Synthesis Weekly – November 24, 2014

Michael Franti page 18

NOVEMBER 24. FREE, FREE, FREE!

novembeard bash SATURDAY NOV 29th at DUFFY’S TAVERN

NEW OUTDOOR HEALTH CLUB ...COMING SOON TO CHICO

Volume 21 Issue 14 November 24, 2014

For 20 years The Synthesis’ goal has remained to provide a forum for entertainment, music, humor, community awareness, opinions, and change.

Columns This Week...

Publisher/Managing Editor Amy Sandoval amy@synthesis.net

Creative Director

Novembeard Bash

Letter From the Editor PAGE 8

Tanner Ulsh graphics@synthesis.net

by Amy Olson

amy@synthesis.net

PAGE 4

Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA

Entertainment Editor Arielle Mullen arielle@synthesis.net SynthesisWeekly.com/submit-yourevent/

by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff

PAGE 5

Associate Editor

Letters to Desmond

Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff emilianogs@gmail.com

by Zooey Mae

zooeymae@synthesis.net

Designers

Liz Watters, Mike Valdez graphics@synthesis.net

Productivity Wasted

Deliveries

by Eli Schwartz

Jennifer Foti

pwasted@synthesis.net

Contributing Writers

Zooey Mae, Bob Howard, Howl, Koz McKev, Tommy Diestel, Eli Schwartz, Mona Treme, Emiliano GarciaSarnoff, Jon Williams, Sean Galloway Alex O’Brien

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Howl howlmovesmountains.tumblr.com

Photography

PAGE 10

Jessica Sid Vincent Latham

Free Culture

Nerd

by Alex O’Brien

Dain Sandoval dain@synthesis.net

Accounting Ben Kirby

Director of Operations Karen Potter

Owner

Bill Fishkin bill@synthesis.net The Synthesis is both owned and published

by Apartment 8 Productions. All things published in these pages are the property of Apartment 8 Productions and may not be reproduced, copied or used in any other way, shape or form without the written consent of Apartment 8 Productions. One copy (maybe two) of the Synthesis is available free to residents in Butte, Tehama and Shasta counties. Anyone caught removing papers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. All opinions expressed throughout the Synthesis are those of the author and are not necessarily the same opinions as Apartment 8 Productions and the Synthesis.

The Synthesis welcomes, wants, and will even desperately beg for letters because we care what you think. We can be reached via snail mail at the Synthesis, 210 W. 6th St., Chico, California, 95928. Email letters@ synthesis.net. Please sign all of your letters with your real name, address and preferably a phone number. We may also edit your submission for content and space.

210 West 6th Street Chico Ca 95928 530.899.7708 editorial@synthesis.net

PAGE 6

amateurzen.us

Michael Franti

PAGE 16

PAGE 10

Immaculate Infection

by Bob Howard

Madbob@madbob.com

PAGE 16

The Frugal Terran

by TripHazard

PAGE 17

Supertime!

by Logan Kruidenier logankruidenier.tumblr.com

PAGE 20

Kozmik Debris

by Koz McKev

kozmckev@sunset.net

PAGE 21

From The Edge

by Anthony Peyton Porter

PAGE 22 FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 3

PET OF THE WEEK

Gratitude Lyl a Lyla is a fun loving, hyper girl who will jump for joy once she finds her furever home. She will make a perfect running partner that will be happy to cuddle after activities.

2580 Fair Street Chico, CA 95928 (530) 343-7917 • buttehumane.org

Now Hear This SYNTHESIS WEEKLY PLAYLIST Flying Lotus

Tanner FlyLo feat. DOOM - “Mansquatch” Liz Now, Now - “Thread” Stephen Judas Priest - “Painkiller” Matthew Blue Swede - “Hooked on a Feeling” Dinah Rob Scallon - “Rain” Andrea Capleton - “Tour” Alie Sleeping at Last - “I’m Gonna Be” 4

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

Chico is a really special place. Growing up here, I took it completely for granted. I saw only the limitations of the small town, and in my early twenties I set out to find the Great and Unattainable More that I knew was out there waiting for me. Other places must have everything Chico has but with more excitement and better opportunities—they MUST! I did a couple six to nine month stints living in different neighborhoods of San Francisco, and then lived for several years in a couple smaller towns in Sonoma County. As it turned out, yes, there were more opportunities and exciting things to see, but to my dismay I found there was a big piece missing. People were... colder than they are here. It seemed like they were driven by a different agenda; a culture based around advancement and success (maybe because it was so expensive to live there)… beneath the niceties, it was like people were always calculating what you could do for them or who you could introduce them to, rather than just enjoying each other’s company and intellectual exchange. It all felt very empty.

I was disappointed to move back home with a total of one friend worth keeping in touch with. In contrast, within months of being back in Chico I had been welcomed into a series of interwoven circles that I consider as good as family, and with their support I was pursuing my artistic inclinations on a far more fulfilling level. It’s not just the individual people here, it’s the general warm and open attitude.

And I am so grateful to the people of Chico for that. Really, you’re the best.

I find myself brimming with pride and gratitude these days. So many of you contribute to making this place what it

is, I don’t even know where to start. Most especially, I feel like I should mention the volunteers and people who’ve chosen lowpaying careers that let them do what they care most about—like the people at Butte Humane Society and the Chico Cat Coalition, the Torres Shelter and Jesus Center and 6th St Center for Youth, Catalyst and Planned Parenthood and Women’s Health Services… I hear about so many people doing amazing, selfless things, because you care about the kind of world we all live in, and you’re willing to do what you can to make it better. You are wonderful human beings and your work is inspirational.

You make a difference both to the people and animals you care for, and through the example you set. Thank you.

And speaking of examples: I’m so amazed by the support people in the local arts and music community freely lend one another, how many of you devote your time to building a rising tide to lift all ships. From the people who own and operate the venues, organize the art collectives, book and promote the shows, create the art and music, and the people who get off their couches to share the experience—every single one of you are helping to make this town wonderful. I know there isn’t a ton of money here and it’s a lot of hard work to make it all happen; I know you do this because you love it and you’re willing to put it all out there for the sake of having a strong artistic scene in what could, by all rights, be another podunk town. What you do shows the rest of us that we can choose to create and that we’re better when we do it together. From the bottom of my heart: wow, and thank you.

Letter From the Editor

by Amy Sandoval amy@synthesis.net

Giving Thanks to, Like, the Universe Like many philosophically minded people before me, I’ve long been an ingrate. For how can I be grateful to “The Universe Or, Like, Whatever” (T.U.O.L.W. being the official name for God, now, in California) for my own health, prosperity, or relative safety when, out there, somewhere (in Africa—the example is always Africa, the entire continent), there’s a baby that is, right at this very moment, being ----and given ---- while watching her entire family be ------. (If you’d like, the preceding sentence is a real downer of a Wheel of (Mis)Fortune puzzle; you’re free to solve it.)

Which is all to say: if I’m grateful to T.U.O.L.W. for the fall leaves and all this abundance, don’t I also have to be pissed at T.U.O.L.W. about that baby? (I’d answer that question, but I’m busy flicking the long black bangs out of my eyes, taking a long, French-film drag off of a cigarette, and staring out into the middle distance.)

Oh, sad, smart, cocky youth! Oh syllogisms!

Oh tragic world! Oh T.U.O.L.W.! Save us from the labyrinths that are our minds!

For T.U.O.L.W. works in, like, mysterious ways.

And now is not the time to think of African babies catching ---- while being -----. Now is the time to think of the beauty of the fall leaves and the abundance that the global economic system forged through centuries of exploitation has brought to this land that we happen to have been born into.

Damn it! Stop it brain! Did not F. Scott Fitzgerald once say that the “test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function”? (I’ll tell you, he did, I just copied and pasted it in after Googling it.) And don’t you want to have a first-rate intelligence, self? Or at least an intelligence somewhere in the top ratings?

Yes, yes you do. And so let us then, fellow Americans, be pissed at T.U.O.L.W. for that baby and all her baby friends, but foreground, during this festive and fall-leaf-color-blessedtime, our gratitude, or at least expressions of gratitude, that is, sentences structured such that their linguistic makeup signifies, “I am grateful.”

For, truly, I am grateful; for the kindness that exists in all of us, for music and art and beauty, for mothers’ love and fraternal sacrifice, for this planet that T.U.O.L.W. has blessed us with, with her unfathomable interconnectedness and deep intelligence, for all these simple things.

I’ll have your back again next month, African Babies.

Exotic Adventures in Smalltown, USA

by Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 5

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Millennial Idiot Brain If all goes according to plan, I should graduate from Chico State at the end of spring semester 2015. Unlike most of my peers, while I won’t have any money when I graduate, I also won’t owe any money in student loans. Which is pretty great. So instead of spending my time panicking about the government coming to claim my first born child as collateral for unpaid loans (joke’s on you, Obama, I’ve been sterile since I bobbed for apples in Fukushima radiation-laced water), I get to concentrate on the panic of what I’m supposed to do after graduation. In preparation for that looming date, I’ve been required to take several “Job Hunting” courses. My main takeaway has been that they’d really like to believe that Twitter is a viable job hunting tool (and not a sweatshop factory for churning out selfdelighted quips in 140 characters), and that LinkedIn is not simply an online job fair with less enthusiasm than one you’d find taking place in a high school auditorium. The tactics being taught are puzzling (not “wrong,” mind you, I mean, what the hell do I know?), but what’s especially worrying is that I’m not sure what’s supposed to change after graduation.

I gather that the “normal” thing to do when you graduate high school is to use your SAT scores to get into a good college, graduate, then get hired at a job that pays by the year and not the hour, then marry, have kids, blah, blah, blah. But what if the idea of procreating makes you sick, and you never took the SATs because the experience of being chronically ill all through high school left you exhausted and disillusioned with the “supposed to”? Instead you apply to the nearest community college, only take classes that seem interesting and/ or easy (I’m lookin’ at you, Sociology), stop 6

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM

NOVEMBER 24 2014

attending college, stack up a fair amount of work experience in various fields, move away for a year, get in a car accident that leaves you emotionally, physically and financially (ahem) fucked, move home, win a publishing contract, try to re-apply to community college only to be told you’ve taken an “excess amount of units” and basically that you need to get the fuck out of their school, and only then end up applying to a state university.

I remember when I clearheadedly waltzed through first grade in my olive green corduroys with all the confidence and self-assuredness that comes from (as Sean Galloway has been known to say) being so young that life hadn’t yet stepped on my throat and spit in my face yet.

Well, now that life has in fact stepped on my throat and spit in my face, and I find myself on the verge of a milestone that the general public has taught me should mean something important to me, I’m not sure what to do. I suppose, mentally, I’m rallying against the idea of applying for an entry level job in a field that I’m not even interested in, only to blink and find that thirty years have passed and I’m still doing the same thing. Also, I’m aware that that’s a dumb thing to think, typical of a millennial, and that these are nice problems to have. What I’m really trying to say is, anyone want to hire me? (Broken brain and nightmare sense of self included).

Letters to Desmond

by Zooey Mae

zooeymae@synthesis.net

THE NIGHTMARE OF MY DREAMS Describing The Binding of Isaac is more than slightly difficult, yet I will attempt to do so.

Its creator, Edmund McMillen, somewhat infamous for the bodily offensive games he’s created over the years—along with the slightly friendlier Super Meat Boy—embarked on the project with the goal of creating a game embodying his relationship to religion. It features dead babies, nightmarish demons, pagan sorcery, apocalyptic spirits, a near endless amount of body horror, and plenty of feces. It’s also a strange combination of old school Legend of Zelda dungeon crawl and unrelenting roguelike, in the form of a dualstick shooter with a deadly muscle memory learning curve. It’s an amazing game.

But I’m not even reviewing that today. Isaac was repackaged and remade outside the limitations of Adobe Flash, and has been reborn into the pixellated masterpiece of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Rebirth, at first glance, seems more like a remake than a sequel. It has many of the same ideas, items, and enemies, though it’s maybe a little harder. The original Isaac, however, was rich in unlockables and secrets, to the point that its entire storyline was some sort of densely packaged secret fed to the player in bits and pieces. Rebirth, with a little effort, turns out to be much, much more than the original, while still sort of being the same game and same idea, pumped up full of new genius.

After unlocking two characters who weren’t even listed on the character select screen, finding a million items whose purpose and power were completely a mystery to me,

and wandering into lethal or near lethal secrets paired alongside increasingly brutal new mechanics, I’ve gained a new respect for the game’s depth. The original Isaac, I liked to tell people, had five final bosses.

I’m not done counting the secret new final bosses in Rebirth, but there are at least eight.

Some of these things take huge amounts of experimentation (or at the very least, hours on the wiki) in order to figure out. The wiki is still reeling from the huge amount of new content and dastardly vague new items and embedded secrets. This is a game best approached with a lot of information on the side. This was true of the original, but even more so in Rebirth, as it seems McMillen delights in shoving players off into the brutal unknown, much like the titular protagonist, the tiny and frightened Isaac.

My overall verdict of Rebirth is that you should get it, and play it immediately.

You’ll be horribly frustrated and constantly confused, but the learning curve itself is a sort of game, and once you can approach the battlefield evenly, and with expertise under your belt, you can sometimes be amazed at the minutiae of mechanics and the design of every room and item. And sometimes you can get shit on, sometimes literally, again and again by this unforgiving and wildly disgusting little piece of genius. Rebirth is everything I wanted and more.

Productivity Wasted

by Eli Schwartz pwasted@synthesis.net

PHOTOS BY JESSICA SID

On The Town

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 7

Six years ago, charity began on a bar stool at Duffy’s Tavern. A bearded gentleman and his also-bearded friend sat, drinking, comparing their beards as bearded men are wont to do, and an idea was sparked.

Jeremy Votava left that bar feeling rosy cheeked and altruistic, and decided that a formal competition should be established, one that would also benefit a charitable cause… something local where an immediate difference could really be made—but what?

2008 was one in a series of difficult years for high school arts and music programs. As the economy of the Great Recession continued to slump, deep budget cuts were threatening their very existence. It’s a strange thing about our culture: when times are tight, the first thing to be devalued is developing the creative mind; the very thing responsible for the greatest leaps in human achievement. Like anyone lucky enough to have their life enhanced by the arts at a young age, Jeremy found the idea that a generation could grow into adulthood robbed of that experience disheartening.

Raising enough money to make a 8

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

difference to those kids was not only attainable, but a natural fit for him and the community he’s a part of.

For Jeremy the gateway-art had been music, picking up the drums at age 16 and playing in his first band, Grimace. (When pressed about whether this was after the beloved McDonald’s purple-buttplug-guy, he dodges the question with jokes and claims it has more to do with grunge and rock-faces. Likely story). Now, in adulthood, having the expressive outlets of music and theatre is an incredibly valuable part of his life, as it is for the artistic community he’s grown to be a part of.

The same is true for beard-touching enthusiast Ann Fox, whose experiences in theatre began in childhood and continue to brighten her world to this day. Ann joined with Jeremy to form the Chico Beard Collective, and in cooperation with the North Valley Community Foundation (the nonprofit that distributes the tax deductible contributions to the schools), they began a tradition of scruffy excellence.

THE CONTEST The month of Novembeard is coming to a close, and with it rise the hopes of many a beardchallenger. For the past four weeks, 26 contestants have been furiously willing their whiskers to explode from their face-follicles with all their might, while also competing to bring in the most contributions of cash, and items for raffle and auction. Each year has brought an increasingly higher turnout of contestants, and these 26 brave souls make up the largest group yet.

Which is great news for the students who desperately need these contributions. To determine exactly what’s needed, Ann and Jeremy contacted the administrations of Pleasant Valley and Chico High, and they in turn asked the teachers to compile wish lists—each one totaling thousands of dollars apiece, a sad testament to the continued lack of funding for education. It’s tough to teach painting without brushes, or guitar without guitars.

Without contributions like these, students who can’t afford to provide their own materials would be hard

LAST YEAR’S BASH...

pressed to explore their creative potential.

The Chico Beard Collective may not be able to solve everything (at least not yet), but during the first five years they raised somewhere between $2000-$3000 per year— totalling at around $13,000 so far—taking a big bite out of that need. This being the biggest year for participation ever, the hopes for topping previous fundraising are running high.

THE BASH Around 8:30 on Saturday the 29th you may find yourself heading down to Duffy’s. What a coincidence, it’s the night of the Novembeard Bash!

Three bands! Beard pageantry!

Amazing items up for raffle and auction! What a good idea it was for you to come here. At the door they’ll ask you for a $5 donation (feel free to insist on giving more, but you might as well spend it on raffle tickets since it all goes to the same cause).The first thing you’ll see is that there’s crazy stuff piled everywhere. There are prints by some of our best local artists like

Matt Loomis and Aye Jay, rare and interesting collectibles, and who knows what I can’t see the future.

Every year the donations are amazing and unique. The second thing you’ll notice is the beards.

Now that the competition has grown, some of the pageantry had to be scaled back. Where once there was “the foam test” (the cling of Guinness foam to the upper lip), long speeches, and a swimsuit competition wherein the contestant also held an evening gown out in one hand while in the other they twirled a flaming baton and sang “It’s a Grand Old Flag,” now there is a simpler introduction, judging, and of course the grand choreographed finale with the twirling umbrellas and tear away pants, culminating in the ritualistic sacrifice of the winner.

JUDGING The judging is a mysterious process that happens backstage, presumably because it involves a lot of fondling, and is based on several factors: length, thickness, and color. Length and thickness are matters of fact; out of the three,

color is the most controversial. Is it better to have a calico beard like last year’s winner, Dan Beveridge, or a snowy white beard like first year winner Matt Brown? Is it less about color than general finesse?

Does it all come down to that Je ne sais quoi? Not only are they making the impossible choice about which beard is the “best,” they also choose a “worst,” and risk angering the recipient of the “Wolfman Award”— angry wolfmen are dangerous and scary! I don’t envy the judges, it’s a terrible, terrible burden they bear.

SO MUCH MUSIC In some ways, the Novembeard Bash is more about partying and winning cool prizes and making out with bearded strangers than it is about contemplating the solemn social obligation of charitable giving, and for that I blame the bands—of which there are three this year.

The soulful and sultry Lisa Valentine will open the show with an acoustic set. Her voice is a force of nature, a wildfire, a firenado, an erupting volcano shooting red, molten rock

into a churning lightning storm.

Whatever it is, it’s hot, and I’m calling it right now—she’s going places. Not only can you drench yourself in her passionate, gorgeous voice, afterward she’s stepping behind the bar and she’ll pour you a nice, cold drink to settle you down.

Then you can go make a Pandora station out of her; it’s so good.

If you’ve never heard The Maker’s Mile before, they’re like if you threw Sublime in a blender with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who happen to be their first two listed influences on their facebook profile—nailed it), and maybe a cup of yogurt and two vitamin boosters. This funk/hip-hop four piece will be coming in fresh off their Happy Hour performance at LaSalles, and I expect them be in top form.

And finally, The LoLos (ahhhhhh).

Who doesn’t heart the LoLos? I heart the LoLos. They’re all the nice feels and light grooves and pretty people.

If this lineup were a meal the LoLos would be like a lemon chiffon pie with a big plop of vanilla whipped cream on top for dessert. If this lineup were a bunch of beards, the

LoLos would be one of those crazy beards shaped like a windmill on one side with whimsical curlycues on the other.

PIZZA NIGHT Tonight (Monday the 24th) is the final beard checkpoint and a special bonus fundraising opportunity for people who like pizza and don’t mind if part of their purchase goes to a good cause. If you’re hungry, stop by Round Table Pizza Clubhouse on Pillsbury Road between 5:00 and 9:00pm, and casually mention Novembeard when you place your order. It won’t be awkward, I promise. A portion of the evening’s sales will be donated to the Novembeard funds. If you’re not hungry, they also have a bar, in case you want to sit down and hatch any ideas.

Join the Chico Beard Collective, Lisa Valentine, Maker’s Mile, and The LoLos for the Novembeard Bash Saturday, November 29th, 8:30pm Duffy’s Tavern

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 9

The State of the Commons, Part Two Animals In The Train Station “When’s the next train?” Sheela asked.

all, etc., etc.

The conductor gave a start, looked around, then looked down, eyes widening at the extremely short person addressing him. In fact, Sheela wasn’t a person at all—she was a fox. Standing on two rear paws like a person, wearing a red-and-white plaid dress like a person… yet very definitely a fox.

The fox found a paper train schedule on the ground, smoothed it out on her dress, and after some consultation (during which no less than five people were stopped stock-still at the sight of her, three children began to cry, and one little girl ran to scoop Sheela up in her arms and was caught just in time by a vigilant father), discovered she had just thirty minutes left until her desired departure.

“Holy shit!” cried the conductor. He made to fish out his phone and take a picture; Sheela gave a sigh, then slipped away into the crowd.

“No fear, Shae,” she murmured to herself (for, when she was particularly exasperated, Sheela fell into the habit of addressing her own person with the pet name her Nanna had given her), “we’ll find a train schedule ourselves.”

It had been years now since Sheela had put her inhibitions finally to rest and dived headlong into society. She was a woman’s soul trapped in a fox’s body, her Nanna had always said so, and Sheela certainly agreed.

She loved people, felt herself one of them; loved their clothes, dressed herself in them; loved human conversation, engaged in it whenever possible… Sometimes her presence caused quite a stir… but sometimes it didn’t.

“And really, Shae, it’s not as if you can ever return to your mother now—she ate your baby brother! She’s a perfect savage!” So Sheela consistently reminded herself—for, though she was quite happy with her human decisions and had no desire to turn back, she also missed her mother terribly. It was a constant ache in her chest, and she denied it fiercely, many times a day, with the same mantra: her mother had eaten Sheela’s brother for being a runt, she was a savage, not like a human at 10

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

Sheela made her way to an out of the way bench, caught a rat with her lightning-fast fox reflexes as it tried to slip between the benchlegs, tore its head off, then took a seat and began to think, taking occasional nibbles from her fresh catch. Her thoughts turned to her Nanna.

Indeed, it had been many, many years since she’d made her (very brave, slightly world-shattering) entry into society… It had been just as many years since she’d seen that beloved nurse. Sheela had promised to write her monthly, but after discovering that her paws had years of practice ahead of them before they could even hold a pen, the promise, and the connection, had been broken. “Nanna will forgive her Shae,” the fox assured herself, responding to the ache in her chest (she noticed it only when she had anxious thoughts, like the thought of Nanna’s disappointment). “And if she doesn’t?” The fox took another nibble of rat, chewed, then, “Well, we’ll deal with that when we come to it.”

Howl

In the last column to occupy this sub-sector of the void, I wrote about the repositories of permissively licensed content that I frequent most. Those repos I wrote about last time are primarily hosts of completed works; they’re built to be perused in a fashion similar to the way we amble (or, used to) aimlessly up and down record store aisles. Alternatively, there’s a lot of other audio floating around the Internet that doesn’t exactly fit the bill as songs or albums. The niche I’m currently at work clumsily describing to you is the collaborative. Allow me to entrance you in a vision of the web as a workshop (as opposed to a retail floor).

Net audio is stunningly diverse. One must travel beyond Facebook and Netflix to be reminded, but the web is an extremely deep and broad body of data created by innumerable individuals. Since 2010, the number of pieces of Free Cultural Work that can be found on the web and are CC-licensed (or released under CC0) has grown from approximately 160 million to nearly 500 million. If we count all the varieties of CC licenses, including CC0 (most permissive) and those that contain No Derivatives and/or NonCommercial clauses (most restrictive), that number of pieces grows to 882 million.

The collaborative scene and its participation rate is not as easy to quantify, but one widely known gathering place, CCMixter (ccmixter. org), constitutes an encouraging proof-ofconcept as a microcosmic sharing economy.

CCMixter was founded as a project of nonprofit Creative Commons and has grown into an “international community of 40,000 musicians, [creating] all original pells and samples and then [co-creating] completed tracks collaboratively.”

howlmovesmountains.tumblr.com

When recording music, different soundsources are usually recorded on separate

tracks (also known as stems). The synthesis of these individual tracks into one finalized piece is known as mixing; the results of this final mixing (and mastering) stage is what listeners are usually shopping for. On the other hand, producers looking to whip up an original mix of liberally licensed samples from all over the globe or solo performers in need of some funky drum loops can browse a plethora of exciting pliable material at CCMixter. Anyone can upload samples and stems. If using material found at their site to construct something, one can upload the new collaborative work back up to their servers.

CCMixter is certainly the most central, visible, and vocal community of CC-licenseloving collaborative sound providers, but innumerable smaller communities and artists release stems and samples. Artists such as Brad Sucks, Space Weirdo, and Weldroid release these fragments on their own sites.

The Cypherfunks are building a “currency & band [which] are completely decentralized,” and are soliciting complete works and samples towards that end. Freesound (freesound.org), The Internet Archive (archive. org), and Unsplash (unsplash.com) also come to mind as locations to visit where licenses are explicit and free content is bountiful. Unsplash is an outstanding source of CC0 (effectively Public Domain) photography. Freesound is great for finding sounds from mechanical oddities to radio bumpers and stingers. The Internet Archive is THE library of the internet.

Audio, video, photography, and text are waiting there to be propagated further in the honorable human tradition of consumption, comprehension, adaptation, derivation, creation.

Free Culture

by Alex O’Brien amateurzen.us

BANDS & MUSICIANS GET SPECIAL AD RATES editorial@synthesis.net

THURSDAY

49ERS VS SEAHAWKS | 5:30 PM

$3.50 ALL BEER PINTS

$4.50 GRAD TEAS 6PM TO CLOSE

Food & Drink MONDAY TUESDAY

FREE POOL AFTER 10PM

WATCH ALL THE

GAMES HERE

344 west 8th St | chico, ca | 530-343-2790

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY FRIDAY

Closed.

We need to drink, too!

Closed

Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4pm $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints 6PM - close $1 Off Pitchers $5 Sailor Jerry DBLs All Day Every Day

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7pm PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Open Mic Comedy Night Every Other Week!

Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR & Olympia Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

$6.99 Pulled pork sand w/ fries or salad Wings 5 for $3 from halftime 'til they're gone!

MONSTER MONDAY SPECIALS 6PM-CLOSE BEER $3.50/4.50/5.50/6.50 FREE Pool after 10PM

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Menu cocktails $1 off. Sierra Nevada Draft $3

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$2.50 TUESDAY: Tacos, Corn Dogs, French Fries or Tots, Chips & Salsa and Motzerells sticks only $2.50 ALL Day! Homemade Soup Daily $3 Sierra and Dom Pints $ 3.50 Kamis ALL DAY!

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Two Dollar Tuesdays! $2 PBRs $2 Tacos!

Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Cans Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

Chicken Strip Sand only $6.99 before 6 PM TWO BUCK TUESDAY 6-11pm $2 Rolling Rock, Olympia & Single Wells $2.50 PBR, Coors and Double wells

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Menu cocktails $1 off. Sierra Nevada Draft $3 Live music 8-10

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WING WEDNESDAY! $2 for 3 Wings 8pm-Close $2.50 Fire Eater Shots $5.50 DBL Bacardi Cocktails $5 Sailor Jerry DBLs All Day Every Day

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7pm

Chicken Waffle Wed.!

8 ball Tourney 6pm sign-up Happy Hour 2-6pm M-F $1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Pool Rates Cut in 1/2!

Reuben Sand w/ fries or salad $6.99

Come see our beautiful Patio! Happy Hour 4-6: Wander Food Truck on the Patio 6pm

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

Open @ 8PM on Thanksgiving

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7pm PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Open Thanksgiving Evening

Baby Back Ribs $11.99 Philly Cheesesteak $7.99

Special Holiday Food & Drink Menu

6pm-Close $4.50 Grad teas $3.50 All beer pints FREE Pool after 10PM Coors Light Promo 6-8PM

Join us for Beers on our Patio Bar! Happy Hour from 4-6.

Open 9PM Bartender Specials $3 14oz. Slushies $4 20oz. Slushies

Mon-Fri Happy Hour 12-4pm $3 Sierra & Domestic Pints Weekend Blast Off!!

8-close $5 Blasters Homemade Soup Daily

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7PM

Rock Out at The DL! Enjoy Live Music, Great Grub, and 10 9' foot tables Open @11am All ages untill 10pm

10 oz. Tri-Tip Steak w/ Fries or Salad & Garlic Bread $8.99 8pm-Close $4 J채ger $5.50 DBL Vodka Red Bull $2.50 Kamikaze shots FREE Pool after 10PM

We open at 12:00pm.

Open 9pm Bartender Specials $3 14oz. Slushies $4 20oz. Slushies

Open at 11am $4.50 Bloody Mary $5.50 Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys Noon - 6PM $8 / $9 SN Dom Pitchers $5.50 DBL Bacardi Cocktails

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7pm Full Bar in Back Room Weds, Fri & Sat Nights!

PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Rock Out at The DL! Enjoy Live Music, Great Grub, and 10 9' foot tables Open @11am All ages untill 10pm

Baby Back Ribs w/Salad, Fries & garlic bread $11.99 8pm-Close $4 Single/$6 Double Jack or Captain $3 Sierra Nevada Pints FREE Pool after 10pm

CLOSED

10am -2pm $5 Bottles of Champagne with entree $4.50 Bloody Mary $5.50 Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

Daily Happy Hour from 4-7pm PBR $2.25 Everyday!

Free Pool with Purchase!

1.00 off Sierra and Dom Pitchers $1.00 off PBR and Olympia Cans OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

$5.49 Grad/Garden/ Turkey Burger w/fries or salad Bloodies $3 Well, $4 Call, $5 Top, $6 Goose Mimosas $2/flute, $5/pint $6 CHEAP Beer Pitchers FREE Pool after 10pm

EAT. DRINK. PLAY.

Find Out How you Can Play Pool

for Only $1/Day!

LESSONS, LEAGUES AND TOURNAMENTS!

GREAT FOOD! LIVE MUSIC! OPEN THANKSGIVING

EVENING SPECIAL HOLIDAY

FOOD & DRINK MENU 319 Main Street (530) 892-2473

12

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

SATURDAY SUNDAY

Tacotruck.biz and Beers on the Patio!

WE OPEN AT 12:00PM MIMOSAS WITH FRESH SQUEEZED OJ FOR $5 UNTIL 5PM.

HOLIDAY REUNION WEDNESDAY - NOV 26TH

DANCE PARTY ALL NIGHT DJ JEFF HOWSE, DJ SPENNY & DJ LOIS PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY - (530) 343-7718

Full Bar in Back Room Weds, Fri & Sat Nights!

PBR $2.25 Everyday!

HAPPY HOUR 4-7PM Beer Week Guinness cocktail specials Beer coozie giveaway at back bar

OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

shop downtown chico

SHIRTS 2

FOR $20

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

8pm-Close Pitcher Specials $6.50/$9.50/$13 FREE Pool after 10PM

Closed

Go DownLo

BEAR-E-OKE BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.49.

11am-10pm.

Happy Hour 11-6pm select bottles & drafts $3

CLOSED

2 FOR 1 BURGERS ALL DAY !!

MINORS WELCOME!

CLOSED

CLOSED

we are open at 8pm

THANKSGIVING

HOMEMADE SOUP DAILY

LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1 AM Closed

Go DownLo

BEAR WEAR! 1/2 off while wearing Bear Wear.

MUG CLUB 4-10PM

$2.50 Select Sierra Nevada or Dom Drafts $2 Kamis -any flavor All Day

$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm

Happy Hour 4 - 7pm

Progressive Night:

$1.50 sliders and other cheap eats!

8 - 10pm $1 Dom, Wells & Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 10pm - Close: Up $0.25 per hour til closing

All 16 oz Teas or AMF $3 All Day

$3.50 Skyyy Vodka Cocktails $3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm

1/2 OFF EVERYTHING!!!

4-6pm $1 Dom Drafts $2 SN Drafts & Wells $5 DBL Captain Buck Night 8-Close $1 wells, SN Pale Ale, Rolling Rock, Dom Draft $3 Black Butte $4 Vodka Redbull

Closed

Happy Hour 11-6pm $3 select bottles & drafts

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

Happy Hour 4 -7pm

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

Closed

LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1 AM

WACKY WEDNESDAYS (8pm - close ) DJ Party 4 different DJ’s $1 wells $2 calls $2 domestic bottles $6 pitchers of well drinks

Go DownLo

Happy Hour 4 - 8pm Ladies Night!

8pm - CLOSE $5 Pabst pitchers $2 shot board $4 Moscow Mules $3 Jamo and Ginger Buck Hour 10:30 - 11:30

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

Happy Hour 4 - 8pm

Early Bird Special 9-10pm 1/2 off wells

FIREBALL FRIDAYS!!!

8pm - Close $3 Fireball Shots $4 Big Teas $3 Coronas

TRIKE RACES! Post time @ 10pm.

Win T-shirts and Bear Bucks.

MUG CLUB 4-10PM LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1 AM BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.49.

11am-10pm.

MUG CLUB from 4-10PM

$2.50 16oz Wells All Day

LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1 AM

Select Pints $3

Early Bird Special 9-10pm 1/2 off wells

LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1 AM

KARAOKE "INDUSTRY NIGHT" 8 PM - CLOSE HALF OFF ALMOST EVERYTHING!(Except Red Bull and Premium Liquors) Specials All Day!

OPEN FOR 36 CRAZYFISTS SHOW

LIVE MUSIC 1/2 OFF COVER before 10pm

191 E. 2ND ST • 898-0630

NEW THIS WEEK...

BURGER MADNESS! Bear Burger with fries or salad for $5.49.

11am-10pm.

vs.

SUNDAY NOV 30TH 10:00AM

$5 CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES WITH ENTREE

1 3 4 B r o a d w a y S t, C h i c o , C A | 5 3 0 . 8 9 3 . 5 2 5 3

$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm

Happy Hour- 4-7pm $5 Fridays 4-8pm Most food items and pitchers of beer are $5

Power Hour 8 - 9pm 1/2 Off Liquor & Drafts (excludes pitchers) 9PM - Close $3 Domestic Drafts $9.75 Pitchers $5 Dbl Sugar Island Rum NO COVER

Open at 9pm

$4 Sex On The Beach $4 Sierra Nevada Knightro ON TAP $1 Jello Shots 7-10pm $3 Fireball

$3.50 Tea of the Day Bartender Specials Happy Hour 4-8pm

Hot "Dawgs" ALL DAY!

Mon. - Sat. 4pm - 6pm $1 Dom. draft, $2 SN Draft and Wells Power Hour 8 - 9pm $3 Domestic Drafts $9.75 Pitchers $5 Dbl Sugar Island Rum NO COVER

BOTTLE SERVICE Now Available!

Call for reservation 898-9898

$4 World Famous Bloody Joe $5 Premium bloodys your choice of vodka

Champagne Brunch 11am - 2pm $4 Champagne with entree

CLOSED

CLOSED

LIVE MUSIC 1/2 OFF COVER before 10PM

Opening at 8pm for 80's NIGHT!!

8 pm - CLOSE $4 Sauza Margaritas $3 Kamis $3 Shocktop & VIP pint

$1.50 sliders and other cheap eats!!

Closed

Champagne Brunch and SPORTS!

BOTTLE SERVICE Now Available!

Call for reservation 898-9898 Large selection of wines, sangrias and Martinis.

Open at 9pm Large selection of wines, sangrias and Martinis.

LATE NIGHT EATS! kitchen open until 1am

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

NO COVER

$1 WELLS, DRAFTS, DOM. & SIERRA NEVADA 8-10PM PROGRESSIVE 10-2AM

$1 WELLS/ROLLING ROCK, PALE ALE & DOM.

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING DAY

UP 25¢ PER HR. UNTIL CLOSE

$4 VODKA REDBULL

FRIDAY & SATURDAY

$3 BUTTE PORTER

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 13

This Week Only...

Fine Dining in the Tradition of Southern Italy

SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS AT SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM/SUBMIT-YOUR-EVENT

BEST BETS IN ENTERTAINMENT

SICILIAN CAFÉ

Celebrating 30 years !

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1020 Main Street Chico 530.345.2233 14

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

Friday, November 28th

Friday the 28th & Saturday the 29th

PAT HULL, GREYLOOM (ERIN LIZARDO), CASING THE PROMISEDLAND

BOGG LIVE IN PARADISE!

THE MALTESE

KING’S TAVERN

Saturday, November 29th

Saturday, November 29th

Wind down from Thanksgiving with Chico’s sweetest songbirds, Pat Hull, Erin Lizardo and Ben Tietz! Head down to the Maltese, try some tasty beverages, and give ol’ Ben Tietz a birthday paddlin’! 9pm, 21+, $5.

SURROGATE, THE SHIMMIES, THE MONDEGREENS THE MALTESE

Shake off the turmoil of a holiday spent with family by spending a night with three of Chico’s favorite bands in one place! With sweet sounds and a bevy of bartenders ready to mix up cocktails, don’t miss this one! 9pm, 21+

Heading up the hill to spend some time with the family in Paradise for Thanksgiving? Be sure to bring the family and hit up King’s Tavern for your favorite handsome jazz-playin’ fellas! 9pm, 21+, best of all, free!

NOVEMBEARD BASH DUFFY’S TAVERN

It’s that time of year again, so grab your scruffy sweetheart and get down to Duffy’s for the annual Novembeard Bash! With music, beard pageantry, and a silent auction, this event benefits local high school music and arts programs, so don’t miss it! 8:30pm, 21+, $5 donation

Upcoming shows...

This week at...

On

WAKE OF THE DEAD

NOV

29

CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS W/ SPECIAL GUEST JELLY BREAD

DEC

05

KLOZD SIRKUT FT. KARL D. TINY UNIVERSE TRUMPETER DEC

Main DOORS OPEN AT 9PM | HALF OFF DRINKS BEFORE 10PM

06

New & Exciting: 24 Monday

Round Table Pizza Clubhouse: Novembeard: Pizza Fun Night fundraiser and final checkpoint. Mention Novembeard when ordering and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to local youth music programs. 5pm-9pm, all ages

25 Tuesday

Tackle Box: Line Dance Class, 6:30-7:30pm, 21+ Wine Time: Painted Cellars- Where Art and Entertainment Collide.

6pm-8pm, 18+, $40

26 Wednesday

LaSalles: Washington Wednesday Pre-Turkey Party, 21+ Maltese: Return of Pabst Smear, Dj and drink specials. 9pm-2am, 21+ Tackle Box: Swing Dance Class, 7:30-9:30pm, 21+

27 Thursday

Thanksgiving Day Christbridge Ministry: (984 Myrtle Ave) Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, everyone welcome. 12pm Maltese: Thanksgiving Karaoke, 9pm, 21+ Tackle Box: All You Can Eat Thanksgiving Buffet. 21+, $10

28 Friday

601 Orange St: Orange St Holiday Music & Art Show, Music by Hi (Oakland), The She Things. Holiday art

print sale w/ handcrafted art, apparel & accessories.

6pm-11pm, All Ages, $5-$10 sliding scale.

Crazy Horse Saloon: Back in Black Friday Party, free stuff, DVDJ Ty Ward, drink specials. 9pm-2am, 21+ Kings Tavern: Bogg live in Paradise! 9pm-11:30pm, 21+, free LaSalles: Pay it Forward Toy Drive, plus Bradley Relf.

8pm, 21+, $5 or bring a toy!

Maltese: Pat Hull, Greyloom (Erin Lizardo), Casing the Promisedland. 9pm2am, 21+, $5 Tackle Box: Black Slax, 21+, $3

29 Saturday

Duffy’s: Novembeard Bash! Lisa Valentine, The Maker’s Mile, The LoLos, Beard pageantry, raffles and silent auction, all benefitting local high school music and arts programs.

8:30pm Kings Tavern: Bogg live in Paradise! 9pm-11:30pm, 21+, free.

LaSalles: Happy Hour + Live Music with The Maker’s Mile. 4pm-8pm, 21+ Lost On Main: Wake of the Dead, with intermission by Eastwind Bellydance. 9pm, 21+ Maltese: Surrogate, The Shimmies, The Mondegreens, 9pm-2am, 21+ Tackle Box: Looking 4 Eleven. 21+, $2

Ongoing Events:

24 Monday

100th Monkey: Healing Light Meditation, 7pm-8:15pm The Bear: Bear-E-oke! 9pm Chico Womens Club: Prenatal Yoga.

5:30-6:30pm DownLo: Open Mic Comedy Night.

Free.

Maltese: Open Mic Music, Signups at 8pm, starts at 9pm. Mug Night 7-11:30pm The Tackle Box: Latin Dance Classes.

Free, 7-9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm Yoga Center Of Chico: Sound Healing w. Emiliano (no relation).

Breathwork, Meditation, Healing.

25 Tuesday

100th Monkey: Fusion Belly Dance mixed-level class, with BellySutra. $8/class or $32/month. 6pm The Bear: Open Jam Night, featuring a different live band opening each week. Bring instruments, 9pm1:30am Chico Women’s Club: Yoga. 9-10am.

Afro Carribean Dance. $10/class or $35/mo. 5:50-7pm.

Crazy Horse Saloon: All Request Karaoke. 21+ DownLo: Game night. All ages until 10pm Holiday Inn Bar: Salsa Lessons, 7-10pm LaSalles: ’90s night. 21+ Panama Bar: Tropical Tuesdays ft.

Mack Morris & DJ2K. 10pm Studio Inn Lounge: Karaoke.

8:30pm-1am The Tackle Box: Karaoke, 9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm Woodstocks: Trivia Challenge. Call at 4pm to reserve a table. Starts 6:30pm

26 Wednesday

The Bear: Trike Races. Post time 10pm Chico Women’s Club: Afro Brazilian Dance. 5:30-7pm DownLo: Wednesday night jazz.

8 Ball Tournament, signups 6pm, starts 7pm Duffys: Dance Night! DJ Spenny, Lois, and Jeff Howse. $1, 9pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm The Maltese: Friends With Vinyl!

Bring your vinyl and share up to 3 songs/12 minutes on the turntable. 9pm-1am The Tackle Box: Line Dance classes. Free, 5:30-7:30pm. Swing Dance classes. Free, 7:30-9:30pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm Woodstocks: Trivia Night plus Happy Hour. call at 4pm to reserve a table. Starts at 8pm

27 Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving People!

28 Friday

1078 Gallery: Future MONCA, featuring 6 local art collections.

Free, open 12:30-5:30pm.

The Beach: Live DJ, 9pm Cafe Coda: Friday Morning Jazz with Bogg, happy hour. 10am2pm Chico Creek Dance Center: Chico international folk dance club. 7:30pm, $2 DownLo: ½ off pool. All ages until 10pm. Live Music, 8pm Duffys: Pub Scouts - Happy Hour.

4-7pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Holiday Inn Bar: DJ Dance Party.

8pm-midnight

LaSalles: Open Mic night on the patio. 6-9pm Maltese: Happy hour with live jazz by Bogg. 5-7pm. LGBTQ+ Dance Party. 9pm Panama Bar: Jigga Julee, DJ Mah on the patio. 9pm Peeking: BassMint. Weekly electronic dance party. $1-$5.

9:30pm Quackers: Live DJ. 9pm Sultan’s Bistro: Bellydance Performance. 6:30-7:30pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm

29 Saturday

1078 Gallery: Future MONCA, featuring 6 local art collections. Free, open 12:30-5:30pm.

The Beach: Live DJ, 9pm DownLo: 9 Ball tournament. Signups at noon, starts at 1pm. All ages until 10pm The Graduate: Free Pool after 10pm Holiday Inn Bar: DJ Dancing. 70s and 80s music. The Molly Gunn’s Revival! 8pm-midnight LaSalles: 80’s Night. 8pm-close Panama Bar: DJ Eclectic on the patio. 9pm University Bar: Free Pool 6-8pm

30 Sunday

Dorothy Johnson Center: Soul Shake Dance Church. Free-style dance wave, $8-$15 sliding scale.

10am-12:30pm DownLo: Free Pool, 1 hour with every $8 purchase. All ages until 10pm LaSalles: Karaoke. 9pm Maltese: Live Jazz 4-7pm. Trivia 8pm Followed by: Smashed Spelling Bee. 9pm.Trivia 8pm Tackle Box: Karaoke, 8pm FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 15

Definition: Confuse— To assemble without order or sense STICKING TO THE SHALLOW END BECAUSE OUT IN THE MIDDLE THERE THE WATER IS DEEP AND DARK. Of course it’s a cliché to write a Thanksgiving column for the Thanksgiving week, but, apart from the holiday’s dubious origins and the bogus history the powers that be have chosen to feed us, it’s the only decent celebration we have left. Getting together with friends and family and recognizing the good fortune we have all been granted, in spite of ourselves, is a healthy start towards healing the gaping, psychological wounds the world requires of us.

We’re lucky to be here—alive and kicking in the year 2014. I mean luck in the truest sense of the word—complete and utter randomness.

My American Heritage dictionary defines luck as follows: “The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events.”

On The Town 16

PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

and pull us into activity. I recently finished reading a book by Wallace Stegner where he compares a character to a sundial, noting that she is only willing to chart the sunny hours.

Without the darkness the sun would have no reason to shine. So thanks to the darkness, for illuminating the light.

I have to give thanks to my friends. I sort of go through this life acting like a little bit of a loner, wearing a veneer of detachment. But that’s not the truth. I have a close group of friends that I reach out to when I need them, and they are always there. To quote Steve Earle: “I got friends, that I owe, ain’t naming names cause they know where they stand…”

So thanks to those of you who know where you stand, and to some of you who don’t.

There are likely some of you out there who I need, who don’t even know I need you.

That’s why we’re here, because our ancestors enjoyed enough fortunate coincidences, and assuaged enough adverse ones, to allow us this life, in this time and in this place. I can’t even begin to imagine the sequence of events—tragedies and victories—that lead from the origin of humans, what, 50,000 years ago? To our lives here today. So thanks, ancestors, for going through some grueling stuff and continuing your progeny—from scraping around in the mud with a stick, for grubs, to me sitting here in a plush armchair, pecking away, plugging words from an arbitrary and abstract language into a laptop computer.

Another American Heritage definition:

We’ve suffered some losses this year—we’ve lost some close friends. I have to give thanks to the losses, because if we never lost anything we loved, I guess we’d never really understand the magnitude of it all.

Loss illustrates the impermanence; it can paralyze us, but it can also jerk us forward

Happy Thanksgiving

“Loving kindness: Affection or tenderness stemming from sincere love for someone.”

There’s plenty more I’d like to write about and give thanks to, but my word count tells me I am rapidly approaching a conclusion here.

Thanks to these words for letting me poke around the brackish edges of this immense, confusing pool that is existence. One last definition: “Gratitude: The state of being grateful; thankfulness.”

Immaculate Infection

by Bob Howard

Madbob@madbob.com

Extreme Cheapskates IS CURRENTLY A TERRIBLE SHOW I don’t have television in my house, but I got to watch some recently. If you’re unaware, there is a show called Extreme Cheapskates on TLC, and it is currently terrible. The simple premise is to follow around self-proclaimed cheapskates, in order to watch the interesting ways they save money. That’s a fine premise for a show, particularly one featured on “The Learning Channel.” (I use those quotation marks with full sarcasm.)

In execution, the show follows a person or family as they engage in typically ineffective strategies for saving money. One episode I saw featured a guy I’ll call Captain Pointless.

The Captain showed off his strategy of taking (stealing) all the complimentary half-and-half creamers from a restaurant when he eats out.

He pours them all into a bottle, and gives the bottle to his young daughter to shake until it becomes butter. Sadly, the show never reveals if this churning works, but the daughter claims it does.

Since the show fails to even estimate the usefulness of these savings, I’ll do it for them.

Let’s generously grant that Captain Pointless stole sufficient creamers to fill a liter bottle, which will churn forth an incredible halfpound of butter. At a decent price for real butter, Captain Pointless saves himself at most $1.25 on butter per restaurant visit.

Except, to fill his bottle, he had to steal/gather 100 creamers, which costs the restaurant $4.69, forcing them to raise their prices the next time he comes to eat dinner there.

The show has every opportunity to sit down and show the expected savings from his

actions—they do it on Storage Wars—but Captain Pointless is too busy to pay attention to things like math or actually trying to save money.

Another episode featured a woman who ate one meal per day, at an all you can eat buffet.

The health of this matter notwithstanding, she’s not saving herself much money in my estimation. Faithful readers already know they can cook a hearty, healthy meal for under $2 per person. Granting that Buffet Lady uses a coupon every day, she’s probably sneaking her multi-meal for around $8, or $2.67 per meal if she ate them separately. Not a bad price for meals at a restaurant, but you can certainly eat cheaper at home. Oh, and you don’t have to convince your boss to let you take off 10:4511:45 every day so you can hit that 11:00AM lunch buffet power hour.

Unfortunately, frugality isn’t typically that exciting to watch. Automating $20 per paycheck into a retirement account doesn’t take any time beyond a few minutes to fill out the initial paperwork. Ordering water instead of a beer just once will save you enough money to buy a whole pound of butter.

Your assignment, dear reader, is to think about one thing you already regularly do that saves you money, and then feel good about it. The normalcy of it may not be exciting, but it is satisfying to be at least one step toward your goals.

The Frugal Terran

by TripHazard

PHOTOS BY VINCE LATHAM FACEBOOK.COM/VANGUARD.PHOTOGRAPHY

On The Town

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 17

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

BY ALAN SHECKTER ALSHECK@COMCAST.NET “We can bomb Afghanistan and ISIS and a lot of places, but we can’t bomb the world into peace,” Michael Franti, perhaps the music biz’s greatest advocate for peace and social justice, said between songs at the El Rey Theatre in Chico on Nov. 18.

This and several other profound sound bites helped confirm that, in late 2014, no matter the state of the nation or the world, the kinetic Franti is still all at once optimistic, sensitive, and politically assertive, while delivering a unique mix of reggae, folk, pop, and light hip hop.

Franti, playing acoustic guitars all night, turned the old Vaudeville house into a euphoric, jump-in-place rally, leading a trio including original Spearhead bass player Carl Young and current lead guitarist Jason Bowman. So much delirium ensued, in fact, that two stagehands were summoned to be stationed at the stage’s light supports to keep their bouncing and shaking to a minimum.

Sometimes seated and sometimes scampering around the stage on his always-bare feet, Franti strummed, rocked out, and reached out to the fervent crowd with his obligatory and well-received appeals of “Make some noise!” and “How You Feelin’?” Franti also spent plenty of time showing his vulnerable side, discussing song origins and even getting emotional while talking about, among other things, his eldest son (who was in attendance), his mother’s incredible support and guidance, and his father’s conquering of alcohol addiction. He also talked of having an infatuation with Chico ever since he played on the Davis High School basketball team and the bus brought them up to play Chico High.

A common thread throughout the 48-year-old’s career since his days with the Beatnigs (late 1980s), The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (early ‘80s) and Spearhead (20 years and counting) is Franti’s uncanny knack for vocalizing profound ideas and ideals that look outside of one country and one religion, but instead speak of the common ground that connects all seven billion of us Earth dwellers.

Franti’s messages of inclusion were never more apparent than during “Life is Better With You,” when he pointed out several audience members individually, and declaring to “the person in the tie dye in the

18

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

second row,” or “the guy in the white shirt over there,” or “the person waving his arms back there,” that “Life is Better With You.” A fun and engaging experience throughout, the three and a half hour event included several interesting components. Franti’s oldest son, Cappy, greeted concertgoers before they even walked into the show, supplying Sharpies and three-inch squares of colored paper, and welcoming everyone to share a sentiment. The messages quickly filled an outside door and posts from earlier stops on the tour created the stage backdrop.

Even a flood in the only women’s restroom that prompted one kind staffer to be stationed there with a Shop Vac in an effort to stem the flood, didn’t seem to dampen the overall mood.

Rising singer/songwriter Ethan Tucker opened the show, performing for an appreciative crowd, many of whom were already fans. Tucker later joined Franti and friends for a spirited treatment of “Say Hey.” Cherisha Heart Giacoma, a Nevada County foothills singer/guitarist, dazzled the crowd with her skills and poise when she joined Franti for a strong version of his 2010 hit “Sound of Sunshine.” At the conclusion of the set, Bowman took his place behind two turntables and a Mac, and presided over a post-show DJ Dance Party as Franti gravitated to the lobby to mingle, pose, and autograph.

In addition to tunes mentioned earlier the show also included such favorites as “I’m Alive,” “Closer to You,” “11:59,” and “Ganja Babe,” which was paired with a Springsteen-reverent version of “I’m on Fire.”

Franti delivered the final number, the not-yet-recorded “Once a Day,” while moving about the entire audience while receiving accolades, back slaps, and embraces as he strummed and sang “Everybody ought to hug somebody… at least once a day. Everybody needs to kiss somebody… to love somebody at least once a day.”

Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 19

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“Anything Bearded” A benefit for North Valley Community Foundation & Chico P.V. High School Music and Arts Programs All media accepted

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Make items for sale for NVCF Charity ($10-$50) SUBM I SSI ONS ACCEPTED AT HAS BEANS COFFEE ON NOVEMBER 25TH, 26TH & 28TH 1 2-6PM

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20

SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014

by logan kruidenier logankruidenier.tumblr.com

November 24, 2014 – By Koz McKev Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Take note of your feelings at the beginning of the week. This is a time of deep learning for you.

The moon will conjoin Mars late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. You’re up for anything, especially during the wee hours of the morning.

Thanksgiving day should be a party for you. People seem to be at their best for a pleasant change. The weekend looks good for laying low. Avoid all the extra people on the road.

Focus on making things better for yourself as well as for others.

Sunday evening the moon goes into Aries.

The week begins on a positive note for you. Monday through Wednesday morning the moon will be in your ninth house, giving you a sense of adventure and the gift of good fortune.

Money will come through other people. Allow yourself to be broke before you think about borrowing money. Venus, the sun, and Mercury will move through your eighth house, bringing with them a fascination the occult and other magical practices. Thanksgiving is likely to weigh heavily on your shoulders. Rise to the occasion and do your best work, whether it’s hosting or cooking or both.

Negotiation, flirtation, partnership, and sealing the deal are part of this week’s scenario.

Begin the week by making good on your debts. Mercury moving into your seventh house makes you more of a sweet talker.

Thanksgiving day may have you traveling, or experiencing a loved one’s different culture. If you come into conflict you are sure to take the higher road.

Your consciousness gets better.

The weekend looks good for career. Be sure to show your talents and skills and get out in the public eye. Sunday evening can be good for socializing.

Attending to your duties is the primary focus this week. Take on different projects one step at a time. Seek practical solutions to the challenges you face.

Things concerning love or lust come up this week. Every aspect of our lives is transient. Don’t take anything or anyone for granted. Later in the week there is a high probability that you will be traveling. The weekend has an element of good fortune, spiritual uplift, and discovery of something new. Pace yourself, multitask, and do things to enhance good health.

You’re ready to break out of your shell and be less of a homebody.

Your heart will be filled with joy and you will have more confidence. Creative expression flourishes, and being happy is no longer a challenge. Take care of details early in the week.

Make an effort to be more physically active. Use caution on Tuesday. Thanksgiving is about partnerships and bringing the love. Breathe deep, don’t stress, everything is going to be alright.

The weekend looks good for catching up on bills, allowing other people to do things for you, and sensual love.

Get grounded. Do things to make your home life more enjoyable. Begin the week feeling creative, confident, and full of love. Take time to meditate and to thank your parents for the good things that they have done. Your artistic projects may get a breath of new life. Be ready to help others more during the Thanksgiving holiday. Mercury enters your fourth house giving you a better memory and more mental clarity. The weekend looks good for romance and partnerships. Take time to learn about family and local history.

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

We move from passive to active, and from being receptive to being giving. Your curiosity and courage rises as the sun, Venus and Mercury transit your third house. Your life deserves more poetry, better friendships, clear communication and a beautiful environment. You’ll feel like working with your hands more.

It’s a good time to engage in artistic hobbies. You’ll be able to amaze people with your sense of beauty at the Thanksgiving dinner table. You may be with a loved one’s family as well. The weekend looks good for getting organized and resting.

This is your time for manifestation. You are making things happen by acting right where you live. Desires will need to be tempered by the needs of your family. Mars transiting your third house stimulates activities in your neighborhood. You are somewhat concerned with mobility. Try to be patient when communicating with others.

Your best works will continue to be seen by others. Thanksgiving will be the usual, unusual family mix. The weekend looks great for creative pursuits, children, and love affairs.

You are the flavor of the month.

For the next several weeks, do things to celebrate life.

Come forward with your best ideas. You get brainier as of Thanksgiving evening when Mercury enters your first house.

Not only are you conscious of your personal will, but you are also more aware of new ways of being creative. Take time to explore what all your options are. The weekend looks good for home improvement or hanging out with your parents.

Gathering your own personal tribe together can also make for great weekend plans.

Being driven to places you don’t know is scary. It’s like lucid dreaming: part of you is conscious, another part doesn’t know. You still have friends in high places helping you. The week begins with the moon in Capricorn and it stays there till late Wednesday morning. Help others and you will be making good karma for yourself. Pay attention to your dreams and the messages that they contain.

The weekend looks good for travel. You might be reunited with siblings or with friends that you grew up with. Pray for guidance.

This is likely your favorite party season. The northern half of the earth is darker, and getting cozy with loved ones makes the cold weather season more comfortable. You’re the one who would propose a cuddle party.

The moon will be in Aquarius Wednesday late morning through early afternoon Friday.

That means Thanksgiving will be fantastic and you’ll solve all the problems of the world with your families and friends. The weekend may be good for making money. Work on finances and the things and people that you value.

A position of power is likely to come to you. You’ll find yourself more in the public eye this week. The week begins with you socially engaging more. Good friends show up. During the days leading up to Thanksgiving it’s best to lay low. You know that you’ll be around people you have karma with. On Friday afternoon the moon goes into Pisces. People may look to you for a sense of direction. Try to make decisions based on realism rather than how you wish things would unfold. Stay compassionate. That means being compassionate toward yourself as well.

Koz McKev is on YouTube, on cable 11 BCTV and is heard on 90.1FM KZFR Chico. Also available by appointment for personal horoscopes call (530)891-5147 or e-mail kozmickev@sunset.net

FACEBOOK.COM/SYNTHESISCHICO 21

DEEP DEMOCRACY Politicians all over the country are trying to decide how to spend government revenue.

That’s mostly what they do anyway, but there’s not nearly as much to spend as there used to be just a few years ago, so something’s got to go, mostly poor people.

I want to try deep democracy, where we vote with our tax dollars the way corporations vote for legislators with their dollars. We would directly choose the way our taxes will be spent, as opposed to leaving everything up to a politician we’ve never met and wouldn’t want to be around anyway.

So I could send money for, say, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts and nothing for the White House—no maids, no cooks, no groundskeepers. Anything for Social Security, plenty for national parks and community radio and public television. Nothing for the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Security Agency, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and all government public relations departments—nothing.

I’d gladly pay for real universal health care, as opposed to the mandatory health insurance we’ve got now. Nothing for juntas here or there, enough for public schools run by parents, a lot for private tutors and apprenticeships. Nothing for the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines—nothing. A little for the Coast Guard and local police, but no domestic tanks, especially in Butte County.

Corporate taxes can serve as proportional

matching funds to allow lower individual income-tax rates, so we’d get more bang for our half-a-buck. Politicians clearly don’t care what we think, so if we all pay the same amount we’d pay anyway except we pay it directly to the people doing what we want done, we can send the bozos home for good.

We just need the right app.

I’d eliminate pension plans for all government employees, especially elected officials, in favor of a ramped-up Social Security system for everybody, even scum. Governments and I will settle up once a year, like we do now, and that’ll be that. No deductions, only popular wars, less flim-flam.

Local deep democracy means that you can direct your exorbitant parking fine as you see fit, ditto for property and sales tax. With salaries displayed on government workers’ uniforms and i.d. badges, we’ll all be in a better position to know who’s useful and who isn’t.

Meanwhile, my family ise determined to stand tall in the face of worldwide threats of terrorism. We will, of course, continue to upgrade our arsenal, probably moving this year to fully automatic weaponry capable of firing more bullets faster than ever, and we’ll certainly be wanting the newest, most patriotic ammunition to keep ourselves in line. This is no time for freedom.

At my house, it’s too bad about our food budget, but after our teeth fall out we won’t be able to eat so much anyway, so I expect it’ll all turn out good in the end, which might be sooner than we think.

From The Edge

by Anthony Peyton Porter A@anthonypeytonporter.com

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SYNTHESISWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 24 2014