DJS Put Their Spin On Durango by Ballantine Communications

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DJS PUT THEIR SPIN ON DURANGO True to their craft, these three will leave you spellbound

Also: Loving or hating Jell-O, home brewers beware, and cannabis for relief of chronic pain

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Please Join Us in Welcoming

Dr. Rachel Chaney |

San Juan Regional Heart Center

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Rachel Chaney has joined San Juan Regional Heart Center. Dr. Chaney received her undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She then went on to pursue her medical degree from UNM’s School of Medicine, where she graduated in 1991. Dr. Chaney completed her residency in internal medicine at UNM, as well as fellowships in cardiology and research echocardiography in the University’s Department of Cardiology. Dr. Chaney has more than 20 years of experience as a cardiologist and is board certified in cardiology and internal medicine. She has a special interest in non-invasive cardiology and prevention and congenital heart disease. She most recently practiced in Durango and has been part of the Four Corners community for a long time, visiting the area every summer before moving to Durango permanently in 2013. Dr. Chaney was born in Los Alamos and grew up in Albuquerque. She enjoys running, tennis, hiking, golf, and wildflower gardening. Dr. Chaney is looking forward to seeing patients at San Juan Regional Heart Center’s Bayfield and Farmington clinics.

407 South Schwartz Avenue, Suite 202 Farmington, New Mexico 87401 | 505.609.6770

sanjuanregional.com

A Division of San Juan Regional Medical Center

480 Wolverine Drive #12 Bayfield, Colorado 81122 | 970.444.0260

DGO Magazine

STAFF

What’s inside Volume 2 Number 7

December 8, 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

9 The glorious designs of vintage garment labels

From the Editor

Vintage clothing labels are fascinating examples of graphic design and typography worth seeking out and examining for their beauty and for a peek into bygone eras of clothing manufacturing.

Love it or Hate it

Sound

Amy Maestas David Holub

David Holub dholub@bcimedia.com 375-4551 Staff writer Patty Templeton ptempleton@bcimedia.com 375-4546 Contributors Katie Cahill Christopher Gallagher Dan Groth Bryant Liggett Jon E. Lynch

Wanna know about CDs?

In the second of a three-part series, audio engineer Scott Smith, owner of Scooter’s Place recording studio, tells you about the benefits those shiny little discs you may have mistaken for coasters. Or really, really hard little Frisbees.

Heather Narwid Nathan Schmidt Cooper Stapleton Cyle Talley Robert Alan Wendeborn Advertising 247-3504 Reader Services

Home brewers beware

Why would AB want to buy a chain of home-brew shops? Is it going to secretly get all the craft-beer drinkers to switch to Bud Light? Not in a million years.

Beer

17 Poetry

In a small corner space off the beaten path (College Plaza off Eighth Ave. next to W.J. Doyle Wine and Spirits, to be exact) Raider Ridge Café has blossomed into a local food favorite.

18 Weed

Seeing Through 18 the Smoke

Netflix and chill ‑ 420 edition 19

20 Savage Love 21 Happening

18 Cannabis for pain There are things that can help, especially when things reach the acute stage, but many come with issues of their own in the form of side effects. Enter cannabis as a pain-relief option.

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23 Horoscope/ puzzles/ Bizarro

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ON THE COVER

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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.

Album Reviews 7 16 Movies

10 Raider Ridge Café

Editor/ creative director

Downtown Lowdown

Posh Josh is a DJ who keeps the music going in Durango. Tell us what you think!

David Holub/DGO; photo by McCarson Jones/ Red Scarf Shots

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

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

Jell-O Love it

Girlfriend, boyfriend, partner? Labeling a mate can be tricky

t a party over Thanksgiving weekend, Stephanie introduced me to someone as her “partner.” It was the first time I recall her using any word to describe me, much less “partner.” Later, she said she was just trying it out, wanted to see how it sounded. I thought it sounded fine in theory, sufficiently reflecting the seriousness of our relationship, but in hindsight we agreed that there was something not right about it, something lacking. She said it felt too sterile – like how you might introduce Bob from the Office – lacking the admittedly-sappy love and romance gurgling between us. Going through a list of potential names for romantic partners, we were perplexed that nothing jumped out, nothing seemed entirely right. Even now, I’m not sure one exists. When meeting people after I got divorced six years ago, I began referring to my ex-wife as “my former life partner.” Most of that was me intentionally using a vague term to signify that I had merely ended a serious relationship, and whether it was marriage or not, I reserved the right to not get into all that if I chose. “Ex-wife” always sounded a bit too country music for me, a honkytonk moniker that carried too much stigma. If you’ve broken up with your girlfriend, no matter how serious, you’re experienced. If you have an ex-wife, you’re damaged goods. Or so I thought at the time. How I referred to my ex-wife had to do with how I wished others to view me, how I felt about myself and my situation, and societal stigmas. And that, I find, is why so many of us have trouble coming up with what we choose to call the people we’re involved with when we’re not married. Unlike a pet name – schnookums, babycakes, whathaveyou – which are usually private and likely arbitrary, the euphemism you use to describe your romantic entanglement is, by definition, public. And there’s so much to convey in a label. Here is my assessment of

some of the more common monikers for a female mate: Friend: The safe choice if you’ve been dating for four weeks or fewer. The unsafest choice for anything longer than that. Significant other: Great if you’re looking to sound vague or like a robot. Like calling your dog “my special animal.” Might as well say, “The Earthling I do all of the things with.” Girlfriend: The standard bearer for the unmarried. However, the person in this scenario is rarely a girl and does things friends don’t normally (there’s another term reserved exclusively for those kinds of friends). Partner: I used to associate this one with committed gay couples. Now co-opted by heteros across the land, it implies a level of domesticity and seriousness but can make your babykins sound like an asexual roommate if you’re not careful. Girl/Woman: These are great if you’re trying to come off as objectifying or possessive. However, the male equivalent of this is something like “my guy” or “my feller,” which don’t sound nearly as bad. Lady friend: This one is endearingly antiquated and a strong contender, but I can only think of the exchange from “The Big Lebowski”: The Dude: Look, just stay away from my [bleeping] lady friend. Da Fino: Hey, I’m not messing with your special lady. The Dude: She’s not my special lady, she’s my [bleeping] lady friend.” Old lady: Only works if you’ve been together for a few decades and/or that old lady of yours rides a Harley. Honey/Honeybun/honey-dew/ honey-anything: Reserved for when you want others to hate you for being intolerable. In the end, only one sounded right for me: lady friend. After hearing this, Stephanie said it was fine but that she would now be introducing me as her gentleman caller.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you exactly what Jell-O is, other than it probably contains gelatin (not even sure what that is). And something about horse hooves. How horses got tied up in this colorfully bouncy treat, I don’t know. I love Jell-O because it’s the most socially-acceptable food that is equal parts sustenance and toy. Just by eating it you’re kind of playing. I mean, who can eat Jell-O without tapping it with your spoon and watching it jiggle and undulate for hours? Give me a room and a Jell-O GIF and I’ll be occupied for a day. Jell-O is also highly versatile. It’s a tasty frankenflavor dessert, a lifesaver for the infirm, you can mold it into any shape you like, and it’s a great place to suspend fruit or office supplies for practical joke purposes. Jell-O is also one food loved most by the very young and the very old. We come in to the world eating Jell-O, and leave it eating Jell-O. If I made a graph titled “The love of Jell-O, by age,” it would look like a U, high for babies and the elderly, lowest among those 40-ish or so (with a small spike around Jell-O shot age). It may not be filling, but Jell-O sure is fun. — David Holub

Hate it Jell-O jiggles on the plate, which isn’t natural. Food shouldn’t move of its own accord. Remember that scene in “Jurassic Park,” when the annoying little girl realizes a deadly T-rex is approaching because her green Jell-O is wriggling around wildly on the spoon? That freaks me out. And I don’t mean the dinosaur. It’s sort of limp and flaccid, and often oddly colored, like toxic waste. When people devour Jell-O, they are wont to suck or slurp it into their mouths in a fairly unflattering, unappetizing way. I’d imagine it’s perfect for senior citizens who don’t have teeth and cannot chew. And I know children like it because of the aforementioned nutty colors and how it can be molded into unique shapes and because it wobbles and quivers and kids enjoy that kind of kinetic entertainment. I’ve also heard adults can consume alcoholic treats called “Jell-O shots,” but I’ve personally never had the pleasure. It’s just too gross. — Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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[Expert Advice on Trivial Affairs]

Get Smart | Cyle Talley

An audio engineer talks CDs In the second of a three-part series, audio engineer Scott Smith, owner of Scooter’s Place recording studio, tells you about the benefits those shiny little discs you may have mistaken for coasters. Or really, really hard little Frisbees. Why the move from vinyl to CDs?

captures everything. So the way you used to record to get those sounds doesn’t work anymore. Those early digital recordings Several things took us away from the LP. were perceived as, “Oh, that is so harsh!” It’s not very portable, for instance. The When the reality is that we had to learn cassette really brought us something new to record differently because we were that way. All of a sudden, you could record suddenly able to actually capture what your album onto something that you could was happening. Cymbals changed. Listen play in your car, or in a boombox on your to a recording made in the ’60s and then shoulder. You didn’t have to have a turnSmith one made now. Those cymbals sound way table anymore. You didn’t need to know different because we capture them much how to work one – all you had to do was differently. We can still make amazing recordings, and know how to push PLAY and REWIND. That’s what we can still cop the sounds of the old analog recordwas really revolutionary, the idea that music could ings, we just have to work differently. My point in all be portable. We’d figured out that the flat disc was of that being, if a CD is recorded correctly, it’ll sound the better-sounding medium – cassettes were never great, and I really appreciate that. very good in quality – but we now knew that we had to make it portable, too. Hence, the compact disc. So you work differently because the CD Smaller, more portable, and most importantly, more captures things more clearly? durable. I mean, you can still scratch it and ruin it, but It’s digital, so you have a sampling rate, which is it’s a lot more durable than vinyl ever was. how many times per second (the medium) is taking Benefits. CD. Go. a picture. The sampling rate of a CD is 44,100 – so 44.1K. So 44,100 times a second, it’s taking a picture It took all of the benefits of the album, and then made of what’s going on. The amount of pixels that are conit better. First, there’s more length on a CD – which is tained within that picture is the bit depth, which, for good and bad – but an album can have 40 minutes of a CD, is 16 bits, or 16 placeholders. So when I record music, and that’s sort of pushing it, while you can get someone, I record them at 24 bit – a much higher res74 minutes on a CD. You’ve got a medium that does olution with a lot more information – so that when I need some care, but isn’t being degraded with each shrink it onto a CD, (the information) is all there. One consecutive listen. The quality, the detail, everything of the funny things we had to relearn is that a lot of is there for every listen. That’s not to say that misthe old master tapes made to produce records were takes weren’t made, because we learn how to work used to make CDs. It sounded awful. (laughs) They with the medium we’re given. had to go back and remaster Huh?

them to get a CD that sounded like it supposed to. The record companies really screwed a lot of things up there. That’s why remasters and reissues are so important and so great. They realized that they were constraining the new medium possibilities with the old medium’s limitations. Remasters aren’t just a money grab? No, they make improvements on the sonic qualities. Anything in the late ’90s to early 2000s that was a reissue from the early ’80s when the CD first came out, that’s what you want. That’s the result of the record companies saying, “Oopsie!” They weren’t thinking! They grabbed the old master tapes and went at it without thinking, “Now, wait a second. Why does that sound so bad?” What do you love about CDs? I remember listening to records the third or fourth time and getting that pop or crackle sound and I would just – “ARGH!” – because of the dust and stuff that I knew was collecting in the grooves. One thing that I love about the CD is that every time you put it in the player, it’s the same recording. Remember, vinyl is physical and so each time you listen to it, you’re losing high end and there’s stuff getting on it. But CDs – “AH!” I have CDs that I bought 30 years ago that still sound great. My records? Not so much. (laughs) Cyle Talley has been trying to come up with band names for four consecutive days and still has bupkis. If you’ve got any suggestions or if there’s anything you’d like to GET SMART about, email him at: cyle@cyletalley.com

Say you’re a chef and you’re using a certain type of flour and water to give you a certain consistency. Then say that suddenly you have to switch to a different brand of flour. Well, now it’s not whipping up the same way it used to, even with the same amount of ingredients. When we record on tape and vinyl, there are ways we work in order to make the sound the way we like it. We go and use the same recording methods for this new medium that doesn’t have the limitations of vinyl and tape, and the resulting sound is harsh. Well, the problem is that transience and magnetism doesn’t work like digital recording. It’s lethargic. It takes a while to get going and to get excited. So you crash that cymbal in an analog recording and it’s “PSSSSSHHHHH!” Crash it in digital and it’s “CAH-RASH!!!” Digital �� Thursday, December 8, 2016 | 5

[sound]

Downtown Lowdown | Bryant Liggett

Crash Music cultivates community in northern New Mexico

ou build community through music. It’s an ideology that has worked for centuries: You have a group of people who are interested in writing and performing music, and they do. What follows are people who are interested in supporting the writing and performing of said music through attending shows and purchasing LPs, CDs, cassettes or downloads. Along the way, some others will get involved via booking shows, operating traditional and non-traditional venues, making fliers or artwork for the recorded product and spreading the word. In the end in a perfect world, all parties participating flourish either through a sustainable livelihood or perhaps experience enough personal fulfillment through the art to induce happiness. The world is far from perfect and getting farther from perfect every second, but there are still communities grinding it out, trying to make their part of the world better through music. Aztec, New Mexico, may be a blip on your drive to Albuquerque or other parts south, but since 2012, George Rowe and Crash Music have been adding to their community via music. It’s the mission of the organization. While an uphill battle, they’re slowly taking hold in what was a desert of a music scene in northern New Mexico. Their first show featured guitar player Levi Platero, a Stevie Ray Vaughn-influenced blues and rock player. Platero will return to Crash Music this Saturday. Rowe spent 34 years teaching music and math in New Mexico public schools. After retiring, he was going to use Crash Music solely as a place to give music lessons. “This was going to be my retirement. A small studio where I was just going to teach private music lessons,” Rowe said in an email. “Then we tried a few intimate concerts. We had Kirk James in one night and drew 90 people, way too many for this small space. The Aztec Theater became vacant in June 2013 and we moved over to it.” Rowe is a folk musician, and that genre had been his mind-set when it came to booking bands and op-

Illustration by Alexi Grojean

Bryant’s best Saturday: Blues-rock with Levi Platero Band, 7:30 p.m., $15, Crash Music, 104 N. Main Ave., Aztec, N.M. Information: (505) 427-6748. Saturday: The Living Legends with all original members, 9 p.m. $39. Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive. Information: 799-2281.

erating a venue, a venture Rowe has admitted knowing little about. “I’m a folk musician first, and I’m interested in roots music,” he said. “We started with a blues-heavy lineup, but we’ve expanded to include rockabilly, rhythm and blues, funk, honky-tonk, new acoustic music and Americana.” There’s a community for a venue in that area, mostly people in northern New Mexico who may not want to make the drive to Durango. It’s also been fruitful for artists that Durango venues have passed on and for music lovers in Durango willing to see

those artists. Artists who have played the venue in the past include Indigenous, The Appleseed Collective, Finnders and Youngberg, The Jon Stickley Trio, J.P. Harris and the Tough Choices, and blues musicians such as Eddie Turner and Bill “Howlin Mad” Perry. That’s a small sampling of a growing list of musicians who are now favoring Aztec for a show over Durango. They’re treated well by the venue, and the venue operators do their part to use local media outlets to get people in the door. “This venue has been fueled by the following wish on my part to present what we call the ‘best bands you’ve never heard of,’” Rowe said. “In the last four years, the bands that have performed at Crash Music have provided stellar entertainment for our customers, who have become avid fans and followers of these bands.” Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.

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[sound] What’s New Eric Bachmann and Jon Rauhouse, “Eric Bachmann & Jon Rauhouse”

co, John Langford, Giant Sand and many, many others.

holding multi-instrumentalist roles as part of her headlining live show. Bachmann is perhaps best known as the principal songwriter, vocalist and guitar player for seminal ’90s indie rock outfit Archers of Loaf. More recently, many might know his vast catalog of recordings under the Crooked Fingers moniker. Jon Rauhouse is a hard-working Americana journeymen, releasing records under various combinations of his name in addition to being a member of Dollar Store, Grievous Angels and Neko’s band. Rauhouse is, seemingly, the go-to when you want one of the most revered pedal steel or steel guitar players available. He has appeared on many of your favorite Americana and alt-country records, for artists such as the Old 97’s, the Waco Brothers, Calexi-

Available: Now, via Merge Records on limited edition run of 1,000 vinyl LPs. One can also order the vinyl directly from either Bachmann’s or Rauhouse’s website. Compact discs are in the works and, as always, check at your local independent record store for availability as well. Eric Bachmann and Jon Rauhouse are exceptionally busy men. As of this review, both are wrapping up dates as touring (permanent?) members for Neko Case. These two spent the past tour opening shows for Case, playing tracks from this stellar collaboration record, then

“Eric Bachmann & Jon Rauhouse” is a wonderfully warm album of instrumental Americana. There are a variety of sonic textures on the record, all held seamlessly together by the skilled duo’s interplay. Acoustic guitar and pedal steel are the most prominent instruments on the record, both piano and violin and are featured as well, adding depth and dynamics. Hopefully, this the first of many future collaborations between the two. Recommended for fans of John Fahey, Calexico, William Tyler, Steve Gunn or any of the aforementioned artists. —— Jon E. Lynch KDUR_PD@fortlewis.edu

New at Southwest Sound Dec. 2 1. Neil Young,“Peace Trail” On this, his 41st studio album (not including live recordings or EPs), Neil Young continues to strive to show the value of peace, conversation and the environment. “Peace Trail” is no significant departure or stylistic change for Neil. The focus is on acoustic songwriting and lyrics that move the listener. On tracks such as “Peace Trail,” some of the noise of his more garage-y material pops up, but it is not overbearing in the slightest. Sometimes, he does duets with himself, like on “My Pledge.” The world always needs more Neil Young, and this album should delight old fans and those who just discovered him in the Telluride valley a few months ago. 2. Tech N9ne,“Storm” People talk a lot of shit on Tech N9ne. Maybe it’s the association with the juggalo movement? Maybe it’s from back when he used to wear face paint? I dunno. Regard-

less, the dude is one of the hardest-working rappers in the game, and at 45, he shows no signs of slowing down. This new record is an album in three movements, Kingdom, Clown Town and G-Zone, all referring to different aspects of Tech’s personality and career. The single “What If It Was Me?” comes from the record’s G-Zone section and tells a simple but poignant story of a time when Tech was selling CDs outside a convenience store and cops stopped him. An all too familiar story for the times, and one that is handled with a surprising amount of tact and empathy. Don’t sleep on this one if you want a solid hip-hop record from one of the best and the fastest to do it. 3. Sun Ra/Merzbow,“Strange City” All right guys, getting into the real shit now. “Strange City” is a reimagining of two legendary Sun Ra albums, “The Magic City” and “Strange Strings,” by Japanese harsh noise pioneer Merzbow. It is harsh

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4. Atmosphere,“Frida Kahlo vs Ezra Pound” All last year, before the release of “Fishing Blues,” Atmosphere had been releasing single after single digitally that never showed up on an actual release. You will find those singles collected here, a carefully curated EP by Slug and Ant that mirrors their usual quiet and contemplative approach to hip-hop music. The songs have nothing really unifying them, but if you are a sucker for Atmosphere’s unique take on the genre like so many

people in this town are, this one will be worth paying attention to. It also includes appearances by Aesop Rock, Prof, Grieves and Blueprint. 5. Last Shadow Puppets, “Dream Synopsis” After dropping their surprise return “Everything You’ve Come To Expect” back in April, The Last Shadow Puppets are back with an EP with two re-recorded tracks from the new record and a smattering of covers from notable acts like Leonard Cohen and The Fall and more obscure artists like The Glaxo Babies and Jacques Dutronc. Last Shadow Puppets are practically a supergroup to those in the know, featuring members of The Arctic Monkeys, Simian Mobile Disco, The Rascals and Mini Mansions. They play a quiet take on fuzzed-out rock, with a whole lot of space in the production. If you want something heady, check out this EP, and their newest album as well. —— Cooper Stapleton

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and dissonant and scary. “Strange Strings” is the resultant noise from giving a bunch of classically trained reed instrumentalists all string instruments and being told to “play when I (Sun Ra) point at you.” I will admit, this recording was dense even for me, a lover of both free jazz and noise music, so venture in with no expectations and a heaping spoonful of aural endurance and prepare yourself for something different.

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[beer]

First Draughts | Robert Alan Wendeborn

Home brewers beware: A beer giant is in your house

here was a big piece of beer news that happened over the past month that I didn’t miss, but I didn’t want to jump to a bunch of conclusions or say something reactionary. There were two big acquisitions by ABInbev in November: one was Karbach Brewing Co., a production brewery in Houston, and the other was Northern Brewer, a chain of home-brew supply shops. The bigger news is not the sale of Karbach. AB didn’t have a craft brand in the South, and from what I’ve heard and read, Karbach was made up of a bunch of sellouts from the beginning. (The owners used to own beer distribution companies.) No, the bigger news is the purchase of Northern Brewer. Everything I’ve read, casually makes fun of the beer nerds at the home-brew shop while they struggle with the why? Why would AB want to buy a chain of home-brew shops? Is it going to secretly get all the craft-beer drinkers to switch to Bud Light? Not in a million years. Is it to track trends in the industry? Ha, home brewers follow trends, that’s why there’s always a section of pre-bought clone recipes in home-brew stores. Is it to get the lowdown on all the cool new hops? Yeah, ’cause home-brew shops are where hop growers do most of their R&D. Is it to secretly steal recipes and techniques from home brewers? AB really wants to know about the sub-pump in a giant tank of ice water in your fridge as a cold liquor tank. Is this a big PR move to gently stroke the ego of the benevolent beer nerd? The answer to all of these is “no.” From a very basic business standpoint, it’s not a bad idea: Cumulatively, home brewers brew around 2 million barrels a year, which puts them in the top 10 craft breweries in the country, and

not kept in the vault of a home brewer’s mom’s basement. And sorry, home brewers, you are not deciding what the cool new hops are – that’s all up to the hop farmers and researchers. So why? As much as I’m making fun of the home brewer (little shout out to Animas Alers here), AB does want something that belongs to you: your culture. I talked about this in another article, about how the reason why AB would buy a craft brewery has nothing to do with production, or with innovation, or with marketing: AB has enough money to buy all of those things a million times over. But what AB can’t buy is authenticity, so it buys someone else’s. It’s not going to make a ton of money off home-brewing supplies, but it’s tapping into a network of craft-beer communities. It will own a chain of places where people who spend a lot of money and time and thought on beer congregate and converse. With this purchase, I think AB realizes that craft beer isn’t just a product that it can make, such as Shock Top or Blue Moon, but craft beer is a culture, and by purchasing craft breweries that build chains of brew pubs, or by buying home-brew shops, AB can sell you your own culture. I know I sound like a negative Nancy, but I really think that this is going to turn into a sort of Hot Topification of beer: You’re going to be able Illustration by Alexi Grojean to buy your Elysian Brewing Co. T-shirt that reads “Corporate Beer Still Sucks” from the home-brew shop that’s owned by they all need ingredients and equipment, somethe largest beer corporation in the world. Might as well put Dick Cantwell’s face on a red T-shirt: thing AB knows very well. When you consider Viva la Revolucion. AB is a $250 billion company, there’s still not that a ton of money in Northern Brewer, so the other questions are more plausible, at least at first. Robert Alan Wendeborn is a former cellar operator at But, sorry beer nerds, you aren’t driving innoSka Brewing and current lead cellar operator at Tin Roof Brewing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. vation or change. The best kept beer secrets are

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[Sartorial over-enthusiasm with Heather of Sideshow]

Style Fetish | Heather Narwid

Heather Narwid owns and operates Sideshow Emporium, a vintage and modern clothing store for men and women. Sideshow is located in Durango at 208 County Road 250 (west of Bread and north of Rocky

Mountain Pawn at 32nd Street, in with the Vault and Core Value Fitness) and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Call her at 739-4646 and ask her anything at sideshowdolores@gmail.com.

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»» Tags reflect a deep pride in craft, bygone eras

garment, like Western wear, or the region where the clothing was made, like the Southwest. These labels also tell a story of the pride and thoughtfulness that went into the making of a quality garment. The extra expense and time taken by old-school sewers to design and have made intricate and well-designed labels is impressive. Tags were often sewn in by hand with precise, tiny stitches. Extravagant labels must have been considered well worth the effort to best represent and communicate the clothing they adorned. On lots of tags from shops from the 1930s through the ’60s, the names of the individuals who designed and/ or made the garments – sometimes even their addresses, phone numbers and images of their storefronts – remain as »» A tag depicting Gray’s storefront with a great font. I poignant reminders of a believe it dates from the 1940s. This is from a series of classier, more detail-oriframed-on-glitter labels I put together several years ago. ented past. I like to think of these labels as tiny sartorial love letters to their craft and to the wearer. Even into later eras of the 1970s and ’80s, tags were of snazzy and bold designs, with the styles of the times reflected. When you deal with vintage clothing, tags are immediately noticed and examined. They can also »» The most dapper, monocle’d dude to grace the label of provide clues needed to a fantastic 1950s rayon Western snap shirt from “Cinti”– identify the era of a garCincinnati, of all places! ment. Find endless examples of beautiful and inspiring vintage fashion labels in your local vintage stores or on Instagram. Search the hashtags: #vintageclothinglabels, #vintagelabels, #clothingtags, #vintagetypography. Search these terms on»» Tag from the 1960s from Nizhonie Designs out of line for other collections Cortez – a fascinating story of a pair of Navajo brothers of vintage clothing tag screen-printing fabrics with traditional imagery. This is imagery. from a velvet gown printed with kachinas. intage clothing labels are fascinating examples of graphic design and typography worth seeking out and examining for their beauty and for a peek into bygone eras of clothing manufacturing. These little bespoke graphic-artworks are filled with lovely and bold imagery and logos, designer and shop names in classic fonts and sometimes even a space in which the purchaser’s name would be embroidered. Their design can reflect the style of the

The glorious designs of vintage garment labels

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�� Thursday, December 8, 2016 | 9

[eat]

Raider Ridge Café:

Fresh and from scratch

»» It’s off the beaten path, but its focus on ingredients make it a standout In a small corner space off the beaten path (College Plaza off Eighth Avenue next to W.J. Doyle Wine and Spirits, to be exact) the Raider Ridge Café has blossomed into a local food favorite. Founded in 2006 by Fort Lewis College business graduate Jarrod Regan, the RRC is open for breakfast and lunch, and serves a variety of gourmet wraps, salads, homemade soups, whole fruit smoothies, and coffee. Everything is made from scratch daily, and it’s all exceedingly healthy; there are even gluten-free, dairyfree and vegetarian options. The café partners with local farms, so its meat and produce is locally sourced year-round. We chatted with Regan about what makes his food so good and what the customers enjoy most. On opening a café in Durango

Shaun Stanley/BCI Media

»» A sign showing his support for local farmers above Raider Ridge Café owner Jarrod Regan as he prepares a customer’s meal.

I fell in love with the town and learned to cook as I was working my way through school. I didn’t have a lot of foresight, as far as opening a business – it was more of a challenge, to see if I could do it. For the most part, the community embraces growth and new businesses. People definitely want to try out new things. But there was a semi-similar business in this spot before, called Flanders, and that had a really loyal following. A lot of them came in and then walked away when they found out we weren’t the same business! On the most popular dishes

People love our build-your-own breakfast burritos. You can put whatever you want in there. [BYO burritos include up to six ingredients for $6.50, for example Turtle Lake Sprouts, Sunnyside sage sausage, tofu, Boar’s Head ham.] Everything is fresh to order; we make all our salad dressings, sauces, marinades, everything from scratch. We cook our potatoes every morning; we crack our eggs from the shell every morning. There’s nothing processed. We’ve adjusted the menu

maybe five times over 10 years to make it as balanced as possible. There’s also a special brunch menu on Sundays that changes seasonally. Right now, we have stuffed delicata squash [locally-grown squash roasted and filled with scrambled cage-free eggs, kale, onions, red peppers, feta, and topped with homemade pesto, $8] and pumpkin apple pancakes [gluten-free pumpkin cakes with diced apples and roasted pumpkin seeds, served with 100 percent maple syrup, $8] On offering a food source list to customers A lot our customers go to the farmers markets on Saturdays, and they want to see that we’re using things grown in our region, as opposed to shipped in from wherever. From my standpoint, the quality between something from the farms here, well ... it’s harvested the day we get it, as opposed to when we get something off a truck that was probably harvested a week or two ago. The freshness is palpable.

On what makes RRC’s smoothies delicious You have to use frozen fruit to make them nice and thick. Some of the fruit we get fresh, then we cut it up and freeze it. We don’t use fillers or sherbet. In a couple, we use frozen yogurt. We have 20 different smoothies with different juices, almond milk, regular milk. My favorite is definitely the Moo-Less Magic, which has orange juice, mangoes, bananas, honey, and strawberries. The crowd favorite is the Green Giant, which is spinach, pineapples, mangoes, honey, and apple juice. You don’t taste the spinach, but it looks green. On displaying art in the café A couple times a year, we like to take all the employees out, buy them drinks and appetizers and have a chance for everyone to vent about things at work. But we wind up coming up with new ideas and having a Continued on Page 11

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[visual]

From Page 10

Art at the Raider Ridge

collaborative brainstorming effort. Having Sunday brunch was someone’s idea, and so was the art shows. It was Dan [Groth] and Tess, a girl who worked here at the time, who brought up the idea of having rotating art. At the time, we’d had artwork from Animas High School up, but it had been hanging on the walls for a year. The employees working here five days a week were getting tired of looking at the exact same thing. Last winter, when we remodeled the dining room, I put in a track hanging system because changing out artwork every two months puts a lot of holes in the walls.

The Raider Ridge Café showcases work from local artists year-round, with a rotating display changing about every two months. The last show featured Dan Groth’s illustrated posters for imagined movies, and the next will be from Crystal Hartman, with an opening on Wednesday, Dec. 7. Art gets chosen by Groth, who began curating Raider Ridge art shows in 2012, after a year of being a line cook there. (He has had three solo shows of his own at the RRC.) Artists interested in showing at the café must have a body of work that will fill the space, quality images of that work, and preferably a website to show they are motivated. The work should be fairly new, consisting of pieces created within the past two or three years and not shown in Durango previously.

“Extra weight is given to artists who push the envelope,” said Groth. “What I like about the space is that it is small and therefore good for those who’ve never had a solo show before. One of the nice things about curating these shows is the amount of high-quality, first-time solo shows I’ve had the privilege of enabling. Also, the size of the space is perfect for themed shows, especially for established artists. And because it is a high-volume business, a lot more people from a broader swath of the public would get to see it than at a Main Ave. gallery. Now that I no longer work there [as a cook], I have a better perspective of how much Raider Ridge Café has become a part of the Durango artist community. I am proud to help continue this tradition, even if I no longer make the burritos.”

On the location

Shaun Stanley/BCI Media

»» A bike is parked in front of Raider Ridge Café on Eighth Avenue.

We’ve gotten more tourist foot traffic the last two or so years, due almost entirely to Yelp-type apps. Customers review us, and they encourage people to seek out things off the beaten path; then they’ll tend to seek out the highest-rated places. Before that, tourists would be rare. This time of year, we don’t see any, and even in the summer, tourists are maybe 10 percent of our business. It’s mostly local regulars. — Anya Jaremko-Greenwold DGO Staff Writer

�� Thursday, December 8, 2016 | 11

[sound]

Durango DJs put their spin on a swiftly popularizing art form »» ‘It’s

a great feeling to have a room full of people and you’re just putting them under your spell’ By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

DGO STAFF WRITER

DJ stands for “disc jockey,” a term referring to performers who mix recorded music while it’s playing. At one point, the “disc” part referred to gramophone records; but in this digital age, DJs are apt to mix music from CDs or digital audio files on a laptop. They used to be underground cool-guys who spun vinyl in dingy basements, but now many have hit the mainstream and climbed the charts. America’s most popular DJs are household names raking in millions: Calvin Harris, Tiësto, Skrillex, David Guetta, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Zedd, Diplo. They collaborate with the meteoric likes of Rihanna, Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, a sure-fire method of attracting an audience outside the club. Over the past decade, house music has increasingly left the clubs behind and found its way onto our streets and into our living rooms. Consumers are just as engaged by the chorus, rhythms and “beat” of a song as they are by the lyrics – and house music is all about that pulsating, captivating beat (while the lyrics tend to be somewhat repetitive, even flimsy). With the accessibility of technology, anyone can give DJing a whirl; programs with beats and vocals are easily downloadable, and it’s possible to create a name for yourself via social media. But that doesn’t make you a good DJ. It takes a lot more than notoriety and fancy equipment. We spoke to three Durango DJs who told us how they read the crowd, deal with all the modern industry changes and make it work in our little mountain town.

What do DJs actually do? McCarson Jones/Red Scarf Shots

»» DJ Josh Rosenthal, aka Posh Josh

At a bar, dance club or venue, DJs use equipment to play two or more sources of pre-recorded music at once, then mix them together; the best ones do this on the fly, but some bring already-mixed tunes on stage. It’s up to a DJ to create smooth transitions between recordings and create newfangled and original mixes of songs. They’ve got to sync the beats up just right. Josh Rosenthal (“DJ Posh Josh”) is a Durangoan who has been on the scene for 15 years (and in Durango for 30). Rosenthal considers himself a house music DJ; “house” being a genre combining influences of disco, jazz, funk and R&B. He swills champagne during performances and wears a suit jacket to highlight his “classy” persona (and because he prefers champagne to beer). Rosenthal explains the difference between himself and a “request” or wedding DJ – the sort who plays whatever you want to hear – is that a real DJ is hired for their unique “sound,” and you don’t dare ask to revise their playlist. “Anybody can put a playlist together, but can you tell a story through music?” asked Rosenthal. “I liken it to cooking: you can take the same recipe, but if I use pepper more than garlic, the way I arrange it, I’m creating a different dish. I’m doing that with music. Whether it’s music that’s been played by somebody else, I’m going ahead and repurposing it. Using the individual bass lines, vocals, whatever it happens to be, in different proportions.”

McCarson Jones/Red Scarf Shots

»» DJ Josh Rosenthal, aka Posh Josh

Reading the crowd Rosenthal doesn’t use a computer on stage, and keeps his music library and mixes on a flash drive when he spins. He tends not to pick songs before a gig, but rather sticks to improvising and scouring the crowd for a reaction by way of making those decisions. He’s very passionate about connecting with an audience, and if crowd members start chatting on the dance floor instead McCarson Jones/Red Scarf Shots

»» DJ Bad Goat Disco performs at DGO First Anniversary Party in October 2016

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Continued on Page 14

»» DJ Niko

�� Thursday, December 8, 2016 | 13

[sound] From Page 13

of dancing, he knows he needs to switch the vibe. Hired to play this year’s Halloween event at the Animas City Theatre hosted by the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity, Rosenthal knew there’d be a drag queen emceeing a costume contest; so he brought disco vocals that were popular with the drag queen scene in the ’70s. When playing at annual musical fest Burning Man in Nevada, he went for “heavier” sounds, less fluffy and light-hearted, for music aficionados he knew would be able to tell the producer of the songs or who wrote the lyrics originally. “They hear all the layers I’m building,” Rosenthal said of his Burning Man crowds. “Because of these people’s music knowledge, I want to stimulate them intellectually.”

DJ scene in Durango Nick Gould (“DJ Niko”) is also a freelance Durango DJ by night, but a professional mountain bike racer by day. He predominantly plays at the Balcony Backstage one evening per month, spinning all things house and electronic (but absolutely no dubstep, trap or trance, he wants to clarify). Niko and Posh Josh will be playing together at the Backstage on Dec. 15. (They haven’t teamed up since 2010!) Niko has DJ’d in Thailand, Mexico, San Francisco, LA and at Burning Man, too, and admits it’s tough in a small mountain town like Durango. What works at 4 a.m. in Berlin won’t be appropriate for a midnight shindig here. “There was a long time when I would be like, ‘Whatever, this is the music I’m going to play no matter what,’ and I felt strongly about wanting to educate,” Gould said. “But after so many years, you come to find you just want people to have a good time. It’s a great feeling to have a room full of people and you’re just putting them under your spell. I still don’t play anything cheesy, poppy or mainstream – I’m still underground, but I do stuff that is a little more accessible. I’m figuring out what’s going to work here, and how I can play people something they’ve never heard before, where they’ll be like, ‘Wow, this is awesome, what is this?!’” Rosenthal agrees, adding that if he wanted to “blow up” as a DJ, he’d definitely move to a city. Though Gould laments the comings and goings of past Durango DJs, both Rosenthal and Gould are enthused about an up-and-comer named Stephen Sellers (“DJ Bad Goat Disco”). Sellers has been producing dance and electronic music for 16 years but has spent only two years mixing records. “I’ve heard there was a more underground scene in Durango around 2007, and maybe there was a bust and it splintered,” Sellers said. “There was a time you had three or four DJs playing house music around town, but that’s not happening now. There’s people playing dance music, but it’s pretty thin. Part of my mission is to go study and learn all over the world, then bring that back here. We just need a proper club!” Sellers plans to visit Amsterdam for several months next summer to learn from the top DJs there. His talents will be part of an “awesome monthly party” coming up at El Rancho, the first installment of

»» DJ Niko DJing the prestigious “Distrikt” camp at Burning Man 2010. which is happening Dec. 16 with Denver’s DJ Soul Atomic. He’ll also be opening for Hello, Dollface at their New Year’s Eve “Interstellar” Party at the Strater.

Vinyl to digital Some progressive shifts in the industry have made Durango’s DJs a little melancholy – like the move away from vinyl. They used to order records and wait weeks for a delivery, or else rifle through music store collections until striking gold. But with the help of technology, it’s a speedier process. “Now, you can just buy a piece-of-crap laptop, a software program and hit the auto-sync button and not even have to have a mixer or know how to actually match beats,” Gould said. “Before, you could tell if it was a shit DJ – their beats would be off, it sounded like shoes in a dryer. But now, you don’t need that skill. Kids watch these DJs and think they’re gods, but they’re just standing there hitting a button.” Sellers also finds DJs pressing the sync button uninspiring and uninteresting. “It’s the difference between paint-by-number and making your own colors,” Sellers said. Back when records were a DJ’s primary medium, the art form was known as “spinning.” The term is still used, but it’s antiquated. “You had to literally sit there and try to remember what the marker (on the vinyl) looked like, whether it was a really deep groove, or you had DJs who actually put tape on their records, so they knew and could find the spots …” Rosenthal remembered. “You’re sitting and back-spinning, trying to find the spot. That’s why you’d see the guy with his head cocked to the earphones, spinning.”

DJs in the mainstream In 2016, DJs sell out stadiums and team up with huge names in pop, hip-hop and R&B. So why the sudden commercial interest? “I think people are starting to realize DJs are musicians, just like anybody else,” Rosenthal said. “A lot of it has to do with technology; people are less averse to technology than they were 10 years ago. Twenty years ago, you ran into a bunch of bluegrass musicians and asked them to listen to this, and it was on a computer and created by synthesized sound? They would’ve snubbed it.” Indeed, society often takes its sweet time adjusting to and embracing new trends. When Gould first began DJing, the industry was entirely underground, with “mix tapes and raves.” There was no Coachella or all-inclusive music fests. “You had to know somebody who knew somebody, do your research,” Gould said. “It made for this exclusive thing not many people were doing. Just like having tattoos and piercings – 15 or 20 years ago, it would more hardcore. Now, everybody has them.” He thinks it’s weird Steve Aoki and Skrillex can be heard on the radio and might reside in a CD store next to Eric Clapton; but he also knows the transition has an upside because more people are exposed to the music and end up investing further in the medium. Unfortunately, plenty of DJs find success simply by accruing Instagram fans. “Social media has changed everything,” Gould added. “When I started, Myspace wasn’t around, and it wasn’t a popularity contest. Now, a lot of promoters won’t want to book you unless you have Continued on Page 15

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Where you at, female DJs?

[sound] From Page 14

this many Instagram followers.” Rosenthal is similarly irritated by the lack of effort made by some of the world’s highest-paid DJs. He’s seen shows where they get on stage with a laptop, push a button and start jumping around. “I kind of feel slighted when I’ve gone to a show to hear a DJ and you’re like, ‘Wait a minute – I just heard a bass drop or a vocal come in, and you were five feet away from your equipment,’” Rosenthal said. “You had nothing to do with that. The crowd goes crazy, and he’s taking credit.” Sellers teaches history and humanities and notes that house and dance music were originally created for “the other,” meaning people in the black, gay and transgender communities. “Now, we’re in this EDM fraternity culture, so people don’t know that,” Sellers said. “As a white, straight, privileged male, that’s something I need to be super aware of. In our little bubble of Durango, everyone kind of treats this as a post-racial paradise, and it’s like, no – this is still out there.” Although dance music has become a rallying point for kids who wish to escape or forget and adults who hope to sink into euphoria, Sellers hopes it’s not just about the party. “Dance music should be a place of refuge, but I don’t think it should be about hedonism and snorting molly,” Sellers said. “That’s missing the point.”

friend years ago and I took off for a month to Argentina. Before I left, I gave her a basic intro lesson, and she had been watching me. When I got back, she’d achieved in one month what took me years.”

You may have noticed that none of the Durango DJs we’ve interviewed are women. This is a point Stephen Sellers (DJ Bad Goat Disco) is particularly sore about; and if you’re a lady DJ interested in breaking onto the scene, Sellers promises to be an ally, urging you to get in touch. “It’s such a white, male dominated thing here,” he said. “But what makes a scene healthy is diversity.” If you Google ‘female DJs,’ a tragic number of results pop up listing the “hottest” girl DJs on the scene – and that doesn’t refer to popularity, but rather to sex appeal. The Durango fellows aren’t interested in that; they only care about talent. Josh Rosenthal (DJ Posh Josh) actually asserts that women pick up DJing much more quickly than dudes do. “Every girl I’ve seen start DJing blows my mind,” Rosenthal said. “I had a girl-

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Some female DJs to check out: DJ Heather, an O.G. who was on the scene long before the EDM bros took over. The Chicagoan started as a hip-hop DJ and later blended Photo from Shutterstock.com genres with house, also co-founding the U.S.’s first all-female DJ group the Superjane collective with DJ Colette back in 1997. Ellen Allien, from the Berlin techno scene, who sings in both German and English and founded her own record label in 1999, the influential BPitch Records. Alison Wonderland, a classically-trained cellist from Australia who embarked on her first national headline tour in 2014 playing in warehouses across Australia (and tickets completely sold out to this “Wonderland Warehouse Project”).

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[movies] Miss Sloane Playing at the Gaslight Rating: R Genre:

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of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. Known equally for her cunning and her track record of success, she has always done whatever is required to win. But when she takes on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds that winning may come at too high a price.

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LOS ANGELES – Jenny Slate reunites with her “Obvious Child” director in the ’90s-set “Landline,” Sam Elliott plays a stoner Western film icon in “The Hero,” Aubrey Plaza gets serious in “Ingrid Goes West” and Jennifer Aniston teams up with the future Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich, in the Gulf War drama “The Yellow Birds” in some of the films in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled its first batch of films set to premiere at the annual Park City-based Festival founded by Robert Redford, including a new thematic thread of environmentally focused programming. There were 66 narrative and documentary films selected for the U.S. Competition, the World Competition and the NEXT section, which highlights works from new directors. Breakout hits like “Whiplash,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and “Weiner” all premiered in that section in recent years. At the 2017 Festival, Lily Collins stars in the anorexia drama “To the Bone” from “Buffy the Vam-

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»» Jenny Slate, left, and Abby Quinn star in “Landline” by Gillian Robespierre. The film is

fer Aniston) tries to close her hard-partying brother’s branch, he (T.J. Miller) and his Chief Technical Officer (Jason Bateman) must rally their co-workers and host an epic office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and close a sale that will save their jobs. The latest comedy from directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck (“Blades of Glory”) co-stars Kate McKinnon, Olivia Munn, Jillian Bell, Rob Corddry, Vanessa Bayer, Randall Park, Sam Richardson, Jamie Chung and Courtney B. Vance.

pire Slayer” writer Marti Noxon; Jason Schwartzman reteams with his “Listen Up Philip” director Alex Ross Perry in “Golden Exits”; and “Moonlight” breakout Trevante Rhodes stars alongside Alfre Woodward in “Burning Sands,” about violent fraternity hazing. There’s also a new film from “Pete’s Dragon” director David Lowery, “A Ghost Story,” which brings him back together with his “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” stars Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck. “Eclectic” is the only word to describe the batch for Festival Director John Cooper, who with his team selects films for their originality and who the stories are about. As with many years, the documentary competitions are stacked with timely explorations of hot-button issues, like policing looked at through the case study of the Oakland Police Department following Ferguson in “The Force,” and an account of the Ferguson uprising told by the people who were there in “Whose Streets.” There will also be documentaries about the Hulk Hogan/ Gawker trial and the JonBenet Ramsey case.

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[ weed ] Seeing Through the Smoke Christopher Gallagher

Consider cannabis for effective relief of chronic pain

painted a self-portrait a few years ago. In the end, it looked nothing like the “me” others might recognize, but it was very instructional relative to some of the paths I’ve been down in this lifetime, especially those that have left physical injury and pain. The final product of my Cray-Pas doodling is a group of interconnected flash points that correspond to my physical frame: right foot (broken in half during a college incident involving campus police and a roof), left knee (surgery as a result of playing basketball with high school kids while in my 30s), right hip (work injury from falling into a box truck whose step had been damaged but not repaired), left shoulder (surgery because of football injuries), then there’s my neck and head (football, car crashes). Suffice it to say, some mornings things hurt. Mostly, I just deal with it, but there are those times when that option is braver than it is intelligent. There are things that can help, especially when things reach the acute stage, but many come with issues of their own in the form of side effects. Over-the-counter pain relievers have been shown to be damaging to the liver if used over a long term or if in too-high doses. Opiod pain relievers are tools I have used after surgery, but that limited exposure to their effects coupled with the horrible negative consequences I’ve witnessed in a handful of friends and relatives (without getting into the decade-long nationwide epidemic surrounding these darlings of the pharmaceutical industry) have

Illustration by Alexi Grojean

convinced me that using them consistently is a road I’m not interested in traveling. Enter cannabis as a pain-relief option. The reasons that make marijuana effective for pain relief are myriad; the ways to administer the medicines

vary widely and include non-psychoactive options; and certain strains excel at producing excellent analgesic results. Cannabis has been shown through clinical trials to significantly reduce chronic suffering attributable to neuropathic, or nerve-related injury, a condition that often accompanies diabetes, HIV, cancer and MS. In these cases, it is also a very good medicine to reduce accompanying sleeplessness and anxiety that often plagues sufferers. As is almost always the case with cannabis-related medicines, wholeplant consumption outperforms the laboratory-extracted, isolated compounds. Part of the reason for this is that terpenes found in the plants have analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of their own. Indicas are often great for a wide range of medical issues and pain relief is no exception. Strains in the kush family are prime examples as are derivatives of White Widow. CBD dominant strains like Harlequin and Charlotte’s Web and CBD/ THC hybrids like ACDC treat pain very effectively. I have found cannabis to be a good way to help relieve the chronic discomfort I experience as a result of both specific incidents and years of wear and tear on my body, and I encourage you to do some research if you could also stand to feel some relief.

Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Email him at chrstphrgallagher@gmail.com.

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[Netflix and chill — 420 edition]

‘Arrival’

There’s something about being high at a movie theater that the act of Netflix-and-chilling at home cannot duplicate. There’s the convenient array of snack choices (expensive, but worth it), enormous screens, the swell of music, the communal act of experiencing a story alongside a bevy of strangers. The powerful combined effects of theater treats, sounds and images break upon your stoned head like a tidal wive, practically drowning you in visceral sensation. At least that’s what it’s like for me. You should definitely try it, if you haven’t. Dennis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner) is playing in Durango now. This is what you could call a cerebral, “thinking man’s” sci-fi, replete with few action-packed moments but many that pulsate with otherworldly suspense. When huge black spaceships descend and hover over 12 locations on planet Earth, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Adams) is chosen to help communicate with the alien visitors and figure out the intentions behind their arrival.

Don’t expect battles between humans and snarl-toothed monstrosities like those from the “Alien” franchise. These aliens are definitely frightening – they are enormous and squid-like, floating on the other side of a transparent barrier once the humans enter their spacecraft – but they are not necessarily sinister. With Louise as linguist rather than a scientist or world-leader, “Arrival” is more about communication and language than terror or conflict with foreign species. The visitors speak by way of inky, circular images released from their tentacles, and Louise must find a way to decipher this, all while contending with the intricacy of words, which have different and varied meanings. There is a grave danger in misinterpreting these aliens, as humans constantly do each other: The other nations where the aliens have touched down are distrustful of the creatures, interpreting some of what they’ve said as threatening or hostile. China prepares to nuke their craft, and Russia follows suit. The CIA and other government officials string up red tape around Louise, hoping to accelerate her gentle methods. Do you think all the nations of our world could work together against extraterrestrial invaders, especially with our new president-elect leading the way? Let’s hope we never find out. There is thankfully no Trump in “Arrival,” but there’s a Chinese dictator who certainly bears some resemblance. —— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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�� Thursday, December 8, 2016 | 19

[love and sex]

Savage Love | Dan Savage

To rebuild from that broken relationship, get out there I’m a 37-year-old gay man who just got out of an abusive relationship. We were together five years, moved to Portland together, got married three years ago, yada, yada, yada. He suffered a traumatic injury earlier this year, which led to PTSD, which led to a nervous breakdown, which led to our savings being depleted, which led him to leave me in October. He moved back to the other side of the country, and I’m broke and on my own in a strange city. I saw your dirty film festival when it played here, and it made me realize something: At my age, I should still be enjoying myself and evolving sexually. I was unhappy in my marriage for the last two years, but sexually, I was unhappy for a long time. Recently, I had a decent onenight stand. It was a drunken, stoned hot mess, but it got the job done – and there was no guilt on my part, which to me signifies that it really is over with my ex. But I can’t help feeling like I’m starting over. Not just dating, but starting over with my sex life and my writing. My ex had me switch from LGBT media – which I am very good at – to copywriting, which sucks but is “steadier.” The point is: I want so much sexually, because I’ve been starved physically and psychologically, but I don’t know where to begin. I feel like my marriage eviscerated me sexually. Not just the sex part of it, but the parts of my homosexuality that felt important to my personality, not just my turn-ons. Help. Grieving And Yearning Man Asking Nicely

You’re not too old to enjoy yourself and evolve sexually, GAYMAN – you’re never too old to enjoy yourself or evolve, sexually or otherwise. But it takes time to bounce back after a committed LTR ends traumatically. So don’t rush yourself. But as soon as you can – sooner than perhaps it feels right – you’ll need to get out there. You’ll need to actively and intentionally reconnect to your homosexuality and the ways in which it shaped and continues to inform

your personality, your perspective and your joy. And now some random tips … I’m not being look-ist or body-fascist here – this isn’t about having Instagrammable abs or the best torso on Grindr – but join a gym, GAYMAN. Or take up a sport that kicks your ass, cardio-wise. Forcing your body to outrun your brain is a good way to get back in touch with yourself physically, emotionally and sexually. And exercising – again, I’m not talking abs here – is good for us. It’s a natural antidepressant. It gets blood pumping into our extremities. (Your dick is an extremity.) And it gets us out of our heads. It also creates a social space, if you do it regularly, where you can make friends and connections without booze or drugs or the scourge of dance music. If the gym isn’t for you, ride a bike. If biking isn’t for you, run. If running isn’t for you, walk. Just get your ass moving. Go volunteer somewhere, anywhere. Like someone or other once said, it’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when you’re making yourself useful. Go volunteer at the ACLU or Planned Parenthood, do some copywriting for an LGBT civil-rights organization, find out what orgs are working with immigrants in your community and ask them what kind of help they need. Please don’t succumb to meth or any of the other stupid drugs. Pot and alcohol – in moderation – aren’t stupid drugs. Reach out to friends you lost touch with over the past five years, apologize for letting these relationships go, and ask if they’d like to reconnect. Not all will, GAYMAN – some might be too angry to reconnect right now (you may hear from them later), some might not have any extra friendship bandwidth right now (ditto). Focus on friends who want to reconnect, and don’t be bitter about friends who don’t. Masturbate. A lot. And don’t use porn every single time – try using your imagination, flip through the ol’ solodex. Be open to new experiences. Ask yourself where you’ve always wanted to go. Pick a big gay event you’ve always wanted

to attend – gay days at Disneyland, International Mr. Leather in Chicago, the World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas – and start setting money aside so you’ll have that trip to look forward to. Good luck, GAYMAN.

I’m a 44-year-old married gay male. I recently found out my 30-year-old husband has been sending dick pics to randoms on Grindr. He says he doesn’t remember who he sent pics to, or why, other than I was working late and he was drunk and pissed at me. I want to be mature about this, but I’m really hurt. We’ve been together more than four years and married six months. We have a closed, monogamous relationship. He says he’s been faithful, and I believe him. I’m struggling to trust him, however. Am I overreacting? Help Understanding Relationship Trauma

Which would you rather have, HURT: This particular husband (aka the man you married) or a husband (a generic husband) who wouldn’t, couldn’t and didn’t send dick pics to randoms on Grindr? Given a choice between a perfect, flawless, blameless but imaginary husband and the imperfect, flawed, living, breathing husband you’ve got, which would you pick? Personally, I recommend choosing actual-and-flawed husbands over perfect-and-imaginary ones. (I’m not telling you to do anything I haven’t done and that my own husband hasn’t done.) With that said, HURT, and hopefully with that choice made, your husband needs to drop the “I was mad at you for working late” bullshit and take responsibility for his actions. Drunk may have played a role, as booze is the great disinhibitor, but swapping dick pics isn’t something reasonable dick-having people do in response to run-of-the-mill annoyances. Your husband sent those pics because he enjoys showing off the goods. Your husband has an exhibition-

istic streak. So what to do about it? You could forbid it, HURT, but creating a little space in our marriages for pleasures we may not share or fully understand – making accommodations instead of issuing threats – can make our marriages stronger, not weaker, less contentious and therefore less brittle. If swapping pics makes your husband feel desirable, and he plows that sexual energy into you … not only aren’t you being betrayed, you’re benefiting. If I were you, HURT, I would grant him this small zone of erotic autonomy.

I’m a Canadian gay man, married eight years to a man with a thing for men spitting in his face. It’s a degradation thing (of course), and I would do it for him but it can’t be me. It can’t be someone he loves, someone who loves him, it has to be someone he doesn’t know, someone who regards him with contempt. He finds guys to do this for him on the hookup apps, and I don’t have a problem with it. I do have a problem leaning in for a kiss when his face reeks of some other man’s spit. He likes the “lingering scent” – I do not. He says I’m kink-shaming him when I recoil and ask him to go wash his face. He’s agreed to abide by your ruling, Dan. Should he wash his damn face? Smelling Patooey Irks This Spouse

You’ve accommodated your husband’s kink. He needs to return the favor and accommodate your nose. He should wash his damn face – and get his damn flu shot.

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.

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[happening] Thursday Pete Giuliani Trio, 5-7 p.m., Ska Brewing

Co., 225 Girard St., www.skabrewing.com. Las Posadas Re-enactment, 5-7 p.m.,

El Centro Resource Center, Student Union, Fort Lewis College, www.fortlewis.edu/elcentro. 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 FLC Shorts Film Festival, 6:30 p.m.,

Vallecito Room, Student Union, Fort Lewis College, call Stacey Sotosky for details, 9038852. “Elf Jr. the Musical,” 7 p.m., Durango Arts

Center, 802 East Second Ave., 259-2606, www. durangoarts.org. Women’s Choir presents Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols,” 7 p.m.,

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave., www.durangochoralsociety.org. CRAFT beer and food pairings, 7-9

p.m., Ska Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., 2475792, www.skabrewing.com. Open Mic, 7-11 p.m., Steaming Bean, down-

stairs at the Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www.thebean.com. State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara presents “The Nutcracker,” 7:30-9:30

p.m., Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall, www.durangoconcerts.com. Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509 East

Eighth Ave., 259-8801. Kirk James Blues Band, 8:30 p.m.-12:30

a.m., Billy Goat Saloon, 39848 Highway 160, Bayfield, 884-9155.

Saturday Henry Stoy piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-

Pierre Bakery, 601 Main Ave., 385-0122. Metropolitan Opera presents Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin,” 10:55 a.m.-2

p.m., Vallecito Room, Student Union, Fort Lewis College, www.fortlewis.edu. “Elf Jr. the Musical,” 1 p.m., 7 p.m., Du-

rango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., 259-2606, www.durangoarts.org. State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara presents “The Nutcracker,” 2-4 p.m.,

Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall, www.durangoconcerts.com. Pete Giuliani Trio, 6-10 p.m., The Lake House at Vallecito, 17460 County Rd. 501, 884-9150, www.lakehousevallecito.com. State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara presents “The Nutcracker,” 7:30-

9:30 p.m., Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall, www.durangoconcerts.com. Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

Whimsy and fine art at a seasonal shopping shindig Christmas is coming. You could chuck your money down a web-hole ... or you could shop local at the Bizarre Bazaar this weekend at Studio &, 1027 Main Ave. The “BizBaz” is a faboosh spot to find stocking stuffers and OMG-I-Can’t-Believe-YouGot-Me-This-SO-PRETTY presents. Twenty-four local artists will have paintings, journals, magnets, pillows, cards, handmade jewelry, furniture, ornaments, prints, and

gorgeous-random-other for sale. There’s something for every budget. The show goes from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9. If you don’t get there day one, don’t worry! The Bizarre Bazaar has extended hours on Saturday and Sunday, too. Free entry. For more information, call 773-263-1279 or go to http://anddurango.com/events/.

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Sunday

1200, www.theirishembassypub.com.

Henry Stoy piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-

State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara presents “The Nutcracker,” 2-4 p.m.,

Pierre Bakery, 601 Main Ave., 385-0122. Irish music jam session, 12:30 p.m.,

Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-

Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall, www.durangoconcerts.com.

Jazz church experienced musician session, 6 p.m., Derailed Pour House, 725

Main Ave., 247-5440, www.derailedpourhouse.com.

Monday Four Corners Arts Forum, 9 a.m., KDUR 91.9/93.9 FM, www.kdur.org.

Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Continued on Page 22

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[happening] From Page 21

p.m., Cerda 7 Cantina y Comida, 639 Main Ave., 764-4723.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby watch “Years of Living Dangerously,” 5:30

Geeks Who Drink trivia, 6:30 p.m.,

p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 East Third Ave., 375-3380. Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Ska

Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., www.skabrewing. com. Spoken Word, 7-9 p.m., Steaming

Bean, downstairs at the Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www. thebean.com.

Tuesday Children’s story time, 10-10:30 a.m.,

Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave., 2471438, www.mariasbookshop.com. Acoustic jam, 6-8 p.m., Strater Hotel,

699 Main Ave., 247-4431. Open Mic, 8 p.m., Moe’s Starlite Lounge,

937 Main Ave., 259-9018.

BREW Pub & Kitchen, 117 West College Drive, 259-5959. Pub quiz, 6:30 p.m., Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www.theirishembassypub.com. Useless Knowledge Trivia Bowl, 7 p.m., Durango Brewing Co., 3000 Main Ave., 247-3396. Pingpong and poker tournament,

8 p.m., Moe’s Starlite Lounge, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018. Karaoke with DJ Crazy Charlie, 9 p.m., Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 375-2568. Two-step and swing lessons, 6:30-

7:30 p.m., $10, Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 799-8832.

Submissions

Super Ted’s Super Trivia, 6:12 p.m.,

Ska Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., 247-5792, www.facebook.com/supertedstriviaatskabrewing.

Wednesday Acoustic jam, 6-8 p.m., Irish Embassy

Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www.theirishembassypub.com. Free Latin social dancing, 8-11:59

To submit listings for publication in DGO and www.dgomag.com, visit www. swscene.com, click “Add Your Event,” enter the event info into the form, and submit. Listings at www.swscene.com will appear on www.dgomag.com and in our weekly print edition. Posting an event on www.swscene.com is free and takes one day to process.

All I want for Xmas is a damn good hip-hop show This Saturday, The Grouch – a founding member of the hella infamous hip-hop collective, the Living Legends – will play the Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of his How The Grouch Stole Christmas Tour, you can expect gritty, poignant rhymes drawing on his West Coast, D.I.Y. roots. All eight of the Living Legends will be present, along with featured guests. Doors open at 8:30, show starts at 9 p.m. This is a 21-and-older show. Tickets are $39 and are available online at www. animascitytheatre.com.

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