c-2012-08-30 by News & Review

HARAJUKU

CHIA See ARTS FEATURE page 28

BURNIN’ IT UP See NEWSLINES, page 8

THEATER

UNDER THE STARS See ARTS DEVO, page 42

OH, NO!

GMO See GREENHOUSE, page 15

Life and death at the Speedway Chico’s News & Entertainment Weekly

Volume 36, Issue 1

BY KEN SMITH PAGE Thursday, August 30, 2012

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CN&R

DURHAM VETERINARY CLINIC welcomes doctors Carolyn and Scott Hamilton as they join Dr. Bill Lyman in continuing to provide quality care for your pets.

Vol. 36, Issue 1 • August 30, 2012

OPINION Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Guest Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 From This Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Streetalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Dr. Carolyn Hamilton is the older daughter of practice owner, Dr. Bill Lyman. She was born and raised in Butte County and graduated from Durham High School in 2001. She has a particular interest in small animal primary care and internal medicine.

Dr. Scott Hamilton grew up in Tulare, CA. His background is with dairy and beef cattle medicine and nutrition. He also enjoys small animal primary care and surgery. The Hamiltons graduated from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and have been happily married two years. They currently live in Durham with their cats, Simon and Matilda, and their Doberman, Fritz. Both doctors are excited to join the local community.

NEWSLINES Downstroke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Sifter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

GREENWAYS EarthWatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 UnCommon Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Eco Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The GreenHouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

HEALTHLINES The Pulse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Weekly Dose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

COVER STORY

20 Dr. Bill Lyman · Dr. Carolyn Hamilton · Dr. Scott Hamilton

ARTS & CULTURE Arts Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 This Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Fine Arts listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Reel World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Chow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Nightlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 In The Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Arts DEVO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

REAL ESTATE

CLASSIFIEDS

BACKSTOP From The Edge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Fifteen Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Brezsny’s Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

ON THE COVER: PHOTOS BY KYLE EMERY PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TINA FLYNN

Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live. Editor Robert Speer Managing Editor Melissa Daugherty Arts Editor Jason Cassidy Calendar/Special Projects Editor Howard Hardee News Editor Tom Gascoyne Greenways/Healthlines Editor Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia Staff Writer Ken Smith Contributors Catherine Beeghly, Craig Blamer, Alastair Bland, Henri Bourride, Rachel Bush, Vic Cantu, Matthew Craggs, Kyle Delmar, Meredith J. Graham, Jovan Johnson, Miles Jordan, Leslie Layton, Mark Lore, Sean Murphy, Mazi Noble, Jaime O’Neill, Anthony Peyton Porter, Shannon Rooney, Claire Hutkins Seda, Juan-Carlos Selznick, Willow Sharkey, Alan Sheckter, Evan Tuchinsky Interns Kyle Emery, Stephanie Geske Managing Art Director Tina Flynn Editorial Designer Sandra Peters Design Manager Kate Murphy Design Melissa Arendt, Brennan Collins, Priscilla Garcia, Mary Key, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith General Manager Alec Binyon Advertising Consultants Brian Corbit, Jamie DeGarmo, Laura Golino, Robert Rhody Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Advertising Coordinator Jennifer Osa

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architecture come from the same place, and one isn’t more important than the other. Catherine is the type of person who commits herself completely to her interests and her craft. Not one to stop growing, Catherine sold her Chico hair salon (Rapture) and left a lucrative career to apply her creative talents to the study of energy efficient architecture and is a recent graduate of the highly ranked Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIARC). There, she followed her passion for sustainable design and learned how to create cutting-edge green buildings. Prior to SCIArc, she graduated from the Vidal Sassoon Academy in London, well-known for the best education in hair design. Catherine has experiences ranging from salons in Europe, New York, all over the west coast, and recently has studied and exhibited art and architecture in France and Italy. Catherine’s endless imagination and dedication to great design has made her a unique and gifted designer of both hair and sustainable dwellings. Catherine is eager to share her top notch education and design experience with any new or returning clients.

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Send guest comments, 400 words maximum, to gc@ newsreview.com, or to 353 E. 2nd St., Chico, CA 95928. Please include photo & short bio.

Supervisors see the light It took a long time—more than a year—but the Butte County

Let’s turn down the volume Imust we be so loud? Nearly every newscast is punctuated by some high-decibel-protest uproar. We need to turn down t seems as if the whole world is shouting. Why

the volume before we all become deaf or go stark raving mad. Society has turned a deaf ear to noise. High-decibel meter readings are ignored at dances, football games, rock concerts, and canned-laughter television programs. Cafés and sports bars are so noisy you can’t carry on a conversation with the person next to you. Requests to turn down the volume are met with the same “digital” gesture our by students are giving us Dick Cory with our noise ordinance. Locally, the noise The author is a issue has become a major retired science concern with the commuteacher and school nity and Chico City administrator. He has Council. The present lived in Chico noise ordinance calls for a since 1963. warning by the police for a first registered complaint. Then a second offense within the next 72 hours warrants a ticket. The bail schedule calls for a fine of $266, $532 for a second offense, and $1,046 for a third. Many neighbors of these loud parties, especially in student areas, complain the present policy doesn’t quiet the obnoxious noise. Their

requests to tone down the exuberant pandemonium have been responded to with refusal and threats. A recommendation for the city noise ordinance revision is to hold landlords responsible with fines for second complaints. Is this passing the buck? As a two-unit landlord, I have done everything in my power, albeit unsuccessfully, to quell disturbances. After explaining the problem to my renters—citing the lease section prohibiting boisterous noise at any time, calling the police, and warning tenants of expulsion—I was left with no choice but eviction. This all took too much time as the neighbors suffered. Fine the “loudmouths” immediately, not me. Loud sounds are not a territorial right, as some would have it. Consideration to neighbors must be given. City ordinance requires sound levels to not exceed 70 decibels just outside the property between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. and 60 decibels after 9 p.m. and before 7 am. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Have we forgotten how to communicate? We should be our brother’s keeper. Do you hear me? I hear you … loud and clear! May we all become more civilly obedient citizens. Ω

Fine the ‘loudmouths’ immediately, not me.

4 CN&R August 30, 2012

Board of Supervisors finally has seen the light. After passing a medicalmarijuana ordinance that voters soundly rejected in June, and then coming up with an even worse proposal that ran into a firestorm of criticism during a public hearing Tuesday (Aug. 28), the supervisors finally got the message. Heretofore they’d tried to regulate medical-marijuana cultivation according to their own lights, which shone only dimly on the notion of pot cultivation. Their first ordinance was overly bureaucratic and had the fundamental flaw of forbidding anyone from growing plants on a parcel smaller than a half-acre. Their second ordinance, modeled on one in Kings County, went to the other side, allowing cultivation on any size parcel, but requiring that it be done inside a secure, ventilated, county-approved structure. As speakers told the supervisors in no uncertain terms Tuesday (see our report on page 9), this was prohibitively expensive for both grower and county. The county would have had to beef up its code enforcement at a cost of about $1 million a year. The ordinance was also, as District Attorney Mike Ramsey told the board, unconstitutional because it criminalized medi-pot cultivation, which is allowed under Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Faced with the reality that both of the ordinances they’d generated were duds, the supervisors finally did what numerous people had been urging them to do for a long time: They decided to set up an ad-hoc committee of representative citizens and county officials to work together and come up with an ordinance that met, as much as possible, the needs of everyone. Better late than never. Still, had the board taken this tack from the beginning, it could have saved the $50,000 in taxpayers’ money it cost to put the referendum on the June ballot. Regardless of how you feel about medical marijuana, you have to acknowledge that it’s always good when citizens challenge their government to do better. That’s what happened here, and it was indeed good. Ω

Man on the moon Those of us who were old enough on July 20, 1969, to appreciate

the first moon landing share an unforgettable memory of looking up at the moon and marveling that, at that very moment, two human beings were walking upon it. The Apollo 11 mission was an amazing event, humankind’s first venture to another celestial body. It’s worthy of inclusion among history’s great journeys into the unknown, those of Columbus and Cook, Magellan and Marco Polo, Lewis and Clark. The death Saturday, Aug. 25, of the leader of that expedition and the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, brought back vivid memories of that night. And it reminded us once again of what an epochal moment it was. Armstrong was a modest, self-effacing man who refused to capitalize on his accomplishment, but it’s worth noting that well before his moon voyage he was known as one of America’s finest test pilots. His second-incommand on that journey, Buzz Aldrin, called him “the best pilot I ever knew,” no small praise from another top gun. It took such skills, and nerves of steel, to land a lunar module for the first time knowing that the only way home was to reconnect that module to a moon-orbiting space ship. As the Apollo 13 mission showed, disastrously, just a year later, so many things could go wrong. Today only eight men are alive who know what Armstrong knew— what it’s like to walk on the moon. They’re old and will be gone soon, and then nobody will know, ever again. The best we can do is to imagine—and continue exploring in other ways. Ω

FROM THIS CORNER by Robert Speer roberts@newsreview.com

Nuclear time-bomb I’ve been watching the first season of the new HBO series The Newsroom. One episode is set at the time of the horrific March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that destroyed much of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant. We don’t hear much about Fukushima these days. My own research suggests it’s still incredibly dangerous, a “ticking time-bomb,” as many have called it, waiting to go off. If it does, the consequences could be exponentially greater than those caused by the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The worst threat is from the spent fuel at Reactor 4. It sits in an elevated cooling pool outside the reactor core’s reinforced containment structure, open to the elements because an explosion blew off its roof and caused the pool to list sideways. This pool contains more highly radioactive spent fuel than any of the other reactor pools. All that’s keeping those fuel rods from overheating and igniting is the cooling water. If something should happen—say, another strong earthquake in this prolific earthquake zone—causing the water to leak out of the pool, the subsequent catastrophic fire would release 10 times more cesium-137 than was released at Chernobyl. That’s the figure Robert Alvarez, a former senior adviser to the secretary of energy during the Clinton administration, came up with when he crunched the numbers. The radiation would be sufficient to force all of Japan to become an evacuation zone, Alvarez said. It gets worse. If the fire at unit 4 were to spread, igniting the spent fuel throughout the site, it would release about 85 times more cesium than was released at Chernobyl. This would be a catastrophe of global proportions. Fukushima’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., says it will need 10 years to remove the spent fuel rods and put them in much safer dry-cask storage. But experts say the chance of a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the next three years is 90 percent, and there are serious doubts that Reactor 4 could withstand such a shock. In his comprehensive report on the dangers of Fukushima, published on Alternet.com, Brad Jacobson points out that ordinarily the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be doing all it could to prevent a potential catastrophe, but so far it hasn’t become involved. Critics charge this is because the same design flaws that caused Fukushima to implode during the quake can be found in dozens of U.S. nuclear-power plants. About one-third of American reactors are GE Mark I or Mark II boiling-water reactors, the type used at Fukushima. Like that plant, they store spent fuel in elevated cooling pools outside the reactor core. The best way to make them safe would be to use dry-cask storage (none of the nine casks at Fukushima were harmed), but that would cost several hundred million dollars per reactor, money the nuclear-power industry doesn’t want to spend. Money talks, even when millions of lives are at stake.

Robert Speer is editor of the CN&R.

Send email to chicoletters @ newsreview.com

Making up is hard to do Re “Romney-Ryan’s con game” (Editorial, Aug. 23): Unfortunately the statement in the Aug. 23 editorial that hospitals and other providers can make up reductions in Medicare/insurer payments (estimated at 30 percent) by having more insured patients is not reality. Health-care providers have managed a 20 percent to 30 percent cut in payment rates over the past 10 years by becoming more efficient, cutting costs, adopting technology. Most are working flat out seeing Medicare and insured patients; the uninsured and Medi-Cal patients go to subsidized clinics that are paid 20 percent more than private providers already. There is little capacity in Chico for physicians to see more patients. We have just lost two primary-care physicians from the community who are not being replaced. With low payment rates, high costs and self-employed status, it is very hard to recruit to the community. A 30 percent cut in payment rates without allowing providers to balance-bill the lost revenue would lead to a serious physician shortage and question the viability of our hospital and medical groups. To really save healthcare costs we need tort reform, cheaper medical education, less costly regulations and an acceptance of evidence-based medicine. ROY L. BISHOP MD Chico

Mercury in the mouth Re “Look at the evidence” (Letters, by Michael Jones DDS, Aug 23): Silver fillings have no silver; they are 50 percent mercury, the second-most-toxic substance on earth, plus filler. You should run, not walk from any dentist who recommends placement of this deadly poison in your teeth two inches from your brain, where it probably causes Alzheimer’s and cancer. A much better alternative to the mercury amalgams is composite resin fillings, which do not endanger your health. Fluoride is a deadly chemical with zero health benefits. Its main use, besides a toxic additive for toothpaste and water, is rat poison. The dentists complete their trifecta of poisons with X-rays when they are not really needed, which probably contributes to cancer. Be proactive in your health care and check out anything your dentist or doctor says on the Internet or at the library.

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I am a retired certified dental technician. Silver mercury fillings are highly toxic. Mercury in fish is banned from our markets. Waste Management classifies it as toxic waste and will not allow it in its regular landfills. Some dentists still use it to fill cavities just inches from the brain. The silver mercury mix leaches into the blood stream and over time turns dark and ugly in the mouth. I’m surprised in these times when “thinking green” is popular that it’s still legal in LETTERS continued on page 6

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California. There are many materials, light-cured acrylics, castable porcelains—that restore teeth back to their natural beauty. I believe silver-mercury fillings are dangerous, especially in children. I had all my silver-mercury fillings removed, and I feel much better. JOHN T. COONEY Magalia

Shining a light on teaching Re “Teachers and their bosses” (Guest Comment, by Jaime O’Neill, Aug. 23): O’Neill mentions the “pay and perks” gap, presumably between full-time teachers and administrators. He doesn’t mention the real second-class citizens at Butte, the part-timers. Part-time instructors have little hope of ever getting hired full time. Part-timers get paid just for the hours they teach, and are limited to nine hours a week. That’s poverty level for any size family. They get no money for correcting papers or class prep, which often takes a good two hours more for every hour spent teaching. Part-timers get no medical benefits, so they are a cheap hire. Parttime teaching is better than no job at all—but that’s about it. O’Neill speaks from a position of privilege about more-privileged administrators. OK, but as an unemployed former part-timer, I have no sympathy. ED SCHILLING Paradise

Get your writing pens out. It’s almost time for CN&R’s annual contest:

I have always wondered why an overwhelming number of administrators at Butte College have never taught in a real classroom or did so for only a short time. I believe it is the Peter Principle at work, big time. Administrators spend weeks going to conferences listening to other administrators and consultants (their friends) discuss the new “make work” plans like TIM and master plans for the thousands of grand plans that end up in the rotating file. All this to justify their existence. Let the teachers direct the colleges and have funding to attend at least one conference to update their knowledge! MARY WINSLOW Chico

Complete details in next week’s issue! 6 CN&R August 30, 2012

As an elementary teacher in San Diego, our biggest hurdle for success was not our students, budget or lack of computers. Repeatedly, it was because of the poor administration and their total lack of ability to do anything but send out memos from others who pushed the next panacea on the staff. Most of us shook our heads

“O’Neill speaks from a position of privilege about moreprivileged administrators. OK, but as an unemployed former parttimer, I have no sympathy.” —Ed Schilling

how so many who either never taught or were poor when they did would be in positions of influence for our district. Look around at most schools, regardless of their level. The most creative minds are not the ones hired as administrators. Unfortunately, they’re the ones who won’t question, won’t rock the boat, and therefore the results are predictable. Butte and Chico State professors are discouraged, and Chico Unified has a legendary reputation for its dysfunctional administration. For education to improve, it will require more people like O’Neill to say what most teachers are thinking but are reluctant to say. DAVID CHAN Chico

McEtchin’s the man Re “Paradise man will run” (Newslines, by Tom Gascoyne, Aug. 23): Mr. McEtchin’s work is highly respected by his fellow outsider artists. He’s the real deal. He’s also right about the sculpture garden idea and how it would benefit the area’s economic development. The Paradise Town Council could use someone with his imagination. Or better yet, give him the $35K to create his sculpture garden on public property and invite other local talent to show their work as well. GREGG PAYNE Prescott, Ariz.

Keep on truckin’ those fish Re “Salmon return, but not for good?” (Earthwatch, Aug. 23): During the recent collapse of our Sacramento salmon populations, three studies in three consecutive years (two by the Coleman Hatchery folks and one by DFG in conjunction with DWR) proved that our salmon do not survive their trek down the river anymore. In all

these studies, between 92 percent and 100 percent of the test salmon released upriver died before even making it to the Golden Gate. Yes, maybe we need to stop trucking our fish, but not now! Different studies by the National Academy of Sciences and others also point out that unless we drastically reduce the water we export to the south (most of it to growers in the San Joaquin Valley), we will lose our salmon populations completely. If DFG halts the trucking this fall, they will do nothing but hasten the extinction of our once proud salmon runs. Halting the trucking of our salmon before fixing the things that kill them on their way down the stream is nothing short of idiocy. Looking at the implications, it’s really no wonder why people are so frustrated with government overall. MIKE HUDSON President, Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen’s Association Berkeley

Sneaking one by us Have you heard about SB 1018? Have you heard the part of it that allowed the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to join two Canadian provinces to form a private corporation in Delaware for the purpose of buying and selling carbon credits, and how the Legislature exempted it from the Bagley/Keene Act. That means they don’t have to tell us anything about what they’re doing. This bit of legislation, the implementation of “cap and trade,” was a trailer bill to the budget bill. To avoid having to get a two-thirds majority to pass a bill, all the Democrats in Sacramento have to do is assign it $1,000 and they can attach it to the budget bill, which, as you know, they need only a simple majority to pass. Here we have a public agency, made up of unelected people, joining up with two foreign provinces to form a private corporation to buy and sell carbon credits. And the public has no right to know anything about it. This bit of legislation will cost California businesses and consumers billions of dollars a year. Do you think we’ll see even more businesses leaving California? Will all of our California-educated college graduates be leaving the state with them? RALPH WHITCHER Chico More letters online:

We’ve got too many letters for this space. Please go to www.newsreview.com/chico for additional readers’ comments on past CN&R articles.

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CN&R 7

Burning Man’s desert storm

ACCUSED TAX DODGER DIES

A 52-year-old Chico woman facing federal charges of tax fraud died on Aug. 21. Tamara Barker and her husband, Randy, were scheduled to be in federal court Sept. 10 related to charges the couple received a nearly $1 million tax return from the IRS based on alleged false income-tax statements. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed this week that the woman who died is the same Tamara Barker who was facing that legal action. According to court documents, the Barkers received a tax-return check from the IRS in early 2009 for $987,900, which they deposited into a Wells Fargo Bank account. Within weeks they reportedly purchased a house in Chico for $495,000, furnished it for $81,000, and bought a Toyota pickup for $28,000. The Barkers were facing up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Butte County Coroner’s Office said the results of an autopsy will not be available for four to six weeks.

‘Most amazing party on the planet’ faces tremendous growth and uncertain future

ARSON ARREST AT CHICO HOME

A Chico woman was arrested on Sunday (Aug. 26) on a charge of arson after a fire broke out and was reported by a roommate in their Revere Lane home off Henshaw Avenue in north Chico. Chico Police Sgt. Scott Franssen said that 51-year-old Colette Mounts was arrested on an arson charge. According to a Chico Fire Department press release, Wayne Miller, another resident of the house, discovered and reported the fire at about 9:30 a.m. in an upstairs bedroom. Miller used a fire extinguisher until three fire trucks arrived to help extinguish the blaze, which did an estimated $650 in damage. The arson charge carries a state prison sentence of up to three years. Mounts reportedly had a “beef with her roommates” prior to the incident. The third roommate, who was not identified, was not home at the time of the fire.

TOTALLY TUBULAR

Police departments and sheriff’s offices, among other agencies and emergency personnel in Butte and Glenn counties, are gearing up for a big weekend on the Sacramento River, expecting thousands of tubers for the annual Labor Day flotilla. “We’re preparing the same as we do every year, with lots of inter-agency meetings and cooperation planned between both counties,” said Denise Rist, BidwellSacramento River State Park superintendent. “We do have indications that there will be a lot of people on the river this year.” Last year, the Butte County Board of Supervisors tried to sober the event with an emergency alcohol ban, but the Glenn County Board of Supervisors did not follow suit, and an estimated 11,000 tubers took part. Police made 93 arrests for crimes ranging from littering to boating under the influence. There were 241 water rescues.

I at Baker Beach in San Francisco to celebrate the summer solstice by lighting an 8-foot-tall

n 1986, a small group of friends gathered

wooden man on fire. They could not have known the magnitude of what they had set in motion. Fast-forward to 1995—the by first year that Marian Goodell Elizabeth attended what was by then Limbach known as Burning Man. By that time, the weeklong annual gathphoto by ering had situated on a parched Philippe Glade lake bed in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The Man, as he came to be called, now loomed approximately 40 feet tall, and was burned toward the end of the festival in a cathartic marvel of fire. Tickets were $35, and the ephemeral “Black Rock City” held 4,000 people. “When I was there with 4,000 people, I knew there was something very significant about my experience,” said Goodell. “But I definitely didn’t imagine it would grow to the proportions it is now and become such a worldwide phenomenon.” In 2011, more than 53,000 Want to burn? people showed up for Burning This year, more Man, prompting the organizathan 60,000 tion to request a populationpeople were capacity increase from the expected to Bureau of Land Management for attend the 26th annual Burning this year’s event, which is runMan festival in ning this week, from Monday, Nevada, which is Aug. 27, to Monday, Sept. 3. now going on. Along with growth come Go to growing pains. What started as a www.burning man.org for bonfire at the beach is now facmore information ing the exciting, if uncertain, and a schedule consequences of outgrowing of events. itself, with ticketing headaches,

8 CN&R August 30, 2012

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among other issues, leading the community to contemplate some fundamental questions about what’s next. Just as the festival’s grown, so has Goodell’s involvement. By the end of 1996, she was one of six “owners” of Black Rock City LLC, and she has since also become the director of business and communications, among taking on other duties. She and the rest of the year-round Burning Man staff have overseen an evolution in the event’s structure as a result of its perpetual growth. In the 1990s, as more people journeyed to BRC, increasing regulations befell the city—guns and free-for-all driving were replaced by a meticulously planned city grid, a driving ban and safety rules. Still, the event remained stripped of the trappings of “the default world,” and came to be guided, instead, by 10 core principles (including “Radical Selfreliance,” “Radical Self-expression,” “Decommodification,” “Leaving No Trace”). As thousands more people joined the colorful tribe each year, they fostered an unstoppable kaleidoscope of creative visions that manifest as art installations, theme camps, performances, decorated bicycles, elaborate costumes, “mutant” vehicles and a strong sense of community. Andie Grace worked as Burning

Man’s communications manager for 13 years until stepping down earlier this summer. She recalled her visit to “the playa” in 1998, when the population was 15,000. “I remember someone saying, ‘Wow, someday 50,000 people could be out here,’” Grace said. “I almost fell over laughing—that was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard.”

Photographer Kyer Wiltshire, who’s taken photographs at Burning Man for 11 years, says the days are gone when most people he met—even people in nearby Reno—had never heard of what he calls “arguably the most amazing party on the planet.” “When Fox News [is] talking about the freaks out at Burning Man, you know that Burning Man has reached that point of being known across America,” said Wiltshire, who documented Burning Man and other festivals in his photography book, Tribal Revival. The 2011 event sold out (a first),

“I remember someone saying, ‘Wow, someday 50,000 people could be out here.’ I almost fell over laughing—that was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard.” —Andie Grace, former Burning Man communications manager

reached record attendance, and passed by without any major dust storms, frequent occurrences that whip Black Rock City into momentary blindness. They are the most unforgiving of the temperamental elements BRC citizens deal with, which also include blazing-hot days, frigid nights, an excruciatingly dry and alkaline environment, and sometimes rain. “Last year created the perfect storm for the event to grow: There were a lot of newbies, and there were no dust storms,” Wiltshire said. But members of BMOrg, as the Burning Man organization is nicknamed, sus-

pected they were “in for a different kind of ride in 2012,” even before the weather proved too good to be true in 2011. “The moment in 2011 that we saw tickets were going to sell out, we knew it would have a major impact on 2012 ticket sales, and we started planning,” Grace wrote in a Feb. 9 newsletter to the Burner community. In what has since come to be seen as an unsuccessful, if well-intentioned, attempt to address this growing interest, they created a new system for ticketing for this year’s event: a lottery in which 40,000 tickets were available in three tiers, priced from $240 to $390 (presale tickets were also available at $420 a pop). The result: Three times as many people entered the lottery as there were tickets available, about one-third of them newbies. This news added a fresh layer of indignation to the already fuming faction of Burners who didn’t get tickets, the concern being that “newbies” tend to bring less to the table, or that, given the event’s catapult into the mainstream zeitgeist, more people were coming out to Black Rock City just to party (a notion that’s considered sacrilege in a participant-driven city). Recognizing this, the organization designated the remaining 10,000 tickets—which were meant to go up for open sale after the lottery—for key theme camps, artists, mutant-vehicle creators, musicians and other key contributors to the sensory playground that is Black Rock City. Following the BLM’s June approval of Burning Man’s oneyear special permit for the 2012 event, which caps attendance at a record 60,900, organizers were able to sell additional tickets in July and August. Now, BMOrg is already in talks about 2013, drawing on input from game theorists, statisticians, sociologists, ticketing companies, software folks and the Burner community. But the reality, says Grace, is that no matter how they go about selling tickets, there won’t be enough for everyone who wants one. Ticketing isn’t the only issue. There are other existential matters to contemplate as well. Among them: Will Burning Man have to move? Where and what would that be like? How big can it get and still retain its flavor? Might it someday end altogether? In a Feb. 15 newsletter, Goodell posited that the culture’s survival might someday be entrusted to the broader community, one embodied by regional chapters in 19 countries across the globe. “This moment is an inflection point,” said Grace. “We have hit through the capacity here, and … maybe it means we won’t all go to the same place together every year. It could be that Black Rock City is where we go every few years, or take turns going, but there will be manifold other ways to access what we mean when we say ‘Burning Man.’” Ω

Still on the pot

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey left some pot growers speechless during the Board of Supervisors meeting.

County’s new plan called unconstitutional

PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE

utte County District Attorney Mike B Ramsey dropped a buz kill at the Aug. 28 Board of Supervisors meeting on

those looking to restrict medical-marijuana cultivation when he said an ordinance under consideration was unconstitutional. As a result, the board is back to square one, and soon to consider adopting an ad-hoc committee representing all sides of the matter to try to reach a compromise on how to grow and dispense medical marijuana. The ordinance—based on one adopted in Kings County last fall—would have outlawed all outdoor marijuana grows, a plan opponents called impractical and dangerous because of an increased fire hazard from grow lights. It was set to replace the one Butte County adopted last year but was rejected by 55 percent of voters in the referendum-forced Measure A during the June primary election. Opponents of that plan said it was too restrictive in that it disallowed grows on parcels of a half-acre or smaller. Ramsey told the board that while he was sympathetic with county efforts to address the “local medical-marijuana industry,” there were legal problems with the latest proposed ordinance. Namely, he said, enforcement of medical-marijuana laws must be done through code enforcement and not criminal procedures. “It does go too far in authorizing criminal penalties,” the DA said. “It can’t be enforced.” He said the ordinance does not follow the spirit of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act passed by voters in 1996 allowing for the cultivation and use of marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. Ramsey said the ordinance would allow him to prosecute “someone growing one plant in her back yard.

Under 215 I could not prosecute, but the ordinance under consideration says I could. “It won’t happen and it’s not going to happen. It conflicts with state law. Prop. 215 says to ensure patients and primary caregivers are not subject to criminal prosecution. You can save [the ordinance] by removing the criminal penalty and making it a civil penalty.” There were other problems with the

ordinance, cost being a big one. Paul Hahn, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the county would have to hire three additional code-enforcement officers, two to three sheriff’s deputies, one additional deputy county counsel and one paralegal—eight new positions that would cost $750,000 to $1 million—to enforce the law. Supervisor Bill Connelly said the important thing was protecting neighbors forced to live next door to marijuana growers. “Who are you going to respect? The poor guy trying to have a barbecue in his back yard or the guy growing six plants?” he asked. Ramsey said the problems in the county stem from those he called “profiteers;” people making money off of marijuana under the cover of Prop. 215. He said large outdoor grows began ramping up in California in 2009 when people took a cue from a federal memo from the Obama administration stating

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that the feds would not prosecute people following their states’ medical-marijuana laws. “It was a case of ‘Olly olly oxen free,’ ” he said. “Now California is the leading supplier of pot in the United States.” Sheriff Jerry Smith said between January and July of this year 35,194 plants had been seized, along with 51 weapons, and 42 arrests made. That includes 28,000 plants and two dead men found at a Magalia site. Supervisor Larry Wahl asked the sheriff what the board should do. Smith said that the panel should either take Ramsey’s advice or let the Sheriff’s Department “try to enforce it and then see where it lands in court.” Forty-five people addressed the board, the vast majority of them arguing on behalf of medical-marijuana growers. The first speaker, however, said she had been a Butte County resident since 1963 and that her family had had problems with neighbors growing marijuana since 1974. The person following her said while he recognized the need for medical marijuana, the odor growing plants produced was driving down property values. Another woman said her family can’t sit on their patio because of the smell, and that she’s watched her neighbor’s children playing among the marijuana plants. She was followed by a man who said he appreciated the dilemma the board was facing, but when it comes to safety issues gangrelated crime should take precedence. And so it went, with patients saying they needed their medicine. One man wearing what looked like a brand-new white lab coat, and who purported to be a retired cardiologist from Sacramento, said if marijuana plants are outlawed all plants will have to be outlawed. A man who said he’d been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis explained that without access to marijuana he is forced to spend $4,500 a month on prescription drugs and that growing marijuana indoors would cost him $2,500 a month. Another man who said he lives in Connelly’s district said it was time users and growers become part of the process “rather than just getting lectured to at these meetings.” Supervisor Maureen Kirk spoke first after the public comment was closed. “In light of what Mr. Ramsey said, we need a committee with people from both sides and the DA and Sheriff’s Office,” she said. “We need some kind of committee.” Supervisor Kim Yamaguchi agreed and made a motion that after some discussion called for Hahn and County Counsel Bruce Alpert to create an ad-hoc committee to try finally to forge a medical-marijuana ordinance that is fair to all sides. That plan should be presented at the board’s next meeting. —TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

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CN&R 9

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Defining the danger line Pride Fest workshop sheds light on abuse espite being hit with graffiti D in the form of homophobic slurs and spray-painted pink park-

ing meters that appeared at City Plaza over Friday night, the fourth annual Chico Pride Festival was largely successful, bringing in the biggest attendance and greatest amount of donations in the event’s history. The bulk of Stonewall Alliance’s LGBTQ-centric weekend of events took place on Saturday (Aug. 25), beginning with the Chico AIDS Walk/Run at Bidwell Park’s One-Mile. Most of the festivities were located at City Plaza, which was transformed into a colorful landscape with bright balloon arches, artwork and music. There, students and families mingled among the drag queens and Mardi Gras-beads-wearing, face-painted attendees checking out the festivities, which included music, food and other vendors as well as speakers throughout the day on the busy back-to-school weekend. Away from the bustling downtown square, workshops were held at Catalyst Domestic Violence Services, with which Stonewall Alliance partnered in an attempt to make the festival more inclusive to the Chico community, said Ange Bledsoe, Stonewall’s program coordinator. One speaker was Alex Brown, a self-described lesbian and feminist and an LGBTQ program outreach specialist who began working with Catalyst in February. Dressed in a button-up shirt and tie for her youth-focused workshop titled “Defining the Line,” Brown talked about the cyclical nature of unhealthy relationships as well certain tell-tale signs of abuse. She wasn’t fazed by the small turnout, speaking eloquently and noting that she chose this topic because she witnessed her mom and friends go through a series of toxic relationships when she was growing up. “Once you learn [these things], you open your eyes and you don’t forget,” Brown said. “And going

Zo ne G lass Fre e

Alex Brown of Catalyst Domestic Violence Services explained the cyclical nature of abusive relationships. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GESKE

10 CN&R August 30, 2012

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over it helps me be a better person and partner.” Brown explained that in

abusive relationships there’s a pattern of both healthful and unhealthful behavior. She described the first stage as the honeymoon “hearts and flowers” phase, during which each person shows his or her best side. In an abusive relationship this escalates quickly, with the more dominant person saying “I love you” or wanting to move in together, and perhaps talking about marriage and having kids. There’s a subsequent build-up of abuse and tension leading to intimidation and fear. Typically, in the beginning, when that tension is released, the couple will return to the honeymoon phase. However, over time that phase will be eliminated completely, and the relationship will go back and forth between tension and abuse. The abuser often will give something Brown calls an “if” apology: “I’d never have done this if you hadn’t done that,” she said. Abusers don’t take responsibility for the abuse, instead blaming it on the victim. “Abuse is intentional,” Brown said. “Power and control are the intent. They may say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know better,’ but they know what they did isn’t OK.” Brown went over the red flags of abusive relationships, such as temper tantrums, mood swings and isolation of the victim from family and friends. She also relayed the

Outing abuse:

Head to www.catalystdvservices.org for info on the services Catalyst offers to the public. Go to www.stonewallchico.org to learn more about Chico Pride Fest.

importance of friends and loved ones addressing their worries about the victim. “If we don’t ask to hear the good and bad, we won’t hear any of it,” she said. Catalyst provides support to victims, as well as legal assistance, temporary restraining orders, free counseling and emergency housing. Brown’s focus at the organization is on youth outreach, and she encourages people in the same age group to talk to one another. She does high school presentations, and Catalyst as a whole is looking to provide more workshops and other tools to help the public identify healthy relationships. The abuse rate for LGBTQ couples is one in four, the same as for heterosexual couples, but Brown noted that there are some controlling and manipulating tactics exclusive to LGBTQ relationships. For example, because of some stigmas, isolation of the victim is easier. Abusers may also threaten to “out them” to certain people in their life, such as family or people from work, to force them to stay in the relationship. “Abuse knows no bounds,” Brown said. —STEPHANIE GESKE smgeske@yahoo.com

Al Perry, the grandfather of baby Ruth Marie Hankensiefken, is raising money to help his granddaughter’s parents with gas, food and other expenses while they stay in Sacramento to be near Sutter Medical Center, where their child will undergo heart and soft-palate surgery.

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Helping baby Ruth get well Daughter of disabled couple faces back-to-back surgeries hen Ruth Marie Hankensiefken, who W was born on June 17, was just five days old, she was diagnosed with a hole in

her heart and a defective soft palate. She needs two surgeries in the very near future to correct these serious health problems. Ruth’s young mother, Dorothy, and grandparents, Al and Rita Perry, have been through this before. In 2009 Dorothy, who is developmentally disabled, had her then-13day-old son taken away by Butte County Children’s Services (CPS) after he was diagnosed with a cleft palate that prevented him from nursing properly. Al, Rita and Dorothy waged a well-publicized campaign to return the baby to his biological family, but were ultimately unsuccessful. That child, now 3, was recently adopted by his foster family. In the case of baby Ruth, ChilHelp the dren’s Services is Hankensiefken family: involved as well, Go to www.tinyurl.com/ Al Perry said, babyruthhank to donate though in a more money to help pay for supportive role. expenses for baby Ruth’s family to stay in This time Sacramento while she around Medi-Cal recovers from two benefits will cover upcoming surgeries. the surgeries, but (Some of the money will funding is still go to reopening a childcustody case concerning needed to help Ruth’s older halfcover expenses— brother, who was such as food and removed by Children’s transportation Services in April 2009.) costs—related to Call Jim Hankensiefken at 570-7271 to find out her parents’ about donating to the upcoming one-toRabobank trust fund set two-month stay in up on behalf of baby Sacramento, Ruth. beginning Sept. 6,

while Ruth is a patient at Sutter Medical Center. Dorothy, and Ruth’s father, Jim, who is a local pedicab driver, and Dorothy’s parents, Al and Rita Perry, are making use of the fundraising website GoFundMe.com to help raise the money. Al Perry said Ruth’s pediatrician discovered the heart defect with a stethoscope, and an X-ray revealed the hole. A nurse at Ampla Health, he said, found the soft-palate problem while swabbing Ruth’s mouth. The defective palate interfered with the baby’s eating, and she had started to lose weight. Ruth was referred to Sutter, where she spent a week hooked up to a feeding tube until she had gained enough weight to go home to Chico with her parents, with the help of an in-home health nurse. Ruth is now fed via a Haberman Feeder bottle, designed for babies with impaired ability to nurse. “Before we brought [Ruth] home from Sutter, [someone] called CPS,” Perry said. “They wouldn’t tell us who called. As soon as the social worker walked in the room, the first thing out of her mouth was that she was not there to take the baby, she was there to offer services [such as an in-home health nurse].” Jim and Dorothy and their parents are working with CPS and other officials, including the in-home nurse, Perry said, to set up a plan for when the baby comes home from the hospital. They recently were told by CPS that if Jim and Dorothy set up respite care with an on-hand nurse to provide medications the parents are not authorized to administer, the case will be closed, said Perry. In the meantime, Perry is reveling in the fact that he can see his beloved little granddaughter whenever he wants—Dorothy, Jim and Ruth live right next door to Perry and his wife. “It’s a delight,” he said. “I get to go over and see her whenever I want. I go over and help with the feedings once in a while, especially on my days off [from work]. I’m thrilled. Rita is, too. She spends more time over there than at home!”

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August 30, 2012

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CN&R 11

EARTH WATCH MEDIA MUM ON CLIMATE ISSUES

New research suggests mainstream media outlets are shying away from the issue of climate change. A study conducted by media watchdog website Media Matters for America found nightly news programs on NBC, ABC and CBS decreased coverage of climate change by 72 percent between 2009 and 2011 despite “a series of newsworthy stories related to climate change in 2010 and 2011,” like record-breaking extreme weather events, the rise of climate skepticism and the recent UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa, according to MediaMatters.org. Sunday-aired shows decreased coverage of climate change by 90 percent during the same period. Furthermore, when Sunday shows did cover climate change, scientists were left out of the discussion—interviewees were 50 percent politicians, 45 percent media figures and 5 percent “other.” In 2011, each major network (including Fox) devoted equal or more airtime to Donald Trump than to climate change.

GREENWAYS

Greening government Board of Supervisors presented with sustainability report as pressure on county mounts to comply with emissions law

CAMPUS AMONG GREEN ELITE

Chico State earned more national recognition for its eco-friendly practices by making Princeton Review’s 2013 Green Honor Roll. Of the 806 colleges and universities surveyed for sustainability efforts like waste diversion, energy consumption and alternative transportation programs, Chico State was one of just 21 schools to score a 99, the highest possible ranking, according to a Chico State press release. Other California institutions included on the Green Honor Roll are San Francisco State, UC Santa Cruz and Pasadena’s Caltech. “This honor is a result of broad institutional buy-in and support for our sustainability goals,” said Fletcher Alexander, Chico State’s sustainability coordinator. “Sustainability on this campus isn’t just in facilities or academics—it belongs to everyone and is a fundamental part of our culture.”

AIR POLLUTION RULE GETS AX

A federal appeals court overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s cross-state air pollution rule on Aug. 21. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 against the EPA’s regulation, which aimed to reduce downwind pollution from power plants in more than two dozen states, according to The Associated Press. Introduced by the EPA last year, the regulation was scheduled to go into effect in January 2012, but a handful of states and several large power companies sued to prevent its adoption. In December 2011, the appeals court agreed to suspend the regulation for further review. “It is not our job to set environmental policy,” wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of former President George W. Bush. “Our limited but important role is to independently ensure that the [EPA] stays within the boundaries Congress has set. EPA did not do so here.” 12 CN&R August 30, 2012

Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia christinel@ newsreview.com

B that climate change is a serious and pressing issue. Despite its obfuscation by y now, it should be no secret

climate-change deniers often motivated by a desire for profits based on business as usual, even conservative business publications such as The Economist have come out acknowledging that global warming caused by humankind’s activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, is a reality. Here in Butte County, officials are taking on the daunting task of reducing county greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a mandate required by the 2006 passage of AB 32 (the California Global Warming Solutions Act), as well as other sustainability related energy-saving and cost-cutting measures. The county’s Sustainability Work Team—consisting of Public Works Director Mike Crump, Water and Resource Conservation Director Paul Gosselin, General Services Director Grant Hunsicker, Development Services Director Tim Snellings and Deputy Administrative Officer Shari McCracken—presented a sizable sustainability report to the Board of Supervisors at its Aug. 14 meeting. The report looked at ways the county’s operations—including county offices in Oroville, as well as the Butte County Jail and Butte County Juvenile Hall and other county facilities, such as the Department of Employment and Social Services on Carmichael Drive in Chico—could become “more sustainable, energy-efficient and cost-

effective,” as a recent county memo puts it. The team focused its efforts on the areas of energy usage (electricity and natural gas), water usage, vehicle usage, solid waste and recycling, and climate change. “The reception [of the report by the Board of Supervisors] was good. They accepted the report,” said McCracken in a recent telephone interview. Here’s a look at some of the highlights of the team’s report: Energy usage: The county’s accomplishments to date in this area include the installation of a solar-energy system in 2004, and the development of a landfill gas-toenergy project at the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility. “We’re taking a harder look at our existing solar array,” offered Hunsicker in a recent phone interview. “The county was on the absolute leading edge of installing the solar array [in 2004]. “But at the time, measurement tools were not well established. … While there are advantages to being on the leading edge, the industry was still in its infancy and growing, so we encountered some of those growing pains. As a result, the system is not as robust as contemporary systems because the industry has grown up.” One of those growing pains has remained an ongoing problem: “Back when the array was installed, the county could not sell excess power back to the grid. [To this day] there are times when we have excess energy—and it’s lost,” said Hunsicker. He cited early contractual agreements and legal constraints that have tied the county’s hands in this regard. “We need to bring in expertise to help

analyze the existing system [and contracts and current laws] and determine what changes are necessary” to bring the county’s solar array up to present-day standards, Hunsicker said. The report also cites the need for future implementation of a “pilot building”—the selection of a specific county-office building “that can be used to test results used in re-construction projects” to bring buildings up to sustainable standards. “The purpose of a test building is to enable us to effect change and accurately see what happens, so that if a change is good we can replicate that change in other buildings,” said Hunsicker, acknowledging that the county’s nearly $2 million annual energy bill needs to be reduced. A “financial team” of county employees will be put together to help determine which building will become the pilot building, he said, which he anticipates will be up and running by the end of FY 2012-13. Water usage: Among the areas that will be looked at with an eye to conserving water are county buildings with “large landscapes,” and clothes-washing and food-preparation facilities inside 24-hour-a-day housing facilities (such as the county jail). One of the county’s accomplishments so far in this area, according to the report, is the 2010 Library Water Conservation Pilot Project, which resulted in such things as the conversion of toilets from using Read the report:

Go to http://tinyurl.com/buttegreen to read the full report of Butte County’s Sustainability Work Team.

1.6 gallons of water per flush to using only half a gallon per flush, and installing weather-based irrigation controllers at the Chico and Oroville branches of the Butte County Library. “We replaced the controllers for the sprinklers … with Internetready weather-station landscapecontrol units,” Hunsicker said. “Now, if it’s going to rain, they won’t come on. They alter the water use based on weather in the area.” Vehicle usage: The report declares a need to “[r]educe gallons of gas per [county-owned] vehicle [as well as] vehicles per employee and/or mileage per employee.” Impediments to the accomplishment of this goal include the fact that “[a]t the present time the County does not have the ability to determine each [county-owned] vehicle’s actual fuel usage per mile, due to inconsistent or inaccurate reporting of vehicle mileage when fueling as well as the use of commercial credit cards to fuel various vehicles.” Actions recommended by the Sustainability Work Team to deal with this issue include the installation of “GPS tracking systems on County vehicles to provide … detailed information on vehicle

usage and mileage,” and surveying employees to see if they are reducing their vehicle travel. Solid waste and recycling: “Educate County staff on best practices,” the report says. These include recycling paper, bottles and plastic, and producing “compost, mulch energy and fuels from organic waste stream” to be used in “landscaping and water-conservation efforts.” Additionally, the report advises the creation of “a system of measurement for each department and [the] develop[ment of] friendly competition with rewards.” Climate change: This hot-button topic is addressed at length in the report, which acknowledges that the negative impacts on Butte County of climate change include increased air pollution, wildfires, frequency and intensity of heat waves, and flood risk from heavy rainfall, as well as a decrease in snowpack. Additionally, impacts on county agriculture include new or expanded weed and pest invasions, and increased vulnerability of animals to disease.

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GREENWAYS continued on page 14

UNCOMMON SENSE Hazmat at home Hazardous-waste material isn’t limited to the industrial setting—in fact, you can probably find hazmat in your house without looking too hard. Thankfully, Butte County offers 13 locations where you can safely and responsibly dispose of hazardous materials, including used medical sharps (accepted only in 1-quart sharps containers). Household hazardous materials include, but aren’t limited to: • Antifreeze • Motor oil, gasoline and oil filters • Pesticides, herbicides and aerosols • Solvents, bleaches and pool chemicals • Mercury thermometers and thermostats • Fluorescent light bulbs and electronic waste For a full list of hazmat drop-off locations, visit http://tinyurl.com/94ov2t6 online. duplicated coupons will not be honored August 30, 2012

CN&R 13

RECYCLE THIS PAPER.

GREENWAYS

Butte County Public Works Department Butte County Sheriffs Department California State Parks, City of Chico Associated Students CSU, Chico

14 CN&R August 30, 2012

“We have a legal mandate from AB 32 that requires all counties, cities and special districts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020,” said Snellings in a recent phone interview. A Climate Action Plan [CAP] will be developed to tackle this issue; Butte County is sending out a request for proposals this week to consultant firms in the North State “that have experience writing Climate Action Plans,” he said. The CAP “will cover not only county facilities, but [also] all actions permitted by the county— basically all building permits the county issues.” Snellings predicted a timeline of approximately nine months to complete the CAP, which will include an in-depth public-participation component of the process. The plan may not even end up being called a Climate Action Plan, said Snellings. “It [the name] clouds the issue of what we’re trying to accomplish. It automatically creates two camps—believers and non-believers.” Calling it an “energy-reduction plan” or a “cost-savings plan” might be more appropriate, he said. “I’m saying let’s address the mandate that’s set out by law,” Snellings said. “It’s irrelevant what we each personally believe [about climate change]. What matters is how we comply with the law, and that ‘how’ will be our plan.” Ω

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continued from page 13

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by Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia christinel@newsreview.com

A Local Director y f o r Yo u r Gr e e n Ho me Imp r o ve me n t To -Do Li s t

ORGANIC CONSUMERS BEWARE! The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-

based nonprofit organization dedicated to “Promoting Economic Justice for Family Scale Farming,” as its motto puts it, recently came out with a detailed news article (go to www.cornucopia.org to see full story) revealing that “[c]orporations owning some of the nation’s most popular organic brands (Horizon, Silk, Kashi, Cascadian Farm, R.W. Knudsen, etc.) have joined Monsanto and the biotechnology industry in fighting California citizen initiative Proposition 37 that will mandate GMO labeling.” “Consumers might be surprised to find out that brands hiding under ‘natural’ façades are in fact owned by multibillion-dollar corporations that are contributing bushel baskets of cash to defeating Proposition 37,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, Cornucopia’s director of Farm and Food Policy. As the article pointed out, “[m]andatory labeling of genetically engineered [GE] food in California is viewed as a watershed event by many industry observers, as many companies will find it logistically or economically difficult to produce foods with labels identifying GE for California while producing a different product line of foods for the rest of the country.” It will cut into their bottom line, their profits, in other words. Why not cut into the profits of these sly companies now by not purchasing products from them?

DON’T BUY THESE BRANDS Of the $23.5 million donated so far to fight Prop. 37, here is the breakdown, by brand/corporation, according to the Cornucopia Institute: Monsanto: $4,208,000; PepsiCo (parent company of Izze and Naked drinks): $1,716,300; Coca-Cola (Honest Tea, Odwalla and Simply Orange drinks): $1,164,400; Conagra (French Meadow, Alexia, Lightlife): $1,076,300; Kellogg (Kashi, MorningStar Farms, Gardenburger, Bear Naked): $632,500; General Mills (Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen, Lärabar): $520,000; Smucker’s (R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic): $387,000; and Dean Foods (Horizon Organic milk products, Silk soy milk): $253,000. Additionally, the Council for Biotechnology Information (made up of agricultural-pesticide giants MonsanNatural-cereal brand Kashi’s parent to, DuPont, Syngenta, Dow Agrocompany, Kellogg, is among a number of Sciences, Bayer CropScience and BASF big corporations that are funding the Plant Science) and the Grocery Manufacbig-bucks fight to defeat Prop. 37— turers Association each have donated the Right to Know Initiative. $375,000, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization has put in $250,000 toward trying to make sure Californians do not have access to accurate labeling of the food they buy as far as GMO content goes. SUPPORT THESE NATURAL-PRODUCTS COMPANIES: Dr. Bronner’s liquid and

bar soaps, Nature’s Path organic cereals and cereal products, Richvalebased Lundberg Family Farms rice products, Nutiva coconut and hemp oils, etc., Organic Valley milk, Amy’s natural and organic frozen meals, Eden Foods, Baby’s Only organic baby formula, Marshall, Calif.-based Straus Family Creamery Organic milk and cream and Uncle Matt’s organic juices. Collectively, along with Illinois physician Dr. Joseph Mercola (go to www.mercola.com for info), the Organic Consumers Association and Michael Funk, CEO of United Natural Foods, Inc., they have donated $2.6 million toward the support of Prop. 37. It’s a far cry, unfortunately, from the big money donated by big corporations such Vote with your food-purchasing as Monsanto, PepsiCo and Kellogg—so help dollars: Support pro-Prop. 37 support the pro-37 battle by boycotting Lundberg Family Farms. brands that are trying to prevent the labeling of foods containing GMOs. (By the way, certain companies that one would expect to support Prop. 37 have yet to donate to the campaign, according to the Cornucopia Institute, such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market and Stonyfield organic dairy products.) Go to www.cornucopia.org/prop37-petition to sign Cornucopia’s petition telling anti-Prop. 37 corporations that you won’t give them your business, thanking pro-37 companies and asking noncommittal companies, such as Trader Joe’s, to provide financial support. EMAIL YOUR GREEN HOME, GARDEN AND COMMUNITY TIPS TO CHRISTINE AT CHRISTINEL@NEWSREVIEW.COM

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CN&R 15

Safety First Having a child is a beautiful and emotional moment in life that seems to stop time and change our relationship with the universe as our lives begin to revolve around a small, helpless infant. But, the small day-to-day things are still there: jobs; paying the bills; is the oven on?; did we feed the dog?; where is the dog? And soon we slowly return to Earth.

Oroville Hospital understands. That’s why they want to make things a little easier and help parents enjoy this happy event a little more by giving new parents a free car seat. “People have so much on their mind when they’re having a baby. We want to make things easier and make sure the baby is safe,” says Janet Deadmond, RN, Oroville Hospital’s nursery manager. “It’s one less thing for parents to worry about. And I’m proud of the fact that we are able to provide this important gift.” If you already have a car seat, Deadmond would like you to know a few guidelines: • You should never use a car seat that has been in an accident, so if you don’t know a car seat’s history, don’t use it. • Car seats actually have expiration dates, and you should never use one that has expired. • Proper installation is critical, so follow the directions exactly. • If you’re not sure, the CHP and some fire stations have certified car seat installers.

The Small Miracles unit at Oroville Hospital also supports expecting parents by offering fertility advice, childbirth education, lactation consultations, a Better Babies program, and even free membership at the Oroville Sports Club. During your stay you can choose natural childbirth or ask for assistance with pain management. Nurses will be at your side to coach you through labor, and can help you stay comfortable using guided imagery and relaxation techniques.

“People have so much on their mind when they’re having a baby. We want to make things easier and make sure the baby is safe.” And when you and your child are ready for the drive home, you’ll know your newborn will be safer in a brand new car seat. To learn more about having your baby at Oroville Hospital, please check online at www.OrovilleHospital.com or call 532-8440.

2767 OlIve HIgHwaY • OrOvIlle, Ca • (530) 533 - 8500 • www.OrOvIlleHOSPItal.COm 16 CN&R August 30, 2012

THE PULSE

HEALTHLINES

HEALTH REFORM POPULAR IN CALI

A majority of California voters approves of the federal health-care reform law, a new survey finds. A poll of 1,579 California voters taken by California Wellness Foundation found 54 percent of respondents support the Affordable Care Act, while 37 percent do not, according to The Sacramento Bee. A similar poll in 2011 found 52 percent of voters supported the reform, while 39 percent did not. Additionally, 38 percent of voters reported they “strongly support” the law. Analysts suggest California’s level of support— which is greater than the national average—may be due to a high percentage of Democratic voters or the fact that more than one-third of voters are currently uninsured or say a family member has gone without insurance in the past two years.

Benefiting the community ?

RETIREE BENEFIT PAYMENTS LOOMING

A new report charges California is unprepared to cover the future health-care costs of government retirees. The report by California Common Sense found 11 of the 20 California cities with the largest budgets have not set aside funding to pay for $12 billion (out of a total of $16 billion) in future non-pension benefits promised government workers, according to California Watch. The report’s authors urged California’s cities to set aside funds for future health-care benefits and reduce costs through increased employee contributions and restricted benefit eligibility. The report also warned that failure to properly manage retiree health care could hinder a city’s ability to cover other important expenses. The 11 cities are Fresno, Glendale, Long Beach, Oakland, Pasadena, Redding, Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Ana and Santa Monica.

OLDER FATHERS, AUTISM LINKED

Children of older fathers are more likely to develop autism, schizophrenia and other diseases compared to children of younger fathers, new research suggests. The study, based on genetic analysis from 78 Icelandic families whose children were diagnosed with autism or schizophrenia, found older fathers pass more new genetic mutations to their children, according to The Wall Street Journal. The genetic mutations in question are found in eggs or sperm cells, but are not the result of parental lineage. Such genetic mistakes are more common in the sperm of older men; a man over 40 is almost six times more likely to father an autistic child than a man under 30. The average age of Icelandic fathers is 33 and on the rise, as it is in most Western countries. “It is very likely that the rise in the mean age of fathers has made some contribution to the apparent epidemic of autism in our society,” said Kari Stefansson, lead author of the study.

Evan Tuchinsky ideacultivators@ aol.com

W care, how much is enough? That’s a question under consideration in the Califorhen hospitals provide charity

nia Legislature, and reverberating statewide, in light of a report put forth by the California Nurses Association (CNA) asserting that, on the whole, the state’s nonprofit hospitals gain more than they give. The study, released earlier this month, was prepared by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy (IHSP), which says it’s “the exclusive research arm of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United”—the state’s nursing union, affiliated with a nationwide organization. IHSP evaluated data from 2010 and determined that 196 nonprofit hospitals in the state provided $1.4 billion in charity care that year while reaping $3.2 billion in “government subsidies and other benefits from their not-for-profit status.” In other words, the hospitals earned $1.8 billion above and beyond what they spent in caring for Californians who couldn’t afford their services. Therein lies the title of the report: “Benefiting from Charity Care: California Not-for-Profit Hospitals.” The subsidies and benefits identified by IHSP are exemptions on federal and state income tax on net income, as well as federal and state income tax on charitable contributions, property tax, sales tax and

Local hospital officials weigh in on recent critical report of state nonprofit hospitals

bonds. When adding those up, then subtracting charity-care totals, IHSP found three-quarters of the state’s nonprofit hospitals came out ahead and one-quarter came out behind. Butte County’s three large nonprofit hospitals fell in the latter group. According to the IHSP, in 2010: • Enloe Medical Center spent approximately $977,000 more in charity care than it received in public benefits; • Feather River Hospital spent $427,000 more; • Oroville Hospital spent $1.8 million more. “The fact is,” Enloe CEO Mike Wiltermood said, “Butte County hospitals look pretty good.” Still, Wiltermood and administrators at the other two local hospitals have concerns about the report. Primarily, they question singling out charity care from the overall community benefit they say they provide (see accompanying chart, page 18). For instance, both Wiltermood and Bob Wentz, CEO at Oroville Hospital, explained in phone interviews that they write off far more debt than what falls

under the label of charity care. Their hospitals also provide other services at a loss, which can range from conducting health fairs and screenings to operating clinics and emergency rooms at a loss. Wiltermood also considers “subsidizing the lowest-paying Medicaid program in the country”—that is, Medi-Cal—to be the largest community benefit. “What they’re saying [through the report] is the tax break is equal to or better than the benefit we give in the community,” Wiltermood said. “We could argue it goes beyond that—they’re focused very narrowly on tax break versus charity care.” Part of the discussion of charity

care involves a definition of terms. In a general sense, charity care entails providing medical treatment for uninsured or underinsured patients who are unable to pay for it. Hospitals are prohibited by law from turning away ill or injured people who seek care at their emergency rooms, regardless of ability to pay. Hospitals have a more specific definition HEALTHLINES continued on page 18

APPOINTMENT DONATE TO THE BLOODMOBILE Bloodsource’s Bloodmobile will be on hand at Star Community Credit Union (550 Salem St.) on Friday, Aug. 31, from 1 to 4 p.m. As always, drink plenty of fluids before donating blood and bring a photo ID. Call 895-1947, ext. 217, to make an appointment or for more information.

August 30, 2012

CN&R 17

HEALTHLINES

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BENEFIT FIGURES:

LOCAL HOSPITAL CHARITY CARE* COMMUNITY BENEFIT** Enloe $15.6 million $73.3 million Feather River $4.8 million $27.8 million Oroville $6.9 million $75 million *2010, from “Benefiting from Charity Care” report **2010, from hospitals (including charity care and other write-offs)

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of the term “charity care” that doesn’t include all written-off debts. At Enloe, for instance, “our policy is to provide charity care under certain conditions—up to 450 percent of the poverty level,” Wiltermood said. People who work but don’t qualify for Medi-Cal and can’t afford private insurance still may have bills reduced or written off. Oroville Hospital has a specific application process for charity care in which patients disclose their incomes and, if they haven’t already, apply for Medi-Cal. Those who don’t go through the process still may have co-payments or entire bills written off, Wentz explained, but they wouldn’t fall under “charity care.” “Charity care is just a subset of write-offs the hospital does,” Wentz said. “People get access to the most sophisticated medical treatment they can get and we don’t look at their wallet.” Other Northern California hospitals are similarly oriented, Wiltermood said. When patients need more intensive care than a North State facility can provide,

Enloe seeks to transfer the patient to a larger medical center such as Sutter Memorial, UC San Francisco or Stanford Hospital—two of which (Sutter and Stanford) are hospitals the IHSP report says benefit more than they provide. “When we send a patient to UCSF, Sutter or Stanford,” Wiltermood said, “they never deny our patient based on ability to pay. It’s important for people in Butte County to know that when we send patients out for a higher level of care, we get unconditional cooperation.” If local patients were getting turned away, he added, he’d be more concerned. Each hospital has distinct

circumstances. Both Wiltermood and Wentz pointed out that property-tax assessments are much higher in certain areas of California than they are in the North State. As such, hospitals in those areas—for example, La Jolla, Palm Springs and Silicon Valley—will derive more benefit from the property-tax exemption. Context is significant—“I think

WEEKLY DOSE Sharing food with Fido Dogs are not shy about begging. It’s in their nature, particularly when you eat something in front of them. Hard to ignore. But a lot of the food humans consume are not good for dogs. Here’s a list of foods that are safe to share with our canine buds: Yogurt without sugar or artificial sweeteners; cooked salmon, which is good for the immune system, skin and coat; sweet potatoes, sliced and dehydrated; apples (be careful because the seeds contain cyanide); popcorn that’s air-popped without butter or salt (offers potassium, phosphorous, magnesium and calcium); and green beans, which provide plant fiber and manganese to help maintain proper weight for hefty dogs. And, of course, there’s good old peanut butter, a high-protein treat that offers entertainment for the owner who watches the determined licking that follows a dog’s consumption of the stuff.

Source: Modern Dog magazine

it’s important to look at how much a hospital is making and if they’re making a reasonable effort to provide charity care in the community,” Wiltermood said. “I’m afraid that because of a few apparently out-of-whack facilities, we’ll all get subject to actions in the Legislature that are overly punitive. … “In general,” said Wiltermood, “it’s a point worth discussing: What is the value of our tax base, and are we providing the value we should be? Everybody has their own answer.” A legislative committee held

a hearing on the matter Aug. 15. A week earlier, the state auditor’s office released a report “concerning whether nonprofit hospitals are providing a public benefit that justifies their tax-exempt status and whether the purchase or consolidation of nonprofit hospitals has resulted in reduced access to or affected the pricing of health care.” State Auditor Elaine Howle concluded that “state law clearly states that the amount of community benefits provided cannot be used to justify the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals. Additionally, we found that no statutory standard or methodology exists for hospitals to follow when calculating these benefits.” In addition, hospitals use different measures for establishing poverty levels “as allowed by state law” and conditions differ even in hospitals within the same organization. That may be one reason why Feather River had a negative net benefit in the IHSP report but its parent organization, Adventist Health System, overall had a positive net benefit. In a statement emailed to the CN&R, Feather River Hospital CEO Kevin Erich questioned the motives and methodology behind the report. Erich said, in part: “Although the union is claiming that the data comes from publicly available sources, it has been manipulated to advance this particular union’s agenda. We are not aware that any other state agency or other independent source has ever calculated the data in this manner. “Our records show substantially higher dollar amounts being provided to the community in benefits than those reflected in the referenced report. … Communities benefit tremendously from a local hospital providing access to care, as well as supporting the local economy, and Feather River Hospital is proud to serve this community and meet their needs.” Ω

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Application deadline is Friday, Sept. 14. August 30, 2012

CN&R 19

LIFE AND LOSS AT THE SILVER A local family’s heartache and determination to keep racing BY KEN SMITH • kens@newsreview.com

PHOTOS BY KYLE EMERY

he power-to-weight ratio of a modern winged sprint car is phenomenal. The average 410-cubic-inch, methanol-fueled engine mounted just inches from the driver’s knees is capable of producing more than 800 horsepower. Forged of aluminum and titanium, these engines account for much of the vehicle’s total weight of roughly 1,400 pounds, slightly more than a deluxe golf cart and less than a smart car. The characteristic wings mounted atop the cars operate conversely to airplane wings, generating the downforce necessary to keep the vehicles on the ground as

they scramble and slide around dirt tracks at speeds of up to 140 miles an hour, spitting sparks and spewing mud high into the grandstands. The people who pilot these elegantly brutal machines can be forgiven their small superstitions. Even the most skeptical drivers generally honor age-old wards against bad luck—avoiding the number 13, the color green, and adhering to the more esoteric “no peanuts in the pits” rule. In a sport where fate’s fickle finger can determine victory and defeat, costly crashes and breakdowns, and even life and death, a little good luck can’t hurt.

But Michael Tarter’s pre-race ritual is ished school, because if he didn’t he wasn’t Michael sometimes says it feels like his Howard said his sons liked something entirely different. Each night before brother is sitting on his lap when he’s drivracing.” The Tarters are longtime Chico resi- racing’s immediate effort/reward strapping himself into the blue-and-white No. dents, and David a graduate of Fairview ing. If the weight isn’t enough reminder, format: “You’re going to get 35 car owned by his father, Howard, and forHigh School. there’s also a small medallion on the dash rewarded for what you do that merly driven by his brother, David, he takes a The Tarter boys started racing Outlaw go- night, not when the season ends in given to him by a friend shortly after David’s moment to have a conversation. karts—high-powered small vehicles death. It reads, “Never Drive Faster than weeks or days or months. The other “See this dent over here,” Michael said, equipped with the necessary safety features Your Guardian Angel Can Fly.” side of that is, if you don’t do well, indicating a damaged corner of the Tarter Racand horsepower to race—13 years ago, at you can go back and try to fix it the “DAVID WAS ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO YOU WERE ing team’s trailer. “That’s from the accident.” ages 17 and 14, explained Howard, who him- next time.” always glad to see,” Howard Tarter said, He was referring to the June 8 incident in self had previous racing experience, working He said the sport’s competitive standing in the pits near the team’s trailer and with his brother on a Winston West (a precur- nature also appealed to the boys who, which an exploding tire and wheel killed Friday-night headquarters. “I think that’s the 30-year-old David as he prepared for a night sor to NASCAR) team, and a love for the separated by only three years, mainbest compliment you can pay somebody. I’m sport dating back to his junior-high years. He tained a level of sibling rivalry on and of racing at the Silver Dollar Speedway. biased, obviously, him being my oldest son, While the accident easily could have forced went to driving school and had wanted to off the track that sometimes became but anyone who knew him will tell you the members of the Tarter family (who’ve raced race, but said the opportunity and funding problematic. Howard said the boys’ same thing. He loved people, and he loved for 13 years and whose roots in the sport go never lined up at the same time. mother stopped attending races in their helping people. We lost a good one. even deeper) away from the track for good, He gave up his own racing aspirations when go-kart days because the conflict some“He had a mischievous streak in him,” they did what they felt David would want the sport’s hectic schedule conflicted with raistimes upset her. She almost started Howard continued. “He would get into trouthem to do: They kept driving. ing the boys, only to rediscover the sport on a attending again before the accident, but ble occasionally, and as a matter of fact that’s smaller, more manageable scale later. Team Tarter always tries to park as close Howard said he thinks it would be too one of the reasons racing was such a godto the exact spot where David fell as possi“We did all kinds of things to keep the painful for her following David’s death. send. At the time we started racing, he was ble, and Michael takes a moment near the kids from having too much spare time; scouts Despite her absence, he said, she’s still hanging with some people who were getting dent before climbing into the cockpit for and bowling and baseball,” he said. “It all interested and supportive and expects a into some trouble. every big event. worked for a while, but as time goes on kids phoned report immediately following “He was going to drop out of school and “I kneel down and we talk,” he said. lose interest. Racing was something that they every race. “Every night before I race, we just have a lit- all that, and racing became the carrot that never lost interest in. As soon as we started The family made the transition from turned that around. He went back and fintle conversation.” racing, it became a passion for them.” go-karts to sprint cars six years ago, with 20 CN&R August 30, 2012

DOLLAR SPEEDWAY

Michael driving the car for two April-toDavid. Racing was the center of his uniDavid Tarter, 30, between August seasons. They stopped racing sprints verse.” races in Marysville, less than a week before his June 8 for a few years, until David started driving death from injuries sustained CASEY SCHMITZ, A 15-YEAR-OLD SOPHOMORE AT last season. He was voted the speedway’s in a freak pit-area accident Chico High, is an Outlaw go-kart racer and a 2011 Rookie of the Year. at Silver Dollar Speedway. proud member of Team Tarter. David, whom “He was a very respectful driver,” Silver PHOTO COURTESY OF LIZZY MERRIGAN Dollar announcer Troy Hennig said of David. he calls a father figure, started bringing him “There’s some people that come into the sport to the races at age 6, and he’s been hooked and go balls to the wall, thinking, ‘I’m gonna ever since. He knows more about cars than most adults and, spinning around the pits on show you I’m as good as you are without had no chance.” the team’s quad, seems to be living an adolearning.’ David didn’t have that mentality. Howard was absent from He was very respectful of other drivers and of lescent gearhead’s dream. Except, of course, the pits that night, as he and for the night of the accident. the tradition of winged sprint cars. response was immediate, and over“I was actually working on the same tire,” Shelley were visiting relatives in the Bay “On the track there are people who have a whelming. That night, more than 150 Area. The accident occurred shortly after 5 Schmitz said of the fateful night. “I couldn’t reputation of not being able to drive in a people showed up to hold a vigil outp.m., just as the elder Tarters were getting get it on so he tried it. I was standing a few straight line, or who make it hard for other side the hospital. feet away when it blew. I got blown back but back into town. They beat the ambulance to people to pass them. But David had that “There aren’t words to express the the hospital. wasn’t injured.” respect, and he was careful. He knew that if “We couldn’t see him right away, and did- gratitude and love we have for these Other crew members also worked on the he crashed his car there wasn’t a lot of people,” he continued. “The outpouring n’t know what his condition was, but we tire, which refused to bead correctly on the money to put it back together, so he had to of support has been phenomenal. I have knew it was bad from reports from the peodrive it smart and not only finish the race but wheel. After finally getting it on, David was nothing to compare it to, but I’ve never ple here.” Howard said. “He’d lost a lot of inflating the tire when it exploded, sending finish without crashing. He was smart, blood and he was not responsive when he got seen the like. I’ve never even heard of pieces of the metal wheel like flying shraprespectful, and he got a lot of praise for that. anything like it. to the trauma room. When we got to see him He was always competitive, but very respect- nel. By all accounts, it was a freak accident. “I can’t think of a person out here who he was all bandaged and looked OK, but it “What happened to David was a perfect ful of other drivers.” we’ve ever interacted with that didn’t offer was pretty clear he wasn’t going to make it. storm of factors that may never come “He loved to help people,” Howard whatever they could, from condolences to together again,” Howard said. “A wheel that We were able to spend some time with him, added. “He’d always be off helping fix but quite honestly I think he was gone before someone else’s car, sometimes even when he had an issue somehow, a tire that just didn’t he left the racetrack.” should’ve been working on his own. It prob- want to seat, and a circumstance where it Howard said the racing community’s came apart right in front of him and he just ably cost him a few wins, but, well, that was “SPEEDWAY” continued on page 26 August 30, 2012

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“SPEEDWAY” continued from page 21 Far left: The Tarter family and friends on Aug. 24, the last day of regular season racing. Left: Michael Tarter, determined to qualify for the night’s main event.

food to money to racing parts and their help putting the car back on the track, if that’s what we chose to do. It goes on and on. When we had his memorial service, we had to have it here because there was no other place big enough. No words can do it justice.” More than 1,500 people from all over the country attended David’s June 16 memorial service at the race track. Almost immediately, a David Tarter Memorial Page popped up on Facebook, which today has more than 1,300 friends. None of the team’s sponsors backed out, instead offering to help more, covering the team’s fuel and pit expenses if they chose to keep racing.

owner of the car to account for different drivers. With only two races completed, David ranked 30th of 45 racers at season’s end on Aug. 24. Michael had six starts, making it to the main event three times and finishing 14th. The Tarter team ranked a respectable 12th Lizzie was standing mere feet away when the acciplace in owner’s points, the sum of the brothers’ dent occurred. She said David was the most amazing efforts. man—and from the most amazing family—that she’s Though not top ranked, no one can deny the ever met: “He was so joyful and full of life and friends Tarter Racing Team has heart. On the second-to-last with everybody. He knew people everywhere we went. night of the season, Howard said they were still Some of his friends had a nickname for him, ‘The contemplating whether to compete in next week’s mayor of Chico,’ because he knew so many people and 59th Annual Gold Cup. “THERE WAS NEVER ANY QUESTION WE’D KEEP GOING,” HOWARD touched so many lives.” The Gold Cup, as race announcer Hennig explained, said of the fact Team Tarter is still racing, and in fact Nicole and Kendra are lifelong race fans and help is one of the most prestigious sprint car events in the never missed a race, with Michael stepping into his big work on the car, which stays at the Moore home in Par- world. Only four competitions in all of sprint racing brother’s shoes the weekend after the accident. “The adise. Kendra and Michael have been married two have bigger purses ($20,000 for first place), and all of day after David died our crew chief came to me and years and met at the go-kart races in Red Bluff three them are on half-mile tracks; the track at Silver Dollar said, ‘Just so you know, we all got together and if you years ago. The women explained that Russell, Howard Speedway is a quarter-mile, making the Gold Cup a want Michael in the seat, we’re here for the duration.’ and Michael spend an average of 30 hours a week on favorite of fans from all over the United States, Europe “I went to Michael and said, ‘If you want to do that the car. and Australia. The event attracts an average of 15,000 it’s great, but you don’t have to.’ He said, ‘No, it’s “We really are like a great big family,” Nicole said. fans annually for a week-long party capped by four absolutely necessary to finish the season for David, “Our daughter is only 10 months old right now, but our days of racing. then we’ll see if we go beyond that.’ Now we’re mak“We are very much underpowered out here,” ing plans for next year. And Michael, God bless him, is kids will probably also be involved with the races. Kahne already loves to help his dad work on the race Howard said. “We’re way down on horsepower to the doing way, way beyond what anyone thought he’d be fast guys. The Gold Cup brings the best in the world, capable of doing. I can’t imagine the pressure on him.” car. He runs around with a little wrench.” “And of course, they all love quad rides,” Kendra and they have the best of equipment. If we come out As Michael is married with two small children (son added. here and run it, we’re probably going to get run over. Kahne and daughter Bristol, ages 20 months and two Howard said the team’s weekly schedule runs as fol- But it’s a great event, and you love to be a part of months, respectively), they also wanted to make sure lows: On Mondays they get together to do any necessomething like that even if you know you’re going to his wife, Kendra, was behind his decision to race. sary maintenance and repairs. Thursdays they plan for run at the back.” “I know accidents happened,” Kendra said. “It Friday and load the trailer. Friday is showtime; pit gates Howard explained the team’s 410-sized engine is makes me nervous sometimes, obviously, but I trust open at 4 p.m., and they often aren’t loaded and headold and in need of upgrades (“We have a really strong him, and if he feels like this is what he wants to do, I’ll ing home until after midnight. foundation but the rest is what we can afford”) and a support him.” “We try very hard to account for time for everysmaller 360 engine is away being repaired in Oklahoma Unless she’s in the grandstands with the kids (who body,” he said. “Even then, it’s very hard, and every(“As underpowered as our 410 is, that 360 is a monster; are too young to be admitted to the pit area), Kendra is one sometimes feels like they don’t have time for we’re competitive with that engine.”) a constant presence in the pits, often alongside Nicole themselves. But we’re all dedicated to this team and “It’s the way it is with a low-budget independent Moore, wife of crew chief Russell Moore, and David’s to the direction we’re pointed. We think it’s pretty racer. You race when you can, and you better have girlfriend, Lizzie Merrigan. sense enough to know when you can’t. You end up David and Lizzie were introduced by mutual friends healthy, because we’re mindful of everyone’s needs besides racing. hocking the refrigerator to buy tires. We’ve almost two years ago, and began dating about six months “This is a fire we all share. It’s burning inside went down that road,” Howard said. before he died. “We were such good friends by the time all of us.” “Unfortunately, in our sport the more money you we started dating that it was all very whirlwind, with can spend to get the better parts the faster you can go,” talks about marriage and kids and getting a house DRIVERS AT THE SILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAY ARE ranked by Hennig said. “A lot of it is that motor. You can buy a together,” she said. “Even though it was quick, when points accrued throughout the season for qualifying and new one for $50,000 or a used one for $18,000-$20,000 you know you’ve found the right person, you just for placing in races. Separate points are awarded to the that’s not as good. It’s hard to beat guys with that much know.” 26 CN&R August 30, 2012

Howard Tarter helps son Michael get ready to race.

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experience and the best equipment.” Tarter competes: “People from around the There is also the constant threat of a costly world have really been moved by the accident crash, which with sprint cars is not so much a and the Tarter family, and a lot of them, from as matter of if, but when. Hennig said even the far away as Australia and New Zealand, come smallest accident can easily cost $2,000-$3,000 to Chico for the Gold Cup. I think it would be in repairs. Some average prices are $1,000 for a really special for them to see that car out there top wing, $1,200 for a rear end, and $800 for a on the track.” front end. Nicole and Kendra said a small bump DESPITE THE RECENT TRAGEDY AND CONCERNS ABOUT a few weeks ago resulted in the car needing a the costs of remaining competitive, there is no new tire, which cost nearly $600. sense of morbidity, or defeat, at the Tarter And it’s important to note that, unlike camp. Racing for them is, first and foremost, NASCAR and Grand Prix racing, local racers about fun. There are still lighthearted conversararely are sponsored by big companies with tions and jokes around the pits, and the extenddeep pockets. The Tarters’ sponsors aren’t the ed Tarter clan still enjoys the thrills and chills likes of Goodyear and Mountain Dew, but exclusive to auto racing. When Michael’s instead include locally owned Budget Landbumping around the track in No. 35, he’s not scaping and Mike’s Muffler Shop. contemplating life and death, but just driving Despite the risk, Hennig is hoping Team and doing the best he can. “Drive,” he said when asked what he thinks about while on the track. “Just go. Stay smooth, smooth and on the gas, don’t screw up, and just drive.” From what his family and friends say, David wouldn’t have it any other way: “Above all, he loved to have a good time and loved for everyone around him to have a good time,” Howard said. “We all feel like he’s still around, having a good time, encouraging Michael, calling him a dumb ass when he screws up and slapping him on the back when he does good. “We still feel him. I don’t think it’s necessarily anything supernatural or metaphysical. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but we all do feel a little bit of a presence sometimes.” Ω

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Sprint racer Danielle Simpson took a spill on Aug. 24. She was uninjured. August 30, 2012

CN&R 27

Arts & Culture PHOTO CREDIT

RIP, Gwen Stefani?

THIS WEEK

New art exhibit fauxchronicles the rise and fall of a pop queen among other things

THURS

“I about 3,000 A.D., or C.E., depending on what you want to call it,” said Bay Area artist Kathy Aoki of her new art installat’s an ersatz museum, set in the future—

tion at Chico State’s University Art Gallery. The Museum of Historical Makeovers—The Tragic Kingdom Period to the Golden Age of Bleaching, as Aoki’s exhibit is playfully called, is a tongueby Christine G.K. in-cheek, faux-museum-exhibit populated with LaPado-Breglia artifacts and historical documents (created by Aoki) that chronicle such image-fueled happenchristinel@ ings as the reign (and imagined demise) of pop newsreview.com singer Gwen Stefani and her widely known Harajuku Girls. PREVIEW: Aoki’s exhibit, as a UAG press release The Museum of describes it, “takes on the aesthetics of historiHistorical cal illustration and ancient artifacts, while preMakeovers: from the Tragic Kingdom serving her favorite themes of gender, beauty Period to the and cultural consumerism.” Previous Aoki Golden Age of exhibitions include Champions of Market Bleaching is on Street, a San Francisco-based poster project display at featuring Market Street pedestrians dressed as University Art Gallery through super-heroes while performing random acts of Sept. 26. kindness, and an interactive Political Paper Reception/artist Dolls exhibit commissioned by the San Jose talk Wednesday, Museum of Art as part of its Renegade Humor Sept. 5, 5-7 p.m. show earlier this year. Aoki’s work is also in prestigious collecUniversity Art tions such as those at the San Francisco MuseGallery 111 Taylor Hall um of Modern Art, the New York Metropolitan Chico State Museum of Art, the New York Public Library Hours: Monday- and the Harvard Art Museums. Friday, 10 a.m.-4 “There are three main areas of my exhibip.m.; Saturday & Sunday, noon-4 p.m. tion,” said Aoki, who is also an associate professor of studio art at Santa Clara University. One features “works from the permanent collection of the ‘museum’—etchings dated to the late 1800s, etchings based on [American realist] Thomas Eakins and Rembrandt paintings. They show beauty procedures, like waxing.” Another section of her show is 28 CN&R August 30, 2012

Check off after proofing:

Above: “Chia Gwen” Below: “G-4 Sarcophagus (of Gwen Stefani)” PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHICO STATE’S SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

made up of faux-“French illustrations showing implements, tools for beauty use, such as creating lower back tattoos—tatouage bas du dos—bottles of ink, needles, etc., and a young lady from the 1700s getting a lower back tattoo,” Aoki said. “The story is that these illustrations were supposed to be included in [French philosopher Denis] Diderot’s Encyclopedia,” she explained, “but at the time of publication were lost and rediscovered later at an estate sale in Lyons.” Part three of Aoki’s exhibit is filled with “Gwen Stefani artifacts from her mortuary temple. Among them are the famous ‘Chia Gwen,’ a burial Chia Pet with a pharaoh’s bob and beard. Gwen Stefani was known for wanting to reduce her carbon footprint, so it would make sense that she would want the Chia Pet in the afterlife to grow her own herbs.” Included in Aoki’s exhibition is the “Brunetti map, a map of burial sites made by a family of mapmakers from the Los Angeles area, which shows where Gwen Stefani and the Harajuku Girls are buried. “It’s an underwater map,” Aoki said. “It shows the depths of the water [beneath which they are buried] because L.A. was covered over due to global warming. “I am the curator of the museum,” said Aoki. “So when I give my talk [at the Sept. 5 reception], I’m going to give a curator’s talk—a PowerPoint presentation. And I use, you know, like a laser pointer, and point out connections between the works, and translate hieroglyphics.” Some of the hieroglyphics that appear in her show are “real Egyptian hieroglyphics, and some are fake hieroglyphics from the Tragic Kingdom Period—the period of the rule of Gwen Stefani, when she was the ruler of the pop empire, from 2009 ’til 2061, which is when she dies.” The “pièce de résistance” of the show, offered Aoki, is the “tomb room—an exhibition room devoted to burial artifacts, including the ‘G-force sarcophagus.’ “You can see that if you come to the show,” she added slyly. Ω

Special Events THURSDAY NIGHT MARKET: Downtown Chico’s weekly marketplace with local produce, vendors, entertainment and music. This week: Chico Creek Dance Centre/Full Force demonstrations, Spanish guitar with Saturday Son’s Music and acoustic guitar with Michael A. Gregory. Th, 6-9pm. Prices vary. Downtown Chico; www.downtownchico.net.

Music OROVILLE CONCERTS IN THE PARK: FLEAROY: The weekly concert series continues with ‘80s rock from Flearoy. Festivities include food, raffles and a bounce house for the kiddies. Th, 8/30, 6:30-8pm. Free. Riverbend Park; 1 Salmon Run Rd. in Oroville; (530) 533-2011.

PARADISE PARTY IN THE PARK: Dance-friendly classic rock in downtown Paradise with Driver. Th, 8/30, 5:30pm. Free. Paradise Chamber of Commerce; 5550 Skyway #1 in Paradise; (530) 877-9356; www.para disechamber.com/buy-local-thursday-party-park.

FRI

Special Events CHIPPENDALES: The touring band of scantily-clad hunks. F, 8/31, 6:30 & 9pm. $13-$32. Gold Country Casino; 4020 Olive Hwy at Gold Country Casino & Hotel in Oroville; (530) 534-9892; www.goldcountry casino.com.

SILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAY GOLD CUP

Wednesday-Saturday, Sept. 5, 6 & 8 Silver Dollar Fairgrounds SEE WEDNESDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

FINE ARTS Poetry/Literature WORD PLAY: A night of poetry, readings, comedy and song. First M of every month, 7pm. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveat flo.weebly.com.

TUES

O’BRIEN PARTY OF SEVEN: The O’Brien family has

Saturday, Sept. 1 Centennial Park, Oroville

SEE SATURDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

ISHI GATHERING & SEMINAR: A series of events celebrating the life and memory of Ishi, the last known surviving member of the Yahi tribe. Go online for a complete schedule. 8/31-9/2. Various Oroville locations. Call or visit website for details, http://tinyurl.com/c4sfadn.

Music BECAUSE: The Beatles tribute band takes a twohour journey through the career of the Fab Four, complete with period costumes. F, 8/31, 7:30pm. $24-$28 Door. Paradise Performing Arts Center; 777 Nunnelly Rd. in Paradise; (530) 273-5486; www.starbrightshows.com.

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: The Pink Floyd masterpiece in its entirety, with each track performed by a different Chico band. Lineup includes La Fin Du Monde, Kyle Williams, The Dynamics, Teeph, Chico Jazz Collective, Clouds on Strings, The Jeff Pershing Band, White Russian and The Deaf Pilots. F, 8/31, 8pm. $10. Chico Womens Club; 592 E. Third St.; (530) 894-1978.

FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERT: MOSSY CREEK: The weekly concert series continues with bluegrass, traditional country and Americana from Mossy Creek. F, 8/31, 7-8:30pm. Free. Chico City Plaza, 400 Main St.

SAT

Special Events THE BUTCHER SHOP: A two-day festival of theater and music under the stars in the almond orchard at the end of Estes Road. Shows include “Interview with a Zombie,” “Life Boat,” and “Night of the Purple Pear,” and Dave the Butcher provides the tunes. 9/1-9/2, 8pm. Free. At the end of Estes Rd., (530) 895-3749.

ISHI GATHERING & SEMINAR: See Friday listing for details.

VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK FUNDRAISER: Food, beer, raffles, car and motorcycle shows, live music and more to benefit the construction of Veterans Memorial Park in Oroville. Bands

FREE LISTINGS! Post your event for free online at www.newsreview.com/calendar. Once posted, your CN&R calendar listing will also be considered for print. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Deadline for print listings is one week prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

include Jim Halsey and the NightHawks, 8Track Attack, Off the Hook and Big Mo and the Full Moon Band. Sa, 9/1, 12-9pm. $10. Centennial Park; Lincoln St. and Arlin Rhine Dr. in Oroville.

SUN

Special Events THE BUTCHER SHOP: See Saturday listing for details. 9/2, 8pm. (530) 895-3749.

ISHI GATHERING & SEMINAR: See Friday listing for details.

Music BROWN BIRD: The popular indie folk and traditional Americana duo returns to Chico. Local country-rock favorites The Perpetual Drifters open. Su, 9/2, 7:30pm. $15-$17. Chico Womens Club; 592 E. Third St.; (530) 894-1978; www.strangeseedmusic.com.

MON

ANGELOS CUCINA TRINACRIA: Sal Casa Gallery, some of Sal Casa’s early work depicting classic Sicilian culture. Ongoing. 407 Walnut St., (530) 899-9996.

AVENUE 9 GALLERY: Chico Icons: Endangered!, an exhibition of over 30 artists depicting endangered natural and man-made Chico landmarks. Through 9/1. 180 E. Ninth Ave., (530) 879-1821, www.avenue9gallery.com.

BOHO: Stay Up Fly On, artwork by Christian

Garcia. Ongoing. 225 Main St. D, (530) 8953282.

Music VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK FUNDRAISER

Art

mastered American folk, Irish and Scottish music, with Tim and Molly O’Brien at the forefront. Tu, 9/4, 7:30pm. $20. Sierra Nevada Big Room; 1075 East 20th St.; (530) 345-2739; www.sierranevada.com/bigroom.

WED

Special Events SILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAY GOLD CUP: The threeday culminating event for the 2012 racing season. Go online for more info. 9/5-9/8. Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, 2357 Fair St., (530) 8954666, www.silverdollarspeedway.com.

CHICO ART CENTER: All Media Show, one of the most popular annual shows at the CAC, this juried exhibition will feature 42 artists from across the nation. Through 9/22, 10am-4pm. 450 Orange St. 6, (530) 895-8726, www.chicoartcenter.com.

CHICO CREEK NATURE CENTER: Banding by Day and Night, a close look at birds in hand with incredible detail. Ongoing. 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 891-4671, www.bidwellpark.org.

CHICO PAPER CO.: Clayton Rabo Exhibition, bright, colorful canvas reproductions on display. Through 9/30.Moving Forward, powerful paintings from local artist Halina Domamski. Sa, 9/1, 9:30am-6pm. 345 Broadway, (530) 891-0900, www.chico papercompany.com.

THE TURNER PRINT MUSEUM AT CSU: New

View, never-before-seen paintings and scratchboard works from Janet Turner. Through 9/23. 400 W. First St. Meriam Library breezeway, CSU, Chico, (530) 8984476, www.theturner.org.

UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY: Historical

Makeovers Exhibit, Kathy Aoki presents imagery that looks antique but actually depicts current beauty treatments and pop culture figures. Through 9/20. 400 W First St. Taylor Hall, CSU, Chico, (530) 898-5864.

UPPER CRUST BAKERY & EATERY: Northern

California Landscapes, an exhibition of oils and pastels by Jamie Albertie. Through 9/12. 130 Main St., (530) 895-3866.

Call for Artists CATALYST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXHIBIT: All mediums will be accepted and should reflect the theme “In Honor of Love: Separate Identities and Equal Partners.” Call or email to submit art of for more information. Through 10/5. Catalyst Domestic Violence Services, 330 Wall St. 40, (530) 343-7711, www.catalystdvservices.org.

SMALL WORLD 2012: Pick up a canvas from CAC or use your own 12x12-inch canvas and submit to the Small World showcase. Go online for details. Through 10/30. Chico Art Center, 450 Orange St. 6, (530) 895-8726, www.chicoartcenter.com.

GYPSY ROSE SALON: Christian Marquez, a

Music BEATS ANTIQUE: The experimental electronica groups takes influence from world rhythms and incorporates performance art into their live act. W, 9/5, 9pm. $18. Senator Theatre; 517 Main St.; (530) 898-1497; www.jmaxproduc tions.net.

ZIGGY MARLEY: The five-time Grammy-Award winning reggae master carries on the tradition of his father on his Wild and Free Tour. W, 9/5, 7:30pm. $35-$50. Laxson Auditorium; 400 W. First St. CSU, Chico; (530) 898-6333; www.csuchico.edu/upe/boxoffice.html.

Theater OFF THE CUFF: Bi-monthly improvisational performances. Every other W, 7:30pm. $5 advance/$8 door. Blue Room Theatre; 139 W First St.; (530) 895-3749; www.blueroom theatre.com.

three-artist show including paintings by Christian Marquez. Ongoing. 151 Broadway St, Chico, CA, (530) 891-4247.

HEALING ART GALLERY: Cancer Exhibit, by Northern California artists whose lives have been touched by cancer. Currently featuring watercolors by Helen Madeleine. Through 10/17. 265 Cohasset Rd. inside Enloe Cancer Center, (530) 332-3856.

JAMES SNIDLE FINE ARTS AND APPRAISALS:

David Hoppe Paintings & Prints, David Hoppe’s latest combination of modern surreal and realist styles. Through 9/28. 254 E. Fourth St., (530) 343-2930, www.james snidlefinearts.com.

MANAS ART SPACE & GALLERY: Bag O Junk

Group Show, repurposed junk transformed into works of art. Through 9/21. 1441 C Park Ave., (530) 588-5183.

Museums BOLTS ANTIQUE TOOL MUSEUM: Branding Irons,

A new display of over 200 branding irons. M-

Sa, 10am-3:45pm; Su, 11:45am-3:45pm. $2

adults/kids free. 1650 Broderick St. in Oroville, (530) 538-2497, www.boltsantique tools.com.

LOTT HOME IN SANK PARK: Hand Fan Display, a display of hand fans of all eras and purposes at the historic Victorian home, circa 1856. Through 9/3. 1067 Montgomery St. in Oroville, (530) 538-2497.

VALENE L. SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY: Ethnomusicology, an exhibit “exploring the melodies of culture” with instruments and music from around the world on display. 8/30-9/29. CSUC Meriam Library Complex.

SALLY DIMAS ART GALLERY: Americana: Red,

White & Blue, art done in watercolor, pastel, oil and collages. Through 8/31. 493 East Ave. #1, (530) 345-3063.

Theater AUDITION: A cabaret-style presentation of the Japanese psychological horror-flick. M, 9/3, 7:30pm. $5. Lost On Main, 319 Main St., (530) 891-1853.

for more Music, see NIGHTLIFE on page 38

ZIGGY MARLEY Wednesday, Sept. 5 Laxson Auditorium

SEE WEDNESDAY, MUSIC

Meat is theater It’s an end-of-summer tradition. The Blue Room Theatre (past and present) hosts the Butcher Shop over Labor Day weekend, on Saturday & Sunday, September 1 & 2. In a “secret almond barn” at the end of Estes Road, the two-day theater and music festival will include performances of “Interview with a Zombie,” “Life Boat,” and “Night of the EDITOR’S PICK Purple Pear” from the local and visiting players. Dave the Butcher, a collective of Chico musicians, will provide the tunes. See Saturday & Sunday Special Events for more info.

—HOWARD HARDEE

August 30, 2012

CN&R 29

BULLETIN BOARD

You’ll Leave Relaxed Swedish • Relaxing• Deep Tissue

Oriental Massage

Community AFRO CARIBBEAN DANCE: Dances of Cuba, Haiti,

Brazil and West Africa with live drumming. Tu, 5:30pm. Chico Womens Club, 592 E. Third St., (530) 345-6324.

NO.

BLOOD DRIVE: Bring a photo ID and drink plenty

IT IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE 1HR RELAXATION MASSAGE ONLY $35 1HR SWEDISH ONLY $45

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Regularly scheduled

DESIGNER

JEN_PU

meeting. Every other Tu, 9am. Board of Supervisors Chambers, 25 County Center Dr. in Oroville, (530) 538-7631, www.butte county.net.

Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties

342-RAPE

Cannot be combined with other offers.

1722 Mangrove, Ste 38 • (530) 636–4368 2540 Esplanade, Ste 6 • (530) 899–0888

of fluids before donating. Call to make an appointment. F, 8/31, 1-4pm. Star Community Credit Union, 550 Salem St., (530) 895-1947 ext. 217.

24 hr. hotline (Collect Calls Accepted) www.rapecrisis.org REP

JLD

CNR ISSUE

10.23.08

CHICO FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY BOOK SALE:

FILE NAME RAPE CRISIS INTERV. & PREV.

Chico Friends of the Library weekly book sale. Sa, 9:15-11:30am. Butte County Library, Chico Branch, 1108 Sherman Ave., (530) 891-2762, www.buttecounty.net/bclibrary.

CRC MORNING RUN: Chico Running Club’s weekly

morning run. Email for more info. Sa, 9/1, 8am. Free. One Mile Recreation Area, Bidwell Park.

DANCE SANCTUARY WAVE: Bring a water bottle, drop your mind, free your feet and your spirit. Call for directions. Tu, 6:30-8:30pm. $10. Call for details, 891-6524.

ISHI GATHERING & SEMINAR Friday, Saturday & Sunday, Aug. 31, Sept. 1 & Sept. 2 Various locations

SEE COMMUNITY (ALSO SPECIAL EVENTS, PAGE 29)

FARMERS MARKET - SATURDAY: Baked goods,

honey, fruits and veggies, crafts and more. Sa, 7:30am-1pm. Chico Certified Saturday Farmers Market, Municipal Parking Lot on Second and Wall streets, (530) 893-3276.

FARMERS MARKET: OROVILLE: Produce and fresh food vendors with local crafts and food booths. Sa, 7:30am-noon through 11/17. Free. Oroville Farmers Market, Montgomery & Myers, Municipal Auditorium Parking Lot Montgomery & Myers in Oroville, (530) 8795303.

1-800- FOR-BAIL DESIGNER

JEN_PU

REP.

BDC

CNR ISSUE

10.23.08

FREE HEALTH CLINIC: Free services for minor

medical ailments. Call for more info. Su, 1-4pm. Free. Shalom Free Clinic, 1190 E. First Ave. Corner of Downing and E. 1st Ave, (530) 5188300, www.shalomfreeclinic.org.

FILE NAME MCMAINS BAIL BONDS

COME EXPLORE GOD’S JUSTICE slavery. fusion is a partner with the International Justice Mission

Sunday 10:30

veterans socialize with other veterans on the links. Ongoing. Free. Call for details, (530) 8998549.

ISHI GATHERING & SEMINAR: A series of events

www.newsreview.com

help us end

GOLF FOR VETERANS: A program to help combat

celebrating the life and memory of Ishi, the last known surviving member of the Yahi tribe. Go online for a complete schedule. 8/319/2. Various Oroville locations. Call or visit website for details, http://tinyurl.com/ c4sfadn.

LATIN DANCE CLASS: A fun, friendly dance class

open to all ages. No partner required. Tu, 7pmmidnight through 12/18. Free. AMF Orchard Lanes, 2397 Esplande, (530) 354-3477.

SAMARITAN FREE CLINIC: This clinic offers free basic medical care and mental health counseling. Call for more information. Su, 2-4pm. Free. Paradise Lutheran Church, 780 Luther Dr. Next to Long’s Drugstore in Paradise, 8727085.

TIE DYE IN THE PARK: Tie dye techniques with

Tamara. F, 1-4pm. Free. One Mile Recreation Area, Bidwell Park, (312) 415-8461.

For Kids SEWING, KNITTING & CRAFTS CLASSES FOR KIDS: Classes for kids hosted by Earth Girl Art. Go online for class schedule. Ongoing. Earth Girl Art, 3851 Morrow Ln., (530) 354-2680, www.earthgirlart.com.

Volunteer BIDWELL PARK VOLUNTEERS: Help the park by volunteering for trash pick-up, invasive plant removal, trail maintenance, site restoration, water quality testing and more. Ongoing; check Friends of Bidwell Park web site for dates and locations. Ongoing. Call for location, (530) 891-4671, www.friendsofbidwellpark.org.

MAKING STRIDES VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION: Hors d’oeuvres, prizes and inspirational stories as part of a volunteer orientation for the American Cancer Society’s upcoming “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk. Tu, 9/4, 6-7pm. Free. Madison Bear Garden, 316 W. Second St., (530) 342-8365 ext. 56505, www.makingstrideschico.org/chico.

PATRICK RANCH VOLUNTEERS: There are multiple volunteer opportunities available at the museum, including help with Autumnfest 2012 and the annual Christmas celebration. Call or email for more info. Ongoing. Patrick Ranch Museum, 10381 Midway, Chico Halfway between Chico and Durham, (530) 345-3559.

SOUL SHAKE DANCE CHURCH: Drop your mind, find your feet and free you spirit at this DJ dance wave to a range of musical styles. No previous dance experience necessary. Su, 10am-noon. $8-$15 sliding scale. Dorothy Johnson Center, 775 E. 16th St., (530) 891-6524.

SUMMER READING SKILLS PROGRAM: Chico State offers eight different reading skills programs for 4-year-olds through adults. Go online for a complete schedule and enrollment information. Ongoing. California State University, Chico, CSUC, (180) 096-48888, http://rce.csu chico.edu/reading.

SURVIVING & THRIVING: A presentation designed

fOR MORE InfO www.fUSIOnChICO.COM OR CaLL 530.518.0505 1224 ManGROvE avE #9 | ChICO | 95926 30 CN&R August 30, 2012

for those who have suffered through recent loss or turmoil looking to enhance their outlook and learn to cope. Through 9/25, 6-7:30pm. Lakeside Pavilion, 179 E. 19th St., 895-4711.

MORE ONLINE Additional listings for local meetings, support groups, classes, yoga, meditation and more can be found online at www.newsreview.com/chico/local/calendar.

6701 CLARK ROAD

872-7800

www.paradisecinema.com

ALL SHOWS PRESENTED

Beep-beep!

S HOWTIMES G OOD F RI 8/31 - THUR 9/6

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

[PG-13]

1:30 4:00 6:30 *9:20PM

THE POSSESSION

12:55 3:00 5:05 7:10 9:35PM

2016: OBAMA'S AMERICA [PG]

12:45 2:55 5:05 7:15 *9:25PM

LAWLESS

1:20 4:00 6:45 *9:25PM

PG-13]

[R]

THE OOGIELOVES THE

1:15 3:15PM

BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE [G]

HIT & RUN

[R]

5:20 7:30 *9:40PM

THE EXPENDABLES 2

12:45 3:00 5:15 7:30 *9:45PM

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN [PG]

12:50 3:05 5:20 7:35 *9:50PM

[R]

*L AT E S H O W S O N F R I & S AT O N LY A LL S HOWS B EFORE 6PM ARE B ARGAIN M ATINEES I N D I C AT E S N O P A S S E S A C C E P T E D

STARTS FRIDAY (8/31) ONE WEEK ONLY

GENERAL EDUCATION FRI/SAT 8:30PM, SUNDAY 2PM, MON-THURS 6:30PM

FINAL WEEK (ENDS MONDAY)

JACK BLACK IS

BERNIE

THURS (8/31) AT 8:15PM, FRI-SUN 6:30PM, MONDAY MATINEE 2PM MARK DUPLASS

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED THURS (8/31) AT 6:30PM,

FRI-MON 5PM, TUES-THURS 8:30PM (9/4-6)

Save the date! Tuesday sepTember 4, 2012 La Comida bidweLL bark NighT 4pm – 9pm

Pedaling to the metal Engaging chase movie zips around New York City with energy and danger

Ttechnically, dramatically and character-wise, even though it all adds up to something seemingly rather simple and obvihere’s quite a lot to like about Premium Rush

ous. You might even say that its high-energy and very engaging approach to something “simple and obvious” is what matters most. by Directed by David Koepp (who co-scripted Juan-Carlos with John Kamps), it’s a chase movie involvSelznick ing bike messengers taking breakneck chances through, across, over and around Manhattan traffic jams. Its 90-plus minutes of more-orless non-stop filmed-on-location action is an extraordinarily kinetic mix of live cycling action and nifty digital effects. Premium Rush Brilliant Oscar-worthy editing by Jill Savitt Starring Joseph and Derek Ambrosi is a key ingredient in all Gordon-Levitt and Michael this, and the whole proposition is made espeShannon. cially engaging by the characters’ shenanigans Directed by and those of Koepp and Kamps in the storyDavid Koepp. telling as well. The central plot thread has an Cinemark 14, acrobatic bike messenger named Wilee (Joseph Feather River Gordon-Levitt) trying to make an urgent delivCinemas and Paradise Cinema ery of an envelope while pursued by a menac7. Rated PG-13. ing plain-clothes cop, Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), who has designs of his own on that same envelope’s peculiar contents. The chase loses none of its momentum even as Koepp and company segue into fast-moving Poor (and highly pertinent) flashbacks concerning Monday’s gambling debts, Wilee’s volatile romance with fellow messenger Vanessa (Dania Ramirez), and Vanessa’s break with her Fair roommate Nima (Jamie Chung). The Chinese underworld, clandestine immigration, a flashmob intervention and Wilee’s rivalry with fellow messenger Manny (Wolé Parks) all come Good into play as the action zips along. Gordon-Levitt, droll and quick-witted, makes a particularly lively hero for this little tale. His name derives from Wile E. Coyote of Very Good cartoon fame, and he zips, zooms, crashes, bounces, hurdles, changes direction and zips again in live action worthy of his namesake. He’s also a daredevil trickster with a touch of Excellent

the mythological coyote to him. Shannon’s Bobby Monday has some of the same qualities, which partly makes his strungout villain into a darkly farcical inversion of Wilee. Shannon, of course, has made a name for himself playing off-kilter and/or delusional characters, and here he brings those gifts to bear in making Monday seem a half-cracked fool with a kind of genius for schemes that get him in over his by no means empty head. Plus, his slightly slurred New York accent is the film’s best bit of local color. Aasif Mandvi, as the messengers’ grungy dispatcher, makes a particularly pungent and credible contribution among the supporting players. And Ramirez shows hints of potential for further action roles herself. Ω

Final grade: C General Education

Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13.

by Craig Blamer Even graded on a curve, General

Education almost gets a failing mark. Tonally, the movie (which was filmed in Chico and Gridley) is all over the map, veering from quirky indie comedy (along the lines of Napoleon Dynamite) to pathos (ringer Janeane Garofalo’s take as a neglected alcoholic mother seems to have wandered in from the Lifetime Channel), as well as jumping into mud puddles of casual bigotry. It doesn’t help that our anti-hero (Chris Sheffield) is a privileged douchebag whose father, the mayor (Larry Miller), is obsessively driving him to blow off general ed in order to “REEL WORLD” continued on page 32

Come eat dinner and 20% of your purchase will be donated to the Butte Humane Society. Pick up dessert on your way out at our Bake Sale – 100% of your purchase will be donated! Also join our Bidwell Bark Team at BidwellBark.com Go to Donate Now and search Teams and type La Comida Help us reacH our goal of $1,000!

Bringing you quality Mexican food for over 40 years!

954 Mangrove Ave | 345.2254 | www.lacomidarestaurants.com

FRIDAY 8/30 – thuRsDAY 9/6

9/5 Ziggy Marley 9/14 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 9/20 Don Gonyea | NPR 9/25 Elvis Costello 9/27 Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett 10/3 Fiddler on the Roof Jr. 10/5 Robert Glennon: Unquenchable 10/10 Shaolin Warriors 10/12 In the Footsteps of Django 10/18 Doc Severinsen & the San Miguel 5

10/26 Reduced Shakespeare Co. 10/27 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 11/3 A Chorus Line 11/5 Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize

All shows at Laxson Auditorium California State University, Chico

TICKETS - (530) 898-6333 or CHICOPERFORMANCES.COM

2016: OBAMA’S AMERICA (Digital) (PG)11:00AM 1:15PM 3:30PM 5:45PM 8:00PM 10:15PM APPARITION, THE (Digital) (PG-13) 11:20AM 1:30PM 3:40PM 5:50PM 8:00PM 10:20PM BOURNE LEGACY, THE (Digital) (PG-13) 1:00PM 4:00PM 7:00PM 10:00PM BRAVE (Digital) (PG)11:50AM 2:20PM 4:50PM CAMPAIGN, THE (Digital) (R ) 11:00AM 1:15PM 3:25PM 5:35PM 7:45PM 9:55PM DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE (Digital) (PG-13) 6:30PM 10:00PM EXPENDABLES 2, THE (Digital) (R ) 12:05PM 2:35PM 5:05PM 7:35PM 10:05PM HIT AND RUN (Digital) (R )12:35PM 3:00PM 5:25PM 7:50PM 10:15PM

LAWLESS (Digital) (R ) 12:05PM 2:40PM 5:15PM 7:50PM 10:25PM MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS (Digital) (PG-13) 7:20PM 10:30PM ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN, THE (Digital) (PG)11:40AM 2:10PM 4:40PM 7:10PM 9:40PM OOGIELOVES IN THE BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE (Digital) (G) 12:00PM 2:10PM 4:20PM PARANORMAN (3D) (PG) 12:30PM 5:10PM 9:50PM PARANORMAN (Digital) (PG) 2:50PM 7:30PM POSSESSION, THE (2012) (Digital) (PG-13) 12:40PM 3:00PM 5:20PM 7:40PM 10:10PM PREMIUM RUSH (Digital) (PG-13) 12:55PM 3:15PM 5:35PM 7:55PM 10:25PM

HOPE SPRINGS (2012) (Digital) (PG-13) 11:50AM 2:15PM 4:40PM 7:05PM 9:30PM

August 30, 2012

CN&R 31

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Taste & see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8

“REEL WORLD” continued from page 31

score a tennis scholarship at the old man’s alma mater. How that’s supposed to work is never clear—well, besides being a setup for him to spend 10 days in summer school to provide a tenuous narrative through-line. It also doesn’t help that the kid doesn’t seem to have any alternate goals to strive for within the context of the movie. He’s an abrasive cipher with a 12year-old black sidekick, a new girlfriend with a very predicable secret, and a loose collection of aggressively quirky friends. That’s pretty much all we have. And for a movie shot in Chico, there’s so little of the town on display that it’s curious why director Tom Morris even bothered to drive his equipment up here.

Reviewers: Craig Blamer, Rachel Bush and Juan-Carlos Selznick.

Opening this week 2016: Obama’s America

From the director of Michael Moore Hates America comes a conservative’s view of how a second term by President Obama might affect the country. Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

A hit at both Cannes and Sundance, firsttime director Benh Zeitlin’s film is about a 6year-old girl named Hushpuppy and her mind’s fantastical interpretation of her father’s failing health and the rising waters in her Louisiana Bayou community. Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

General Education

See review this issue. Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

Best Mexican

Food in Chico

Lawless

John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) directs this story about three bootlegging brothers in prohibition-era Virginia who go to war with a deputy trying to cut into their profits. Screenplay and soundtrack by writer-musician Nick Cave, and starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

An honest-to-goodness G-rated movie—with characters with names like Zoozie, Toofie and Goobie—where kids will be invited to sing and dance along and respond to the action on the screen. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated G.

The Possession

Danish director Ole Bornedal evokes The Exorcist in his horror flick about young girl who gets possessed by a spirit released from a mysterious old box. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

Now playing

The Apparition

5.95

3 TACO PLATE

SPECIAL (Special does not include ﬁsh or shrimp) Mon-Sat 10am-7:45pm Sun 10am-6pm 32 CN&R August 30, 2012

530-809-0370 Corner of 9th & Wall

It’s hard to think of anything more worthless than a politician’s promise, but your average PG-13 horror film comes pretty damned close. About the only purposes served are giving tween-age girls something to chatter over during the boring parts and the opportunity to clutch each other when the music blares. The Apparition is your average PG-13 horror film. But with an eye toward the target demographic, they drag in Hogwarts alumni Tom Felton as some poor sap who participated in a séance-gonewrong that comes back to haunt him years later. It’s hard to summon up any sympathy for those foolish enough to try and provoke the dead. No one ever seems to reach a happy medium and the protoplasm always hits the fan. And so it goes here, as our hapless hero and his box office-insurance girlfriend (Ashley Greene of the Twilight franchise) go through the motions of filling out

But there’s a droll, at times subversive streak at work that balances the decidedly un-PC touches with more than its share of genuinely funny moments. What helps are sporadic surreal touches that play like a Wes Anderson version of Better Off Dead, and some very nice character work by the supporting cast. Garafalo in particular treats her clichéd character with a dignity that’s still quietly amusing, and a relentlessly chirpy turn by Mercedes Masöhn as a wheelchairbound career adviser pretty much bumps this up a grade by itself. General Education is not a particularly good film, but it is consistently amusing in its own modest way. Ω

the film’s running time being stalked by the eponymous entity. Like most PG-13 horror films, there’re long stretches of boring interrupted by occasional bursts of noisy. But no scary. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

The Expendables 2

The first Expendables was pretty much a stable of one-trick ponies, a loose collection of faded action stars trotted out for their own creaky ass-kicking scene, tied together with rudimentary narrative. The main problem (aside from the embarrassment of watching grandpas pretend to pull moves that would send men half their age to the hospital) was the tone was all off, like it didn’t quite get the genre it was self-parodying. But for a second trip to a dry well, Expendables 2 at least gets the tone right this time. Here, Simon West, director of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, picks up the reins of this masturbatory tribute to badass dudeness and delivers 100 minutes of nonstop “Hooah!” It’s a gawdawful script wrapped in an amber and teal patina of sociopathic excess. Which is all it aspires to, so it is what it is, dwelling comfortably in that gray area between intentional and unintentional camp. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R —C.B.

Hit and Run

Co-director Dax Shepard stars in this action-comedy as a former getaway driver named Charles Bronson who skips out on the Witness Protection program in order to help his girlfriend get to L.A., and soon has both the feds and his old gang hot on his trail. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Most would-be parents go through a grieving process when told they can’t have children. Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Eggerton) transform their sorrow into celebrating what their imaginary kid could have been like. Seems a little weird, but The Odd Life of Timothy Green is, by nature, weird. Director Peter Hedges’ film follows young Timothy (CJ Adams), a boy who sprouts from Cindy’s garden, adorned with leaves on his legs, plus all the characteristics of the Greens’ envisioned perfect child. The overly enthusiastic new parents love him from the get-go, but the rest of their dull, dying town doesn’t appreciate the misfit. Like some allegory for the Messiah, Timothy works his mysterious magic, using his big heart to bring the town folk together, saving their livelihood. It’s kind of sweet, but younger viewers might not understand all the metaphors, while adults might find the symbolism too sappy. Bottom line: It’s a family film that falls flat. Regardless, newcomer Adams uses his charm to make a few touching scenes worthwhile. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG —R.B.

ParaNorman

The paranormal title character is a little kid named Norman Babcock. Much to the consternation of those around him, especially his parents and his teenaged sister, Courtney, he keeps dropping hints that he can talk to the spirits of the dead. This beguiling animated fantasy from Laika Entertainment (Coraline) lets us see right away that he does indeed communicate with

the ghost of his kindly grandmother. His family’s skepticism is echoed in harsher terms by his schoolmates including especially the class bully, a punk named Alvin. Fortunately, for Norman and the movie (and us), Mr. Prenderghast, a spooky neighbor who is also paranormal, enlists him for a mission of mercy that will take him, via the local cemetery, into the haunted Puritan history of his home town of Blithe Hollow. Laika’s enchanting stop-motion animation brings this little fable to full-bodied life and the deft layering of images creates a nice sense of extrasensory awareness. John Goodman (Mr. Prenderghast) and Elaine Stritch (Grandma) are special standouts in the cast of distinctive voices. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG —J.C.S.

Premium Rush

See review this issue. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

Ruby Sparks

Ends tonight, Aug. 30. A solitary young novelist named Calvin, already the author of a surprise best-seller but stalled with his second book, dreams of a quirky but fetching young woman named Ruby. He begins writing his dreamgirl into his new novel, but is soon shocked and amazed to discover that the Ruby of his dreams has suddenly turned up in the flesh and is living in his apartment. Calvin (Paul Dano) thinks he might be going mad and so does his fussy brother, Harry (Chris Messina), but once Ruby (Zoe Kazan, who also wrote the screenplay) shows both of them she’s no phantom hallucination, the relationship sets in for real. What ensues is a quirky kind of romantic comedy with a Pirandellian twist— the perfect romance becomes not so perfect, and the writer comes to see he has to take responsibility for what he has created. Co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and a terrific cast play through all of this with a good deal of charm and wit. Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R —J.C.S.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Three magazine employees set out to interview a man who posted a classified ad seeking companions for time travel. Pageant Theatre. Rated R.

Still here

Bernie

Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

The Bourne Legacy

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Brave

Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG.

3 2 3

The Campaign

Cinemark 14. Rated R —J.C.S.

The Dark Knight Rises

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

Hope Springs

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

CHOW

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It was a recent, otherHenri Bourride wise fine sumhbourride@ mer noon, and I yahoo.com had just risen to face the day. I walked into the kitchen, and there she was, standing at the counter, plunging all manner of raw leaves and vegetables into the chute of a grinding, moaning blender-like monstrosity whose two spouts were vomiting a vile-looking dark green ooze into one plastic container and disgorging a multi-hued offal into another. Sacre bleu! I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. “Look what I bought,” she said. “A juicer!” “A what?” “A juicer!” She reached down and shut off the motor, then actually poured some of the hideously disgusting sludge into a drinking glass. I had to turn away. “Mmmm,” she said. “Delicious.” I took a breath, turned back, and she offered me the glass. I almost tossed mes biscuits but regained my composure. “No, thank you,” I said. Firmly. “It’s better than it looks,” she said, “and so good for you—especially after how bad we’ve been eating.” She was right about that. We’d just returned from a little jaunt in Pierre around the Western states, and we’d been eating road food. I did need to eat better. I needed to get back to truffles, cassoulets and crème brûlée. She took another long swallow. “I’m going to call this one Green GRUB Goodness.”

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Turns out everything she had used to make her little concoction had come from that week’s produce share from our local CSA, GRUB: kale, beets, carrots, Asian cucumber, carrots and tomatoes. “Here,” she said, offering me the glass. “If you take one tiny sip I’ll make you anything you want for breakfast.” “My bacon-and-Camembert omelet?” “With pleasure.” And so, as the song goes, I held my nose, I closed my eyes. I took a drink. And, I’m surprised to say, it wasn’t that bad. “It’s, well, interesting,” I said. She smiled. “And you can add just about anything you want and it just keeps getting better.” “Well, then let’s put some gin in that bad garçon.” She scowled. “My omelet, ma’am.” That was a couple of weeks

ago, and I have to admit, I’ve come around. Some. In fact, I’ve actually made several very drinkable juices myself. In addition to the juicer, Colette also bought The Juicing Bible, which has scores of recipes, though it’s more fun just to go the refrigerator and start pulling stuff out—I always add something sweet: apples, peaches, bananas. The book also has a long introductory section covering the

“benefits” of juicing, though I find myself a bit skeptical about some of the claims. Supposedly, juicing regularly is good for the cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems, and can benefit sufferers of everything from anemia and gout to insomnia, lupus and various skin conditions. (One morning, I found a yellow sticky note on the page that discusses flatulence.) There’s also an alphabetical listing on the benefits of every fruit, vegetable and herb imaginable. The two main types of juicers range in price from $40-$400. Masticating juicers use a single auger to “chew” the fruits and vegetables slowly, resulting in more vitamins and nutrients. Centrifugal juicers use a shredding disk and high RPMs and are less efficient and, though less expensive, will not work with leafy greens such as spinach and kale. Colette bought an Omega Vert masticating juicer ($350)—she figured that if she bought a highend one that she’d be more likely to use it. Which seems to be true. She’s made juice just about every day for the last few weeks. Sometimes she makes a double batch, and sometimes I join her. Sometimes not. Sometimes she puts what I don’t drink in the refrigerator. Sometimes I take it out of the refrigerator later and add my own ingredients. Sometimes straight from the bottle. Ω

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www.friendsoftheartsupstate.org t t t 34 CN&R August 30, 2012

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOSHAV

Israel-born Moshav tour the world to a traditional and modern dance-friendly beat

T(or simply Moshav) goes back further than most people

he story of Moshav Band

might realize. The group’s core members— Duvid Swirsky by and Yehuda Mark Lore Solomon—met on their namemark@ thedaysof lore.com sake Moshav Me’or Modi’im, a tiny Israeli village tucked in the hills between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. While Solomon was born in Israel, Swirsky arrived via his hippie parents, who PREVIEW: spent their formaMoshav performs tive years in San Thursday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m., at Francisco. Chico Women’s Swirsky says 90 Club. percent of the Tickets: population $22/advance (add played a musical $3 at door), available at instrument, Diamond W, Lyon inspiring these Books and Music two kids who at Connection. Info: that point hadn’t 345-8136. even turned 10. The driving Chico Women’s Club force behind the 592 E. Third St. village’s musi-

cality was none other than Shlomo Carlebach, the widely known rabbi and musician who rubbed elbows with Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger during his time in Greenwich Village. Carlebach died in 1994 from a heart attack, leaving behind generations who had adopted his musical approach to prayer. “We were all close to him, so it had an impact on us,” explains Swirsky. “But I was more affected by his performances than his passing.” The members of Moshav— which also includes Yosef Solomom and Karen Teperberg—took that influence and have run with it for nearly two decades. Moshav blends folk with hip-hop and reggae with lyrics that come across as sort of singing prayers. It sounds exotic and familiar all at once. “When we’re writing songs, we just try to be as real as possible,” says Swirsky. “We grew up in a very spiritual experience. It’s what we want our live show to be—like going to a temple, but with more dancing and silliness.” The band made its U.S debut in 1998, playing for college audiences, and opening the group up to a wider audience. Solomon and Swirsky have called Los Angeles

home for 12 years, although they still make the pilgrimage back to Israel several times a year. Swirsky considers Moshav very much a live band. The group has recorded eight albums—gaining attention in Jewish communities all over the globe—that are all about capturing the live experiences. Moshav currently is working on two projects—a record with producer Ron Aniello, who worked with the band on 2006’s Misplaced LP and who’s placed his silky touch on albums by Barenaked Ladies and Bruce Springsteen. The other is a record that will focus on more traditional music, including a Shlomo Carlebach cover. Perhaps 2013 will be the year Moshav will cross over to the NPR crowd (you listening, Marco Werman?). In the meantime, the band continues to tour religiously. Swirsky says that while they may call L.A. home, it’s not often they are actually there. But you won’t hear any complaints from this modern band of gypsies, whose success to this point is well earned. “We feel very lucky that we get to do this,” says Swirsky. “We don’t really think about it that much. But we do have an eye on a bigger audience.” Ω

RECYCLE THIS PAPER.

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

Worldly music

Moshav: (from left) Yehuda Solomon and Duvid Swirsky.

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36 CN&R August 30, 2012

August 30, 2012

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NIGHTLIFE

THURSDAY 8|30—WEDNESDAY 9|5 OPEN MIC: COMEDY: Everyone is welcome to try their hand at stand-up comedy. Th, 8-10pm. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveat flo.weebly.com.

OROVILLE CONCERTS IN THE PARK: FLEAROY: The weekly concert series

BRASS BED Saturday, Sept. 1 Café Flo SEE SATURDAY

30THURSDAY BACK TO SCHOOL BASH: Performances by Yung Doejah, X-quisyte Dance Team and DJ Toni B to celebrate the new school year. Th, 8/30, 10pm. $3-$5. 167 E. Third St.

BLUES JAM: Weekly open jam. Th, 8pm-

midnight. Lynns Optimo; 9225 Skyway in Paradise; (530) 872-1788.

CHICO JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Thursday jazz.

Th, 8-11pm. Free. The DownLo; 319 Main St.; (530) 892-2473.

THE CHUCK EPPERSON BAND: Local R&B

and soul for the happy hour show. Th,

8/30, 6-9pm. Free. LaSalles; 229 Broadway; (530) 893-1891.

JOHN SEID: John Seid and friends, featuring Larry Peterson and Steve Cook

playing an eclectic mix of tunes all night. Th, 6:30-9:30pm through 9/30. Free. Johnnie’s Restaurant; 220 W. Fourth St. inside Hotel Diamond; (530) 895-1515; www.johnnies restaurant.com.

MATTEO PLAYS FILM SCORES: Classical guitarist Matteo plays film scores and light classics. Th, 6pm. Free. Angelos Cucina Trinacria; 407 Walnut St.; (530) 899-9996.

continues with ’80s rock from Flearoy. Festivities include food, raffles and a bounce house for the kiddies. Th, 8/30, 6:30-8pm. Free. Riverbend Park; 1 Salmon Run Rd. in Oroville; (530) 5332011.

PARADISE PARTY IN THE PARK: Dancefriendly classic rock in downtown Paradise with Driver. Th, 8/30, 5:30pm. Free. Paradise Chamber of Commerce; 5550 Skyway #1 in Paradise; (530) 8779356; www.paradisechamber.com/ buy-local-thursday-party-park.

PAT HULL: The heartfelt singer, songwriter and guitarist headlines an evening complete with a GRUB-grown dinner. Zach Zeller opens. Th, 8/30, 8pm. $5-$10. 1078 Gallery; 820 Broadway; (530) 343-1973; www.1078gallery.org.

OPEN MIC: Singers, poets and musicians welcome. Th, 7-10pm. Has Beans Internet Cafe & Galleria; 501 Main St.; (530) 894-3033; www.hasbeans.com.

BECAUSE: The Beatles tribute band takes a two-hour journey through the career of the Fab Four, complete with period costumes. F, 8/31, 7:30pm. $24$28 Door. Paradise Performing Arts Center; 777 Nunnelly Rd. in Paradise; (530) 273-5486; www.starbright shows.com.

CHICO BAILE LATINO: MORE THAN SALSA: Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia and Bachata dance lessons followed by an open social dance. F, 8pm through 11/15. $2$4. The Hub; 685 Manzanita Ct. Inside the Holiday Inn, Chico; (530) 518-9454.

31FRIDAY

THE IMPS: Chico’s favorite head-noddin’

ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE: A night of diverse styles with heavy metal from Armed for Apocalypse, indie rock from Surrogate, stoner-psychedelia from Ape Machine and spot-on rock harmonies from The Shimmies. F, 8/31,

Pub Scouts. F, 4pm. $1. Duffy’s Tavern; 337 Main St.; (530) 343-7718.

and Aamir Malik open. F, 8/31, 7:3010pm. $5. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

JASON BUELL BAND: Live country in the lounge. F, 8/31, 8:30pm. Free. Gold Country Casino; 4020 Olive Hwy at Gold Country Casino & Hotel in Oroville; (530) 534-9892; www.gold countrycasino.com.

WHO TOO: A Who tribute band in the

brewery. F, 8/31, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.feather fallscasino.com.

NORTHERN HEAT: Live southern rock. F,

8/31, 9pm. Free. Colusa Casino Resort;

1SATURDAY

3770 Hwy. 45 in Colusa; (530) 458-8844; www.colusacasino.com.

PHOENIX: Blues and classic rock covers

in the lounge. F, 8/31, 8:30pm. Free. Feather Falls Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.feather fallscasino.com.

ACES UP: A country and Americana band

SUMMERS ENDE MUSIC FAIRE: Singer-

from Washington. Sa, 9/1, 8:30pm. Free. Gold Country Casino; 4020 Olive Hwy at Gold Country Casino & Hotel in Oroville; (530) 534-9892; www.goldcountrycasino.com.

songwriter and local English professor Geoff Baker stops by Chico on his West Coast tour. Locals Rob Davidson

DEAD MANS HAND: Modern country hits. F, 8/31, 9pm. Free. Tackle Box Bar & Grill; 375 E. Park Ave.; (530) 345-7499.

MCBRIDE BROTHERS: Covers of British Invasion-era bands like the Rolling Stones. Th, 8/30, 9pm. Free. Tackle Box Bar & Grill; 375 E. Park Ave.; (530) 3457499.

8pm. $5. LaSalles; 229 Broadway; (530) 893-1891.

rock band returns. F, 8/31, 9pm. $5. Lost on Main; 319 Main St.; (530) 8911853.

BROWN BIRD Sunday, Sept. 2 Chico Women’s Club SEE SUNDAY

IRISH MUSIC HAPPY HOUR: A Chico tradition: Friday night happy hour with a traditional Irish music session by the

Friday, September 7th

aldanado Manny M and Gabriel Rutledge

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NIGHTLIFE

THIS WEEK: FIND MORE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS ON PAGE 28 O’BRIEN PARTY OF SEVEN Tuesday, Sept.4 Sierra Nevada Big Room SEE TUESDAY

lously technically proficient bass

player and jazz innovator. First M of every month, 7-8:30pm. $10. Café Coda; 265 Humboldt Ave.; (530) 566-9476; www.cafecoda.com.

JAZZ HAPPY HOUR: Carey Robinson hosts a jazz happy hour every Monday. M, 57pm. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

DIVERS: Punk rock out of Portland.

OPEN JAM NIGHT: Join the jam. Drum kit,

Locals Fight Music open. W, 9/5, 8pm. $5. Monstros Pizza & Subs; 628 W. Sacramento Ave.; (530) 345-7672.

JAZZ TRIO: Every Wednesday with Carey

Robinson and company. W, 4-7pm. Free. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

LOYALTY IS BLUE: Delicate string

ACOUSTIC MUSIC JAM: A jam hosted by

PHOENIX: Blues and classic rock covers

in the lounge. Sa, 9/1, 8:30pm. Free. Feather Falls Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.featherfallscasino.com.

Butte Folk Music Society and led by local musician Steve Johnson. First Sa of every month, 2-5pm. Free. Upper Crust Bakery & Eatery; 130 Main St.; (530) 345-4128.

STEVE JOHNSON: Acoustic Americana

BRASS BED: In the vein of Wilco,

Louisiana’s Brass Bed specializes in experimental, quirky pop tunes. Memory Boys, Sisterhood and Fera open. Sa, 9/1, 7pm. $5. Cafe Flo, 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre, (530) 514-8888, http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

with guitarist and vocalist Steve Johnson. Sa, 9/1, 8:30pm. Free. Farwood Bar & Grill; 705 Fifth St. in Orland; (530) 865-9900.

WATER TOWER: A Portland-based outfit loosely based in the traditions of bluegrass, punk rock, blues, cajun, folk and country. Hobilly M.F. and The Vandolins 10 8pm. $2. Maltese Bar 10 & open. Sa, 9/1, Taproom; 1600 Park Ave.; (530) 3434915.

FAN HALEN: You guessed it—a Van Halen 10 tribute band in the brewery. Sa, 9/1, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.featherfallscasino.com.

2SUNDAY

INSIDE STRAIGHT: Live music in the night265 club. Sa, 9/1, 9pm. Free. Café Coda;10 Humboldt Ave.; (530) 566-9476; www.cafecoda.com.

Brothers tribute band in the brewery. Su, 9/2, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls

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traditional Americana duo returns to Chico. Local country-rock favorites The Perpetual Drifters open. Su, 9/2, 7:30pm. $15-$17. Chico Womens Club; 592 E. Third St.; (530) 894-1978; www.strangeseedmusic.com.

JAZZ: Weekly jazz. Su, 4-6pm. Has Beans Internet Cafe & Galleria; 501 Main St.; (530) 894-3033; www.hasbeans.com.

PHOENIX: Blues and classic rock covers

10 Su, 9/2, 8:30pm. Free. in the lounge. Feather Falls Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.feather fallscasino.com.

DINNER & JAZZ SERIES: Featuring the music of Jaco Pastorious, the ridicu-

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BROWN BIRD: The popular indie folk and

3MONDAY

BRIEFCASE FULL OF BLUES: A Blues

Casino; 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville; (530) 533-3885; www.featherfallscasino.com.

4TUESDAY AARON JAQUA: An open singer-song-

writer night. Tu, 7-9pm. Free. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

O’BRIEN PARTY OF SEVEN: The O’Brien family has mastered American folk, Irish and Scottish music, with Tim and Molly O’Brien at the forefront. Tu, 9/4, 7:30pm. $20. Sierra Nevada Big Room; 1075 East 20th St.; (530) 345-2739; www.sierranevada.com/bigroom.

arrangements are at the forefront of this lush, layered indie rock band right out of Seattle. W, 9/5, 7:30pm. $5. Cafe Flo; 365 E. Sixth St. Next door to the Pageant Theatre; (530) 514-8888; http://liveatflo.weebly.com.

bass rig, guitar amp and PA system are provided, bring your own instruments. All ages until 10. W, 7pm. Free. Italian Garden; 6929 Skyway in Paradise; (530) 876-9988; wwwmyspace.com/theitaliangarden.

SALSA BELLA: Live Salsa music in the

restaurant. W, 8-11pm. Tortilla Flats; 2601 Esplanade; (530) 345-6053.

SWING DANCE WEDNESDAY: Every Wednesday night, swing dancing lessons 8-10pm. W, 8-10pm. Free. Crazy Horse Saloon & Brewery; 303 Main St.; (530) 894-5408.

ZIGGY MARLEY: The five-time Grammy-

BEATS ANTIQUE Wednesday, Sept. 5 Senator Theatre

SEE WEDNESDAY

Award winning reggae master carries on the tradition of his father on his Wild and Free Tour. W, 9/5, 7:30pm. $35$50. Laxson Auditorium; 400 W. First St. CSU, Chico; (530) 898-6333; www.csuchico.edu/upe/boxoffice.html.

5WEDNESDAY BEATS ANTIQUE: The experimental electronica groups takes influence from world rhythms and incorporates performance art into their live act. W, 9/5, 9pm. $18. Senator Theatre; 517 Main St.; (530) 898-1497; www.jmaxproduc tions.net.

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CN&R 39

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Ramzi Aburedwan

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Riverboat Records Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan was born and raised in a cramped, poverty-stricken refugee camp in Ramallah in the West Bank. As an 8-year-old, he was famously photographed getting ready to throw a rock at an Israeli tank. He started playing the viola as a teen, after an opportunity of free music lessons revealed his potential. After studying music in France, Aburedwan returned home to teach others to play, and he currently runs a number of music schools that teach both Arabic and European classical music. On Reflections of Palestine, Aburedwan plays the bouzouk, a long-necked lute that is a relative of the Greek bouzouki, and he is accompanied by accordion, oud, clarinet and percussion. The collection of 10 songs—both originals and arrangements of others’ works—is mesmerizing. “Rahil,” the album’s opener (“Rahil” translates as “Exile”), is a solemnly beautiful piece showcasing the heartfelt musical interplay between Aburedwan and accordionist Mohammed Al Qutati. The next song, “Sans Adresse” (French for “without an address”), is almost equally contemplative. The spirited “Tahrir” (“Liberation”) is based on an improvised piece Aburedwan first played for his younger cousin Tahrir, who now plays the violin due to his positive influence. —Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia

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Deep Song: A Tribute to Billie Holiday Ranee Lee Justin Time Records It takes a rare brand of courage for a singer to put out an album of songs from the canon of Billie Holiday’s best material, but that’s what Ranee Lee does in this remastered collection of classics that she originally released in 1989. It’s the kind of project that can make for an embarrassing failure, resulting in a hubristic display of overreaching. But Lee pulled it off and, though it is almost blasphemous to say so, some of her treatments of these familiar songs are arguably better than the ones Holiday left us with. Her backup ensemble, for example, breathes new life into those Lady Day standards. Guitar work by Richard Ring sparkles, and Oliver Jones has a deft touch on piano. Lee’s vocals remove some of the druggy haze that sometimes darkened the Holiday originals, and her version of “Strange Fruit” is less defeated and more angry than Holiday’s treatment of that bitter song. The best reason for re-releasing this kind of album is to prompt us to listen to the old songs with new ears, and Lee accomplishes that objective. You won’t throw away your old Holiday albums after hearing Deep Song, but you’ll surely be pleased that this fine vocalist has allowed you to hear those songs anew.

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MORE FREE TIME, PLEASE Labor Day always feels like the end of summer to Arts DEVO. Living in this college town, the three-day weekend is like summer’s encore, an invitation to stop working so that we can squeeze out the year’s last ounces of freedom. OK, maybe I’m being a little overdramatic, but it is a good excuse to just float (down the river, down the highway, through Bidwell Park, or to the next pint of beer) for a few more days.

THE BUTCHER SHOP IS OPEN Of course, there is a built-in Labor Day

tradition that provides a most natural and satisfying punctuation to the easy days of summer. For the fourth year now, Chico’s theater community—past and present—will convene at “a secret almond barn” under the stars for a two-night festival of original one-acts and live music. The legend of the original Butcher Shop has been held up as the impetus for the Latimer boys— Dylan and Denver—and Butcher Shop by Dylan Hillerman. their friends starting the Blue Room Theatre, which has been around for now nearly two decades. But while those inspired backyard happenings inform the freewheeling nature of the Butcher weekend, the current annual version is something much more. Chico-theater alumni from as far away as New York City come back to town each year to join the cream of the current local crop in what’s become both a reunion and a celebration of generations of energetic community theater. You won’t find a more creative, warm and fun local event all year long. Some of the original works on the 2012 schedule (mostly by and starring returning theater superstars) include: Interview with a Zombie by Dan Kowta, directed by Yana Collins Lehman and starring Jeff DiFranco and Shannon McNally; Life Boat, written and directed by Michael Gannon; Moonship Journey, written and directed by Denver Latimer; and Night of the Purple Pear, written and directed by Jesse Karch. I asked Karch to tell me about his one-act (which the actors in Brooklyn, California and Portland rehearsed via remote video over the Internet) and this is what he emailed me: “Night of the Purple Pear is a poetic meditation on machineassisted dreaming. The play follows two sleep-deprived film editors played by Dylan Latimer and Steve Eproson as they try to meet their deadline. The play is told through scenes from the films they are working on. The play features music and puppets. The play was written in a brand new way, written entirely by a software that can translate the thoughts of your cat.” The Butcher Shop plays this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, Sept. 1 & 2, 8 p.m. (green show at 7:15 p.m.). It’s at the end of Estes Road (which is at the end of Normal Avenue), it’s free (bikes are free, but there’s a charge for parking cars) and refreshments will be served.

SPEAKING OF THE BLUE ROOM Artistic director Fred Stuart is going to

hand out the theater’s 2012-2013 schedule during the Butcher Shop fest, but he was kind enough to send me a sneak peak—and it looks very promising. There are a couple of real meaty choices under the theme of “civility,” especially God of Carnage, which will be a theaterreunion of its own, bringing together Stuart and Gannon, plus Johnny Lancaster and local-girl-done-Hollywood Amanda Detmer to play under the direction of Coy Middlebrook. Here’s the new season: Nov. 8-16: The Little Prince; Dec. 5-15: A Christmas Carol; Jan. 9-19: God of Carnage; March 7-16: Lord of the Flies; May 8-18: Monty Python’s Spamalot. And, for October, Inspire School of the Arts will take over the stage with a production of You Can’t Take it With You. Homecoming queen: Amanda Detmer. 42 CN&R August 30, 2012