Tucson Weekly August 6, 2020

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Stage Fright For the rest of 2020, it’s curtains for certain at Tucson’s concert halls

By Margaret Regan

GRIJALVA TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

MCSALLY’S LATEST PERFORMANCE

DANEHY BATTLES SUCCUBUS

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AUG. 6, 2020

Southern Arizona

COVID-19

THE LOCAL NUMBERS. The number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 179,000 as of Tuesday, Aug. 4, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Pima County had seen 16,809 of the state’s 180,505 confirmed cases. A total of 3,845 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, according to the Aug. 4 report.

Arizona hospitals remain under pressure although the numbers of patients has declined from a peak earlier this month.

ADHS reported that as of Aug. 3, 2,024 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, down from a peak of 3,517 on July 13. A total of 1,111 people visited ERs on Aug. 3 with COVID symptoms. The number of ER visits hadn’t hadn’t dipped that low since June 26, when 1,077 people with COVID symptoms visited ERs. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.

A total of 638 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds on Aug. 3. The number in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

GRIJALVA TESTS POSITIVE. Congressman Raúl Grijalva has tested positive for the coronavirus. Grijalva, 72, had been in self-quarantine in Washington after being in contact during hearings with Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, who tested positive last week. Grijalva, a Democrat who has represented Southern Arizona since he was first elected to Congress in 2002, said he felt fine and was showing no symptoms. In a prepared statement, Grijalva was critical of Republican members of Congress who refuse to wear masks. “While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously. Numerous Republican members routinely strut around the Capitol without a mask to selfishly make a political statement at the expense of their colleagues, staff, and their families. I’m pleased that Speaker Pelosi has mandated the use of masks at the Capitol to keep members and staff safe from those looking to score quick political points. Stopping the spread of a deadly virus should not be a partisan issue.”

MASK UP! Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry noted there’s evidence that Pima County’s ordinance requiring

Roundup

masks or face coverings is lowering COVID-19’s spread in the region. Huckleberry pointed to data showing that two key coronavirus trends measured by week began moving in a positive direction after the county passed the ordinance: The number of positive tests peaked at 2,351 the week after the mask ordinance was passed and dropped to 1,393 two weeks later; and the percentage of people visiting hospitals with symptoms of COVID or pneumonia had dropped from nearly 12 percent to less than 4 percent. Despite those positive trends, Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik warned that the virus remains widespread. In his weekly newsletter, Kozachik pointed out that Pima County saw 7,747 confirmed cases of COVID in July. That’s nearly as many cases as the 7,780 cases the county saw in total over the previous four months of March, April, May and June.

COUNTY WARNS SCHOOLS: UNSAFE TO OPEN. Despite a recent downward trend in cases, County Administrator Huckelberry said last week that the virus remained too widespread to allow schools to reopen for in-person instruction on Aug. 17. In a July 28 letter to all Pima County public school superintendents, Huckleberry cited overall high case numbers in July, a space crunch in local hospitals and other factors as reasons to hold off on reopening schools for in-person instruction.

Huckelberry, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia and Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen believe the earliest start date for in-person instruction is after Labor Day, Sept. 7, or possibly early October. Huckelberry said this recommendation should not prevent

schools from opening facilities for “atrisk youth” as intended in Gov. Ducey’s executive order. He suggests all safety precautions be taken such as wearing face masks, doing wellness checks, observing physical distancing guidelines and sanitizing surfaces. Due to the nature of contact sports, county health professionals are suggesting schools shift fall semester sports to the spring 2021 semester. Any extracurricular activities that can safely take place with precautions are allowed.

GRIDLOCK IN DC. Senate Republicans rolled out a new $1 trillion federal aid package but squabbles within the GOP caucus and with the White House are making it difficult to square the details.

White House officials have been negotiating with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell steering clearing of talks earlier this week. The Senate has largely ignored the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion relief package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year. Last week, the extra $600 a week in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation that out-of-work Arizonans have been receiving expired. Gov. Ducey, who plans to travel to DC this week, has asked Arizona’s congressional delegation to consider a number of provisions to help Arizona in the latest coronavirus package, including an extension of extra money for people who are out of work as a result of the pandemic. ■ —By Jim Nintzel with additional reporting from Kathleen B. Kunz, Austin Counts, Jeff Gardner and Tara Foulkrod.

RANDOM SHOTS By Rand Carlson

Cover design by Ryan Dyson

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seek testing gradually goes down. We haven’t seen that here, and some of it may be the strategic placement of the test centers.”

While testing for COVID is the first step, contact tracing is equally critical.

On July 6, PCHD announced a contract with Maximus Health Services to manage expanded contact tracing in our county. It’s an “elastic contract” that can shift with the new case numbers in Pima County. According to PCHD, Maximus was flooded with applications for the new positions and hired more than 130 people as contact tracers, contact tracing supervisors and case investigators. Maximus is still accepting applications for the supervisor and case investigator jobs.

“Once you test positive, you get into what we call a traditional epidemiological response,” Cullen said. “The first step is a case investigation. If you test positive, you’re now a ‘case’ whether you feel ill or not. So we’ll talk with you and obtain information about where you are, where you think you might have gotten the disease, COURTESY PIMA COUNTY who you might have contacted.”

The Pima County Health Department is operating two free COVID-19 testing centers in Tucson, and is working to establish a third.

Contacts are those you’ve spent a lot of time around, the typical measurement being 15 minutes at less than six feet proximity. Contacts are then assessed for symptoms, and potentially asked to Pima County increases COVID testing and tracing quarantine for anywhere between 10 and 14 days.

By Jeff Gardner effort will be operated by Maximus “This is the way we break the transmisJeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com Health Services, which has a contract sion,” Cullen said. “The case already has with PCHD. the disease. So we’ll make sure they’re Although Arizona’s daily virus cases RECEIVING A COVID-19 TEST in Tucson is now as simple as scheduling have gradually decreased for the past few stable and have the resources they need. an appointment online, driving to a local weeks, Pima County is actively planning The contacts may or may not have the center and taking 10 minutes to adminis- to establish a third testing center at Udall disease, and potentially be spreading it around the community… Many contacts Park on the City of Tucson’s east side as ter the test. don’t become cases, but there’s no way well as mobile testing in the near future.

While the public conciousness is full to predict. So that’s why they have to “We have a ways to go, but we have of scary stories about the testing process, isolate.” ways to monitor the impact of the meanasal swabs are pain free, and during a While the government is expanding sures we’re doing,” said PCHD director recent test, only resulted in some watery Theresa Cullen. “This is not a rapid game. local testing and tracing efforts, Cullen eyes and a tickle. reminds the public that there are more This is a long haul game. But the hope Pima County is expanding both its than 50 test sites in Tucson, facilitated by is that within a month, by the end of AuCOVID testing and contact tracing as businesses such as Walgreens and CVS, Arizona remains one of the nation’s infec- gust, we’ll see a significant impact.” as well as various urgent care businesses.

Before the Ellie Towne testing center tion hotspots.

“There are other ways for the public to opened, the only county-run testing While the Pima County Health Deget tested, they don’t just have to go to the was nasal swabbing at the Kino Events partment has increased its dedicated county sites. The difference is the county COVID-19 staff, these testing and tracing Center. The Ellie Towne center instead tests saliva, which can be just as accurate sites are free and we don’t collect insurexpansions come with the help of third and a more comfortable procedure. Since ance information, but we do ask for an ID party organizations. it opened in July, the Kino test center has to make sure we know who you are when The new testing center is at the Ellie we call to deliver results,” Cullen said.

Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, consistently serviced between 400 and On July 28, Arizona Public Health 600 patients per day.

1660 W. Ruthrauff Road. It will be facilAssociation president Aimee Sitzler “There’s this concept of test saturaitated by Arizona State University in wrote an open letter to Gov. Doug Ducey partnership with the Arizona Department tion,” Cullen said. “In Phoenix, they’ve detailing recommendations for improvseen this at a few sites; they set up test of Health Services. ing the state’s virus response. The first centers and the number of people who Meanwhile, the new contact tracing

CURRENTS

CHECK UP

item on her list for how to isolate infected individuals and track the people they contacted is to achieve laboratory turnaround times of less than three days for COVID tests. According to PCHD, their turnaround time is currently three to five days, though this can vary.

In addition to establishing more test centers, PCHD is looking to extend testing in other ways, such as working with FEMA to support more rural testing and providing more testing for vulnerable populations. Expanding rural testing and increasing attention on at-risk populations are both mentioned in Sitzler’s letter as crucial steps to reduce pandemic spread in-state.

“I have been reluctant to say we are on the downslope,” Cullen said. “I think we are stabilizing, which in and of itself is really important and attributed to the community cooperating and masking and washing their hands. Obviously what we hope is that we’re at the highest part of the wave and that we’ll come down. I personally believe that by having more aggressive case investigation and contact tracing—assuming that the contacts are able to stay home and not infect others—we will be successful.” ■ If you’re interested in getting a test to determine if you’ve already had COVID-19, the UA has expanded a free COVID-19 antibody testing program to include 15 new categories of essential workers considered at high risk for exposure.

The antibody test, developed by researchers at UA Health Sciences, determines who has been exposed to and developed an immune response against COVID-19.

In addition to healthcare workers and first responders, the test program is now open to educators, childcare workers, agriculture, grocery and foodservice workers, hospitality employees, solid-waste collection workers, transportation services workers and members of the National Guard. More information and registration for the test is available at covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu. Pima County is also one of several regions in the country where a new COVID-19 vaccine is being tested. The National Institutes of Health is conducting phase 3 trials on a vaccine co-developed by Moderna, Inc. and the National Insitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If you’re interested in volunteering, visit coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org or ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT04470427 to find a study center.

AUG. 6, 2020

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THE SKINNY TOO EARLY FOR HALLOWEEN

Trailing in the polls, Sen. Martha McSally tries on an ill-fitting moderate and pragmatic persona SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY HAS been trying to squeeze back into her “pragmatic problem solver” persona, but it’s an ill fit.

McSally rose on the Senate floor to give a couple of recent speeches urging her colleagues to extend the extra $600 in unemployment benefits that out-of-work Americans have been receiving during the pandemic.

“I deployed to Washington to be a pragmatic problem solver,” McSally said last week. “And for the past five and a half years, I’ve made it my mission in Congress to better the lives of hardworking Arizonans. In a time of toxic partisanship, this is no easy feat.”

But McSally is no stranger to toxic partisanship herself. Ever since she gave up defending a moderate Southern Arizona congressional district and embraced President Donald Trump as she sought a U.S. Senate seat, she’s fully embraced the Trump wing of her party. If you read her fundraising emails, you’ll see lots of references to radical left-wing mobs who are bent on eliminating all law enforcement, destroying our borders and stealing our precious bodily fluids. (OK, we made up the last part.) When Trump’s scheme to extort Ukraine came to light, McSally criticized those who revealed Trump’s corrupt extortion effort rather than the crooked effort itself—and, of course, she voted to acquit Trump on the charges.

And let’s not forget her dismissal of CNN reporter as a “liberal hack” because he asked her if she would consider new evidence in that impeachment trial. None of that is pragmatic problem solving.

And none of that appears to be helping McSally on the campaign trail as she faces Democrat Mark Kelly, the former NASA astronaut who has staked out a major lead over McSally. (Several polls in recent weeks, including surveys from Marist College and Morning Consult, show McSally

down by double digits to Kelly; the Real Clear Politics polling average has Kelly ahead by 6.8 percentage points.)

With her speeches, McSally wanted to make Democrats look bad for refusing to support a one-week extension of the extra unemployment benefits—and give herself another hook for her fundraising emails.

Democrats argued that states aren’t equipped to reprogram their systems to allow a single week of extra benefits. But beyond that, McSally and her colleagues have had months to figure out what should be in a new coronavirus relief package—and they’ve fiddled that time away. What would an extra week accomplish besides giving Republicans more time to waste? As of press time, the Senate was no closer to a package than it was last Friday.

“I understand as we work to defeat this virus—which we will—and support the economic recovery of our country, we need to incentivize people to return to work safely when they are able,” McSally said in her speech. “There are disagreements in this chamber on what that looks like, what the ultimate dollar figure or percentage will be, where we land and for how long, but what I know today is that Congress needs to do their job and prevent this desperately-needed extra lifeline from fully expiring.”

McSally didn’t mention that she voted against that $600-a-week lifeline when it was first proposed. (Yes, while she now talks about how important that extra money is for out-of-work Arizonans, she was against it before she was for it.)

Beyond that, McSally has for months sidestepped opportunities to say what she supports in a relief bill, despite her efforts to brand herself as a straight talker. Last week, she co-sponsored a bill that cut the extra $600 weekly payment down to $200 a week. She has said that aiding state and local governments that are pinched by COVID’s economic catastrophe is just a bailout of corrupt Democratic cities such as Chicago. And her big proposal to help with the coronavirus outbreak was to offer American

FACEBOOK.COM/JIMNINTZEL @NINTZEL families thousands of dollars for federally funded rebates on future vacations.

While the tourism industry has certainly taken a pounding, this is no time to be traveling, unless you want to spread the virus further. And let’s face it: You need to be able to spend money on a vacation before you can get reimbursed for it, so this was definitely aimed at higher-income Americans who have the disposable income sitting around to pay for plane tickets and hotel rooms.

Bottom line: While McSally is cool with paying for vacations for wealthy Americans, she’s dismissive about helping those at the bottom.

McSally might want to accuse Democrats of failing to do their jobs to help Americans in this crisis, but she’s largely

JEN SORENSEN

been absent from the conversation herself. Her history as an appointed senator suggests this was just a political stunt to get a headline from the hacks in the liberal media.

ELECTION RESULTS ONLINE

Check our website to see the winners and losers of this week’s primary election WITH A TUESDAY AFTERNOON deadline, we weren’t able to bring you election results in our print edition this week. But you can visit TucsonWeekly. com to find out the winners and losers in our county, state, federal and other races.

And if some squeakers are not yet decided, we’ll bring you daily updates until all those votes are tallied.

AUG. 6, 2020

DANEHY

AFTER BATTLING OFF A DEMON SUCCUBUS, TOM HAS A LOT TO THINK ABOUT

By Tom Danehy, tucsonweekly@tucsonlocalmedia.com THE OTHER NIGHT, WITHOUT permission from my subconscious and in direct violation of my 40-plus years of adherence to my marital vows, I think I was about to have mind sex with a succubus.

This succubus (at the behest of Donald Trump’s new favorite doctor) came from Africa, but she/it didn’t look anything like Lupita Nyong’o or Iman, which would certainly help if one were in the succubus business.

At the last minute—not wanting to experience a spontaneous pregnancy or get all kinds of alien blood in my system—I snapped awake. I was suddenly fully and amazingly conscious. In the immortal words of Hedley Lamarr (Blazing Saddles, 1974), my mind was a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives…

Ditto!

Right then and there, I decided to undertake a quest. I am going to find the first person—let’s call him/her Douchebag Zero—to utter the least-productive phrase of all time: Defund the police. When I find this idiot, I am going to verbally pummel him/her about the head and neck.

There are several variations on a quote originally attributed to Napoleon, who

CLAYTOONZ By Clay Jones

is claimed to have said, “Never interfere with an enemy while he is in the process of destroying himself.” Donald Trump is in the process of burning down the entire Republican mansion and the brainless “Defund the Police” stooges are telling Trump’s sycophants where they can find the firehose.

Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to gain political traction by whining that Joe Biden won’t come out of his basement. If it were up to me, we’d build Biden a sub-basement and provide him with Netflix and Popeye’s Chicken until Nov. 3.

Along those same lines, wouldn’t it be great if the people in Portland would use that social media stuff and pull the greatest gag of all time? After 60-something straight nights of gathering to protest against racial injustice, they should all get together on social media and, one night, have nobody show up. Then Trump’s storm troopers could drive up in their unmarked SUVs and get out and throw tear gas at each other.

Other things that came into a deep clarity on my Succubus Sleepless Night include: In a letter written to the daily paper, a former UA Law School teacher says that

Joe Biden cheated while in law school. I’m sorry, but isn’t that like saying that a guy swam during his lifeguard training?

In his latest attempt to distract people from the consistently horrible news about the virus and the economy, Trump tweeted that America should postpone its upcoming election indefinitely until everybody can vote in person (except Black people and Democrats). In the tweet, he again claimed that there is a difference between voting by mail and voting by absentee ballot (which Trump and his truly-frightening press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, have both done). At most, that’s a distinction without a difference.

It’s like Richard Pryor, in his wino persona, would shout, “Hey, don’t you come down here makin’ all that racket! This is a neighborhood; this ain’t no residential district!”

Anyway, I think we should consider it.

Donald Trump, Jr. (I always forget; is he the dumb son or the stupid one?) has said that the virus is going to disappear the day after Election Day. According to the Constitution (remember that outdated thing?), only Congress can change the election date. But let’s say that they do. If there’s no election and the Electoral College doesn’t meet (why would they?), there’s one thing that wouldn’t change. On Jan. 20, Trump and Pence would both have to leave office. That would mean that the President would be … Nancy Pelosi.

U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert of

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Texas is a dumbass. In fact, it appears that “Gohmert” is Texan for “dumbass.” And if you stand out as a dumbass in Texas, you’re an industrial-strength dumbass.

Gohmert was about to have a big day. He was going to get to fly to Texas on Air Force One, accompanying Donald Trump on a fund-raising trip. Gohmert was giddy. He was going to get to sit all up close to Trump the entire trip, getting all giggly and stuff.

But right before he got on the plane, he was found to have tested positive for COVID-19.

So he had to stay at school while all the cool kids got to go on the field trip.

Gohmert was one of the handful of Maskless Morons in the House of Representatives, having chosen macho over mentality.

(On the same day that Gohmert got the boot, former Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who had been at the sparsely attended Trump rally in Tulsa— without a mask—a few weeks back, died of the coronavirus.)

Anyway, Gohmert, trying to explain his positive test, said that he got the virus from his mask, which is the equivalent of saying, “I got sick from my own bad breath blowing back in my face.”

In response to a column I wrote a month ago, the Daily Star ran an article under the headline “Pancho Villa was a Hero.” In the article, the writer dismisses Villa’s slaughter of 80 people in the village of San Pedro De La Cueva by stating that “he regretted (it) the next day.”

Oh well, in that case, everything is OK. My bad. ■

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STAGE FRIGHT For the rest of 2020, it’s curtains for certain at Tucson’s concert halls

By Margaret Regan MARK A. MARTINEZ/RIALTO THEATRE

BONNIE SCHOCK, EXECUTIVE director of The Fox Tucson Theatre, probably has the worst ever new-job story.

After moving to Tucson from Minnesota, where she’d worked in the performing arts for almost 30 years, Schock walked into the venerable Fox on Monday, March 9, excited to get to work in the historic theatre.

That same day, in a sign of things to come, the Tucson Festival of Books was canceled for fear of COVID-19. The popular literary event at the University of Arizona had been planned for the weekend of March 14 -15.

Then, four days into Schock’s job, on Thursday, March 12, the Fox itself shut down.

An Irish music concert by the renowned band Altan, planned for that Saturday, March 14, was canceled. The band hurried back to Ireland, calling off the rest of their U.S. tour.

“The Fox was the first performing arts institution in Tucson to announce that we were closing,” Schock says by phone from Minnesota, where she’s been holed up with her family and working from home since the end of March.

But the Fox’s shutdown was only the

first of many.

By Friday, March 13, nearly every arts organization in town had shut down.

Musicians packed up their instruments.

Dancers with Hawkinsdance gave up on a planned outdoor show. Actors hung up their costumes.

Arizona Theatre Company gave a single performance of The Legend of Georgia McBride, opening and closing the musical play on that Friday night.

And on that same bad-luck day, the Rialto Theatre, a historic music venue up the street from the Fox, had to cancel concerts by legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy and Shoreline Mafia, a hip-hop band out of Los Angeles.

The UA campus closed, taking down with it not only the UA Presents shows at Centennial Hall, but also the music concerts at Crowder Hall and student productions in dance and theater. Multiple campus museums, including the Center for Creative Photography and the University of Arizona Museum of Art, were shuttered as well, and so were major museums throughout the city, from the Tucson Museum of Art to MOCA. (TMA just reopened last week). Art galleries held on a little longer but openings were

scuttled.

On that rough week when the arts went dark in Tucson, almost no one predicted how long the shutdown would last. In a sign of the optimism of those early days, the Rialto quickly rescheduled Shoreline Mafia for a performance on Sept. 22, and the Fox rebooked Altan for a show this November.

“We intended to be closed only a few weeks,” Schock says. Instead the theatre has remained closed for months. And any hopes of a fall revival were dashed in early July, when the Fox canceled all programing through December.

“After the initial closure (in March) we announced an extended closure to end in August,” Schock explains, “with the promise we would make another decision about the fall as conditions became clearer.”

Those conditions became crystal clear by late June. The virus resurged in much of the country, and Arizona turned into a coronavirus hot spot, making the national news for high numbers of cases spiking and deaths mounting.

As of Monday, Aug. 3, the total Arizona COVID-19 death toll was 3,779, including 462 fatalities in Pima County; the state

had counted nearly 180,000 confirmed cases. Nationwide, 155,000 lives and counting had been lost as of this week, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.

Somber statistics notwithstanding, the Fox has put together a tentative list of rescheduled shows to run in the new year.

The comedian Paula Poundstone is first on the list, on February 4, 2021. Altan was switched once again, this time to March 12, a full year after the Irish band was set to perform on the Fox stage.

But the new schedule is by no means written in stone.

“We’re not able to predict factors that are completely out of our control,” Schock says.

The shows will go on only if three protocols are in place, she says. First, health conditions must improve enough that large gatherings are permitted, and ticket sales must be high enough to make a show financially viable. That doesn’t mean that every one of the Fox’s 1168 seats would have to be filled—social distancing would almost require that some seats remain empty.

Second, lovers of the performing arts who’ve been stuck at home avoiding the

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virus must feel safe enough to go out to shows again. Complicating that scenario, the Fox’s fans tend toward middle age and older, a demographic particularly vulnerable to the disease.

Third, touring artists like Poundstone and Altan must be willing to travel again.

Unlike Tucson’s small local theaters and musical groups, who generally can recruit local actors and musicians, big performing arts organizations like the Fox, the Rialto and UA Presents—and to a certain extent the Arizona Theatre Company—rely almost entirely on touring artists. And right now, Schock says, with COVID-19 raging across the country, “the whole national touring industry is essentially shut down. Those artists are not on the road.”

Schock is hoping that by September or early October, things will calm down and “we’ll see those conditions in place.”

If that happens, the Fox will crank up marketing and preparations to re-open in the new year. And maybe, just maybe, Schock and her family will be able to come to Arizona and settle into their new city.

THOMAS VENEKLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY

Bonnie Schock.

THE FOX IS NOT ALONE in these calculations. Arts organizations all over Tucson (and elsewhere) are struggling with how to re-open and nearly all are dealing with debilitating financial losses. The Fox, just for instance, normally gets 75 percent of its budget from earned revenue—especially from ticket sales. But sales have nearly vanished and the theatre is still paying patrons back for tickets they bought for now canceled shows.

One iconic venue, the Chicago Bar,

has already closed for good. Renowned for its live music, particularly the rich blues out of Chicago, the eastside bar closed in June after 42 years in the business.

The popular spot had shut down in March as the pandemic roared across the country.

“Although the bar was closed, the expenses remained,” owner Jennifer Lorraine explained in a Facebook post in June. “… the loss of revenue due to the mandated closure was too great a financial burden to bear.”

At the far east end of Congress Street, two more cherished live music venues lie idle, their historic buildings shuttered. Club Congress is inside the Hotel Congress, a landmark building dating to 1919. Across the street, the Rialto Theatre, constructed in 1920, turns 100 this year.

But there’s not a whole lot of anniversary celebrating going on at either place.

The funky Rialto, run by executive director Curtis McCrary, is known for comedy shows as well as gigs by rock bands both famous and up-and-coming.

But it’s been closed since March.

The Rialto has a colorful history, and no shortage of ups and downs. During

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its seemingly nine lives, it’s been a theatre for vaudeville and movies, a furniture warehouse, a porn house and an empty property. An explosion in the 1980s brought the plucky old place close to demolition but it reemerged in the 1990s as a get-down and dirty rock-androll concert hall. It was refurbished after Rio Nuevo bought the place in 2004; it’s now owned by the Rialto Theatre Foundation, which has managed the theater since it reopened after Rio Nuevo purchased it.

Characteristically, the feisty venue began the shutdown with a defiant sign on its marquee: Events Temporarily Suspended. We Will Be Back. Count on It. F U Coronavirus. As the months drag on, and as the virus keeps on trucking, and the shows listed on the schedule keep getting marked “postponed,” fans are praying that the Rialto can use another of its nine lives to get music back on the stage, but for now, the prognosis is grim, says McCrary.

“The speed with which this went from distant inchoate threat that very few of us took with the warranted seriousness, to radically changing everyone’s lives for the worse, is something we are all CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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still coming to grips with, half a year down the road to who knows where,” McCrary said. “But as it unfolded and I began to grasp the severity of it, and the likelihood that it would be mishandled at nearly every level of government in most places, but especially from the top, it was pretty clearly going to be catastrophic for our particular endeavor/sector—bringing large numbers of people together in an indoor setting to let loose to live music (or theatre or dance or film). It’s so painfully obvious that it didn’t have to unfold this way, that leadership does make a difference, that certain electeds keep taking the keys and driving us off cliff after cliff, and that’s the most painful part of it, how needlessly extensive all this death and calamity are, and how much more is on the way as a result. At this point, our best hope is for some federal deus ex machina relief action, like RESTART or the Save Our Stages act sponsored

by Sens. Klobuchar and Cornyn, but as they say about wishes and horses and beggars... well, you know. Absent that, it’s hard to see a path forward.”

The Hotel Congress, on the National Historic Registry since 2003, is famed for the 1934 fire that helped the cops capture the desperado John Dillinger. In 1985, new owners Shana and Richard Oseran gave it an Aztec art deco do-over, added Club Congress, and transformed the old railroad hotel into a hip watering place.

The Congress has had a rollercoaster ride through the pandemic months. The hotel, its restaurant Cup Café, and Club Congress all shut down in mid-March.

Gov. Ducey lifted restrictions on May 15, but the Congress managers, with an eye on the science of COVID, waited until May 28 to reopen the Cup. The hotel opened June 4, but the indoor Club Congress, beloved for a wide range of music genres, stayed shut. Still, music came back to the Congress with performances outside on the Cup’s spacious patio.

That brave effort lasted only a month.

When the virus spiked dramatically in Arizona in late June, Hotel Congress once again closed the whole operation down, even though it was not legally required to do so. “This pandemic has reached a breaking point,” managers announced in a sad Facebook post, “and we feel the only actionable response is to pause our operations. The health

and safety of our staff and community is what’s most important right now. So for now, it’s not goodbye, but it’s see you later.”

Congress tentatively plans to reopen in mid-September, meaning that the popular Labor Day weekend Hoco Fest is canceled this year.

As the fall arts season looms, more and more venerable institutions are canceling previously scheduled performances.

Tucson Symphony Orchestra, one

Pullin Opera Studio will perform outdoors in a venue to be announced.

Arizona Theatre Company, which also performs both in Tucson and Phoenix, is pushing the planned fall 2020 plays to January. Artistic director Sean Daniels promises a full array of six shows, staring in January 2021 and extending to the summer. Each of the plays will be recorded on tape; patrons who are still iffy about sitting in a theater can watch the dramas online at home. The opening production in January will be

EMILY BLADE

The Fox was rescued from abandonment, but now needs support if it’s going to survive coronavirus.

of the oldest and largest arts organizations in town, has postponed its entire 2020-2021 season, moving the scheduled concerts en masse to 2021-2022. In the meantime, music director José Luis Gomez will orchestrate multiple online programs, including music performed by the TSO talent and guests, interviews and so on.

Arizona Opera, which operates in both Tucson and Phoenix, is “reimagining” the 2020-2021 season, and replacing large-scale live operas with online events as well as “socially distant” outdoor performances. First up in Tucson, on Sunday, Oct. 4, the advanced singers of the opera’s competitive Marion Roose

My 80-year-old Boyfriend by Charissa Bertels, Christian Duhamel and Ed Bell.

The company is also preparing an array of outdoor and digital events throughout the fall.

Ballet Tucson, the only professional ballet troupe in the city, has canceled its fall season. That means no spooky Halloween dance at the annual fall opening concert, and no Nutcracker at Christmas. For now, the plan is to return to the stage in the new year. But like all the arts groups, Ballet Tucson is facing a financial emergency and asking art lovers to help with donations.

“The loss is critical,” says board president Jim Allen. “The majority of

our budget comes from earned income such as tickets and special events, so the complete loss of this revenue has been overwhelming.”

Over at Centennial Hall at the University of Arizona, UA Presents typically brings in top dance companies, orchestras and musical acts throughout the school year. The companion group Broadway in Tucson brings in five or six traveling musicals each season. But this year the 2500-seat historic theater has lain dormant since March. And it will remain empty until January 2021.

Hamilton, the hit musical about the early days of the republic, won’t be on the Centennial stage until late fall 2021; it will run from Nov. 17 to Dec. 5, more than a year from now.

Broadway in Tucson had nabbed the celebrated musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda for a three-week run later this year, but COVID squashed that plan.

Mario Di Vetta of Broadway in Tucson says there will be plenty of tickets to go around for the rescheduled Hamilton; fans who bought tickets for the 2020 show can use them in 2021 or get a refund.

Right now, Broadway in Tucson plans to host an array of traveling musical shows during the spring 2021 season, starting with Jersey Boys, Jan. 22 to 24, and ending with Come from Away, June 22-27. Both shows were originally scheduled for spring 2020, but they were scotched by the pandemic.

Chad Herzog, executive director of UA Presents, has been using the COVID downtime to recreate the performing arts at Centennial.

“There are going to be a lot of big changes,” Herzog says, from ditching the name UA Presents to staging art events in outdoor spaces away from campus. (The new name and show lineups will be revealed later this month.)

This fall, there will be “a number of performances, but nothing in Centennial,” he says. “We’re going to take art to the people. We’re really excited about it.”

The new format will have local artists performing in multiple outdoor places all over town—in the desert, in driveins, on mobile stages. UA Presents has already given the concept a trial run this summer, staging outdoor musical performances made to be watched on line.

UA Presents, embedded at the UA, might seem to be financially secure but it has to watch its own budget. Plus the UA’s own money woes are so dire that its

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employees are getting significant paycuts. Hiring local artists instead of, say, the Martha Graham Dance Company, is good for UA Presents’ the bottom line.

Outdoor shows are a good way to get around the pandemic, since the risk of catching the virus is reduced outside.

Certainly Centennial Hall, a 1936 building on the National Register of Historic Places, will still be used in the years ahead. But even when the pandemic ends or a vaccine is available, Herzog plans to continue taking shows all over town.

“In the future,” he says, “Southern Arizona will be our stage.”

TWENTY YEARS AGO, THE Fox Theatre was a crumbling mess. The roof leaked, pigeons nested in the balcony, and piles of trash and human waste were everywhere. A former vaudeville house and movie theatre built in 1930, it had essentially been abandoned by 1974.

Thanks to the vision and dogged advocacy of Herb Stratford, a young artist who later become the Fox’s first executive director, and others, the old theatre was transformed into a breathtaking show place. By 2006 what had been a dangerous eyesore became a glittering

COURTESY PHOTO

Backstage at the Fox.

asset to the downtown and the city.

The same is true for Hotel Congress, the Rialto and the Temple of Music and Art, a 1927 theatre that was saved from demolition in the 1980s; Arizona Theater Company has performed plays there since 1990. These rescued historic

venues have not only brought the arts to town; they have played a crucial part in the downtown renaissance.

“That’s one of the things performing arts do,” Schock says. “The arts are an economic driver. Downtown Tucson is absolutely a case study for that.”

After all, art lovers and theater goers dine in restaurants, grab coffee at cafés, get drinks at bars, stay in hotels, ride in cabs and the streetcar, pay for parking.

Hotel and apartment developers like to build in cool artsy neighborhoods. And the performing arts venues don’t dole out paychecks only to artists; they also give paid employment to administrators, ticket-takers, cleaners, security staffs, carpenters and painters.

Arts groups hit by the pandemic crisis are asking their fans for donations, but Schock and others are trying to get a fair share of federal money as well. She belongs to the National Independent Venues Association (#SaveOurStages), an advocacy group that quickly formed when it became clear how devastating the pandemic is to the arts.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the arts and culture contribute $877.8 billion to the nation’s economy while employing some 5 million

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workers. Despite these big numbers, the arts have been relatively short-changed in the distributions of federal stimulus funds. The NEA got $75 million in federal CARES money, but only $44.5 went directly to individual arts groups; the rest, some $30.5 million, was earmarked for the 50 states. Gov. Ducey gave $2 million in state funds to be given out through the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Tucson did land $500,000 in CARES money, meted out by the NEA through a competitive process. The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona got $250,000, which will be divided up and re-granted to multiple arts organizations. Four local groups, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest Folk Alliance, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Lead Guitar, each got $50,000 directly from the NEA cache.

More money is needed to save other arts groups from the fate of the Chicago Bar. “Many of our venues won’t make it,” Schock says. “And we can’t afford to lose them. The Fox is too precious not to make it. It’s too important to our downtown and it’s too unique. It’s up to all of us in the community to decide what matters.” ■

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CHOW

UNEMPLOYMENT URGENCY With hundreds of thousands of unemployed Arizonans scrambling to make ends meet on $240 a week, local bartenders reflect on what’s next now that the extra $600 federal unemployment benefit has ended

By Austin Counts Austin@tucsonlocalmedia.com

During times of crisis, independent journalism is more important than ever.

Help support your local newspaper by donating at tucsonlocalmedia.com

Questions?

Call us at 520-797-4384

Thank you for your support!

DURING HIS PRESS CONFERENCE last week, Gov. Doug Ducey was adamant the state has done all it can by enacting an eviction moratorium to help hundreds of thousands of unemployed Arizonans survive while their federal benefits evaporate.

Ducey said the federal government needs to step up to solve the problem.

“We’ve worked very hard to make sure Arizonans have the resources necessary and people aren’t losing the place they live,” Gov. Ducey said. “As we transition through this, it will require more cooperation from Congress. We’ve done our job. I need Congress to act.”

But that additional $600 a week—which was all hundreds of thousands of Arizonans in the gig economy or otherwise ineligible for traditional were receiving in aid—expired at the end of July. This week, a new coronavirus relief package has stalled in the U.S. Senate as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and the White House struggle to find common ground to make a deal.

Democrats want to extend the extra $600 a week into 2021; Republicans want to see it reduced because they believe it provides too much money, so workers aren’t trying to get their jobs back.

St. Charles Tavern and La Cocina bartender Allie Baron believes the governor has passed the buck to the federal government. She thinks Arizona should raise the state’s unemployment benefits, which haven’t been adjusted since 2004.

“Arizona has one of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country,” Baron said. “ I just don’t see how anybody who is supporting a family can survive on $240 a week and still be able to pay their bills, their rent or mortgage and still be able to put food on the table.”

Baron said she and her husband Shane— who is also an out-of-work service industry

COURTESY JEOPARDY

Kingfisher bartender Eric Smith says it’s a good thing he brought home some gameshow winnings last year since it’s his career that’s now in jeopardy.

employee—have been stocking away any extra cash they’re received from unemployment benefits after paying their monthly expenses. She’s confident they will have enough to survive the next few months while Congress decides whether they’ll approve future unemployment benefits.

“Luckily, I was really careful about saving a lot of the money throughout the pandemic,” Baron said. “Between the two of us we’ve managed to put aside a little cushion to help us until we get back to work.”

Kingfisher bartender Eric Smith never thought the prize money he won last year on the TV game show Jeopardy would be used to keep his family afloat during the pandemic. While Smith is thankful he has a bit of financial backing during these hard times, the bartending trivia buff knows his winnings will rapidly dwindle down should the service industry remain closed for a few more months.

“I haven’t been to work since March 17 and I haven’t had to touch my savings while receiving that extra benefit,” Smith said.

“Without it is a huge negative factor for me.

This isn’t how I dreamed of spending my Jeopardy money, but I’m glad it’s there if I need it.”

Smith said he’s been actively looking for work outside the service industry for the past three weeks before the federal unemployment ended on July 31. However, his phone hasn’t been blowing up with job offers from prospective employers. He said those who think unemployment benefits are disincentivizing the public from finding a job is a myth.

“Some of our Senators like to put this image that people are just sitting at home not trying to work. I’ve applied for at least six jobs in the past three weeks and haven’t heard anything back,” Smith said. “A lot of us had good jobs but we’re not able to work at the moment. Cutting that $600 for me is less discretionary money and I’m keeping my fingers crossed (Kingfisher) is open by the end of the month.” ■

AUG. 6, 2020

NO ACCOUNT

Federal banking law hinders a blossoming industry

By David Abbott David@tucsonlocalmedia.com DESPITE CANNABIS BEING LEGAL in some form in a majority of these United States (33 so far), business owners face an uphill battle due to the flower’s felonious status as a narcotic on par with heroin at the federal level.

As a result, the proprietor of your local state-sanctioned MMJ dispensary deals with discriminatory banking regulations and an archaic tax code that hinders growth and reinvestment into business and community.

Legal on a state level, cannabis’s federal

designation as a Schedule I drug means legitimate business operators encounter barriers to expansion—and even basic functioning—that can have a crippling effect on those wishing to cash in on a quickly expanding market that has the potential to be worth $200 billion worldwide within the next decade, according to Motley Fool, an online investment and analysis firm.

Cannabis is a Schedule I drug via the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. That means possession is technically a Class 6 federal felony for Arizonans, although the federal government has taken a hands-off approach to states that allow CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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MMJ BANKING

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medical or recreational use.

But while individuals haven’t been hassled by federal agents, conflicting jurisdictional issues between state and federal regulations means that banking institutions are loathe to provide loans or capital for fear of scrutiny from the federal government, as well as a concern about their image.

“There’s liability and a reputation risk,” said Aari Ruben, owner of Bloom Dispensary in Tucson. “Institutions that handle cannabis money get snickered at and are viewed as less professional. They are also worried, because there are billions of dollars in circulation from drug cartels. Also, other clients in powerful positions are not quick to change.”

Ruben added that the cost of providing services for the cannabis industry also contributes to banks not wanting to get involved.

“It cannot be done with software, so you have to have staffing,” he said. “It’s a business decision.”

One result of the mishmash of legality is that legitimate businesses are forced to work on a predominantly cash-only basis, which is why MMJ patients need to either

bring a wad of cash to get their medicine or use an ATM in the lobby of their favorite dispensary.

To get around those problems and make transactions more convenient, a dispensary might work around regulations by purchasing an ATM and filling it with cash or figuring a way to hide the nature of their transactions through various means. Some of these transactions are illegal and considered money laundering by the federal government.

In order to legitimately offer an ATM, the dispensary must lease space to a private ATM operator.

“The sticking point to do a credit card or debit transaction [is that] you need a bank involved and a FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) number to complete the electronic portion of the transaction,” Ruben wrote in a recent email. “Since it’s a federal banking system and [MMJ is] a federally illegal product, there is no legitimate way to make these two ends meet.”

Additionally, since interstate transport of cannabis is illegal, a dispensary that wants to expand beyond state borders must create redundant grow and processing operations for each state where they operate. The result CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

By Rob Brezsny. Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY HOROSCOPE 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 $1.99 per minute. 18 and over. Touchtone phone required.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In her book Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones, Stephanie Rose Bird reports that among early African Americans, there were specialists who spoke the language of trees. These patient magicians developed intimate relationships with individual trees, learning their moods and rhythms, and even exchanging non-verbal information with them. Trees imparted wisdom about herbal cures, weather patterns and ecologically sound strategies. Until recently, many scientists might have dismissed this lore as delusion. But in his 2016 book The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben offers evidence that trees have social lives and do indeed have the power to converse. I’ve always said that you Aries folks have great potential to conduct meaningful dialogs with animals and trees. And now happens to be a perfect time for you to seek such invigorating pleasures.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Joanne Harris writes, “The right circumstances sometimes happen of their own accord, slyly, without fanfare, without warning. The magic of everyday things.” I think that’s an apt oracle for you to embrace during the coming weeks. In my opinion, life will be conspiring to make you feel at home in the world. You will have an excellent opportunity to get your personal rhythm into close alignment with the rhythm of creation. And so you may achieve a version of what mythologist Joseph Campbell called “the goal of life”: “to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining.” She adds that in this process, she has become “a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings.” I would love for you to engage in similar work right now, Gemini. Life will be on your side—bringing

you lucky breaks and stellar insights—if you undertake the heroic work of reformulating the meanings of “light” and “dark”—and then reshaping the way you embody those primal forces.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink,” wrote Cancerian author Irving Stone. I would love for you to heed that counsel, my fellow Crabs. What he says is always true, but it will be extraordinarily meaningful for you to take to heart during the coming weeks. Here’s how you could begin: Make a list of seven experiences that bring you joy, bliss, delight, fun, amusement, and gratification. Then make a vow—even write an oath on a piece of paper—to increase the frequency and intensity of those experiences.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): At times in our lives, it’s impractical to be innocent and curious and blank and receptive. So many tasks require us to be knowledgeable and self-assured and forceful and in control. But according to my astrological analysis, the coming weeks will be a time when you will benefit from the former state of mind: cultivating what Zen Buddhists call “beginner’s mind.” The Chinese refer to it as chūxīn, or the mind of a novice. The Koreans call it the eee mok oh? approach, translated as “What is this?” Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield defines it as the “don’t-know mind.”

During this upcoming phase, I invite you to enjoy the feeling of being at peace with all that’s mysterious and beyond your understanding.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Author Anne Lamott wrote that, and now I’m conveying it to you—just in time for the Unplug-Yourself Phase of your astrological cycle. Any glitches or snafus you may be dealing with right now aren’t as serious as you might imagine. The biggest problem seems to be the messy

SAVAGE LOVE STATING THE OBVIOUS

By Dan Savage, mail@savagelove.net

I’m a gay guy who’s involved with a guy I met a few months before COVID-19 took off. He’s a great guy, smart, funny, hot, healthy and easy to be around. It started as a hookup but we have chemistry on several levels and, without either of us having to say it, we started seeing each other regularly. We both live alone and decided to be exclusive due to the pandemic. I honestly don’t know what we’re doing here. It’s some combination of friends, fuck buddies, and married couple all at the same time.

I wanted to just keep a good thing going but he just threw me a curve ball that I need help figuring out how to handle.

Out of the blue he told me he held back telling me about his foot fetish. He says he’s had very bad experiences with guys who weren’t into it. He’s been keeping it to himself and looking at stuff online. I’m pretty vanilla and not into it, but I know kinks are a thing for a lot of guys and I’m willing to help out a good guy. I’m a longtime reader of yours, Dan, and being GGG is important to me. So I asked him to tell me what that means and what he wants to do. He wants to massage, wash and kiss my feet and suck my toes. OK, that’s not hot to me, but it’s probably doable once in a while. He thankfully doesn’t need me to do anything with his

congestion that has accumulated over time in your links to sources that usually serve you pretty well. So if you’ll simply disconnect for a while, I’m betting that clarity and grace will be restored when you reconnect.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Have you been saving any of your tricks for later? If so, later has arrived.

Have you been postponing flourishes and climaxes until the time was right? If so, the coming days will be as right a time as there can be. Have you been waiting and waiting for the perfect moment before making use of favors that life owes you and promises that were made to you? If so, the perfect moment has arrived. Have you been wondering when you would get a ripe opportunity to express and highlight the most interesting truths about yourself? If so, that opportunity is available.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes,” writes Scorpio author Maxine Hong Kingston. That would be an excellent task for you to work on in the coming weeks. Here are your formulas for success: 1. The more you expand your imagination, the better you’ll understand the big picture of your present situation—and the more progress you will make toward creating the most interesting possible future. 2. The more comfortable you are about dwelling in the midst of paradoxes, the more likely it is that you will generate vigorous decisions that serve both your own needs and the needs of your allies.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons,” says actor and director Denzel Washington. “When you shine bright, some won’t enjoy the shadow you cast,” says rapper and activist Talib Kweli. You may have to deal with reactions like those in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. If you do, I suggest that you don’t take it personally.

Your job is to be your radiant, generous self—and not worry about whether anyone has the personal power necessary to handle your radiant, generous self. The good news is that I suspect you will stimulate plenty of positive responses that will more

feet.

But there was more. I can’t believe I’m writing this: He asked if I would let him paint my toenails sometimes! WTF? He could barely say it and looked kind of sick after he did. We’re both conventional cis men. Neither of us are into fem stuff.

He claimed it’s not about making me femme. He says it’s just a hot thing for him. I know there’s no explanation for why people have kinks but do you have any ideas what this is about? I didn’t respond at all and we haven’t talked about it since. I’m not proud of that. I’m freaked out by this and not sure what to make of it. I don’t want to ask him directly if this is the price of admission because that seems too big a price to pay and I really don’t want it to be his price.

—Freaked Out Over Terrific Person’s

than counterbalance the challenging ones.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn occultist Peter J. Carroll tells us, “Some have sought to avoid suffering by avoiding desire. Thus they have only small desires and small sufferings.” In all of the zodiac, you Capricorns are among the least likely to be like that. One of your potential strengths is the inclination to cultivate robust desires that are rooted in a quest for rich experience. Yes, that sometimes means you must deal with more strenuous ordeals than other people. But I think it’s a wise trade-off. In any case, my dear, you’re now in a phase of your cycle when you should take inventory of your yearnings. If you find there are some that are too timid or meager, I invite you to either drop them or pump them up.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The people who live in the town of Bazoule, Burkina Faso regard the local crocodiles as sacred. They live and work amidst the 100+ creatures, co-existing peacefully.

Kids play within a few feet of them, never worrying about safety. I’d love to see you come to similar arrangements with untamed influences and strong characters in your own life, Aquarius. You don’t necessarily have to treat them as sacred, but I do encourage you to increase your empathy and respect for them.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Your body naturally produces at least one quart of mucus every day.

You might not be aware of it, because much of it glides down your throat. Although you may regard this snot as gross, it’s quite healthy. It contains antibodies and enzymes that kill harmful bacteria and viruses. I propose we regard mucus as your prime metaphor in the coming weeks. Be on the alert for influences and ideas that might empower you even if they’re less than beautiful and pleasing. Make connections with helpful influences even if they’re not sublimely attractive. ■ Homework: What helpful tip might one of your wise ancestors offer you about how to thrive in the coming months? FreeWillAstrology.com.

Erotic Revelation Vibe From your panicked response, FOOTPERV, you’d think this poor guy wanted to cut your toes off and masturbate while you bled out. Dude. He just wants to paint your toenails—as prices go, that’s a very small price to pay for smart, funny, and hot.

Yeah, yeah: you’re both conventionally cis and presumably conventionally masculine. Since we’ll never know what caused him to have this particular kink— kinks really are mysteries—let’s just run with that: He thinks this is hot—or his dick thinks this is hot—because guys like you aren’t supposed to have painted toenails and guys like him aren’t supposed to paint toenails, FOOTPERV, and this small transgression against gender

AUG. 6, 2020

-norms makes his dick hard because it does. While it’s not always the case with all kinks, in this instance the most obvious explanation is the likeliest explanation. Moving on… You say he’s a great guy, you say you enjoy being with him, and you say you’re a longtime reader. So you had to know that I was gonna say this: buy some fucking nail polish already and leave it on the nightstand where he can see it and let him paint your fucking toenails.

And if you really hate it, FOOTPERV, if it freaks you out to have polished toenails—or if your masculinity is really so fragile it shatters under the weight of toenail polish—then you don’t have to do it again. But I also gotta say… as off-the-wall sexual requests go… this is a small ask. If you were claustrophobic and your boyfriend wanted to mummify you, FOOTPERV, or if he wanted to use you as a urinal and you weren’t into piss, I would totally give you a pass. Some sexual requests are big asks and the third “G” in GGG (“good, giving, and game”) has always been qualified: “game for anything— within reason.” Some sexual requests are huge asks, some prices of admission are too steep, and some desires can only be accommodated by people who share them. But this request—what your COVID-19 spouse wants to do to you—is a small ask and a small price, FOOTPERV, in no way comparable to being turned into a mummy or used as a urinal. So smoke a little pot, put your feet on the nice man’s lap, and try to take pleasure in the pleasure you’re giving.

If I sound a little impatient, FOOTPERV, I apologize. We live in a deeply sex- and kink-negative culture and our first reaction when a partner discloses a kink is often a knee-jerk negative reaction to the idea of kinks at all. In the moment we can fail to distinguish between the big ask/steep price and the small ask/small price. And I hope you can see the compliment this great, smart, funny, hot guy was paying you when he asked. He felt safe enough to share something with you that other guys have judged and shamed him for. Take the compliment, buy the nail polish, pay the price.

I am a 37-year-old female who, almost three years ago, got out of a six-year toxic, violent relationship with a man I believe I loved. After I left him for good, my life started to improve in so many ways. However, it seems that my once-very-healthy sexual desires have died. Ever since we

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broke up I haven’t felt any sexual needs or attraction towards anybody. I honestly think there’s something wrong with me. I can’t even picture myself having intimacy again. A year ago, I went out on a couple of dates with a man younger than me, he was cute and very interested in me but I just didn’t feel the connection. I really don’t know what to make of this situation.

Any advice is profoundly appreciated.

—Just Another Gal Could it be a coincidence? Besides ridding yourself of a toxic and abusive ex—and that’s harder than people who haven’t been in an abusive relationship often realize and I’m so glad you got away from him—did something else happen three years ago that could’ve tanked your libido, JAG? Did you go on meds at the time for depression or anxiety? Could an undiagnosed medical condition that came on at roughly the same time create a libido-tanking hormonal imbalance?

Did you go on a new form of birth control in anticipation of the sex you’d soon be having with other, better, nicer, hotter, kinder men?

If nothing else is going on—if you aren’t on meds for depression or anxiety, if you’ve had your hormone levels checked and they’re normal, if a new form of birth control isn’t cratering your libido—then the most obvious and likeliest answer is probably the correct one: three years after getting out of an abusive relationship, JAG, you’re still reeling from the trauma.

And the best advice is also the obvious advice: find a sex-positive therapist or counselor who can help you work through your trauma and reclaim your sexuality.

Even if you were to get your hormone levels checked or adjust your psych meds or switch to a new birth control method, I would still recommend seeing a counselor or therapist.

And even if the thought of being intimate with others causes you stress and makes you anxious, JAG, you can still explore solo sex. You don’t have to wait for the right hot young man to come along in order to reconnect with your sexuality. You can read or write some erotica, you can splurge on an expensive sex toy (have you seen the new clit-sucking vibrators?), you can watch or create porn.

Really enjoying yourself may be the first step toward enjoying others again. ■ mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

This week on the Savage Lovecast, Mistress Velvet schools us all. savagelovecast.com

BIGSTOCK

MMJ BANKING

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

caps growth and increases operating expenses, creating costs that only the wealthiest operators can afford.

It also opens up the U.S. cannabis industry to foreign-based companies with more coherent laws and access to legitimate sources of capital, said Downtown Dispensary owner Moe Asnani.

“Foreign companies from Canada, the Czech Republic or Australia where it’s been legalized for adult use have access to markets—NASDAC and the NYSE—and capital that companies based in America do not have.” Asnani said. “They are also not subject to U.S. tax laws and they have better access to capital. [They are incorporated] using federal laws of their own countries.”

Investment opportunities are hindered by the situation as well, since “U.S. companies only have access to second-rate market exchanges and we can’t be in 401Ks,” according to Asnani.

Despite the current atmosphere in national politics, there are solutions to the banking problem working through the system. But partisan posturing has stalled a cure in the Senate, where Republican lawmakers—and a few conservative Democrats—don’t want to appear to be “soft on crime.”

The Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 would enable banks to offer loans and other banking services to cannabis businesses, including contractors and vendors who never touch the plant, but are subject to the same regulations.

SAFE became the first standalone cannabis bill to be passed in the House, receiving bipartisan support with nearly half of House Republicans joining the near-unani-

mous support from Democrats.

The Republican-controlled Senate has refused to act on the legislation, but the most recent attempt to get it passed is attached to the next round of COVID stimulus—H.R. 6800, The HEROES Act. While that package has passed the House of Representatives, it has stalled as of press time in the U.S. Senate.

The SAFE Banking Act protects banking institutions from being penalized for providing services to legitimate cannabis-related industries. It does not require the banking institution to provide services and there are provisions included to report suspicious banking activity to the government.

Even members of the banking industry are ready for a change in part to reap the profits of a rapidly expanding source of revenues.

The American Bankers Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the U.S. banking industry founded in 1875, has lent its support to the bill.

“We continue to support the bipartisan SAFE Banking Act which would help resolve the current conflict between state and federal law when it comes to banking cannabis businesses in states where it is legal,” ABA spokesperson Blair Bernstein wrote in a recent email. “It’s up to members of Congress to determine the right moment to advance this legislation, but we know it would enhance public safety, transparency and tax collection. The bill has already cleared the House twice, and we continue to encourage the Senate to consider the legislation as soon as possible.”

This is part one of a two-part series. Part two will focus on tax laws that hinder growth in the cannabis industry.

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