The Trump administration sure got busy defunding art and culture programming. Among other cuts, it gutted the National Endowment for the Humanities—which, for the state, means the loss of 75% of Nevada Humanities’ annual budget.
It has been widely rumored that the National Endowment for the Arts is next on the chopping block. As of press time, no news has been released on this front, but with a significant part of Nevada’s arts and culture programming already slashed, it’s as good of a time as any to consider what arts spending means for communities.
As a longtime arts reporter, I’ve heard many people express a belief that arts funding seems wasteful. But consider this: The money that governments spend on arts and culture programming does not evaporate into thin air. It gets invested right back into communities, and it generates a substantial amount of tax revenue.
Arts organizations spend money to produce events; patrons spend money to attend events; and many people spend money on related costs like eating out before a show. Together, these generated $156 million in Nevada in local, state and federal tax revenue in 2022, according to a study by Americans for the Arts—not bad when compared to the $2 million-plus that has been allocated to our state’s two major arts agencies in recent years.
For countless people, the arts make life better in one way or another. (And in Nevada, there were almost 9 million visits to art events in 2022—not bad for a state with a population of 3.2 million.)
Who out there doesn’t have a movie, a song or a book that has spoken to you, or even spoken for you, that has kept you holding on in hard times? But even if you don’t, the arts industry actually puts a lot of food on a lot of tables in this state—and investments in the art resonate far and wide in the form of public revenue.
LETTERS
Put the brakes on Jiffy Lube plans
Readers of the RN&R may have heard about the recent Jiffy Lube controversy in the Hunter Lake area. Residents, including parents of schoolchildren, are fighting a plan by a developer to build a Jiffy Lube at the corner of Mayberry and Hunter Lake drives.
This is not a good idea. The proposed oil-change operation would create a serious safety hazard for local children, who range from primary students to high schoolers. It would be built at a key street crossing used by students of Hunter Lake Elementary, Swope Middle School and Reno High School. In fact, the Jiffy Lube would be located fully inside the Hunter Lake school zone. If allowed by the city, this in-and-out auto-service center would increase the risk of more traffic and threats to the safety of students and other pedestrians.
So far, more than 700 citizens have expressed their opposition to the plan via the Planning Commission website. Residents also spoke out at a packed meeting of the Ward 2 Neighborhood Advisory Board at Reno City Hall in mid-April, during
Email letters to letters@renonr.com
which the developer did little to allay residents’ concerns. Parents, children and other residents later demonstrated at the site, carrying signs like, “Put the Brakes on Jiffy Lube,” “Stay Out of Our School Zone” and “Put Children’s Safety First,” as shown on various media outlets. It is disappointing that residents were not welcomed by city planners to take part in the approval/denial process. A particularly egregious aspect is that the city’s neighborhood commercial regulations were loosened to favor developers only recently, in January 2025. How convenient for them—and how inconsiderate toward the neighborhood’s residents.
David Moore Reno
What does Trump spend on vacations?
In reply to “Trump vibes are coming in hot in Nevada this week,” RN&R Editor’s Newsletter, April 10: What do we know about the cost of Trump’s golf trips, and how much money his family is raking in at Mar-a-Lago, since he won’t use Camp David? How much is his travel costing U.S. taxpayers while he continues to cut important programs and departments?
Shannon Windle Reno
Donald Trump is a market manipulator
A failed businessman responsible for six bankruptcies, Donald Trump has, nevertheless, proven to be an expert market manipulator. Markets plunged 10% on April 3 and 4 in response to his steadfast resolve to raise tariffs. Then they jumped nearly the same amount April 8 and 9 as he delayed the tariffs for 90 days. How many of Trump’s associates, or even Trump himself, bought up stocks April 7, when they were low, and unloaded them later, to score a tidy, effortless profit?
While this reeks of insider trading and governmental corruption, some would shrug with, “The markets aren’t the economy.” But rapid policy fluctuations do more than manipulate the markets; they degrade our national economy.
Our economic supremacy is built on trust, honesty and consistency, which gives investors’ confidence that their reasons for investing here will continue as anticipated. Trump’s manipulations create uncertainty, which lowers our status as a safe investment country.
Bruce Joffe Via RenoNR.com
—KRIS VAGNER krisv@renonr.com
Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263, Cathedral City, CA 92234 • 775-324-4440 • RenoNR.com
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Managing Editor
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Editor at Large
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Contributors
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GUEST COMMENT
Nevada’s future depends on fully funding our schools
Imagine you work in a one-star school in an underserved community in Las Vegas. Although you have a building full of passionate, talented educators, your test scores do not reflect the awesomeness of your students. It may be the large number of English language learners. It may be because of COVID-19. It may be because students are coming to school hungry, or their parents work two jobs to provide for them, so they don’t have help at home.
Regardless, your principal decides that your school needs an all-hands-on-deck approach. A schoolwide push with intervention groups begins. Every English Language Arts classroom teaches phonics from the same program. You create a reading skills cen ter that serves the struggling English-language learners. Everyone is part of the effort and does their job with fidelity and a drive to help these students succeed.
After one full year with this program, you have raised your rating from one to three stars. The staff, students and families are celebrating. Your school is now floating on a cloud of joy. This lasts until the reality of the next year’s budget hits. Now we’re facing drastic budget cuts, losing most of our coaching staff, and closing down the reading center that I’ve led for the last three years.
BY VICKI KREIDEL
STREETALK
What are you looking forward to?
Nevada’s students with the resources they need to thrive—smaller class sizes, better teacher retention, updated materials and increased access to mental health support. This plan is a comprehensive, data-driven approach designed to close funding gaps and address long-standing inequities in our schools.
Opponents of the plan may argue that increased funding alone will not solve all our education challenges. While funding isn’t a magic fix, it is the foundation upon which meaningful progress is built. Quality education requires investment, and our children should not have to fight for the resources that are considered a given in other states. Also, with the recent dismantling of the federal Department of Education, public school funding is expected to further decrease, which means educators will have even fewer resources and less support in their schools.
By passing this plan, Nevada can move from being a state known for underfunding education to a leader in educational opportunity. Lawmakers have the power to reshape Nevada’s future—not just for students, but for every family, business and community that depends on a strong, educated population.
Imagine this is happening all over Nevada. You will see classrooms with 35-plus students in them, one overworked educator, and not enough desks to go around. Picture students, some struggling with learning differences, unable to access adequate support services. Envision a high school library with books in poor repair, outdated textbooks and technology from a decade ago.
For too many Nevada students and educators, this is not a hypothetical—it’s their everyday reality.
Nevada consistently ranks near the bottom in national education funding, and the consequences are devastating. Underpaid teachers are burning out; students are falling behind; and our communities are missing out on the well-prepared, capable workforce they deserve. Yet despite these challenges, there is a clear, research-backed solution on the table: the funding plan recommended by the state’s Commission on School Funding.
The plan is not just a suggestion; it’s a lifeline. It’s a roadmap to providing
Fully funding education is how we move from surviving to thriving. It’s how we build a Nevada that keeps its best and brightest—because they see a future here. To the legislators weighing this decision: We need you to choose our children’s futures over temporary budget concerns. We need you to recognize that every year of inaction is a year of potential lost.
Educating the children of Nevada is the responsibility of all of us. We need our community to contact their legislators and encourage them to pass the plan recommended by the Commission on School Funding. It would bring our funding up to adequate levels and allow schools to get much-needed money to improve public education.
Teachers show up to work early and leave late every single day to give our state’s students a quality education. We give it our all, and it’s the Legislature’s turn to do the same. It’s time for Nevada to invest in its most valuable asset—our children.
Vicki Kreidel is a veteran educator who has been teaching for more than 20 years and advocating for public education for much of that time. She lives in North Las Vegas.
BY DAVID ROBERT
Asked at Sprouts Farmers Market, 299 E. Plumb Lane, Reno
Savannah Streeter Chef
I’m looking forward to the variety of things that summer offers, like the weather, activities like art shows, hiking and going to the river. I’m a river rat—actually, I’m a river rat/mermaid hybrid. I like to swim and swim against the current. There are hidden beaches along the Truckee where you can work out and sunbathe. Also, there are rocks that you can swim to and do yoga on.
Ali Hernandez Server and cheese monger
I’m looking forward to cultivating and launching a supper club series that features locally sourced organic and seasonal food. Food is the center of everything. The first clients will be friends and family. I’m looking for people who want to experience the magic of food.
Raihan Stuart Retail asset protection
I’m looking forward to having new experiences in life. I’m looking forward to something completely new every day. You never know what will happen the next day, and I always hope that it’s a good thing. Also, I’m looking forward to hiking Tahoe and Rattlesnake Mountain. I’m looking forward to sunny days.
Blake Crawley
Retired from the military
I’m looking forward to typical summer activities like walking the dog, mountain biking, etc. I’m looking forward to taking some long-delayed trips to see old friends down in San Diego and Los Angeles. We can reminisce about the old times and maybe even have a rugby reunion. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s changed over the years.
Jim L. Brown
Retired Teamsters union rep
I’m looking forward to getting back into top shape after the winter. I’m not as motivated during the cold weather and short days of winter. But now that summer is coming, I’m looking forward to the heat and getting tanned, eating better, fruits, etc.—and just feeling better overall.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
The undeniable cruelty of Trump’s cuts and methods
Publishing two different newspapers, in two very different communities, has given me a fascinating perspective on how damaging, widespread and downright cruel the socalled Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts have been.
Three pieces in this issue, all written by our managing editor, Kris Vagner, illustrate this—especially the cruelty.
On Page 12, our cover story examines the devastating cuts regarding that most basic of human needs: food. The nation’s food banks—including the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and its affiliate food-distribution outlets locally—are dealing with the consequences of a sudden and unexplained cancellation of $500 million in food shipments from the federal government, as well as other cuts.
“We were looking to receive some loads (of food) between April and August,” said Jocelyn Lantrip, the group’s marketing and communications director. “We had them on order already, and those were specifically protein, dairy and eggs. And there was a little over 350,000 pounds of food, several loads, that were on order. That has been officially canceled.”
These cuts are coming at a time of peak demand. Jocelyn Lantrip told Kris: “We’re seeing very high numbers of people needing food assistance—higher than we’ve ever seen. The thing that we hear the most is that the cost of living is too high for income.”
Cruel.
On Page 8, Kris delves into the haphazard and on-again, off-again cuts made to the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
“The Trump administration cut tens of thousands of jobs across the federal government in February, and reinstated many of them in March,” Kris writes. “On April 18, a federal judge ordered the administration to concede in writing that the reason it gave to 17,000 probationary
workers for their terminations—their performance—was ‘a total sham.’”
This, too, is cruel—and the cruelty is heightened by the fact that nobody can get any real answers about what’s going on. A government employee with expertise in land management, who asked not to be named, told Kris: “I think we’re all on that same boat of not being able to find hard numbers on how many people have been fired.”
These are public lands. Aren’t we owed answers about what’s happening with them?
Finally, in her Editor’s Note on Page 2, Kris discusses the Trump administration’s massive cuts to the arts—again, sudden and unexplained. In one fell swoop, Nevada Humanities lost 75 percent of its annual budget.
| BY JIMMY BOEGLE
Kris notes that arts events and related spending, like dining out before a show, “generated $156 million in Nevada in local, state and federal tax revenue in 2022, according to a study by Americans for the Arts—not bad when compared to the $2 million-plus that has been allocated to our state’s two major arts agencies in recent years.”
Not only are these cuts economically harmful; they hurt people. “The arts industry actually puts a lot of food on a lot of tables in this state,” Kris noted.
Let’s put aside the various policy arguments in play here. Even if you believe our government is bloated, and that spending needs to be cut, that can be done without cancelling shipments to food banks without explanation or warning. Even if you believe employees need to be laid off, that can be done rationally, with compassion and explanation.
No matter where you stand politically, you can’t rationally deny that the Trump administration’s actions have been haphazard, needlessly unexplained, and terribly cruel.
And if you’re OK with that, you can neither call yourself humane, nor Christian, nor moral. You’re just someone who doesn’t give a damn about your fellow humans.
ON NEVADA BUSINESS
Tariffs in context
A timely business trip yielded a perspective from the European Union
I spent nearly four weeks in Europe this spring, where my company serves central European and Nordic clients. To be exact, I spent 26 days in eight cities and four countries—and to say that doing business in Europe is challenging right now is an understatement. It may be the toughest time in 70 years to try and garner Euro customers due to the current geopolitical atmosphere.
There has long been a need for the U.S. to level the playing field with much of the world on trade, including Europe. It’s been out of whack for decades, to varying degrees. From the trenches, though, it seems that the current, endless sledgehammer approach is having mixed results, at best. It’s been noticeable during business meetings in Stockholm, Vienna, Katowice (Poland) and elsewhere. Spending time walking in these cities in a suit as a businessman, the trade war takes on a whole different vibe. You hear the conversations and see the headlines (even if you can’t read them). The same universal words come up—like “tariffs,” “the U.S.,” etc.
I witnessed—daily—the lack of U.S. products on the market there (although KFC, McDonald’s, Coke and a few other big ones still have a strong presence). There are few U.S. trucks or cars on the streets. A Dodge Challenger is more exotic in Warsaw than a Porsche 911 or the 7 Series BMWs that go screaming by every minute or two. A Corvette parked over there on the street gets an endless stream people stopping to look and take selfies with it—not so much with the Maserati or McLaren. Go figure. A friend and client in Stockholm is the envy of all of his middle-aged friends with his 2017 Dodge Charger Hellcat, one of 15 in all of Sweden! The point is that, yes, Europe and other countries should buy our quality stuff, like we repeatedly buy theirs. The trade imbalance has been going on since I was a kid. It just keeps getting more imbalanced.
That said, there are numerous nuances to doing international business from Nevada now (or any U.S. zip code, for that matter), and the ever-changing U.S. position is a daily game of whack-a-mole. The definitions of partners, dominions and friends has shifted like a tectonic plate in recent weeks. The whole macro position on tariffs has thrown much of the baby out with the bathwater, in my micro-perspective. As an international businessman trying to woo international companies to invest in the great USA, I can see that we are inarguably the greatest and toughest free market in the world … still.
There are many things about doing business over there that most U.S.-centric business executives and founders don’t know. The only way you would know is to engage in international business or international civics. That is something I had to study when entering new countries and foreign markets in those countries.
We have to know the political situation in a new foreign market. We have to try to know the history—both recent and extended—to understand why a country may be conservative in business, but liberal in politics, or conservative in faith and religion, while social norms may be more left-leaning. In some countries, those biases on both sides are still a carryover from socialistic times that only ended 30 years ago, upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I must keep reminding myself of that while in Bratislava, Slovakia; Vilnius, Lithuania; or Warsaw—it’s amazing that these democracies and free-market models are only approximately three decades old. It’s also amazing, actually, how far these nations have transcended into relatively wealthy, free societies. All of these countries, regions and voivodeships bare the biases and dispositions of the city, people, history, reforms, economy, etc.—all smashed together to frame their respective views of the world and the U.S.
There are many respected leaders here in the U.S. who are in favor of “U.S. first” policies, but see the tariffs and rhetoric as a setback for the U.S. world leadership position, which could have lasting effects for decades to come.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the largest bank in the U.S., stated in his annual report to shareholders that he is concerned how the tariffs will affect long-term economic alliances. Those alliances have given the U.S. “extraordinary standing in world affairs,” Dimon said. He also stated that economics is the long-time glue, and that “America-first is fine, as long as it doesn’t end up being America alone.”
Other influential, conservative U.S. leaders have also expressed concern that the tariff policies, if they persist, could cause potential long-term harm to the U.S., including Larry Fink of Blackrock capital, and Pershing Square Capital Management’s Bill Ackman.
The U.S. needed to begin home-sourcing years ago; factories and refineries can’t be built or adapted in 90 or 180 days just because of the instant tariffs. I’m working with a company that is seriously looking to process rare earth materials for electric-vehicle batteries here in the U.S., but it’ll take three years just to get the refinery built and running. The tariffs certainly don’t benefit the long game of building the
infrastructure to manufacture all we need here. While bringing jobs and capital back to the U.S. is generally really good for the U.S., we can’t magically make phones, batteries and car parts here in 2025 or 2026. In many cases, it won’t be until the next administration that all of this would manifest itself into a relatively self-reliant USA.
Ideally, there would be some sort of a hybrid model, ushering in a new age of co-producing with our closest allies. There are ways to get America’s debt and economy on a more level basis without killing all of the trust and norms that took decades to build. We are all in this
together and must find ways to build U.S. manufacturing and self-reliance back without eviscerating our friends in the global economy. We might actually need something other than BMWs and champagne from them in the future. It is incredible, despite all of the nasty public displays, that as now, we are still the place where everyone in the world wants to do business. Even after the big tariffs on the EU, most of my clients were resolute and focused about the “long game,” as I’ve come to tab it. Businesspeople around the world want small government—but need to be able to compete on a level basis.
The window of a restaurant in Warsaw contains some handwritten critiques of the recent U.S. policies. Photo/Matt Westfield
UPFRONT
With Wingfield Park closed, Artown pivots to Rancho again
When Arlington Avenue closes from West First Street to Island Avenue so the Regional Transportation Commission and the city of Reno can construct two new bridges, Wingfield Park will close along with it. The closure is scheduled to begin on May 5 and last for about a year.
The park—with its Glenn Little Amphitheater, grassy seating area, space for food trucks and easy river access—has long been a popular summer concert venue. While Artown hosts events throughout July at 100+ venues—including bars, theaters and even all three Trader Joe’s—Wingfield Park has been its anchor venue almost every year since it began in 1996.
The only exceptions were in 2020, when venues were shuttered altogether due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2021, when social distancing protocols necessitated more spacious seating. That year, Artown’s main stage was on a six-acre section of Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.
“No venue is more important to Artown than Wingfield Park,” said executive director Beth Macmillan in a phone interview. “And this is our 30th anniversary, so it would be fabulous to be in Wingfield Park. But that being said, we really have figured out how to pivot.”
This year, Artown’s main venue will be in Rancho again, in the area that used to be Great Basin Adventure, the theme park that closed in 2010.
“It’s a more intimate venue,” Macmillan said. “It’s surrounded by beautiful trees.”
She said that with the tree cover, neither audience members nor performers should have to worry about sun in their eyes.
Starsound Audio will bring in a stage, sound, lights and a video wall, Macmillan said. As usual, she recommended attendees bring their own chairs or a picnic blanket.
To learn more about the RTC and the city of Reno’s Arlington Avenue Bridges Project, visit rtcwashoe.com/ projects/arlington-avenue-bridges-project. For Artown information, visit artown.org.
—Kris Vagner
NEWS
A move to ban book bans
Assembly Bill 416 would let courts—not school boards or library trustees—decide on book-removal requests
On Wednesday, April 16, the people who have been showing up at Washoe County Library Board of Trustees meetings to decry the inclusion of books with LGBTQ+ and ethnic/racial themes finally got one of their wishes: Jeff Scott, the library director since December 2015, no longer had the job, after his resignation following a negative evaluation from the trustees.
Putting aside Scott’s actual job performance—although it should be noted that his fellow Washoe County Library employees consistently thought he’d done a good job— he’s long been in the figurative crosshairs of
right-wing community members because of his embrace of inclusivity. As a recent This Is Reno editorial by Bob Conrad and Kristen Hackbarth eloquently put it: “He battled far-right fanatics who claim one thing—freedom—but manifest another—tyranny. Local conservative activists push for their ideological dominance over library activities and operations. In certain Library Board of Trustees meetings, it is blatant.”
Similar struggles are playing out at libraries across the country, which is why the proponents of Assembly Bill 416 say the legislation is badly needed.
Assemblymember Brittney Miller, a teacher
| BY JIMMY BOEGLE
Jeff Scott was the Washoe County Library director for more than nine years. On April 16, he resigned before a Library Board of Trustees meeting, during which he probably would have been fired. File photo/David Robert
from Clark County, is the lead sponsor of the bill, which was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 11 and, as of this writing, was due to next be considered by the full Assembly. If it becomes law, the bill would prohibit school and public library boards, employees and volunteers from limiting access to library materials. If someone wants a book removed, they’d need to take the matter to court.
AB 416 would also criminalize harassment, threats or coercion toward library employees regarding the removal of books, and make it illegal to disseminate the personal information of school and library employees.
“We see other states have aggressively and successfully been able to ban books, and get banned books pulled off the shelves,” Miller said. “There are over 4,000 books that are on these book-ban lists or these censorship lists, which is really sad, because so many of them are classics that we all grew up reading as kids, or even were part of our curriculum in school.”
That 4,000-book figure cited by Miller comes from PEN America, a nonprofit that fights for free expression, and tracks book-ban efforts across the country. The organization, in the introduction to its most recent banned-looks list, says: “PEN America has documented nearly 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021, a number not seen since the Red Scare McCarthy era of the 1950s. This censorship is being mobilized by conservative groups—and has spread to nearly every state— and predominantly targets books about race and racism or individuals of color and also books on LGBTQ+ topics as well as those for older readers that have sexual references or discuss sexual violence. In the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America found more than 10,000 book bans affecting more than 4,000 unique titles, with about 45% of the bans occurring in Florida and 36% in Iowa.”
While Nevada has seen far fewer book-removal requests than Florida and Iowa, Miller said teachers and librarians from various parts of the state have expressed the need for AB 416.
“Last year, some retired librarians, current librarians and people who are even on the library boards from the rural areas approached me with these concerns, as a lot of this has started to happen more frequently,” Miller said. “What’s really sad is some individuals have asked not to be identified. Even though they were at the table with us … they didn’t want to be identified because of what they’ve already gone through and a fear of further retribution.”
In a statement submitted to the Assembly, the
Nevada State Education Association said AB 416 was badly needed.
“Unfortunately, AB416 is necessary to safeguard intellectual freedom,” said the statement from the teachers’ union. “Students should be able to access a wide range of ideas, perspectives, and information at school. Restricting materials limits their ability to think critically and form their own opinions. As censorship efforts have targeted materials about marginalized communities, it is important for Nevada to respect and affirm diversity by ensuring a variety of cultures, experiences, and viewpoints are represented in the materials taught to students.”
To nobody’s surprise, many of the same people who have been pushing for book restrictions are pushing back against AB 416.
“Apparently, our Legislature is completely unaware of some of the material that is available in our school libraries,” said Bruce Parks, the chair of the Washoe County Republican Party, in testimony submitted to the Assembly regarding AB 416. “I am opposed to censorship, but we have common sense restrictions on what movies, music and video games are available
Tuesday protests
to children based on age for good reason. I doubt anyone would disagree that 12-year-olds should not have access to pornography, but that is a condition that exists currently in our school libraries. … This bill puts an undue hardship on citizens by involving the courts in what should be between the community and the schools. This will require citizens to bear the cost of hiring attorneys, paying court costs, and possibly other fees related to contesting what is available to our children in school libraries.”
Other critics of the bill claimed that it would diminish the ability of parents to have a say.
Miller said that’s simply not the case.
“In no means, in no way, does this take anything away from parents,” she said. “Parents have and should instill their values and put limits on their children. Key word: their children, not everyone else’s. If you’re a parent, you can go to the courts and petition. If you’ve gone to the librarian or the teacher, and they’re like, ‘No, this book is fine,’ and you still have a concern that it is obscene or something, you can go to the courts. There’s nothing that removes parental control or the ability to influence or anything like that. I
want parents to parent their kids.”
Miller said the bill’s intent is to protect the freedom of library patrons to access the materials they want and need, regardless of ideology.
“The pendulum always swings,” she said. “… The First Amendment is for everyone in this country, and justice and rights shouldn’t be delivered based on which county you’re in, or your library trustee board.”
Miller posed a hypothetical: What if a group in charge was anti-religion, and they pushed to remove books valued by Christians?
“And what if they all came in and they said, ‘You know what? We don’t want the Bible here. We don’t want these books about religion. Take this book about the Pope and Martin Luther, and take all these books off the shelf,’” Miller said. “Would people still at that point think that (a library or school board) should have that ultimate right?”
With teachers and librarians in favor of AB 416, and Democrats in control of both the Assembly and the Senate, there’s a good chance the legislation could make it to the governor’s desk. However, the governor is Joe Lombardo, a
Republican who’s become increasingly MAGA in recent months, as evidenced by his bizarre claim in a leaked recording that the people who showed up at recent “Hands Off!” rallies against the Trump administration were paid to be there. However, Miller said people shouldn’t automatically assume Lombardo would veto AB 416.
“I talk to his chief of staff on a regular basis, because as chair of judiciary, I have the second-highest volume of bills,” she said. “… Last session, the governor pleasantly surprised many of us by signing one of my bills that was to let people in jail vote. A lot of people had an assumption he wouldn’t sign that.
“Again, the First Amendment protects all Nevadans and all Americans, regardless of our religious or political persuasion. … We wouldn’t want people coming in and saying, ‘You know what? That’s it. We’re going to shut down these stations that play Trump. We’re going to shut down these stations that do this. We’re going to pull these books that talk about that.’ It’s the same First Amendment protecting everyone. I just hope that the governor realizes that and signs it.”
Around 60 protesters—including at least one with a handmade quilt—gathered outside of the Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse and Federal Building in Reno on April 15. Organizer Kimberly Carden, of Indivisible Northern Nevada, said she plans to organize protests on every Tuesday for which she can secure a permit, for the foreseeable future.
“Depending on what the topic is for that Tuesday, we fill out a petition to go to each senator, asking them for specific things,” Carden said. “On (April 15), we asked them to vote no on the SAVE Act (the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require Americans to present proof of U.S. citizenship in person when registering to vote), and then also to do everything they could to protect the courts.”
To learn more about the group, visit indivisiblennv.org.
—Kris Vagner
by David Robert
Photo
Insider viewpoints on public lands
Firings, secrecy and confusion abound regarding DOGE’s mass firings and cutbacks. Here’s what we know.
Wondering what’s been happening with Nevada’s federal lands, given DOGE’s mass firings? Well, we’ve taken a lot of time to look into it—and we’re still wondering.
The Trump administration cut tens of thousands of jobs across the federal government in February, and reinstated many of them in March. On April 18, a federal judge ordered the administration to concede in writing that the reason it gave to 17,000 probationary workers for their terminations— their performance—was “a total sham.”
Meanwhile, the government appears to
At Great Basin National Park in remote Baker, five employees were fired by DOGE in February. Four are reportedly back, but the park’s former superintendent cautions visitors to public lands: “Plan your trips a little more carefully. Make sure that you have the details arranged, because things will be subject to change.” Photo/James Woolsey
is committed to upholding our mission of managing public lands for all Americans. The lands and trails we manage continue to remain open to the public, and we are hiring seasonal workers in support of our multiple use mission and public safety. The BLM is also working to ensure we are prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people, while ensuring the responsible stewardship of America’s natural and cultural resources.”
The spokesperson added that he would not be providing any additional information.
Media outlets everywhere have encountered similar vague answers from federal lands agencies. ProPublica’s Anjeanette Damon (who is based in Reno) reported in March: “A series of emails sent late last month to front-line staff at parks across the country provided rangers with instructions on how to describe the highly publicized staff cuts. Park leaders further instructed staff to avoid the word ‘fired’ and not blame closures on staffing levels.”
Dave Cooper is a Gerlach resident who formerly worked for the BLM as the manager of the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. He has been retired for 16 years. He does not know exactly how many BLM employees have been fired this year, but he said any reduction would worsen longstanding shortages.
“The BLM has been understaffed and underfunded probably since its inception, back in 1946,” Cooper said. He attributes this at least partially to gaps in public perception about what federal lands are, and what the BLM does.
be doing its best to stymie communications on the matter. A few experts—two retired, and one who asked to remain anonymous—provided some perspective.
In April, the RN&R reached out to a Nevada Bureau of Land Management public information officer with a question: “How many Nevada BLM employees have been fired, and what changes might Northern Nevadans expect to see to recreation and/or land management this summer?”
A BLM spokesperson from Washington, D.C., replied with this statement: “The BLM
In Nevada, the BLM owns 48 million acres, about 63% of the state. Cooper listed some of the activities the bureau manages on this land: mining, grazing, wildlife, wild horses, recreation and cultural resources, consulting with tribes on projects that occur on public lands, and handling leasing for geothermal and solar power.
“Not just the BLM, but all of the landmanagement agencies have fewer employees now than they had 20 years ago … while the visitation to our public lands is increasing exponentially,” Cooper said. “It’s very difficult for the agencies to keep up with the onslaught of public use of the public lands. This is going to make it much worse, if they lose more employees.”
A source who is knowledgeable about Nevada and California land and trails management and still works in government—and who agreed
| BY KRIS VAGNER
to speak with the RN&R anonymously—said this: “I think we’re all on that same boat of not being able to find hard numbers on how many people have been fired. I think the only actual hard numbers I saw were for Great Basin National Park.”
James Woolsey is a former superintendent of Great Basin National Park. He retired in 2023 and still lives in Baker (population 16, as of 2023), the eastern Nevada town that serves as the gateway to the park, where he and his wife, Liz, own the Bristlecone General Store and the seven-unit Stargazer Inn.
“Great Basin National Park has about 23 to 25 permanent, full-time employees,” Woolsey said in a phone interview. Five were fired, he said. Several media outlets reported the same number.
“They’re the people who were cleaning toilets, who were giving tours, who were doing those basic chores,” said Woolsey. “If you take those out of the system abruptly like that, when it wasn’t planned, that’s going to impact having campgrounds open, because toilets are not being cleaned—or not giving cave tours at Lehman Caves, because they don’t have enough staff to do so.”
Lehman Caves is the extensive, tourist-dazzling cave system, packed with surreal formations, that is among the park’s crown jewels.
“The money that people pay to go on a cave tour is what funds the park rangers,” Woolsey said. “So letting those people go does not save the government any money whatsoever. It just reduces the services, to no effect.”
On March 13, a federal judge ordered various agencies to reinstate probationary employees who had been fired. At Great Basin, according to Woolsey, four of the five who were fired have returned. Still, he has two thoughts for those planning to visit the park—or any federally managed land—this summer. First, he had some advice.
“I would say plan your trips a little more carefully. Make sure that you have the details arranged, because things will be subject to change,” he said.
His second thought: “Our public lands belong to all of us, and we all should take a great interest in them. And I would hope that people would pay particular attention to what’s happening, not only in national parks, but (with lands run by the) Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. These places, I think, are popular with people of all political persuasions. … If there’s something that they don’t like that’s going on, they should contact their congressman or their senator.
“I think that national parks are popular across the political spectrum,” Woolsey reiterated. “And they make a lot of money for local communities. So I don’t think there’s anybody who wants national parks to do anything but succeed and run well, Republican or Democrat.”
On track
How local groups are laying the groundwork for well-connected trail systems
Audrey Payne from Boulder, Colo., and Julianne Mahoney from Durango, Colo., were announced as the winners of the Carson City to Canada Quest contest, which was put on by Visit Carson City. Starting in June, they plan to hike the 1,600-mile journey from our state’s capital city to the Canadian border, via the Pacific Crest Trail.
What wasn’t mentioned in the news coverage, however, was the impressive Unified Pathways Master Plan (UPMP) that set the framework for the Capital to Tahoe trail, the 9.8 mile, single-track, multi-use trail that opened in 2023 that will connect the hikers from Carson City to the Pacific Crest Trail.
The UPMP outlines desired pathways within the city—everything from hiking trails to street crossings and river corridors. Its goal is to define access to Carson City’s schools, parks, neighborhoods, commercial areas and open space without the use of motor vehicles. Without a regional trails plan, trails could face major delays, a lack of
funding or setbacks—or they could be blocked completely. The Capital to Tahoe trail, for example, took eight years to complete, even with the backing of the UPMP.
“The advantage of having the plan is so that there is a clear path forward,” said Gregg Berggren, trails coordinator for Carson City Parks, Recreation, and Open Space. “So when we go to talk to other agencies like the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management or state parks, and we propose a trail that may cross those public lands, we can show that our Board of Supervisors has approved this.”
In Reno/Sparks, public space is managed by the two cities, a county, two federal agencies and a handful of private owners. Also, partner groups like Biggest Little Trail Stewardship (BLTS), Tahoe-Pyramid Trail and the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation help plan, build and maintain trails.
One group, the Truckee Meadows Trails Initiative (TMT), brings together each of these agencies and partners for greater cohesion,
cooperation and communication.
“Everybody was an island, so to speak, working on their own things,” said TMT trails program manager Jay Howard.
Said Berggren: “When the community came out to tell us what they wanted, trails and connectivity were among the most important things.” Both the UPMP and TMT aim to build new trails within their respective communities, and create trails linking adjacent ones.
Howard spoke to the importance of connecting the trails on Peavine Mountain with the North Valleys and Sun Valley. “We can make a loop all the way around the region of trail connectivity,” he said. “It’s very, very doable.”
He said that TMT partners also envision connecting with trail networks within Carson City and Sierra Buttes in Sierra County, Calif.
These plans are important as advocates fight for access to public lands as our communities expand. Howard explained that he is pushing to get the TMT presented to city, county and state planning commissions.
| BY HELENA GUGLIELMINO
Kevin Joell with Sierra Trail Works was one of many who worked on the Capital to Tahoe Trail. Photo/courtesy of Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space
“We would like to be a part of these new developments that come along, and have an opportunity to comment on these applications so that we can make sure trails are always incorporated properly into these proposed developments,” he said.
The UPMP and TMT have accomplished great things in our communities. Since the UPMP’s adoption in 2006, many notable trails and projects in Carson City have been completed, including the Prison Hill Trail East, the forthcoming Prison Hill Trail West (with a grand opening on June 14) and Buzzy’s Ranch Trail along the Carson River. Berggren looks forward to the Centennial Trails Project, a series of 22 miles of trails outlined in the UPMP that will connect northern Carson City to Washoe Lake State Park, with the potential to reach Virginia City.
We can thank the TMT plan for the Sierra Front Trail, which currently connects Ballardini Ranch to Thomas Creek, with plans to connect from the Truckee River through to Galena—“and maybe even someday down all the way down to Mammoth,” Berggren said.
Howard is excited about two future projects the TMT plan outlines—the Virginia Range Regional Trail Corridor plan, connecting the Hidden Valley trail system to Geiger Grade, and the Los Altos Loops, which outlines an upper and lower loop system in the Los Altos Parkway area that will connect to adjacent open space. Both of those are outlined under the TMT plan, which was formally adopted by the city of Reno in October 2024, but is still awaiting adoption by the city of Sparks and Washoe County, Howard said. Adoption by all would add more legitimacy to the plan, which would help when planners speak with developers and apply for grants, he said.
Neither the Capital to Tahoe Trail nor a number of other valuable regional trails could be possible without regional trail plans. Perhaps the most exciting part is that trails and pathways outlined on both the UPMP and TMT were created in huge part by public involvement. These plans take into consideration our desires and needs in how to shape our future in this region.
“Anybody can go to these meetings at the planning commission level or the city council level or the county commission level and make a public comment,” Howard said.
You can also show your support through donations to the TMT through the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation, or to the regional partners who help plan, build and manage trails such as Muscle Powered—a Carson City group that advocates for pedestrian-friendly, bike-friendly streets and trails—the Biggest Little Trail Stewardship or the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail.
Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight
For May, 2025
This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north, but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.
ASTRONOMY
May skies
The month starts off with a newly discovered comet, and ends with early morning views of the Milky Way
Binoculars are a prime accessory for enhancing enjoyment of sky watching. I just received notice of a comet, named C/2025 F2 (SWAN), discovered in late March, which may become visible to the unaided eye low in evening twilight for a few days around April 30. That’s the date of perihelion, when the comet passes closest to the sun, at a distance of 33 million miles.
Comet SWAN will be seen highest from April 28-May 4, but only a few degrees above the northwest to west-northwest horizon in deep twilight, about 60 to 75 minutes after sunset. You’ll need clear skies and an unobstructed view toward the horizon—and binoculars will be a big help! The once-in-amillion-plus-years visitor will appear about 2 degrees farther left each evening at the same stage of twilight—to the right of the Pleiades cluster and in the same field on April 30, and
May’s evening sky chart.
Illustration/Robert D. Miller
Low in the west at dusk at the start of May each year, poised to depart within next three weeks, are many winter stars: Rigel, the Pleiades, the Hyades and Aldebaran, Orion’s belt, Sirius and Betelgeuse. Binoculars enable us to follow them deeper into twilight. Binoculars give close-up views of the moon passing stars and planets. During evenings in May 2025, watch for moon-Pollux-Castor on May 2; the moon, Mars (magnitude 1.0) and the Beehive cluster on May 3; and Mars-Beehive, interesting to follow for several evenings around May 4 as the red planet shifts east by 0.5° per day, ending May at magnitude +1.3, while 9° west of Regulus. Watch for moon-Regulus on May 5; and moon-Spica on May 9.
even closer to the upper right and upper left of the cluster on the next two evenings. The visitor will cross south of Earth’s orbital plane on May 4, and will appear below Aldebaran and within the “V” of the Hyades cluster on May 6, but by then, the comet will be getting lower nightly, and fading.
Download free copies of the Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar and May evening skies constellation map for May 2025, and note the first diagram on the calendar showing the sky 1 1/4 hours after sunset. That’ll help you star-hop from Jupiter, to Aldebaran, the Hyades and the Pleiades, where you’ll be aiming your binoculars close to the comet. Another illustration in the first row is a finder chart for the brightest asteroid Vesta, discovered in 1807. At opposition at magnitude +5.7 on May 1, and closest to Earth on May 5, Vesta is now bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye in a dark sky, and is readily seen through binoculars.
Also in the evenings, find Jupiter at magnitude -2, brightest evening “star,” in the west at dusk, setting 3-4 minutes earlier each night, while slowly passing between the tips of the horns of Taurus, the Bull. Telescopes provide closeup views of Jupiter and its four largest moons discovered by Galileo, and of Mars. Although Mars is much more distant now compared to its close approach last January, perhaps you can view it well enough to discern its North Polar Cap as a tiny white dot, greatly diminished because the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere summer solstice occurs on May 29. Bright stars visible in the evening not yet mentioned are golden Arcturus, in the east; bluewhite Vega, rising in the northeast; and yellow Capella, in the northwest. These three stars all shine at magnitude zero, ranking after only Jupiter and Sirius in brightness in the current evening sky. By the end of May, only the top stars of the Winter Ellipse remain in view—Procyon, Pollux, Castor and Capella, forming the Spring Arch. From the late evening on May 13 until dawn on the 14th, binoculars show the waning gibbous moon drifting past Antares. Mornings: Venus (magnitude -4.7) rises very near start of twilight all month as seen from latitude 40° N, near Reno. As sunrise approaches, binoculars magnify Venus enough to show it is currently a crescent, 29% lit and 36” (arcseconds) across on May 1, to 49% lit but a smaller, more challenging 24” on May 31. Saturn appears 3.9° to Venus’ lower right on May 1. Binoculars make Saturn easier to spot as it rises during twilight. About two hours before sunrise on May 6, arrange to be in a dark place to watch the peak of the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, from Halley’s Comet, due to return in July-August 2061. Also that morning, Saturn (magnitude +1.2) rises with Venus, 5.1° to the brighter planet’s right. May 6, 2025, is a very special date for Saturn: It’s the once-in-29.4 years autumnal equinox for its northern hemisphere, when the equatorial rings are presented edge-on to the sun, and the southern face of the ring begins to receive
| BY ROBERT VICTOR
sunlight, but at a very low angle of incidence. Saturn appeared ringless before May 6, because the shaded side was tipped toward us after Earth crossed Saturn’s ring-plane on March 23, but now that same side will gradually brighten. From May 6-31, as seen from Earth, Saturn’s dimly lit rings appear tipped by 2.2° to 3.1°, while sunlight illuminates them from a very grazing angle of 0° to 0.37°.
Bright stars visible during May mornings include Arcturus in the west; Vega nearly overhead; with nearby Altair and Deneb completing the Summer Triangle; Antares in the southwest; and Fomalhaut rising into the southeast.
The Milky Way at this time of year is best seen just before morning twilight begins to brighten, when the Summer Triangle is nearly overhead. The sky is dark and moonless just before twilight on May 1-7 and again May 2531—the first and last weeks of the month. The Milky Way band contains many beautiful binocular targets in our galactic plane, many of them star clusters and nebulae. The brightest patches of the Milky Way are the Cygnus Star Cloud, along the neck of the Swan, inside the Summer Triangle; and the Greater Sagittarius Star Cloud, just above the spout of the Teapot.
The evening sky is dark and moonless at the end of evening twilight this month from May 15-27. At that time, the brightest star of the Big Dipper, in its handle, is almost directly above the North Star, while the “W” of Cassiopeia lies near the northern horizon below the Pole Star, and the Milky Way lies near the horizon all the way around. It’s not a good time for viewing the Milky Way! When you look overhead, you’re looking out into intergalactic space, almost perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy.
Thin crescent moons provide wonderful views through binoculars! Try for the old moon just before sunrise on May 26, and an easier, naked-eye young moon with earthshine at dusk on May 27. Spotting opposing crescent moons on consecutive days is a very rare accomplishment. During May, I’ll have details for selected locations in the U.S., including Reno, posted at abramsplanetarium.org/msta.
The Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar is available by subscription from www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar. Each monthly issue consists of a calendar page illustrating events such as mentioned in this article, and an evening sky map. For $12 per year, subscribers receive quarterly mailings, each containing three monthly issues. The May 2025 issue, with a detailed evening star chart, will be available for free.
Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps to 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
Don’t Wait! –Start Planning Medicare Coverage at 64
By Betsy Chin
If you’re retiring soon or know someone who is, you’re not alone. In 2025, a record 4.18 million Americans will reach retirement age, which equates to over 11,000 people turning 65 each day, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “Peak 65” or the “Silver Tsunami,” which began in 2024 and will continue over the next several years. This means a lot of people and their families will be looking for answers about Medicare.
Companies advertising Medicare plans and Medicare enrollment opportunities may open their commercials with someone asking—“I just turned 65. What are my coverage options?” With all the coverage options and first-time enrollment deadlines, people should begin planning early–and not wait until their 65th birthdays to begin thinking about their retirement health insurance needs and options.
While there are resources that can help guide one’s decisions, following are some tips to help you, a loved one or an employee begin planning for post-retirement health care and to enroll in Medicare.
Think 3-1-3—You are eligible to apply for Medicare coverage starting the first three months before your 65th birthday—the month you turn 65—and the three months after you turn 65. This is referred to as your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP). Understand consequences of your choices—While you don’t have to enroll in Medicare when you turn 65, if you decide not to enroll at that time and do not qualify for a Special Enrollment Period, there may be penalties when you do enroll—and these can be costly.
• How long am I covered under the plan I enrolled in during the IEP?
A MESSAGE FROM
• What if my birthday falls during the Annual Enrollment Period? Or just before? Do I need to enroll twice?
Celebrate your 64th birthday—Thinking about retiring and what the future holds can be stressful, so take time to enjoy your birthday and then start planning.
Begin planning soon after your 64th birthday—Following are some questions to get you started.
• Am I required to get Medicare coverage?
• Can I get dental, vision and drug coverage as well as medical coverage?
• What if I cannot afford Medicare?
• Are you planning to work past 65? Do you have coverage through your employer or spouse?
• What if I do not enroll in a Medicare plan before the end of my IEP deadline?
While beginning to plan early should help avoid the consequences of not enrolling on time, choosing the right Medicare plan may still seem confusing. Many pre-retirees may never have shopped for their own health insurance, having had health care coverage through their employers.
As you begin your research, Medicare. gov is one place to start. You may also visit UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Made Clear site, which provides information on plan benefits, details on various enrollment periods and other resources to answer your questions.
Medicare plays a key role in the lives of people as they age. Making the right decisions right from the start and in a timely manner can have positive long-term financial and health consequences. So, plan early so you may enjoy your 65th birthday.
Betsy Chin is the Senior Vice President, Medicare Product & Experience, for UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement.
Crystal León
used to work as a nutritionist at a private school and an assisted-living community. Her husband, Carlos, worked for a local brewery. A few years ago, they started a side business, The Radish Hotel, growing salad greens and making pantry products like seasonings and jams.
Between their day jobs and the new enterprise, there were no evenings of weekends off. “We were just working all the time,” Crystal León said. She called the dual workloads “a very unhealthy kind of situation.”
“We were at a place where we either needed to cut our losses and go in a different direction, or we had to really choose to scale up and go for it,” she said.
In 2023, the Leóns signed up to participate in the Home Feeds Nevada Agriculture Food Purchase Program, under which the Nevada Department of Agriculture purchased nutritious foods directly from growers and producers, who would ship them to food banks.
Their first contract with the program was for $10,000. “They specifically purchased our granola—a honey-sweetened granola that’s low-sugar that would meet their cereal requirement,” León said. She sold the granola to the program for slightly less than its wholesale
price.
“It made a huge difference,” León said. It helped the business invest in the things it needed to scale up its production line: “better packaging, better labels, things that could be marketable, that could go on grocery shelves,” she said. “We got really nice, grocery-ready, marketable packaging. We have our nutrition panel on there and all of that.”
She had developed the granola as part of the Women’s Farm2Food Accelerator Program, another Nevada Department of Agriculture function, intended to train women farmers and entrepreneurs to grow their food and beverage businesses.
receiving canned green beans and canned corn and stewed tomatoes. Our farmers and ranchers were sending the best stuff fresh to our local food pantries. It was life-changing for people on all sides.”
The legwork to make the granola more marketable also led to what León called “a real snowball—after improving our packaging and our labels … we were then able to get this product into many other local shops.”
“ Families were no longer just receiving canned green beans and canned corn and stewed tomatoes. Our farmers and ranchers were sending the best stuff fresh to our local food pantries. It was life-changing for people on all sides. ”
“It was a nice source of pride for (participants like me) to be able to go, ‘Look, this product was birthed here, and now we have it complete, and now we get to feed the community with it,’” León said. “I have people who tell me (the granola) is the only thing their kids eat in the morning. Families were no longer just
— CrystalLeón co-owner,The Radish Hotel
In 2024, The Radish Hotel fulfilled its contract with Home Feeds Nevada for more than 900 pounds of granola.
“We had finally gone out on a limb,” León said. On March 5, she received a notice from the Nevada Department of Agriculture: “All deliveries need to be ceased until further notice.” Home Feeds Nevada had been defunded.
This program is just one of many federally backed food programs that have been gutted this year. Under directives from President Donald Trump’s Department of Government
Efficiency (DOGE), the U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut more than $1 billion in food-assistance nationwide, including school meals programs, and the Leóns are among countless small producers scrambling to adapt.
“We’ve paid the money for all of our new packaging, all of our new labels, and now we have no place to send the product,” León said. “We can’t make the goods, because we don’t have our partnerships on the other side. Our ranchers and farmers who planted extra crops solely for this program, who raised cattle solely for this program—now they have nowhere to send it.”
FARMERS MARKET ASSISTANCE CUT
On April 12, the Riverside Farmers Market posted on social media: “We recently got news we never wanted to share: Nevada’s WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) has been defunded for the 2025 season.”
That program is administered by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, and it’s part of the USDA’s federal WIC program, which provides certain staples deemed nutritionally necessary for women, infants and children.
Emma Kunz, market manager for Riverside Farmers Market, explained how the program worked: Historically, WIC participants used coupons to purchase fresh produce from market vendors. In 2024, the system changed to a digital one. Farmers were trained on a new system to scan QR codes from WIC users’ phones. Of the market’s dozens of vendors, five are farms. Three were accepting WIC benefits before the program was cut. Kunz estimated that in the winter, five or fewer families would use WIC benefits each week. In the summer, it could be up to 15 or 20.
Kunz said it’s been a challenge for local farmers to navigate the logistics of licensing and permitting in addition to the full-time work of farming.
“It’s not really been on the priority list for a lot of farmers until recent years,” she said. “I think if we had had another year or two of workshops with that digital system, it really could have been something truly amazing.”
To Kunz, providing food to this number of families is significant, since she’s seen some families arrive at the market with four to six children.
Kunz read aloud the message that farmers received, alerting them to the program cut: “Due to funding and logistical barriers, the Nevada Farmers Market Nutrition program will not be accepting participants or former applications for the 2025 season. This decision was made after careful consideration of program funding and sustainability.”
“And that was it,” she said. “That was the only information these farmers got.”
Above: Crystal and Carlos León, owners of The Radish Hotel, took a leap and quit their day jobs to produce nutritious foods full time. Selling their low-sugar granola to the Home Feeds Nevada program for distribution at food banks was the step that made their business viable. In March, the contract was canceled.
Photo/David Robert
When the RN&R requested details from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, a department spokesperson said the following in an email statement: “Administrative funds allocated to the state agency to implement the program are not sufficient and have been cut from $64,342.97 in 2024, to $16,997 so far this year. Full funding has not yet been allocated for FY 2025.”
To the question of whether the cuts were likely to be temporary or permanent, the spokesperson replied, “If funding is increased, Nevada will consider applying for the grant in the future.”
While Kunz—along with everyone else the RN&R spoke to for this story—said that communication from the government about the cuts has been unclear, conflicting or incomplete, she is sympathetic toward the department’s workers.
“These poor people who are just probably getting bombarded—they’re in the same position themselves,” she said. “So I think everybody’s just in that boat of a lack of information.”
AN ORGANIC FARMER’S PERSPECTIVE
One of the three Riverside Farmers Market vendors that were part of the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) is Prema Farm, a small, certified-organic grower in Loyalton, Calif., just across the state line from Reno’s North Valleys.
Co-owner Courtney O’Neill explained via email why Prema participated in the program:
“From a producer’s perspective, I wouldn’t say that programs like FMNP aren’t the only reason we do what we do, but they absolutely deepen our sense of purpose,” said O’Neill, who also is the marketing director and a board member at the Riverside Farmers Market.
“Knowing there are systems in place that help get fresh, nutrient-dense food into the hands of families who need it most means a lot to us.
“Farming in our region is expensive. Growing truly organic food takes an incredible amount of time and labor, and our overhead is intense due to short seasons, unpredictable weather, rising utility rates, heating costs in colder months and, most importantly, paying our farmers a fair wage in a place where housing costs are only going up. All of this adds up, and the result is that our prices are often on par with places like Whole Foods. That’s simply the reality of what it takes to grow real food. And unfortunately, that makes it out of reach for a lot of people. That’s why programs like WIC and FMNP are so critical. They make fresh, local, organic food more accessible to everyone, no matter what they are going through.”
She added: “These programs eliminate extra layers of logistics, time and cost that would otherwise fall on us to bridge that gap.”
FOOD BANK CUTS
The Home Feeds Nevada program—the one under which Crystal and Carlos León were supplying granola to food banks—had been funding about 1.1 million pounds of food annually for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada (FBNN), according to Jocelyn Lantrip, the group’s marketing and communications director.
in 25 million pounds of food annually from sources that include surplus from the government, retailers and farms.
“We get a lot of food from Walmart—there’s a distribution center right next door to us,” Lantrip said. On a recent weekday, a shipment of fresh celery from a Central Valley farm filled pallets that stretched down an entire Costco-length warehouse aisle.
“We’ve been working really hard to come up with ways to fill the gaps,” said Emma Kunz, market manager for Riverside Farmers Market. Now that the Nevada’s WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program has been cut, she and her team encourage people to help by sponsoring a box of food, which anyone in need can pick up free of charge.
Photo/David Robert
Funding from another federal source, the Commodity Credit Corporation, which supplied about 2 million pounds of food per year to the food bank, was also cut this year.
“We were looking to receive some loads between April and August,” Lantrip said. “We had them on order already, and those were specifically protein, dairy and eggs. And there was a little over 350,000 pounds of food, several loads, that were on order. That has been officially canceled.”
“ Knowing there are systems in place that help get fresh, nutrientdense food into the hands of families who need it most means a lot to us. ”
— CourtneyO’Neill co-owner,PremaFarm
The food bank, headquartered in a 70,000-square-foot warehouse at 550 Italy Drive, off USA Parkway in Sparks, brings
The food bank distributes this food to 160,000 people per month via 152 partner agencies in Northern Nevada and Northern California, including schools, faith-based pantries and larger nonprofits like the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission.
An organization as large as the FBNN won’t be done in by a 3 million pound reduction in food, but Lantrip said the cuts will be felt, citing two factors in particular.
“Not all food donations or programs are equal—and protein, eggs, dairy are tougher to find and more expensive,” she said.
As for that second factor: “We’re seeing very high numbers of people needing food
continued on next page
The cancellation of two food assistance programs has reduced the amount of food that the Food Bank of Northern Nevada can distribute in a year by 3 million pounds—about 12% of the 25 million pounds it distributes annually. Photo/Kris Vagner
continued from Page 13
assistance—higher than we’ve ever seen. The thing that we hear the most is that the cost of living is too high for income. We’re hearing from a lot of families who are working, and they just can’t make ends meet with the income that they have, because food is more expensive, and housing keeps going up.”
Lantrip is especially concerned about how the current supply-and-demand equation will affect seniors.
“Their income rarely goes up, and their prices are going up,” she said.
The USDA-backed Commodities Supplemental Food Program, which provides a monthly box of food for low-income seniors, has been reduced as well.
“The piece that we’re watching the most closely right now would be SNAP reductions,” Lantrip said.
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. As of this writing, SNAP benefits remain intact. However, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Republican-led U.S. House Agriculture Committee hopes to cut at least $230 billion in food aid over the next nine years “with these cuts expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay
for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”
Said Lantrip: “We’re very concerned, because there are more than a half-million people who rely on SNAP in Nevada.”
MOVING FORWARD
Prior to the March 5 cancellation notice received by The Radish Hotel, there had been a cancellation notice in January, followed by an assurance in February that the Home Feeds Nevada program would continue.
Crystal León referred to the chaos as “the whiplash of emails and the false hope.”
“We literally had an order packed and ready to go,” León said.
She is also advocating for Senate Bill 233, which would allocate $800,000 in funds from the state of Nevada to sustain the Home Feeds Nevada program.
Said Emma Kunz, from the Riverside Farmers Market: “We’ve been working really hard to come up with ways to fill the gaps. We are encouraging our people, who are able to, to participate in our gift box program, which is basically like a sponsorship program, where you can go to our website and sponsor a gift box for a family in need.”
“ We’re seeing very high numbers of people needing food assistance—higher than we’ve ever seen. ”
— JocelynLantrip marketingand communicationsdirector, Food Bank of Northern Nevada
At the moment, she is seeking out new retailers and considering raising her prices—which would be a tough decision.
“We pride ourselves on being a business that the everyday person can afford,” she said.
The market will also accept donations of surplus backyard fruit this summer to distribute.
“We’ve never had to pilot or navigate anything like this before, but we are eager to take some sort of action,” Kunz said.
Said Courtney O’Neill, from Prema Farm: “For us, these programs aren’t just about business. It’s truly about community. The same loyal customers who buy with us weekly will often contribute
to our food security efforts via the Riverside Farmers Market and Reno Mobile Market GiftBox program. Through that, we offer $25 donation boxes … that go directly to folks who need food—no questions asked. We actually launched that program during COVID to help people through tough times, and we’ve kept it going for exactly these kinds of moments.”
Jocelyn Lantrip, who has worked at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada for 16 years, said she’s seen recessions hit, large companies decrease the amount of surplus food they donate, and the COVID era’s wild supply fluctuations and increased need. She said the food bank’s size, as well as its diverse funding and food-resourcing streams, will help it weather the cuts—although those cuts remain significant and painful.
“It is still concerning when we see 3 million pounds of food go away,” she said. Of the harder-to-source protein, eggs and dairy that the food bank has lost, she said, “We really have to work hard to replace it.”
To donate to the Reno Mobile Market’s gift box program, visit renomobilemarket.com/giftbox. To donate to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, visit fbnn.org/ways-to-give. To purchase a box of Prema Farm food for people in need, visit premafarm.square.site/s/shop.
Regency reversal
Brüka’s new, original comedy turns the ‘Bridgerton’ genre on its head
Dearest reader, if you’re like me, you often fantasize—especially these days—about escaping to another land, another time, where problems seemed smaller and less complicated. For some of us, it’s 1950s America; for others, it’s England in the early 19th century, which is so richly described in Jane Austen novels and the COVID-era escapist series Bridgerton.
Escapism was certainly what Mary Bennett, producing artistic director at Brüka Theatre, had in mind when she was planning the theater’s current lineup of shows. But when nothing seemed quite right, she decided to create one herself.
“I thought we really needed something kind of spicy and fun, without a bunch of heavy stuff around it,” Bennett said. “I was talking to a friend, and she was like, ‘Oh my God, right now, I’m just reading romance books. I’m just doing Jane Austen.’” The friend described a trend toward regencycore, in which fans revel in
all the trappings of regency life.
It wasn’t Bennett’s usual fare, so she approached it with her own signature brand of silly, irreverent and utterly unexpected storytelling. Named for the fictional town that makes frequent appearances in the theater company’s summer camps for kids, Brükalton was inspired by (though it bears little resemblance to) Bridgerton and its ilk. Such stories often center on a young woman’s search for the holy grail: a wealthy, handsome man to set her toes to tingling, and to set her up financially for the rest of her days, all as she must negotiate strict societal norms.
Bennett came at it entirely differently. The residents (called “Brillagers”) are all aflutter with preparations for their bombastic king’s upcoming ball. King Chuck (played by Brett Andres) is nonsensical and self-centered, like most of the men in the town. Painted as peacocks, Bennett’s male characters are focused
wholly on their appearances, and their beautification is aided by the Minister of Fashionistas (Andy Luna), a German-sounding Tim Gunnlike figure who puffs the men up with pretty accessories. Meanwhile, the women are the reasonable thinkers and scientists who can’t be bothered with beautification.
One such woman is Amacia (Kelsey Mato), our protagonist, the loneliest girl in town, whose self-imposed prison is her bed, where she pines, day after day, in her floor-length nightie, for someone to occupy her active mind. Despite her community’s fixation on the ball—King Chuck’s Balls of the Bell—Amacia, who “could be anywhere between the ages of 14 and 42,” couldn’t care less. Instead, she sets about writing a play to entertain herself, with the help of a sort-of fairy godfather, the Minister of Loneliness (Kell Kittell), who was alerted by Amacia’s lonely energy and arrived at once.
Meanwhile, Amacia’s sister/misters, Midge
| BY JESSICA SANTINA
The Minister of Fashionista (Andy Luna) and King Chuck (Brett Andres) prepare for the big ball in an irreverent comedy that’ll scratch that Bridgerton and Jane Austen itch. Photo/ David Robert
and Pidge (Riley McKinney and Bella Mason), a pair of birders who wear boys’ clothing because it’s more interesting than girls’ clothing (see peacocks, above), are so consumed by their birdwatching that they didn’t stop to consider their sister’s loneliness before they left the house. The gender-bending doesn’t stop there; two sets of parents are played by two men, each playing both mother and father.
Oh, there’s a prince (Matthew Stevenson) and a pauper (Jessey Richards), who arrive in Brükalton with The Way Way Back Book, which provides guidance to the people by reminding them who they are, and what’s supposed to happen. And it’s all narrated by Bennett as Lady Tiddle Tattle.
It’s over the top, fanciful, playful and impressively creative. Bennett’s ability to play with and make up language is top-notch. With a Seussian tendency to conflate the senses and make ordinary words twisted and sillified, her script contains such gems as “ridonculous,” “your highniest” and one character’s outburst, “Blunder bath! No more bongs! My belly screams with sounds!” It even contains what Bennett calls “rhythmic text,” in which narration is done through rap.
Riley McKinney, who plays Midge, said she’s been part of Bennett’s original creations for about the last decade. She describes the writing as “contemporary language, but with some nonsense sprinkled in, to kind of make that point that language is weird and wibble-wobbly. Some things have meanings, and some things don’t, and sometimes we give those things meanings.”
Indeed, Brükalton is an ode to silliness, play and surprises. There’s a meta-ness about it, the sense that the story is being written in the moment, and that the actors are all at the writer’s mercy, almost reminiscent of The Princess Bride.
“It’s written at the pace of a sitcom, so it’s a nice, tight, perfect, two-hour spring evening. I’ve suggested people come dressed for the Regency, or just wear your jammies, like Amacia … whatever you want to do,” said Bennett. “It’s just really very tongue-in-cheek about life and ego, and being completely involved in one’s own life.”
Brükalton will be performed Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May 18, at Brüka Theatre, 99 N. Virgina St., in Reno. Tickets are $30 in advance, with discounts, or $35 at the door. For tickets and information, visit www. bruka.org.
ART OF THE STATE
Expanded horizons
As part of its ongoing expansion, the Nevada Museum of Art has teamed with UNR to offer classroom space, collaboration
The Nevada Museum of Art and the University of Nevada, Reno, are teaming up on an education collaboration.
UNR President Brian Sandoval and museum CEO David B. Walker signed an agreement on April 11 to formally designate the museum as a new location for UNR classes, beginning this fall. The agreement comes as the museum’s expansion—with additional library, exhibition and storage space—is opening in stages.
“We feel like it’s an opportunity for our students to have more firsthand learning within the museum,” said Kelly Chorpening, the UNR art department chair and a professor. “We’re trying to give people exposure to practices that maybe are quite ephemeral or are situated out in the world somewhere, and not in a gallery.”
For the Nevada Museum of Art, “practices out in the world” means a couple of different things. First, the museum’s Center for Art + Environment houses themed collections of artworks related to landscape, land art and land use. Examples include the Altered Landscape Photography Collec-
tion, along with archive materials documenting projects that originated outside of museums, including major land art installations, Burning Man, and the Great Basin Native Artists.
Second, those land-related materials aren’t just nice to have; they’re a big part of the museum’s identity. The NMA—which was founded in 1931, but only moved into its current building in 2003—is a comparatively young museum. According to a 2016 New York Times piece, “Some young contemporary-art museums in smaller cities … are trying to think outside the cookie-cutter approach to developing a program and a reputation at a time when art prices have made building a large, diverse collection almost a fool’s game.”
So, rather than compete with the Guggenheim or the Met, Nevada’s museum, in the words of the Times, “has increasingly staked its future on becoming known for its expertise and holdings in materials related to art and the land, not just in the United States but around the world.”
The NMA has even commissioned a massive piece of land art, Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains—an innovative move for a museum.
| BY KRIS VAGNER
Nevada Museum of Art CEO David B. Walker and UNR President Brian Sandoval signed an agreement on April 11 to formally designate the museum as a new location for UNR classes. Photo/Eric Marks
Chorpening noted that a proximity to archival items such as notebooks, documentary photographs and letters will provide students with increased opportunities for research. She also said that students are likely to pick up some museum skills along the way.
“We would be trained on how to handle objects, or how not to handle them, according to whatever their rules are,” she said.
The newly formalized collaboration doesn’t just benefit art students; the idea is to encourage multidisciplinary study as well. Plans are in place for “Field Methods,” a geography class, to meet at the museum at the same time and room as “Field Studies,” an art class.
UNR psychology professor Lars Strother also plans to teach a class at the museum this fall. “His area of research is in perception, how the eye perceives things,” Chorpening said. “So, he’s actually using the museum as a resource for his students in psychology.”
Colin Robertson, the museum’s vice president of education, explained, “The rationale for this is to activate the museum’s collections, and that is inclusive of art collections, but also the Center for Art + Environment archive collections and the library collections that relatively few people know we have, especially locally. As we move into the new building, the Center for Art + Environment will be rebranded the Institute for Art + Environment. The library on the ground floor of the new building will take up about 3,600 square feet … and be a free and publicly accessible library.”
It’s not a lending library, so you can’t check out materials to take home; scholars and researchers tend to be the primary users. Some of the 1 million-plus items in the archives are also digitized and easily searchable online.
“I think the benefit to the university is interacting—helping offer students opportunities to interact with a growing and globally relevant collection,” Robertson said.
He said that while museum staff members won’t technically be teaching classes, they will be available to students in other capacities.
“My job is activating the connections between education and research,” he said.
The Nevada Museum of Art, at 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno, offers free admission for students of the University of Nevada, Reno; Truckee Meadows Community College; and Nevada high schools, with a student ID. Learn more at www.nevadaart.org.
This article was originally published on Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.
Giant spiders, pronoun shifts and reassurance
Naseem
Jamnia’s new horror-fantasy novel aims to make tweens feel seen
When one of the 12-year-old main characters in Reno author Naseem Jamnia’s new book, The Glade, says, “I guess I feel like an alien walking around humans. I’ve never belonged anywhere, you know?” it is clear that Jamnia knows the loneliness and anxiety that plague many tweens.
Jamnia’s compassion for nerdy, lonely kids makes for a sweet and uplifting novel—despite the giant spiders and oozing
mushrooms the kids in the novel must battle.
The book tells the story of four kids at summer camp in the Midwest who discover a place in the woods called The Glade, where they experience vivid, interconnected dreams; fantasies can become reality—at least for a night; and kids can become the heroes of their favorite TV shows. When the darker side of this magical place is revealed, the kids must face their insecurities, anxieties and lack of control
over their lives to save themselves and each other from its horrors.
The scarier things get, the more the kids doubt themselves—and the more they fight for each other and cheer each other on. I asked Jamnia, who uses they/them pronouns, why they wrote the book. “I want the kids to feel like somebody has given them a hug and said, ‘I see you; I believe you. I see that you’re struggling, and regardless of what that is, you’re going to be fine,’” Jamnia said.
Middle grade readers will sense Jamnia’s mission; the novel is never patronizing, always engaging and always believes in the kids.
As a graduate student, Jamnia studied both neuroscience and writing, so it is no surprise their writing is speculative fiction, bridging what could theoretically happen with what we know is true in science and the everyday world. The main character, Pina, is a 12-year-old science enthusiast who loves learning about plants and has a solid understanding of mycology, which comes in handy, as mushrooms from The Glade start popping up everywhere in camp.
Pina, who arrives at the summer camp full of anxiety, is surprised to meet other kids who like her and listen to her. She is used to kids at school thinking she’s a nerd because of her interest in science. Pina thinks, “There seemed to be a pattern with bullies and thinking nerd things were uncool. It must have been a boring life for them.” In Jamnia’s hands, Pina’s nerdiness becomes a superpower, as her understand-
| BY SARAH RUSSELL
One of Naseem Jamnia’s goals as an author is to candidly address “scary things, tough things, sad things” that affect kids, but still leave readers with a sense of hope.
Photo/Jeramie Lu
ing of plants helps her save her friends, and her anxiety becomes the vigilance and care that allows her to see everyone to safety.
When I asked Jamnia why they wrote this book for middle grades, they said, “For me, writing for kids is about making sure kids feel seen, particularly kids who don’t usually get to feel seen. So much of middle grades is about, ‘How do I fit into my community? How do I find people around me that make me feel like myself?’”
While there are some scary elements in this horror novel, in the end, The Glade is a novel about friendship, family, protecting loved ones and processing trauma and hardship.
“Kids experience trauma as much as anybody else does,” Jamnia said. “It’s a big thing to make sure that what they come away with at the end isn’t a sense of despair. That doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about hard things for kids. That doesn’t mean there can’t be scary things, tough things, sad things. You have to give kids a sense of hope.”
A second main character is Pina’s best friend, Jo, another 12-year-old. Jo wonders about their gender identity, not sure if they want to continue using female pronouns. Jamnia—discussing the novel at a time when a recent ruling in the United Kingdom said trans women are not women, and the Trump administration is using Title IX to challenge transgender athletes—explained, “I want kids to feel safe when they pick it up with everything that’s going on. … Kids need characters who are closeted and out, who are in unsafe environments and safe environments; they deserve to find the book that they love and that they see themselves in.
“My ultimate hope with this book is that kids who have things they’re going through will feel seen. I dedicated the book to kids who don’t have safe adults in their lives. A lot of kids don’t have safe adults, and it sucks. It’s just so unfair. And even those who do have safe adults in their lives will know kids who don’t. … We all have our traumas; there’s no way you can shield kids from that.”
To Jamnia, the book’s most important message is: “It’s OK that you’re not OK, and you deserve to be OK one day.”
The Glade will be published by Simon and Schuster on May 27. The book launch is scheduled for 6 p.m., Friday, May 16, at The Radical Cat, 1500 S. Virginia St., in Reno. Naseem Jamnia also plans to do book talks with classrooms and invites educators to reach out to them via their website, naseemwrites.com.
FILM & TV
Horror trips
‘Sinners’ reunites Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan in one of the year’s best films; ‘Warfare’ is a chilling real-time war depiction
Vampires are in it for the songs, creepy dancing and, yes, lots of blood in Sinners, director Ryan Coogler’s fabulous foray into horror. Shrouded in secrecy for most of its production time, this horror film is a trip.
Yes, it is a vampire movie. The plot had been kept under wraps until the week of the movie’s release, and that created a nice mystique—but, hey, vampires make money (Twilight, bitches!), so let’s get some fangs into the commercials and put some butts in seats!
Sinners is set in the 1930s and stars Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers, Smoke and Stack—rather seamlessly, I might add. Technology has come a long way, folks. Jordan is so convincing here that you basically forget he’s not two people. They stand right next to each other; they tussle; they embrace; and you can’t find a single moment when it feels like fakery. Some fine moviemaking right there.
The brothers move to the South to open a juke joint and meet some old acquaintances. The night of their grand opening, three strangers show up looking to join the party,
play some music and get their dance on. They seem a bit too friendly, and keep requesting an invitation to come in and join the party.
Jack O’Connell comes out of nowhere with a scary, funny and sad vampire take as Remmick, an Irish American who just wants everybody to get along, regardless of ethnicity, as he sucks the blood out of them. O’Connell has been acting for two decades, but none of his past work prepared me for what he delivers in Sinners. He’s an all-time-great screen vampire who does a mean Irish jig.
Delroy Lindo shows up and does a fine job of portraying Delta Slim, a character with a definite “What the hell is going on here?” vibe. Hailee Steinfeld gets one of her best roles yet as Mary, a former lover of one of the brothers and an unfortunate participant in the juke joint’s grand opening.
Stylistically, the film is an absolute triumph, from its impeccable special effects to excellent makeup effects and award-worthy cinematography. Coogler wrangles everything into a film that qualifies as one of the year’s best so far.
After last year’s chilling Civil War, director Alex Garland offers another violent, visceral experience in Warfare, his account of a real-life event that happened in 2006 during the Iraq War.
Garland and co-director Ray Mendoza embed the viewer with Navy
SEALs on a scouting mission that goes terribly wrong. The soldiers are attacked while hiding in a house, and the film doesn’t hold back on the horrors they experience.
Warfare feels authentic, for good reason: Mendoza was one of the soldiers, and is portrayed in the film by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. The filmmakers go to extremes both visually and sonically to re-create the terror of the failed mission.
Mendoza co-wrote the script, and the film is dedicated to his friend and fellow soldier Elliott (portrayed in the film by Cosmo Jarvis), who suffered grave injuries but survived.
The attack is depicted in real time, and once it gets going, it doesn’t let up. A sequence following an explosion puts the viewer directly in the middle of the carnage, complete with impaired hearing and vision. It’s early in the year, but this film needs to be remembered for Academy Awards consideration when it comes to sound design.
The cast also includes Will Poulter and Joseph Quinn, and some of the actors are required to scream in agony for a large part of the running time. The film is 95 minutes long, and 95 minutes is enough. It’s a good watch, but a tough.
Garland’s output won’t be getting any prettier, because he’s returning to the land of the zombies, writing the script for Danny Boyle’s
|
BY BOB GRIMM
sequel 28 Years Later, 23 years after penning the script for 28 Days Later
Director Steven Soderbergh follows up last year’s mediocre Presence with a much better movie in Black Bag, a slick, briskly paced spy thriller.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star as a married couple who work for an intelligence agency under intense scrutiny. When one of them is accused of selling secrets, it sends the couple and their whole team into a freefall until the true villain/villains are revealed.
At a time when so many directors can’t tell a story succinctly—everything is either a very long movie or a miniseries—Soderbergh and writer David Koepp get things right in just 93 minutes. The mystery plays out in a way in which the story seems complete. That said, the characters are intriguing enough to warrant further chapters in sequels.
A sequel isn’t happening yet, but Soderbergh and Koepp have an idea for one if somebody wants to put up the money. The film did OK on a modest budget, making decent money during a short theatrical window.
Fassbender gets one of his better roles in years, while Blanchett continues to be great in just about anything in which she shows up— and she shows up a lot; it always seems as if she has four or five movies or shows coming out soon.
continued on next page
Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in Black Bag.
OUTDOOR SAFE ET ENCLOSURES
FILM & TV
I hope the story continues. This is the sort of moviemaking that propelled the great films of the 1970s: It’s a well-made, compact, expertly constructed character study that a studio can get behind, because they turn enough of a profit.
The third season of The White Lotus is complete, with all eight episodes are available on HBO’s Max for your visual binging pleasure.
As with past seasons, it does not disappoint. In many ways, this season is the sturdiest and most fulfilling of the three, with a darker edge, headier drama and powerhouse acting all over the place. I mean, Walton Goggins is in this season, so that alone gives you enough of a reason to watch.
Goggins plays Rick, a bothered man arriving at The White Lotus hotel in Thailand with a purpose. He’s accompanied by Chelsea (Aimee Lee Wood), a happy Brit who wants to have good time despite Rick’s brooding.
Also in the cast are Jason Isaacs as Tim, father of three and husband to Victoria (the always awesome Parker Posey). Tim’s a finance man in a lot of trouble, hiding secrets from his wife, as well as his sons Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger, showing he’s very much the best actor in his family) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola). Tim’s daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), has actually tricked the family into a Thailand vacation with secret intentions for her future.
Occupying another hearty subplot are Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon and Leslie
Bibb as Jaclyn, Laurie and Kate, three friends with bumpy pasts trying to sort out what their bond really means. Coon is the standout in this group.
The cast is rounded out by returning stars Jon Gries as the ever-mysterious Greg, and Natasha Rothwell as Belinda, the character who had grand plans with Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya to start a health-spa business.
That’s not all. There’s also pop star Lalisa Manobal and Tayme Thapthimthong (awesome last name right there) as hotel employees trying to embark on a little romance—one that moves ever so slowly. A couple of big guest stars also show up to make things mighty interesting.
Creator Mike White has come through with another twisting mystery that doesn’t fully come together until the final episode. He establishes mystery in the first episode so ominously that you can’t help but return week after week (or, for many of you, in one full eight-episode binge) to see what happens. The conclusion was not easy to guess, and I found it wholly satisfying.
Sunday nights have been Walton Goggins Heaven on Max with this and the return of The Righteous Gemstones for the fourth and final season. Seeing Rick’s tribulations on this show followed by Goggins in full comedy mode as Baby Billy on Gemstones has been one of 2025’s great weekly delights.
Season 4 is happening, so rest assured knowing that a whole bunch of bad shit is going to go down at a future White Lotus hotel location.
The third season of The White Lotus is now
Aimee Lee Wood and Walton Goggins in The White Lotus. continued from Page 19
THE DISH
Zach Condron
Founder and master baker at Beloved’s Bakery and Cafe
| BY DAVID RODRIGUEZ
At Beloved’s Bakery and Cafe, Zach Condron transforms simple ingredients into extraordinary creations. He has spent more than a decade mastering the craft of artisan baking, and he’s built a reputation for exceptional sourdough breads and seasonal pastries that celebrate both tradition and innovation. He began selling bread at local farmers markets, where he cultivated a devoted following over five years. In October 2024, he opened a brick-and-mortar bakery, café and wholesale operation in Reno Public Market. He prioritizes organic ingredients and slow fermentation. Beloved’s is located at 299 E. Plumb Lane, Suite 129, in Reno. For its farmers market schedule and more information, visit www.belovedsbread.com.
Photo by David Robert
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten locally in the last month?
Freshly harvested raw hakurei turnips from Prema Farm.
Your kitchen is on fire.
(Metaphorically!) What are you cooking?
My partner and pastry chef, Marco Dobrescu, has been dialing in a coconut pandan custard and mango pastry. Hauntingly good!
Who is/was your strongest culinary influence?
My good friend Mike Zakowski, a wholegrain baker based in Sonoma, Calif. Dedicated to technique, whole ingredients and a simple lifestyle, Mike’s approach to work and craft is really inspiring to me.
What is your go-to midnight snack?
With early mornings, I’m in a deep slumber at midnight. But our miche bread toasted with ghee, preserves and cottage cheese is my ultimate snack pacifier—hits the spot every time.
Which local restaurant deserves more attention, and why?
Moo Dang! I’m always surprised to find a seat when I show up.
How does food contribute to our community?
I could write a book in response to this question! Food is the foundation. Eating brings anybody and everybody together. It’s our connection to Earth, and through that, we’re nourished on so many levels. What I love about food most is how it embodies both beauty and mortality in a single gesture. There’s something moving about witnessing a seed’s journey: planted in soil, nurtured by water, sun and air, then sprouting into a living expression of strength, perseverance and generosity. This eternal cycle of growth, nourishment and renewal connects us all to something greater than ourselves.
What’s the most unusual thing in your refrigerator right now?
Almond milk. Such a strange modern phenomenon.
Please share your favorite food memory from growing up.
Eating juicy blackberries right off the bush as a young boy. Carrying a big bowl of those blackberries back home, I felt like the richest kid in the galaxy!
What’s the one kitchen tool you can’t live without?
A bench knife, a baker’s most-used tool!
If you could have dinner at any restaurant in the world tonight, where would it be, and why there?
In the warmth of my late grandmother’s kitchen eating a big plate of her paella, surrounded by family.
TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN
New in town
Dopo Pizza and Pasta opened its second location on April 2 at 190 S. Center St., the site formerly occupied by Sizzle Pie. Founded in August 2021 by Greg Buchheister, known for Coffeebar, Dopo serves made-from-scratch pizzas, salads and pasta dishes. The drink list features Italian wines and crafty cocktails. A large patio is available for outdoor seating. Dopo is open from 5 to 10 p.m., Monday-Thursday; and from 4 to 10 p.m., Friday and Sunday. Learn more at www.dopopizzapasta.com.
Toro Bravo is up and running in the Riverwalk District at 50 N. Sierra St., bringing a Mexican steakhouse to the former site of Smith and River. Rene Preciado, who owns Mexcal, and Sergio Romero, owner of La Condesa, have partnered to give customers high-end Mexican cuisine with a casual feel. The restaurant is currently open for dinner, with plans to begin serving lunch in the coming months. Get details at www. instagram.com/torobravo.nv.
Reno Bar and Grill opened on April 3 in a 5,500-square-foot space at 903 E. Fourth St. Founder Shane Mathias is an entrepreneur with experience in catering, most notably Big Blue Q, which has been a regular presence in Tahoe City for more than a decade. Reno Bar and Grill is Mathias’ first brick-and-mortar restaurant. The menu features burgers, sandwiches and seafood dishes, with a variety of homemade ice cream flavors for dessert. Ingredients are largely sourced from local vendors. The restaurant is open for lunch daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. every day except Tuesday. Patrons can enjoy live music on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 to 11 p.m.; www.instagram.com/ renobarandgrill.
Roamer Coffee House, formerly known as Hand Craft Coffee, is located at 300 S. Wells Ave., Suite 5, with a newly opened location at 726 Glendale Ave., in Sparks. Founders Marissa and Travis Tidd continued on next page
LIQUID CONVERSATIONS
All-inclusive
Emerson
owner Tyler Colton is opening The Selden, a new LGBTQ+ bar, in Midtown
For six years, The Emerson, in Midtown, has filled a hole in Reno’s nightlife landscape.
It is more fun and less stuffy than expected from a midcentury-modern-inspired cocktail lounge; the soft design touches and vast collection of spirits create a welcoming environment. But what might seem like a kismet blend of ideas is a strategy devised by owner Tyler Colton, who has made it his mission to create spaces safe for everyone, where all who want to have fun and be kind are welcome. Now, in a time when definitively inclusive bars are needed more than ever, Colton is opening a new LGBTQ+ bar, The Selden—late this summer, if all goes according to plan.
The Emerson has had quite a wild ride in its six years of business. It opened in July 2019, not long before the COVID-19 shutdowns. On top of the pandemic chaos came challenges like rising costs, changes in city codes, and a fickle drinking population. Evolution is a requirement for bars to succeed now, and Colton has had to evolve the bar to be what the community needs.
“I think maybe having a child is the only thing that you can relate (opening a bar) to,” he said. “You’re nurturing it; you’re building it; and then you don’t know what it’s going to be like until it’s here, and even that will change.”
Despite the challenge of raising a bar in a wild world, The Emerson has found a community because, as they say, it takes a village. Home to drag brunches and bingo, sing-along events like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and other highly decorated themed parties, The Emerson has raised more than $45,000 for local charities.
“People say, ‘Don’t open a bar because you want a place to hang out,’ and I never had those intentions,” Colton told me. “It was always to create community and experiences.”
The Selden will be across the street from The Emerson at the former Junkee Clothing Exchange. Colton described his vision for the new place as a darker version of The Emerson, with navy walls and black shelves and countertops, but with the early ’70s charm for which he is known.
“The Selden is much more of a cabaret
| BY MICHAEL MOBERLY
Tyler Colton plans to open The Selden in the former location of Junkee Clothing Exchange. He said it will be a space for more dance parties, more burlesque shows and more drag brunches—where safety is paramount. Photo/David
Robert
space,” Colton said. “I’m building the space to house all the things the community has loved. It’s the dance parties, the burlesque shows, the drag brunches, and all of that.”
Increased vitriol from far-right activists and others looking to vilify the LGBTQ+ community has made opening places that cater to the community much harder than it should be. Most bars do not need to think about their patrons being terrorized, simply for being themselves, as part of their business model.
“I have been followed to my car. I have been doxxed on Reddit. I have been hacked on social media,” Colton said. “I have to protect our community. So, we have to have a door person. We have to have cameras, every angle, everyone coming and going. Yeah, because we will be a target.”
Colton has lived in New York and Los Angeles, working as a celebrity hairdresser. Still, his connection to Northern Nevada runs deep. He moved here in the sixth-grade, when his dad was the state treasurer. That’s also when he was coming out. He was the victim of bullying and abuse during this time, so while his love for this community is part of him, so is a lot of trauma.
“I never thought in my life that I would come back to this area, and I would open up a gay bar, and that would be an achievement that I’m actually so proud of,” Colton said. “I am so excited and can’t believe that in a time that we really do need safe spaces again, especially in Northern Nevada, I’m able to do that and be part of that and be part of this community.”
Another challenge The Selden faces is the city’s codes; Colton is currently advocating for himself and other small businesses to have the same rights as Jacobs Entertainment, which owns the J Resort and its festival grounds. The City Council recently approved a conditional use permit allowing Jacobs to host outdoor entertainment until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with two special events per year OK’d to go until 12:15 a.m.
“We’re going to ask for the same thing—we want the same entitlement as them,” Colton said. He added that the city is working with him. I was elated to hear that a new LGBTQ+ bar was opening in Reno. These vibrant spaces are needed for Reno’s nightlife to feel whole; we need places where we can all come together and feel safe.
When I asked Colton what he wanted people to know about his new bar, he said: “It will be a cabaret dance, all-inclusive, just a sexy upscale bar. Whether you’re gay or straight, everyone’s in there.”
A ‘third space’
Cellar 8 Wine Bar is open in Carson City—with coffee coming soon
When life presents an opportunity, sometimes you have to take the leap. That’s exactly what Maxine Holland did when she and her husband purchased Mayer Family Wines in Carson City, and opened Cellar 8 Wine Bar in March.
Holland was born in Cape Town, South Africa. After graduating from high school, she planned to attend law school, until her mother suggested she take a gap year to reassess her priorities. She and her sister traveled to Florida on visas, working and exploring—six months here, six months there. When her visa expired, Holland returned to South Africa and resumed her life. She eventually decided the United States seemed like a better option.
“I still didn’t have a direct path to what I wanted to do,” she said. “I just knew that I wanted to be here, in the United States.”
Fast forward to September 2024, when Holland and her husband were given the opportunity to buy Mayer Family Wines.
“My husband and I came in here all the time, and we would always say this would
be such a fun place to own someday,” she said.
“This was my dream eventually—you know, like 20 years down the line. I had been studying wine the last couple years, but I never really worked in the wine industry before. I have a passion for it.”
When they were offered the opportunity, they had a short period to make up their minds. Holland and her husband had just gotten married the month before, in August. “Brian and Paula Mayer built this—it was their dream that became ours,” Holland said.
Holland and her general manager, Jessica Brooks, had worked together at a graphic-design and marketing company seven years ago, and Brooks was the person who initially introduced Holland to the world of wine. When Holland bought the wine bar, Brooks was the first person she called, and Brooks helped Holland with the branding. However, Brooks had also previously worked in wine distribution, and when her company merged, Holland offered her a position at the wine bar.
“Jessica has a nuanced palate that can pick up on subtle flavor profiles that others might miss,”
| BY STEVE NOEL
Maxine Holland wants her new Cellar 8 Wine Bar to feel like a community gathering space.
Holland said. “I have seen her detect as little as 1 percent cabernet franc in a blend.”
Holland’s goal wasn’t just to own a wine bar; she wanted to create a community space. In South Africa, she said, wineries are family-oriented, and wine is a lifestyle. She aims to make her establishment more than just a place to drink.
“I affectionately refer to it as a ‘third space,’” she said. “You have your home; you have your work; then you have a third space. It’s a space that you go to with people, or alone, or on dates. … I enjoy my customers. I think of them as my friends, and that’s what I want at the end of the day.”
Asked about her selection process for wines, Holland said: “I definitely want to have benchmark wines, and then I want to have elevated wines that people are willing to experiment with—things that are within that $30 range; that is still a safe bet for people to be like, ‘Oh, I’ll try that.’ I definitely want to start moving into higher-end, old-world wines as well.”
She wants people to try new, exciting wines they have never heard about. “But I tell everybody, if you don’t like the wine I suggest, bring it back,” Holland said. “I will refund it and finish it myself. I know that I like the wines that I drink, and I’m confident in what I sell to people.”
Cellar 8 Wine Bar gained its name from the confluence of a lot of eights in Holland’s life. It’s located at 408 N. Carson St.; she and her husband were married in the eighth month; her son was born in the eighth month; and she moved to the United States in 2008, when she was 18.
In addition to being a wine bar, Cellar 8 is also a bottle shop where customers can pick up an amazing wine for dinner or a special event. You’ll also find high-end whiskeys and tequilas on the shelves—but not on the menu. (Holland said if someone really wanted, say, an old fashioned, she might be able to “whip one up” based on what she has available.)
The next chapter at Cellar 8 doesn’t involve alcohol—it’s coffee. The coffee bar is expected to open soon, pending city permits. Holland wants to bring back a culture of enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee, moving away from the current “grab and go” trend of plastic cups and drive-throughs.
I highly encourage you to visit Cellar 8 Wine Bar. You may walk in as a customer, but you will leave with new friends and a sense of community.
TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN
continued from Page 22 decided to rebrand, because their business has grown, saying, “What started as a simple idea has become something much bigger: a true community—a place where conversations spark, friendships form and people feel at home.” Roamer offers plenty of seating and space for patrons to gather and work, cultivating a community feel; roamercoffeehouse.com.
Finbomb Sushi Burrito and Poke Bar re-emerged in March across from the University of Nevada, Reno, at 1385 N. Virginia St., Suite 102. Finbomb is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. serving poke bowls, ramen and sushi burritos, all of which can be customized. Learn more at www. instagram.com/finbombsushireno.
Lillo Eatery has taken over the spot that once housed Pola Poke, at 3594 Plumb Lane, Suite A. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the menu includes handrolled bagels from Off Center Bagels and, notably, poke bowls. The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; www. instagram.com/lilloeatery.
A new branch of Drink Coffee, Do Stuff celebrated its grand opening “with a line out the door from the moment the shop opened” at 95 Foothill Road on April 19, according to founders Nick Visconti, Laura Visconti and Brad Farmer. With an established presence in Truckee, Incline Village and South Lake Tahoe, Drink Coffee, Do Stuff is a seasoned player in the beverage space. Their coffee is known for its touch of sweetness—“more sweet, less bitter,” as they say. Plans are in the works to open a cafe in Midtown in the coming months; drinkcoffeedostuff.com.
Perenn Bakery Rancharrah now serves dinner from 5 to 9 p.m., daily, at 7700 Rancharrah Parkway, Suite 110. Snacks, salads and entrees are available, along with a kids’ menu. Founders Aubrey and Tyler O’Laskey’s restaurants boast locally sourced ingredients and a commitment to fair labor practices; perennbakery.com.
Happenings
Chili on the Comstock is back for its 43rd year on C Street in Virginia City. The event takes place on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Attendees can watch chili cooks from around the region compete to win a spot in the International Chili Society World Finals. Tickets start at $30 plus fees for 10 chili samples; visitvirginiacitynv.com/events/chili-on-the-comstock-virginia-city.
Cellar 8 Wine Bar is located at 408 N. Carson St., in Carson City. Learn more at cellar8winebar.com.
Have local food, drink or restaurant news? Email foodnews@renonr.com.
—Alex Cubbon
BEER
Simple sips
A look at some excellent lagers on the lighter side
Craft beer can be confusing to the average consumer.
When you find a section devoted to it at a store, you encounter a wall of cans and bottles all yelling at you with silly or cryptic names, and various labels with designs that are sometimes garish, and other times staid. You have to figure out what type of beer you’re looking at, and how fresh it is—and if you don’t have a specific type of beer in mind, the process can be overwhelming.
To hopefully make this process a little easier, I’m going to go over some “simpler” beers, especially with the warmer months already looming. These styles all fall under the aegis of “lighter lagers”—and this section has seen increased love from the craft-brewing sector in recent years,
leading to some stellar beers.
Let’s start with the American light lager. More and more craft brewers have been making their own versions, which is fantastic news. Logic Light from Bottle Logic Brewing is a prime example and my recommendation. It’s 4.2% alcohol by volume, with a light pilsner malt body, and a very light touch of Columbus hops—it’s a light lager done right. It’s basically a German pilsner made in Orange County. At this point, I should let the cat out of the bag: Most of the beers I’m going to detail here are the result of American drinkers and even some brewers discovering or re-discovering the beauty of “Old World” lagers. Lagern, after all, is the German verb “to store,” so why not mine the wealth of experience in this area of the world? (No, I don’t mean to lump the Czechs in with the Germans given the history—but
a dozen 12-ounce cans. If you’re unfamiliar with the style, think German pilsner, but with a touch more malty flavor of browned bread, and floral, herbal or spicy hop notes. Deschutes’ version is light even by German standards at 4.5% ABV, but pick yourself up a pack of that and a Costco pizza, and you and your friends will have a great night.
Most likely, the craft-lager type you’ve heard most about in the past couple of years is the rice lager. This may sound exotic, but it is quite common in certain mass-produced lagers (especially in, but not limited to, Asia). It is essentially a pilsner that uses rice as part of the malt bill to lighten the body, but the brewer still provides the yeast with fermentable sugars so that the beer won’t be too light. For some reason, this type of lager (it is not a style or substyle on its own) caught on, and a number of breweries I respect have been making their own versions for a few years, including Beachwood Brewing (Hayabusa Lager) and the aforementioned Bottle Logic (Hanamachi Lager). As you might have guessed, I am not the biggest fan, because it feels like people are trying to smuggle Budweiser into craft beer—and I want no truck with it. As much as I love the two breweries I just mentioned (and their lagers when they do them), I’m looking for something that doesn’t remind me of the dark days when it was hard to find beer better than Budweiser.
That being said, Bottle Logic’s nearby friend, Green Cheek Beer, recently made a “Rice IPA” in collaboration with Breakside Brewery from Oregon. Apparently, Breakside brews a rice IPA of their own, and the result of the collaboration is a delicious, light-bodied hop explosion. Burgeon Beer Company has done the same in the past, so let’s hope for more interesting uses of adjuncts like rice in the future.
let’s allow beer to bring us together, shall we.) While we’re at it, I will repeat something I believe deeply: Lagers are the true test of the quality of a brewer. There’s nowhere to hide your sins in these “simple” beers; you either did it well, or you did not, and there is a subtle art and beauty in that.
There has been a bit of hoopla in the beer world about the Kirkland Lager at Costco. Deschutes Brewing produces it, and they have a history of making very solid, no-frills beers, such as the still-delicious and well-made Black Butte Porter. Costco killed this branded beer in 2018 after a less-than-stellar reception (when it was brewed by a different contract brewer). In walks Deschutes with a Munich Helles-style lager recipe that won a gold medal at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival, and Costco slaps on a price tag of $13.99 for
Here I am at the end of the column, feeling like I barely got started. Let me quickly mention an amazing Czech-style pilsner from Bottle Logic that I’ve found cans of on the shelves at Total Wine and More: Slappers Only! I had the joy of having it on tap at their taproom replete with three different, traditional types of pours (which I don’t have space to get into here). North Park Beer Co. regularly releases incredible lagers; I had a fresh Munich dunkel there that was absolutely packed with flavor while still being light in body. Burgeon Beer and Green Cheek both make a wide array of gorgeous lagers as well.
With temperatures already rising, lagers are the shining beacon on the hill of the upcoming summer.
Brett Newton is a certified cicerone (like a sommelier for beer) and homebrewer. He can be reached at caesarcervisia@gmail.com. This originally ran in our sister paper, the Coachella Valley Independent
MUSICBEAT
Softer Segall
The garage-rock titan trades his electric mayhem for acoustic calm during his new tour, coming to Cypress Reno
A titan of modern garage and psychedelic rock is performing an intimate acoustic set in Reno.
Ty Segall, a force in fuzzed-out rock, will trade the high-energy squeals of his electric-guitar mayhem for a calmer, softer acoustic show at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 1, at Cypress Reno. Segall, who has released a few acoustic songs and albums, will be exploring his singer/songwriter side, and even converting some of his loud jams into bare-bones performance versions.
During a recent phone interview, Segall explained that a majority of his raucous songs begin on an acoustic guitar.
“I definitely write a lot of songs on the acoustic,” Segall said. “I’d say it depends on the record and depends on the vibe, but there have been full albums that I’ve written on the acoustic, for sure. I guess I write more on the acoustic, and then I transfer it to the electric, rather than the other way around.”
On this acoustic tour, gems from Segall’s career are taking on a new life. For example, the creeping fuzzwall of “Finger” becomes twangy and more somber, while the psych-punk rager “You’re the Doctor” swaps moshing for foot-stomping. Segall is also enjoying the chance to perform his acoustic-only tracks live.
“Some of these songs work really well in
this setting and not in the band setting, or vice versa,” Segall said. “I’ve got a lot of songs to pull from. A few of these, I don’t do with my band at all, so I don’t really play them much unless I’m doing a solo acoustic show—but I’m always trying to mix it up with my band, so it’s always changing.”
Segall is looking forward to visiting some smaller venues and different markets on this acoustic run.
“I love touring with my bands,” he said. “I did a tour with my wife where we did a solo acoustic tour, and that was really cool, because it was basically one long vacation. We were working, obviously, but we had some cool days off in different places. When I’m out playing, I want to play, so the main thing is to play, but we’re always stopping and trying to do something cool, for sure. It’s a little bit more flexible on a solo acoustic tour.”
Segall’s Reno performance will take place a few weeks before the release of his new album, Possession. Preview single “Fantastic Tomb” showcases blistering and twangy guitar vibes; electric, cosmic country sounds; and even some strings and horns. Some of these soundscapes will be explored acoustically on this tour as well.
“I love the idea that a song has endless versions,” Segall said. “I’m playing a few new songs on this trip, and my band hasn’t played any of them yet. We haven’t gotten in a room in a minute, so we’ll see how it goes. Usually, my band makes everything a little louder and a little nastier than the album, which is fun.”
This fall, Segall and his live band will be opening for funk-metal icons Primus.
“They’ve actually asked us to play with them a handful of times, and it’s never worked out,” he said. “This time, it did, so we’re psyched to warm the crowd up for them.”
Whether he’s making music acoustically, with a full band, or in one of his many offshoot bands like Fuzz or Freckle, Segall is a recording and touring warrior. He said it’s
necessary to stay busy in the modern music industry.
“The way it works nowadays is something needs to be booked more than a year in advance, maybe even a year and a half to two years,” he said. “Things have gotten better, but after COVID, it was really crazy how far in advance things were booked. I’ve got the next year and a half booked, which back in the day, was more like a year. You’ve got to be prepared. You don’t want to wake up and be like, ‘Oh, I don’t have anything going on three months from now.’ It’s just more of, like, a reliable thing to know that there’s something on the books, in case my career takes a dive in some way.”
Including Possession, Segall has produced 16 studio albums, not including the dozen or so albums he’s released through his many bands. Segall said his relationship with each release varies, meaning that his post-release involvement is different from album to album.
“I go back and forth,” he said. “Some records, I pay attention; some records, I don’t. I have, depending on the day, a varying relationship with the whole thing. Some of my records have been way more of a confrontational situation, and other ones have not. It just depends on what’s going on.”
Despite this relationship, Segall keeps a copy of everything he’s ever done—but his attitude during the earlier parts of his career prohibited him from having a complete collection.
“There are a lot of weird little things I don’t have that, when I was younger, I didn’t really care to keep,” Segall said. “I just wanted to keep making stuff. I kind of regret that there’s a handful of things I don’t have, but at the same time, it doesn’t matter. I made it to go out into the world; I didn’t make it for me to keep it in my record collection.”
Ty Segall is set to perform an all-ages show at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 1, at Cypress Reno, 761 S. Virginia St. Tickets are $30 in advance. For tickets and more information, visit hollandreno.org.
Ty Segall. Photo/Denée Segall
CROSSWORD
| BY MATT JONES
THE LUCKY 13
Johnny Bailey
Guitarist/vocalist for Rigorous Proof, performing at Cypress on May 9
late, for the very last song. I’d love to see them in New York at CBGB’s on a Tuesday with nobody in the crowd paying attention but me.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? U2. I’m a fan. I think The Edge is a fantastic guitarist, just like Ringo is a great drummer, and I’m done with the slandering.
“I’m ... Not Batman”—actors in different roles. By
style
37. At ___ end (perplexed)
Matt Jones
Across 1. Right away
5. Contrarians
10. “___ the hell!?”
14. Superbad star Michael
15. Orphan of Swiss literature
16. Collectible card status
17. 2016 black comedy/mystery starring George Clooney
19. Poet Lazarus
20. Return of the Jedi moon
21. Angry cat noise
23. 2006 dramedy starring Ben Affleck
30. Parfait ingredient
32. ___ Mae (loan company)
33. Word before la la
34. Grammy-winning jazz singer/ pianist Diana
36. Simple question
39. 1983 comedy starring Michael Keaton
41. Actor Cole of Angie Tribeca and black-ish
42. Brand used in potato chips in the 1990s
44. ’60s skirts
46. Greek consonants
47. Trick-y student, so to speak?
49. Most creepy
51. 2019 auto racing movie starring Christian Bale
53. Seem imminent
54. Block, legally
58. Avocado, e.g.
61. 1985 sci-fi comedy starring the late Val Kilmer
65. The Handmaid’s Tale streamer
66. Newsperson of yore
67. Frozen character
68. Sound from a pound
69. Entertainer Gorme
70. “Round and Round” band
Down
1. Hurt
2. Actor Hayes
3. Overly dry
4. Daughter of Pablo Picasso
5. “It just hit me!”
6. “Born,” in a bio
7. “___ the season”
8. Wyoming neighbor
9. XM merger partner
10. Went to the mat
11. Croque monsieur ingredient
12. Pitcher’s asset
13. Steeped drink
18. Mouse Trap starter part
22. Stick around 24. Cheers regular 25. Notification set on a phone
Find the answers in the “About” section at RenoNR.com!
In an email, guitarist/vocalist Johnny Bailey described Rigorous Proof’s genre as “hypnagogic rock.” The description is very fitting; their dreamy, modern psychedelia stylings evoke some of the washed-out soundscapes of early Floyd, with the alternative and pop-rock stylings more akin to ’70s hit-makers T.Rex. Rigorous Proof’s effects-heavy rock edge has resulted in some absolute bangers, like the sunshiney “AK47” and the blistering “Long Road Out of Reno.” Rigorous Proof is set to perform at 7 p.m., Friday, May 9, at Cypress, performing their brand-new album in full before heading into the studio to record it. For more information, visit www.rigorousproof.com. Photo by David Robert
What was the concert you attended?
The Rolling Stones was my first concert. My folks waited until I was about 7 or 8, and for something legendary just so that I could sound cool in case I ever got interviewed.
What was the first album you owned?
The first I remember purchasing with my own money was Weird Al, Running With Scissors, on CD. Still own it!
What bands are you listening to right now?
The Mars Volta! Big Mars Volta kick right now.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? Maroon 5. Someone pack them up and send them off; we don’t need them anymore.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? Television. I drove for five hours to see them on their last tour, only to get there
What’s your favorite music venue? Cypress or the Holland Project, depending on the band. The intimacy of those venues is palpable.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
“I love you, but I’m afraid to love you,” Jeff Buckley, “So Real.”
What band or artist changed your life? How? The Mars Volta instantly made half of what I knew about recorded music obsolete. Frances the Mute pushed the parameters of what an album could be, from finite to infinite, for me. They make movies for your ears.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? Syd Barrett, “Have you got it yet?”
What song would you like played at your funeral? “Close to the Edge,” Yes.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? MC5, Kick Out the Jams
What song should everyone listen to right now? Listen to “Tetragrammaton” by The Mars Volta, and then tell me what time signature it’s in. Been wondering for ages.
Vinny Murgolo, aka “The Knife Guy,” has been a firefighter for 17 years, and he’s turned an oft-forgotten maintenance chore into a side business. From highend, imported knives to the common kitchen knife, Murgolo has sharpened them all. He also sharpens axes, pruning shears and scissors. Learn more at theknifeguyreno.com.
What is your background? How did you get into sharpening knives?
It was from the fire department. Everyone has their rotation for cooking, and when I got hired, I didn’t know any recipes, so I had to go online and take some cooking classes. Since then, my passion for cooking has grown, and along with cooking a lot more, my knives got extremely dull, so I went down a deep rabbit hole trying to figure out how to sharpen my knives. I made many mistakes when I started, and eventually I became very good at sharpening my knives. So, then my friends and family asked me to sharpen their knives. And I was like, “OK, I think I can actually make a little bit of a side hustle doing this.” I posted online about my sharpening business on Nextdoor, and someone asked me to stop by and sharpen their knives. ... It kind of spread out from there.
Who is your clientele?
My clients are a diverse group of people, from private chefs to home cooks and restaurant owners. I’ve sharpened for some celebrities before, and just the mom-and-pop people of Reno, pretty much.
What do you charge?
My base rate for any kitchen knife is $10, regardless of size. Some people want to charge $2 per inch to sharpen. I don’t want to measure every knife, so I just
| BY DAVID ROBERT
have a flat rate. Usually, people bring me anywhere from 1 to 20 knives, so I feel like that evens it out. The most someone has brought me was from a celebrity, and they brought me 50 knives.
How long does it take you to sharpen a knife?
Less than one minute! Since I got extremely busy, I upgraded from hand sharpening with diamond stones to using a 1-by-30-(inch) belt sander with various grits. … I can customize any angle for any client’s needs. For instance, I sharpen single-bevel knives for chefs at 10 degrees. I’ve done Western knives like Wüsthof or Henckels at 17 degrees. I try to match the bevel so I’m not taking off any more material than necessary.
Have you had any knives that have been particularly challenging to sharpen?
Yeah, I think the hardest knives to sharpen are probably everyday carry knives with a mirror polish. … I have to be very careful not to scratch the knife. A lot more prep goes into protecting the knife from any potential marring or damage to the edge. … Also, for single-bevel Japanese knives, I have to get those very precise. These take a lot more time to get right. People also bring me knives with giant broken tips or chips. Sometimes the tips are completely missing, so I have to refurbish those, and that’s all included in my pricing.
Do some people have an emotional attachment to their knives?
One hundred percent! Usually, those are the people who say, “Oh, my knives aren’t worth anything, but I love this one knife,” and I tell people I can restore any knife that you give me. As long as there’s metal on it, I can put any edge on it.
Knife sharpening seems like it’s something that everyone needs at some point, so how’s the future looking for your business?
I’m very fortunate that I have picked a profession to get into that can stand the test of time. Essentially, every homeowner, every person, has a knife, and everyone cooks, so I found a niche where I can make something razor sharp for someone who loves to cook and hates it when their knives get dull. It can be dangerous if the knife is dull or has a chipped edge, so having a sharp knife in the kitchen is safer and can make cooking so much more enjoyable. I want to help people learn how to sharpen knives, and I’m actually teaching at (Truckee Meadows Community College) for their culinary program. I’m excited that I can give back to the community that has given me so much.
