Issuu

Celebrating art and science in Greater Prescott

Alan Dean Foster rains on parade commentatorsâ€™ parade P. 10

Ty Fitzmorris whets your wintry appetites P. 14

Jacy Lee

is seeing double is seeing double P. 7

Gene Twaronite

gets into a prickly predicament P. 21

And much2 more

AMPERSAND:

Jennifer Shinohara works wonders with wool MARCH 2015 | VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 | 5ENSESMAG.COM

P. 16

Open Monday thru Saturday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. 928-778-1223 802 Valley Street Prescott, Arizona 86305 RusticPieCompany.com

5enses In which:

4 5 6 7 10 11

14 16 18 20 21

Peregrine Book Co.

Ty Fitzmorris

Peter Pierson

James Dungeon

talks terrorism, gardens, the incomparable Patrick O’Brian, immigrants, and golems and jinn.

5/6 22 8 22 Flip Photo

A visual puzzle from the Highlands Center for Natural History

Markoﬀ Chaney

takes a cue from Mother Nature and Father Mathematics by grabbing a slice to celebrate Pi Day.

Paolo Chlebecek

doubles down on sets of twin images that exposed the wider world to the even wider world around them.

sifts through the statistics, crunches the numbers, and discovers we’d all be better oﬀ with extra digits.

Alan Dean Foster

Gene Twaronite

loves a parade ... until the broadcasters show up and, you know, talk about everything except the parade.

pulls a thorny plant from the proverbial lion’s garden and proves there’s no thorn without a rose, naturally.

Jacques Laliberté

discusses beads, irony, and city-tocountry-mouse living with Pauldentransplant artist Rhonda Zwillinger.

Oddly Enough Smart, quirky comics by Russell Miller

Left Brain/ Not-as-holy-days Enjoy some Right Brain

discusses children’s toys and the lost art of playing with Prescott artist Jennifer Shinohara.

writes a non-ﬁction review of a ﬁctional autobiography by literary provocateur Jacques Laliberté.

Jacy Lee

Plus

knows what snow’s important, and that, record-setting temps aside, we need a packed snowpack pact.

crowns a color-streaked avian visitor that’s chowing down as it nervously eyes an approaching storm.

Robert Blood

March 2015 • Volume 3, Issue 3

Copyright © 2014 5enses Inc. unless otherwise noted. Publisher & Editor: Nicholas DeMarino Copy Editor: Susan Smart Read a new 5enses the ﬁrst weekend of every month. Visit 5ensesMag.Com, Facebook, & Twitter for more. Contact us at 5ensesMag@Gmail.Com & 928-613-2076.

Find out what’s going on in Greater Prescott

alternative reasons for the season(s)

COVER: Artwork by Rhonda Zwillinger. Photo by Donna Chesler. COVER DETAIL: “Wooly Niche” felt animals by Jennifer Shinohara. Photo by Shogo Shinohara.

A bracelet by Rhonda Zwillinger. Photo by Donna Chesler. See Page 11 for more.

Adorn Your Lifestyle

@ Snap Snap

brating Cele

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5ENSESMAG.COM • MARCH 2015 • CONTENTS • 3

Peregrine Book Co.

Staff picks By Peregrine Book Company staff “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?” By David Harris-Gershon An intensely intriguing book that goes beyond personal experience into the political aspects of being the victim of terrorism. A man’s journey to reconcile his personal suﬀering with that of the terrorist’s family. — Sarah “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” By Toby Hemenway Create an edible ecosystem in your yard! —Tom

lands C igh e H

“Master & Commander” By Patrick O’Brian This, my dear, is the first book in the great immortal adventure story of the world. The finest, funniest, most thrilling & fulfilling epic narrative in English, peopled by the best-drawn and most memorable characters we know of. O’Brian will sweep you away. Be you sea-dog or lubberly literary cove, read it, for all love. There is not a moment to be lost. —Reva

for

in the beauty of nature -

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“Rain of Gold” By Victor Villasenor The storytelling, the landscape, the unforgettable characters — this book will open your eyes and keep you reading. So awesome. —Kim

•

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4 • FEATURE • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

“The Golem & the Jinni” By Helene Wecker A thoroughly diverting imaginal novel, and one of the more intriguing combinations of the magical and the profane to be published in the last few years. Chava, a golem created by dark Kabbalistic magic, is awakened on a voyage to America in 1899. In the same moment Ahmad, a Syrian ﬁrejinn, is accidentally freed by a blacksmith in NYC’s Little Syria. They both struggle, separately, for acceptance in the strange, vibrantly painted city, and eventually meet, just as the golem’s creator, their mutual enemy, ﬁnds them. —Ty

***** Visit Peregrine Book Company at PeregrineBookCompany.Com and 219A N. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-445-9000.

Bird of the Month

Rubycrowned Kinglet

Photo by CheapShot, Creative Commons 2.0. By Peter Pierson

Broken

dark clouds drop lower as they pass across Granite Mountain, bringing rain, then, as the storm moves in from the west, what is being projected to be the heaviest snowfall in two or three years here in the Central Highlands. The pending storm brings out the usual visitors in numbers. Juncos, siskins, chipping sparrows, and house finches rotate between the tray and the feed spilled on the ground. Amidst the ground feeders, the distinct black-and-white-striped crown of a lone white-crowned sparrow stands out. Red-breasted nuthatches and juniper titmice pluck through sunflower seeds amidst a wave of chattering bushtits. An orange-crowned warbler waits while a pair of yellow-rumped warblers feed at a suet station. Brilliant sunlight pokes from between the dark, moisture-laden clouds, illuminating a flash of red in a juniper. It’s a ruby-crowned kinglet, although ruby does not quite do it justice on a day like this. The tiny bird, second, with its close relation the golden-crowned kinglet, in its diminutive status only to the hummingbirds, moves its way down the branches towards the suet.

“Nervous,”

described in guidebooks, this tiny bundle of metabolism ﬂits down the tree, branch by branch, not stay-

ing in one place long enough to get a bead on it with the binoculars. Its distinctive long, continuous, babbling song may be heard well before the first hints of dawn. Here in Prescott, the ruby-crowned-kinglet is common from late fall through early spring. Found in the pine and riparian woods in this, its winter range, the ruby-crowned kinglet is a patron of suet feeders, often amidst bushtits, chickadees, and relations. Primarily an insect eater, the kinglet can be identified by its small size, small bill, and olive-gray plumage with well-defined wing bars. The males will flash a tuft of bright red feathers, usually concealed in their crown, when agitated, as this one is doing as it flits its wings, working its way towards the suet, or posturing to attract a mate or defend its territory. The kinglet watches nervously as the band of bushtits swarms the suet. Another brilliant flash of red catches the intermittent sun. The bird drops another branch closer to the feeding station, and then abruptly takes off, disappearing into the higher reaches of a nearby juniper as the sun dips behind a dark cloud. ***** Peter Pierson is a freelance writer whose essay work has been published for a variety of print media and produced and broadcast for KAXE-Northern (Minnesota) Community Radio and CBC Radio One across Canada. Visit Prescott Audubon Society at PrescottAudubon.Org. Contact them at Contact@PrescottAudubon.Org.

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

pilF Photo

Whose proﬁle dictates pollinator discoveries? 5ENSESMAG.COM • MARCH 2015 • FEATURES • 5

Writ large

Mile High Nature’s Essentials presents

Essential Oil Education Series • Basics covered every time • Delve deeper into particular plants • Address physical imbalances • Make and take items 6:30-8:00 PM

at the Prescott Gateway Mall Community Room

March 5 & 19, April 2, 16, & 30 Email sharonledwards@hotmail.com or call 541-521-0272 for more info

$1 TACOS all day on

Taco Tuesdays @

224 N. Cortez St. only 2 blocks from the Courthouse Square Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

Flip otohP

Fantastic ﬂowers.

This

spring, keep your sense of smell in tune and your eyes sharp for all the different flowers and who’s pollinating them. Some flowers such as daisies sunflowers and gaillardias lay flat, wide, and open attracting a wide variety of pollinators. Other flowers such as manzanita, trumpet vines, and orchids have specialized structures for specific pollinators. Manzanitas (above) are the first natives to flower in and around Prescott. Extremely fragrant flowers hang upside down and only have small openings. This structure is great for bees but isn’t designed to attract larger pollinators like hummingbirds. Next time you see a flower, watch for which pollinators are visiting and try to figure out who in our plant kingdom is specifically structured for our hummingbirds.

6 • FEATURES • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Laliberté satirizes memoir-ization By Robert Blood

it good? Yeah, it’s good.

From here, this critique of Jacques Laliberté’s ﬁrst, self-published novel, “The Fictional Autobiography of the 21st Century’s Greatest Artist, Andienne Brünsilder,” gets a little messy. First — and this is a deal breaker for those who eschew the word “meta” — is the work’s hat-on-a-hat genre as a ﬁctional autobiography. That designation isn’t particularly consequential, however. Let’s just call it a story. At its core, Laliberté’s is a classic selfdiscovery story set in a (lovingly rendered) satire of the commercial art world. The egoist protagonist, Andi, prefers to tell the tale as a confessional, tell-most memoir. Many of the details are plucked from the greater Zeitgeist: biggeris-better works of art, pop culture and kitsch sensibilities, bizarre corporate sponsorships. Some of the settings, art pieces, and, notably, people, though, are lifted straight from Laliberté’s own experiences. Some are more thickly veiled than others, to protect the not-so-innocent, presumably.

Andi

— whose full name yields no anagrams of note — starts his journey at a club in Berlin. He’s the kind of guy who throws his own birthday party and capitalizes the word “fate.” The protagonist caters a few vignettes, stray thoughts, and sketches, which lends an air of voyeurism to the mix. But, ultimately, Andi’s well aware he’s being watched — that he’s showing you something — so he only reveals his (sorta) good side.

Andi’s stream of consciousness reads like a string of zen koans. Blunt. Unadorned. Occasionally profane. Always entertaining.

Lithe

and lively, Laliberté’s writing walks a fine line between taut storytelling and sledge-hammer-to-the-skull twists. He’s at his best with dialogue and descriptions — especially when he eyes the coterie of women in play. He writes about food and drink (coffee and alcohol, in turns) in a manner akin to a sedated Haruki Murakami. The women are the major catalysts of change in Andi’s world. They’re objectified, but they’re objectified in a reverential way. It’s lusty, neither slathering nor sleazy. To wit, an excerpt: “Kathi bit down hard on her Rothmans till it bent, an unsexy prop for such a ripe mouth — moist red with glaze and alive with tension dealing with the cigarette filter — now too stained in red gloss.” The impish plot, which revolves around a scheme-of-opportunity and karmic comeuppance, serves as a vehicle for evolving relationships that are, perhaps, more important than the events threaded through them. “The Fictional Autobiography of the 21st Century’s Greatest Artist, Andienne Brünsilder” — try writing around that title — reads like a fast, expensive car: stylish, sleek, unattainable. And, SPOILER ALERT, Laliberté’s got a great pitch for BMW-brand diapers. ***** Robert Blood is a Mayer-ish-based freelance writer and ne’er-do-well who’s working on his last book, which, incidentally, will be his first. Contact him at BloodyBobby5@Gmail.Com.

By Jacy Lee

A reproduction of a Holmes Stereoscope Image by Dave Pape. Public domain.

The

subjects of cards were endless. Landscapes and geologic wonders were common. European scenes included the Matterhorn and the Swiss Alps. American scenes focused on wonders from the East, such as Watkins Glen, New York, and Natural Bridge, Virginia. Niagara Falls was common. The far West and mountain states scenery dwarfed the Eastern scenes, but were harder to access. Toward the end of the 1800s, that changed. Pikes Peak was a staple, even though it wasn’t the highest point in Colorado. It was close to Colorado Springs and therefore accessible. Yosemite

a glimpse of Asian life. A Delaware family caught a panorama of mountains and waterfalls. The stodgy Newport, Rhode Island elite were reminded of the horrors of war. It was another step toward understanding global cultures and shrinking the world. It was seeing in stereo.

Cardboard Cardboard makes history makes history made an awesome scenario, but folks were especially astounded by “The Grand Canon [sic], Arizona.” Another broadly covered subject was architecture. Everything from Blarney Castle, to the White House to the Flatiron Building, New York was in focus. You could see anything from the Great Hall of St. Peter’s in Rome to paintings in the dome of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. All of these were recreated views for the masses, who had heard of their glory but might never experience them in real life.

Then

there were disasters. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was highly documented. It occurred at the height of stereo viewing popularity. Another disaster, almost a decade earlier, is much rarer. The remnants of the battleship Maine being towed in Havana Harbor by a tug is practically propaganda. Day to day life was recorded on cardboard to be viewed later as either fascinating or comical. An outdoor plaza in Japan, ﬁlled with brightly clad people in strange garb, oohed the American people. A set of Native American cards is hard to ﬁnd and considered a collector’s item. Two children eating watermelon gave the public a giggle. A group of black children struggling with “How de Debil do da Make a Bicycle” was considered amusing back then.

But

***** Longtime Prescott resident Jacy Lee has been in the auction business for 37 years and is directly responsible for a fraction of a million pounds of minimally processed recycling each year.

what did the stereo card craze really mean? It not only amused people, but educated them and exposed them to new ideas. The Western world got

4 Prescott’s 4th Friday

ART WALKS

4FRIDAY ’S

stereoscope or stereo viewer was an optical instrument through which two pictures of the same object were viewed. Each of the two pictures had a slightly different view, offset to the right or left. When viewed together through the stereo lenses they formed one picture with (gasp!) the illusion of depth. The only mechanical part was a hand operated slide that could move the mounted picture toward or away from the viewing lens. Many of the viewers were quite similar in size and shape, as were the cards. Almost all of the cards were 3” x 7”, on hard cardboard, no matter who manufactured them. The Keystone View Company was one of the most prolific makers toward the end of the 19th century. Charles A. Zimmerman Photography, of St. Paul, Minnesota, published “1,200 Subjects,” almost all on Minnesota. In the 1890s, one distributor, Underwood and Underwood, had offices in New York, London, Toronto, and Kansas. (Kansas in the 1890s?!)

Seeing, Seeing, in stereo in stereo

COT T

The

A reproduction of a Holmes Stereoscope Image by Dave Pape. Public domain.

PRE S

certain part of everyone’s life is taken up with entertainment. Movies, television, phones, computers, music, and so on. Now, think of a lifetime without any of these. Go back prior to “Edison’s Talking Machines,” silent movies, or even magic lanterns. What did people have then? Well, well-to-do people had a string quartet, every month or so. But what of those who weren’t in the gentry class? In the middle of the 19th century a mechanical gadget was invented that was both fascinating and aﬀordable (for the time). This was the stereoscope.

EVERY

2015 January 23 February 27 March 27 April 24 Beginning at 5 PM May 22 June 26 July 24 August 28 September 25 October 23 November 27

See Special Events

www.ArtThe4th.com

5ENSESMAG.COM • MARCH 2015 • FEATURE • 7

Left Brain: March’s mind-full events Events

“Dana & Nina” • 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 3: Anthropologist and professor Dana Oswald and rabbi Nina Perlmutter discuss attentiveness to the otherthan-human world of scientiﬁc research, visual arts, philosophy, and more. Via "Campus Conversations.” (Prescott College Natural History Institute gallery, 312 Grove Ave., 928-350-2280) Prescott Geology Club • 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3: Beth Boyd, of Yavapai College, talk. A monthly Central Arizona Geology Club meeting. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-778-6324)

“Processing Astrophotography Images” • 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4: Jeﬀ Stillman demonstrates how to process images using MaximDL, DeepSkyStacker, and Photoshop. A monthly Prescott Astronomy Club meeting. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

LAN party • Noon Saturday, March 7: Play multiplayer computer games like “Quake,” “Counterstrike,” and “Tribes.” A monthly Local Area Network party. Via Western Sky PC. (Game On, 1957 Commerce Center Circle Suite C, Prescott, PPCGG.Com)

“George Phippen & the Birth of the Phippen Museum” • 1 p.m. Saturday, March 7: Marsha Painton, master docent at the Phippen Museum, discusses the life and times of George Phippen. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385) “Peace Ecology” • 2 p.m. Saturday, March 7: Randall Amster, director of the Program on Justice and Peace at Georgetown University, discusses his new book, “Peace Ecology,” which explores the link between peace and nonviolence and the tenets of ecology and principles of environmentalism. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) Prescott Good Governance • 4 p.m. Saturday, March 7: Group discussion on Prescott's “General Plan.” Via Prescott Good Governance Committee. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

11 12

“Be Firewise” • 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 11: Darrell Willis, chief of the Prescott Fire Department, discusses wildﬁre issues in Prescott and gives defensible space tips. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-778-6324)

“The National Environmental Policy Act” • 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12: Christine Thiel, range NEPA team leader for the Prescott National Forest, discusses NEPA. Via Arizona Native Plant Society. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550)

14 13 14

Evening Forest Walk • 7 p.m. Friday, March 13: A family-friendly adventure in the forest. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550) Prescott Audubon Bird Walk • 8:30 a.m. Saturday, March 14: Monthly Prescott Audubon bird walk. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550)

“Big Questions, Tough Answers” • 10 a.m. Saturday, March 14: Greg Kornrumph, principal analyst with Salt River Project discusses the “Big Chino Sub-basin Progress Report.” A monthly Citizens Water Advocacy Group meeting. (Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation Building, 882 Sunset Ave., 928-445-4218)

“The Prescott We Want” • 4 p.m. Saturday, March 18: Group discussion with a special focus on open space issues. A monthly Prescott Good Governance Committee meeting. (Peregrine Book co., 219 N. Cortez St., 928-458-4729) “Return to Oakpine” • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 18: Awardwinning novelist Ron Carlson, director of the University of California, Irvine's graduate program in ﬁction, reads from his newest novel, “Return to Oakpine.” (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“Return to Oakpine,” too • 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 18: Awardwinning novelist Ron Carlson, director of the University of California, Irvine's graduate program in ﬁction, reads from his newest novel, “Return to Oakpine.” Via the Southwest Writers Series. (Prescott College Natural History Institute, 312 Grove Ave., 928-350-2280)

8 • EVENTS • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

"A Celebration in Honor of Elisabeth Ruff ner" • 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19: Celebrate Elisabeth Ruffner, one of two 2015 Living Legacy Inductees into The Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. Featuring appearances by Marshall Trimble, Gail Steiger, Amy Hale Auker, Brad Newman, Jonathan Best, Marnie Uhl, Dennis Garvey, Sandy Moss, Layne Longfellow, Paul Ruffner, Gail Mangham, Jody Drake, Tom & Christa Agostino, Melissa Ruffner, The New Hayloft Trio, and more. (Elks Theatre, 117 E. Gurley St., 928-777-1367, $25-$50) PHOTO: Elisabeth Ruffner. Courtesy photo.

“High Altitude Ballooning: Education From the Edge of Space” • 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19: Jack Crabtree, founder of Arizona Near Space Research, describes an Arizona balloon program that involved nearly a thousand students. Via Prescott Astronomy Club’s Third Thursday Star Talks. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-778-6324)

“Pollination Station” • 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19: Lisa Zander, program coordinator and collections manager at the Natural History Institute, discusses the science behind creating and conserving pollinator habitat. (Prescott College Natural History Institute gallery, 312 Grove Ave., 928-350-2280)

“Riding With the Duke” • 1 p.m. Saturday, March 21: Greg McNamee discusses John Wayne in Arizona. Via Arizona Humanities and AZSpeaks. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385) “Riparian Riches” • 1 p.m. Saturday, March 21: Michael Byrd, executive director of Prescott Creeks, discusses Granite Creek and its riparian riches. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) “While the Gods Were Sleeping” • 3 p.m. Saturday, March 21: Award-winning author and anthropologist Elizabeth Enslin discusses her memoir, which recounts “A Journey Through Love and Rebellion in Nepal.” (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

22 25

“Birds & Other Fauna of the Amazon” • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 22: Micah Riegner, local birder, discusses birds and animals of the Amazon. Via Prescott Audubon Society. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) “Roundup, GMOs, and the Rise of Modern Disease” • 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25: Jeﬀ rey Smith presents a taped interview with Dr. Stephanie Seneﬀ, MIT, about her studies on glyphosate (Roundup). (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

“Diversity and Behavior of Herons Around the World” • 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26: Mark Riegner, environmental studies program professor at Prescott College, discusses heron ecology, behavior, and conservation. A monthly Prescott Audubon meeting. (Trinity Presbyterian Church, 630 Park Ave., 928-778-6502)

27 28

“Night Skies, Stories, & Stars” • 6 p.m. Friday, March 27: A family program about the dark sky and the forest at night. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550, $2-$5)

“Walk Through Whipple” • 9 a.m. Saturday, March 28: Mick Woodcock presents a visual cornucopia of vintage photos of Fort (and Camp and Barracks) Whipple, from its founding as a frontier army post to its current use as a senior Veteran's Health Care facility. (Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley St., 928-445-312)

“Father Kino” • 1 p.m. Saturday, March 28: Barbara Jaquay discusses the holy man most often associated with the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Via Arizona Humanities and AZSpeaks. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385)

Multi-day Bird walks • 8 a.m. March 7, 11, 21, & 26: Local, guided bird walks at Fain Park, White Spar Campground, Willow Lake South, and Aspen Creek Trail. (Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP) Prescott Area Boardgamers • 5 p.m. Wednesdays, March 4 & 18: Play board games. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Naturalist Field Walks • 10 a.m. Saturdays: Discover more about local insects, birds, geology, plants, and more. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550) Drop in chess • 2 p.m. Saturdays: Play chess, all ages and skill levels welcome. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

March’s art-full events :niarB thgiR

Events

DevaHealingCenter.Org) Mindfulness meditation • 6:30 p.m. informal sit, 7 p.m. formal sit Tuesdays: Meditation group open to people of all faiths and non-faiths followed by discussion. (First Congregational Church, 216 E. Gurley St., PrescottVipassana.Org)

Poetry discussion group • 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 4: Dr. Janet Preston’s monthly poetry discussion group. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

Art

Modern-day meditation • 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, March 4: Open. Calm. Think. Act. An active, four-part practice. (Blackbird Yoga 332 W. Gurley St., 619-917-1337)

5 6 8

Poets’ Cooperative • 6 p.m. Thursday, March 5: Share your work with other poets in a supportive atmosphere. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

“Celtic Fire” • 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6: Michael Londra’s live music, dance, and singing. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $25-$55) “The Art of Bronze Patina” • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 8: Erik Petersen, owner of Petersen Creations, demonstrates the patina process and discusses bronze casting. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385, $5-$7)

“Romeo & Juliet” • 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8: Via satellite, The Bolshoi Ballet’s presentation of Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $10-$15)

“La Donna del Lago” • 9:55 a.m. Saturday, March 14: Via satellite, The Metropolitan Opera’s presentation of Rossini’s take on Sir Walter Scott’s novel. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $12-$30) The Improvitionians • 8:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14: Improv comedy at 5,000 feet. (ERAU Davis Learning Center, 3700 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-6985, $5)

18 21 22

Arts & Craft Show • 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 18: High Desert Artists’ arts and craft show. (Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce, 175 E. Road 2 S., 928-636-0358) “Navajo Rug & Indian Art Auction” • 9 a.m. preview, noon auction Saturday, March 21: 17th annual Navajo rug and Indian art auction. (Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928-445-1230, $6-$7) “Young Playwrighters Festival” • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 22: Fifth annual event celebrating young playwrights (Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286)

“Happy Birthday, George!” • From March 7: Exhibit commemorating the 100th birthday of the museum’s namesake, George Phippen. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385, $5-$7) “Little Treasures” • Through March 15: Works by the Granite Mountain Jewelry Artists featuring an array of techniques and styles of resin work, forging, texturing, patina, and more. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223)

4 Bellydance movie series 2015 kickoﬀ • 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 4: Ustadza Azra, director of the New Moon Tribal School of Bellydance, hosts a free movie series covering the history and evolution of bellydance from Egypt to the streets of San Francisco. Contact Ustadza Azra at UstadzaAzra@Gmail.Com for more info. (Lotus Bloom Yoga Studio, 777 W. Hillside Ave., 928-499-1553) IMAGE: New Moon Tribal School of Bellydance promotional image.

Diana Edwards • 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 25: Award-winning poet Diana Edwards reads her poetry and discusses her writing process. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Open mic poetry • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25: Poet Dan Seaman emcees monthly open mic poetry. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“Life Nude(Plant)s” • Noon Friday, March 27: Drawing hour featuring living and preserved plants as well as insects and bird specimens. BYOS. (Prescott College Natural History Institute, 312 Grove Ave., 928-350-2280, $5 donation) 4th Friday Art Walk • 5 p.m. Friday, March 27: Monthly art walk including more than 18 galleries, artist receptions, openings, and demonstrations. (ArtThe4th.Com)

Contra Dance • 7 p.m. lesson, 7:30 p.m. dance Saturday, March 28: Contra dancing. Via Folk Happens. Calls by Judy Zeidel, music by The Privy Tippers. (First Congregation Church, 216 E. Gurley St., 928-925-5210, $4-$8)

Multi-day “Good People” • 7:30 p.m. March 19-21, 26-28, & April 2-4 & 2 p.m. March 22 & 29, & April 4: With humor, this play explores the shifting loyalties and unshakable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America. (Stage Too, North Cortez Street alley between Willis and Sheldon streets, 928-445-3286, $15) “Willy Wonka: The Musical” • 7 p.m. March 20 & 21, 3 p.m. March 21: A musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story about an eccentric, world-famous candyman. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $15) “Grease” • 7 p.m. March 20, 21, 27, & 28 & 2:30 p.m. March 21, 22, 28, & 29: School version of the classic musical. Via Lonesome Valley Playhouse. (Prescott Valley United Methodist Church, 8944 E. Sommer Drive, Prescott Valley, 928-583-4684, $10-$15) Community Yoga • 5:15 p.m. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10 a.m. Saturdays: Free community all-levels yoga class for people from all walks of life. (Deva Healing Center, 520 Sheldon St.,

“Hand & Eye” • From March 15: Ceramics by Victoria Page and photography by George Lewis. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) Harper • Through March 18: 2D and 3D art by Patrick Harper. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) Printmaking show • Through March 25: Annual art show featuring printmaking. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) Spring Photography show • From March 26: Annual art show featuring photography. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “Life in the West” • Through March 28: Art featuring life in the West. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) “There Are Two Stories Here” • Through March 28: Works by printmaker and book artist Katie Baldwin. (Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse, 232 N. Granite St., 928-350-2341) “Water, Water, Everywhere?” • Through March 28: Living in Arizona, water takes on a more urgent focus than somewhere like Hawaii and generates many questions. (Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286) “Relocations: Remnants of the Past” • Through April 4: Digital montage photography by Prof. Stephen Marc, Arizona State University, that combines imagery of life and culture of the African Diaspora with American history. (Yavapai College Art Gallery, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2031)

Alan Dean Foster’s

Perceivings

By Alan Dean Foster Remember when broadcasting a parade focused on ... broadcasting the parade? I mean, when did the parade itself become entirely subordinate to the jejune verbalizations of the broadcasting “talent”?

The art of calling a parade Initial rule of broadcasting the Rose Parade: Shut up. At first glance this instruction may appear counter-intuitive. But it’s the only way I know to get the point across. Viewers have turned on the parade not only to watch the parade, but to listen to it. The marching bands, the cheers of the crowd, even the throaty mutter of the distant Goodyear blimp — this is what they want to hear. At the risk of bruising fragile entertainment industry egos, I say with the cumulative experience of watching Rose Parades for more than 60 years: You’re not funny, you on-the-air “talent”. Your painful witticisms don’t work, your corny jokes fall flat after the first 15 minutes, and your desperate attempts to fill what producers would call dead air but what viewers would call blissful silence. All of these are unappreciated, wasted, and an unwelcome distraction. Call the parade, and when you’re not calling the parade, be quiet. Sip some coffee. Send a text. Check your mic volume. And otherwise shut up. Rule No. 2: Describe the parade. Despite what you may think, this is not incidental to interminable blabbering about the weather, your friends back home, and what you got for Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/the winter solstice. This is why you are in Pasadena, and this is your job. Viewers want to know as much about each float as you can properly convey. Relate what flowers were used, where they came from, how they were applied, etc. They want to know the details of each float, preferably while seeing an image of what is being described. They want to know about the equestrian groups; where they come from, what they do when they’re not in the parade, their origins, their histories, and the breeds of horses on display. Viewers want to know about the bands; not just where they’re from, but what their uniforms represent, if they’ve won any awards, and how often they’ve appeared in the parade.

Doesn’t anyone in the broadcasting industry realize that’s the most basic tenet re properly and entertainingly describing a parade? It’s not rocket science. Anyone watching any parade anywhere in the country, and quite likely anywhere on the planet, knows it instinctively. The people who take the time to watch a parade are there to watch and enjoy the parade. Not improvisational comedy. Not vaudeville. Not promos for other shows, personalities, products, forthcoming events, celebrity birthdays, reality shows relying on exhausted concepts, or the comic travails of the broadcasters’ relatives. It’s … all … about … the … parade. When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we always watched the Rose Parade on Channel 5. To my knowledge, Channel 5 was the ﬁrst TV station to show the parade sans commercials. And when I say sans commercials, I mean no more than a brief mention or two of a behind-the-scenes sponsor. The technology to generate the incredibly annoying bugs (those small visual inserts that are now terrifyingly omnipresent on seemingly every TV show) did not exist. So we were spared, for example, the superﬂuousness of a giant “G” in the upper left-hand corner of the TV image reminding us, in case anyone in this galaxy might be unaware of it, that the Rose “Color commentary.” Parade is a G-ratComponents public domain. ed enterprise. (I must have missed Illustration by 5enses. those R-rated Rose Parades.)

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Rule No. 3: No more than two broadcasters. Two broadcasters can talk back and forth. Three broadcasters is a drunken mob whose individual components invariably talk over one another, resulting in an incomprehensible babble that sounds like gay Klingon. This past year’s HGTV coverage is an excellent example. Two’s broadcasting. Three’s a verbal riot. Rule No. 4: This one’s for the producers. Viewers want close-ups. Floats have become more and more detailed and elaborate over the years. Endless long shots reduce the most exquisite float to a smear of distant color. Within 10 minutes of this, every float starts to look like every other float. Close-ups, folks. Rule No. 5: Also for the producers. Learn how to properly mic a marching band. If the volume of 300 band members remains at the same broadcast level as your drooling commentators, the best marching band in the world comes off sounding like a collection of a dozen grinning toy monkeys banging toy cymbals at the bottom of a dry well. Get up close with your mics, or at least figure out how to adjust the volume for the bands when they march past your location. That’s my polemic in the hope that the telecast of the next Rose Parade, or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or the Mummers, or Kodos and Kang’s triumphant arrival on Earth, will be about the broadcast and not the broadcasters, and conveyed with technology that is not 30 years old. Please. ***** Alan Dean Foster is author of more than 120 books, visitor to more than 100 countries, and still frustrated by the human species. Follow him at AlanDeanFoster.Com.

As you can see,I, too, am wearing red.

Artist in Exile

Rhonda Zwillinger: The life of an art refugee By Jacques Laliberté What would it take for you to move from New York City — or Los Angeles or Miami — to Paulden, Arizona? If you know the characterizations of Prescott and its more, uh, rustic neighbors to the north, you have a sense of the shock that would befall a city gal stopping in Paulden’s Pink Store her first time expecting Gauloises and a Times. Now what would you imagine it’d take for an internationally-accomplished, gallery-represented, celebrity-collected feminist East Village artist to do just that? Sell her million-buck co-op and up-and-leave for the dusty, prickly-pear and goat head ridden, summer-sizzlin’, mobile-home-livin’ barrens of Paulden, a locale beyond even Chino Valley in geographical — and, yes— cultural stature? Long story. So, let’s rewind a bit. And, in the interim, keep the word “angst” in mind. NYC Broadway boogaloo Scene: The hey-day of NYC culture, early ‘70s. Enter: Rhonda Zwillinger, daughter of a long line of women artists. Her grandmother — a doyenne of haute couture in Russia — especially influenced her trajectory as a mentor of crochet, knitting, and apparel. She studied with the legendary Phillip Pearlstein at Brooklyn College, dutifully painting figures and landscapes. A “serious artist,” she eschewed making the customary rounds, which at the time consisted of belonging to movements (civil rights, environmental, anti-war, et al.). To quote her rep with Galleria La Giarina, in Verona, Italy: “Zwillinger is remembered as the ‘East Village artist’ because she emerged in a particular historical moment in New York City. The East Village was a world of immediate art, a self-invented alternative (to) Soho of New York.”

A series of pieces by Rhonda Zwillinger. Photo by Donna Chesler. Do you speak kitsch? At one point, Zwillinger began using postcard pictures as subject for paintings. These were, she said, “Souvenir items — ‘hyperlife’ — how we like to remember life … I mean, realism is not that beautiful, really.” Over the phone, I can almost sense the smirk on her face as she says this, though I do hear her knowing irony. “Life’s dirty, gritty.” And remember, this was before Paulden. She was traveling ever further along the road of mixed-media in her work, never content to follow others. Banal art, appropriated imagery, junkstore finds, recycled consumerism — was this gal ahead of her time or what? “Painting had become too confining,” she said. “I got bored, and began incorporating other materials.” And being in New York, the Department of Cultural Affairs had a wealth of donated materials. Alternative material. Like cat’s eye marbles. Like a million of them. “I took those and started a series called ‘Objects of Desire.’” Movie stars rendered in sequins, mirror shards and those cat’s eye marbles. It was a turning point

for Zwillinger. During the ‘80s, New York City was abuzz with alternative art spaces: storefront windows, clubs, parties. Pop-up galleries featured one-night shows. Faith Ringgold curated some of Zwillinger’s work as part of PS1’s “Wild Art” show. From paintings encrusted with beads to high heels, then whole rooms, living rooms, boudoirs and their furnishings, wall-art, music boxes, and mirrors, all beaded, full-scale, life-size walk-in art — there ventured Zwillinger. “Those music boxes were Dada elements,” she explained. “They added cacophony into the rooms, which toured as installations.” One landed — permanently — in a Holland museum. And so the international attention grew. Galleries and museums in Europe and Japan invited her to show, lending her studio space in which to create new work. In all, Zwillinger produced something like 500 exhibitions in six years. This led to a traveling retrospective, 1989-90. Madonna herself popped into a show at one point and bought it out, to boot.

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5ENSESMAG.COM • MARCH 2015 • PORTFOLIO • 11

... FROM PAGE 11 Cue foreboding soundtrack In 1991 conditions deteriorated, as did Zwillinger’s health. She feared her apartment’s steam heat, its hundredsof-years-old toxins percolating into her room from the basement. The air. The noise. They all began to bother her. Here were all the indications of the onset of an environmental sensitivity disorder. Scene: Tucson, surviving, adapting to her new home and the lay of the land, physically and socially, diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensi-

tivities, (MCS) and witnessing others suﬀering with it, too. Zwillinger was shocked at the homelessness of those with the illness. “No one knew — or believed,” she recalled. She felt it her duty to document the faces, and though, in the pas,t had never found a voice in photography, now — the whole Mother of Invention thing — she did, producing the series, and eventual book: “The Dispossessed: Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.” “It took ﬁve years to do this book, and I became a political activist to attain services from Arizona for these people,” Zwillinger said. “We actually changed policy. That became

my art.” The large-format black-and-white images from the series are haunting, stark, and yet again, Zwillinger saw — and captured — the humanity, the triumph over hardship, her own hardship. Along the way she acted as consultant on “Safe”, Todd Haynes’ 1995 award-winning film with Julianne Moore as a woman suffering the unknown illness. What is MCS? Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a diagnostic label for people who suffer multi-system illnesses as a result of contact with, or proximity to, a variety of airborne agents and other substances, according to the EPA. Potential irritants are legion: pesticides,

secondhand smoke, alcohol, fresh paint, scented products and perfumes, candles, fragrances, food preservatives, flavor enhancers, aerosols, tap water, cosmetics, personal care products, and more. Reactions are varied too, and include fatigue, depression, fogginess, breathing problems, rashes, joint inflammation, etc. Even in minuscule amounts, a reaction can occur. The disorder gained public attention because of the tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans suffering chemical sensitivity effects. A soul’s itinerary And in Tucson, too, Zwillinger found issues of land and compromised water. This spurred her north toward Paulden and its good water and quiet toward the end of 1993. She built her own house, and with the disease, it proved a scrupulous build process. “Hell!” in actuality, she said. But at the age of 40, she was back in the art business. Scene: Prescott Arizona, Whiskey Row. She spies Bead It, an actual bead museum. “You kiddin’ me?!” Oh the irony, the cruel joke. “It made me believe in God.” So, Zwillinger walked in, began learning basic jewelry and wireworking technique, and devised her own strands and necklaces. “People bought them,” she said. “They’d not seen jewelry like it before.” Typical Zwillinger. Bright steel wire, beads and semi-precious stones, Czech glass, and now crocheted into plaits and fabrics, and spun into jewelry, fashion, art. She was adding to her arsenal of skills. The beads, found objects, “a path with no trail,” mixed media. Scavenging her studio’s surroundings, Zwillinger found rakes and shovels, ideal armatures for hanging her tapestries. “Rusty objects are everywhere,” she said. “They’re homage to the West. A metaphor for ‘digging deep,’ which I felt I was doing now.” While lamenting them, Zwillinger embraced her circumstances, her illness, Paulden, struggling with it all; devoted to the glass, the beads, ma-

It’s wha see the time —

12 • PORTFOLIO • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Then watercolor blocks are applied, then — you saw it coming — beads. Small loops in disciplined columns, creating dense mats of texture. She loves texture. Her latest sculpture, too, like “Mermaid,” 2010, thick heavy skeins hung from farm implements, are all about texture. The patina of rust, shiny ground metal and those luscious drapes of beads and Swarovski crystals and encrusted pearls, tactile, glittery appeal and a little unnerving at the same time. The audacity of prosaic farm tools attired in royal costume, it’s just too much for one’s mind at ﬁrst. Over the top? Sure. Unerringly desirable? Mais oui. Decadently bucolic? No doubt the Paulden locals won’t get Zwillinger’s whimsy. Think she gives an NYC’s rat’s ass? She may be missed in New York City, but Rhonda’s a welcome — if reluc-

tant — addition to our neck of the woods. ***** See more of Rhonda Zwillinger’s art at RhondaZwillinger.Com, Facebook. Com/RZwillinger, and at Gallery 527 in Jerome. “The Dispossessed: Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities” is available in the iTunes Store. Visit Gallery 527 at 527 Main St., Jerome, 928-649-2277, and Gallery527Jerome.Com. Author and artist Jacques Laliberté was a 20-plus-year resident of Prescott, has written for and designed several publications and just published his ﬁrst novella. He often forgets the names of people he knows well. He willingly moved to Paulden last year.

All artwork and jewelry by Rhonda Zwillinger. All photos by Donna Chesler. terials which didn’t aﬀect her health. She recalled the long line of women who had worked with their hands, including her grandmother. And beads’ legacy as the ﬁrst form of money. It was all coming together, again, for Zwillinger. Punky haute couture 2004. Zwillinger was back in New York City, at Chanel’s “Fashion Meets Art” event held in their shop. “I was given a glass vitrine, it had lighting, very retail versus gallery, so I came up with these wearable pieces, all beaded,” she said. “The collars were inspired by (Coco) Chanel.”

renditions of Art made Fashionable, and its inverse. Creative roots Zwillinger’s “Dada Toys” are perhaps her most sinisterly playful pieces to date. Free-for-all assemblages of ﬁndings from her sheds and during walks, they allow her passage back in time, to a child’s mind. “It’s what an artist has to do: see the world for the ﬁrst time — a place of innocence,” she said. “Shiva on Wheels” represents duality, creation and destruction, passage of a spirit, bound to her own roots as a Jew. Things lost, aging. Wheeled, and with a chain for pulling, the toy illustrates the naïve encountering the inevitable. It’s a lot to ask of a toy. “What do you really want to do with the time you have left?” she asked.

at an artist has to do: world for the first a place of innocence.” — Rhonda Zwillinger These collars, beaded and brash, opulent and yet so very au courant, are emblematic of Zwillinger’s approach to the challenges thrown at her, and her art-sly response. Very tongue-incheek and up-yours, but of the polite “I appreciate the invitation to show” variety. They’re brilliant, showcasing her facility navigating her material, milieu and cultural idioms. Spot-on

Back to the wall Fresh new works on paper, “Studies,” are Zwillinger’s response to a frustration at not doing 2D work. Heavy paper is gridded with address stamps — yes, the ones stationary stores sell — and follow haiku format. “It’s a way to write my own sonnet,” she said, referring to her hybrid literary form.

News From the Wilds March weather

Canyon Tree Frogs (Hyla arenicolor) emerge this month near streams, matching their color to their surroundings for camouflage. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris. By Ty Fitzmorris

March

is a deceptive month in the Mogollon Highlands. Glorious sunny days abound, resplendent with butterflies and migrant songbirds. But March is also one of our wettest months of the year, and most of that moisture comes in the form of snow. Large storm systems over the Pacific Ocean throw off snow storms that sweep into our area from the north, dropping anywhere from inches to feet of snow, and bringing us firmly back into winter. Because of this, March is one of the more dangerous times for the creatures in the wilds. Many mammals are bearing young now, some insects are emerging from creeks and pupae as winged adults, and birds are making nests or migrating back into the area from the tropics. The dramatic cold snaps can therefore cause many of these species severe temperature and food stress, and sometimes lead to their deaths.

Most

of the native plants of the Highlands do not trust the warm times enough to begin growing or ﬂowering just

yet. They will wait until the days are reliably warm and frost-free, though exactly how they determine this is largely a mystery. Non-native plants, such as fruit trees and ornamentals, have no such mechanism, and flower as soon as the temperatures and precipitation allow. In the lower deserts, such as the western slopes of the Sierra Prieta mountains, the frosts have passed by now, and plants are emerging to greet their early hummingbird, butterfly, moth, fly, and native bee pollinators. The exuberance of spring is in riotous full swing in the deserts, and over the next several months it will climb up the riparian corridors and south-facing slopes into the Highlands. In our high desert landscape, water scarcity is the factor that determines what happens more than any other single thing. But water scarcity can take different forms — too little falling as precipitation, or too little available to plants and animals at the right time of year. Water is most useful to plants when it is liquid, and when air temperatures are high enough for plants to perform photosynthesis. Much of the precipitation that falls in the Mogollon Highlands

14 • FEATURE • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

throughout the year is not able to be utilized by plants (or animals, for that matter) because the water falls in torrents, as in the monsoon season of late summer, and washes through the landscape in erosive floods, or because it falls in the form of snow, when air temperatures are too low for plants to perform photosynthesis. Snow, however, proves to be the more valuable source of water for our region. This is because it melts slowly from north-facing slopes, saturating soils and filling rivers slowly but continuously. Long after the lowlands are warm enough for plant growth and flowering, patches of snow remain in the shadows of the mountains, providing this precious, scarce resource.

While

much of the country has experienced extraordinary cold this winter, our winter has so far been the single warmest in our 113-year record (4.5 degrees warmer than average). Though precipitation amounts have been near average levels, all of the precipitation that we’ve received in the Prescott region has come in the form of rain, which leaves our north-

Average high temperature: 59.3 F, +/-4.6 Average low temperature: 28.5 F, +/-3.5 Record high temperature: 83 F, March 18, 2007 Record low temperature: 2 F, March 1, 1913 Average precipitation: 1.68”, +/-1.55” Record high precipitation: 7.11”, 1918 Record high snowfall: 3.2”, 1973 Record low precipitation: 0”, 5.4 percent of years on record Max daily precipitation: 3.21”, March 3, 1938 Source: Western Regional Climate Center facing slopes without their slowmelting storehouses of percolating water. In total, winter 2013-2014 was the sixth driest on record, the 2014 monsoon was the single wettest on record, and winter 2014-2015 has been the warmest on record, and these sequential record-setting seasons have left the wilds in a state of some confusion. It is likely that the lack of hard, killing frosts will increase the abundance of pest insects, including bark beetles and aphids. March weather, however, may even out much of this trend, bringing frosts and nourishing snow. ***** Ty Fitzmorris is an itinerant and often distractible naturalist who lives in Prescott and is proprietor of the Peregrine Book Company, Raven Café, Gray Dog Guitars, and is a founder of Milagro Arts, a community arts nexus, all as a sideline to his natural history pursuits. He is also the Curator of Insects at the new Natural History Institute at Prescott College. He can be reached at Ty@ PeregrineBookCompany.com with questions or comments.

News From the Wilds, too A very brief survey of what’s happening in the wilds ... By Ty Fitzmorris High mountains • Mountain Chickadees move upslope as the temperatures rise, scrutinizing trees for insect larvae. As other bird species migrate through the region, they find the chickadee flocks, and forage with them before moving on. Visit: Maverick Mountain Trail, No. 65. Ponderosa Pine forests • Bobcats give birth to two to eight kittens who remain in dens until June. • Wild Candytuft (Thlaspi montanum), a small mountain perennial, blooms with brilliant white four-petaled flowers. Visit: Miller Creek Trail, No. 367. Pine-Oak woodlands • The leaves of our several species of oak begin to change color and drop as the soft, new leaves replace them. This “spring fall” usually begins somewhat later, but warm temperatures in our region have moved it earlier. • Our several species of manzanitas continue flowering, providing the first major pollen and nectar crop for native bees, moths, and flies. Look especially for the stunning iridescent Manzanita Mason Bee (Osmia ribifloris), which flies for the next several months. Like the vast majority of bee species these bees are solitary, and do not live in colonies or hives. Visit: Little Granite Mountain, No. 37. Pinyon-Juniper woodlands • Raccoons mating season is at its peak, and may be punctuated with loud, clicking nocturnal screeches as males fight over females. • Gray Fox give birth to (usually) four pups. This furtive fox is the most common fox in the higher Mogollon Highlands, though it is rarely seen. Gray Foxes are unusual in that they can climb trees better than any other North American canid, and have been seen as high as 60 feet up in trees. • Junipers and cypresses continue releasing pollen in large, allergyinspiring clouds. Visit: Tin Trough Trail, No. 308.

Rufous Hummingbirds are migrating through the region, on their way to their breeding ground in southwestern Canada. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris. Grasslands • Bats reappear in the twilight skies, including Mexican Free-tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis), which return now from Jalisco, Sonora and Sinaloa. All bat species are vital to the control of insect populations, and some, including Mexican Freetails, eat as much as 80 percent of their own body weight per night. • Female Badgers dig dens and line them carefully with grass. Here they give birth to two to three cubs toward the end of the month. Badgers are rare in our region, but are important predators of rodents. • Broad-winged hawks, such as Swainson’s, Rough-legged, and Ferruginous hawks, continue their migration through the open grasslands in our region, and can often be seen sitting on power-line posts, looking for rodents. Visit: Mint Wash Trail, No. 345. Riparian areas • Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Violet-green Swallows return from their overwintering grounds in southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Guatemala. While some individuals continue north as far as Canada, many stay in the Mogollon Highlands. • River Otters tend their newborn young in their dens while beginning their mating season. • Contrary to their name, mayﬂy swarms (order Ephemeroptera) ﬂy

from now through the summer above perennial streams. These swarms are short-lived, as the now-adult mayflies emerge, mate, lay eggs, and die, all within the space of a few hours. The aquatic larvae may have been alive for several years by this point, but the winged adult stage represents such a brief, though glorious, crescendo that they don’t eat at all, and in fact do not have usable mouthparts as adults. • Antlions (family Myrmeleontidae) construct their cone-shaped funnels in riverside sand. The creatures themselves are very difficult to see, as they remain buried at the base of their funnels, but they are the larvae of large, winged damselflylike insects, and they are important predators of many species of ants. • Migrating warblers sweep into our region toward the end of the month. Look for Yellow-rumped Warblers heading the northward charge, followed first by Orange-crowned, and later Wilson’s, MacGillivray’s, and Black-throated Gray warblers. • Black Hawks (Buteogallus anthracinus), the rarest species of hawk in the U.S., return to the Mogollon Highlands to begin mating, nesting, and egg-laying in the high cottonwood trees of our riverine corridors, the leaf-buds of which burst now, revealing brilliant green leaves that provide cover for Black Hawk nests. Visit: Willow Lake Loop Trail.

Deserts/Chaparral • Spring is in full regalia in the desert and lowlands, with extraordinary displays of wildflowers. Most ubiquitous are the yellow flowers of Yellow and Blue paloverde trees (Parkinsonia florida and P. microphylla) and Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata), which line roads and the uplands along river corridors. Several species of pink-purple lupines, brilliant orange Mexican Poppies, and the pink-red penstemons are also conspicuous now. • The diversity and overflowing abundance of spring flowers offers pollen and nectar to the amazing diversity of native bees in the Sonoran Desert, which has the highest bee diversity on Earth at over 1,000 species, most of whom are unstudied. The most conspicuous spring desert bees are the large black carpenter bees (genus Xylocopa) and the emerging queens of the sole bumblebee species, Bombus sonorus, though many smaller species can be seen by patient observers. • In some years, the dayflying moth Litocala sexsignata flies in massive mid-day clouds of thousands in chaparral. • Desert owls, including the minute Elf Owl, begin mating and nesting. • Desert Tortoises emerge from hibernation. Desert Tortoises are one of only four species of tortoise in North America, and the most threatened. Visit: Agua Fria National Monument.

Skyward • March 5: Full Moon at 11:06 a.m. • March 20: New Moon at 2:36 a.m. • March 20: Vernal Equinox at 3:45 p.m. Today is exactly halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice, so the tilt of the Earth is such that the Sun shines directly on the Equator, causing day and night to be of roughly equal length everywhere on Earth (“equinox” means “equal night” in Latin). The Sun also rises exactly to the east today and sets exactly to the west.

By James Dungeon [Editor’s note: The following interview was culled from conversations between the reporter and Prescott artist Jennifer “Juna” Shinohara. See Shinohara’s work at Etsy.Com/Shop/ WoolyNiche or Peregrine Book Co., 219 N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000. Contact her with custom orders at Jennifer_Shinohara@Yahoo.Com.] How did you get started making felt toys as Wooly Niche? I wanted to make a toy that kids could really play with. Something Steiner-based. You see toys on Etsy now that are like sculptures, that have Styrofoam. I like toys kids can play with and carry. That’s how I came up with Wooly Niche. … When I was a little kid, I always liked to sell things. Instead of setting up a typical lemonade stand and selling over-watered, questionable lemonade I decided to set up a fresh fly stand and sell live flies that I had carefully caught in our house and unceremoniously stuffed in clear produce bags for a nickel apiece. When no one stopped to buy my flies, I went door to door across the street trying to sell them until a neighbor offered me nickels for catching ladybugs instead and that was the spark. So, I think I carried that with me when I went into Peregrine and asked if they’d be interested in maybe buying some of my little creatures from me. What are some of your more popular creations? Owls, foxes, horses, bears, and javelina are all popular — especially

Child’s play Jennifer Shinohara sparks imaginations

Jennifer Shinohara contemplates one of her felt animal creations as Wooly Niche. Photo by 5enses. javelina. People like to send things home from Prescott that are made locally, and you can’t get more local than javelina. I wanted to make sure kids have something to play with that’s not so modernized and so lifeless, I guess. I grew up in the ‘90s and somethings gone awry. I think the colors and shapes that toys are made of now are … well, they just don’t feel tactile or appealing to play with. I mean we all remember classics toys from our childhood, how

they felt and the stories they created. Now it seems like many toys that line department stores have lost that “classic” feeling. What kind of toys did you like growing up? Unfortunately, when I was about 8, my parents suddenly joined a very fundamentalist Christian religion that banned reading books and playing with toys. I found myself making little wooden horses from twigs and twine. I had seen the Grand Canyon Anasazi documentary, and it helped me pass the time on family trips out to religious revivals in the desert. As a kid, I loved animals. I made my own stories with them by moving their legs. If you do that too hard, though, you’ll break their legs oﬀ. That’s something I did. I had model horses, like Briar horses, and, yeah, I broke their legs oﬀ. I loved My Little Ponies because they’d move. Even

Jennifer Shinohara works on felt animals in February outside Wild Iris. Photo by 5enses.

16 • FEATURE • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

the plastic toys were diﬀerent then. More inviting, I think. How does wool enter the picture? I needed something for kids to make at school. It was maybe ﬁve years ago at Mountain Oak School, where I teach, or taught, handwork. The seventh and eighth graders both made pajama bottoms. I didn’t want it to be boring for the eighth graders who’d already done that, so I wanted something else for them. It needed to have the “essence” of being a little dangerous, but not too dangerous. Felting needles! They require the kids to focus on what they are doing otherwise they hurt like crazy when you accidentally jab yourself and when your done you end up with a cool little project. It needed to be something a little dangerous, but not too dangerous. Felting needles! They hurt like crazy when you stab yourself and, when you’re all done, you end up with this cool little project. You have to clean the wool, dye it, card, so it takes a long time. It’s involved. I also teach “Flights of Imagination” through Yavapai College. It’s a three-week program in June and July where kids learn to

work with their hands and learn wool crafts or whatever they want to do. It’s led by them, really. I think kids want to have more tactile experiences, but parents are unsure where to find good programs where kids can just be kids in a semi-structured environment. Yavapai College’s College for Kids lets the kids experience so many exciting avenues. Also, when kids think of knitting or sewing they think of sweaters or scarves, but in “Flights” they get to design and create their own handwork projects from felties to knitted animals, they get to see their ideas materialize in front of them. You seem drawn to animals, but there are a few human figures in the mix, as well. There are lots of animals, but also princes and princesses — Native American figures, too. Animals are easier to make, to be honest. I wanted to make a toy that was under $20. As you may know, Steiner toys are very expensive, but I wanted to keep these reasonably priced. I figured a well made toy between $12-$20 depending on the size made sense. I would love to make Wooly Niche

way. And you can’t dictate to a child how to play. You can’t say, “You’re jumping wrong.” I guess you could micromanage play like that, but what would that accomplish? Playing lets kids stay kids longer and gives them an unstructured environment to explore diﬀerent parts of themselves. It builds their imagination and, making toys, well that improves their conﬁdence. Playing also builds socialization skills. There’s lots of research on all of this, but all you need to do is watch them and you’ll see it yourself.

into a fulltime business. Right now, the agreement I have with Peregrine is wonderful, and I appreciate the opportunity they’ve given me to let my little creatures live at their shop. I think I just have to begin with Etsy and continue observing what kind of products or creatures people would like to see in the future.

Wooly Niche creations by Jennifer Shinohara. Photo by Shogo Shinohara. Why do you think it’s important for kids to play? Kids grow up so fast. Playing lets them explore other, creative parts of their brain that aren’t as structured. No one can tell you how to play. Everyone plays in their own

***** Visit Jennifer Shinohara’s online shop at Etsy.Com/Shop/ WoolyNiche. Contact her with custom orders at Jennifer_Shinohara@ Yahoo.Com or buy her work locally at Peregrine Book Co. Visit Peregrine Book Co. at 219 N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000, and PeregrineBookCompany.Com. James Dungeon is a ﬁgment of his own imagination. And he likes cats. Contact him at JamesDungeonCats @Gmail.Com.

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A slice of π

An irrational approximation of a speech in honor of March 14 (aka Pi Day) By Markoff Chaney

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18 • FEATURE • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

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Diagnosis: Technology

By Paolo Chlebecek

Even

though my head is still spinning from all that new tech last month at the Consumer Electronics Show, I still need to tell you something very important. Come close. It’s a secret. ... We’ve run out of ways to connect you to the internet. Yes you heard it here ﬁrst folks, well I guess it’s really no secret. In fact, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) a department of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has known about the problem of getting you on the Internet for years, since the late 1980s. These are the people who are, in part, responsible for allowing you to type www.google. com instead of having to memorize and type 216.58.216.36 Yes try that number in your browser right now. Go ahead I’ll wait. … That number gets you to Google. Those ﬁne fellows at ICANN allow and manage IP or Internet Protocol addressing, giving you access to your favorite websites without having to memorize a series of (otherwise) meaningless numbers. They also have the daunting task of helping to switch the entire planet over to IP Version 6 (IPV6) from the current IP Version 4 (IPV4). So, what does all that mean exactly?

Right

now, this very minute, there are about 10 Billion Things or Devic-

Problems worth addressing

Why the days of smaller numbers are, um, numbered

es connected to the Internet. This includes computers and laptops as well as smartphones, DVD players, navigation systems, smart homes, tablets, smart TVs, Roku players, printers, IP or VoIP phones, thermostats, smart locks, and so many more. Most of the time, several or even hundreds of devices connect to the internet through a gateway that has only one public or planetary IP address. The problem is that the most widely used way of getting that connection is gone. The reason why is a bit of a math question and therefore a bit tricky. The number sequence in IPV4 has a maximum of 4,294,967,296 addresses, or 2 to the 32 power. These sequences are usually represented in this format: 000.000.000.000, which are called octets. In order to connect to others in a public or planetary network, no two addresses can be exactly alike. Think of them as phone numbers, if you’d like. With some creative addressing and sub-netting you can get more. However, as I wrote last month, you can expect there to be 26 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020. Therein lies the problem: too many things and not enough numbers. As surprising as it may seem, IPv4 addresses were exhausted on Feb. 1, 2011. And no new IPv4 Provider Independent (PI) space will be assigned. Thankfully, the slow integration of IPV6 has helped some, but, as of

20 • COLUMN • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Take

a step back. Why should you care? Just about everything nowadays needs to have access to the Internet. Not just for entertainment, mind you, but also for vital information and medical and emergency services just to name a few. You and I can’t really change how we connect to the net, but at least those who do are hard at work making sure we can. Thanks. ***** Paolo Chlebecek is founder and owner of PaoloTek, which he started in 2003. He loves dogs of all sorts and oddly ﬁnds himself driving around town between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. every weekday. Wave hi when you see him or contact him at Paolo@PaoloTek.Com.

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now, only 17.5 percent of the planet has active or reserved IPV6 addresses. The IoT — Internet of Things — needs help. So, with the newer IPV6, a whole new way of addressing is available. This gives us — are you ready for it? — 340,282,366,92 0,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses. Or, if you’d like, 2 to the 128th power. However the actual available space is only about 2 to the 125th power. Regardless, that’s still enough to give every person on the planet about 770,000,000 public IP addresses to do with as they please. Another good thing is most computers and other internet devices have the IPV6 format already in place and ready to accept. As for the ones that don’t or can’t be upgraded to the new protocol, they will go by way of the dinosaurs.

LiterallyinBaskets.Bandcamp.Com

See you in the cactus

Gene Twaronite’s

The Absurd Naturalist By Gene Twaronite In Australia, to be “in the cactus” refers to being in an awkward or uncomfortable predicament. The Aussies should know. They introduced several species of prickly pear that nearly took over the continent. A lot of people share this uncomfortable feeling toward cacti. All it takes is a little spine through the foot or a fall into a bed of cholla and some folks get all huﬀ y.

Arizona

is especially blessed (or cursed, depending upon your viewpoint) with about 68 species of cactus. Since they can be found in virtually every environment throughout the state, from low deserts to high mountaintops, your odds of running into one here are pretty good. It is curious that no fossils of cacti have ever been found, at least according to the late great cactus guru Edward F. Anderson. This may have something to do with the fact that the cactus is a mere youngster, geologically speaking, and may have evolved as late as only 30 million years ago. Scientists have to piece together the origin of the cactus from evidence provided by plant morphology, molecular chemistry, and biogeography, which is probably a lot harder than it sounds.

of this moment, there are over 1800 known species of cactus. Just wait a minute, though, and the number may change. This is because cactus scientists don’t see eye to eye on just how many species there are. On one hand are the so-called “splitters,” who tend to see a new species behind every bush. On the other side are the “lumpers,” who tend to lump cacti together into fewer groups. Things can get a little crazy whenever these people get together and have a few drinks. For thousands of years, people have used cacti for a variety of purposes, including food. By the way, if you happen to notice carmine listed as an ingredient on a food label, you are ingesting a dye made from the cochineal insect, that white scaly stuﬀ that infests prickly pears. Bon appetit. These distinctive spiny plants have long been popular in horticulture. Their popularity was admittedly slow to catch on with people in the U.S., but collectors in Europe and other parts of the world couldn’t get enough of them. Today the cactus trade is big business. I guess for some folks to be “in the cactus” is a good thing. Column ©Gene Twaronite 2015

Cactus illustration from a botany book published in 1843. Public domain.

***** Gene’s latest book is “The Absurd Naturalist. Irreverent Musings on Nature,” available from Amazon or your local bookstore. Follow Gene’s writing at his blog, TheTwaroniteZone. Com.

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what exactly is a cactus? A cactus is a succulent, a plant with fleshy stems to store water in an arid environment. But unlike other succulents — aloes and agaves, for example — a cactus lacks leaves. Well, most of them do. Members of the primitive cactus subfamily Pereskioideae do have leaves and, what’s more, they don’t even look like cacti. And some kinds of prickly pears and chollas have tiny or temporary leaves. The cactus family is full of exceptions. Actually you could say that all cacti do have leaves. It’s just that we don’t recognize them as such. This is because over a long period of time cactus leaves gradually evolved into spines. Those sharp, prickly things you love to touch are just modified leaves. Both the flowers and spines arise from a small cushiony structure called an areole — a kind of modified bud or shoot. Since no other plant possesses this structure, I could have saved us a lot of time by saying simply that a cactus is any plant with areoles. But what fun is that? Cacti range from Canada south all the way to Patagonia, and occur only in the New World, with one exception. The genus Rhipsalis, a kind of epiphytic cactus, has managed to make it all the way to Africa, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka. It is theorized that it might have travelled there in the intestines of birds. Never underestimate the

power of a little bird poop. While some cacti grow in the harshest deserts, others occur in jungles and grasslands. They come in every size and shape, including columns, barrels, globes, cylinders, pads or even leafy branches. They can be standing, mounding, vining, clumping, or creeping. This reminds me of one of my favorite plants, the so-called creeping devil cactus. It gets its name from the fact that it often forms huge colonies of prostrate stems, armed with freakish, dagger-like spines. As the rear portions of the stems die back, the actively growing tips will form roots, making it seem that the plant is slowly advancing. They’re found only in Baja, but give them time. They could come creeping into your neighborhood any day now. By the way, there’s also a rock group by the same name.

5ENSESMAG.COM • MARCH 2015 • COLUMN • 21

Not-asholy days Holidays

are always a reasonable excuse to indulge — especially holidays that celebrate drinking, but there’s no reason to limit your libations to a single blurry weekend this month. Consider celebrating …

The

March 1: Pig Day • Pig in. March 3: If Pets Had Thumbs Day • Furry daydreams. March 8: Be Nasty Day • With apologies to Janet Jackson. March 14: Pi Day • Know your places.

ODDLY ENOUGH ... Many fish will not eat Sea Snakes even though this flesh isn’t toxic because these snakes can bite a fish on the inside, killing it instantly, and allowing the snake to swim back out of the victim’s mouth.

March 15: Everything You Think is Wrong Day • Not your day. March 16: Everything You Do is Right Day • Your day. March 20: Extraterrestrial Abductions Day • Watch the skies. March 31: Bunsen Burner Day • Don’t tell Beaker. *****

Sea Snake (a member of the cobra family, of which there are nearly 60 species) can grow to the length of 9 feet. Their posterior bodies are ﬂattened, allowing them to swim with great skill. Sea Snakes can spend as much as eight hours underwater without taking a breath. They have been known to amass by the millions during mating season and cause a serious hazard to ﬁshermen who bring them up by the hundreds in their nets. One bite from some of these snakes can bring death to an adult human in minutes.

*****

Perimeter

guns connected to tripwires have been used since the 18th century to protect against poaching, intruders, and to secure military outposts. Some were set up to swivel automatically when the tripwire was touched to direct the ﬁre toward the trespasser. ODDLY ENOUGH ... The ﬂintlock version was called a cemetery gun because it was designed to discourage grave robbers. ***** Russell Miller is an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, bagpiper, motorcycle enthusiast, and reference librarian. Currently, he illustrates books for Cody Lundin and Bart King.

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22 • FEATURES • MARCH 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Huckeba Art Gallery 227 W. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86301 928-445-3848

www.huckeba-art-quest.com charlesnjill@yahoo.com

Where ancient meets abstract