January 2025

EDITOR'S NOTE

Journalism for good times and bad

LETTERS

Another Morrison remembrance

Welcome to the January Reno News & Review, and welcome to a new year! I recently came across a media outlet’s statement of purpose that really resonated with me. It’s in the email signature file of James Preston Allen, publisher of the Random Lengths News, a progressive community newspaper that serves the Long Beach and San Pedro areas in Southern California: “In the worst of times a vigilant press is essential to the freedom of thought and expression in a free democratic society. In the best of times, it is informative, entertaining and thought provoking. Random Lengths provides news for all times.”

Well said, James! That’s how the RN&R approaches community news, too. In our 31 years, we’ve held the powerful accountable and kept readers in touch with our region’s arts, entertainment and culture.

As we gear up for the inauguration in a few weeks, we’re keeping an eye on Trump administration plans and actions that will impact Northern Nevadans. Be sure to see Jimmy Boegle’s publisher’s note on Page 4 for a summary of recent attacks on press freedoms by Trump and others. I’m deeply concerned about the notion of a president and his billionaire acquaintances prioritizing personal gain over First Amendment protections. At the same time, I’m finding a lot of hope and inspiration where I always find it—right here in our community. The entrepreneurs who work and live here help Reno maintain a flavor all its own, and their work ethic and commitment never cease to amaze me.

This month, we highlight some of those businesses in our RN&R guide for newcomers. Our contributors shared some honest advice about what’s good here, and actual newcomers shared some candid insights about what it was like to land here.

I hope you have as much fun reading it as we had putting it together. And if you disagree with our advice or think we made a glaring omission, you know where to find me: krisv@renonr.com

Agree with us or not, I wish you a happy, safe, productive and well-informed 2025!

—KRIS VAGNER krisv@renonr.com

I met Robert not through art but racing sports cars (“Remembering Robert Morrison,” RN&R, December 2024). He was an avid collector and racer of Porsches, of which he had many, as well as an Audi or two. It was only years into knowing him that I learned he was an artist.

He was a delightful human with a quick wit and a smile. I was fortunate to see his work at the Nevada Museum of Art where the use of sound was incorporated into almost all of the pieces displayed. He was clearly a remarkable person. We miss him.

Stephen Jackson Via RenoNR.com

‘Woke’ is just basic courtesy

President-elect Trump and the Republican Party have declared war on “woke,” but what does it mean to be “woke?”

A long time ago, I told a joke to some co-workers, one that had always gotten a decent laugh. The punchline involved a large number of Hispanics packing the back of a pickup truck, and since the joke didn’t really say anything derogatory about those Hispanics, it wasn’t racist, right?

This time, however, the joke only got a

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Publisher/Executive Editor

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Managing Editor

Kris Vagner

Editor at Large

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Photo Editor

David Robert

Cover and Feature Design

Dennis Wodzisz

Distribution Lead

Rick Beckwith

Contributors

Matt Bieker, Owen Bryant, Loryn Elizares, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Helena Guglielmino, Matt Jones, Matt King, Kelley Lang, Chris Lanier, Michael Moberly, Steve Noel, Alice Osborn, Dan Perkins, Carol Purroy, David Rodriguez, Sarah Russell, Jessica Santina, Max Stone, Delaney Uronen, Robert Victor, Matt Westfield, Leah Wigren, Susan Winters

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small chuckle. My co-workers at that time were Hispanic. They asked, “Why did the joke need the people in the back of the truck to be Hispanic?” I explained that typically when you see a pickup truck full of people heading somewhere, it’s Hispanic workers heading for a job. They acknowledged that but didn’t see it as being particularly funny; some of their friends worked as day laborers to support themselves and their families, because it was often difficult to get a “regular” job due to language barriers. Some might say that I should have just refrained from telling my joke in front of people who might be offended, but I’ve chosen to just not tell jokes like that regardless of who is listening. I prefer puns these days, because with puns, the fun of the joke is with the words themselves. I can still get good laughs, mixed with inevitable groans, without worrying about who’s listening. Republicans would call me woke for all this and mean it in a derogatory way—but my mom would be proud. Being “woke” is about basic courtesy to our fellow human beings. It’s about realizing that I am, for the most part, ignorant of much of the day-to-day realities of my fellow Americans for the simple reason that I’m not them. It’s about realizing that if you can’t tell a joke in front of everyone, you probably should not tell the joke at all. Being woke, in my mind and experience, is a good thing. It’s divisiveness

and hate that we should really be worried about. “Woke,” i.e., being cognizant of the world around us, for today’s Republican Party is a derogatory term, but the alternative, “ignorant,” can’t be an acceptable way for Americans to move about in the world.

Michel Rottmann

Virginia City Highlands

Will Dems get blame for GOP fails?

Am I the only person who firmly believes that every future failure of the Trump administration will be blamed by MAGA, the GOP, and rightwing media on the Democrats? (“Voters are about to get what we collectively wanted—and we may not like it,” RN&R, December 2024)? I’m sorry to say, they’ll get away with it.

Roger Scime Via RenoNR.com

Correction

In the aforementioned “Remembering Robert Morrison” piece, we reported that Tamara Scronce was once chair of the art department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a former professor who served as area head of sculpture and director of the School of the Arts, but she did not serve as the art department’s chair. We apologize for the error.

GUEST COMMENT BY

EDMUND L. ANDREWS

The toxic disinformation will continue

What happened to Republican fulminations about “rigged elections” and “election fraud”?

Ever since Donald Trump was re-elected last month, it’s been crickets. Republicans apparently believe the 2024 election was free and fair, and Democrats aren’t disputing the results with their own version of “stop the steal.”

It is tempting to see this as a reassuring vindication for democracy, but that would be a mistake. Right-wing election deniers, including local heroes like Nevada GOP chair Michael J. McDonald and conspiracy theorist Robert Beadles, haven’t expressed any remorse or shame for their palpable falsehoods or the havoc they caused.

What we’re actually seeing is a glib confirmation that, for many Republican leaders, the truth doesn’t matter. Toxic dis information and blatant lies are just tools. The ends justify the means.

That has corrosive implications, not just for the democratic process, but also for good governance and the rule of law. People who are willing to spew lies in order to win elections will also be ready to break ethical rules and laws once they are in power. And citizens who believe the government is run by corrupt hacks will increasingly break the law themselves if they can get away with it.

kula, of “treason” and of counting fraudulent votes. Spikula came under so many threats that she resigned. After Beadles sued Washoe County, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered Beadles to reimburse the county $106,000 in legal costs. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider his appeal.

The ethos of trying to overturn legitimate elections will translate directly into how the new administration conducts itself.

Trump has explicitly said he wants to use powerful government agencies to go after his enemies. Here’s only a partial list of the people Trump has recently said should go to jail:

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former president Barack Obama and Liz Cheney, the former Republican member of Congress who accused Trump of illegally instigating the insurrection on Jan. 6.

I doubt the courts will go along with those kinds of prosecutions. But there are many other ways that Trump would like to use government agencies to exact revenge. He tried to get the U.S. Postal Service to raise shipping rates on Amazon, presumably to get back at its owner, Jeff Bezos, who also

The Washington Post. He can use regulatory agencies to punish companies he doesn’t like. He could conceivably use the Internal Revenue Service as well, as Richard Nixon did. He has already threatened to pull broadcast licenses from CBS.

STREETALK

Have you ever kept a New Year’s resolution?

BY DAVID ROBERT

Asked at Viewcrest Shopping Center, 3683 Kings Row, Reno

We have seen this in Nevada. In December 2020, I regularly observed “Stop the Steal” rallies in Carson City. Speaker after speaker denounced the election results and flirted with the idea of violent resistance. Armed members of Oath Keepers and the Three Percenter militia groups strolled on the sidelines in full camo. Local Proud Boys came with pistols on their hips. A month before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, at least one speaker called Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor.”

Top leaders of the Nevada Republican Party currently face criminal charges for carrying out their own fake-elector scheme in league with Trump and his underlings. Led by McDonald, the group submitted a list of false electors and a false certification that Trump had won in Nevada.

And who can forget the havoc caused by Robert Beadles, the local businessman and conspiracy theorist who spent huge amounts of money promoting election denialism? Among many other things, Beadles accused the Washoe County registrar, Deanna Spi-

More fundamentally, it seems clear that Trump wants to undermine the credibility of the government overall. His nominees for top cabinet posts are often people who have been enemies of the departments they would run:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaxxer, is his nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services; and Kash Patel is to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Others are demonstrably inexperienced.

But making the government perform badly is actually a benefit for those who want to undermine government on principle, as many GOP leaders do. As the writer Masha Gessen has written, incompetence is a feature and not a bug.

Whether or not you agree with Trump’s policy agenda, you should worry about democratic institutions and the health of government itself. You may not know what you’ve lost until it’s gone.

Edmund L. Andrews is a former reporter with The New York Times and a member of Indivisible Northern Nevada. He lives in Zephyr Cove.

Lindsey Lavely Teacher

Last year, I made a resolution to focus on my mental health and choices for myself. I focused on actually having boundaries for myself. If I don’t focus on myself, nobody will. I’ve kept that resolution all year. Every person needs to focus on themselves, and not just as a New Year’s resolution.

Angel Rosario Cashier

Probably not. I had a resolution a few years ago, and I can’t even remember what it was now. Maybe it was about working out more or some self-improvement thing—and that didn’t work out. I got chubbier. I haven’t even thought about next year’s resolution. This year has passed by so fast that I haven’t had the time to think about it; I’m just going through the motions.

Amanda Gonzales Receptionist

No. I always try to make a resolution about going to the gym. A lot of other people seem to have the same resolution, and the gym is always packed after New Year’s. This year’s resolution is that I’m going to try to go to the gym that I’ve had a membership at for the past two years—and try to have a dry January.

Stephen Price Maintenance worker

Five years ago, my New Year’s resolution was to incorporate fasting into my life. While some people fast for religious reasons, I did it for health reasons—my family history of diabetes. My routine is fasting for 48 hours each month. I only consume liquids, such as Ensure or protein drinks. I try to eat a healthy diet for the rest of the month.

Ryan Morgan Irrigation specialist

Come on! Nobody keeps a resolution. Maybe for a couple or three days. But eight years ago, I actually quit tobacco and never looked back. I made a promise and was done— and that’s the only resolution that I’ve ever kept.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

| BY JIMMY BOEGLE

Press freedoms are under attack—and Trump isn’t even in office yet

There aren’t a lot of things that cause me to lose sleep, but the diminishing state of press freedom in the United States has led me to a few sleep-deprived nights as of late—and this is happening before the second Trump administration has even started.

Why am I so worried? Here are just a few examples:

• ABC News agreed to pay a whopping $15 million to go toward a future Trump presidential library, to pay $1 million to Trump’s attorney, and to issue an apology, all to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by the former and future president. What did ABC News do wrong? It has to do with statements made by George Stephanopoulos on the March 10, 2024, edition of This Week. According to The New York Times: “Mr. Trump sued after George Stephanopoulos, the star ABC News anchor, said on the air that Mr. Trump had been found ‘liable for rape’ in a New York civil trial. In fact, Mr. Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse, although the judge in that case later noted that New York has a narrow legal definition of rape.”

The difference between sexual assault and rape—that’s all it took. That NYT piece also noted in the lede: “Media law experts

predicted the move would embolden Mr. Trump to file other lawsuits that could test the limits of the First Amendment.”

• In fact, Trump did file another lawsuit that could test the limits of the First Amendment.

As explained by NBC News: “Donald Trump is suing Ann Selzer, her polling firm, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, accusing them of consumer fraud, according to a copy of the filing reviewed by NBC News. The suit … says it seeks ‘accountability for brazen election interference’ over a Nov. 2 poll that showed Kamala Harris up by 3 percentage points in Iowa. Trump won the state by double digits, a difference that his lawyers argue in the suit constitutes ‘election-interfering fiction.’ Trump is making the claim under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits deceptive advertising.”

That poll was obviously terrible—so bad that Selzer announced afterward that she’d no longer do election polling—but now Trump is accusing her and her newspaper of consumer fraud, when clearly the poll didn’t hurt his election prospects? Yikes.

• As previously discussed in this space, the billionaire owners of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times spiked endorsements

of Kamala Harris shortly before the election. Since then, the owners’ behaviors regarding the president-elect have gotten even more, well, submissive. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post (and, of course, Amazon) dined with Trump and Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago in December, and reportedly plans to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, Patrick Soon-Shiong told the Los Angeles Times editorial board to “take a break” from writing about Trump. The Guardian reported: “(In December), SoonShiong announced plans to incorporate an artificial intelligence-powered ‘bias meter’ into newspaper articles. He also reportedly barred the newspaper’s editorial board from publishing an editorial about Trump’s cabinet picks unless it also published a piece with an opposing view.

… Along with advising the editorial board that it needed to take a break from writing about the president-elect, Soon-Shiong reportedly instituted a policy banning editorials critical of Trump unless they are also published with another piece that offers the opposing view. The restriction has ‘effectively killed or indefinitely delayed multiple editorials’ that were written but not published.”

This is not normal. This is not good.

• Before the election, the PRESS Act passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representa-

tives. As the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press explains: “The PRESS Act would bar the federal government from using subpoenas, search warrants, or other compulsory actions against journalists to force the disclosure of information identifying confidential sources as well as other newsgathering records, except in very limited circumstances. It would also broadly limit the government’s ability to use the same actions against third parties, including email providers and search engines, to seize journalists’ data, with narrow exceptions.”

The bill moved to the Senate, and was not taken up before the election. Then on Nov. 20, in a Truth Social post, Trump linked to a PBS story about the PRESS Act and stated: “REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!”

On Dec. 10, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden finally brought the bill—which, again, was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives up for a vote. Well, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton did Trump’s bidding, and blocked the bill, saying its passage would turn the Senate “into the active accomplice of deep-state leakers, traitors and criminals, along with the America-hating and fame-hungry journalists who help them out.”

“America-hating and fame-hungry journalists.”

As of this writing, the bill is presumed dead.

ON NEVADA BUSINESS

Trade-show tips

These strategies will help your business connect at industry gatherings—and profit later

It’s been 12 months since I wrote about the business uncertainties of 2024.

Since then, we’ve explored local startups that have added to Northern Nevada’s favorable ecosystem. We’ve explored strategies for sustaining value during uncertain times. We’ve looked at local, cutting-edge technologies that may change the world. We’ve interviewed small businesses adapting to change. In this column exactly one year ago, I was stating that by now, we’d know who is going to take the White House (we do); we’d know if we were going to be in a recession (we’re not); we’d know if we’re going to be in one war or two (we’re not yet in any).

We are about to see formidable changes in our federal government and how it does business. Many believe this dramatic change is exactly what we need; others believe it’s the end of our business supremacy as we know it. Our democracy will survive and hopefully thrive if we cut some of the crazy government spending; my businesses couldn’t ignore debt and survive. Will this be the administration that cuts the deficit? I’m not counting on it, but for my kids’ sake, I hope so. The last Trump administration added $8 trillion to the deficit. In any case, we are ever optimistic.

I’m heading back to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas in January to meet many of our clients from central and eastern Europe. It’s the largest trade show in the world for cutting-edge tech and new innovations. Many of the advancements in television tech are introduced there; flatscreens by Sharp and Sony debuted in 1997. This year, I’m giving a workshop in conjunction with our Polish sponsors on “Trade Show Strategies and Management” for 30 companies. I’ve given this workshop to chambers of commerce and businesses for more than 15 years.

I’ve been exhibiting and walking conference and trade-show floors since my first startup in the ’80s. It’s an incredible opportunity—if you’re correctly prepared and ready for diligent follow-up afterward. Why are trade shows so bloody important to most every business? It’s because they give you a deep dive into the state of your industry and the innovations being debuted for the focused market.

The trade show is where all of your customers will be. It’s where all of your competitors will be. It’s where all of your partners and alliances will be. It’s an opportunity to see who has the cool new tech or gadget. Speaker seminars and breakout sessions provide intimate settings to meet, ask questions and become known as an expert in your in-

dustry. It’s a place to look at perceived competitors and figure out how to make them partners. It’s where you see honestly how your product or service values stack up to the true competition. There are no excuses or veiled values when you stand face to face with your competitors. It can be very sobering.

Do you have a tradeshow strategy for 2025? For small businesses, one or two shows a year will keep your thumb on the pulse of the industry, and it’ll keep you in front of your customers and partners. You should prep for six months to one year prior, to be sure to maximize your return on your investment in the show. Show rules vary by industry, city, venue, etc.; be sure to know what is and isn’t allowed. Some shows allow and promote sales; some forbid it. If new to an industry, I recommend that you just walk the show the first time as an attendee. It’ll allow you to see how the floor is laid out, who is exhibiting, who is speaking, and what breakout sessions may be of importance to you and your biz before you invest.

Most of the people and companies that do not get results blame the show, its organizers, the industry, the reps or the venue. The truth is that it is usually a lack of preparation, a cohesive show-floor strategy, a timeline, personnel training and, especially, follow-up. According to ColorCraft, a leading designer of trade show exhibits, only 6% of exhibitors believe that they

effectively convert leads into sales. Wow! Then why do it?

Even for my small companies, I expect to spend a minimum of $25,000 to attend a West Coast show for four days, including booth space, booth accoutrements (table, marketing swag, electricity/internet, displays, fliers, etc.), hospitality, flights and booth shipping. That’s a lot of hassle and investment for a 6% return.

My goals and expectations are fairly simple: I want a minimum of 10 to 20 times of my investment over the time period that is equivalent to one typical sales cycle. What does that mean? For my software company, it was a six-month cycle from the time I met a customer until the time I closed them and got fully paid. For the custom paperclip company, our sales cycle was nine to 12 months for a customer paperclip order. So, my tradeshow payback was always calculated at 12 months. If I spent $50,000, I set the goal for $500,000 to $1 million in residual ROI.

So how do we get to that confident spot where we are ready; we’re prepped; and we’re set to go hustle at the break of day? That’s when the show floor opens for exhibitors to set up. My companies are always set up the day prior. We do this so I can casually walk the show with no one in the hall to distract me. I want to be able to look at the booths with no crowd so I can get a feel. Which company may have access to

my potential customers? If I ingratiate one key player, I can get many customers! I call it the “One to Many”; it is key to success.

Once the doors open for the attendees, we are at the booth, dressed in coordination, standing (not sitting!), smiling and drawing attendees into the booth to chat via whatever creative means possible. Giveaway prizes are always a hit. We coordinate the booth coverage so someone is always there, repping the company happily and respectfully during all show hours. We are always collecting business cards and annotating the back of the card to remind us what we chatted about so we can follow up. We also letter grade each card:

A= Hot lead and ready to close

B= Warm lead; needs to be nudged to an A

C= Cool but could be sold with some decent follow-up

D=Everyone else—the cafeteria lady, the swag thieves, the other booth rats, etc. Throw them away!

Focus on closing the A leads ASAP. Then nudge those B’s to A’s, and nudge the C’s to “B’s—but you only have one to two business weeks to do it. After that, they’ve forgotten about you.

If you commit and plan ahead, the right show and the right strategy can catapult your business into places you can’t imagine. Good luck in 2025!

UPFRONT

Electric hydrofoil

ferry

service announced for Lake Tahoe

While FlyTahoe may sound like the name of a boutique airline, it is instead the company that announced plans to launch a hydrofoil electric ferry service between the north and south ends of Lake Tahoe.

FlyTahoe plans to transport passengers from shore to shore in a vessel called the Candela P-12 in 30 minutes, with zero emissions while hovering above the water’s surface.

“The high-tech vessel’s computer flight controller uses sensors and software to balance the craft above the waves and amidst the winds, adjusting the foil’s angle of attack 100 times per second to provide a silent and smooth ride,” according to the press release.

The vessel reportedly does not leave a wake that would affect paddleboarders or kayakers. The trips cause minimal impact on marine wildlife, and do not cause seasickness for passengers, FlyTahoe said.

The first Candela P-12 began operating in Stockholm, Sweden, in October, and this would be the first one in the U.S.

Ryan Meinzer, FlyTahoe’s founder and CEO, described himself in a phone interview as a lifelong entrepreneur. Among other pursuits, he developed language-learning software that he later sold to Babbel, the major language-learning app, in 2013. He’s also an avid snowboarder who’s made countless car trips from San Francisco to Tahoe and has spent his fair share of hours in Tahoe traffic, which he hopes his company can help alleviate.

The ferry seats 30 people and allows riders to bring bikes or ski gear. Meinzer said FlyTahoe plans to offer five round trips daily, year-round. He said that the vessel can readily handle winds up to 15-20 mph and high waves. A one-way ticket will cost $50. He hopes to eventually add additional ferries.

Meinzer said that FlyTahoe is in the process of getting into compliance with local regulators, and he predicts the service will start in late 2025 or in 2026.

—Kris Vagner

Beauty and history

The Sierra Valley Preserve and Nature Center includes trails, birdwatching and demonstration sites for area tribes

Less than an hour’s drive northwest of Reno is Sierra Valley, home to the Feather River Watershed. While those driving through towns like Beckwourth and Chilcoot, Calif., have been able to admire the beauty of Sierra Valley from the car, there has been little opportunity to explore on foot—until now.

The Feather River Land Trust opened the Sierra Valley Preserve and Nature Center in December, making more than 2,500 acres and a new nature center available to the public.

The nature center is a mile south of Highway 70 in Beckwourth, situated on the edge of a vast wetland surrounded by mountains. The Middle Fork of the Feather River meanders through grasses, reeds and occasional pines, forming lazy pools that reflect the surrounding mountains. Hawks and coyotes can usually be spotted hunting, and there is a great variety of birds to watch. According to eBird, an online database for birdwatchers, Sierra Valley is a birding hotspot, and more than 200 different species have been identified there, including sandhill cranes (who

nest there), hawks, ducks, snow geese, herons, egrets, meadowlarks and burrowing owls.

Inside the nature center are interpretive displays on topics that include wetlands, birds and the Maidu and Washoe tribes, whose ancestral lands include the Sierra Valley. During the grand opening celebration on Dec. 7, these interactive displays entertained children and adults alike.

The nature center, which was made using strawbale construction, also features a spacious multipurpose room for classes and events; its large windows offer a panoramic view across the valley and wetlands to the mountains beyond.

Outside of the nature center are more than four miles of trails, often wheelchair- and stroller-accessible. At about 4,900 feet in elevation, the trails will be clear (if perhaps a bit muddy) for much of the winter when Renoites are often short of options for snow-free trails. The preserve is also a place for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing when snow is on the ground.

The trails, trailheads and the exterior of the nature center feature interpretive signs illustrated by John Muir Laws, an author and illustra-

| BY SARAH RUSSELL

The Dec. 7 grand opening of the Sierra Valley Preserve and Nature Center drew more than 500 visitors. Photo/Sarah Russell

tor of nature guides who donated his artwork to the preserve. The signs feature information about the birds who live in or visit the area, the wetlands, legendary explorer James Beckwourth, and the Washoe and Maidu people, among other topics.

Two decades and many donors

The preserve is the result of more than two decades of work and fundraising by Sierra Valley locals and was developed in consultation with the Washoe and Maidu tribes. According to Corey Pargee, the Feather River Land Trust’s executive director, the trust bought a 567-ranch in 2003, a 331-acre ranch in 2014, a 1,627-acre ranch in 2016, and 50 more acres in 2019. That last 50acre purchase is now the site of the nature center.

Pargee said that the funding for the land purchases came from philanthropists including multiple family foundations, The Nature Conservancy, the Resources Legacy Fund and the Northern Sierra Partnership.

Feather River Land Trust board director Denny Churchill said that individuals also donated “five bucks here, 10 bucks there.” He explained that trust is part of the aforementioned Northern Sierra Partnership.

“We have several legacy fundings from people who are very well-off,” Churchill said. Jill Slocum, a donor, is also a volunteer with the Feather River Land Trust and was helping at the grand opening. She has been helping bring field trips of school children to the valley for several years, and is excited because the new nature center will serve as a “hub for people to get an introduction to the valley and what’s out here.”

Slocum shared yet more ways she has seen funds come in for the purchases of land.

“There have been music festivals; there have been fundraisers of different sorts,” Slocum said. “There’s an old, restored building. … They had an evening concert there one night put on by some local people from Loyalton—beautiful music. Sandhill cranes were hooting their heads off. It was magical.”

Future enhancements and Washoe cultural elements

While there are no plans to expand the preserve, there are plans to enhance it. The east entrance is still being developed and is slated to open sometime in the spring of 2025, with a wildlife viewing platform—to get closer to birds without disrupting them, Pargee said. More trails will also be developed.

Two areas near the visitor center are designated as demonstration sites for the Washoe and

said the Washoe Tribe will build a winter shelter there, called a “galis dungal,” out of cedar bark. According to Smokey, the preserve is important because much of the Sierra Valley was where the Washoe Tribe’s allotments under the 1887 Dawes Act were. Few Washoe live in the area today, so the preserve will provide important cultural education for the tribe.

Ring that bell!

One of the traditional foods the Washoe people ate in Sierra Valley is a plant called camas; they baked the plant’s bulbs in underground ovens. Smokey said that none of those ovens exist today, and tribal members are excited to have the opportunity and space to build some in the preserve.

He also said the nature center will host tribal events and workshops.

Early reviews

More than 500 visitors attended grand opening in December. One attendee from Reno, Sherman Swanson, teaches classes about riparian habitats in Nevada and California.

“The setting is spectacular,” Swanson said. “It’s got wetlands and riparian habitats, and these green places close to water are so special, because the green helps the blue, helps the

wildlife, helps the everything.”

Faith and Piers Strailey attended with the Plumas Audubon Society, helping to organize bird walks and loan binoculars to visitors. Piers said that the preserve is important because “it’s a gathering point. It’s an information point.”

He said the partnership between Audubon and the Feather River Land Trust builds opportunities for birding and conservation in many aspects.

“I do think that it needs to be emphasized that the bird diversity, this being the largest wetlands in the Sierra Nevada, has significance for a lot of people who care about wildlife,” he said.

Sierra Valley Preserve and Nature Center, located at 495 Beckwourth Calpine Road, in Beckwourth, Calif., is open 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. The entrances and trailheads are open every day from sunrise to sunset.

Upcoming events include a full moon hike with the Full Moon Howlers at 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 12; monthly speakers from the California Native Plant Society; Birds and Beans (a monthly birding walk with coffee); and the Wild and Scenic Film Festival at a February date to be determined. For details, visit www.frlt.org/ outdoor-adventures-lost-sierra/ sierra-valley-preserve-nature-center.

Three local television stations—KOLO Channel 8, KTVN Channel 2 and KRNV Channel 4—challenged each other in the Media Bell Ringing Competition at Scheels in Sparks on Dec. 20. Teams from each station took turns ringing bells, each for three hours, to raise funds that the Salvation Army uses for programs such as its food pantry and assistance for people seeking help with utility bills. The number of people seeking the group’s services increased by around 25% in 2024. Evan Vu, age 7, and Ethan Vu, age 4, were among the many who donated as Shelby Sheehan and Joe Hart, news anchors from KRNV Channel 4, worked the 3 to 6 p.m. shift. Donations came in the form of cash dropped into the red kettle, money sent online, and an anonymous donor who pitched in $10,000. The total haul was $17,358.83, and KOLO Channel 8 won the competition.

—David Robert

the Maidu tribes. Washoe Tribal Chair Serrell Smokey

The preserve features more than four miles of trails, including paved sections and a boardwalk. Photo/Sarah Russell

| BY ALICE OSBORN

Why are unhoused people declining services?

An advocate cites a lack of trust and fears of family separation, among other factors

The Reno City Council voted on Dec. 11 to take the first step toward approving, throughout Reno, a ban prohibiting sitting or lying down on sidewalks or in doorways; camping overnight within 350 feet of the Truckee River; and camping in parks.

The ban, which is currently in effect in downtown Reno, would not penalize people using a given property for its intended use. A second reading on the ban is scheduled for the City Council’s Jan. 8 meeting. If it is passed then, the ban would become law.

Mayor Hillary Schieve said the ordinance would act as an incentive for unhoused

people to accept social services.

Cynthia Esparza, Reno’s chief equity and community relations officer, told the council that city officials had 2,658 interactions with homeless people between July and December, but 64% of the offers of service were declined.

Services that the city provides include shelter assistance, identification replacement, family reunification, substance abuse and mental health treatment, food assistance, employment-seeking assistance, and rental and deposit assistance.

To learn why people decline services, the RN&R spoke with Lily Baran, co-board president of Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality

and an activist who provides aid via a garden and food pantry that are not connected with any nonprofit or government organization. Baran said that one reason people decline is because the services being offered sometimes aren’t the ones people actually need.

“If one of the services offered were immediate, permanent … housing, we would see an increase in acceptance of services,” Baran said.

“If the service is to go to a crowded room where you can’t lay down overnight, it is reasonable to see someone declining. Individuals want to lay down and sleep. The Cares Campus is not enough. They would rather stay in their tent or

The grassroots group Family Soup Mutual Aid provided a free dinner in downtown Reno’s City Plaza on Dec. 17, as it does every Tuesday. Mutual aid groups step in to identify gaps in government or nonprofit services, and offer meals and other forms of assistance directly to people who are unhoused and otherwise in need. Photo/ David Robert

build a fire.”

Baran said that when children are involved, many individuals, especially those of color, resist services because they fear their children could be taken away by Child Protective Services. This is usually no longer the case, she said, but the fear remains.

Baran said that if a family has a housing voucher, and there is a gap before that housing is available, they might decline to wait in a shelter and instead opt to sleep outside or on someone’s couch.

“Brown and Black people don’t trust social workers, but unfortunately, when they refuse, that puts them much further away from them getting their housing and wraparound services, because the city needs to know that they are unhoused,” said Baran.

Another reason people may decline, she said, is the types of questions that are asked. “If asked, ‘Do you have a safe place to stay?’ many people won’t want to admit that their child is unsafe,” Baran said. “… They also don’t want to tell an official if they have been physically or sexually abused when that question is directed at them without any trust-building.”

Other questions that give people pause may include those about employment status, nearby family members who could help, Social Security numbers, or how long they have been unhoused, she said.

RENO’S BEST CONCERT VENUE

New year, new attitude

At first, the local landscape looked like it was ready to shred me; now it looks like home

It was an average Wednesday afternoon, which means the day had already been ruined by the anxiety of deadlines, increasing debt despite the overload of work, and the irrational fear that life would forever feel like being stuffed into a running industrial washing machine.

I buzzed with the urge to run up the side of a mountain, thinking that the answer to all my problems could be found in the trickles of sweat across my forehead and sweeping views from the lower flanks of the Carson Range.

Outside, however, the wind whizzed through Reno at an average of 36 mph. It was the forefront of a winter storm. Luckily—or unluckily—I was blind to it, even as I loaded my dog into the car and drove down McCarran Boulevard to the Caughlin Ranch neighborhood.

This might be a good time to mention how irrationally angry the wind makes me. Maybe it’s because my bangs become weapons, tormenting my eyes with small

but sharp whips. Or maybe it’s the chill that the wind brings, which can make a sunny day frigid. Maybe it’s that the wind makes it impossible to grab on to anything meaningful—thoughts, words from passers-by, the flaps of my jackets.

When I parked at the Caughlin Ranch trail, the turbulent conditions became apparent. I became immediately and unreasonably outraged— but my dog’s harness was already clipped to the leash, and I knew I couldn’t say no to her now. We left the safety of the car and began our walk along Alum Creek.

Alum Creek runs between the manicured landscapes and million-dollar homes of Caughlin Ranch. A paved path follows along through the development and into the Sierra Front open space. Here are miles and miles of county and Forest Service land, crisscrossed with pedestrian and motorized trails, and the object of my day’s ambitions: Cross Peak.

Though the paved path was gentle, the wind accosted the serenity. It forced the hood I was wearing down, exposing the bangs I had so carefully placed underneath. As I went to fix this, the

wind slapped me, bringing with it grit from the foothills above. Once I thought I found a position that most protected me from the assault, the wind would reposition itself and attack again.

Thoughts of turning around crossed my mind every other step, but I was stubborn with spite and holding out hope that at some point, I could beat the wind—that after I climbed Cross Peak, it would somehow relent.

As we got to the open space, the wind grew stronger. It was now unburdened by the blockade of houses and planted trees. It was just the wind, my dog and me.

I picked up speed, thinking that while I couldn’t best the wind, I could try to limit my time spent beneath its wrath. As I began my climb up Cross Peak, the wind grew stronger yet. It threw me off balance. I felt its weight on my back, pushing my steps forward before I was ready to take them. At the top, I could hardly enjoy the view before the wind blew the snot out of my nose, carrying it five feet away to adorn a poor, dissected bunch of grass.

I raced back down the mountain and through

| BY HELENA GUGLIELMINO

A rugged hike at the edge of town can help reframe negative thoughts. Photo/ Helena Guglielmino

the neighborhood, fueled by frustration, not letting my dog stop to sniff anything. I came home in a mood worse than when I left. I was completely defeated—completely overwhelmed by those things out of my control.

I seethed to my partner. “The wind! The wind!” I punched the air with my hand, hoping he would join in with the expletives and rage. What he said, instead, made me even madder: “At least you got to go for a hike!”

It’s weeks later now, and I still haven’t been back to that trail. I’m still holding a grudge. But I’ve driven by Caughlin Ranch and thought about how, when I first moved to Reno from Tahoe, I would get so discouraged by the local environment.

I wanted to walk into a forest and feel protected, but here I was in a land that looks like sandpaper ready to shred me down. I wanted shade and cool weather, but here, the sun looks into your soul, and the threat of rattlesnakes was around each switchback. I’d get frustrated. I just wanted one easy escape, where I could go and hide from people. But the people in Reno were with me on the trails I climbed, always there. I’d get sad and then frustrated.

I think about this time in my life and how closed off it made me. It wasn’t just hiking or nature; it was all of life.

Now, I think again and again about how I’m grateful that I let myself out of that dizzying washing machine, and that I know where I can walk for miles without anyone bothering me. Where I can see spring blooms and fall color. That I can walk out into the sage in the morning and see the long feet of jackrabbits as they kick away into the distance.

Someone recently explained to me the concept of granular gratitude. It goes beyond a vague mantra, like, “I’m so grateful for chocolate.” Instead, it asks you to absorb what it means to be able to experience the chocolate and produce gratitude for all of the things surrounding it—for the money you had to buy chocolate, that you live in a place where you can walk into a store and buy chocolate, that you have hands to unwrap the chocolate and taste buds to appreciate the flavor.

As I enter the new year, I want to focus on this type of gratitude. The world is angry and uncontrollable, and it’s growing more so. It can suck you all the way down. That’s why on the next windy hike I take, I’ll try to remember how grateful I am not for hiking, but for the fact that I can still walk, still climb to the peak, and still scream at the top of my lungs at the relentless wind—grateful that our sandpaper world lives on the edge of our neighborhoods. Grateful that I didn’t give up.

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight

For January, 2025

This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north, but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.

January skies

Six of our seven fellow planets in the solar system can be spotted in January evenings

The first eight weeks of 2025 present us with a striking lineup of evening planets. In order from west to east across the sky in early January, they are:

• Venus, the brightest, gleaming at magnitude -4.4 to -4.8 in the southwest to west-southwest at dusk, and setting in the west-southwest to west nearly four hours after sunset. Venus reaches greatest elongation, 47° east of the sun, on Jan. 9. On Jan. 11, the planet’s 25” (arcsecond) disk appears half-full through telescopes and binoculars, while racing toward Earth at a top speed of nearly 690,000 miles per day.

• Saturn, of magnitude +1.1, 16° to the upper left of Venus. The brighter planet will pass 2.2° north of Saturn on Jan. 18; Saturn will be nearly 11° below Venus on Jan. 31. A telescope reveals Saturn’s closing rings, 4° from edgewise on Jan. 7, through 3° on Jan. 28.

January’s evening sky chart. Illustration/Robert D. Miller

moon on the evening of Jan. 13, telescope required. From Reno, Mars is hidden by the moon at 5:59 p.m. and emerges at 6:46 p.m.

Follow the moon: The moon is above the horizon one hour after sunset each evening Jan. 1-14. On Jan. 1, the 5 percent crescent moon can be spotted low in the southwest to west-southwest, 21° to the lower right of Venus. Jupiter is then in the east, with reddish Aldebaran, eye of Taurus, 5.7° to its upper right. Nearly 14° above and forming an isosceles triangle with Jupiter and Aldebaran is the Pleiades star cluster.

On Jan. 2, the 11 percent crescent moon closes to within 9° to the lower right of Venus. Look two hours after sunset, and you’ll have a good view of Mars low in the east-northeast while the moon is still visible in the west-southwest. You can view five naked-eye solar system bodies simultaneously, moon-Venus-Saturn-Jupiter-Mars, spanning 159°.

On Jan. 3, the 19 percent crescent has climbed nearly 5° to the upper left of Venus and 9° to the lower left of Saturn. It’s a good day to try for Venus in the daytime. Just before sunset, look to the lower right of the moon. Once Mars has risen, the span of five objects, Venus to Mars, is 150°. (Neptune is visible with optical aid, 12.6° to the upper left of Saturn, and within 0.9° to the upper left of the 5.5-magnitude star 20 in Pisces. Uranus can be spotted with binoculars 19° to the upper right of Jupiter and 8° to the upper right of the Pleiades.) On Jan. 4, Saturn is within 5° to the lower right of the 29 percent crescent. On Jan. 5, the 40 percent fat crescent moon has climbed 19° to the upper left of Saturn.

• Very faint magnitude 7.8 Neptune in Pisces; and 5.7 magnitude Uranus, within reach of binoculars near the Taurus-Aries border.

• Jupiter, second-brightest in the lineup at magnitude -2.7 to -2.5 in Taurus. On Jan. 30, Jupiter reaches minimum distance of 5.1° north and slightly east of Aldebaran, four days before ending its four months of retrograde motion on Feb. 3.

• Mars, the distinctively red planet, is at the end of the lineup. On Jan. 1, it is in Cancer and rises in the east-northwest about 1 1/2 hours after sunset. Retrograding into Gemini on Jan. 12, Mars then rises around sunset and is closest, 0.642 A.U., or 59.7 million miles from Earth. On the 15th, the red planet stands at opposition. In January’s second week, Mars reaches peak brightness at magnitude –1.4 (comparable to Sirius) and shows a disk 14.6” across.

Don’t miss the occultation of Mars by the full

On Jan. 9, in the late afternoon before sunset, the moon moves through the Pleiades star cluster, invisibly covering and uncovering some of its stars. As the sky darkens after sunset, telescopes and binoculars will show some cluster members west of the moon, those already uncovered. But 3.6-magnitude Atlas, father of the Pleiades, remains hidden until it emerges at the sunlit western edge of the moon at 6:08 p.m. as seen from Reno.

Jan. 11: The northernmost moon passes within 11° south of overhead at 10:37 p.m. in Reno. Jan. 12: From top to bottom, Castor-Pollux-Mars appear 10° to 14° to the lower left of the nearly full moon tonight. Look again tomorrow night!

Jan. 13: About one hour after sunset, Pollux and Castor, the “Twin” stars of Gemini, appear 4° to 8 1/2° to the upper left of the moon tonight. Look again later this evening, and watch the moon gradually move eastward, away from Mars. Jan. 14: One hour after sunset, the 98 percent moon is just rising, 13-14° to the lower left of Mars. For next several evenings, watch for changes in the arrangement of Mars-Pollux-Castor.

Jan. 15: Mars is at opposition. Two hours

| BY ROBERT VICTOR

after sunset, the 95 percent waning moon is just rising, 27° to the lower left of Mars. Wait another hour for a good view of the lineup Venus-Saturn-Jupiter-Mars-moon, nearly 161° in extent. Can you see Regulus, about 6° to the lower left of the moon? Jan. 16: Note the special arrangement of Mars-Pollux-Castor. The 89 percent waning moon rises about three hours after sunset, not long before Venus and Saturn set. After another hour, Venus and Saturn are gone; the moon is low in the east with the star Regulus 7° to its upper right; Jupiter is high in the south; and Mars is high in the east, about midway between Jupiter and the moon. Rather than staying up later each night to see the moon after full, you can switch your viewing time to mornings, an hour before sunrise.

On Jan. 13, one hour before sunrise, the full moon is low in the west-northwest, 9° to the lower right of Mars. Note Pollux and Castor above the moon and to the right of Mars. Check the arrangement of Mars and the Twins for the next few mornings.

On Jan. 14, an hour before sunup, the moon is in the west-northwest, about 5° to the upper left of Mars. On Jan. 16, the 92 percent waning gibbous moon is in the west, within 2-3° of Regulus, heart of Leo, the Lion. On Jan. 20 and 21, the moon, approaching last quarter phase when it would be half full and 90°, or a quarter-circle, west of the sun, is found 7° to the upper right, and then 5° to the lower left, of Spica, the spike of grain in the hand of Virgo.

On Jan. 24, an hour before sunrise, find the 25 percent crescent moon in the south-southeast, with reddish Antares, heart of the Scorpion, 5° to the moon’s lower left. On the next morning, a thinner 17 percent crescent will appear 8° to the lower left of that star. On Jan. 26, this month’s southernmost moon, a 10 percent crescent, will appear very low in the southeast, 21° to the lower left of Antares. Look in brighter twilight closer to the time of sunrise one additional morning, and you might see a 5 percent crescent.

The moon returns to the evening sky on Jan. 30. Within an hour after sunset that evening, find Venus in the west-southwest, Saturn 10 degrees below it, and a pretty, 3 percent crescent moon 18° to the lower right of Saturn. On Jan. 31, the 9 percent crescent will appear 2° from Saturn and 13° below Venus.

These events, and other gatherings of the moon, planets and stars, are illustrated on the Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar. For $12 per year, subscribers receive quarterly mailings, each containing three monthly issues; learn more at www.abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky and other wonders of nature.

Stereographic Projection

Map by Robert D. Miller

Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon.

Fomalhaut

If you’re new in these parts, welcome to the Biggest Little City! By now, you’ve noticed that this place doesn’t quite look like it did in the brochure. When we spoke with recent transplants about their impressions of Reno, the most common complaint was that they found downtown to be a letdown.

Reno’s not perfect, but we love it nonetheless, so we thought we’d show you around. In this guide, you won’t find the “10 best” anything as deemed by Forbes or Yelp. We’re here to share the Reno that we know and love in all its grit and glory; maybe answer some of your most pressing questions; and, if all goes well, help you feel like a local a little faster.

—Kris Vagner, managing editor

NEWCOMERS BY THE NUMBERS

Reno's population in 2024

Annual population growth rate

—Source: World Population Review

Population increase since 2020

Washoe County’s population Washoe County’s projected population

—Source: Nevada Department of Taxation

By Maude Ballinger, RN&R contributor and founder of food blog Fork Me Reno

LOUIS’ BASQUE CORNER

301 E. Fourth St. louisbasquecorner.com; 775-323-7203

CASALE’S HALFWAY CLUB

2501 E. Fourth St. casaleshalfwayclub.com; 775-323-3979

3

J.J.’S PIE CO.

Photo/David Robert

“ If you look at subreddit Reno, the second-most common question on there is, “How do you make friends?” (The first is, “Why are Reno drivers so bad?”) … I think the biggest thing is to understand that if you don’t have a pre-existing social base here, it is going to take time to find a group to be part of and to start developing those long-lasting friendships. Now, that is (the case) anywhere, but I think it’s particularly difficult here in Reno because of the active antagonism toward newcomers. ”

—JoelTraveller,datacentermanager,movedhere from Hercules,Calif.,in 2021

555 W. Fifth St. jjspieco.com; 775-786-5555

Most people who grew up in Reno have a wild tale from a night at Louis’ Basque Corner. Go for a family-style dinner; chat up the strangers sitting at your table; accidentally spill table wine; dip fries in the beans; order the oxtail; and regret those two Picon punches the next day. Welcome to Reno.

History is (literally) written on the walls of Casale’s Halfway Club, “the oldest family-owned restaurant in Nevada.” The food is old-school Italian, and the menu hasn’t changed much over the years, because it doesn’t need to. While the half-spaghetti/ half-ravioli plate is iconic, the lasagna is the dish most people rave about.

Tell a local you ate at J.J.’s, and watch their face light up. It’s a nostalgic place, holding memories of birthday pizza parties, family gatherings and high-school first dates. You won’t find blistered, wood-fired crusts, but you will get a thick, doughy, delicious pie, as well as cold beer and views of walls covered in Budweiser Girl posters as old as the restaurant itself.

Photo/David

THE RN&R'S GUIDE FOR NEWCOMERS

EATERIES THAT SHOW OFF RENO’S BEST-IN-CLASS FOOD OPTIONS

FOR WHEN YOU WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR OUT-OF-TOWN FRIENDS

By Maude Ballinger

KAUBOI IZAKAYA

1286 S. Virginia St.

775-453-2592

To call Kauboi (if you live here, you and “Kauboi” are on a first-name basis) a Japanese-ish, tapas-style hole-inthe-wall might convey an idea of what the restaurant is, but it wouldn’t capture the complexity and uniqueness of dishes like chicken heart yakitori. It’s something you just have to experience. Go with a group of friends, and order as many things as you can to share. Yes, the music is loud, and yes, it is absolutely always worth the wait.

COSMO’S SNACK BAR

253 E. Arroyo St.

www.cosmosreno.com

Maybe it’s because the classic pepperoni pizza (with the crispy cups, of course) is exceptional. Maybe it’s because the Caesar salad has an addictively delicious dressing and is made with curly kale. Maybe it’s the seasonal soft serve, the orange wine, the negronis on tap, or the buy-one, get-one-half-off pizza on Sundays. Whatever it is, it’s hard not to love Cosmo’s.

ROYCE BURGER BAR

115 Ridge St.

www.roycereno.com; 775-440-1095

At this point, most people you know have been to Royce. The place used to share a kitchen with Old Granite Street Eatery and only served their now-iconic burgers before expanding a bit. Today, Royce makes one of—if not the—best burger in town. They also serve incredible cheese curds, wings and an amazing salad; it’s the only salad on the menu for a reason. The vibe remains casual, cozy and comfortable. It’s delightful to be served unassumingly delicious eats while sitting on a leather couch in a dimly lit bar.

The first thing to do is find a casino with an atmosphere you like. The Silver Legacy has an Old West theme; the Atlantis has a tropical theme; the Peppermill has an Italian theme; the J Resort has a fine-art vibe; and some are just plain ol’ casinos. The next thing to do is sign up a players’ club (or three). They’re free to join, and you’ll rack up points that can be used for free play or meals—or save them up for a staycation. Also, at some casinos, you can get locals’ discounts on dining. The J Resort is now offering 25% off meals Sundays through Thursdays, and the Peppermill always offers locals 20% off.

While you are playing, you can get free drinks. (Some casinos have a minimum buy-in.) If you play your cards right, or if luck smiles upon you, you might break even or perhaps win a bit—but usually, you won’t. In any case, a lot of locals go to casinos for a break from the day-to-day routine.

Be sure to tip your bartenders and cocktail servers. They work hard.

David Robert is the RN&R photo editor and a former casino server

“ I always wanted to live in a beautiful place where I could walk out of the grocery store and see snow-capped mountains. I have been here a few years now and don’t take that for granted. I find Reno incredibly uncomfortable to walk around. You have to drive somewhere to go for a walk without people looking at you funny. Reno’s got the apartments, jobs and shopping I need in my 20s. ”

—EricaHill,cityofRenoemployee,whomovedherefromCarsonCityin2021, via Markleeville,Calif.,and San Francisco

ESSENTIAL RENO COCKTAILS

By Michael Moberly, beverage innovation expert and RN&R cocktail columnist

Ask 10 people to characterize the local bar scene, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Classy wine bars? Divey digs? A happening craft brewery scene? We’ve got it all in spades. So, where’s a new Renoite to start? Making your way down this list of iconic local concoctions should help you get your bearings.

CONSIGLIERE AT CHAPEL TAVERN

1099 S. Virginia St. www.chapeltavern.com; 775-324-2244

The James Beard Award-nominated Chapel Tavern wanted to make a cocktail you could only get under their roof. The Consigliere is a solera-aged boulevardier poured straight from their proprietary aging system. Your own personal humidity adds to the flavor. The best part is that the drink will be slightly different on each visit, as its most crucial ingredient is time.

FOREIGN RELATIONS AT DEATH AND TAXES 26 Cheney St. www.deathandtaxesreno.com

Death and Taxes’ dedication to quality cocktails and spirits is at a standard rarely seen, even in larger cities. To taste what they do best, I recommend the Foreign Relations, a stirred cocktail made of classic peated scotch, Japanese whiskey, amaro, banana liquor, chocolate and red bitters. The flavors are likely to rock your world; this is a prime example of one of Reno’s greatest cocktail minds in action.

PICON PUNCH AT CONEY ISLAND BAR

2644 Prater Way, Sparks coneyislandbar.net; 775-358-6485

To understand drinking in Reno, you must have a Picon punch. The unofficial official cocktail of Reno is Basque in origin, and it is a punch—not in the tropical or literal cocktail sense, but in the punch-to-the-face sense. Everything about drinking in Reno is in a sip: strong, weird, and once you have one, you understand why we love it. I love the Coney Island Bar’s Picon, because that’s where you can have construction workers, state senators and old ranchers all drinking the same thing in the same place while eating plates of cold-cut deli meat.

Picon punch at Coney Island Bar.

Photo/David Robert

“ What struck me immediately—and what I loved and found a little weird about Reno—was how many different things it had going on, and how it was so many things all at once. Coming from Key West, where the identity is so clearly defined, I was inspired by the diversity of what Reno had to offer. There’s a river running right through the middle of town, art everywhere you look, casinos, a rock-climbing wall, a hot air balloon festival—and somehow all of these things exist within just a couple of blocks of each other. … From that first trip, I knew I wanted to move here. I felt like Reno was at the same stage of life as me—still figuring out who it was. … It’s a city that rewards you for engaging, for getting involved and for contributing to its ever-evolving story. ”

—JaimeChapman,proprietor ofPineapplePedicabsand executive director of the MidTownRenoneighborhood association,who moved here fromKeyWest,Fla.,in2019

All-you-can-eat sushi is ubiquitous in Reno. One transplant from San Francisco called it “weird and confounding,” but for long-term locals, it’s sushi à la carte that seems novel. Here, we’re accustomed to chowing down on course upon course of rolls, nigiri and apps for a flat price of around $27 to $30 for lunch, or $35 to $40 for dinner.

Miyuki Wong, a salesperson and purchaser for Sierra Meat and Seafood, has been selling fish to local sushi places for 27 years. She said the all-you-can-eat trend started in 1995, when Sushi Club opened on Moana Lane. (It eventually closed after a 20-year run.) She figures the idea sprang from the casino industry’s all-you-caneat buffets; maybe Reno was ready for all-you-can-eat meals outside of casinos, too.

“It just spread like wildfire, really,” Wong said. “People loved it. It was so accessible. It was really yummy. … Sushi Pier became all-you-can-eat, and then everybody became all-you-can-eat. … The quality’s great. The chefs are great. The presentation’s really good. It’s not inferior sushi—but it is, you know, made for the masses.”

The AYCE trend made sushi, formerly a special-occasion splurge, an easy option for young people on a date and families with kids. To this day, Wong pointed out, AYCE places are usually packed. How can restaurateurs afford to let us stuff our faces? They rely largely on good-quality frozen fish, Wong said. She sells frozen hamachi in the $9 per pound range; fresh hamachi is in the $20 range. With the exception of salmon, which is always fresh, and fare from a handful of higher-end places, most of the sushi fish you eat

in Reno was once frozen.

Wong has seen a few sushi places opt for lower-quality frozen fish over the years. “I’ve seen them not last,” she said.

Heejin Polon, owner of Sushi Pier, has seen the all-you-can-eat sushi scene evolve during her quarter-century tenure.

“When we first started, our sushi chefs were from Micronesia,” she said. Micronesians brought family members to Reno to work in the industry. Their children were more inclined toward college tracks than kitchen jobs, and Latino chefs then rose to prominence in local sushi kitchens.

“They started bringing in different flavors like the jalapeños and the spices and the limes and the fruit, the mangoes and things like that,” Polon said.

So, is AYCE sushi as quintessentially Reno as we think it is? Said Wong: “I’ve never heard of all-you-can-eat in L.A. or San Francisco.” While she has heard of a few AYCE places opening in Las Vegas, she thinks it’s still safe to call it a Reno thing.

Wong said that a few more high-end, non-AYCE sushi places will open in town in the near future, where you’ll pay top-dollar for premium fish—but that doesn’t mean AYCE sushi is going anywhere.

“People love it. I think there’ll be room for both,” Wong said.

“All-you-can-eat is just so popular, and I think it always will be.”

Polon’s forecast: “I think it’s going to sustain, because really, with sushi, there’s no substitute. If you are jonesing for sushi, there’s really nothing else that you can eat that’s going to satisfy that craving.”

Food trends come and go, but experts in the local food industry say that all-you-can-eat sushi—which made sushi affordable and accessible in Reno starting in the ’90s—is here to stay. Rosario Cormier is the general manager of Sushi Pier, one of the early pioneers of all-you-can-eat. Photo/David Robert

One of my top recommendations for newcomers hoping to make Reno feel a bit more like home is to start exploring its history. Familiarizing yourself with the stories and people of our city can do wonders to help you connect with it—and others who live here.

Here are five local history websites, listed in alphabetical order, that will pique your interest in Reno’s past, and inspire you to start planning some historical excursions of your own.

City of Reno Historic Preservation www.reno.gov/community/arts-culture/ historic-preservation

The city of Reno has created an array of online features on local history. Click on the collection of historic preservation projects to view information and captivating images of historic resources throughout the city, with sections on downtown, the East Fourth Street corridor, Reno’s historic parks, historical markers of the Truckee Meadows and much more.

Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry renodivorcehistory.org

Reno was known as the “Divorce Capital of the World” for nearly six decades, and the

impact of the migratory divorce trade helped shape everything from the city’s physical landscape to the adoption of its slogan, “The Biggest Little City in the World.” Created by the University of Nevada, Reno, Libraries, this multimedia website and online archive explains how it worked, and why it mattered.

Our Story, Inc. www.ourstoryinc.com

The nonprofit organization

Our Story, Inc. was founded to “seek out, collect, preserve and exhibit the contributions, heritage and culture of people whose experiences are not well represented in Northern Nevada history.” Check out the “Did You Know?” page for loads of interesting facts, plus features on the Native American experience in Northern Nevada, and the Northern Nevada African American Firefighter Museum.

Reno Historical renohistorical.org

Managed by the Historic Reno Preservation Society, the Reno Historical app and website helps you explore Reno’s history through map-based stories and virtual tours on topics like the historic riverfront, the University of Nevada, and the Black Springs neighborhood, featuring hundreds of images, audio clips and short videos that bring Reno’s past to life.

Reno-Sparks Indian Colony www.rsic.org/225/History

Long before there was a Reno, the Great Basin was among the ancestral lands of the Numa or Numu (Northern Paiute), the Washeshu (Washoe), the Newe (Shoshone) and the Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute), all of whom continue to call the region home. The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony shares their history up to the present day and describes the cultural resources they preserve, protect and manage.

—Alicia Barber is a historian, author of the book Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City, and author of The Barber Brief, a Substack newsletter that covers urban policy, planning and historic preservation in Reno. Subscribe at thebarberbrief.substack.com.

“ I have not heard honks from cars since I arrived in Reno in August. This is weird to me since I come from a country (Bangladesh) where the honking of cars is the norm. So far, I have found the people in Reno to be welcoming. I have not heard about any major crimes. It has a huge art scene.

I read about homelessness and poverty in the U.S. before coming here. But when I see homeless people on the streets of Reno, it does not feel right for me. I think the city government should do more to help the homeless. ”

—FazlurRahman,businessjournalistandUniversityofNevada,Reno, graduatestudent,whomovedherefromBangladeshin2024

“ It’s way prettier than you think it is. The freeway impression of

Northern

Nevada is

nothing like the neighborhood and wilderness portions of Northern Nevada. The Washoe and Carson valleys are gorgeous from inside the valleys and from the mountains around them, every bit as pretty as the most beautiful places in the country.

I’m

tired of people assuming we hate California or dislike folks who came from there. ”

— Ford Goodman,retired software tech executive, who moved here from Sonoma,Calif.,in 2021

FOLLOW THE RN&R FOR MORE ADVICE

For hundreds more tips on what to do in Reno, stay tuned for our Summer Guide in June to learn about all of the festivals and events that make summer here a blast. In September, pick up our Best of Northern Nevada issue; your neighbors in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Gardnerville, Minden, Truckee and Tahoe—and now you!—vote on the best of what our region has to offer, and we publish the poll results.

If you’d like to keep up on what’s happening around town on a weekly basis, get our 11 Days a Week events newsletter (usually published on Wednesdays) and our Editor’s Newsletter, which is news-focused (usually published on Thursdays). To sign up, visit renonr.com.

If you have some additional advice for new residents, please email it to krisv@renonr.com. We’ll publish a selection of your comments in the aforementioned Editor’s Newsletter.

In the early 1930s, legislation made divorce easier, and Prohibition was repealed. The ensuing rush of building permits for bars, cocktail lounges and liquor stores contributed to a bustling downtown Reno.

Photo/courtesy Philip Galbraith

Actress Rita Hayworth established residency in Nevada in 1951 in order to divorce her third husband, Prince Aly Khan. Photo/courtesy University Libraries Digital Collections, University of Nevada, Reno, originally made by Hoag’s Photo Shop

Singing a new tune

Firebird Light Opera strives to create a new opera audience with more relatable shows

English soprano Lesley Garrett once said, “I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.”

In fact, opera may be the most misunderstood and maligned form of the performing arts.

The perception is often that the tickets are too expensive, the vibe too exclusive, the stories too archaic and convoluted to follow—and it’s all in a foreign language. Perhaps that’s why Reno’s own Nevada Opera did not survive beyond the Great Recession. But members of the Nevada Opera Association, including singer Nicole Dzadek, remained passionate about the art form, and about convincing a new, younger audience that opera not only can be affordable and understandable, but also a lot of fun.

Their efforts led first to P’Opera, a shortlived series of light opera, jazz, Broadway and contemporary music performances, which was followed, in summer of 2023, with Firebird Light Opera.

“There were about 25 of us, a sort of ragtag local group who were like, ‘Hey, we want to start a company together!’” said Dzadek, current president of Firebird, a company whose name refers to the phoenix rising from the ashes.

She said that while P’Opera was more of a revue-style group that wasn’t entirely focused on opera, Firebird is intended to reintroduce full-length operas, but in a style that’s more accessible, lighthearted and, importantly, in English. It may also include musical theater shows with some operatic elements, such as Phantom

of the Opera, Oklahoma! or Carousel.

Dzadek, who earned her music degree at the University of Nevada, is also a singer who has performed with Nevada Opera, UNR and P’Opera and Firebird.

The company’s vice president, Lynne Gray—a retired math professor from the Bay Area who moved to Reno 22 years ago—began following her passion for opera by getting involved in Nevada Opera, studying the art form and eventually drawing on her teaching expertise to share her newfound knowledge with others. She has taught it at UNR through its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and at Truckee Meadows Community College for nearly 20 years. Her instruction has even extended to illuminating audiences before Fathom Events’

|

BY JESSICA SANTINA

David Deeter, Nicole Dzadek, Sadie Moss

Hart and Donovan Ott-Bales are among the 40 or so opera aficionados and performers who lend their assorted talents to the Firebird Light Opera company. They’re out to convince new audiences that opera can be affordable, accessible and fun. Photo/ David Robert

Metropolitan Opera shows when they come to local movie theaters.

Joining Dzadek and Gray is a company of roughly 40 opera aficionados and performers who lend their assorted talents, with some sitting on the board. After founding Firebird, their work involved securing a venue, buying rights to a show and mounting its first official show, The Pirates of Penzance, which enjoyed two well-received weekend performances in May 2024 at Carson City’s Brewery Arts Center. Its second show in October, Haunted Cabaret, was a revue-style production featuring spooky scenes from a variety of shows as a fundraiser at the National Automobile Museum. Those funds are helping the company mount its next production, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, March 28 and 30 at the Nugget Casino Resort.

“Die Fledermaus in German means ‘The Bat’ or ‘The Flying Mouse,’” Dzadek explained, adding that it’s a particularly approachable show for those who might be hesitant to try opera. “The bat in the story is a wealthy gentleman who is playing a practical joke on his friend and other people in the community. So, the whole opera is about a practical joke. It’s fun, and there’s a wonderful party scene in the second act, where everyone in the audience gets champagne, so they all feel like part of the party.”

Dzadek, who also is making the show’s elaborate costumes by hand, adds that the show is performed in English and contains dialogue as well as song, making it easy to follow along. She and Gray said tickets are priced affordably, from $40 to $200, which includes the champagne.

Ultimately, the company hopes that audience members who may previously have avoided opera will give it a try and discover a new appreciation for it.

“It’s exciting; it’s vibrant; and it’s relevant,” Gray said, adding that she’ll be offering a preshow talk for those looking to get their feet wet. “If you haven’t tried opera, this is the easiest, least-expensive way to figure out what it’s all about and come join the party.”

Said Dzadek: “Opera is fun; it’s emotional. … It’s everything. When you hear good opera, it taps into your soul. If you allow yourself to just get wrapped up in it, it’s an experience unlike anything else.”

Learn more at www.firebirdlightopera.org.

WESTERN LIT

Meet Michael Branch

The new Nevada Writers Hall of Fame inductee examines the environment using literary criticism—and humor

When I arrived at Michael Branch’s house in southwest Reno, he greeted me with the same warm handshake and smile I had grown accustomed to since we first met in 2019, when I was an undergraduate in his Western film class at the University of Nevada, Reno.

As he led me to the kitchen table, I was struck by the incredible view of the foothills stretching into the Sierra. Considering he is a professor emeritus of English, ecocritic, writer, humorist, environmentalist and the 2024 inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, it’s fitting that Branch has such a breathtaking view.

For the first half of his career, Branch

“Too often, we try to tackle problems with data and information,” said Michael Branch, a writer and retired professor. “You would think information would change people’s minds, but it doesn’t. Stories change people’s minds.” Photo/ David Robert

ary. He was one of the professors from whom you had to take a class. Enshrouded in mythos, he loomed as a potentially intimidating figure due to his achievements. But to his students, he was just “Mike.” He perfected the teaching recipe, which is equal parts care and commitment to his students and passion for the material. He was the kind of teacher who makes you excited to go to class and participate—there was never a shortage of hands in the air during classroom discussions.

During his career at the university, Branch never missed a single day of teaching.

“I never took a sick day in 35 years, because I really love teaching,” he said. “I could have a day where everything went poorly, but if class went well, it was a good day.”

In the mid-’80s, Branch, who grew up in Virginia, began visiting the West and fell in love with its landscapes.

“My goal was always to get back out here,” he said.

Growing up in the South, he felt pressured to conform to cultural norms. In Nevada, he found freedom both in the landscape and the culture.

“There’s a certain live-and-let-live attitude,” he said. “‘Maybe I’m a rancher, but maybe gay rights don’t bother me, because nobody should tell you what to do.’”

very real effects of climate change, being angry and sad makes sense, but as Branch pointed out, there’s only so much that we can take before we feel discouraged and hopeless. Whereas, “Humor lets you blow off steam,” he said. “What I like best about it as an environmental writer is that humor can be welcoming and self-deprecating. It tells the reader, ‘Hey, I’m not going to preach at you. Let’s figure this out together.’”

In his third book, How to Cuss in Western, Branch cites three forces that sustain him: place, family and humor. Walking thousands of miles each year in the wilderness near his home, Branch developed a deep intimacy with the land.

“The environment is an abstraction we can study, value and manage, but a place is something we can love,” he writes. His work encourages readers to think about and protect the places they love. This love for the land, coupled with his unique humor stylings, enables Branch to connect with people and get them to think about the environment in ways that academic and scientific writing simply cannot.

“Humor is not just something to brush off—it can affect real change,” Branch said, citing recent research that shows humor can be more effective than lectures in changing minds about climate change. “We’re hardwired for stories as a species. And too often, we try to tackle problems with data and information. You would think information would change people’s minds, but it doesn’t; stories change people’s minds. And so, the role of the arts is to translate our challenges and our opportunities into the kinds of narratives that the guy who’s sitting at the bar, who didn’t mean to be there for this event, can’t stop listening to, because a story is being told.”

helped develop ecocriticism, a branch (if you will) of literary criticism that analyzes how the environment is represented in literature. Mid-career, he pivoted to writing humorous creative nonfiction about raising his two daughters with his wife, Eryn, in the Great Basin’s high desert. He cultivated a deep love for this landscape by walking thousands of miles through the hills and canyons surrounding his home.

Given his intimate connection to the land and career as an ecocritic turned humorist, Branch is something like John Muir meets Jon Stewart. With his silver ponytail, neatly groomed facial hair and tall stature, he even looks a bit like a combination of the two.

Branch’s reputation on campus was legend-

Branch was among the founders of the burgeoning ecocriticism field and came to UNR in 1995 to help build a specialty-track master’s and Ph.D. program in literature and environment within the English graduate program. He also co-founded the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and served as book review editor for the journal published by the organization, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE). Branch helmed the graduate program, which had more than 100 students—who are “all over now”— for 16 years.

“It was really a wonderful community, and it meant so much to me,” Branch said. “We helped to build a field, and that made room for a lot of people who wanted to teach this work, to be able to teach it and create a kind of theoretical underpinning that gave it credibility. But I did that work. It has been fun to move on to this second career as a creative writer.”

Branch’s transition to humor writing was spurred by his observation that environmental writing was starting to break down into predictable narratives of anger and grief. Given the

For Branch, being inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame is more than just a celebration of his achievement—it’s a community.

“It’s not just your name on a wall,” he said. “It’s a meaningful network of relationships among writers who nurture and inspire each other.”

Branch has been a part of that community since he received the Hall of Fame’s Silver Pen Award in 2017, an award meant to encourage a writer who has great potential, after publishing his first creative book, Raising Wild: Dispatches From a Home in the Wilderness.

“It really put the wind in my sails and encouraged me,” he said.

While he retired from regular teaching, Branch views his writing as an extension of it. He is currently working on a book about the 31year fight by rural Nevadans against a proposed Las Vegas water grab. This diverse coalition— including tribal members, ranchers, poets and futurists—successfully stopped the project.

“It’s inspiring because there aren’t a lot of clear environmental wins,” Branch said. “This story shows how people organized, fought— and won.”

ART OF THE STATE

Able abstractionist

Painter Nick Noyes has the January show at Savage Mystic, now inside the Potentialist Workshop

Reno artist Nick Noyes works out of a studio at the Potentialist Workshop, painting with vivid color, bold brush strokes and strong abstract images. He works in oil paint, spray paint, pastels, collage, murals, chalk and sculpture. His themes—some whimsical, others serious—engage the viewer on a variety of levels.

Noyes often uses nature—mountain ranges, daisies or sunflowers—as the focal point of his large canvases. One piece features a large skull backed by a vivid bouquet of flowers.

“Flowers are safe,” Noyes said with a smile. “People relate to them, and everyone loves a skull.”

He is currently focused on portrait painting. Many of his portraits are abstract or impressionist, communicating humor and wonder in a swirl of hues, textures and thought-provoking images.

Noyes names Pablo Picasso as one of

Nick Noyes: “AI isn’t a threat to my art. AI can’t express individual emotions or feelings like artists like me.” Photo/David Robert

quintessential millennial. His generation was the first to be born into a life utilizing social media and the wonders of the internet. Yet as an artist, he’s not particularly technology-dependent. He appreciates Instagram and other social media outlets; they can offer great exposure for artists, but he’s not too tempted by (or worried about) artificial intelligence.

“AI isn’t a threat to my art,” he said. “AI can’t express individual emotions or feelings like artists like me.”

An artist’s life can be demanding. The pressure to create and expand one’s craft can be a large hill to climb. The pressure of selling

artwork to pay the bills can be an enormous motivator as well as a harsh mistress. Noyes sees this as a dilemma every artist must confront as the years pass.

Discussing what drives him to continue on this career path, Noyes said: “I don’t have a choice. (I paint) because it’s who I am. It’s what I do.”

Nick Noyes’ solo exhibition Give Me Shelter will be on view at Savage Mystic Art Gallery, now located inside the Potentialist Workshop, at 836 E. Second St., in Reno, from Jan. 1-31. A reception will take place from 6-8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 24. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Visit www. facebook.com/savagemysticart or www.instagram.com/nickjnoyes for more information.

his major influences. Many of his portraits mirror Picasso’s Cubist approach—a person’s eyes, mouth and nose, all on the same face, may be on different planes, angled in different directions.

He’s also intrigued by the way the Spanish painter’s career was catalogued into “periods”—a blue period full of melancholy moods and blue paint, followed by a lighter-hearted, warmer-hued “rose period.” It is this “fluidity” of change over the span of an artist’s lifetime that is especially important for Noyes.

“All artists strive to expand on their work as they grow older and build on their talent,” Noyes said. “I’m just trying to find fusion of the different mediums I use. It’s important not to overwork (your art). Overworking can ruin your best stuff without you even knowing it. You have to be able to step away and contemplate the work, thinking first instead of acting on impulse.”

Born in 1990, Noyes would seem to be the

| BY BOB GRIMM

Music marvels

Timothee Chalamet and his fellow performers make this Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ truly special

The movie surrounding him is merely decent—but Timothee Chalamet is so incredible as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown that he elevates the film.

Under the direction of James Mangold (Walk the Line), Chalamet sings and plays both the guitar and the harmonica as the former Robert Zimmerman, folk legend and rock pioneer.

and singing impeccably as Joan Baez. All the performances are so wonderful that you’ll forgive some of the paint-by-numbers biopic-storytelling issues that sometimes hamper the film.

Chalamet and Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown

has a whole system in place where he speaks to Ethan through an earpiece, essentially making him his hostage. The crafty, icy Bateman can locate Ethan’s loved ones (Nora happens to work at the same airport) and have them killed if Ethan doesn’t do what he says.

What follows is a series of implausible events involving plastic guns, nerve agents, sloppy law enforcement and billions of ways to take cell phones out of play in order to move the plot along. Collet-Serra not only makes things implausible, but very hard to follow.

This fails at becoming something like Die Hard—the clear aspiration—due to a lack of humor and the goofy yet intelligent pacing that makes a good, silly thriller click. This one meanders along as Bateman drones on via an earpiece while Egerton sweats and looks scared. By the midway point of the two-hour movie, things are super-tedious.

Anybody who says Bateman is playing against type as “the traveler” clearly hasn’t seen him in Ozark. He’s played bad guys before, and this one is too understated and drab to be compelling. Egerton tries to make the most out the old “victim with a lot of moxie” trope, but his efforts are ultimately fruitless.

Carry-On is now streaming on Netflix.

The

is looking for new freelance writers—especially talented writers/reporters who have a nose for news. Interested in making a difference in the community—and getting paid to do so? Email a resume and clips/writing samples to krisv@renonr.com!

4 4

The story spans from Dylan’s initial meeting with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger (Scoot McNairy and Edward Norton) to Dylan’s controversial “plugged-in” show at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

You may monitor the actual singing and fingerpicking of Chalamet to convince yourself he’s actually doing it … but there’s no need: I’m telling you he is doing it. Chalamet worked on his playing for five years (including hard work during the pandemic) to perfect his style. His singing voice isn’t a total copy of Dylan’s, but it absolutely captures his spirit and, consequently, channels the legend. He’s a marvel to behold.

Almost just as marvelous is Norton, who does his own banjo-playing and singing as Seeger, and Monica Barbaro, playing guitar

Despite its small flaws, A Complete Unknown winds up being can’t-miss cinema for anybody who values the works of Dylan and his counterparts. Chalamet, Norton and Barbaro are all excellent, each delivering career best work and instantly entering the pantheon of great musical-icon biopic performances.

I hate courtroom dramas. Seriously, I really hate them (apart from My Cousin Vinny). Just keep the damn movies out of the courtroom, OK? It didn’t spark my enthusiasm pants when I found out the possible last film from director Clint Eastwood would be a courtroom drama. I wanted to see him back in the Old West, with people growling and shooting, for a swan song. Nope.

Sorry, Mr. Eastwood; I underestimated you. Your latest, Juror #2, is an awesome courtroom drama, and if it happens to be your last film, it’s a career-capper that stands among your more enjoyable films.

2

It’s Christmas, and a TSA agent (Taron Egerton) is in for a tumultuous workday in Carry-On, a well-intentioned but ultimately boring airport thriller from director Jaume Collet-Serra (Black Adam, Jungle Cruise).

Egerton’s Ethan Kopek has been working for the TSA for three years with no promotion; he has a baby on the way with his significant other, Nora (Sofia Carson), and aspires to be a policeman. He’s been assigned the undesirable holiday shift, where his boss (Dean Norris) is finally going to give him a shot at the screening station, controlling the conveyer belt and looking into people’s bags. It’s a step up, and he’s stoked. However, this Christmas is going to totally suck: A nasty traveler (Jason Bateman) is scheming to get a destructive device through screening and onto a plane. Bateman’s character

How about that Nicholas Hoult, huh? This is the year of the Hoult. Not only is he terrific here as the title character; he’s great in The Order and, oh holy shit, he’s amazing in Nosferatu. Yeah, he was also the voice of Jon in The Garfield Movie, but we’ll let that one slide.

Hoult emotionally destroys as Justin Kemp, a father-to-be who does his darndest to get out of jury duty to tend to his very pregnant wife, Allison (an excellent Zoey Deutch). Despite his efforts, he winds up taking a seat on a homicide trial. He wants to get the trial over with so he can get home fast—but he can’t help but see a hint of innocence in the defendant’s case.

The film becomes a sort of 12 Angry Men with a twist, one that I won’t ruin here. Needless

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Timothee

FILM & TV

to say, it’s not a quick trial, and Justin finds himself in a moral dilemma with multiple dimensions.

Hoult delivers a powerful, nuanced performance in the hands of Eastwood, who has assembled a worthy cast around Hoult. Toni Collette is her typical great self as an attorney looking for a conviction to propel her political career. J.K. Simmons is great as another juror who starts to have his doubts alongside Justin. Chris Messina, Cedric Yarbrough and Leslie Bibb all deliver notable work.

Eastwood’s efforts have been inconsistent in the last 17 years or so. He’s delivered a couple of decent films (Sully, Richard Jewell) and a lot of stinkers (Invictus, Cry Macho, Jersey Boys, J. Edgar and Hereafter, to name a few). Juror #2 is his best film since his World War II double feature (Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers) back in 2006.

Eastwood’s films over the last two decades have often been sloppy and languid, and Juror #2 breaks that trend with a focused, well-paced narrative along-

side Hoult’s powerhouse work. Eastwood’s soundtracks often include some of his not-sogreat piano noodling, but he stays away from that here and just kills it with the narrative.

Juror #2 is a true end-of-the-year surprise, a courtroom drama that is unpredictable and tensely paced—something notable from one of the old masters. Hoult probably won’t get an Academy Award, and neither will Eastwood (the competition at the top will be a little fierce), but this will act as a nice trampoline into the next phase of Hoult’s career, and it’s a solid possible finale for Clint Eastwood. It’s so much better than his previous film, Cry Macho. I’m thinking this movie happened because of how bad Cry Macho was. Eastwood needed to wrap it up with a good one.

On a final note, I still hate courtroom dramas. This is a rare exception, so don’t go thinking I endorse the genre.

Juror #2 is available via various streaming services.

Another year, another really good Beatles documentary—this time chronicling their first foray into that little thing we call the United States.

Rebecca Koon, Nicholas Hoult and Cedric Yarbrough in Juror #2.

Beatles ’64, on Disney+, covers well-worn territory, but this Martin Scorsese-produced documentary pulls some rare footage from that particular road trip shot by documentarians Albert and David Maysles. Combined with archival interviews, more-recent interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and post-Beatles interviews with John Lennon and George Harrison, there’s something here for even the most ardent fans.

While the music from the beginning of their catalog isn’t my favorite, it’s always fun to see them when they were just starting out and happy as hell. This is before the crazy tours that led them to rule out live shows, and before Lennon got into the hard stuff. Heck, this might be the last time George Harrison cracked a smile on a regular basis. By ’66, he was scowling a lot.

Director David Tedeschi gives us about 17 minutes of never-seen-before footage, and the old stuff has been reborn through—yep, you guessed it—the same technology Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films has been using on the recent wave of Beatles nostalgia films and videos. The black-and-white footage looks like it was shot yesterday. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen George Harrison’s teeth in such great detail. Again, he was smiling a lot in those days.

John Lennon is wisecracking; Ringo Starr looks gobsmacked; George Harrison is all snarky and chipper; and Paul McCartney is just being Paul. (I mean, the guy has always been the same as far as mannerisms go, through all the decades, and I love him for that.)

I will never grow tired of this sort of thing. Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Paul and Ringo: Please keep scouring the archives for stuff we haven’t seen yet; polish it up; and put it out there to be consumed.

Beatles ’64 is now streaming on Disney+.

A scene from Beatles ’64

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Are you knowledgeable about the local food and drink scene? The RN&R is seeking a writer to compile the monthly Taste of the Town column. The job involves keeping an eye on the scene; doing research; writing clear, direct prose in news-publication style; and rounding up photos, all on a monthly deadline.

This is NOT a restaurant review position, but if you are a skilled, experienced food or drink reviewer, we’d welcome your inquiry.

To apply, email Kris Vagner at krisv@renonr.com. Please include links to 1-2 published articles or a writing sample that best conveys your tone and style.

Openings

Birdeez—a new entertainment center featuring indoor mini golf, high-tech darts, two bars and a restaurant—opened on Dec. 10 at 151 N. Sierra St., in downtown Reno. The appetizer menu features bar foods both classic (chicken wings) and innovative (mushroom queso). Birdeez also serves 26 beers on tap, creative craft cocktails, soups, salads, burgers and weekend brunch. Reservations are recommended, especially during peak hours and weekends; learn more at birdeezreno.com.

El Super, a grocery chain with stores in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Las Vegas, opened a Northern Nevada location at 1901 Silverada Blvd., in Reno, in November. The warehouse-sized store, in the spot formerly occupied by Sak ’N Save, features full-service grocery, bakery, butcher and produce departments, and a hot-food counter. El Super makes fresh tortillas and several varieties of tamales daily—and the tamale station is conveniently located right inside the front entrance! Learn more at elsupermarkets.com.

Following the closure of Graze Craze in Reno, another branch of the franchise charcuterie-board retailer is now open in Sparks, at 2399 Wingfield Hills Road, Suite 110. The shop offers made-to-order charcuterie boards featuring visually appealing arrangements of meats, cheeses, bread, fresh fruits, veggies, sweets and more. Order for pickup, delivery or catering at www.grazecraze.com/sparks-nv.

Closures

Bam! Dog closed its brick-and-mortar location at 5000 Smithridge Drive, in Reno, after eight years in business. According to the website, the owners continue to operate the Bam! Dog food truck, which serves dressed-up hot dogs and sausages (including a veggie option) and tater tots at events, and also does catering. For details, visit www.bamdoghotdogs.com/food-truck.

Fourk Kitchen, located at 4991 S. Virginia St., in Reno, has closed. The eatery, which specialized in serving prix fixe, new American dinners, initially announced it would close permanently on Dec. 31—but it actually closed in mid-December.

Restaurant and sports bar The Fe, which opened in October 2023, closed in December. Located in the historic Santa Fe Hotel building at 235 Lake St., in downtown Reno, The Fe served modernized, small-plate versions of classic Basque food.

News

Amer Picon, the bitter liqueur that’s a building block of Picon punch, has been TASTE

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LIQUID CONVERSATIONS

Sublime sober sips

Dry January does not have to be boring; here are some delicious NA recommendations

Here we are again, entering the bright light of a new year—and for some, taking a break from drinking in January is the best way to start those resolutions right.

Maybe you had too much merriment over the holidays, and you want to start your new year with a clearer head. Maybe a little voice says it’s time to pause on the booze. But just because you are taking a break doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have incredible drinks.

Lucky for you, we live in the golden era of nonalcoholic options, and your friendly neighborhood drinks columnist loves to share his recommendations.

The Pathfinder

Not all nonalcoholic spirits are created equal. In fact, there are a ton of underwhelming products on the market that are off in flavor and hard to use. A great nonalcoholic spirit shouldn’t be “good for an NA”; it should be good enough on its own that it doesn’t need the qualifier.

The Pathfinder is a well-made, bitter, herbal-based spirit. Its base liquid is fermented with hemp and left to steep with wormwood, angelica root, ginger, sage, juniper, saffron, orange peel and Douglas fir. It is bold enough to build a cocktail around, but clever enough in its ingredients to be a great addition to other drinks. Of all the NA

Craft

spirits I have tried, this is the only one where I’d take a shot. It is excellent in a spritz or to lower the alcohol content of a negroni, but my favorite Pathfinder drink is a mojito: Just replace the rum with Pathfinder, and thank me later.

Deschutes Black Butte Porter NA

The world of NA beer has grown exponentially. According to data from industry analyst Circana, nonalcoholic beer sales reached nearly $368.7 million in 2023, a 29.2% increase over 2022 sales. Most of your favorite breweries are scrambling to make NA beer to meet this demand; some are doing it better than others. While I enjoy things made specifically for the NA market, sometimes I just want a beer I know and love.

Very few beers scream “January in the mountains” like Deschutes Black Butte Porter, and luckily, the brewery knew we teetotalers needed some. Nutty and bold but refreshing enough to enjoy a few, this porter is perfect for winter stews or mountain views.

Ghia Le Fizz

When someone tells me they are dabbling in sobriety, I always ask: What are you drinking that you love? Sharing what is delicious helps keep alive that communal feeling you get from enjoying a bottle with someone. Large-format drinks can be perfect to bringing to parties

| BY MICHAEL MOBERLY

shows off examples of the shop’s extensive selection of NA beers, wines and cocktails.

where you may be a little nervous about being sober; this way, people can taste what you are enjoying, and get in on the NA fun.

Ghia Le Fizz is the newest addition to the Ghia line, whose products are bold, complex and, without a doubt, made for cocktail enthusiasts. The Ghia line also features four canned carbonated cocktails in their Le Spritz line that are perfect for single-serving drinkers or if you are looking to try different sparkling cocktail flavors. The Ghia Le Fizz cocktail comes in a classic 750-milliliter wine bottle, yielding four cocktails. Le Fizz tastes like they carbonated a strawberry while it was making out with a mandarin orange in an herb garden.

St. Agrestis Phony Espresso Negroni

The world of NA RTD (or “ready-to-drink”) cocktails is challenging. There are some with fantastic packaging and interesting-sounding flavors … that taste like muddy old socks. It’s tough to make an NA RTD that is more than just a soda pop or an herbal tea, so when I taste an RTD that is pitch-perfect in execution and concept, and it’s nonalcoholic, that’s a reason to celebrate.

The St. Agrestis Phoney Negroni line is exceptional. You get all the notes of a negroni with none of the work or alcohol. The bottles are an easy single-serving of 6.76 ounces, and the bottle is as stylish as it is delicious. Each variation in the Phoney Negroni series keeps getting better, and the espresso version is a balanced, easy-to-drink, perfectly executed cocktail. Just open it, and pour it over ice. The ease, the flavor—this is the future.

Fritz Müller Alkoholfrei

After I quit drinking, the thing I missed the most in the world of alcohol was wine. A glass of crisp, dry white wine in the shower is something every human should enjoy.

The Fritz Müller Alkoholfrei is everything I miss about white wine: It’s light, with crisp apple, Meyer lemon and subtle floral flavors— and just a hint of sweetness. It is made in the traditional German style and then dealcoholized using reverse osmosis. It’s perfect for oysters, or potato chips with caviar—and ideal for shower time, too. My favorite part about this wine is that when I serve it to non-sober folks, they are baffled that anything NA could taste this good.

Everything featured here is available for purchase in Reno; our friends at Craft Wine & Beer sell all five. And don’t hesitate to ask your favorite bar or restaurant to stock these excellent products. The more we ask for NA options, the more we see them out in the world.

Wine & Beer employee Carrie Pope

Photo/David Robert

Rack ’em and stack ’em

To

keep your wine from spoiling, which can happen quickly, proper storage is key

As the holiday season winds down, many of us find ourselves with an abundance of gifted wine. While this is a delightful problem to have, it raises two important questions: How should we store our wine at home, and why does proper storage matter?

Light and heat can damage wine, rendering it undrinkable in as little as three hours. Heat damage can significantly impact wine quality through various mechanisms, including physical and chemical changes, that can cause the wine to have off flavors and aromas resembling stewed fruit, vinegar or cooked prunes. This damage can start at temperatures as low as 70 degrees.

Sunlight can significantly damage wine, primarily due to its ultraviolet (UV) rays. The phenomenon known as “light strike” can happen quickly, with clear bottles

taking only three hours of sun exposure to show damage. Light-struck wines develop off flavors described as “rotten egg,” “cooked cabbage” or “wet dog.”

Contrary to popular belief, most wines aren’t meant for long-term aging. The image of dusty, centuries-old bottles being brought up from a cellar can apply to only about 1 percent of the world’s finest wines. In reality, most red wines are best consumed within three to five years, while white wines peak at one to three years. That isn’t a long time—and to ensure wine stays good for even this short amount of time, you have to store it correctly.

You should store your wine in a cool, dark location away from sunlight and heat sources. This location should maintain a consistent temperature around 55 degrees and have a humidity level between 60 and 68% to prevent cork-dry-

| BY STEVE NOEL

If you have a large budget, nothing beats a custom-built, temperature-controlled wine cellar—but if you don’t, there are plenty of other workable options. Photo/ David Robert

ing. Ideally, the bottles should be placed on their side to keep the corks moist. The perfect place for this is a cave or wine cellar. Unfortunately, most of us do not have either of these—so what are our options?

If you have a large budget and are a serious wine-drinker, nothing beats a custom-built, temperature-controlled wine cellar. (While they’re called cellars, few of them are actually underground here in Reno.) Most are well-insulated rooms with dedicated cooling units to maintain the proper humidity and temperature. With one of these in your home, you can collect a lot of wine, protect your investment and impress your friends.

Of course, most of us don’t have the money to construct a new room; wine refrigerators are much more affordable. Small 12- to 24-bottle units can be purchased for $200 or less. Units storing more than 80 bottles run $1,000 or more, and if you need to store more expensive bottles, you can spend in excess of $10,000 for a luxury unit. Wine refrigerators will keep your wine at a consistent temperature, but only the more expensive units provide humidity.

In our climate, a great option is using an off-site wine-storage location—essentially, humidity- and climate-controlled self-storage units for wine. Smaller sizes that will allow you to store a few cases of wine can cost around $20 per month, while walk-in units for hundreds of bottles can cost hundreds of dollars a month. Some of these facilities include additional amenities and benefits like private event areas or a private wine tasting lounge.

As attractive as these previous options are, most people keep just a few bottles of wine at home. You can always store a few bottles in your regular refrigerator. This will keep them at a consistent temperature, helping to keep the wine drinkable. A word of caution: Corks can dry out after a couple of months.

If you keep too much food in your refrigerator to store your wine there, find a place where the temperature changes the least, like locations under stairs and closets located on interior walls. To help further moderate the changes, you can place your wine in a cooler. Even a little extra insulation can help.

By understanding the importance of proper wine storage and choosing a method that fits your needs and budget, you can ensure that the bottles you open—be they casual, weeknight pours or special-occasion vintages—taste delightful as intended.

Here’s to preserving those holiday wine gifts for future enjoyment!

TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN

continued from Page 22

scarce for the better part of the last halfyear, following post-COVID-19 supply-chain issues that made the required botanicals harder to acquire. Reno’s Ferino Distillery, which specializes in Italian-style cordials, announced via social media on Dec. 12 that it had received the go-ahead to use the recipe from Torani, Amer’s recent U.S. producer, to begin making the product under its own branding in April 2025. From Ferino’s posts: “We’re honored to take on this responsibility. The recipe and the bottle you love will stay the same, and we’re dedicated to preserving its legacy while supporting the Basque restaurants and communities that keep it alive.”

Happenings

On Monday, Jan. 20, the Food Bank of Northern Nevada will host the MLK National Day of Service All-Ages Event to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to sort and pack nonperishable food items and bulk produce for distribution. The event will take place at the food bank’s warehouse at 550 Italy Drive, in Sparks. Volunteers are asked to check in between noon and 12:30 p.m. and wear closed-toed shoes. The volunteer session will be preceded by a presentation on the legacy of MLK, and light refreshments will be provided. For additional information, contact coordinator Jessica Vela at jvela@ fbnn.org.

The Nevada Society of Scottish Clans’ annual Robert Burns Celebration honors the memory of Scotland’s national poet and draws around 600 attendees from Nevada and California, making it one of the largest such events of its kind on the West Coast. This year’s celebration will take place on Saturday, Jan. 25, in the ballroom at the Grand Sierra Resort, 2500 E. Second St., in Reno, beginning with a whiskey tasting at 4 p.m., and with dinner (featuring, of course, Scotland’s national dish, haggis) at 6 p.m. Tickets are $103 for adults, and $30 for children 12 and younger. For tickets and details, visit nvssc.org. Have local food, drink or restaurant news? Email foodnews@renonr.com.

—Kris Vagner

MUSICBEAT

Outlaw tales

The members of Buckshot honor country legends as they prepare to release their debut album

A group of Reno rockers are channeling country-music greats.

Buckshot, the local five-piece outlaw-country group, only has a few singles out so far, but their style and sound have captivated audiences both local and beyond. Honoring the likes of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams, the band brings classic country to the modern era. Blistering, treble-y guitars and pattering drums dominate the scorched Western vibe of the band’s music, while the lyrics often meld poetics and storytelling.

Buckshot is set to release their debut album in January, with a free release show planned for 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31 at The Alpine. For more information, visit www. instagram.com/buckshot.775.

The band got its start in a maintenance shop at the University of Nevada, Reno, of all places.

“A lot of the guys played in other bands before, and I was never in a band, but I

worked with all of them in maintenance at UNR,” said lead singer Jordan Dicus during a recent phone interview. “I went to seminary for a year and started learning some songs and writing music, and when I came back, I started playing my music in the shop. Julio (Giraldo) heard me playing my songs, and he goes, ‘Hey, we should start a band,’ so I said, ‘All right, sounds good.’ We got Vince (Keller), and we got another drummer who is not with us anymore, and then we picked up Greg (Lucero), and then eventually Patrick (Klekas) on the keys. It kind of just fell into place.”

A lot of modern country music is pop-driven, with catchy hooks and big production. Dicus grew up listening to older country music, and he wanted to bring that style to today’s music landscape.

“I grew up listening to Hank Jr. and David Allen Coe and all the old outlaws and the classics, so that was always an inspiration for me,” Dicus said. “Obviously, a lot of the new guys in the scene right now, like Colter Wall

and Cody Jinks, they have a distinct style that’s different than a lot of the pop country. These old cowboys singing songs of the West and life out when it’s hard—that’s always resonated with me, so it was pretty easy to pick that up.”

Dicus had a lot of praise for the local country-music scene in Reno, and talked about how Buckshot’s formula of crafting outlaw jams helped the band find their place in the scene.

“I would say there are a handful of bands out here that are really taking on the outlaw country, more old style of country music in Reno,” Dicus said. “… It’s a good scene to fit into, because other guys are doing it as well. However, each band has a distinct style—like Mr. Johnson and His Loaded Dice are very traditional country, and High Desert Habit is another one that’s more rock ’n’ roll tunes. We’re kind of in the middle of that. We have some folk; we’ve got some Southern rock; we’ve got outlaw country, so it’s a whole mix. Right now in Nevada, that’s something that’s on the come-up, and it’s distinct from the stuff

| BY MATT KING

you’d find on the Top 10 list.”

The members of Buckshot have encountered fans both locally and out of town who have been blown away by the band’s appreciation for, and replication of, older country.

“Honestly, it’s pretty cool seeing fans’ reactions when we’re done, because they’re like, ‘Holy shit; you guys are local, and this is awesome,’” Dicus said. “A lot of the times, it’s (happened) when we’ve been opening for bigger guys than us. We opened for Redferrin and Moonshine Bandits and David Morris, and all those fans became our fans, so that was awesome. Even traveling to Montana and Utah with Jake Jacobson and opening for him, all those fans (started following us), too; they’re like, ‘Wow, this is the good stuff.’”

Even though finding time to record in the studio can be difficult with adult life, the band is finally ready to release their debut album this month.

“We’re working over at Imirage Sound Lab Studio with a guy named Cole Halvorsen, so we just got dates from him, and we made it work,” Dicus said. “Obviously, we’ve been playing our music for however long, so we went into the studio pretty tight and stuff. It was a matter of just making the time with work. We all have normal jobs with work and families and whatnot.”

The band’s upcoming album explores more thematic storytelling—something hinted at by Buckshot’s first three singles—while providing a varied country-music listening experience.

“Each song tells a story,” Dicus said. “You listen to Marty Robbins and those old-school guys; they’re all telling stories, what you would sit around the campfire telling when you’re working cows.

“When people listen to our music, they’re going to hear about heartache, about outlaw tales, and obviously some good, upbeat dance and drinking tunes. It’s a darker side of country and life in general, but it’s good stuff, and some of it’s poetic.”

Dicus promised that Buckshot’s country sound will continue to be authentic and faithful, even as the times change.

“In the midst of country music taking on a big pop and even hip-hop (vibe), it’s important to not get away from the roots of country, and I feel like we do that well in our music, and stay true to those old outlaws who came before us and really made a difference in the music scene in country music.”

Buckshot will perform at 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31 at The Alpine, 324 E. Fourth St., in Reno. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/buckshot.775.

Buckshot. Photo/David Robert

MUSICBEAT

Desert rock from Berlin

German rockers Samavayo bring their desert-influenced music to the U.S. for the first time

A well-known German stoner-rock band is making its way to the United States for the first time.

The rock heavyweights of Samavayo have been fortifying a doomy, fuzzy, fast brand of hard-hitting jams for more than 25 years. Their balls-to-the-wall, speedy and riff-tastic sound has blasted beyond the band’s home of Berlin, earning the band fans across Germany and the rest of the world. Despite being many, many miles from the heart of the desert-rock scene, the band takes inspiration from the originators of desert rock, carrying a down-tuned, fiery vibe into their song creations.

Samavayo is heading to the United States on a seven-date tour, with a stop on Saturday, Jan. 25, at Lo-Bar Social.

During a recent Zoom interview with vocalist and guitarist Behrang Alavi, he discussed how Kyuss’ albums changed the course of Germany’s music scene.

“Samavayo is probably one of the oldest bands active in Germany,” Alavi said. “We started doing music in 2000, and there are not many bands that people in this genre know from Germany. We started when we were 18 to 19 years old, and we had a rehearsal room close to some older folks who were doing some really heavy music. They came from a sort of Pearl Jam kind of music, but they had a really heavy tone. It was at that time when our friends in Berlin, Germa-

ny, started spreading around Kyuss LPs, and we started listening to that music. I think each one of us fell in love with this kind of metal, with a lot of bass and groove.”

The band started tapping into other bands of the desert-rock scene, like Monster Magnet and Queens of the Stone Age. Indie labels and underground festivals helped Samavayo become part of a rising tide of desert-rock popularity in Germany.

“We didn’t know it yet, but there were labels like Nasoni and Elektrohasch, pretty active labels, doing this kind of music and also bringing American bands to the German market, all on a pretty independent level,” Alavi said. “We started doing music, and we got connected to the people who are doing probably the most important stoner rock festival in Germany, which is a crew called Caligula 666; they do the Stoned From the Underground festival. We played there in 2004, and in those times, it was a really small scene. … Nowadays, we have lots of huge stoner-rock festivals in Germany, like 20 or 30 different ones. In those years, we were one of the first bands.”

Samavayo’s tour spans California, Arizona and Nevada, with one stop being at Las Vegas Planet Desert Rock Weekend, a festival celebrating stoner, desert and other heavy rock genres.

“It’s our first time ever playing in the states,” Alavi said. “We had some weird tours, like in Brazil 10 years ago, and we played in different countries like Greece and Albania and (across)

Europe, way before other bands explored it, but we never managed to come to the States. The root of the whole U.S. tour is the request from John Gist from the Las Vegas Planet Desert Rock Weekend. He had already asked us five or six years ago, but it was pretty spontaneous, and we didn’t manage to make it happen. This time, he asked … at the beginning of 2024. We had a lot of time to decide what we’re going to do with this request, and we quickly confirmed it and tried to check if we can do more than just this one show in Vegas.

After being enthralled with the mythos of the desert for more than 25 years, Samavayo got help on their tour from desert-rock pioneer Mario Lalli, of Yawning Man and Fatso Jetson fame.

“We just started listening to Kyuss, and from that, we went on, of course, to listen to Yawning Man and other bands,” Alavi said. “That’s why it’s pretty special to have Mario Lalli helping us with these shows. … Being one of our idols of our youth, now he’s helping us out with booking shows. The connection to Mario is through the fact that we are on the same booking agency, which is Sound of Liberation. … My wife was a booker of Sound of Liberation. She quit two years ago, but she was very well connected to Mario, and said he’s a really awesome, nice guy. … I sent him an email and said, ‘Hey, you know my wife has been the booker, and we know each other from festivals. Could you help us out?’ He was, unexpectedly, easy to access, really quick to answer and just

helped us out.”

BY MATT KING

Lalli is a godfather of desert rock, as it was his generator that started the era of the desert generator shows that birthed stoner rock—yet he is always looking to help out fellow artists.

“I find it awesome when people are so well-connected and have these options to help other bands out,” Alavi said. “He has to help us with the merch we’re sending; he helps us with equipment; he gives us a lot of advice about where to rent the van. … He’s helping us out on different levels of this whole tour happening, so without him, I don’t think there would have been a tour.”

The band is celebrating 25 years, and their first U.S. tour is a great way to celebrate. Alavi explained how the band has stayed together for so long.

“You have to be like experiencing new stuff and doing new stuff,” he said. “Just playing around the same cities and places each year is going to get boring after a while, so doing these kinds of experiments, going somewhere, investing a bit of money and trying to do a tour in America or maybe some region you haven’t been before, is one thing that is good for us.

“The other one is, every two or three years, we release a Christmas song where we sing really traditional Christmas stuff, which is just fun. It doesn’t have anything to do with being a stoner-rock band. We released a ‘White Christmas’ cover as a trio, like everyone singing a classical voice of a choir. This kind of stuff is a bit weird, a bit funny, and it just brings you out of that thing that you’ve been doing for over two decades.”

Alavi said Samavayo loves playing live, and wants to continue playing for as long as physically possible.

“The music, the way we play, is pretty intense and physical,” he said. “We’re one of those sweaty bands that really move on the stage, not just stay there and jam for an hour, so it’s also a question of, ‘How old can we be playing this kind of music?’ … There are still a lot of things to achieve, like personal goals, and some festivals we’ve never played before, and some countries we’ve never been to. This is also a job. We’re not hobby musicians. Each one of us has a main job, and the other one is a musician, so there is a certain degree of professionalism. To get these two together is not always easy, but we managed it for 25 years—and I think we were going to move on still for a lot of years to come.”

Samavayo will be performing at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 25, with Shotgun Sawyer and The Happy Trails at Lo-Bar Social, 445 California Ave., in Reno. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.samavayo.com.

Samavayo.

JONESIN' CROSSWORD

| BY MATT JONES

“Centers of Attention”—literally and figuratively.

By Matt Jones

14. Kinder chocolate biscuit bar

16. NYC mayor Ed Koch’s greeting (or just a question of evaluation)

18. “Rags-to-riches” author Horatio 19. Hoppy concoction 20. Western Nevada body of water with distinctive rock structures sticking out

22. Vice ___ 24. Pitcher’s asset

25. Indian lentil dish

26. In ___ (basically)

27. X in the Greek alphabet

30. Those running leisurely 32. Slow the progress of

35. The “V” in CV

36. CBS panel show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson

39. Book with routes

40. Shetlands, e.g.

41. Endocrinologist’s concerns

43. Racing driver Verstappen

44. Petty squabble

48. Gobble up

49. Wanted poster abbr.

51. Overwhelmingly

52. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. nickname, with “The”

57. Yucatan yell

58. Goosebumps author R. L.

59. Centers represented by the circled letters

61. Grades

62. “___ least consider the possibility”

63. 30 Rock co-star Baldwin

64. Excitebike gaming platform

65. Faucets

66. Neighbor of Cygnus and Draco

THE LUCKY 13

Lav Andula

Solo musician and bassist for thiscouldneverwork

Down

1. Act properly

2. French academies

3. Shrinks in fear

4. Dutch airline that’s three letters in a row

5. A Black ___ Sketch Show

6. Frankenstein assistant

7. Opera highlight 8. ___ 1/2 (classic manga)

9. Ship bottom 10. Dave Mustaine thrash metal band

11. Basic gold unit

14. Basis for an MST3K episode, generally 15. Vague caveat 17. Linguist’s notation system, for short 21. Non-virtual, for short

23. Vegan food also called “wheat gluten”

27. Lifeguard training subj.

28. Burlap base

29. Take the cake, for example

31. Complete mess

33. “___ et messieurs ...”

34. Mrs. Garrett on The Facts of Life

36. Like Chris Tucker and Ed Helms, by birth

37. Reason to pull over

38. Overrule

39. Type of hiring discrimination

42. Winter Olympics item

45. “We can hope!”

46. Move unsteadily

47. Coke-owned citrus soft drink

50. Take the blame for

51. Word following tech or crypto

53. Tattoo parlor stock

54. Opera set near the Nile

55. Letters on a vaccine for whooping cough (among other things)

56. Chooses (to)

60. Consequent ending?

© 2024 Matt Jones

Find the answers in the “About” section at RenoNR.com!

Reno artist Lav Andula invites you into the world of dark, hypnotic trap. Glitches, feedback, effect loops, pounding sounds and deep beats are all found in Andula’s music, making the artist one of the most creative and stylistically fresh local musicians. The combination of dark sounds, synthy experiments and catchy beats is often described as “witch house.” Andula also plays bass for Reno group thiscouldneverwork. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/lav__andula/.

What was the first concert you attended?

The Matches and a Nashville band called Born Empty. I really liked the Myspace-era deep cuts as a kid. It was at a crusty Christian venue basement that only booked screamo. Everyone I talked to for two weeks sounded like they inhaled helium.

What was the first album you owned?

Jennifer Lopez, This Is Me … Then or Britney Spears, Oops!... I Did It Again. I alternated between those and my sisters’ NWA, System of a Down and various nu metal/punk albums.

| BY MATT KING

What bands are you listening to right now?

Imogen Heap, Kilbourne, Tymon, Dagga, Pharmakon, Sega Bodega, Blind Girls and John Prine.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? Mitski. I don’t trust anyone who listens to Mitski on purpose.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? Pharmakon. Lingua Ignota (again) or Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter. Chelsea Wolfe. Emma Ruth Rundle. Coucou Chloe. Sega Bodega. Dreamcrusher.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Guilty pleasures are a psyop collab by Pitchfork.com and the Catholic church to gatekeep the good shit. Kill the part of you that feels guilty about pleasure.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I don’t like venues. I like events that risk eviction and/or arrest. Tunnels. Warehouses. Corporate locations that are for sure getting someone fired. House shows.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“Adam Driver how about you park the car,” Queef Jerky, “UNDERGROUND.”

What band or artist changed your life? How? Seeing Lingua Ignota live altered the trajectory of my life. I learned to leave my body and let the music possess me during performances.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? Girl Pusher: DID YOU FIND THE dang AMBULANCE OR NOT?

What song would you like played at your funeral?

I want some no-input harsh noise wall, a country artist, a pop star, a nu metal band, screamo and all of my friends’ bands, playing at the same time. Then, hard techno music until 10 a.m. Why, are you going to kill me? I hope you have the funds; this will be an expensive funeral.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? OK wow ... you are going to kill me. My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is the best album of all time; I do not care.

What song should everyone listen to right now? Imogen Heap, “Headlock.”

Daphne DeLeon

Nevada State Railroad Museum director

To Daphne DeLeon, trains aren’t just trains—they’re symbols of American history and innovation. She’s the new director of the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. DeLeon has a master’s degree in history and archival management from the University of California, Riverside, and previously worked for Nevada’s bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Nevada State Archives. Learn more about the museum at www. carsonrailroadmuseum.org.

How did you get involved with the railroad museum?

The museum has a long history of managing educational and cultural-heritage programs. I’m trained as an archivist, and when I first came to Nevada in 2007, I served as a state librarian, and in those years from 2007 to 2016, I got a good idea of the depth of the history here in Nevada, and how sometimes it’s overlooked. So when I knew that this position was opening at the State Railroad Museum in Carson City, I jumped at the opportunity to apply, because it’s a perfect opportunity to highlight the value and depth of Nevada history.

Had you been interested in trains before? No, and that’s what’s interesting about being here in Nevada. I’ve been exposed to the fascination of history in motion. Being able to see a locomotive moving as it operated 150 years ago, hear it, smell it and

| BY DAVID ROBERT

ride on it—that’s what drove me to apply to become the director of the museum.

What is the allure with trains?

Is it some kind of Old West romanticism?

The West is very much iconic of the American identity abroad and throughout the U.S. Once you get onsite, and you see the locomotives, your visceral reaction to them—of their size and their ability to still operate—it’s fascinating, because you can see the mechanics; you can look at the exhibit and understand how it works. So much of our mechanics nowadays is hidden and driven by computers. If you look at your car, sometimes you can’t even see where many parts of the engine are, because it’s all encapsulated.

If you look at the American identity, the foundation, its movement and migration— the railroad arrived in Nevada in 1867. The V&T railroad started operating between Carson City and Virginia City in 1869. Actually, interestingly enough, it was the Gold Rush in California that brought the need for a transcontinental railway to be built, and the Central Pacific was chosen as the railroading company in California. …

I think people forget or sometimes don’t realize that when the railroads were at their height, they were at the leading edge of innovation and the leading edge of technology, and based on those mechanics of the steam engine, it was the foundation for our manufacturing industry today.

One thing that makes us very different here at the Railroad Museum in Carson City is that we restore, to operating condition, our locomotives in-house with our staff. We don’t outsource them at all, so we grow that knowledge here in Nevada. … Book learning needs to be complemented by hands-on learning, and that’s the way you find and inspire innovation. I believe that we have a role here at the Railroad Museum in Carson City to be able to provide that hands-on experience to our K-12—or even our K-20—students here in Nevada.

What do you think the future holds for the railroad in Nevada?

I think there’s always a place for railroading as we see it now in modern days, because there’s always a need to move freight—and to a lesser extent, passengers—in a very economical way, especially with the weather and the terrain that we have here. In terms of railroading history here in Nevada, I think it is emblematic of the development not only of Nevada, but of the U.S. in terms of the movement of freight and people … I think there is always going to be a role for railroads in the modern U.S., and the history will always be relevant.

Our building will be closed as we undergo a major renovation, but we’ll continue to share the stories of Nevada’s past through Nevada Historical Society On The Go! off-site events. In conjunction with community partners, we’ll host fascinating programs and exhibitions at venues throughout the community. Check the website for events and locations.