20190919 100237

September

19-25,

2019

State of mind

HealtH guide 2019 See Health Guide, inside

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EmAil lEttErS to rENolEttErS@NEWSrEViEW.Com.

Strange weekend Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I had a very strange, emotionally confusing weekend.

Friday evening, Margot and I dropped the kids off at Grandma’s and then headed up the hill to Lake Tahoe to attend my friends Ryan and Emily’s wedding at the lodge at the top of Heavenly resort. It was a beautiful wedding at a beautiful venue, with a fantastic view overlooking Stateline and the lake.

It was a great opportunity to see old friends, drink champagne, and cut some rugs.

Then, Saturday, Sept.

14, was my stepdaughter Josephine’s 13th birthday. So we threw her a little shindig, had a few of her friends over. My biggest contribution to the party was that I put together a little scavenger hunt, so the girls were running all over our yard, solving rhymed clues and finding random objects. (Sample clue: “Although not as round as a small moon,/This sphere still floats.

See y’all soon!”)

They had a lot of fun, although Josephine, always the critic, complained that the clues didn’t provide much hint to where the objects were hidden. (Everything was in our yard, which is not very big.)

And then, Sunday, of course, was the memorial for Dennis Myers, our news editor who passed away unexpectedly last month. It was a lovely, albeit exhausting, experience. There was a pretty amazing turnout, and we heard a lot of great speeches from local dignitaries like Frankie Sue Del Papa and Howard Rosenberg. It was nice to get to meet some of Dennis’ friends and family, and I appreciated getting to talk to some regular readers.

Now, I’m looking forward to the next couple of big events: Off Beat Music Festival, Oct. 3-5, and then the mother of all clambakes: the RN&R Best of Northern Nevada party on Oct. 17. If you won first place for something in this year’s BONN contest, and you haven’t heard from anyone on our staff yet, please reach out to our office manager, Lisa Ryan, at lisar@newsreview.com and include the subject line “BONN 2019.” You don’t want to miss it.

(And, in case you haven’t figure it out: a balloon.)

—Brad Bynum bradb@ ne ws r ev i ew . com

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Once bitten So after 20-plus years of eating at Western Village of Sparks restaurants, my wife and I, both 73 year old senior citizens, have been banned for life from eating there by the general manager of Western Village and the maître d’ of the steak house. We complained several times on the comment cards about the rising cost of eating there—preventing senior citizens, who are on fixed incomes, from enjoying the various restaurants. For this, we were booted out. Seems that the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech, pertains only to positive remarks on their comment cards at this establishment.

George Gromadski Sparks

Fighting machines We are in a monumental economic transition that will phase out thousands of jobs in the U.S. within a decade. It’s not a scary Hollywood sci-fi film or an HG Wells plot; it’s a real and imminent reality that artificial intelligence and automation will replace workers in many divisions of the job market.

This is something that is already happening. Truckers and other transportation industry workers are being threatened with the introduction of self-driving vehicles. Retail workers are being supplanted with automated kiosks. Robotic processes can automate repetitive computer tasks like data entry and web research, in hundreds of industries. If you look at how far technology rapidly grew within the last decade and extrapolate that into a projection of the next, the job landscape looks extremely bleak.

The worst part of it? No presidential candidate for the 2020 election is talking about these issues. No one, other than Andrew Yang. An entrepreneur and founder of Venture for America—a nonprofit that focuses on creating jobs in struggling American cities— he is the only candidate that is dialed in on the issue of automation and artificial intelligence, with solutions for our country as this fourth industrial revolution moves forward.

South, Luka Starmer, Kris Vagner, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young

Our Mission: To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare.

To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

Editor Brad Bynum Associate Editor Jeri Davis Special Projects Editor Matt Bieker Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Contributors Amy Alkon, Mark Earnest, Bob Grimm, Oliver Guinan, Andrea Heerdt, Holly Hutchings, Shelia Leslie, Eric Marks, Kelsey Penrose, Jessica Santina, Todd

Creative Services Manager Elisabeth Bayard Arthur Art Directors Maria Ratinova, Sarah Hansel Publications Art Director Serene Lusano Publications Designer Katelynn Mitrano Publications & Advertising Designer Nikki Exerjian Ad Designers Naisi Thomas, Cathy Arnold Office Manager Lisa Ryan RN&R Rainmaker Gina Odegard Advertising Consultant Caleb Furlong

SeptembeR 19, 2019 | Vol. 25, ISSue 32

If you care less about the reality TV show that is politics and more about your community and the economic prison that the U.S. economy could be in if these issues aren’t addressed, I urge you to Google “Andrew Yang” and together we can move forward.

Amanda Vivilacqua Susanville, California

Own up Re “Floating ideas” (Notes from the Neon Babylon, Sept. 19): I have been diligently looking for and not finding any mention that President Trump’s administration adopted socialism when he commanded companies to move out of China and returned to the United States. By what political theory other than socialism does the government have a right to tell “free enterprise companies” where they are to locate their business operations? So before the Republican party accuses Democrats of being socialists, it has an obligation to acknowledge that the Trump Administration has adopted socialism.

Donald Schreiber Incline Village

Not making it Learning that China provides 70-plus-percent of the ingredients to make our pharmaceuticals gives one pause to pucker. Gee, that means the “industry” now gets to spend even more $$$ on advertising and increase prices. I must admit I do love hearing about the contraindications, though, God help me.

Dark humor at its best! Crap, we can’t even make antibiotics anymore without Chinese imports. Way to go-predatory capitalism! Yay. More tariffs anyone?

Craig Bergland Reno

Learn something Re “Slow your roll” (Editorial, Sept. 12): Continuing education is of paramount importance in every aspect of our lives, and Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Manager Bob Christensen Distribution Drivers Alex Barskyy, Corey Sigafoos, Gary White, Joe Wilson, Marty Troye, Timothy Fisher, Vicki Jewell, Olga Barska, Rosie Martinez, Adam Martinez, Duane Johnson President/CEO Jeff VonKaenel Director of Nuts & Bolts Deborah Redmond Director of People & Culture David Stogner Director of Dollars & Sense Debbie Mantoan Nuts & Bolts Ninja Norma Huerta Payroll/AP Wizard Miranda Hansen Account Jedi Jessica Kislanka Sweetdeals Coordinator Trish Marche Developer John Bisignano

System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins N&R Publications Editor Debbie Arrington N&R Publications Associate Editors Derek McDow, Thea Rood N&R Publications Editorial Team Anne Stokes, Nisa Smith Marketing & Publications Lead Consultant Elizabeth Morabito Marketing & Publications Consultants Steve Caruso, Joseph Engle, Sherri Heller, Celeste Worden, Rod Maloy Cover design Serene Lusano

anyone who is not learning every day is sliding backwards. For the vast majority of drivers, and riders, the last opportunity for even a minimal level of formal training coincided with their original licensing, and it is simply inconceivable that operators are permitted to continue to operate potentially lethal vehicles for a lifetime with absolutely no further training. Vehicle safety systems improve continuously, but ultimate responsibility falls to the operator, and I agree passing a written test should be the minimum for continuing to enjoy privilege of driving. And while I have the attention of thoughtful parents with newly licensed youngsters, in October, Reno SCCA will be holding “Street Survival,” a training opportunity for new drivers to learn vehicle handling and performance, under the direction of experienced instructors and in-car coaches.

Google is your friend.

Steve Waclo Carson City

ContentS

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By matt bieker

Strangest thing you’ve seen in the sky? asked aT THe space WHale, ciTy plaza, 10 n. virGinia sT.

Tricia Mason Apartment manager

I remember after Mt. St. Helen’s blew, we saw a lot of odd lights that same night. We were camping in Eastern Washington, and my whole family witnessed it. We never found out what they were.

aManda He avener Certified Nursing Assistant

My ex-husband swears that there’s UFOs because one day we were out on my mother-in-law’s porch, and he was like, “Do you not see that up in the sky?” And it was actually one of the lights from a furniture store that was promoting something. He was like, “They’re coming for us!”

GaGe ManninG Construction worker

No diagnosis needed Elsewhere in this week’s edition of the RN&R, we have problem in order to see a therapist—therefore only “crazy” our annual Health Guide supplement. In previous years, people see therapists. we’ve focused on women’s health and end-of-life issues, Secondly, because therapists, like other medical profesamong other areas. This year, the focus is on mental health. sionals, are increasingly specialized, it means that a patient Corruption is endemic to the health care industry, seeking mental health assistance must self-diagnose before which profits from other people’s suffering. And reform is even trying out a potential therapist. And there’s no mental needed throughout the health care and the health care health problem that can’t be made worse with a few insurance industries. hours of scrolling through WebMD. But there is a special set of problems And mental-health problems are for mental health care insurers—which especially acute here in Nevada, a state Patients are in desperate need of reform. The with very little public funding for health should have the 2008 federal Mental Health Parity and care of any kind—and with easy access opportunity to see Addiction Equity Act requires parity for to things, like gambling, alcohol and mental health alongside physical health prostitution, that can exacerbate mental a therapist at least in health plans, and was strengthened in health problems. This is a state whose a few times a 2010 with the passage of the Affordable most famous solution to addressing year.

Care Act. Despite these laws, mental health mental health problems, as first reported by care is not treated with the same priority as the Sacramento Bee back in 2013, was to put physical health by insurance companies. patients on buses and send them to other states In May, a federal judge ruled against UnitedHealth with (hopefully) better facilities.

Group’s approach to mental health care coverage. The One of our sources for the health guide suggested a judge ruled that the insurer’s policies were discriminatory solution to the problem: “Get rid of the syndrome-based and profit-driven to the point of damaging coverage. reimbursement system.” Patients should have the opporPart of the problem is that, United, like many health care tunity to see a therapist at least a few times a year, pay a insurers will only cover costs for treatments considered modest copay, and get a little help, clarity and guidance medically necessary. This requires clinicians to submit without first receiving a diagnosis. a diagnosis for a client in order to bill the insurance This might led to better management of some of company, which creates several problems. their personal issues, so they don’t ever become fully Number one, it increases the stigmatization of mental diagnosable problems. Think of it as the mental health care health care. You must have a diagnosable mental health equivalent of preventative care. Ω

Two nights ago, I was sitting over there by the Sands casino, waiting on my fiancée. I looked up at the sky. I sat there for about 30 seconds, and then out of nowhere I see a bright light shoot really fast.

I thought it was a shooting star, but there was no trail or anything.

Brooke concialdi Teaching assistant

There’s been a couple times, but then usually the next day on the news it’s debunked by scientists.

So I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, that’s crazy.” And then the next day it’s like, “Oh it was this weird phenomenon that we totally figured out.” I think it was like a meteor shower thing that I saw.

Miles vinson Customer service representative

When I first moved here, I saw a bundle of blow up sex dolls floating through the sky. It was like, “Huh, nice welcome party.” That was about a year ago. They were probably filled with helium, just floating on by through the air. I would say there were about three.

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by SHEILA LESLIE

Party line I wince every time I hear people compare the Trump administration to Nazi Germany.

It seems far too extreme to liken the people in our government to the evil architects of the Holocaust. And yet, I understand what people see in the immoral and corrupt actions of Trump and his henchmen and women—white supremacy, a dictator-like insistence on proclaiming lies as truth, concentration camps full of undocumented children separated from their parents, and the silence of complicit elected officials who are too scared of primary voters to say the emperor has no clothes.

Occasionally, an elected Republican somewhere in the nation will announce they’ve reached a breaking point and denounce Trump, usually when the person is going to retire from office or, more rarely and bravely, switch parties or become an independent voter. But I can’t think of one Nevada Republican official this year who has condemned Trump’s racism or misogyny, nor has anyone actively and publicly criticized the

president at all. Instead, like lemmings, they seem ready to follow the president off the cliff rather than face the wrath of his followers.

Nationally, the late Senator John McCain is one prominent Republican who refused to vote for Trump and then continued to resist many of his worst impulses despite the president’s continuous vile tweets denigrating McCain’s public service. Even as he lay dying of brain cancer, McCain kept his composure and his dignity. I like to think that our own Senator Bill Raggio, a Washoe County Republican who served nearly 40 years in the state legislature, would have done the same had he lived to endure the Trump era.

After all, Raggio had a history of rebuking his party’s leadership. He did it in 2009 when scandal-ridden Republican Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed a record 41 bills passed by the Legislature. Raggio allowed 25 of the vetoes to be overridden, including a tax increase. When the Tea Party attempted to recall him, furious over

what they saw as a betrayal in his acquiescence to a tax hike, Raggio defended his actions to fund essential services saying, “You have to do what is right for the state and not play party politics, or in this case, divisive politics.”

Raggio retired just before the 2011 session as the Tea Party and its anti-everything philosophy ascended in Republican politics, but he was honored by many as a statesman who put the constituents he served above the political objectives of his party. Don’t misunderstand. Raggio was a fierce partisan and a brilliant negotiator, someone who could see three steps ahead on the legislative chessboard. But while he was a strong advocate for big business and the upper classes, he deeply understood the social contract government must have with those disadvantaged by life circumstances.

Raggio’s unforgiveable sin that forced his retirement was his decision to deny his support to Tea Party darling Sharron Angle when she ran against Harry Reid

for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat. Raggio was called a RINO and much worse by party-first Republicans, including some of his own caucus members who had no qualms about throwing away his consummate political skills and decades of public service to appease Republican extremists.

When Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, a Democrat, named the private Senate conference room after Raggio, there were few Republican legislators who bothered to show up for the dedication.

Raggio was moved by the honor and tried to lighten the atmosphere by joking about his ostracism, but he was obviously wounded by their disrespect.

Nevada’s Republican leaders have only grown more obsequious in their allegiance to party extremism since that time, recently canceling the Republican caucus for President to spare Trump’s ego from a competitor’s criticism. It’s clear there are no Bill Raggios left in Nevada’s Republican party. Ω

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By BoB Conrad

During discussions last year, councilmember Naomi Duerr expressed concern over the Daybreak development’s possible impact on the floodplain in which it would be built.

city harassment case The Reno City Council is scheduled to vote Sept. 23 on a $300,000 settlement for two women who accused the city of sexual harassment, retaliation and a hostile work environment.

The long-running case involves two senior managers at the city who made the claims against former City Manager Andrew Clinger. A federal judge tossed most of their complaints, but she allowed the suit to proceed based on a sexually hostile work environment claim.

“As reasonable jury could find that the work environment was subjectively and objectively abusive, based on sex, considering the totality of the circumstances,” wrote Judge Mirandu Du. The plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Mausert, said in July that he would be taking the matter to trial. The settlement, if approved, could end the case.

The lawsuit showed the upper management at City Hall, under Clinger’s leadership, to have been rife with dysfunction.

The mayor and councilmembers, however, praised the plaintiffs for speaking out. Councilmember Naomi Duerr was critical of City Attorney Karl Hall’s handling of the case.

“I think we owe them a great debt of gratitude for revealing to us the makeup of our city, the fact that we did not have good procedures in place,” she said early in the case. “I want the settlement, if we ever get there, to be about improving this place and restoring the honor of our employees.”

school district it woes Washoe County School District’s IT security is overseen with a staff of three. Despite that, it is in the top 12 percent of districts in the nation that actually devotes considerable efforts to monitoring its online and network security.

But recent data concerns have impacted the district. It was announced in July that a data breach by a vendor impacted more than 100,000 students between 2001 and 2016. In September, charter school Coral Academy sent text messages to other WCSD parents, which the district said was a violation of federal law.

“This was caused by a programming error in the process we use to provide data to Coral Academy’s parent/guardian communication tool, SchoolMessenger,” a district email to parents announced. “Unfortunately, additional data was provided to SchoolMessenger, including some directory information as well as student ID and gender for WCSD students. We are notifying you of this error because the distribution of this information to someone other than the student (age 18 or over) or the parents without your written consent constitutes a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”

That note was sent the same day the school board of trustees approved an updated audit of the district’s IT security. Between 2016 and now, only a handful of recommendations have been implemented to improve the district’s IT security.

The reason: WCSD officials said it has no money to make the necessary improvements. The audit also showed that the district conducted a scan for vulnerabilities and found 14 issues in March of this year.

“Further funding is required to secure a regular frequency of vulnerability scanning,” the audit said.

—BoB Conrad

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PHOTO/BOB CONRAD

Daybreak developers dangle big carrot Will the city council bite? the developers behind a massive south Reno development have given the City of Reno an ultimatum: approve their project, or they will proceed with other residential developments that do not include affordable housing and mitigation efforts offered by the Daybreak development.

Mitigation, should Daybreak get approved, includes more floodwater storage, more open space, traffic improvements and cash donations for city-wide affordable housing efforts.

That’s according to the developer, the California-based Newport Pacific Land Company, which sued the City of Reno after the mayor and city council denied the project last year.

Newport Pacific purchased the 1,000-plus-acre Butler Ranch in 2017.

It subsequently applied to the city to build a community on the property.

The project, which proposes 4,700 residences, was approved in 2018 by the Reno Planning Commission.

Months later, the city council gave it a thumbs down.

Primary concerns were flooding and traffic. The project is in a floodplain, like many of Reno’s developments and tends to be under water during major floods.

“My concern is that this status-quo situation is not going to be addressed,” Councilmember Naomi Duerr said last year. “And I understand that the

applicants have an ability to protect their homeowners that would move in.

My concern is … what is the impact on this entire floodplain? Uncertainty is probably where I’m at.”

Process questioned The developers sued the city after Daybreak was denied. That temporarily kicked the council out of the process as the city attorney’s office initially sought to dismiss the lawsuit. It then engaged in closed-door negotiations with the developer as part of a settlement process.

A judge’s order came later. It directed the council to consider rehearing the development to avoid further litigation.

Few knew what occurred in those discussions. Councilmembers raised concerns about the closed-door discussions.

“I was shocked—I did not know the stipulation was coming,” Councilmember Jenny Brekhus said.

“There is precedent for settlements being baked behind closed doors.”

City Attorney Karl Hall disagreed.

He called the process transparent.

“In every case we have, we typically engage in settlement negotiations, and this case is no different,” he said.

“What is different, in this case, is we have a transparent public process where council, the public and the developer

are able to participate in an open settlement conference to determine if that’s a proper path going forward for our city.”

The City Council was given a choice: reconsider the project as modified on Sept.

23, or it proceeds into costly and timeconsuming litigation.

The council cannot place new conditions on Daybreak.

for us to do a better job of clarifying the technical elements and correct the public misconceptions.”

He proceeded to note that, in lieu of Daybreak, the Butler Ranch North Development could proceed now. That would allow for more than 1,500 homes in a floodplain with less flood mitigation than Daybreak’s.

Daybreak, he said, “significantly lessens development that modifies the floodplain The “missing middle” more than the approved Butler Ranch North A coordinated PR push this past spring [development].” had the community repeatedly hit with the Daybreak’s attorney, Michael Burke, term “missing middle.” News stories and previously described the situation like this: editorials were advocating for an increase in “Portions of the Daybreak development missing-middle housing—including developare already master planned, zoned, and entiments like Daybreak. tled for residential development. The Butler The term generally refers to a type of North (planned unit development) would housing lacking in the local market—resiallow Daybreak to construct and develop dences like townhomes and duplexes that more than 900 homes in the floodplain. are affordable for the working poor, such as Because the PUD has already been approved households with incomes between $20,000 (with even less flood mitigation), Daybreak to $60,000 a year. could begin construction on these homes In 2016, the Truckee Meadows at any time.”

Regional Planning Agency Don Tatro of The Builders released a study showing that Association of Northern “There is “we lack certain housing Nevada supported the projtypes, known as ‘Missing precedent for ect’s approval.

Middle’ housing.” TMRPA “All the things we’ve settlements being also said the location of been asking for, I think baked behind closed developments was critical. this project represents,” he Outside of the McCarran doors.” said. “With the engineering loop presents challenges advances, with the concesJenny Brekhus for developers. sions made by the developer, Reno City Council According to the report, I think this is a great project.”

“It is possible these areas may He also had words for those not develop to their full potential opposing such projects. due to … infrastructure deficiencies, “I understand everyone wants to be as development may be delayed until these the last one on the block,” he explained. services are addressed.”

“Everyone wants to be the last home built— TMRPA presented what it called the but the reality is, that doesn’t work.”

“McCarran Scenario,” whereby development He called Daybreak a tremendous asset to could be concentrated within the McCarran the area, a region in desperate need of housring. More “high-density, single-family, ing, mainly housing people can afford. low-density, multi-family” housing would be Residents are furious, however, with created within this scenario. the prospect of Daybreak getting built.

“The Truckee Meadows region needs Councilmember Oscar Delgado cited already a wider variety of housing types to meet grievous traffic problems in south Reno. anticipated demographic shifts and affordEmergency services were also questioned. able housing needs,” the report concluded.

The Reno Firefighters Association said the “Like most metropolitan areas, the region project would require new resources. does not have enough housing affordable to Other councilmembers expressed moderate and lower-income households.” concern.

Daybreak appeared mostly consis“To make sure our new residents have tent with TMRPA’s “missing-middle” police, fire, flood protection, education, all recommendations. the things that they need is our job,” Duerr The developer in early September said said. “We’ve been taken to court, in part that revisiting Daybreak’s approval allowed saying we’ve exacted things. Making sure for even more conversation about the developments are done well is part of project’s impacts and what may be done our job.” about them.

The council narrowly approved the proj“It’s an opportunity to reduce the ect’s reconsideration for Sept. 23. This time important concerns about flood water and council members will vote on it with new mercury mitigation,” said Andy Derling of conditions—conditions that were negotiated Wood Rodgers, the project’s engineering without their knowledge. Ω and planning consultant. “It’s an opportunity

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tahoe

by Mark EarnEst

Photographer Jon Paul with one of the large-scale prints he recently produced.

Extra large Jon Paul Look at any of Tahoe photographer Jon Paul’s work, and you definitely get a sense of the scope of the area’s beauty.

It’s an impression that’s hard to miss, as Paul mostly shoots large-format film for panoramic views.

“I make small prints available, but I’m known for really producing prints that measure in feet as opposed to inches,” Paul said. “Six-or-seven-or-eight-foot images are not pushing the limits for me.”

Plus, this capturing of Tahoe’s landscapes is done with an analog camera. Paul said only about two percent of the shots he takes are with a digital camera.

“I think that’s the unique thing about my work that people react to,” he said. “I think it changes the way I shoot. We might set up for a sunset shot, and one of my friends is shooting digital and might take 500 to 1,000 frames. But, it’s likely that I’m only going to take one exposure. I’m trying to really master the craft and really [trying] to capture that sort of decisive moment.”

Paul is also a stickler for print quality and said the large-format film is what can truly capture the XXL-sized prints he does.

“I do have a professional digital camera, and I use it to photographs things I can’t capture with film, like images of the Milky Way at night, or wildlife pictures,” he said.

Paul has been a full-time photographer for 20 years. He chose scenic photos as his primary work for good reason.

“For quite a while, I was an outdoors person: a triathlete and rock climber and fly fisherman and all of that,” Paul said. “So, I was just seeing lots of beautiful, amazing things all the time.”

Paul started out on the lowest budget possible, buying a $100 camera at a local

COURTESY/JON PAUL

pawn shop. He said when he changed the aperture on his first camera’s lens, it was like grinding pepper in a mill.

By the time the turn of the century happened, Paul had purchased better equipment and then decided that large prints were the way to go. For 14 years, he had his own gallery in South Lake Tahoe. When he closed it in 2015, he started displaying his work at Marcus Ashley Gallery, which is hosting his summer show on Sept. 27 and 28.

The Sept. 27 reception day is set to go until 5 p.m., but there’s a twist afterward.

Paul said he and those in attendance will go on a shuttle and scout out a location for a photo shoot together.

“We’ll probably only have time for one location, so I’m going to pick that relative to where the fall colors have started,” Paul said. “So, we’ll try to be somewhere that has easy access. I don’t want to make anyone hike. The idea is just to go out and look at a beautiful location and hopefully take a picture while we’re out there, and share how I see things.”

Paul’s work does a great job of invoking a “you are there” feeling about Tahoe, but he said the reasons he shoots outdoors go beyond just capturing a pretty scene.

“When I’m there, there’s a range of emotions that I have,” Paul said.

“Whether I’m feeling relaxed or peaceful or excited, natural beauty and natural places seem to bring that out in me. So my photography is sort of a way to focus in on that beauty that makes me feel that way, those magic moments where the light is just right, and you sort of forget about everything else. This is my way of sharing that with other people.” Ω

Jon Paul’s Summer Show takes place from noon to about 7 p.m. Sept. 27 and noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 28 at Marcus Ashley Gallery, 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Suite 23, South Lake Tahoe, Calif. See more of his work at jonpaulgallery.com.

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join our team rn&r is Hiring a Distribution Driver For more inFormation and to apply, go to www.newsreview.com/reno/jobs Chico Community Publishing, dba the Reno News & Review, is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Space Let’S See

invaderSS invader

them aLienS

►by Matt Bieker m attb@news re view.c om

Before Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing, before the grassy knoll, before “Bush did 9/11,” there was Area 51. Perhaps the clearest indicator among believers that the U.S. military is hiding evidence of alien visitation, the top-secret Air Force base in the Nevada desert has been a subject of fascination and skepticism alike for decades.

In June, Matty Roberts, a college student from Bakersfield, created the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” event on Facebook with the intended goal to “see them aliens.”

He later said it was a joke, but the event took off, and more than 2 million Facebook users responded as “going,” prompting the Air Force to issue a formal warning to anyone seriously considering attempting to cross the

▲Matty roberts talks on a Las Vegas tV station about “Storm area 51.”

hard border of Area 51, where signs authorizing “use of deadly force” have hung for years.

“As a matter of practice, we do not discuss specific security measures, but any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas

is dangerous,” Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews told ABC News in July.

The base itself is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range in Lincoln County, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. People referring to “Area 51” often colloquially include the Groom Lake facility, a dry lakebed used as an airfield for experimental aircraft, the officially sanctioned Homey Airport, and an even more secretive site called S-4. (More on that later.)

In 2005, Jeffrey Richelson, a senior researcher at George Washington University, filed a Freedom of Information Act request about the CIA’s U-2 spy plane program and the SR-71 “Blackbird,” which were developed at Groom Lake. Eight years later, his request was granted in the form of an unredacted report called The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974.

“This is a history of the U-2,” Richelson, who died in 2017, told The New York Times in a 2013 interview.

“The only overlap is the discussion of the U-2 flights and UFO sightings, the fact that you had these high-flying aircraft in the air being the cause of some of these sightings.”

The report makes no mention of aliens or UFOs stored on site, but for the first time ever, it referred to Area 51 by name, confirming—unwittingly or not on the CIA’s part—the base’s existence.

“That was sort of a bonus,” Richelson told The Times.

According to that same CIA report, “Area 51”—its map designation by the Atomic Energy Commission at the

They Can’t Stop All of Us” event on time—was commissioned in 1955 by Facebook. After national attention, President Eisenhower, and experimental aircraft have long been the government’s Roberts came forward to explain that unofficially official explanation for UFO it was a joke, and implored people not to take it seriously. Still, the Facebook sightings in the area. page became a repository for memes and The public’s attention waxed internet jokes, with mock battle plans and waned over the decades, with and images of thousands of internet various UFO-ologists occasionally denizens “Naruto running”—look it positing theories about alien visitaup—through a hail of machine gun fire tion. It wasn’t until 1989 that someto free the captive aliens within. one came forward with knowledge of In place of the actual “raid,” set to not only the workings of Area 51, but take place on Sept. 20, Roberts and the trove of extraterrestrial technology a few partners lent their name to an housed within.

“Alienstock” festival planned in the tiny “There are several—actually town of Rachel, Nev., near Area 51, nine—flying saucers, flying disks promising live music, events and a place … the propulsion system is a gravity for believers to connect. But on Sept. propulsion system, the power source is 9, Roberts announced Alienstock was an anti-matter reactor. This technology does not exist at all,” a man with his face canceled, citing a “potential humanitarian crisis” on the website, in that none of obscured by shadow and identified only the infrastructure or events promised by as “Dennis” said on KLAS-TV in Las his partner in Rachel had been delivered.

Vegas in a May 15, 1989, broadcast.

The event will be replaced with a oneThe report generated international night concert in downtown Las Vegas attention. In a follow-up interview on Sept. 19. months later, “Dennis” was revealed Another event, “Storm Area 51 as Bob Lazar, a young scientist who Basecamp,” is also scheduled for this claimed to have been tasked with weekend at the Alien Research Center reverse-engineering alien hardware in in Hiko, with a panel by guest speakers Area 51’s secret hangar at S-4, a few including Jeremy Corbell and Bob miles south of the base proper, for Lazar. almost six months.

Despite the Lazar says he confusion on the can’t prove his ground, Facebook claims with hard users are keepevidence, but in a ing their hopes 2018 documentary up. While one

by Jeremy Corbell event respondent called Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying answered a Saucers, Lazar message about presents his case her plans to attend in greater detail, the event with “I Steven DaviS including home feel like you’re AreA 51 stormer footage he claims the government,

If taxpayers fund the government, why can’t the taxpayers go see what’s up there?

to have filmed of flying saucer test flights above the facility.

On June 20, 2019, Lazar and Corbell went on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Lazar spoke at length about his experience. Rogan, himself a believer in aliens, is gracious to Lazar throughout the interview, making allowances for Lazar’s migraine that prevents him from answering succinctly at times, and not pressing him for specific times or dates in his account. The interview has close to 8 million views on YouTube.

One of those views, however, belonged to Roberts, the student who then created the “Storm Area 51,

so why would I tell you all this?” another, Steven Davis from Pennsylvania, responded with, “Hell yeah, I’m going.” Davis said he plans to fly out “real soon” and potentially camp on the outskirts of Area 51.

“In all honesty, if taxpayers fund the government, why can’t the taxpayers go see what’s up there? Why do they have such big secrets?” Davis said.

Davis cites his own belief in—and personal experience with—UFOs for his interest, and as far as the government’s official explanation of top secret aircraft at the base: “You’d have to be dumb to believe that.”

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Epstein, Trump and …

News & Review?

An unbelievAble news tip. A deAd-ofnight phone cAll. And A journey into the unknowAble heArt of modern politics.

by Raheem F. hosseini r a h e e mh @ n e wsr eview.c om

▲ Jeffrey epstein, recently deceased spawn of satan?

(ARTIST RENDERING)

It didn’t start with a phone call, but I thought it ended with one.

A 2 a.m. tremor on my nightstand. I reached for the phone already knowing who was on the other end and what they were going to say. Your mother’s dead, and you weren’t there. I thumb-dragged the red cursor and tried to say, “Dad.” But it wasn’t him. The voice I recognized. Its master I never knew.

“You still want to talk to Katie lured to Epstein’s New York pentJohnson?” house in 1994 when she was 13, only It had been months since I’d to be swallowed into a nightmarish heard that name. underworld of sexual enslavement.

“Katie Johnson” was the Her chief tormenter for the next three plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed in months, she alleged, was a real estate April 2016 in Southern California. mogul named Donald Trump.

According to her claim, Johnson Those allegations haven’t been was an adolescent when she drifted substantiated. And no one has been into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit. You able to prove that Katie Johnson may have heard of him. The devil exists. Bottomless mysteries are sure has. getting to be a thing in post-truth Epstein was the obscenely America, perplexing even the media wealthy, insidiously connected literate. financier who allegedly procured and One week after Johnson’s lawsuit sexually assaulted dozens of girls, was filed, a judge for the U.S. with little more than a legal wristCentral District Court of California slap. But his victims grew up and, dismissed it for failing to cite an eventually, made us listen. Epstein actionable civil rights claim. More was in a New York jail cell on troubling to those of us in journalfederal child sex trafficking charges ism, the only identifying information when he died of a mysteriously available for Johnson proved broken neck last month, igniting inconclusive—mail to her supposed conspiracy theories that one of high Twentynine Palms address returned, society’s most untouchable was calls to her supposed phone number killed to keep him from implicating disconnected. But text messages members of a powerful inner circle sneaked through. At least mine did. of pedophiles.

I exchanged a few with a person Which brings us back to Johnson, claiming to be Johnson. I was told to who claimed that she, too, had been answer a phone call from a blocked 12 | RN&R | 09.19.19

number. When I did, I heard a man’s voice, offering the improbable—an opportunity to stop Trump from becoming president.

I hung up.

Six months later, in October 2016, he called again.

“You still want to talk to Katie Johnson?”

The voice more than the question burned through me. It was thick and duplicitous. It was sucking and sickeningly familiar. It was these things at this wrong hour to a son waiting for his mother to die.

I hung up.

We were just days from Trump’s inevitable defeat, and I’d had enough of frauds.

Three years later, my mom is gone, Trump sits in the White House and Epstein’s corpse refuses to confess or atone. And I want to know who was behind it all, and whether—in this dark, unenlightened age—something can be both true and false at the same time.

Grill the messenGer

I restart my search not with Johnson, but with the person who began it: Elaine Halleck. She’s the one who sent a May 9, 2016 email under the subject line “Murky CA lawsuit against Trump.” This is how I fell down the rabbit hole.

Halleck’s email said she was a former SN&R contributor working a news desk in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was unclear to me at the time why a border-adjacent reporter thought a hyper-local alternative weekly was positioned

to blow open a story with national implications. The New York Times we were not.

Before phoning Halleck for a trip down memory lane, I skim our email exchanges, both to refresh my memory and for any overlooked clues. I learn a few things that could be significant or meaningless. It’s a bit like waving a flashlight in a dark forest. You get glimpses of what’s there, but never the whole picture.

In May 2016, Halleck said she had written a couple of pieces for SN&R with Alex Landon, a San Diego attorney and law professor.

While I’m able to find two op-eds credited to Landon in our online archives, I don’t find Halleck’s name anywhere. But interestingly, Landon’s commentaries, from 2003 and 2006, contended that California was crafting laws against sexual predators that went too far.

This feels pertinent somehow.

While I can’t find Halleck on our outdated Geocities webpage, Amazon shows that she and Landon collaborated on a 2011 book it describes as an exploration of the “designer laws” that Landon condemned in his columns. The book does this, its synopsis says, by mixing fact and fiction. It’s titled A Parallel Universe.

How fitting. I feel as if I’m in one.

I ask myself: Could Landon and Halleck have fabricated a salacious lawsuit and/or pressed for media coverage to somehow call attention to sex crime laws they find problematic?

I soon discover how preposterous the question is.

Today, Halleck is still working for the Guadalajara Reporter, a community newspaper geared toward American and Canadian expatriates. She says she ghost-wrote Landon’s columns (which is why I couldn’t find her byline), and is updating the book she coauthored with him. She says the book scrutinizes the unintended consequences of reactionary sex-offender legislation, not true monsters like Epstein.

Halleck tells me two people at her church brought Johnson’s lawsuit to her attention. Halleck did a little online digging, finding speculative stories by “sleazy British newspapers” fixated on Epstein’s relationship with Prince Andrew, as well as the lawsuit, which had already been dismissed. She wasn’t sure what to make of it all, but hoped someone else could.

“I just thought it was weird that no one really paid that much attention to it,” she says.

I tell Halleck why I didn’t write about the lawsuit at the time, that it all felt too unverifiable. Other, stronger allegations against Trump were already competing for voters’ attention. How his casinos bled Atlantic City dry. How he groped women and peeped on his Miss Teen USA contestants. Inaccurately reporting one claim could heap discredit on those telling the truth about him.

Not that any of it ultimately mattered.

When my mom died, I remember thinking she just missed America electing its first female president.

Instead, Teflon Don overcame all manner of boorish indiscretions, siphoning enough electoral votes to defeat the popular will.

“I guess society had changed a lot by the time Trump came along,” Halleck reflects. “All these outrageous things come out about him, and none of it affected his chance of being president.”

And “Katie Johnson,” where did she fall into all of this? Was she a fraud, perpetrated by the left to smear Trump with Epstein’s heinous crimes—or a “deep fake” ploy of the right to discredit the media? And all this time later, why do I still care?

the Guterman tanGent People other than me have supposedly communicated with Katie Johnson, including someone from the venerable (cough) Daily Mail and attorney Lisa Bloom, daughter of Gloria Allred, go-to lawyer of the #MeToo movement.

But several videos purporting to show Johnson telling a piece of

her story—in a deposition, to a therapist—have been scraped from the internet.

It’s one of those scrubbed videos, on a pop-up-cluttered, bloggylooking website called Democratic Underground, that points me to Jeffrey Guterman, “PhD.” The video, posted July 10, is advertised thusly: “Katie Johnson video re: grooming by Epstein and rape by Trump …” When I click on the embedded box, I get a darkened screen with a whitelettered letdown:

and waste my time again. Good luck with everything.”

“Katie” never responded.

I waited 40 months to send a follow-up. Epstein’s death reopened the mystery for me—or was it a wound?

Finding ‘KaTie Johnson’

Sorry

This video does not exist.

Of course it doesn’t. The poster credits the video to Guterman, a Trump-bashing Florida personality with a rabid Twitter thread. We’re talking more than 200,000 tweets in less than two months. We’re talking archival photos, John F. Kennedy audio clips, retweeted Trump stories, shaky hand-held Periscope videos and racier material that’s attracted the eyes of both the Secret Service and Twitter’s code-of-conduct enforcers.

I scroll through it all, back in time through thousands of posts, including a lewd cartoon of Trump in a sweaty masturbation pose, only to find that Guterman’s Twitter account starts at July 14, four days after the Katie Johnson video was supposedly uploaded.

Damn you Guterman!

I waste more time perusing Guterman’s extensive vlog, including one YouTube video that’s just him on his laptop listening to cable news for a half hour, shirtless for some of it, pantsless for all of it.

Somewhere around minute 14, I conclude he’s not going to be my Deep Throat.

The conversaTion

Katie Johnson of Twentynine Palms has a Facebook profile. Does that mean anything? I honestly can’t tell. I send her a friend request and a message.

Two days later, she breaks the news: She is not the plaintiff I’m looking for.

Feeling like I’m running out of ways to nip around the edges, I punch Johnson’s number into a new text and stumble across the old ones. They remind me how weird this whole thing was from the start—how, even then, I questioned whether the lawsuit’s author was who she appeared to be on paper: an unemployed model with $276 to her name, acting as her own attorney against one of this nation’s most litigious developers. A woman with a swooping, unhurried,

A federal lawsuit filed in April 2016 made disturbing allegations against Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. It was signed by someone who may not exist.

back-leaning, cursive signature, who dotted her “i’s” with circles that almost looked like thought bubbles.

Flashback to May 10, 2016. I text: “Is this the phone number for Katie Johnson?”

I receive a green bubble before 8 the next morning: “Who are you Rahim? Friend or foe! Give me info on u please. Thank you, Katie.”

I was surprised by the response, not just because the tone seemed at odds with the seriousness of her claim—I reminded myself sexual assault survivors are often unfairly disbelieved because they don’t “behave” how someone thinks they should—but because I had never given her my name.

On May 13, 2016, I got a call from a blocked number. I didn’t answer it.

Johnson texted, telling me to answer the next call from that blocked number because “it’s me.”

We connected the following morning just before 10. I heard not a woman’s voice but a man’s, refusing to give his name and purporting to speak for Johnson. For as little as I knew about him, I knew enough to distrust him. I told him I would only speak with Johnson.

“I’m trying to figure out if she’s a real person,” I said.

“Oh, she’s real,” the voice said.

I scolded him, but I don’t remember what I said. And then I hung up.

The call lasted less than nine minutes.

I then texted Johnson’s number: “Hey Katie, this is Raheem. It’s totally OK if you’re not ready to talk to me, but don’t have that weird guy call me

On the same day I sent the other “Katie Johnson” a Facebook friend request, I reached out to a private investigator for help—three, in fact. Rob Hessee was the only one to volunteer his services.

The retired Placer County sheriff’s sergeant and homicide detective is now a licensed private investigator. And he comes up big time. Besides confirming that Facebook Katie Johnson is not lawsuit Katie Johnson, he runs the only solid leads I have—the phone number and the supposed home address, which turns up a 2012 Google Maps image of a white-shack house with brick-red trim on a flat, arid stretch of nowhere called Twentynine Palms.

Regarding the latter, Hessee gets 28 hits. But only five people were associated to the address at the time the lawsuit was filed, including a man who died 13 years ago. Of those five names, none link back to the phone number, which is my best lead, as I had actually corresponded with someone on the other end.

When I personally ran the phone number through Google, I got two names. Tantalizingly, one possible owner worked as an administrative assistant for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Her job? To provide clerical support within the bureau’s forensic science laboratory. What were the odds that my would-be puppet master learned her subterfuge skills watching lab techs crack encrypted cellphones and analyze hard drives?

But something tells me this Colorado secretary didn’t file a lawsuit in Southern California. (Then again, what a good way to divert suspicion.) Which brings me to my second phone number hit and back to Hessee, who independently comes up with the same name.

We’ll call her “Bethany.”

Bethany is a 29-year-old esthetician living in Riverside County.

According to PeopleFinder, she’s a Christian and a registered Republican.

According to a criminal background check, she was convicted of possessing methamphetamine almost a decade ago, with a couple of traffic infractions on either side of that.

Her husband is tall and rawboned, with a light-bulb-shaped head and heavy tattoo ink crawling up his long neck.

If someone hoaxed the lawsuit as a stunt to blow up in the media’s face and discredit all of Trump’s other accusers, could it have been them? Could Bethany’s husband be the nameless man who tried to get me to bite?

Critically, Hessee is able to determine that the phone number was registered to Bethany between July 23, 2011 and June 6, 2019. That means the number belonged to her during the time I received texts from it.

So now what? Place a call from a blocked number like they engineered?

Maybe in the dead of night. Maybe during a listless sleep, while they’re waiting for word of a loved one’s demise.

But that isn’t journalism. It’s vendetta.

He called once more, the nameless man, in October 2016. He left a message. I no longer remember his exact words. But the same voice, husky and solicitous, left a brief rejoinder, a juvenile tease.

My memory aborted the rest. I deleted the message. I waited for my mom to die, for the call I dreaded all my life: Come now. It’s happening. It arrived on Oct. 22, 2016.

A couple weeks later, Trump was elected president. At the time, it felt like he broke the last promise I ever made to her. As she rasped and shook into the void, I squeezed her hand and told her we’d be all right.

Maybe she would find this country unrecognizable today, its people worn down to the coarse edges of fear and suspicion, quick to blame and so afraid to look inward. Every clumsy expression an excuse for revenge, every stranger an enemy. Maybe she wouldn’t recognize this country, but had I changed, too?

I return to Bethany’s Facebook page and weigh the value of a curated life. She’s married with two children.

She and her husband look happy.

They’ve been together a while. A 2012 photo shows them kissing a newborn girl. Three months later, they walk an aisle hand-in-hand under an overcast sky. Four years later, a son is born.

I don’t know them. And I may never know who called on that desolate October night. But I know who I am. I slide my phone away. Good luck, Katie Johnson.

Whoever you are.

■

For more on the search for Katie Johnson, visit sacblog.newsreview.com for an extended version of this story.

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Cult of misinformation Camp Fire lasers and other belieFs rooted in vulnerability ►by Ken SmiTh

“That’s not a wildfire—that looks like it was hit with a laser beam.” unidentiFied Female narrator YouTube video TiTled “Genocidal california fire o p e r aT i o n s ”

As the Camp Fire burned last November, a startling conspiracy theory spread with the flames that added a sci-fi element to the real-life terror and chaos on the Ridge—that the blaze was intentionally started by blue laser beams fired from helicopters, specifically targeting homes and vehicles.

The masterminds behind this terrible act, depending on which YouTube video you watch or with whom you talk, could be anything from the Rothschilds to Big Cannabis corporations to Satan himself. But by far, the suspect most often named is the U.S. government.

Fueled by doctored or improperly identified photos and pseudoscientific “experts” sharing their “evidence,” the laser theory is still being propagated via far-right bloggers, conservative fringe talk radio and, most effectively, YouTube.

In one video posted just days after the fire started titled “Genocidal California Fire Operations”— which garnered tens of thousands of views before being taken down just last week—an unidentified female narrator shared aerial videos of Paradise after the town burned.

“That’s not a wildfire—that looks

like it was hit with a laser beam,” she said, her voice dripping with knowing authority and rage. “Common sense should at least beg questions in people’s minds when they see what I’m showing you right now.”

However, cult expert and retired Chico State professor Janja Lalich believes it’s a breakdown in common sense that leads to fervent belief in such theories. “[Conspiracies] are extremely popular now, and it’s quite similar to the prevalence of cults in our country and around the world.

“As the world has gotten more complex, people are looking for solutions, and America has a culture that looks for the quick fix,” Lalich said.

“People will latch onto something that provides them a framework for understanding the world, even if it defies logic, science and critical thought.”

The idea that California’s recent deadly and destructive wildfires were caused by malevolent forces wielding directed energy weapons wasn’t sparked by the Camp Fire, but began to proliferate when the Tubbs Fire ravaged Santa Rosa in October 2017.

Tracing the theory back to its original source is like trying to find the longest noodle in a dumpster full of spaghetti. Online videos, some with hundreds of thousands of views, touch on directed energy weapons—some claim lasers also started the Notre Dame Cathedral ▼One of the Twitter posts claiming that airborne lasers may be fire—and offer interwoven starting California wildfires. theories about why and by whom these attacks were perpetrated. One theory circulating by word-of-mouth in Butte County—largely in potgrowing circles—is that large cannabis companies will benefit from the disaster by burning out small growers and acquiring cheap, fertile land for their operations. Another theory is that property owners are being dislocated to allow construction of California’s controversial high-speed rail project.

The most widespread and popular theories

revolve around something called Agenda 21.

In reality, Agenda 21 is a nonbinding United Nations action plan developed in 1992 to encourage sustainable environmental practices, but the plan has been the subject of odd theories and conservative ire since its inception. The anti-Agenda 21 sentiment is particularly strong in rural Northern California, where some residents see efforts to limit mining, agriculture and logging—as well as to create unpopulated wildlands and protect endangered species—as an attack on their way of life.

“The idea of Agenda 21 isn’t a conspiracy theory, it is a real plan by the U.N. for what is now known to be world domination,” said Paul Preston, a Yuba City-based broadcaster whose Agenda 21 Radio show—broadcast on AM radio and online—focuses on conspiracies. “They’re using environmentalism and the notion of sustainability to destroy sovereign states and boundaries so you have one borderless world.”

Preston said he’s on the fence about laser attacks during the Camp Fire, though that hasn’t prevented him from sharing the theory on air. He said he received at least a dozen calls from Ridge residents during the fire saying they saw blue lasers. After spending 23 days on the scene of the Camp Fire, he concluded it’s “suspicious” and “very odd,” citing burn patterns and the flames’ extreme temperatures.

(The latter detail is along the same lines as 9/11 Truthers’ claim that fire can’t melt steel beams.)

Preston said he invited researchers from “a very prestigious private university” to the burn site and that they found suspicious evidence.

However, he declined to name the institution until they “got back to him with some official results.”

Lalich, who has written books about cults, elaborated on why people of all education levels buy into such outlandish ideas: “In a moment of vulnerability, even someone who’s intelligent and curious might see something that for some reason resonates with them. Then they go online and find a community of other people

“People will latch onto something that provides them a framework for understanding the world, even if it defies logic, science and critical thought.”

JanJa laliCh c u lT e x p e r T a n d r e T i r e d c h i c o s TaT e p r o f e s s o r

who believe this, too, which reinforces their beliefs.”

These beliefs can be hurtful to fire survivors, she said, and cause even more damage by contributing to a rise in extremism.

“It creates this us-versus-them mentality, where one group believes they have all the answers and only they know what’s really going on.

That leads to extremist viewpoints and, potentially, extremist action. Most of these theories are formed around paranoia. Combined, that’s a perfect mix for violent action.”

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by Matt Bieker

SPONSORED CONTENT

ma ttb @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m

If you live in the Truckee Meadows, you live in a watershed

Did you know that we live in a watershed? The Truckee River Watershed, that is. It starts high up in the Sierras at Lake Tahoe. Then, whenever it rains or snows, water drains downhill through rivers, like the Truckee River, streams, and creeks. What most of us don’t know is that our watershed is endorheic, meaning that our watershed does not drain into the ocean like most in the country. Our watershed drains right into Pyramid Lake, a terminal lake with no outlet other than evaporation or seepage into the groundwater. The Truckee River Watershed also provides us with water, something especially important given that we live in the desert. In fact, 85% of our drinking water is sourced from the Truckee River. This is why it’s important to keep pollutants out of our watershed. Pollutants like trash, soap, pet waste, pesticides, antifreeze, oil and gas drippings, and fertilizer are considered nonpoint source pollution because they don’t originate from a specific place; instead they are collected from various places as the surface runoff flows over the ground, like our streets, toward the river. These nonpoint source pollutants travel through our storm drains and into the river, where they can harm our aquatic wildlife and alter ecosystems.

While nonpoint source pollutants may seem like they are not a big deal, over time their impact adds up and that’s when they can become a big problem. Here is a list of all the simple things we can do to make a positive difference!

1. Keep your trash or recycling from blowing out of your bins.

2. Make sure your sprinklers aren’t watering the street.

3. Make sure you know how to dispose of fertilizers and pesticides properly as they are considered household hazardous waste. Find out more at ktmb.org/recycle.

4. Take your car to the car wash. Car washing businesses have to collect and recycle their polluted, soapy water so it doesn’t flow into a storm drain.

5. Pick up after your pet on walks! Dog feces can contain up to 23 million fecal coliform bacteria known to cause cramps, intestinal illnesses, and kidney disorders in humans and can transmit over 65 diseases to humans. Plus, it’s just gross.

6. Volunteer for a cleanup or storm drain stencilling project. KTMB’s Truckee River Cleanup is Saturday, September 28, 2019. Find out more at ktmb.org/ volunteer.

For all of these reasons and more, we must do what we can to protect and preserve the Truckee River Watershed. Just remember, only rain in the storm drains!

Photo: Chris Ewing - Mindwidget Creative

16 | RN&R | 09.19.19

Loryn Norman poses next to four of her pieces in Behind the Counter.

Own supply Nevada Fine Arts Gallery For the past 50 years, Nevada Fine Arts, 1301 S. Virginia St., has been a one-stopshop for local artists—supplying tools of the trade, teaching new techniques and offering custom framing for new and heirloom pieces. For the past three years, however, it’s also been a space for those artists to show their work in the small basement gallery in the form of monthly shows. This month’s exhibit comes full circle, as all the featured artists are also NFA employees.

“This is actually the first time in the history of the last few years, of the 50 years, where we’ve had all artists that work here,” said Mark Hammon, who co-owns NFA with his partner, Debbie Wolff. “So, everybody who is working for us has some level of passion for art, and that’s kind of transformed the store.”

The show is aptly titled Behind the Counter, and features work from every employee at the store—of which there are over a dozen, including the owners—in a variety of mediums. Among them are familiar techniques like photography, acrylic paints and charcoals, as well as screen printing, woodblocks, ceramics and mixed media—like “Murder Cube,” a small plexiglass box full of used razor blades.

Hammon and Wolff decided to put the show together six months ago when a gap in their calendar offered the opportunity. At a staff meeting, the employees all agreed and were enthusiastic to create new pieces and show some older ones. The result is an eclectic distillation of what all the materials sold upstairs aspire to be, and each piece has a story.

“I actually have a heart condition, so a lot of my stuff deals with things related to the heart,” said Tyler Flores, one of the

PhOtO/Matt Bieker

shop managers. “I have this piece right here, and basically it’s a printmaking piece using ‘invisible ink,’ some people call it, where you’re just leaving the impression on the paper. It’s dealing with different—I want to say more than ‘birth defects,’ where people don’t really notice them. … I also have this book called ‘50 Shades of Bae.’ It’s 50 different versions of how to create a heart.”

“Charcoal is, like, my first love, but I actually got a nerve condition and I’ve got so many other things going on that I haven’t really been able to draw in a long time,” said Carolyn Ding, of her piece “View from C Street.” “This is my view from my window. I live in Virginia City on C Street.”

“This was just kind of an experiment when it started, but it’s all just wood glue that we use in the frame shop,” added Loryn Norman, a manager whose piece “Spooky Glue” features Halloween imagery laid over a glass pane. “I want to do more of an intentional piece using it, so playing around with how the glues blend together. And then the color comes from the Tombow [colored pens] that we sell.”

Shows at the NFA Gallery are installed on the first Saturday of every month and usually include a full reception. Several works from Behind the Counter sold during the Sept. 7 reception, prompting the owners to create prints of many pieces, which can be perused in a display near the ceramics in the middle of the L-shaped gallery.

Hiring artists, Hammon said, makes for better customer service and a more curated inventory, and opening the basement to show artwork has created a small, hyperlocal gallery. It’s a benefit to both employees, artists and art-lovers—especially when they’re all the same people. Ω Behind the Counter will be on display in the Nevada Fine arts Gallery, 1301 S. Virginia St., until Oct. 5. Call 7861128 or go to nvfinearts.com for details.

by BoB Grimm

b g ri m m @ne w s re v i e w . c o m

SHORT TAKES

3

Good Boys

You have to have big balls to release a movie like Good Boys in today’s PC environment. Kids swear like sailors, unknowingly sniff anal beads and run across busy highways without looking both ways in this movie. It might just be the winner for childdelivered profanity when it comes to cinema, easily topping the likes of the original The Bad News Bears. Actually, delete the word “might.”

It’s the winner for sure. Sweetheart Jacob Tremblay, the cute little dude from Room, goes full stank mouth mode as Max. He’s a member of the Beanbag Boys (they call themselves that because, well, they have beanbags), along with pals Lucas (scene-stealing Keith L. Williams) and Thor (wildly funny Brady Noon). Their junior high social activities consist of bike rides and card games, but things are taken up a notch when they are invited to a party that will include a—gasp—kissing game. The Beanbag Boys get themselves into trouble involving the ruination of Max’s dad’s (Will Forte) drone, a predicament that involves a stash of Molly/ Ecstasy pills and two older, meaner girls, Hannah and Lily (Molly Gordon and Midori Francis).

The goal to reach the kissing party unscathed, and with a bottle of beer so that they look cool, is blocked by many tween drama obstacles.

Got back Hustlers, starring Jennifer Lopez as a stripper who goes smooth criminal during the Great Recession, is getting some great reviews. I’m going against the grain on this one, for I find it derivative, boring and hampered by a shallow script.

So, why? Why has the film been receiving Scorsese comparisons—hey, it has tracking shots!— and high scores on Rotten Tomatoes?

I think it’s because of the powers of Jennifer Lopez’s multimillion dollar ass.

No question, as talented an actress as Lopez has been in the past (Selena, Out of Sight, shit, I liked her in Maid in Manhattan) her physical calling card has always been her ever-present, much ballyhooed butt. It beckons like an evil genie. Her ass has its own economy and solar system. In fact, as Jennifer Lopez did a pole dance in this film—for the obligatory “This is how you pole dance!” scene—I could swear I saw a little astronaut just off to the left of her ass performing a space walk.

This is a movie in which, without question, Lopez bares and displays her crazily potent ass. She’s held it back at the movies, until now, and it’s the most dominant persona in this cinematic experience. So, I think that this has caused some sort of distraction— disruption if you will—in the movie critic ecosystem.

People are so hypnotized by her backside that they fail to recognize the movie kind of blows.

Based on a true story that appeared in a New York Magazine article, Hustlers focuses on Destiny (Constance Wu), a newbie stripper trying to find her way in the big city. It appears she’s on her way to being stuck in the minor leagues of lap dancing, until Ramona (Lopez) takes the stage and shows her how to take control of her situation through determination, calculation and, yes, most importantly, showcasing your cosmically empowered ass.

Because most of their big tickets come from Wall Street, troubled times strike when the recession takes hold. That’s when the strippers, a team consisting of

“Bob Grimm’s ass is saggy and hairy and just plain gross.”

Destiny, Ramona and some other girl who always vomits when things get tense, go rogue. They go fishing for suckers that they can drug while they max out their credit cards.

This is where the film teases at becoming something interesting, but the crimes these girls commit don’t really make for an interesting movie. They drug a couple of high rollers (one of them played by Frank Whaley), they max out a few cards, and that’s it. I was waiting for them to kill somebody or pull off a major diamond heist. Anything to justify this movie beyond the gratuitous exhibition of Jennifer Lopez’s pulsating, seems-to-have-a-life-of-its-own, gigantic ass.

Wu is good here, and Lopez has the makings of an interesting character. None of the characters really talk all that much, and just when things seem like they will get interesting, it goes flat. It’s also worth mentioning that when this movie goes flat, Lopez’s ass goes into hiding, like a fat bear with a bellyful of honey hibernating for the winter.

As stripper movies go, this is not the worst one.

Hell, it might even be the best one. Surely, it’s better than Showgirls, which featured Elizabeth Berkley’s evil ass. (I still have nightmares where it is trying to kill me.) Striptease with Demi Moore is a non-starter, for her ass, although enviable, didn’t possess any powers—evil or good—that I could detect. As movie asses go, it was standard issue.

This movie shouldn’t be called Hustlers. It should be called Hey Look, It’s Jennifer Lopez’s Omnipotent Ass! Give Us Your Money! There’s another great Jennifer Lopez movie to be had, but Hustlers isn’t it.

It will forever be known as the film where Jennifer Lopez said “Ah, screw it!” and finally unleashed her greatest physical asset upon the world of film. For some, that will probably be enough. Ω

Hustlers

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2

It Chapter Two

With It Chapter Two, we have a needed, yet pretty bad, conclusion to a saga started with a previous, far superior film. If you saw and liked the first movie, you have to watch this one to get the full story. You’ll also witness a decline in quality. In a strange way, I’m happy it exists, because it does have some good scares and Bill Hader rocks the house as a grown-up Finn Wolfhard. It closes out the Stephen King story in, admittedly, much better fashion than that spider sequence in the TV miniseries. If you look at It as one long movie consisting of two chapters, the overall “two-movie” experience is still cool. If you look at this sequel as a standalone, well, it’s a bit of a mess. Actually, it’s a big mess—an editing room fatality. The first movie focused on the Losers Club as children, concluding with them seemingly defeating Pennywise the Clown (an always frightening Bill Skarsgard). This one picks up 27 years later, welcoming the likes of Hader (Ritchie), Jessica Chastain (Beverly) and James McAvoy (Bill) to the proceedings. When evil seems to revisit their hometown, the adult Losers return for a rematch with the morphing clown. That’s it for the plot. The adults split up, suffer some individual horrors at the hands of Pennywise, then wind up back together for the finale. A big, central problem in this movie is that the kids from the first film, who actually play a large part in this one, have grown mightily since the first chapter wrapped. While there have been some nice advancements in digital de-aging, this film is not a boasting component of that movement.

3

Ready or Not

After some strong but smallish roles in Ash vs Evil Dead and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Samara Weaving gets a lead role and totally kills it in Ready or Not. As Grace, a newlywed who has one of the worst wedding days in cinema history—right up there with Uma Thurman in Kill Bill—Samara is so good it makes you wonder how she hasn’t had more big starring roles in the 11 years she’s been acting. She commands the screen with a fierce, comedic energy that helps make Ready or Not a memorable, if predictable, horror/thriller show. Directed by Matt BettinelliOlpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy, the movie is a scathing indictment of the rich and the institution of marriage, all in good fun, of course. When we meet Grace (Weaving, niece of Hugo), she’s about to marry Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), and enter into a very rich family. That family, led by Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie MacDowell), has built its empire upon board games and sports teams, so their requirement that Grace play a game with them on her wedding night, while wacky, does make a little sense. As part of tradition, Grace must draw a

card from a mystery box and determine which game she must play with her new in-laws. The card she draws: Hide and Seek. As it turns out, she would’ve been much better off drawing chess or checkers.

5

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

2

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

3

Untouchable

The ninth movie from Quentin Tarantino is a dreamy doozy, his most unapologetically Tarantinian film yet. History and conventionality be damned, for QT is behind the camera. Set in 1969, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood captures the ’60s film scene and culture as they are dying, and they most certainly die hard. Making a run at Newman and Redford, we get Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as insecure, has-been actor Rick Dalton and his trusty stuntman, Cliff Booth, respectively. Dalton’s career has devolved into playing the bad guys on TV’s The F.B.I. while past-his-prime and blackballed Booth is relegated to driving him around and being his confidante. The setup allows Tarantino to go hog wild with the ’60s visuals and soundtrack.

Hollywood is a monumental achievement on the art and sound direction fronts. Some of Tarantino’s soon-to-be most famous shots are in this movie. The looks and sounds are so authentic that you might wonder if Dalton and Booth were real people. They were not, but they’re based on folks like Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood and Hal Needham. The end of the ’60s was bona fide nutty times, and this is a nutty movie. It also manages to be quite heartfelt and moving.

Alvin Schwartz’s collection of short horror stories for kids gets a big-screen attempt with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, directed by Andre Ovredal and produced by Guillermo del Toro. The three original books gathered together some stories from folklore and urban legend, with Schwartz putting his own spin on them, even instructing young readers on how to scare their friends while reading them aloud. They were micro-short, they were sometimes grisly, and they had no connective thread. Rather than do an anthology movie, like a Creepshow for kids, Ovredal and del Toro opt for a framing device that is a direct nod, one could say rip-off, of the Stranger Things/Stephen King’s It nostalgia genre involving plucky kids dealing with various horrors. The resultant film feels derivative, disconnected and quite boring, a bunch of decent ideas crammed into a storyline that just doesn’t work. The gimmick attempting to hold everything together is the story of Sarah Bellows (not a character in the books), an abused, long-deceased girl whose journal of stories is discovered by the aforementioned plucky teens led by Stella (Zoe Colletti) in 1968. Others in the group include Auggie, the slightly intellectual guy (Gabriel Rush); Chuck, the goofy guy (Austin Zajur); and Ramon, the mysterious newbie (Michael Garza). All the group really needs is a young, quiet girl with a short haircut and an affinity for Eggos, and the Stranger Things circuit would be complete.

Harvey Weinstein is, and always was, a disgusting pig of a human being. This documentary about his despicable ways and abuse of power and women doesn’t have to work too hard to illustrate the fact that this guy is a menace. Victims of his abuse, past coworkers actresses such as Rosanna Arquette offer up first-hand accounts of Weinstein’s crimes, including actual recordings of Weinstein trying to coerce people into sex. That he got away with what he did for so long isn’t something that this movie necessarily delves into, but it does give some people a deserved chance to tell their story, and help expose this guy as a monster. The film, appropriately, closes with the rise of the Me Too movement, which has coincided with the end of this fuckhead’s career. He’s managed to tie up his cases in court and pay a lot of people off, but he’s not coming back from this mess this time. Harvey, you deserve all of the pain being bestowed upon you. (Available for streaming on Hulu.)

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by ToDD SouTh

Island life Every sandwich, quarter-pound burger and all-beef “snappy” frankfurter at the just-opened Coney Island Dogs & Burgers is named for old-time gangsters, New York City landmarks and pop culture references.

A large mural depicting the Coney Island beach and boardwalk graces the wall.

Our group of five adults and four kids dug in as soon as trays hit the table, starting with the Danny Boy ($9.99), an eight-inch sandwich roll containing corned beef brisket, mayo, mustard, sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese. The quality of the meat and kraut were pretty good, but there was far more bun than filling. The Bugsy Siegel ($9.99) was stuffed a little better. Though described as an au jus-dipped Italian beef in the Chicago style—with melted mozzarella and spicy giardiniera—the roll and thinsliced meat were both a bit singed, quite dry and served sans jus. We received a small bowl of savory broth on request, which definitely helped.

We tried the Mac Daddy ($6.99), with mac and cheese, bacon and even more cheddar cheese; the Mickey ($9.99), with corned beef, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and cheese; and the Outlaw ($6.99), with bacon, barbecue sauce, coleslaw, onion, and cheese. The ingredients did their best to disguise driedout beef patties, with mixed success.

Sabrett franks and sausages from the Bronx are featured. The snap is there, but the flavor and texture remind me a bit of convenience store beef sticks.

The Mac ($4.99) was the Mac Daddy burger in hot dog form, though with a lot more cheese. Their take on a “Coney dog” was the Cyclone ($3.99), named for the famous—and antique—wooden roller coaster. The frank was loaded with hamburger chili, cheese, onion and mustard, though this form of bland chili reminds

Debra Magnus holds a few Coney Island offerings, like the Cyclone Dog and Big Lebowski Fries.

PHOTO/ALLISON YOUNG

me more of a Midwestern “loose meat” sandwich. The brown mustard did its best to liven things up.

The Capone ($3.99) had all the ingredients of a Windy City dog “dragged through the garden,” with mustard, onion, tomato, dill pickle spear, neon green sweet relish, sport peppers and celery salt. Dressing a New York sausage in this manner would probably annoy folks in both cities. The Clyde ($4.99) was a spicy polish sausage with mustard, kraut and onion. This one was really good, and if you substitute the toppings for barbecue sauce and slaw, you get the Bonnie ($4.99).

A basket of Big Lebowski fries ($6.99) with sliced polish sausage, barbecue sauce, slaw and cheese was the crowd favorite.

The slaw was chunky, and the overall combination seemed like something you’d order while binging on beer and bowling.

An “original Coney Island square kinish [sic]” ($3.99) was deep-fried until quite brown and crunchy, with a smooth potato filling. The flavor and texture made me think “funnel cake stuffed with mashed spuds.” Though quite a bit oilier and crunchier than knishes I’ve had elsewhere, it wasn’t bad with a schmear of mustard.

Service slowed down quite a bit near the end, unsurprising for a brand-new crew navigating a Saturday lunch rush.

Neither the serving of chocolate cake nor cheesecake ($3 each) were quite as sweet as a large chocolate Coke ($2.49).

Hershey’s syrup plus soda pop isn’t something I want to repeat, but the kids were deeply intrigued. Ω

Coney Island Dogs & Burgers 3600 Warren Way, 432-1237

Coney Island Dogs & Burgers is open Monday to Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and from 1 to 7 p.m. on Sundays.

by Oliver GuinAn

Northern Nevada The members of Slow Wow are (from left) Jenn Archerd, Tim Blake and Scaught Bates.

To the heart Slow Wow For Jenn Archerd, lead singer and bassist of Slow Wow, the song writing process is a bit different. Soon-to-be tracks are constantly percolating, and finding time to compile and record them all is more difficult than working them out in the first place.

“I get them in my head, and then I just try to figure them out on an instrument— they’re always there,” Archerd said.

“She’s a machine, dude,” added Tim Blake, the band’s drummer and Archerd’s longtime friend. “She always has a song loaded up and ready to go.”

Slow Wow played its first show in 2016, and the trio released a 4-track EP, Beneath, a year later. The EP is distinct and consistent. Despite being the group’s first recording, the songs make it obvious that Slow Wow has been confident in their sound and clear in their direction since the three started playing together. This isn’t surprising: Archerd, Blake and Scaught Bates, Slow Wow’s guitarist, have been active in Reno’s music scene for nearly two decades. In fact, Bates and Blake alone are currently playing in a combined seven bands. (Full disclosure: one of Bates’ many bandmates includes RN&R Editor Brad Bynum.) They obviously have experience finding a sound.

Slow Wow recently recorded their first full-length album, When I Break, with Tim Green of Louder Studios in Grass Valley, California. When I Break is the second time Slow Wow adds their names to Tim Green’s discography, which includes Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and Brubaker, as well as Howlin’ Rain and The Fresh and Onlys, who recently made appearances here in

PhoTo/oliver Guinan

Reno. The band said, at first, recording with such a well-regarded engineer was nerve-racking.

“I knew from the first experience that I was really insecure going into it,” remembered Archerd. “Before we recorded the EP, I felt like vomiting I was so anxious and scared about it, and this time I was like, ‘It’s all good, it’s going to be great.’”

Listening to When I Break is like getting hit with a defibrillator. It sends an electric current of psych-rock and punk straight to the heart. This release is similar to the group’s debut EP in that Archerd frequently picks up the melody on bass, and, in riot grrrl fashion, uses staccato eighth-notes to carbonate an already moshpit worthy tempo. Bates’ guitar embellishes Archerd’s melodies, but this time with more psych-rock influence than in Beneath.

Archerd’s singing style is lightly inflected and straight-forward, but her lyrics are nuanced, and comment on her internal life and the state of the world.

For Slow Wow, writing and performing helps them clear their heads and improve their mental health.

“A lot of people in my family struggle with depression and anxiety, and it’s something we didn’t talk about for a long time,” Archerd said. “I struggled with it a lot in high school, and it’s something that I still struggle with. Music and talk-therapy help me a lot. Sometimes I have bouts of depression and anxiety, and it helps to just put it into lyrics and music.”

“For me, it’s a mental health thing,” Blake said. “I notice the rare times I’m not playing music with people, I’m really unhappy and have some anger issues.

Playing music really allows me to express myself and get that stuff out.” Ω

Slow Wow will perform at the reno for reproductive Justice Benefit Show at the holland Project, 140 vesta St., alongside vie, the Scattering, Dissidence and Blunderbusst. 6:30 p.m. $5. for more information, visit www.facebook.com/SloWWoWBanD

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Comedy

555 E. Fourth St., (775) 499-5549

Odd Mob, Roger That!, Bridges, Shane Harjes, 10pm, $20-$25

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Carson Comedy Club, Carson City Nugget, 507 N. Carson St., Carson City, (775) 882-1626: Mitch Burrow, Fri-Sat, 8pm, $15 Laugh Factory, Silver Legacy Resort Casino, 407 N. Virginia St., (775) 3257401: Angelo Tsarouchas, Thu, Sun, 7:30pm, $21.95; Fri-Sat, 7:30pm, 9:30pm, $27.45; Jay Black, Tue-Wed, 7:30pm, $21.95 LEX at Grand Sierra Resort, 2500 E. Second St., (775) 789-5399: Darren Carter, Fri, 6:30pm, $10 The Library, 134 W. Second St., (775) 6833308: Sunday Night Comedy Open Mic, Sun, 8pm, no cover Pioneer Underground, 100 S. Virginia St., (775) 322-5233: Darren Carter, Thu, 7:30pm, $10-$15; Fri, 8:30pm, $12-$17; Sat, 6:30pm, 9:30pm, $12-$17

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Odd Mob

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JUB JUB’S THIRST PARLOR 71 S. Wells Ave., (775) 384-1652 1) Showroom 2) Bar Room

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eL JeFe’s CanTina

09.19.19

BILLY STRINGS: Thu, 9/19, 8pm, $23-$25

ELDOrADO rESOrT CASINO 345 n. VirGinia sT., (775) 786-5700 eLdorado sHowrooM THE ILLUSIONISTS EXPERIENCE: Thu, 9/19, 7pm, Fri, 9/20, 8:30pm, Sat, 9/21, 5pm & 8:30pm, Sun, 9/22, 5pm, Tue, 9/24, Wed, 9/25, 7pm, $39.95-$59.95

SEP/21:

A VERY POTTER CRAWL

Come dressed as Professor Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort or any Hogwarts resident of your choice and conjure up an evening of fun during the second annual Harry Potterthemed bar crawl. Purchase a $10 commemorative cup and a map to 16 participating venues offering drink specials, specially themed entertainment and no cover charge. There will be different colored cups for each Hogwarts house, magic wands for purchase and over a dozen different takes on the drink Butterbeer from the world of Harry Potter. The magic begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the start locations: Harrah’s Reno Plaza, 219 N. Center St., and Hookava, 100 N. Arlington Ave. Visit crawlreno.com.

Post shows online by registering at www.newsreview.com/reno. Deadline is the Friday before publication.

KRISTIAN VAUGHN WITH DJ R3VOLVER: Sat, 9/21,

219 n. cEntER St., (775) 786-3232

PEPPERMILL RESORT SPA CASINO

SAMMy’S SHoWRooM

2707 S. VIRGInIA St., (775) 826-2121

THE GREAT AMERICAN VARIETY SHOW: Thu, 9/19,

DJ MO FUNK: Thu, 9/19, Sun, 9/22, 9pm, no cover PLATINUM: Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 9pm, no cover

tERRAcE LoUnGE

HARRAH’S RENO

Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 7:30pm, $27-$37

Boz Scaggs

HARVEYS LAKE TAHOE

Sept. 21, 8 p.m.

MontBleu Resort, Casino & Spa 55 Highway 50 Stateline (775) 588-3515

2500 E. SEcond St., (775) 789-2000

50 HIGHWAy 50, StAtELInE, (844) 588-7625

GRAnd tHEAtRE DIANA KRALL: Fri, 9/20, 9pm, $47.50-$132.50

cEntER BAR

LEX nIGHtcLUB

DJ SET: Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 9pm, no cover

THROWBACK THURSDAY WITH DJ SWERVE-1:

HARRAH’S LAKE TAHOE

Thu, 9/19, 6pm, no cover

STORM AREA LEX-1 WITH JIMMY LITE: Fri, 9/20, 10pm, $20

TOO SHORT WITH DJ P-JAY: Sat, 9/21, 10pm, $20

WILLIAM HILL RAcE And SPoRtS BAR COUNTRY MUSIC NIGHTS & DANCE LESSONS: Thu, 9/19, Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 10pm, no cover

15 HIGHWAy 50, StAtELInE, (800) 427-7247

Wed, 9/25, 6pm, no cover

HARVEy’S cABAREt

9pm, $25

HARD ROCK LAKE TAHOE

MILTON MERLOS: Sun, 9/22, Mon, 9/23, Tue, 9/24,

LATIN DANCE SOCIAL WITH BB & KIKI OF SALSA RENO: Fri, 9/20, 7pm, $10-$20, no cover

WILL DURST WITH RICK D’ELIA: Wed, 9/25,

GRAND SIERRA RESORT

Sat, 9/21, 8pm, no cover

EdGE

Thu, 9/19, Fri, 9/20, 9pm, $25, Sat, 9/21, 8:30pm & 10:30pm, $30, Sun, 9/22, 9pm, $25

MONTBLEU RESORT CASINO & SPA 55 HIGHWAy 50, StAtELInE, (775) 588-3515 MontBLEU SHoWRooM DAVE MASON: Fri, 9/20, 8pm, $30-$60 BOZ SCAGGS: Sat, 9/21, 8pm, $55.50-$65.50

SILVER BARon LoUnGE

DRINKING WITH CLOWNS: Thu, 9/19, 7pm, Fri, 9/20,

18 HIGHWAy 50, StAtELInE, (775) 588-6611 BOB ZANY WITH LARRY “BUBBLES” BROWN:

9pm, no cover

TAHOE BILTMORE 5 HIGHWAy 28, cRyStAL BAy, (775) 831-0660 cASIno FLooR CHRIS COSTA: Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 8pm, no cover

before 8pm

TRAE CARTER-WELLS, MARK TWYMAN, DJ KEEKZ: Sat, 9/21, 10pm, $20

SANDS REGENCY CASINO HOTEL 345 n. ARLInGton AVE., (775) 348-2200 3Rd StREEt LoUnGE JASON KING: Fri, 9/20, Sat, 9/21, 7pm, no cover

SILVER LEGACY RESORT CASINO 407 n. VIRGInIA St., (775) 325-7401

karaoke Fat Cat Bar & Grill (Midtown District), 1401 S. Virginia St., (775) 453-2223: Karaoke with Chapin, Tue, 9pm, no cover Pizza Baron, 1155 W. Fourth St., Ste. 113, (775) 329-4481: Wacky Wednesday Karaoke with Steve Starr & DJ Hustler, 9pm, no cover The Point, 1601 S. Virginia St., (775) 3223001: Karaoke, Thu-Sat, 8:30pm, no cover Spiro’s Sports Bar & Grille, 1475 E. Prater Way, Ste. 103, Sparks, (775) 356-6000: Karaoke, Fri-Sat, 9pm, no cover

GRAnd EXPoSItIon HALL THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD: Sat, 9/21, 8pm, $45.83-$55

cASIno cEntER StAGE

RUM BULLIonS

TUESDAY NIGHT BLUES WITH THE BUDDY EMMER BAND: Tue, 9/24, 8pm, no cover

THE HEIDI INCIDENT WITH DJ R3VOLVER: Fri, 9/20,

West 2nd Street Bar, 118 W. Second St., (775) 348-7976: Karaoke, Mon-Sun, 9pm, no cover

9pm, no cover

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FOR THE WEEK OF sEpTEmbER 19, 2019 For a complete listing of this week’s events or to post events to our online calendar, visit www.newsreview.com.

CARSON CITY ROCKABILLY RIOT: Cars, music and body art highlight this three-day celebration of rockabilly culture. Enjoy drag races and burn outs followed by an auto swap and tattoo expo. Live music rounds out the weekend. Thu, 9/19-Sat, 9/21. Mills Park, 1111 E. William St., Carson City, www.abepg.com/ renorockabillyriot.

CONSUMPTION AND WASTE IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY: In 2017, artist Kellee Morgado,

sEp/21:

OKTOBERFEST

The annual event transforms the Village at Squaw Valley into a miniature Bavaria complete with authentic German beer and food, live entertainment and games. Joe Smiell’s 20-Piece Bavarian Band, the Almenrausch Schuhplattler Dance Troop and Alpentanzer Schuhplattler Dance Troop, accompanied by the Alpentanz Kapelle Band, will perform throughout the day. Brats, pretzels and traditional European dessert and pastries, plus root beer floats for the kids, will be available for purchase. Attendees are invited to participate in the Oktoberfest Games, which includes keg rolling, brat toss and a stein-holding competition. The festivities start at noon on Saturday, Sept. 21, at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, 1960 Squaw Valley Road, Olympic Valley. Admission is free. A $20 donation includes a half-liter festival stein mug and two beer tickets. Additional beer tickets are available for $5. All proceeds from beer sales benefit the High Sierra Lacrosse Foundation. Visit squawalpine.com.

EVENTs

ANDELIN FAMILY FARM PUMPKIN PATCH HARVEST FESTIVAL: The annual harvest celebration features a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, corn maze, hay rides and other attractions and activities.

Zombie Paintball and the Corn Creepers Haunt will be offered on selected dates in October with a separate admission fee. The pumpkin patch is open Tuesday through Saturday, Sept. 21-Oct. 31.

Pumpkins are not included in the admission and are priced by variety and weight. Sat, 9/21, Tue, 9/24-Wed, 9/25, 10am. $7-$8. Andelin Family Farm, 8100 Pyramid Way, Sparks, (775) 530-8032, www.andelinfamilyfarm.com.

10TH ANNUAL RENO HARVEST OF HOMES TOUR: Historic Reno Preservation Society’s 10th annual event highlights Reno’s premier architecture, interior design and history during a six-home tour. Sat, 9/21, 10am. $30-$35. Various locations, www.historicreno.org.

3RD THURSDAY: This monthly event highlights art, specialty food, farmers, crafts, music and cultural heritage.

Thu, 9/19, 4pm. Free. Victorian Square, 764-794 Victorian Ave, Sparks, www.39northdowntown.com.

ALICE DRIVER—REPORTING ON MIGRANTS ON THE ROAD TO ASYLUM: Award-winning

CARSON CITY GHOST WALK: Carson City’s rich and intriguing history is explored and theatrically re-lived in seasonal evening walking tours of the downtown district’s west side historic homes and businesses. Hear about lingering spirits, paranormal stories and gossip from the past. Bring a light source in case we lose daylight. Sat, 9/21, 6pm. $15-$20. McFadden Plaza, 310 S. Carson St., Carson City, (775) 348-6279, carsoncityghostwalk.com.

journalist Alice Driver will discuss her experiences following migrants on the diverse caravans, her work with women in border shelters and the challenges of reporting on migrants on the road to asylum. Thu, 9/19, 6pm. Free. Wells Fargo Auditorium, Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia St., events.unr.edu.

CARSON CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY HERITAGE FESTIVAL: There will be historical figure reenactments, live music, displays of old skills and craftsmanship and more. Sat, 9/21, 10am. Free. Foreman-Roberts House Museum, 1207 N. Carson St., Carson City, cchistorical.org.

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09.19.19

along with a group of interdisciplinary graphic designers, presented an exhibition titled SEAM, which was designed to challenge and modify consumer behavior by altering unwanted clothing. Through screen printing, repairing and re-purposing clothing the group worked to transformed undesirable articles of clothing to pieces of value in a gallery setting. Morgado shares the observations on waste and consumption in the fashion industry as formed by the project SEAM. Fri, 9/20, noon. $10 general admission, free for NMA members. Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., www.nevadaart.org.

DISCOVER SCIENCE LECTURE—GREGORY CROUCH: The author of The Bonanza King: John Mackay and the Battle Over the Greatest Riches in the American West will talk about the namesake of the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering as part of the College of Science Discover Science Lecture Series.

Thu, 9/19, 7pm. Free. Davidson Math and Science Center, 110 1055 Evans Ave., www.unr.edu/science/discover-science.

FALL ALE FEST WING COOK OFF: Sample specialty wings from Heavenly Village restaurants as they compete for who has the best chicken wings. Cost is $5 per plate of three wings. Sat, 9/21, noon. Free admission. Heavenly Village Lake Tahoe, 1001 Heavenly Village Way, South Lake Tahoe, theshopsatheavenly.com.

FALL FILM SERIES—A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Churchill Arts Council presents a showing of the 1992 film starring Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Hanks. Fri, 9/20, 7pm. $10, $7 CAC members. Barkley Theatre, Oats Park Art Center, 151 E. Park St., Fallon, churchillarts.org.

FIRE FEST: The 25th annual event features fire engines and other big trucks on display, a burn house sprinkler demonstration, home safety ideas, free handout material and kids’ activities, including water fights, face painting, afire extinguisher demonstration, campfire safety and an appearance by Smokey Bear and other friends. Sat, 9/21, 10am. Free. Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, 50 Highway 50, Stateline, kiwaniscluboflaketahoe.org.

FIVE-CHEF COOKOFF: Sample meals from each of five locally renowned chefs as they compete for the honor of “Tastiest Dish.” The event includes live music, activities for all ages, a silent auction and raffle. Proceeds from this event support the sliding-scale grocery market opening soon on East Fourth Street. Thu, 9/19, 5:30pm. $8-$40. The Potentialist Workshop, 836 E. Second St., OCGReno.org/events.

GALENA WATERFALL WORKDAY: Volunteers will address erosion issues on the trail. Meet at the Mount Rose Summit trailhead and hike to the work site. Thu, 9/19, Sat, 9/21, 9am. Mt. Rose Summit Trailhead, Stateline, tahoerimtrail.org.

GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE: On Sept. 20, people are walking out of their homes, classrooms and workplaces to join youth-led #ClimateStrike actions. Join demonstrators at the University of Nevada, Reno to make your voice heard.

Signs welcome. Fri, 9/20, 9am. Free.

KC Lawn, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia St., events.unr.edu, globalclimatestrike.net.

HOLI FESTIVAL OF COLORS RENO: The event celebrates spirituality, community, love and diversity with music, interactive dance, food, yoga, color throws and more. Sat, 9/21, 11am. $6.50-$30, free for kids under age 12. Rancho San Rafael Regional Park, 1595 N. Sierra St., (801) 787-1510, www.festivalofcolorsusa.com.

LAKE TAHOE AUTUMN FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL: The 34th annual festival brings together renowned winemakers and some of the region’s finest chefs for an intimate three-day weekend full of wine tastings, culinary seminars, vendors and mountaintop dining. Fri, 9/20-Sun, 9/22. $45-$250. Northstar California Resort, 5001 Northstar Drive, Truckee, www.northstarcalifornia.com.

LAKE TAHOE WILDLIFE CARE—PAST, FUTURE, AND MEMORABLE RESIDENTS: Denise Upton of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care will explore the history of the organization and provide an overview of its new location. She will also discuss future plans for LTWC and go over some of the memorable wildlife that the organization has helped out. Sat, 9/21, 2pm. Free.

Galena Creek Visitor Center, 18250 Mount Rose Highway, (775) 849-4948.

LITTLE BIG MOUNTAIN BIKE FESTIVAL AND SKILLS CLINICS: The festival features a women’s only clinic and a two-hour kids group clinic, as well as men’s and women’s amateur and pro dual slalom and dual pump track races, a strider bike jam and jump jam for kids, among other events. Sat, 9/21-Sun, 9/22. $20-$189.

Truckee Bike Park 12200 Joerger Drive, Truckee, www.truckeebikepark.org/ thelittlebig.

NEVADA’S BEST TACO FEST 2019: The annual taco celebration includes lucha libre wrestling, salsa challenge, chihuahua beauty pageant, chili pepper challenge, taco-eating contest, vendors, live music and more. Sat, 9/21-Sun, 9/22, 10am. Free. Sands Regency Casino Hotel, 345 N. Arlington Ave., sandsregency.com.

NEVADA HUMANITIES SALON—HOW WE BECAME OUR DATA: Colin Koopman, associate professor of philosophy and director of the New Media & Culture Program at the University of Oregon, will explore the history of data collection, new data-tracking technologies and their consequences about who we are and how we express selfhood. Fri, 9/20, 6pm. Free. Sundance Books and Music, 121 California Ave., (775) 786-1188.

OKTOBERFEST 2019—RENO SOUTH ROTARY: The Rotary Club of Reno South host its fifth annual festival featuring beer, wine, Bavarian food, live music by the Robin Street Band and a silent auction supporting the Achievement Beyond Obstacles program, as well as other local community outreach programs.

Sat 9/21, 3pm. $50. Bartley Ranch Regional Park, 6000 Bartley Ranch Road, renorotary.org.

SOCIAL SCIENCE—SCI-FI STRIKES BACK: Use the force, blast into hyperspace, phone home and get beamed up during an evening of intergalactic exploration inspired by a galaxy far, far away. Get ready to get hands-on with the science that makes the fiction fantastic. Sat, 9/21, 7pm. $15-$25. Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum (The Discovery), 490 S. Center St., nvdm.org.

SUPERHERO MOVIE NIGHT: Enjoy a free movie under the stars. Come dressed as your favorite superhero and receive a free prize. Bring a beach chair and a blanket. Thu, 9/19, 7:30pm. Free. Library Plaza, Lake Tahoe Community College, 1 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, www.ltcc.edu.

WINTERLAND: Teton Gravity Research returns to KT Base Bar with the premiere of its new feature-length ski and snowboard film Winterland. Sat, 9/21, 6pm. $5-$12. KT Base Bar, Village at Squaw Valley, 1960 Squaw Valley Road, Olympic Valley, squawalpine.com.

ONsTAGE ELECTION DAY: Restless Artists Theatre presents Josh Tobiessen’s dark comedy about the price of political (and personal) campaigns. Thu, 9/19-Sat, 9/21, 7:30pm; Sun, 9/22, 2pm. $8-$20. Restless Artists Theatre, 295 20th St., rattheatre.org.

JUSTICE: Alchemists Theater explores explore ideas of justice and more through music, meditations and performances. Thu, 9/19, 7:30pm. $20-$25. Center for Spiritual Living, Reno, 4685 Lakeside Drive, alchemistmovement.org.

MOON OVER BUFFALO: Carson Valley Community Theater presents Ken Ludwig’s comedy. Fri, 9/20-9/21, Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 9/22, 2pm. $18-$22. CVIC Hall, 1602 Esmeralda Ave., Minden, carsonvalleycommunitytheatre.org.

NEVADA WIND ENSEMBLE & CONCERT WINDS: The ensemble opens its 2019-2020 season with a mix of traditional and contemporary wind band favorites. Fri, 9/20, 7:30pm. $7, free for students.

Nightingale Concert Hall, Church Fine Arts Building, University of Nevada, Reno, 1335 N. Virginia St., (775) 784-4278.

PETER PAN: A.V.A. Ballet Theatre presents the classic ballet based on J. M. Barrie’s story about a mischievous young boy who can fly and his adventures in Neverland. Sat, 9/21-Sun, 9/22. $27-$54.

Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 S. Virginia St., www.avaballet.com.

by AMY ALKON

Are you clonesome tonight?

My friend thinks I’d do better in dating if I went on those sites that match people according to “similarities.” Most of the couples I know aren’t that similar. Could those sites be wrong? How much does similarity matter for being a good match with somebody and the chances of a relationship working out long-term?

There are three areas in which partner harmony seems essential to happy coupledom. If couples have clashing religious beliefs, political orientations or values, “it’s found to cause tremendous problems in a marriage,” explained psychologist David Buss at a recent evolutionary psychology conference.

Beyond the big three—shared religion, political orientation and values—the notion that you and your partner need to be all matchymatchy to be happy together just isn’t supported by science. In fact, a whole lot of science finds otherwise.

Admittedly, the notion that partners should match like a pair of nightstands has powerful intuitive appeal—hitting us in our craving for consistency and order. This, perhaps, leads many people—including many psychologists—to buy into the bliss-of-the-clones myth, the notion that we’ll be happiest if we find somebody just like us.

Not surprisingly, dating sites take advantage of this widely believed myth, hawking features like the “billion points of similarity” compatibility test.

Dating sites advertising themselves with a meaningless test might not seem like a big deal.

But it reinforces the myth that partner similarity equals romantic happiness, and this belief has a real downside, according to research by psychologist Michael I. Norton and his colleagues.

Consider that when we first meet a person, we get excited about all of our apparent similarities. At this point, and in the early days of a relationship, we’re prone to identify similarities where none exist, spinning ambiguities—vague or missing details about a person—into support for their being just like us. But Norton explains that as partners get to know each other, dissimilarities begin to surface. And this leads

partners who were initially stoked about how alike they seemed to be to become less satisfied with each other and the relationship.

Interestingly, it seems that dissimilarity between partners actually gets an undeserved bad rap. Discovering this took more sophisticated methodology than used in previous research, in which scientists basically tallied up ways partners were alike and different and then looked at how satisfied they were with their relationship.

Psychologist Manon van Scheppingen and her colleagues instead explored interactions between romantic partners’ personality traits over an eight-year period.

Their findings suggest that partners don’t have to match perfectly on traits. In fact, sometimes, their having differences is ideal.

Take conscientiousness, a personality trait reflecting selfcontrol and a sense of responsibility to others. According to the team’s research, if one partner was low in conscientiousness, their relationship worked better and they were happier when they were with somebody higher in conscientiousness.

Likewise, relationships worked better when partners had varying levels of extraversion, rather than being two outgoing peas in a pod.

The upshot of this stew of findings is that happy coupledom seems to depend on an interplay of factors.

This in turn suggests that what makes for happy relationships is largely “process”—how two people communicate, foster each other’s growth, solve problems and manage the intractable ones.

Beyond this and beyond the three vital areas where partners need to be in tune—religion, politics and values—what seems important is for partners to not be sharply different in ways that will make them unhappy together. To avoid that, you need to dig into yourself and figure out what your deal breakers are. Ω

ERIK HOLLAND

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave., No. 280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com).

09.19.19 | RN&R | 25

Free will astrology Call for a quote.

(775) 324-4440 ext. 2

For the week oF September 19, 2019

Phone hours: M-F 9am-5pm.

Deadlines for print: Line ad deadline: Monday 4pm Display ad deadline: Friday 2pm

ARIES (March 21-April 19): We’re in the equinoctial

season. During this pregnant pause, the sun seems to hover directly over the equator; the lengths of night and day are equal. For all of us, but especially for you, it’s a favorable phase to conjure and cultivate more sweet symmetry, calming balance and healing harmony. In that spirit, I encourage you to temporarily suspend any rough, tough approaches you might have in regard to those themes. Resist the temptation to slam two opposites together simply to see what happens. Avoid engaging in the pseudo-fun of purging by day and binging by night. And don’t you dare get swept up in hating what you love or loving what you hate.

All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. Further, the News & Review specifically reserves the right to edit, decline or properly classify any ad. Errors will be rectified by re-publication upon notification. The N&R is not responsible for error after the first publication. The N&R assumes no financial liability for errors or omission of copy. In any event, liability shall not exceed the cost of the space occupied by such an error or omission. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message. *Nominal fee for some upgrades.

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is to me: no fear.” So said singer and activist Nina Simone. But it’s doubtful there ever came a time when she reached the perfect embodiment of that idyllic state. How can any of us empty out our anxiety so completely as to be utterly emancipated? It’s not possible. That’s the bad news, Taurus. The good news is that in the coming weeks you will have the potential to be as unafraid as you have ever been. For best results, try to ensure that love is your primary motivation in everything you do and say and think

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Some things don’t change

much. The beautiful marine animal species known as the pearly nautilus, which lives in the South Pacific, is mostly the same as it was 150 million years ago. Then there’s Fuggerei, a walled enclave within the German city of Augsburg. The rent is cheap, about $1 per year, and that fee hasn’t increased in almost 500 years. While I am in awe of these bastions of stability, and wish we had more such symbolic anchors, I advise you to head in a different direction. During the coming weeks, you’ll be wise to be a maestro of mutability, a connoisseur of transformation, an adept of novelty.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Granny Smith apples are

widely available. But before 1868, the tart, crispy, juicy fruit never existed on planet Earth. Around that time, an Australian mother of eight named Maria Ann Smith threw the cores of French crab apples out her window while she was cooking.

The seeds were fertilized by the pollen from a different, unknown variety of apple, and a new type was born: Granny Smith. I foresee the possibility of a metaphorically comparable event in your future: a lucky accident that enables you to weave together two interesting threads into a fascinating third thread.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Every masterpiece is just dirt

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among Americans who loved to eat peanut butter. Studies revealed that manufacturers had added so much hydrogenated vegetable oil and glycerin to their product that only 75 percent of it could truly be called peanut butter. So began a long legal process to restore high standards. Finally there was a new law specifying that no company could sell a product called “peanut butter” unless it contained at least 90 percent peanuts. I hope this fight for purity inspires you to conduct a metaphorically comparable campaign. It’s time to ensure that all the important resources and influences in your life are at peak intensity and efficiency. Say “no” to dilution and adulteration.

there’s a metaphorical version of The Golden Book of Cleveland in your life. You, too, have lost track of a major Something that would seem hard to misplace. Here’s the good news: If you intensify your search now, I bet you’ll find it before the end of 2019.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1990, the New Zealand

government appointed educator, magician and comedian Ian Brackenbury Channell to be the official Wizard of New Zealand. His jobs include protecting the government, blessing new enterprises, casting out evil spirits, upsetting fanatics and cheering people up. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to find your personal equivalents of an inspirational force like that. There’s really no need to scrimp. According to my reading of the cosmic energies, you have license to be extravagant in getting what you need to thrive.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Do silly things,”

advised playwright Anton Chekhov. “Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.” I think that’s a perspective worth adopting now and then. Most of us go through phases when we take things too seriously and too personally and too literally. Bouts of fun absurdity can be healing agents for that affliction. But now is not one of those times for you, in my opinion. Just the reverse is true, in fact. I encourage you to cultivate majestic moods and seek out awe-inspiring experiences and induce sublime perspectives.

Your serious and noble quest for a meaningful life can be especially rewarding in the coming weeks.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Before comedian Jack Benny died in 1974, he arranged to have a florist deliver a single red rose to his wife every day for the rest of her life. She lived another nine years, and received more than 3,000 of these gifts.

Even though you’ll be around on this earth for a long time, I think the coming weeks would be an excellent time to establish a comparable custom: a commitment to providing regular blessings to a person or persons for whom you care deeply.

This bold decision would be in alignment with astrological omens, which suggest that you can generate substantial benefits for yourself by being creative with your generosity.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Actress and author

Ruby Dee formulated an unusual prayer. “God,” she wrote, “make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear.” As you might imagine, she was a brave activist who risked her reputation and career working for the civil rights movement and other idealistic causes. I think her exceptional request to a higher power makes good sense for you right now. You’re in a phase when you can generate practical blessings by doing the very things that intimidate you or make you nervous. And maybe the best way to motivate and mobilize yourself is by getting at least a bit flustered or unsettled.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Syndicated cartoon

strip Calvin and Hobbes appeared for 10 years in 2,400 newspapers in 50 countries. It wielded a sizable cultural influence. For example, in 1992, 6-year-old Calvin decided “The Big Bang” was a boring term for how the universe began, and instead proposed we call it the “Horrendous Space Kablooie.” A number of real scientists subsequently adopted Calvin’s innovation, and it has been invoked playfully but seriously in university courses and textbooks. In that spirit, I encourage you to give fun new names to anything and everything you feel like spicing up. You now have substantial power to reshape and revamp the components of your world. It’s IdentifyShifting Time.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In 1936, the city of

Cleveland staged the Great Lakes Exposition, a 135-acre fair with thrill rides, art galleries, gardens and sideshows. One of its fun features was The Golden Book of Cleveland, a 2.5-ton, 6,000-page text the size of a mattress. After the expo closed down, the “biggest book in the world” went missing. If it still exists today, no one knows where it is. I’m going to speculate that

You can call Rob Brezsny for your Expanded Weekly Horoscope: (900) 950-7700. $1.99 per minute. Must be 18+. Touchtone phone required. Customer service (612) 373-9785.

And don’t forget to check out Rob’s website at realastrology.com.

by JERi DAVis

Novelist

Michael Croft is a local author and Reno native who spent his youth hanging out around his father’s motel, the Parkway, on Sierra Street.

He teaches small writing workshops in his home. Learn more by visiting michaelcroftworkshops.com.

I got interested in it in college. And, initially, I was very taken with a professor. He’s no longer with us—Dr. Ahmed Essa. And I enjoyed taking English classes from him. … I was a business major pretty much by family dictate.

So every semester would roll around, and I’d look in the schedule to see which classes Dr. Essa was teaching.

So I took all of these English classes, and I’d say, “Well, I’ll take all of those business classes next semester.” This was a distinct moment. I was standing outside on the patio of the student union, overlooking Manzanita Lake, going through the catalog for the upcoming semester. I’d taken all of the classes I could take from him. The only thing I could take was a creative writing class. … I liked him, but I thought, “Writing, no, I don’t want to do that.” I went ahead and, during that time, something just happened. … I went in indifferent, and I left that semester intense, ready to go. And I knew I needed more, and so I was very fortunate in that time to meet

PHOTO/JERI DAVIS

When did you know you were going to be a writer?

a writer by the name of Floyd Salas. He took me under his wing. … I moved to San Francisco and … I got a degree in creative writing. … I came back with two desires—to go into the clubs and work part-time and to start writing a novel. …

And one novel led to another.

You’ve do different types of writing.

In fact, I finished a novel just a couple of months ago. I’m getting ready to cast it out into the world. But I’m much more prudent about that step than I used to be. … And in the interim, I know that when my baby leaves the house, I’ll need to do something. So I’m going to be writing a short story. … And then I’ve taught. … I started and directed the TMCC Writers’ Conference for 16 years.

Tell me about your new workshops.

Well, we started about a year ago. And I’ve been in workshops. I’ve taught some

workshops in the past. I tell incoming people that we’re going to sit around my dining room table and have adult conversations about stories. And if I could, I would do that every night. Sit there with four or five people and solve the riddle of the story. That surpasses anything on cable. … And I know that writers tend to be isolated. And trying to reach them is a challenge—but also being one of those isolated people, I’ve certainly experienced that. You need your privacy to write, but to bring a story or a novel to fruition, you need other people. That’s a fact. And I strongly believe if you want to write, one of the things you need to do is help that writer sitting next to you. …

Some people are a little nervous about coming in. I go to great lengths, for a lot of reasons, to create an environment that’s very comfortable and inviting.

All levels are encouraged. Floyd Salas said to me one time, “Do you know the definition of novel?” He said, “New every time. So, no matter how much experience you have, you’re always starting over.” You go back to the beginning state. … I stress reading with generosity. It’s an absolute must. We always start out speaking to the strength in any piece. … And then we start to build. The things that aren’t working, simply aren’t working. They’re not a statement on a person’s talent—absolutely not. That’s just the process. I stress daydreaming on paper. We encourage mistakes.

Those mistakes can be discoveries. Ω

by BRUCE VAN DYKE

Money, tariffs and divination OK, so you’ve got a person named Sam, and Sam does a job.

You pay Sam a certain amount X to do this job. Whether Sam is Samuel or Samantha, it just doesn’t seem all that difficult to grasp the concept that Sam should get paid that X amount no matter his or her gender. Am I missing something here? What exactly is the complex existential challenge posed by this equal pay thing? Or is it not the concept that’s the challenge, but the actual execution of the concept? Whatever the case, we can once again see a situation where it’s obvious we’re not exactly grappling with nuclear physics here—but grappling with yet another instance of firmly entrenched assholism disguised, as firmly entrenched assholism so often is, as tradition. To which modern American gals rightly proclaim, “Phooey!”

• You know, that Impossible Burger at Burger King ain't bad. It really is a reasonable facsimile of an actual hamburger. The main ingredients, if you haven't Googled it up, are a soybean blend worked up with coconut oil, sunflower oil and potato protein, with just a dash of soylent green for that special finishing touch. Aha! So this is how Trump is gonna make it up to Midwestern soybean farmers for ruining their gigantic Asian markets with his wacky tariff jive. He's gonna morph the American fast food burger business into a gigantic, churning Soybean Scene as Impossible Imitators explode into action.

• Time for another spot-on quote from one of the all-time quotable journalists, the great H.L. Mencken, who once observed, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed,

and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Of course, the gold standard of Mencken quotes is this one, which is obviously deserving of revival: "As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Ouch! And touche! (Let's give H.L. some Nostradamian style points for that call, which he uncorked in a column 99 years ago, July 1920.)

• Joe Walsh, Republican candidate for President, on the Nevada Retrumplicans decision to cancel its party caucus in order to kiss Agent Orange ass: "It’s utter bullshit." Ω

09.19.19

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