2015-12 5enses

Celebrating art & science in Greater Prescott

Alan Dean Foster

wakes up on the right side of the wrong bed P. 10

Ty Fitzmorris

warms up to winter in the wilds P. 14

Paolo Chlebecek operates on a friendly penguin P. 18

Jacy Lee

faces furniture made for radio P. 20

And much2 more

DECEMBER 2015 | VOLUME 3, ISSUE 12 | 5ENSESMAG.COM

WORLD BISTRO LIKE US ON

FACEBOOK

Lesley Aine Mckeown

5enses In which:

David Moll

4 5 6 7 10 11

Sue Drown

stays out in the cold and discovers that nature’s craftiest denizens are buying straw hats in winter.

Dale O’Dell

gets her ducks in a row and spots a waterfowl with a white bill who’s crowding every watering hole in town.

sidelines the surreal and abstracts smoke, lasers, and pixel fires for a show at The Raven Café.

Peregrine Book Co.

Paolo Chlebecek

Kathleen Yetman

James Dungeon

Alan Dean Foster

Jacy Lee

Markoff Chaney

Jacy Lee

delves into the stars, eating meat, baking food, poetic politics, the Norman Conquest, druids, and Snow White.

Copyright © 2015 5enses Inc. unless otherwise noted.

Publisher & Editor: Rev. Nicholas M. DeMarino M.A., P.M. 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.

Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur.

Plus

14 5/6 16 8 18 19 20 21

Ty Fitzmorris

pines for a preponderance of plants that populate the largest geographic area of its species in North America.

December 2015 • Volume 3, Issue 12

Flip Photo

A visual puzzle from the Highlands Center for Natural History

Left Brain/Right Brain

Find out what’s going on in Greater Prescott

22 22

Oddly Enough Smart, quirky comics

by Russell Miller

Not-as-holy-days Enjoy some alternative reasons for the season(s)

games your computer’s operating system with a free alternative to your current corporate puppet masters.

grows strong to the ’finich and harvests a green vegetable that hails from the Middle and Far easts.

reports some ... interesting quotes for your edification and amusement, but mostly just your amusement.

sleeps in and ponders whether our ancestors would’ve prefered a bed of nails or a bed of roses.

broadcasts a new column about the old structures that gave physical life to invisible, not particularly wet waves.

discusses life, the universe, and everything — but especially art and nature — with painter Dana Cohn.

wraps (and warps) his brain around two amazing tales — one in a garden, one in a hotel — that’re word-perfect.

Dana Cohn art references. Photo by 5enses.

See Page 11 for more.

Adorn Your Lifestyle

@ Snap Snap

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5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • CONTENTS • 3

Plant of the Month

Ponderosa Pine Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa). Photo by Sue Smith, Cals.Arizona.Edu/yavapaiplants.

By David Moll

People

Wishing you all the Joy, Peace and Wonder of the Season Highlands Center Highlands Centerfor forNatural NaturalHistory History

UPCOMING EVENTS

Nancy Maurer Photography

Creating with Nature: Winter Wreaths - Sunday, December 6, 1:00-4:00 PM Shade the Raven - Saturday, January 9

Shade is back with a twist, Children’s story time 1 PM; Adult presentation 2:00 PM

Free Sunday Cinemas and Fun Raffles - Sundays, January 17, 24, and 31, 1:30 PM Winterscapes Drawing Classes - Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 19, 21, 26, and 28 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Insights to the Outdoors: Adventures Astronomy - Friday, January 29, 6:30 PM Come and explore our Arizona nighttime sky.

Save the Dates for the 2016 Community Nature Series Every Tuesday and Thursday in February.

For details, registration and pricing, call or visit our website.

928-776-9550 • highlandscenter.org

Wonder • explore • discover 4 • FEATURE • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

who only imagine Arizona might consider the Saguaro to be the icon of the state. In sharp contrast, those of us who actually live in the highlands of the state are enamored of the Ponderosa Pine — perhaps to the point of taking it for granted.

After all, despite its wide distribution in the West, Arizona contains the largest contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest in the world. But really, we love them, if only as a comforting stand-in for the treed habitats of our cherished childhoods.

Such a dominant organism offers much more r than psychological Book Ytoouthe environment it comcomfort Parties resources of food mands.

HolidayManifest Now! sustain many organand shelter isms in a web of fascinating detail, intricate beauty, and informative history. Hundreds of species from fungus to flowering plants (mistletoe) to invertebrates to vertebrates feed on the trees. In turn, they are fed upon by their predators and associates, and so on. Even in death, the Ponderosa is full of life: a granary for Acorn Woodpeckers, a home for numerous cavity-dwelling birds, a perch for herons, flycatchers, swallows, raptors, and many more. Fungus lives in mutual benefit underground. Understory plants have adapted to the shade and poor soils of the forest. Temperature,

precipitation and drought, and topography come together with history and time to prescribe the Ponderosa Pine’s natural boundaries. Fire shapes its character.

Humans shape its character, too.

Management for timber harvest, including fire suppression, has turned the large tree, open park of preEuropean settlement into a small tree, crowded coppice. Many are the repercussions including current human notions of what a forest is.

The

Ponderosa Pine is a noble tree with a noble pedigree. Cone-bearing plants predate the flowering plants that have so beguiled the planet by approximately 235 million years. While flowering plants far surpass the cone-bearing plants in number of species, the cone-bearing plants still dominate vast areas of the planet. The Ponderosa is now the tallest known pine tree in the world at over 268 feet tall. Its prickly cones with winged seeds contain and emanate the mystery of the Fibonacci number sequence. ***** David Moll is — among other things — an active member of the Prescott Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society.

Visit the Arizona Native Plant Society Prescott Chapter at AZNPS. Com/chapters.prescott.php.

American Coot Bird of the Month American Coot. Photo by John West.

By Sue Drown

“What’s

the duck with the white bill?”

It’s a question many a Prescott Audubon field trip leader has answered on a birding outing. The short answer: an American Coot.

Coots are actually rails, but they’re the most visible and aquatic of this otherwise reclusive family. Coots float around our reservoirs, Willow and Watson lakes, like unremarkable gray ducks. When on land, they show their large, greenish-yellow feet with lobed toes, so they walk like you might with flippers on — with cumbersome strides to lift that big foot without tripping. Coots are grapefruit-round, with smallish wings, so they must run along the water, splattering and flapping, to get airborne. Still, many migrate quite a distance, from the northern prairie-pothole regions to our lakes for the winter. They migrate at night.

They prefer fresh water, and don’t mind if it’s a bit mucky. They’re mostly vegetarian, finding plenty of algae and aquatic matter in reservoirs like Willow and Watson.

If you watch birds in the fall or winter on our lakes, you’ve seen American Coots.

It’s a safe bet that, on any winter day, coots outnumber all the other aquatic birds put together. This might lead you to guess that they are very successful breeders and that they’re a species — like ravens, gulls, and vultures — whose needs are benefited by human activities. And you’d be right.

Coots

may strike you as plump, chickenlike, clumsy, raucous, gregarious, quarrelsome, awkward, or aggressive. Around here, “conspicuous” might be the best description. They munch on the muddy shore in dense herds, sheep-like, nibbling and rolling forward in a tight mass, each busy with its own concerns, amazingly domestic. In the evening they head to their communal night roosts in safe cover along the weedy lake edges, thousands of plump grey shapes in an orderly line. But in breeding season, they’re monogamous and territorial and will fight aggressively for almost any reason.

Strictly utilitarian birds, you say?

Well, they also have a secret, only visible on close inspection. Coots wear a lovely garnet-red jewel above their white bill, incongruously subtle and elegant, similar to the gems that some women in South and Southeast Asia wear on the space between their eyebrows. Very classy.

Bringing Wild Birds To Your Backyard!

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www.jaysbirdbarn.com

1046 Willow Creek Rd, Suite 105 Prescott

(928) 443-5900

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

pilF Photo

[Info via “Birds of North America,” Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and “American Breeding Bird Atlas,” Corman, Troy, et al.] ***** Sue Drown is a certified bird nerd, and is seldom seen without her binoculars. She has thrived since moving to Arizona’s bird-rich region eight years ago.

Visit Prescott Audubon Society at PrescottAudubon.Org. Contact them at Contact@PrescottAudubon.Org.

Whose sides peat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat?

5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • FEATURE • 5

Peregrine Book Co.

Staff picks

By Peregrine Book Co. staff “Stories in the Stars”

By Susanna Hislop Though this book calls itself an atlas, it’s really a collection of stories. Constellations and asterisms recognized by cultures all over the world are included accompanied by short stories, poems, and histories detailing the stories that human imagination has created for the stars. — Sean

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

Flip otohP

Snowflakes!

Snowflakes

come in a variety of shapes and sizes. These small ice crystals always maintain a six-sided shape but travel on a journey which creates specialized formations each time. Snowflakes form in clouds where the temperature is below freezing and small liquid and frozen cloud particles coexist. In these supercooled clouds, water evaporates from the liquid droplets and is deposited onto the ice particles, causing them to grow into crystals that are large enough and fall fast enough through the air to reach the ground. The unique paths taken by a snowflake influence its development; with each experience of varying conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) different forms of the six-sided crystals develop — because the six sides pass through the conditions at the same moment, each side of a single snowflake develop identically.

Photo by SnowCrystals.Com.

6 • FEATURE • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

“Eating Animals”

By Jonathan Safran Foer As a reluctantly recovering vegetarian, Foer helped me reflect on my meat-eating urges and how to consume meat more intentionally. From meatful folklore to harrowing accounts of factory farming, Foer’s artful writing is both entrancing and informative. You will never eat animals the same way again!

— Emma “Voracious”

By Cara Nicoletti You will be hungry the entire time you read this.

I promise. Nicoletti is a baking genius and will have you rushing to the kitchen to create the recipes that inspired her throughout her life. — Lacey “Notes on the Assemblage”

By Juan Filipe Herrera In this newest collection of poems by America’s newest poet-laureate, Herrara embraces the world of contemporary politics in poetic form. Fired by anger, but guided by love, this wise bard from Southern California blends empathy, eulogy, and existentialism

with Buddhism and magical realism to give his readers a ride through his grounded, soaring cosmos.

— Mark “The Wake”

By Paul Kingsnorth Kingsnorth delivers an astonishing, visceral howl of rage and grief from an Anglo-Saxon landowner who sees his family, his home, his livelihood, and his entire world destroyed in the Norman Conquest.

The very language is a protest, an arcane but powerful evocation of Old English. “The Wake” disturbs because it addresses a deep cultural wound that’s yet to heal. — Reva “Hounded”

By Kevin Hearne The life of Atticus O’Sullivan is ... interesting. He owns and operates a New Age bookstore in Tempe, AZ. He has an Irish wolfhound. He rides his bike to work. He helps his widowed neighbor with yard work. Oh, and he’s a Druid that is older than Christianity. And you know about all the gods and goddesses that you read about in mythology books? Yeah, they’re real. But hiding.

In plain sight. And some of them despise Atticus. — Jon “Boy, Snow, Bird”

By Helen Oyeyemi A postmodern fairy tale retelling of Snow White, written brilliantly as an exploration of the meaning of race and identity. Perilous and quietly magical. — Ty

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

Vegetable of the Month

Spinach Spinach. Photo by Rameshng.

Creative Commons 3.0.

By Kathleen Yetman

Spinach

(Spinacia oleracea) is thought to have originated in ancient Persia, or modern-day Iran, and its neighboring countries. From Persia, spinach was brought to India, then China, where its cultivation was first recorded in the seventh century. In the ninth century it was introduced in Italy and quickly became a staple in Italian and Mediterranean dishes.

Over the next six centuries, spinach spread across Europe and, eventually, to the United States.

The leaves of spinach vary in size from 1 to 12 inches long and up to 6 inches in diameter. Baby spinach, which is commonly found in bags at the grocery store, is just that: spinach leaves harvested when they’re young. There are three types of leaves: savoy, which has dark green, bumpy textured leaves; flat-leaf (or smooth-leaf), which is as its name describes; and semisavoy, which is a hybrid of the two.

Spinach

is an annual plant that grows best in cool, damp weather and rich, moist soil. Plants thrive between 60 and 65 degrees. In Yavapai

County, spinach should be planted between August and October and again in late February through April.

Spinach can withstand light frosts, making it ideal for lightly protected winter gardens. Spinach doesn’t tolerate heat and will bolt (go to seed) as soon as summer arrives.

Spinach is an extremely nutritious food and is often referred to as a “super food” because of its high amounts of vitamins A, C, thiamin, potassium, and folic acid. It’s also rich in iron and has a moderate amount of calcium. Spinach is a popular and versatile green that can be used in nearly everything due to its mild flavor. It can be eaten raw in salads, added to omelets, steamed as a side, or blended into a smoothie.

Taste tests of local spinach in Prescott school cafeterias last month reinforce its popularity: 605 of 787 kids “liked” or “loved” it. ***** Kathleen Yetman is the Managing Director of the Prescott Farmers Market and a native of Prescott.

Find out more about the Prescott Farmers Market at PrescottFarmersMarket.Org.

Prescott’s finest submarines since before downtown traffic 418 W. Goodwin St., 778-3743 M-F 10:30-2:30, Weekends closed

Open Monday thru Saturday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

928-778-1223 802 Valley Street Prescott, Arizona 86305 RusticPieCompany.com & introducing Prescott’s newest antique shop @ your favorite pie place

The Old Prescott Emporium 5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • FEATURE • 7

Left Brain: December’s mind-full events Events

5

Recharge Ponds bird walk • 8 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 5: Local, guided bird walk at Recharge Ponds with Micah Riegner.

(Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP)

Cut Christmas Trees & Greens & How to Force Them to Stay • 9:30 a.m. Dec. 5: Learn which trees stay fresh plus insider secrets via Watters Garden Center. (Watters Garden Center, 1815 Iron Springs Road, 928-445-4159) “Frontier Christmas” • 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5: Take a nostalgic trip back in time to a long-ago Christmas and learn about holiday traditions from the late 1800s and early 1900s, including song, attire, gift-making, and wrapping on the frontier.

(Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley St., 928-445-2133, $5)

6 9

“Creating with Nature: Winter Wreaths” • 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6: Join fellow crafters and learn new skills while making your very own Highlands Holiday Wreath. Class includes basic crafting items. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550, $25)

Watson Lake bird walk • 8 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Local, guided bird walk at Watson Lake with Bonnie Pranter. (Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP)

Highlands Center for Natural History member holiday celebration • 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Good food, drink, merriment, and celebration with the Highlands Center community. Members only.

(Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550)

17

Stricklin Park bird walk • 8 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 17: Local, guided bird walk at Stricklin Park with Ryan Crouse.

(Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP)

20 29

Prescott Orchid Society • 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20: Monthly Prescott Orchid Society meeting. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-778-6324)

Chino Valley bird walk • 8 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29: Local, guided bird walk with an emphasis on raptors at Chino Valley with Ryan Crouse and Clay Taylor, the latter of whom is the national sales manager of Swarovski. (Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP)

27

Multi-day Prescott Public Library vieweries • From Dec. 1: Library vieweries from Sharlot Hall Museum and International Plastic Modeler's Society, Ernest A. Love Chapter.

(Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-778-6324) Prescott Area Boardgamers • 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Dec. 9 & 23: Play board games. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Winter Prescott Farmers Market • 7 a.m. Saturdays: Enjoy local organic produce and goods from local farmers. (Yavapai College, Parking Lot D, 1100 E. Sheldon St., PrescottFarmersMarket.Org)

“Stortellers at the Smoki” • 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 27: Storytellers from a range of cultures including Hopi, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, and others share, well, stories. (Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928-445-1230, $6-$7) IMAGE: A plate from "Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, 1860. Public domain.

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) IMAGE: "Les Vœux du paon" (The Vows of the Peacock) by Jacques de Longuyon, circa 1310. Note the full, 5x5 board.

Public domain.

8 • EVENTS • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

December’s art-full events :niarB thgiR Events

4 5

Winter Fest • 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4: Experience styles of dance and music from a variety of cultures and countries.

(Prescott College Granite Performing Arts Center, 218 N. Granite St., 928-350-1019) “The Magic of Christmas” • 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5: Kick off the holiday season with Arizona’s Christmas City’s 33rd annual Christmas Parade.

(Downtown Prescott) Courthouse Lighting • 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5: See the 61st annual courthouse lighting.

(Yavapai County Courthouse Square) “Interpreting Nature: The Art of Paying Attention” • 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5: Walt Anderson’s Prescott College class presents their work.

(Prescott College Crossroads Center, 220 Grove Ave., 928-221-2533)

Contra Dance • 7 p.m. lesson, 7:30 p.m. dance Saturday, Dec. 5: Contra dancing. Via Folk Happens.

Calls bh Michael Barraclough, music by Black Velvet. (First Congregation Church, 216 E. Gurley St., 928-925-5210, $4-$8)

9 11 12

Open Mic Poetry Jam • 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Monthly poetry jam presented by Decipherers Synonymous.

December’s theme: Power of Place. Featured poet: Dan Seaman. (The Beastro, indoors, 117 N. McCormick St., 971-340-6970)

Acker Night • 5:30 p.m. Dec. 11: The 28th annual musical showcase raising money for scholarships for music lessons, instruments, and local youth performing arts programs.

(Downtown Prescott) “The Nutcracker” • 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 12: Prescott YMCA Youth Ballet present the classic “The Nutcracker.” (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Winter Craft Faire • 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 12: Third annual winter craft faire featuring more than 20 local artisan vendors of handmade crafts.

(Mountain Oak Charter School, 1455 Willow Creek Road, 928-771-8249) “Have a Local Christmas!”

• Noon Saturday, Dec. 12: Local artisans offer nature-inspired jewelry, small sculptures, functional pottery, homestead crafts, wood burl bowls, carved art, combed-wool animals, greeting cards, cloth-covered journals, and more. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

16 17 31

Open mic poetry • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16: Poet Dan Seaman emcees monthly open mic poetry.

(Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) Cookie House Decorating • 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17: Decorate graham cracker houses at this eighth annual cookie house decorating event.

(Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1537) New Year’s Eve Boot Drop • 10 p.m. & midnight Thursday, Dec. 31: Fifth annual boot drop. (Whiskey Row)

“Adorn Yourself” • Through Dec. 29: A show of wearable art and jewelry by Joan Knight, Barb Wills, and Leslie Parsons. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) PHOTO: Adornable art by Joan Knight, Barb Wills, and Leslie Parsons.

Courtesy image, inverted.

Multi-day Creative writers group • Noon Tuesdays, Dec. 1 & 15: Writing, sharing, and discussion. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) El Gato Dinner Theatre: “My Narrator” • 6 p.m. Dec. 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, & 22: Short One Monkey productions presents a Norm Foster romantic comedy. Ticket price includes a three-course dinner of tapas served family style and desert. (El Gato Azul, 316 W. Goodwin St., 928-445-1070, $35) Modern-day meditation • 6:50 p.m. Wednesdays, Dec. 2 & 16: Open.

Calm. Think. Act. An active, four-part practice. (Flying Nest Movement Arts, 322 W. Gurley St., 303-903-2630) “Sylvia” • 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3-5, 10, 12, & 17-19, 2 p.m.

Dec. 5, 12, 13, & 20: A street-smart mixture of Labrador and Poodle becomes a major bone of contention between husband and wife. Directed by Frank Malle. (Stage Too, 208 N. Marina St., alley between Willis and Sheldon streets, 928-445-3286, $17)

peach occupied by some not-so-normal characters. (Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286, $12) Yoga classes • Mondays, Tuesdays, & Thursdays: Yoga classes including Ayurveda yoga, gentle yoga over-50 class, mindful and gentle yoga, and dynamic flow yoga.

Visit FlyingNestStudio.Com for schedule.

(Flying Nest Movement Arts, 322 W. Gurley St., 928-432-3068, prices vary) Social dance classes • Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, & Sundays: Learn the Argentine tango, West Coast swing, tribal belly dance, Lindy hop swing, flamenco, and Latin dance. Visit FlyingNestStudio.Com for schedule.

(Flying Nest Movement Arts, 322 W. Gurley St., 928-432-3068, prices vary) Mindfulness meditation • 7 p.m. Tuesdays: Meditation group open to people of all faiths and non-faiths.

(First Congregational Church, 216 E. Gurley St., PrescottVipassana.Org)

(Yavapai College Prescott Art Gallery, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2031) “Holiday Wrap” • Through Dec. 19: A variety of gifts from jewelry, paintings, photography, woodturned pieces, ceramics, glass, sculpture, one-of-a-kind clothing book art, and more.

(Prescott Center for the Arts Gallery, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286) “Eclectic Works in Various Media” • Through Dec. 22: Annual hodgepodge art show. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “Holiday Show & Sale” • Through Dec. 24: Annual holiday show and sale. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) “MAG Miniature Show” • Through Dec. 24: Spotlight show.

(Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) Meals on Wheels Charity Art Show • Through Dec. 24: Art show with 100 percent donation to Meals on Wheels for all purchases. (Arts Prescott Gallery, 134 S. Montezuma St., 928-776-7717)

Performance dance/ movement arts classes • Wednesdays & Thursdays: Learn contemporary dance, movement for life, and normative movement.

Visit FlyingNestStudio.Com for schedule.

(Flying Nest Movement Arts, 322 W. Gurley St., 928-432-3068, prices vary)

“The Eyes Have It” • From Dec. 24: Annual winter photography show. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223)

Writers’ workshop • 9:30 a.m. Saturdays, Dec. 12 & 26: Biweekly critique group. (Prescott Public Library, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

Art

Yavapai College watercolors • From Dec. 26: Yavapai College watercolor class show. (Arts Prescott Gallery, 134 S. Montezuma St., 928-776-7717)

“James & the Giant Peach” • 7 p.m. Dec. 18 & 19, 2 p.m. Dec. 19 & 20: When James is sent by his conniving aunts to chop down their old fruit tree, he discovers a magic potion which results in a tremendous

Fall 2015 Juried Student Exhibition • Through Dec. 13: Annual juried show featuring student ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry, watercolor, photography, woodworking, and digital art.

“World’s Largest Gingerbread Village” • Through Jan. 1: See hundreds of gingerbread houses on display.

(Prescott Resort & Conference Center, 1500 E. Arizona 69, 928-776-1666)

“Scrooge, The Musical” • Dec. 11-19: Charles Dickens’s immortal classic in, you know, musical form.

(Lonesome Valley Playhouse, 8944 E. Sommer Dr., 928-499-8664, $10-$15)

9

Alan Dean Foster’s

Perceivings

The science of (selling) sleep

or A bed of roses is a bed of roses is a ...

Which

gets me to thinking about the number of mattress stores I see around town. Just driving around Prescott, one is assailed every day by new storefronts selling nothing other than — or at least as their primary product — mattresses. We’ve got Mattress Firm, The Mattress Center, Yavapai Mattress Warehouse, Mattress & Furniture Gallery, and Mattress Factory Outlet. I was unable to find a Mattress City, Mattress Galaxy, or Mattress Cosmos, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if one or all of them opened tomorrow. In adBy Alan Dean Foster dition to all the mattress specialty stores, all the local furniture The worst sleeping experience I ever stores also sell mattresses, from specialists like Sleep had was in Manu National Park in City (okay, there’s your “City” designation) to generalists 1987 in the Peruvian Amazon. like Furniture Warehouse.

What is it about mattresses I spent a week in a surplus canvas tent by the that makes them a product sufside of a cocha (an ox-box lake) where a tenacious ficient to support not only speyoung Peruvian, Boris Gomez Luna, was strugcialty stores, but extensive national chains of specialty stores? Sure, we gling to build the first place in the vicinity, much less inside the park itself, for tourists to stay. The all sleep, but we also utilize other air mattress I was given didn’t hold pressure and pieces of furniture on a daily basis. the heat and humidity inside the tent was stifling I don’t drive past Toilet City, or Stove except for a few hours just before dawn. But you Warehouse, or Chair Factory Outlet. had to keep the tent zipped shut lest all manner of Why mattresses? unwelcome nocturnal critters, from giant spiders Maybe it’s because we spend more to wandering fer-de-lance, pay you a nighttime visit. time in bed and on (hopefully) a matAlso, I couldn’t get out of my mind Boris’s story tress than any other piece of furniture of having a column of army ants eat through his in the home. And a good night’s sleep, we are own tent one night, waking him from a sound told, is vital to a healthy lifestyle. Except, recent sleep as they made their way across his body and research seems to indicate that our sleep needs out through the other side of the tent. Bites and and cycles really aren’t all that different from our stings woke him and sent him plunging, in pitchhunter-gatherer ancestors. Out on the veldt they darkness, into the nearby caiman and piranhaslept where they could, the primary requirements filled lake to get them off. for a good sleep site being shelter from the weathAs one contemporary bed manufacturer might er and dangerous animals and perhaps also access put it, on that night his “sleep number” was about to water. Their sleep number was zero, yet every a minus 12. member of the tribe must have gotten adequate rest or our species wouldn’t be here. Or if that was the case, it seems to me we’d be really, really tired all the time.

Sleeping poorly would have been more a matter of being awakened by the yowl of a sabertooth or the moan of a cave bear. Today we fear forgetting to turn Antiques • Household • Estates • Buy • Sell • Consign • Transport off our phones and being awakened in the middle of the night by Aunt Meryl wanting to

JACY’S AUCTION Reuse, recycle, re-make-money 928-443-0911

10 • COLUMN • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

know what you really thought of your Christmas tie. Sleep-wise, the biological effect may not be too dissimilar (unless your ringtone is the yowl of a sabertooth or moan of a cave bear, in which case you get a double wake-up whammy).

In

addition to that enchanting Amazon sojourn, I’ve also had occasion to sleep on bare rock. When it was warm, I didn’t even toss and turn. Maybe our ancestors were on to something. It works for lizards. Not that I don’t prefer a comfortable bed in a high-class hotel. But experience suggests that silence and temperature are more important to a good night’s rest than what’s under my butt.

I don’t mean to intimate that our myriad of metropolitan mattress vendors are competing to sell us a bill of fabric-wrapped goods. I’m just saying that the science of slumber, and what allows we humans to get a good night’s sleep, involves much more than whether or not we’re lying on memory foam, springs, down, feathers, water, gel, latex, air, or a pile of leaves scraped together into a dirt hollow dug in the ground. The mere fact that there are so many different types of mattress, each claiming to offer the healthiest, the soundest, the most restful night’s sleep, indicates that we’re still a long way from understanding what’s best for relaxing our minds as well as our bodies.

I wonder what sleeping in space must be like, with no mattress, with nothing at all under your body no matter which way it happens to be facing.

Do side sleepers sleep more on their backs, or their stomachs? Do folks spend more time curled up or with legs straight? All you need is a net to keep you from floating off and bumping into something of possible importance, like the emergency airlock venting switch. There’s no pressure on any part of the body. And no army ants. Unless one of the experiments gets loose. Sounds promising to me.

Mattress No-World. ... ***** 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.

&

Every thing everything else The art of Dana Cohn

By Markoff Chaney

A

story goes here, but I didn’t write it.

It’s not that I didn’t try. I swear I did. I met with Dana Cohn once a month for half year in pursuit of this.

There’s so much to tell but as far as writing goes — and I’m butchering an Ira Glass quote here, so bear with me — my taste exceeds my ability.

(See? Less than a hundred words in, and I’ve already invoked a tangential reference (and am using parenthesis gymnastics to explain said reference) despite self-reference and having forgotten that if I can count the words then I should use “fewer” not “less” in this aside, even though the latter is more conversational (as well as the larger issue of my flagrant abuse of the first person (Plus I’m not sure how the use of em dashes affects otherwise necessary commas)).) And, of course, there’s that giant run-on sentence I just wrote.

Maybe you should just read my notes. …

2015-05 8 a.m. @ dana’s studio smoking cigarettes and gardening outside.

Lots of plants. Big smile.

“Hey man, come on in.” talkedabout plant.s STUDIO front room of apartment is his studio tracing paper, sketches, photos, on wall pieces of wood, shells feathers, nature.

Plus saints, Greek statues, “It’s a prototype. Kind of a guide for it.”

“it” — the big painting on the wall (Bright colors in sky, city into vortex, optical illusion, industrial bulldozer only thing capable of moving on its own) “It started with cartoon painting” (smaller Painting, space and disembodied cartoon parts.)

Popeye, no, Wimpy from Popeye arm, lots of familiar classic cartoon stff “It’s been a while since I’ve looked at it. I don’t hide my shit, but I put it away and forget about it.”

2014, this painting kicked everything off.

On wall -two round canvases of bright colors -bulldozer photo, from a

glossy mag, machine vs. nature “It’s kind of me and my favorite cartoons. I don’t make it blatant — I choose my favorite parts.” (on other desk, smaller paintings) thick,thick paint. Simple design, can see in bigger one. Paint comes up off canvas several mm.

Even those landscapes are a part of this” “You’re going somewhere you’ve never gone, and you’re not stopping along the way.”

-?!

“It’s a pretty wild spot to be in, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Sometimes you really don’t know what you’re doing. You just paint. “

BACKGROUND outside again; frenchpress coffee reheated in microwave Had shows around town — Raven Cafe, small Art Gallery, Ben’s Raised Jewish; Jewish Catholic “guilt helps me; keeps me grounded” Usually doesn’t show people pieces until they’re done. I”m superstitious that way.

Painting is like drugs. We don’t want people to see us doing them. I just say I’m working on them.

Color Forms as a kid, maybe eight “They were my first paintings. That’s where this really comes from.”

I’ve never been better and never been more confused.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing, but when I do it, i’ll be obvious.”

2015-06 9 a.m. @ dana’s studio watering in garden, coffee break Teaches painting four days a week at Yavapai College in summer I still paint at night; “Too much sleep depresses me, anyway” 50-plus pots in garden dirt was one backpack full at a time; took a year and a half to get it all back painted garden once a year 2013 and 2014; had paintings of it at The Raven BACKGROUND Seven, no eight years in Prescott

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 >>> 5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • PORTFOLIO • 11

“I’m not doing anyt ary, but I am for me

... FROM PAGE 11 Was previously in Miami for six years.

“I was pretty much fishing” before that NY My studio burnt down in New York, in Brooklyn, a fire, I lost everything. Giant loft.

Old sewing factory; all the sewing machine oil on the floor, like gasoline.

Whole place gone in 40 minutes. They rescued my German Shepard; that’s all they could do. thought I ‘d be devastated, but I was so relieved about the dog. Companion for 10 years.

-painting of dog above bed in bedroom Friends from Yale, lived in Miami, invited me don there, got a job as a waiter which was pretty hard — waiting tables, I’m glad I did it, and when I think I’ve got it hard now, it’s easy compared to that.

Fished from bridges, world’s greatest fishing; I did that for three years then had a gallery in Key West; painting pictures of the ocean, and fish -still uses conch shells TO PRESCOTT Going back and forth, father sick I thought, “I’ll just come out here for a year,” but you can’t just leave.

When I came back, first thing happened was getting the teaching job; no, not that, met mural mice, painting with big mural with Prescott Public Library Mary Schulte, sp check, a cool lady, helped me get a teaching job.

Both new things to me the big move coming to visit, on plane, met a guy a billionaire from Phoenix, a chemist, had seen drawing ; “I’d like to hire you to paint a mural on my yacht.” a week later, sent me to find stuff in Cherrywood, borrowed his SUV He was a really big part of having faith.

That was a sign.What I was doing was right. coming back for my parents — it’s only because of that all these thing happened 2015-07-16 8 a.m. @ Dana’s -i’m late

12 • PORTFOLIO • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

garden is super green “It’s helped me, man, fed me,” just to draw it, no matter what we’re doing (Water still dripping from deck) It was like I was stealing the dirt or something because I cherished it so much.

Parking lot with runoffs, filter, silt, hill behind grocery store, concrete things After a few years, that dust and silt, it’s like chocolate cake CLASSES Teaching classes every day, morning, 18-80 range right now They’re fearful, they have such respect for the paint; but they do things that are revolutionary in an innovative way.

I learn more from these guys, from what they do, then what I do on my own. they blunder and stumble onto things that are wonderful.

INK PAINTING Just started Russian India ink; really simple drawings of these plants They give so much.

The shapes are pregnant with the beauty of nature The greatness and artistic power and simplicity of nature “If you’re able to do detail, you can hide in it, and it looks really good, instead of doing something bigger.”

There’s something there that isn’t in the details.

You can’t think about it. You realize it as you’re painting it.

I get caught up in detail.

-gestalt images, calligraphy influence It allows you to do more with their movements No lawyers, no liars, just you and it no hiding in color, no hiding in detail not that it’s bad to hide inthe detail

FROM OLD PORTF from high school women, barcodes, s newspaper “the stock market r wonderful backgrou -lots of black an “These have been p time” Eagle prints; anima -300; 46/100, or sheet, picture selling images on C “I’d sell 20 prints an exciting.” good day (more images) “These are prototyp that far.”

NATURE & ANIMA INGS “I love showing the they are.” an owl’s wing, “It’s not something not something that thing.”

Woody Allen’s “Crim meanors,” he was m

2015-08-14 8 a.m. apt call day before: dad reschedule

2014-09-01 9 a.m. @ dana’s -late in and earl moved here the yea lyst/info shop stuff -guy hung self w trial dated girl who knew who ran the shop -“fish and chips

thing revolutione.”

up, rotates, updownleftright I go into them then get a feeling I should go out of them

FOLIO

“After I spend some time away from them, they finish themselves, even if I don’t get it. “

stock sheets from

report makes a und” nd white; put away for a long

Older stuff in back of book.

Here’s a sunflower (very sparse), a super model with repeating body parts, legs -sex, nature “That’s similar to what I’m doing now.”

al drawings riginal price

Courthouse square nd it was really was $80.

pes that did’t get

ALS IN PAINT-

em as beautiful as

that’s good. It’s t’s evil. It’s that

mes and Misdemore hungry then

d in hospital,

ly out ar after the cataff while awaiting

w his girlfriend and fist fights”

DAD thank god, man I don’t know I was glad I was able to be here and help ART I’m finally really getting into the india ink.

It’s a combination of drawing and paintings. (looking at piece, talking about animal pieces) “I don’t see any of that. Man, that’s perfect.”

-things becoming other things, elephant trunk.

Mother nature, “the source” “There’s something really good about this. “ 2015-10-30 8 a.m. @ Dana’s I’m up to 2 a.m. painting 20 going paintings going at once dad in nursing home mom in apartments across the street INK I’m still working on the ink drawings “I’m working on everything.” one girl, live model in ink “ snarling documents, hands with knives, a jubilee of horror” -?

Mountains and airplane Not just garden in image; shell there (physical shell there too) “The original paper will be gone by the time I’m done” Working on thick paper, marks all over it, rubbing through OLD PORTFOLIO Here’s a couple of good ones (gets out a bunch) when he lays them down, picks them

CLASSES It’s a mindset, not one way of thinking grabbing two hours between teaching classes at home then driving back There’s no pressure. I know I won’t get anywhere, so I don’t even try, I just paint. (violent imagery descriptions) when the garden dies BIG PIECE (no more work on it from May, except optical illusion) Bulldozer “This has everything to do with it.” penises and noses thing; solid, then hours before you’re born, those cells are vaporized and they leave tunnels. That’s everything -all at once There’s something beautiful about all the stuff that’s been made.

There comes a point where I don’t think the art world is a good thing for people.

I sure am grateful.

You pick a direction. It’s a container for water.

I can murder and make love in these pieces.

[Editor’s note: Thanks, so much, Dana Cohn.] ***** See more of Dana Cohn’s artwork at DanaCohn.Com. Markoff Chaney is an Earth-based whodunit pundit and (Fnord) Discordian Pope. He has lotsa bills and no sense. Contact him at NoisyNoiseIs Noisome@Gmail.Com.

All paintings and drawings

by Dana Cohn.

All photos by 5enses.

13

News From the Wilds Weather Average high temperature: 51.7 F (+/-4.2) Average low temperature: 21.8 F (+/-3.6) Record high temperature: 78 F (Dec. 2, 1926) Record low temperature: -9 F (Dec. 24, 1924) Average precipitation: 1.66” (+/-1.63”) Record high precipitation: 6.96” (1965) Record high snowfall: 46” (1967) Record low precipitation: 0” (8.7 percent of years on record) Max daily precipitation: 3.13” (Dec. 30, 1951)

Pairs of River Otters, such as these in Oak Creek, stay close together as the pregnant female nears her time to give birth. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris.

By Ty Fitzmorris

The

coldest season has come round again, and the Wilds have entered the depth of their quiescence. But though the nights are at their longest now — the longest of the year is on December 21, the Winter Solstice — the coldest (and, for many species, hardest) parts of the winter are still to come. December is slightly warmer and bears a bit less rain and snow than January, when the days will be already growing longer again.

This lag between the darkest and the coldest times is a result of the thermal qualities of the air masses in the atmosphere, which hold their temperature long after incoming solar radiation has declined. It is for this reason that the warmest parts of the summer are typically after the Summer Solstice, and that the coldest parts of the winter are after the Winter Solstice.

As a result of low temperatures and lack of sunlight, plants and insects now enter the depth of their winter diapause, when almost no activity is to be found. These two groups are the primary food sources for almost all of our species, so

their somnolence brings extreme hardship for birds and mammals, the two groups that remain most active. Only the most resourceful and innovative can find food during this time, and often creatures are more desperate because of this.

Predators, such as Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Coyotes, and Bobcats, become more daring in their attempts to catch small birds and rodents, and as a result prey species become more adept at avoiding their predators. Many birds band together into mixed-species foraging flocks, while rodents spend more time in near-hibernation in their dens after storing food for the last several months. Larger herbivores, such as Mule Deer and Pronghorn, live off of stored body fat for the next few months, and stay on the move to avoid predators. For all species this season is the time of highest mortality. And this might be more true than usual this winter, because of the influence of El Niño.

patterns. Since this El Niño weather pattern took shape this past summer, the warming trend has intensified, with the band of warm water expanding to the east along the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and this has pushed the peak of the El Niño pattern later, into our midwinter.

This weather pattern often means that the Mogollon Highlands receive higher than normal precipitation, and this is especially true when the peak is in the wintertime, when our weather is predominantly influenced by storm systems over the Pacific.

But while the National Weather Service has forecast precipitation in our region to be as much as 50 percent above normal, our temperatures are not likely to increase much over the regular range, which should bring much of this precipitation in the form of snow. And in the Mogollon Highlands, a large snowpack can mean the difference between the creeks running through the year or drying up by June.

The

But

term El Niño is used to describe the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean by more than a half-degree Celsius and the resulting effects on global weather

14 • FEATURE • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

even in this darkest time of year the astute observer can find the first glimmerings of spring. In the lowlands and deserts a few insects and relatives will ap-

Source: Western Regional Climate Center

pear on sunny days — harvester ants maintaining their colonies and gathering seeds, Mourning Cloak butterflies flying in river bottoms, and wolf spiders hunting for other small arthropods. Our deciduous trees, though leafless now, begin swelling at their leaf-buds, growing what will become their spring flowers and leaves, while some, such as the Arizona Alder, grow their entire pendant flowers. Female River Otters are nearing the end of their pregnancies, and moving towards their dens, while Black Bear wait in their hibernacula, also about to give birth.

As in the great never-ending cycle of birth, growth, mating, dispersal, and death, the darkness of winter enfolds the seeds of spring. ***** 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 cofounder of Milagro Arts, a community arts nexus, all as a sideline to his natural history pursuits. He can be reached at Ty@PeregrineBook Company.Com.

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

By Ty Fitzmorris High mountains • Pine Siskins, Red Crossbills, and Cassin’s Finches may appear from the north during especially cold years, often finding and flocking with House Finches and Lesser Goldfinches. This behavior helps migratory species learn the distribution of food in places with which they are unfamiliar.

Visit: Spruce Mountain Loop, Trail No. 307.

Ponderosa Pine forests • Dark-eyed Juncos arrive in force from colder lands to the north and join with Bridled Titmouse, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper, and several species of nuthatches to form mixed-species flocks. These species stay together for months, and apparently gain protection from having many eyes of different types looking for predators. They avoid competing with each other by dividing up the microhabitats of trees — look for Juncos foraging on the ground, Chickadees in the tips of branches, nuthatches foraging in a downward spiral around trunks, and Brown Creepers foraging in an upward spiral.

Visit: Schoolhouse Gulch Trail, No. 67.

Pine-Oak woodlands • Bushtits are very active when the weather is calm. These tiny, mouselike birds are distinctive in that they forage in large flocks, but the birds trickle from one tree to the next in a slow but continuous stream, chiming continuously with beautiful calls.

Once they have landed these birds search each tree assiduously, gleaning many thousands of insect larvae, thereby keeping many insect species under control.

• Several species of harmless spiders move into human dwellings, the most obvious of which is the Giant Crab Spider (Olios giganteus), which can often be seen running on walls and ceilings. These spiders are totally non-venomous, and can easily

El Niño winters may sometimes bring heavy snowfall, supplying the Mogollon Highlands with storehouses of water for the coming year. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris. be relocated to the outdoors by trapping them under a cup carefully so that they aren’t injured.

Visit:Little Granite Mountain Trail, No. 37.

Pinyon-Juniper woodlands • Raccoons spend long periods, up to three weeks at a time, in their dens.

Dens are typically in trees, though in the higher elevations Raccoons may excavate burrows. Dens can sometimes be found because of nearby latrines, large deposits of scat. This year’s young stay in the den with their mother for their first winter.

Visit: Tin Trough Trail, No. 308.

Grasslands • Hawks continue to migrate from the north, escaping colder temperatures. Look for Swainson’s, Roughlegged, and the very rare Northern Goshawk.

• Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) begin their winter hibernation deep in their underground tunnels, to emerge again in March or April. This is the smallest species of prairie dog in North America and the only one in the Mogollon Highlands, and is one of the most important of all species in maintaining the health of our grasslands. Their burrows both oxygenate and nitrogenate soils, which fertilizes grasses

and forbs. Prairie dogs are also important sources of foods for many other species, such as hawks, snakes, and Black-footed Ferrets. They are a “keystone species” in that they are one of the species that forms the basis of their ecosystem.

Visit: Mint Wash Trail, No. 345.

Riparian areas • Waterfowl of many different species, including Pintail, Ruddy Duck, American Widgeon, Gadwall, Green-winged Teal, Shoveler, Canvasback, and Bufflehead, have arrived in our lakes by the thousands, and are easily observed as they feed from now until early spring.

Rare birds, such as loons, ibis, some goose species, and several kites, appear in the lakes in midwinter, blown off course by winter storms sometimes thousands of miles away.

Visit: Willow Lake Loop Trail, via Willow Creek Road.

Deserts/Chaparral • Some very few last flowers persist, such as Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata) and Cliffrose (Cowania mexicana), providing nectar for a few species of butterflies, native bees, and flies.

• Kit Foxes, the smallest and most furtive of our foxes, begin their mating season.

Visit: Aqua Fria National Monument.

Skyward • Dec. 7: Conjunction of the Moon and Venus. The waning crescent Moon is within two degrees of Venus, one of our two nearest planetary neighbors.

Look to the east just before 4 a.m. to see this beautiful sight.

• Dec. 11: New Moon at 3:29 a.m.

• Dec. 13: The Geminid Meteor Shower is at its peak after midnight. This shower is considered to be the brightest and most numerous of all of the meteor showers of the year, with between 60 and 120 visible meteors per hour. The waxing crescent Moon will set just after sunset, leaving perfect viewing conditions for this shower, which many consider the best of the year.

• Dec. 21: Winter Solstice at 9:48 p.m. The Earth is at one of its two yearly extremes with regard to the angle with which the poles face the Sun. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted at its maximum away from the Sun, causing what we experience as the shortest day and longest night of the year.

• Dec. 22: Ursid Meteor Shower. This usually small shower periodically undergoes a dramatic increase, from its usual five to 10 meteors per hour to move than 100 meteors per hour. The nearly full Moon will wash out much of this shower.

• Dec. 25: Full Christmas Moon at 4:11 a.m. Notice that this full moon passes directly overhead toward midnight, much higher in the sky than the sun was at noon yesterday.

The underlying reasons for this are somewhat complex — at the Winter Solstice our position on the Earth is leaning its furthest away from the Sun, so the Sun will be at its lowest in the sky at noon. But when we rotate around to midnight (where we’re facing directly away from the Sun) the Moon will be high in the sky, since our position on Earth is aimed more directly at it.

15

On the walls ...

Dale O’Dell at The Raven Café

Abstract artwork by Dale O’Dell is on display through the rest of 2015 at The Raven, 142 N. Cortez St., 928-717-0009. O’Dell’s new book, “Ephemera,” is available in limited numbers direct from him. See more of his artwork at DalePhoto.Com. *****

All artwork by Dale O’Dell.

Clockwise, from left: “Flame 7,” “Flame 26,” “Flame 31,” and “Smoke “69.”

Courtesy images.

16 • FEATURE • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

All artwork by Dale O’Dell.

Clockwise, from left: “Smoke 36,” “Laser 25,” and “Laser 29.”

Courtesy images.

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17

Diagnosis: Technology

By Paolo Chlebecek Hate giving Micro$oft and Apple more and more money? Did you know that there are free alternatives to their expensive Windows and Macintosh operating systems? Yes, really, free. It’s called Linux, pronounced LIN-əks or LIN-ooks.

(After this article, I think Micro-

Smooth operators

It’s time to 86 your corporate masters soft and Apple are going to hate me, or at least not return my calls. Not that they ever did much before now.)

If you haven’t heard of Linux, you’re not alone. Even though it’s been around for nearly 25 years, various companies estimate that the desktop or average user market share of Linux range from less than 1 percent to 5 percent. By comparison, Microsoft holds more than 85 percent of all computers in the world.

However, servers — which are larger, more heavy duty systems designed to manage everything from internet access and programs to your gas bill — have seen a huge surge in demand of Linux, accounting for almost 50 percent of new installations. Linux variants also run close to the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world.

That New Gallery Artists Cooperative

A gift buying destination Sculpture | Paintings | Pottery | Jewelry Photography | Classes and more!

December Guest Artists Melanie Banayat– Painter, Author Cindi & Jo Shaffer– Glass Artist

First Anniversary Celebration & Artist Reception December 4th, 5 to 8 p.m.

Music & Refreshments Inside the Gateway Mall ~ near Dillard’s

928-445-0788 www.thatnewgallery.com

18 • COLUMN • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Some people think that this computer environment is only for serious technology gurus, aka geeks, nerds, and hackers. But that’s no longer the case. In fact, the Mac Operating System (or OS X) uses UNIX at its underlying core — and UNIX is the father of most Linux-based systems. The speed, simplicity, and reliability of this type of software is legendary. Oh, and one other tiny thing: Because of how it’s made, these systems are largely impervious to all sorts of viruses, spyware, and other kinds of malware. Intrigued? Read on …

To

simplify the Linux varieties of software, we need to review how operating systems work. Basically all operating systems are a big program that you can interact with to perform tasks. If you just want to use email, browse the Internet, write some letters or documents, and view photos, Linux is a great choice. It’s a simple environment that’s easy to use and get used to. In fact, it can be configured to look and act so similar to a standard Windows PC that you’d be hard pressed to find a difference — except that it doesn’t crash or breakdown like Windows.

There are many types of Linux systems out there. Some are just for tools to repair Windows computers. Others are for work. Popular user versions or distributions (or “distros”) include Debian, SUSE, GNOME, Fedora, Mint, Mandriva, and Ubuntu. There are many more, but those are the most mature and popular versions that are freely available for download.

My favorites are Fedora and Mint.

Usually these operating systems are small and fast enough that you can download a “Live-CD” and run

it from a disk or USB flash drive on any computer without changing what’s there. Personally, I think that’s amazing and quite handy.

Once properly set up, you can bring your whole computer environment and files with you on a USB drive wherever you go.

Android, which runs many smart phones, like Samsung’s ever-popular Galaxy phones, has a variant of Linux at its heart. Tablet computers, video game consoles, mainframes, and even supercomputers run a form of Linux, too.

For

all of the pluses of Linuxbased operating systems, there are a few drawbacks.

If you install it on a desktop that originally had a Windows or Mac operating system and something goes awry, you have to defer to the Internet or a local geek to help. Unlike special hardware or off-the-shelf software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, there’s no official help for Linux users. But if you have Linux, you probably don’t need it because you can get free compatible replacements that usually work on Windows computers, too.

It’s hard to complain about Linux, but it may not be for everyone. Like Macs, Linux-based systems suffer from the same lack of global acceptance. But it’s sure nice not to have to worry about all the potential bad software out there facing Windows-based computers.

In sum, say goodbye to OS X and Windows.

Say hello to Linux. ***** 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.

Overheard in Prescott A tasteless collection of guerrilla quotes & quips

Look at you.

You‛ve worked hard your whole life and it just screwed you in the end.

It‛s hard to believe that the ‛90s were more than 40 years ago.

Catered by James Dungeon I hear things. Yeah, that’s right. I hear things.

Here are some of the things that I heard. ...

‘Cause I‛m 49 and that‛s how I roll.

I'm not falling for that Jesus thing again.

Please don't buy that doll.

Please.

She'll kill us all!

This is my second-best trip to a grocery store ever.

Well, these pants don‛t fit.

Can I get a discount?

I like it a lot. I‛d move to Prescott in a second if it weren‛t for my parents. ...

They live in Prescott.

***** James Dungeon is a figment of his own imagination. And he likes cats.

Contact him at JamesDungeonCats@Gmail.Com.

5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • FEATURE • 19

Listen up, people How something invisible spawned goofy furniture

By Jacy Lee There are so many things in our day-to-day life that we totally take for granted.

We flick a switch, and lights go on. We turn a tap, and water comes out.

We hit a button, and we hear radio.

Whether it’s in your car or home, radio is pretty much taken for granted. But not even 100 years ago — more like 90 or so — radio didn’t exist. The reproduction of voice through Edison or Victrola machines had been around for a few decades, but the transmission of voice through thin air was a modern miracle.

Instead

of boring you with the historical details of such radio pioneers as Maxwell, Hertz, or Marconi, let’s jump to the 20th century. Early in the 20th century, wireless was reserved for nautical, military, and school use. There were radios in the hands of private people but no

commercial radio stations. In 1920, KDKA, Pittsburgh, went on the air, just in time to cover the election of Warren Harding. This spurred an explosion of popularity in home radios.

The Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919, was one of the first large companies to manufacture home radios. Their popular line of Radiola was the rage in the ’20s.

These were table-top models, long, low and boxy, and made of wood.

They were quite heavy for their size, with vacuum sealed tubes embedded in a steel chassis. Some had speakers built in, but some needed separate speakers which resembled large microphones. Prices could range from $100 to $350 — a lot of money back then. A competitor of RCA, Fada advertised their new One-Sixty line for $120. It didn’t include tubes, phones or batteries. By the way, batteries made a mess, had to be charged or replaced, and made an already heavy apparatus even heavier.

Home

radio sales really exploded after 1927. That was when radios were able to run on electricity. Now came beauty and style in housing these radios. In the 1930s Atwater-Kent was in the lead there. Tabletop models, now available for $30 to $50, were fancy walnut veneers with curved tops and delicate filigree over the cloth speaker covers. The curved top

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20 • COLUMN • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

1941 RCA Victor radio ad. Image via Joe Haupt, Creative Commons 2.0. models were referred to as “cathedrals,” whereas the sharp angled, often tiered top cases were known as “tombstones.”

The floor model became quite popular in the 1930s. This was an artistic piece of furniture. Most sat on four or six legs about half a foot to a foot above the ground and were done in various shaded veneers, filigree, and fancy diecast metal around the bands and knobs. By the late ’30s, some cases went all the way to the floor and had a very definite deco style. By this time companies like Crosley priced their floor models in the range of $60 to $100. Many of these 1930s and ‘40s radios are available in antique shops today, some in restored working order and some in original working order.

The

1940s and ’50s saw the introduction of plastic and bright colors to table-top radios. Overall, radios were downsized, but not compared to the transistor age which was about to dawn on the radio world.

Nevertheless, some very important events of the ’30s and ’40s were aired on these vintage radios. FDR’s “Fireside Chats” are iconic of this era. The Hindenburg disaster was covered live at the site where it occurred. But, the freakiest event of all was the 1938 reaction to Orson Welles’ dramatization of the “War of the Worlds.” So with that in mind, “listen up, people,” but take it with a grain of salt. ***** 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.

You read me?

Word games for observant logophiles

By Jacy Lee [Editor’s note: These are word puzzles. Read the stories then follow the directions after them.]

Gardening My gateway to adventure started with some heroic attributes. I always do good, but I live on the cusp. I’d error in family matters, but nothing to really malign us.

Then one day my brother Roger told me that to use all my potential, I should start gardening. I saw some seeds that I just had to get. I germinated them using water and a full ion system. Soon I saw one little leaf. Roger said it looked like a beet.

Leave it to Roger to bring up beets, which I abhor. See, I was forced to eat them when I was young.

I just threw everything away and went to the farmer’s market.

Try to find the names of 11 different animals/bugs/ amphibians/birds in the story above.

[Hint: Read between the words.]

The Hotel I went to a fancy hotel out of town.

I walked up to the desk clerk and noticed on her chin a scar. I wondered how an ex-con got this sweet job.

From the back room, the manger man yelled. He knows we dented his car when we parked. I feel his pain, but just then William Holden walks into the lobby. Holden marks his spot for tonight’s dinner and states, “The last time I was here, a guy looking like a ninja pan-fried my fish. I want that again. And where’s where’s a garbage pail?” “Over there,” says the desk girl who is getting cold from the door being open so many times.

She grabs an afghan and wraps it around her. Holden walks up to the trash and kicks the pail and gives the can a damn dent the size of his foot. He turns around and in a southern accent says, “If you think I’m glib, ya’ll don’t know what’s goin’ on around here and could use a good slappin’.” I left.

Try to find the names of 11 different countries in the story above.

[Hint: Read between words.]

[Extra Hint: One country is initialed.] ***** 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.

William Holden. Fair use.

5ENSESMAG.COM • DECEMBER 2015 • FEATURE • 21

John

Henry Anderson was born in 1814 in Scotland. He was orphaned by 10 and apprenticed with a blacksmith until he was 17, when he joined a traveling entertainment group and became a magician.

Being a bit of a marketing genius, his promotional techniques filled public houses so successfully that he eventually built the Glasgow City Theater in 1845. Sadly, it burned down five months after completion. The fiduciary loss for Anderson was considerable.

Though the first magician to take the craft from the street and parlor and elevate it to the realm of theater, Anderson suffered from many financial woes. He was once taken to court and sued over the illegal purchase of trade tools and illusions from the prop mechanic of none-other than the well known performer Robert Houdin. (Houdin was the magician whom Harry Houdini took his stage name.)

Anderson died in 1874 broke and desperate and was buried next to his mother in Aberdeen. Born that same year was the world renowned and future escape artist Harry Houdini. In 1909, Houdini visited Anderson’s grave site and was alarmed by its state of disrepair.

Houdini immediately had the headstone restored and endowed a trust to perpetually keep the grave maintained.

Not-asholy days There

are plenty of reasons for the season in Arizona’s ReligionSpecific-Holiday City. Still, there’s no reason to limit yourself to city-sanctified festivities.

Consider celebrating ...

Dec. 4: Wear Brown Shoes Day • Doff the black; don the brown.

Dec. 5: Repeal Day • Repeat Day.

Dec. 7: Cotton Candy Day • Find some fairy floss(ine sugar).

Dec. 13: Violin Day • The other String Theory.

Dec. 14: Bouillabaisse Day • A fishy proposition.

Dec. 19: Oatmeal Muffin Day • An exercise in bran(d)ing.

Dec. 23: Festivus • A holiday for the rest of us.

Dec. 28: Card Playing Day • Does Lemmy get royalties?

Dec. 30: Bicarbonate of Soda Day • Enjoy baking soda.

Dec. 31: Make Up Your Mind Day • You had all year.

It’s

common knowledge that the moon has an effect on our tides. The Greek, Seleucus of Seleucia, as early as 150 BC, theorized that tides were caused by the moon. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726), however, gets credit for explaining the impact of gravitational forces and those influences on our oceans. In modern times, the moon has been “touched” by the hand of mankind many times. Over the decades, the USSR and the USA have plopped items on the lunar surface. Interestingly, so has China, Japan, India, and the European Space Agency.

ODDLY ENOUGH … By current calculations, the moon now has over 396,500 lbs of foreign matter, or Earthmade junk, deposited on its surface. ***** Russell Miller is an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, bagpiper, motorcycle enthusiast, and reference librarian. Currently, he illustrates books for Cody Lundin and Bart King.

Bellydance Classes with of New Moon Tribal Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced classes held at Lotus Bloom Yoga Studio

www.ustadzaazra.com

22 • FEATURES • DECEMBER 2015 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

ODDLY ENOUGH ... Anderson is also credited with being the first man to pull a live white rabbit from a black top hat. *****

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