The Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph - May, 2016

The musical mayor of joshua tree

In this issue: The tortoise talks about the future with the musical mayor of Joshua Tree: the one and only, Ted Quinn

Tortoise Talk -

Ted Quinn

Death Valley Jim guides you to samuelson’s Rocks, where you can read his political rants that are still relevant today

By Steve Brown

T

ed Quinn is the most central figure in the Joshua Tree area’s rich musical culture. I’ve known Ted since the beginnings of Lowell Kaufman’s Beatnik Cafe (formerly Jeremy’s), when the open mics were more like family gatherings and Lowell blew through huge amounts of cash bringing national acts to play in his downtown Joshua Tree club that sat, at the most, 50 people.

It was an inspirational and exciting time, with KJET’s local music programming and DJs, and the Beatnik’s tiny stage hosting a long list of local, regional, and national talent. And Ted was in the thick of it all.

But times change, and while the Beatnik has gone through many changes only to come back around to a gallery, performance space, and ad hoc community center for a dramatically changing Joshua Tree community, Ted has become very well known for his hosting of Ted Quinn’s Monday Night Reality Show, the world famous open mic held up at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace.

I sat down with Ted in the Beatnik to catch up with the course of his life, and got a few surprises.....

Stay in touch with the Tortoise! www.jttortoisetelegraph.com

Robin Schlosser, executive director of Reach Out Morongo Basin, featured in last month’s Tortoise Telegraph, has been busy! First, there was the Reach Out Art Auction at ArtFX and Furnishings in Old Town Yucca Valley. That event raised $2,182.50 to support Reach Out’s programs.

Then she was nominated to attend the United State of Women summit hosted by the White House. After that, Robin joined Navy volunteers from 1st Tank Battalion at MCAGCC Twentynine Palms to help rejuvenate the yard of a 91 year-old senior. And now, she’s off to Portland, Oregon to accept the Star Award for Quality from the National Volunteer Transportation Center and the Community Transportation Association of America. Reach Out was one of 16 organizations nationwide, selected for these prestigious awards, and the organization will be honored at the 2016 Community Transportation Expo and Trade Fair. The awards sponsor is Toyota of North America which is providing a $5,000 award to Reach Out to support the organization’s transportation program. Toyota is also covering the costs for Robin to attend the awards ceremony and conference, where she will have a listening session with representatives of Toyota and NVTC to discuss Reach Out’s programs, and attend the awards dinner hosted by Toyota. Congratulations Robin and Reach Out Morongo Basin!

Have a hi-desert photo you’d like to share with our readers? Send it to us at: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.

hi-desert events & more!

The tortoise is looking for cover art for the 3rd edition of the sun runner’s joshua tree gateway communities visitor guide. Artists can win a $100 gift certificate to the 29 Palms Inn for the cover art. send art to publisher@sunrunnersw.com. real estate agents - want a free ad in the tortoise telegraph? contact shaun kruse today at: 800-680-0952.

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Ted Quinn

fault that I wound up doing it. I think Tal (Hurley) showed up once to do it, but otherwise nobody was stepping forward to do it.

It’s weird because as a musician, you want everyone to play, of course, but as someone running something, it’s inevitably true, somebody’s disappointed because they’re going on late. But we had so many great times in this place.

JTTT: What’s happening with Radio Free Joshua Tree?

TQ: It’s coming to a close. At least temporarily. Definitely I’m at a place where I’m paring down. To bring it to the present, I’m paring down this place, the Beatnik Lounge, which kind of has a life of its own, thankfully. Sunny Sundowner, and his partner Deborah Tobin does the curating of the art. She’s gathered all these really great people, really cutting edge. I couldn’t be happier about this gallery. And then I’m doing stuff with the (Joshua Tree) Saloon, running the open mic there and booking bands, and then I have a day job.

I live a mile that way, and everything’s in this little triangle where everything’s a minute away. Even Sage’s school is only two minutes from home and his mom is only five minutes. It’s really so good.

JTTT: You’ve been doing the Pappy’s open mic for nine years, and now you’re stopping?

TQ: I figure if I stop now they don’t have to get me a gold watch next year. I had hernia surgery a couple of months ago. I’m due for a hip replacement at the end of summer.

At the beginning of this year, I was feeling like, wow, when a hernia happens, literally parts of your insides are trying to pop out. And I was like, maybe that’s trying to tell me something. Maybe I’m trying to carry too much? I can’t call myself a poet if I don’t get metaphors, you know. Really.

That was on my mind, and then I thought I had fallen down, I had tripped over a little fence, and I was in pain, back pain, leg pain, for months, and it kept getting worse.

But then by the beginning of the year, I thought I’d see a doctor, maybe they’d send me to a chiropractor and they’d get me back in shape.

Well, they did an x-ray and they said, “You have no cartilage in your hip.” Like five percent, degeneration, and arthritis.

You’ve been to Pappy’s on Monday night, and now that it’s one of the 10 best venues in the world, it’s crazy. I met those girls (the owners, Robyn Celia and Linda Krantz) pretty soon after they moved here in 2003, I think. Thankfully, they kept it as close to the spirit of Pappy & Harriet as they could. Suddenly, it’s like the hippest place in LA.

They’re extremely popular, and the open mic is an enormous success. I mean, I walk in the door at 7 o’clock and the list is full before I get to the sound booth. From the car to the sound booth, 15 people have already signed up. It’s wonderful. But it’s also a lot of work. Physically, after the hernia surgery, I had to take a week off, but I really should have taken a few weeks off.

And running back and forth through a crowd to the stage, you understand it’s a job, but a lot of people see it as Ted’s having fun talking to everybody and stuff.

JTTT: That’s when you’re doing a good job. It looks like you’re having fun.

JTTT: Let’s go back for a Reader’s Digest version of your history.

TQ: I’d go back about 15 years (Editor’s note: 16, really, but who’s counting?) to Lowell Kaufman and the Beatnik Cafe. Even though it had been Jeremy’s before that, when Lowell came in that was when I got more involved with things.

You’re one of the few people who will remember this, that I wasn’t the first person to host the open mic here, it was Bira. Bira started doing the open mics here and I was working at Coyote Corner and I painted the Beatnik sign. Lowell, he asked me to paint the sign because I was doing signs at Coyote Corner—Nag Champa signs and stuff like that.

From there, I think Tony Mason and I did a New Year’s Eve and a couple of things here, and then 9/11 happened. I remember vividly on 9/11, pretty much the whole town, or everybody who wasn’t glued to their own TV set, was here, holding hands in a circle, and it was elderly folks, Sabu, probably, teenagers, everyone was holding on to each other. It was a really beautiful experience.

Somewhere in there, Art Kunkin came in, and Judy Wishart, and Lowell introduced me to both of them. Thank you very much. When Lowell decided after 9/11, and he had lost whatever money he had on the side to keep this place floating, he sold the business to Tommy Paul and Katrina, and I knew them and they asked me to host them (open mics).

So I hosted the open mic for Tommy and Katrina for a while, seems like it was for a couple of years, and that’s kind of when I got to know all of the local musicians, apart from the Ranch (de la Luna recording studio) crowd, which was isolated and insulated and not really part of the public scene. Fred (Drake) was pretty much locked into his studio.

Fred was a super friendly person, but he was serious and working all the time on his music. He’d go out to Country Kitchen for breakfast at a quarter to three when they were getting ready to close.

When Tommy and Katrina decided to sell the business, I was at a meditation class with Art Kunkin, at the Retreat Center, and I mentioned you should all come tomorrow night to the final open mic at the Beatnik, it should be a lot of fun. It was a mad scene, it was really a lot of fun. It was packed. Everybody showed up, and Mike and Linnea McKinsey were at the meditation class and they came and they were like, “This is too good to let it die.”

So they decided to make an arrangement with Tommy to take it over. They actually decided you don’t want to host every night so we’ll have revolving hosts. Well, that lasted about three weeks because nobody else showed up to do it. It was really by de-

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TQ: It’s rare that I feel miserable. I usually leave there feeling, God that was another great night. It’s amazing to me that there can be 15 to 20 performers, half of them I’ve never seen or heard of before, usually, and they’re all really good. It proves there are so many people out there doing great stuff that it’s necessary, a necessary thing.

I’m glad, from this room, where the Beatnik started the open mic thing 15 or so years ago, now there’s half a dozen at least within a short drive. They’re all doing well because there’s so many people who want to play.

I can’t tell you how many young people started out here and are now doing gigs all over the place. People who are of our vintage, people who wanted to play but who weren’t going to out and look for gigs in LA, but who wanted to play a few songs, but now of course, up at Pappy’s, we get people literally from all over the world who want to go there to play the open mic. It’s pretty nutty. It’s nice. I love it. It’s with mixed feelings I stop doing it.

But this may sound weird or morbid or whatever, but from the time I was about 12 or 13, David Bowie was a huge iconic figure to me and influence, always kind of challenging. When he passed away suddenly, it really kind of kicked my ass. I thought, wow, am I doing with my life what I really want? No. I’ve got a record I’ve been talking about doing for two years. I’ve got a book that I started and haven’t gotten more than a couple chapters.

I thought well, I’m really close to Robyn, I love her, but physically even mentally, it just felt like I could pare this down to everything being within five minutes of my house and really trying to spend that extra night that I have not being tired the next day, but I can get to work on my stuff. It was a decent run, and a really great diversion from doing what I really want to be doing.

JTTT: When was the last album you put out and what’s the new one going to be like?

TQ: I’ve been talking about it for a long time. I guess the last thing that was a complete new thing, I put out a live thing in 2013, but I think it was 2011, so that’s five years.

It’s eclectic. It’s definitely an homage to David Bowie. There’s a thread running through a lot of the material. But one night in here, Jamie Hafler, in the band Drug and who plays with his brother, he was in here recording somebody doing a live set and he was recording them on a reel-to-reel on a two-track set. Starting the week after I stop at Pappy’s, we’re going to start recording. I’m going to do it with different combinations of people.

JTTT: You said you’re working on a book?

Ted had an early start in show business as a child actor in commercials, films, and TV shows of the 1960s and 1970s. Here he is appearing as “Mike” in a Bayer Children’s Aspirin commercial back in 1963, right.

Ted’s son sage has been taking drum lessons and joined Ted on stage during the 9th anniversary open mic for ted at Pappy & Harriet’s on May 23, below.

Father and son share a high five for a great performance at the open mic, bottom right.

Ted’s last Open Mic at Pappy & Harriet’s:

Monday May 30 7 p.m.

For more photos from the 9th anniversary of Ted Quinn’s Open Mic celebration at Pappy & Harriet’s, visit our website at: jttortoisetelegraph.com.

TQ: It’s a memoir. It occurred to me over a year ago, I’ve kept my journals. I started keeping journals when I was around Sage’s age, so I’ve got volumes and volumes. I was always writing songs, so most of it is in rhymes and choruses and verses, but then there’s also a lot of clues to where I was at otherwise, diary and journal type entries. I’ve got boxes full of them.

A year or so ago I realized, the year I turned 16 was 1974, and in that year, it was the year I first saw Bowie perform, I saw Joni Mitchell, I saw Pink Floyd do Dark Side of the Moon, I saw George Harrison, and Bob Dylan. I hitchhiked to Big Sur, don’t tell my parents, went to visit my sister in Mariposa and skinny dipped in the Russian River. There were a lot of pivotal experiences and then in November I turned 16. My best buddy and I started writing songs that year, and he threw a surprise party for my 16th birthday. What a fuckin’ year.

I found the journals from that year. Nixon resigned. Patty Hearst. Jerry Brown was elected governor. The sixties were kind of ending. We were still kind of in the sixties in a way. And it felt like we won. In that moment. Nixon resigns, Lennon gets to stay, and Jerry Brown gets elected. It felt like we won the culture war at that point. As a kid turning 16, just starting writing songs and seeing these hugely influential, still to this day, people.

I saw John Lennon at a radio station. A glimpse. But we knew he was going to be hosting the KHJ morning show to promote the Walls and Bridges album. So we all ditched school that morning and hitchhiked over the hill and waited outside KHJ to see John Lennon.

It was a moment of feeling like there was a victory.

JTTT: How’s being a parent?

TQ: It’s the single best experience of my life. It’s continuous source of joy that I never even thought was possible. I’m having a really good time. I had a feeling I would be learning something from the baby before he was born, but I had no idea how much.

We got lucky our child is supremely even keeled, good tempered person. He’s easy to be around and fun. He’s going to play drums on one song.

About two years ago, and again it goes back to Bowie, listening to Ziggy Stardust, the song Five Years, Sage started singing along at the end, and where Bowie’s singing “five years,” Sage was singing, “What gives?” I said, what are you singing? “What gives, isn’t that what he’s singing?” And I said no, but it’s a really cool idea for a song.

It’s weird because I wrote it and there’s parts that are really about Fred still, and then there are parts that are really about Sage and hope for the future and what’s important in life, and that’s kind of the idea of the song. It’s set to that Five Years beat. Sage has been taking drum lessons. January 8, Bowie and Elvis’ birthday, we were in here doing a night of Bowie and Elvis songs, and Sage was playing drums with me. Three days later, Sage, your dad’s pretty sad, I have to tell you David Bowie died yesterday.

Editor’s Note: While Ted’s retiring from the Pappy’s open mics at the end of May, we’re looking forward to his new musical projects and book! Thanks for all you do, Ted!

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Samuelson/and His Rocks

by Death Valley Jim

J

ohn Samuelson was an area ranch hand and miner in the mid-1920s at the Key’s Ranch. A citizen of Sweden, Samuelson claimed to have spent a majority of his life at sea.

In 1927, Samuelson decided to homestead his own piece of property in Lost Horse Valley, south of Quail Springs. He built his humble shack on top of a small hill, and mined his gold claims. In his spare time Samuelson carved eight political slogans, or rants rather, on the boulders near his home.

After waiting out a year, Samuelson filed for his homestead in 1928. Because of his Swedish citizenship, Samuelson was denied his claim. This prompted Samuelson to sell his mining claims, and relocate with his wife to the Los Angeles area. Samuelson killed two men at a dance hall in Compton a year later.

Samuelson was arrested for the murders, but he never served time in prison.

He was declared insane, and hospitalized at California’s State Hospital at Mendocino. He escaped a short time later.

In the 1950s, Samuelson resurfaced, working at a logging mill in Washington state. He died at the logging camp from an accident at the mill.

The house that Samuelson built-in Lost Horse Canyon burned down in the 1930s. The eight carved stones are all that remain of his time here. Interesting enough, the rants that he carved in stone 86 years ago are still relevant today.

Editor/Publisher/telegraph operator: Steve Brown Assistant to the editor: Juliet, the cat Adventures Editor: Death Valley Jim Photos by: Steve Brown, Death Valley Jim hi-desert living page Real Estate page coordinator: shaun kruse - 800-680-0952 Submit story ideas, photos for consideration, dining/shopping/lodging/favorite places and event photos to: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com advertising inquiries: sunrunnerads@gmail.com or 760-820-1222 see the advertising page at www.jttortoisetelegraph.com for pricing and specs. 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 thanks for joining us!

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get a great discount on advertising for the rest of 2016 in The Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph, and expand your reach at a big discount for the rest of the year in The sun runner Magazine!

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Hi-Desert Happenings Festivals Grubstake Days May 27: Chamber Challenge Golf Tournament, Hawk’s Landing, Yucca Valley. Pre-register: (760)3656323.

National Police Rodeo & vendors, Homestead Valley Park, Landers. Gates open 4 p.m., 7 p.m. Show.

Tickets at the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce: (760)365-6323. Info at: (760)218-1980.

Baque Bros. Carnival: Next to Tractor Supply, Yucca Valley.

May 28: 66th annual Grubstake Days Parade, Hwy. 62 from Inca Trail to Sage Avenue, 10 a.m. Trophies: 2 p.m. At California Welcome Center, Yucca Valley.

San Bernardino County Fire Pancake Breakfast, 7 a.m., Elks Lodge, Yucca Valley.

National Police Rodeo & vendors, Homestead Valley Park, Landers. Gates open 4 p.m., 7 p.m. Show.

Tickets at the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce: (760)365-6323. Info at: (760)218-1980. Dance with live music after the rodeo.

Adult Game Day (after the parade): Beard Contest, Tug-O-War, Horseshoe Tourney. Yucca Valley Community Center.

Baque Bros. Carnival: Next to Tractor Supply, Yucca Valley.

May 29: Town of Yucca Valley 10k-5k Run & 2K Walk.

9 a.m. Start. Yucca Valley High School.

Baque Bros. Carnival: Next to Tractor Supply, Yucca Valley.

May 30: Kid’s Day Games, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Boys & Girls Club, Yucca Valley.

Baque Bros. Carnival: Next to Tractor Supply, Yucca Valley.

Information: www.grubstakedays.com.

Theatres Theatre 29 73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms Don’t Hug Me I’m Pregnant plays through June 4, with matinees May 15 & 29.

Tickets and information are available at www.theatre29.org, or call (760)361-4151.

St. Joseph’s Players St. Joseph of Arimathea Church, 56312 Onaga Trail, Yucca Valley Broadway Bound, by Neil Simon. Through June 5.

Tickets are $9-$11.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/StJoePlayers, or call (760)362-9319.

Art 29 Palms Art Gallery 74055 Cottonwood Drive, Twentynine Palms Sand to Stone: Contemporary Native American Art in Joshua Tree, through May 22. Joining Forces Plant to Paper Project, May 26 – June 25. Reception May 27, 5-8 p.m.

(760)367-7819, www.29palmsartgallery.com 29 Palms Inn 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com 29 Palms Creative Center 6847 Adobe Road, Twentynine Palms (760)361-1805, www.29palmsart.com Local hi-desert artists, art classes and art parties.

Kids Summer Art Camp, July 25-29, ages 7-14.

29 Palms Visitor Center & Art Gallery 73484 29 Palms Hwy., Twentynine Palms Desert Hues exhibit, through June 30.

Gallery 62 61871 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree www.hwy62arttours.org/gallery62.php In Hexie’s Shadow, through May 29.

JTAG (Joshua Tree Art Gallery) 61607 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree (760)366-3636, www.joshuatreeartgallery.com MayBe, through June 5. Inspired By Our New Monuments: An Artful Response, opening reception June 11, 6-8 p.m.

Hi-Desert Nature Museum Yucca Valley Community Center, 57116 29 Palms

Hwy., Yucca Valley 2016 Student Art Showcase, featuring works from Copper Mountain College and Yucca Valley High School, through June 4.

(760)369-7212, www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org Art Colony of Morongo Valley Covington Park, 11165 Vale Drive, Morongo Valley.

(760)792-1238, www.artcolonyofmorongovalley.com Featured artist for May: Teri Hudson.

Mojave Desert Land Trust 60124 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree (760)366-5440, www.mojavedesertlandtrust.org Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: Artists Steve Rieman and Frederick Fulmer. May 26, noon.

Music 29 Palms Inn 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Live music nightly (see schedule).

Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown (760)365-5956, www.pappyandharriets.com Upcoming: Ted Quinn’s 9th anniversary Open Mic, May 23, Ted’s last P&H Open Mic, May 30. Regularly scheduled: Open mic on Mondays, The Shadow Mountain Band opening for other acts most Saturdays, The Hot Fudge Sunday Band, most Sundays.

For complete calendar: www.pappyandharriets. com.

Joshua Tree Saloon 61835 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, (760)366-2250, www.thejoshuatreesaloon.com Regularly scheduled: Open Jam Tuesdays with Ted Quinn, karaoke Wednesday and Friday nights, live music Saturday nights, Punk Rock Thursday, second Thursdays.

Beatnik Lounge 61597 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree. (760)475-4860 Hi-Desert Nature Museum Yucca Valley Community Center Complex 57116 29 Palms Hwy., Yucca Valley (760)369-7212, www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org Chamber Music at the Museum featuring the Encilia Chamber Ensemble. Saturday, June 11 at 7 p.m.

And Sunday, June 12 at 2 p.m. Selections from Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Grieg, and Grainger. Light refreshments. $20 standard seating, $30 preferred seating. Tickets available online or at the museum.

Film Paradise Springs, by Brigid McCaffrey Annual High Desert Test Sites film screening, 8 p.m., Saturday, June 4, featuring Brigid McCaffrey’s film, Paradise Springs, and a selection of shorts. Five years of traveling through and living within the Mojave Desert have instilled in geologist Ren Lallatin intimate relations to its geological formations. She traces volcanic and seismic actualities, locates water sources and the relics of previous inhabitants and identifies landscape features that will conceal her mobile shelter from public view. The film follows the geologist as she describes her interactions with the natural world, while declaring her rejection of land regulation and privatization.

The Palms, 83131 Amboy Road, Wonder Valley Health & Healing, Desert Living Joshua Tree Retreat Center/Institute of Mentalphysics 59700 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, (760)365-8371 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.

Rainbow Stew 55509 29 Palms Hwy., Old Town Yucca Valley For event schedule, see: www.rainbowstew4u.com Want to be included in the Tortoise Telegraph calendar listings? Send your event info to us at: publisher@sunrunnersw.com.

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