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R E N O R I V E R .O R G / W I N E 7 7 5 - 8 2 5 -WA L K

FEBRUARY

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COMEDY Dennis Miller

COVER STORY 12 The Kinetic Art of

Marcio Decker

EVENT 28 Brew HAHA 30 Electrify

12

FEATURE 32 Dana Nott Entertainment 36 Comedy Promoter

Wayne Wright 42 Lead Dog Brewing Company

Part 2 56 Reno Street Photography

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LIT 68 If You Want to Be a Writer MUSIC 70 Sam Roberts Evergreen

REAL ESTATE 74 When it's ok to fall in love...

42 42

56

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FEBRUARY 2018 CONTENT

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RENO AS FUCK 76 Reno Cannabis Convention 78 SKATE NV SPIRIT 80 Old Souls

THE MIND OF MENCARELLI 82 Daughter Knows Best

THE NEST 84 Getting Dirty On Valentine’s

Day 2018 THEATER 86 The Royale 88 TRAINING TIPS 92 UNITED WE STONED

January 4th

94 WANDERED OFF

Yum Botik – Mayan Thank You

Editor/Publisher Oliver X Art Director Chris Meredith Contributing Designers Courtney Meredith Tucker Monticelli Design Associate Courtney Orchowski Contributing Writers Tessa Miller Thomas Lloyd Qualls Camie Cragg Lyman Janice Hermsen Natasha Bourlin Shirley Larkins Contributing Photographers Alfyn Gestoso Anicia Beckwith Chris Holloman Digiman Studio Joey Savoie Eric Marks Kyle Volland Nick Sorrentino Marcello Rostagni Interns Daniel Faith Sales 775-412-3767 Submissions renotahoetonight rocks@gmail.com Website renotahoetonightmagazine.com

All content, layout and design is the property of Reno Tahoe Tonight Magazine. Duplication or reproduction is prohibited without the expressed written consent of Reno Tahoe Tonight Magazine.

Copyright 2018. Reno Tahoe Tonight is produced on 10% recycled American paper and is printed with all soy and vegetable inks.

SNAPSHOT Photographer Jamie Kingham Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr." Bryson of THE legendary ROOTS crew Knitting Factory Reno, Nevada NYE 2010

COMEDY Text Dave Mencarelli Photo courtesy of Jonas Public Relations

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Comic Dennis Miller's big break came in 1985 when he became the anchor on SNL's "Weekend Update." Since then he's done movies, hosted his own television and radio shows, written four books and even spent a season in the booth on ABC's Monday Night Football. Through it all he's continued to do standup comedy. He still works with former cohorts like Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon and Bill O'Reilly. He even once had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the incredibly funny comic you're reading now.

I spoke with Miller by phone in advance of his appearance at the Silver Legacy February 10.

Dave Mencarelli: So, I’ll start with some simple, easy, silly ones you’ve been asked 100 times. What got you interested in standup?

Dennis Miller: When I was young, I saw a comedian once at the Pittsburgh Comedy Club named Joe Bolster.

Dave Mencarelli: Yeah, I know Joe. I don’t know him personally but I remember him.

He’s great.

Dennis Miller: I wrote a few jokes and he bought them and I saw him do a couple of them on the tonight show and they got good laughs. I remember sitting at home thinking that I don’t think that psychically I am able to sit here in my apartment and watch somebody else – it’s all fair and square, he bought the jokes, I sold the jokes – but I remember thinking I better become the joke teller because that hurts too much to watch.

Dave Mencarelli: That’s interesting, because I have been doing it for years and I always enjoy if I’ve given someone a line and it works. I would prefer though to not ever get on stage again, so that’s interesting to me that you want to be the one out there. I think that’s because I do a lot of silly stuff but you have something to say and a point of view you wanted to get across.

Dennis Miller: Yeah, I didn’t quite know what the point of view was at that point, to be candid (laughs), but it forms over the years. I do know that I thought geez, I originated that idea, I just heard Johnny Carson laugh off to the side and I’m in an apartment in Pittsburgh wondering what to do with my life. I’m going to try to become the person twenty feet from Johnny Carson making him laugh.

Reno Tahoe Tonight 9

Dave Mencarelli: Who influenced you, standup-wise?

Dennis Miller: Let’s see, when I was a young kid, I thought Jonathon Winters was a genius. Then in my working man days as a fledgling comedian I would say Jay Leno’s work ethic was very important to me and Richard Belzer’s insouciance about the audience made a dent on me. Then I saw a comedian who was very kind to me named Kelly Monteith who I just sort of went around and asked for advice. He was kind and nice and encouraging. Robin Williams’ first comedy special I found very exhilarating because he genuinely seemed untethered and Richard Pryor’s first comedy special I still think is the New England Primer of stand up, the Farmer’s Almanac of hip.

Dave Mencarelli: Absolutely. Did you start doing open mics in Pittsburgh or did you just immediately go to bigger cities?

Dennis Miller: No, I went in Pittsburgh with a few gigs. I Did a few that were encouraging and crashed at a few. I Did some strip clubs, did some jazz clubs and moved to New York.

Dave Mencarelli: So you cut your teeth in the New York days with that crowd. I just read the book “I’m Dying up Here” which was talking about all the Comedy Store stuff in Southern California. Were you out in LA in those days?

Dennis Miller: You know, I was never a real “hanger outer”. I certainly performed at the Comedy Store. I remember Mitzi (Mitzi Shore, the owner of the Comedy Store) asking to talk to me one night and telling me I had clever ideas but she felt I should wear more sweaters.

Dave Mencarelli: [Laughs] Did you take her up on that? Or did you feel that it was probably not important?

Dennis Miller: To be honest, I would go up to anyone who owned a club and be polite, because they control your destiny, but I’m not doing it to find out what they want. I’m doing it to find out what I can do and what I want. I would nod and say thank you and I’ll think about that. You know these things where people get in a beef or huge fights with people over stuff, I just thought I’ll be nice, thank you, I’ll think about that. I don’t know what that meant even.

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Dave Mencarelli: Yeah right, that’s a smart thing because in the end it’s a business and like you said, those people, especially back in those days, had control over your career. How did your stand up change as you got more political? Or should I say maybe you didn’t get more political you just got more OPENLY political.

Dennis Miller: I got hired on Weekend Update.

Dave Mencarelli: That’s when it started?

Dennis Miller: Well obviously when you’re on Weekend Update you become known. I think it would be fair to say you could check a lot of the guys who have been the Weekend Update anchor and they do more topical or political humor. You know, the new kid, Jost. Certainly Seth Meyers.

You’re a topical comedian and oft times, the topics of the day are the events of the day and the politics of the day. It’s nice to be able to say you were the Weekend Update anchor.

Dave Mencarelli: Any backlash you suffered when you sort of became more open about your political views? I’m talking about from your peers or people in the business?

Dennis Miller: Um, I can’t say a sustained amount, I’m sure it can cost you in some way, but I honestly don’t keep my antennae up for it.

Dave Mencarelli: What’s your process like in standup? Do you write out a joke and then try it or do you just sort of have an idea that germinates and then you take it on stage and work it out?

Dennis Miller: I usually get an idea and I have on my phone a little recorder. For years it was match packs and napkins, like anybody else. You accumulate them. I usually try to get up to 50 of them. When I get around 50 of them, I’ll play them. I scheduled some time today to go through some of these jokes that I’ve accumulated on my phone. If there are 50 there, I would say I end up writing 35 of them down and 15 of them would seem like geez, maybe I should see a shrink about that one. Then out of the 35 – I won’t do a low attrition thing – but I’d say there are probably 20 at some point that I would say I could take on stage and say it this way. And then I’ll say it that way and usually the adrenaline of being in the moment and my predilection towards metaphor and simile will come up with the annotation on stage and then I have that tape when I’m in a

working mode and I go listen to it. I would say somewhere along the line if I have 50 ideas and I get ten good working jokes out of it, I’m happy with that batting average.

Dave Mencarelli: So you’ve done stand up, television, movies, radio, even Monday Night Football – do you enjoy one of those things more than the others?

Dennis Miller: I’ll be honest, I’m sort of a pragmatist about it. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve worked for 30 years in show business. I think it’s 30 years? Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s somewhere in there. It’s a hard gig. I always view it as a lily pond. I don’t look at the far shore. I’m looking at the closest lily pad because I know they tend to get shot out from under you and I wanna stay dry, so I’ve got that approach. You asked me what I like the most, it’s working and writing jokes. I still enjoy sitting down with a legal pad and long handing out the joke.

Dave Mencarelli: How do you think stand up has changed with advent of YouTube and Netflix and things of that nature? Has it become diluted?

Dennis Miller: Well, I think the different platforms you can be seen on are great, but I would say political correctness has sorta ruined it. If I was a kid now, I’d get in and out of stand up as fast as I could. Whereas I used to think you could get in there, incubate for a while, learn your chops, take a breath, look around, and pick a good project. It’s so dangerous now you never know. I wouldn’t go near a college campus with stand up. I’d use my head about having something to say, as you said. I don’t think this is the time for that. It’s very closed minded.

When a kid who’s sold out Madison Square Garden – Aziz Ansari – could be in this sort of brouhaha because he had a bad date, I think it tells you it might not be a good time for you to go out there. Put it this way, I sometimes think if Sam Kinison were around today, instead of being remembered as genius who broke all the shackles, he’d be thought of somebody who wouldn’t get past audition night and maybe get sued for hate speech or something.

Dave Mencarelli: When I opened for you I watched you at the pre-show meet and greet.

You took time with each person individually and made ALL of them feel important. Do you enjoy that interaction?

Dennis Miller: Yeah, I’m flattered anybody gives a shit. You think about that, that’s an amazing thing. Out of all the things you get in show business, I mean really it’s pretty mind boggling to think the people at home on a given night get dressed, get in the car, come to where you are, pay money, come in and LISTEN to you and then go home. You know how many nights you go “I’m gonna do something tonight…” and then you decide “Nah, I’ll stay in.” I find it a big… It’s very flattering, it’s a big honor to me. So when I go to meet somebody I’m not going to act like…

I mean there’s no exchange going on there if they weren’t nice enough to come say hi. It’s the easiest thing I do when I perform.

Dave Mencarelli: Do you still get heckled?

Dennis Miller: Ehh… no. Well, once in a while.

I did the Kennedy Center a couple of years ago with Dana Carvey and some guy poked me a little and I said “You know this is named after Jack, not Teddy”, and that got a big laugh.

Dave Mencarelli: I mean, at your level people know you and know what to expect. I loved when I asked you how you wanted to be introduced, you said “You can just say ‘Ladies and gentlemen – Dennis Miller” because there’s no need to run down your long list of credits…

Dennis Miller: [Laughs] Right. Any blandishment beyond that just makes it harder on me.

Dave Mencarelli: Is there a current stand up comic you’d pay to see?

Dennis Miller: Sure. Sebastian Maniscalco.

Brian Regan. And always Seinfeld. Those are the three best comedians in the world right now.

Dave Mencarelli: Thanks for doing this. I’m going to ask them to sneak me backstage because I didn’t get a picture when I opened for you 3 years ago…

Dennis Miller: Yeah, come on back.

Dave Mencarelli: I honestly want to thank you again for being so gracious to me today and when I did that show. I appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing you.

Reno Tahoe Tonight 11

COVER STORY Text Oliver X Cover and feature photos Chris Holloman

R

The Kinetic Art of

Marcio Decker An Introduction

eno-based, Brazilian born painter-designer Marcio Decker is an artist of enormous creative vision and technical skill. Inspired by the alpine terroir of the Sierra Nevada, Decker's canvasses are layered constructions of painted environments, images, objects and geometric shapes rendered in vibrant colors under architectural glass. His Vanishing Mutualism, a mixed media triptych employing LED lighting, glass, photo collage of selfies of friends and family, and his paintings of the mountainous Nevada landscape, won the first place award in the Mixed Media category at the prestigious 2017 Florence Biennale, Italy's outstanding showcase of major contemporary art production. Decker, Principal Designer at the award-winning Aspen Leaf Interiors, was the only U.S. artist recognized at the Biennale, evidence of the ascent of Decker's star in the artistic firmament.

of my laptop in front of an image of one of my paintings, and that was it. I knew that I had found my finishing layer.”

Informed by Joseph Albers' factual color and actual color dichotomy, Decker's kinetic art ignites a dynamic dialogue, an interactive polyseme, as the viewer is absorbed in the parallax. This anamorphosis is facilitated by the geometric matrices formed by the reeds of Decker's architectural glass layer, as light, color and texture dance, shift and seduce the eye. The effect is a quite literal, but unconscious swaying, as the viewer slowly pivots to see the newness of each fleeting, momentary perspective revealed by the work. The viewer is the initiate, moved by movement.

Decker remembers time spent on his older sister's nearby rice plantation, where he spent summers, as an important time for adventure: doing craft projects, climbing trees and riding horseback. “It was great for my imagination and a huge part of me being creative and expressing freedom,” he notes.

Decker once struggled with knowing when to step away from his work, often coming back to a piece to add to it over time. But curiosity led Decker to a creative and technical denouement. “The construction of the pieces themselves involves a lot of layers. I always layered and layered and layered the work. And then I thought that maybe I would finish and put a resin on. Then I thought, Why would I do that? So I kept thinking, How am I going to stop the process and finish this piece, and stop the layering with this final layer that makes it look perfect? One day I was playing with a sample of architectural glass in Truckee. I didn't have my paintings in front of me and I had to go to San Francisco, so I grabbed my laptop and grabbed a sample. When I got to my hotel room in San Francisco, I held the glass sample up to the screen 12 Reno Tahoe Tonight

A native of Cachoeira do Sul in southern Brazil and the youngest of six children, art was a part of Decker's earliest memories. “I've always been artistic,” says Decker. I drew pictures all over the walls of my bedroom, so it looked like wallpaper— and my parents let me,” he recalls, laughing. “So their contribution to my art was allowing me to express myself. My godmother gave me one of those drafting template stencils that looked like a mandala, and that got me really going with shapes and forms. When I started in school my art classes were the best and I enjoyed them very much and got good grades. My early exposure to art also came through books I got at the library and from going to the few museums I had access to...”

Asked how much he draws from his childhood experiences at play today in the creation of his art, which is full of color and boundlessness, Decker is reflective, “Well, the freedom for sure. The subject of my work is what I decide. The spontaneity. I can create abstraction; I can create collages; I can create anything. Then I have the freedom to color them. So it's almost like a continual exercising of the imagination that I had when I had my entire Star Wars collection set up in the trees.

So, freedom is a driver for sure. It's not the only motivator. Freedom can come at a great cost, because not having structure could allow you to be all over the place and imagine too much and not actually do anything. So there's a fine balance and equilibrium there that needs to happen. So you can make something.”

In part 2 of our series on painter-designer Marcio Decker, we look more into his process and highlight the design work he and his partners do at Aspen Leaf Interiors. deckerfinearts.com aspenleafinteriors.com

“Nature is composed of geometric patterns.

I play with that. The work is a conversation between the image and the geometry.�

- Marcio Decker

LED work "Active Prominence" Detail in background

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COVER STORY "Attraction", 2017 Painting created for work completed at gary Farell's winery new tasting room Sonoma

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COVER STORY

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"Vanishing Mutualism" mixed media triptych 122 x 183 x 9 cm 2017 Reno Tahoe Tonight 17

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COVER STORY Colors

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COVER STORY At the studio with works in progress

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COVER STORY LED work on walnut easel "Mosaic" detail 2015

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COVER STORY LED Lamp "Active Prominence" Detail 2015

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COVER STORY LED works "Active Prominence" Detail and "Mosaic" both from 2015

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EVENT Text Oliver X Photo of Mojo Green courtesy of the band

Brew HaHa

February 16, 2018 @ The Nugget 8pm doors For the past 23 years Brew HaHa has been Reno's best excuse for drinking craft beers for a worthy cause. Once again this year Sierra Arts Foundation, the presenting non-profit arts 28 Reno Tahoe Tonight

advocacy organization that will benefit from the proceeds of the event, has a stellar lineup of local and regional breweries and distributors eager to share their brews for the imbibing public.

I spoke to Sierra Arts Executive Director Tracey Oliver to get her take on what's in store at this year's Brew HaHa, happening February 16, 2018 at The Nugget in Sparks.

Oliver X: Talk about this year's event.

Tracey Oliver: It's the 23rd Anniversary of Brew HaHa, Sierra Arts foundation's largest fundraiser of the year. It's an exciting event. People are buying tickets, calling on the phone well in advance of the event this year. It's as much a community event as it is a fundraiser.

Oliver X: For readers who've never been to Brew HaHa, describe the event.

Tracey Oliver: There's a100 plus beers and there's an opportunity to talk to all of your favorite breweries and distributors. It's a huge party and also very well controlled in a beautiful environment. The Nugget has just redone their convention and banquet areas. We also have a big segment of the room dedicated to artists in our Artists Village. They bring their wares and sell them on site. Our musical guest this year is Mojo Green, the dance party band, and everybody is looking forward to seeing them. Star Sound Audio has stepped in to do the sound as a generous gift to Sierra Arts Foundation.

Oliver X: How does this fundraising piece serve Sierra Arts' programs and mission?

Tracey Oliver: For those who don't know Sierra Arts, our mission is to teach, nurture and educate artists. We use this money to fund our arts integration, our arts education, our elder care concert series—any opportunity we have to fund an artist—that's where these funds go.

Mojo Green

Oliver X: How do artists access these funded programs Sierra Arts Foundation facilitates, through grant applications?

Tracey Oliver: Well, we do have grants and some of this money will go to our grants for artists, that's done once a year. These are application-based grants. But these aren't the only way artists get funded. We go out of our way to seek out opportunities to create jobs.

Oliver, we understand at Sierra Arts that a strong community has a strong arts and culture component to it. That's what we've been dedicated to since 1971. People don't come to a city because of its parking or its office buildings. They come because there's something beautiful about it; they come for the arts and culture. We are really in a renaissance here in Reno and Sparks with our arts and culture.

Reno-Sparks and Washoe County are embracing the knowledge that it's the arts that bring tourists in, but it's also the arts that make our communities strong.

Additionally, Sierra Arts knows that our arts community is made up of much more than painters. We want to see tattoo artists get their due; we want to see dancers get their due. We want to showcase cabaret performers and make sure that they are paid and given their due.

Tickets for Brew Haha are available online, at the Sierra Arts Foundation and at The Nugget box office. Prices: $53.25 for general admission and $68.25 for VIP. VIP tickets get patrons in an hour earlier to talk to the brewers. VIP doors are at 7pm and general admission entry is at 8pm.

$5 OFF!

EVENT Text Oliver X Presented by Prestige Productions and Dreu Murin Productions Choreography Madeline Feldman with Alex Kaskie

TICKET PRICE WITH BACKSTAGE PASS

High Voltage Rock n' Roll AC/DC

Electrify @ The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino through March 31, 2018 Electrify did just that to the capacity crowd during its opening week at Vinyl inside of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Though the cast has expanding slightly since their initial shows, the performance I attended did not look like an opening week engagement. Producer choreographer Madeline Feldman credits the hard work of the cast for getting the numbers together in “just a few weeks of rehearsals.”

Dancers Jeci Padrino and Alex Kaskie were espcially impressive.

The ensemble, made up of veteran performers Dillon Daggs (male dancer), Kaskie (male dancer), Padrino (female dancer), Lisa Fillipone (female dancer), Sarah Sperber (aerialist/dancer), Mikaela Meredith (female dancer) and Mistress of Ceremonies Ashlee Stone, executed crisply choreographed, tongue-in-cheek, high-camp dance routines that were supported by the monster, high-nrg sound design that featured current and 90's era rock n roll hits and memories.

One of the delightful highlights of the show was the return to the stage of legendary drag queen Ashlee Stone. The curvaceous blonde bombshell's hilarious one-liners and double entendre quips took innuendo to new levels— and the crowd ate it up.

Electrify has had a string of consecutive sellouts, so get your tickets early for this show, which features glow effects, edgy costuming, aerial performances, cabaret numbers and just enough skin to titillate.

There was a lot of audience interaction and the vibe in the venue was extremely upbeat. Electrify is well worth seeing several times to take in the

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January 19 - March 31 Every Friday & Saturday | 9PM

$20 TICKETS Purchase tickets online at

HardRockCasinoLakeTahoe.com Must be 21+ *Live Entertainment Tax of 9% not included in ticket price.

844.588.ROCK

50 HIGHWAY 50 STATELINE, NV 89449

@HRHCLAKETAHOE #THISISHARDROCK

spectacle of it all. A return visit is in the cards for me see this production again deeper into its run.

Watch for our print feature in March detailing how Dreu Murin and Madeline Feldman coaxed Ashlee Stone out of retirement and back onto the theater stage.

Electrify runs through March 31 at Vinyl inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. 8:30PM doors.

9PM showtime. But get there early, people start lining up at 8! hardrockcasinolaketahoe.com

ACTING • MODELING • VOICE • DANCE

It’s a New Year!

DON’T DREAM ABOUT SUCCESS. WORK FOR IT. CREATE IT.

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Our approach will get you started on the right path.

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FEATURE Text Oliver X Photos Joey Savoie

If you've lived in the Reno-Tahoe for any length of time and go out to club shows and casino events, you've undoubtedly seen the gorgeous dancers at LEX; the tantalizing Opal Nightclub Go-Go Dancers at Montbleu in South Lake Tahoe and the talented aerialists and cirque performers at events large and small at nearly every hotel property in the area.

They all have one thing in common: they were more than likely booked and managed by the young behind-thescenes dynamo Dana Nott of Dreu Murin Productions.

Still in her early twenties, Nott has already proven to be a savvy promotion industry veteran, a skilled identifier and manger of talent – as well as a talent in her own right – as an aerial performer. As the go-to-gal for promoter Dreu Murin's growing empire, she's been a key element to the rise of Dreu Murin Productions.

“Most people have an executive assistant who manages their schedule,” says Murin. “Dana manages a team of 140+ in six markets including Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento, northern California and the Bay Area, schedules several locations, trains, performs and manages many diverse projects within our company—all while keeping everyone happy. Which is most important.”

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I spoke with Nott online, while she was enjoying a much needed vacation in Mexico, about how she started as a performer, and the challenges she faces running the largest promotional company in northern California and northern Nevada.

Oliver X: Were you one of those kids who was always swinging on the monkey bars at school?

Dana Nott: Yes. I was always climbing on things, swinging from things. I definitely was a high energy child... Heck I'm still high energy!

Oliver X: [Laughter].

What led you to get into aerial performance? Did you have a background in dance or performance?

Dana Nott: I have been in dance class since the age of 2! Professionally trained in many styles such as jazz, contemporary, ballet, hip hop, heels, and the list goes on. I began aerial arts because I wanted to have more qualities as a performer. One year ago I made a commitment to my training with SkyDance Studio. In less than I year I booked a show, Essence with Prestige Productions at Harrah's Reno as the featured Aerialist. I continue to work hard, gain knowledge, gain more strength, but I am thankful for the experience of performing live weekly as and aerialist.

Oliver X: You do a lot of heavy lifting with a full itinerary for Dreu Murin Productions. Talk about what you do

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FEATURE at DMP.

Dana Nott: My official title is Entertainment Manger, though there is a lot that falls under that umbrella! On a regular basis I schedule and manage all of the dancers at Lex Nightclub, Opal Nightclub and Hard Rock Casino. Then we partner with multiple alcohol companies like Infinium Beverage, Sierra Nevada, Brown Forman, Breakthru Beverage, Tahoe Blue Vodka, and New West Distributors, at which I schedule and manage the promotional models who go out on the town pushing their products. Then there is the other side of things: We have tons of one-time events that pop-up all over the place.

That is where I get to help plan events, organize, and make sure they are executed to perfection.

The rest of my time is spent pretty much doing whatever Dreu tells me to do.

Oliver X: You have to have a keen eye for talent. How do you build your roster of performers and promo models?

Dana Nott: As Dreu Murin Production grows, it becomes easier to find the talent. Our business is creating a name for itself, and many times girls come to us. But there are many things that are important to me when creating our "team." I look for things like stage presence, appearance, good attitude, commitment, and I love people who love to work!

Oliver X: As a performer, what is the single most important aspect of being safe when you're on silks or lyra?

Dana Nott: Strength! Being in the studio, on the apparatus consistently multiple times a week is important. Practicing and training will make you stronger and safer.

Oliver X: You're amazingly young to have so much responsibility. What is the key to your time management ability?

Dana Nott: I come from an extremely hard working family. I am the youngest of six, and my mom and dad have owned their own business my entire life (and most of theirs too). They have worked for everything they have, and they taught all of us kids to be the same way. Every single one of my siblings are so smart, successful and paved a way for themselves by working for it, they all 34 Reno Tahoe Tonight

have shown me how its done. Dreu is the same way, no matter what insane idea Dreu thinks of next, you better believe he will figure out a way to do it.

Oliver X: You get to see the behind-thescenes aspects of everything from live band performances to stand-up comics and show and shines. What aspect of show business do you like the best?

Dana Nott: What I love about show business that many will never see is literally the behind the scenes. What goes on back stage is generally chaos! Quick changes, running from one side to the other, broken shoes, eyelashes fall off, someone is throwing up in a trash can...There are so many things that you would never know about because a true performer will walk on stage every time with a smile. There are many times when you don't think you can pull it off, and the show turns out great every time.

Oliver X: What are some of the aspirations you have for yourself professionally and as a performer?

Dana Nott: Professionally I will eventually need to step back from performing and concentrate on the business side of things. I plan to stay in the entertainment business, which can go so many places. Until my body completely gives out on me, I won't be leaving the stage.

Performance-wise, something that I'm really aspiring to get into is aerial competitions. I have some more work to do, but with the help and belief from my family, my boyfriend David, Dreu, Sarah Sperber, Maddie Feldman, and so many friends, I have the tools and ability to make it happen. I have been a competitor my whole life, and this will be a great next chapter. dreumurin.com Editor's Note: Reno Tahoe Tonight would like to thank photographer Joey Savoie for contributing his stellar shots of Dana Nott to this feature.

Savoie continues to create noteworthy work and we are thrilled to be able to show off both he and Nott, as valued professionals in Reno-Tahoe's immensely talented arts community.

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FEATURE Comedy Promoter Wayne Wright of Reno-Tahoe Comedy Thursday nights at 8pm at LEX Thursday-Friday and Saturday nights at the Pioneer Underground Comedy Collective First Friday of every month at the Pioneer Underground Text Oliver X Images courtesy of Reno-Tahoe Comedy

L-R Steve Hytner Justin Rivera, Mayor Hillary Schieve, Justin Rupple, Wayne Wright Here in the Biggest Little City, fans of standup comedy can find laughs almost any night of the week, with the abundance of live comedy options that range from nationally known headliners, to open mic warriors trying out their brand of shock shtick on friends and family. It was this region's love of comedy that inspired this magazine's existence, and my first live comedy experience was seeing Flip Wilson when I was a boy in Lake Tahoe.

Comedy impresario Wayne Wright of RenoTahoe Comedy has been building his brand and supporting local comedy for over a decade, both in Reno, Tahoe and in Carson City. Wright gave many local working comics their start, but is seldom recognized for being one of the four pillars of live comedy here in northern Nevada. And it's a tough gig, with slim margins and programming competition coming from bars, clubs and casinos making operating a stand-alone theater for comedy that much harder. But Wright has managed to keep his headliner quality high, while supporting locals as openers.

Wright has the advantage of working out of one of the best theaters for comedy in the state in 36 Reno Tahoe Tonight

the 175- seat Pioneer Underground, which he programs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Headliner comics appreciate working in a room with real theater seats, professional lighting and sound and an actual green room.

In 2017, Wright kicked his satellite Thursday night Reno-Tahoe Comedy set into gear at the posh 4,000 square foot LEX Lounge inside the Grand Sierra Resort, the frontage space that you see when you walk into LEX. The comedy happens at 8pm, prior to LEX's new late night offering called LEX Unplugged, which features the music of local and regional DJs and artists from Reno and the Bay Area.

Wright also has the Comedy Collective, billed as a “fast-paced, fresh, and furiously funny improv� happening the first Friday of every month at the Pioneer Underground. The region's most gifted improvisational actors and comics (including Emily Skyle-Golden, Christopher Daniels, Ian Sorensen, Stacey Johnson, Amanda Alvey, Joseph Garton, Marki Ho, and other notables) make the Comedy Collective must see entertainment.

I spoke with Wright recently to hear how he started out and how he built his brand in a town that loves to laugh.

What is your success formula that makes Reno-Tahoe Comedy different?

Oliver X: How'd you get into comedy?

headliners and a lot of our headliners even come in to host shows. And, we put good people together, so people love working with them. Customers appreciate the quality of the shows, so they come back. We have a lot of locals that come in for repeat business. Some of our notable headliners who return frequently are Justin Rupple, Sean Peabody, Justin Rivera, Kevin Farley...And we've been able to have a relationship with Steve Hytner who played Kenny Bania on Seinfeld.

Wayne Wright: I've always loved comedy

since I was a kid. So it was a natural to start producing shows and bringing people together for quality shows and the experience of becoming friends with a lot of really good people.

Oliver X: Were you ever a comic?

Wayne Wright: [Laughter] Me? No, I

say something funny once in a while, but not as a profession.

Wayne Wright: Well, we book quality

We also nurture local comics and try to help them become professional so they can move forward and have a real comedy career.

Oliver X: Where'd you first start programming comedy?

Oliver X: What makes a good comic?

Wayne Wright: In Southern California.

Wayne Wright: First of all, making people

I had a nightclub and we started doing comedy nights every Wednesday. Then I came to Lake Tahoe and met Bill Wood, the general manager of Crystal Bay Casino. And he gave us the opportunity to start booking shows there. This was in 2007.

Oliver X: How have you seen the comedy

scene change since that time?

Wayne Wright: The only shows going on in Lake Tahoe were on the south shore at The Improv at Harrah's. There were sporadic small shows on the north shore, so it was great for us to be able to start at the Crystal Bay Casino.

In Reno there was a casino show that had shows virtually every night and one-offs, which is where we started in Reno. We started at Cal Neva. We went to a lot of different casinos, but it was during the recession, and people were not really receptive at that time. It was a tough time.

laugh. [Laughter]. That helps! Another thing that makes a good comic is not attacking the audience.

[Laughter]. A lot of comics attack the audience. It produces a bad interaction. I've had some of those comics and have had to phase them out.

We also provide a very friendly experience from the time you walk through the door to the end of the show. We're all here because we love comedy.

We're not just there for the money. We want everyone to have a good time. That's one of the main distinguishing factors with us compared to other comedy clubs.

Oliver X: What are your thoughts about the region's open mic scene?

Wayne Wright: Open mics are one of the

few places emerging comics can get some stage time. I send people to open mics all the time so that they can get some stage experience and work out their material.

Oliver X: Do you remember the first act you brought to Crystal Bay?

Oliver X: How does a comic go from opener

Wayne Wright: I believe the first one

Wayne Wright: They start by doing guest

Oliver X: You've been instrumental in

Oliver X: What does hosting entail?

was Ron Shock, who was an awesome comic from Las Vegas. He passed away. He was just an awesome person and an awesome comic. He was a storyteller and it was so great working with him. building comedy here in northern Nevada.

to headliner with Reno-Tahoe Comedy?

spots. Most of the guest spots start on a Thursday night. And then we will start bringing them in on weekends. If they do well and they're consistent, then we'll bring them into a host spot.

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FEATURE Wayne Wright: Hosting is very difficult

at our venue because their spots are broken up into three different segments. They're usually six minutes, six minutes then five minutes. We usually do a host; some guest spots; a host and then we do an intermission where we do our giveaways. Then the host comes back; then the headliner closes.

Oliver X: Do you paper any shows or give

presale tickets to your undercard acts to sell?

Or you may have a formula where you get young comics on stage for their first performance ever, which all of their friends and family will come to because it's a big thing, thus ensuring good attendance. But there's not enough comics in Reno to make that flu week after week month after month, right? How have you built RenoTahoe Comedy with unknown, first-timers?

Do you depend on your undercard to fill seats?

Wayne Wright: We don't depend on

the locals. If they want to bring people that's great. They can even sell tickets and get a percentage of the ticket sales.

Oliver X: But that's not

mandatory...

Wayne Wright: It's

not required. Although some people who call themselves comics in Reno think we do require that.

Oliver X: So there's no pay-to-play? They're not buying a stack of tickets they have to sell?

Wayne Wright: No. In a lot of comedy

clubs in LA, Chicago and New York, you have to bring so many people into the club in order to get stage time. And they have to pay and there's a two drink minimum usually. We don't require our comics to bring people into the venue in order to go on stage. Most comedy clubs will not put an up-and-coming comic, who isn't established, on stage on a weekend.

They have an open mic or showcase time when they do that on weeknights. But we want to give local comics a forum to progress on a professional stage, in front of people who are coming just for the comedy, versus an open mic night.

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Oliver X: How do you vet a comic?

Is it by reputation? How does a comic get your attention?

Wayne Wright: It's not necessarily by reputation because some comics will come in and I'll talk to them and I'll have to make a decision about if they're right for our venue. I've put comics up that aren't right for the venue.

[Laughter]. I've become more picky on who I put on stage. We definitely want people who are good people and that we can work with, and not some open mic'er who's out there to bring shock value and make that part of their set. We are a theater.

We allow people in who are under 21. We are not a casino. So sometimes we'll have mothers and daughters or even three generations sometimes.

My first comedy experience was when I was a kid and my mother took me to see a comedy show.

Oliver X: Me too.

Wayne Wright: I like people to bring their

teenagers in to see comedy and that's why we also do comedic magician matinees sometimes, so people can bring their younger children.

Coming up in February at Reno-Tahoe Comedy First Fridays featuring the Comedy Collective Friday 2/2 @ 6:30pm Kabir Singh (The Family Guy) 2/2 @ 9:00pm, 2/3 @ 6:30pm & 9:30pm Joey Medina (Latin Kings of Comedy) Justin Rupple Valentine's Day Show “Couples Therapy” Wednesday, 2/14, 2018 7pm “Dismantled” 2/16 @ 9:00pm, 2/17 @ 6:30pm & 9:30pm R-Rated 8th Anniversary Party! Steven Michael Quesada (Breaking Bad) 2/22 @ 8pm, 2/23 @ 9pm, 2/24 @ 6:30pm & 9:30pm + Very special guests in March!

Reno Tahoe Comedy welcomes groups of all kinds for fundraisers and special events. For more details email info@renotahoecomedy.com.

Pioneer Underground 100 South Virginia Street Reno, Nevada Phone (775) 322-5233 renotahoecomedy.com

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FEATURE Text Oliver X Photos Chris Holloman

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T

he mouth is the house of taste and flavor. We have our 10,000 taste buds to thank for that. The taste sensations we experience are mapped out in our throat, tongue and mouth.

We experience something bitter in the mid to back portion of the palate. Sweet is sensed near the front of the palate, while we perceive sourness at the mid sides of the tongue. Salty is sensed at the front sides of the palate. You've undoubtedly seen wine snobs “coat their palates� by swirling wine in their mouths, almost like they're gargling, right? That's so they can put all of their taste receptors into action, to perceive the range of flavors a wine can express.

Beer tasting aficionados trust similarly in their palates to fully experience a beer's flavor profiles. Here in part two of our feature on Lead Dog Brewing Co., with the help of the brewpub's Derrek Doutre, we explore the production process and basic beer primers that the customer-focused company feels makes all the difference in creating informed patrons, that leads to better educated beer drinkers.

Oliver X: Derrek what's your background and how did you get involved here at Lead Dog? Derrek Doutre: My background is I came out of the golf industry and was in that industry for four years. I transitioned from working at the bar at Montreux. I worked heavily on sommelier stuff and mixology. It really intrigued me and I really loved it. I wanted to get into wine, but it's very difficult to do here in Reno. I was at the right place at the right time for what they were launching here. It's always been a dream of mine to be a part of something like this. So, to have the opportunity to be here that Ryan blessed me with is incredible. To see where we started and to see where we are at now is amazing.

I dove really hard into it and started educating people about drinking to get drunk versus drinking to acquire flavors and to educate your palate.

Oliver X: What is the beer education that you want to give to your patrons without forcing it on them.

Derrek Doutre: For us, as far as the beer 46 Reno Tahoe Tonight

education goes, understand your hops. Not every brewery is going to lay it out for you and tell you 'This our grain profile.' 'This is the amount of grain we use,' ya know...Citrus Solo is our flagship here. What's amazing about that beer is it's solo hops on citra hops. For the Citrus Solo IPA the abv is going to range from 6.4-6.6.

Oliver X: So don't drink it at lunch. [Laughter].

Derrek Doutre: Don't drink it at lunch, but it is in that IPA range so that you can come in and have two or three of these and be fine, versus some of the doubles and triples that a lot of people are hunting down these days.

Going back to the Citra Solo, what's great about that is that there's one hop in that beer.

So it really is going to identify that flavor profile in your mouth. That right there is going to say, That's what I'm getting out of a citra hop, every time I think of it.

When you get down to our Trailblazer, we have three hops: a simcoe, mosaic and a citra hop in that. The flavors you're going to get out of it obviously differs with each person. I like to tell people that not everybody is the same. I might taste cantaloupe on one beer and you're gonna taste apricot in that same beer. Two different flavors, same beer.

There's nothing I hate more than showing up to a brewery and having no description of the beer. You don't know about the hops even though they're listed there. You don't know about the flavor, so you say 'Screw it!' It's an IPA and you go ahead and get it and you taste it and go, 'Eww!' There's that experience, versus going into a brewery and saying, 'What do you have in a citra hop? What do you got in a mosaic hop or a galaxy hop? Then they can say that they do or do not have it, or that they have something similar.

Having a basic beer education allows you to know what you want to drink based on knowing what's in a particular beer based on its flavor and your preferences. That's really what we're trying to do here for our customers. To help them achieve what they want in flavors of beers, rather than settling for what they really don't want.

Oliver X: In the culinary arts, we're told that

people first eat with their eyes. Do people drink with their noses first?

Derrek Doutre: Yes. Actually I learned that with wine. The best thing I learned in wine is that you pick up over 2,000 scents through your nose. The palate picks up five to six, depending on who you talk to. So if you go in and plug your nose and drink a beer, you're going to get sweet, sour, bitter from the tip of the tongue to the back of the tongue, versus getting your nose on it and building the aroma. That's why we dry hop the beer. Dry hopping creates aroma for the beer so when you get your nose into it you're like, 'Oh yeah!'

We did a blueberry blanc and it was a very light flavored blueberry. At the end of it I suggested that we really build the nose and character of a blueberry on it, or you really won't get it on the palate. Once they built it on the nose and they started drinking it they were like, 'Whoa, that actually really comes through!' So you've got to build through the sense of smell. Like I said, 2,000 flavors sensed through the nose, you're going to sense something identifiable in there somewhere, whether it's coriander, orange...

You're going to smell hops, but each hop is a flower that still creates its own aroma, it's own smell, its own flavor.

Oliver X: How does Lead Dog curate and combine the hops that will produce those aromas and flavors you're looking for in your beers? It seems like Reno is only recently coming around to tasting its beer, rather than drinking to get drunk.

Derrek Doutre: It's not that we're behind the curve, it's just that people are set in their ways here. A Coors Light drinker is always going to be a Coors Light drinker. Those are the people that say it's a light beer, low calories. But that's not always true. I've got a blonde that gives you that flavor profile that you're hunting for from the cheaper beers, but it's a little bit fuller flavor.

Calories are going to be a little bit higher on that and the abv is right around the same. But it's a craft brew, with a little bit better flavor on it, versus the 200,000 can batches pumped out by commercial breweries. There's a big difference

there. Quality versus quantity. We're always putting out quality beer and taste testing it.

Ryan is very picky with his beer. So if he gets on the tap and he tries something and says he doesn't like the flavor or where this is going anymore, it's done. We want you to drink what we want it to taste like.

Doutre takes me to the back of the house where the gleaming vats are located to explain their on-site brewing processes.

Derrek Doutre: Back here is kinda where it all kicks off. We have our miller, which connects to our auger line going into our masher. You get all your grain set up for it, depending on what beer you're brewing, you have multiple types of grain.

You have 2-Row, that most breweries use. It's a brewer's malt. 2-Row just signifies how many rows of grain are on the stalk itself. We have the different malts that we use. We have Munich malts, Caramel, Carapils and many, many more. We'll start dumping it in there. We've got our settings set on our miller to where we get it perfectly ground to as fine as we want. That way in our masher when we go to start mashing in, where not getting it all falling through the screen, and it will create a nice bedding when we start transferring over to the boiler.

So, masher, roughly about 16 minutes in there.

This is where you're actually creating a lot of sugar for your beer. This is where abv kind of kicks off for you. All your malt and grain stuff... kick it open, get your sugars going. So we'll fill that up to, depending on the batch size for water that we're doing in there, usually we're sitting at around 156 degrees for mashing in.

Then, we'll transfer over into the boiler after our time's up in there. As we're transferring into the boiler, what we're doing there is we gotta create a sparge, so we back flush everything until we get all the grain out of the pipeline. Then when we start seeing the wort clear up, then we know to open the valve and start transferring to the boiler. You want as minimal an amount of grain as possible going into that boiler.

The boiler is where bitterness starts getting created for beer. We'll add our first hops into there, and then periodically throughout the boil Reno Tahoe Tonight 47

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FEATURE process – depending on the beer recipe you're doing – you've got different additions of hops going in there. You've got 60-minutes, meaning 60 minutes til finish; 30 minutes til finish, 10 minutes til finish, through that full process of boiling to get your actual on the palate flavor going.

Depending on the beer, you're between 60 minutes to 100 minutes in the boiler, letting it get up to temperature. When we're getting close to the end of our boil, what we do is we'll pull out a sample and measure our gravity. We call that original gravity. Original gravity is always measured in 1.0 and then your number. Most beers you're hunting for like a six three on the gravity scale. For stouts and stuff you wanna get a little bit higher like a seven to seven two. If we hit our gravity point and we're pumped about that, usually what we try to achieve is to be three or four points high.

Oliver X: Do you have timers that go off or do you have to watch it?

Derrek Doutre: We don't. We gotta watch it. We do phone timers. When you're brewing there's always busy work to be done back there. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Oliver X: It's immaculate in here...

Derrek Doutre: Exactly. And that's why you gotta do it. The environment that you have really depicts your beer. You want to keep your air clean in here, good air flow. Keep the floors clean. In our industry, you always sanitize everything: your hands to your equipment— anything that's going to come in contact with your product.

Once we get our sample out of there and it's three or four points high, we'll add additional hot water into there to get our points mashed back down to what level of gravity we want. We love that because we get a higher yield adding more water. From there we'll transfer over into the whirl pool. You can do different additions in it at the whirl pool stage.

Oliver X: Is it cooling down at this point?

Derrek Doutre: It's not really cooling down; the 52 Reno Tahoe Tonight

whirl pool kinda sucks all of your impurities into the middle there and you can clean all those out.

Any leftover grain, hop, chunk, anything like that you want to get pulled out with the strainer.

From our whirl pool we have our heat exchanger, which is an amazing piece of equipment, that I recommend a lot of people have. This is our actual cool down process here. Getting our beer to the right temperature going into our fermenter. In the fermenter we're going to initiate yeast and from there we want to give it a good kick start. So the heat exchanger controls our temperature instead of having to wait hours for it to cool down. Through this process we add oxygen in there. It's funny that you add oxygen to beer because you want to keep oxygen out, but this process helps with fermentation. Yeast loves to attack sugars and oxygen. It goes through two stages: an oxygen attack and a sugar attack. (At some breweries if you're drinking an IPA and it's a little sweet, it just means that they were a little heavy on the malt profile and all the sugars didn't get attacked by the yeast and transformed into alcohol.)

When we transfer over to the fermenter, the fermenter is the beer's second to final resting place. It will be about a two week process in there. In the fermenter we do yeast addition, dry hopping...We'll pull sample testing out of there to make sure the beer is coming along just right.

Oliver X: Are you adding carbonation at this time?

Derrek Doutre: No. But it does do a little self-carbonation in there. In the fermenter tank, most of your beers are sitting at 68 degrees—a beautiful temperature for yeast to activate into our beer. Depending on your generation of yeast, usually you can start seeing fermentation about six hours in. Which is always good. Once we see that, we're pumped.

After about two weeks in there you've got several stages of dry hopping that we do. We do a seven day dry hop, and we when talk about that, we're always talking about the count down to the finish. Seven days prior to being finished we'll dry hop and we'll do a three-day dry hop.

Then we go in and we test the beer. Ryan's got

an oxygen reader that reads in parts per million.

He's just always reading what his oxygen level is. He wants to make sure there's no oxygen in there so the beer doesn't get ruined.

From the fermenter, if we're going to filter, we'll hook up our filtration system to the fermenter and filter into our Brite tank. We've got three total Brite tanks here. So we transfer it all into there. Once we transfer it out of there and look through the filter. We let it sit in there and put a carbonation stone into it. What the carbonation stone does is it breaks your CO2 down to really, really small bubbles.

With the CO2 process, we'll kick it in, we'll start the carbonation. Ryan pays attention to that and then at the appropriate time when he feels he has the right amount of carbonation in there, he will say, 'Let's go guys.' Since we do can on site, we have a Y-splitter that we'll put at the bottom of our Brite tank, so we can fill kegs and cans at the same time.

Now the canning is where it gets tricky, 'cause you want appropriate pressure; you want appropriate temperature. You're always going to get a flux of temperature running through your lines because it is exiting a controlled temp tank.

We run a six can automatic canning line. It does six cans at a time. We have a full mobile canning line system. We roll it in, set it up, do our own caps on it, seaming, and then we also do our own labeling here and affix all the labels to the cans here. We do date coding. We measure in freshness because as I run out on sales routes and stuff, I'm very adamant about checking the quality of the beer, how it's being presented, how's it pouring. Everything that goes with it.

Oliver X: Do you measure your canning line output in cases?

Derrek Doutre: Yes, we measure everything by the case. 24 cans per case. We run 16oz cans and they come in a four-pack with a snap cap top for it, so it's easy to carry and easy to pick up. Ryan has a great labeler. She does an awesome job with our labeling and can do anything and

everything we ask for.

Our canning line is a conveyer belt system (which has a full sanitizing rinse station), then transfers down into our fill station that fills six cans at a time. We have sensor controlled levers on that so we hit the same fill level every time in every single can. There's carbonation control as well; we input just a little bit of carbonation as we're pulling the beer through. From there after the fill station, it goes down the conveyor puts...kind of has a cap hook onto it for the lid and goes right into the seamer. That will push our seams down perfectly on the top of the cap. From there, we pull our first three or four cans off and we'll measure them to make sure our seams are exactly where we need them to be with the specs required for the kind of can we use. Each seam fold has to be perfect, we don't want to send out a bad can. I'd rather take care of it in six cans, rather than dealing with 150 cases that went out that are all leaking.

Next we transfer the cans over to our labeling machine. The awesome thing about our labeling machine is that it's wet or dry. So the cans can be wet or they can be dry, it doesn't matter, the label still goes on just as easily.

The canning line is a four-man job. Two people running it and two people pulling cans off, getting them packaged, putting them on pallets, keeping the line organized and keeping it flowing. Production-wise we're right around 26 cases an hour, depending how smoothly everything goes. We usually average about 80 cases in three hours. We get them on pallets and, depending on where they're going and how they're going, we always keep a little bit in-house and the rest go to our distributor.

We have an amazing support team here for the brewery. Having such a small staff here, everybody pitches in to lend a hand, and we are very grateful for their help and support.

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FEATURE Text Oliver X Photos Eric Marks

The Street Photography of Eric Marks

The work of photographer Eric Marks is instantly familiar to readers of Reno Tahoe Tonight. His never ending passion project— street photography—takes Marks' hungry lens from Reno's Fourth Street corridor to the streets of Europe and all points in between. Marks is something of an anomaly: an endangered species of sorts, whose preferred milieu is considered a dying art form by some.

Marks works in-camera on the streets in the wee hours of the night. Equally at home with shooting a high-end wedding client as he is with architectural studies or a homeless senior citizen living out of a dumpster, Marks' compelling artistry depicts what we look away from, pretend we don't see, or fail to see. He does so unflinchingly and without apology. His work has earned him praise and scorn. Color, technique, composition, sequence...Light, shape, shadow and the resiliency of the human spirit are his muses. His camera bears witness to reality, with all of its beauty, tragedy and exultation.

After two years of frequent features in our pages, we catch up with the prolific artist, to discuss his work, his ethos and what makes him go to places where few photographers tread.

Oliver X: What initially inspired you to pick up a camera?

Eric Marks: There was never a point in my life that I can remember where photography was not involved in my family. My grandfather was a photographer and videographer, always chasing us around with film and video cameras. I have some amazing photos of his from Europe during and after WW2. My parents were both very supportive too.

I received my first Polaroid Instamatic cameras (which I still have) at a very young age. When I was about 10 years-old we would go skiing and 56 Reno Tahoe Tonight

after stop by the old Reindeer Lodge for dinner.

I would go from table-to-table taking family portraits of people and selling them for $10. Back then I could get a roll of film for $10 at Skaggs or Osco Drug Store that had eight or 10 sheets I think, so it was pretty cool. Then I started going door-to-door in my neighborhood and doin g the same thing instead of a paper route; it was a nice little introduction to the art. I simply was just fascinated by it; the joy it brought to people and the ability to document things I encountered in the day.

Oliver X: You're much more than a street photojournalist. Why do you feel it is important to capture the raw images and personalities you depict in your street photography? In short, why do you do what you do?

Eric Marks: Thank you. I enjoy all genres of photography. Professionally, I am in the studio and also work as a photojournalist, wedding photographer and photography instructor through TMCC. The street photography is very personal for me. It is important to me because I think most people enjoy looking at the world around them, and seeing things, people and places they perhaps might not get to experience in person.

I was in Europe last April doing street photography and it was amazing! It's a huge deal for me to share a back alley in Prague or East Berlin or Oaxaca, Mexico. I do what I do simply because I love it. I love the streets; I am very comfortable there. I blend, so to speak. It's a very natural environment for me and I feel great joy and peace. Capturing the personality of a subject, human or otherwise, is an amazing experience: to be able to translate that emotion and power through imagery. I only ever did it because I love it, no other reason. But it has provided tremendous personal growth for me,

“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.” Cardinal JeanFrançois-PaulGondi de Retz

Let Their Blood Run Through You Reno Tahoe Tonight 57

He was a heart throb.

Women loves his punk.

- Rock me Amadeus, Falco 58 Reno Tahoe Tonight

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especially through my interaction with displaced and homeless people – for whom I have the greatest respect and concern. I always try to talk to a displaced person if I take their photo and explain what I am doing. I ask their names and stories. I'll shake their hand or hug them and thank them.

As I've stated before, it's a great way to grow as a human, to evolve, to try and understand something that is difficult to understand. I always walk away from those encounters and think to myself, Wow, I took this person's picture, and they gave me growth as a human, and that always blows me away. I do my best to provide them with prints if I know I'm going to see them again; spare change, or whatever extra clothing or blankets I collect. I'm not a crusader by any means, but it is an amazing thing, and it really opened my eyes to humanity when I experienced the insane amount of joy you can bring to a person by a simple handshake or conversation – just asking a person their name.

They are human beings and deserve the same respect and dignity as anyone as far as I'm concerned. I also get along with police, hookers, paramedics, drug dealers, tourists, businessmen and families equally as well. So it's just a rad thing for me. That's it.

Oliver X: Talk about the lengths you'll go to get a shot.

Eric Marks: Haha, well...Great lengths for sure let's just say. I walk the streets all hours of the day and night. I have awful insomnia so it is not unusual for me to be standing on a dumpster in a snowstorm in December at 4am on Fourth and Montello shooting hookers or feral cats...It's just a giant ball of normality for me at this point. I do not advocate or instruct on techniques that are illegal or potentially harmful. And the most important thing is to never engage with someone to a point where they are upset or angered. I really have not experienced that too much, and when I have I just gladly erase the image.

I get wet, dirty, sore, tired, hot, smelly, dusty...

Lately I've been experimenting with different angles and focal lengths, so sometimes that requires physical endurance and patience.

Also, I have to be very alert in regards to my surroundings at all times, as I may or may not be logistically in the most intelligent place for myself, although, it is what's required to get the shot. I'll leave it at that.

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Oliver X: How much of your field trips are based around spontaneity versus a plan or outline of an idea?

Eric Marks: 100% spontaneous when it comes to people, although I did bring my girlfriend Adrienne Zaccone (who is a model) into the streets to practice on last time around to help the students before we went freestyle. You do not really have a choice when it comes to people because if it's not spontaneous then it really becomes street portraiture, or posed photography, therefore, not traditional in the historical sense of street photography – intrinsically speaking. I do have certain locations planned out prior to a field trip. I do that purposely so students can ease into the human aspect of it. Plus I think it is important to understand composition techniques like light and reflection, framing and approach (pov).

The class meets in a classroom the first night where we discuss safety, legality, history, and procedure. We look at images, discuss technique and other devices that we will employ in the streets. We look at Henri Cartier-Bresson and other masters to understand when to take the shot, how to approach a subject.

We also cover architecture, color schemes and contrast, because not all street photography is comprised of human subject matter. A shadow or reflection can be extremely powerful and interesting. In fact, my first major street photography publications were in American MENSA and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Those images were circulated in hundreds of thousands of copies and were pictures of the giant church sculpture on Plumb and Kietzke, and a reflection of a flag on top of the Porsche in the US Bank window on Virginia Street, respectively. So my approach is to understand the procedures and environments first, then introduce the human element in the last class.

It helps the students acclimate and get a little more comfortable with taking a picture of a person I think. My students range from professional photographers to high school kids and senior citizens. So far the formula works well. It has been an amazing experience...

Oliver X: Who are your influences and what made you gravitate to their work?

Eric Marks: Well, definitely Cartier-Bresson for obvious reasons. But I like lesser-known street photographers. My street photography (it has

FEATURE

At Your Service Reno Tahoe Tonight 61

FEATURE been suggested to me) is nontraditional in the sense that I shoot a lot in color and use non traditional focal lengths, like 24 and 200mm. And I shoot wide open almost exclusively at f2.8 or wider.

The color part really comes from Fred Herzog. His images are simply perfect for me. I love the grittiness of Flo Fox and Czech photographer Viktor Kolar.

They are genius in their approach, and Flo Fox is especially magical for me because she is blind! I saw her images in school not realizing who she was, but was seriously introduced to her work through a good friend of mine. I have actually corresponded with her and that is just an honor beyond articulation.

Gary Stochl is also huge for me. David Bradford has a book that never leaves my bed side called "Drive

By Shootings" where he did street photography from a NYC cab for 10 years. It's pure genius. And I'm really influenced by Roger Ballen. Although he is not a street photographer, it is not hard to look at his images and see where my affinity for gritty subject matter stems from.

Locally, I was fortunate enough to work for Jeff Ross and Ciprian Cojac who are masters in their respective fields (commercial and wedding photography). Jeff really was fundamental in my understanding of light. Nobody would argue his mastery of it, and Ciprian is just a creative genius.

He was by far the most influential photographer on me in terms of composition. He taught me composition and stylistic techniques I employ in every single image I take. It was a huge privilege to work for, and with them both, and I'm very happy to call them friend(s) as well as mentor(s).

Also, Anicia Beckwith. Her mastery of beauty and creativity is inspiring. Although we swim in opposite ends of the photography pool, I learn a great deal from her images. Her technique and portraiture is obviously flawless, so I look to it for inspiration from that side of the spectrum. I feel very fortunate to have her friendship, as well as her open support for the page. All of them support RSP, as do many others, it would be impossible to mention them all, but they know who they are.

Oliver X: Your method of shooting involuntary subjects without consent has raised controversy.

What do you say to your detractors?

Eric Marks: It is America. If you don't like what you're watching, change the channel. I did not invent street photography. At this point I don't say 62 Reno Tahoe Tonight

A Diamond In The Rough Reno Tahoe Tonight 63

FEATURE anything to them, generally. I get told all the time "You portray Reno in a negative way." My response is simply this: I do not portray Reno in any way; I only document things I see. If you don't like it, don't look at my photos, or better yet, do something to change it. Contribute. I don't say that pretentiously, like, I don't view myself as some overwhelming creative genius or anything ridiculous, it's in fact exactly the opposite. I'm just a dude with a camera and a love for an art form. I don't go on Facebook patting myself on the back about what I do to contribute. I alluded to it a bit earlier in this interview, but anyone who has seen me shoot out there knows what I'm doing. I know what I do.

My students know. My friends and peers know.

My mother is proud of me; the art community supports the page, that is what matters to me.

"Controversy" does not have to carry a negative connotation. If my images ignite intelligent discourse then good, I have accomplished something positive. I know which photographers and people in Reno think my work is distasteful.

I hear the whispers, I get the messages. I have no time or concern for it. The page has tremendous support from the majority of our amazing art community, and for that I am grateful: from RTT to RAW. I have hosted about a dozen local and international street photographers, and their images, and kudos to them for doing it. I mean, some of the oldest surviving photography is street photography. Louis Daguerre shot "Boulevard du Temple" somewhere around 1838ish. Then it evolved into the more "in your face" style we know today. Alfred Stieglitz was in the streets in the 1890's.

If I have detractors, I would suggest them ignorant (by literal definition) of the importance street photography has on all photography!

When cameras were invented, photographers weren't rushing into studios to shoot pretty girls in bras on seamless with a three light set up. In fact, some of the oldest photography is street photography. Should Henri Cartier-Bresson have asked to take The Decisive Moment? To get a release? That's insane. It is no different than journalism, or any public event. I have had photographers tell me it's unethical, i am exploiting people or whatever, then i see their images of rallies or marches. There is no difference, it's just hypocrisy. Also, i do not think the word "involuntary" is entirely accurate: taking a photograph without knowledge or consent 64 Reno Tahoe Tonight

is not the same as taking a photograph against your will. If that was the case all of downtown Reno would be involuntary subject, as the city live streams several cams to the internet. The law states there is no reasonable right or expectation to privacy in public. So really, that is a very long and convoluted way of saying I don't care. Let there be controversy. I am going to keep taking images that are difficult to look at, just as much as I am rainbows and buildings. You choose whether you want to look or not, but I assure you, the images that are most popular are the ones that are difficult. That, for me, is a great compliment. The fact that it creates controversy means to me that I am at the very least, doing something productive. At least that is my hope.

Oliver X: Can a coffee table book be far away Eric? What's the project that you're shooting now that has got you most excited?

Eric Marks: There will be a book, yes! I am seeking financial backing and publication interest as we speak. This year I hope, that is my goal. I'm mostly excited to just keep pushing myself to grow and produce engaging images that people like. It's a tremendous honor that anyone would think my street photography interesting. It is very humbling. Reno is a tough city to do street photography in, because of the size. It is not San Francisco or Manhattan. I have to constantly explore new techniques and approaches to produce engaging images. It's tough. Lately, my interest has grown to international street photography. I have images on the RSP page from: Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Mexico, Norway, Australia and all across the U.S. I have also snapped a little in the U.K. This year my plan is maybe Russia, Greece and/or Italy. I don't know. I am just a human that is fascinated with the world and all the beautiful people and places and things that occupy it.

It is a giant, wondrous studio that lives and breathes and metamorphosizes exponentially. It is amazing what you start to see when you look past a surface, into shadowy corners and places unknown. For me, that is not only excitement, but in a way, meaning and purpose for my life.

For me, and my journey, if I cannot explore and grow as a human and as an artist, then really, what is the point? ericmarksphotography.com

Eric Marks

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One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. Groucho Marx 66 Reno Tahoe Tonight

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LIT Text Janice Hermsen

If You Want to Be a Writer I

n 2008, LeRue was seeking new ways to expand the company and its mission. We published a magazine called The LeRue Review and added some “History of ” to the website. When Mom, (Ruby) who was 86 at the time, saw what we were doing, she decided she needed to participate.

Ruby went on to write her memoir, Working on 100, which is still being edited. At 95, she is not writing much, but used her time well when she did. An avid reader, Ruby could read more books in a week than anyone I know and was always looking for new authors to read. It seemed a natural thing for her to write too.

Though she had not written much except for narratives regarding insurance and her employees, (she was a supervisor for the Auto Club of Southern California for almost 30 years), she decided to write her own “history ofs.” Her stories were cute and creative--though not commercially viable--but good enough for her daughters and daughter-in-law to add to the website and include in The LeRue Review.

If you want to be a writer, it’s never too late to start. Ruby is solid proof of that.

During her writing journey, she also found she liked to write limericks. Because she wanted to have her grandchildren and great-grandchildren read them, she avoided the typical format of sauciness associated with limericks and “kept them clean” and readable for all ages. Her first paperback book, Naming Your Baby was published in 2010 using the 1,000 top baby names and their rankings from the Social Security list to create limericks and provide meanings of many of the names. (No, not 1,000; she was not that ambitious). She even included what she would name her children if she had the choice again. I could have been Michaela and I could have had a brother named Quentin!

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Columnist's Note: Ruby Szudajski, the author of Naming Your Baby and the inspiration for this article, passed away on January 14, 2018.

Ruby Szudajski

MUSIC Text Markelor Berthoumieux

Sam Roberts Evergreen Staying true to Hip Hop’s foundation, Sam Roberts unapologetically expresses his view of the world around him on his recently released EP Evergreen. Anyone looking to simply chill and reflect will appreciate this project and the cool energy it brings. Within just three tracks Roberts makes his points very clear and enjoyable, aided by a solid selection of traditional beats and an amazing sample from The Manhattans on “Clocks.” His sound is built off rap's old-school vibe and you can tell the work he puts into the craft. That constant grind has already put him on many stages, including a West Coast tour with the legendary Hip Hop group CunninLynguists in 2016, a cred-building stamp of approval reflected in Evergreen.

The second track “Imagine” is where Roberts’ skill begins to shine, thanks to his more assertive delivery and the overall structure of the track. His vocals flow perfectly over the clean production putting more of a focus on the quality of his content, making it the song I replayed the most.

The lyrics are honest and motivational, as he relays some of the lessons he’s learned in his 23 years, “So hold on before you let go/ think twice before you take off/you could run way forever/ find yourself and still remain lost.” Roberts drops these insightful statements throughout the EP, adding substance to moments that elevate the listener's experience and connection to his music.

I spoke to Roberts by phone to get his views on the EP. Markelor Berthoumieux: How did you and IZE (the EP’S producer) approach this collaboration?

Sam Roberts: IZE is a student over at UNR that I got connected with through a mutual friend. We talked when we first met about working and I told him that it’s a big thing for me to do projects with one producer, for example my first album was entirely produced by Chase 70 Reno Tahoe Tonight

Moore from California. I try to keep the same tempo throughout.

He started sending me a bunch of beats, but during that time I decided I needed to drop something sooner rather than later. From there we worked on giving the fans a smaller project and making it a tangible product, actually having a CD, not just dropping a SoundCloud link. And originally there were five tracks that were going to be on it but after dropping one of them, four songs didn’t look right to me, so I took it down to three. It’ll work as a small sample project and for me it was a time of transition as well, I had just moved to Reno after a lot of traveling so I figured this would be a cool interlude into my next project.

Markelor Berthoumieux: Did you guys focus on only creating a certain number of songs, or did you have a bunch of material to pick from?

Sam Roberts: IZE had actually made some beats beforehand, he sent me a few of them that I wrote too but we ended up scraping them.

They were good songs but the sound wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So he created two more tracks but we only got the chance to sit down together once since we were both traveling a lot, so text and email were our main ways of communicating. We got together at this studio in Reno but I didn’t like how the mixing and mastering turned out. I ended up doing it myself like I’ve done for all my other projects. I knew I could make it sound right and after some time I meet up with IZE and he agreed.

Markelor Berthoumieux: I appreciated how well each song flowed into the next, is that something you focused on once the songs were done?

Sam Roberts: Yeah, I like all of my projects to have a flow to them, just like my first album On The House, Evergreen is meant to be listened

to in order. I released the middle song “Imagine” earlier as a single so I knew for sure that it couldn’t be the opening track since people heard it already. So there’s definitely a reason each track is where they’re at on the project. “1275” starts it off a little more positive, but still fits the tempo of the deeper tracks that follow.

the music. Because I feel like a lot of people are too cocky or have too many yes men around, telling them everything they put out is good. I make it a point for my friends to let me know if they don’t like something I’m working on, it’ll come out better if I can get honest feedback.

Markelor Berthoumieux: Is Evergreen a sign of more music from you in 2018?

Markelor Berthoumieux: What’s the message you’re trying to get across to listeners with “Imagine”?

Sam Roberts: At the time I wrote that I was tired to people constantly blaming millennials or generations for things. A lot of people generalize or stereotype millennials for being a certain way or doing certain things. But age is just a number so we can’t place everyone in the same box.

Markelor Berthoumieux: Has your process changed at all since you released On The House?

Sam Roberts: I’ve been able to write faster, just getting comfortable. After dropping On The House and getting everyone’s reaction, I started to trust my process a lot more. Seeing that made me less of a self-critic and gave me the confidence to take on more responsibility in whatever I did next. Making sure I have full control of the end product.

Markelor Berthoumieux: Does some of that confidence come from seeing that reaction live on tour with CunninLynguists?

Sam Roberts: Yea that definitely helped a lot, seeing how people reacted to different songs. It’s one thing putting something online for people to click like or download it, which some artists can pay for these days, so actually seeing a crowd interact with it was awesome. It also proved that my friends and I weren’t the only ones who enjoy

Sam Roberts: I think it was for sure a stepping stone. On The House was more on the depressing side, and this second album I’m working on now for later this year is a lot more upbeat and has more of a positive message. Everything from the artwork to the content will be a lot different; I put out Evergreen to help with that transition.

It’s going to be produced solely by Mike Paris from Arizona and hopefully I can get some bigger features. facebook.com/SamRobertsMusic samrobertsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/evergreen-ep open.spotify.com/ album/7rTLhzLgrY1tAOAR1Ju38l Reno Tahoe Tonight 71

REAL ESTATE Text by Shirley Larkins

Okay so you're ready to buy a house. You’re super excited, shopping online; looking at what area of town you want to be in; thinking about what kind of house you want. It’s usually about this time that you pick the first house that you know is “the one” and you call a Realtor. You do need to see the inside before you make an offer after all, right?

And in our current market, this is also about the time you find out that that house is no longer available, maybe even received multiple offers.

So you cry a little, get a little discouraged and then pick yourself up again – kind of like dating. After the obligatory wait period (different for everyone lol) you keep looking and find a couple others that may fit the bill. It’s official, you are now shopping for a home!

It’s super important to understand the home buying process though, and at which point that house is really going to be yours – for real. Just making an offer and getting it accepted does not mean that this is now your house. There are still a few things that need to happen – when you have an accepted offer it is not the time to fall in love with the house.

Now that you have your dream home on the hook, it’s time to make sure that this really is the one.

Just like any relationship you have to go through

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some history and baggage and decide if you are still willing to take this partner on. A house has a story all it's own and to be an informed buyer you need to do inspections. You want to make sure that there are no defects or issues that would rule this house out for you.

Once you have completed inspections you now know what you are dealing with and you can decide if it’s still the one for you – but you still can’t fall in love yet.

Next you must make sure that the value of the home is in line with what you are willing to pay for it (unless you’re paying cash). Your lender makes sure you are qualified to get the loan – but the house also has to pass the test. An appraiser will go out and assess the property and its’ improvements and make sure the bank is making a sound investment. If that value is at or higher than what you are in contract for, only then can you really fall in love!

After the contingency period has past – that’s what Realtors call it – you can start talking paint and picking furniture. Though you still have to wait for the loan documents to come through, you know that you are accepting of the condition of the home; you know the value of the home and you know you still want it!

It can be hard to try to stay objective about one of the biggest investments you will ever make and the place you will now be spending a lot of time.

But it is important for your psyche to know these steps when going through this process, because no home sale is complete until the house is recorded in your name. There are a lot of hoops that need to be jumped through and processes that need to happen to make that dream a reality. Especially in a competitive market like ours where inventory is low and demand is high.

Next Month: You could be paying a mortgage instead of paying rent!

Shirley Larkins is a real estate professional with Chase International and has been selling properties for over 12 years. She specializes in all types of sales from luxury to distressed, and also loves working with first time buyers. She can be reached at slarkins@ chaseinternational.com or 775-379-9617

Find House With Agent and Make an Offer Offer Accepted Contingency Period Begins Inspections and Neighborhood Education Appraisal and Loan Contingancy Release Signing and Recording

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RENO AS FUCK Text Tyson Schroeder and Anthony Lee Reno is quickly becoming a hot box for industry.

Tesla charged us; Google found us; Amazon primed us. But weed man, weed got us higher than we could have imagined. The local scene for dispensaries exploded during the run up to July 1st, 2017. Suddenly, all of your drug dealer friends had real jobs. Hip, clean dispensaries poppedup seemingly everywhere. Entering the legal marijuana scene early, Nevada is well-placed as a trendsetter for a huge national industry.

In April, Reno will be hosting the Reno Cannabis Convention at Whitney Peak Hotel. A two-day trade show and educational event with vendors from nearly every related industry, and a healthy list of guest speakers covering everything from medical personnel to state senators. Cole Markus, Founder of the show is a Nevada alumni; a registered Colorado MMJ patient; former board member of the National Financial Cannabis Association and part of the New England Cannabis Network (NECANN) board of advisors.

“I am dedicated to the advancement of the legal cannabis industry,” says Markus. The convention is completely educational. “Legally, there cannot be any consuming or selling any cannabis products.

Events like these are meant to help promote businesses, educate the consumer on all things cannabis and help with the normalization of cannabis,” Markus said.

Holding the event in Reno was an easy decision for Markus. “I couldn't be more proud to have started a company in Reno. I love this city and I am excited to see the expansion,” Markus noted.

Dope Magazine cited Reno as “Cannabis’ Biggest Little Secret.” The growth of the area is a big draw for business people. “Reno is going to be a powerhouse. You can tell with all the big business moving here. Reno has some strong growth trends.

Between the downtown redevelopment/expansion projects, UNR student population growth, and big business coming in, its easy to see where we are headed. Look at 2017 for example: Google, Apple, Tesla, and Amazon all found a home in Reno.

These billion dollar companies don’t just randomly pick a city to expand/relocate into,” emphasized Markus.

The Reno Cannabis Expo will be held at Whitney Peak Hotel, April 7th and 8th. Tickets and more information are available at therenoexpo.com 76 Reno Tahoe Tonight

Skater: Axel Cruyberghs Kickflip 5050 at UNR

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SKATENV Photos Kyle Volland skatenv.com

Wa Tyle Skat lli r D er: e F eW as it tpl t an t Reno Tahoe Tonight 79

SPIRIT Text Gail Hansen We hear the term Old Souls more often than we used to. Old Souls are people with a physical and a spirit that has had many physical bodies.

These Old Souls have experiences that seem to be more spiritual. Age in this physical existence has nothing to do with being an Old Soul. Some newborns come into this life as Old Souls. It is like a Deja vu scenario. The event comes into their life and they realize that on a deeper level they have an understanding that encompasses more than just a mental and physical event. They connect on a spiritual level as well. People are becoming more comfortable talking about these experiences that may not seem rational in the physical world. They are becoming aware that by using the 5 senses and other abilities to walk through the world and have the knowingness that it really means something. It can have a profound effect on them. It may even be an experience that is being replicated from a past life.

Souls have much to give to the world through the amazing amount of knowledge they can impart for the highest and greatest good. The combined knowledge of humankind is available to Old Souls once they regain the ability to tap into it.

Old Souls are people who have reincarnated many times and have acquired information that they have carried with them through their past lifetimes and into this present lifetime. They may be aware of their situation and have the ability to use their information. Others may not even be aware of their knowledge. Sometimes this knowledge appears as just an instinctual knowing.

They could have a sensation about knowing more. Not until they enter some type of formal education with the subject of reincarnation will they truly learn the importance of this concept.

These concepts and the Old Soul’s collective knowledge are available to anyone willing to acknowledge their existence and learn how to access this collective consciousness. Old Souls will either accept this concept and learn more about it or reject it all together. Either way is right and is their truth.

One thing that all Old Souls agree upon is that each spirit with a physical body must have the freedom to follow their own path. Sometimes these paths are fraught with anxiety. This anxiety is caused by the rational mind not being able to accept a different perspective. As we learn to use our abilities, the anxiety becomes less and less with each occurrence. We become comfortable with ourselves and our spiritual journey. Being comfortable with oneself is a large part of the lessons. This comfort allows us to be more mindful of others. We can allow them to be on their own path. We can share our experiences with the world and let others draw their own conclusions. We are no longer affected by other’s perceptions of us. We are safe in the knowledge that we are following the path that God has laid out for us.

OLD SOULS

Old Souls are all around us, in fact, everyone is an Old Soul to some degree. We have all lived past lives. It just depends on how much you are willing to accept and validate for yourself.

Old Souls have this intuitive feeling of having knowledge that goes way beyond their years. They may not know how it was attained, but there is no doubt in their minds that they have it. Much of the information Old Souls have acquired has been forgotten. Eckart Tolle states that "I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten."

Where did all this knowledge come from? People who have reincarnated many times have acquired much information throughout their different lifetimes and they are learning to bring it forth and honor it today. More and more Old Souls are coming forth to participate in energy classes to find out what it is they do know. They can tap into this information to use for themselves and to teach others. It is a time of validation as Old

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We should remember that we are all one. What affects one affects all of us. Know that as I end this, I wish you the Grace of God and the ability to recognize the Old Soul that you are.

THE MIND OF MENCARELLI Text Dave Mencarelli Photo Frank Haxton

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Daughter

I

love being a dad. It’s one of the few things at which I’m good. Maybe good is too strong a word. Let’s go with adequate.

Marginally adequate. Occasionally...

My daughter is 17 years old. She’s an A student; she wants to be a cop and she’s cute as hell. And yes, she is mine. I’d question it too if she didn’t bear a striking resemblance to me. At least I know I’d be cute if I were a teenage girl.

Oh yeah, she’s a lesbian too.

She came out three weeks before she started her freshman year of high school. I’d love to tell you it was this beautiful, touching, emotional moment but, as is usual in our family, was kinda funny and it was not wholly unexpected.

We were in the car with my wife – my daughter’s stepmom – and a One Direction song came on the radio. Obviously, I let the girls pick the radio station when we ride together. My wife has an unnatural attraction to Harry from 1D (that’s how the kids write it).

I mentioned that she was creepy because she probably wanted to make out with him.

My daughter agreed that yes, that was creepy, and I saw an opportunity. I asked her if she would make out with anyone from 1D. Nope, she said. I asked were there any boys she would make out with. Again, nope. I started to ask were there any girls she’d make out with, and before I could finish the question she said, “Jennifer Lawrence.”

And that was it. I said, “Well I guess it’s official then huh?” And it was.

Knows Best My daughter is incredibly comfortable in her own skin. That’s impressive for anyone, much less a teenager. That, along with a wonderful sense of humor has made the whole thing pretty painless for her. She’s gotten zero judgment from the family and her friends were maybe less surprised than us.

I’ve been proud of my daughter for a cornucopia of things. Her work ethic, her kindness, and her maturity are just a few. She wears her hair very short and dresses in men’s shirts and jeans. Many times she’s mistaken for a boy. She has never once tried to make anyone feel bad for making that mistake. In fact, she goes out of her way to let them know it doesn’t bother her. See what I mean about her kindness and maturity?

One of the best things about her coming out are the jokes she’s inadvertently given me for my stand up act. There have been many, but my favorite was when she asked me to send her to a camp to pray away the gay. I was upset and told her, “Seriously? Those camps are bullshit, and I thought you were ok with this?” She replied, “Oh I know they’re bullshit and I’m fine, I just think it would be a great place to meet chicks.”

She’s a chip off the old block.

Dave Mencarelli can be seen around Reno doing stand up comedy and heard weekday afternoons on Easy 104.1

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THE NEST Text Tessa Miller Photos Alexis Turner

Getting Dirty On Valentine’s Day 2018

It’s that time of year again, loves! For the 7th year in a row, we will be hosting our favorite in-store event: our Getting Dirty on Valentine’s Day Terrarium Class. Succulents, air plants and terrariums have gotten super popular in recent years—we like to think it’s because of this class…

WHEN: Wednesday, February 14th at 7pm WHERE: The Nest PRICE: $45 in advance/$55 day of THE GOODS: Everything you need to make your very own terrarium plus dessert and a glass of wine!

If you’re not up with the trends, terrariums (not ter-an-eums…there’s no “n” in there, folks) are living works of art for your home. We put them together Nest-style—with interesting recycled containers and vintage tchotchkes I collect throughout the year just for this occasion along with the traditional succulents and air plants.

Throw in dessert and wine and you’ve got a much less predictable way to spend your Valentine’s Day than the tired dinner, movies, flower combo. Not with a +1? No problem!

This shindig goes down family style, so it’s great for groups of friends, new couples not looking for that kind of pressure, you brave solo souls and everyone between! Who knows, you may just meet a new friend or next year’s significant other…

So, roll up your sleeves and play in the dirt with us! But call, email or stop in to reserve your spot soon: this class pretty much always SELLS OUT!

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THE NEST 201 Keystone Ave Reno, NV 89503 (775) 284-8841 hello@thenestreno.com www.thenestreno.com FB/IG/Twitter @thenestreno Monday – Saturday 11am – 6pm, Sunday 11am-5pm

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THEATER Good Luck Macbeth presents The Royale February 9-24 Text Oliver X

“Great White Hope” to seize his crown convinced Jim Jeffries to come out of retirement and reclaim the heavyweight title for white America. Having retired undefeated in 1904 as the heavyweight champion of the world, Jeffries was considered still deserving of the title by many, amid rampant racial prejudice.” [1] The fight was to be the biggest spectacle in American sports. Legendary fight promoter George Lewis “Tex” Rickard paid $120,000 in gold for the rights to the fight. Work began on June 23, 1909 with a crew of up to 300 men, who worked frenzied 10 hour shifts to complete the massive wooden amphitheater in time for the fight on July 4.

On the Fourth of July 1910 at 2:30PM 16,520 fight fans crammed into the arena.

Scalpers were getting up to $125 a piece for $50 front row seats. Once tickets sold out, some 1,500 fans stormed the fence and crashed the fight to see this once-in-alifetime bout. The fight was scheduled for 45 three-minute rounds. The temperature was 110 degrees at fight time. The 37 year-old challenger got a $75,000 signing fee from Rickard and a $40,000 guarantee for the fight. Johnson got a $60,000 guarantee.

The two men met at center ring. Jeffries refused to shake Johnson's hand.

In December of 1909, former world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries tipped the scales at 314 pounds— 88 pounds heavier than his previous fighting weight. Jefferies was coming out of retirement after six years away from the sport to fight the first black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson.

“The bout was promoted in advance as the 'Fight of the Century'—a rather brash claim, considering the century was just a decade old—but the import of the fight was undeniable. By 1908, black fighter Jack Johnson had ascended to the top of the sport. Promoters eager to find a

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“In production, the SOUNDS should be made organically, by the actors on stage...

It may sometimes be helpful for actors delivering punches to STOMP on the floor...During the 'fight' sequences, both boxers should face the audience, not each other, and there is no need to swing...” [2] Good Luck Macbeth Theater will christen their roomier new space at 124 West Taylor Street in Midtown Reno with the brilliant play The Royale, written by Marco Ramirez and directed by John Frederick, a fictional depiction of the historic 1910 heavyweight bout held on East Fourth Street in Reno in 1910, that at once riveted a nation and, in its immediate aftermath, ignited race riots in major cities resulting in over a dozen deaths and millions in property damage.

The Royale is probably unlike anything you've seen in local theater in Reno. One act. 90 minutes. No breaks. A minimalist set. The energy of the small, interracial cast of actors creating a visceral, rhythmic soundscape, executing action scenes accented by foot stomps, hand claps and the onomatopoeia of oohs and aahs – infusing the scenes with a roiling urgency that literally becomes the pulse and propulsion of the narrative.

“The culture thing has always been my concern about Reno,” says William “Tree” Woods (The 9th Circuit), who plays the lead role of fighter Jay “The Sport” Jackson when I ask him what attracted him to the material.

“Juneteenth comes around and we celebrate the Reno Rodeo, so this role is something that I felt I could do to help celebrate black culture and history. We're here to do this play to help enlighten people about this historical event that happened here.”

“It's just so relevant to where we are in the world right now,” says Amelia Giles (Generation We) who plays Nina, Jay's big sister who warns him of the very real possibility of bloodshed as a result of Jay taking the fight. “To put yourself in the place where people will listen to this message in the context of a play is powerful.”

Keith Roberts (Private Lies), plays fight promoter Max. “This character is fascinating because he sees himself as this civil right hero fighting to get Jay Jackson this historic fight, yet he's blind to his own racism.”

Eric Williams (The Full Monty), a relative newcomer to acting, found out about the role when director John Frederick contacted him. “John called me and asked me if I would be interested in doing the play,” Williams recalls. I looked up the play; it sounded interesting and for me, it was another good opportunity to be on stage.”

I asked director John Frederick what stretched him about the material. “The amazing use of rhythm [that] Marco Ramirez actually writes into the play itself,”

Frederick notes. “It's not your typical kind of play. In fact, one of the actors – who's a Theater teacher – said to me, 'My kids are asking me what the play is like, and I told them it's the most theatrical thing I've ever done.' Because we utilize rhythm... body parts and almost all of the sound is organically made on stage by the actors through the fights. So it makes it really exciting and we're trying to bring them into the ring that way and bring them into the heads of the fighters. The way Ramirez writes the fights, it's the rhythm of the scene that knocks them down; the rhythm of the scene is what gives them their hits and blows.”

THE ROYALE

Written by Marco Ramirez Directed by John Frederick Assistant director Jesse Briggs Set design by Joe Atack Costumes by Lyndsey Langsdale Sound design by John Frederick Choreography by John Frederick, Jesse Briggs and cast Stage Manager Hannah Gebensleben Production Manager Joe Atack Presented by Good Luck Macbeth Theater Co. Producing artistic director Joe Atack Through Feb. 24, 2018 at Good Luck Macbeth Theater 124 West Taylor Street Street Reno, Nevada Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

WITH: Julius Funches II (Fish), William Tree Woods ( Jay), Amelia Giles (Nina), Keith Roberts (Max) and Eric Williams (Wynton) CITATIONS

[1] Alicia Barber, “Johnson-Jeffries Fight (site),” Reno Historical, accessed January 28, 2018, renohistorical.org/items/show/82.

[2] Excerpted from The Royale, NOTES

by Marco Ramirez Oberon Modern Plays, Oberon Books Ltd. 2015.

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TRAINING TIPS Text and photo courtesy of Camille Cragg Lyman

At the age of 24 I had my thyroid removed by Radio Active Iodine (RAI) in order to control my Graves Disease, a type of autoimmune problem that causes the thyroid gland to produce too much thyroid hormone, which is called hyperthyroidism. Graves’ disease is often the underlying cause of hyperthyroidism, as your immune system creates antibodies that cause the thyroid to grow and make more thyroid hormone than your body needs. These antibodies are called thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins (TSIs).

The TSIs bind to thyroid cell receptors, which are normally “docking stations” for thyroidstimulating hormone (TSH—the hormone responsible for telling the thyroid to produce hormones). The TSIs then trick the thyroid into growing and producing too much thyroid hormone, leading to hyperthyroidism.

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Fast forward twelve years later at the age of 36 I'm more caring about what and how I can treat my roller coaster of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism per the professional support and guidance of medication dosage, internal healing from past traumas and internal healing/balance with proper foods to eat and not to eat.

I would like to share the number one perk of dealing with an auto immune disorder: You can learn so much about yourself by the simplicity of self-discovery, one day at a time. Application and effort to seek the ultimate you internally does not happen over night, yet it does call for daily results.

Here are a couple lists to refer to to those who may be struggling with Hypothyroidism and what those symptoms might feel like as they can be reversed through basic knowledge and action to HEALthy Body and Organs!

Hypothyroidism Symptoms Fatigue Increased sensitivity to cold Constipation Dry skin Weight gain Puffy face Hoarseness Muscle weakness Elevated blood cholesterol level Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness Pain, stiffness or swelling in your joints Heavier than normal or irregular menstrual periods Thinning hair Slowed heart rate Depression Impaired memory

Great foods to eat Fish: The omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish such as wild salmon, trout, tuna, or sardines Omega-3s are known to decrease inflammation, help with immunity, and lower the risk for heart disease. Fish is also a good source of the nutrient selenium, which is most concentrated in the thyroid. Selenium also helps decrease inflammation.

Nuts: Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, and hazelnuts are all particularly high in selenium, which helps the thyroid function properly. With Brazil nuts, you only need to eat one or two; with other nuts, a small handful is enough to get your daily nutrients!

Fresh Fruits & Vegetables:

An early symptom of hypothyroidism is weight gain. Low-calorie, high-density foods such as fresh produce are the cornerstone of every successful weight loss program. Include either fresh fruits or veggies at each meal, if possible. Specific foods such as blueberries, cherries, sweet potatoes, and green peppers are also rich in antioxidants, nutrients that are known to lower risk for heart disease.

Seaweed: Seaweed has a high concentration of iodine, an essential nutrient for thyroid function.

Iodine is the precursor for the production of thyroid hormone. Seaweed, packaged as nori, wakame, and dulse, can be used in sushi, soups, and salads. Another plus: Seaweed offers nutritional benefits of fiber, calcium, and vitamins A, B, C, E, and K.

Foods to stay away from 1. Processed Foods/Fast Foods 2. Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach

and kale! They can block the thyroid's ability to absorb iodine, which is essential for normal thyroid function

3. Soy 4. Gluten 5. Sugary Foods

Enjoy the journey of getting to know you more as one amazing way is though medical journals over a ten year period of research.

Agape, Camille Cragg Lyman Owner CCF ccfreno.com

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UNITED WE STONED Text Micheal Colbert

January 4th January 4th, 2018, will be a day long remembered by the cannabis industry, but it is too early to tell if it will be remembered as the day the federal crackdown on legal cannabis began, or as the last straw that motivated a hesitant Congress to finally act on cannabis. On this date, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a new memo providing guidance to all US attorneys. His memo rescinded Obama-era guidance on cannabis; not just 2013’s Cole Memo, but also 2009’s Ogden Memo, 2014’s Wilkinson Memo about cannabis on tribal lands, and 2014’s Banking Secrecy Act guidance. Sessions was in such a rush to rescind those memos that he didn’t bother to alert the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which, Reuters reports, was drowning in “a flood of phone calls” as people wondered if FinCEN’s 2014 guidance regarding the banking of cannabis businesses was still in place.

The cannabis industry got an additional shock when the continuing resolution expired on January 19th, causing the federal budget to lapse. Without a budget, there was no Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from spending money to bust legal cannabis businesses. Thankfully, another continuing resolution was passed on the 22nd, extending the budget until February 8th when another budget showdown is anticipated. This cycle will continue until a 2018 omnibus spending bill is passed, which may or may not include the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment.

New Attorneys for Nevada and Northern California

The same day Sessions released his new memo, Brian Stretch, the US Attorney for the Northern District of California, stepped down from his position, and, through departmental succession, 92 Reno Tahoe Tonight

Alex Tse became acting US Attorney for the district. The Northern District of California includes the growing areas of the Emerald Triangle, Sonoma, and Napa counties. Tse’s role is far from permanent; the North Bay Express reports that, “Tse will have the position until Sessions appoints him or another candidate as interim U.S. Attorney, or Trump appoints a permanent U.S. Attorney.” According to the Marijuana Policy Project, Tse has “no known public comments” about cannabis. That leaves much uncertainty for cannabis business operators and consumers in northern California.

In Nevada, Texan Dayle Elieson was appointed

by AG Sessions as the new US Attorney.

Commenting on her appointment, Sessions remarked that Elieson has “successfully taken on fraudsters, money launderers, and terrorists,” but beyond that, not much is known about Elieson’s views, specifically the prosecution of state-legal cannabis businesses. Governor Brian Sandoval told the Las Vegas Review Journal that, “the U.S. attorney in Colorado has already said that he is not going to enforce federal laws against the legalized marijuana industry.” Sandoval added that he “would like to see something similar here.” But, like their neighbors in California, the future of the Nevada cannabis industry is now uncertain.

These federal attorneys oversee all cases in their district, including those dealing with the right to bear arms, abortion rights, LGBT rights, privacy rights, immigration, and all the myriad of rights we hold dear as Americans. So even if cannabis is not your issue, these appointments have far reaching ramifications and it’s a good idea to know how these attorneys have acted in the past on issues that matter to you. You can find out who your local attorney is on the DOJ’s website (justice. gov/usao/find-your-united-states-attorney).

A Strategy to Combat Raids One unfortunate reality of Sessions’ memo is that if the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment is not included in the next omnibus spending bill federal raids of state-legal businesses could immediately begin again. The fear that this could occur was heightened in September 2017, when the House Rules committee blocked a vote on the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment. If the amendment is blocked from becoming part of the next federal budget, the industry will need to brace itself for a potential federal crackdown.

The cannabis-focused non-profit Americans for Safe Access (ASA) recently did a webinar (youtu. be/f1tYcyxZ8jU) on ways the community can get more involved if raids begin to happen. ASA’s Raid Center (safeaccessnow.org/raid_center) has a fourstep raid response plan that they have perfected over the course of 200 raids.

The first step is ASA’s staff gathering information about the person or property being raided. The best way business owners can assist them in this process is by registering their business with ASA. Second, they will confirm the raid, which may sound excessive, but is necessary because “ASA gets false alarms about raids every day.” Third, ASA will launch a raid response including contacting the cannabis provider’s attorney, reaching out to the local press, sending a text blast to the local cannabis community, and tracking individuals through the legal system. Finally, ASA will follow up on the raid by issuing a press release, convening local activists, issuing a national action alert, and providing support to victims of the raid. ASA’s process “only works if a community is prepared in advance; this means providers and the community alike.” That is why it is important for both businesses and individuals to sign up for ASA’s raid alerts.

Protections Lost or Legislation Gained?

Now that the DOJ memos have been rescinded, the only guidance left to cannabis businesses is coming from the Treasury Department’s 2014 FinCEN guidance, which explains how banks can legally work with cannabis businesses.

Unfortunately, that may be on the chopping

block next. Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department’s Deputy Secretary commented that they, “are reviewing the guidance in light of the Attorney General’s recent decision to revoke a Justice Department memorandum on this issue.” Thankfully, there is still the RohrabacherBlumenauer amendment, but, remember, the House and Senate will need to renew it with the next omnibus spending bill to make it last another year, rather than a few weeks.

The loss, and threat of further loss, of these protections will hopefully prompt Congress to act on one of several bills that could offer protection to cannabis users and businesses.

If they were passed, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment would not need to be renewed every year with the budget. While some in the cannabis industry have condemned Sessions’ actions, others see it as a strong motivator to get timid politicians to vote to support cannabis during a major election year. Senator Cory Gardner, of Colorado, recently sat down with AG Sessions to see if they could talk through their differences regarding cannabis.

In the end, Senator Gardner said he will be “looking at appropriations legislation,” as well as “broader legislation” to fill the void left by the rescinded memos.

Given the outpouring of support from members of Congress across the political spectrum it is becoming more hopeful that Congress will either include a new Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment in the 2018 budget or pass legislation to protect the cannabis industry. Some ways you can get involved include signing up for ASA’s raid alerts, doing research on your new US attorney, and calling your Congressional representatives to let them know that cannabis users need legal protections. Since this is an election year, many politicians are very responsive to voters’ concerns and the threat of being voted out of office.

Mitchell Colbert is Senior Consultant + Communications Lead at Pistil + Stigma, a consulting firm working with organizations in public, private, and nonprofit sectors on groundbreaking policy issues nationwide. The Pistil + Stigma team of lobbying, community affairs, and cannabis strategy consultants help businesses acquire competitive licenses and grow sustainable and socially conscious businesses.

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WANDERED OFF

Text and photos courtesy of Natasha Bourlin

barrier should never inhibit anyone’s desire to explore another land.

Yum Botik

While I’ve traveled to many a non-English speaking country, and have studied several languages in my quest to explore the globe, this area of the world was one of the most quietly and powerfully coherent… given I speak hardly any Spanish.

Throughout life, we learn words to express ourselves, however communication transcends language.

This is something every artist knows inherently.

How Communication Transcends Language There are so many nuances to home in on to gain understanding A monkey stopped in the middle of the road of others, from expressions, to actions, to the eyes to glare at me. It was just one of many forms of that share the dialect of the heart and soul. All life nonverbal communication I experienced while communicates, no matter where you are, you just touring the Riviera Maya, on the Caribbean side need to pay attention to hear it. of Mexico. Apparently, my happy jaunt down the road had interrupted his food search, and his Amidst the jungles, beaches and coral reefs that dismay was expressed quite clearly, although even once fended off the Spanish Conquistadors, his dismay was adorable enough to make me whip eventually to no avail, this was made crystal clear out a camera. by the ceaselessly smiling eyes of the indigenous Maya people we befriended there. They shared, in This month, one often focused in cliché fashion on their own nearly lost language as well as ours, how love, I’ll delve into language and culture, and how they’ve retained their culture while adapting to love and understanding intercede. How a language those imposed upon them, and of their deep and

– Mayan Thank You

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symbiotic connection to their natural surroundings.

They have much to teach.

Surrounded by azure seas, the second largest coral reef on the planet and ancient relics like Tulum, smiles, small gestures and big hugs spoke volumes. Speaking a common language was far less important than happily following our guides on adventures close to their hearts, seeing the natural subtleties they pointed out and places they’d known of for centuries, and the sheer joy felt as they shared with us their native land.

Tales were told through words and gestures of their intrinsic understanding that everything humans need already exists in nature. How

respecting each other and all other living beings, from trees to marine life, is of the utmost importance.

Ending our five-day sojourn, I had a multilingual companion tell me how to say “thank you” in our new Mayan friends’ native language. Grasping the hands of a man who spoke volumes just with his kind eyes, I repeated the words “yum botik.” My tribute to the man and his culture was unnecessary, because I’d already expressed my tremendous gratitude through my heart, soul, eyes and arms, and he clearly understood.

Natasha Bourlin is a writer with a boundless passion for language and cultures.

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→

February 17 through May 13

Matriarchs in their communities, these nine Aboriginal artists, make artworks that cross cultures and bridge worlds.

The strength of their vision is evident in paintings that shimmer and swirl, affirming their authority like lightning bolts, or sparkle like the night sky.

LEAD SPONSOR The Collections Committee of the Nevada Museum of Art: Martha Hesse Dolan and Robert E. Dolan; Dolan Law LLC; Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller; Kathie Bartlett; John C. Deane; Turkey and Peter Stremmel; Nancy and Harvey Fennell; Linda Frye; Marcia and Charles Growdon; Sari and Ian Rogoff; Darby and David Walker SPONSORS Sandy Raffealli/Bill Pearce Motors of Reno SUPPORTING SPONSORS Maria and Mark Denzler