has become known in recent years for both its incredible bookings of big-name punk-rock bands and its support of local music.

Now, the venue may become known for another thing: a fantastic electronic dance music night.

On Saturday, Sept. 20, The Hood will be hosting Fresh Sessions Live, hosted

by Independent contributor All Night Shoes (Alex Harrington), with special guests Synthetix and Coffee Blvckk. (The Independent is also a sponsor of the event.)

During a recent interview, Harrington and Jack Kohler, the booking agent for The Hood, said the idea for the EDM night developed in part due to a successful birthday bash for Synthetix back in July. They realized that creating a regular dance-music night might be a good idea, especially since the eastern Coachella Valley doesn’t have a lot of music venues.

“It was my idea, but Jack encouraged it,” Harrington said. “The main idea behind it is it’s all about a form of collaboration. It’s not just one person or one thing, and it’s not just The Hood throwing a show. It’s artists coming

Coffee Blvckk. DRE NAYLOR/WWW.DRENAYLORPHOTOGRAPHY.COM CVIndependent.com

together and doing something at The Hood.”

Kohler said he was happy to work with Harrington to put something together.

“I’ve noticed what he’s been doing locally, and I think it’s a neat thing,” Kohler said.

“There are people out here who are cutthroat about working together. I think it’s rad that someone is starting a collective group of people. Another thing that’s difficult with this style of music is pairing people. I have a couple of favorite local DJs, with Alex being one of them. Coffee Blvckk is kind of an up-andcomer doing his thing. I had a night scheduled with him that we had to drop because of

another show that interrupted it, so it’s cool that he’s going to be a part of this.”

Kohler has joked in the past that The Hood is more known for bros “high-fiving each other and throwing up,” and he said that some of the venue’s patrons have left “Boycott DJs!” messages on The Hood’s Facebook page.

“People would get so upset that we even had DJs,” Kohler said. “People have a kind of negative definition for a disc jockey and someone who uses new technology, so there’s a lot of purism with certain people. The funny thing is: In this town, you can’t just use this venue for straight rock ’n’ roll; it’s impossible to do that without repeating certain acts.

Adding DJs to our schedule gives people a new flavor.”

Harrington agreed.

“That’s what I like about The Hood: The Hood just isn’t an average venue,” Harrington said. “They’re always trying to bring in the freshest and highest quality of musicians— and the people here don’t realize it. That’s what I’m trying to do with this event: bring my knowledge and view on (music) to a place like The Hood, and keep that edge, keep that freshness—but also keep an underground vibe.

“People who go out to dance at places like the Hard Rock Hotel don’t necessarily want to go there all the time and be around that; sometimes, it’s just bit much. Sometimes, it’s nice to go somewhere where there’s not a pretentious fiasco going on. You want to let yourself go, but still have that experience with a DJ, and I think that’s something that people are looking for.”

Both Harrington and Kohler said they hope to make the EDM night a regular event.

“I’ve reached out to multiple artists in the area, and I’ve gotten positive feedback and people wanting to do it,” Harrington said.

“If this takes off, it could be used in a way to combine local artists and DJs with acts from Los Angeles and San Diego. We don’t really have a place out here that’s like a real dance club; everything is kind of commercialized, to an extent. So I’d like to use it as a hub for local artists and DJs, and broaden the horizons of the scene out here.”

The event will be free. The Hood is also known for being on the cheaper side regarding beer and cocktails, so Kohler sees the potential in creating something new that people can enjoy without breaking the bank.

Synthetix

“I don’t like doing covers for events here,” Kohler said. “I also don’t like the high prices at clubs. That’s why I don’t really do that scene personally. I don’t want to spend a ton on drinks, and I don’t want to pay to see something I believe I can universally see somewhere else. This is a neat opportunity for us. … It’s not douchey, and you don’t have to ‘fit in.’

“I don’t want this bar to be selective to just punk rock, because that’s what it was for so long, and people have gotten over that. I have a lot of national punk rock coming up over the next couple of months, but I don’t want to stick to just that.”

Harrington hopes to see the place as packed as it was for Synthetix’s birthday party back in July.

“It got pretty busy,” Harrington said.

“That event was thrown together (at the) last minute, so we’ll see what happens with this.”

FRESH SESSIONS LIVE, HOSTED BY INDEPENDENT CONTRIBUTOR ALL NIGHT SHOES (ALEX HARRINGTON) AND FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS SYNTHETIX AND COFFEE BLVCKK, TAKES PLACE AT 9 P.M., SATURDAY, SEPT. 20, AT THE HOOD BAR AND PIZZA, 74360 HIGHWAY 111, IN PALM DESERT. ADMISSION IS FREE; THIS IS AN EVENT FOR PEOPLE 21 AND OLDER. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 760-636-5220, OR VISIT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THEHOODBAR.

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The Blueskye REPORT

MUSIC

DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

SEPTEMBER 2014

By Brian Blueskye

Burning Bettie Is Expanding Both the Band’s Lineup and Horizons

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye he members of Burning Bettie have distinctly individual personalities and different musical backgrounds—and all of those differences have served the band well, as it’s become one of the Coachella Valley’s most popular bands.

On the heels of the group’s annual August “Burning Bday Bash,” the band will be one of the performers at the NestEggg Food Bank benefit show at The Hood Bar and Pizza on Saturday, Sept. 13. (Full disclosure: I am the organizer of the show. I’m receiving no compensation; all of the proceeds will go to the Food Bank.)

During a recent interview, frontman Giorg Tierez, lead guitarist Frank Michel and drummer Josh Ballard remembered when they were trying to develop bands via Craigslist.

“Giorg had a posting that I originally responded to,” said Michel. “I saw his influences and all that, and saw that they matched up to mine. I thought, ‘All right, well, I think I can work with this.’ I had been searching for months, and I think he had been posting for a while as well. So I called him up; we talked and set up a practice—and we already had a couple of songs that day.”

Tierez had previously met Ballard, also through Craigslist.

“I had known Josh a year prior, because I had responded to one of his Craigslist ads,” Tierez said with a laugh. “He wanted to put together a comedy-rock band, like Tenacious D, Adam Sandler, and that kind of rock stuff.

I like that stuff, and no matter what anyone says, they’re awesome musicians. We got together one time, and it was kind of weird.

He brought this keyboard-player, and I had a guitar-player. It didn’t work out, and I didn’t talk to him for a year, basically.”

Tierez and Michel reached out to Ballard and soon picked up Shawn Fisher (bass). The rest, as they say, is history.

Burning Bettie recently went to Hollywood for the band’s first gig outside of the desert.

Each of the members, led by Tierez (rhythm guitar and vocals), can play multiple instruments. Tierez mentioned that Michel’s college education at Riverside Community College was based in music.

“Frank started off as a percussionist, which is amazing, because he plays guitar like a fucking maniac—but he’s really good at drumming, too,” Tierez said.

Michel explained how he became such a gifted multi-instrumentalist.

“I went to school and studied percussion,” Michel said. “My teachers always expected a career from me in percussion in classical music, Latin music and all that stuff. I think that stuck with me as far as me being a guitar-player now, which is about keeping time on my own.”

After getting to know each other, they agreed on mutual influences such as Led Zeppelin, Sublime, Foo Fighters and Muse.

When they each add in their own influences, the result is a unique sound, with hints of desert rock.

So … what happened to Ballard’s love of comedy rock?

“I keep some of that stuff in my own writing and in a side-project kind of thing,” Ballard said. “With Burning Bettie in the present day, I

don’t really do any comedy stuff and have kind of separated it. But it’s not that we don’t like to throw a few laughs together here and there.”

Tierez recently moved primarily to vocals when the band brought in James “Hollis” Eaton from Reno, Nev., to take over rhythmguitar duties. Eaton’s wife and daughter still live in Reno, Eaton said.

“Me and (Ballard) have been in a couple of different bands in the past, and we’ve been best friends for years,” Eaton said. “He shot me over a recording of music they were doing, and I thought, ‘Oh man, I love this music!’ I listened to it all the fucking time, and then they said they were looking for a guitar-player, and I said, ‘Let me try out!’ I came down; we started jamming together; and we started writing songs.”

Hollis said his family has been supportive.

“I miss Reno. My wife and my kid are up there, but they’ve come down, and I’ve gone up there a couple of times,” he said. “It’s a big commitment, but my wife and my kid have said, ‘Hey, go live your dream.’ … If there would have been some kind of bullshit going on in this band musically, she would have said, ‘No, you’re staying here!’ But she believes in the music, and she loves Burning Bettie.”

Not too long ago, Burning Bettie went to Hollywood and played a show at The Viper Room on the Sunset Strip. It was the band’s first appearance outside of the desert, and the members said it’s been their most memorable performance to date.

“You’re right across the street from the Whisky a Go Go,” Michel said. “It almost feels for the moment like you’ve made it—and then afterward, it was, ‘Eh, at least we got out of the desert heat,’” he said with a laugh.

Tierez said the Viper Room show paid instant dividends.

“I thought we did really well, and I got a lot of good feedback,” he said. “Immediately, the next day, we got hit up by Whisky a Go Go to do a show there. Obviously, we did something right. We aren’t metal, punk or hardcore rock like the other bands were, but a lot of people still liked it.”

BURNING BETTIE WILL PLAY IN THE SECOND NESTEGGG FOOD BANK BENEFIT SHOW AT 9 P.M., SATURDAY, SEPT. 13, AT THE HOOD BAR AND PIZZA, 74360 HIGHWAY 111, IN PALM DESERT. ADMISSION IS A SUGGESTED $5 DONATION. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 760-636-5220, OR VISIT WWW.FACEBOOK. COM/THEHOODBAR.

It’s time to celebrate the beginning of the end of summer with some great events!

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino has some big names scheduled for September. Funny man George Lopez will be stopping by at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6. The MexicanAmerican comedian’s impressive career has included his own talk show, several sitcoms and various other acting credits. Tickets are $39 to $99. If that’s not a big enough name for you, sit down, because Diana Ross will be returning to the Coachella Valley for a performance at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20.

The former Supremes singer is a Motown

Diana Ross: Fantasy Springs, Sept. 20

legend and R&B powerhouse. At 70 years old, she’s still going strong. Tickets are $49 to $109. Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 800-827-2946; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa has a couple of excellent events worth mentioning.

The first one: Janelle Monae is performing at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12. The psychedelic soul singer has performed at Coachella, won six Grammy awards, and supported many artists on various tours. Hers is not typical R&B music by any means. Tickets are $45 to

Peter Frampton: Agua Caliente, Sept. 19

$75. Peter Frampton will take the stage at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19. If you were a child of the ’70s, you definitely were enveloped in the music of Peter Frampton. It’s been said that everyone once owned his record Frampton Comes Alive, because it came with free samples of Tide in the mail. Tickets are $50 to $70. The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

Continued on Page 37 Morongo Casino Resort CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014 continued from Page 35

Engelbert Humperdinck: Morongo, Sept. 19

Spa has an event in September that you definitely shouldn’t miss: The legendary Engelbert Humperdinck will be appearing at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19. The British crooner’s career goes back to 1956, and he enjoys a large following of female fans of all different ages. Legend says that he has more notches on his bedpost than Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead and Gene Simmons of KISS. Tickets are $59 to $69. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-2524499; www.morongocasinoresort.com.

The Ace Hotel and Swim Club has some great things going on during September. On Friday, Sept. 12, and Saturday, Sept. 13, the Ace Hotel will host Beer Culture: Craft Beer Weekend. There will be more than 20 craft breweries on hand, including the local big three: Coachella Valley Brewing Company, La Quinta Brewing Co., and Babe’s. There will be live music from Tijuana Panthers, Beach Party, RT n the 44s, and Pearl Charles and the Pipes Canyon Band. Prices vary. Ace Hotel and Swim Club, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-325-9900; www.acehotel.com/ palmsprings.

Melinda Doolittle: Copa, Sept. 6

The Copa in Palm Springs is offering an impressive lineup in September. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6, the Copa will host American Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle.

Doolittle finished third during the show’s sixth season and almost always received praise from the judges. Tickets are $27.50 to $37.50. Drag legend Charles Busch will be stopping by at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, and Saturday, Sept. 20. Busch is also known as a playwright and a singer. Tickets are $35 to $65. Nita Whitaker, a vocalist who has shared the stage with Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand, will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27. Tickets are $25 to $40. The Copa Palm Springs, 244 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs; 760-866-0021; www.coparoomps.com.

Cibo Matto: Pappy and Harriet’s, Sept. 28

Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace has had an excellent summer and has an awesome schedule coming up for the fall.

In September, Pappy’s is hosting one event you don’t want to miss: The reunited Cibo Matto will be appearing at 8 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 28. The indie-rock band fronted by two Japanese women, Yuka Honda and Miho Matori, reunited in 2011 after almost a decade-long breakup. Yuka Honda worked with Damon Albarn as part of the animated band Gorillaz. Tickets are $15. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-3655956; www.pappyandharriets.com.

The Hood Bar and Pizza has a big fall and winter ahead, according to The Hood’s booking man, Jack Kohler. John Garcia of Kyuss will be having his album-release party at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 5. This is the celebration of his self-titled solo album, which has been getting good reviews.

Admission is $15. Now for some shameless self promotion (although it’s for a good cause): My second NestEggg Food Bank Benefit Show will happen at 9 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13. Scheduled performers include The Yip Yops, Burning Bettie, Sunday Funeral and The Hellions. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is suggested. The Voodoo Glow Skulls will be returning to The Hood at 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19. Also on the bill will be local band Machin’. Admission is $5.

At 9 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27, Arizona punk outfit Authority Zero will be dropping in.

Admission is $10. The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, Palm Desert; 760-6365220; www.facebook.com/thehoodbar.

John Garcia: The Hood, Sept. 5 CVIndependent.com

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MUSIC

the

LUCKY 13

WWW.CVINDEPENDENT.COM/MUSIC

By Brian Blueskye

NAME Guy Worden MORE INFO DJ Guy Worden is known for creating and mixing a unique style of dance music. Originally from San Diego, Worden started his DJ career in underground clubs and at parties; www.facebook.com/ guywordenmusic.

What was the first concert you attended?

In high school, I attended a bunch of concerts; the most memorable one, though, was Pink Floyd at the Rose Bowl. There was a gigantic pig that floated above the audience.

What was the first album you owned?

When I was 4, I asked my mom to buy me Queen’s The Game. I was obsessed with “Another One Bites the Dust.”

What bands are you listening to right now?

Claptone, Duck Sauce, Crazibiza, Groove Armada, Girl Talk, Black Keys, Cut Copy, Martin Solveig, DJ Dan, Fedde Le Grand, WhiteNoize, Dirtybird, Capital Cities, Florence and the Machine, Tiga, Federico Scavo, Dani Masi, Daft Punk and pretty much any old soul music.

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

Polka.

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

I’ve always wanted to see U2 play live.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been addicted to Motown and blues. More recently, I’ve been drawn to bluegrass; there’s just CVIndependent.com

something raw and unpolished about it that draws me in.

What’s your favorite music venue?

There was a place in downtown San Diego called the Red C Lounge. It was underground, pretty small, unassuming—and when it was packed, it would get hot as hades.

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

After reading this question, “I just can’t get you out of my head. Boy your loving is all I think about” by Kylie Minogue is now stuck. Thanks.

What band or artist changed your life?

How? My friend Dave, who used to go by DJ Davey Dub, taught me how to DJ and got me my first gig.

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

I would probably ask Ludwig van Beethoven: “Can you hear me now?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Dead Man’s Party” or “Another One Bites the Dust” would both be appropriate.

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

I had the Pixies’ Doolittle stuck in the CD player in my car for six months. I learned to love that album.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

Al Green “Here I Am,” because who doesn’t love that freakin’ song?

NAME Shawn Mafia MORE INFO Shawn Mafia is a well-known figure in the Joshua Tree music scene, and recently changed his band’s name to Gutter Candy. There’s a long-standing rumor that he’s a funeral director in Yucca Valley; www. shawnmafia.com.

What was the first concert you attended?

My parents took me to see the Beach Boys when I was a kid. The only thing I really remember … is people carrying around lawn chairs. Perhaps that is where my phobia of lawn chairs developed.

What was the first album you owned?

Jim Croce, Greatest Hits; the Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” 7-inch; and the Elton John

FRESH SESSIONS WITH ALL NIGHT SHOES: September 2014 This Month’s Victims: A Well-Known DJ and a Joshua Tree Music Mainstay

KEVIN FITZGERALD

“Crocodile Rock” 7-inch were the first actual records I owned. From there, it was all Weird Al Yankovic and skate rock.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Mighty Jack, Steel Panther, Gogol Bordello, Public Image Ltd., Suicidal Tendencies, Angry Samoans, DER, X, Rocket From the Crypt and Gojiro Island.

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

Turning on guitar amplifiers at live gigs. It takes a real man to play without sound!

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

The Clash, only because it can never happen.

RIP, Joe Strummer.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Lifting weights at the gym while listening to Bob Seger performing “Shakedown.” (Insert your favorite pre-workout supplement here.)

What’s your favorite music venue?

I performed at the Wherehouse in Palm Springs years ago. They set you up right in the middle of the store and let you go at it while unsuspecting CD buyers flipped through the racks.

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

“Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup” (from “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” Crowded House) What band or artist changed your life?

How? Tom Waits taught me that … you can tell stories—sordid tales that can be wild and exotic, violently beautiful and horrifically sweet.

This month, I have decided to make a mix featuring some of my favorite tracks at the moment.

While keeping my usual deep-house sound, I’ve developed a playlist that represents my favorite “vibes.” I love getting lost in a song—and the great thing about being a DJ is you get to do that over and over again, while sharing that feeling with those around you.

Come experience this feeling with me! The Independent is sponsoring—along with my new label, Fresh Session Records—FRESH Sessions Live at 9 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. This show will feature CoffeeBlvckk, Synthetix and myself! There’s no cover; 21 and older only, please. We’re hoping this is just the first in a series of events like this, so come out, and enjoy the night with us!

Follow me at Facebook.com/ansofficial for more shows in September—and enjoy the September FRESH Sessions mix at CVIndependent.com.

• 4AM, “High and Low” • Beyoncé, “Work It Out” (Color K. Remix) • One Bit, “Limitless” (Hostage Remix) • Quinten 909 and Donagrandi, “Dress 2 Impress” • Figgy, “The Truth” • Billion, “Special” featuring Maxine Ashley • Zeds Dead, “Lost You” (featuring Twin Shadow and D’Angelo Lacy) • Michael Calfan, “Prelude” • Zhu, “Faded” (Amtrac Remix) • Shift K3y, “Touch”

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

2 Chainz: Why just two? Why not six or seven chains?

What song would you like played at your funeral?

Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” on kazoo.

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

The Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

Stephen Lynch’s “Down to the Old Pub Instead.”

COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 39

SEPTEMBER 2014

COMICS & JONESIN’CROSSWORD

Across 1 Android download 4 Letters From Iwo ___ 8 “Dancing Queen” group 12 December danger 13 Ivy League sch.

15 Scanned pic 17 2013 single from DJ Snake and Lil Jon 20 Nod in unison 21 European high points 22 Gardner of The Night of the Iguana 23 Garden gastropod 26 Cleans (up) 28 Home to Missoula and Bozeman 31 Rolled pair 32 Ending after Japan or Taiwan 33 Long, long ago 38 Baseball family surname 40 “Neither snow ___ rain...”

41 It’s a bit of a stretch 42 Norah Jones ballad 47 Jack-in-the-box sound 48 Brand that ran “short shorts” ads 49 “Let me clean up first ...”

51 Speed’s mysterious nemesis, in cartoons 54 Taboo act 55 ___ king 56 Best-of-the-best 59 They’re all tied up

63 Dr. Seuss book made into a 2008 movie 67 Be stealthy 68 Alpaca relative 69 ___ Zeppelin 70 Literary Jane 71 Good Will Hunting director Gus Van ___ 72 Shark’s home Down 1 Aqua Velva alternative 2 Electrical cord’s end 3 Sound from a happy cat 4 He plays Dr. John Watson 5 Stock market debut, briefly 6 Sound from a happy kitten 7 Oscar winner Paquin 8 Highly nauseous?

9 Company based in Munich 10 “One planet” religion 11 Plant used to make tequila 14 Lombardi Trophy awarder 16 HHH, in Athens 18 Fit one inside another 19 Vision-related 24 A as in Argentina 25 “I Will Survive” singer Gloria 27 Like lawns in the morning 28 Trapper Keeper maker 29 City bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics

30 “Animal” band ___ Trees 31 Galapagos Islands visitor 34 Greet the queen 35 Obama 2008 campaign word 36 Me-generation concerns 37 Grabs some shuteye 39 ___ Reader (alternative digest) 43 Drunk singing, often 44 He claimed not to be a crook 45 Abbr. in an employee benefits handbook 46 Tugs on 50 ___ Lisa 51 Arena shouts 52 Lacking a partner 53 Barker’s successor 57 Maple Leafs, Bruins, et al.

58 Squiggly critters 60 Night fliers 61 “... I ___ wed” 62 Fizzy drink 64 Paving material 65 A step below the Majors 66 44-Down’s initials ©2014 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) Find the answers in the “about” section of CVIndependent.com!

CVIndependent.com

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SEPTEMBER 2014

Deals available in the Independent Market as of September 1:

Shop at CVIndependent.com.

Look for more deals to be added during the month!

Want your business in the Independent Market? Call 760-904-4208, or email jimmy@cvindependent.com.

CVIndependent.com