Western Revival by Ballantine Communications

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With two new explosive Westerns showing in Durango, the genre continues to explore cultural hot buttons with violent ruggedness

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Also: Loving and hating hipsters, remembering David Bowie in three acts, Elder Grown plays the Balcony, Get Smart about old-time music, craft beer trends for 2016

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HIGH EXPECTATIONS

GREEN LIGHT - SEASON 2

DGO Magazine

Staff

What’s inside Volume 1 Number 12

January 14, 2016

Chief Executive Officer

Douglas Bennett V.P. of Finance and Operations Bob Ganley V.P. of Advertising David Habrat V.P. of Marketing Kricket Lewis Founding Editors Amy Maestas David Holub

Style Fetish: David Bowie’s genius

From the Editor

David Bowie made some of the best rock ’n’ roll ever for more than 50 years and looked cutting-edge the entire time. His looks ranged from classic menswear to avant garde costumes and his clothing, hair and makeup were always impeccable.

Love it or Hate it

Sound

Katie Klingsporn

dholub@bcimedia.com 375-4551

The Western might feature tough guy heroes on horseback and stunning wilderness landscapes, but the enduring genre continues to appeal, tracking the rich and morally-complex evolution of the nation. Senseless violence, racist clashes and unfulfilled promises of the vivid American dream – the Western illustrates it all.

Staff writer Anya Jaremko-Greenwold Contributors

Katie Cahill Caitlin Cannon Christopher Gallagher Bryant Liggett Jon E. Lynch John Metz Heather Narwid Cyle Talley

Get Smart about old-time music It ain’t bluegrass, youngster. But it ain’t not bluegrass, either. It’s what Bill Monroe’s uncle would’ve played. Let Fort Lewis art professor and Six Dollar String Band fiddler Tony Holmquist learn ya straight and proper.

Advertising Reader Services 375-4570

DGO is a free weekly publication distributed by Ballantine Communications, Inc., and is available for one copy per person. Taking more than five copies of an edition from a distribution location is illegal and is punishable by law according to Colorado Revised Statute 18-9-314.

16 Movies

Seeing Through the Smoke 18

Strain of the week

Netflix and chill – 420 edition 19

20 Savage Love 21 Happening 23 Horoscope/ puzzles/ Bizarro

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Robert Alan Wendeborn 247-3504

10 Beer

18 Weed

12 How the Western Was Won

David Holub

Kirbie Bennett

Album Review 9

17 Pages

Editor/ designer/ art director

Jaime Becktel

Downtown Lowdown

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6 Transcendent and electric My god, David Bowie was prolific, ever-pushing cultural and societal barriers beyond the earthly plane into the stars in pursuit of art and the transcendence of gender, sexuality and creativity.

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On the cover Samuel L. Jackson waves his iron in an image from director Quentin Tarantino’s film“The Hateful Eight,” now playing in Durango.

Tell us what you think! Got something on your mind? Have a joke or a story idea or just something that the world needs to know? Send everything to editor@dgomag.com

Illustration by David Holub/DGO

DGO Magazine is published by Ballantine Communications Inc., P.O. Drawer A, Durango, CO 81302

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[ love it or hate it ]

David Holub |DGO editor

Hipsters Love it

Transcending his celebrity, Bowie opened doors to beauty

have this thing about refusing to care when famous people die. I’ll read the news, scratch the side of my face, then fret over the number of crisps left in the Pringles can that my hand is stuck in and forget about the dead famous person du jour. It probably stems from my overall disdain for celebrity culture, our fascination with the every move of these glamorous strangers, many of them famous simply for being famous. Their importance is relatively arbitrary: The most famous or the most celebrated rarely if ever are the most talented in our society, or the smartest, the most caring, the bravest. But sometimes they are, or they sure come close. There are those artists who not only sing or act or write, but those who stand for something bigger than their fame, whose words and actions become a sum-of-the-parts triumph of inspiration, whose brilliance and courage jostles us and moves us forward, forcing us to wake up, to look at ourselves good and hard in the mirror. I’ve often wondered what it is exactly we’re mourning when celebrities die. Whatever they’ve given us is not lost forever. It’s in the same place it’s always been: In print, on DVD, streaming, digitized. We can return to them whenever we please in the same ways we did when they were living. Perhaps we’re sad because they will no longer be doing the thing that made them celebrities to begin with, the world now deprived of future goodness. No, I really can’t be sad when a 69-year-old David Bowie dies of cancer after a transformative and impactful career. Yes, it was surprising, and sure, Bowie was making music almost literally till the day he died, perhaps another album or two in his head. But he was going to go at some point, and one more album and one more song wasn’t going to affect or change or realistically build on what he’d already given us: Given Bowie’s influence, it’s almost impossible.

However, there seems to be something different about Bowie. I’ve always been a marginal Bowie fan, enjoying everything of his I ever encountered, he was just one of those I respected and admired more than I consumed. People I know personally, whose aesthetics I gravitate to (two of which can be found on pages 6 and 7 of this issue), were deeply affected by Bowie’s death. So much so that it made me think there was something deeper I needed to pay attention to. Like many, I heard of Bowie’s death on Facebook, and my feed was overwhelmed with Bow-oddity. It wasn’t the quantity of Bowie tributes that turned my head, but the quality. It was not that Bowie had merely influenced my creative friends, but the extent to which he did so. It was not that he was a groundbreaking musician for five decades, but that in music and fashion, lifestyle and beyond, he progressed and transformed, reinvented and challenged himself and the world around him until the very end. It’s also made me think about what the lives of iconic artists like Bowie can mean. These people, who live beautifully and vulnerably, who take chances by being original, who push cultural boundaries, bucking and challenging norms and conventions glamorously, give many of us the cover and courage to do the same, to be who we are or who we want to be. They make it harder to hate, they unlock doors to beauty and ideas that would otherwise have remained silently shut. Bowie’s death has drawn me back to his work, a morbid reality that likely would not have occurred for another 21 years had he lived to be 90. Likewise, Bowie’s death means millions of others will be drawn to re-examine as well, to seek and discover his beautiful impact. There’s light there, the world gaining a mass of new Bowie fans, his spirit, ideas, stamina and passion spread to a new wave and a new generation. Now, that is life after death.

I recall a time I was living in Brooklyn, riding my vintage Peugeot alongside my skinny-jeaned, bearded, bean-ied boyfriend. We had an uncomfortable encounter with an older bearded man in thick black-rimmed glasses who shouted from his clean silver Prius: “Get out of the road! Ya hipster!” It felt so discriminatory, that term: Hipster! Like, just because I exhibited an alternative fashion sense, that must mean all my ideas and opinions came from the latest “This American Life” episode? And what made him so different from me anyway? Are we both not a product of our environment and heredity? It got me thinking, aren’t there varying degrees of hipster? Does anyone who refused to wear flared denim between 2006 and 2010 qualify as a hipster? We are all hipsters, people! Much the way people who had long hair and listened to Bob Dylan in the ’60s would be considered hippies, regardless of whether they were sitting around braless at a peace rally or not. So why are so many of the relatively affluent, predominantly white people living in gentrified neighborhoods (hello, Durango) across the U.S. always saying how much they hate hipsters? With all the talk of co-opting culture and the outrage that follows, shouldn’t we be celebrating the fact that this particular group of young millennials is finally embracing a culture all its own? I’ll take a pompadour under a fedora over one of those Rasta beanies with the fake dreads popping out any day. And can we find those New Age girls something to wear on their heads that doesn’t have a quail feather on it? Thanks. — Caitlin Cannon

Hate it Really, I just feel bad for hipsters. For having to talk as if they’re soooooo bored. For not only believing, but really needing to believe that everything sucks. For having to keep meticulous tabs on what is so over. I feel bad for hipsters for living in such deep irony that they’ve forgotten how all the irony started, swallowed to the point where they say, “Psshhh, what irony?” I feel bad for hipsters for having to live under the pressure of needing to hear of everything first, and then having to hear about something else first once too many people hear about any of it. For constantly seeking exclusivity, changing styles or tastes if anything gets a whiff of mainstream. For basing their identities and lifestyles not just on arbitrary hierarchies and stratification, but ones based on, I don’t know, the tightness of jeans. I feel bad for hipsters having to walk around with that mustache AND manbun. I feel bad for hipsters for lacking the self-awareness to realize they’re hipsters and for cultivating their I-don’t-care look so preciously that people think they really don’t care and the fact that they actually do care is tragically lost. For taking something uncool and attempting to make it cool, desperately needing it to be considered cool by outsiders (aka: everyone), all while being unable to acknowledge that it might be cool and then, after all that hard work, having to abandon the cool thing once anyone else agrees that is cool. I feel bad for hipsters for having to put up with the scorn from people like me. Sorry about that, hipsters. — David Holub

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[Get Smart: Expert Advice on Trivial Affairs]

Old-time music

Tony Holmquist’s old-time “Must Listen To” list

It ain’t bluegrass, youngster. But it ain’t not bluegrass, either. It’s what Bill Monroe’s uncle would’ve played. Let Fort Lewis art professor and Six Dollar String Band fiddler Tony Holmquist learn ya straight and proper.

“High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes From Virginia and North Carolina”

How did you get into oldtime?

A fine collection of old-time field recordings featuring masters including Wade Ward, Fred Cockerham and Gaither Carlton (the latter was Doc Watson’s father-in law).

I was playing bluegrass-style banjo in a few bands when I lived in Austin, and I came across a guy playing banjo in this strange down-picking, rhythmic style I’d never heard before, so I asked him if he’d teach me a few things. He taught me the Round Peak-style of clawhammer banjo playing, and ended up being really influential. I picked up the fiddle when I moved to Fort Collins a few years later, and got even deeper into listening to old field recordings and learning tunes. So what are the differences between bluegrass and oldtime?

Foghorn Stringband, “Rattlesnake Tidal Wave” Partially responsible for the youthful resurgence of old-time music in the Pacific Northwest. Their first release captures their compelling fiddle and mandolin unison melody playing, driving three-finger banjo and powerful upright bass. Foghorn Stringband will be playing at this year’s Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, which will take place April 15-17. Tommy Jarrell,“The Legacy of Tommy Jarrell, Volume 4: Pickin’ on Tommy’s Porch”

David Holub/DGO

»» Tony Holmquist plays old-time clawhammer-style banjo in his office in the art department at Fort Lewis College.

Well, the instrumentation is similar, so I’m never surprised when people see a fiddle and a banjo and say, “Oh, bluegrass!” There are some distinct differences, mostly in sound and feel. In old-time, the banjo is played in a style called clawhammer, which is more African-influenced, sort of a “clucky” sound. The fiddle playing has a lot of droned notes, and is very rhythmic and syncopated for dancing. But old-time as a style also encompasses solo singing, some a capella stuff, some ballads, too. Bluegrass banjo is a more driving sound, originated by Earl Scruggs – that three-finger style.

munal. I was at a festival last year and met a banjo player from North Carolina who played in an eastern Kentucky style that I’d never heard before, so I recorded him and picked his brain to learn what he was doing. It’s a lot of trading tunes and trading knowledge. And some drinking, too. What are you most passionate about in regards to oldtime?

What should I expect to see and hear if I were to go to an old-time festival?

I love the history of the music, the sound of it. I wake up thinking about what tune I want to work on. Being able to play a melody-based style of music is great because it makes me focus more. I naturally improvise things, so it gets me out of my comfort zone to play a repeating melodic phrase a specific way.

A lot of people sitting around in circles and jamming on tunes. It’s really com-

Who’s your favorite character in the history of old-time?

Tommy Jarrell. He grew up in the heyday of old-time, playing square dances, and his dad was a well-known and respected fiddler, but Tommy quit music when he got married and then, after his wife died, he picked it up again. There’re all these great stories about how he’d open up his house to anyone who wanted to come by and play tunes, sometimes for days on end. He just plays with great, raw energy. Technically, he’s not the best fiddle player. He’s scratchy, he misses notes, but his rhythm is so syncopated and, for me, when the energy is right, the music is right – and his is. —— Cyle Talley Cyle Talley would also recommend that you check out Uncle Dave Macon and the Coon Creek Girls.

Tommy Jarrell was an extremely influential banjo and fiddle player from the Round Peak area of North Carolina. His constant music parties are now stuff of legend and his raw, unadulterated energy is evident on this recording. Lyman Enloe, Casey Jones, Cyril Stinnett, “Three Fiddlers From the Show-Me State” Many people think of old-time music as distinctly “Appalachian” or “mountain” music, but there is also a deep history of fiddling in the Midwest. Missouri in particular is known for having superb fiddlers, and this record highlights three of them. Ed Haley,“Parkersburg Landing” Ed Haley, a blind fiddler from West Virginia, was of the most accomplished professional fiddlers in the country. His gargantuan repertoire included reels, jigs, hornpipes, show tunes and more. John Hartford was obsessed with this guy and was working on a book on Ed Haley up until his death in 2001. The book is still in the works and will hopefully be published soon.

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Jaime Becktel

Transcendent and electric: Remembering David Bowie

t’s early and I’m drinking coffee in the sun when a friend shoots me the message: David Bowie died. Nah. Not this morning. Not possible. But I search the headlines and it’s true. I see his chiseled face in story after story of remembrance and my heart falls as I realize what the world has lost: Our Ziggy Stardust, our Major Tom, our Aladdin Sane. He’s responsible for so much in the realms of music, art, fashion, theater and film, and I’ve loved him completely since 1986 when I met Jereth, the Goblin King for the first time, in Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth.” In his steel blue eyes

rimmed in kohl liner, one pupil permanently dilated from a blow to the head as a lad, I saw my fantasy-filled future and grinned with great expectation. My god, he was prolific, ever-pushing cultural and societal barriers beyond the earthly plane into the stars in pursuit of art and the transcendence of gender, sexuality and creativity. His albums told stories, and his songs were glittery beckonings to exist colorfully in multiple dimensions. He bridged the cosmos with the streets of New York and London and melded together the forms and habits of male and female into a hybrid species of androgyny. He was an artist in every drop of space-addled plasma that coursed through his bizarre Martian veins. In 1996, he was aptly chosen to play one of his greatest inspirators, Andy Warhol in the film “Basquiat.” Having been hewn from the same silken genius as Warhol, naturally, he nailed each eccentric frame. In 1988, he imbibed the spirit of Pontius Pilot in Martin Scorcese’s classic, “The Last Temptation of Christ” and in the 1976 sci-fi gem, “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” he nearly played himself – a humanoid alien in search of water for his dying planet. Bowie’s imagination was interstellar, and his crossmedium influence undeniably electric. As a college student at the University of Colorado in 2002, I smoked a fair amount of weed and listened to a lot of music with my best friend Jon. Psychedelics factored into the many levels of my education at that time as well, and glam rock savants such as Queen, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and of course, Bowie, set the sonic backdrop for a highly influential time in my life. On my wall, Freddie Mercury arched back in a crooning release wearing a desperately tight leotard while Bowie’s “Aladdin Sane” lightning-bolt innocence gazed

wistfully down, pondering a decade fraught with extravagance and great social change. I’ve always loved the benders of light, unapologetically strange artists who refract cultural memes and explode them into the collective social brain like meteoritic pyrotechnics. How do we explain the depth of impact light-benders like Bowie have on the development of our heart, our imagination and the crystalline structure of our unique individual essence? I’m different because of him. More accurately, I am who I am as an artist in part because of the contribution his music and persona made on the coalescing of my creative aesthetic. I’m deeply grateful to him and sense his delight in knowing that his life made a difference to a little American girl who once fell in love with the bright fantasy of space and magic he catalyzed. I recall the day I learned of Michael Jackson’s death while browsing at a Buffalo Exchange in Costa Mesa, California. In that pivotal instance, I experienced a similar sensation of disbelief and denial, a choke of loss as part of my childhood slipped from me. Sharing that broken moment with a handful of strangers, we silently pondered the impact of his contribution to our lives as “I Wanna Rock With You” swayed above us. In Prague, I consoled a sweet transgender bartender who tearfully mourned the loss of Amy Winehouse, and together we marveled at the global and personal impact of a dearly departed muse. It’s a funny thing, love, an unrestricted currency that flows forth in surprising volumes for beloved relatives, friends and never-before-met celebrities alike. In the wake of a loss, the one lost is often raised in remembrance, leaving behind a parting message of ascension. From Bowie, we are left with an entreaty to live our lives as art. In a final genuflection to the human experience and a parting kiss to his fans, David Bowie released his 25th studio album, “Black Star” on his 69th birthday, two days before his body lost an 18month battle with cancer. It’s an extraordinary album, hauntingly weird and uncomfortable, rife with high art and jaggedly remorseless. In each song he’s dying, and he knows it. The song “Lazarus” opens with the lyrics, “Look up here, I’m in heaven,” and so he is, finally immaterialized, enmeshed with the matrix, a spider from Mars. Jaime Becktel is a California-born artist and writer living in Mancos. She enjoys XC skiing, surfing, riding horses and kickin’ ass.

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[Sartorial over-enthusiasm with Heather of Sideshow]

Style Fetish | Heather Narwid

David Bowie’s style genius In this week’s Style Fetish, let us look no further than David Bowie for inspiration in style, life and Snowdown 2016. He made some of the best rock ’n’ roll ever for more than 50 years and looked cutting-edge the entire time. His looks ranged from classic menswear to avant garde costumes and his clothing, hair and makeup were always impeccably put together, attended to with artistic thoroughness. Bowie shows us a potent example of clothing and style being hyper-relevant to the music being made, and vice versa. His music and his style each informed and supported the other and intensified this combination into the realm of true performance art. The advent of MTV and the growing sophistication of music video concepts and production in the early ’80s cemented music and fashion together forevermore, and kicked off Bowie’s new wave pop incarnation. That special David Bowie music-meetsstyle gestalt that began in the 1970s fully emerged by the 1980s and still kept transforming, spotlighting him as a highly-influential and prescient style icon. Bowie released the LP “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” in 1980. The iconic video for “Ashes To Ashes” introduced Bowie’s new sparkly, raggedy Pierrot clown persona and contrasted it with him in simple classic ’80s style menswear as well as spacesuits in styles both pre-Cronenbergian and sadomasochistic. Bowie’s Proto-Goth nun companion-chorus seem to be style aunties to Siouxsie Sioux and Robert Smith, their crosses to later appear on heavy-metal dudes while the bustier’d and full-skirted girl reminds us that we are now in the retro-’50s-loving-’80s. This girl’s style later morphs into early Madonna and Cyndi Lauper’s shared silhouette of bustier-with-crinoline. The fancy and androgynous New Romantic look gained steam after Bowie experimented with this style and influenced other musicians in the early ’80s. This dandified, neo-Victorian exaggeration wore lacy neck cravats, fancy shirt cuffs, velvet waist and tailcoats and ornate jewelry with heavy eye makeup influenced Roxy Music, Prince and Adam Ant. Ladies rocked the menswear look while more men wore eye makeup, making this look equal-opportunity for continued ’80s androgyny, even though our trendsetter Bowie had perfected this look back in the early ’70s. Experimental cross-dressing, makeup on men and more makeup on everyone became more common after New Romanticism, as shown by Boy George of Culture Club. The video for (of course) “Fashion” features Bowie and the band in what would become spot-on 1980s trends of high, “paper-bag”-waisted pleated pants, militaryinspired jumpsuits, shirts with flipped-up collars, cuffs wherever possible, stripes, bright, primary colors and a permed mullet or two. The video for “Fashion” is also a

great example of the interesting styles that appear in the gray areas between decades. Bowie’s audience and extras show us some post-disco and pre-workout-wear looks, as well as Bowie himself displaying a very ’70s bare chest under a very unbuttoned shirt. “Beep, beep” indeed, David. And thank god that our usual band of Bowie video costumed freaks are still here. “Scary Monsters” and his 1983 and 1984 records, “Let’s Dance” and “Tonight,” brought Bowie’s theatrical Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane personae of the ’70s into a more trendy, fashion-forward and street-style iteration. “Let’s Dance” was poppier and more mainstream than his previous records, this is reflected in his clothing styles of these times. Bowie’s style here gracefully turns back to the masculine classics that returned to vogue in the 1980s, like dapper ’40s-inspired suits with strong shoulders and pegged pants, vests, unknotted bow ties worn loose around the neck and button-on suspenders. The rich, collegiate “preppie” look showed up on Bowie now in layered shirts and striped rep neckties. David Bowie was as ingrained in style and fashion as he was in the making of music. I see him as a funky pioneer of performance art in the most literal sense of the word. Bowie’s creativity and style will continue to be a source of confidence, inspiration and validation for all us Pretty Things, won’t it? Heather Narwid owns Sideshow Emporium, a vintage and secondhand clothing store recently relocated to downtown Durango from Dolores. She thinks you look nice today. Ask her anything at sideshowdolores@gmail.com.

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Alex Pullen/alexpullen.com, courtesy of Elder Grown

»» From left, Josh Dikes, Sam Kelly, Paul Hoffman, John Hoffman, James Mirabal and Josh Hoffman of the band Elder Grown. The band will play Friday at Animas City Theatre, along with Front Range band Euforuqestra.

Downtown Lowdown | Bryant Liggett

Durango’s Elder Grown is building jamtastic momentum

emmy has been dead for two weeks. By now through social media you’ve probably heard about the Motörhead frontman’s death, or learned about a rock musician you had no idea existed until he no longer existed. The man was unapologetic, full of Jack Daniels, Marlboros, speed and verbal pearls of wisdom, too many to recount here. In one of his many interviews, Lemmy spouted on about people having the patience to learn an instrument and write some songs. He ranted in his thick English accent about how if Elvis had not gotten on stage with a guitar, but rather pushed a button on a computer, rock ’n’ roll and music in general would be nowhere. It’s a romantic notion that thankfully hasn’t fully disappeared – the concept that music should be created after years of practicing an instrument and constructing melody

via an actual music-making tool. Practice, write, perform and repeat for the rest of your life. Those last four words are something my neighbors continue to pursue; I’ve lived next to Elder Grown for two years, and as much as you’d think living next to a rock band sucks, most of these guys have night jobs, so latenight practice isn’t a nightly occurrence. Every so often there’s a party, and I’ve been entertained some mornings when they’re still up and hanging when I get up to drink coffee. But the playing is paying off, as they’re quickly growing into one of the more popular bands in town. Elder Grown will play Friday with funk band Euforquestra at the Animas City Theatre. It’s a build-up show for Durango Massive’s “Celefunktion” concert series in March. Euforuqestra has continued to make the trek to Durango to play for large audiences; the Iowa-born, now Front-Range flourishing band brings a mix of high energy,

Bryant’s best Friday: Euforquestra and Elder Grown, 9 p.m. $17. Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive. Information: 799-2281. Saturday: KSUT 40th Anniversary Concert with Martha Scanlan, 7 p.m. $20. Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Information: 3757160. funk, soul and Afrobeat. Elder Grown’s first Animas City Theatre appearance was a sellout event. The band, which features brothers Josh, John and Paul Hoffman, along with Brandon Clark, Sam Kelly, James Mirabal and Josh Dikes, has continued to mash funk, rock, reggae and hip-hop into its textbook jam-repertoire, playing regional shows and the occasional local event. In 2014, they won the audience vote to open the Arise Music Festival in Loveland. They’ve been taken under the

wing of local promoter Eugene Salaz, now serving as band manager. “They are a young band with a passion to bring a community together on the dance floor and move that community through their music,” said Salaz. The band has been in the studio, with an album looking to drop in the spring. That will follow with more tours, and perhaps a step in the direction of the fertile jam-band scene that thrives from Colorado Springs up to Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and Front Range mountain communities. “We’re excited to have this done and out in the public. We all feel it provides a great example of our style of music,” said John Hoffman. “Touching on a broad group of genres, the album has been tailored to represent what we feel our band can offer whether it is live or in album form.” Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.

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[sound]

Fresh off a cattle ranch, Scanlan brings Americana to the Strater Martha Scanlan’s third record, “The Shape Of Things Gone Missing, The Shape Of Things To Come,” was released last April after her relative hiatus from the road; for five years, Scanlan lived on a 120-yearold cattle ranch in a remote corner of Montana. The new album evokes lonesome Western landscapes as vividly as her previous two, featuring producer and longtime collaborator Jon Neufeld, as well as collaborations with members of Black Prairie, The Decemberists, Dolorean and Amy Helm. Scanlan was previously featured with the Reeltime Travelers on the soundtrack for the film “Cold Mountain,” produced by T-Bone Burnett. She has also worked and shared the stage with musicians such as Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. DGO spoke with Scanlan about the challenges of recording music out in nature, and how the songs you write can change over time. She will play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Henry Strater Theatre. Why did you take a break from music and recording to go spend time on the ranch? I seem to stumble into a lot of really amazing things in my life, accidentally. It was this opportunity to learn from an old cowboy who grew up there, and work with horses and cattle in a beautiful landscape. I was playing shows off and on during that time, but for the most part I just wanted to focus on being there. You worked with Black Prairie, the Decemberists and Amy Helm on this album. What was the collaborative process like? Jon Neufeld (who produced the record) and I wanted it to be improvisational and spontaneous. Some of the songs we hadn’t finished yet. We scheduled it so we only had four days in the studio and four days to mix. That made it a very immediate process. We had to make quick decisions. The musicians were all great in that regard, open and wonderful to play with, and in the moment. We tried to do one rehearsal beforehand, but the only person who was able to come was the bass player! Crowdfunding is a big thing now. You raised funds for this album via Kickstarter. Is that a tough process? It’s easy to put together if you’re a social media-oriented person, which I am really not. But people were so gracious. It was like having all of these hermit-helpers. When you write a song, what comes first, lyrics or melody? Sometimes there’s a seed of an idea. Or the title of the record, “The Shape of Things Gone Missing, the Shape of Things to Come;” that’s something I came home with one day from being on tour. And I wrote that down on a piece of paper and carried it around in my bag for a couple years. I knew it was important, but I didn’t know why yet. But

usually, the music will come first, or there will be some sort of pulse or groove. I’ve always been curious about whether it’s frustrating for singer-songwriters to sing old songs on tour, that they’d maybe written years ago, if they no longer relate to the specific feelings that song evokes. Is that a hard discrepancy? I’ve always found that the songs change. Sometimes they become about something completely different. Like I’m in an unfolding riddle or mystery. All of a sudden I’ll say, “Oh, that’s what this song is about!” It sounds esoteric, but I believe that songs interact with the world. They go out into the world and are shaped by other peoples’ experiences with them. They always feel fresh to me. Is there a recording space at the cattle ranch? Most of the songs we recorded were outside. I wanted to record songs in the places I’d written them. So there’s a couple that are recorded way up in a meadow. One was on my porch, and another in my cabin. We filmed those recording sessions; the videos are on my website and Youtube. Isn’t it hard to get the acoustics right outside of a recording studio? It’s so quiet out there, it’s not really even in a flight path. So we’re playing in a situation that people pay millions of dollars trying to duplicate in a studio. It’s quite easy, unless there’s wind, which there was a couple of times. There’s one song where you can hear the shushing of the Cottonwood trees and the crickets.

What’s new Running,“Wake Up Applauding” Available: Jan. 15 Label: Castle Face Records Being a teenager in the pre-Internet ’90s meant that you consumed music differently. Vastly so. Maybe you coveted the music section in Thrasher or picked up regionally-made-and-traded zines from your local record store. Hopefully, like me, you were fortunate enough to have those independent record stores in your town (thank you, Antiquarium and Drastic Plastic) staffed by older, better-versed employees willing to turn us young, eager music lovers on to obscure artists and bands alike. You may have even purchased your records or cassettes directly from a record label and learned a valuable lesson: With certain independent record labels you could, more or less, trust an entire label’s artist roster. Many examples are out there, but for me it was Dischord, SST and Touch & Go. In 2016, it is Caste Face Records (and a handful of others, to be sure. Email me to discuss). Coming off a stellar 2015, Castle Face is starting the year off Running. Pun intended. The Chicago trio comprised of Alejandro Morales, Jeff Tucholski and Matt Hord have unleashed a chaotic swirl of corrosive noise-punk, its second LP for Castle Face. This is a dark, dense album nine tracks and two interludes deep that careen in and out endurance-test noise and heavier-ilk punk/rock. At a succinct 33 minutes, I recommend repeated listens. Recommended if you’re a fan of Lightning Bolt, Coachwhips, Ex-Cult, Oneida, early-Liars or The Soft Moon. —— Jon E. Lynch KDUR_PD@fortlewis.edu

—— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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[beer]

First Draughts | Robert Alan Wendeborn

Craft beer trends for 2016? Here’s what beermakers say

Bess Daughtry Lead Brewer, Wynkoop Brewing Co., Denver »» More craft breweries are going to sell out. »» Breweries are going to keep making up beer styles that aren’t real but want to sound hip and cool. Dry Hopped White Stout. Red Porter. No. You

shut your dirty whore mouth.

Becky Milner Pit Boss, Ska Brewing Co., Durango »» IPAs are getting out of control with the bitterness. I think breweries are going to ease up on the IBUs and look to balance the malt or look to feature specific hops. »» More hoppy red ales, like the Red Ryeot, from La Cumbre Brewing out of ABQ, will start coming out.

Cody Looman Assistant Brewer, Carver Brewing Co., Durango »» Wild and spontaneous fermentation »» More barrels »» Beer/Wine/Cider hybrids

My Standpoint Looking at the beer that I loved in 2015 and looking at the shelves in liquor stores, I know what I can hope for and what I want to see more of.

I loved the Avery Liliko’i Kepolo, a passion fruit witbier. It is packed with tart fruitiness and balanced with Belgian spice flavors. I’m dying for more beers along these lines, and I see a lot of beers standing next to it on that malty-hoppy-sour matrix: Death by Coconut by Oskar Blues; Grapefruit Sculpin, by Ballast Point; Blood Orange Gose, by Anderson Valley; and Modus Mandarina, by Ska. Take your favorite beer style, add an awesome complimentary flavor from the food world, and, voila, a super beer. If this trend keeps up, be on the lookout for things like dessert brown ales, fruity reds, and all things tropical and tart with saisons and sours. Along these same lines, I’d love to see a balanced, full-production, sour beer that’s not going to kill my wallet. Most sours run you $10-plus for a 22-ounce bottle, and in the case of the Liliko’i, it’s around $3 per 12-ounce cans. There are ways to produce a sour beer cheaply (it’s the same ingredients after all). However, you run into problems producing it efficiently, as it uses a different fermentation, and a lot of breweries are afraid of contamination, so it ends up being a limited run, or smaller isolated batches. Anderson Valley’s Goses do OK here, coming in at around $2 for a 12-ounce can. The other problem you run into with sours is they don’t fully achieve a good sense of balance. They’re too heavy on the tart, killing the taste buds before the drinker can get to a second or third beer. The closest I see to this is Duchess of Bourgogne, a traditional Flanders Red Ale. It’s a blend of 18- and 8-month old beer (so we’re still running into efficiency problems), but it’s drinkable and balanced, but still runs into that heavier price point. Whichever brewery can get that price point for a balanced sour beer down will certainly win my heart in 2016. Robert Alan Wendeborn puts the bubbles in the beer at Ska Brewing Co. His first book of poetry, The Blank Target, was published this past spring by The Lettered Streets Press and is available at Maria’s Bookshop.

Illustration by David Holub/DGO

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may work in a brewery, and I may write a beer column, but I’m by no means an expert when it comes to beer. I’m still learning something new everyday and constantly get my eyes opened to some new technique or trend. For the things I’m looking forward to in 2016’s beer world, it’s no different. I’ve got a few ideas myself, but I’ve still got to lean on my friends in the industry to really help me out. Here are some:

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[pages] This week’s Maria’s staff pick Words Like Love, by Tanaya Winder How do we pronounce words like love? How do we believe in them, and how can we apply them to the missing, wounded and massacred: To the missing indigenous women in North America, to a wounded culture, a dying language and the open grave of a massacred history that we refuse to stare into? Tanaya Winder seeks to articulate this heartbreak in her debut collection of poetry, Words Like Love, poems that act as a series of love letters dedicated to family, culture, a decimated environment and all who perished under the brunt and brutality of the capitalist colonialism that shaped our reality.

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Winder’s poetry is armed love, speaking truth in the teeth of power. In this slim tome, a mess of tears surges through every stanza, coursing its way through occupied territory, trying to find the heart, ready to penetrate its stone-cold reality. A tangled web of issues engulfs the lives of indigenous peoples in contemporary society: The minstrel show of racist sports mascots; the insistence of identity based on eugenics-centric blood quantum standards; the untold suffering of native peoples, especially native women, on reservations and in urban communities; and the violent resource-extraction and exploitation of native land by profit-hungry corporations, to name a few. In confronting such overwhelming odds, Winder understands the importance of grasping reality, yet refusing to let that reality paralyze you.

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Words Like Love is a stunning debut where each page presents devastating, uplifting ruminations on the tragic dance between life and death in occupied North America, where the suffering of the marginalized goes unheard. Yet Winder breaks that silence by bearing witness and giving voice to the suffering. Each poem is a reminder to the missing and forgotten that their lives matter. Winder’s poetry is a must-read for everyone. Let her words hold your hand and grasp your heart. And don’t let go until we all learn to speak and act in the language of love. — Kirbie Bennett

Maria’s Bookshop top sellers 1.“Cold Smoke 2nd Edition,” by Andrew Klotz (Paperback) 2.“The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge,” by Michael Punke (Paperback) 3.“Descent,” by Tim Johnston (Paperback) 4.“Close to Heaven: 50 Years of Purgatory” (Hardcover) 5.“Durango: A Silver Past, A Golden Future,” by Susan Dalton (Hardcover) 6.“How to Love,” by Thich Nhat Hanh (Paperback) 7.“You Are a Badass,” by Jen Sincero (Paperback) 8.“Gratitude,” by Oliver Sacks (Hardcover) 9.“You Are Doing a Freaking Great Job: And Other Reminders of Your Awesomeness,” multiple authors (Paperback) 10.“Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up,” by Marie Kondo (Hardcover)

�� Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 11

dies, and there’s elements of the Western in there. The genre has a unique power to analyze, exalt and subvert American ethos.”

Western heroes

»» John Wayne in John Ford’s “The Searchers” (1956)

How the

Western Was Won

By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold | DGO Staff Writer

he Western is back – except it never really went anywhere. The film genre first rose to prominence after World War II in the ’40s, with brooding cowboy John Wayne striding across Monument Valley vistas; it returned post-Vietnam in the ’60s with the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western, branded by Clint Eastwood’s sardonic snarl; and crept back with a vengeance in the ’90s and 2000s, alongside the George W. Bush administration and resulting Iraq war. Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (partially filmed in our neighboring Telluride) and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” surged into Durango theaters last weekend: These dueling Westerns revive all the brawls and brutality, plus the lavish, lonely landscapes that the genre has long-since evoked.

»» Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass in “The Revenant” (2015). Leo won Best Actor for this role at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards.

12 | Thursday, January 14, 2016 •

The best part of this ongoing resurgence? Westerns are drawing crowds to the theaters again. Instead of watching on tiny Apple screens, audiences are scrambling to see the latest from Tarantino and Iñárritu on the silver screen – and these aren’t even superhero flicks, or fresh installments in some beloved franchise. Certain qualities of the Western beg for bigscreen viewing: dazzling on-location footage, widescreen cinematography and an emphasis on real-world film-

ing over phony CGI. The idolized superhero picture is actually akin to the Western; comic book characters with superhuman strength mirror cowboys who are glamorous, loftier versions of ourselves. Westerns speak to the very core of American culture: especially in times of war and international skirmish, our country craves the simplicity of good guys versus bad guys, or us versus them (“them” usually being terrorists, these days). We nurture a self-reliant, tough ideal. We

fancy ourselves rugged individualists. And Americans like their guns. Mark Brenden, a professor in the Writing Program at Fort Lewis College, wrote his master’s thesis at South Dakota University on Western films released in the 2000s. On the Western’s enduring nature, Brenden said, “It spans the history of American narrative film – you could say the first narrative was ‘The Great Train Robbery’ (1903). Look at almost any movie, save for some romantic come-

Brenden considers George W. Bush “the cowboy president”; a less-thanarticulate, down-home Texan who enjoyed spending time on the ranch. Voters felt they could share a beer with him. Ultimately, this mythology was illusory (Bush is Ivy League-educated and very wealthy), but “people related to his lack of eloquence as a public speaker,” Brenden said. “It was endearing.” In Westerns, masculinity tends to coincide with sparsity of language; John Wayne was taciturn to the extreme. “The people who are most vulnerable in the Western are loquacious,” said Brenden. “Heroes speak with actions instead of words.” Any classic genre begs to be defied. “You can look at the cowboy as the image of imperialist America,” said Brenden. Therefore in ’50s Westerns, Wayne portrayed a character blissfully non-complex – he mostly just played himself. Once the Vietnam War struck, odder Westerns like “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971) – more poetic and contemplative – began to emerge. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969, filmed partly in Durango) turned the stoic cowboy stereotype on its head, with Paul Newman’s Butch as an amiable, chatty bandit. Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) subverted the genre even further, presenting a pair of hardworking, gorgeous and virile men, then showing them fall in love with each other. “It’s not like that was the first movie to deal with homosexuality, but these weren’t two hairdressers in San Francisco,” said Brenden. These were American cowboys, supposedly impermeable. The wilderness may be savage, but Brenden points out how “Brokeback” reveals a “savage civilization.” The sole refuge for Heath Ledger’s Ennis and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack is in the wild; only tucked between trees in a tent can these men be together safely.

The modern Western Producing a purely modernized Western would be a challenge. In 2016, any frontiersman gone astray can pull out his cellphone and access the GPS. The film industry has established a recent preoccupation with survival Continued on Page 14 ••••••••• Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 13

[ film ] From Page 13

stories (“The Revenant,” “Gravity,” “All is Lost”); and according to Brenden, it’s probably because we live in an increasingly artificial world, filled with technological gizmos. Maybe we yearn for “simpler” times. “The Revenant” wouldn’t be exciting if Leonardo DiCaprio was mauled by a bear, then asked Siri to call him an ambulance. “In order to be interesting, more and more of these movies are set in the past,” said Brenden. “New Westerns seem to be concerned with this elegiac, nostalgic feel of the loss of a more romantic time.” Then again, Westerns don’t have to be set on the frontier in the 19th century to be classified “Westerns” – “Brokeback Mountain” took place in ’60s America. “Star Wars,” by most accounts, is simply a Western set in space. “The Revenant” and “The Hateful Eight” are undoubtedly Westerns, respectively set in the 1823 wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase, and post-Civil War. Both films detail survival and revenge; set amid the swirling snow, mountains and forests of American borderlines; starring men who are dirty, murderous fur trappers and bounty hunters; bloody and violent; grappling with issues of justice and morality (or a lack thereof), and how these principles hold up in the lawless west. “The Revenant” is filled with swagger, without subtlety. The production was infamously grueling, marred by severe weather in Canada and Argentina; and for the role, DiCaprio braved the cold, ate real bison liver and slept inside animal carcasses (want an Oscar much?) “The Hateful Eight” is a less traditional Western: it’s fun, frothy and stylized (with a soundtrack featuring Roy Orbison and The White Stripes). Though the story begins with a snowy stagecoach ride, the rest of the film unfolds inside a confined lodge, where the characters hunker down as a blizzard rages outside. First, they drink coffee and chat almost politely, but eventually, the talk turns sour (in true Tarantino form).

Pushing the envelope with violence Present-day Westerns boast heaps more bloodshed and visceral gore Continued on Page 15

»» Heath Ledger (left) and Jake Gyllenhaal give tender, dauntless performances in 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain.”

The most unusual and classic Westerns you should check out “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) This one is Fort Lewis College professor and Western expert Mark Brenden’s favorite. It was directed by John Ford, undisputed King of the Genre (“The Searchers,” “Stagecoach”), the man responsible for forming the Hollywood Western template. But this film is more complex and thoughtful than any of Ford’s previous attempts. James Stewart is the sensible, civilized Eastern foil to John Wayne’s lawless Western persona. New Yorker critic Richard Brody dubbed this “the greatest American political movie.”

“Meek’s Cutoff” (2010) Perhaps the lone Western directed by a woman (clever indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt), this minimalistic tale stars Michelle Williams as a resolute, bonnet-wearing journeyer on the Oregon Trail.

“Brokeback Mountain” (2005) Ang Lee’s intimate blockbuster ruffled lots of conservative feathers before it was even released, but ultimately won big at the Oscars – and for good reason. As a pair of cowboys in love in the dangerous setting of ’60s Wyoming, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal give tender, dauntless performances.

“Bone Tomahawk” (2015) It’s a good Western year for Kurt Russell, who stars here and also in “The Hateful Eight.” This is a gore-splattered horror-Western with some old-fashioned qualities; but the film definitely updates the genre for the modern age, following four men who set out to rescue captives from a group of savage, “Hills Have Eyes”-inspired cannibals.

“Unforgiven” (1992) Clint Eastwood is probably the coolest, hippest Western movie star. He both directed and starred in this epic (alongside Morgan Freeman), and it’s one you’ll love even if you don’t like Westerns at all. Ironically, the film rebukes the genre Eastwood himself helped to render wildly popular; offering a critique of the Wild West’s mindless violence.

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) The quintessential bromance/buddy movie, this Western-comedy stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as a pair of hunky Western besties. It’s light on the violence, heavy on the gimmicks; Butch and Sundance are out to have a good time, not rack up a body count.

“High Noon” (1952) Starring Gary Cooper, this film’s most striking quality is its real-time plot (literally counting down the minutes ’til – you guessed it – noon). Reprieved from death row, our hero’s nemesis is said to be arriving back in town on the noon train; and Cooper must decide whether to flee with his new wife, or stay and fight. The plot is stark and simple, but the slow-burning tension is impressive.

“McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971) Robert Altman’s addition to the Western oeuvre is melancholy and quiet. There’s only one gun fight, and it’s more heartbreaking than exciting. The film stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as business partners who start a brothel together in the Pacific Northwest, and (sort of) fall in love; but the environment is not one conducive to nurturing affection. —— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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[ film ]

USED INVENTORY

BLOWOUT!

than originals like “The Searchers” or “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly;” but looking at Westerns within the context of America today, our nation teaming with gun deaths and sustained fear, it makes sense. “It’s like with movie theater shootings – there’s no rhyme or reason to that stuff,” said Brenden. “It’s what a film like ‘No Country for Old Men’ was about. If the cowboy figure is a representation of America, he is forced to deal with a more absurdly violent, nihilistic world than ever.” It’s fascinating to consider this genre under the fiercelydebated umbrella of gun control; Westerns are gun-heavy, fetishize viciousness, celebrating the gun almost as a man’s phallic extension. Not one of Tarantino’s films is without violence, though much of his gunplay is aesthetic, dynamic and “cool”: “He thinks that by being cartoonish, it takes away the reality,” suggests Brenden. It’s more difficult to shock audiences in the present day, as they’ve seen all the worst humanity has to offer on the news, or in popular torture-porn flicks like “Saw.” Filmmakers have to push the envelope.

More modern updates The contemporary Western has improved on the genre, too. The category was conventionally both sexist and racist. That’s much harder to get away with now, in culturally-sensitive times. “Having no female representation can make for a more ruthless world,” said Brenden, “But that’s one of the great faults of the genre – the female characters are either schoolmarms or prostitutes.” With the blogosphere running rampant, sexism and racism can be trotted out anywhere now, which is “for the best,” thinks Brenden. Each fresh piece of pop culture is dissected be-

neath a virtual microscope, thus artists are held increasingly accountable for their work, and we see fewer films that simplify an entire race or culture. (By contrast, in “The Searchers,” John Wayne’s character was unapologetically racist, fearing and loathing Indians – and he was the hero). Many modern Westerns subtract Native American characters entirely. Tarantino’s movies don’t feature any, although he certainly paraded the horrors of slavery and racism in “Django Unchained.” “One of the most bogus arguments against having nuanced female or Native American characters is that the films are trying to be ‘true to the times,’” said Brenden. “A film can hardly ever be true to its time. The Western isn’t historically accurate; many of the cowboys were black. And lots of them were actually exploited, uneducated workers.” “The Revenant” has only one female character: DiCaprio’s unnamed Pawnee wife, who is murdered before the film begins. We glimpse her in hazy, cloying flashbacks. “The Hateful Eight” similarly has just one woman in a major role; Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy is the movie’s punching bag, used and abused and shown a fair helping of misogyny. Sure, the n-word is hurled at Samuel L. Jackson plenty – but he’s still a man in power, dreaded and respected. These two motion pictures aside, several current ventures have attempted to grant women autonomy in the Western boys’ club: “The Homesman” (2014) starred Hilary Swank as a frontier farm woman; “True Grit” (2010) put Hailee Steinfeld alongside Jeff Bridges as his equal; and the upcoming “Jane Got a Gun” (2016) gives Natalie Portman a firearm and a leading role. So the times, they are a-changing. Still, no matter how willfully the Western evolves, it’ll remain gloriously timeless.

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[ movies ] Ride Along 2 Playing at Stadium 9 Rating: PG-13 Genre: Action

& adventure, comedy Directed by:

Tim Story

‘13 Hours’ a sincere, fitting tribute By Richard Roeper The Chicago Sun-Times

Written by:

Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi Runtime: 1 hr. 42 min. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 7% Synopsis: Rookie lawman Ben Bar-

ber (Kevin Hart) aspires to become a detective like James Payton (Ice Cube), his future brother-in-law. James reluctantly takes Ben to Miami to follow up on a lead that’s connected to a drug ring. The case brings them to a homicide detective and a computer hacker who reveals evidence that implicates a respected businessman. It’s now up to James and Ben to prove that charismatic executive Antonio Pope is actually a violent crime lord who rules southern Florida’s drug trade.

Norm of the North Playing at Stadium 9 Rating: PG Genre: Action

& adventure, animation, comedy Directed by:

Trevor Wall Written by:

Jack Donaldson, Derek Elliott, Daniel Altiere, Steven Altiere, Malcolm T. Goldman Runtime: 1 hr. 45 min. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: Not available. Synopsis: A polar bear of many

words, Norm’s greatest gripe is simple: There is no room for tourists in the Arctic. But when a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his own backyard, Norm does what all normal polar bears would do – he heads to New York City to stop it. With a cast of ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm takes on the big apple, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day.

So here’s Michael “Transformers” Bay directing the guy who played the likable and goofy Jim on “The Office” in a gritty film based on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and though that might sound like the premise for an article in the Onion or a satirical trailer on “Funny or Die,” this is a solid action thriller with well-choreographed battle sequences and strong work from the ensemble cast. Wearing a full beard and layers of muscle, John Krasinski is nearly unrecognizable as Jack Silva, the newest member of a small team of CIA contractors in Benghazi acting as security for a CIA outpost manned by about 30 operatives tracking the movement of weapons in post-Gadhafi Libya, where the situation is unstable on the best of days. (The name has been changed, but Krasinski’s character and the rest of the team are based on reallife former military men who fought the terrorists who stormed the American diplomatic compound on Sept. 11 and 12 in 2012.) Jack is married with two little girls, with a third child on the way. In fact, each of the six Annex Security Team members is a father. When they’re not risking their lives in the Middle East for country and cash, they work in insurance or selling homes. Although there are a few tense encounters right from the get-go, with the Americans trying to figure out who’s friendly and who’s against them, Bay and screenwriter Chuck Hogan take a comfortable amount of time establishing characters and giving us a lay of the land, geographically and politically, before we’re plunged into the nightmare of the continued assaults on the U.S. diplomatic compound. James Badge Dale delivers charismatic work as Tyrone “Rone” Woods, Jack’s best friend and the leader of the team. Max Martini, Pablo Schreiber, Dominic Fumusa

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures via AP

»» Pablo Schreiber, from left, as Kris “Tanto” Paronto, John Krasinski as Jack Silva, David Denman as Dave “Boon” Benton and Dominic Fumusa as John “Tig” Tiegen, are American soldiers to the core in the film, “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.”

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Playing at Stadium 9 Rating: R Genre: Drama, action &

adventure Directed by: Michael Bay Written by: Mitchell Zuckoff,

Chuck Hogan Runtime: 2 hr. 32 min. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: Not available

and David Denman (who played Roy, Jim’s rival for Pam’s affections, on “The Office”) are all believable as former Navy SEALs and Marines who comport themselves with great swagger and bravado – and back it up when the stuff hits the fan. David Costabile is Bob, who heads the CIA team. Of course, Bob is a fussy, arrogant desk commander who has nothing but disdain for what he calls “security guards,” and of course, Bob is indecisive and weak when gunmen storm the compound. You need a Bob in a movie like this. “13 Hours” isn’t interested in introducing us to any of the terrorists who attack the compound or in explaining their motivation other than they want to kill Americans.

When the first wave of attacks hits the building occupied by Ambassador Christopher Stevens (a well-cast Matt Letscher), the annex men are about a mile down the road, at their assigned post protecting the CIA operation. They have no authority to join the battle, even though the small unit assigned to protect the ambassador is hopelessly outmanned. In fact they’re told to stand down, while Bob makes some phone calls to determine when and how the U.S. can send reinforcements. Even though they’re private contractors, the team members are American soldiers to the core, and they refuse to stand by while countrymen are under attack. From that point forward, “13 Hours” is one extended battle sequence after another. There’s very little politicking in “13 Hours,” other than a moment when one of the Americans notes the mortar attack had to have been planned weeks in advance. This was no spontaneous demonstration gone horribly wrong, as we were initially told at the time. This is no “Zero Dark Thirty” or “The Hurt Locker.” Lacking in nuance and occasionally plagued by corny dialogue, “13 Hours” is nonetheless a well-photographed, visceral action film, and a sincere and fitting tribute to those secret soldiers.

16 | Thursday, January 14, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Need tickets for some high-profile events? The where and when to get some of the hottest tickets to Snowdown’s hottest events

Ticket Marketplace at Bank of the San Juans will sell 12 tickets (in lots of four) to the highest bidder each day for four days beginning Tuesday and ending Jan. 22. Opening bid on Tuesday will be $17.50 per ticket with the opening bid on each subsequent day being the previous day’s low bid. Bids will be received in person only at 144 E. Eighth St.

Follies Video Cast tickets Miss out on getting tickets to watch the Follies in person? Animas City Theatre will simulcast the shows on the big screen on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30 – a.k.a. the Snowdown Follies Video Cast. It’s almost as good as the real thing – and half the price! Tickets will go on sale at noon Saturday at ACT’s box office, 128 E. College Drive. Tickets are $10 and are sold first-come, first-serve, with a limit four per person. Cash or credit cards only. Information: www.animascitytheatre.com. Ticket Types: Regular Show: $20 per ticket Friday and Saturday, two shows each night at Durango Arts Center and Henry Strater Theatre.

30 Town Plaza Durango CO 81301 970-247-1655 wagonwheelliquors.com

H O U R

BEST MARGARITAS IN TOWN »» Amy Dickson dressed in steampunk HAPPY HOUR Monday-Friday 2:30pm-6pm

Follies “Marketplace” tickets

MON-FRI 4-6PM (*cash or check only)

Box Office Follies Tickets The Snowdown Follies will be returning for their 33rd year of entertainment this year. This all-volunteer cast and crew show is famously irreverent and bawdy – so adults only! Beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday, the Snowdown Follies Box Office is set to open. Ticket-seekers must obtain a “purchase number” from secret locations around town, revealed in a series of clues to be broadcast on Four Corners Broadcasting stations (KIQX 101.3 FM, KRSJ 100.5 FM, and KIUP 930 AM or 97.3 FM). Once you get a purchase number, head to the Ninth Street entrance of the Durango Elks Lodge to secure your tickets (a maximum of four). Tickets are $20 per person. Information: www. snowdown.org.

H A P P Y

SHAUN STANLEY/BCI Media file photo

style for last year’s Snowdown Fashion Do’s & Don’ts. This year’s theme is the ’80s!

Special Patron Tables: $250 per table, which includes four tickets. Limited tables, each theater, each regular show. These tables are the best seats in the house! Email: Snowdowfollies@gmail. com

219682

[ snowdown ]

HOME OF THE COOLEST MARGARITAS IN TOWN HAPPY HOUR

Monday-Friday 2:30pm-6pm 948 Main Ave • Durango, CO 970.259.7655

Snowdown Follies Gala: $65 per ticket. One show only, 8 p.m. Jan. 28, at the Henry Strater Theater. Must call to be placed on long-term wait list. Email: Snowdownfollies@gmail.com

Snowdown Fashion Do’s and Don’ts Go and find out why Durango was voted “Worst Dressed Community” by USA Today. Advance tickets go on sale at 6 a.m. Saturday at the Snowdown store, Magpie’s Newsstand, 707 Main Ave. Cash or checks only. Limit four tickets per person. The fashion show will take place at from noon to 1:45 p.m. Jan. 27 at La Plata County Fairgrounds. Lunch will be served at noon, and the fashion show will be from 12:30 to 1:40 p.m. There is limited parking. There are 60 luncheon tables with seats and a maximum of 125 standee places. Tickets are $15 each for regular seating; $20 each for runway tables; $6 each for standing only, food or drink. —— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

�� Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 17

[ weed ] Seeing Through the Smoke Christopher Gallagher

When starting your grow, your mind should be dirty

lant life here on planet Earth breaks down to four elements – light, soil, wind and water. It can be a bit complex, but it’s not complicated; like choosing your next meal: you could run by the gas station and grab some burrito; you could go to the supermarket and select your own ingredients, bring them home, and prepare them; or you could go to a restaurant and spend anywhere from 10 bucks to 2/3 of your weekly paycheck. Growing your own cannabis is easy; well, as easy as being responsible for another living thing for the duration of its natural life can be. You’ll spend time and energy caring for it, thinking about it daily, observing it closely and learning what works and what doesn’t in your specific setup. So, what I’m going to do here is give you a few things to decide for yourself and another few things to research. Your major decisions will involve

choices of light and soil – there is a staggering array of possibility within these two grow components. Because the primary light source will be the sun (with some minor supplemental lighting in the early stages), we’ll start with soil. What kind of marijuana do you want to grow? The issue at the bottom of this question concerns having control over what you want to put into your body. It may be difficult to figure out if your store-bought lettuce is GMO nowadays, but if you grow your own cannabis, you know what went into it and you can feel 100 percent comfortable that the weed you’re smoking, the edibles you’re passing out to your friends before going to a concert and the buds you’re smooshing into a juicer along with a handful of kale, four apple chunks and a couple carrots are never going to be listed for recall because of pesticide contamination. If your answer is “the best quality pure, organic marijuana,” you’re

going to need to direct your energy toward researching soil. The simplest recipe I found for creating highquality organic soil included no fewer than 10 ingredients, like worm castings, bone meal, perlite and dolomite. There are websites, forums within websites, books, ebooks, magazine articles, YouTube videos, tutorials, consultants and every stripe of expert out there to consider. Now would be the time to look up your local grow/ hydro shop and make friends with the guy or gal behind the counter. As far as cost, pure organic soil will present you with the highest starting investment, but, as it is reusable and requires little to no nutrient supplementation (just add water), there is a long term cost benefit. After “the best quality, pure organic” soil comes a wide range of possibilities. To rehash the food comparison, think of a range from “Farm Fresh to Fast Food”; there are plenty of options that would fall within the acceptable range

and another bunch that you’re probably better off avoiding. Lesser soils require substantial nutrients supplementation. One of the byproducts of this supplementation is the buildup of chemical salts, which create imbalances in the soil and require that it be discarded after a single use. My bottom line advice when it comes to soil: Save up a bit and get yourself the best combination of soil products that you can afford. Establish a relationship with the employees at your local grow shop; they’ll be invaluable over time to answer your questions, guide you as you make changes, and – this is huge, trust me – help you out when things get wonky (and things will get wonky once in a while). So, DGO, get some dirt on your minds, and be well ’til next week. Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Contact him at chrstphrgallagher@gmail.com

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18 | Thursday, January 14, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[strain of the week]

[netflix and chill – 420 edition]

‘Planet Earth’ Tips on what to watch high on Netflix. Recommendations have gone through multiple rounds of scientific testing)

Kosher Kush What is it? This is my favorite strain, so I’m excited to finally review some, grown perfectly in Durango by Wildcat Cannabis. She was created by L.A.-based Jewish growers and renamed by DNA genetics to honor their heritage. They kept its genetics unknown, but its awards are legendary, earning the Kosher multiple Cannabis Cup titles. The effects For an indica, the high comes on quickly, and is noticed mostly in the body. After a few minutes you’ll begin to feel a distinct soaring euphoria I’ve only found in Kosher. It’s instantly relaxing and extremely comfortable. After 10 minutes, the cerebral high sneaks in, and your mind feels at one with the universe. The smell Imagine finding a grapefruit tree in a dense pine forest just after daybreak. The look

There are some things that go together perfectly. Bacon and eggs. Simon and Garfunkel. Brad and Angelina. Getting high and watching nature documentaries. You might think they’re dull; there’s no plot, characters or dialogue. It’s just ... nature. How wrong you are. BBC’s “Planet Earth” is no mere nature doc; it’s an 11-episode epic that cost $25 million to produce, took five years to make and involved 71 camera people filming in 61 countries around the world. Narrated by the legendary David Attenborough (you haven’t lived until you’ve heard him intro a species called “Wild Ass” in his refined British accent), the high-definition series captures a larger number of

YD L L A C LOWN & OWNE GRO BESTUES AL V & D BU

With THC at 22 percent, she’s filled with beautiful white crystals and plenty of calyxes that show her richlycolored green buds The taste The inhale is earthy, but the pine and citrus are more pronounced on the exhale. The final verdict This strain is a blessing for anyone. It’s so perfectly balanced you won’t care if it’s affecting your mind or your body the most. All you’ll know is you feel euphoric, relaxed and extremely happy to the point of laughter. She’s a nice daytime getaway in the mountains or a cozy one to share a movie with. Too much gushing? I don’t think so. I only wish everyone had a strain that affects them like Kosher Kush affects me. —— Patrick Dalton Durango Recroom

strange, wild, wonderful creatures and habitats than you could possibly encounter in 10 lifetimes. If you enjoy dazzling landscapes, you’re in luck – these episodes will plunge you deep beneath the ocean, into verdant jungle canopies and inside the darkest, craggiest caves in the world, where practically no human beings have ever set foot. Being stoned will only enhance your ability to appreciate beauty and marvel at natural wonders. There’s no computer-generated imagery here – this is just Earth in its rawest, woke-up-like-this form. There is also drama a-plenty. Attenborough’s narration anthropomorphizes the planet’s birds, mammals and insects so powerfully, it’s impos-

sible not to become invested in their miniature chronicles; the lives of nonhumans are filled with just as many terrible choices and desperate bids for survival as our own. It’s possible the scientists behind Attenborough’s voiceovers deliberately enhanced the alleged emotions of these animals, to manipulate audiences and draw them into the story. But who cares? When a fox stuffs as many fluffy yellow chicks into her mouth as she can carry, you’ll tremble with indignation; moments later, when the same fox delivers those chicks to her rambunctious cubs, eagerly awaiting their dinner, you’ll gain a wise and reverent perspective on nature’s brutality. It has a higher purpose, after all. It’s not personal. Craziest episode: “Caves” (episode 4). These are Planet Earth’s final frontier – hardly any of us are privy to seeing what lies beneath. And believe me, there’s some shit in Caves you can’t unsee, even though you’ll probably want to. —— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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�� Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 19

[love and sex]

Sexual racism is alive and well in gay community Savage Love | Dan Savage

As a queer man of color – I’m Asian – I feel wounded whenever I am exposed to gay men in New York City, Toronto or any city where white gay men dominate. Gay men, mostly whites and Asians, reject me because of my race and no one admits to their sexual racism. I understand that sexual attraction is subconscious for many people, but it is unfair for a gay Asian like myself to be constantly marginalized and rejected. I fight for gay rights, too. I believe in equality, too. I had the same pain of being gay in high school and the same fears when coming out. Why is there no acceptance, no space, no welcome for me in this white-painted gay community? I’m 6-foot-1, 160 pounds, fit and very good-looking. What can I do? I might as well be a sexless monk. —— Enraged Dude Details Infuriating Experience “I relate to a lot of what EDDIE is feeling here,” said Joel Kim Booster, a Brooklyn writer and comedian. “The double-edged sword of living in a city with a large gay community is that the community gets so large that we finally have the opportunity to marginalize people within it.” Jeff Chu, a writer who also lives in Brooklyn, can relate: “Racism still thrives in the gay community, just as in broader society,” said Chu. “Many of us who are Asian American come out of the closet and walk into this weird bamboo cage, where we’re either fetishized or ignored. Many times I’d go into a gay bar and see guys playing out some gross interracial porno in their heads – with me playing the part of their Chinese pocket gay. Others would act as if I were wearing an invisibility cheongsam.”

Chu feels there’s plenty of blame to go around for this sad state of affairs. “It’s the gay media,” said Chu. “It’s Hollywood. (Even with all the LGBT characters we have on TV now, what images do we have of Asian American ones?) It’s that LGBTrights organizations still haven’t diversified enough, especially in their leadership. And it’s all of us, when we’re lazy and don’t confront our own prejudices.” Booster and Chu are right: Racism is a problem in the gay community, some people within are unfairly and cruelly marginalized, and we all need to confront our own prejudices. Even you, EDDIE. You cite your height (tall!), weight (slim!), and looks (VGL!) as proof you’ve faced sexual rejection based solely on your race. But short, heavy, average-looking guys face rejection for not being tall, lean or conventionally hot, just as you’ve faced rejection for not being white. (The cultural baggage and biases that inform a preference for, say, tall guys is a lot less toxic than the cultural baggage and biases that inform a preference for white guys – duh, obviously.) “As a stereotypically short Chinese guy, my first reaction to reading EDDIE’s letter? Damn, he’s six-foot-one! I’m jealous,” said Chu. “And that’s also part of the problem. I, like many others, have internalized an ideal: tall, gym-perfected, blah blah blah – and, above all, white.” Booster was also struck by your stats. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around any six-foot-one, fit, VGL guy having trouble getting laid,” said Booster. “On paper, this is the gay ideal! I don’t really consider myself any of those things – and I have a perfectly respectable amount of sex.” Booster, who manages to have plenty of sex in New York’s “white-painted

gay community,” had some tips for you. “EDDIE should stay away from the apps if the experience becomes too negative,” Booster said. “If logging on to a hookup app bums him out, take a break. Being a double minority can be isolating, but living in a big city can be great. There are meetups and clubs and activities for all stripes. Join a gay volleyball league – truly where gay Asian men thrive – or find one of the many gay Asian nights at one of the gay bars around the city. They’re out there.” Chu has also managed to find romantic success in New York. “I’ve been where EDDIE is, except shorter, less fit and less good-looking, and somehow I found a husband,” said Chu. “The monastery wasn’t my calling, and I suspect it’s not EDDIE’s, either.” A quick word to gay white men: It’s fine to have “preferences.” But we need to examine our preferences and give some thought to the cultural forces that may have shaped them. It’s a good idea to make sure your preferences are actually yours and not some limited and limiting racist crap pounded into your head by TV, movies and porn. But while preferences are allowed (and gay men of color have them, too), there’s no excuse for littering Grindr or Tinder or Recon – or your conversations in bars – with dehumanizing garbage like “no Asians,” “no Blacks,” “no femmes,” “no fatties,” etc. And while racism is a problem in the gay community (sometimes thoughtless, sometimes malicious, always unacceptable), according to 2010 U.S. Census data, as crunched by the Williams Institute at UCLA, same-sex couples are far likelier to be interracial (20.6 percent) than opposite-sex couples (13.9 percent). So there’s hope – and I don’t mean “hope that EDDIE will one day land a magic white boyfriend,” but hope for less racism in the gay community generally and fewer racist Grindr profiles specifically. The last word goes to Booster: “A note to the rice queens who will undoubtedly write in about this man: We like that you like us. But liking us solely because our race can be uncomfortable at best, and

creepy as hell at worst. In my experience, it’s perfectly OK to keep some of those preferences behind the curtain while you get to know us a bit as humans first.” Jeff Chu is the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. Follow him on Twitter @jeffchu. Follow Joel Kim Booster on Twitter @ihatejoelkim. I am an Italian bisexual 25-year-old guy. I’m in love with a great guy, but he lives far away, and we see each other only one time per month and sometimes less. A few weeks ago, I had sex with a female university colleague. It wasn’t anything special: She was somewhat drunk and hurt me with her teeth during petting, so I didn’t have a good erection and I didn’t come. But I liked having sex with a woman. I want to do it again, but I love my boyfriend and I don’t want to hurt him. Am I destined to be unfaithful? —— More Or Less Italians pet with their teeth? Good to know. Also good to know: yourself. I would never suggest that bi guys can’t honor monogamous commitments – even though I say just that about straight guys, gay guys, straight women and lesbians – but it would be foolish for you to make a monogamous commitment. Not because you’re “destined to be unfaithful,” but because you’ve already been unfaithful. Here’s what you know about yourself: You’re bisexual, you want to have sex with women and men, and you don’t want to cheat. Which means you’ll have to either renegotiate the terms of the relationship you’re in now or end the relationship and find a boyfriend (or girlfriend) who will give you their OK. Dan Savage is a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist writing for The Stranger in Seattle. Contact him at mail@savagelove.net or @fakedansavage on Twitter and listen to his podcast every week at savagelovecast.com.

20 | Thursday, January 14, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[happening] Thursday Beer Bingo, 8 p.m., Moe’s, 937 Main Ave.

259-9018. Karaoke with DJ Crazy Charlie, 9 p.m., Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 3752568. Karaoke, 9 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509 East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Friday Andy Janowsky, 5:30-10 p.m., Diamond

Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Kirk James, 6 p.m., 6512 Restaurant &

Lounge, 152 E. College Drive, 247-9083. Lisa Blue and Her Big Dance Band,

6-10 p.m., Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Micah Wyatt, SoCal, 7 p.m., $3 cover, Man-

cos Valley Distillery, 116 N Main Street, Mancos, 946-0229. enhakê, 7 p.m., $20/$5, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave., 3rdavearts.org, 903-7427. Blair Crimmins and the Hookers,7 p.m., $15/12, Sunflower Theatre, 8 E Main Street, Cortez, 516-1818, sunflowertheatre. org Black Velvet Trio, 7-11p.m., Derailed Pour

House, 725 Main Ave., 247-5440. Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801. DJ Kaztro, 9 p.m. Moe’s, 937 Main Ave. 259-

9018.

Saturday The Met: Live in HD featuring Les Pêcheurs de Perles, 10:55 a.m., $23/$21,

Vallecito Room, Fort Lewis College Student Union, metopera.org/Season/2015-16-Season. Snowdown Fashion Do’s & Don’ts ticket sale, 6 a.m., $15/$20, Magpie’s News-

stand, 707 Main Ave., snowdown.org. Kirk James Band, 2:30-5.30 p.m., Purgy’s

Pub, Purgatory Resort. Black Velvet Duo, 6-10 p.m., Seven Rivers

Steakhouse, Sky Ute Casino, Ignacio. Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801. TDJ Noonz, 9 p.m. , Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 2599018.

Sunday Irish music jam session, 12:30 p.m.,

Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www.theirishembassypub.com. Informal tango practice and instruction, 5-7 p.m., Groove U Durango, 26369 U.S. Highway 160, tangodurango.info, 533-7231. Jazz church (experienced musician drop-in session), 6 p.m., Derailed Pour

House, 725 Main Ave., 247-5440, www.derailedpourhouse.com. Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801. Latin music night, 8 p.m., Moe’s, 937

Main Ave., 259-9018. Hip-Hop Karaoke with coolzey, 9 p.m.

Courtesy of Blair Crimmins & the Hookers

»» Blair Crimmins & the Hookers will take the stage Friday night at the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez.

Get out to Cortez for some thoroughly modern ragtime So maybe the snow of the past couple of weeks has you itching to get out of Durango – a quick drive around town is all the proof you need that the residents of this fine city are suffering from a scorching case of cabin fever. Have neither the time nor inclination for a major trip out of here? Then how about a quick trip to Cortez to check out a little ragtime and 1920s-style Dixieland jazz? Blair Crimmins & the Hookers will be making their first-ever stop in Cortez when they play the Sunflower Theatre on Friday night. Crimmins, a thoroughly modern musician, takes the music of a bygone era and brings

it into modern times. And with 500 shows under his belt, including opening for Mumford & Sons and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, it’s pretty safe to say dude knows what he’s doing. The musicians will take the stage at 7 p.m., with doors opening 45 minutes before the show, so give yourself enough time to get out to Cortez. Tickets are $12 online at https://sunflowertheatre.org/events/blair-crimmins and-the-hookers-friday-january-15th-7pm/. Whatever tickets remain will be sold at the door for $15. This is a standing show – limited seating will be available, and a cash bar and concessions will be rarin’ to go.

Continued on Page 22 �� Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 21

[happening]

Wilson Harwood playing at the Ranch

Where should we

DGO tonight?

If sticking closer to town is more your speed, and you’re not sure exactly what kind of music you have a hankerin’ for, then head down to El Rancho Tavern to check out Wilson Harwood on Thursday night. Harwood, who launched his solo career last year, is a Jack of all trades when it comes to exploring musical genres – he’s found influences in everything from bluegrass to Afropop, oldtime banjo to the blues. And the coolest part? He incorporates all sorts of instruments and layered vocal harmonies into his performance using live looping – so you get all the fun and full sound of a live band with just one guy on stage. Harwood will begin playing at 9 p.m.

Moe’s, 937 Main Ave. 259-9018.

Pub quiz, 6:30 p.m., Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200.

91.9/93.9 FM, www.kdur.org. Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Ska

Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., yoga and a pint of beer for $10, www.skabrewing.com.

Tuesday Super Ted’s Super Trivia, 6:12 p.m., free, Ska Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., 247-5792. Who’s Bad:The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band, 7 p.m., $39/$29,

Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, durangoconcerts.com. Open mic night, 8 p.m. , Moe’s, 937 Main

Ave., 259-9018.

Wednesday Open studio figure drawing, 6:30-8:30

p.m., $15/$10, Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., www.durangoarts.org.

to the DGO calendar with

There is no cover charge. For more information, call 2598111.

BREW Pub & Kitchen, 117 W. College Drive, 259-5959.

Four Corners Arts Forum, 9 a.m., KDUR

+ Add an Event

the Ranch on Thursday night.

From Page 21

Monday

Your #1 source for what’s going on around Durango dgomag.com/calendar

Scott Clark/ wilsonharwood.com

»» Wilson Harwood will take the stage at

Two-step and swing dance lessons,

6:30-7:30 p.m., $10, Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 799-8832. Geeks Who Drink trivia, 6:30 p.m.,

Ping Pong and Poker tournaments,

8 p.m. , Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018. Karaoke with DJ Crazy Charlie, 9 p.m.,

Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 3752568.

Ongoing “The White Season,” Celebrating the ephemeral beauty of winter, Jan. 8-30, Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., durangoarts.org. “Irregularities” by Jen Pack, Jan.

8-Feb. 20, Durango Arts Center Art Library, 802 East Second Ave., durangoarts.org. Site Unseen: Anna Hepler, Jan. 22-Feb. 19, Fort Lewis College Gallery, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday, fortlewis.edu/art-design/ArtGallery.aspx.

Submissions To submit listings for publication in DGO and dgomag.com, go to www.swscene.com and click “Add Your Event,” fill out the form with all your event info and submit. Listings at swscene.com will appear both at dgomag.com and in our weekly print edition. Posting events at swscene.com is free and takes about one business day to process.

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Horoscope ARIES (March 21 to April 19) This is an excellent day full of wonderful positive opportunities, especially if you’re talking to bosses and VIPs. Now is the time to make your pitch. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) This is a great day to make travel plans or pursue avenues in higher education, medicine and the law. You will find that doors just open for you. GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) This is an excellent day, once again, to discuss how to deal with shared property, inheritances and insurance disputes because things will go your way. Trust your luck! CANCER (June 21 to July 22)

Bizarro

In discussion with partners and close friends, you will be open to big ideas! You want to travel, you want to explore

new places and you want to learn something new. LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22) Your ideas related to work today are big and enthusiastic. Your winning confidence will persuade others to see how good your ideas actually are. VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22) The arts and all creative projects are favored today. Ditto for sports events. You’re in a playful frame of mind, but you also want to do things in a big way! LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22) This is a lovely day to pursue realestate deals. Likewise, it’s a good day for family discussions, especially about family businesses or home repairs because people are upbeat and positive. SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)

Writers, editors, teachers and actors, as well as people in sales and marketing, will thrive today because their words are like gold. (It is your positive frame of mind that will carry the day.) SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21) Trust your moneymaking ideas today because you’re not afraid to think big. This is a winning day for many people.

what you’re looking for. You feel confident. PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20) Relations with friends, especially people in group situations, will be positive today. Others might elect you to a position or ask you to take over something. BORN TODAY

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)

You are dogmatic once your mind is made up. Personally, you are courageous and sometimes attracted to danger. Because you are heading for a time of financial accumulation in the next three years, settle your debts this year. If you clear away indebtedness, you will be in the best position possible. In order to grow in the future, consolidate your affairs this year.

Research of any kind will go well today because you are enthusiastic about

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19) You’ll enjoy talking to absolutely anyone today because you feel enthusiastic about life and happy to be alive! Travel and discussions about lofty ideas will appeal to you the most.

[ we need a word for this ] When you avoid describing someone by their race so you don’t seem racist. “Which one is Tom?” “He’s the ... tall one, with the glasses.”

When someone in a conversation keeps jumping in with words they think the other one is about to say, e.g.,: Person A: “I think tonight I’ll just make something easy for dinner, like –” Person B: “Spaghetti?” Person A: “Yeah maybe, or something healthy? I dunno, like –” Person B: “A salad?” Person A: “Sure, yeah, a salad, or maybe something hot like –” Person B: “Soup?” Person A: “Yeah soup would be good.” �� Thursday, January 14, 2016 | 23

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