Dec. 31, 2014

NUMBERSGAME

Letters............................ 3 Opinion/Streetalk............ 5 Sheila.Leslie.................... 7 Brendan.Trainor.............. 7 News.............................. 8 Feature.......................... 11 Arts&Culture................ 16 Art.of.the.State............. 18

Foodfinds...................... 19 Film.............................. 20 Musicbeat..................... 21 Nightclubs/Casinos....... 22 This.Week.....................25 Free.Will.Astrology........27 15.Minutes.....................27 Bruce.Van.Dyke............27

Who’s right?

CoNgRESS RE-aUthoRizEd

See News, page 8.

aN iNEffECtivE

Nevada books

for the year ahead

l aw to tR aCk

See Arts&Culture, page 16.

offiCER-iN volv Ed hoMiCidES

RENo’s NEws & ENtERtaiNmENt wEEkly

Nature’s Perfect food See Foodfinds, page 19.

streamiNg

out loud See Film, page 20.

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VolumE 20, issuE 46

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DECEmBER 31, 2014 - JaNuaRy 7, 2015

MAKE YOUR NEW YEAR’S EVE GRAND.

December 26–January 1

January 17

STRING CHEESE INCIDENT NT 1/23 & 1/24 1/2 • BIG GAME BASH 2/1

VOTED BEST HOTEL IN RENO (775) 789-2000 • GrandSierraResort.com • 2

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RN&R

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december 31, 2014

Send letters to renoletters@newsreview.com

Last encounter

Pro’s prose

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Happy New Year!

This is my last column of the year, and the issue also includes probably my last feature story in the Fatal Encounters series.

Primarily due to this series, I had an extraordinary year.

When I originally planned out the stories, this last piece was supposed to look at a comprehensive year’s worth of data regarding officer-involved homicides in the United States, but as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

It was just too much data, and despite the fact that thousands of people have contributed in many ways, it’ll be a while before we’ll call any calendar year complete.

A lot of people have commented that we had good timing with this series, but honestly, nobody was telling me how smart I was two years ago, when I started work on it. In fact, they mostly told me I was wrong with my assertion that the government was not collecting this information.

I’m saddened that this last story is launching in the environment of mourning with the murder of two police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. In the last year, I’ve learned more about the dangers of being in law enforcement than I ever could have imagined.

You know, a lot of people have made comparisons between the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Bunkerville, Nevada, standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, but I don’t think many have made the connection that two Las Vegas Metro officers, Igor Soldok and Alyn Beck, died as a direct result of that standoff. Similar outcomes, but as different as black and white.

My thoughts go out to all those families, and I fervently hope one result of this project will be fewer dead police.

And that’s one thing that has not changed in the year that’s waning as I type these words: I still believe that better data regarding officer-involved violence will help us understand the patterns that overlay these incidents, and if we pay attention to what the data tells us, we’ll have safer streets for everyone.

Re “Biggest little stories” (Feature story, Dec. 24): “Face closed” but yet the eyes are open and apparently white? “Has the parcel weight in her soft hands”? “The grass is greening beneath the snow”?

Oh my!

Rex D. Stock Reno

in every waistband. Given a choice between Scalia and Michele Fiore as his authority on constitutionally appropriate gun use, I would suggest Trainor go with the one who has participated in fewer armed insurrections against the United States (as in the Bundy Ranch standoff). And please add these three to Michele Fiore’s CCW witness list for Judiciary Committee: the Idaho State professor who shot himself in the foot during chem lab, the Arkansas state senator who shot a teacher during active shooter training, and the Utah teacher who blew away a toilet while sitting on it.

C.G. Green Reno

Agree to disagree Re “Poetic adjustments” (Notes from the Neon Babylon, Dec. 11): I would be interested in Mr. Van Dyke’s opinions if he had read all of the investigation information pertaining to all the incidents he listed. But I am sure that his opinion is based on his vast law enforcement and judicial system experience.

Brett Smith Reno

Life after subsidies Re “The future of shopping hell” (Feature story, Dec. 18): Well done article. When the government subsidies abate well, you know the saying: “What comes up, must come down,” and they will no longer be able to operate at a loss.

Perhaps it will coincide with the greater and longer impending global market downturn after the holidays? I would be very interested in future coverage of the communications industry that operates many “warehouses” in the form of call centers staffed by temp firms through their offices, job fairs and the independent providers of the call centers for the biggest names in communications. Why? Because their practices are similar in many ways to what Amazon warehouse employees seem to be subject to.

How does one know they are working for a place with high turnover and questionable practices? Number one in my experience is not knowing the full name of co-workers unless asked. A name tag or a desk sign with only a first name is the tip-off that one has found him/herself in what I term a “dispose a job”—meaning it is something that realistically most only do for three to six months and then move along. While such call centers tout full benefit packages and typically about 25 or so long-term employees that are used as examples of “job stability,” the broader turnover is so great and the pay so low in comparison to the profit margin that it is inexcusable to have

Under the gun “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: This Firearm Is 22 Times More Likely To Be Fired In A Suicide, Homicide Or Accident Than A Defensive Use.” No gun dealer or maker will tell you about this reality.

Big Ammo prefers fantasy to reality, borrowing Big Tobacco’s playbook from three generations ago, when their ads featured athletes, movie stars, and even doctors promoting “health benefits” of cigarettes. Amanda Collins’ unfortunate celebrity victim status lends itself to that kind of role.

Her anecdote opens the door to an alluring defensive gun use fantasy. It invites us to time-travel back to 2007 to hand her the gun she needs in order to pre-execute Brianna Dennison’s killer, and who wouldn’t do that? Well, one person who wouldn’t is Justice Antonin Scalia, who specifically reiterated the Court’s respect for “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.” He expressed that support for traditional Second Amendment restrictions in DC v. Heller.

Brendan Trainor has previously praised that same decision (RN&R, Jan. 16) as a green light for a gun Our Mission To publish great

newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages people to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

Editor/Publisher D. Brian Burghart News Editor Dennis Myers Arts Editor Brad Bynum Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Staff writer Sage Leehey Contributors Amy Alkon, Woody Barlettani, Bob Grimm, Ashley Hennefer, Sheila Leslie, Eric Marks, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, Todd South, Brendan Trainor, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young

Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Art Director Hayley Doshay Junior Art Director Brian Breneman Production Coordinator Skyler Smith Design Melissa Bernard, Brad Coates, Kyle Shine Advertising Consultants Joseph “Joey” Davis, Gina Odegard, Bev Savage, Jessica Wilson Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office Manager/Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker

—D. Brian Burghart

brianb@ ne wsreview . com

OPINION

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NEWS

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GREEN

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FEATURE STORY

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ARTS&CULTURE

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ART OF THE STATE

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FOODFINDS

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MUSICBEAT

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son experienced—miles and miles of racing over a cement floor attempting to keep up with the demands of a computer, no regular schedule, no benefits and no job security.

Jeff Bezos visited the facility once.

My son thought he was an arrogant ass.

His photo in Mr. Hightower’s article is nearly as terrifying as the article itself.

Even worse is that Amazon is becoming the model for other distribution centers popping up all over Northern Nevada. ZuLilly is a good example.

(My son also worked there.)

Do we really want to be a state that is so desperate for a new image that we are willing to sell our souls to the likes of Jeff Bezos? The jobs companies like Amazon bring to Nevada are akin to slavery. We citizens are being lied to by those making the decisions in Carson City, who give special tax breaks and other incentives to the slave holders, then tell us it is in the common good because jobs are being created.

Secure jobs with good pay, regular schedules, safe workplaces, health insurance and other benefits are not being created. We can do better.

I have boycotted Amazon since they were first established. Last night I showed my sister, a regular Amazon. com shopper, “The Future of Shopping Hell.” She will never visit the site again and feels guilty for not knowing what was really going on. Thanks to Jim Hightower and RN&R, others are becoming educated and will hopefully realize that the cheapest price is not worth sacrificing our small, local businesses and that our work force deserves better jobs than distribution centers like Amazon provide.

Jere Whitney Reno

any employee treated as if they were so much toilet tissue to be used, abused and flushed! To add insult to injury, the drain on local charitable resources in addition to government assistance is troubling.

Deborah D’Amico Reno

But how do you feel?

President Barack Obama has missed a chance to put an exclamation point on of his never-ending Apologize for America tour. Having absolutely nothing to fear from like-minded Third World pissant, tin pot dictators, Cuba’s Commie in Charge recently took POTUS to the woodshed. A place Obamski knows only too well. In a 30-minute uninterrupted tirade, the Commie in Charge Castro lambasted Obummer on the phone claiming that “America is the root of all of Cuba’s problems.” Per usual, our Dear Leader apologized for America’s greatness and leadership in the free world. The paddle so effectively and frequently wielded by Merkle, the Saudis, Nettanyahu, the Ayatollahs, Kim Jung Un, Assad, and Palin ... across Obama’s backside ... is now well known. There was no reason for Castro not to lash out, given our Bench Warmer in Charge’s timidity and leadership failures. Barrasakova missed a golden opportunity to focus the light on his fundamental lack of moral authority. He could have flown to Havana directly. Then he could have called a joint press conference, got down on his knees ... and licked the boots of Castro personally. Alas, a prime time genuflecting and grovelling opportunity was forever lost.

Kim R. Kollman Reno

Think global, shop local Re “The future of shopping hell” (Feature story, Dec. 18): I was thoroughly was educated by this article. I have been a very loyal Amazon customer since its birth, but I am through! I order many items for convenience. I cannot support this company’s business model with their disregard for human workers. Thanks for opening my eyes.

Dale Magnin Reno

Jungle fever Re “The future of shopping hell” (Feature story, Dec. 18): My son worked at the Fernley Amazon sweatshop over the holidays for four years. When he first told me of the horrific work conditions, I thought he was exaggerating. “The Future of Shopping Hell” by Jim Hightower describes exactly what my Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Manager Anthony Clarke Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Steve Finlayson, Debbi Frenzi, Vicky Jewell, Angela Littlefield, Joe Medeiros, Ron Neill, Christian Shearer, Marty Troye, Warren Tucker, Gary White, Joseph White, Margaret Underwood General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Business Manager Grant Rosenquist

NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

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THIS WEEK

Business Nicole Jackson

Sweetdeals Coordinator Couryney deShields Nuts & Bolts Ninja Christina Wukmir

Lead Technology Synthesist Jonathan Schultz Senior Support Tech Joe Kakacek Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalinn Jenkins 405 Marsh Ave., Third Floor Reno, NV 89509 Phone (775) 324-4440 Fax (775) 324-4572 Classified Fax (916) 498-7940 Mail Classifieds to classifieds@newsreview.com

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MISCELLANY

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Web site www.newsreview.com Printed by Paradise Post The RN&R is printed using recycled newsprint whenever available.

Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in the RN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. The RN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form.

Cover and feature story design: Brian Breneman Cover illustration: Jonathan Buck

DECEMBER 31, 2014

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

!

Itʼs happen ing in ACTIVITIES

PERFORMANCE AND MUSIC

30TH ANNUAL RTC NEW YEAR’S EVE FREE SAFE RIDE

NEW YEAR’S EVE AT JA NUGGET

The RTC New Year’s Eve FREE Safe RIDE program gives the community a reliable and safe way to ring in 2015. All RTC transit services will be FREE from 6 PM to 2AM. Made possible through the generous support of sponsors: Renown Health, the Northern Nevada DUI Task Force, KOLO 8, Wood Rodgers, Inc., Club Cal Neva, REMSA, Morrey Distributing, Reno Fire Fighters Local 731, RSCVA, and Reno News & Review. W, 12/31 6PM2AM, free. http://www.rtcwashoe.com

CROCHET CONNECTION Learn to crochet or share tips with other crochet enthusiasts.

Th, 4-5:45PM, free. Spanish Springs Library, 7100A Pyramid Lake Highway. (775) 424-1800

FOUR SEASONS BOOK CLUB The book club meets the first Saturday of each month. Call to find out each month’s book title. First Sa of every month, 1-2PM, free. Sparks Library, 1125 12th St. (775) 352-3200

CONVERSATION CAFE The drop-in conversation program meets on the first Saturday of each month, 2-4PM, free. Sparks Library, 1125 12th St. (775) 352-3200

CLICKETS KNITTING GROUP This class is for knitters of all ages and levels. Yarn and needles are available. First and Third Su of every month, 1:30-3PM, free. Spanish Springs Library, 7100A Pyramid Lake Highway, Spanish Springs (775) 424-1800

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december 31, 2014

There will be a free champagne toast and countdown to midnight on the casino floor, complete with party favors. W, 12/31, 7PM, $50-$75 for dinner and show. JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

JAY WHITE’S NEIL DIAMOND TRIBUTE W, 12/31, 8:15PM, $75 dinner and show; $50 show only. In the Celebrity Showroom. JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

PAWNSHOP PIMPS & HOES NYE CELEBRATION Join us on New Year’s Eve for a “Pimps & Hoes” celebration, featuring Pawnshop. Best costume wins $100 bar tab! W, 12/31, 9PM, no cover. Elbow Room Bar, 2002 Victorian Ave. (775) 356-9799

NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY WITH THE NOVELISTS AND TYLER STAFFORD W, 12/31, 9PM, $20. Great Basin Brewing Co., 846 Victorian Ave. (775) 355-7711

KELSEA BALLERINI W, 12/31, 9PM, $15. JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave.(775) 356-3300

DAVID JOHN AND THE COMSTOCK COWBOYS Sa, 1/3, 8PM, $20. JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 3563300

SHEEP DIP The 51st annual fundraiser show exposes the follies and

foibles of the Truckee Meadows in an evening of skits, songs and dance performed by area locals along with members of the media and even a few politicians. The show raises funds that support charitable activities in the Reno/Sparks and Greater Northern Nevada Area. F, 1/9, 8PM and Sa, 1/10, 8PM, $35. JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

LIVE MUSIC Sa, 9PM and Su, 3PM, no cover. CBQ, 1330 Scheels Dr. (775) 359-1109

LINE DANCING LESSONS Line dancing lessons from the Gilley’s Girls from 6PM-8PM. Enjoy DJ Trey from 6PM-mid. W, 6PM through 12/31. No cover.

JA Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

DJ RAZZ Come dance the night away to DJ RAZZ! You can even karaoke if you like. Ladies Night every Friday night. Drink Specials all night. F, 9PM. Paddy & Irene’s Irish Pub, 906-A Victorian Ave. (775) 358-5484

BIKINI BULL RIDING DJ and Bikini Bull Riding Competition. Su, 5 & 9PM through 12/28, no cover. John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

LOCALS NIGHT Locals Night, DJ. M, 5PM through 12/29, no cover. John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

CLASSIC ROCK NIGHT Classic rock night with DJ. Tu, 5PM through 12/30, no cover.

John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

LADIES NIGHT & TOUGHEST COWBOY Ladies Night w/live music and Toughest Cowboy Competition.

DJ breaks until midnight. W, 7 & 9PM through 12/31, no cover.

John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

ACOUSTIC WONDERLAND This is a singer-songwriter showcase. Come down to Paddy’s and bring your acoustic instruments. Sign-ups are at 7:30PM and music begins at 8PM. Drink Specials all night! Th, 8PM, no cover. Paddy & Irene’s Irish Pub, 906-A Victorian Ave. (775) 358-5484

LIVE MUSIC & LATE NIGHT DJ Live music with late-night DJ. F, 5PM-2AM & 7-11PM through 12/26, no cover. John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300

LIVE MUSIC & LATE NIGHT DJ Live music with late-night DJ. Sa, 5PM-2AM & 7PM-midnight through 12/27, no cover.

John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 1100 Nugget Ave. (775) 356-3300 KARAOKE

KARAOKE KARAOKE WITH BOBBY DEE Tu, 8PM, no cover. Morelli’s G Street Saloon, 2285 G St. (775) 355-8281

KARAOKE Th-Sa, 9PM, no cover. Bottom’s Up Saloon, 1923 Prater Way (775) 359-3677

by Marina Palmieri

ThiS MoDern WorlD

by tom tomorrow

What are your hopes for the New Year?

Asked at Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Co., 316 Mid Valley Center Carmel, California Carly Partida Cashier

I hope that people begin to embrace their differences and feed their inner weirdness.

Rebecca Leigh Student

I hope that people realize what they have and are more grateful.

Kathryn Bruce

Close encounters of the lethal kind When an enterprise gets to the end of a groundbreaking project like our year-long Fatal Encounters series, people invariably ask what, if anything, was learned. The problem with that sort of summary response is that there’s no easy way to put all the lessons into a few words, and by doing so, the breadth of the project is almost always made to seem smaller or larger than it actually was.

One thing Fatal Encounters has proven is the government will no longer be solely in charge of policing itself with regard to public behavior it would rather keep localized. Journalists, including so-called “citizen” journalists, now have a role. In other words, the public now has a role. For many years, the federal government said it kept track of how many people were affected by officerinvolved violence. It claimed around 400 incidents a year.

FatalEncounters.org, with its crowdsourced searchable and comparable links to media reports, has disabled that lie, and shows fatalities are closer to triple that number.

Another thing journalism can learn from Fatal Encounters is its own collusion in disabling the public’s access to information related to police violence.

Demographic information about the dead and the officers involved is rarely reported. Whether a killing was justified and who investigated are too often given no scrutiny at all, crippling likely reform when the government’s actions are examined, and giving law enforcement a pass on the most weighty act of policing there is, killing a person.

This year, race became the driving engine of the topic of officer-involved homicides across the country. Data from Fatal Encounters both supported the argument that African-Americans and other minority groups are killed at an outsized rate to their numbers in the population but also tempered the claim that a majority of people killed by OPINION

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NEWS

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GREEN

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FEATURE STORY

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ARTS&CULTURE

Design Specialist

I want people to eat organic and local and pay more attention to what they [are] putting in their bodies. Stay away from processed fast food, people.

police are minorities. As so often happens, the truth was in the middle, and while the Fatal Encounters data is not conclusive, the numbers get more refined and comprehensive every week. Too many African-Americans are killed, but it’s not just black people who are killed in numbers beyond their ratio in society.

The mentally ill, the impoverished and veterans— anecdotally, so far—seem to have an outsized representation in the numbers of people killed by police. This data too is young, but it’s documenting the relationships that will be further examined by academic and support groups. While we’re counting, it must also be said that Fatal Encounters shows that the vast majority of officerinvolved homicides are above reproach. Indeed, it points out the dangers inherent in the job of policing in a locked and loaded culture like ours.

The fundamental premise of this project—better tracking of the numbers behind the stories will point out both successful and failed policies—was also borne out.

But that discovery went beyond the issue of whether law enforcement should change policies and training to get better outcomes. It went into the whole question of whether the public has rights to be provided with information about police and policing. There are many areas in this country where law enforcement arrogantly refuses to follow state public records laws, considering itself above the law and beyond concepts of transparency and accountability.

Americans have been given a powerful new tool to watch and control a government that all-too-often oversteps its authority. Our project, Fatal Encounters, is an early step toward an America whose citizens are able to keep as close an eye on the government as the government keeps on them. Ω |

ART OF THE STATE

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FOODFINDS

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FILM

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MUSICBEAT

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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

Kris Formica Construction

I hope that 2015 brings health and happiness to my family and loved ones.

Chelsea Wightman Barista

I want people to realize that climate change is a real thing. Also I hope 2015 brings new exciting adventures to my life.

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MISCELLANY

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DECEMBER 31, 2014

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ENROLLMENT BEGINS NOV. 15

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december 31, 2014

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Connect with Prominence Health Plan

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How to reform Nevada politics As we celebrate a fresh beginning to another year, it’s a good day to imagine a political future for ourselves that would motivate progressive voters to actually vote.

What if Nevadans had not been swept away by term limits fever by and had chosen instead to maintain Sheila Leslie their voting power? Barbara Buckley might still be leading the State Assembly, guiding a progressive legislative agenda to help working people thrive rather than boosting profits of megacorporations. Instead, we have an unfortunate reality show featuring a cast of characters with little experience and even less sense of what it means to be an elected official representing more than your own extreme views.

What if candidates were not allowed to run for another office without resigning the office they currently hold? That is, they had to make a clear decision about their political aspirations for the next few years and take their chances, instead of clinging to the safety net of their existing position. And while we’re at it, The usa.gov site rechow about prohibiting the game ommends these new of musical chairs after the elecyear’s resolutions, but tion when appointment to another there’s nothing about elected office suddenly seems more improving democracy: www.usa.gov/Citizen/ attractive?

Topics/New-YearsWhat if we followed the Resolutions.shtml example of at least 13 states and established an independent commission to handle redistricting?

We could reduce the influence of the national parties, focused entirely on congressional seats, and return the decision to a bi-partisan group of Nevadans committed to the ideal of representative democracy. We could then count on more competitive legislative seats and reward the party that fields the best candidate to represent the district as a whole, instead of having to choose between the more extreme candidates who win a partisan primary.

What if stricter campaign financing laws were in place in Nevada to prohibit the “bundling” of campaign contributions from companies with multiple subsidiaries? We could reduce the influence of casinos, foreign mining companies, and large corporations.

Candidates would have to focus

OPINION

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NEWS

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GREEN

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FEATURE STORY

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ARTS&CULTURE

Cronyism Uber alles The great economist Joseph Schumpeter called called capitalism “creative destruction.” The invisible hand of the marketplace is constantly at work, using the basic laws of supply and demand and the self-interested actions of individuals, to tear by Brendan Trainor down outdated business models and create innovative new ways of satisfying human needs.

Unfortunately, there is an opposite force at work that resists these forces for change. As Adam Smith pointed out, whenever businessmen meet over dinner, someone invariably brings up a new scheme for how they can use government to lock in profits and prevent new competitors from entering the market. The way it is most often done today is through government regulations operating under the guise of “public safety.”

Uber is a San Francisco-based company which has exploded on the scene as one of the new “peer to peer” businesses that use smart phone technologies to allow ordinary people to offer private services like ride sharing and bed and board sharing Here’s a look at outside of the normal regulated Uber from the inside: taxi and hotel industries. Uber has www.newsreview. cleverly avoided these regulations com/reno/ride-on/ by claiming it is a technology content?oid=15531534 company, not a transportation company. On Oct. 24, new Uber driver Anthony Morris picked up Rachel Martinez, an undercover Nevada Transportation Authority operative, who used the Uber app to summon him for a ride in Las Vegas. Halfway through the ride he was pulled over and ticketed for not having a “certificate of convenience and public necessity.” Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto then took Uber to court, and on Nov. 25, a Washoe County Court issued a preliminary injunction against Uber, which made Nevada the first state in the nation to forbid Uber from operating.

The Nevada taxi industry, especially in Las Vegas, is protected from competition by the Nevada Transportation Authority. In 2001, the libertarian law firm Institute for Justice prevailed in court against

more on their constituents for campaign support and thus be more accountable to voters.

What if there was transparency in campaign contributions through real-time electronic reporting instead of the game of hiding shadowy donors until late in the election cycle? And what if we sanctioned random audits to discover exactly where the money was coming from and how candidates spend it, revealing who is really pulling the strings in Carson City?

What if we made lobbyists report their spending on our elected officials year round, instead of just during the 120 days of the legislative session?

Better yet, what if we completely outlawed the gift-giving that routinely goes unnoticed, such as the trips to fancy resorts, the expensive golf games, and the fine dining that builds relationships and garners favors that are returned later, hidden from public view.

Finally, what if we put aside the idea that President Obama has not been an effective leader and looked at the facts? Obamacare has worked. More than 10 million Americans have gained access to health care, producing an uninsured rate at its lowest level in 50 years. Rising health care costs have also slowed significantly.

Unemployment is trending downward and gas prices have slid dramatically as the economy improves. The president has taken action on immigration after Congress refused to act. He’s begun normalizing relations with Cuba, finally ending the cold war with our Caribbean neighbor.

In the New Year, let’s resolve to confront the lies and the exaggerations promoted by the torrid sensationalism of Fox News that don’t come close to the truth.

Let’s empower ourselves to engage in our Democracy and make sure our voice is not drowned out by the noise. Let’s vote our own interests instead of those of the so-called “job creators” and take our Democracy back from those whose primary goal is to enrich themselves. Ω

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ART OF THE STATE

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FOODFINDS

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MUSICBEAT

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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

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THIS WEEK

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MISCELLANY

regulations that allowed existing limousine companies to intervene against granting competitors a license. A license, of course, gives a new company the right to compete against the boardmembers who issue the license. This onerous requirement that places the burden of proof on a new company to show why it should be allowed to compete against existing companies was struck down by then-Clark County Judge Ron Parraguirre as a violation of the constitutional right to earn a living.

The new peer-to-peer internet technology is a threat to the regulatory state. The old model of a bureaucratic parceling-out of market shares is becoming outmoded. Consumers rate the quality of the experience and so the market is allowed to selfregulate. Bad Uber drivers receive a bad rating, and therefore fewer rides. The consumer feedback is much faster and more effective than under the old progressive licensing model. Instead of a board hearing complaints and possibly issuing a fine a couple of years later, if a driver has complaints in his profile, riders will simply not call for him.

Uber is not a model company in some ways. An executive has threatened to investigate journalists who criticized Uber. Many people hate its peak pricing feature, which allows drivers to charge higher rates in bad conditions.

Libertarians don’t, because we understand incentives matter, and drivers will respond faster when paid more. What we don’t care for is Uber’s practice of working with regulators to lift the velvet ropes so it can join the party, but then using those same regulations to close the ropes against its competitors, like Lyft.

So long as voters believe that regulations are better done by the state than by consumers in free markets, we will have companies who capture those regulations and use them against consumers. Ω

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PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

The Dotty’s model for small slot businesses has been influential in Nevada. This one is on Keystone Avenue in Reno.

Ensign papers available The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released a collection of documents it collected while investigating John Ensign of Nevada, who resigned a U.S. Senate seat in the wake of a sex scandal.

The 3,000 pages of print matter were obtained from the Justice Department by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and can be read at ENSIGN www.scribd.com/doc/250381920/ What-CREW-Learned-About-John-Ensign.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who was accused of being involved in paying off an Ensign mistress and was admonished by the Senate while escaping charges, is leaving the Senate and gave a farewell speech last week in which he said, “We need to be supporting and praying for” President Obama.

USFS declines on Incline The U.S. Forest Service will let the site of an artificial lake go back to its natural state, rejecting a state plan for re-creating Incline Lake.

The private lake was created by a dam built in 1942, and additional facilities like a clubhouse, lodge and an indoor swimming pool also once existed at the site. The Forest Service acquired the 700-plus acre property in 2008 for $43.5 million and drained the lake because of the seismically unsafe dam. The state wanted the lake re-established for recreation and for a fishery.

News story attacked A Dec. 22 USA Today coverage has drawn criticism for misprepresenting police killings in the United States.

Using headlines “Ambush Recharges Debate” and “Ambush Killings Are Not Uncommon” together with a graph headed “POLICE DEATHS ON THE RISE,” the newspaper left the impression that ambushes of police are on the rise—from 100 last year to 123 this year—and that ambushes are a major factor.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and Vox pointed out that those interpretations are possible only by limiting analysis to the current year. In most years, according to Vox, most killings of police officers are accidental.

“USA Today could have averaged several recent years to see if there was a meaningful trend,” FAIR said.

News on 2016 Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, reported that national Republicans are looking longingly at the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Democrat Harry Reid, who must run for reelection in 2016.

The Republicans have been hoping to increase their new majority in the Senate by putting Gov. Brian Sandoval up against Reid in 2016.

REID “Here’s the problem: Most Republicans said they don’t think Sandoval will run,” Roll Call reported. “Republican Reps. Joe Heck and Mark Amodei have said they’re not interested in a Senate bid—positions they reiterated to CQ Roll Call in conversations outside the House chamber earlier this month. That puts outgoing Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and newly elected Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison on top of the GOP’s short list of candidates.”

—Dennis Myers

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DECEMBER 31, 2014

Conservative choice Free market or campaign contributions?

The Republican majorities in both houses of the Nevada Legislature—the first dual GOP majority since by 1985—will find their fealty to free Dennis Myers market principles put to a test if, as expected, the gambling industry comes looking for help against upstart small casinos.

During the 2013 Nevada Legislature, a couple of dozen right wing state legislators decided that, in the case of the major casinos, a little socialism was good for Nevada. They voted for a law to use state power to do for Nevada’s large casinos what those businesses had not been able to accomplish in the marketplace— throttle competitors. Such a vote is likely to come again in 2015.

“We need more employment, not less.”

Craig Estey Slot parlor owner In most states and at the federal level, state power is normally brought to bear on behalf of small businesses against predatory large businesses. In Nevada, it’s the other way around, at least in the gambling field.

While some of the Republicans are inclined to wield terms like “socialist” against the Democrats, they may find socialism appealing

if opposing it means giving up casino industry campaign contributions.

The big casinos use laws to compete effectively against neighborhood casinos that drain off locals from the big boys.

For decades, this was not a big problem. The industry’s biggest market was out-of-staters, particularly Californians and the large Nevada casinos were content to ignore locals. But the advent of tribal gambling in the Golden State has caused a long, slow decline in casino traffic in Nevada. To make up that loss the casinos started targeting locals with a vengeance.

Small neighborhood casinos, however, had a prior claim on the loyalties of locals—and have been effective at beating back challenges from the big boys. At one point, for example, the industry won a law requiring that in “restricted license” places—which can include taverns, slot parlors, sports bars, sports kiosks—gambling should be “incidental” to the business’s main function, usually food and drink. This also means that they face fewer restrictions and lower gambling taxes. In locations like grocery stores, the few slots are plainly incidental, but there are growing reports that the big casinos are not happy with grocery slot arcades, either.

Many such places, and particularly the Dotty’s chain, skirted the

edge of the law, their food and drink facilities serving as window dressing for the slots that were the principal attraction. At the 2013 Nevada Legislature, lawmakers cracked down on the small parlors to some extent in legislation that commanded impressive support from allegedly libertarian legislators. In the Senate, only three members—all conservative Republicans—voted against the bill. In the Assembly, not one member voted no. GOP lawmakers found themselves explaining their votes against the small businesses with statements that had the word “but” somewhere: “I think the Legislature has the primary duty to meet the needs of the citizens, but a thriving gaming industry is certainly a component of that.”

“I agree that we absolutely have to look out for the well-being and viability of the gaming industry, but not at any cost.”

The theory runs something like this: Nevada’s economy is so dependent on major casinos that state policymakers have a responsibility to help them stay economically healthy.

That, in turn, goes counter to conservative economics, which runs something like this: When an industry loses its ability to compete effectively in the marketplace, the industry should die.

And as it happens, the small operators are showing a good deal of life, suggesting that they, not the big boys, are the face of the future of Nevada gambling. Clark County gambling industry reporter Howard Stutz calls Dotty’s “one of Nevada’s most successful gaming and tavern businesses, with more than 300,000 customers in its player database.” Will doctrinaire private enterprisers vote against such businesses?

Local heat In recent weeks the Clark County Commission has gotten involved in incredible detail in prescribing how it will allow small businesses to operate in order not to threaten large casinos. Having decided the Dotty’s chain was allegedly violating an already existing code revision requiring the company to embed slots into the tops of bars, it adopted another code for Dotty’s not to obey.

Dotty’s complied with the previous code by putting bars over

sit-down slots. Frustrated by this innovation, the commissioners prescribed an inlaid machine on the flat top of a bar and prescribed the number of inches wide and tall (except where the Americans with Disabilities Act might be violated).

It would require the businesses to spend millions retooling their operations.

Craig Estey, owner of Dotty’s, said the commissioners were hurting economic recovery. “We need more employment, not less,” he said.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said, “This is a small group that I feel has been operating as slot parlors [and] were never taverns to begin with.”

In just 18 years, Dotty’s has grown to 120 locations in Nevada, most of them with 15 slots. The Clark County changes affect fewer than 30 of those locations.

Two years ago the Nevada Legislature set up a committee to study the problem and report back to the 2015 legislative session with recommendations.

According to the bill drafting list, the Senate Committee on Judiciary requested the bill drafting division to draw up a bill creating a new category of casino license—slot parlors, for operators with 15 or less machines whose

They “were never taverns to begin with.”

Steve Sisolak Clark County Commissioner primary business is gambling, and increasing the tax rate for slot parlors to 15 percent. That sounds like a bill making the whole Dotty’s model fully legal while bringing those businesses under regular state regulation and taxation. Given the all-but-unanimous votes against the small outfits in 2013, enactment of the new measure would be a remarkable turnaround.

Other measures are also in the bill drafting office, though their provisions are less clear—the descriptions of them made public seem intended to conceal, not reveal.

At any rate, there may well be tests in 2015 of whether the Republicans will maintain their ideological purity on government leaving business alone as fiercely as they do on taxes. Voting against taxes is an easy vote. Voting against the industry that funds campaigns is not. Ω

Christmas time in the city Photo/Dennis Myers

On Christmas Day, thousands of people were nowhere near home and hearth, instead opting for Christmas dinner at downtown casino buffets, even though it meant standing in lines for hours, sometimes sitting on floors when the lines went stagnant or the feet went painful.

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One problem with third-person reporting is, I don’t write for a national audience, and I don’t much care whether people outside the McCarran Loop find me credible.

I’ve been an alternative journalist at this paper for more than 20 years, and people around here either think I have integrity or they don’t.

Another problem is that the bureaucrats we journalists cover know how to manipulate media outlets who use this style of reporting. They just say nothing or they make an incredible assertion, so the journalist either doesn’t use the quote, types it like a stenographer, or finds a contradicting voice. The fact is the last option is the best, but journalists work on deadline.

In many news outlets, not getting a second side on the record—even if they’re the reticent ones—is enough to quell an article.

The third person style is also supposed to prevent the appearance of bias, having the reporter jump in and call baloney in his or her own voice on the ludicrous statements bureaucrats and politicians make as fact. I think maybe this is a holdover from the days when reporters didn’t get bylines in newspapers, so everything was supposed to be attributed to the paper.

But for all those reasons, I’m calling baloney.

widely known, not solely because of our efforts, but because the national media picked it up, mainly in light of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri. For example, Lynn Walsh of Scripps Media did this story on Aug. 14: http://bit. ly/1meoGh1 and USA Today did this one on Aug. 15: http://usat.ly/ Vpw2Hn. Even The Daily Show with Jon Stewart weighed in: http://on.cc. com/ZtawDy. By the time folks at the Washington Post or CNN or Al Jazeera had run with the story, it was well-known and well-documented that the Department of Justice was not comprehensively collecting this data. In fact, part of the anger that was fueling the protests across the country was that our government wasn’t concerned enough about the people it kills to determine who they are and why it kills them.

It’s difficult for me to imagine a greater arrogance of authoritarian power. There were urgent calls for action by Congress. For example, a Change.org petition “We Demand National Change to Protect Citizens and Communities from Police Violence and Misconduct,” which included the demand, “Ensure transparency, accountability, and safety of our communities, by requiring front-facing cameras on police departments with records of racial disparity in stops, arrest, killings, and excessive force complaints,” garnered more than a quarter-million signatures.

And that’s when it happened, on Dec. 10, 2014—the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 passed the

BY THE NUMBERS

“NUMBERSGAME”

OPINION

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write in the third person when I want news articles to sound credible. This year, I’ve written the first five installments in the Fatal Encouters series—our look at officer-involved homicides— in the third person. It’s the way “respectable” straight journalists write in the national media. It’s the way journalism academics teach students to write. (I once had a master’s level instructor tell me that first-person narratives are forbidden in the AP Stylebook.)

When we read or hear the third person voice, our brains are conditioned to react in a certain way.

When 2014 began, it was not widely known that our government does not keep adequate statistics on the people killed by law enforcement.

In fact, when our series Fatal Encounters began in February, the first thing other journalists said when we reported that the government didn’t track this information was, “bull.” The lack of data is now

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WRIT TEN BY D.BRIAN BURGHART ILLUSTR ATION BY JONATHAN BUCK DESIGN BY BRIAN BRENEMAN

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August 2013 to August 2014 compAred

“nUMbeRSgAme” 13 coNt’d From pAge

Senate with unanimous consent without amendment. More than a year after the House of Representatives passed this legislation; President Barack Obama signed it on Dec. 18.

Crisis averted! Americans could go home since Uncle Sam had their backs. Congress passed a law requiring the attorney general to collect this information, just as attorneys general had collected it from 2000 through 2006. In the face of unrest, Congress had acted decisively.

Except, they hadn’t. But you wouldn’t know that from the news media: “Congress decides to get serious about tracking police shootings” (Washington Post, Dec. 11); “A full accounting of people killed by police, at last” (Sacramento Bee, Dec. 21); and “Congress Just Passed a Bill Addressing Police Killings While No One Was Looking” (News.Mic, Dec. 13).

And just as you’d expect, those who imagined themselves benefiting from the lack of data being collected by the government, immediately questioned the utility of private efforts to gather and publish the data.

For example, in a Dec. 20 USA Today article, which was about an interactive map the civil rights organization Color of Change had created with FatalEncounters.org data, Bill Johnson, executive director of National Association of Police Organizations, said, “I think [ColorofChange.org] is far behind what actually is happening,” Johnson said.

“It’s already literally on the books.”

Back in February, when the RN&R charted out our strategy for this year-long project, we thought we’d have a year’s worth of national data by which we could measure trends and percentages. Unfortunately, since there was no measure by which we could estimate how long it would take to collect this data—particularly using the untried crowdsourcing methods we used to assemble it—we came up short. We have some months in addition to August 2013 and August 2014 that we believe are “complete,” but it seemed most prudent to compare apples to apples.

And while there’s a temptation to assume that because these numbers are written down in a sensible format, and they seem too large to grow, we consider this data inconclusive. For example, the conclusion that officer-involved homicides rose 29.9 percent from one year to the next is premature, and it wouldn’t take many incidents in either direction to change the analysis.

We’ll consider our data inconclusive until the Fatal Encounters project is able to make public records requests of every U.S. law enforcement agency. That’s true because every time we claim a dataset is complete, we’ll find an incident that for one reason or another—never reported to or in the media, facts incorrect, simple human error—hadn’t yet made it to the database.

People will quibble with some of this data. For example, we don’t track deaths after incarceration, but we do track homicides that include off-duty officers and incidents that are ruled suicides, but we try to be consistent in our documentation. Other groups are free to track police involved violence in the way that makes the most sense to them.

To download our data, go to http://bit.ly/1qz393Q. Under File, go to Download as, and then choose your file format.

—D. Brian Burghart

August 2014

Total records: 91

Total records: 123

Gender

Gender

Women: 2 Men: 89

Women: 9 Men: 114

Race

Race

African-American/Black 13 European-American/White: 39 Hispanic/Latino: 8 Middle Eastern: 1 Pacific Islander: 1 Race Unknown: 29

African-American/Black 30 Asian: 1 European-American/White: 37 Hispanic/Latino: 22 Native American/Alaskan: 1 Race Unknown: 32

State by state

State by state

In August 2013, people were killed by police in 33 states.

AL: 1; AZ: 7; CA: 15; CO: 4; FL: 4; GA: 2; HI: 1; ID: 2; IL: 1; IN: 3; KY: 2; LA: 2; MA: 3; MD: 4; ME: 1; MN: 3; MO: 1; MS: 1; NH: 1; NJ: 1; NM: 2; NV: 1; NY: 4; OH: 3; OK: 2; OR: 3; PA: 2; SC: 1; TN: 3; TX: 6; VA: 2; WA: 2; WI: 1

In August 2014, people were killed by police in 35 states.

AL: 1; AR: 1; AZ: 5; CA: 21; CO: 3; FL: 5; GA: 2; HI: 1; IA: 2; IL: 5; KS: 4; LA: 1; MA: 1; MD: 4; ME: 2; MI: 2; MN: 3; MO: 4; MS: 3; NC: 2; NE: 2; NJ: 1; NM: 1; NV: 1; NY: 3; OH: 3; OK: 3; OR: 1; PA: 4; TN: 2; TX: 23; UT: 1; VA: 2; WA: 2; WV: 2;

Cause of death

Cause of death

Gunshot: 79 Taser: 5 Medical emergency: 3 Beating: 2 Vehicle: 2

Gunshot: 101 Vehicle: 11 Taser: 6 Beating: 2 Undisclosed: 2

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And Johnson is exactly right: It is on the books. The law was re-authorized as it was written and enforced in 2000-2006.

Skeptical reporters who weren’t just taking dictation might suspect that six years of documented track record could offer a clue as to just how effective that law might be. In fact, you’d think they’d already know since, by and large, their employers had published stories on the lack of data on officerinvolved homicides that included the entire period the DCRA was in effect.

No such luck.

Not to be cynical, but since the riot problem is solved, and now that the protesters, the fire trucks, the paddy wagons and the MRAPs have mostly gone home, it seems possible that the media will move on to corporate hacking scandals, and the issue of the lack of officer-involved violence data will be forgotten until the grand jury refuses to indict in the Tamir Rice shooting in Cleveland. Or whatever the next inexplicable decision is.

During the years the law was in effect, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics dataset, only 35 states reported their information every year. Arkansas, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York,

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L Aw A n d d i S o R d e R So, let’s compare the laws: Here’s the 2000 law: www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/ house-bill/1800? That law amended the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 by adding the following new paragraph at the end: “(2) such State has provided assurances that it will follow guidelines established by the Attorney General in reporting, on a quarterly basis, information regarding the death of any person who is in the process of arrest, is en route to be incarcerated, or is incarcerated at a municipal or county jail, State prison, or other local or State correctional facility (including any juvenile facility) that, at a minimum, includes— “(A) the name, gender, race, ethnicity, and age of the deceased; “(B) the date, time, and location of death; and “(C) a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the death.” coNt’d

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August 2013

North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin reported sporadically. Georgia, Maryland, Montana and Wyoming never reported. No state data was published during the first three years of authorization.

All that information is on the Bureau of Justice Statistics site at www.bjs.gov/index. cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=243.

Peculiarly, the FBI’s published data on arrest-related deaths runs from 2003-2009, so at least when they were collecting spotty data, they continued to collect it in years that they weren’t required to by law. That begs the question, since they could gather the data without Congressional mandate, why would they stop?

That answer, too, is obvious when a reporter bothers to do a web search to check on what his sources tell him. The DCRP is still active, with its latest data from 2012.

Same as it ever was, it “collects inmate death records from each of the nation’s 50 state prison systems and approximately 2,800 local jail jurisdictions. In addition, this program collects records of all deaths occurring during the process of arrest. Data are collected directly from state and local law enforcement agencies.”

And, of course, its utility can be measured by the reports analyzing the data it collected during its previous six years.

Despite the congressional requirement, in six years, there was not one, not a single report issued on how to reduce deaths related to arrests.

But maybe, when you look at the appropriations, it makes sense. In the 2008 bill, Congress asked for $500,000 www. govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/hr3971/text.

In the 2013 bill, they asked for nothing.

However, in the bill’s notes, the judiciary committee said it expected no cost.

oN pAge

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DATA ClAsh The two infographics on this page show the difference in federal reporting of officer-involved deaths. The top chart shows the statistics compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, regarding Arrest-Related Deaths, available at www.bjs.gov/index. cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=243, which include “records of all deaths occurring during the process of arrest. Data are collected directly from state and local law enforcement agencies.”

The bottom graph is accrued data released by the Department of Justice with the Uniform Crime Report’s Expanded Homicide Data, http://1.usa.gov/1wscWMb, which purports to show the

killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.

Large jurisdictions, including the state of Florida, have not contributed to this dataset, and yet national news organizations report the numbers as though they’re comprehensive enough to draw conclusions from.

The assumption would be that the bottom graphic would be a subset of the top graphic. That assumption would be erroneous, and neither chart is accurate or comprehensive. What both graphics show, though, is that the Death in Custody Reporting Act had little-to-no effect on the reporting of statistics.

“NUMBERSGAME” 15 CONT’D FROM PAGE

But take a look at the new law: www.congress. gov/bill/113th-congress/ house-bill/1447. There’s not much more to it.

There’s an in-depth analysis from the Judiciary Committee: https://www. congress.gov/congressional-report/113th-congress/ house-report/285 that includes this explanation in the Congressional Budget Office enclosure: “CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 1447 would have no significant cost to the Federal Government.

Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-asyou-go procedures do not apply.”

So, what does this all mean? Congress re-enacted a law that seemed to make no appreciative difference in the reporting of statistics of officer-involved homicides during the time it was in effect. Indeed, the Justice Department says it never stopped collecting the data, and all a reporter has to do is look at it to determine its spottiness.

records of all deaths occurring during the process of arrest ARREST-REL ATED DE ATHS including 2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2003-2009

627

673

689

721

745

629

729

4,813

Male

595

645

666

688

708

600

692

4,594

Female

32

28

22

33

37

29

37

218

Unknown

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Total Deaths Sex

Race White, non-Hisp

286

274

283

302

283

258

340

2,026

Black, non-Hisp

196

215

222

212

249

217

218

1,529

Hispanic

109

145

136

164

159

106

130

949

Other*

30

23

24

22

18

14

19

150

Unknown

6

16

24

21

36

34

22

159

17 or younger

18

19

13

19

20

18

20

127

18-24

118

126

141

122

146

124

132

909

25-34

177

186

190

239

210

182

207

1,391

35-44

184

179

190

174

192

143

176

1,238

45-54

94

101

83

117

119

117

121

752

55 or older

30

55

51

30

45

41

65

317

Unknown

6

7

21

20

13

4

8

79

Age

JusTiFiAblE hOMiCiDEs

Congress did not appropriate funds for the program; the “stick” to enforce compliance is a threat to take money away—maybe: “a State that fails to comply ... shall, at the discretion of the Attorney General, be subject to not more than a 10 percent reduction of the funds that would otherwise be allocated for that fiscal year to the State under subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.”

It’s impossible to say for certain what effect the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 will have on the reporting of officer-involved homicides, and maybe this first-person narrative will only undermine its own ability to inspire larger media outlets to keep an eye on whether the law is enforced and whether this country gets the accurate information it desperately needs.

But I’m calling baloney. Ω This is the sixth installment of the Reno News & Review’s Fatal Encounters series.

involving the killing of a suspected felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty (1987-2013)

Years Death In Custody Reporting Act was in effect

1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

300 343 363 385 367 418 455 463 389 357 366 369 308 297 378 341 373 367 341 386 398 378 414 397 404 426 461 OPINION

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15

Neva d a is the topic of fou r new books

C

ompanies often put their new products forward at gift-giving time, and four Nevada books appeared in 2014 and are a good way to start 2015, to say nothing of easing gift selections all year long.

Christmas in Nevada by Patricia Cafferata is obviously the most in tune with the recent season. Within its pages is an eclectic collection of reminiscences, rituals and religion.

The names of celebrities from Mark Twain and Artemus Ward to Lucius Beebe and Howard Hughes appear. But everyday people are well represented, including some of

16 | RN&R |

DECEMBER 31, 2014

Nevada’s oldest families, and so are those forced out of the mainstream.

The community of Black Springs north of Reno, once a hamlet for African-Americans who could not buy or rent in Reno, is included, as is one of the nation’s most famous 1960s gay couples, Beebe and Charles Clegg.

When I first heard Cafferata was working on this project, I had my doubts that there would be enough material to support the title, but she has done it by gathering material on topics like Victorian Christmases in Humboldt County, pogonip in Washoe County, and Christmas

in 1930 Las Vegas among black, Paiute, Mexican, Japanese and white families whose livelihood had become tenuous after the railroad was completed. There is narrative about Christmas ornaments, meals, treats, gardens, trees (including Reno’s first official municipal government tree). It devotes considerable attention to how Nevadans of different backgrounds adjusted to the winter holiday—Serb food, shared building use by Catholic/ Congregational congregations, a Las Vegas Jewish child of parents of different faiths making rounds of Protestant churches at Christmas.

Nevada: 150 Years in the Silver State, edited by Geoff Schumacher (once described by journalism professor Jake Highton as Nevada’s best journalist), is a project of Stephens Press, an arm of the corporation that owns 10 newspapers in Nevada. Schumacher assembled a collection of articles by familiar Nevada figures—Cafferata among them—on topics both familiar and obscure. This is not a holiday dish, but a broader menu of the state’s history, from Peter Skene Ogden to Willy Vlautin, from 19th century tribes to 21st century cities.

The book gives readers dozens of different sets of eyes viewing state history, many of them from people who actually participated in that history or watched it at first hand—Sally Denton, Dana Bennett, Michon Mackedon—along with both professional and lay historians.

It also seems more attuned to the majority of Nevadans—transplants from elsewhere, who make up three-fourths of the state population—than other similar publications.

For a different approach to the same history, check out Nevadans: The Spirit of the Silver State by Stanley Paher, its author described in Warren Lerude’s introduction as “eminently familiar with Nevada literature as well as with the wealth of imagery and historical documents.”

Like Schumacher’s book, this volume relies on a number of writers, but most chapters are not bylined and are presumably Paher’s work, so it's more an individual interpretation of the state’s history.

Names normally seen in other fields, like Charles Weller and Robin Holabird, are bylines here, but the principal voice is its editor.

the slopes

G I V E AWAY JANUARY 1-FEBRUARY 28

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gaming winners

All three of these volumes benefit from the unfamiliarity of the art within them. They are illustrated not with the hoary photos that have been published time and again in Nevada, but with photos that will be new to most readers. Schumacher seems to have, consciously or otherwise, stayed away from the overexposed.

Paher actually dipped into a little known memorabilia collection of a Nevada aficionado who lives in Florida. Cafferata used not just unfamiliar photos but also paintings and drawings that will be fresh to most.

Schumacher’s book has already sold out its printing and is now going used for collector’s prices. It’s not yet known whether another printing will be ordered.

The Redfield saga The fourth volume is less celebratory.

It tells a tale that has long needed telling. For decades, Renoites have heard and told stories about reclusive millionaire LaVere Redfield, who lived in the marvelous stone mansion at the intersection of Mount Rose and Forest streets, but most of them were just repeating tales they’d heard from a friend-of-a-friend. My personal favorite among the Redfield stories is the fact that his will contained a provision for distribution of $1,000 to each and every lawyer in Washoe County, the idea being that if they were all watching each other, his estate would not be screwed. The provision actually existed, outraging local attorneys, but it was never carried out.

In 1952, federal officials claimed that there were 270,000 silver dollars secreted in the Redfield basement and further claimed that one of his wills contained the sentence, “The government can’t tax wealth that OPINION

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1st place: k2 coors light skis, 2 tickets to mt. rose & $500 scheels gift card

can’t be located. Burn this and tell no one. Carry on as though no coin or currency was left.” Redfield then had a couple of decades still to live, during which he stayed mostly out of sight. Small wonder rumors swirled around him.

Redfield’s strangeness and his battles with officialdom over the vaults of silver dollars under the Mt. Rose Street home fostered plenty of myths, most of which began with a grain of truth. Author Jack Harpster has done a service by pulling all the information together and sorting out what is true and what is fakelore. No doubt some people will be disappointed to learn their Redfield stories do not stand up in the light, but even so, this biography shows there is still plenty of bizarre behavior in Redfield’s life without the fables.

And it also describes how his widow, Nell, survived him and became a public figure and benefactor her husband never was.

2nd place: $500 scheels gift card

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retail winners 1st place: snowboard, 2 tickets to mt. rose & $500 scheels gift card (two winners)

2nd place: $500 scheels gift card

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• Christmas in Nevada by Patty Cafferata. Reno: University of Nevada Press, $26.95

Must be 21. Must be a Golden Rewards member. Management reserves all rights. See bar host for details.

• Nevada/150 Years in the Silver State by Geoff Schumacher, editor. Las Vegas: Stephens Press, $29.95.

• Nevada/The Spirit of the Silver State by Stanley Paher. Reno: Nevada Publications, $39.95.

• The Curious Life of Nevada’s LaVere Redfield by Jack Harpster. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, $19.95.

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All these titles but the sold-out Schumacher volume are available at Reno’s Sundance Books. Ω |

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Photo/Ashley hennefer

Full steam ahead

Killbuck's work on exhibit at Reno Art Works.

Killbuck Great artists tend to be somewhat eccentric.

This manifests itself differently for each by artist, and this uniqueness pushes artists Ashley Hennefer to challenge the limits of their creativity—often with memorable results.

For the artist known as Killbuck, this comes through his ability to be effectively versatile at multiple mediums.

Killbuck, a Reno resident, is a freelance illustrator, painter, sculptor and costume maker, and his work is currently exhibited at Reno Art Works.

Killbuck’s It seemed It doesn’t feel accurate to simply like a Good Idea at classify Killbuck’s art as “steampunk.” the time is on display The genre is certainly prevalent through through early January the top hats and gas masks adorned with at reno Art Works, copper, gears and goggles. His paintings 1995 Dickerson road. to schedule a time to also feature imagery from circuses and see the show, call 391sideshows, and these canvases have 0278. for more inforbeen displayed at multiple events, mation, visit www. including the playa of Burning Man. renoartworks.org.

His latest exhibit has been in the making since July.

“I was approached by Pan Pantoja and Aric Shapiro of Reno Art Works back in late summer of this year,”said Killbuck. “They asked if I’d like to do the December show, and I said, ‘Yes.’” Pantoja tells it a bit differently. “I got him totally wasted to agree to do this,” he says, recalling a drunken night in July. This is where the name of the show came from.

Shapiro confirms this story. “[Killbuck] rarely does solo gallery shows like this,”he says.

Both Shapiro and Pantoja speak of Killbuck with reverence. They note that his work is sold far below what they consider to be its value. “He practically gives it away,”said Pantoja.

“It’s just amazing for Killbuck to do a show here,” says Shapiro. “We’re just really honored. Killbuck has done a lot for Burning Man. He’s a pillar of the creative community.”

Killbuck has been an artist since he was a child. He started drawing when

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he was 5 and started painting when he was 8. He then attended Laguna Beach School of Art in the early 1980s, and has spent most of his life since as a freelance artist. He mentions a “minor, three-decade detour career as a park ranger and U.S. Forest Service employee” before returning to art fulltime in 2010.

Killbuck says that focusing on just one medium is challenging.

“That’s actually hard to settle on,” says Killbuck. “By nature I am mostly a cartoonist, and as such, cartoon arts has always been a huge influence. I also like working in the three dimensions— not in traditional sculpture, but more in assemblages. This also extends to the hats and masks I enjoy making, sort of wearable sculptures. Painting is a

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delight, and once I start, it’s hard to stop.”

He also says he identifies as an aestheticist, and this philosophy drives much of his process “Aestheticism might be said to be more of an approach than any movement,” he said. “To me, it’s inspiration and application of art for its aesthetic value, rather than any meaning or message. I have rarely ever created anything in order to express a social, political or personal meaning or message. … If 100 people view any visual art piece and are asked to relate the ‘meaning,’ you will get 100 different meanings. Art is not objective; it is subjective. There has never been a definition of what art is that everyone can agree upon. So, I say the heck with meaning. The aesthetic value has always been what draws me to art, and it’s the motivation for me.” Ω

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w w w. n e w s r e v i e w.c o m

Give pizza a chance Wild Garlic Pizza Thin crust, thick crust, deep dish, stuffed, folded, you name it, and there’s a pizza style for everyone. I’m personally so fond by Todd South of the stuff I’ve spent a fair amount of time perfecting my own version, a pursuit in applied obsessive-compulsion if ever there was one. Pizza has to be better than average for me to enjoy it, and I really enjoyed the pie at Wild Garlic Pizza.

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Located in the Old Southwest area of Reno, this “neighborhood pizza joint” is a hipster dream of spartan design. With bare brickwork walls, rough-hewn wooden beams, a variety of craft beers on tap, and a collection of mismatched thrift store furniture, the only thing missing is roll-up doors. Then again, it does have large, unadorned windows letting in plenty of natural light. Every table has a giant bottle of honey, which—though not unique to this establishment—is still a trend I just can’t abide. I respect pizza too much, and care too little for honey to let the two of them party on the same plate. My honey-loving wife tried dipping her crust in the stuff and made a face, so it’s not just me.

Perhaps we’re just not hip enough to get it.

On a Sunday afternoon, my wife and I seated ourselves and were greeted by a pair of gents, an older man whose attitude said, “Boss,” and

a college-aged fellow who may have been in training as he followed “Boss” around. I inquired about beers on tap and was vaguely directed by the older man to a chalkboard menu located 30 feet to the rear of my seat. The young man jumped in and recited the beer selection, as would be expected in response to that inquiry. Maybe “Boss” isn’t big on answering basic questions.

I ordered a tall craft beer ($6), a pair of side salads ($4.95), an order of pesto knots ($6.95) and two 10-inch pizzas, ($9.95 each). The beer came out pretty quick, but after 20 minutes we began to wonder how long it takes to plate a couple of small salads. At 25 minutes we watched a table that had just been seated receive meal-sized salads. Finally, nearly 40 minutes after ordering, our salads and appetizer were delivered by “Boss” with pizzas joining 10 minutes later. Perhaps I was wrong about who was training whom.

The salads were fair but nothing special, with long strips of Romaine rather than chopped or torn greens.

The dough knots supposedly “stuffed with pesto and Parmesan cheese” didn’t appear to be stuffed with anything. There were some bits of basil and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan, but no stuffing. My wife noted a residue on the plate that did taste pesto-ish, so perhaps it was in there before the trip through the oven.

A pasty, bland tomato sauce provided for dipping was quickly set aside in favor of leftover dressing from the salads. Yet, we enjoyed the knots for what they were: golden, crispy, chewy bits of perfectly baked pizza dough.

That dough is among the best pizza crusts you’ll find in Reno. It’s a little sweeter than I’d normally prefer (see bottles of honey on tables), but it’s rolled out thin for a crispy bottom and then ringed with a chewy, golden twist to rein in the toppings. We enjoyed “The Everything” (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, salami, Italian sausage, black olives, mushrooms, tri-color peppers, red onions and garlic), but the Wild Garlic was our favorite (garlic sauce, mozzarella, chicken, red onion, pepperoncini, grated Parmesan and roasted garlic).

It had a lot of zip and the flavors blended well.

Next time we’ll stick with the pizza and beer, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s good enough to wait for, and I’ll just make sure to choose a seat that’s facing the menu.Ω

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You don’t know dictator The Interview By the time this review gets to you, the once blacklisted The Interview has been available on the likes of YouTube, iTunes and Xbox while playing in a limited number of theaters. Did you ever really doubt you would get a chance to see it?

Commerce always wins!

Co-directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s film, like Team America: World by Police 10 years ago, plays like one of those Bob Grimm impossibly strange and undeniably funny Warner Brothers propaganda cartoons that bgrimm@ newsreview.c om were in circulation during World War II, the ones where the likes of Bugs Bunny would square off against Hitler. The major difference is that the newer satirists say “motherfucker” a lot.

4

"Too bad neither of us ever learned how to tell time!"

1 Poor

2 Fair

3 Good

4 Very Good

5 excellent

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This is touchy stuff, but Rogen and his costar James Franco are up to the task of pissing all over North Korea, American media and the CIA. They don’t go after these institutions with contemplative, important, intellectual arguments.

They attack with dick and shit jokes.

As I would expect from a political satire starring Rogen and Franco, The Interview obsesses over things like whether or not Kim Jong-un actually has a butthole. Mind you, the film does address real world hot topics like nukes and people starving here and there but, mainly, it is really concerned about the whole “Kim Jong-un doesn’t have to pee or poo” thing.

Franco plays Dave Skylark, the flamboyant host of an American tabloid interview show, notorious for such stories as Eminem admitting he’s gay and Rob Lowe revealing his baldness. When Skylark discovers that Kim Jong-un’s favorite TV shows are Big Bang Theory and his program, he conspires with his producer (Rogen) to procure an interview with the world leader that will establish their legitimacy as real news guys. Their plans to DECEMBER 31, 2014

just interview the guy get mildly complicated when the CIA gets wind and insists on the two killing the notoriously reclusive basketball fan.

Like this year’s Godzilla before it, The Interview’s monster doesn’t show up until about an hour into its running time. Kim Jong-un, hilariously played by Randall Park, is a bashful Skylark fan who loves Katy Perry and margaritas. In what is surely a riff on the infamous Dennis Rodman-Kim Jong-un bromance, Skylark and Kim take an instant liking to each other. They play basketball, blow up parts of the countryside with tanks and party all night long.

Of course, Kim has that bad side we all know about, so Park’s portrayal goes all Jekyll and Hyde when the Supreme Leader starts threatening to nuke the world if it doesn’t recognize his superior strength.

It’s in these moments that Park’s performance becomes a tad more blustery.

Rogen is pretty much Rogen here—that is to say, he’s one of filmdom’s most underrated comic actors, with impeccable timing and a steady stream of those corrective, snarky retorts.

Franco goes all out childish in this one with an intentionally high-pitched, appropriately sophomoric performance. His running account of a tiger attack on Rogen’s character is one of the film’s great highlights. Lizzy Caplan offers up some good supporting work as a CIA director who “honeypots” the two into the assassination scheme.

The final interview between Skylark and Jong-un is a comedic stew of tears, bullets, puppies, finger biting and sharting. Park gives us a Katy Perry-induced nervous breakdown for the ages, and he should get some sort of award for Best Acted Slow Motion Death Scene, because what he does in his final moments is beyond epic.

Does the movie live up to all of the hype?

I think it does, but I am prone to laughter when it comes to good jokes about buttholes and stink-dicks. It’s a totally silly, juvenile movie delivered by some very goofy, mischievous guys.

A big “sorry” to all of you looking for The Interview to be some sort of patriotic manifesto intelligently taking a stand against the likes of North Korea. For that sort of movie you must look elsewhere. This film is about the political ramifications of a world leader sharting on live TV. Ω

3

Annie

Confession time: I have always hated the musical Annie, and I really hated the original movie directed by John Huston.

Growing up in New York, that damned play was shoved down my throat every day when it was playing on Broadway. So I had no hope for the new film version, especially after the first wave of reviews came out. I’m going against the grain a bit on this one. No, it’s not a great film, but it’s surprisingly fun and pleasant one. It still has that awful music in it, and no amount of autotuning and remixing can fix that dreck. What makes the movie fun is a goofy turn from Jamie Foxx as the billionaire who takes in orphan Annie (Quvenzhane Wallis). The two have a good rapport, and their fun work cancels out grating work from Cameron Diaz as Hannigan (played

by Carol Burnett in the original film) and Rose Byrne’s terrible singing. I admit to laughing at this movie a lot more than I thought I would, and Wallis qualifies as my all time favorite Annie.

It’s a good family film.

1

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

And with this, the Hobbit movies, mercifully, come to an end. No more stretching a one-hour story into three over-long films. No more Orlando Bloom making love to his stupid face with his own voice. The third, much unneeded chapter in Peter Jackson’s ill-begotten treatment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s wonderful novel is less an event than it is a final cash grab.

If you should choose to see it, don’t waste your money on high frame rate, IMAX options because the result is a visual disaster. I stand by my guns; HFF technology is fine for the home theater but it sucks balls on the theater big screen. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is reduced to a supporting role—in a film named after his character!—after the dragon Smaug is slain. Five armies, including dwarves, orcs, elves, men and who gives a shit, start battling over the riches Smaug gathered, with a glowing stone being the final prize. Thorin, a dwarf leader, gets “dragon sickness” and things get dumber from there. It all amounts to a big nothing, with all of the charms of Jackson’s first, masterful Lord of the Rings trilogy lost in a sea of too shiny special effects and terrible, terrible acting. A few years back, I was championing Jackson’s efforts to get this made.

When Guillermo del Toro bowed out as director, I saw it as a blessing because Jackson took over. Boy, was I ever wrong.

3

The Hunger Games: MockingjayPart One

After a rousing second chapter, the Hunger Games franchise gets a little darker and introverted in its third installment. The results are perhaps a slight step back from the truly winning film that was Catching Fire, but you are still dealing with a good movie in this one. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), after being rescued following her complete annihilation of The Hunger Games, is being used as a propaganda tool to get at the evil Capitol government and its wily leader, President Snow (Donald Sutherland). As it turns out, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) survived the second movie, and is being used as a propaganda tool as well (He’s being held captive by the Capitol). A lot of this movie takes place underground and in the dark, with a few good action sequences. It should be said that this only covers half of the third book in the popular series, and everything builds up to quite the cliffhanger ending. Lawrence is good here, although a couple of scenes are a bit jarring, and not in a good way. She does get a chance to sing, and she sings quite well. Philip Seymour Hoffman completed his role before his death, and he’s typically great.

3

The Imitation Game

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, who helped win the war against the Nazis when he and others invented a machine capable of breaking the Enigma code. Morten Tyldum’s film, while a tad cumbersome at times, does do a good job of illustrating the impossible odds Turing and his team were up against in trying to decipher the code. Keira Knightley (who had a nice 2014 with this and Begin Again), Matthew Goode and Charles Dance contribute to a strong supporting cast. Cumberbatch portrays Turing as a disagreeable, unlikeable social outcast who just happened to play a huge part in saving the free world thanks to his talent for solving

puzzles. The film also delves into some of the more controversial times in Turing’s life, and sometimes the order of things gets a little confusing. Cumberbatch keeps the whole thing afloat with a typically strong performance.

1

Into the Woods

Here’s an adaptation that renders something that was totally fun into something totally dreary. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987 Broadway hit was a slightly sick, plucky wink at the audience, an almost mocking look at the dark side of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. As captured in the 1991 American Playhouse broadcast starring Bernadette Peters, it was a 150-minute romp with an adult sense of humor. It was hardly the stuff of Disney. Director Rob Marshall has cut his film version to just over two hours, yet it feels twice as long. On stage, the music of Into the Woods was perky, tightly choreographed, consistently funny and almost frantic. In the movie, most of the songs just fart along. The singers search for the emotive, warm, soulful qualities in Sondheim and Lapine’s musical. The problem with that is the original musical didn’t really emphasize those qualities. It was more of an intelligent, operatic goof, not a feel-good musical. Meryl Streep has some good moments as The Witch, but that’s about it when it comes to anything good to say about this endeavor.

Johnny Depp shows up for a few minutes as The Wolf in a stupid outfit that makes him look more feline than canine. His “Hello, Little Girl,” a song that is supposed to be rife with innuendo, sounds more like an animal who just wants to eat some food. Marshall and Depp give the number a slow, crooning presentation, taking away its former jaunty, obnoxious edge.

It’s just wrong.

4

The Theory of Everything

The marriage of Stephen and Jane Hawking takes center stage in director James Marsh’s sweet and powerful depiction of love in the face of adversity. The film showcases the talents of Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables), who gives a remarkable performance as Hawking, renowned physicist and eventual Pink Floyd vocalist. Redmayne depicts a relatively healthy Hawking at first, a slightly awkward but brilliant Cambridge student smitten with classmate Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones of Like Crazy). Redmayne transforms as the film progresses, slowly but surely depicting the physical deterioration of Hawking as he suffers from ALS. Jones is equally powerful as Hawking’s first wife, a woman who refused to let him waste away after his diagnosis. The two marry knowing that the road ahead will be a rough one. Hawking’s initial prognosis had him living no more than two years, a prediction he has outlived by about 50 years. The movie is a love story first, with Hawking’s musings about black holes and the origins of the universe taking a back seat. Redmayne and Jones are utterly convincing as the couple. Marsh treats their courtship in a magical, glimmering sort of way involving awkward school dances, followed by a memorable wedding sequence. The film unabashedly celebrates their romance.

4

Wild

Reese Witherspoon, in her best role since Walk the Line, plays author Cheryl Strayed, who took it upon herself to do a solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail after some tragedies in her life. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (The Dallas Buyer’s Club), the film winds up not only being a fine showcase for Witherspoon, but a damn fine commercial for the PCT and those REI outdoor gear stores. The film opens on the not-so-pleasant sight of Strayed losing a toenail in bloody fashion to a wrong-sized boot, already days into her trek. It then flashes back a bit to the beginning of her hike, and takes a non-chronological approach to its plot. We see moments in Strayed’s life when she makes a lot of mistakes involving infidelity and drugs, interspersed with her experience walking the trail. While being an uplifting film about redemption and Strayed’s personal triumphs, the movie also works as an authentic and informative film about the art of hiking.

From Strayed’s struggles with her super huge backpack, to her reliance on trail tanks for water, to her stopovers at community outposts along the trail, you get a sense of what you might experience on such an expedition.

Hopefully, this and her small role in this year’s Inherent Vice are indicative of more adventurous choices in Witherspoon’s future.

Faith some more Oliver’s Organ “We’re a Head and the Heart cover band” joke the members of Reno band Oliver’s Organ. “Except we never play any by Anna Hart of their songs. We’re the worst cover band. We write music they should play.”

Originally formed as a trio in 2011, the band, now a quintet, is made up of Josiah Hejny playing guitar and vocals, Eric Laster on bass, Kevin Stamps on keyboard, and Daniel Ruben on drums, and their newest addition, Sarah Irvin, on vocals and the occasional French horn part.

Photo/AnnA hArt

Oliver’s Organ just plays thinly veiled worship music. The biggest impact that their faith has had on the band has nothing to do with its music per se, but with the people in and around the band. While other bands might cycle through drummers or guitarists more frequently than fresh pairs of underwear, Oliver’s Organ prides itself on the familial bond that join its members, which is only strengthened by their shared beliefs.

“We don’t just [play music] to get praise or admiration, but because we love people and want them to see the gifts God has given us,” said Laster.

However, religion isn’t the focus of Oliver’s Organ’s music, but a happy byproduct.

“Christianity isn’t just a tag on our life or our genre, like indie/ folk/Christian. ... It just kind of plays out in our music, which is cool,” said Stamps.

The band name Oliver’s Organ is a combination of Hejny’s YouTube account, Oliver Ending, and a nod to his favorite children’s book, Harold and the Purple Crayon.

“Harold has this purple crayon, and anything he draws with it is his adventure,” Hejny said. “At the end, he realizes that he doesn’t know how to get home. I view music in the same way. We can create these perfect moments, but then the song ends and we’re longing for home— which, in my case, happens to be heaven. It’s a musical organ that we can make our own adventures with.”

But while this maxim rings true throughout the band, sometimes the details are still a little hazy.

“What!” Irvin interjected. “The organ isn’t a heart? I thought it was a musical instrument first. But then I thought that wouldn’t make any sense.”

These days, the band is taking a break from shows to enjoy the holiday season and is in the midst of preparing music to record, as well as setting up a Kickstarter to fund an album. Ω

As the size and diversity in instrumentation grew, occasionally challenges have presented themselves.

“We all come from different musical backgrounds,” said Ruben.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find a middle ground. We have to be more creative, which ends up being a cool part of the process.”

Oliver’s Organ is the type of band whose music wakes up your dancing feet, but whose lyrics shoots you through the heart and in the tear ducts. Their songs throb with the spirited pulse of indie folk music, yet quiver with the humble, artistic intimacy that characterizes the singer-songwriter genre.

The lyrics broach numerous topics, but all strike a deep chord with Hejny, who writes them.

“Most of my songs are like letters to myself,” he said. “They’re sad, because I write about the struggles in my life. But they do have a positive overtone, of the happiness and joy in Jesus Christ.”

All of the members are practicing Christians. But that’s not to say that

Four-fifths of Oliver's Organ: Sarah Irvin, Josiah Hejny, Daniel Ruben and Kevin Stamps. Bassist Eric Laster was AWOL on photo day.

For more information, visit www.facebook. com/oliversorgan.

OPINION

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NEWS

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GREEN

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FEATURE STORY

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ARTS&CULTURE

|

ART OF THE STATE

|

FOODFINDS

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FILM

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MUSICBEAT

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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

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THIS WEEK

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MISCELLANY

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DECEMBER 31, 2014

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RN&R

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21

THURSDAY 1/1

FRIDAY 1/2

SATURDAY 1/3

SUNDAY 1/4

3RD STREET

DG Kicks, 9pm, Tu, no cover

125 W. Third St., (775) 323-5005

5 STAR SALOON 132 West St., (775) 329-2878

Karaoke, 10pm, no cover

A TO ZEN GIFTS & THRIFT

The Weeknd

BAR OF AMERICA 10042 Donner Pass Rd., Truckee; (530) 587-2626

Dance party w/DJ DoublePlay, 10pm, no cover before 10pm, $5 after

Dance party w/DJ DoublePlay, 10pm, no cover before 10pm, $5 after

Open Mic w/Steve Elegant, 7pm, Tu, no cover Karaoke, 10pm, W, no cover

Open Mic Night, 7pm, no cover

1801 N. Carson St., Carson City; (775) 461-3311

Jan. 3, 10 p.m.

Grand Sierra Resort 2500 E. Second St. 789-2000

Rustler’s Moon, 8pm, $TBA

National Soul, 8pm, $TBA

National Soul, 8pm, $TBA

BAR-M-BAR

Monday Night Open Mic, 8pm, M, no cover

816 Highway 40 West, Verdi; (775) 351-3206

BRASSERIE ST. JAMES 901 S. Center St., (775) 348-8888

Comedy 3rd Street, 125 W. Third St., 323-5005: Comedy Night & Improv w/Patrick Shillito, W, 9pm, no cover Catch a Rising Star, Silver Legacy, 407 N. Virginia St., 329-4777: K-von, Th, Su, 7:30pm, $15.95; F, 7:30pm, 10pm, $15.95; Sa, 7:30pm, 10pm, $17.95; Tommy Pope, Tu-W, 7:30pm, $15.95 The Improv at Harveys Cabaret, Harveys Lake Tahoe, Stateline, (800) 553-1022: John Henton, Sean Kent, Th-F, Su, 9pm, $25; Sa, 8pm, 10pm, $30; Bobby Collins, Nika Williams, W, 9pm, $25 Reno-Tahoe Comedy at Pioneer Underground, 100 S. Virginia St., 686-6600: A Comedy Showcase with Kelly Hilbert and Friends, Sa, 8:30pm, $12-$15

CEOL IRISH PUB 538 S. Virginia St., (775) 329-5558

CHAPEL TAVERN 1099 S. Virginia St., (775) 324-2244

COMMA COFFEE 312 S. Carson St., Carson City; (775) 883-2662

DAVIDSON’S DISTILLERY 275 E. Fourth St., (775) 324-1917

Sonic Mass w/DJ Tigerbunny, 7pm, no cover

Good Friday with rotating DJs, 10pm, no cover

The Robert Home Show, 9:30pm, no cover

235 W. Second St., (775) 324-4255

170 S. Virginia St., (775) 322-1800

Post show s online by registering at www.newsr eview.com /reno. Dea dline is the Friday befo re publication .

Songwriters in the Round, 6pm, no cover

EL CORTEZ LOUNGE FUEGO

Karaoke w/Nitesong Productions, 9pm, Tu, Open Mic/Ladies Night, 8:30pm, W, no cover

Karaoke with Lisa Lisa, 9pm, no cover

Karaoke with Lisa Lisa, 9pm, Tu, no cover

Live flamenco guitar music, 5:30pm, no cover

THE GRID BAR & GRILL

Karaoke w/Andrew, 9pm, no cover

8545 N. Lake Blvd., Kings Beach; (530) 546-0300

Open Mic Night, 9pm, M, no cover Trivia Night, 9pm, W, no cover

3819 Saddle Rd., South Lake Tahoe; (530) 314-7665

THE HOLLAND PROJECT

WUV, Marion Walker, Flores, 8pm, $5

140 Vesta St., (775) 742-1858

JUB JUB’S THIRST PARLOR

1) Sucka Punch, Be Like Max, The Last Slice, The Atom Age, 8pm, Tu, $5 2) Blazin Mics!, 10pm, M, no cover

71 S. Wells Ave., (775) 384-1652 1) Showroom 2) Main Bar

THE JUNGLE

Outspoken: Open Mic Night, 7pm, M, no cover

246 W. First St., (775) 329-4484

906-A Victorian Ave., Sparks; (775) 358-5484

DJ Razz, 9pm, no cover

RED DOG SALOON

Karaoke Cobra Lounge at Asian Noodles, 1290 E. Plumb Lane, Ste. 1, 828-7227: Cash Karaoke w/Jacques Simard, Sa, 8pm, no cover Hangar Bar, 10603 Stead Blvd., Stead, 677-7088: Karaoke Kat, Sa, 9pm, no cover

Open Mic Night, 7pm, M, W, no cover

76 N. C St., Virginia City; (775) 847-7474

RUBEN’S CANTINA

Hip Hop Open Mic, 10pm, W, no cover

1483 E. Fourth St., (775) 622-9424

RYAN’S SALOON

Live jazz, 7:30pm, W, no cover

924 S. Wells Ave., (775) 323-4142

SHEA’S TAVERN

Tavern Trivia Night, 9pm, no cover

715 S. Virginia St., (775) 786-4774

Murphy’s Law Irish Pub, 180 W. Peckham Lane, Ste. 1070, 823-9977: Steve Starr Karaoke, F, 9pm, no cover

ST. JAMES INFIRMARY

Ponderosa Saloon, 106 South C St., Virginia City, 847-7210: Steel Rockin’ Karaoke, F, 7:30pm, no cover

STUDIO ON 4TH

Spiro’s Sports Bar & Grille, 1475 E. Prater Way, Ste. 103, Sparks, 356-6000: F-Sa, 9pm, no cover

WHISKEY DICK’S SALOON

West Second Street Bar, 118 W. Second St., 384-7976: Daily, 8pm, no cover

(530) 544-3425

445 California Ave., (775) 657-8484

432 E. Fourth St., (775) 737-9776

Local Music Night w/locals bands or local DJs, 9pm, no cover

Dance party, 9pm, no cover

The Baysayers Comedy Showcase, 8pm, $7

Ritual (’80s, industrial, post punk), 9pm, $3 before 10pm; $5 after

Tuesday Night Trivia, 8pm, Tu, Reno Beer and Record Club w/guest DJs, 9pm, W, no cover

Massive Tuesdays Winter Series, 10pm Tu, $5

2660 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe;

WILD RIVER GRILLE 17 S. Virginia St., (775) 284-7455

Sunday Jazz, 2pm, no cover

WILDFLOWER VILLAGE 4275-4395 W. Fourth St., (775) 787-3769 1) Golden Rose Cafe 2) Green Fairy Pub 3) Cabaret

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RN&R

| DECEMBER 31, 2014

Bass Heavy, 9pm, W, $TBA

Open mic, 7pm, no cover

HIMMEL HAUS

PADDY & IRENE’S IRISH PUB

Traditional Irish Tune Session, 7pm, Tu, no cover

Mad Beaters, 9:30pm, no cover

1100 E. Plumb Ln., (775) 828-7665

Jan. 3, 10 p.m.

Peppermill 2707 S. Virginia St. 826-2121

Strange on the Range, 7pm, W, no cover

Carson Feet Warmers, 11:30am, Tu, no cover Dave Leather, noon, W, no cover

HARRY’S SPORTS BAR & GRILL

DJ Spider

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 1/5-1/7

3) Red Dawn, Jack Di Carlo, 5pm, no cover

THURSDAY 1/1 ATLANTIS CASINO RESORT SPA 3800 S. Virginia St., (775) 825-4700 1) Grand Ballroom Stage 2) Cabaret

FRIDAY 1/2

SATURDAY 1/3

SUNDAY 1/4

1) Unbreakable, 7pm, $18-$23 2) Cook Book, 8pm, no cover

2) Cook Book, 4pm, no cover

2) Cook Book, 4pm, no cover

2) Melissa Dru, 8pm, no cover

2) Melissa Dru, 8pm, no cover

2) Melissa Dru, 8pm, no cover

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 1/5-1/7 2) Palmore Brothers, 8pm, M, Tu, W, no cover

CARSON VALLEY INN

1627 Hwy. 395, Minden; (775) 782-9711 1) Valley Ballroom 2) Cabaret Lounge 3) TJ’s Corral

ELDORADO RESORT CASINO

2) Paul Covarelli, 6pm, no cover

2) Paul Covarelli, 6pm, M, Tu, W, no cover

1) Mystic India, 7pm, $32.95+ 2) Garage Boys, 10:30pm, no cover

2) Live Band Karaoke, 10pm, M, DJ Chris English, 10pm, Tu, Left of Centre, 10:30pm, W, no cover

345 N. Virginia St., (775) 786-5700 1) Showroom 2) Brew Brothers 3) Stadium Bar

1) Mystic India, 7pm, $32.95+ 2) Garage Boys, 10:30pm, no cover

1) Mystic India, 7pm, 9:30pm, $32.95+ 2) Garage Boys, 10:30pm, no cover

1) Mystic India, 7pm, 9:30pm, $32.95+ 2) Garage Boys, 10:30pm, no cover

GRAND SIERRA RESORT

2) Locals Night w/DJ 2Wice, 10pm, no cover w/local ID, $15 after midnight 3) Honky Tonk Thursdays w/DJ Jamie G, 10pm, no cover

2) DJ Rick Gee, 10pm, no cover 3) Boots & Daisy Dukes w/DJ Jamie G, 10pm, no cover

2) The Weeknd, 10pm, $25 3) County Social Saturdays w/DJ Jamie G, 10pm, no cover

3) Arty the Party, 9pm, no cover

1) Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blowout, 7:30pm, $44 2) DJ Rick Gee, DJ SN1, 10pm, $20 3) Arty the Party, 9pm, no cover

1) Two Kings, 8pm, $29.50-$40.50 3) Jackie Landrum, 8pm, no cover

1) Two Kings, 8pm, $29.50-$40.50 3) Jackie Landrum, 8pm, no cover

1) Two Kings, 8pm, $29.50-$40.50

3) DJ/dancing, 5pm, 11pm, no cover

1) David John and the Comstock Cowboys, 8pm, $20 3) DJ/dancing, 5pm, 11pm, no cover

3) DJ/dancing, 5pm, no cover

2500 E. Second St., (775) 789-2000 1) Grand Theater 2) Lex Nightclub 3) Sports Book 4) Cantina 5) Summit Pavilion

HARRAH’S LAKE TAHOE

15 Hwy. 50, Stateline; (775) 588-6611 1) South Shore Room 2) Peek Nightclub 3) Center Stage Lounge

HARRAH’S RENO

219 N. Center St., (775) 788-2900 1) Sammy’s Showroom 2) The Zone 3) Sapphire Lounge 4) Plaza 5) Convention Center

JA NUGGET

1100 Nugget Ave., Sparks; (775) 356-3300 1) Celebrity Showroom 2) Rose Ballroom 3) Gilley’s

3) DJ/dancing, 5pm, no cover

PEPPERMILL RESORT SPA CASINO 2707 S. Virginia St., (775) 826-2121 1) Tuscany Ballroom 2) Terrace Lounge 3) Edge 4) Capri Ballroom

2) The Inciters, 8pm, no cover 3) Fixx Fridays, 7:30pm, $10 after 8pm

2) The Inciters, 7pm, no cover

2) The Inciters, 8pm, no cover 3) DJ Spider, 10pm, $20

OPINION

|

NEWS

|

GREEN

1) Blues Jam Wednesday, 7pm, W, no cover

2) Bonzai Thursdays w/DJ Trivia, 8pm, no cover 3) University of Aura, 9pm, no cover

|

Jan. 3, 8 p.m.

JA Nugget 1100 Nugget Ave. Sparks 356-3300

2) Mark Sexton Band, 6pm, M, Tu, W, no cover

2) Mark Sexton Band, 6pm, no cover

345 N. Arlington Ave., (775) 348-2200 1) 3rd Street Lounge 2) Poolside 407 N. Virginia St., (775) 325-7401 1) Grand Exposition Hall 2) Rum Bullions Island Bar 3) Aura Ultra Lounge 4) Silver Baron Lounge

Jan. 3, 7:30 p.m.

Harrah’s Lake Tahoe 15 Highway 50 Stateline 588-6611

David John and the Comstock Cowboys

SANDS REGENCY CASINO HOTEL SILVER LEGACY

Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blowout

FEATURE STORY

|

ARTS&CULTURE

|

3) Fashion Friday, 9pm, no cover

3) Seduction Saturdays, 9pm, $5

IN ROTATION

|

|

ART OF THE STATE

FOODFINDS

|

FILM

|

2) Recovery Sundays, 10pm, no cover 3) Industry Night, 9pm, no cover

MUSICBEAT

|

NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

|

2) Gong Show Karaoke, 8pm, Tu, no cover Country-Rock Bingo w/Jeff Gregg, 9pm, W, no cover

THIS WEEK

|

MISCELLANY

|

DECEMBER 31, 2014

|

RN&R

|

23

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For a complete listing of this week’s events, visit newsreview.com/reno

Grossology Kids, and those who are kids at heart, can get answers to some of the questions they have about the biology of the human body—particularly its more icky and stinky functions—at the science exhibition Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body. The show features dozens of animatronics, imaginative games and interactive elements to take visitors on an upclose-and-personal tour of the body functions that most people don’t like to talk about. Visitors can play the “Gas Attack” pinball game with bumpers dressed up as food items that cause gas, mimic the build-up of acid indigestion by causing the “Burp Machine” to release a giant belch and learn the many reasons humans vomit at the “Vomit Center.” The exhibit opens on Saturday, Jan. 3, and runs through Sunday, April 26, at the Wilbur D. May Museum at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park, 1595 N. Virginia St. Admission is $9 for adults and $8 for children. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Call 785-5961 or visit www.facebook.com/WilburMayCenter.

New Year’s Eve

part ies

Reno Latin Dance Fest and Showcase Formerly the Reno Winter Bachata Fest, the Latin dance festival features workshops, beginner and performance bootcamps, late-night dance parties, competitions, DJs and live entertainment. The event opens on Wednesday, Jan. 7, and continues through Sunday, Jan. 11, at the Silver Legacy, 407 N. Virginia St. Tickets range from $10 to $300. Visit http://renolatindancefest.com.

a d d e n d u m

H e r e a r e a f e w a dd i t i o n s t o our New Year’s Eve calendaR

that didn’t make it into last week’s issue. Club Cal Neva will hold its fifth annual New Year’s Eve Sing-Along hosted by the Black Rock City Allstars.

The event takes place from 10 a.m. to midnight on Wednesday, Dec. 31, outside of Club Cal Neva at Second and Virginia streets. Call 323-1046 or visit www.clubcalneva.com. Davidson’s Distillery will hold a year-end party with drink specials, a champagne toast at midnight and music by Determined. The celebration gets underway at 9:30 p.m. and runs into the early hours of Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015. Harrah’s Reno, 219 N. Center St., offers NYE parties at the Sapphire Lounge with DJ R-Boogie playing a mix of dance music starting at 9 p.m. and at the Stage @ The Zone with music spun by DJ Ry-On beginning at 10 p.m. Call 788-2900 or visit www.harrahsreno.com. CBQ, 1330 Scheels Drive, Ste. 250, at the Outlets at Sparks will hold its NYE party with line dancing, swag, giveaways, and food and drink specials starting at 9 p.m. Call 359-1109 or visit www.cbqsparks. com. If you’ve overdone it with the champagne toast, please don’t drink and drive. Call a sober friend or taxi to take you home or hop on the bus.

RTC will offer free bus rides as part of its annual New Year’s Eve Safe Ride from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Call 348-7433 or visit www.rtcwashoe.com.

Brrroque Masters TOCCATA – Tahoe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus kicks off its 10th annual WinterFest with the “Brrroque Masters” concert series. The program features works by Baroque composers Fasch, Vivaldi, Teleman and Marcello. The concert begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 4, at St. Theresa Catholic Church, 1041 Lyons Ave., South Lake Tahoe, and again at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, 341 Village Blvd, Incline Village. The series continues into next week with shows at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 9, at Shepherd of the Sierra Lutheran Church, 3680 U.S. Highway 395 south, Carson City, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 11, at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd Church, 501 California Ave., Reno.

Tickets range from $5 to $35. Admission is free for youth under age 19 in general seating. Call 313-9697 or visit www.toccatatahoe.com.

—K e l l e y L a n g

OPINION

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NEWS

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GREEN

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FEATURE STORY

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ARTS&CULTURE

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ART OF THE STATE

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FOODFINDS

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FILM

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MUSICBEAT

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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

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THIS WEEK

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MISCELLANY

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DECEMBER 31, 2014

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RECYCLE

THIS PAPER.

YOU’RE WELCOME, EARTH.

never a COVER

All of meh

with

say goodbye to

at 9:30 pm and Free Champagne Toast at Midnight!

2014

Saturday, Jan. 3rd Thirsty The Mad Beaters at 9:30 Thursday 2 for 1 bloody marys all new year’s day Friday, Jan. 2nd The Robert Home Show at 9:30

275 E. 4th St., Reno, NV • Downtown - 3 Blocks East of Virginia St. 26 | RN&R |

DECEMBER 24, 2014

I’m a 30-something woman, and my best friend is a guy.

We talk and text day and night, and I adore him. All our friends think we should be dating, but I don’t feel sexually attracted to him. I agree that we’d otherwise make a perfect couple. Can chemistry grow or be built?

There’s no such thing as a one-night friendship, and for good reason—because friendship is based on trust, fondness and mutual respect, not on how the other person’s butt fills out a pair of pants.

And though you might love your friend as a human being, loving him as something more won’t work unless you also feel a little short of breath when you see him bend over. Unfortunately, this isn’t a feeling you can practice and get better at like the clarinet.

Who you have the hots for is partly borne of history, like when a guy’s lip curl pings up your tween longing for the older bad boy next door. There are also some evolved “human universals” at play in attraction, like how women across cultures tend to prefer a man who’s taller than they are. And even your immune system seems to have a say. Research by Switzerland’s Claus Wedekind and others suggests we evolved to be attracted to the scent of a partner with an immune system dissimilar to our own—one that would combine forces with ours to make a baby with a broad set of defenses against infection and disease.

Though you, and others aspiring to be attracted to somebody they’re fond of, surely mean well, you can’t give sexual bonus points to somebody for being a good person. It’s actually cruel to get romantic with somebody you aren’t attracted to, and biology doesn’t help matters. The hormone-driven heat of the naked and new is easily mistaken for attraction, but it’s actually just a temporary biochemical Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Before long, your newly beloved will be about as appealing a sex partner as your desk lamp, and you’ll be mulling over whether you’d rather get it on or snip off a few of your toes with rusty bolt cutters.

Ask yourself something: Why do you have to be all “let’s take this to the next level” anyway?

Romantic partners often crow about the wonderfulness of their relationship by saying they’re “best friends.”

You already have that. And frankly, platonic has its benefits, like how there’s no canceling plans because it’s “that time of the month.” And ultimately, two people are far more likely to “grow old together” if they aren’t the sort of best friends who have sex, which comes with all sorts of risks and complications.

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

by Dennis Myers PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

by rob brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Most

salamanders reproduce by laying eggs, but the alpine salamander doesn’t. Females of that species give birth to live young after long pregnancies that may last three years. What does this have to do with you? Well, I expect you to experience a metaphorical pregnancy in the coming months. Even if you’re male, you will be gestating a project or creation or inspiration. And it’s important that you don’t let your incubation period drag on and on and on, as the alpine salamanders do. I suggest you give birth no later than July.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Maybe you

have had a dream like this: You’re wandering around a house you live in, and at the end of a long hallway you come to a door you’ve never seen before. How could you have missed it in the past? It must have been there the whole time. You turn the knob, open the door and slip inside. Amazing! The room is full of interesting things that excite your imagination. What’s more, on the opposite wall there’s another door that leads to further rooms. In fact, you realize there’s an additional section of the house you have never known about or explored. Whether or not you have had a dream like that, Taurus, I’m betting that in 2015, you will experience a symbolically similar series of events in your waking life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The Greek god

Zeus had seven wives. Themis, Leto, Eurynome and Hera were among them. Another was his older sister Demeter, and a sixth was his aunt Mnemosyne. Then there was the sea nymph Metis. Unfortunately, he ate Metis—literally devoured her—which effectively ended their marriage. In 2015, Gemini, I encourage you to avoid Zeus’s jumbled, complicated approach to love and intimacy.

Favor quality over quantity. Deepen your focus rather than expanding your options.

Most importantly, make sure your romantic adventures never lead to you feeling fragmented or divided against yourself. This is the year you learn more than ever before about what it’s like for all the different parts of you to be united.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are

three of my top wishes for you in 2105: You will have a clear, precise sense of what’s yours and what’s not yours ... of what’s possible to accomplish and what’s impossible ... of what will be a good influence on you and what won’t be. To help ensure that these wishes come true, refer regularly to the following advice from Cancerian author Elizabeth Gilbert: “You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. That’s a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Robert Moss

has published 27 books. When he talks about the art of launching and completing big projects, I listen attentively. There’s one piece of advice he offers that would be particularly helpful for you to keep in mind throughout the first half of 2015. “If we wait until we are fully prepared in order to do something, we may never get it done,” he says. “It’s important to do things before we think we are ready.” Can you handle that, Leo? Are you willing to give up your fantasies about being perfectly qualified and perfectly trained and perfectly primed before you dive in?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The fish known

as the coelacanths were thought to have become extinct 66 million years ago. That was when they disappeared from the fossil record. But in 1938, a fisherman in South Africa caught a live coelacanth. Eventually, whole colonies were discovered in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa and near Indonesia. I foresee a comparable phenomenon happening in your life during the coming months, Virgo. An influence you believed to have disappeared from your life will resurface. Should you welcome and embrace it? Here’s what I think: Only if you’re interested in its potential role in your future, not because of a nostalgic attachment.

OPINION

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NEWS

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FEATURE STORY

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Nothing brings

people closer than business,” said composer Arnold Schoenberg. You could be living proof of that hypothesis in 2015, Libra. Your drive to engage in profitable activities will be at a peak, and so will your knack for making good decisions about profitable activities. If you cash in on these potentials, your social life will flourish. Your web of connections will expand and deepen. You will generate high levels of camaraderie by collaborating with allies on productive projects.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

Deathwatch beetles have a peculiar approach to the mating game. Their seduction technique consists of smacking their heads against a hard object over and over again.

This generates a tapping sound that is apparently sexy to potential partners. I discourage you from similar behaviors as you seek the kind of love you want in 2015.

The first rule of romantic engagement is this: Sacrificing or diminishing yourself may seem to work in the short run, but it can’t possibly lead to lasting good. If you want to stir up the best results, treat yourself with tenderness and respect.

It is a national, nonprofit organization.

Other than fracking, what are its interests?

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was a German composer whose organ music is still played today. He was a major influence on a far more famous German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). When Bach was a young man, he decided it was crucial for him to experience Buxtehude’s music firsthand. He took a leave of absence from his job and walked over 250 miles to the town where Buxtehude lived. There he received the guidance and inspiration he sought. In 2015, Sagittarius, I’d love to see you summon Bach’s determination as you go in quest of the teaching you want and need.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Even in

normal times, you are a fount of regeneration. Your ever-growing hair and fingernails are visible signs of your nonstop renewal.

A lot of other action happens without your conscious awareness. For example, your taste buds replace themselves every two weeks. You produce 200 billion red blood cells and 10 billion white blood cells every day. Every month the epidermis of your skin is completely replaced, and every 12 months your lungs are composed of a fresh set of cells. In 2015, you will continue to revitalize yourself in all these ways, but will also undergo a comparable regeneration of your mind and soul. Here’s my prediction: This will be a year of renaissance, rejuvenation and reinvention.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Some-

times I can feel my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living,” says a character in Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. If you have ever felt that way, Aquarius, I predict that you will get some relief in 2015. Your bones won’t be straining as much as they have in the past because you will be living at least one of the lives you have wanted to live but haven’t been able to before. How you will handle all the new lightness that will be available?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

“Erotomania” is a word for the erroneous fantasies people entertain when they imagine that a celebrity is in love with them. Laughable, right? Just because I have dreams of Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey texting me seductive notes doesn’t mean that she genuinely yearns for my companionship. And yet most of us, including you and me, harbor almost equally outlandish beliefs and misapprehensions about all kinds of things. They may not be as far-fetched as those that arise from erotomania, but they are still out of sync with reality. The good news, Pisces, is that in 2015 you will have the best chance ever to become aware of and shed your delusions—even the long-running, deeply-rooted kinds.

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text message horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at (877) 873-4888 or (900) 950-7700.

ARTS&CULTURE

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ART OF THE STATE

Desert ecologist Daniel Patterson of the Center for Biological Diversity has been involved in numerous issues in Nevada, most recently the sage grouse (known in the Great Basin as the sage hen) and fracking.

We live in a period when science appears to be up for grabs, when what is truth is not in the control of scientists, that commerce and advertising, public relations all seem to have a role in deciding what is science and what is not.

What is the Center for Biological Diversity?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

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Fan of the desert

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Most of our focus is actually on conservation and recovery of endangered species, so we’ve been doing a lot of work on sage grouse and, in southern Nevada especially, a lot of work on desert tortoise conservation and recovery. … Specifically in Nevada, with a big component of work on public lands, U.S. public lands—BLM, National Forest Service, parks, basically land under the Department of Interior or USDA.

What is the objection to fracking?

Well, number one, the biggest objection, I think—part of the reason we have such a diverse coalition—is concern for water, water both in quantity and quality. About 70 percent of Nevada is in a state of extreme or exceptional drought, according to the USDA drought monitoring data, which is pretty much the standard. And fracking uses millions of gallons of water ... and then

it injects water in a toxic mix of chemicals back into the ground, which poses a severe risk for groundwater contamination, which has happened in other parts of the country.

Our big concern is we don’t think it’s worth the risk to Nevada’s water supply or water availability or water quality for a very risky and marginal oil and gas play.

So far it does not appear that regulators or the courts are friendly to stopping fracking.

Well, voters have been very aggressive at banning fracking. For example, in places like Denton, Texas, which had a lot of fracking, voters actually came out in November and put in a ban … because they’d had so much problem with the oil and gas companies not keeping their word, leaving messes, just not operating at all in a responsible manner. Other places like San Benito County, California, just put in a fracking ban [Ballot Measure J in last month’s election] throughout the entire county. The state of New York, for example, has a fracking moratorium.

So what I would argue is actually that even

In the desert with Dinah For the second year in a row, I spent Xmas in Palm Springs. If you’ve never tried it, don’t knock it. I’m now completely sold on the entire snowbirdazonic proposition—doing the gift-giving thing on Xmas Eve, complete with seriously decadent fatass ribeye roast beef, then waking up the next morning and playing golf at some cool cat old school PS track lined with swingin’ mid-century moderns that finger-poppingly date back to the days when Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore were royalty here.

Bathed in sunshine, temps of 68 with nary a breeze, it’s easy to embrace the alcohol-soaked lifestyle of a debauched heathen who realizes that the real reason you slog through 18 holes in the glorious desert is to make that first round of cocktails taste oh so dreamy. And down here for the holidaze, that first round of drinks does indeed materialize many minutes—or perhaps hours—before 5.

And yes, I now realize, after hanging here with my daughter and some of her friends, many millenials have FOODFINDS

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Well, that’s a big problem. I’m a scientist.

I’m an ecologist. We need to be making decisions based on the best available science. Science is not really open for debate. It’s peer-reviewed. It’s provable, for the most part. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion or their own spin on things—certainly we see a lot of opinion and spin coming from big oil and gas corporations—on fracking, but people are not entitled to their own science. … There are some, especially some corporate interests, that want to kind of pick and choose what science they might like. But that’s a big mistake, and the U.S. agencies are, in fact, mandated by law and by regulation to use the best available science in making decisions, but it is a concern that we do see oversized influence from oil and gas lobbyists to try to push bad ideas like fracking despite the risk to water and what science is showing. Ω

∫y Bruce Van Dye

absolutely no effing clue as to who I’m talking about when I start bloviating about Bob, Frank and Dinah.

Hotels? Bah. A strategy for unimaginative dolts. You get three paying entities together, whether they be couples or swingin’ singles or whatever, rent a three bedroom/ three bath for $300 a night, a joint with outdoor kitchen, pool, hot tub, etc., and for your hundred clams a night you’re having a major ball soaking up the solar shine in this fabulous desert town. Spend an Xmas in Palm and you too just might realize that White Christmases are gigantically overrated.

• Football fetish nation, part 4. I have no idea as to the friction that existed between the 49ers front office and Coach Harhar and why that friction led to the cessation of their relationship.

But I will say that when you got a guy with the resume that Coach Jim put together, you might wanna go ahead and deal with whatever screwball idiosyncrasies he brings to the party.

You know, once in a while, you just say,

NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS

though the federal agencies have been slow to address some of the risks from fracking, people get it, and voters are starting to act.

We do expect to have a bill introduced at the Nevada Legislature starting in February when they come back into session to address a Nevada ban on fracking to at least debate the issue. ... I expect people to be pushing those campaigns [in 2015].

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“Hey, we had a suckass year” and move on.

In defense of our boy Kap, I will say yes, he really had a mediocre year, but wasn’t a big part of his downslide the undeniable reality that the 49er O-line was holier than a hobo’s socks? Forfuxsake, what the hell is Kap sposed to do when he’s getting pounded into a human grease spot every other pass play?

• Football fetish nation, part 5. I love it when coaches say, after getting beat down by 41-3, “Well, we obviously weren’t ready to play today.” What he’s really saying, of course, is, “Those guys are much better players than my guys.” When a coach says, “I’ve got to do a better job of coaching,” he’s really saying, “Those guys are much better players than my guys.” Yet it’s funny how that simple and oh so accurate breakdown of a game is never, ever, ever heard at the post-game podium. Ω DECEMBER 31, 2014

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Yes. I have health insurance.

Sign Up Now through Feb. 15 When it comes to health insurance, the answer should always be, “Yes.” Enroll in a health plan through the new Nevada Health Link and depending on your income, you could receive help paying for some of your insurance costs. You can purchase certified health insurance plans that are all high quality, regardless of the amount you pay. You can’t be denied, even if you have a previous health condition.

Visit NevadaHealthLink.com to find an income-based plan that’s right for you and your budget. In-person help is available. Sign up now through February 15.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: All current Nevada Health Link customers must re-enroll.

Visit NevadaHealthLink.com/re-enroll for more information.

NevadaHealthLink.com