2014-08 5enses

Celebrating art and science in Greater Prescott

Alan Dean Foster goes goth P. 12

Ty Fitzmorris

un-muddies the water P. 16

Jacques Laliberte plays house P. 19

Gene Twaronite tells nature to stuff it P. 25

And much 2 more!

Contrast “Black and White With a Splash of Color” art show returns to 'Tis

P. 13

AUGUST 2014 | VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8 | 5ensesMag.Com

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tickets 928 776 2000 www.ycpac.com 1100 Sheldon St. PMB 6001 • Prescott, AZ 86301-3297

5enses In which:

4 5 6 10 11 12 13

Peregrine Book Co.

visits a tentacle-lined Baker Street, a hapless Honolulu, the suburbs, Abu Ghraib, and a recovery center.

Johanna Shipley

highlights a humdinger of a bird that’s given to flights of fancy and sappy whims.

Robert Blood

discusses creation, inspiration, and evolution with artists Elisa DrackenBurg and Pat McAllister.

Heather Houk

introduces you to a familiar face who’s a hard ’Corps foodie and friend to food-loving Prescottonians.

Gene Twaronite

goes green on the Red Planet and discovers a freegan terra(re)former’s ice-sickled dream.

16 18 19 21 22 24 25

Ty Fitzmorris

sorts the torrent of flora and fauna that follows the wake of the monsoon’s oblationary flow.

Markoff Chaney

hams it up by dishing out some found-word ingredients in canned formats.

Jacques Laliberté buys a heart-shaped box filled with lingonberries, some assembly required.

Lauren Antrosiglio

attacks common (and uncommon) “healthy habits” that can Trojan Horse your heart.

Paolo Chlebecek

preaches that cleanliness is next to Technical Boy-ness when it comes to computer maintenance.

Alan Dean Foster

James Dungeon

James Dungeon

Gene Twaronite

offers tea & symphony to classically obsessive-compulsive artists and composers.

discusses palates and palettes with artists Donna Carver, Judy Kaufman, Jo Manginelli, and Patti Ortiz.

August 2014 • Volume 2, Issue 8

Copyright © 2014 5enses Inc. unless otherwise noted.

Publisher & Editor: Nicholas DeMarino Creative Director: Jimmy Polinori 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.

Plus

5/6 8 20 26

Flip Photo

A visual puzzle by the Highlands Center for Natural History

Left Brain/Right Brain

Find out what’s going on in Greater Prescott

Oddly Enough

Comics by Russell Miller

Spot-on Spotlights

Prescott’s premier happenings and happenstances

’ppl’s ’nd ’r’ng’s, t’’ Doodles by Jacques Laliberté

frets about frets and hums about humidity with Gray Dog Guitars manager Addison Matthew.

lets nature take its course then disseminates a new motherly moniker, naturally.

COVER: “Tumbleweed Series B&W No. 1,” a piece by Donna Carver on display at the 2014 “Black and White With a Splash of Color” show at ’Tis Art Center and Gallery in August.

Photo by Donna Carver.

Design by Jimmy Polinori.

IMAGE: A fiber art piece by Jo Manginelli.

Courtesy image.

See James Dungeon’s story on Page 13 for more.

5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • CONTENTS • 3

Peregrine Book Co.

Staff picks

By Peregrine Book Company staff “Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders”

By Neil Gaiman A delightful collection of tales eerie and odd by the inimitable Gaiman. I particularly enjoyed his extremely clever Sherlock Holmesmeets-H.P. Lovecraft story, “A Study in Emerald,” and an adventure featuring Shadow, from “American Gods,” in “The Monarch of the Glen.”

—Reva “The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure”

By Jack Handey Reminiscent at times of Hunter S. Thompson or even Chuck Palahniuk’s penchant for the improbable and unthinkable, it’s non-stop hilarity and absurdity dashed with adventure, treasure, and turtle-people. Yes, you read that right. From

the mind of the man who brought you SNL’s “Deep Thoughts” sketches comes his inaugural novel that’s sure to delight fans of his, bound to win even more over, and definitely worth a read for anyone else just needing a good quick laugh. —Seth

“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined”

By Steven Pinker This book shows that our world is becoming LESS VIOLENT contrary to what we might feel. Compare a car bomb to Hiroshima, Abu Ghraib to Auschwitz. It’s reason for optimism. —Tom

Highlands Center for Natural History Nestled in the Lynx Lake Recreation Area, two minutes from Costco, The Highlands Center for Natural History invites you to experience the wonder of the Central Arizona Highlands.

August EvEnts

Insights to the Outdoors: Medicinal Plants of the Highlands Thursday, August 7, 5:00 PM Folk Sessions: Nashville Nights Saturday, August 2, 7:00 PM

• Free Naturalist-led walks, Saturdays 8 AM

Jazz Summit Concert – Vocalist Cami Thompson Saturday, August 9, 7:00 PM

• Year-round kids’ camps and family programs • Folk Sessions and Prescott Jazz Summit concerts • Beautiful location for your special event

Wonder

•

Explore

928-776-9550 highlandscenter.org

•

Discover

4 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

“Nine Inches: Stories”

By Tom Perrotta Perrotta’s new book of stories measures not only the permissible distance between middle school kids in a slow dance, but that less definable space between responsibility and desire, who we think we are and who we dream of being — if we dared.

Perrota’s stories are among the best I’ve read. Ever. (Apologies to Carver fans.) —Michaela

“Infinite Jest”

By David Foster Wallace Read it! It might take you a while, but read it! I think this book changed the way I read novels. —Jon ***** Visit Peregrine Book Company at PeregrineBookCompany.Com and 219A N. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-4459000.

Bird of the Month

Hummingbird A female Anna’s Hummingbird hovers in the air.

Photo by Paddyspig, public domain.

By Johanna Shipley

As

spring days grow longer, hummingbirds begin to appear in the Central Highlands of Arizona. They return to areas where they found good food sources in years prior including nectar feeders. Some stay and nest; others simply fuel up for a longer migration. Regardless, they’re welcomed for their entertaining, pugnacious character and beauty.

Here, in this part of Yavapai County, we’re likely to see four different species — Anna’s, Black-chinned, Rufous, and Broad-tailed — while a handful of other species make rare appearances, to the delight of local birders. You can see many more species on a trip to Tucson and other points south. The bulk of the world’s roughly 325 hummingbird species are in the equatorial tropics, but only in the Americas.

Hummingbirds are remarkably suited for their nectar-loving life style. Their wings beat in a figure-eight motion which allows thrust and lift from all angles.

Thusly, they can hover at flowers, fly forward, backward, sideways, and even upside down.

A hummingbird matching motion with a waving flower on a windy day is a marvelous sight to behold. Their extra-long tongues lap up nectar — they don’t suck it up soda-straw fashion. However, they don’t just drink nectar.

They also snap up tiny insects for protein and minerals, sometimes raiding spider webs.

When it’s time to nest, those same spider webs become the sticky stuff that holds together the fluff and lichens from which a hummingbird’s nest is built. As an added benefit, this makes the nest elastic and expandable as babies grow. The female does all the nest building, incubating and feeding; the male is busy finding as many females as he can.

It’s

easy to invite hummingbirds to your yard. Plant red tubular flowers, like native penstemons, and hang a nectar feeder. Fill the feeder with a mixture of one part sugar to four parts hot water.

Keep the nectar fresh (replace when cloudy) and feeders clean. Enjoy hummingbirds through fall migration and beyond. Some Anna’s Hummingbirds even winter in Prescott.

art from haiti via in it for the cause

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

pilF Photo

***** Johanna Shipley has been birding for more than 20 years. She’s a retired science teacher, biologist, and professional bird guide from the Midwest. She’s lived in Prescott for three years and is enjoying getting to know Western birds.

Contact her at JShipley@ PrescottAudubon.Org. Contact Prescott Audubon Society at PrescottAudubon.Org, Contact@ PrescottAudubon.Org, or 928-778-6502.

What kind of stars are born on earth?

5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • FEATURES • 5

With flying colors

McAllister and Drachenburg bring bright blasts to ASAG

LEFT TO RIGHT: New artwork by Elisa Drachenburg, courtesy image; new artwork by Pat McAllister, courtesy image.

Both artists are showing at A Small Art Gallery in August.

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

Flip otohP

Earthstars. These mushrooms pop up in the forest after a rain, and help break down dead plants and animals back into earth. Their unique star structure pushes the fruiting body (the puffball-like structure on top) up through the leaves of the forest floor. As rain falls, spores puff out and are released, thus beginning the growth of new Earthstars. When you find one along the side of the Highlands Center’s trails, gently tap the top to see how these fantastic mushrooms reproduce.

6 • FEATURES • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

By Robert Blood [Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from conversations with artists Elisa Drachenburg and Pat McAllister. Their show runs Aug. 7-30 at A Small Art Gallery, 115 E. Goodwin St., Prescott. The artists reception is 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8.]

How do you describe your artwork and its meaning?

Drachenburg: It’s all very different, but all the same really. I don’t have a specific message; I don’t want to tell people anything with my art.

Even when I start, I don’t know what I’m painting until I draw the first line. It’s similar to when I’m writing: Once I have my first sentence, the rest follows. On one piece, for instance, I drew a pair of blue and yellow lines and that was it. I limit myself by putting things in when I don’t even know what I’m doing at the start. Those initial lines set the tone for the entire painting. Yes, I could go back and paint over them, but just because I know I could do that doesn’t mean I actually do it. I also like to add three-dimensional pieces in my paintings — very few of them are flat — but I don’t want the source of the textures to be obvious

when I’m done. … Someone once told me to beware of bright colors. She was an artist who said that if someone uses dark colors, they’re usually happy people, but the ones who use bright colors — watch out for them! I don’t think that’s true. I have a lot of bright colors, but I don’t think Ihave anything dark inside. These bright colors, after I paint with them, they seem to come back to me in dreams.

Often they’re complimentary colors, so they pop out. I always hate my work after I finish, but, after having a piece on the wall for a while, I think it’s not so bad. “Not so bad,” for a European, is pretty good. I’m from Holland, and for a German or a Dutch “not so bad” means “fantastic.”

McAllister: I’m not really into philosophizing about what I do. I don’t like the “that’s what this means” stuff — I call it art babble. I know it’s not superficial for most artists to do that, but it sure sounds superficial to me when I do it. I painted a picture to paint. If I wanted to talk, I should’ve written a book. … But having said that, I’d use words like “joyful,” “colorful,” “dynamic,” “energetic,” and “mysterious.” There are also symbols. When I start painting, I usually don’t know what I’m going

McAllister: It’s a little more spontaneous and not as polished as what I usually do. I’m not saying I don’t spend time with it — I spend time with it — but it doesn’t look as

Drachenburg: My early paintings are entirely different. In my first two pieces, there are forms that are filled. I started the same way, as I’ve said, not knowing what I was going to do. I look at my early paintings the way someone might look at their wife or their boyfriend they’ve had for a long time. You know they’re not horrible, otherwise you wouldn’t have stayed with them, but if someone asked you if you thought they were beautiful, you might have to stop and think about it because maybe you don’t think about them in the same way anymore. I don’t dislike these pieces because they’re a part of me — me at that time — but I can’t really appreciate them the same way because I’ve somewhere else now.

McAllister: I see a continuity. Most artists aren’t really aware of that continuity until later in their careers, but, when you look back, you can see it in almost anybody’s work. It’s an evolutionary growth, and, in many cases, I think it’s subconscious; it’s not something you really plan. When I look at my older work, I see I use the same materials and approaches, even the same colors. I paint on canvas; I paint with acrylics — well, I used to paint with oil, but I can’t

***** Visit A Small Art Gallery at ASmall ArtGallery.Com or 115 E. Goodwin St., Prescott, 928-830-3220.

See more of Pat McAllister’s artwork at PatrickMcAllister.Com. Robert Blood is a Mayer-ish-based freelance writer and ne’er-do-well who’s working on his last book, which, incidentally, will his first. Contact him at BloodyBobby5@Gmail.Com.

TOP TO BOTTOM: Pat McAllister.

Courtesy photo.

Elisa Drachenburg.

Photo by 5enses.

4 Prescott’s 4th Friday

4FRIDAY

ART WALKS

’S

Drachenburg: I’m experimenting more with materials and how they react. In one of the pieces, I tried a different kind of paint and just tried to see how the colors would mix. I had no idea how it would turn out.

On others, I started with a line or two. If you look at my brushwork, my hand stutters. I paint with a No. 2 or a No. 3 brush — it doesn’t matter how big the canvas is. I’ve always joked that if I ever develop Parkinson’s, I could still paint. That’s just how I paint. I’m not sure where that came from, but it’s been there from the very beginning. … On one piece, there’s this section with lots and lots of detail. I worked and worked on that. Every time I picked up my brush, I painted it over and over again, and it got thicker and thicker.

I knew I wanted that part to pop, and I eventually got something there that didn’t bother me too much.

When you look back at your earlier work, what do you see?

handle the fumes and turpentine any more — and I paint fairly large.

I love to have the painting bigger than me, about 4’ by 5’ generally, so I’m immersed in it. I’ve tried other techniques, too. When I was at the print department at Yavapai College, I worked with intaglio, which challenged me to take these big, colorful pieces and reduce them down to small black and white etchings.

That was something that was different that got me to see my own work in a different light.

COT T

What distinguishes your newer work showing in August?

finished, or maybe not as polished.

I’d say they’re more physical and emotional pieces. My other work has been more cerebral. I’m trying to blow up my work, make it more exciting and more emotional. More expressive, I’d guess you could say.

PRE S

to do, so I make marks with all kinds of different materials — pastels, chalks, paint — then I’ll spend time looking at it and imagery begins to develop. “Oh, that’s a cloud,” “Oh that’s a bird” — that kind of thing — and it grows from there. I tend to have nature-oriented imagery like clouds, leaves, flowers, rocks, mountains, and water, and it tends to come spontaneously.

EVERY

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2014 January 24 February 28 March 28 April 25 Beginning at 5 PM May 23 June 27 July 25 August 22 September 26 October 24 November 28 December 26

See Special Events

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Left Brain: August’s mind-full events Events

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1

“Viva La Verde” • 6 p.m. Friday: First showing of the final version of a documentary about Arizona’s last living river, the Verde. Hugh Denno, the film’s producer, and Dr. Gary Beverly talk afterword. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550)

2

Western History Symposium • 9:30 a.m. Saturday: 11th annual symposium featuring historians, educators, and authors.

Presentations include “Jewel on the Courthouse Plaza” with Donn Larry, “Along the California Trail” with Dr. Jay Cravath, “The Power Cabin Shootout” with Dr. Heidi Osselaer, “Mining in Yavapai County” with Bill Hawes, “Arizona and the Medal of Honor” with Dr. John Langellier, and “Military Theatre in Territorial Arizona” with Dr. Thomas and Wendy Collins. (Hassayampa Inn, Marina Room, 122 E. Gurley St., 928-443-5580)

Prescott Gem & Mineral Show • 9 a.m. Aug. 1-3: Annual show and sale featuring rocks, gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, beads, slabs, cabochons, lapidary equipment, findings, and demonstrations. (Tim’s Toyota Center, 3201 N. Main St., 928-772-1819, $3-$4) Bird walks • 7 a.m. Aug. 2, 8, 14, 23, & 27: Bird walks at the Community Nature Center, Granite Basin, Banning Creek, Flume Trail, and White Spar. (Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP)

“What’s New in: Sociology!”

• 1:30 p.m. Sunday: Dr. Mark Shelley, of Yavapai College, discusses how digital devices affect people, primarily students.

(Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) “Insights to the Outdoors: Medicinal plants of the Highlands” • 5 p.m. Thursday: Diane Vaszily, of Desert Eye Education, discusses medicinal plants of the Central Arizona Highlands. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550, registration required, $25-$35)

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Moonlit Naturalist Walk • 7:30 p.m. Friday: Experience the wonder of nature at night. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928776-9550)

Prescott Audubon Society Bird Walk • 7:30 a.m. Saturday: Monthly Audubon bird walk. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550) “Laundry Day” • 10 a.m. Saturday: Learn how pioneers handled the most basic of chores. (Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley St., 928-4453122, $8-$10)

“Arizona’s Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program” • 1 p.m. Saturday: Roger Oyler, of the Bureau of Land Management, discusses the wild horse and burro program. A Heritage Conversation. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385, $5-$7)

“Prescott’s Unique Geology” • 5:30 p.m. Tuesday: Dr. Beth Boyd, of Yavapai College, discusses local formations such as Granite Dells and Glassford Hill.

(Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

Multi-day

LD 1 State House candidate forum • 10 a.m. Saturday: State House candidate forum on water issues. (Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Church, Congregation Building, 882 Sunset Ave., 928-445-4218)

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“Open Space, Parks, and Recreation in the City of Prescott” • 5:30 p.m. Tuesday: Nancy Hans, treasurer of the Open Space Alliance of Central Yavapai County, talk at monthly Prescott Good Governance meeting. (Yavapai Title Co., 1235 E. Gurley St., 928-642-6788)

“What Happened to Pluto?”

• 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6: Russell Schnitzer discusses Pluto’s demotion to dwarf planet at monthly Prescott Astronomy Club meeting.

(Yavapai Title agency, 1235 E. Gurley St., 928-778-6502) FROM TOP LEFT: Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, Neptune’s moon Triton, and Pluto. Image by NASA’s Eurocommuter, public domain.

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“Native in a Strange Land” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Author, photographer, and publisher Greg McNamee discusses Mike Burns, born of the Kwevkepaya ( Yavapai) Tribe and taken captive by U.S. soldiers.

(Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928445-1230, $5-$7)

“Hero of the West: The Prescott Affair” • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday: Journalist and author Bob Brill discusses the first adventure in his “Lancer” series about a straight-shooting, honest gun-for-hire in the American West in the 1880s. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“Further Out Than You Thought” • 6 p.m. Saturday: Poet and author Michaela Carter’s book launch party for a novel about three 20-somethings searching for meaning amidst the 1992 L.A. riots. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“The Arizona Frontier Experience” • 10 a.m. Saturday: Experience a day in the life of a working solider. (Fort Whipple Museum, V.A. Medical Center, Arizona 89, 928-445-3122)

10

“Wildlife, Forests, and Culture of the Argentinean Chaco” • 2 p.m. Sunday: Mariana Altrichter discusses Argentinean peasants’ connection with and dependence on dry forest environments and the dramatic effects of the International Money Fund’s imposed structural adjustments. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

8 • EVENTS • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

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“Local and Regional Water Issues” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Ask local elected officials and educators about crucial water issues.

Panelists include Dr. Jack August, Dr. Joel Barnes, Chip Davis, John Munderloh, and Sen. Steve Pierce. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

Modern-day meditation • 6:50 p.m. Aug. 6 & 20: An active, four-part practice for today’s demanding lifestyle: Open. Calm. Think. Act. (Deva Center, 520 W. Sheldon St., 303-903-2630, first time free, $10) Prescott Area Boardgamers • 5 p.m. Aug 6 & 20: Play board games.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, Bump and Elsea conference rooms, 928-777-1500) Community Yoga • 5:15 p.m. Tuesdays: Free community alllevels yoga class for people from all walks of life. Come heal your whole self. No experience necessary. (Deva Healing Center, 520 Sheldon St., 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 optional discussion. (601 Miller Valley Road, park in back, PrescottVipassana.Org) Naturalist City & Field Walks • 8 a.m. Wednesdays & Saturdays: Learn about local birds, geology, plants, and more.

(HighlandsCenter.Org., 928-776-9550) Scrabble group • 1 p.m. Thursdays: Play Scrabble and Upwords. (Prescott Public Library, Bump and Elsea conference rooms, 928-777-1500) 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)

August’s art-full events :niarB thgiR

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Events

Gibbons & Schaffer • From Aug. 14: New art by Cathy Gibbons and Cindi Schaffer. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510)

Poetry discussion group • 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dr. Janet Preston’s monthly poetry discussion group.

(Prescott Public Library, Elsea Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

“A Novel Approach” • Through Aug. 16: Artists pay homage to their favorite book, literary genre, or author.

(Prescott Center for the Arts Gallery, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286)

Poets Cooperative • 6:30 p.m. Thursday: Share your poetry at this monthly meeting.

(Prescott Public Library, Bump Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Contra Dance • 7 p.m. lessons, 7:30 p.m. dance Saturday: Contra dancing. Calls by Michael Barraclough with music by Iona at monthly Folk Happens event.

(First Congregational Church Annex, 216 E. Gurley St., 928-925-5210, $4-$8)

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Open mic poetry • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday: Dan Seaman emcees monthly open mic poetry. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) Bizarre Bazaar • Saturday: One-day sale benefiting Smoki Museum. (Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928-445-1230)

Multi-day Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering • Aug. 7-9: 27th annual event featuring Kristyn Harris, Mary Kaye, Dave Stamey, and 60-plus cowboy poets and old-time singers.

(Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, prices vary) Fine Art & Craft Festival • 9 a.m. Aug. 9 & 10: 64th annual juried Mountain Artists Guild festival.

(Yavapai County Courthouse Square, PrescottArtFestivals.Com) Faire on the Squarel • 9 a.m. Aug. 30- Sept. 1: Prescott Chamber of Commerce’s Labor Day weekend arts and crafts show with 100-plus vendors.

(Yavapai County Courthouse Square, PrescottArtFestivals.Com) Writers workshop • 9:30 a.m. Saturdays: Weekly critique group.

(Prescott Public Library, Bump Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

“Synergy: Rock, Paper, Pigment” • From Aug. 16: Interpretations of “rock” in stone by Peter Heckel, “paper” in printmaking and collage by Signe Lindquist, and “pigment” in mixed media, painting, drawing, and collage by Karen Lindquist. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “Black & White With a Splash of Color” • Through Aug. 19: Fifth annual theme show.

Black-and-white-with-a-splash-of-colorthemed attire encouraged. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223)

22

Montoya • Through Aug. 21: Hand-built contemporary Southwest furniture by John Montoya.

(Arts Prescott Gallery, 134 S. Montezuma St., 928-776-7717)

4th Friday Art Walk • 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22: Monthly art walk including 18-plus galleries, artist receptions, openings, and demonstrations. (ArtThe4th.Com) IMAGE: 4th Friday Art Walk logo. Courtesy image.

Theater & film “The Pirates of Penzance” • 3 p.m. Aug. 3: The Prescott POPS Symphony, soloists, and Festival Chorus presents a concert version of Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert’s beloved comic opera.

(Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $24) “Pump Boys & Dinettes” • 7:30 p.m. Aug. 28-30 & Sept. 4-6 & 11-13, 2 p.m. Aug. 31 & Sept. 7: A musical about pump boys and dinettes, naturally.

Directed by Casey Knight.

(Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., $10-$20)

Art Drachenburg & McAllister • From Aug. 7: New art from Elisa Drachenburg and Pat McAllister.

(A Small Art Gallery, 115 E. Goodwin St., Suite D, 928-832-3220)

Summer photography show • From Aug. 21: Annual seasonal photography show. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) In For the Cause • Through Sept. 1: Artwork from Haiti, Mexico, and Peru, via local nonprofit.

(Method Coffee, 3180 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-1067) “Bold, Bright, & Beautiful” • Through Sept. 15: Multi-artist show featuring bold, bright, and beautiful art.

(Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510)

Faculty exhibition • From Aug. 8: Yavapai College Prescott Art faculty exhibition including paintings, ceramics, photography, sculpture, graphic design, woodworking, drawing, and jewelry.

(Yavapai College Art Gallery, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2031) Berry • Through Aug. 14: New oil paintings by John Berry. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) “Please Steel Our Flowers” • Through Aug. 14: New art by Lin Hall and Annette Olson. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223)

9

’Corps values

How the Prescott market got its famous first

Sam Turner poses with a child. Courtesy photo.

By Heather Houk

If

I were a betting person, I’d wager that most of you have noticed someone at the Prescott Farmers Market just to the east of the information booth near the entrance. That person is providing

educational opportunities, games, foodie crafts, and an always-entertaining scavenger hunt for kids on any given Saturday. That person with an omnipresent smile is Sam Turner. Turner — you can call her Sam — is a FoodCorps service member and one of the best assets any food/ nutrition/health/education-based organization could ever hope to have.

And the Prescott Farmers Market appears to be the only farmers market in the world to have its own personal FoodCorps service member. Allow me to provide some context for the connection between FoodCorps and our humble market.

Most

Americans are probably familiar with President Kennedy’s signing of an executive order bringing the Peace Corps into existence in 1961. That

10 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

started a generation of people who participated and are still providing technical, economic, medical, and environmental support to nations around the world. In 1965, JFK initiated Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) as domestic outreach to combat poverty in the United States.

Flash forward a few decades, and President Bush Sr. signed into law the National and Community Act of 1990. That act lead to an independent federal agency called the Commission on National and Community Service (CNCS). A few years later, President Clinton passed the National and Community Trust Act of 1993, which entailed the AmeriCorps initiative.

AmeriCorps serves as the parent organization of several other service programs like VISTA, Senior Corps, and the NCCC to name a few. (Don’t worry, we’re almost done with the acronyms and program names.)

Through the AmeriCorps State and National program, AmeriCorps provides grants to nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations around the country. Among those organizations receiving AmeriCorps grants are Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, The Center for Peace and Justice, and thousands of other organizations, including FoodCorps.

In 2009, at the California Earth Day celebration — coincidentally, the same day President Obama signed into law the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act — a handful of young people got together and conceived a national nonprofit organization focused on ending childhood obesity in America. To that end, the structure of FoodCorps was established and built as a grass-roots initiative to meet the need for nutrition education, better food in schools, and support of native and traditional agricultural practices, hopefully fostering better health and strengthening communities. What began in 10 states in 2011 has now spread across 108 service sites in 15

states in just three years.

Which brings us back to Prescott.

Last

year, the Prescott Farmers Market was awarded a FoodCorps service member and, from among dozens of qualified applicants, Sam Turner was hired. Turner came to us as a graduate of the University of Arizona and has worked at the Tucson Food Bank on their community farm and later at the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project in Manhattan on their rooftop gardens teaching urban kids about growing and eating healthy food.

When Turner first arrived in Prescott as the first FoodCorps service member, the slate was blank. In one short year, Sam established and expanded school gardens all over Prescott and Prescott Valley, provided countless educational opportunities and community awareness for the need to provide high quality, local produce in our schools. Turner also offered programs to kids at the Prescott Farmers Market.

Turner has been hired for a second year in her position at the Prescott Farmers Market as the education outreach coordinator and plans to expand on her amazing list of gifts she gives to our children. So thank you FoodCorps, AmeriCorps, a plethora of presidents, and most of all, Sam Turner. Thank you for bringing joy and energy to the kids of Yavapai County through education, nutrition, and a whole lot of fun with food. ***** Visit PrescottFarmersMarket.Org for more info on the Prescott Farmers Market. Send questions to Info@ PrescottFarmers Market.Org. Heather Houk is an agriculture instructor at Prescott College and a volunteer and former managing director for the Prescott Farmers Market.

In the dim time before dawn the woman clamped her metal fingers over a beer bottle.

Her buckets overflowing with litter from a dying world, she sat and stared at the alien landscape of asphalt.

The stars had all faded except for the one red light of Mars still defying the sun.

The woman smiled at the mythical planet now defrocked of its canals and green men by Carl Sagan and the Legion of Reason.

But still she dreamed.

In her electric cart she glided over the red-gold deserts of ancient Barsoom— past the fairy towers of Grand Canal and the monoliths of Helium where a once great race of Martians lived, played and died— filling the canyons of Valles Marineris with the excess of their empty lives.

Out of habit she picked up a fluted green shard, then laughed and flung it along with her buckets into the trash heap of lost Martians.

Through the dark grottoes of Great Rift Valley she roved to the shores of Mare Sirenum, whose salty crust reminded her of past ruins and distant times when she could still cry.

For a moment she stared at the sun, weak and small as it rose above Olympic Mons, igniting her in a ruddy glow.

She was the Princess of Mars and there were still a few unhatched eggs inside her.

And at the edge of Candor Chasm she bared her heart to the silent, scouring winds.

Then into the dawn she drove to begin her new race of Martians. ©Gene Twaronite 2013 ***** Originally published by NewMyths.Com at Sites.

Google.Com/a/newmyths.com/nmwebsite/poems/ trash-picker-on-mars. Read more of Gene Twaronite’s poems, stories, and essays on his blog at TheTwaronite Zone.Com. Gene’s latest work is “Approaching Wilderness. Six Stories of Dementia,” a Kindle ebook available from Amazon.

on Mars

Trash pickers

By Gene Twaronite

PRESCOO FARMERS MARKET Saturdays, May 10th - October 25th 7:30 a.m. - Noon Yavapai College “parking lot D” 1100 E. Sheldon St.

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER MARKET!

CHINO VALLEY THURSDAYS June 6- October 17 3:00 - 6:00 P.M. Walgreens, corner of Highway 89 and Rd. 2 North

Fresh, quality produce, from local farmers, plus salsa, honey, local meat, farmers cheese, tamales, baked goods, hand-made soup, live plants, fresh herbs, cut owers, and more.

Come meet the folks who grow your food in a lively community atmosphere that’s fun for the whole family!

The Prescott Farmers Market accepts FMNP coupons (WIC), Food Stamps (EBT), credit and debit cards.

Seeking local growers, musicians, and volunteers.

Contact us at 713.1227 or info@prescoofarmersmarket.org

WWW.PRESCOOFARMERSMARKET.ORG

5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • FEATURE • 11

Artistic obsession

Alan Dean Foster’s

Perceivings

tor John Curro, are among the many who appear simultaneously captivated and appalled at the prospect of trying to stage “The Gothic.”

There

By Alan Dean Foster What is artistic obsession? What drives individuals or groups to complete a work of art regardless of whatever the odds?

How about an eccentric 42-year-old composer dwelling in obscurity who spends eight years of his life writing a symphony larger than anything of its kind with virtually no hope of hearing it performed? How about a group of dedicated music aficionados who spend 28 years attempting to get it performed — in Brisbane, Australia.

Not Sydney. Not Melbourne. Brisbane. How about a small coterie of filmmakers who spend years striving to put together a documentary film about said performance — which may never occur?

There you have it: artistic obsession in triplicate.

The

composer’s name is Havergal Brian, the piece in question is his first symphony, better known as “The Gothic,” and the documentary film is “The Curse of the Gothic Symphony.” Cursed, perhaps, because so many times performances that came near to happening ended up collapsing under the weight of the composer’s specifications. Even those who are not fans of classical music can appreciate the daunting rehearsal requirements.

An orchestra of 200 musicians, utilizing essentially every instrument known to the modern symphony orchestra. Thunder machine! Bird scare! Four separate symphonic brass bands. Four soloists. Two children’s choirs. Four adult choirs of 150 singers each. About 1,000 performers altogether.

One of the great problems in performing “The Gothic” is — where to put the audience?

This and hundreds of other difficulties, most notably financing, confronted the Australian Gary Thorpe when he began trying to get “The Gothic” performed in Brisbane beginning in 1982. Swept up later was the filmmaker Veronica Fury. Both, along with the dyspeptic but fascinated conduc-

is nothing in all of music quite like Brian’s first symphony.

From a poor family, Brian was self-taught, largely ignored by the British musical establishment, and after a few initial successes with much smaller and more conventional works, forced to eke out a living on an admiring industrialist’s stipend that was abruptly cut off when the composer’s first marriage fell apart. So, while working assorted jobs during the day, Brian was forced (compelled?) to write out the gigantic score of “The Gothic” only in moments snatched during periods of spare time. Brian said that “The Gothic” “wrote itself.” Sure it did — over eight years.

Who persists at something like that? If Brian’s smaller, livelier pieces went unperformed, what chance was there for an enormously expensive colossus like “The Gothic”? That didn’t dissuade the composer. Furthermore, he wrote the entire Godzilla of a symphony out on paper without even being able to compose it on the piano, or any other instrument normally utilized for such a purpose.

It was all in his head.

Nobody did perform “The Gothic.” Not until a group of amateurs did their best to stage it in 1961. The first professional performance finally took place in 1966. And the still largely ignored composer was there to take a bow, at age 90. Not that age slowed Brian. Irrespective of indifference, he never stopped composing, and in fact wrote four operas and 20 symphonies after turning 80. Just like there is nothing like “The Gothic” in music, there is nothing like Brian’s protean output at such an advanced age, though none of his subsequent works matched “The Gothic” in sheer scale.

12 • COLUMN • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Only possibly his setting of Shelly’s poem “Prometheus Unbound.” Even bigger in ambition than “The Gothic,” this cantata requires similar orchestral and choral forces and runs four-and-a-half hours. But we’ll never know how it compares to “The Gothic.”

A conductor lost the only manuscript.

Even today there are hopes it might surface, somewhere in the musty depths of the BBC’s offices in London. What a performance that would be!

Like

the symphony itself, like the Australian performance in 2010, the documentary “The Curse of the Gothic Symphony” reflects what many would call a deep well of artistic obsession on the part of its makers.

Unlike the long-ignored symphony, the film has won numerous awards and been duly praised. I don’t expect it to play Prescott-area cinemas. I’m not sure it will play Phoenix-area cinemas. But the DVD is available, and with luck the film might be shown one day on PBS or HBO or some other venue. The appetite for new material on TV today is bottomless, and the film deserves a wider audience in this country.

By sheer coincidence, six months after the Brisbane performance, “The Gothic” was given its sixth performance to date, and the first with full forces, by the BBC as the opening concert of its venerable London Proms series. I was there.

Greatest musical experience of my life. Having listened to recordings of “The Gothic” for years, I had no choice but to go.

It was something of an obsession, you see. ***** 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.

A still from “The Curse of the Gothic Symphony.”

Not pictured: Pipe organist. Fair use.

By James Dungeon

Dabble

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 >>>

Fiber art by Jo Manginelli.

Courtesy image.

in art classes long enough, and you’ll encounter a deceptively straightforward exercise about values.

It often involves rendering a color image — a photo, a collage, a whatever — in black and white and comparing it to a black-and-white photo of the original.

“You appreciate color in a different way after that,” said Patti Ortiz, a Prescott artist who’s well-versed in the experiment. “The color red, no matter how deep it is, is smack dab in the middle of the (black-and-white) scale. Yellow?

It’s more of a white.”

A limited palette yields other lessons, as you can see for yourself at the fifth annual “Black and White With a Splash of Color” show at ‘Tis Art Center & Gallery (105 S. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-775-0223). The exhibit, open now, runs through Tuesday, Aug. 19 and includes artwork in multiple mediums from a few dozen local artists.

“It’s not as stark as you’d expect,” said Ortiz, the gallery’s marketing and program director. “There’s the color, but there are also lots of shades of gray.”

The show was one of the gallery’s inaugural theme shows and has spawned a participatory gala at its annual opening during the 4th Friday Art Walk.

“People started showing up dressed in black and white with a little splash of color,” Ortiz said. “It’s something we’re now encouraging.”

Though it’ll be too late to attend the opening by the time you read this — it was Friday, July 25 — you can still patronize the show in that same convivial spirit.

“It’s something some people do without even trying,” Ortiz said. “It manifests without you even realizing it.”

Frowning then smiling, Ortiz looked down at her own black-and-white attire, then kicked up a brown shoe.

“See?”

5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • PORTFOLIO • 13

CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT: Judy Kaufman poses next to her piece “Formal Symmetry” during the 2013 “Black and White With a Splash of Color Show” at ‘Tis Art Center & Gallery.

Photo by Judith Skinner.

“Point of Interest,” a piece by Donna Carver shown in 2013 at ’Tis. Photo by Donna Carver.

“Rain Dance,” a piece by Judy Kaufman shown in 2012 at ’Tis. Photo by Judith Skinner.

Donna Carver poses in front of monotypes in her studio.

Photo by David Carver.

Joanne Manginelli, face painted in the spirit of the upcoming “Black and White With a Splash of Color” show at ’Tis, poses in front of her loom surrounded by her fiber art.

Photo and face paint by Nivaré.

... FROM PAGE 13 Values Given her vast portfolio of impressionistic seascapes, Prescott artist Donna Carver’s black-and-whitewith-a-splash paintings are extreme.

“For pieces in this show, I use bold black and I use bold white,” said Carver, who’s participated in the show at ’Tis for a handful of years. “You’ll see a lot of grays in other people’s work, but I try to make mine more extroverted, like me.”

Since moving to Prescott from the west coast a few years ago, she’s shifted to a more contemporary, abstract aesthetic. Although she still uses photography as a starting point, the stills Carver uses for her art are summarily disembodied from any obvious frame of reference. “‘Point of Interest,’ a piece I did for the show in 2012, came from a photo I took of my girlfriend wearing a beautiful black dress with a deep V in it,” she said. “When you got rid of the shoulders and waist, it looked looked two mountains and a valley out in nature.”

Women were more apt to interpret it that way, she added with a laugh.

Look to gestalt or Freud; men readily back-engineered the source material.

For this year’s “Black and White With a Splash of Color” show, Carver has embraced a Southwestern icon: the tumbleweed.

“I tried to add color the way it looks when a ray of sunshine hits it,” she said. “At least this is my translation of that.”

Whether she’s painting or embellishing pieces via printmaking techniques like chine-collé, Carver said she’s always experimenting.

“That’s one of the great things about this show at ’Tis,” she said. “You get to see people trying new things.”

Challenges Cordes Lakes artist Judy Kaufman doesn’t use very much black in her found object pieces. Come to think of it, she doesn’t use a whole lot of white, either.

“What can I say? I’m not much of a black-and-white person,” said Kaufman, an Arizona resident of two decades. “The ‘Black and White’ show is a bit of a stretch for me, but I’m always encouraged by trying something different and pushing the envelope.”

14 • PORTFOLIO • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

So, after joining ’Tis gallery shortly after its inception, she started taking part in themed shows, including the aforementioned exhibit.

“I use more found objects, so things like rusted metal bring in browns that play off the blacks and whites,” Kaufman said. “It often looks too cool for me, so I try and warm up my pieces.”

Gold and other metallic colors add depth, but she’s still trying to find a palette that fits her palate.

Seeing her pieces on display has prompted Kaufman to adjust how she assesses her own work.

“Because I started in oil painting, I’m used to going back 20 to 25 feet to check a piece,” she said. “Working with found objects, you can’t do that, but I’ve found that if I stand on my kitchen counter, I get close to what it’s going to look like on a wall, sans gravity.”

She’s found gray doesn’t carry as well as she’d like — hence, the color shifts away from half-tones in one of

her pieces from last year’s show.

“It takes time to learn how to handles these colors,” Kaufman said.

“How many people do you know that live in a black and white house?”

Scenes “I’ve always wanted to live in a black and white house,” said Prescott fiber artist Jo Manginelli.

Maginelli, whose primary medium is fiber, might be joking.

“No, seriously,” she insisted. “It’s a classic look, and I would’ve loved to have done it, except my husband objected to it.”

One of her primary inspirations is the famous racecourse scene in the film version of “My Fair Lady.”

“There are so many textures and patterns in that scene,” Maginelli said.

“It’s really stunning that the only color in there is some pastels that a few of the women are wearing.”

For a bit more than a decade and a half, Maginelli has been living in

Prescott and working with a loom. She joined ’Tis’ roster the year it opened and has shown pieces since the first incarnation of the “Black and White With a Splash of Color” show.

“I’ve done a lot of black-and-white wraps, shawls, and scarves for it, of course,” she said. “A lot of the color is added with flowers or buttons.”

One of the issues with splashing color in fiber art is planning.

“In painting, you’re much more free to put colors together,” Maginelli said.

“When you’re weaving, you’re working on a grid, and you’ve got to work with the warp and weft.”

Another is repetition of styles and approaches. In this regard, the use of color in an otherwise black-and-white piece is a calculated bit of bombast.

“Colors help make something pop,” she said. “A little splash of red or yellow

draws your eye. It’s the first thing you see before you look at the rest of a piece. … But you’re still going to look at the rest of the piece.” ***** Visit ’Tis Art Center & Gallery at TisArtGallery.Com and 105 S. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-775-0223.

See more of Donna Carver’s artwork at DonnaCarver.Com. See more of Jo Manginelli’s artwork at EarthandFiberDesigns.Com. James Dungeon is a figment of his own imagination. And he likes cats.

Contact him at JamesDungeonCats@ Gmail.Com.

15

News From the Wilds moves smoothly up their legs, across their trunk, and into their mouths.

Among

Greater Roadrunners feast on cicadas during our monsoon season. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris.

By Ty Fitzmorris

August,

our wettest month, arrives with cataclysmic storms and rolling heat. The rains, at long last, have come, and in the high temperatures and ubiquitous sunlight of late summer the Central Highlands enters its most fertile, vibrant season. Many of our woody plant species bear their seeds now, from the delicious Chokecherries to our various oaks, with their small, nutrition-packed acorns, while herbaceous (non-woody) plants grow and bloom — most of which didn’t appear in the spring.

This is the time of plenty for many birds and mammals, as insects of all types proliferate, from giant moths to enormous strange and beautiful beetles, to dragonflies, who reach their peak now, while alien-like cicadas measure the day’s heat with shrill cries.

This

second flowering brings with it a glut of insect prey, which precipitates a

wave of activity amongst our many lizards. The most conspicuous of our daytime lizards are the Ornate Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus) and several species of whiptails (genus Apidoscelis), the young of which hatch during this time of plenty. Many of the whiptail species are unisexual, meaning that all of the individuals are female, and young are genetically identical to their parents. Our more furtive lizard species include the zebra-tails (genus Callisaurus), spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus), and the remarkable Greater Shorthorned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi).

The horned lizards are endemic to the North American deserts and are specialist ant-predators with skin armored enough to withstand the bites and stings of ants. Interestingly, these lizards cannot lower their heads to drink water, but are able to draw water up the surface of their bodies into their mouths through capillary-like channels in their scales by standing in water and pulsing their bodies. The water

16 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

the insects August marks the beginning of the time of the giants. Massive moths with 4- to 6-inch (and greater) wingspans, such as the sphinx moths, saturn moths, and the massive Black Witch Moth (Ascalapha odorata), which can have an 8-inch wingspan, fly for miles searching for mates, while Grant’s Hercules Beetles (Dynastes granti), Rhinoceros Beetles (Xyloryctes jamaicensis) and Longhorn Oak Borers (Enaphalodes hispicornis) bumble to porchlights and streetlights. The Grand Western Flood Plain Cicada (Tibicen cultriformis) flies in large numbers, providing many species of birds and mammals with food, while preying mantids abound. The proliferation of giants happens now because their larger bodies have required longer to grow to their massive size and so have timed their metamorphism into their adult forms for this resourcerich time of the year, when both food and egg-laying sites are abundant.

During

the day, butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, and damselflies are at their most prolific during this monsoonal season. Many of the butterfly species out now fly only during this time of year, and the damsels and dragons are groups that are notably absent during the spring, though they are virtually everywhere now, from parking lots to lakes. Our flagship post-monsoon butterfly is the Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia), which glides over riparian clearings near oak stands. Look also for Buckeyes, Queens, and Monarchs.

In all, the wild diversity of living creatures this month is dizzying. ***** Ty Fitzmorris is an itinerant and often distractible naturalist who lives in Prescott and runs Peregrine Book Company and Raven Café as a sideline to his natural history pursuits.

Contact him at Ty@PeregrineBook Company.Com with questions or comments.

Prescott weather Average high temperature: 86.1 F, +/-2.4 Average low temperature: 56.3 F, +/-3.3 Record high temperature: 102 F, 1905 Record low temperature: 32 F, 1968 Average precipitation: 3.17”, +/-1.88 Record high precipitation: 10.51”, 1971 Record low precipitation: 0.11”, 2002 Max daily precipitation: 3.15”, Aug. 22, 1960

Night skies • Aug. 10: Full Moon at 11:09 a.m.

• Aug. 12: Perseid Meteor Shower peaks at midnight. This is one of the year’s brightest meteor showers, and though the waning gibbous moon will still be bright enough to block out some of the meteors, the Perseids are known for their numerous and bright meteors, so many will still be visible. These meteors are dust particles left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a very large comet that swings through our solar system every 133 years, and which last appeared in 1992. The average velocity of the Perseid meteors is 39 miles per second, much faster than the meteors of last month’s showers.

• Aug. 18: Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. The second and third brightest objects in the night sky are within one degree of each other just before sunrise. Conjunctions this close are rare, and given the brightness of these two planets this will definitely be one to see. Look to the east just before sunrise. The two planets will rise around 4:20 a.m. in the heart of the constellation Cancer, just next to the beautiful cluster known as the Beehive.

• Aug. 25: New Moon at 7:13 a.m.

News From the Wilds, too A very brief survey of what’s happening in the wilds ...

By Ty Fitzmorris High mountains • Convergent Lady Beetles (Hippodamia convergens) gather in the tens of thousands in crevices in rocks and plants in the high mountains. There they are often gathered by enterprising humans to sell to farmers for pest control. This scheme, however, is somewhat misleading — though the alligator-like immature lady beetles are aggressive predators of other insect species, the adults (which are the ones sold) are not proficient predators and, instead, fly away after they are released.

• Golden Columbine (Aquilegia crysantha) flowers by cooler mountain stream sides.

• Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) continue nursing their young.

Their roosts are often in caves, or cavities in trees, but sometimes they roost communally in buildings.

Amazingly, a nursing mother can eat up to 110 percent of her body weight every night of insects, many of which are pests of humans.

Visit: Maverick Mountain Trail, No. 65.

Ponderosa Pine forests • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flowers. This is one of the most storied of our plants, and has been used as a medicinal plant by many cultures, dating reliably back to the Neanderthals. In ancient Greek lore, Yarrow appeared from the scrapings of Achilles’ spear (hence the genus name), and was used to heal Telephus’ wound, and has since been used for everything from immune support to wound treatment to small pox.* • Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica) bears delicious black fruits. The fruits have a sweet coffee flavor and a large coffee-bean-like seed.* • Scarlet Creeper (Ipomoea cristulata) begins growing. Look for vines growing with two different types of leaves — one is horned and bi-lobed, while the other is longer and tridentshaped. By fall, these vines will cover large areas.

Visit: Miller Creek Trail, No. 367.

Pine-Oak woodlands • Many different types of “June beetles” fly now. Our most distinctive species is the Ten-lined June Beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata), of the scarab family, which is often drawn to porch lights.

• Arizona Walnut (Juglans major) seeds mature on these elegant, uncommon trees. These nuts have served as valuable food sources for many indigenous groups, and the husks can be made into a deep black paint.* • Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) fruiting. These fruits can be small and tart or large and sweet, depending on the year. When they are larger, they rival store-bought cherries for sweetness and outdo them for flavor.* • Oaks of all species bear their acorns, providing the largest overall food crop of the year for mammals and birds, most notably the Acorn Woodpecker.

• Deep blue-purple four o’clocks (Mirabilis spp.) flower on hillsides.

Visit: Little Granite Mountain Trail, No. 37.

Pinyon-Juniper woodlands • Fendler’s Redroot (Ceanothus fendleri) continues flowering, along with Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus).

• Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii) flowers exuberantly in the evenings.

These large white trumpet-flowers glow in the dusk, attracting moths and bats. This species has been mistakenly described as having hallucinogenic properties, a piece of terrible misinformation that has resulted in many poisonings and some permanent blindness. Fruit and leaves of Datura should NEVER be ingested.

Visit: Tin Trough Trail, No. 308.

Grasslands • Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) flowers, providing nectar for recently fledged hummingbirds.

• Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) begin their great seasonal flowering here in the Southwest, where they are native. Look for “longhorn” Melissodes bees, as well as iridescent green Agapostemon and Augochlora bees, foraging on their flowers.

Visit: Mint Wash Trail, No. 345.

Arizona Sister butterflies patrol their creek-side territories in the late summer. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris.

Rivers, lakes, & streams • The creeks run exuberantly, often overspilling their banks.

• Scarlet Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and bright Yellow Monkey Flower (Mimulus guttatus) bloom, drawing Two-tailed Swallowtails to their nectar.

• Snails appear in stream-side vegetation. Arizona is home to more than 200 species of snails, most of which are largely unstudied.

• Swallows and bats abound near creeks, consuming large amounts of insects, mainly flies and small moths.

• Many species of dragonflies and damselflies hawk over the water, patrolling territories. Look for bluet and rubyspot damsels, and spiketail, saddlebag, and skimmer dragons, and especially the massive Giant Darner (Anax walsinghami), which has up to a 5.5-inch wingspan, and is the largest dragonfly in the U.S. • Arizona Grape (Vitis arizonica) bears fruit. These small, often difficult to find grapes are reminiscent of Concord grape, though they have larger seeds.* Visit: Willow Lake Loop Trail, off of Willow Creek Road in Prescott.

Deserts/Chaparral • Prickly pears (Opuntia spp.) bear fruit. These spiny fruits provide food for many species, including humans.

• As Coyote Gourd (Cucurbita palmata) and other squashes flower, native Xenoglossa and Peponapis bees begin pollinating them and sleeping in the flowers in the afternoon. The Coyote Gourd is not edible, though our cultivated squash are beginning to flower, also. Look for the flowers of any of the squashes or gourds once they have closed, and pull them open gently to look for these bees.

They are extremely gentle and will not sting unless harassed.

Visit: Agua Fria National Monument. *Always consult with a trained professional before ingesting any part of a wild plant. This information is not intended to encourage the attempted use of any part of a plant, either for nutritive or medicinal purposes.

17

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By Markoff Chaney

The

flow of spam is inexorable, like a water-tortured simile or a Watergate metaphor.

Despite its present preponderance, spam predates computers, according to the venerable Wikipedia and my Uncle Monty, an amateur dentist and herpetologist. Still, spam is indelibly tied to the Information Revolution, which, coincidentally, began on April 5, 1994, with Kurt Cobain’s “shot heard round the world.”

Between spam emails and spam comments, it’s practically impossible to turn on a computer without being bombarded with robot-sculpted messages meant to drive website traffic via the appropriation of trending names, news, and name brands.

Most of it’s nonsense. But, properly juxtaposed, nonsense yields a very particular kind of sense.

For your consideration, I proffer the ripest fruit of the ever-giving spam tree as collected from two websites I currently manage. Each undoctored line of spam has been assembled piecemeal into a well-known poetry form.

Regardless, any resemblance to actual poetry is purely coincidental. ***** Sonnet No. 15

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Playing house

Couples, is your relationship strong enough to survive an IKEA household assembly project?

By Jacques Laliberté

Couples

have shackedup forever, mostly for basic reasons of survival, to share food, chores, and occasionally — when the nest was tidied for the day — snuggle.

Inevitably, when unexpected guests — or babies — showed-up, the couple would realize something in their dwelling was missing. A chair.

A fold-out futon. Perhaps an entertainment center.

About this time — circa 1104 CE — IKEA was invented. Fossil records corroborate this.

Shopping for and assembling the typical IKEA furniture project requires most of the qualities and skills psychologists agree define a healthy, well-balanced couple.

As an indicator of a couple’s mental and sexual health, harmony, and histrionics (the 3 Hs), experts look at the couple’s: • level of tolerance for repetitive and gender-based tasks, • communication method, • partner empathy, • common reward values, and • perceived partner attractiveness.

This shows that the IKEA shopping and purchases assembly protocol closely mimics those of the non-IKEA variety that a contemporary couple encounters and may even determine their relationship’s likelihood for success.

PHASE I: Purchasing The IKEA experience begins, as all great journeys do, with one step on the path. In IKEA’s showroom, the path features foolproof guidance arrows which sequence visitors through room mock-ups.

The couple’s first challenge is here: Is this mock-up living room space one you both could get comfortable in? Sit on the neutral color washable

slip covered settee. Open the softlatch console doors. Dim the LED under-cabinet light strips. Consider the sustainable-growth-oak framed abstract ginkgo leaf print. Can you both see your ELLE Decor reflected in this glossy-white table? Your glasses of Zinfandel?

Follow the arrows on to the kitchen simulacrum. It gets more tricky, more subtle, parsing your mate here.

One-basin sink or two? Brushed fixtures or polished?

Sustainedgrowth oak or cherry veneer cabinets?

Seating for four? Six? Eight? Table height or bar height? Discussions start small now but can quickly escalate. If you choose seating for four, you’ll need chairs for four, dinnerware for four, glassware for four, et al.

Negotiation comes into play. And compromise. And acquiescence.

Panic may ensue.

Do you really know each other like you thought you did?

PHASE II: Assembly So, you’ve settled on your purchases and driven IKEA’s craftily SUV-dimensioned boxes home and stacked them on your neutral grey rug. You’re ready to test your relationship further.

It takes two to three furniture kit assembly projects before you discover the brilliance of the IKEA brand mindset.

Their proprietary products are clearly engineered in-house, not only to hit an affordable price point, but with careful consideration to the home-assemblers’ likely craft skills and tool chest contents.

They used the term “foolproof” as their operative motto. Literally.

Once you’ve broken their coded

mechanics, assembly goes by-thebook. Speaking of which, each and every product — even those of two parts whose assembly is ridiculously evident (screw light bulb into socket; plug lamp into electrical outlet) — is graced with a large-format, illustrated, wordless comic book with mod graphics of all the parts, fasteners, and tools now arrayed before you, along with a vaguely uni-sexual character triumphing through the rigorouslystructured building sequence which now awaits you.

Tempting as it is, DO NOT deviate from your comic book!

Though unwritten, disassembly of your new bookcase or whatever is highly discouraged. Therefore fortifying exposed wood edges with white glue prior to installing fasteners is recommended. The particle board that makes IKEA assemblyrequired furniture affordable also makes it crap.

Also highly-recommended is a powered screw gun for the endless Phillips head bolts in your IKEA future.

As the assembly starts, healthy, selfless couples will intuitively adopt complementary roles and tasks.

For instance, one of you will sort

through the plastic-bagged hardware and dole it out while pointing at their designated pre-drilled holes — while the other one of you will insert and screw.

Eventually, no words are required — or actually helpful — as you, now of one mind, deftly flip sub-assemblies over, repeat tasks, connect components, hang drawer slides, attach legs, tighten torx nuts, and, finally, as a team, behold your new bookcase. Or whatever.

At this time, if all goes swimmingly, the healthy and well-balanced couple will look at each other with admiration and affection, jockey their console-or-whatever into position against their glossy white wall, grab well-deserved glasses of Zinfandel, and go mock-up making a baby. ***** Other products from the author: Couples Counseling for Prospective IKEA Furniture Assembly one-Day Workshop and Certificate Program; the IKEA Entrepreneurial Cottage Industry Program: Re-Cycling Leftover Torx Wrenches into Jewelry.

A 20-year resident of Prescott, Jacques Laliberté has written for and designed several publications, as well as his own Art-rag. See his fine art work at Society6.Com/Dazzl Dolls.

Images via All-Free-Download.Com. Illustration by 5enses.

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Sterile wound dressing has always been a serious problem, especially on the battlefield. Burns can prove particularly stubborn because dressings must be revisited so many times to check for infection that the sore is overly exposed to more potential contamination. Bandages developed from cellophane became the industry standard because they’re tough, clear, and actively prevent the growth of common bacteria.

ODDLY ENOUGH ... Cellophane was developed as a “miracle” dressing during World War II when field medics discovered that the cellophane from cigarette wrappers worked beautifully when regular bandages ran out. It worked especially well for burns.

The American-made Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane actually exceeded speeds of 500 mph during World War II. Fully loaded, it weighed more than some bombers. It carried eight .50 caliber machine guns as well as rockets and bombs. It’s credited with shooting down the first jet plane during the war. The pilot followed the German jet back to its base and fired on it as it prepared to land.

*****

ODDLY ENOUGH ... More P-47s were built than any other U.S. fighter in history, yet, today, they’re one of the rarest restored aircraft around. ***** 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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20 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Lauren Antrosiglio’s

Holistic Fitness

By Lauren Antrosiglio

They’re

the healthiest people you’ll ever meet. You know them: They eat fairly healthy; they don’t drink too much; they don’t do drugs or smoke.

They went organic before it was cool.

Maybe you’re one of these people — and hats off to you. It’s hard work being healthy. However, “healthy” people need to worry just as much about heart health as obese people or those with a family history of heart issues. There are a few things you may be doing in the name of health that very well could be setting you up for heart issues.

Excessive cardiovascular activity In the past decade, researchers have discovered a link between serious heart problems and excessive cardiovascular activity. Studies published in European Heart Journal and Journal of Applied Physiology found that the runners and cyclists involved in the studies all suffered damage to the right ventricle of their hearts after completing a marathon.

The damage was reversed in most of the athletes soon after, but about a quarter of the subjects (mostly men

The heart of the matter

You may not be as healhty as you think over 40) showed permanent damage and fibrosis (scarring that can lead to heart failure). Researchers theorized that career runners and cyclists have a greater likelihood of damaging their hearts the longer they continue excessive training.

This doesn’t mean that cardiovascular exercise is unhealthy, but that much cardio just isn’t as healthy as you think.

L-Carnitine supplements This is a medicine cabinet staple for a lot of bodybuilders. L-Carnitine is an amino acid found in high amounts in red meat, but it’s also sold as a supplement. It’s often used as part of a muscle-building program, and, until recently, it was considered to be good for your heart.

In the past few years, however, scientists have discovered that it’s the L-Carnitine in red meat that causes heart damage, not the saturated fat. When ingested, it combines with gut bacteria to create Trimethylamine-N-oxide, which is a compound that has been shown to lead to atherosclerosis (clogged arteries, which lead to heart attacks).

As a trainer, I used L-Carnitine for a stretch and wasn’t sure whether to believe the research. After a while, though, I began getting tightness and aching in my chest over my heart. I stopped taking L-Carnitine and the symptoms vanished. Coincidence? Not sure. Either way, I don’t recommend supplementation.

The Reservatrol dream “Drinking is good for me! One glass a day! I’m healthier than nondrinkers — it says so online!” Ah, wishful thinking. Alcohol and even cigarette companies have been funding research and releasing clever commercials to convince us that our vices were actually healthy since the early 20th century. There were even cigarette ads that claimed “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!” Phillip Morris, you sly dog you. Although previous studies have suggested that one drink a day might be good for you, recent studies have contradicted that. Research compiling data from over 250,000 subjects in 55 studies shows that drinking even one drink or glass of wine a day increases the risk of coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. Yes, even if doctors do it.

Testosterone supplementation Ask a male bodybuilder how to “get big.” They’ll probably say “Like Schwarzenegger big? Testosterone.”

Maybe, but a recent study at the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center found that men who supplement with testosterone had a 30 percent higher risk of getting heart disease than men who didn’t supplement.

Biking to work What?! Yes, unfortunately biking to work in urban areas is a health risk. It isn’t the biking that’s the problem — it’s the pollution. Bicyclists who live in areas with cleaner air need not worry, but those of you who live in areas with medium to high levels of air pollution are at risk. Avoid biking in heavy traffic and take a less-busy route to work.

‘The Biggest Loser’ copycat A lot of people are inspired daily by “The Biggest Loser.” Morbidly obese people are put on extremely stringent diets, forced to do workouts until they pass out, and then have their weight put on national television. (Actually, I used to be obese, and this sounds like a playby-play of my worst nightmare.)

What the producers of the show aren’t taking into account is that morbidly obese people are at an extremely high risk for fatal heart attacks, and long bouts of high intensity exercise designed for people with a much higher fitness level is going to tax their hearts, big time. Obese and morbidly obese people must start out slow, and by slow I mean ssslllooowww. ***** Lauren Antrosiglio is an ASUdegreed personal trainer in Prescott who specializes in weight loss, increasing muscle mass, rehabilitative fitness, functional exercise, and senior fitness. Contact her at Info@ PrescottPersonalTraining.Com.

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5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • COLUMN • 21

Diagnosis: Technology

Where the sun don’t shine How (and why) to clean your computer

By Paolo Chlebecek

Often,

people ask me how to physically clean a computer. On the other side of the coin, people ask what harm not cleaning a computer can do.

Per the latter, not cleaning a computer can definitely cause harm for one simple reason: heat.

Yes, overheating is one of the main causes of (seemingly) random component failure. Today’s computer components run fast, which means they run really hot. That’s because as electricity flows through each component, it’s routed down microscopic pathways. As far as all internal electronics go, movement equals resistance, which results in heat.

Most computers cool themselves with fans.

(Ironically, getting electricity to the fan causes heat, too.) Those simple but efficient fans run from half-an-inch in diameter up to a foot or more.

And, naturally, they can get choked with dust if they’re not cleaned regularly.

To return to the first question, you’ll need to amass a few items before you can physically clean your computer.

At the minimum: • Canned air, • Cotton-tipped swabs (aka Q-tips), • Isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol), • A small spray bottle, • A lint-free cloth, • A No. 2 or No. 1 philips head screwdriver, and • An anti-static wrist strap.

First,

power down your computer and unplug all cables. If you’re working on a laptop, remove the battery, if possible.

Attach the anti-static wrist strap to your left wrist and the other end should be clipped to any bare metal surface on the computer. (Lefties, put the strip on your right wrist.)

Now, if cleaning a tower-style system, remove the side cover of the computer case/chassis with the Philips head screwdriver. Laptops require the removal of various covers from the bottom, but I don’t recommend that unless you are comfortable with very tiny screws. Use the canned air to carefully spray the dust from all internal components and any fans or vents on the computer. Be careful not to over-spin the fans as they can break. i.e., don’t use an air compressor. You can use a cottontipped swab to prevent the fan from spinning, if necessary.

I recommend taking the computer outside as this process can cause a serious dust cloud, which is unhealthy to breathe. (Editor’s note: If the dam-

age is already done, shame on you for not reading the directions thoroughly before attempting this!)

Resist the urge to use a vacuum cleaner attachment; it can cause a static shock that can cripple a computer.

Once

you’ve cleaned the internal computer components, put everything back together. Got left-over screws? Open the computer back up and try again. Next, reconnect all the cables to your computer.

To clean the screen or monitor, put equal parts water and alcohol in the spray bottle and spray the lint-free cloth — not the computer itself.

Carefully wipe clean the screen. Cloth still wet?

Clean your TV, while you’re at it.

Last, use the canned air on the keyboard and cotton-tipped swabs on any leftover gunk that survived the air bath.

Obviously, this level of internal computer cleaning isn’t for the timid. If you’re unsure of what to do, it may be wise to ask a professional geek. ***** 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 and 3 pm every weekday. Wave hi when you see him or contact him at Paolo@ PaoloTek.Com.

22 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Nerdology In 2009, Scythe, a Japanese cooler manufacturer, announced "Godhand," a 250x250 millimeter computer fan that weighed a full kilogram.

T he design, which boasted 10 thick, copper heat pipes, never saw mass production but served as the basis for Scythe’s 2011 “"Susanoo.”

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The wood for the trees

A Gray Dog Guitars guide to humidification

By James Dungeon [Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from a conversation with Addison Matthew, manager of Gray Dog Guitars, 141 N. Cortez St., Prescott.]

Humidification seems like an odd thing to consider when talking about guitars.

Keeping your guitar properly humidified is paramount in Arizona. Ninety-nine percent of the cracks you get in an acoustic guitar are the result of dehydration or abuse. Humidification is really, really important. And it’s not just with acoustics; it’s even a consideration on a solid-body electric guitar. The body might not crack, no matter how dehydrated it gets, but the wood on the fret board can shrink so the fret edges stick out.

How humid does it need to be for a guitar?

Addison Matthew, manager of Gray Dog Guitars, installs a sound hole humidifier on a guitar. Photo by 5enses.

With a room humidifier, like the kind you get from a hardware store, you want to keep it within 40-50 percent relative humidity. We’d be fine with out it right now because of the monsoon, but, otherwise, it gets under 20 percent here, and that’s in the danger zone.

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24 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

So, how do you keep your guitar properly humidified?

There are sound hole humidifiers, like the ones we have here, that have a sponge that you wet, and you put the whole thing in the sound hole. It seals it so that you keep the

box humidified. The benefit of that is that you can leave your guitar out of its case without having to worry about the top cracking. The downside is that it won’t stop the frets from sticking out because it’s not humidifying that portion. The other kind doesn’t seal the sound hole. With those, you want to keep the guitar in its case when you’re not playing it. That’s a good idea, anyway, as it’s safer.

And if you go the room-humidifier route?

Some people use closets. It doesn’t really matter where you do it, though. It’s nice if there’s a seal on the room, like a door, but it doesn’t have to be air tight. You can also get a hygrometer — a lot of people say “hydrometer,” but that’s something else — which lets you measure the humidity.

And if the dehydration damage is already done?

A repairman would hydrate the guitar, let it soak up the right amount of moisture, and wait for just the right moment. The crack starts to close and it’s not too loose and it’s not too tight. You glue it then, and sometimes put a cleat on the inside beneath the crack. That’s why it’s imperative you take it to a professional. Even if the repair job is absolutely stellar, it’ll probably crack in the same spot if you the let the guitar dry out again. The funny thing is that the thinner the top, the more prone to cracking it is, but, at the same time, a lot of the tops with thinner wood have better sound.

A lot of the time, those are the ones that sing. ***** Visit Gray Dog Guitars at GrayDogGuitars.Com or 141 N. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-778-2598.

James Dungeon is a figment of his own imagination.

And he likes cats. Contact him at JamesDungeon Cats@Gmail.Com.

Gene Twaronite’s

The Absurd Naturalist

By Gene Twaronite As a naturalist, I’m supposed to study nature, though it’s hard to know where to start. It’s all so nebulous and confusing. So I propose that we get rid of nature completely.

I am referring here, of course, to the word, not the thing itself. Despite the plethora of books published with smug titles such as “The End of Nature” and despite the efforts of dedicated despoilers around the globe, the complete termination of nature is nowhere near as easy as it sounds We all know what nature is. Or do we? Does your definition include slime molds? Bat ticks?

Lizard scat? How about that disgusting sound Uncle Ralph makes after dinner? Or Uncle Ralph himself?

Does it include time and the curvature of space?

Quantum energy, quasars, and quesadillas? Does it include Big Bang, Big Bird, and bigamy?

Suffice it to say, it is all these things and more — anything and everything in the entire known universe, not to mention all the unknown universes.

One nice thing about being a naturalist is that you never need to worry about running out of material. Indeed, nature is material, and all the energy wrapped up in it.

By now you have probably noted that I don’t capitalize the word nature. Those who do so are beyond hope.

When

we try to put a spin on nature, things get even more befuddled.

There are almost as many quotations for the Nword as there are for life, truth, and God. Thus, we find writers down through the ages referring to nature as a kind parent, but a merciless stepmother; a diseased thing from the grave, but also the art of God; too noble for the world, but equaling the stupidity of man. And we are told that nature does nothing uselessly, never deceives us,

On getting rid of nature never makes blunders, and that all of its models are beautiful.

Oh, please. Have you ever taken a good hard look at a platypus? Or an aardvark? Or even your own bellybutton? Can such a nature be trusted?

And when I hear about quarks, muons, and hadrons, pulsars, hyperspace, and imaginary time, killer asteroids and mass extinctions and the vagaries of continental drift, I cannot help but think that here lies a nature out of control.

Though I might excuse an 18th century poet like William Wordsworth for writing something so fatuous as, “Come forth into the light of things/Let Nature be your teacher,” naturalists should know better. Yet there are some today who, while poking about in ant hills or contemplating bear dung, still insist that by studying nature closely we might learn more about its inner workings and come to understand its overall scheme of things.

Poppycock! What can we possibly learn from a nature that spends over 135 million years developing dinosaurs in every shape and color and then, for no apparent reason, makes them all go extinct so that today children have nothing but plastic models to play with? Is this the sort of role model you want teaching your kids?

And what kind of order is it that gives us brains big enough to invent H-bombs, CDs, and silly putty, but denies us what we really want — which is wings — and instead gives them to houseflies, flying fish, and even fruit bats?

In fact, the more scientists discover about this supposed nature teacher of ours, the stranger it becomes.

We are told that nothing is as it seems, that everything is relative, and that someday the universe may get all squished together again, unless it keeps expanding forever, which is fine by me.

Indeed, nature is not only strange, it’s more ridiculous than the human mind can ever comprehend.

We

need a more realistic term, elegant but concise — a word that says exactly what we mean and won’t be put up on a pedestal. I propose the word “stuff.” Say it softly and let your lips linger on that final “Fffff” sound. What better way to capture all the bounce and fluff of our weird wild universe? Now say it loudly and let it echo through your head with primordial force. “STUFF! “ Now go back and say “nature.” See the difference?

Thus, nature study would become simply stuff study. Cereal companies would label their products 100 percent all stuffy. Mother Nature — whoever she is — would become Mother Stuff. And naturalists would become stuffalists.

On second thought, maybe we should stick with the old word for now.

Column & logo ©Gene Twaronite 2014 ***** Gene Twaronite’s writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. He is the author of “The Family That Wasn’t,” “My Vacation in Hell,” and “Dragon Daily News.”

Follow Gene at TheTwaroniteZone.Com.

5ENSESMAG.COM • AUGUST 2014 • COLUMN • 25

“Further Out Than You Thought” launch party What: Launch party for poet and author Michaela Carter’s debut novel

about three 20-somethings searching for meaning in their lives

amidst the 1992 L.A. riots.

When: 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9.

Where: Peregrine Book Co.

219A N. Cortez St. 928-445-9000 Worth: Free.

(“Further Out Than You Thought” is $14.99) Why: “‘Further Out Than You Thought’ is as seductive as a velvet-curtained club,

as surprising as a dancer who first peels off her clothes, then peels away

her skin to reveal her shimmering, complicated heart.”

— Gayle Brandeis, award-winning author of “The Book of Dead Birds” Web: PeregrineBookCompany.Com, MichaelaCarter.Com.

Monk on Monk What: The 90th anniversary

tribute to Thelonious

Monk featuring the

T.S. Monk Sextet.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21.

Where: Yavapai College Performing Arts Center

1100 E. Sheldon St. 928-776-2000 Worth: $25-$48.

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coupon code: 5enses) Why: The group features

drummer T.S. Monk,

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Web: YCPAC.Com. 133 N. Cortez St., Historic Downtown Prescott 928-776-8695 Facebook.Com/pages/Snap-Snap/316941635545

26 • FEATURE • AUGUST 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

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

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

The Birthplace of Chromatextures