operation tortoise trippin’ I
t’s no secret, we here at the Tortoise Telegraph love our desert tortoises. They’re ancient and awesome and they belong here in the desert a whole lot more than we do, though some of us are growing pretty thick shells ourselves, the longer we live in their neighborhood. But the desert tortoise is also very much in danger. They are listed as “threatened,” which is one step below endangered. They’re on both the state and federal Endangered Species lists. And despite their legitimate long term claim to the land, people just keep pushing them around. This April, the Marine Corps, who need vast swaths of land to train with Marine Expeditionary Brigade-sized forces, desert warfare continuing to be immensely popular in some parts of the world, relocated around 1,000 desert tortoises from a large chunk of the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area to new homes, presumably all those abandoned housing tracts out near Adelanto that have been vacant since the real estate crash of 2008. Wherever they’re being relocated, tortoise relocation is a very serious, and dangerous (for the tortoises) business. Data on tortoise relocation is enough to give pause to any tortoise fans out there, as it indicates mortality can be high, and we’re really, really tired of seeing dead tortoises scattered around the desert. But relocating them is probably somewhat safer than leaving them to be bombed, shelled, and ground into the Mojave sands around Johnson Valley. And to be fair, the Marines at the Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms are working with a host of qualified, experienced tortoise trippers, and even runs the Tortoise Research and Captive Rearing Site, so while we’re nervous, we’re also grateful the Marines have been, and continue to be, dedicated to caring for our fine shelled friends. Desert tortoises have survived for somewhere between 15 and 20 million years. It’s only recently that they’ve faced so many challenges that the prospect of their survival has come into question. We wish our friends all the best in their new homes. Stay safe!
In this issue: desert tortoises moved to adelanto instead of getting bombed by marines - most say they would have preferred bombs. we would have. artist snake jagger continues his true life story in the next installment of becoming snake jagger
Photos by Cpl. Medina Ayala-Lo, United states marine corps.
alien art invasion lands in sleepy joshua tree take us to your leader - scott doten! more alien art lands at art queen - what’s new? and where are the dildos? Randy Polumbo knows. events to read about while you’re stuck in line waiting to get into the national park happy 100th birthday lou! We love your music and your legacy here in joshua tree! thanks eva! thanks for not inviting us over, lorde. you’re as bad as paul and putin. Keep it real: help stop vandalism and theft in our national parks - put the NPS tipline# in your cell phone: 888-653-0009
there’s more Tortoise online! www.jttortoisetelegraph.com 1
Tales from the tortoise
alien invasion
strange art descends upon sleepy joshua tree
A
by Steve Brown
lien invasions aren’t really anything new out here in the hi-desert. In fact, they’re so common that while you’ll hear locals bitching about not being able to get a booth at the Saloon, having to stand in line at Crossroads, or not being able to get home because of the line to get into the park, you’ll rarely hear anyone whining about aliens. We’ve just gotten used to them. Sure, you still have to watch the shape-shifting reptilians who hang out at The Palms on weekends. And Landers, well, the Venutians are such pranksters they’ll give you the design for some kind of age-reversal negative ionization generator, get you all psyched for building it, and then not come through with any venture capital to pay for the thing, leaving you with some wooden domed half-finished project that gets ransacked by men in black the moment you mysteriously die in an LA hotel room. Let’s just say the Venutians seriously lack follow through, but they do have some cool ideas. Anyway, out in North Joshua Tree, which is just north of Far East LA, errrrr.... downtown Joshua Tree, the aliens are invading the Joshua Tree Drive-In Theatre, a large conceptual art installation unlike anything you might see covered in mirrors down at Desert X, with all the right people cooing over it. The invasion is orchestrated by the diabolical mastermind (and artist) Scott Lloyd Doten, who has a name suitable for Desert X, and an imagination suited for finer homes for the perpetually sun-dazzled. Scott, who’s really a great guy and a talented artist, has created the drivein out of junked mostly 1950s-era cars, scrap wood, and his imagination. Oh, and a lot of land, which is something still readily available up in North Joshua Tree. The drive-in, all on its own, has been steadily developing, with rusted cars the likes of which would set my neighbor to bouts of excessive salivation (the county finally forced him to build a fence), and lithe naked dummies with quizzical expressions who clearly haven’t been given the hipster code book of desert fashion. The drive-in is located next to Scott’s enormous metal studio he refers to, in utter sincerity, as Studio Shangri La. Featured artists at this year’s Alien Invasion are Jaymie Arquilevich, Marcia Geiger, and Scott. The public is invited to join in the fun with alien or fifties garb, or alien fifties garb. (What were the best dressed aliens wearing back in the days of the contactees?) There will be art, jukebox music, food, and maybe even some live local musicians, if they have enough money for gas to get out to Shangri La. Scott’s been an artist and designer for nearly three decades, and credits his art teacher at the time, Janis Commentz, with introducing him to a variety of mediums and turning him loose on the creative world. For a time he was carving teeth as a dental tech, studied Hollywood movie makeup and special effects, started welding (he does some truly cool sculpture work), he paints, and he creates entire drive-in movie theatres so aliens can invade them. Essentially, Scott’s your typical hi-desert resident. He’s a bit mysterious about the actual physical address of Shangri La (well, it is a tad mystical of a place, after all), so if you want to join in the fun on May 19-21 (and we recommend you do), contact him through his website at www.scottdoten.com, email him at scottinjt@gmail.com, or just break down and call him at (760)333-5216. Meanwhile, on page 5, you can check out Randy Polumbo’s latest work that we had laid out on the front page of last month’s issue prior to being told that the Bombay Beach Biennale, which was featuring this installation didn’t want it to appear in print prior to the event (which we were not invited to, not being cool LA people, but we’re not upset). The installation, which is really worth checking out, is now home at Art Queen in downtown Joshua Tree, so stop by and climb in—the view’s great, and it looks even better at night. Looks like we just saved you a trip to Bombay Beach (though we love it there and enjoy a drink at the Ski Inn—after all the cool people leave).
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Drive-in theatre creator, collector of absolutely useless junked cars, artist, and instigator of alien invasions, Scott Doten, above top (photo: Steve Brown), and working on building replacement Joshua trees for the park ( “monument” for all you hipsters trying to sound like you’ve been here a long time ) after all the real ones all die off from climate change ( nah, we made that up, there just won’t be any Joshua trees left in joshua tree national park after they all die off from climate change, which, of course, doesn’t exist, but hey, that’s another long and sadly dysfunctonal story). Below, photos of some of Scott’s diabolical creations at the joshua tree drive-in theatre, located in shangri la, not far off of border in north joshua tree. Yeah, that’s where shangri la is - north jt.
continued on page 5
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Tales from the tortoise
becoming snake jagger By Snake Jagger by way of introduction
T
he desert produces some fascinating creative spirits, and often, they have stories as interesting and varied as themselves and their work. Whenever possible, we like to share those stories with our readers to give you a deeper look down the tortoise hole, into the minds and souls of our friends and hi-desert neighbors. I’ve known Snake Jagger for quite a few years now, and his artwork has been featured on the cover of our sister publication, The Sun Runner. He’s featured in our Morongo Valley episode of our TV series, Southwest Stories, doing lip-ups and talking about Frank Sinatra and his Dad, lip synching competively, and being a pirate, something we share (it’s a long story). Snake is a uniquely talented desert artist with a penchant for creating desert scenes of orderly, sometimes raked, desert landscapes, with the occasional UFO, doorway, or even a rake, included. It’s what he calls whimsical surrealism, and the name fits. He has a playful painting style that is a perfect match for his personality. But don’t just listen to me. Read Snake’s story in his own words. I’ve done minimal editing because I like to let people tell their story their way. He’s working on a book, so the Tortoise Telegraph is serializing his story in this, and upcoming, issues. It’s a great way to get to know Snake, and it’s a hell of a ride. You can also peruse Snake’s online gallery and shop online at www. snakejagger.com. And yes, that’s one of his works in our masthead. – Steve Brown
Chapter 8 Return to the Desert
M
y fist time living in Hawaii was magical. And working at Pino’s was fun too. I had to walk up a long and winding road to the restaurant, which was right above a most beautiful Chinese garden and park, and a bridge that crossed the river that ran down the valley. I would always work up a sweat trudging up that hill in my black pants and white shirt. It was very humid in Iao Valley. I was working as a busboy at Pino’s. It was a fancy French restaurant that seemed to be holding its own on a Hawaiian island. Mr. Pino was a very nice French man, he reminded me of LaBeau on Hogans Heroes. He liked calling me Dougie, because my middle name is Douglas, instead of my first name, because there was another waiter with my first name so Mr. Pino could distinguish me from him. Somehow the scene I remember most about working there was me scraping the leftover food from the patrons’ dinner plates, into a slop bucket, that some guy would pick up every night to feed his hogs. He lived halfway between Wally’s place and the restaurant. And I was always wondering what went on back there in the jungle where those hogs lived. I never found out. And that’s ok.
Wailuku is down the hill from Iao Valley, and was a great funky funny little town full of old wooden buildings, like something from the early 1900’s. I remember walking down the hill from Wally’s house to Wailuku, I was on my way to a health food store for supplies, and I ran into Kay. She was doing her laundry at the time, so we sat outside the laundry mat and talked. Well before you knew it we were an item. We spent a lot of time together in paradise, both of us being new to the islands—there was lots of new things to do together. She was from North Dakota, and was a year older than me. I was very smitten with her and felt so lucky to have met someone that I wanted to spend my life with. I was also still into believing the ways of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and began to share what I knew with Kay. She liked what I had to say about it and agreed with me that we should try to live our lives as Witnesses. Which meant that we would have to get married if we wanted to continue being intimate. So we decided to move back to the mainland so she could meet my parents and we would eventually tie the knot. I was still 19 years old, thinking I was all grown up and knew so much. Ha! The foolishness of youth! To this day I think that was a big mistake leaving Hawaii and moving back to the desert. We got married in a park in Desert Hot Springs. There was Big James as our witness and a guy named Jim who told us he was an elder in our congregation, so he could perform the ceremony. We didn’t have any money and didn’t plan a big wedding, we just wanted to get hitched so we could stop upsetting God by having relations when we weren’t married. It is now my opinion that it should be illegal for someone under the age of 30 to get married. At least for men, because it takes many years to mature and learn how to appreciate being in a reclationship. Jim had taken one of the trash cans nearby and turned it upside down to use as a sort of podium from which to lay our paperwork on while he married us. That should have been a sign to me, that starting out with our paperwork on the bottom of a trash can would portend a negative outcome for Kay and I. And horribly, Jim the young elder got arrested some time after he married us. I don’t know what for, but he ended up committing suicide in jail. So sad. And another negative omen for us.
But for the time, we were hitched and loving it. So on with the story.
On one occasion Wally had taken me to a nightclub on a night out, that was way up country, on the side of Haleakala volcano. I think it was called The Kula Lodge. I think it is still there to this day. (Editor’s note: It is.) I was 19 then, so I could drink alcohol, and we must have had a few beers and maybe a joint while we were there. I wasn’t drinking too much around that time because I was into a healthy lifestyle and I had not developed the love of booze yet. That night I had painted a lightning bolt across my face like Aladdin Sane, and painted my fingernails black. I have said this many times, David Bowie was a huge influence on my life. So I was emulating him at that time. Wally just thought it was funny, and got a kick out of watching people’s reactions. I must have been crazy for doing that, because in Hawaii they just didn’t go in for that kind of thing. Had I been alone and on my own I would have gotten "a dirty licking," meaning the locals would have pummeled me to within an inch of my life. Thankfully I had Wally there with me, he was big and tall and in great shape and could handle things if they got out of hand. We could tell there was a lot of negative vibes coming our way that night, but we got through it OK. Well, then there was this girl. And she looked at me from across the room. There was an instant connection, but how could that be? The way I looked with the bolt on my face, how could she be attracted to this? Well, somehow she was. We gravitated towards each other and before you knew it we were dancing together. We talked, and made arrangements to meet in a couple of days in Wailuku where she was staying.
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Check out more of Snake Jagger’s artwork at: www.snakejagger.com
alien invasion,
cont. from page2
Artist Randy Polumbo’s installation, formerly known as “The Bombay Beach Intergalactic Space Station,” during the Bombay Beach Biennale, has returned home to Art Queen’s courtyard in downtown Joshua Tree. The view is great from here, and it’s fun to see at night too. It’s yet another fun fantastic creation from Polumbo, though it’s unlikely to get us berated by some of the more genteel locals who still think of us as “pornographers” after a previous Polumbo publishing experience. Yes, it’s a long story. yes, it’s best told over alcohol. And yes, huell howser does figure into the story ( we miss huell ).
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Tortoise picks Festivals Portal to the New Earth: An Evolutionary Gathering: May 5-8 Share wisdom and ceremony to birth the new Earth. Sound immersions, interactive workshops, portal installations, yoga, music, vegan group meals in a magical hi-desert setting at Garth’s Boulder Gardens. Post-event Village Building Immersion, May 8-12. Study integral permaculture practices, intentional community, ceremony, and song circles. www.portaltothenewearth.com Shakti Fest: May 12-14 Spring’s premier yoga, dance, music festival that embraces ancient and modern sacred wisdom and traditional and non-traditional spiritual practices. Learn from renowned yoga teachers, dance under the stars to live sacred music, and take workshops with leaders in the field of personal growth. Student, senior, and local resident discounts available. www.bhaktifest.com (See our features on Jai Uttal and Bhakti/Shakti Fest founder Sridhar Silberfein on our website at www.jttortoisetelegraph.com.) Joshua Tree Music Festival: May 18-21 15th annual spring Joshua Tree Music Festival featuring California Honeydrops, Mokoomba, Gene Evaro Jr., Wally Ingram, The Adobe Collective, Kraak & Smaak, Desert Rhythm Project, La Inedita, Yak Attack, Orgone, Chris Unck, Phillip Rosenberg, Megan Hutch, and more. Kidsville, Positive Vibration Station, live painter’s auction, yoga, vendors, and more. www.joshuatreemusicfestival.com Art Desert artists on exhibit in the restaurant. 29 Palms Inn, 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms. (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Spring Renewal, through June 30. 29 Palms Visitor Center & Art Gallery, 73484 29 Palms Hwy, Twentynine Palms Reduce, Reuse, Recycle art exhibit, through June 3. Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: The Benefit and Costs of Cooperation in Societies - Perspectives from a Social Insect Specialist, May 18, noon, $5. Hi-Desert Nature Museum, Yucca Valley Community Center, 57116 29 Palms Hwy., Yucca Valley. (760)369-7212, www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org Theatres Into the Woods, by Stephen Sondheim. Through May 21. A dark musical retelling of the Grimm fairy tales. Residential Repertory Improv Troupe Workshops, May 2, 4, auditions May 8. The Final, Farewell Tour of Dolores and Dick DelRubio, with Alan Palmer and Andrew Orbison, June 3-4. Theatre 29, 73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms Tickets and information are available at www.theatre29.org, or call (760)361-4151. Music 29 Palms Inn 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Live music nightly. Usually scheduled: Beverly Derby & Bill Church, Saturdays; Bob Garcia, Sundays; The Luminators, Mondays; Daniel Horn, Wednesdays; Bobby Furgo and company, Thursdays. The Wonder People usually play first Friday monthly. Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown (760)365-5956, www.pappyandharriets.com (For complete calendar see their website.) Hi-Desert Life & Culture Meet the Author Talk & Book signing: Mystical Union by Stephen Bost: May 6, 3-6 p.m. ArtFx & Furnishings, 55836 29 Palms Hwy, Old Town Yucca Valley Intro to Tibetan Spiritual Breath. Tuesdays, 6:30-8 p.m., Lotus Meditation Building. Donation: $5. Improves subtle energies of the body by understanding breath and the natural relationship to healing. Joshua Tree Retreat Center/Institute of Mentalphysics 59700 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, (760)365-8371 Sky’s the Limit Observatory & Nature Center Desert night sky watching events most Saturdays. Outdoor events may be changed due to weather. Free to the public. 9697 Utah Trail, Twentynine Palms (just outside the north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park). (760)401-3004, www.skysthelimit29.org Rainbow Stew, 55509 29 Palms Hwy., Old Town Yucca Valley For event schedule, see: www.rainbowstew4u.com
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Autumn McKinsey, student photographer and daughter of Mike and Linnea McKinsey, former owners of the legendary Beatnik Cafe in Joshua Tree, sent us some photos from her desert wanderings. We’re running one photo per issue. Here is a coyote melon on the vine, one of our favorite hi-desert plants. Have a hi-desert photo or story you’d like to share with our readers? Send it to us at: tortoisetelegraph@gmail. The ol’ Tortoise would love to hear from you! We’re finished with hibernation and now we’re out grazing on wildflowers. Tasty wildflowers!
published by the sun runner, po box 2171, joshua tree, ca 92252 (760)820-1222 publisher@sunrunnersw.com www.jttortoisetelegraph.com www.facebook.com/jttortoisetelegraph www.instagram.com/jttortoisetelegraph published monthly. distributed free of charge in the hi-desert. Editor/Publisher/telegraph operator: Steve Brown Assistant to the editor: Juliett, the cat Photos by: Steve Brown, chris brewster, autumn mckinsey Distribution: eventually by tortoise, of coursus Submit story ideas, photos for consideration, dining/shopping/lodging/favorite places and event photos to: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com advertising inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com or 760-820-1222 (voice or text) see the advertising page at www.jttortoisetelegraph.com for pricing and specs. remember – support your local independent media and it will support your community! distribution inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com join the tortoise telegraph online at: www.jttortoisetelegraph.com, on facebook at: www.facebook.com/jttortoisetelegraph on instagram at: www.instagram.com/jttortoisetelegraph join the sun runner, the journal of the real desert, online at: www.sunrunnersw.com on facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheSunRunner join southwest stories with steve brown online at: www.southweststories.us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/RealDesert
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Keep it real! 8